A method for enabling a local area network (LAN) appliance, supporting a synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification protocol, to control communication sessions in a wide area network (WAN), the wide area network supporting a session-control protocol, includes: a) receiving from the LAN appliance a synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification-protocol message invoking an operation for controlling a predetermined communication session in the wide area network, the execution of the operation involving an exchange of at least two session-control-protocol messages with at least one WAN apparatus supporting the session-control-protocol; b) processing the synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification-protocol message received in a) to generate a first of the at least two session-control-protocol messages, which is adapted to start the execution of the operation; c) sending the message generated in b) toward said wide area network to start the execution of the operation; d) suspending a response for the LAN appliance to the invoked operation waiting for a condition indicating an outcome of the operation; e) when the condition is available, generating the response for the LAN appliance, the response being indicative of the outcome of the operation; and f) sending the response generated in e) to the LAN appliance.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for the provision of communication session control in a local area network.
Description of the Related Art
The increasing deployment of broadband Internet access to the homes through network technologies such as the digital subscriber line (DSL) has created an opportunity to support new communication experiences by making the home an increasingly important networking center.
Digital content is becoming the predominant format for storing, viewing and managing media. Consumers want to enjoy content across different consumer electronic (CE) appliances and from many locations in their homes. Also personal communication is converging towards the digital streaming format, and the definition of a common set of technology standards to ensure interoperability between content and communication devices is a compelling requirement. For example, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has issued a set of interoperability guidelines that define a framework of interoperable components for devices and services. The guidelines recommend the adoption of consolidated Internet standards, such as Internet Protocol (IP), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and UPnP technology.
As well known in the art, according to proposed standard RFC3261 and extension thereof, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control and signalling protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF") for creating, modifying and terminating interactive communication sessions between one or more participants. These sessions may include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia sessions such as voice and/or video conference, supporting user mobility, negotiation of multimedia end-point capabilities through the integration with a Session Description Protocol (SDP), call routing and session transfer functionalities.
SIP was accepted by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as signaling protocol of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture. Indeed, it is widely assumed that SIP-based communications will gradually replace traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), due to lower management costs and higher flexibility in the combination of different media, such as audio, video, and text.
On the other hand, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology establishes protocols that allow consumer electronic (CE) appliances in a local area network to interact with each other.
UPnP architecture establishes a set of standardized protocols that consumer electronic (CE) appliances implement to provide discovery, control and data transfer between such appliances. Examples of appliances that may be configured to implement UPnP protocols include computers, servers, printers, telephones, digital cameras, video recorders, Internet personal appliances, or personal digital assistants. UPnP architecture distinguishes between UPnP devices which expose services and UPnP control points which discover and use such services.
Accordingly, the UPnP architecture provides for a typical client/server model that distinguishes between service providers (devices) and service consumers (control-points). For example, a UPnP TV device may provide a service for viewing digital media, whilst the TV's remote control may act as control-point of the TV.
UPnP employs a protocol named Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) to discover available devices on the local, network and a protocol named Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as mechanism to invoke service operations provided by devices. SSDP uses a multicast variant of HTTP (HTTPMU) that exploits the IP multicast service available on the local area network. HTTPMU is used by UPnP devices to send advertisement messages and by control points to send search requests for finding available UPnP services.
Besides, UPnP also defines a mechanism to manage event notifications related to changes in the state of a UPnP device, based on the General Event Notification Architecture (GENA) as defined by the IETF in two Internet drafts ("General Event Notification Architecture Base", J. Cohen, S. Aggarwal, 9 Jul. 1998, <draft-cohen-gena-p-base-01.txt>; and "General Event Notification Architecture Base: Client to Arbiter", J. Cohen, S. Aggarwal, Y. Y. Goland, 6 Sep. 2000, <draft-cohen-gena-p-base-01.txt>). This mechanism is based on a subscription that a control-point can make to receive notifications about changes in state variables associated with a UPnP device.
Due to the nature of UPnP service discovery and eventing mechanism, UPnP technology is limited to network devices that are connected in a network environment where multicasting is supported.
Hitherto, the main effort of the UPnP standardization process for multimedia devices has been focused on content-based services. The UPnP AV Architecture document and the MediaServer and MediaRenderer standard device specifications are the result of this activity. This standard explicitly states that enabling two-way interactive communication services (such as audio and video conferencing) is outside the goal of the UPnP AV Architecture, albeit some proposals in that direction have recently been submitted.
US-2006/0140199-A1 and US-2006/0153072-A1 disclose an architecture and mechanism for bridging the UPnP and SIP protocols. The documents describe a proxy apparatus for translating UPnP messages into SIP messages. The proxy parses the structured XML content of a UPnP SOAP invocation and embeds said XML in the header part, body part, or both of the corresponding SIP message. Although such approach is very general, the syntactic translation of messages enables the mere transportation of UPnP messages using SIP requests/responses as carrier protocol, whereby a SIP device (e.g. a mobile phone) can be employed for controlling UPnP devices/services. The Applicant notes that these documents teach to use the SIP protocol as a means to access UPnP services and devices from outside the home network environment exploiting location and routing services offered by SIP-enabled networks, but does not specifically address the issue of controlling a conference session trough the UPnP protocol. Moreover, the disclosed approach accounts for syntactic translations between UPnP and SIP protocols, and is independent of the semantic characteristic of the services. The invention disclosed in the two aforementioned documents does not cover the topic of interoperability between UPnP homed devices and session control services offered by a SIP-based network, where the syntactic issue is simply one aspect in the broader interoperability problem that requires the specification of a new UPnP device/service for the translation of SIP session control messages in UPnP methods/events and vice versa.
Mark Walker et al., "New Uses, Proposed Standards, and Emergent Device Classes for Digital Home Communications", published on the Intel Technology Journal on Feb. 15, 2006, propose a digital home communications network for facilitating the integration, of in-home personal communication devices and extending personalized communication services to devices outside the home. In particular, they define two device classes: a Home Communications Server (HCS)—offering simple call management functions and a set of extended functionalities related to communication services, such as contact list, personalized call routing, and mailbox message management—and a Digital Communication Adaptor (DCA) that relies on the HCS and adapts legacy consumer electronics equipments such as the TV-set for use as a communication device.
The Applicant observes that the Authors of this article highlight an interest in extending UPnP-based services towards communication services, although their proposal is merely an architectural description.
The same observation applies to the architecture proposed by WO 2007/002604 and WO 2006/061682 for extending UPnP-based services towards mobile-specific services as, for example, VoIP, messaging (e.g., SMS, MMS), presence, multimedia services using SIP and SDP, conferencing applications, etc.

Method and system for the provision of communication session control in a local area network


A method for controlling an antenna of a mobile communication application system based on double quaternions in MEMS inertial navigation. The method comprises: introducing an antenna control quaternion based on a navigation attitude quaternion; in each interrupt cycle of a navigation computer, updating the two quaternions respectively using a carrier system measured by a gyroscope relative to a rotation vector of an ideal platform coordinate system; in each filter cycle, correcting the error of the navigation attitude quaternion respectively using a Kalman filter; according to the relationship between the attitudes determined by the two attitude quaternions, determining the angular speed in an antenna control instruction; and finally, driving a servo system to rotate at an antenna servo control angle converted by an antenna control quaternion attitude.

A mobile communication application system of a geostationary satellite is commonly known as "satellite communication in motion", which is an application in great need and developed rapidly in the field of satellite communication currently. In addition to advantages such as wide coverage of the satellite communication, no limitation on terrain and territory, and stable and reliable transmission line, the "satellite communication in motion" truly achieves a wideband mobile communication.
Presently, there is no mature solution of a satellite communication in motion system based on MEMS inertial navigation (which is referred to as MEMS inertial navigation) in China. With the development of the MEMS inertia technique, the accuracy of the MEMS inertial navigation is increased steadily. Presently, the satellite communication in motion system is applied more and more widely in China, and the satellite communication in motion system with low cost is urgent desired in the market. Therefore, researches on a method for controlling a satellite communication in motion antenna servo system based on MEMS inertial navigation are meaningful.
Generally, an antenna is controlled directly based on a navigation attitude quaternion obtained via strapdown inertial navigation solving. In the Kalman filtering and integrated navigation process, if an error estimation from a state estimation is great, a large current is input into a servo system instantly to drive the servo system to instantly rotate at a large angle (which is equal to the error estimation obtained by the Kalman filtering estimation), while correcting the estimation. In this case, great electrical and mechanical shocks are brought to the antenna servo system. To avoid such shocks, it takes a lot of time to wait for the Kalman filtering to become stable, and the satellite communication in motion servo system is not restarted until the servo system can tolerate the shock brought by the error correction obtained by the Kalman filtering estimation, which is against the requirement on rapid satellite aiming of the satellite communication in motion in the market.

Method and system for controlling antenna of mobile communication application system based on double quaternions in MEMS inertial navigation


A bottle including a hollow body (12) for containing a product, the body has a first end forming a neck, a transverse tear-off seal (22) for sealing the neck, and a structure (14) for tearing off the seal (22). The tearing structure is axially movable in the neck by a control member between a stand-by position and an operative position in which the seal is ruptured. The seal (22) includes a weakened portion (24) defining therein at least one retractable flap (25A), and a flap hinge portion (25B) between at least two radially outer ends of the weakened portion (24). The tearing structure includes a flap pushing member for engaging a flap region adjacent to the hinge portion (25B). The bottle is suitable for ophthalmological products.

