A composition that effectively prevents the manifestation of osteoporosis, the formation of osteoclasts and suppresses a decrease of spongy bone density. The composition primarily contains Cordyceps sinensis or its processed product.

The function of bone is to support body against gravity and to conduct movement. As the largest reservoir of calcium in the body, the bone also maintains the balance of calcium in the body. Because of having movement function and maintaining the balance of calcium in the body, the renewal and resorption of bone and the bone will be made repeatedly. During childhood and the adolescent, bone formation is more important than bone resorption, thus bone grows larger, heavier and denser.
The following briefly states how the bone goes through its life cycle through different stages in bone remodeling.
The bone remodeling is mainly regulated by chondrocyte, osteoblast and osteoclast. The bone remodeling can be divided into three stages. That is, (1) bone renewal and growth due to intrachondral bone formation, (2) the cycle of remodeling bone formation and bone resorption to maintain quality and quantity; and (3) re-growth during bone injury such as fracture.
Each stages described above is regulated by various Ca2+-dependent enzymes, cytokines, gene transcription and other cellular regulation mechanisms to regulate activities the differentiation of the bone.
For example, the remodeling cycle involves bone resorption performed by osteoclasts. Osteoclasts remove the old or worn-out mineralized bone. Bone resorption is initiated when osteoclasts receive signals from the surface of bone that are stimulated by enzymes or cytokines. On the other hand, osteoblasts rebuild new bone tissue by laying down an unmineralized matrix, called osteoid, which will eventually form new mineralized bone.
When this rebuilding is complete, the area of bone remodeling rests until the next remodeling cycle begins. Under normal condition, bone resorption and formation are performed at the same time, thus the bone can renew without affecting bone's function.
As we march into the elder-populated society, osteoporosis that happens at youth is drawing more and more attention. Osteoporosis is not a disease of change in the bone component, but a decrease of bone mass. The decrease of bone density and bone strength make one more susceptible to accident and the resulting fracture or bone damages. The primary cause of osteoporosis is the imbalance of bone remodeling, the overly increase of osteoclasts and bone resorption. In addition, many female patients at menopause suffered from osteoporosis, suggesting that the lower of sex hormone (i.e. estrogen) is one of the causes of osteoporosis.
There are currently many agents available for osteoporosis on the market. For example, estrogen can treat osteoporosis. Therefore, steroid enzymes and derivatives similar to chemical structure of estrogen are regarded as potential agents for treating osteoporosis. In theory, the enzymes are not only applied to treat osteoporosis, but decrease the side effects caused by estrogen. However, the substantive examination has not studied yet.
In addition, JP H04-352795 disclosed agents that are hydroxyl containing steroidal hormones, having bone resorption antagonist or bone formation stimulatory activity. The agent acts as bone resorption antagonist. However, the actual experimental data have not been disclosed. JP H07-215878 disclosed an agent containing mepitiostane and epitiostanol as active ingredients for treating osteoporosis.
JP H08-12580 is related to a synostosis promotor containing a specific active vitamin D and its derivative as active ingredients, promoting bone-repairing step after extension of bone, cut of bone, fracture, etc., and useful for shortage of treating period and prevention and treatment for re-fracture.
JP H11-60489 disclosed a medicine for preventing/treating osteoporosis which enhances density and strength of bone without elevating the concentration of calcium in blood, by including an active type vitamin D and bisphosphonic acid as active ingredients.
However, the prior art above provides chemical compounds only, therefore cannot sufficiently treat osteoporosis.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Agents for treating osteoporosis and inhibiting osteoclast formation


A method of preventing and/or treating inflammatory bowel disease, particularly ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is disclosed. The method involves administering a 2-methylene-19-nor-vitamin D compound in an amount effective to treat the disease. The administration of a 2-methylene-19-nor-vitamin D compound also prevents the development of or delays the onset of inflammatory bowel disease in susceptible individuals. The preferred compounds are 1α-hydroxy-2-methylene-19-nor-homopregnacalciferol and 2-methylene-19-nor-20(S)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3.

This invention relates to vitamin D compounds, and more particularly to the use of 2-methylene-19-nor-vitamin D compounds to prevent and/or treat inflammatory bowel disease.
The natural hormone, 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and its analog 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D2 are known to be highly potent regulators of calcium homeostasis in animals and humans, and their activity in cellular differentiation has also been established, Ostrem et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84, 2610 (1987). Many structural analogs of these metabolites have been prepared and tested, including 1α-hydroxyvitamin D3, 1α-hydroxyvitamin D2, various side chain homologated vitamins and fluorinated analogs. Some of these compounds exhibit an interesting separation of activities in cell differentiation and calcium regulation. This difference in activity may be useful in the treatment of a variety of diseases such as renal osteodystrophy, vitamin D-resistant rickets, osteoporosis, psoriasis, and certain malignancies.
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are immune mediated diseases of unknown etiology affecting the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. There are at least two distinct forms of IBD, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. IBD are chronic recurring illnesses most commonly involving inflammation of the terminal ileum and colon, although these diseases can also affect many sites throughout the alimentary tract. Clearly, genetic factors predispose individuals to development of IBD (Podolosky 1991). In addition, the environment contributes to IBD development, and there is reason to believe that vitamin D may be an environmental factor which affects IBD. Vitamin D from sunlight exposure is less in areas where IBD occurs most often, as IBD is most prevalent in northern climates such as North America and Northern Europe (Podolosky 1991, Sonnenberg et al. 1991). A major source of vitamin D results from its manufacture via a photolysis reaction in the skin, and vitamin D available from sunlight exposure is significantly less in northern climates, and especially low during the winter (Clemens et al. 1982, DeLuca 1993). Dietary intake of vitamin D is problematic since there are few foods which are naturally rich in vitamin D. Weight loss occurs in 65-75% of patients diagnosed with Crohn's disease and 18-62% of patients with ulcerative colitis (Fleming 1995, Geerling et al. 1998). Vitamin deficiencies in general and vitamin D deficiency in particular have been shown to occur in IBD patients (Andreassen et al. 1998, Kuroki et al. 1993). To date the possible association between vitamin D status and the incidence and severity of IBD in humans or animals has not been studied. The anecdotal information suggests that vitamin D status could be an environmental factor affecting the prevalence rate for IBD and that the correlation warrants investigation.
The identification of vitamin D receptors in peripheral blood mononuclear cells sparked the early interest in vitamin D as an immune system regulator (Bhalla et al. 1983, Provvedini et al. 1983). In particular the CD4+ Th cells have vitamin D receptors and are therefore targets for vitamin D (Veldman et al. 2000). Hormonally active vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol) suppressed the development of at least two experimental autoimmune diseases (Cantorna et al. 1996, Cantorna et al. 1998). In vitro 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol inhibited T cell proliferation and decreased the production of interleukin (IL)-2, interferon (IFN)-γ, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (Lemire-1992). In vivo 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol injections were shown to inhibit the delayed type hypersensitivity reaction associated with the type-1 helper T (Th1) cell response (Lemire et al. 1991, Lemire et al. 1992). Vitamin D is a potent regulator of the immune system in general and T cells specifically.
For IBD, the immune mediated attack is against the GI tract (Niessner and Volk 1995, Podolosky 1991). T cells, which preferentially produce the Th1 cytokines (IL-2, IFN-γ, and TNF-α), have been shown to transfer Crohn's-like symptoms to naive mice (Aranda et al. 1997, Bregenholt and Claesson 1998) and the production of Th1 cytokines is associated with IBD in humans as well (Niessner and Volk 1995). 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol treatment has been shown to suppress the development of other T cell mediated experimental autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, and arthritis; Cantorna et al. 1996, Cantoma et al. 1998). The hypothesis that vitamin D (through the production of 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol) would suppress the development and progression of IBD thus seemed credible. Cantorna in PCT application WO 01/42205 and Hayes et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,939 both have reported that 1,25(OH)2D3 can prevent IBD in IL-10 knock-out mice. However, hypercalcemia can be a significant problem when 1,25(OH)2D3 is used to treat IBD.
Standard treatments of patients with IBD include short-term high dose and long term low dose prednisone use (Podolosky 1991, Andreassen et al. 1998). Prednisone and other corticosteroid therapies result in a decreased bone mineral density and many times result in higher risks for vertebral fracture (Andreassen et al. 1997, Andreassen et al. 1998). Vitamin D supplementation of patients on corticosteroids has been shown to prevent steroid induced bone loss (Buckley et al. 1996). The hormonally active form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol) is known to increase bone mineralization when given to experimental animals (Cantorna et al. 1998) and people (Ongphiphadhanakul et al. 2000). Thus a further benefit of vitamin D and or 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol supplementation may be the maintenance of bone mineral density.

