The present invention relates to a composition comprising microfibrillated cellulose, mono-, di- or oligo-saccharides and a pigment in order to achieve a composition with improved rheological properties such as a low viscosity even at high dry content. The present invention further relates to process for the production of said composition.

Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) (also known as nanocellulose) is a material made from cellulose fibers, where the individual microfibrils have been partly or totally detached from each other. MFC is normally very thin (˜20 nm) and the length is often between 100 nm to 10 μm. However, the microfibrils may also be longer, for example between 10-100 μm.
MFC can be produced in a number of different ways. It is possible to mechanically treat cellulosic fibers so that microfibrils are formed. The production of nanocellulose or microfibrillated cellulose with bacteria is another option. It is also possible to produce microfibrils from cellulose by the aid of different chemicals and/or enzymes which will break interfibrillar bonds or dissolve the fibers. One example of production of MFC is shown in WO2007091942 which describes production of MFC by the aid of refining in combination with addition of an enzyme.
MFC can be used within many different fields. In the papermaking industry it can both be added to the surface of a paper or board or to the furnish. It has been shown that addition of MFC can increase the strength of a paper or board. When used in paper coating applications, it replaces the synthetic or natural binders such as starch. Since the MFC has a very shear-characteristic effect at low and high solid content, it can be used to as thickening agent and/or water retention aid. However, it can also be used in many other technical fields, such as the food industry, polymer or plastic industry, paint, composite industry (e.g. cement), rubber industry, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry.
A dispersion comprising MFC has the appearance of a highly viscous, shear-thinning transparent gel at low dry contents. Normally, a composition comprising MFC with a consistency of about 4% and higher is in the form of a very thick gel. Very fibrillated and fine material with high degree of polymerization might exhibit a gel like character at solid content about or less than 1 wt %. The gel has high viscosity making it very difficult to make it flow at low shear rates. This makes processing through pipes and pumps very difficult and thus also to distribute it to different end uses, for example to a surface of a paper or board substrate.
Moreover, it is often undesirable to add a composition with low dry content during production of paper or board to the surface of a substrate since it takes a lot of energy to remove the added water, for example during drying of the substrate. Another reason to avoid unnecessary addition of water is to save transportation costs, water and environmental impact (carbon footprint).
It is also possible to dry the produced MFC before addition to e.g. a pigment dispersion or wet end but this is a very energy consuming process and might have significant irreversible chemical and physical structural changes on the microfibrillated cellulose.
There is thus a need for a composition comprising MFC which has processable flow behavior and good colloidal stability at both low and high shear rates.

Composition comprising microfibrillated cellulose and a process for the production of a composition


An elastomeric composition is prepared containing an amorphous propylene/hexene copolymer and an elastomer selected from styrene butydiene styrene block copolymers.

Elastomeric compositions are well known and have been used in the industry for various applications such as adhesives, caulks, and sealants. These compositions typically contain an elastomer, a resin, a process oil, and optionally a filler. The most costly component of these compositions is the elastomer. Therefore, compositions containing reduced amounts of elastomer to produce lower cost formulations would be very desirable and have been attempted in the industry. These lower cost formulations containing lower amounts of elastomer typically have increased amounts of filler or process oil and/or additional polymers such as low molecular weight polybutenes. However, these lower cost formulations typically have lower performance illustrated by poor creep resistance, low peel adhesion, low tensile strength and/or poor weathering performance.
It would, therefore, be very desirable to produce low cost elastomeric formulations such as adhesives containing reduced amounts of elastomer while retaining the performance of formulations containing the high amounts of elastomer.

Elastomeric composition containing elastomer and amorphous propylene/hexene copolymer


An image input/output apparatus, and the image input/output apparatus includes an ink-jet head including at least one nozzle unit having a length that is greater than or equal to a width of a recording medium and being movable in a sub scanning direction, and a scanning unit installed on the ink-jet head movable in the sub scanning direction relative to the ink-jet head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an apparatus and method of inputting and outputting an image, and more particularly, to an image input/output apparatus and method employing an array ink-jet head.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image input/output apparatus generally includes an input section for reading image information from a document, and an output section for printing an image on a recording medium. The input section is typically one of a document feeding type input unit in which the document is conveyed in a sub scanning direction and a scanning unit is stationary, a flatbed type input unit in which the scanning unit moves in the sub scanning direction and the document is stationary, and a combination type input unit which combines both these types of input units.
Since the image input/output apparatus is spreading from SOHOs (Small Office/Home Offices) to homes, it is necessary to provide a cheap, miniaturized image input/output apparatus.


An information recording and/or reading apparatus has a base plate, a spindle motor for rotating a disk by the output shaft perpendicular to the base plate, a rotary alignment control device for determining the rotation position of a recording/reading head of a head unit about a rotary alignment axis parallel to the output shaft of the spindle motor, a linear movement guide extending parallel to the rotary alignment axis, and a support mechanism for supporting the rotary alignment control device to be reciprocally movable along the linear movement guide. An information recording and/or reading apparatus allows very easy exchange of a recording/reading head and disk, and can avoid troubles such as damage to the recording/reading head and disk during exchange.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording and/or reading apparatus suitably used in a magnetic/electrical characteristic inspection device for a servo track writer of a hard disk drive, especially, a master servo writer for simultaneously servo-writing a plurality of hard disks, a preservo writer for servo-writing outside a drive, a head, a head gimbal assembly, and a head stack assembly, and a magnetic/electrical characteristic inspection device for a hard disk itself, and is also suitably used in inspection and manufacturing apparatuses of an optical or magnetooptical recording head and an optical or magnetooptical recording disk.
2. Related Background Art
FIG. 13 shows the arrangement of a conventional information recording/reading apparatus. A spindle motor 102 for rotating a disk 103 is fixed on a base 101. A recording/reading head 110 is attached to the distal end of a rotation shaft (not shown) of a rotary alignment control device 107 via a head fixing jig. The rotary alignment control device 107 is disposed on an X-stage including a stationary portion 104 and a movable stage 105 arranged on the base 101, and can be driven in the X-direction (the directions of an arrow in FIG. 13).
In this prior art, two rotary alignment control devices 107 are provided to a single spindle motor 102.
By moving the movable stage 105, the distance between the center of the disk and the center of rotation of the head can be adjusted to an arbitrary spacing. Upon exchanging a disk, the two rotary alignment control devices 107 move in a direction away from the disk 103 and spindle motor 102.
However, in the conventional information recording/reading apparatus, it is difficult to exchange the recording/reading head.


A method of mapping an operation area by a team of a human and a mobile robot 200 includes the steps of defining a graph representing the area by a human 201, guiding the robot by human along an edge 203, stopping at a vertex in the graph by the team 203, creating a vertex record if stopped at a new vertex 205, localizing the robot and vertices if stopped at an existing vertex 206, creating an edge record if finished a new edge 208, and outputting an area's map including a set of vertex records and a set of edge record by the robot 210. The robot's human-tracking step 203 includes the steps of obtaining a 2-DOF motion command from sensors that detect the human's action and executing a 2-DOF motion based on the motion command.