The present invention relates to a bottle of the type comprising a hollow body intended to contain a product and which has an end forming a neck, a tearable transverse membrane sealing the neck, and means for tearing the membrane. The means can be moved axially in the neck under the control of a manipulating member between a standby position and an active position for tearing the membrane.
When the bottle is used for the first time it is necessary to tear the membrane, and this is generally achieved using a relatively pointed axial element which can be moved in a direction more or less parallel to the axis of the neck in order to allow product to flow through the neck.
In order to be certain that an orifice of sufficient size is formed in the membrane to allow adequate flow of the fluid, it is necessary to insert the pointed element relatively deeply into the neck, and in particular into the body containing the product.


An electronic image sensor is used for evaluating an image. Several individual sensors, each of which is provided with several pixels, are utilized in the electronic image sensor. The pixels of at least one individual electronic image sensor are read out only in part. Individual image sectors are thus effectively masked to reduce the amount of image data to be processed.

Image sensors of the type used in the present invention are called line sensors and are constructed from a multitude of light-sensitive pixels that are arranged along a line. The individual pixels convert input light signals into electrical signals and therefore permit an electronic evaluation of the image information recorded by operation of the image sensor. Such line sensors are employed, for example for inspecting printed products, and in particular are used for inspecting security documents.
The number of pixels required in the line sensor is substantially a function of the width of the object to be recorded and of the resolution required for the line sensor's application in connection with the object to be recorded. Since the width of the object to be recorded can vary greatly, depending on the application, and since increasingly smaller structures are required to be detected, special high-resolution sensors have been employed in prior art devices, which high powered sensors entail substantial purchasing costs.
DE 40 24 618 A1 discloses a device for detecting surface information by the use of several sensors, each of which has a lens arrangement assigned to it. The surface information is supplied to these lens arrangements by beam splitting devices.
DE 33 38 168 A1 shows a sensor with several pixels, which pixels can be selectively switched on.
JP 63-240 261 A shows two line sensors, to each of which an optical device is assigned and whose image areas overlap. These overlapped areas are memorized and are selectively read out from the memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,388 discloses an image sensor having several individual sensors, each with several pixels. Each individual sensor is assigned to its own optical device.

Electronic image sensor and evaluation method


In one embodiment of the invention, a symbol rate detector includes a nonlinear device to receive a pass band signal, a component to apply a Fourier Transform to a signal provided by the filter, and logic to select a peak frequency component from results of applying the Fourier Transform and to apply the peak frequency component as a symbol rate of a base band signal corresponding to the pass band signal.

Symbol rate detection of digitally modulated communication signals is used in many areas including synchronization, surveillance, identification and electronic intelligence gathering. Existing techniques include statistical moments, temporal correlation, spectral correlation, and instantaneous phase detection. These techniques have several drawbacks. The technique of statistical moments is complex and may not have the correct probability density function to model the signal. Temporal and spectral correlation result in output signals that contain periodic components with harmonics at multiples of the symbol rate and the carrier frequency, confusing the detection of the exact symbol rate. Instantaneous phase detection cannot detect exact symbol rate. All four techniques fail to detect the symbol rate for input signals with a small excess bandwidth factor.

Detection of unknown symbol rate in a digitally modulated signal


A phosphate glass 1-μm fiber ASE source provides high power and broadband emission that covers wavelengths on the short side of Yb-doped silica. A single-mode fiber formed from phosphate glass is doped with highly elevated concentrations of Yb dopants 0.5-30 wt. % and typically 2-10 wt. %, far higher than either silica or germano-silicate. The high concentration of Yb dopant absorbs the pump in a short length, typically 10-150 cm instead of tens of meters, to provide high saturated output power and a shifted emission spectrum. The excess power allows the fiber ASE source to be configured to provide the output powers, emission bandwidth and stability desired by many applications. Furthermore, the ASE can be configured to emit a nearly Gaussian spectral profile without sacrificing power or bandwidth. The backward emission spectrum of Yb-doped phosphate glass is centered near 1020 nm instead of 1060, which allows the ASE source to cover wavelength on the short side of Yb-doped silica, which may be important in certain applications such as ophthalmic OCT where water absorption has a transparency window.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a 1-μm fiber Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fiber ASE sources are broadband light sources based on the emission properties dictated by the energy structure of dopant ions in the glass host. A pump laser energizes the dopant ions so that spontaneously emitted light from one ion propagates along the fiber where it is amplified by the gain properties of the fiber and emitted as ASE. Light is emitted in both forward and backward directions, relative to pump direction, but the backward ASE, or counter-pumped direction, has a higher quantum efficiency and is selected as the source output. Unlike lasers, ASE sources do not rely on optical feedback, and thus the full-width half-maximum (FWHM) bandwidth of the backward ASE is generally very broad, typically between 10 and 30 nanometers, with a very short coherence length, typically less than 50 μm.
The relation between coherence length and FWHM bandwidth is given by:Δz=ln(2)(2/π)(λ2/Δλ)Where λ is the source mean wavelength, Δλ is the FWHM bandwidth, and Δz is the coherence length. The wider the FWHM bandwidth the shorter the coherence length.
ASE sources are widely used for test and measurement in such fields as optical spectroscopy of materials, optical component testing, optical coherence tomography, and optical fiber gyroscopes. The incoherent light source enables measurement of insertion loss, crosstalk, bandwidth, polarization dependencies, and other parameters of passive optical components versus wavelength. The most common fiber ASE source comprises a single-mode pump that energizes a length of Er-doped single-mode silica fiber, typically tens of meters, to emit at 1.5 μm. In these ASE sources there is a tradeoff between (1) power and (2) emission bandwidth (coherence length) and spectral stability/purity. If the source is configured for high power, the bandwidth will be narrower, hence coherence length longer and the spectral properties will suffer. Much effort has been made to provide fiber ASE sources that provide all of these properties. In addition, some applications require not only a short coherence length but an emission bandwidth that covers a different range of wavelengths than is supported by conventional sources. For example, in ophthalmic OCT two separate light sources centered at 850 nm and 1300 nm are used to perform retinal and corneal scans, respectively. It would be very useful to have a single light source with the power, penetration depth, coherence length and bandwidth capability to perform both tests simultaneously.
A stable, broad-band two-stage superfluorescent source at 1.55 μm was demonstrated using an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) seed source and a high-power Er—Yb fiber amplifier. The source exhibited from 140 to 220 mW of power, 18 to 28 nm bandwidth, with an estimated mean wavelength stability from 1 to 10 ppm. The use of second light source to "seed" the primary gain fiber with forward ASE enabled the source to provide the high power, large bandwidth and stable wavelength reported. (See Dagenais et al. "Wavelength Stability Characteristics of a High-Power, Amplified Superfluorescent Source" Journal of Lightwave Technology. Vol. 17, No. 8, pp. 1415-1422 August 1999.
A 75-nm, 30-mW superfluorescent ytterbium fiber source operating around 1.06 μm was reported by Chernikov et al. "A 75 nm, 30-mW superfluorescent ytterbium fiber source operating around 1.06 μm", Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Paper CTuG8, 1997). The source is configured with three sections of Yb-doped germano-silicate fiber. The first section (amplifier) is pumped to provide backward ASE at 1 μm with a 40-nm spectrum. The third section is pumped to seed the amplifier, which broadens the spectrum to as much as 60-nm. The second inner section is unpumped and used with a spectrally optimized mirror M1 to provide spectrally controlled feedback to achieve a spectral width up to 76 nm. By reducing the FWHM bandwidth, the source can output a smooth Gaussian-like spectral shape that is preferred for such applications as OCT. This approach provides a broadband 1-μm fiber ASE source centered at 1060 nm but is complicated by the unpumped fiber and spectrally tailored mirror, which make the source less stable and more expensive. Furthermore, to achieve the spectral shape desired for OCT bandwidth must be sacrificed. Although the bandwidth is broad, when centered at 1060 nm the source is unable to reach certain shorter wavelengths below 1040 nm. Furthermore, photodarkening limits the doping % to less than about 0.2-0.3 wt. %. Consequently to achieve the desired wavelengths and output powers the silica based fiber is typically tens of meters in length.

Opthalmic optical coherence tomography (OCT) test station using a 1 μm fiber ASE source


An anode material for use in lithium based electrical cells is described. The anode material comprises a fine and uniform dispersion of second phase particles in lithium. The particles have an average particle size from about 0.5 .mu.M to about 40 .mu.M and are present at a concentration ranging from about 0.1 At % to about 10 At %. The anode material exhibits a reduction in dentrite and mossy Li formation, while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties of the material for easy working. The new anode demonstrates excellent cell performance and thermal stability.