Treatment of inflammatory bowel disease with 2-methylene-19-nor-vitamin D compounds


A low-cost, reduced friction expanding bullet with an improved core retention feature and a method of manufacturing the bullet is described wherein a cylindrical jacket containing a compacted malleable metal core having an open end and a closed end is forced into a forming die having a bottleneck shaped interior resulting in a bottleneck shaped pre-form wherein the outside diameter of the open-ended forward portion of the jacket is smaller than the outside diameter of its closed rearward portion and wherein a transition shoulder separates the two diameters. The pre-form is then placed in a profile die wherein a base punch exerts an axial force against said pre-form which axially collapses a portion of the jacket wall forward of the transition shoulder subsequently forcing said portion of the jacket wall radially inwardly providing a reduction in bearing surface and forming an internal core-locking radius while at the same time forming an ogival bullet nose. The bullet thus formed provides reduced friction and ultimately higher muzzle velocity per any given chamber pressure level while also providing a core-locking feature comprising a wide-area, circumferential indentation which serves as a living hinge that ultimately expedites uniform bullet expansion.

1.0 Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to ammunition, and more specifically, to a reduced friction expanding bullet with improved core retention and a method of manufacturing the same.
2.0 Related Art
For a bullet to achieve optimum terminal performance, it is desirable that its jacket and core penetrate a target as a single unit and remain connected throughout the course of travel, regardless of the resistance offered by the target material.
Various attempts thus have been made over the years to form bullets wherein the bullet's jacket and core remain coupled together on impact. One of the earliest and simplest attempts utilized a knurling method which created a "cannelure" in a jacketed bullet. A cannelure typically includes a narrow, 360° circumferential depression in the shank portion of the bullet jacket. While the cannelure was originally conceived for use as a crimping feature, various manufacturers have attempted to use it as both a crimping groove and as a core retaining feature, or solely as a core retaining feature. The knurling process typically utilizes a multi-tooth knurling wheel which cuts into the jacket and forces jacket material radially inwardly, subsequently creating a shallow internal protrusion which extends a short distance into the bullet core. As a result, the jacket wall often can be weakened circumferentially in both the fore and aft areas of the cannelure. The cannelure approach thus has been found to be ineffective in keeping the core and jacket together as upon impact with a hard barrier material, the core tends to immediately extrude beyond the confines of the shallow inner protrusion, subsequently sliding out of the jacket. Depending on jacket wall thickness, core hardness, and impact energy, axial core movement can actually "iron out" the internal geometry of the cannelure as the core slides forward. In addition, when impacting windshield glass, the jacket can crack and/or be severed circumferentially along the weakened boundaries of the cannelure. Such a failure can result in jacket-core separation and a concomitant loss in bullet mass and momentum, which reduces target penetration. Even multiple cannelures have proven ineffective in retaining the core, due to the inadequate amount of square area they are collectively able to cover.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,756 (Schreiber) describes a bullet intended for hunting. The bullet comprises a cold-worked jacket utilizing a narrow, inwardly-extending section of integral jacket material terminating in a "knife-like edge" that is formed from a thickened portion of the jacket wall and engages and holds the base of the core within the jacket after the bullet is finally formed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,160 (Habbe, et al.) also describes a bullet that appears to utilize a reverse taper on the rearward interior of the jacket to lock the core within the jacket.
Other attempts at retaining the core within the jacket have been used in the past. Such attempts range from providing a "partition" separating a rear core from a front core, electroplating a copper skin around the core prior to final forming the bullet, and heat-bonding (or similar heat treatment) the core to the interior of the jacket wall after the bullet is finally formed. Shortcomings of these methods can include one or more of the following: Jacket-core eccentricity resulting in less than desirable accuracy due to bullet imbalance; slower manufacturing rates; high or increased costs; and/or lower reliability.

Reduced friction expanding bullet with improved core retention feature and method of manufacturing the bullet


A fiber strain relief apparatus is disclosed with bend radius limiter and slack storage. The strain relief mechanism is a bend limiter drum with three lugs, a strain relief pivoting top with latch, a latch stopper handle, a compressible gasket, and a base with latch. Fiber slack is wound around the bend limiter drum. Fibers are prevented from sliding off by the lugs. A gasket compresses on to the fibers producing a strain relief action, while the slack is being stored on the drum. Unlatching the strain relief top is performed by compressing the top latch against the latch stopper. The strain relief top pivots around a living hinge producing access to the drum. Cable is coiled around the drum and the strain relief top is latched, holding the fiber against the drum. A base latch is provided allowing the device to be mounted and removed from a panel.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for providing strain relief for fiber optic cable, which also provides slack storage for a length of fiber optic cable without exceeding the minimum bend radius for the cable.
2. Description of Related Art
The slack for Optical Fibers that are connected to interconnection and cross connection enclosures currently is stored in long loops that are draped inside the enclosures and do not have a strain relief mechanism to limit the mechanical strain on the fiber or a bend limiter that can control the bend radius of the fiber while the fiber is being pulled during a tracing process. If the fiber is attached to a connector or a splice, the pulling action on the fiber can produce excessive damage to the fiber at the interface location between the fiber and the connector or splice. Therefore, it is desirable to have a separate strain relief mechanism that forces the fiber into maintaining a minimum bend radius.
Briefly described, the invention comprises a fiber optic cable strain relief apparatus with a bend radius limiter and slack storage. The strain relief mechanism consists of a bend limiter drum with three lugs, a pivoting strain relief top with latch, a latch stopper handle, a compressible foam gasket, and a removable base with latch. The bend limiter drum stores fiber slack around it. The retainer lugs are mounted at the end of the drum to prevent the fibers which are wound around the drum from sliding off. The compressible gasket compresses on to the fibers to hold them secure and produce a strain relief action, while the fiber slack is being stored on the drum. To install the fibers on the drum, the strain relief top is unlatched by compressing the top latch against the latch stopper. The strain relief top can then pivot around a living hinge producing a clear access to the drum. The fiber optic cable is coiled around the bend limiter drum and the strain relief top is latched in place, holding the fiber securely against the drum. The strain relief mechanism is equipped with a base latch that allows it to be mounted and removed from a mounting surface. The surface must have a cut out to accept the base.
The invention may be more fully understood by reference to the following drawings.

Strain relief device with bend limiter and slack storage


A hysteresis clutch including a first rotor with magnets that are polarized in opposite directions in pairs in a circumferential direction and between which pole pieces are provided for deflecting the magnetic flux in the radial direction and a second rotor of the hysteresis clutch has a series of second permanent magnets that extend in the circumferential direction and which are arranged on a circle that is concentric to the rotational axis A, the number of the first magnets and the number of the second magnet are configured such that a smooth torque curve is achieved which is free of a detent torque or at least has a low detent torque.

The arrangement of hysteresis clutch in the drive train of a hoist is, for example, known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,518. The hysteresis clutch comprises two rotors, one of which is connected with the motor shaft and driven by it. The other rotor of the hysteresis clutch is connected with the input shaft of a transmission that forms part of the hoist. The rotor connected with the motor comprises ceramic magnets that are arranged on a concentric circle with regard to the rotation axis and that are polarized in circumferential direction. Between the magnets pole pieces are arranged that define changing poles at the axial face of the rotor. The second rotor is formed by a plate of a permanent magnetic material such as, e.g. AlNiCo rotatingly supported about the same rotation axis.
The rotor carrying the permanent magnets and connected with the motor shaft is remarkably more voluminous than the rotor connected with the transmission input shaft and therefore comprises a higher moment of inertia than the rotor of the transmission side. In addition, the rotor of the motor side inevitably comprises a relatively strong radial stray field due to its magnet arrangement that is guided partly through a tune band extending around its periphery that thus forms a magnetic short circuit for a portion of the stray field. The remaining portion of the radial stray field passes through the clutch housing and creates eddy currents there during rotation of the motor. This decelerates the motor and contributes to power loss.
In addition, a hysteresis clutch is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,471 in which a first rotor provided with permanent magnets is rotatably arranged in the substantially cylindrical inner space of a second rotor that comprises hysteresis plates on its two axial face sides. They consist to a large extent of its volume of an electrically insulating binding material that is filled with AlNiCo-powder. The second rotor is closed on the side of the outer periphery.
A hysteresis clutch with two rotors that limit a disc-shaped gap is moreover known from DE 20 2008 003 931 U1. While one of the rotors carries magnets, the other rotor is configured as hysteresis disc. By adjustment of the distance between the two rotors, the torque to be transmitted can be adjusted.
In addition, a hoist with hysteresis clutch is known from DE 10 2014 101 655 A1 in which between the first and second rotor of the hysteresis clutch a cylindrical air gap is defined.
The hysteresis clutches known from the prior art are respectively designed with regard to their planned scale. The respective presented concepts do not allow, or only in a limited manner, a realization in different overall sizes as they may be required by use in other relationships.