Mobile robots have gradually been deployed into our everyday lives. Entertainment robots, floor-cleaning robots, security guard robots, and others have been made commercially available. Human-type robots (humanoids) are demonstrating reliable running motion in research laboratories in Japan (for instance, a patent WO/2006/062948 discloses technology on a legged robot). Extensive attempts have been made to make those autonomous robots understand their surroundings.
Patents WO/2006/046053, WO/2006/046049, and WO/2006/046044 discuss methods of cleaning a flooring surface with a dedicated hardware system. However, they do not mention how the robot recognizes its surroundings.
Another patent WO/2005/092632 discloses a method for a mobile robot to navigate using two-dimensional barcodes which are formed at predetermined intervals on a floor. However, installing the extra-hardware on the floor is expensive and time-consuming for users.
Another patent WO/2005/098476 discloses a method for an autonomous mobile robot to estimate its position using optical emitters and optical sensors to detect their reflected light. However, the use of the light source makes the application of this robot expensive and limits its application possibilities.
Other patents WO/99/59042 and WO/2000/043186 disclose methods for a mobile robot to systematically cover an area by pasting boundary markers and by sensing the area edges. The use of special markers makes the system expensive and installation tedious, and limits its application areas.
Other patents WO/2005/081074, WO/2005/006098, and WO/1999/028800 disclose methods for a mobile robot to dock to a base station. This method helps the robot to understand the geometrical relations around the base station, but the robot's understanding of the whole operation area cannot be expected.
Another patent WO/2001/038945 discloses a method of mapping surroundings using multiple mobile robots. However, if there is a method using only one robot would be much more useful.
Another invention U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,359 describes methods of mobile mapping to generate a geometrically precise three-dimensional detailed model of an unknown indoor environment. However, how to avoid odometry errors on a mobile robot is not specifically described.
Still another invention U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,209 discloses a method for a robot to confine to a particular space by using a portable barrier signal transmitter. However, obviously, a method that does not use such a hardware piece is preferred.
Patent disclosures WO/88/004081 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,192, describe a mobile robot navigation method using a node map. The node map is pre-designed by a human and given to the robot as data. What advantages can be expected by using this node map in not clearly addressed.
Traditionally, the Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) approach has been pursued in the robotics research community for the purpose of mapping an unknown operation area. In this approach, a self-contained autonomous mobile robot is supposed to explore and map unknown surroundings by itself.
A patent disclosure WO/2004/059900 describes a SLAM method using image sensors. Another patent WO/2001/078951 discloses a method for a mobile robot to find a semi-optimal path to a given goal in a wholly unknown, unpredictable and partly, dynamic large-scale environment. Another patent U.S. Pat. No. 7,015,831, describes methods of generating and updating a map with a visual sensor and the SLAM technology.
Limitations of the SLAM approach are as follows: (1) The precision of the map obtained is limited because of the mobile robot's poor odometry capability ("odometry" is the function of a mobile robot that estimates its own robot frame ((x, y), θ) by accumulating the robot's incremental movement at each sampling time). (2) The robot loses its positional identification in a complex operation area because of odometry errors, and hence, autonomous mapping of a complex operation area becomes very difficult. (3) Furthermore, this approach lacks a fundamental consideration in the mapping problem: Depending on situations, a robot may have to deal with multiple operation areas in given surroundings. The robot is never able to know these distinct operation areas autonomously without humans' instruction.
An algorithm for a mobile robot to track a linear or circular path using the curvature is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,486. This algorithm is useful if v≠0, and hence, the curvature is defined. However, in this present invention, the condition (v≠0) is not guaranteed. Therefore, the present invention does not adopt this prior invention.
An algorithm for recording a manually driven vehicle's motion is disclosed in a patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,341. In this prior patent, the robot's motion is generated by human's physical force while the motors' power is off. This motion-generation means is not useful enough in case the robot is too heavy for a human to move around.

Human-guided mapping method for mobile robot


An automatic apparatus for applying labels to produce is provided which utilizes three or more label cassettes angularly disposed in coplanar fashion adjacent a rotary bellows applicator. The cassettes may include labels indicating different sizes or grades of produce, for example, and each produce item being labeled may have a label selected from any one of said multiple cassettes. High label speeds in excess of 1000 labels per minute are achieved along with selective labeling.

This invention relates to produce labelers and, in particular, to selectively labeling a wide variety of fresh produce by size or grade at high speed.
Within the fruit packing industry it has become common practice for fruit to be labeled in large quantities at high speed on sizing/grading equipment. The demand for labeling is driven mainly by the retail industry, requiring product to be identified by variety and/or source and furthermore by size and quality. As a consequence, packers are commonly required to apply a number of different labels to fresh produce during the grading and packing operation. This is generally achieved by installing multiple labeling stations in sequence over the grading conveyors. Two major drawbacks exist with this arrangement: (a) the extended space required to accommodate multiple labeling stations, and (b) the resulting higher costs attached to such installations.
For example, if peaches are to be labeled "small, medium or large," the peaches typically pass through sizing equipment where three banks of labeling equipment are used to apply the appropriate size labels to the sized peaches. The 3 labeling stations (including rotary bellows, etc.) all take up space and are all relatively expensive.
There is a clear need for labeling equipment that is more efficient and versatile than the prior art systems that use separate labeling stations for each separate size or grade of produce.
The closest prior art known to applicant includes the use of dual cassettes as shown in Rietheimer U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,680 (see FIG. 6). However, Rietheimer has three major weaknesses. First, he uses a complex fixed cam surface housing (as opposed to rotary bellows). Secondly, his system uses conventional knife edge label stripping and is therefore limited to the use of relatively stiff labels. Thirdly, Rietheimer requires that the guide plate of each label cassette discharge each label tangentially to the rotary applicator and parallel to each transfer head as shown in FIG. 6 herein. This geometry limits the number of cassettes usable to two (see FIG. 6). The present invention is capable of using three or more label cassettes without the complex camming mechanism of Rietheimer. The present invention also uses thin and flexible labels, which are usable on more items than stiff labels.
The present invention provides, for the first time, a single automatic labeling station capable of applying 3 or more different labels to singulated produce passing through the station. The present invention also provides, for the first time, a single automatic labeling station wherein 3 or more label cassettes interact with a single rotary bellows applicator.
In the above example of "small, medium and large" peaches to be labeled, the present invention labels all 3 separate sizes in a single station with a single rotary bellows applicator. The invention reduces most of the prior art machinery required and the space necessary to house the machinery!
A primary object is to provide an automatic produce labeling apparatus capable of applying 3 or more different labels at a single labeling station and at high speed, i.e., more than 1000 labels per minute.
A further object is to provide an automatic labeling system which eliminates the need for multiple labeling stations otherwise required by the prior art in applying labels displaying different sizes or grades on produce.
A further object is to provide labeling apparatus wherein multiple label cassettes interact with a single rotary bellows applicator to apply multiple different labels to produce at speeds in excess of 1000 labels per minute.
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description and drawings wherein:

Produce labeler with multiple cassettes at a single station


A method of maintaining vehicle formation includes receiving a desired along path distance; receiving a plurality of waypoints corresponding to a plurality of positions along a path of the lead vehicle; determining a dynamic path for the follower vehicle by spline fitting the plurality of positions of the plurality of waypoints; determining a commanded curvature of the follower vehicle based on a curvature of the dynamic path at a current position of the follower vehicle; determining a current along path distance between the lead vehicle and the follower vehicle; determining an along path error; determining a next speed of the follower vehicle based on the along path error and the respective waypoint speed of the respective waypoint that is adjacent to a current position of the follower vehicle; and outputting the commanded curvature and the next speed to a control system of the follower vehicle.

Vehicle formation can be applied in agriculture, construction, and other applications. For example, in harvesting, tillage, planting, and road grading, an autonomous follower vehicle can follow a lead vehicle that is driven by a human. It can be important that the follower vehicle maintains a desired formation distance (e.g., a radial distance or along track distance) and/or a desired offset (e.g., cross track offset and along track offset) from the lead vehicle. It can also be important that the follower vehicle follows the lead vehicle at a safe speed. Maintaining vehicle formation on curved paths or on turns can be challenging. For example, the desired formation can vary throughout a turn. Paths for each vehicle can vary depending on the curvature and the desired offset. For some applications, there can be a tradeoff between maintaining formation and following at a safe speed. For example, for harvesting, maintaining formation may be more important than following at a safe speed; whereas for tillage, maintaining formation and following at a safe speed may be equally important. In "follow me" type of formation, following at a safe speed may be more important. Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques for maintaining vehicle formations.