This invention relates to the use of lithium alloy as an anode material in rechargeable high energy density batteries.
The cycle life and thermal safety properties of lithium rechargeable batteries are dependent on the lithium anode. The lithium anode fails most often because of the formation of dendritic and mossy lithium on the anode surface upon charging. The dendrite penetrates the separator between the anode and the cathode, which causes electrical shorting, reducing the cycle life of the cell. Mossy lithium is composed of many tiny lithium particles. The total surface area of the mossy lithium is large and very active, providing a source of thermal instability. The mossy lithium initiates temperature increases, when some trigger reaction is applied, which leads to thermal instabilities of the cell.
Several approaches for overcoming these problems have been developed. Initially, cell separators were used to minimize the effects of dendrite growth. However, cell separators are only effective initially, for the dendrites will eventually penetrate the separators and establish electronic shorts.
Lithium-Aluminum high concentration alloys have been investigated to avoid the above mentioned problems. There are two methods to prepare Lithium-Aluminum high concentration alloys. One is a powder metallurgical method and the other is an electrochemical method. For example, U.S Pat. No. 4,002,492 describes a powder metallurgical method of preparing Lithium-Aluminum alloys containing from about 63% to about 93% Lithium on an atomic basis. In this U.S. patent the Lithium alloy is made by sintering, by which process it is impossible to make a ductile and thin Li alloy sheet. Similarly, Japanese patent Tokkai-Sho-63-146351 describes an electrochemical method of preparing Lithium-Aluminum alloys. In these alloys, however, loss of capacity is inevitable and they are too fragile and brittle to wind cylindrical cells.
Composite electrodes comprised of a lithium-lithium nitride alloy as disclosed in European Patent Application 88301752 have also been developed. However, this alloy is hard to work, which makes it very difficult to prepare lithium-lithium nitride alloy foil for small cells, such as AA size cells.
There are several patents which describe lithium anodes with metallic material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,213 describes a lithium anode having an aluminum-magnesium cladding. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,652,506 and 4,794,060 describe an anode with a thin metallic foil of aluminium, magnesium and/or tin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,335 discloses a lithium aluminum anode with metal binder particles of unalloyed iron, copper, nickel or manganese. The main advantage sought by adding metallic elements is to disperse the dendrite growth points so that the growth of the dendrite is prevented and penetration of the dendrite through a separator, which is one of the causes of anode deterioration, does not occur. However, the formation of dendrites is only slowed down and not prevented by these new alloys.
The present invention attempts to further improve the prevention of dendritic growth while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties of the material for easy working. The new lithium alloy anode, according to the present invention demonstrates excellent cell performance and thermal stability.

Electrochemical cell comprising dispersion alloy anode


A planning support system and process in a workstation having an operator interface, planning process feature, a data file server, and memory feature therein, characterized in storing a planner model having data indicating a plurality of planning actions in the data file server and indicating flow among the planning actions and having process times of the planning actions, and in processes executed by the planning process feature including setting an operator model on the basis of a planning request input through the operator interface, and including determining action of a first planning action to be executed according to the planner model on the basis of the operator model and for determining a second planning action to be executed following the first planning action, and including storing data needed for process of the second planning action into the memory feature until the process of the second planning action is started after process of the first planning action ends on the basis of the planner model. Parts of a model of the planning work usually made by man can be carried out by computer, and necessary data can be predicted according to process of the planning work of the planner to prepare in advance. This makes it possible that data supply time for the planner is made at a pace of his or her working process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for planning support for decision making in planning and analyzed works. More particularly, the present invention relates to a planning support system and process for accomplishing an intelligent data managing method in a support system for quick planning, such as scheduling and designing, with use of variety of data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to allow for drastic changes of consumers' needs in recent years, it is necessary to quickly plan new products. For the purpose, computers are requested to support the planning and analyzing works. The system for use in such a purpose is called a strategic information system. The strategic information system aims at comprehensive use o the computer in the planning and analyzing works, while conventional computer systems are to chiefly attain higher efficiency as a basic information system.
It could be asserted that using the computers in the planning and analyzing works is backed by the following factors.
(1) The planning and analyzing works have been made more important to allow for the age of individualism. It is needed to adequately process an enormous amount of information generated by the basic information system built up so far.
(2) The environments where enterprises are placed have experienced greater changes. As we cannot expect to optimize a whole system, it is problematic to make the system satisfiable. For this reason, it is difficult to uniquely define any plan in a simple view that the plan can be made up or not. For example, it is occasionally needed to use a way of multi-level evaluation at the time of planning that can keep a least necessary evaluation index, depending on the situation of a process system, as all the conditions cannot be satisfied in preparing the plan. This leads to a problem of how to define plan evaluation of any system when the situations of the evaluation indexes and the operating methods corresponding to them are specified at several levels. That is, it is a relaxation problem of restrictive conditions.
(3) The situations where the system is in place are changing drastically corresponding to quick variations of events in the bustling world. For the planning in such difficult situations as experts have not experienced, designers have low confidence in planning guides and rules without a rational method to obtain a satisfying solution. For this reason, it is necessary to use a trial and error approach. This however has the disadvantage that it takes an excessive amount of time.
Support by computer for planning and analysis involves a problem that man and computer are to share the role. In particular, the support by computer is needed for effective use of human resources so that a brilliant planner can smoothly carry on his or her work. For the purpose, the computer has to proceed at a pace of man's working process.
However, no conventional computer systems have such a deliberation For this, the planner is often compelled to wait for his or her process for long time in front of the computer, particularly in a planning and analyzing that has to deal with enormous amount of data, such as point-of-sales (POS) data, and the data which are not made in forms.
To overcome such a difficult situation, the computer has been usually made to have higher speed, or graded up. To process enormous amount of data in a few seconds, it has the disadvantage that a high-speed computer has to be used. It also has the disadvantage that its cost performance is low. There has been demand of making improvement of the process in view of the cost performance of the computer.
In order to reduce memory capacity with computation speed being kept, a large scale computer has usually employed cache memory. The cache memory practice is desirable basically for processing of such kind of data (conventional data) which is known after a calculation task, namely a formatted data. However, it has the disadvantage that it is less effective for the system that has to process non-formatted data which are not known to come next.
The following describes the problems pointed out above in detail referring to FIG. 15 which shows a hardware configuration for a conventional planning support system. As an example, data necessary for the planning which is made by a planner with use of a workstation 3 WS exist in a database (hereinafter referred to as the DB) a host computer. Let a planning program be in the workstation 3 as an example.
In FIG. 15 are indicated the host computer 1, a communication line 2, the workstation 3, the host DB 15, and a workstation DB 39.
The planner enters a data input request into the workstation 3 in his or her planning work. The workstation 3 in turn gives the data input request through the communication line 2 to the host computer 1. The host computer 1 in turn transmits the data concerned from the host DB 15 to the workstation 3. The workstation 3 in turn stores the data fed into the workstation DB 39 and after this, sends them to the planner.
FIG. 16 is a software configurations for use in the host computer 1 and the workstation 3 in the conventional planning support system. In FIG. 16(a), the host computer 1 has a communication processor 11, an operating system OS 12, a job processor 13, and a DB manager 14 provided therein. In FIG. 16(b) is indicated a communication processor 31. In the figure, also, the workstation 3 has an operating system OS 32 therefor, a planning interface 33, a DB manager 34, a planning process controller 35, planning processes 36, an input processor 37, and a planning memory 38 therein.
In the planning work, the planner enters the data input request with use of functions of the planning interface 33 of the workstation 3. The planning interface 33 in turn transfers the request to the planning process controller 35. The planning process controller 35 starts the input processor 37 before giving the data input request to the host computer 1 through communication processor 31. On the other hand, the host computer 1 transfers the request to the operating system OS 12 when the communication processor 11 receives it from the workstation 3. The operating system OS 12 in turn starts the DB manager 14 before taking the data concerned from the host DB 15. The operating system OS 12 then sends the data to the workstation 3 through the communication processor 11.
In the workstation 3, the operating system OS 32 receives the data through the communication processor 31 before sending them to the DB manager 34. The DB manager 34 in turn stores the data sent in the workstation DB 39 and after this, returns them to the planning interface 33. The planner processes the data stored in the workstation DB 39 with use of a process program of the planning processes 36 if necessary. He or she then displays the results through the planning interface 33 and if the results are desirable, stores them in the planning memory 38 before ending the process.
As described in detail, the conventional planning support system is to force the human job to work at its pace. For this reason, the planner is often compelled to wait for his or her process for a long time in front of the computer.


A plate-shaped cambered attachment element (1) for attaching a constructional element (9) to a foundation (7) and having a central bore (2) for receiving an anchoring element (11), an abutment shoulder (4) spaced from the base (3) of the attachment element (1) and extending toward the base (3), and an edge region (5) which extends toward the plate edge (6) of the attachment element (1) and extends to a plane, extending perpendicular to the axis of the core (2), at a shallow angle (W).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plate-shaped cambered attachment element for securing a constructional element on a foundation, with the attachment: element having a free, circumferentially closed plate edge, a base, a central bore for receiving an anchoring element (11) an abutment shoulder which surrounds the bore, is spaced from the base in a direction parallel to the axis of the bore and extends in a direction toward the plate edge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For securing a constructional element on an upper surface of a foundation, an attachment element disclosed, e.g., in DE 40 19 157, can be used. This attachment element has a plate-shape camber, an edge region formed by a flat annual ring, a free, circumferentially closed plate edge, a central bore, a base, and an abutment shoulder. An anchoring element, which is secured in a foundation, extends through the bore. The edge region, which is formed as a flat annular ring extends in a plane extending perpendicular to the bore axis. The abutment shoulder, which is spaced from the base in a direction parallel to the bore axis, extends toward the plate edge, and engages the constructional element, provides for pulling of the attachment element toward the upper surface of the foundation by the anchoring element.
The edge region of this attachment element, which is formed as a flat annular ring, imparts to the attachment element a very high form stability or rigidity, in particular in a vertical direction, and this attachment element is not suitable, e.g., for securing constructional elements subjected to action of abrupt tensile forces. Such abrupt tensile forces, acting on a constructional element, occur, e.g., when a constructional element, which is secured on a foundation formed by spaced from each other supports, is abruptly loaded so that it sags between the supports, becoming deformed.
In particular, when abrupt tensile forces are generated, the sagging may occur in such a manner that the bore of the attachment element radially expands until the attachment element can be pulled off the anchoring element. There exists a danger of the anchoring element being damaged and of the connection between the anchoring element and the foundation being destroyed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an attachment element which would insure a reliable attachment of a constructional element to a foundation, would resiliently absorb the tensile forces within a predetermined range of the tensile forces, and would indicate when the tensile forces exceed the predetermined range of the tensile forces.


