A system provides a shaped access path to a bag within a receptacle or can. The system comprises a funnel-providing system of a neck portion and a funnel portion. The funnel-providing portion comprises a flexible material that forms a leading edge of the funnel portion that curves back onto itself to form a funnel having a wide leading edge and a narrower base of the funnel portion. The narrower base of the funnel portion is connected to the neck portion. A gripping element extends over at least a length of the neck portion, the gripping portion capable of gripping an element (such as the end of a plastic bag) placed between the gripping element and the neck portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to refuse receptacle devices, and to a funnel device for holding leaf/refuse bags to a receptacle, box or can and facilitating the raking or sweeping of leaves and other refuse into a bag within the can.
2. Background of the Art
Leaf bags or trash bags are well known and commonly used for the collection and disposal of leaves and other types of refuse from lawns and other generally flat areas from which leaves are raked or swept and placed in bags. To reduce their cost and bulk, such leaf or trash bags are typically made of thin plastic material with sufficient tensile strength to hold low density materials such as leaves or paper. These bags will not stand alone when empty and must be supported in some manner for filling. Although bags can be held open by hand, this approach is very inefficient and can be very frustrating when a single person is attempting to fill bags. It is even more desirable to be able to rake or sweep leaves and other refuse into a bag with the bag lying flat, and it is almost impossible for a single person to hold a bag open by hand while raking or sweeping refuse into it.
Various approaches have been attempted in an effort to address the problem of supporting a bag in an open position for filling, with varying degrees of success. Placing a bag inside an existing trash can or box will provide some support for the bag and allow it to be filled from the top. This approach does not readily accommodate raking or sweeping refuse into the bag. The weight of leaves in the bag will often pull the bag from its support around the lip of the can, such as a twenty-gallon or thirty-gallon garbage can.
A number of devices have been devised for the specific purpose of holding or supporting a leaf or trash bag while it is filled, but all such devices known in the prior art have disadvantages or drawbacks. One such device comprises a rigid structure with a pair of centrally pivoting legs, designed to fold flat for storage and to support a bag suspended between the legs when open. The only means of adjustment for bags of differing sizes is the degree to which the legs are pivoted open, which can result in excessive force against the top of the bag and tearing of the bag. This device is useable only in an upright position, and does not securely hold the bag in place to prevent slipping. In addition, a filled bag can be difficult to remove from between the legs of the device without tearing the bag.
Another device is formed as a flexible, shape retentive plastic sheet that can be rolled into a cylinder and placed inside a bag. When the rolled sheet is released it partially unrolls until constrained by the bag, so that the force of the sheet against the inside of the bag holds it in an open, generally cylindrical form. When the bag is filled, the sheet is slipped from the open end of the bag. Although a bag opened with this device can be placed on its side for filling, only a small area is in contact with the ground because of the cylindrical form, and raking or sweeping material into the bag is difficult. Use of this device can be cumbersome for a single person because it is necessary to hold the rolled sheet to prevent it from unrolling while, at the same time, holding the bag open and inserting the rolled sheet into the bag. This device will accommodate different sized bags, although the force holding and supporting the bag will vary and the bag may slip along the sheet and become disengaged during handling and filling. Examples of such flexible supports are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,033 (Gibson); U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,679 (Lonczak); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,011 (Rylander).
Yet another device includes a body with a funnel-like opening with a large throat to which a bag can be attached. Various of these embodiments are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,938,860 (Singleton); U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,779 (Green); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,518 (Holthaus). In one of these embodiments, the body of the structure is supported by legs so that the bag can be hung from the body, secured by clips, between the legs or with the legs in the interior of the bag. The bag is then filled from the top. In some variations the bag and support structure may be placed on the ground, either with or without the legs, so that leaves, etc. can be raked or swept into the bag, but the design of the body does not facilitate use in a horizontal orientation and it can be difficult to push leaves, etc. through the opening to fully fill the bag. These structures are of rigid construction with no provision for adjustment to accommodate bags of different sizes. In addition, they are relatively large and bulky, and require a significant amount of storage space.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,622 (Gordon) describes a bag support system with a locking mechanism to keep the bag secured to the top of the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,872 (Nugent) shows a semi-rigid metal rod system for supporting lawn bags in which metal rods may be attached and detached from each other to allow for accommodation and securing of bags, with overlapping rods securing bags within the structure. The ends of certain rods may be inserted into the ground to provide stability to the system.
In spite of the numerous designs and structure for such bagging systems, no one bagging system is believed to provide the optimal capability for leaf raking and improvements are desirable.

Leaf bag system for use with receptacles


A walker having a frame with a plurality of legs with each leg having a wheel or roller located at a respective free end for providing rolling movement of the walker. The frame is dimensioned to surround the person utilizing the walker. The user's weight can be supported by a seat member, which is releasably attached to the frame. The frame of the walker can be pivotally opened and closed to permit the entry and exit of the user with relation to interior of the walker. Depending on the height and comfort of the user, the support frame is also vertically adjustable.

The present application relates to an apparatus for assisting persons having difficulty walking.
Walkers or strollers, as well as other walking aides are utilized when a person requires additional support in walking effectively and/or with less pain or discomfort. Such walking devices have both advantages and disadvantages. For example, while a single-legged crutch may be one of the lightest and least cumbersome aides, such a device is insufficient for a weaker or more disabled person. A two-legged push walker is more cumbersome, and still may not provide sufficient support or relief to one struggling to walk effectively. Four-legged walkers are better for particularly weak or disabled persons. However, these devices ray not include sufficient safety measures, such s a secured harness, to prevent potential accidents. Furthermore, the structures of these devices are so cumbersome that other important devices, such as IV devices in the case of a hospitalized person, may be difficult to be connected to or used by the person operating the walking device.
Thus, there exists a need for a walking device that can effectively support a person requiring assistance in walking and that is also convenient to operate.


The disclosed power system may comprise first and second batteries; an electrical power generator; an electrical load powered by at least one of the first battery, the second battery or the electrical power generator; a converter; and a battery management controller. The converter is connected to both the first and second batteries and configured to operate in a neutral mode, a first battery charging mode, or a second battery charging mode. The converter is configured to create a voltage difference between the first and second batteries in the charging modes. The battery management controller is configured to monitor the voltage of the first battery and the voltage of the second battery and/or to monitor current flow to and from the first and second batteries. The controller controls operation of the converter to operate in the neutral mode, the first battery charging mode or the second battery charging mode.

The present invention relates to a battery management controller to be used with a power generation system in a vehicle.
One example of a power generation system that could benefit from the disclosed battery management controller is a truck HVAC system. However, the present invention is not limited to truck HVAC systems and the reference herein to such a system is for exemplary purposes only.
Truck drivers that move goods across the country may be required to pull over at various times along their journey so as to rest so that they do not become too fatigued. Common places for truck drivers to rest include rest stops, toll plazas, and the like. However, these locations usually do not have any accommodations for the drivers, and as a result they usually remain inside the cab of the truck inside a sleeping compartment. To provide the driver with maximum comfort, the sleeping compartment should be temperature controlled so that the environment in the truck is conducive for the driver to get the rest he or she needs.
Currently, trucks tend to use engine-belt driven compressors for the air conditioning system to circulate and pump refrigerant throughout the vehicle to cool the driving compartments. In addition, an engine-belt driven pump may circulate engine waste heat throughout the driving compartments when heating is required. Unfortunately, these systems have the drawback of not being able to operate when the engine is turned off. As a result, the driver has the choice of either keeping the engine running (which requires additional fuel) so as to run the temperature control system or turning the engine off and not using the air conditioning or heating systems (which may make the driver uncomfortable).

Power generation and battery management systems


A throughput estimation device 500 includes a wireless link quality information acquisition portion 501 acquiring wireless link quality information denoting a quality of a wireless link established between a mobile station and a base station on a mobile communication network, and a throughput estimation portion 502 estimating a throughput which is the amount for the mobile station to receive per unit time a data sent by a transmitting device connected communicably with the mobile station via the wireless link, based on the acquired wireless link quality information.