Security system for cloud computing that will improve the security of users' authentications to cloud data and resources. User authentication to cloud resources requires analyzing confidence in the hardware used to transmit the authentication for access to the cloud data and/or resource. User authentication can be transmitted after the user confirms administrative rights and/or physical security control over the hardware used to transmit the authentication for access to the cloud data and/or resource. The hardware used to access the cloud data and/or resource can be analyzed for malicious code before the user authentication is transmitted. The authentication can be provided on a hardware token, and the system can execute on the hardware token to analyze hardware confidence and thereafter transmit the user authentication.

Systems for authenticating users to computer systems and networks, including cloud-based resources, are known. The most well-known such system is a simple username and password combination. Concerns over identity theft have led users and resource providers to additional layers of security, such as longer and more complicated passwords and so-called multifactor authentication.
Multifactor authentication is fairly common now and adds a security token to the username and password combination. An underlying principle of multifactor authentication is to combine "something you know" e.g., a password, with "something you have" e.g., a security token or biometric feature. The token may be provided in software or hardware, and is usually embodied as a lengthy code, which need not, but may change according to an algorithm known to the resource provider. One example of a typical multifactor hardware token is the RSA SecurID Hardware Authenticator. The RSA SecurID authentication mechanism consists of a "token" which is assigned to a computer user and which generates an authentication code at fixed intervals (usually 60 seconds) using a built-in clock and the token's factory-encoded random key; known as the "seed". The seed is different for each token, and is loaded into the corresponding RSA SecurID server as the tokens are purchased. A user authenticating to a network resource using a SecurID token is required to enter both a personal identification number and the number being displayed at that moment on their RSA SecurID token. Some systems using RSA SecurID disregard PIN implementation altogether, and rely on password/RSA SecurID code combinations. The server, which also has a real-time clock and a database of valid cards with the associated seed records, computes what number the token is supposed to be showing at that moment in time, checks it against what the user entered, and makes the decision to allow or deny access. There are also implementations of RSA SecurID which generate the authentication information purely in software ("Soft Tokens").
In more extreme cases a multifactor token can be biometric, e.g. a retina, fingerprint, or facial scan of the authorized user. The purpose of all of these systems is to prove the identity of a person.
These systems are vulnerable however, to attempts to impersonate an authorized user by theft of the token. This can either be due to physical theft of a hardware device generating the multifactor token, such as an RSA SecurID tag, or through indirect means such as a man-in-the-middle attack ("MITM"). In the latter case, the user's transmitted multifactor authentication information is intercepted prior to reaching the desired computing resource. The authentication information can be intercepted for example, by malicious software executing on the user's access hardware. If attackers can intercept the user's authentication data, they can use the captured credentials to authenticate on their own behalf, thereby gaining access to the resource.
Antivirus software for identifying and neutralizing malicious programs on computer systems and networks is also known. This software is typically installed on a hardware device by an authenticated user. It is executed manually or automatically on a periodic basis, and also can be updated on a periodic basis in order to identify and neutralize new malicious programs as they come into existence. This type of security measure protects personal hardware internetworked to other computers from malicious attacks.
Both antivirus and user authentication software can be provided on hardware tokens such as USB sticks or other storage devices such as flash drives and the like. In these cases the security software can be executed either directly on the storage device or downloaded for execution on the hardware.
With the rapid growth of cloud computing, both the programs used and the data generated are located in the cloud, making user authentication even more important. Users want authentication systems to safeguard their data and resource providers want authentication to prevent unauthorized access to their programming resources. These security issues are exacerbated because the cloud permits users to access data and resources from multiple devices, including public computing resources or other hardware devices on which the users are not administrative users responsible for the physical security of the hardware. In such cases, the user has little if any knowledge or assurance about the security of the hardware and therefore the user's authentications for cloud data and resources are vulnerable to theft, not only by the hardware owner but by malicious code on the public hardware. What is needed therefore is a security system for cloud computing that will improve the security of users' authentications to cloud data and resources.


An automated method for dispensing pharmaceuticals particularly tablets and capsules, and other small discrete objects, includes: receiving prescription information, selecting a container, labeling the container, dispensing the tablets or capsules into the labeled container, applying a closure to the filled, labeled container, and offloading the container to a designated location. Preferably, the tablets are dispensed with high speed dispensing bins that employ forced air to agitate and singulate the tablets. The other functions within the system are typically carried out at stations designed to offer speed, flexibility and precision to the dispensing operation.

Pharmacy generally began with the compounding of medicines which entailed the actual mixing and preparing of medications. Heretofore, pharmacy has been, to a great extent, a profession of dispensing, that is, the pouring, counting, and labeling of a prescription, and subsequently transferring the dispensed medication to the patient. Because of the repetitiveness of many of the pharmacist's tasks, automation of these tasks has been desirable.
Some attempts have been made to automate the pharmacy environment. Different exemplary approaches are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,919 to Spaulding et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,006,946; 6,036,812 and 6,176,392 to Williams et al. These systems utilize robotic arms to grasp a container, carry it to one of a number of bins containing tablets (from which a designated number of tablets are dispensed), carry it to a printer, where a prescription label is applied, and release the filled container in a desired location. Tablets are counted and dispensed with any number of counting devices. Drawbacks to these systems typically include the relatively low speed at which prescriptions are filled and the absence in these systems of securing a closure (i.e., a lid) on the container after it is filled.

System and method for dispensing prescriptions


A method of manufacturing glass melt and a method of manufacturing molded glass material by forming glass melt. In the method of manufacturing glass melt, the glass melt containing fluorine is prepared by melting glass raw materials and refining the resulting glass melt. The refining is conducted in a refining vat equipped with a flow inlet through which flows glass melt obtained by heating and melting the glass raw materials, and a flow outlet through which flows glass melt that has been refined, with the level of the glass melt being maintained in such a manner that the flow inlet and flow outlet remain beneath the surface of the glass melt and the glass melt does not contact external air. The method of manufacturing a molded glass material comprises the step of molding the glass melt produced by the above method.

There are known glass melting furnaces, employed in the manufacturing of high-quality glass by heating and melting glass raw materials, that are equipped with a melting vat that heats and melts glass raw materials, a refining vat in which foam is removed from glass that has been melted in the melting vat, and a homogenization vat in which the refined glass is stirred, with the various vats being connected by pipes. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2000-128548 (Reference 1) discloses such a glass melting furnace.
To adequately defoam the glass, the refining vat in the glass melting furnace of Reference 1 is of prescribed shape and gas discharge holes for removing gas generated by the glass melt are provided in the upper portion of the refining vat.
Such methods of manufacturing high-quality glass by passing it through multiple vats such as a melting vat, refining vat, and homogenization vat as set forth above are suited to large-scale production because they permit the continuous manufacturing of glass.
There are broad applications for fluorine-containing glasses such as fluorophosphate glasses in the form of low-dispersion optical glasses and copper-containing near infrared radiation-absorbing glasses. There are also broad applications for fluorine and boron oxide-containing glass—a type of fluorine-containing glass—such as in copper-containing polarizing glass. Thus, fluorine-containing glasses have been put to practical use in recent years, and there is subsequently a need for their large-scale production.
Accordingly, attempts have been made to manufacture fluorine-containing glasses by utilizing the advantages of the above-described method. However, in contrast to other glasses, the manufacturing of fluorine-containing glasses by the above method presents the following problems.
When the glass melt is exposed to gas containing water vapor, the fluorine ions in the glass are replaced by oxygen ions and end up being removed from the glass as HF gas. When the quantity of fluorine ions removed from the glass is large, glass stability is lost or the Abbé number (νd) decreases, precluding use of the glass as optical glass.
To efficiently remove bubbles from the glass, refining must normally be conducted at a temperature exceeding the melting temperature of the glass, and the above-stated loss of fluorine ions and related problems become marked in the refining vat.
Accordingly, the present invention, devised to solve the above-stated problem, has for its object to provide a method of continuously manufacturing high-quality fluorine-containing glass of desired fluorine content, and a method of manufacturing molded glass material from the high-quality fluorine-containing glass continuously manufactured by this method.