An optical fiber connector is used as a means of carrying an optical element. The optical element is either permanently or removeably affixed to a planar end of the optical fiber connector with a suitable adhesive or gel. After the mating connector plugs are secured together, the affixed optical element is adjacent each end of each connector plug becoming in-line with the connector.

In the past, and at present, known methods of inserting an optical elements in-line with on optical fiber have been difficult and costly. Elements such as optical absorption filters, dielectric filters or mirrors, birefringement or polarization elements, saturable absorbers, light modulators as well as other elements can be inserted into an optical fiber. One common method of in-line insertion of elements requires cutting an optical fiber, polishing both cut ends of the fiber, and installing lenses to direct a beam coming out of one lens into the other. In operation, a collimated beam coming out of one end of the fiber propagates in free space and is focused by the other lens back into the second end of the optical fiber. An optical element is inserted into the space between the lenses as required. There are several disadvantages to his method. There is a high insertion loss due to the fact that much of the transmitted light is unguided; the arrangement is complex and is very sensitive to alignment; the beam diameter in the space between the lenses is large, therefore, the device is not suitable for non-linear applications.
In an attempt to overcome many of these disadvantages, S. Matsui et al. in Opt. 31, p. 1252, 1992 describe a technique for in-line insertion of a thin-plate optical element. The element is inserted into a precise narrow groove, cut across the fiber. This technique obviates most of the problems associated with a collimated beam device, however, it requires complex and expensive tools for cutting the narrow groove with micrometer accuracy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,345 in the name of Cammons et al. issued Jan. 21, 1992, discloses an optical fiber connecting device including an attenuator element. Cammons discloses a cylindrical type optical fiber connector which includes an attenuator element that is capable of movement during the assembly of the connector. The connector includes a cylindrically shaped sleeve which has a longitudinally extending slot formed through the wall thereof. The attenuator element includes a rail comprising a head and neck which provides a path for the element to be moved by sliding along the slot in the ferrule sleeve of the connector which is parallel to the fiber axis. Cammons' attenuator arrangement requires that the connector coupling housing provide clearance for the attenuator support rail to ride in the slot of the sleeve. Although Cammons invention appears to perform its intended function, the arrangement is somewhat complex and is dependent on the type of optical connector used. The disk-like attenuator element must be shaped to have a rail which conforms to, slides within, and is supported by the slot and furthermore, the connector itself must have such a slot. Cammons' invention would not be suitable for use with many types of optical connectors.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a simple inexpensive method for in-line insertion of optical elements which obviates the aforementioned disadvantages.

Optical in-line elements in fiber optic systems


An electronic device includes a signal generator and a processing module. The signal generator generates reset signals to reset the processing module. The signal generator includes a first capacitor, a second capacitor, and a switching unit. The first capacitor receives an input voltage and charges accordingly when the electronic device is powered on. The second capacitor generates the reset signals based on the input voltage. The switching unit transmits the input voltage to the second capacitor to charge the second capacitor when the electronic device is powered on, and grounds the second capacitor after the electronic device is powered off. The reset signals are generated during the charging and discharging process of the second capacitor.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to signal generators, and particularly to a reset signal generator for an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Most electronic devices, such as portable computers, cameras, media players, have data processing modules and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is configured for generating a reset signal when power is applied to the electronic device. The reset signal is then sent to the data processing modules to reset the data processing modules, thus ensuring that the processing modules start operating in a known state. However, the processing modules cannot receive the reset signal when the electronic device starts abnormally. This may cause errors in data processing.
Therefore, an electronic device having an improved signal generator is needed in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiency.

Electronic device and signal generator thereof

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


In an example, an apparatus for generating a three-dimensional object includes a build area platform, a build material distributor, a secondary material ejection device, a coalescing agent ejection device, and a controller. The controller may control the secondary material ejection device to eject a secondary material in a predefined pattern over the build area platform, control the build material distributor to distribute a layer of the build material around the ejected secondary material, control the coalescing agent ejection device to eject the coalescing agent onto the layer of the build material, and control an energy source to apply energy onto the ejected coalescing agent to cause the build material in contact with the ejected coalescing agent to coalesce and solidify.

Additive manufacturing systems, such as powder-based systems, generate three-dimensional objects through implementation of a layer-by-layer fabrication process. For instance, portions of a powder-based build material may be solidified at each layer to form the three-dimensional objects. These types of systems have been used to build three-dimensional objects having relatively complex internal and external features.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A wavelength division multiplexer and etendue conserved optics are used to combine multiple wavelength LED lights into a combined light. The combined light, with higher intensity and higher power than the light from an individual LED, is used to excite a wavelength conversion material such as phosphors to generate a high brightness and high power light. Light generated by multiple LEDs of the same wavelength may be coupled into a optical fiber bundle before inputting it into the wavelength-division multiplexer, further increasing the brightness and power. The wavelength conversion material may generate light of three different color under excitation by different LED lights, or a white light with higher brightness and higher power. Such a light source can be used in image display devices such as a projector or in illumination systems.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lighting devices and systems, and in particular, it relates to high brightness light sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Light sources are used in a wide variety of application, including image projection such as rear projection TV (RPTV) or front projector, headlights or illumination lights for transportation vehicles such as automobiles, motorcycles, boats and airplanes, etc. One import requirement for a light source is to provide high brightness and high power output at the same time. Currently, light sources for these and other applications are still dominated by traditional light sources such as high-pressure mercury lamps, Xenon lamps or metal halide lamps. However, the arc lamps have technical limitations in many applications: relatively short lifetime, difficulty to control and maintain its color, un-stability especially when operating in a pulsed mode. For many applications, especially in an environment where heat generation is undesirable or when electricity is unavailable, light from the light source needs to be coupled into optical fibers or waveguide and directed to where illumination is required. However, the coupling from the arc lamp into fiber can be costly, bulky, inefficient and unstable due to, e.g., the change of discharge arc itself from time to time. In many cases, the arc lamp also potentially interferes with other components in a system.
Solid state light sources, especially light emitting diodes (LEDs), exhibit longer lifetimes, lower power consumption, manageable wavelengths and other benefits in comparison with the above and other traditional light sources. Therefore, these solid-state light sources increasingly become the alternative or even preferred choice of light sources for a variety of applications. However, there are many performance issues that need to be improved for LEDs so that their applications can be broadened. Currently, two potential solutions can be explored to achieve high brightness and high power LED light sources. The first one is to further improve individual LED chip performance by increase chip dimension and improve its quality. However, this approach is limited by the total output of one individual chip, currently in tens of lumen level in the visible wavelength range. Going to larger area chips and higher driving currents can increase the total output but will compromise the device lifetime and brightness. The chip uniformity and thermal dissipation of large LED chip are serious limitation for this approach. The second approach is to package many LED chips together in an array structure to obtain high total output, up to hundreds even thousands lumens currently. The brightness of light directly from an LED array is significantly lower than that of single LED since the array brightness is limited by the relatively low package density of LEDs in the array. The major challenge of high-density LED packaging is the thermal management of the high power operation of LEDs since the LED interferes each other thermally if they are too close to each other. Due to the reasons discussed above, when the application demanding high brightness and high power at the same time, the traditional light source such as high pressure mercury lamp or metal halide lamp are still the choice of applications.