When a transmitting device sends a data to a receiving device, there are cases that because some part of the data is lost (has disappeared), only the other part of the data arrives at the receiving device. Further, when the transmitting device sends a data to the receiving device, there are cases that because some part of the data is accumulated within the communication network, the arrival of the data at the receiving device is too late (the delay time, which is the time from the transmitting device sending the data to the data arriving at the receiving device, becomes too long).
Among the data sent by the transmitting device, the amount of the data (the data arrival amount) having arrived at (or being received by) the receiving device per unit time is called throughput.
For example, if the transmitting device sends a data to the receiving device at a transmission rate of 4 Mbps, then it is assumed that 25% of the data (that is, a part corresponding to 1 Mbps) is lost. Here, the transmission rate is the amount of the data sent by the transmitting device per unit time. In this case, the receiving device receives the data at 3 Mbps. That is, the throughput is 3 Mbps.
Further, even if no data is lost, it is still assumed that the receiving device receives the data at 3 Mbps because of the increase in delay time. In this case, the throughput is also 3 Mbps.
If the data sent from the transmitting device to the receiving device is multimedia data such as video and/or audio data, then any loss of the data may cause noise to occur in the video and/or audio. Further, an excessive delay time may possibly bring a stop to the play of the video and/or audio.
Therefore, it is considered as preferable to estimate the throughput with a high accuracy, and adjust the data size of the multimedia data sent by the transmitting device based on the estimated throughput. Hence, techniques for estimating the throughput are being developed. The throughput estimation devices disclosed in the following Patent Document 1 through Patent Document 6 are known as such kind of techniques.
Patent Document 1: Pamphlet of WO 08/143,026
Patent Document 2: JP 2004-254025 A
Patent Document 3: JP 2005-244851 A
Patent Document 4: JP 2007-116329 A
Patent Document 5: JP 2008-258877 A
Patent Document 6: JP 2008-278207 A
However, such a case can be assumed as to apply the above throughput estimation devices to a mobile communication system in which a mobile station (a receiving device) and a transmitting device are communicably connected via a wireless link established between the mobile station and a base station on a mobile communication network.
In this case, even for a constant transmission rate, the data transmission rate through the wireless link still changes with any change in the quality of the wireless link (the wireless link quality). As a result, the throughput also changes. Here, the data transmission rate is the amount of the data transmitted per unit time through the wireless link.
Referring to FIGS. 1A to 1C, the throughput change with the change in the wireless link quality will be explained in more detail.
The pipes in FIGS. 1A to 1C denote a wireless link. FIGS. 1A to 1C show that the thicker the pipe, the higher the data transmission rate through the wireless link (i.e. the higher the wireless link quality).
The arrows entering in the pipe denote the transmission rate. FIGS. 1A to 1C show that the more the number of the arrows entering in the pipe, the higher the transmission rate. Further, the arrows exiting from the pipe denote the throughput. FIGS. 1A to 1C show that the more the number of the arrows exiting from the pipe, the higher the throughput.
FIG. 1A shows that both the wireless link quality and the throughput are at the highest level. FIG. 1B shows that both the wireless link quality and the throughput are at the lowest level. FIG. 1C shows that both the wireless link quality and the throughput are at the second highest level. In this manner, the throughput also changes with the change in the wireless link quality.
However, the above throughput estimation devices estimate the throughput without being based on the wireless link quality. Therefore, it is liable to be unable to estimate the throughput with a high accuracy when the data is sent via the wireless link.


An alternator circuit for alternately operating one of first and second electrical load devices which uses a magnetic latch relay to perform the alternation. The circuit includes a first circuit means for supplying electrical energy from a source to one of said first and second electrical load devices, and magnetic latch relay alternating means having first and second states. The alternating means in a first state interconnects the first electrical load device to the first circuit means, and in the second state interconnects the second electrical load device to the first circuit means. One application of the inventive circuit is for use in controlling the level of liquid in a container within a predetermined range using 2 pumps.

The present invention is an improvement over the alternator circuit arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,802, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The alternator circuit of the '802 patent utilized a bi-stable relay in combination with an RC charging circuit for alternating between two devices, such as pump motors. The bi-stable relay is a mechanical part, and applicant has found it to be prone to mechanical failure. Also, because the charging circuit had to be completely charged before alternation could occur the '802 alternator circuit has been found to be undesirably slow. Finally, if power is completely removed from a circuit, such as during a power failure, a conventional alternating circuit will default back to selecting pump 1. Because pump 1 is used more, it experiences more wear than pump 2, which is undesirable.
What is needed is an improved alternator circuit which is faster and less prone to mechanical failure.

Alternator circuit for use in a liquid level control system


A method of cross-linking a peptide to form a homopolymer of the peptide, to immobilize the peptide on a solid phase and to enhance antigenicity of the peptide is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of preparing a fusion peptide by incorporating a cross-linking segment including a tetrapeptide sequence Q-X-K-(S/T) (SEQ ID NO: 15) into the peptide and cross-linking the peptide by a glutaminase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of cross-linking peptides through a novel amino acid sequence Q-X-K-(S/T) (SEQ ID NO: 15), which was initially identified from mouse seminal vesicle secretion (SVS) III protein. The peptides containing Q-X-K-(S/T) (SEQ ID NO: 15) sequence may be cross-linked by any transgluatminase (TGase).
2. Description of the Related Art
Cross-linking of biomolecules has been noted for decades throughout the world of biotechnology. Cross-linking of proteins with different functions can produce a new molecule with multi functions. Enzymes cross-link to a solid phase makes its activity retaining that can reduce manufactory costs. Biomolecules can be cross-linked by chemical reactions while these reactions are not very specific and probably reduced the activity of enzymes. An alternative way to cross-link biomolecules is enzyme-catalyzed reaction.
Transgluatminase (TGase) is a kind of enzyme with the ability to catalyze protein-protein cross-linking reaction. Transglutaminase (TGase) was first reported by Heinrich Waelsch in 1959. He isolated the enzyme from the liver of guinea pig. In the presence of calcium ion, this enzyme shows trans-amidation activity which binding glutamine in proteins to primary amines covalently. Therefore this enzyme was designed as transglutaminase (EC.126.96.36.199). In recent years, more transglutaminases have been purified from different spices and different tissues. Until now, TGases can be divided into five types: (1) tissue type TGase (TG2), which is commonly expressed in all kinds of tissues, might involve cell-programmed death; (2) epidermal TGase (TG1), found in the wounded epidermal tissues, enable epidermal proteins to cross-link into keratin; (3) hair-follicle TGase, found in hair-follicle cell, can cross-link hair protein; (4) plasma factor XIII, when catalyzed by thrombin, it can cross-link fibrin to stabilize the structure of thrombus; (5) prostate TGase (TG4), found in the coagulating gland of rodent, can catalyze seminal vesicle secreted proteins to copulatory plug. Although these different kinds of TGases have great difference in size and sequences, their catalytic mechanisms are similar. Each of them has a cystine residue in their active site and the enzyme activity is calcium dependent. TGase has great usages in industry. For examples: adding TGase to meat will increase its tenacity and savor in food processing; Enzymes can be fixed by cross-linking of TGase in enzyme engineering; TGase has been used to construct tissues' frame in tissue engineering et cetera.
However, there are limits in industrial applications for TGase. First, most TGase was isolated from animal source and they are also difficult to prepare by recombinant techniques. Second, most TGases have specificities to their substrates that limits the application of TGase. J. E. Folk and his group made a series of studies on tissue type TGase of guinea pig's liver and human's plasma factor XIII (Gorman, J. J. and Folk, J. E. 1980. J. Biol. Chem. 2255, 4419-427; Schhrode, J. and Folk, J. E. 1979. J. Biol. Chem. 254, 653-661). Their works may help to understand the substrate specificity of TGase. TGase has two substrates: one is usually defined as glutamine in a peptides chain and serves as an acyl donor; the other should be a primary amine, which serves as an acyl acceptor. TGases demand more specificity of acyl donor than of acyl acceptor in usual. Therefore, lots of polyamines (spermine and histamine for example) also can be acyl acceptors and covalently bind with proteins as a kind of post-translational modification.
Some works have been done to define the effective sites from substrates of TGases to produce cross-linking peptides fragment. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,014 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,385, peptide sequences from human plasma fibrinogen have been studied. These peptide fragments are proved to be cross-linkable by human plasma factor XIII and this characteristic has been applied in tissue engineering. This invention generalized an S1-Y-S2 formula from plasma fibrinogen. In this case, S1 represents T-I-G-E-G-Q (SEQ ID NO: 10), Y is 0˜7 interval amino acids, and S2 is X-K-X-A-G-D-V (SEQ ID NO: 11) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,014, claim 1). Yet, this invention didn't define characteristics and effects of the amino acids in Y position. Moreover, the peptide fragments in this invention were only effective under the action of human plasma factor XIII that limits the usage of other sources of TGases and also restricts the utilities of these peptide fragments. Besides, the length of the defined fragment was too long and the reaction efficiency was low.
In the present invention, we have found a better substrate of TGase from other sources. Seminal vesicles secretions of rodent have been reported as good substrate of TGase (Notides, A. C. and Williams-Ashman, H. G. 1967. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 58, 1991-1995). Notides and Williams-Ashman found a protein (18 kDa) secreted from guinea pig's seminal vesicle. This protein can readily be polymerized by a TGase secreted from coagulating gland. Following study also proved that SVS II protein from mouse and rat seminal vesicle secretions are substrates of TGase (Harris, S. E. et. al. 1990. J. Biol. Chem. 265, 9896-9903; Lundwall, A. et al. 1997. Eur. J. Biochem. 249, 39-44). Though human seminal secretions will not solidify to become copulatory plugs, it has been proved that SgI and SgII proteins from human seminal vesicle are also substrates of TGase (Peter, A. et. Al. 1998. Eur. J. Biochem. 252, 216-221). However, the molecular mechanism of these proteins have never been studied. In this invention, we isolated a new protein, SVS III, from mouse seminal vesicle and proved it a good substrate of transglutaminase. The present invention also provides an effective sequence from SVS III and related applications.


A polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing compounds represented by the formula (1-1) and the formula (1-2), compounds represented by the formula (2-1) and the formula (2-2), and a compound represented by the formula (3-1):

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a compound having —C(CF3)2— (hexafluoroisopropylidene) or —SO2— (sulfonyl), a polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing the same, a polymer obtained from the composition, and application use thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known that a polymer having optical anisotoropy is obtained by polymerizing a polymerizable compound when it has liquid crystallinity (as disclosed in JP-A No. 2001-55573). This is because the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is fixed by polymerization. An example of such a compound is a liquid crystal compound having —OCOCH═CH2 (disclosed in JP-A No. 2001-154019). A liquid crystal compound polymerized at a room temperature under irradiation of UV-light has also been known (disclosed in JP-A No. 2005-60373). Such a polymerizable liquid crystal compound copolymerizes with a polymerizable compound not having liquid crystallinity. The non-liquid crystal compound has a role of controlling the characteristics of the obtained copolymer. Accordingly, development of the polymerizable non-liquid crystal compound is important for obtaining a polymer having an appropriate optical isomerism.

Polymerizable liquid crystal composition and polymer thereof

Abstract: the polymerizable liquid crystal composition having homogeneous, homeotropic, or hybrid alignment, which can be coated on a support substrate, for example, of a transparent plastic film such as a triacetyl cellulose film or cycloolefin polymer film, or glass, and is aligned on a substrate as a polymer film while maintaining the alignment.


A negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery includes at least two kinds of carbon materials with a spacing of lattice plane (d.sub.002) of 3.4 .ANG. or less in the direction of the C axis thereof. A lithium secondary battery using this negative electrode is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery and also relates to a lithium secondary battery comprising the negative electrode.
2. Discussion of Background
Recent development of small, thin, and lightweight electronic appliances in remarkable, particularly in the field of office automation. For instance, lightweight electric appliances have been developed from desk-top type to lap-top typo, and then to note-book type.
In addition, new small size electronic appliances such as electronic notebooks, and electronic still cameras are also placed on the market. Furthermore, memory cards which are now small size memory media are now being developed in addition to the reduction in size of conventional hard disks and floppy disks.
In the midst of the recent trend of making small sized, thin and lightweight the above-mentioned electronic appliances, a secondary battery with higher performance capable of supporting these appliances is demanded.
Under such circumstances, a lithium secondary battery has been rapidly developed as a battery with high energy density, by which conventional lead storage batteries and nickel cadmium storage batteries will be eventually replaced. (A) As an active material for use in a positive electrode (hereinafter referred to as the positive electrode active material) for such a lithium secondary battery, transition metal oxides and transition metal chalcogenides such an TiS.sub.2, MoS.sub.2, CoO.sub.2, V.sub.2 O.sub.5, FeS.sub.2, NbS.sub.2, ZrS.sub.2, VSe.sub.2, and MnO.sub.2 are used. Many secondary batteries using such inorganic materials as active materials have been studied.
When such inorganic materials are used as active materials, it is possible to perform reversible, electrochemical intercalation of lithium ions into and deintercalation thereof from the structure of these inorganic materials. By utilizing this property of the above inorganic active materials, the development of lithium secondary batteries has bean made.
Generally, lithium secondary batteries using the above-mentioned inorganic materials as positive electrode active materials can easily constitute secondary batteries having high energy density because those positive active materials themselves have high densities.
Furthermore, in the case where occlusion and releasing of lithium ions are respectively carried out by the intercalation of lithium ions into the crystalline structure of the above positive electrode active material, and by the deintercalation of lithium ions from the crystalline structure of the positive electrode active material, a battery with excellent voltage plateau can be easily fabricated. Such a battery, however, has the shortcoming that when lithium ions are excessively built up in the crystalline structure of the positive electrode active material, the crystalline structure of the positive electrode active material is destroyed and the function thereof is significantly degraded. This means that such inorganic materials are vulnerable to overdischarge when used as positive active materials for the lithium secondary battery.
Recently during the development of lithium secondary batteries using such inorganic materials as positive electrode active materials, conducting polymers have been discovered which can perform an electrode reaction by carrying out reversible occlusion and releasing or doping and undoping of an anion and therefore can be used as positive electrode active materials for a lithium secondary battery.
Such conducting polymers have the advantages over conventionally employed inorganic materials that they are light and exhibit high output power density, excellent electric collection performance due to the electroconductivity thereof, high cycle characteristics for a 100% depth of discharge, and excellent workability for the fabrication of an electrode.
Examples of such conducting polymers so far reported are polyacetylene (refer to, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 56-136499), polypyrrole (refer to, for example, the 25th Battery Symposium, Abstracts, P2561.1984), and polyaniline (refer to, for example, the 50th Convention of Electric Science Association, Abstracts, P2281.1984).
For instance, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-102162, there is proposed a composite electrode comprising a conducting polymer and an inorganic active material.
Japanese Patent Application 5-129997 discloses a positive composite electrode with high energy density which is fabricated by composing a conducting polymer and an inorganic material under particular conditions, which has excellent workability, voltage plateau, and current characteristics.
(B) Another problem encountered in the course of the development of the lithium secondary battery is the development of a negative electrode. Conventionally, as a negative active material for the negative electrode of a lithium secondary battery, lithium and lithium-aluminum alloys are used.
When lithium is employed as the negative active material for the negative electrode, high electromotive force can be provided, and high energy density can also be provided because of the light weight of lithium. However, lithium has the shortcoming of shortening the cycle life of the battery because of the formation of dendrites thereof which decompose an electrolytic liquid employed in the battery. Further, when the dendrites grow and reach the punitive electrode, internal short-circuits take place in the battery.
When a lithium alloy is employed, the difficulties caused by the above-mentioned problems can be lightened. However, a secondary battery with satisfactory capacity cannot be obtained when a lithium alloy is employed as the negative active material for the negative electrode thereof.
Under such circumstances, it has been proposed to use as negative active materials carbon materials capable of occluding and releasing lithium ions. However, presently announced batteries which employ carbon materials in the negative electrodes thereof are not considered to make best use of the function of a lithium ion battery. It is considered that this is because the energy density and the chargeable and dischargeable current densities at the negative electrode are not high. To be more specific, a carbon material with high crystallinity is theoretically expected to have an energy density of 372 mAh/g. In comparison with such a high energy density as inherently possessed by the carbon material used as a negative active material, the energy density of a worked negative electrode, in particular, the volume energy density thereof, is significantly lower, and the internal impedance of the electrode is so high that the energy density is high at a low current density, but the energy density at the negative electrode is considerably decreased when charging and discharging are performed with a large electric current.
Furthermore, changes in the crystalline structure of the carbon materials, caused in the course of the charging and discharging steps, are so large that the strength of the negative electrode is lowered during the repetition of charging and discharging cycles, resulting in insufficient cycle characteristics.
Furthermore, even if the initial capacity of the negative electrode is large, the negative electrode deteriorates during the repeated charging and discharging cycles, and the capacity thereof rapidly decreases. Due to these problems, the conventional carbon materials are not suitable for making satisfactory use of the function of a secondary battery.
As the above-mentioned carbon materials, carbons with high crystallinity are preferable. In particular, graphite is preferable. However, when graphite is used alone, at present, satisfactory results are not always obtained due to the problems in connection with the matching with an electrolytic liquid, the capacity of the negative electrode, and cycle characteristics of the battery.

Negative electrode for lithium secondary battery and lithium secondary battery using the negative electrode


A subsurface safety valve features no flow tube to operate the flapper and optionally an equalizing valve in the flapper, if used. It relies on magnetic force that is selectively created to draw the flapper to the open position. A torsion spring can close the valve when the field is removed. Optionally, the fields can be set up to pull and push the flapper open or to do either one. The optional equalizer valve can also be operated by a force field, preferably magnetic.