A method and apparatus for measuring electrical noise in devices is disclosed that comprises two distinct measurement phases. In one phase, the differential output resistance, r.sub.ab, between a first terminal, a, and a second terminal, b, of the device under test is measured. In the second phase, a voltage, V.sub.L (t), is measured across a load resistance, R.sub.L, that is in series with the first terminal, a, of the device under test. Then the output voltage noise spectral density, S.sub.VL, is determined based on a fourier transform of the voltage, V.sub.L (t); and the output current noise spectral density, S.sub.ia, is determined based on the output voltage noise spectral density, S.sub.VL, the load resistance, R.sub.L, and the differential output resistance, r.sub.ab.

Typically, the performance of an electronic system is limited by the quantity of noise exhibited by its components. For example, the performance of a wireless telecommunications terminal is typically limited by the quantity of phase noise produced by its oscillator.
Although a crystal oscillator typically exhibits little phase noise, it cannot be easily fabricated as a component of an integrated circuit. In contrast, an oscillator that is fabricated from semiconductor devices in an integrated circuit typically exhibits more phase noise than does a crystal oscillator.
Although there are several types of noise exhibited by a semiconductor device (e.g., thermal noise, shot noise, flicker noise, etc.), empirically, the largest contributing factor to phase noise in a circuit is flicker noise, which is also known as "1/f" noise because the output current noise spectral density of flicker noise varies inversely with frequency.
Empirically, the quantity of flicker noise exhibited by a device is affected by the process used to fabricate the device. Therefore, a semiconductor manufacturer can affect the quantity of flicker noise exhibited by the devices it fabricates by carefully measuring the flicker noise exhibited by the devices emanating from a fabrication line and by modifying the fabrication line process in response to the measured results. There are several techniques in the prior art for measuring, or attempting to measure, the flicker noise exhibited by a device.
FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of an elementary technique in the prior art for measuring the flicker noise exhibited by a device, which in FIG. 1 is a MOSFET. In accordance with this technique an A/D converter directly measures the voltage, V(t), across two terminals of the MOSFET which has been biased with a steady DC voltage. The output of the A/D converter is then fed into a spectrum analyzer, which computes the output voltage noise spectral density, S.sub.VL, for the MOSFET based on the temporal variations in V(t). Typically, this technique does not yield a satisfactory result because the noise within the A/D converter usually exceeds, and therefore masks, the flicker noise in the device under test.
FIG. 2 depicts a schematic diagram of a second technique in the prior art for measuring the flicker noise exhibited by a device. In accordance with this technique, a low-noise amplifier in interposed between the device under test and the A/D converter to amplify the flicker noise with respect to the noise in the A/D converter. Typically, this approach does not yield a satisfactory result when the device under test is a semiconductor device. The reason is that the noise figure of the amplifier depends on matching the impedance of the device under test to the input impedance of the amplifier. This is particularly difficult to accomplish when the device under test has a variable, non-linear impedance as do semiconductor devices.
FIG. 3 depicts a schematic diagram of a third technique in the prior art for measuring flicker noise. In accordance with this technique, the noise exhibited by the device under test is measured indirectly by measuring the output voltage noise spectral density, S.sub.VL, in a low-noise load resistor, R.sub.L, that is in series with one terminal of the device under test. Because the load resistor and at least one terminal of the device under test are in series, the output current noise spectral density, S.sub.ia, manifested by the device under test is observable in the voltage fluctuations across the load resistor, assuming that the load resistor exhibits substantially less noise than does the device under test. In accordance with the third technique, the output current noise spectral density, S.sub.ia, is based on ##EQU1##
Preferably, the load resistor is a low-noise resistor, such as a wire-wound resistor, which has an impedance that is fixed and matched to the input impedance of the amplifier. When the DC bias and V.sub.IN are provided by batteries, this technique typically provides satisfactory results for low cut-off frequency MOSFETs. For the purposes of this specification, the "cut-off frequency" of a device is the highest frequency of operation at which the gain of the device equals or exceeds one.
Empirically, this technique usually does not provide a satisfactory measurement of the flicker noise in high cut-off frequency MOSFETs or in bipolar devices. Furthermore, because the technique requires batteries to power and bias the device under test, the technique is generally not amenable for use in an industrial environment such as a fabrication line.
FIG. 4 depicts a schematic diagram of a fourth technique in the prior art for measuring flicker noise. The addition of the RC filter on all of the leads to the device under test enables the device under test to be powered with a conventional power supply in contrast to requiring a battery supply and is, therefore, more suitable for use in an industrial setting. Like the technique in FIG. 3, however, this technique generally provides satisfactory results for low cut-off frequency MOSFETs but not for high cut-off frequency MOSFETs or bipolar devices.
FIG. 5 depicts a schematic diagram of a fifth technique in the prior art for measuring flicker noise. In accordance with this technique, a switch selects from one of a number of load resistors, R.sub.1, R.sub.2. . . R.sub.n, in an attempt to match the load resistance to the resistance between the drain and source or the collector and emitter of the device under test. This is advantageous because it increases the sensitivity of the technique to measure flicker noise. Empirically, the presence of the switch in the circuit adds noise, which substantially offsets the gain in sensitivity that is attained from matching the load resistance to the resistance of the device under test. Like the techniques depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4, this technique generally provides satisfactory results for low cut-off frequency MOSFETs but does not for high cut-off frequency MOSFETs or bipolar devices.
Although techniques exist for measuring the flicker noise in low cut-off frequency MOSFETs in an industrial setting, there exists the need for a tool that can accurately measure in an industrial setting the flicker noise exhibited by bipolar devices and both low and high cut-off frequency MOS devices, including transistors and diodes.

Method and apparatus for measuring electrical noise in devices


A biphase mark signal receiver includes a data and clock recovery circuit. The data recovery circuit may include a coarse recovery stage and a fine recovery stage. The coarse recovery stage is configured to detect repeating occurrences of a first preamble (e.g., Y-preamble) within a biphase encoded data stream received by the data recovery circuit. The fine recovery stage is configured to generate a recovered data stream, in response to estimating a plurality of timing decision points (e.g., 3UI, 2UI and 1UI) from the repeating occurrences of the first preamble detected by the coarse recovery stage.

A serial bit stream may be transmitted with biphase mark encoding to minimize the DC component within the stream and to enable clock recovery therefrom. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, biphase mark encoding is employed by the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) 60958 standard, the AES3 digital audio standard and the Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format (SPDIF) standard, which is typically used for transporting stereo digital audio signals on PC audio cards, CD players, DVD players, car audio systems and other systems that transmit or receive stereo digital audio, for example.
As illustrated by FIG. 1, after biphase mark encoding, logic 1 data values are transmitted with center transitions, but logic 0 data values are not. Biphase mark bit streams also switch polarity at each data bit boundary. Accordingly, because the value of each data bit is determined by whether there is a transition at the center of a bit or not, the actual polarity of the bit stream signal is irrelevant. There are only three valid symbols in a biphase mark bit stream: 1UI, 2UI and 3UI, where "UI" denotes "unit interval." As illustrated by FIG. 2, a biphase encoding block consists of 192 frames, with each frame including two sub-frames. Every sub-frame consists of a preamble part and a channel data part. Each preamble part contains two biphase mark encoding violations, as illustrated by TABLE 1. There are three types of preambles: X, Y and Z. Sub-frame 2 always begins with a Y preamble and sub-frame 1 almost always begins with an X preamble, with an exception that every 192 frames, the X preamble in sub-frame 1 is replaced with a Z preamble, which indicates a block start (i.e., start of Frame 0).
TABLE 1PRECEDING STATEBI-PHASE PATTERNSPREAMBLE01CHANNELX1110001000011101CHANNEL 1Y1110010000011011CHANNEL 2Z1110100000010111CHANNEL 1 &BLOCK START
As illustrated by FIG. 3, a conventional clock recovery circuit 10 may utilize a phase-locked loop (PLL) integrated circuit (digital or analog) to generate a recovered biphase clock that tracks to a biphase mark encoded data stream and to use this recovered clock to decode the encoded data stream into the original source data. An additional clock recovery circuit that utilizes a PLL integrated circuit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,446 to Schmidt, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Data and Clock Recovery in a Biphase-Coded Data Signal." Techniques to recover clock signals from biphase mark bit streams are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,310,390 to Bertram, entitled "Decoding Coded Data Streams," U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,433 to Toth et al., entitled "Method and System for Decoding Biphase-Mark Encoded Data," and US 2007/0047638 to Lam et al., entitled "System and Method for Decoding an Audio Signal."