High brightness light source using light emitting devices of different wavelengths and wavelength conversion


A Moiré deflectometer includes at least three non-mechanical, transparent, spatial light modulators for demonstrating two sets of patterns on two parallel planes on two of the modulators thereby creating a Moiré fringe pattern and a method for using the same. More particularly, each of the spatial light modulators may be a liquid crystal display, an electrochromic device, a micromirror array, a microlouvre array, an electro-optic device, or a holographic device.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a Moiré deflectometer comprising at least two non-mechanical, transparent, spatial light modulators for demonstrating two sets of microscopic parallel lines on two parallel planes on two of the modulators thereby creating a Moiré fringe pattern and a method for using the same. More particularly, each of the spatial light modulators may be a liquid crystal display, an electrochromic device, a micromirror array, a microlouvre array, an electro-optic device, or a holographic device.
2. Description of Related Arts
The use of the basic ruled pattern to aid in testing of optical components, such as mirrors, was conceived by the Italian Vasco Ronchi in 1923. He used a ruled grating pattern of fine parallel lines to test the deviation of a mirror from its correct figure. In his experiments, the ruled grating pattern was put in front of the eye after removing the eyepiece from a telescope to visually assess the mirror quality. This was done by pointing the telescope at a star and viewing the deviations of the ruling grids from a straight line.
Moiré deflectometry involves the use of multiple mechanically ruled, fixed-period Ronchi gratings composed of a reflective or absorptive material deposited on a transparent substrate in straight lines that are spaced at uniform distances from one another. Two of these rulings are placed in the optical path of a surface under test. The shadow of the first Ronchi ruling is superimposed on the shadow of the second Ronchi ruling to produce Moiré fringes, which contain information about the mechanical and optical figure of the surface under test. From the Moiré fringes, it is possible to calculate the slope at every point by computing the tangent of the deflection angle. The deviations along each fringe make it possible to obtain a map of the slopes over the entire reflective surface. Using this technique, the mapping of the slopes is one-dimensional. In order to determine the slopes in the other dimension, the rulings must be rotated 90° from their original position.
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate the classical approach of a Moiré deflectometer design, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,459,027 and 4,810,895, which requires different arrangements for testing phase objects and reflective objects. A phase object is typically characterized as a transparent object that changes the phase of light as it passes through the object. Examples of phase objects are lenses, variation in the density of liquids, and thermal variations in the atmosphere. In the basic arrangement for testing phase objects as illustrated in FIG. 1, collimated beam passes through the phase object to be examined and then traverses the set of gratings G1 and G2 of identical pitch, p, separated by a distance Δ. Each grating is a piece in which numerous microscopic parallel lines are scribed. A Moiré pattern is formed by overlapping the shadow of the first grating with the shadow of the second grating on a mat screen attached to the grating G2. To analyze a reflective surface, such as a mirror, the arrangement is modified as illustrated in FIG. 2 in which the collimated beam is first projected onto a specular surface at an angle θ, and the reflected beam passes through the gratings G1, G2. The equations of the Ronchi rulings for G1 and G2 can be written as: y+f1 (x, y)=n p and y+f2(x, y)=m p where p is the pitch of the lines and n=1, 2, 3 . . . and m=1, 2, 3 . . . . When the difference between the two distorted gratings are superimposed to form a Moiré pattern and the substitution l=m−n is made, the result is: f1 (x, y)−f2(x, y)=l p. The arrangement suffers from an inherent distortion l×cosθ in one axis. Other interfering effects, such as shadowing, might occur at higher angles.
The arrangement was further developed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,895, as shown on FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. The basic arrangement for measuring a phase object is shown in FIG. 3 and comprises a point source light, which produces a diverging beam of light. The diverging beam of light passes through a beam splitter and is directed to an optical system, which includes an objective lens L1, the phase object and a mirror. The light from the diverging beam is collimated by lens L1, passes through the phase object and reflects off of the mirror and back through the phase object. The light returns to the beamsplitter and is directed to a second objective lens L2, where it is collimated and traverses the set of gratings G1 and G2. A Moiré pattern is formed by the overlap of the shadows of the first grating with the second grating and is viewed on a mat screen. By analogy with the discussion regarding U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,027, the arrangement shown in FIG. 3 can be modified as shown in FIG. 4 to measure specular objects, such as curved mirrors by replacing the flat mirror and objective lens L1 with a test mirror. In FIG. 4, a point source of light, such as a laser, produces a diverging beam of light, which, after passing through a beam splitter is directed to the optical system as the one in FIG. 3 that retraces the light in the form of a converging beam from the examined object back towards the point source. The major difference is that FIG. 4 does not contain the large objective lens L1 shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 4, the curved specular surface provides the same function of the objective lens L1 in FIG. 3.
An article published in 1979 by O. Kafri, "Tunable moiré grating for optical mapping," Opt. Lett. 4, 314–316, provides methods to change the instrument resolution by changing the spacing of the rulings and their pitch. The article suggests that mechanical linear or rotary motions of the Ronchi rulings or replacement with rulings of a different pitch can change the resolution of the Moiré deflectometer. However, either of these methods can compromise the critical optical alignment of the Ronchi rulings with other instrument optics and adversely impact the accuracy of the measurements.
There is a need for eliminating the limitations with Moiré deflectometry caused by the fixed Ronchi gratings thereby providing Moiré deflectometry surface measurements over a large dynamic range from one meter to ten micrometer spacial period bandwidth without image re-registration, mechanical adjustment, or software alignment.
Rather than any mechanically ruled gratings, U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,754 uses a light grid of parallel lines produced by a light source and a physical grid by a matrix composed of a large number of LEDs. The light grid is projected on a curved surface, such as an auto windshield, and then captured in a camera to be compared with a stored grid so as to determine the surface conditions. However, the projected grid does not contain information that can be related to a quantitative description of the surface contour. Further, the comparison requires a careful alignment between the captured grid and the stored grid.
The article by Sansoni et al, "A Novel Adaptive System for 3D Optical Profilometry Using a Liquid Crystal Light Projector," (IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, VOL. 43, No. 4, August 1994) provides a 3-D optical whole-field profilometer based on adaptive projection of one Ronchi grid by means of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit for industrial dimensional analysis, such as 3-D contouring and gauging of large-surface car parts, or fast dimensional analysis of objects in relation to recognition of targets by robots. The profilometer requires a well-defined geometric pattern between the entrance and exit pupils of the projection and imaging optics, and the pupil profile of the object is evaluated with respect to a well-defined reference surface. Demodulation is applied to the image of the grating deformed by the reference plane to obtain the reference phase map. Such a reference phase map must be acquired every time the profilometer is set up or calibrated. In addition, to change the profilometer sensitivity, the pitch of the LCD Ronchi ruling must be changed. The LCD projector can generate a coarse grid and a fine grid to increase resolution. The grating is varied in contrast and in period to adapt to the shape of the object under measurement.
There is a need for applying a light grid in Moiré deflectometry to define the surface contour of the object without a reference grid, a set of reference fringes, or a known geometric relationship between the instrument and the object. There is also a need to adjust the resolution of a Moiré deflectometer without mechanically changing the pitch of the lines of a ruling or moving the physical position of a ruling.
The article by Takacs et al, —"Surface Topography Measurements Over One Meter to TenMicrometer Spacial Period Bandwidth," SPIE vol. 1164, describes a method for measuring the surface contour of an object in the direction along the surface, rather than normal to the surface.
The article by O. Kafri and A. Livnat, "Reflective surface analysis using Moiré deflectometry," Appl. Opt 20, 3098–3100, 1981, describes using Moiré deflectometry to measure ray deflections from reflective surfaces. The article suggests that the sensitivity can be changed by varying the spacing between gratings but does not provide a method for doing so. Moreover, the article describes that the stability requirements are limited by the sensitivity of the measurement, which can be compromised by simply changing the location of the gratings through mechanical means.

Moiré deflectometer including non-mechanical, transparent, spatial light modulators for demonstrating two-axis rulings


A low cost pretensioner is provided by using an ignitable charge and initiator integrated with a piston which is disposed in a cylindrical metal tube that has a common straight gas generation and piston travel bore so that a inexpensive metal tube rather than a complex casting can be used. A cable is connected at one end to the piston and passes through a cable deflection device having a locking device for locking the cable against travel in a reverse direction after tightening the seat belt system. The locking device may be an inexpensive, one-piece wedge-shaped clamping or gripping device which transfers the high tensile forces from the passenger's body pulling on the cable through the deflection device to a vehicle anchorage rather than through a locking device which is disposed within the cylinder tube which must have tube walls sufficiently strong to withstand such high tensile forces.