Method of manufacturing glass melt and method of manufacturing molded glass material


An electrostatic lens system consisting of several electrodes and a novel method of making same. The invention relates to a lithography apparatus that includes a field composable lens where at least one lens electrode has a novel structure, said structure comprising an outer support structure, an insulating intermediate part and a conductive inner part composed of a number of segment-like subelectrodes that can be individually powered, if necessary, slightly differently to produce desired individual electrostatic subfields to be superimposed to the lens field. With the field composable lens design, it has been successfully demonstrated that a number of shape and alignment errors of lens components can be corrected by supplying slightly different voltages to individual subelectrodes, thus optimizing the overall lens performance (in view of its optical properties). The lens components may be manufactured on less expensive and readily available conventional precision machinery rather than expensive and rarely available high precision equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrostatic lens system consisting of several electrodes and a method of making the same. More particularly, the underlying invention relates to a lithography apparatus where such a lens system is used in a highly advantageous manner.
2. Related Art
Electrostatic lenses consisting of electrodes at different potentials have to meet certain criteria in view of the roundness and surface quality as well as the relative adjustment of the lens electrodes with respect to each other in order to achieve the required image qualities. In a system having more than one lens, the relative adjustment of the lenses with respect to each other is of great importance too. Further, positioning errors of the particle source and its extracting system may deteriorate the image quality.
In a charged particle lithography system, charged particles originating from a suitable source are transmitted through a mask defining a specific pattern in order to transfer this pattern, with or without a scaling factor, to a substrate. The imaging as well as the mask illuminating system may be composed of one or several electrostatic lenses. For many purposes, it is important that the shape of the pattern on the substrate is to a high extent conformal to the pattern on the mask, i.e., to create an electrostatic column having negligible deviation of pattern placement from the desired position. Usually, these deviations can be tolerated only to fractions of the smallest line width to be printed, e.g., for 180 nm patterns the tolerance is .apprxeq.20 nm.
For the purpose of making and assembling such a lithography apparatus, the above mentioned tolerances are strictly confined, for example for electrodes with a diameter of 1 m or more to a roundness of better than .+-.2 .mu.m for each lens electrode, to positioning accuracy of .+-.2 m and to 30 .mu.rad maximum tilt. World wide, such a making and assembling precision is met by only very few sites. Thus, the state of the art manufacturing costs are likely to render apparatus of this type unfavorable for industrial application.
For industrial semiconductor fabrication, it is advantageous to use the so-called "Mix and Match" mode, in which the less demanding parts with regard to line width and resolution of the chip are made by well-established optical lithography, whereas the layers with high performance requirements are produced by, e.g., ion beam lithography, in particular projection lithography. In this "Mix and Match" mode, it is necessary to adapt the shape of the pattern imaged by ion projection lithography to the shape achieved by optical lithography. That means that a tool is needed by which the imaging parameters may be varied and controlled.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,857, which is incorporated by reference, a projection lithography apparatus is disclosed, having a multipole correction element, which is located adjacent to the mask in order to control the shape of the pattern transferred to the substrate. Said correction element comprises electrostatic and/or magnetic multipoles, i.e., a number of, e.g., cylindrical rods and current wires forming magnetic poles arranged around the particle beam. This arrangement is capable of successfully correcting misplacements in the mask pattern which may arise, e.g., from local distortions of the mask. The same arrangement can be used to adjust the image distortion at the substrate level to achieve overlay in a mix and match mode.
In the article entitled "Lens and Deflector Design for Microcolumns," M. G. R. Thompson and T. H. P. Chang in Journal of Vacuum Science Technologies, Vol. B13, No. 6:2445-2449 (November/December 1995), discuss the problem of alignment tolerances in proposed microcolumn systems using electrostatic lenses and deflectors for focusing and scanning electron probes. In optimizing a microcolumn system of this type, the article proposes an integration of the scanning deflectors into the lens by segmenting one or more of the lens electrodes and superimposing the deflection voltages to the lens electrode voltage in order to achieve a better deflection performance.
What is needed is a novel concept for making electrostatic lenses that are capable of relaxing the currently defined tolerance constraints. In this context, it is highly desirable to manufacture and assemble lens components by affordable precision machinery widely available in the art. Further, a feature of the present invention is to provide a lithography apparatus making use of the novel lens concept in order to enable manufacturing, assembling and disassembling of lens columns at a readily affordable cost.

Field composable electrostatic lens system


In a regenerator to be formed by winding a resin film into a cylindrical shape, a projection is formed on a surface of the resin film by subjecting the resin film in itself to plastic deformation, either by stamping or by laser beam irradiation. Thereafter, the resin film is stacked. The projection provides a gap between layers of the stacked resin film to be a flow passage for a working gas. Thus, a regenerator of high heat exchange efficiency is provided with ease and at low cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a regenerator formed by stacking a film-shaped resin material, an apparatus for manufacturing the regenerator, and a Stirling refrigerator provided with the regenerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, Stirling engines have attracted attention from the standpoint of energy saving, environmental protection and the like. The Stirling engine is an external combustion engine that realizes a reversible, Stirling cycle utilizing an external heat source, which is advantageous in terms of energy saving and low pollution compared to the internal combustion engine that requires fuel excellent in inflammability as well as ignitionability such as gasoline.
A Stirling refrigerator is widely known as an application of the Stirling engine. The Stirling refrigerator uses a reversed Stirling cycle to generate cryogenic temperatures. Hereinafter, a structure of the Stirling refrigerator is explained with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 22, a Stirling refrigerator includes a cylinder 20 having an interior filled with an inactive gas such as hydrogen or helium as the working gas. Fitted in cylinder 20 are a piston 27 and a displacer 26, which divide the space within cylinder 20 into a compression space 28 and an expansion space 29. Piston 27 is driven by a linear motor 30. Piston 27, connected via a spring 32 to a body casing 23, periodically moves in cylinder 20 in a sinusoidal manner. Displacer 26, receiving the force of the sinusoidal movement of piston 27, reciprocates in cylinder 20. Since displacer 26 is also connected via a spring 31 to body casing 23, it periodically moves in a sinusoidal manner. In a normal operation, the sinusoidal movements of piston 27 and displacer 26 occur at the same period, with a constant phase difference.
A regenerator 15 is arranged between compression space 28 and expansion space 29. The two spaces are connected to each other via regenerator 15, to constitute a closed thermal circuit within the refrigerator. A heat-dissipation heat exchanger 24 is attached to the compression space 28 side of the closed thermal circuit, and a heat dissipater 22 is provided next to heat-dissipation heat exchanger 24. A heat-absorption heat exchanger 25 is attached to the expansion space 29 side of the closed thermal circuit, and a heat absorber 21 is provided next to heat-absorption heat exchanger 25.
The working gas within the closed thermal circuit flows in accordance with the movements of piston 27 and displacer 26, to realize the reversed Stirling cycle. Here, heat dissipater 22 serves to radiate heat within compression space 28 to the outside, and heat-dissipation heat exchanger 24 accelerates the radiation. Heat absorber 21 serves to absorb the external heat into expansion space 29, and heat-absorption heat exchanger 25 promotes the heat absorption.
An operation of a Stirling refrigerator having the above-described configuration is now explained. Firstly, linear motor 30 is activated to drive piston 27. Piston 27 driven by linear motor 30 approaches displacer 26, thereby compressing the working gas within compression space 28. Although this increases the temperature of the working gas within compression space 28, the heat generated in compression space 28 is rejected to the outside by heat dissipater 22 via heat-dissipation heat exchanger 24, so that the working gas within compression space 28 is maintained at approximately a constant temperature. This constitutes the isothermal compression process of the reversed Stirling cycle.
Next, the working gas compressed by piston 27 within compression space 28 flows, by its own pressure, into regenerator 15 and further to expansion space 29. At this time, the heat of the working gas is accumulated in regenerator 15. This constitutes the isochoric cooling process of the reversed Stirling cycle.
Subsequently, the high-pressure working gas flown into expansion space 29 expands, with displacer 26 moving downward. Although the temperature of the working gas within expansion space 29 lowers, the external heat is introduced into expansion space 29 by heat absorber 21 via heat-absorption heat exchanger 25, so that the interior of expansion space 29 is maintained at approximately a constant temperature. This constitutes the isothermal expansion process in the reversed Stirling cycle.
As displacer 26 begins to move upward, the working gas within expansion space 29 passes through regenerator 15 and returns to compression space 28. At this time, the heat having been accumulated in regenerator 15 is transferred to the working gas, thereby increasing the temperature of the working gas. This constitutes the isochoric heating process of the reversed Stirling cycle.
The sequence of processes (of isothermal compression—isochoric cooling—isothermal expansion—isochoric heating) is repeated to constitute the reversed Stirling cycles. As a result, heat absorber 21 gradually cools down, to finally reach a cryogenic temperature.
The regenerator is now explained in detail. The regenerator is a kind of heat exchanger, as described above, which transmits the heat to and from the working gas flowing therein. As such, it is necessary to secure a greater contact area with the working gas within the limited space. A complicated passage configured to secure the large contact area, however, will increase resistance with respect to the flow of the working gas, leading to degradation in efficiency of the Stirling refrigerator. That is, it is preferable for the internal structure of the regenerator that the heat transfer area in contact with the working gas is large while the flow resistance is low. Accordingly, a variety of fin structures have conventionally been proposed for the regenerator.
Among them, a regenerator formed by winding a film-shaped resin member (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "resin film") into a cylindrical shape is known (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-220897). FIG. 23A is a developed view of such a generator formed by winding a resin film in to a cylindrical shape. FIG. 23B is an end face view of the resin film in an unfolded state. FIG. 24A is a developed view of another regenerator formed by winding a resin film into a cylindrical shape, and FIG. 24B is an end face view of the other generator in an extended state. As shown in the figures, the regenerator of this type is provided with a plurality of dimples 41, 42 on one side of the sheet of resin film 8. When resin film 8 having dimples 41, 42 formed thereon are wound, gaps are formed between the layers of the resin film. The stacked layers of the resin film are separated from each other, thereby constituting part of the flow passage for the working gas.
Conventionally, dimples 41 of the regenerator of this type have been formed either by bonding spacers as additional members at regular intervals on a surface of resin film 8 extended in a sheet, or by performing silkscreen printing at regular intervals on a surface of resin film 8 extended in a sheet.
Production of a regenerator of this configuration is much easier than in the case of providing metallic fins. The cost required for production of the generator is considerably reduced as well. It is noted that the surface of the sheet resin film is often coated with a metal material, to improve heat exchange efficiency of the regenerator.
In general, the dimples formed on the surface of the resin film take a regular pattern from the standpoint of ease of manufacture. For example, dimples 41 are often arranged in stripes on resin film 8 as shown in FIG. 23A, or in a matrix as shown in FIG. 24A.
A way of mounting the regenerator configured as above to a Stirling refrigerator having the above-described structure is now explained. Referring to FIG. 25, a regenerator 15 to be incorporated into the Stirling refrigerator is formed with a resin film 8 wound around a bobbin (also called a stuffer) 14 constituting part of a cylinder 20 in which a displacer is fitted. Resin film 8 may have a part secured to bobbin 14, or may be wound freely without being secured.
Regenerator 15, configured by winding resin film 8 around bobbin 14, is inserted in an outer case 33 mounted in advance to a case body 23. In this case, regenerator 15 may be arranged such that the axis line of wound resin film 8 is approximately parallel to the flow direction of the working gas, to enable the working gas to flow within the flow passage formed by the projections as described above. Further, a heat absorber 21 is attached from above, so that a closed circuit is formed in the Stirling refrigerator, with regenerator 15 secured in place.
In the case where the projections are formed by bonding spacers to the surface of the resin film, the work is very burdensome. Generally, very fine spacers are bonded to the surface of the resin film in order to secure a greater heat transfer area with the working gas within the regenerator. This involves various problems that the bonding work in itself is troublesome, that accuracy of bonding position is low, that dust or dirt may be introduced during the bonding work, and that the use of an adhesive cannot guarantee high reliability over a long period of time.
In the case where the projections are formed by silkscreen printing on the surface of the resin film, the manufacturing cost increases due to the necessity of additional equipment for printing, drying and others. It is also very difficult to control the position, size, shape and the like of the projections with the silkscreen printing.
Further, conventional regenerators formed by winding resin film have projections always regularly arranged on the surface of the resin film. This disadvantageously simplifies the flow of the working gas through the regenerator, making it difficult to obtain high heat exchange efficiency.