Asynchronous biphase mark signal receivers and methods of operating same


The present invention provides a current sensor capable of adjusting an offset value at a zero magnetic field more easily and detecting a current magnetic field generated by a current to be detected with high sensitivity and high precision. The current sensor has: first and second magnetoresistive elements disposed along a conductor so that resistance values change in directions opposite to each other in accordance with a current magnetic field generated by a current to be detected flowing in the conductor; and                first and second constant current sources that supply constant currents equal to each other to the first and second magnetoresistive elements, respectively. The current sensor further includes a differential amplifier that detects the difference between voltage drops occurring in the first and second magnetoresistive elements by the constant current. The current to be detected is detected on the basis of the difference between the voltage drops.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small-sized current sensor capable of sensing a change in current flowing in a conductor with high sensitivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of general methods of measuring control current for controlling control equipment or the like is a method of indirectly measuring control current by detecting the gradient of a current magnetic field generated by the control current. A concrete example is a method of forming a Wheatstone bridge by using four magnetoresistive elements such as giant magnetoresistive elements (hereinbelow, GMR elements) producing giant magnetoresistive effect, disposing the Wheatstone bridge in the current magnetic field, and detecting the gradient of the current magnetic field (refer to, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,377).
By forming the Wheatstone bridge as described above, noise (interfering magnetic field) from the outside and the influence of the environment temperature can be suppressed to be relatively low. In particular, in the case where characteristics of the four magnetoresistive elements are uniform, a stabler detection characteristic can be obtained.
Another method of further reducing a change in output voltage caused by the environment temperature or noise from the outside by providing a compensating current line is also disclosed (refer to, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,003).
Recently, because of increasing necessity of detecting weaker current, a magnetoresistive element having a higher impedance and higher sensitivity is being demanded. However, when a Wheatstone bridge is formed by using such a magnetoresistive element having a higher impedance and higher sensitivity, a larger offset is generated and the influence of a variation in connection resistance or the like increases. In many cases, it becomes therefore difficult to adjust the balance of the four magnetoresistive elements.


This invention relates to a process for resolving racemic or optically enriched 2-benzyl-4-piperidone-succinic acid, comprising reacting such compound with (+)-cis-N-benzyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)-cyclohexylamine, (-)-cis-N-benzyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)-cyclohexylamine or (+)-dehydroabietylamine.

This invention relates to novel processes for the resolution of racemic or optically enriched 2-benzyl-4-piperidone succinic acid, which has the chemical formula ##STR1## The (2R)-enantiomer of 2-benzyl-4-piperidone-succinic acid, which has the absolute stereochemistry depicted below, ##STR2## is an intermediate in the synthesis of a compound having the formula ##STR3## The above compound of formula I exhibits the ability to inhibit the angiotensinogencleaving activity of renin and is useful in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure. Such compound and related peptides that exhibit activity as renin inhibitors are referred to in European Patent Application EP 0438233A2, published on Jul. 24, 1991. The aforesaid publication, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Methods by which (2R)-2-benzyl-4-piperidone-succinic acid can be converted into the above compound of formula I and related peptides that exhibit activity as renin inhibitors are described in Published European Patent Application EP 0438233A2, referred to above.
Harada et al., J. Org. Chem., 55, 1679-1682 (1990) refer to a method of preparing (2R)-2-benzyl-4-morpholine-succinic acid, which has the chemical formula ##STR4## by reacting the corresponding racemic compound with (S)-methyl mandelate, separating the resulting diastereomeric esters, and then hydrolyzing the ester having the "2R" configuration. They also report that attempts to resolve 2-benzyl-4-morpholinosuccinic acid with a wide range of chiral amines were unsuccessful.

Resolution of 2-benzyl-4-piperidone-succinic acid


A router table assembly including a plate with router mounting clamps, a plate leveling system for securing and positioning the plate in the router table and a plate lift assembly. Components of this system are usable separately. Use of these components together provides a particularly easy to use, highly functional router table apparatus.

Because of their versatility, electric routers are very widely used in woodworking, particularly in home and small commercial shops. Such routers are generally intended to be used by moving the router relative to a stationary work piece with a portion of the router base bearing against the work piece.
Using a router in this manner is suitable if the work piece is substantially larger than the router or is immovable. For smaller work pieces, such as the sizes used in trim work, furniture making or cabinetry, it is often more practical to invert the router such that the cutter is oriented generally upward and move the work piece. As the base of such routers is too small to be used safely in the inverted configuration, a standard practice is to affix the router to the underside of a larger table surface. In addition to addressing the safety concerns, a router table also provides the means for additional functionality as provided through accessories such as a fence, sled or miter gauge.
In order to use a router in such a configuration, it is necessary that the router be affixed to the underside of the table using non-permanent means. Most routers available on the market include a plurality of threaded holes in the base into which standard machine screws may be inserted. These screws can be used to attach the router directly to the router table or to a plate that is then attached to the table in some manner. There is no standard or common hole pattern among router bases, so a router table compatible with the greatest number of routers will require numerous extra holes in addition to those actually used to affix the router. These holes can interfere with use of the router table.
The base of many routers includes a pair of fence mounting holes whose axes are parallel to each other but normal to that of the router cutter. Although these holes can be used for mounting the router in a router table, there are shortcomings. Not all routers have such fence mounting holes. The spacing of such holes is more consistent than the base holes but still is not universal. Furthermore, because any clamping device would need to penetrate into the holes, the router cannot be quickly removed for other jobs and reattached in the same location.
Due to the versatility and control that these and other accessories provide, operations that would normally be achieved by moving the router or using a completely different woodworking tool are executed on a router table. An example is a dado. To further enhance the safety and utility provided by a router table, the overall size is increased. The design of a desirable router table must take into consideration the need to adjust the various router settings as well as access to the router to change cutters.
In designs where the router is attached directly to the table, using screws or clamps, the size of the table is limited by the need to access the router either from below or by lifting the entire table. In practice, the largest size that will enable needed access is less than that desirable for maximum safety and utility.
This problem is overcome by attaching the router to a plate that is then recessed into or attached to the peripheral table. This construction effectively solves the size problem but the separate surfaces of the plate and peripheral table introduce a discontinuity in the surface that often affects the utility of the router table. Thus the transition between these two surfaces must be selectively adjustable in order to ensure that work pieces traveling over the transition are unimpeded.
Many prior router tables achieve this adjustment by utilizing two sets of mechanical fasteners such as machine screws. The first set is used to lift the plate to the proper height, while the second set fixes the location by holding the plate down.
Other approaches use similar mechanical fasteners to increase the thickness of the plate which rests on a rim or ledge in the peripheral table surface. Other mechanical fasteners are used to hold the plate down.
A common element of these prior approaches is the inclusion of mechanical fasteners that affix the plate to the table surface at whatever height is set by other means. This, however, has the same shortcoming as attaching the router directly to the table. Prior approaches also hold the router table plate in position solely by gravity. While this allows the plate and router to be easily removed for adjustment or bit changes, it does not prevent vibration, nor can it compensate for slight distortion in the plate and or surrounding table material.
In use, a router attached to a plate in a router table can be accessed for adjustments or cutter changes by removing the router and plate assembly from the table surface, making any adjustments necessary and re-inserting the router and plate assembly.
Ideally, the transition between the plate and table surface is continuous, and the plate lacks any features that will allow a user to grip the plate in order to lift the router and plate assembly. It is thus necessary for the user to lift the router and plate from below the table surface. This operation can be difficult or impossible if the area below the table surface is used for other purposes or is closed off, such as for dust collection or storage.
It is thus desirable to provide a device that will allow a router and plate assembly to be lifted or partially lifted above a table surface from a location on the perimeter of the table surface.
Desirably, such a lifting device should be strong enough to provide the force required to lift a router and plate assembly free of whatever structure and force that secures the assembly in position for use.


The present invention provides methods of detecting Borrelia species in a sample (e.g., a sample from a patient suspected of being infected). In particular, the present invention provides compositions and methods for detecting the presence of Borrelia proteins, nucleic acid sequences encoding these proteins, and subject antibodies to these proteins, where the proteins are selected from those listed in Table 3, including: BB0279 (FLiL), BBK19, BBK07, BB0286 (FlbB), BBG33, BBL27, BBN34, BBP34, BBQ42, BBQ34, BBM34, BBN27, and BBH13.