Pretensioners are known which use a power operated device having a piston which is mounted within a cylinder and is driven by an ignitable charge to travel in a first direction and to pull a connecting member which is usually an attached, flexible member such as a cable to remove safety belt slack in the occupant restraint system. More specifically, the slack is removed by the cable, which is usually attached to a buckle part of a three-point buckle system in a downward direction to tighten the safety belt about the passenger. The power operated device includes a pyrotechnic gas generator which drives a piston attached to the cable forwardly to travel the necessary distance to remove the slack from the seat belt system. The pretensioner includes a cable deflection device which changes the direction of cable travel from a generally vertical direction at the buckle to a generally horizontal direction of travel for the cable end attached to the piston traveling in a horizontally disposed cylinder. When the piston has traveled to the full extent of its travel and has taken out the slack, the pretensioner will have pulled the person down on the seat and thereafter the person and the attached belt system begin to rebound upwardly.
To prevent the passenger from rebounding and returning slack into the seat belt system, a one-way locking mechanism is provided to resist the opposite direction rebound travel of the cable such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,513. As shown in this patent, the gas generator and the deflection device of the pretensioner include metal castings of complex shapes which add considerably to the cost of the pretensioner device and it is desired to eliminate the casting to reduce the cost of pretensioners. A pretensioner constructed without such a complex casting is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0030263; but in this pretensioner a tubular cylinder member has a piston with a locking device in the cylinder and an integral end portion of the cylinder bent at an acute angle and sized and shaped to hold a gas generator therein. Moreover, in most of these pretensioners the one-way clutch or one-way locking device for the cable is provided within the cylinder and is positioned on the piston and is cooperable with the cylinder wall. The cylinder must be made strong enough to transfer these forces from the piston and cable during the passenger's rebound pulling on the cable through the locking device and the cylinder to the pretensioner's anchorage on the vehicle. These cylinders usually have grooves serrations, or the like on their interior walls that cooperate with balls or other one-way locking components on the piston.
There is a need to simplify the pretensioner construction in order to reduce its cost and there is also a need to provide a simplified seat belt pretensioner in both the number of components and their assembly. Usually, these seat belt pretensioners are relatively large and costly, hence, there is a need to provide a slim profile and low cost pretensioner that provides not only a cost advantage but also provides a packaging advantage. There is simply not much space about the seats of a vehicle of various kinds to install a pretensioner and to attach it to the vehicle floor or to the seat. Thus, a slim profile for the pretensioner is desirable. Different vehicle specifications and/or different OEMS will require various sizes of charges and gas generation forces and it is desirable to be able to have a pretensioner that can provide such variable charges in an easy manner.

Pretensioner with integrated gas generator


An audio educational game includes a housing having a peripheral circuit provided with a power source, a speaker or buzzer, and a plurality of trigger switches disposed on a fixed figure board on the housing with each trigger switch terminated at an access path on the fixed board; at least a replaceable recording insert having a talking integrated circuit mounted in the insert electrically connectable with the power source and the speaker of the peripheral circuit on the housing and having a plurality of trigger pins operatively connectable to the plurality of trigger switches provided on the housing when replaceably engaging the insert with a socket recessed in the housing, and a replaceable figure board adhered on the insert having a plurality of target figures drawn or printed on the replaceable figure board with each target figure correspondingly facing, or abutting to each access path formed or printed on the fixed figure board on the housing; and a magnetically attractive slide slidably movable on the fixed figure board and operatively slid as magnetically driven by a magnet, which is positioned beneath a bottom of the housing and manually moved on handled, to any desired access path to approximate a corresponding target figure shown on the replaceable figure board on the insert to close a specific trigger switch to trigger the talking integrated circuit for pronouncing a speech or words with respect to a meaning of the target figure shown on the replaceable figure board, thereby enhancing the playing and educational functions.

A conventional audio educational kit as shown in FIG. 7 includes several figures F formed on a book-like structure each figure being operatively depressed to close a trigger switch S electrically connected to a speech integrated circuit IC, and plural explanation pages B respectively describing the relevant figures adjacent to the figures F, whereby upon a depression of a specific figure, the IC will pronounce a correct speech corresponding to the explanation page for educational purpose. However, it is just a simple depression-and-sounding device, lacking of vividness to spur a player's or learner's interest.
Another conventional educational game is designed to put all the figures F on the board as shown in FIG. 8, which may also cause the same defects as above-mentioned. Both conventional games as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 are made as fixed types, which can not be replaceable for diversified educational choices, thereby decreasing a learner's interest and limiting its commercial value.


Provided are a wavelength conversion apparatus in a Time Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network (TDM-PON) system based on a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system, and an optical transmission method using the wavelength conversion apparatus. Each subscriber does not need to have its own wavelength but transmits an uplink signal using a wavelength band used in the TDM-PON system and routs optical network unit (ONU) uplink signals belonging to the same ONU to a wavelength conversion apparatus positioned in a subscriber area. The wavelength conversion apparatus converts the ONU uplink signals into wavelengths and uplinks the wavelengths of an optical line terminal (OLT) of a central office (CO) so as to enable a WDM transmission. Thus, a method of constituting a wavelength conversion apparatus and a remote node (RN) using the wavelength conversion apparatus can be suggested to realize a hybrid-PON system into which TDM-PON system and WDM systems are combined. In the hybrid-PON system, an ONU uses a wavelength used in the TDM-PON system and requires a lower optical power than an ONU of the TDM-PON system. Therefore, the WDM system can be easily applied in an area in which the TDM-PON system is installed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wavelength conversion apparatus and method in a Time Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network (TDM-PON) system based on a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system, and more particularly, to a wavelength conversion apparatus in a hybrid-PON system in which a TDM-PON system is mixed with a WDM system and a method of constituting a remote node (RN) using the same.
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC. [2005-S-401-02, Optical Subscriber and Access Network Technology]
2. Description of the Related Art
Transmission speeds increase every year with an increase of demands for multimedia data and Internet according to demands of subscribers in homes and offices.
An X digital subscriber line (xDSL), a cable modem, etc. have been used to cope with the demands for an increase in transmission speeds. However, a bandwidth has almost reached the limits. Thus, Fiber to the x (FTTx), which performs connections to subscriber areas through optical cable, is regarded as a solution.
A PON system performs connections through optical cable to reduce the number of fibers and transceivers using an FTTx Star method and thus is regarded as being the most low-priced. Thus, several countries in the world have developed and standardized PON systems.
Representative examples of PON include a TDM-PON and a WDM-PON. The TDM-PON is representative of a Broadband PON (BPON), an Ethernet PON (EPON), and a Gigabit PON (GPON), and the WDM-PON is used to transmit data to subscribers in units of wavelengths.
However, TDM-PON and WDM-PON systems are intended for a small number of subscribers and thus are not suitable for a large scale subscriber network to which a large number of users subscribe.
The TDM-PON system connects optical cable using the Star method in order to provide super-high speed transmission services to between 16 to 32 subscribers.
The TDM-PON system allows several subscribers to share a bandwidth in the time domain. Initial installation costs for the TDM-PON system are low. However, a transmission speed is lowered with an increase in the number of subscribers, and the number of fibers must be increased in proportion to the number of subscribers in order to accommodate a large number of subscribers.
Subscribers connected to a PON share a fiber using a time multiplexing method. Thus, a transmission speed of a single subscriber is lowered with increases in the number of subscribers and a bandwidth used by each of the subscribers.
Optical cable of tens to hundreds of cores must be installed to provide services to apartments.
The WDM-PON system can solve the limitation in the bandwidth of the TDM-PON system. However, in the WDM-PON system, a transmitter must have WDM laser diodes (LDs) which radiate laser beams having different wavelengths in each optical network unit (ONU).
The WDM LDs of the ONUs have big disadvantageous in terms of price increases and management of the ONUs.
If the wavelengths of the laser beams radiated from the WDM LDs move, performance of the neighbor channel may be deteriorated, and service companies have difficulty managing stocks of the ONUs.
The WDM-PON allocates a wavelength to each of the ONUs in order to extend a bandwidth. However, each of the ONUs must have its own wavelength and thus costs increase and each of the ONUs is difficult to manage. There are not enough broadband contents to use all portions of a wavelength. Thus, the WDM-PON system has lower use efficiency of a bandwidth than the TDM-PON system.
An Injection Locking method has been suggested and developed by which general multi-mode LDs are used to radiate laser beams onto ONUs and allow incident laser beams having reference wavelengths to be radiated onto the ONUs from an external source. However, it is very costly to provide the reference wavelengths, and it is difficult to increase transmission speeds of the ONUs so as to adjust wavelengths.
Granularity is another problem of the WDM-PON system.
The TDM-PON system provides smaller units of bandwidths to subscribers, while the WDM-PON provides a single wavelength to each ONU. Thus, the WDM-PON requires an additional apparatus to divide the single wavelength into small bandwidths so that a large number of subscribers can use the small bandwidths.
The present invention provides a hybrid-PON system which can compensate for the disadvantages of the WDM-PON and TDM-PON systems.
The hybrid-PON system accommodates advantages of the TDM-PON and WDM-PON systems. Each ONU of the hybrid-PON system performs transmission and reception through a TDM-PON protocol. However, in the TDM-PON system, each group has its own wavelength and each ONU performs transmitting with each Optical Line Terminals (OLT) using a fiber so as to increase use efficiency of a bandwidth and reduce transmission costs.
The hybrid-PON system of the present invention (i.e., a TDM-PON system based on a WDM-PON system) can economically provide PON services in an area in which hundreds or more of subscribers are gathered, such as a large shopping center, an apartment, or the like.