Regenerator method for manufacturing regenerator, system for manufacturing regenerator and stirling refrigerating machine


A mold capable of preventing deterioration of the mold even when a material for spherical members is harder than that for the mold, and capable of aligning the center axis between an insert member and a body member thereof with high accuracy even when a pressure of resin filling is applied. The mold has an insert member with a cavity surface, and a body member for supporting the insert member from outside via a plurality of spherical members. Tubular liners harder than the spherical members are provided between the body member and the spherical members and between the insert member and the spherical members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mold in which a body member supports an insert member having a cavity surface via a plurality of balls.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mirror frame which is a member for supporting an optical system for a digital camera or a telescopic lens requires an extremely high level of processing accuracy because such a mirror frame has a great influence on accuracy of an optical axis in the optical system. In addition, the accuracy of an optical axis is especially important to the performance and quality of a product. For instance, when ten lenses are used for an optical system, it has been common to manufacture a mirror frame one of whose lenses is designed to be fine-adjustable and, by fine-adjusting the lens, the optical axis can be finally adjusted. A small-sized mirror frame manufactured by means of plastic injection molding has been widely used as a mirror frame for supporting an optical system for a film camera with a lens, a cellular phone with a built-in camera, or the like. Further, a lens itself, constituting an optical system, has been formed by means of plastic injection molding, and the accuracy of an optical axis is highly important also in manufacturing such a lens.
As a mold capable of manufacturing a product with high accuracy, for example, a mold 500, as shown in FIG. 3, has been known which has a cavity between a first half 600 and a second half 700, and a product is injection-molded in the cavity (See, for example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-231159, paragraphs 0020-0029, FIG. 1). The first half 600 comprises an insert member 610 having a cavity surface 610a; a body member 620 for holding the insert member 610 from outside and having a tapered protrusion 621 on an end face thereof on the side of the second half 700; and a ball retainer 630 for intervening between the insert member 610 and the body member 620. Further, the second half 700 comprises an insert member 710 having a cavity surface 710a; a body member 720 for holding the insert member 710 from outside and having a reversely tapered part 721 on an end face thereof on the side of the first half 600; and a ball retainer 730 for intervening between the insert member 710 and the body member 720.
In the mold described above, the intervention of the ball retainers 630, 730 enables the center axis alignment between the insert member 610 and the body member 620 and between the insert member 710 and the body member 720 respectively, and, in the meantime, the use of the tapered protrusion 621 and the reversely tapered part 721 enables the center axis alignment between the first half 600 and the second half 700. In such a mold, a molded product is removed when the insert member 610 is moved with respect to the body member 620.
In the mold described above, in the meantime, there is a possibility that a track surface of the mold deteriorates in a case where a material for the spherical members is harder than that for the mold (an insert member and a body member thereof), because the spherical members roll between the insert member and the ball retainer or between the ball retainer and the body member every time a molded product is removed. There is another problem that, when the track surface of the mold is ground off, the resultant ground matters further grind off the mold, and the ground matters or ground irregularities misalign the spherical members to degrade the center axis alignment of the insert member. It is to be noted that the problems described above tend to occur easily, because, in general, such a mold is made of brass, aluminum, copper, a stainless steel product (HRC 33-52) plated with nickel or copper, or the like in consideration of easier processing, while in turn, the spherical members are made of bearing steel (HCR 58-64) or the like, which is harder than the former. To solve such a problem, if the material for a mold is designed to be harder than that for the spherical members, there occurs a problem that a mold is difficult to be machined to thereby raise the production cost, or that a desired processing accuracy of a molded product cannot be obtained using a harder material for the mold.
There is also a problem that, because the material for the mold described above is not sufficient in stiffness against a pressure applied when a molten resin is filled into a cavity, the spherical members are pushed (sunk) into the mold to degrade accuracy in the center axis alignment between the insert member and the body member.
For the reasons described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a mold capable of preventing deterioration of the mold even when the material for the spherical members are harder than that for the mold, and capable of aligning the center axis between the insert member and the body member with high accuracy even when the pressure of resin filling is applied thereon.


A wing arrangement for an aircraft, comprising a wing having a base section and a tip section pivotably connected to base section such that the tip section is pivotable about a pivot axis between a deployed position and a stowed position. The wing arrangement also comprises a latching arrangement which includes an engagement portion, a latching actuator selectively movable between a first actuator position and a second actuator position, an elastically deformable structure, and a latching element. When the tip section is pivoted from the stowed or deployed position into an engagement position, the elastically deformable structure is initially deformed, and as the tip section pivots further into the deployed or stowed position, the elastic deformation of the elastically deformable structure decreases.

The present invention relates to a wing arrangement for an aircraft comprising a wing having a base section with a first end portion and an opposite second end portion, wherein the first end portion is adapted to be secured to the fuselage of an aircraft, and a tip section having a third end portion and an opposite fourth end portion, wherein the third end portion is pivotably connected to the second end portion such that the tip section is pivotable about a pivot axis between a deployed position and a stowed position in which the spanwise length of the wing is smaller than in the deployed position.
The aspect ratio, i.e., the ratio of span to chord, of an aircraft wing is one factor influencing the efficiency of the aircraft during flight. Generally, an increase of the aspect ratio is associated with an increased efficiency during steady flight. Therefore, an increase of the wingspan of an aircraft is one factor to take into consideration when seeking to reduce fuel consumption. However, when elongating the wing of an existing family of aircraft, it may become necessary to adapt the aircraft family specific infrastructure, and airport fees may increase.
One possibility to increase the wingspan without having to adapt the aircraft family specific infrastructure and having to deal with increased airport fees, or to reduce airport fees for existing aircraft, is to provide for a foldable wing construction which allows the pivotable movement of an outboard end portion of the wing between a deployed position, in which the wing has its normal flight configuration, and a stowed position, in which the wing has a folded configuration and the wingspan is decreased as compared to the deployed position. It is necessary to provide a latching device which is able to safely retain the outboard end portion in the deployed position or in the stowed position or in both positions, as long as the respective position is desired.