Subsurface safety valves are emergency device that shut in a well. They are typically an integrated portion of a production string and are actuated through one or more control lines that run parallel to the production conduit in the surrounding annular space. Typically, these valves require pressure in the control line to hold the valve open and the valve closes on loss of or removal of control line pressure. These valves have a hinged valve member called a flapper that can pivot from being on a seat to define the valve closed position to being rotated off the seat to define the valve open position. Typically the control lines lead to an operating piston in the valve housing and that operating piston is linked to a flow tube that is biased by a closure spring. Applied control line pressure pushes the operating piston and takes the flow tube with it against the force of the closure spring. When the flow tube is forced down, it contacts the flapper that is then on the seat and rotates the flapper 90 degrees as it moves in front of the flapper so that flow can occur through the bore in the flow tube. The hinge for the flapper is biased by a torsion spring. When control line pressure is removed or lost, the closure spring releases its stored energy and pushes up the flow tube allowing the torsion spring to rotate the flapper back to its seat for the valve closed position.
Attempts in the past have been made to use alternatives to the above described basic design. One design features a separation of the control line pressure system from tubing pressure in the string, usually accomplished by resilient seals on the operating piston, by totally isolating the operating piston from the flow tube with a wall in the housing. The operating piston carries a magnet and the flow tube is magnetic with the theory being that movement of the magnet with the operating piston will urge the flow tube to operate the flapper and eliminate leak paths between the tubing and the hydraulic control system. This design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,653.
Another design hooks the flow tube to an extending rod that is part of a solenoid type system that draws the rod into the valve body when a field is created therein from energizing a coil. This design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,388.
Other multi-valve systems that can be separately functioned by a variety of ways including electromagnetic telemetry are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,073.
What is needed and not found in the prior art is an operating system for a flapper that eliminates the need for a flow tube and associated hydraulic lines to the surface. The proposed system uses magnetic forces that can be selectively turned on and off to actuate rotation of the flapper. The torsion spring can preferably remain on the flapper hinge but its use is optional with the system. The magnetic field can be set up to either pull or push or both pull and push the flapper off its seat. Optionally, an equalizing valve in the flapper can be provided that initially responds to a magnetic opening force to equalize pressure before enough force is developed to pull the flapper off the seat. These and other features of the present invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of the preferred embodiment and associated drawing that appear below, while recognizing that the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

Flapper operating system without a flow tube


The present invention relates to a borehole drilling apparatus with in-line extending wings and driving method thereof. The drilling apparatus comprises a guide device rotating while moving upwardly and downwardly in a casing to fit into a borehole, extending wings for extending the diameter of a drilled hole, and a pilot bit installed at a lower portion of the guide device to strike the bottom of the borehole, wherein spiral projections formed at a lower surface of the guide device slidably engage with guide grooves formed at a side of the extending wings to each other, and a window is formed at a side of the pilot bit for advancing and retracting the extending wings so that they can spread and return linearly from the center of the pilot bit.

In general, hammer bit equipment used in drilling a borehole includes a rotation apparatus, a striking apparatus and a drilling apparatus. The present invention is directed to the drilling apparatus located at the lowest portion of the hammer bit equipments. The drilling apparatus can be divided into an eccentric type, an extending type and a blade extending type depending on means for extending the diameter of the borehole, for instance, the structure of a reamer, extending blades or arms.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,259 (Published on Sep. 13, 1988), the eccentric type drilling apparatus includes a drill string and a cutting device connected to a lower end portion of the drill string. Further, the cutting device consists of an intermediate portion rotating within the drill string, and an outer surface. Also, a reamer is installed in the intermediate portion so that it is offset with regard to the center axis. Accordingly, the reamer extends the diameter of the borehole by eccentric rotation in the eccentric type drilling apparatus.
In addition, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2710192 (published on Nov. 29, 1994), the extending type drilling apparatus comprises a device driven by means of an air pump, a bit device installed at a distal end of the device, and an extending blade installed between the device and the bit device. The extending blade is secured at an upper end to the device by means of a pin so that it can move angularly in the vertical direction, and the upper end portion of the bit device is formed to have an inclined surface. Therefore, the lower end portion of the extending blade is configured to diverge along the inclined surface of the bit device when the device and the bit device come close to each other.
Further, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,999 (issued on Aug. 4, 1998), the blade extending type drilling apparatus includes a driver, under-reamer arms, and a pilot bit, in which a plurality of arms are constructed to project and retract while rotating from the center of the pilot bit to the inclined direction by means of a rotation force of the driver.
However, with regard to the eccentric type drilling apparatus, it is impossible to carry out rapid drilling work as the reamer rotates eccentrically, and there is a problem in that connection portion of the intermediate portion is liable to be damaged easily under high load. Also, with regard to the extending type drilling apparatus, it is impossible to use it under high load as the extending blade is extended with its angular movement to the longitudinal direction, and the fixing pin is apt to be damaged easily.
Further, in contrast to the eccentric or extending type drilling apparatus, although the blade extending type drilling apparatus can be used for high load drilling apparatus, there is a problem in that the contact portion between the arms and the pilot bit is susceptible to serious abrasion because the rotation force of the driver should spread the arms forcibly and rotate even the pilot bit via the arms at the same time, and the securing pin for fixing the arms are damaged frequently. Additionally, when the arms return to their original positions after the completion of the drilling work, sludge is liable to be jammed in the space where the arms return to thereby hinder the arms' return to their original positions, so that it becomes somewhat difficult to retract the drilling apparatus from the casing to fit into the borehole.

Drilling apparatus having in-line extending wings and driving method thereof


Disclosed is a wafer retaining mechanism comprising a box, and more than one link unit affixed to appropriate locations of the box, the link units being operative in coordination with a wafer cassette and a chassis for retaining securely the wafers received within the cassette. The links each comprises a sliding link, a lower link, a front link, an upper link, and associated pins.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wafer retaining mechanism, in particular to one including more than one link unit each of which has a sliding link, a lower link, a front link, an upper link, and associated pins, thereby the link units can urge, and retain securely, the wafers contained in a wafer cassette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally various devices are provided for preventing the semiconductor wafers from being jarred or bumped when the wafers are transported or stored. Especially, particulate release may be caused when jarring occurs resulting in abrasion between the wafers and the contacted surfaces of a wafer cassette. To prevent wafer damage and particulate release, the wafers must be held securely within the wafer cassette.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,795 issued to Gallagher et al. relates to an actuated rotary retainer for silicone wafer box. The rotary retainer is attached to the sidewall of a box to prevent movement of the wafers within a wafer cassette during transportation and storage. The rotary retainer consists of an elongated shaft, fingers, a coil spring, a first bearing, and a second bearing. The first and second bearings are attached to the box, and the elongated shaft is rotably coupled to the bores of the first and second bearings. The shaft is coupled to the first and second bearings, wherein the shaft bottom contacts a door as the box and the door are engaged. The shaft rotates through the bore from a first position to a second position when the box and the door are engaged. The first and second bearings are attached to the box inner sidewall, whereby a peg of the shaft first comes into slight contact with the bottom and of a sloped rotation member when the box and door are fully engaged. The fingers retain the semiconductor wafers within the semiconductor wafer cassette when the box is engaged with the door. The wafer retaining fingers are positioned on the shaft, whereby, when the box and door are engaged, the fingers align with wafers stored in individual slots of the wafer cassette. The wafer retaining fingers absorb force from the wafers when the box is jarred during transportation.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,912 issued to Maney et al. relates to a box door actuated retainer comprising a tongue, a box door member which extends along with the length of the tongue, a first parallelogram arm attached to the door member, two side arms attached to a box at two display locations which form a second parallelogram arm. The first and second arms are the same length as are the side arms. The side arms are pivotively connected to the first and second arms. When the box door is opened and lowered, the box door member is also lowered by the operation of gravity, causing the side arms to pivot. The pivoting of the side arms causes the tongue to travel not only downward, but also retracting away from the wafers contained in a cassette. As such, the cassette and the wafers are enabled to be easily withdrawn out of the box. When the cassette and the wafers are to be returned back into the box, the box door contacts the bottom of the box door member (though until the box door contacts the bottom position of the box door member, the retainer remains away from the wafers), the tongue moves toward and abutting upon the wafers contained in the cassette. Therefore, even if the box may be jarred or bumped, the wafers are restrained from any substantial movement. This restraint tends to reduce the movement of contamination particles.
The present invention is intended to provide a wafer retaining mechanism having a structure quite different from that disclosed in the '795 patent, while somewhat similar to that disclosed in the '912 patent in the sense that a linkage is used, the present invention serves to improve the effect in retaining the wafers contained in a cassette.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A hermetic, composite container including a non-metallic composite container body and a metal end which are joined by a double seam. The double seam has reduced dimensions resulting in significant savings in material. The metal end is formed of a low basis weight metal having a thickness of less than 0.007 inches wherein substantial wrinkling of the metal end nonetheless is avoided.

Containers, such as composite or metal containers, generally include a container body and metal ends which are joined together by a process referred to as double seaming. A double seam refers to the closure formed by interlocking and compressing an end portion of the metal end which has been preformed with an outer curl and the container body which has been preformed with an outer flange. The resulting double seam has a double lock profile defined by a body hook and a cover hook. The term "cover hook" is used to define that part of the double seam formed from the curl of the metal end. "Body hook" defines the portion of the flange of the container body that is turned down in the formation of the double seam. The first seaming operation of the double seaming process refers to the operation in which the curl of the metal end is tucked under the flange of the container body to form the cover hook and body hook. The second seaming operation refers to the finishing operation wherein the hooks formed in the first operation are rolled tightly against each other. To form a double seam, a rotating seaming chuck and a spring loaded base plate hold the metal end and container body together while first and second operation seaming rolls are cam sequenced in and out to form the double seam.
Such double seaming processes have been employed with metal cans. While the current technology is effective with metal cans, the technology, prior to this invention, has presented new challenges when sealing composite containers. This is due to many difficulties including wrinkling of the metal can end which commonly occurs in the double seaming operation. When such wrinkles (or "teeth") occur in the seam of a metal can, they may simply be ironed out, such as during the second seaming operation, without affecting the integrity of the metal body or the metal end. The resulting cans are therefore effectively sealed and the seam is hermetic. It has been established that the amount of wrinkling is a function of the metal thickness wherein wrinkle formation increases as the metal thickness, i.e., basis weight, decreases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,322 to Kramer is an example of a metal can having a double seam joining the metal end and metal container body. A hermetic seal results because the wrinkles which are formed within the metal end during the curling step or the first seaming operation are ironed out during the second seaming operation. The existence of the wrinkles prior to being ironed out does not affect the integrity of the can body because it, too, is metal.
When this technology is applied to composite cans, however, several problems occur. A composite container may include a combination of compressible foil, paper and plastic wherein the foil layer may form the liner layer. The resulting seam is formed by a seaming process to hermetically seal the composite container body to the metallic end. The problems associated with composite containers are numerous. First, when wrinkling of the metal end occurs in the double seam, it often penetrates the composite can thereby destroying its liner layer rendering the composite can not hermetic. Second, the wrinkles cannot be easily ironed out from composite cans which often include a paper layer.
Double seams have been employed with composite containers wherein the containers are intentionally not hermetic such as are used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,728 to Mazurek et al. Wrinkling of the end occurs in these cans but this is desirable because the wrinkles actually assist in rendering these cans not hermetic. It is intended that these cans permit gases to escape, such as may occur during the proofing of packaged dough products. Additionally, wrinkles are encouraged because they assist in gripping and maintaining the end on the composite body of those cans.