Wavelength conversion apparatus in time division multiplexing—passive optical network system based on wavelength division multiplexing system, and optical transmission apparatus and method using the same

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A pressure transmitter having a capacitance-to-digital modulator produces an output as a function of sensor capacitance and a reference capacitance. Transmitter also includes a sensor failure mode detector produces an output signal and identifies failure modes of the sensor capacitance and reference capacitance.

The present invention relates to a measurement system. In particular, the present invention relates to a capacitance-to-digital modulator for use with a capacitive pressure sensor.
A field transmitter is a device that is used to monitor the operation of an industrial process. The field transmitter includes a transducer that responds to a measured process variable with a sensing element and converts the variable to a standardized transmission signal that is a function of the measured variable. The term "process variable" refers to a physical or chemical state of matter or conversion of energy. Examples of process variables include pressure, temperature, flow, conductivity, and pH.
One such transmitter is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,875 by Roger L. Frick and David A. Broden. This transmitter employs a capacitive sensor having a deflectable sensing diaphragm and three or more capacitor electrodes which form separate capacitive sensing elements with the diaphragm. Two of the capacitor elements are primary sensing capacitors that are arranged differentially so that the capacitances of the primary sensing capacitors charge oppositely in proportion to the process variable. The third and fourth capacitor elements are compensation capacitors that provide signals representing offset errors or hysteresis associated with the primary capacitors. As pressure is applied to one or both sides of the diaphragm, the diaphragm deflects. The deflection of the diaphragm can be detected by measuring a change in a ratio of electrical capacitance related to the deflection. This capacitance ratio is converted into a digital format using an analog-to-digital converter.
Another type of transmitter is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,637,802 and 6,089,097 by Roger L. Frick, Bennett L. Louwagie and Adrian C. Toy. The transmitter described in these two patents uses two absolute pressure sensors to measure differential pressure as well as two absolute pressures, with high resolution on the differential pressure measurement.
One particularly advantageous form of analog-to-digital converter uses a sigma-delta (or delta-sigma) modulator. The use of sigma-delta modulators in transmitters is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,091 by Roger L. Frick and John P. Schulte; U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,952 by Michael Gaboury; U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,746 by Rongtai Wang; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,672 by Rongtai Wang.
In a transmitter having a sigma-delta modulator acting as a capacitance-to-digital (CD) converter, an excitation circuit provides charge packets to the capacitive sensor elements. The sensor elements are charged by an amount based on the capacitance value of that capacitive element. The charges are transferred to an integrator/amplifier of the sigma-delta modulator to produce a one-bit binary output which is a function of a capacitance ratio.
The basic function of the CD modulator is to convert the capacitance ratio into a PCM (pulse code modulation) signal. For a CD modulator using sigma-delta architecture, the actual process involves converting a charge ratio into a PCM signal. Under normal operating conditions, since the charge is proportional to the capacitance, the charge ratio is equal to the capacitance ratio.
However, this equivalent relation is not true under certain abnormal operating conditions. Sensor failure mode conditions can occur in which the sensor is either disconnected from the CD converter or has failed due to a loss of physical integrity. The CD modulator may continue operating as usual without providing warning signals, even though the pressure readings no longer represent the true pressure under measurement.

Capacitance-to-digital modulator with sensor failure-mode detection


A composite girder is described which has a steel Wide Flange beam with the top flange of the Wide Flange beam being embedded in a reinforced concrete compression member that completely encases the top flange of the Wide Flange beam and also encases a portion of the web of the Wide Flange beam adjacent the top flange. The composite girder is intended for use in constructing parking garages and has a unique slope of the upper surface on the concrete compression member to permit drainage of floors constructed when pre-stressed, precast concrete double tees are utilized to span the distance between adjacent composite girders. Apparatus and a method for forming the composite girder in the field have been devised which include the erection of a temporary concrete form support above the steel Wide Flange beam and the pouring of the concrete to form the concrete compression member while the temporary form is in place. The elements of the temporary form and its support may be readily transported by truck before assembly and erection.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a composite girder formed from a steel Wide Flange beam with a concrete compression member. A method of forming the composite girder in the field and the apparatus for forming the girder are provided.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of structural beams utilizing combinations of metal and concrete have been proposed in the past. U.S. Pat. No. 1,768,626, French Patent 1,253,986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,099 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,688 all disclose "I" beams or joists partially enclosed in concrete for various structural purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 2,636,377, U.S. Pat. No. 3,440,793 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,138 disclose combinations of "I" beams and concrete reinforcement to strengthen the structural members. U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,800 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,523 disclose pre-stressed steel and concrete beams. U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,177 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,153 disclose methods and apparatus for forming pre-stressed structural members and concrete panels
None of the foregoing patents discloses a composite girder that is particularly adapted for use in the erection of parking garages. The present invention is directed to such a composite girder which has a concrete cap surrounding the upper flange of a steel Wide Flange beam to serve as a compression member. The concrete compression member attaches itself to the top flange of the Wide Flange beam and the web of the Wide Flange beam. The concrete compression member is at least twice as wide as the Wide Flange beam flange that it encases and has upper surfaces which are perpendicular to the web of the Wide Flange beam but which gradually slope relative to the horizontal surface of the Wide Flange beam flange so that the composite girder may be utilized in combination with other structural members to automatically effect drainage of water from parking garage surfaces.
Because a typical Wide Flange beam of the present invention can be 65 feet long, and the concrete compression member extends the full length of the beam, it is sometime more cost efficient to manufacture the composite girder in the field than to transport it long distances. A method and apparatus have been devised for manufacturing the composite girder in the field.

Composite girder with apparatus and method for forming the same


Capsules are provided which include a cup-shaped body and a lid which closes the cup-shaped body superiorly. The cup-shaped body includes a side wall and a bottom wall. The bottom wall has at least one outlet opening for the beverage to flow out of the capsule. The cup-shaped body also includes a retaining wall defining inferiorly an intermediate compartment containing the infusion product. The retaining wall includes an impermeable layer and is spaced from the bottom wall so as to define with the latter a lower compartment. The impermeable layer is configured to autonomously tear, due to the pressure reached in the intermediate compartment following the introduction of pressurized hot water into the capsule. Because tearing of the impermeable layer can take place without interaction with perforating elements, the filter element does not tear, and is therefore able to fully perform its filtering action for the entire duration of the preparation process of the beverage.