An apparatus that provides for rotation about two axes orthogonal to each other includes a gimbal having two arms adjoining a portion that is mounted to a base for rotation about a first axis. A shaft defining a second axis orthogonal to the first pivotally couples a mounting plate to the arms. The mounting plate has an arcuate edge with first and second parallel grooves therein adapted to receiving a drive cable. A drive cable that is engaged with a drive pulley is aligned by at least one idler pulley with the first and second grooves of the mounting plate. The drive cable has opposing free ends that are received in the first and second grooves of the mounting plate. A motor is coupled to the drive pulley for controlling the drive cable travel, to accordingly rotate the mounting plate to provide for orientating a device in a desired direction.

Various apparatus that permit rotation about one or more axes, such as gimbal assemblies, have been utilized as pointing devices for mounting radar antennas, optical transducers and other components that require general direction pointing control. Such pointing devices often have a significant mass associated with complex gears and drive motors for controlling the movement of the pointing device, which creates a high inertial load and limits the amount of weight that may be mounted on the device. The complexity of the components also requires more advanced circuitry for controlling the movement of the pointing device.

Apparatus for pivotally orienting a projection device


A controller in a hard disk serving as a data storage device stores a license including a content key for decrypting encrypted content data E and others in a secure data storage portion. The license is managed in the secure data storage portion in accordance with a LBA, and the LBA for storing the license, which is being processed for transmission, is stored as a log in a log memory of the secure data storage portion. When a failure occurs during the transmission processing, the license, which was being processed for transmission, is specified based on the LBA stored in the log memory.

Owing to progress in digital communication networks such as the Internet in recent years, users of personal terminals can easily access network information.
In such digital communication networks, information is transmitted by digital signals. Even an individual user can copy music or movie data transmitted via the aforementioned digital communication network, and thereby can copy such data without degrading audio and/or image qualities.
Therefore, the copyright of the owner may be significantly infringed unless appropriate measures are taken for copyright protection when a copyrighted content such as music data or image data is transmitted over the digital communication network.
However, if copyright protection is given top priority, it may become impossible to distribute content data over the fast-growing digital communication network. This impairs an interest of the copyright owner, who can essentially collect predetermined copyright royalties for distribution of the copyrighted data.
Instead of the distribution over the digital communication network described above, distribution may be performed via record mediums storing digital data. In connection with the latter case, music data recorded on CDs (compact disks) on the market can be freely copied in principle onto magneto-optical disks (e.g., MDs) as long as copies are made only for the personal use. However, personal users performing digital recording or the like indirectly pay predetermined amounts in prices of digital recording devices or mediums as guaranty moneys to copyright owners.
In view of the fact that the music data copied from a CD to an MD is digital data, which does not substantially cause copy deterioration, devices and others are configured for copyright protection to prohibit further copying of the copied music data from the recordable MD to another MD.
In connection with the above, the public distribution itself of the content data such as music data and image data over the digital communication network is restricted by the public transmission right of the copyright owner, and therefore sufficient measures must be taken for the copyright protection in such distribution.
In the above case, it is necessary to prohibit unauthorized further copying of the content data such as music data or image data, which was once sent to the public over the digital communication network.
A data distribution system has been proposed for distributing content data over a digital communication network. In this data distribution system, a distribution server distributes content data to memory cards, which are data storage devices attached to terminal devices such as cellular phones. In this data distribution system, a public encryption key of the memory card, which is already certified by a certification authority, and its certificate are sent to the distribution server when requesting the distribution of the encrypted content data. After the distribution server confirms the reception of the certified certificate, the encrypted content data and a content key for decrypting the encrypted content data are sent to the memory card. When distributing the encrypted content data and the content key, the distribution server and the memory card generate session keys, which are different from those generated for other distribution processes. With the session keys thus generated, the public keys are encrypted, and the keys are exchanged between the distribution server and the memory card.
Finally, the distribution server sends the content key, which is encrypted with the public key peculiar to each memory card, and is further encrypted with the session key, as well as the encrypted content data to the memory card. The memory card stores the received content key and the encrypted content data in the memory card. In this operation, the license is stored in a license storage portion, which can ensure the safety.
When the encrypted content data recorded in the memory card is to be reproduced, the user connects the memory card to the reproduction terminal provided with a dedicated producing circuit, and thereby can reproduce the encrypted content data for enjoying it.
In the above system, usage rules are determined so that a content supplier or a copyright owner can instruct a manner of use in connection with reproduction and copying of the encrypted content data. The rules thus determined are distributed together with the content key so that each device can perform processing according to the usage rules.
The usage rules defines rules relating to copy/shift of the license between memory cards, rules such as restrictions on allowed times of reproduction in connection with output of the content key from the memory card, and rules relating to handling of reproduced contents.
In the data distribution system described above, the encrypted content data and the license are transmitted, e.g., between the distribution server and the memory card, or between the memory card and the reproduction terminal. The "licenses" generally represent the content key, usage rules, license ID for identifying the license and usage rules of contents already described. Such licenses are to be transmitted while ensuring sufficient security for the purpose of copyright protection.
In an operation of transmitting the license between devices, when ordinary transmission processing is being performed, the sender and the receiver mutually recognize the transmitted licenses, respectively, so that the license can be transmitted between the devices without any problem. However, when a failure such as power-down occurs in either of the devices or a communication path during the transmission of the license, the license may be lost during the transmission.
For the processing of, e.g., transmitting the license between the memory cards, the system is configured to prevent such a state that both the memory cards on the sender and receiver sides can simultaneously utilize the same license when storing the data, in view of the copyright protection, except for the case where the usage rules do not restrict the copying of the license. Thus, the license stored in the memory card on the sender side must be configured to become unavailable at the same as the output of the license to the memory card on the receiver side. In this configuration, such a state temporarily occurs that neither of the memory cards has stored the license in an available state. When the transmission processing is interrupted during the above state, the license, which is being transmitted, is lost. In the operation of receiving the license from the distribution server, the license may likewise be lost. In the case where the transmission of the license is interrupted, it is therefore important to determine whether the license is lost during the transmission thus interrupted, and to perform restoring or resending of the lost license in the optimum manner if the license was lost. For determining the loss of license, log information for specifying the interrupted transmission processing and the license must be stored efficiently in the memory card. It is also necessary that the memory card has a function of determining whether it has stored the license in question or not.
It can be reliably considered that the information transmission technology, which has been remarkably progressed in recent years, will further progress, and such progress will result in further advance in communication technology and increase in information amount. For these reasons, a data storage device of a large capacity, which can store various kinds of and a large number of content data, has been desired in the field of the data distribution system described above.
The data storage device of the large capacitance requires a data storage portion capable of storing a large number of licenses. When transmission of the license is interrupted in the above data distribution system, it is determined whether the license to be transmitted by the transmission thus interrupted is stored or not, and for this determination, search or retrieval is effected on the license storage portion, which can store a large number of licenses. However, it takes a long time for such retrieval processing, and this time increases with increase in number of the storable licenses.
According to a conventional system, the retrieval processing must be effected on the license storage portions one by one for the license determination, and the time required for the retrieval processing may cause a problem in the foregoing case.


The invention relates to a field device of measuring and automation technology. The field device has a radio module for providing access to an operating electronics of the field device. Such access enables the exchange of information between the operating electronics and a user. The radio module can be turned on by a first input signal sequence composed of accelerations of the field device housing and can be turned off by a second input signal sequence. A field device of the invention is shown schematically in FIG. 1.

Field devices are used for measuring- and automation technology, in order to register measured variables of various types. For example, field devices are used to measure volume flow of media in a pipeline or the fill level of a medium in a container.
Many such field devices have an interaction facility including keypad and display, in order to make settings in the field device or to retrieve current measured variables. Frequently, a complex interaction facility with keypad is, however, not desired, for example, because a keypad with a plurality of keys can be a source of errors. Thus, the application DE102013107606A1 discloses a photovoltaic plant component with a display and at least one acceleration sensor for time-resolved registering of acceleration profiles. Accelerations of the plant component, which can be produced, for example, by tapping, and which match an acceleration profile, are used for operating the plant component, wherein the acceleration sensor can register the site of the producing of the acceleration. This can be utilized to control the plant component by tapping on different regions of a display.

Field device of measuring and automation technology


An on-line system for printing a value bearing item (VBI) that includes a client subsystem for interfacing with a user, a cryptographic device remote from the client subsystem for authenticating a plurality of users, and a server subsystem capable of communicating with the client subsystem and having code for providing customer support to a user, for administering a user VBI meter, for providing payment administration support to a user, providing accounts receivable support to a user, meter refund and withdrawal processing support to a user, providing misprint processing support to a user, and providing payment processing and billing functions. A method implementing these features is also provided.