Reduced diameter double seam for a composite container


Illumination assemblies and systems using same are disclosed. The illumination assembly can include a reflective substrate, and a light source unit including one or more light sources capable of producing illumination light. The assembly can further include a first light extraction surface including an azimuthal beam widening topography, where the first light extraction surface is positioned such that the light source unit is between the first light extraction surface and the reflective substrate. The first light extraction surface can face the light source unit.

Some display systems, for example, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), are illuminated from behind. Such displays find widespread application in many devices, e.g., laptop computers, hand-held calculators, digital watches, televisions, and the like. Some back-lit displays include a light source that is located to the side of the display, with a light guide positioned to guide the light from the light source to the back of the display panel. Other backlit displays, e.g., some LCD monitors and LCD televisions (LCD-TVs), are directly illuminated from behind using a number of light sources positioned behind the display panel. This direct lit backlight arrangement is increasingly common with larger displays because the light power requirements needed to achieve a certain level of display brightness increase with the square of the display size, whereas the available real estate for locating light sources along the side of the display only increases linearly with display size. In addition, some display applications, such as LCD-TVs, require that the display be bright enough to be viewed from a greater distance than is required for other display applications. Further, viewing angle requirements for LCD-TVs are generally different from those for LCD monitors and hand-held devices.
LCD monitors and LCD-TVs are commonly illuminated from behind by a number of cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). These light sources are linear and stretch across the full width of the display, with the result that the back of the display is illuminated by a series of bright stripes separated by darker regions. Such an illumination profile is not desirable; therefore, a diffuser plate is typically used at the back of the LCD device to smooth the illumination profile.
Currently, LCD-TV diffuser plates commonly employ a polymeric matrix of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with a variety of dispersed phases that include glass, polystyrene beads, and CaCO3 particles. These plates often deform or warp after exposure to the elevated temperatures caused by the lamps. In addition, these diffuser plates require customized extrusion compounding to distribute the diffusing particles uniformly throughout the polymer matrix, which further increases costs. Some diffuser plates are provided with a diffusion characteristic that varies spatially across its width in an attempt to make the illumination profile at the back of the LCD panel more uniform. Such non-uniform diffusers are sometimes referred to as printed pattern diffusers. These non-uniform diffusers are expensive to manufacture because the diffusing pattern must be registered to the illumination source at the time of assembly.
Recently, liquid crystal display television sets (LCD TVs) have been introduced that use a direct-lit backlight powered not by CCFLs but by an array, e.g., of red/green/blue LEDs. An example is the Sony™ Qualia 005 LED Flat-Screen TV. The 40 inch model uses a direct-lit backlight containing five horizontal rows of side-emitting Luxeon™ LEDs, each row containing 65 such LEDs arranged in a GRBRG repeating pattern, and the rows being spaced 3.25 inches apart. This backlight is about 42 mm deep, measured from the front of a diffuse white back reflector to the back of a (about 2 mm thick) front diffuser, between which is positioned a flat transparent plate having an array of 325 diffuse white reflective spots. Each of these spots, which transmit some light, is aligned with one of the LEDs to prevent most of the on-axis light emitted by the LED from striking the front diffuser. The back reflector is flat with angled sidewalls.
An important aspect of some backlights is that the light illuminating the display panel should be uniformly bright. Illuminance uniformity is particularly a problem when the light sources used are point sources, e.g., LEDs. In such cases, the backlight is required to spread the light across the display panel so that the displayed image lacks dark areas. In addition, in some applications, the display panel is illuminated with light from a number of different LEDs that produce light of different colors. Because the human eye more easily discerns variations in color than in brightness, it can be difficult to effectively mix light sources that produce different colors to produce white illumination light. It is important in these situations that the light from the different LEDs be mixed so that the color, as well as the brightness, are uniform across the displayed image.


A device for use in pulmonary surgery is presented. The device comprises a dispensing apparatus 300, 400, 900, a delivery apparatus 100, 1000, 1100, in fluid communication with said dispensing apparatus, and a pressurized gas input 338. The dispensing apparatus is configured to provide a pressurized gas, a fibrinogen stream, and a thrombin stream to the delivery apparatus. The delivery apparatus is configured to mix the fibrogen stream and the thrombin stream in the pressurized gas stream to form a fibrin reaction mixture comprising a cellular foam 700.

About fifty thousand (50,000) pulmonary surgical procedures are performed annually. At least twenty-five percent (25%) of these patients experience air leaks after surgery. Such air leaks prevent full pulmonary function. Moreover, such air leaks are the most common cause of delayed discharge. The discharge of about fifteen percent (15%) of pulmonary surgery patients is delayed at least 7 days.
A study of 319 patients from January 1998 to July 2001 experienced air leaks in fifty-eight percent (58%). About fifty percent of these patients experienced air leaks 3 days after surgery.
Risk factors for prolonged hospitalization include increased age, smoking, use of steroids, and use of chemo/radiation therapy. Underlying pulmonary diseases include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, bullous disease, and pulmonary fibrosis. As a general matter, air leaks cause increased morbidity, increased infection, increased rate of BP fistula, increased hospitalization, and increased cost.

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA


Passively biased fiber-optic Sagnac interferometric sensor architecture, for gyroscope and current sensor in particular, is disclosed. One embodiment uses a 3×3 coupler entirely made of circular polarization maintaining fiber that serves as a beam splitter and meanwhile a passive bias. An alternative is to use a 3×3 hybrid coupler consisting of two linear polarization maintaining fibers and one conventional single-mode fiber, with the former two connected in a common interferometric sensor circuitry, and with the latter one cut short at both ends to form matched terminations. Still another alternative is an integral unit of Faraday rotator, whose central part is a fiber-optic magneto-optic 45° rotator, with a “zero to fast” fiber-optic quarter wave plate attached to one side, and a “fast to zero” fiber-optic quarter wave plate to the other. Advantages of passive bias are simplicity in construction, no need of manual adjustment and operational stability.

Fiber-optic sensors based on Sagnac interferometric circuitry described herein refer mainly to two kinds of sensors, e.g., gyroscopic rotation-rate sensor, or gyro for short, working on the Sagnac effect, and electric current or magnetic field sensor working on the Faraday effect. The essential likeness of these two effects is that both are nonreciprocal, thus leading to the circumstance that the two relevant fields, gyroscope and current sensor, have been developed parallelly on the common basis of Sagnac inteferometric fiber-optic circuitry. As a matter of fact, the R&D and T&D (T: Technology) of current sensor is largely benefited by borrowing abundance of useful technologies from its forerunner, the gyroscope.
The past decades have witnessed admirable successes in practical applications of gyroscopic sensors employing active bias, e.g., piezoelectric phase modulator (PZT) or integrated optics chip (Y-waveguide junction). Following this pace, actively biased current sensors have also been explored for a fairly long time, but the advance of this art is less successful. One major reason for the lagging behind in the R&D of current sensor is attributive to the fact that, while an all-fiber gyro architecture can be constructed in its entirety by employing the well-developed linear PM (polarization-maintaining) fiber, or so-called hi-bi fiber, a phase-detection-based current sensor of high accuracy and long-term stability needs, at least for the part of its sensing loop, the use of circular PM fiber that is by far less developed. To emphasize the specialty of circular polarization-maintaining in contrast to linear polarization-maintaining, italic style of the word "circular" is employed here and afterwards whenever it appears in connection to such special kind of PM fiber.
Despite the said successes of actively biased fiber-optic Sagnac interferometric gyros, efforts have never been discontinued in attempting to passively bias an interferometric circuitry adaptable to either gyro or current sensor applications. Attractive aspects of passive biasing include simplicity and robustness in construction, lower noise, lower cost, easier adjustment (oftentimes no need of adjustment, with the desired system behaviors accomplished all automatically), higher accuracy and stability in long-term operation, etc.
Early attempts to realize passive biasing of fiber-optic sensors employed a 3×3 coupler made of three conventional single-mode fibers serving as a beam splitter and meanwhile a passive bias in a Sagnac interferometric fiber circuit. A major deficiency of such fiber-optic interferometric architecture is that such coupler made of single-mode fiber is not capable of maintaining the SOP (State of Polarization) of light, thus incurring instability of lightwave transmission in the circuitry comprising the coupler. A 3×3 linear hi-bi fiber coupler is capable of sensing, as well as maintaining, a gyroscopic signal. Yet, up to the time being, fabrication of 3×3 linear hi-bi fiber coupler poses a serious difficulty in the process of paralleling three sets of mirror-symmetric stress-elements in constituent linear hi-bi fibers of the coupler. A search of worldwide market information on optical fiber products shows that only a very few companies provide commercial products of 3×3 linear hi-bi fiber coupler. Laboratory use of such products from one company gave extinction ratios substantially lower than 20 dB for linear light in the coupler arms, and thus could not be acceptable for use in practical sensor applications.
Another way to passively bias a fiber-optic Sagnac interferometric sensor circuitry is to employ a nonreciprocal Faraday rotator. Complexity now arises regarding how such Faraday rotator is included in the fiber-optic sensor circuitry. Presently available fiber-optic circuitry is essentially based on linear hi-bi fiber, yet a Faraday rotator works on circular light in order to acquire a phase change for accurate phase-detection. Existing method in actual sensor circuitry is either to use a bulk-optic quarter wave plate, or a short linear hi-bi fiber section with a 45° excitation, in order to provide the required linear  circular SOP transformation. However, the former method is unfavorable for the need of greatly increased structural complexity, while the latter is imperfect for the inherent length-sensitive behavior of the said linear hi-be fiber section.
It is on the said technical background that the present invention comes into being with a view to overcome the existing difficulties and complexity in present fiber-optic sensor technology using one or the other kind of the above-described passive bias. Technical particulars of the invention is given below in Summary and Detailed Description of the Invention in connection with the accompanying figure drawings.