Lyme disease is the most frequently reported arthropod-borne disease in the United States and Europe (reviewed in ref (Steere, 2004). Serological assays are the most common laboratory tests used to confirm or support a diagnosis based on clinical features and epidemiologic circumstances (reviewed in (Bunikis, 2002; Aguero-Rosenfeld, 2005). Direct detection of the organism by cultivation, histology of a biopsy, or by an approved and validated polymerase chain reaction assay is generally preferable to serological assays for definitive confirmation of a clinical diagnosis but these procedures are uncommon in practice and not likely become widely used for the foreseeable future.
A clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease based on the observation of a characteristic skin rash and suitable epidemiologic features (e.g. exposure to ticks in an endemic area during the season of transmission) can have high accuracy (Steere, 2004). But in the absence of a skin rash (˜20-30% of cases) diagnosis of early Lyme disease solely based on clinical and epidemiologic features is more difficult. Accurate diagnosis of early infection without the typical skin rash is important, because oral antibiotic treatment at this point is usually successful and will prevent the more serious manifestations of disseminated disease and late disease. Serologic assays for late disseminated Lyme disease are also important to help confirm a clinical diagnosis of potentially-treatable chronic infection. But a commonly used, if not recommended, practice is to use a serologic assay to "rule out" B. burgdorferi infection as an explanation of what may be long-standing symptoms, such as chronic joint pain, headache, cognitive problems, and fatigue. For diagnosis of early infection, a sensitive test is desirable to identify the infection at the earliest and most easily treatable point of the infection. For diagnosis of late disease, high sensitivity is also desirable but improved specificity is especially important because the test in practice is often applied in circumstances in which the a priori likelihood of B. burgdorferi infection is low (Bunikis, 2002).
Currently available commercial assays in the United States are either based on whole bacteria cell extracts, such as the enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent (ELISA) and Western blot assays, or on a single antigen ELISA such as the C6 peptide of the VlsE protein (Aguero-Rosenfeld, 2005). The whole cell assays are usually used as a 2-tiered test. First, a more sensitive, typically a whole cell ELISA, is used. This is followed by the more specific Western blot, if the ELISA is positive or equivocal (Control, 1997). Together these assays have served for years as the standard for serodiagnosis, but there remain trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity to minimize false-positive results. One drawback of the 2-tiered, sequential test procedure is the time it takes and the greater expense for two assays. Another problem with whole cell assays is a lack of standardization between tests of different manufacturers. The variables include different strains of B. burgdorferi that are used, different conditions for cultivating the organisms, and different methods for identifying the key antigens on blots.
Assays based on single proteins, such as the flagellin protein FlaB, or combinations of recombinant proteins are available in Europe (Hansen, 1988; Kaiser, 1999; Heikkila, 2003). In general, these have shown sensitivities and specificities approximately equivalent to the 2-tiered procedure. The recombinant antigens used singly or in combination are those that had been previously identified in whole cell Western blot assays using in-vitro cultivated cells. In the United States the most common subunit assays use a single peptide (called C6) of the VlsE protein or the full-length recombinant VlsE protein (Bacon, 2003). In some test formulations these single antigen assays had sensitivity for different stages of infection that was as good as the 2-tier procedure and better specificity (Lawrenz, 1999; Liang, 1999). But in other, more recent studies, including some from Europe, either the specificity or sensitivity of single antigen assays was not as good as tests based on two or more antigens or a 2-tiered procedure (Peltomaa, 2004; Marangoni, 2005; Goettner, 2005).
Perhaps the most important problem with currently available whole cell-based assays is that they utilize for their substrates bacteria that have been grown in vitro. The accumulated evidence=unequivocally shows that cells grown in vitro differ with respect to the expression of several proteins from cells recovered from infected animals (Fikrig, 1997; Gilmore, 2001; Salazar, 2005). While certain in vivo conditions can be duplicated to some extent in vitro by altering growth conditions, such as pH or cell density, there remain many proteins that appear to be only expressed in an infected animal or untreated patient.

The Regents of the University of California


In a valve-regulated lead-acid battery in which charging is performed intermittently on every short time and high rate discharging to a load is performed in a partial state of charge (PSOC), a valve-regulated lead-acid battery improved for the charge acceptance and the life characteristic under PSOC than usual is provided. A positive electrode plate having a specific surface area of an active material of 5.5 m2/g or more is used. A valve-regulated lead-acid battery is manufactured by using a negative electrode plate improved for the charge acceptance and the life performance by adding a carbonaceous electroconductive material and a formaldehyde condensate of bisphenols aminobenzene sulfonic acid to a negative electrode active material and setting the specific gravity of an electrolyte to 1.30 or more and 1.35 or less.

Lead-acid batteries are generally classified into flooded type and valve-regulated type and, since they have a feature of being inexpensive and highly reliable, they are generally used respectively as power sources for automobile starting, power sources for electromotive vehicles such as golf carts and, further, as power sources for industrial equipments such as uninterruptible power supplies.
In automobiles, various countermeasures have been studied in recent years for the improvement of fuel cost for preventing atmospheric pollution and preventing global warming. For automobiles applied with the countermeasure for the improvement of the fuel cost, studies have been made on micro hybrid vehicles such as idling stop and start vehicles (hereinafter referred to as ISS vehicles) for decreasing the engine operation time and generation control vehicles that efficiently utilize engine rotation to power.
In ISS vehicles, the number of engine starting times is increased and large current discharge from lead-acid battery is repeated on every time. Further, in the ISS vehicles or the generation control vehicles, since the amount of electric power generated by an alternator is decreased and the lead-acid battery is charged intermittently, the battery is often charged insufficiently. Accordingly, in the lead-acid battery used for the applications described above, a performance capable of performing charging as much as possible in a short time, that is, improvement for charge acceptance is required.
While it is necessary for valve-regulated lead-acid batteries to be mounted in a trunk room or the like where temperature is not high, they have advantages such as free of maintenance, long life, and vibration resistance compared with flooded lead-acid battery, and they have been mounted frequently in ISS vehicles made in Europe.
The lead-acid batteries used in the manner described above are used in a partially charged state referred to as PSOC (Partial State Of Charge). When the valve-regulated lead-acid battery is used under PSOC, the life tends to be shortened compared with the case of use in a completely charged state. It is considered that the life is shortened when used under PSOC because when charge and discharge are repeated in the insufficiently charged state, lead sulfate formed on the negative electrode upon discharge is grown and lead sulfate is less reduced to lead as the charging product. Accordingly, in the valve-regulated lead-acid battery used under PSOC, it is necessary, also for extending the life, to improve the charge acceptance (enabling charge as much as possible in a short time), thereby preventing repetitive charge and discharge in an excessively insufficient charged state to suppress lead sulfate from growing by repetitive charge and discharge.
As described above, in recent lead-acid batteries for vehicles, it is an extremely important subject to enable high rate discharging to the load by a short time charge, as well as improve the charge acceptance for improving the life performance of a battery when used under PSOC.
In the valve-regulated lead-acid battery, since the charge acceptance of a negative electrode active material is poor while charge acceptance of the positive electrode active material is high by nature, it is necessary to improve the charge acceptance of the negative electrode active material for improving the charge acceptance of the valve-regulated lead-acid battery. Therefore, efforts have been made exclusively so far to improve the charge acceptance of the negative electrode active material. Relevant related arts are shown below.
Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 propose to improve the charge acceptance by increasing the amount of a carbonaceous electroconductive material to be added to the negative electrode active material, thereby improving the life of lead-acid batteries used under PSOC. The proposals are directed to the valve-regulated lead-acid batteries as a target.
On the other hand, in the valve-regulated lead-acid batteries, organic compounds having an effect of suppressing growing of the negative electrode active material have been added to the negative electrode active material for keeping a high reactivity state in the charge and discharge reaction thereby suppressing growing of the negative electrode active material during charge and discharge and suppressing the decrease of the surface area of the negative electrode. Heretofore, as the organic compound for suppressing growing of the negative electrode active material, lignin which is a main ingredient of wood materials has been used. However, since the lignin has various structures in which multiple unitary structures are bonded in a complicate manner and usually has portions tending to undergo oxidation or reduction such as carbonyl groups, the portions are decomposed by oxidation or reduction during charge and discharge of the valve-regulated lead-acid battery. Therefore, even when the lignin is added to the negative electrode active material, the effect of suppressing the lowering of the performance by repetitive charge and discharge could not be maintained for a long time. Further, since the lignin is adsorbed to lead ions dissolving from lead sulfate to lower the reactivity of the lead ions upon charging, this results in a side effect of inhibiting the charge reaction of the negative electrode active material to suppress the improvement of the charge acceptance. Accordingly, the lignin added to the negative electrode active material involves a problem of hindering the improvement of the charge acceptability although it enhances the discharge characteristic.
With a view point described above, it has been proposed to add, instead of the lignin, sodium lignin sulfonate in which a sulfonic group is introduced to the a-position on the side chain of a phenyl propane structure which is a basic structure of the lignin, a formaldehyde condensate of bisphenols and aminobenzene sulfonic acid, etc. to the negative electrode active material.
For example, Patent Literatures 3 and Patent Literatures 4 disclose to add a folmaldehyde condensate of bisphenols aminobenzene sulfonic acid and a carbonaceous electroconductive material to the negative electrode active material. Particularly, the Patent Literatures 4 discloses that the effect of suppressing lead sulfate from growing is maintained by selecting the formaldehyde condensate of bisphenols aminobenzene sulfonic acid as an organic compound of suppressing lead sulfate from growing accompanying charge and discharge and that a carbonaceous electroconductive material is added for improving the charge acceptance. Further, Patent Literature 5 discloses to improve the discharge characteristic under PSOC by adding an electroconductive carbon and an activated carbon to the negative electrode active material.
Further, Patent Literature 6 discloses to increase the capacity by increasing the specific surface area of a positive electrode active material from 4.5 m2/g in the existence case to 6 m2/g at the greatest. This intends to make the positive electrode active material finer thereby increasing the specific surface area by adding the lignin in an electrolyte during formation of the positive electrode plate. However, according to an experiment, the method of the Patent Literature 6 involves a problem that softening of the positive electrode active material tends to proceed and involves a subject in the cycle life. Further, what is disclosed by the Patent Literature 6 is an invention of increasing the capacity of a battery and no remarkable effect can be obtained for the improvement of the charge acceptability and the cycle characteristic under PSOC necessary for the valve-regulated lead-acid battery for ISS vehicles or generation control vehicles.