A considerable percentage of the United States Postal Service (USPS) revenue is from metered postage. Metered postage is generated by utilizing postage meters that print a special mark, also known as postal indicia, on mail pieces. Generally, printing postage and any VBI can be carried out by using mechanical meters or computer-based systems.
With respect to computer-based postage processing systems, the USPS under the Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP) has published specifications for IBIP postage meters that identify a special purpose hardware device, known as a Postal Security Device (PSD) that is generally located at a user's site. The PSD, in conjunction with the user's personal computer and printer, functions as the IBIP postage meter. The USPS has published a number of documents describing the PSD specifications, the indicia specifications and other related and relevant information. There are also security standards for printing other types of VBIs, such as coupons, tickets, gift certificates, currency, voucher and the like.
A significant drawback of existing hardware-based systems is that a new PSD must be locally provided to each new user, which involves significant cost. Furthermore, if the additional PSD breaks down, the PSD must be replaced or service calls must be made to the user location. In light of the drawbacks in hardware-based postage metering systems, a software-based system has been developed that does not require specialized hardware for each user. The software-based system meets the IBIP specifications for a PSD, using a centralized server-based implementation of PSDs utilizing one or more cryptographic modules. The system also includes a database for all users' information. The software-based system, in turn, however, has brought about new challenges. These challenges include the need for effective and efficient user administration, commerce processing and management of the relatively large amount of data associated with the Internet Postage. A compelling reason for individuals and business to use Internet postage is for the great convenience it offers. Without robust and largely automated back office procedures, including user administration, commerce processing and database and information management, the advantages of Internet Postage can quickly fade.
Therefore, there is a need for a new method and apparatus for implementation of an IBIP postage meter and other value-bearing items over a WAN that does not require the special purpose hardware device at the user site.
Furthermore, there is a need for a secure and recoverable database in an on-line VBI system that is capable of preventing unauthorized access and handling minor and catastrophic database failures without impacting the integrity of the system.
The software-based system should be able to handle secure communications between users and the database. The software-based system should also be user friendly for the operators of the system as well as for customers, and should provide a postal system Intranet that allows effective process flow and operator interfaces, should provide for meter refunds and service withdrawals, should include misprint processing management, and should provide for quality assurance envelope management.
The software-based system should also be feature rich and enabled to handle a variety of backroom commerce processing operations, such as payment processing, credit card processing, CMRS processing, and billing processing.

Postal system intranet and commerce processing for on-line value bearing system


A polyphenylene ether composition comprising: 100 parts by weight of (A) a polyphenylene ether resin or a combination of a polyphenylene ether resin and a styrene resin; 1 to 40 parts by weight of (B) a flame retardant which is comprised mainly of at least one member selected from the group consisting of two specific condensed phosphoric esters; 0.3 to 10 parts by weight of (C) a hydrogenated block copolymer which is defined as a hydrogenation product of a block copolymer comprising a polymerized styrene block and a polymerized conjugated diene block, wherein at least one polymerized styrene block has a number average molecular weight of 15,000 or more; and 0.3 to 10 parts by weight of (D) a polyolefin resin, wherein the weight ratio of the component (C) to the component (D) is from 70/30 to 15/85.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polyphenylene ether composition which not only has excellent flame retardancy and excellent impact resistance, but also is friendly to the environment. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a polyphenylene ether composition comprising: 100 parts by weight of (A) a polyphenylene ether resin or a combination of a polyphenylene ether resin and a styrene resin; 1 to 40 parts by weight of (B) a flame retardant which is comprised mainly of at least one member selected from the group consisting of two specific types of condensed phosphoric esters; 0.3 to 10 parts by weight of (C) a hydrogenated block copolymer which is defined as a hydrogenation product of a block copolymer comprising a polymerized styrene block and a polymerized conjugated diene block, wherein at least one polymerized styrene block has a number average molecular weight of 15,000 or more; and 0.3 to 10 parts by weight of (D) a polyolefin resin, wherein the weight ratio of the component (C) to the component (D) is from 70/30 to 15/85. The polyphenylene ether composition of the present invention is friendly to the environment because the polyphenylene ether composition contains neither a halogen compound nor an antimony compound as a flame retardant. Also, the polyphenylene ether composition retains good heat resistance, mechanical characteristics and dielectric properties which are inherently possessed by a polyphenylene ether resin. Further, the polyphenylene ether composition of the present invention, in the injection molding thereof, exhibits excellent mold release characteristics and is substantially free from generation of a gas and from adhesion of the flame retardant to the mold, so that the molding cycle time of the polyphenylene ether composition can be shortened. Furthermore, the polyphenylene ether composition also exhibits excellent chemical resistance and excellent impact resistance.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, as a method for imparting flame retardancy to a flammable synthetic resin, a method has been employed in which a halogen compound or a combination of a halogen compound and antimony trioxide is added to a flammable synthetic resin to obtain a flame retardant resin. However, this method is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of environmental hygiene since, when the flame retardant resin is burned, a poisonous gas is generated. Therefore, it has been desired to improve the above-mentioned method for imparting flame retardancy to a flammable synthetic resin.
With respect to each of a polyphenylene ether resin and a mixed resin comprising a polyphenylene ether resin and a styrene resin (hereinafter, this mixed resin is frequently referred to as a "PPE/styrene resin"), flame retardancy can be imparted to the resin by incorporating thereinto an organic phosphoric ester instead of a halogen compound and antimony trioxide. Examples of organic phosphoric esters include a monophosphoric ester, such as triphenyl phosphate, cresyldiphenyl phosphate or tricresyl phosphate, and a condensed phosphoric ester which is produced using as a raw material a polyhydric phenol (especially a dihydric phenol, such as resorcinol or bisphenol A). It is generally said that the above-mentioned organic phosphoric esters do not adversely affect the environmental hygiene as compared to the case of the halogen compounds. It is also said that a resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester is better than a resin composition containing a monophosphoric ester in that the resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester, in the injection molding thereof, has excellent heat resistance and is relatively free from generation of a gas and from adhesion of the flame retardant contained therein to the mold, so that there is a growing demand for a resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester.
However, the above-mentioned resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester has disadvantages. For example, although the resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester has improved properties related to stiffness, such as tensile strength, flexural strength and flexural modulus, as compared to those of the resin composition containing a monophosphoric ester, the resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester does not retain a good impact resistance which is inherently possessed by the polyphenylene resin, so that the resin composition is likely to suffer cracking. Further, with respect to the improvement of flame retardancy, a condensed phosphoric ester is less effective than a monophosphoric ester. Therefore, it is necessary to use a condensed phosphoric ester in a large amount as compared to the case of a monophosphoric ester. However, when the resin composition contains a large amount of a condensed phosphoric ester, the impact resistance of the resin composition becomes further lowered. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the impact resistance of the resin composition from lowering. For this purpose, for example, a large amount of an elastomer is incorporated into the resin composition. As an elastomer used for improving the impact resistance of a PPE/styrene resin, a hydrogenated block copolymer having excellent heat stability is generally used. However, for satisfactorily improving the impact resistance of the PPE/styrene resin, it is necessary to use the hydrogenated block copolymer in a large amount. However, the use of a large amount of the hydrogenated block copolymer is disadvantageous not only in that the flame retardancy of the PPE/styrene resin is lowered, but also in that the use of the hydrogenated block copolymer which is expensive is uneconomical.
As a conventional method for further improving the impact resistance of a PPE/styrene resin composition (i.e., composition comprising not only a polyphenylene ether resin and a styrene resin, but also another component, such as a condensed phosphoric ester), there can be mentioned methods using a hydrogenated block copolymer in combination with a polyolefin resin, which are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,145,377, 4,166,055 and 4,383,082, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Sho 56-51356, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Sho 62-179561, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 2-169665 (corresponding to EP 0 362 660), Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 4-7357 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,540), Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 4-279697 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,540) and Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 6-192561. However, the conventional techniques disclosed in the above-mentioned patent documents are not concerned with a flame retardant resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester as a flame retardant, that is, use of these conventional techniques is not intended with respect to the resin compositions having flame retardancy. Therefore, the objects of the inventions of the above-mentioned patent documents are different from that of the present invention, and the amounts of a hydrogenated block copolymer and a polyolefin resin used in the above-mentioned patent documents are large as compared to those used in the present invention. Generally, the more the amounts of a hydrogenated block copolymer and a polyolefin resin, the more improved the impact resistance of the resin composition, but the more lowered the flame retardancy of the resin composition. For improving the impact resistance of a flame retardant resin composition containing a condensed phosphoric ester as a flame retardant (wherein the resin composition has poor impact resistance), Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 09-151315 attempts to incorporate a grafted copolymer into the resin composition, wherein the grafted copolymer is obtained by grafting a hybrid rubber onto a polyorganosiloxane as a base polymer. In this case, the impact resistance of the resin composition can be improved without lowering the flame retardancy of the resin composition. However, the grafted copolymer used for improving the impact resistance of the resin composition is expensive and, hence, the use of such a grafted copolymer is economically disadvantageous.
A PPE/styrene resin composition containing a phosphoric ester having high acid value is susceptible to absorption of water and hydrolysis. By the hydrolysis of the PPE/styrene resin composition, the dielectric properties (i.e., dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent) of the PPE/styrene resin composition are lowered.
The molding of a PPE/styrene resin composition (especially a flame retardant PPE/styrene resin composition containing a flame retardant) is frequently conducted by injection molding. In this case, there is a problem in that a shaped article obtained by the injection molding exhibits poor releasability from the mold. It has been desired to improve the releasability of the shaped article from the mold in the injection molding.