Passively biased fiber-optic gyroscope and current sensor


Methods, storage medium and systems for implementing visibility policies within a supply chain include storing event data on a computer-readable storage medium of a first partner, the event data corresponding to at least one event associated with an item while the item was in possession of the first partner, the item having traveled through the supply chain, transferring evidence of possession between the plurality of partners as the item travels through the supply chain, and requesting access to the event data by a second partner. Implementations further include determining that the item traveled through a portion of the supply chain based on the evidence, authenticating an identity of the second partner, and authorizing the second partner to access the first event data, when it is determined that the item traveled through the portion of the supply chain and when the identity of the second party is authenticated.

Global supply chain visibility is becoming increasingly important, particularly as manufacturing is moved to various worldwide locations to lower costs associated with product manufacturing. With supply chains lengthening, it is becoming more important to have visibility of supply chain information related to products while the products are in transit.
Transportation between the manufacturer and the location of the product's final destination has become a major component of the supply chain. Thus, the visibility of the product in transit is crucial to managing logistical issues at supplier locations. For example, when ocean freight carriers are used to transport products to and from worldwide locations, transit times can reach upwards of 30 days. In such an example, logistics service providers in the supply chain manage the movement of freight and provide visibility to other supply chain partners.

Systems and methods for implementing supply chain visibility policies


An optical crossbar exchange arrangement is implemented using a modified Sagnac switch. During the absence of a control signal, two separately numbered inputs are coupled to the same numbered outputs of the Sagnac switch (i.e., input1 to output1, etc.). During the presence of a control signal each of the two numbered inputs are switched and are coupled to a different numbered output (e.g., input1 to output2, etc.).

This invention relates to high-speed optical digital circuits and, more particularly, to an optical crossbar exchange arrangement.
To effectively utilize the greater bandwidth inherent in optical signals, it is necessary to develop logic devices and circuits that use all-optical components. Recently, all-optical logic devices have been developed utilizing a Sagnac interferometer in a variety of arrangements to accomplish the switching function. Illustrations of these devices are described in the following articles:
"Pulsed-Mode Laser Sagnac Interferometry with Applications in Nonlinear Optics and Optical Switching", Applied Optics, Vol. 25, No. 2, January 1986, pp. 209-214, Li et al.; "Soliton Switching in a Fiber Nonlinear Loop Mirror", Optics Letters, Vol. 14, No. 15, Aug. 1, 1989, pp. 811-813, Islam et al.; "Optical Fiber Switch Employing a Sagnac Interferometer", Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 55, pp. 25, 1989, Farries et al.; "Ultrafast, low power, and highly stable all-optical switching in an all polarization maintaining fiber Sagnac interferometer," Conference record of April 1990 topical Meeting on Photonic Switching, paper 13C-16, M. Jinno and T. Matsumoto.
Notwithstanding these latest advancements, there is a continued need to improve existing all-optical logic devices and to develop new all-optical logic devices.


A projector screen includes one or more markers that are configured to be usable by projection processing circuitry in order to calculate a user perceived distortion in an image to be projected on the projector screen.

Videos are increasingly being displayed on handheld displays. However, in certain cases it has been found that videos watched on the contemporary handheld displays should not ordinarily exceed the length of 15-20 minutes to avoid uncomfortable experience by the user. This is at least partly attributable to the small size of handheld displays.
Projection is one of the methods for escaping the bounds of small screens in mobile devices. However, the usability and image quality for projection systems have thus far been such that mobile usage has not been attractive. Also the projection surface (i.e. projection screen) in the mobile environment varies a lot from ideal white screen as you may not have such an ideal white screen on which to project. For example, the projection surface could be textured, colourful, and rough in the case that a user is projecting the image onto the back of an airplane seat. These variations can lead to distortions of a projected image as perceived by a user.
Typically a mobile projector needs good flat surface on which to project the image. Also for a good quality projection, the surface of the projection should be white in colour, and should not have any other colours or patterns. However, such suitable mobile projectors are rarely available.
Even if the projection surface might be flat and single white coloured, the projection set-up might not allow the direct projection of the image onto the screen. This would make the projected image appear to be distorted image on the screen.
Existing projection screens can be rolled into a comparatively small configuration for storing or transport. However, such rolled projection screens are not readily user portable.
One or more aspects and embodiments of the present invention address one or more of the above-mentioned problems.
The image quality of a projected image, particularly in mobile use can be affected by one or more of the following factors:                i) If the image is projected on a moving surface the user perceived image looks to be out-of-focus;        ii) If the image is projected on a solid surface, but projector is moving, the perceived image looks to be out-of-focus;        iii) If the image is projected on a solid surface, with a non-moving projector, but the optics are set incorrectly, the perceived image looks to be out-of-focus;
One or more aspects and/or embodiments of the present invention relate to the provision of auto-focussing for mobile projectors in such environments.
Furthermore, particularly in mobile environments, the projection surface/screen could be e.g. textured, colourful, and rough, which causes distortions to perceived image. In such cases, the projected image quality can be affected. For example, if the image is projected on rough surface the perceived image looks distorted. If the image is projected on colourful surface the perceived colours may not be correct. If the image is projected on a textured surface, the perceived projected image looks distorted. Furthermore, if the image is projected on a dark surface the perceived projected image looks darker than if it were to be projected on a light surface.
One or more aspects and/or embodiments of the present invention relate to the provision of enhancing image quality, particularly in mobile projectors.
Relative movement between the projector and a projector screen can cause user-perceived distortions. This is particularly so for hand-held projectors and/or projector screens. Image stabilisation would be beneficial. Aspects and/or embodiments of the present invention relate to projected image stabilisation.
When a mobile projector is set-up in a new place of use, the user often needs to manually correct the projected image, for example with keystone correction (to correct for geometric distortions), and/or level the projector horizontally so that the projected image is not appear rotated. Aspects and/or embodiments of the present invention relate to correction of such user perceived distortion.

Projector screen with one or more markers


A coherent confocal microscope for fully characterizing the elastic scattering properties of a nanoparticle as a function of wavelength. Using a high numerical aperture lens, two-dimensional scanning and a simple vector beam shaper, the rank-2 polarizability tensor is estimated from a single confocal image. A computationally efficient data processing method is described and numerical simulations show that this algorithm is robust to noise and uncertainty in the focal plane position. The measurement of the polarizability removes the need for a priori assumptions regarding the nanoparticle shape.