A capsule of the type identified above is known for example from WO 2014/037339. This known capsule comprises a generally frustoconical, cup-shaped body, with a larger base, or lid, through which pressurized hot water is introduced inside the capsule, and with a smaller base, or bottom wall, having an outlet opening through which the beverage flows out of the capsule to be collected in a container, for example a coffee cup. Inside the cup-shaped body a compartment adapted to contain the coffee is provided, which compartment is defined laterally by the cup-shaped body and inferiorly by an impermeable retaining wall. The retaining wall comprises a tearable aluminum membrane which is welded to the cup-shaped body so as to liquid- and air-tightly seal inferiorly the compartment containing the coffee. The retaining wall is spaced from the bottom wall of the capsule and between these walls is arranged a perforation plate adapted to pierce the aluminum membrane when the pressure inside the capsule increases.
To obtain the coffee/water infusion, the capsule is inserted into the percolation chamber of a coffee machine, where a certain amount of pressurized hot water is injected inside the cup-shaped body of the capsule through the lid and thereby mixes with the coffee. The entry of pressurized hot water causes an increase in pressure within the compartment containing the coffee and thus a deformation of the retaining wall towards the perforation plate. As a result of this deformation, the aluminum membrane of the retaining wall comes in contact with the perforating elements, such as points, of the perforation plate, until it tears. Alternatively, the aluminum membrane of the retaining wall may simply tear due to the increased pressure, even before coming into contact with the perforating elements of the perforation plate. The beverage may at this point flow out of the compartment through the passages made in the aluminum membrane as a result of tearing of the same and finally flow out of the capsule through the outlet opening provided in the bottom wall of the cup-shaped body.


A planar reflector is composed of a base and a flexible substrate having a high reflection layer formed thereon and overlayed on the base with an adhesive layer interposed between the high reflection layer and the base. The adhesion strength between the base and the substrate is at least 100 g/cm, and the thickness of the adhesive layer is not smaller than 0.5 .mu.m but not greater than 50 .mu.m. A curved reflector can be obtained by bending the planar reflector so that a curved surface having a radius of curvature not greater than 5 mm is formed presenting a concave surface on a side of the flexible substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a reflector using a light-reflecting film which is formed of a flexible substrate, such as a plastic film, as a base material and a thin metal film of high reflectance overlayed on the substrate.
The reflector according to this invention can be used as a reflecting plate for a mirror or the like or as a reflecting plate (lamp house) for a fluorescent lamp which is in turn employed as a backlight source of a liquid-crystal display panel adopted in a word processor, notebook computer or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Compared with mirrors using glass as a base material, light-reflecting films with a flexible substrate such as a plastic film or the like are lighter in weight and also better in impact strength and flexibility. By processing and/or working these light-reflecting films either as they are or after laminating them with an aluminum plate or the like, their utility is spreading as reflectors for copying machines, solar energy collectors, light reflectors for vegetable plants, high-performance light reflectors for fluorescent lamps, and reflectors for backlights in liquid-crystal displays.
Keeping step with the reduction in thickness and size of liquid-crystal displays in recent years, reflectors having a primary reflection area whose radius 3 of curvature is 10 mm or less as shown in FIG. 5 have begun to find increasing utility as reflectors (lamp houses) for backlights. Employed as such reflectors 1 include those obtained each by bending a reflector composed of a base 8 such as an aluminum plate and a coating film 4' of a resin or the like formed on the base as well as those obtained each by inserting a film with a high-reflectance metal layer such as a silver or aluminum layer thereon inside a base, such as an aluminum plate, bent in advance so that high reflectance can be achieved.
In addition to the above-described demand for the reduction in thickness and size of liquid-crystal displays, it is required especially recently to increase the light quantity of backlights in view of the adoption of color liquid-crystal displays.
The insertion of a film with a high-reflectance metal layer such as a silver or aluminum film inside a base, such as an aluminum plate, bent in advance involves problems in productivity and performance as a reflector such that the insertion is very cumbersome and irregular reflection may occur due to misalignment of the film so inserted or displacement of the film from a circle concentric with the outer circumference of a fluorescent lamp as a light source.
The present inventors studied the bending workability of reflectors, each formed by overlaying a film, which carried a high-reflectance metal layer formed thereon, on a base via an adhesive in a usual manner. As a result it was found that one having good performance as a reflector after bending could not be obtained unless its radius of curvature were substantially large, for example, 20 mm or greater. It was also found that--as the radius of curvature was progressively reduced, for example--wrinkles occurred in the film on the bent surface or blisters occurred between the film and the base such as an aluminum plate although the bending of the base was feasible. This was found to result in the problem that the reflecting ability of the reflector would be lowered or the reflecting surface of the reflector would become uneven, thereby failing to function as a reflector for a backlight.
To produce a reflector having a small radius of curvature, for example, of 5 mm or less, there has hence been no choice other than relying, despite its low productivity, upon a process wherein a plastic film carrying thereon a high-reflectance metal layer such as a silver or aluminum layer formed by evaporation or the like is wound directly on a fluorescent lamp or a film with a high-reflectance metal layer such as a silver or aluminum layer formed thereon is inserted, in a base, such as an aluminum plate, that has been bent in advance.
A reflector made of a general plastic film and a thin silver film layer formed thereon provides high reflectance at an initial stage of its use so that it can provide high luminance when employed as a reflector for a fluorescent lamp. When the present inventors evaluated it by continuously using the same as a reflector for a fluorescent lamp, a reduction in luminance was observed after the passage of several hundreds hours. It was found that its luminance would abruptly drop when continuously employed for a period as long as about 2,000 hours. In the course of an investigation for its cause by the present inventors, the reflector was found to involve the technological problem that its reflectance significantly drops by environmental factors such as heat and light, especially by ultraviolet rays from the fluorescent lamp and fails to function as a reflector for a fluorescent lamp as a backlight.

Curved reflector having a flexible substrate


The present invention provides Tumor Endothelial Marker 5α (TEM5α) polypeptides and nucleic acid molecules encoding the same. The invention also provides selective binding agents, vectors, host cells, and methods for producing TEM5α polypeptides. The invention further provides pharmaceutical compositions and methods for the diagnosis, treatment, amelioration, or prevention of diseases, disorders, and conditions associated with TEM5α polypeptides.

Technical advances in the identification, cloning, expression, and manipulation of nucleic acid molecules and the deciphering of the human genome have greatly accelerated the discovery of novel therapeutics. Rapid nucleic acid sequencing techniques can now generate sequence information at unprecedented rates and, coupled with computational analyses, allow the assembly of overlapping sequences into partial and entire genomes and the identification of polypeptide-encoding regions. A comparison of a predicted amino acid sequence against a database compilation of known amino acid sequences allows one to determine the extent of homology to previously identified sequences and/or structural landmarks. The cloning and expression of a polypeptide-encoding region of a nucleic acid molecule provides a polypeptide product for structural and functional analyses. The manipulation of nucleic acid molecules and encoded polypeptides may confer advantageous properties on a product for use as a therapeutic.
In spite of the significant technical advances in genome research over the past decade, the potential for the development of novel therapeutics based on the human genome is still largely unrealized. Many genes encoding potentially beneficial polypeptide therapeutics or those encoding polypeptides, which may act as "targets" for therapeutic molecules, have still not been identified. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to identify novel polypeptides, and nucleic acid molecules encoding the same, which have diagnostic or therapeutic benefit.