An acid chemical mechanical polishing composition polishes silicon nitride over silicon dioxide and simultaneously inhibits damage to the silicon dioxide. The acid chemical mechanical polishing composition includes polyvinylpyrrolidone polymers, anionic functional colloidal silica abrasive particles and an amine carboxylic acid. The pH of the acid chemical mechanical polishing composition is 5 or less.

As technology for integrated circuit devices advances, traditional materials such as silicon nitride, silicon dioxide and polysilicon are being used in various combinations to achieve and enable desired architectural configurations and device performance. Conventional polishing slurries have been designed for "stop on silicon nitride" applications such as in shallow trench isolation (STI). More recently, the density of integrated circuits has continued to increase, leading to new front end of the line (FEOL) structures that benefit from chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), including replacement metal gates, contact plugs, and substrates treated by conductive metallization. In such structures, silicon nitrides serve as the etch stop layer, capping material, and hard mask. In addition, silicon nitride finds increasing use as a diffusion or passivation layer, spacer material, and liner. In all such schemes, silicon nitride is used in combination with other dielectric films such as silicon oxide or tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Thus, most patterned wafers now contain both silicon nitride and silicon dioxide dielectric films at different densities. Further, feature size steps involving such integration schemes require selective CMP polishing or removal of silicon nitride films without removing the silicon dioxide dielectric material. Other methods needing silicon nitride: silicon dioxide selective CMP polishing compositions are "Reverse STI processes" where trenches are etched in the dielectric silicon dioxide and filled with a dielectric silicon nitride cap; and alternatives to conventional "Etch Back processes" where CMP polishing is used in addition to or instead of etching. One such example of the alternative etching process is self-aligned contact (SAC) capping. In SAC capping, replacement metal gates (RMG) have been formed of an excess of metal, such as tungsten, that has been removed by CMP polishing, and then has been etched down by reactive ion etching (RIE) which forms narrow gaps in the wafer. The gaps are then filled with silicon nitride (SiN or Si3N4). CMP polishing then removes excess silicon nitride and stops on the silicon dioxide surface. In each case, new FEOL architectures like SAC require a reverse selectivity, i.e., a high silicon nitride removal rate with a low silicon dioxide oxide removal rate, in CMP polishing to remove the excess dielectric.
In SAC, complete clearing of the silicon nitride layer over existing silicon dioxide layers is critical to avoid blocking silicon dioxide etching in successive steps. However, over polishing of the silicon nitride thins the silicon nitride SAC cap, risking an electrical short. Therefore, CMP with high selectivity CMP polishing is critical. The new FEOL architectures all result in a structure in which a predetermined pattern of the dielectric silicon nitride is inlaid in the silicon wafer. Such CMP polishing requires removal and planarization of a silicon nitride overburden, thereby resulting in a coplanar surface with the silicon nitride-filled trenches, plugs, or gaps. An acceptable silicon nitride:silicon dioxide removal rate ratio is necessary to prevent damage to the underlying silicon active areas and provide an over polish margin to ensure all pattern densities are cleared of the silicon nitride. Further, it is even more critical to leave the underlying silicon dioxide damage (defect, especially scratches and chatter marks) free.
Accordingly, there is a need for a chemical mechanical polishing composition and method which selectively polishes silicon nitride over silicon dioxide and simultaneously prevents damage to underlying silicon dioxide.

Chemical mechanical polishing composition and method of polishing silicon nitride over silicon dioxide and simultaneously inhibiting damage to silicon dioxide

Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials CMP Holdings


A book stand (10) including a book rack (24) configured for coupling with a pair of support members (12,14) in a spanning relationship. The support members (12,14) are coupled with a pair of bases (16,18) for engaging the support surface. The book rack (24) includes front panels (46,48) and a back panel (44) being configured to receive front and back covers (54a,54b) of book (56) respectively therebetween with the pages (58) thereof extending through gap (50) defined by the spacing of the front panels (46,48). This allows a supine user to read while the book stand (10) supports the weight of book (56).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of book support racks. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a book stand that supports a book over a supine user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While reading in bed, it is difficult to hold a book without some way to support the weight and properly position the book at a comfortable position for reading. Book stands have been developed to support the weight of a book to make it easier to read in bed, but these devices can be expensive, heavy and may be not adjustable.


Face-to-face detection by infrared-ray communication is effective in grasping interaction between persons. However the problem here is that infrared rays have a high directivity and detection fails unless the persons face each other right in front. Sensor signals having a high directivity and sensor signals having a low directivity are obtained from a sensor terminal (TR) carried by a person. Firstly, information on relative position is obtained with a sensor (TRIR) of infrared rays or the like having a high directivity and an initial group is formed at an application server (AS). A feature amount such as sound that has a low directivity and can sense surrounding environmental information is extracted from among the terminals (TRs) belonging to the initial group by personal feature extraction (ASIF), correlation with terminals (TRs) not belonging to a group is obtained, and thereby whether or not those terminals (TRs) belong to an identical group is judged.

It is possible to further accelerate a project by: keeping track of the progress of business and recording the business contents of individuals (members) in the project; and thereby visualizing and sharing the problems arising during the management of the project. Further, as a member, the member can easily look back his own business afterward by visualizing daily business and hence the difference from the business policy that has been determined by himself/herself becomes obvious and can be used as an indicator for the improvement of himself.
In particular, a person behaves variously in his daily life by having some relationship with another person. In this regard, it is very effective from the viewpoint of grasping the movement of an individual to know the relationship among plural persons by analyzing a group such as a project. In view of such background, for example JP-A No. 2004-028642 discloses a technology wherein a terminal carried by a person: computes relative positions between terminals through the data communication with another terminal by using an identifier (ID); further keeps track of the absolute position of the person himself by using the global positioning system (GPS); displays the two pieces of information on a map; and thereby groups the terminals.

Group analysis system and group analysis equipment


A new and distinct Alstroemeria plant variety producing flowers of good quality and attractive coloration.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Alstroemeria originated as a seedling by crossing as seed parent an unreleased, unpatented seedling identified as 88T1104-01 and as pollen parent an unreleased, unpatented seedling identified as 87F1459-01 from among my collection of Alstroemeria seedlings maintained under controlled conditions in a greenhouse at Van Staaveren B.V., Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, for developmental purposes. The varietal denomination of the new variety is `Stalya`.
The first act of asexual reproduction of `Stalya` was in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, by propagation by dividing rhizomes. Asexual reproduction by dividing rhizomes through successive generations in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for `Stalya` are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations.
`Stalya` has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. Phenotypic expression may vary with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, day length and growing and cultural conditions.


In a charge-trapping device having an array of memory cells, which are controlled by word lines buried in trenches within a substrate, further trenches are formed parallel to said word lines within said substrate. These subdivide diffusion regions adjacent to the word lines into each a first diffusion region adjacent to a first trench of a first charge-trapping memory cell and a second diffusion region adjacent to a first trench of a second charge-trapping memory cell. The depth of the further trench is sufficient to impede hot charge carrier exchange between neighboring memory cells. For this purpose the further trenches are filled with dielectric material, e.g., an oxide. The depth of the further trenches may be, e.g., half of that of the word line trench, and the width may, e.g., amount to 15-20 nm.

Non-volatile memory has become increasingly important for mass storage media, cards and code flash products. Non-volatile memory cells that are electrically programmable and erasable can be realized as charge-trapping memory cells, which comprise a memory layer sequence of dielectric materials with a memory layer confined between confinement layers of dielectric material, the latter having a larger energy band gap than the dielectric material of the memory layer.
The memory layer sequence is arranged between a channel region within a semiconductor body and a gate electrode of a transistor, the gate electrode being provided to control the channel by means of an applied electric voltage. Examples of charge-trapping memory cells are the SONOS memory cells, in which each confinement layer is an oxide and the memory layer is a nitride of the semiconductor material, commonly silicon (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,192 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,725, which are incorporated herein by reference).
Applying a huge enough positive voltage to the control gate of a SONOS device will generate an electrical field condition for tunnelling of electrons from an inversion channel below the gate through the confinement layer. These electrons can then be trapped in the charge trapping layer. The trapped charge carriers change the threshold voltage of the cell transistor structure. Different programming states can be read by applying the appropriate reading voltages.
According to a planar memory cell concept as shown, e.g., in Eitan, et al., "Can NROM, a 2-bit, trapping Storage NVM cell, give a real challenge to floating gate cells?", Proc. Solid State Devices and Materials, pp. 1-3, Tokyo 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference, charge-trapping memory devices can be provided with, e.g., buried bit lines, which electrically connect the source/drain regions of the memory cells. A memory layer sequence, typically an oxide-nitride-oxide layer sequence, is located above the channel regions between corresponding source/drain regions. Above the buried bit lines, a thick oxide is formed as an electrically insulating region, especially to separate the gate electrode sufficiently from the buried bit lines. The memory layer sequence is confined to the channel region and overlaps the source/drain regions only slightly.
This fundamentally new concept called "NROM" provided by Eitan, et al. has the following important features:
(a) the programming of memory cells by means of hot channel electrons is combined with a delete operation by means of hot holes;
(b) a duplicated storage location per memory cell, i.e., on both junction sides of a transistor channel region; and
(c) a reverse read operation, which allows a separate detection of the storage content on both sides of the transistor; the term "reverse" refers to the direction of the voltage drop with respect to the source and drain regions and indicates that this direction is reverse to that applied during a programming operation.
Recently, a vertical memory cell design has been developed (Willer, J., et al. in "UMEM: a U-shape Non-Volatile-Memory Cell", Proc. IEEE NVSMW, Monterey, pp. 42-43, 2003), which is incorporated herein by reference. According to this design, the word line is buried in the substrate with, e.g., 60 nm deep trenches. Advantageously, the channel length is folded around the bottom of the word line trenches resulting in an effective channel length of, e.g., 100 . . . 150 nm. Diffusion regions are arranged adjacent to the trenches connecting neighboring memory cells, which are arranged perpendicular to the word line direction.
In this design the ONO-layer sequence is deposited on the trench sidewalls. Accordingly, the storage region within the ONO-layer sequence, or more precisely within the memory layer typically provided by a nitride layer, is adjacent to the diffusion regions in a top region of the two opposite sidewalls of the trench.
With decreasing cell sizes, trenches forming the word lines and thus the regions wherein hot charge carriers such as electrons are generated move closer with respect to each other. The mean travel distance of hot charge carriers within the substrate may amount to 70 nm. Consequently, with trench distances approaching the 100 nm limit, the probability of trapping charge carriers generated during programming of a neighboring memory cell in the memory layer of a currently passive cell exponentially increases with decreasing cell sizes. The problem is schematically depicted in FIG. 1. Erroneous bit storage may result in those memory cells, when the number of charge carriers trapped accumulates.