Nanoparticles are currently the subject of intense study as surveyed, for example, in G. Schmid, ed., Nanoparticles: From Theory to Application (Wiley, 2004), which is incorporated herein by reference. Applications are as diverse as drug delivery, sensing, bio-imaging and sorbent manufacture. Not least among the interesting properties of nanoparticles are their optical characteristics. The optical attributes of nanoparticles are observed in familiar materials such as opal and stained glass. More recently the optical properties of nanostructures have been exploited in applications such as the construction of metamaterials, discussed by Ziolkowski et al., eds., Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations (Wiley, 2006), and the subwavelength containment of fields using optical antennas, as discussed by Mühlschlegel et al., Resonant optical antennas, Science, 308, 1607-1609 (2005). With the increasing use of nanoparticles in optical applications it is desirable to be able to characterize the optical response of a single nanoparticle. This work focuses on the elastic scattering properties, which are determined by a wavelength-dependent linear polarizability tensor for sufficiently small nanoparticles.
The polarizability of a nanoparticle is determined both by the constituent material and by the particle size and shape. For purposes of the present description, unless the particular context requires otherwise, the term "nanoparticle" will refer to a scatterer having point-like characteristics, in that its overall dimensions are smaller than the diffraction limit of any radiation used in its characterization. For a known material and geometry, the polarizability may be determined analytically or by computational methods, however, small deviations from the specified shape may introduce significant optical changes—see Canfield et al., Chirality arising from small defects in gold nanoparticle arrays, Optics Express 14, 950-955 (2006) for related measurements from nanoparticle arrays. It is, therefore, highly desirable that a means be provided for actually measuring the polarizability using far-field optical measurements, and that is provided by the current invention, as discussed below.
The measurement scheme of the present invention is based on a coherent confocal microscope. Coherent microscopes use interference with a reference beam to holographically record data and hence acquire information regarding the phase of the measured field. While coherent microscopy predates the invention of the laser, modern bright and broadband sources have made spectrally-sensitive coherent microscopy a practical methodology. This is evidenced by the popularity of techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT).
In addition to collecting phase-sensitive data, a coherent microscope has the advantage of high sensitivity when compared to a traditional intensity-based system. As a result, coherent microscopy is suitable for true nanoimaging, as demonstrated by results such as the interferometric detection of single viruses and gold particles as small as 5 nm, as reported by Ignatovich et al., Real-time and background-free detection of nanoscale particles, Phys. Rev. Lett., 96, article no. 013,901 (2006).
In coherent microscopy the optical source is usually split into a reference field and a field that is used to illuminate the sample. The light returned from the sample is combined with the reference field and the interferometric features in the data are used for image formation. To exhibit interference the returned light must be coherent with the reference field and at the same wavelength. This means that potentially useful signals from a nanoparticle, such as Raman-scattered, higher-harmonic and/or fluorescent light, are not detected. As a result, the coherent microscope described here is used to measure only the linear component of the nanoparticle polarizability and the three-dimensional position of the nanoparticle.
Traditional microscopy and spectroscopy usually involve the formation of a scalar image on spatial and/or spectral axes. While this image is immediately useful in many applications, it is possible to design sensing systems that form non-scalar images and/or exploit less obvious relationships between the collected data and the imaged objects. A comprehensive discussion is provided by Barrett et al., Foundations of Image Science (Wiley-Interscience, 2003), which is incorporated herein by reference. For example, many modern microscopy and imaging systems collect images as a function of polarization state and/or scattering angle. Additionally, in some applications the object can be represented by a small number of parameters which are estimated from the data with very high precision. In single molecule microscopy, the a priori knowledge that the object can be parameterized by the molecule location allows the molecule to be localized with a precision orders of magnitude better than the diffraction limit.

Robust determination of the anisotropic polarizability of nanoparticles using coherent confocal microscopy

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A support information and spelling variation display set-up section serves for setting up in advance a plurarity of kinds of spelling variations such as of conjugations respectively for conversion result candidates as well as a plurality of kinds of support information that a user may desire to reference for the conversion result candidates, cooperating with a support information and spelling variation display direction unit, which accepts a command for designating a kind of support information or a kind of spelling variation and a command for directing a display thereof, and a conversion result selection and decision unit, which accepts a command for a direction of a selection and a decision of a conversion result, permitting the user to voluntarily reference one of the support information and the spelling variations for a plurality of candidates, any time when desired, effectively reducing a burden to reference a dictionary in preparation of a sentence.

The present invention generally relates to a symbol sequence conversion system with a displaying subsystem and a symbol sequence conversion method with a displaying step, and particularly, to a system and a method for a conversion between linguistically significant symbol sequences including a display of support information for supporting an interacting operator.

System and method for conversion between linguistically significant symbol sequences with display of support information


A cooling apparatus of an exhaust gas recirculation system includes a first cooling portion, made of a first material, that receives recirculation exhaust gas; and a second cooling portion, made of a second, different material, that receives the recirculation exhaust gas from the first cooling portion and exhausts the recirculation exhaust gas out of the apparatus. A cooling method of an exhaust gas recirculation system includes receiving a recirculation exhaust gas in a first cooling portion made of a first material; cooling the recirculation exhaust gas in the first coolant portion; receiving the recirculation exhaust gas in a second cooling portion made of a second, different material; and cooling the recirculation exhaust gas in the second coolant portion.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling apparatus and method of an exhaust gas recirculation system.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are regulated pollutants. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems have recently been provided to address this. Generally, NOx is most prevalent when the air-fuel ratio is high. An exhaust gas recirculation system mixes some of the exhaust gas to the air-fuel mixture, reducing the amount of oxygen in the air-fuel mixture, and so lessening generation of NOx.
A hot-type EGR system retards ignition, lessens the air-fuel ratio, and lessens the amounts of particulate materials (PM) and hydrocarbons (HC), as well as the amount of NOx, while a cooled-type EGR system prevents combustion by cooling the exhaust gas and the combustion chamber. Recently, the hot EGR system and the cooled EGR system have been used together: the hot EGR system is used at low load and the cooled EGR system is used at high load.
Generally, temperature of exhaust gas is very high, and so a cooling apparatus is provided to the EGR system. The cooling apparatus should be made of a material that is durable at the high temperatures to which it is exposed. A typical material is stainless steel, which is very heavy and costly.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Cooling apparatus of exhaust gas recirculation system and method using the same


This color display structure for color display purposes has a first and second spaced, transparent substrates, between which is interposed a liquid crystal film (6), the first substrate (2) essentially supporting color filters (124) resistant to high temperatures and separated by black matrixes (126), a first transparent, passivating layer (128) deposited on the entire surface occupied by the filters and the black matrixes, thin film transistors (8, 9), formed on the first passivating layer facing the black matrixes so as to be protected from the ambient light, first transparent capacitor plates (10) formed on the first passivating layer facing the color filters and connected to the transistors, electrode rows (14) and columns (12) for controlling these transistors and a second transparent passivating layer (20) covering the transistors, the first plates, the rows and the columns, the second substrate (4) essentially having the second transparent capacitor plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel liquid crystal display (LCD) structure and to an active matrix based on thin film transistors (TFT) and capacitors, especially adapted to producing high resolution, flat-faced display screens. These flat screens can be used as large, colour television screens, as colour computer terminal screens, with direct viewing, or as a black and white, generally small size projecting screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
In such screen or display types, an electronic memory formed from pixels distributed over the entire surface of the screen stores the video signal for the duration of the image. The liquid crystal in contact with each pixel is excited for the duration of one image. Each pixel is constituted by one or two TFT's and one or two capacitors, the liquid crystal forming the dielectric of one of them. Moreover, these screen or display structures are constituted by two glass plates kept spaced from one another and each having precise patterns between which is interposed the liquid crystal.
The attached FIGS. 1 and 2 diagrammatically show an active matrix, colour display screen structure according to the prior art. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view and FIG. 2 a perspective view of part of the lower plate of the screen without the layer for passivating and orienting the liquid crystal.
In these drawings, references 2 and 4 respectively indicate the lower and upper, transparent support plates for the screen and reference 6 indicates the liquid crystal.
According to the prior art, the lower plate 2 (FIG. 2) supports on its inner face thin film transistors 8, 9 of each pixel. The transparent electrodes 10 of said pixels form the lower plate of the capacitors. The columns 12 and rows 14 of electrodes control the transistors 8 and 9.
Each addressing column 12 is provided with a bend 16 and each plate 10 is provided with a finger 18. The intersections of the row 14 with the column 12 and the bend 16 define drains D and D' of the transistors 8 and 9 and the intersection of the row 14 with the finger 18 defines the source of said transistors. Those parts of the row 14 respectively located between the column 12 and the finger 18 and the bend 16 and the finger 18 constitute the gates of the transistors 8 and 9.
This assembly is covered with a silicon nitride passivating layer 20 and optionally a liquid crystal orientation layer 22 (FIG. 1).
The upper glass plate 4 has on its inner face colour filters 24 separated by a black matrix 26. These filters are alternately red R, green V and blue B.
These colour filters and the black matrix 26 are covered with a transparent, conductive layer 28 serving as the counterelectrode and in particular the upper electrode for the capacitors. The electrodes 10 and 28 are generally made from indium and tin oxide (ITO). The counterelectrode 28 can also be covered with a layer 29 for aligning the liquid crystal molecules.
A screen structure as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is in particular described in SID 84 Digest, pp 308-311 by Y. Ugai et al entitled "Diagonal colour LCD addressed by a-Si TFT'S".
On assembling the screen, the two glass plates 2 and 4 must be positioned facing one another, so that the transparent electrodes 10 defining the pixels are perfectly superimposed on the colour filters 24. Following this positioning, the two plates 2 and 4 are sealed at their periphery with the aid of an adhesive joint 30 and liquid crystal filling of the display cell takes place.
Each of the two screen plates 2 and 4 has very precise patterns. Thus, the spacing of the pixels and therefore the colour filters is typically 0.2 mm. Moreover, each pixel is electrically defined by the electrode 10 of the plate 2 supporting the TFT's and optically by the colour filter 24 surrounded by the black matrix formed under the counterelectrode 28.
In order to bring about a maximum reduction in the width 1 of the black matrix between two consecutive filters and therefore increase to the greatest possible extent the transparency of the screen, a superimposing accuracy of the two plates of .+-.3 .mu.m is sought. However, these two glass plates are known to have a different thermal history during their manufacture.
As is known, glass undergoes a more or less random compaction causing geometrical variations which can reach several micrometers, i.e. more than 10 .mu.m, as a function of the nature of the glass and the temperatures used (particularly for layer deposition).
In this case, the precise superimposing of two glass plates having very precise patterns becomes problematical for large sizes.
This problem of the precise positioning of two glass plates occurs in all screen structures in which the filters and pixels are respectively produced on two support plates and in particular in the structure described in EP-A-179 915.
Moreover, when using the process for the production of a display screen having "two masking levels", as described in FR-A-2 533 072, the transistors 8, 9, as well as the addressing rows 14 are constituted by a stack of an amorphous hydrogenated silicon layer 32, a silicon nitride layer 34 and an aluminium layer 36 in photoetched form. In this type of "gates on top" screen, the lower face of the semiconductor 32 is in direct contact with the glass and is not protected against light.
Although illumination generally takes place through the rear or the upper face, as indicated by the arrows F in FIG. 1, the "bulge" of the TFT'S (or lower faces in contact with the substrate) is exposed to ambient observation light. Furthermore, when said light is intense, a photocurrent is produced in the semiconductor leading to leakage currents in the transistors, which may limit the performance characteristics of the screen and in particular reduce its contrast.
In order to obviate this disadvantage, consideration has been given to the production of a black matrix made from black polyimide below the "bulge" of the transistors, as described in FR-A-2 638 880. However, in this type of screen, the problem of the precise positioning of the colour filters and the electrodes 10 of "pixels" is not solved. This problem of positioning two substrates also exists in the smaller screens used for projection purposes.