The present invention relates to a frame synchronization method for digital mobile radio communication comprising generating a plurality of pulses having different phases on the basis of an asynchronous frame marker, and generating a synchronous frame marker on the basis of the pulses. In the method, a pulse having the same phase as that of the asynchronous frame marker, another pulse having its phase delayed by 1/2 of one clock period and another pulse having its phase delayed by one clock period are generated to be suitably selected.

In the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) communication method utilized in the field of digital mobile radio communication, frame synchronization is required between a mobile station and a base station. However, because the distance between the mobile station and the base station as well as the path of radio wave propagation between the stations incessantly changes, the time required for the arrival of the radio wave also necessarily changes.
Therefore, when the period of burst data transmission at the mobile station is always set at a constant value T, a change in the distance between the mobile station and the base station or a change in the path of radio wave propagation between the stations results in, for example, a shortened or extended time required for the arrival of the radio wave. Consequently, the number of bits to be received in one burst data transmission period T at the mobile station decreases or increases by one bit, and an error occurs during decoding.
In order to prevent such a trouble, the radio wave propagation time is measured at the base station, and this data is provided to the mobile station, so that the period of burst data transmission at the mobile station deviates within the range of the pulse width tw of one data bit.
On the basis of the frame marker of the burst data transmission period T.+-.td having the period deviation td, the mobile station carries out, for example, speech encoding for each frame unit, and the encoded data is transmitted as the burst data at the predetermined period of burst transmission For the purpose of attaining such speech encoding and other processing, it is necessary that the period T.+-.td of the frame marker is maintained at a value which is n times (n: an integer) as large as the period Tc of the clock that determines the processing timing. That is, synchronization between them is required.
A prior art method for frame synchronization will now be described by reference to FIG. 5.
In FIG. 5, it is supposed that, in the period T.+-.td of an asynchronous frame marker AFM, T is selected to be T=20 msec, and td is selected to be 3.7 .mu.sec at a transmission rate of 270 kb/s and 20 .mu.sec at a transmission rate of 50 kb/s, while the period Tc of the clock CLK used for the speech encoding is selected to be 125 .mu.sec.
As shown at FIG. 5 (I), the leading edge of a first clock CLK applied immediately after the risetime of an asynchronous frame marker is detected, and this clock is used as a synchronous frame marker SFM. According to such a method, the number of the clocks CLK included between the consecutive synchronous frame markers SFM corresponds to the number of predetermined periods, that is, T/Tc=20/125=160 periods, when the consecutive plural asynchronous frame markers AFM(a) and AFM(b) are all present on the sam side (the side immediately before the risetime of the clocks CLK in FIG. 5) when the risetime of the clocks CLK is considered as the border on each side.
However, an extra clock CLK will be included to increase the number of clocks corresponding to 161 periods when, as shown in FIG. 5 (II), the leading one (a) of the consecutive asynchronous frame markers AFM is present immediately before the risetime of the associated clock CLK, and the trailing asynchronous frame marker (b) is present immediately after the risetime of the associated clock CLK.
On the other hand, the number of periods is only 159 which is less by one period than the predetermined value when, as shown in FIG. 5 (III), the leading one (a) of the consecutive asynchronous frame markers AFM is present immediately after the risetime of the associated clock CLK, and the trailing asynchronous frame marker (b) is present immediately before the risetime of the associated clock CLK.
Thus, the prior art frame synchronization method has had the problem that, when the asynchronous frame marker is present in the vicinity of the risetime of the associated clock CLK, the period of the synchronous frame marker SFM becomes larger or smaller by one bit depending on the position of the asynchronous frame marker.
The present invention solves such a problem, and its object is to provide a novel frame synchronization method in which the synchronous frame marker having a predetermined constant period can be generated regardless of the wave propagation time.

Method of frame synchronization for digital mobile radio communication

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A removable cartridge assembly for a master processing apparatus includes a cartridge body and a pair of feed roll assemblies. Each feed roll assembly includes a stock material wound about a core and mounting members on the ends of the core. Feed roll mounting structures removably secure the feed roll assemblies on the cartridge body so that, for example, a feed roll assembly from which the supply of stock material has been exhausted can be removed and replaced.

Master processing apparatuses, such as laminating apparatuses and adhesive transfer apparatuses, are known in the art. Master processing apparatuses operate to apply one or more sheets of a stock material to a master (or substrate). Each master processing apparatus includes a master processing assembly and a pair of feed rolls which hold the supply of stock materials. During a master processing operation, the stock materials are unwound from the feed rolls and are driven together with the master through the master processing assembly.
A master processing apparatus typically includes a frame on which the pair of feed rolls are mounted. "Feed roll" is a generic name which may refer to a roll of a film (such as a clear laminating material), to a roll of masters or to a roll of backing material that carries an adhesive. "Stock material" is a generic name for the sheet of material that is wound around the roll. The feed rolls are often mounted in a cartridge which is itself mounted on the frame. A master processing assembly is provided in the frame and the stock materials on the feed rolls are unwound and fed into the master processing assembly. An actuator may be included in the apparatus to operate the master processing assembly. For example, a power-operated or, alternatively, a hand-operated actuator may be included in the apparatus to actuate the master processing assembly. A master to be processed is fed into the master processing assembly and the master processing assembly causes adhesive from one or both the stock materials to adhere to the master.
In laminating operations, for example, both stock materials are laminating films that are coated with pressure-sensitive or heat-sensitive adhesive and these films are applied to opposing sides of the master and adhere to the master or to each other (if the films are larger than the master). In adhesive transfer operations, one of the stock materials is a release liner on which a layer of adhesive is coated and the other is an aggressive or non-aggressive mask. During the operation, the adhesive on the release liner is transferred to one side of the master and, if the mask substrate is aggressive (i.e. has an affinity for adhesive bonding), then any excess adhesive will transfer to the mask substrate, which is then peeled off to expose the master on the release liner and remove the excess adhesive. For further details on these operations, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,580,417 and 5,584,962, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present application endeavors to provide an improved architecture for mounting feed rolls in this master processing apparatus.


An ocular light stimulus apparatus provides the ocular fundus of an examinee's eye under examination with observation light to observe the ocular fundus and provides localized background light and stimulus light to a retina of the ocular fundus to perform biological examination through use of a bioelectrical signal from the retina. The ocular light stimulus apparatus has a ring slit and a photographic stop. Each of the ring slit and the photographic stop is disposed in a position substantially conjugate with the anterior ocular segment of the eye to be examined so that the ocular fundus of the eye is irradiated with the ocular fundus observation light via the ring slit and is irradiated with the stimulus light and the background light via the photographic stop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ocular light stimulus apparatus, and more particularly relates to an ocular light stimulus apparatus in which the ocular fundus of an examinee's eye is irradiated with ocular fundus observation light to observe the ocular fundus and is irradiated with background light and stimulus light to locally stimulate the retina with the stimulus light and perform a biological examination using a bioelectrical signal obtained from the retina.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional known methods used primarily for ophthalmological examination include not only capturing a fundus image and performing fundus examination, but also electroretinogram (ERG) examination in which stimulus light is projected onto a retina to measure an action potential generated in the retina, and an electroretinogram is created to perform an ophthalmological biological examination.
In an ERG examination, the ocular fundus is irradiated with visible stimulus light, and the background irradiated with the stimulus light has to be illuminated by background light. A suitable combination of the intensity of the background light and the intensity of the stimulus light affects the quality of the ERG examination. When the stimulus light is projected locally (local ERG) on a macular spot of the ocular fundus to perform the ERG examination, the background light is projected as visible light onto the ocular fundus.
The background light is projected, e.g., from between an objective lens and an apertured mirror onto the ocular fundus via a half mirror (Journal of Japanese Ophthalmological Society, Vol. 85 (10) (Oct. 10, 1981, 9-(1521) to 19-(1531)).
According to the configuration disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2006-42952, the ocular fundus is irradiated with white light using a white light-emitting diode arranged in the observation optical system, and, with this as a background, a spot light is projected as stimulus light from a high-luminance light-emitting diode to perform a local ERG examination while the ocular fundus is observed using infrared light.
According to the configuration of WO2008/111166A1, a working distance light source may also be used as a background light source for a local ERG examination, and the visible light from the light source is projected as the background light onto the ocular fundus.
However, with a conventional local ERG examination, background light is projected from an illumination optical system or by using the effective outside diameter of a photographic stop. Therefore, the amount of background light directed onto the ocular fundus is varied by the pupil diameter of the eye to be examined, causing measurement error and making it difficult to perform an accurate local ERG examination.