Method of forming a charge-trapping memory device


In a sound post of a musical instrument of a violin family, at least one end thereof is formed into a converged configuration. Most preferably, the sound post has a shape having a linear ridge line, and the sound post is placed in contact with the belly by a straight line in a direction substantially perpendicularly intersecting a direction of a bowstring.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in a violin and, more and particularly, to an improvement in a sound post thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, the body of a violin family is designed so that as shown in FIG. 1 which is a sectional view in a direction of a bowstring, in the lower surface of a belly 1 and the inside of the body, a bass bar extends parallel with a bowstring in the vicinity of a lower portion of a left leg of a bridge 5, and a sound post 6 is stood upright with opposite ends thereof placed in contact with the back plate 2 and the belly 1 in the vicinity of a portion at the rear of a right leg of the bridge 5. It has been known that the quality of a stress or rhythm of sound and a tone color is affected by the quality of the mounting of the bass bar and the sound post, and adjustment thereof is carefully carried out.
It has been heretofore considered that a part or role of the sound post 6 is to transmit a vibration of the bowstring or the belly 1 to the back plate 2 so as to induce a sounding of the whole body. The opposite ends of the sound post 6 formed from a small-diameter round pine rod are formed into a plane substantially vertical to the lengthwise direction of the rod and have to be placed in firm contact with both the back plate and the belly.
However, if the role of the sound post 6 is to transmit the vibration of the bowstring to the back plate, the position thereof is desirably located immediately under the bridge. The conventional interpretation of the role of the sound post is very questionable such that the vibration of the back plate does not seem to be so large in view of the fact that the sound post has to be stood upright away from the position of the bridge by about 1/4 inches, and the belly 1 of the body is made of a relatively soft material such as a pine tree whereas the back plate 2 is made of a hard material such as a maple tree.


An image processing apparatus includes: an obtaining unit configured to obtain a multi-value image as an obtained image; and a control device configured to: convert the obtained image into a first binary image; determine whether the first binary image is a blank paper image, on the basis of the first binary image; and output a binary image, the binary image outputting including: outputting the first binary image in a case where it is determined that the first binary image is not the blank paper image; and not outputting the first binary image in a case where it is determined that the first binary image is the blank paper image.

There has been known an image processing apparatus which performs a process of reading the images of documents and outputting the images onto paper sheets, a display, or the like.
Some of these kinds of image processing apparatuses have a blank paper determining function of determining whether a document is a blank document. If an image processing apparatus has a blank paper determining function, for example, it becomes possible to output the image of a document which is not a blank document and not to output the image of a blank document.

Image forming apparatus having improved blank paper image detection


A sputtering target comprising a top coat including a composition of lithium cobalt oxide LiyCozOx. x is smaller than or equal to y+z, and the lithium cobalt oxide has an X-Ray diffraction pattern with a peak P2 at 44°±0.2° 2-theta. The X-Ray diffraction pattern is measured with an X-Ray diffractometer with CuKα1 radiation.

Rechargeable thin film batteries (RTFBs) can be extremely thin (200 μm), rechargeable solid-state batteries with fast recharge and long life cycle. They can for example be applied in ultra-thin mobile phones with batteries in the screen. Other application are for example RTFBs in "Internet of Things" devices or in chip batteries.
A basic example of a RTFB is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1. It comprises a stack of a first electrode 11 at the cathode side, a cathode 12, a solid electrolyte 13, an anode 14, a second electrode 15 at the anode side.
Lithium cobaltide (LiCoO2) may be used as a cathode material for these RTFBs. Thereby it is the cathode material that defines the battery voltage. Lithium cobaltide has the advantage that it allows a high capacity.
The anode 14 may be a Lithium metal anode for providing the Li-ions. It can also be Li compound, it can be a Li-ion anode such as a Li-oxide or nitride containing Li, it can be a carbon or graphite structure or even silicon acting like a spunge to absorb or release the Li, etc.
The electrolyte should be an electric isolator but has to have a good ion conductivity. In RTFBs the electrolyte between the anode and cathode is a solid material which has as advantage that and will not start leaking. The electrolyte may for example be LiPON (lithium phosphorus oxynitride) or sulfide glasses. LiPON has the advantage that it has a good Li+ conductivity and that it is stable in contact with Li.
The Li-ions are the positive charge that move from the anode to cathode. When charging the ions move from the cathode to the anode, when discharging the ions move from the anode to the cathode. By making a stack of a plurality anode/electrolyte/cathode layers the energy of the RTFB can be increased.
As these batteries have a large surface and as the ions only need to be moved over a short distance they can be rapidly charged. For the same reason high current pulses can be generated using such batteries.
In these RTFBs the thicker the cathode, the more of that LiCoO2 material there is, the higher the capacity of the obtained RTFB. Thicknesses of 3-10 μm LiCoO2 may for example be desired. The stack of anode/electrolyte/cathode and contacting electrodes may for example have a thickness of 10 to 15 μm.
Deposition of such a LiCoO2 cathode layer may be achieved by sputtering. Moreover relatively thick layers (e.g. 3-10 μm) need to be sputtered.
There is therefore a need for good targets comprising a composition of lithium cobalt oxide which can be used in a sputtering system.


The invention relates to a device for shaking aerosol spray paint cans. It comprises a flexible membrane (1) capable of forming a suction bond with an aerosol can (4), the membrane (1) being attachable to a power tool having a reciprocal motion output, for example a jig-saw.

Many liquids e.g. paint which are supplied in aerosol cans must be shaken or stirred quite vigorously in order to create an even mixture of the components therein and to allow easy application of the paint, for lengthy periods i.e. 2 minutes. The key reason for poor workmanship with spray paints is insufficient mixing of the paint components.
It is known to provide paints and other liquids in aerosol cans which use a propellant gas to spray the liquid from the can. Again if the liquid contents have settled during storage before use, then it is necessary to shake the can quite vigorously in order to mix the contents of the can, and to allow easy and even application of the paint through the nozzle of the can. It is known to provide a ball-bearing or other such solid object within the body of the can in order to increase the mixing/stirring effect when the can is shaken.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,537 describes an attachment for a portable sander of the type having a vibrating shoe. The attachment comprises a pan-like structure having parallel end walls, parallel side walls, and a rectangular bottom with members secured to the underside of the bottom adapted to engage a cylindrical surface along spaced-apart longitudinal lines;
a lip at the upper edge of one part of the end walls adapted to slidably receive an end of the shoe, and a clamp attached to the opposite end wall adapted to engage the other end of the shoe when the shoe is at rest on the bottom of the adaptor member; and flexible means connected to the pan-like structure and adapted to removably hold a cylindrical container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,622 describes an apparatus and method for utilizing a hand-held power drill having a rotatable chuck, for shaking paint containers and the like. The apparatus comprises a semi-cylindrical cradle for receiving a container of spray paint, securing means for removably securing the container of spray paint within the semi-cylindrical cradle, a bearing secured to the semi-cylindrical cradle and a first cylindrical drive shaft rotatably mounted within the bearing for moving about a first axis of rotation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,829 discloses a can shaking kit for attachment to the rectangular sanding base of an inverted vibratory sander.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,996 describes a paint shaker apparatus powered by a pneumatic sanding tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,193 describes a spray can mixing apparatus comprising a wire coil body formed of a single wire made of a deformable memory retentent material, which defines a cylindrical central cavity. A lower end of the wire coil body extends and is co-axially aligned with the cylindrical opening cavity. A drill chuck is secured to the wire lower end portion to effect selective rotation of the wire coil body.
Many of the devices of the prior art involve rotation about, or vibratory motion in a direction perpendicular to, the longitudinal axis of the container.

Attachment for power tools for mixing aerosol cans

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