Active matrix, high definition, liquid crystal display structure

France Telecom Etablissement autonome de droit public


A flight planning system includes one or more flight management system and a flight plan manager that constructs a flight plan according to static information from the flight management system. A flight management system that also constructs flight plans includes a flight plan manager that constructs a flight plan according to information stored in the flight management system. In constructing the flight plan, either flight management system may compute values of flight plan parameters, such as PNR, PET, ETOPS and LROPS, based on dynamic information related to the flight. On the ground, one of either type of flight management system is selected from a plurality thereof for producing a flight plan for a respective aircraft or aircraft model.

The present invention relates to the field of aviation, and more particularly, to a system for producing a flight plan.
The definition of "flight plan" used herein is taken from the FAA Airman's Information Manual (2008), Volume 3 General Technical Administration, Chapter 25 Operational Control for Air Carriers, Section 3-1925. The term "flight plan" means a paper document or a file of electronic data prepared for purposes of flight planning, flight control and navigation. Flight planning consists of selecting an appropriate aircraft cruise schedule and applying forecast wind, temperature and aircraft performance data to a planned route to predict estimated time en route (ETE) and estimated fuel consumption.
The term "ATC flight plan" refers herein to a plan filed by a pilot or a flight dispatcher with the aviation authorities (e.g. FAA in the USA) prior to takeoff in order to obtain an ATC clearance. Absent an ATC clearance, the flight is not authorized to depart.
An ATC flight plan is the subset of information extracted from the flight plan, and includes additional information such as departure and arrival points, aircraft registration, estimated times, alternate airports, type of flight, e.g. IFR (instrument flight rules) or VFR (visual flight rules), name of pilot in command (PIC), number of persons on board, and so forth as per an official ATC flight plan form (e.g. FAA form 7233-4).
In most countries, ATC light plans are required for flights under instrument flight rules. Under visual flight rules, ATC flight plans are optional unless the flight crosses national borders, however they are highly recommended, especially when flying over inhospitable areas, such as over water, as they provide a way of alerting rescuers if the flight is overdue.
The term "flight planning" refers in the art to the process of producing a detailed flight plan, and is referred in the prior art as to "flight plan" ("FP"). Flight planning involves two safety-critical aspects: fuel calculation, to ensure that the aircraft can safely reach its destination, and compliance with air traffic control requirements, to minimize the risk of mid-air collision. In addition, planners normally wish to minimize flight cost by appropriate choice of route, height, and speed, and by loading the minimum necessary fuel on board.
Flight planning requires accurate weather forecasts at various flight levels, so that time and fuel consumption calculations can account for the effects of head/tail winds and outside air temperature (OAT). Safety regulations require aircraft to carry fuel beyond the minimum required to fly from departure airport to destination airport, allowing for unforeseen circumstances or for diversion to an alternate airport if the planned destination airport becomes unavailable for landing.
Under the supervision of air traffic control, aircraft flying in controlled airspace must follow predetermined routes (e.g. airways), even if such routes are not as economical as a more direct flight. Within these airways, aircraft must maintain flight altitudes (ALT) or flight levels (FL) as appropriate, depending on the route being flown and the direction of travel. Flying off airways is permitted after attaining approval from the appropriate authorities.
Producing an accurate optimized flight plan requires numerous calculations, so commercial FP systems make extensive use of computers. An approximate un-optimized flight plan can be produced by manual calculations in an hour or so, Some aircraft operators have their own internal system for producing flight plans, while others employ the services of external planners such as Jeppessen of Englewood Colo. USA and Compuflight, Inc. of Port Washington N.Y. USA. In both cases, nowadays producing a flight plan is generally dependent on using computer programs, and as such the pilot has a limited control on the produced flight plan. For example, if the fuel consumption of a Boeing 737 is used for preparing the flight plan instead of the fuel consumption of a Boeing 747, an air disaster may occur.
Acronyms
The following acronyms are used herein:
AFDS autopilot & flight director system
AFS auto flight system
AHRS attitude heading and reference system
A.I.P. aeronautical information publication
ALT flight altitude
A/P autopilot
AFM aircraft flight manual
ALT/FL altitude/flight level
A/T autothrottle
ATC air traffic control
ATIS automatic terminal information service
BR brake release
CAS calibrated airspeed
CPT critical point
DCT direct
DOW dry operating weight
EADI electronic attitude display indicator
EFIS electronic flight instrument system
EHSI electronic horizontal status indicator
ETOPS extended twin-engine operations
ETP equal time point
F/D flight director
F/F fuel flow
FIR flight information region
FL flight level
FMC flight management computer
FMGS flight management and guidance system
FMS flight management system
FOB fuel on board
FP flight plan
FPL flight plan (generally used when referring to an ATC flight plan)
GPS global positioning system
G/S ground speed
IAS indicated airspeed
IFR instrument flight rules
IRS inertial reference system
LMC last minute change
LNAV lateral navigation
LROPS long range operations
MOD moderate turbulence or icing
MPTOW maximum permissible takeoff weight
MR must ride items
MSA minimum safe altitude
MSL mean sea level
MTOW maximum design takeoff weight
MZFW maximum zero fuel weight
NAM accumulated air distance
NAT north atlantic ocean
ND navigation display
NM nautical mile
OAT outside air temperature
OCC operations control center
OM operations manual
OTS organized track system
PET point of equal time
PFD primary flight display
PIC pilot in command
PNR point of no return
QNE 1013.25 Mb altimeter subscale setting (International Standard Atmosphere)
QNH altimeter setting to obtain the field elevation when on the ground
RSVM reduced vertical separation minimum
RWY runway
SELCAL selective call
SEV severe turbulence or icing
SID standard instrument departure
STAR standard terminal arrival route
TAS true airspeed
T/O takeoff
TOW takeoff weight
VFR visual flight rules
VNAV vertical navigation
VOR-DME vhf omni range-distance measuring equipment
W/V wind direction and speed
WX weather


The disclosure relates to systems and methods for improving the manufacturing of silk solutions and powders containing silk fibroin obtained from silkworm cocoons. The solutions and powders can be used to improve the post-harvest preservation of perishables and to improve the performance of packaging, including biodegradable packaging.

One third of the food produced in the world is wasted each year and over 45% of all fruits and vegetables are lost to spoilage. Food waste has massive economic, social, and environmental implications. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a prominent non-profit international environmental advocacy group, the United States loses 40% of its food supply resulting in an estimated economic loss of $165 billion per year. Embodiments of the present disclosure directly address the broader societal need for reducing food waste and increasing food availability by extending the shelf-life of perishables (e.g., cooked or uncooked meats, proteins, carbohydrates, produce, nuts, grains, seeds, dairy, beverages, processed foods (e.g., chocolates, candies, chips, snacks, energy bars), gums, tablets, capsules, plants, roots, fungi, spores, breads, dried fruits, dried vegetables, dehydrated foods, medical foods, flowers, plants, and the like). Embodiments of the present disclosure represent significant commercial value by increasing revenue through improved distribution, reducing waste, and decreasing costs associated with cold storage and transport.

Systems and methods for manufacturing a silk fibroin solution and powders containing silk fibroin