Tumor endothelial marker 5α molecules and uses thereof


According to one exemplary embodiment, a digitally controlled oscillator includes a capacitive tuning network, where the capacitive tuning network controls a frequency of an output signal of the digitally controlled oscillator. The capacitive tuning network includes a switched capacitor array, where a change of a first capacitance of the switched capacitor array causes the capacitive tuning network to change by a second capacitance, and where the first capacitance is larger than the second capacitance. According to this exemplary embodiment, the capacitive tuning network further includes a first capacitor coupled in parallel with the switched capacitor array. The first capacitor has a third capacitance, which is larger than the first capacitance. The capacitive tuning network further includes a second capacitor coupled in series with the first capacitor and the switched capacitor array. The second capacitor can have a fourth capacitance, where the third capacitance is larger than the fourth capacitance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally in the field of electrical circuits. More particularly, the invention is in the field of phase locked loops.
2. Related Art
Phase locked loops that are implemented with digital circuitry provide various advantages, such as increased reliability and ease of integration, compared to analog phase locked loops. In a digital phase locked loop, a digitally controlled oscillator is used in place of a voltage controlled oscillator for signal generation. A digitally controlled oscillator does not require a varactor diode for tuning, which saves a processing step and reduces mask cost compared to a voltage controlled oscillator.
However, in order to achieve a sufficiently high dynamic range, a digital phase locked loop requires a digitally controlled oscillator with a sufficiently low gain. In a digitally controlled oscillator, attaining a desirably low gain can be reduced to the ability to digitally control very small amounts of capacitance. However, known approaches to achieving sufficiently low gain in a digitally controlled oscillator suffer from various undesirable drawbacks.
In one approach, capacitors having appropriately small capacitances are switched in and out of a tank circuit of a digitally controlled oscillator in an attempt to achieve low gain. However, the parasitic capacitances of the switches ultimately limits the above approach and results in a digitally controlled oscillator having undesirably high gain. In another approach, a digital delta-sigma modulator is used to re-quantize the least significant bits of a control word to achieve a low gain digitally controlled oscillator. However, the digital delta-sigma modulator approach requires a sampling rate of 600.0 MHz or higher, which undesirably increases power consumption.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a digitally controlled oscillator having an appropriately low gain without a concomitant increase in power consumption.

Capacitive tuning network for low gain digitally controlled oscillator


A method for determining a local tissue function of tissue in a body region of interest of an examination object is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes segmentation of an outer contour of the tissue using at least one medical image recording representing the body region of interest of the examination object comprising the tissue; subdivision of the segmented tissue into at least two tissue regions; and ascertaining a function parameter relating to the tissue function for each of the at least two tissue regions. Embodiments also relate to a corresponding computing unit for determining a tissue function of tissue, a corresponding medical imaging system, a computer program and a computer-readable data carrier.

Apart from surgical removal of a tumor, conventional tumor therapy includes chemotherapy, during which a patient is given cytotoxic or cytostatic drugs for targeted killing of tumor cells or the prevention of tumor growth. It also includes radiation therapy during which a tumor is treated with ionizing or particle radiation, which is also intended to kill tumor cells. Tumor response is frequently ascertained using so-called RECIST criteria. Standard RECIST criteria are, for example, the long-axis diameter (LAD) or short-axis diameter (SAD) of a tumor, i.e. substantially information on the size of the tumor measured at a specific time of observation. Disappearance or shrinkage of the tumor ascertained over a treatment period by way of by RECIST criteria, in particular without the appearance of new lesions, is an indication of complete tumor response (CR) or partial tumor response (PR). In other words, the tumor is responding to the therapy used. The treatment is successful. The ascertainment of a constant tumor size over the treatment period is an indication of a stable disease (SD), which can also correspond to a successful outcome of the treatment. An increase in the size of the tumor or the appearance of new lesions is indicative of progressive disease (PD) and ultimately of the failure of the selected treatment method.
There are also more modern tumor treatment methods, such as, for example anti-angiogenesis or immunotherapy. Anti-angiogenesis is aimed at the use of drugs to restrict the blood supply to tumor tissue by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels within the tumor. Immunotherapy helps the body's own immune system to destroy tumor cells that would otherwise evade the body's own immune response.
Conventional treatment methods cause the size of the tumor to remain the same or to be reduced. However, at least for a transitional period, novel treatment methods often have no impact on the size of the tumor or can even result in tumor growth. The desired reduction is only seen after a longer duration of treatment. In addition, more recent therapeutic forms can cause structural changes to tumor tissue, for example necrosis inside the tumor.
Not least from an economic viewpoint, time is a critical factor in cancer therapy and hence it is important to ascertain the response to the selected therapy as early as possible. Due to the different mode of action of novel therapies, conventional criteria, such as RECIST, are found to be inaccurate or even false and hence these cannot be used in the specified time frames or can only be used to a restricted extent. Therefore, novel therapeutic procedures require criteria that enable conclusions to be drawn regarding the response of tumor cells to treatment, for example their local blood supply.
It is known to use contrast medium administration with quantitative, medical imaging methods, such as, for example, computed tomography (CT) with two different energy spectra (dual energy) or dynamic perfusion CT to depict perfusion or blood volume in tumor tissue in that, for example, the accumulation of contrast medium in tumor tissue is ascertained. To date, blood volume has been evaluated for the entire lesion and hence local differences in the blood supply or local changes to the blood vessel structure have not been taken into account. In other words, the blood volume ascertained in this way corresponds to an average blood volume across the entire lesion.
Although a manual definition or selection of regions of interest (ROIs) for analysis of local blood volume can identify local differences, this is heavily user dependent and hence poorly reproducible and fundamentally error-prone.
Alternative analytical methods, such as, for example, known texture analysis methods are supposedly able to use an evaluation of the structural properties of the depicted tumor tissue to create so-called multi-dimensional 'perfusion maps' for a tumor, but these react very sensitively to the smallest changes in the processing chain (reconstruction core, slice thickness, noise filter, etc.). Neither do these methods enable a comparison of initial and control measurements.

Ascertaining a function parameter relating to a local tissue function for plurality of tissue regions


External entity data access to the customer administrative system and database network elements of a telecommunications network is provided through a web-server and an Internet connection. The integrity and security of any stored data is protected through the use of a firewall implemented at the web-server. In one aspect, an interface is connected between the customer administrative system and database network elements and is also connected to the web-server to handle external entity requests by specifying not only which actions need to be taken but also routing the request to a proper destination. In a second aspect, the interface is by-passed with respect to the handling of external entity requests, with the web-server specifying the actions to be taken and routing the request to the proper destination.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless telecommunications systems and, in particular, to the use of web (i.e., Internet) technology to access and manage data stored in a customer administrative system (CAS) and/or a network element such as a home location register (HLR) database or a wireless service control node (WSCN).
2. Description of Related Art
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 wherein there is shown a block diagram of a portion of a telecommunications network 10 implementing an interface (IF) 12 between a customer administrative system (CAS) 14 and a plurality of database network elements (NE) 16. The interface 12, customer administrative system 14, and database network elements 16 are interconnected using a network 18 preferably comprising a network, such as an X.25 network, separate and apart from the telecommunications network 10. The telecommunications network 10 comprises a wireless (for example, cellular) communications system, and the database network elements 16 comprise, for example, a home location register (HLR) or a wireless service control node (WSCN). The home location register/wireless service control node functions in a database fashion to store permanent and temporary wireless subscriber data. The permanent data stored in the home location register/wireless service control node comprises fixed information concerning the communications service subscripted to by each subscriber. The temporary data stored in the home location register/wireless service control node comprises variable information concerning the current location of each subscriber. With respect to the wireless service control node, further functional operations are supported in connection with the provided of subscriber services (such as intelligent network services).
The customer administrative system 14 is utilized to engage in transactions relating to the administration of the permanent data stored in each database network element 16. These administration activities, in general, relate to transactions performed for the purposes of user (i.e., subscriber) creation or definition, service activation, and the like, relating to a given user. More particularly, the transactions relate to subscriber data administration tasks such as:
subscription initiation/removal/status,
subscriber activation/cancellation,
service provision/withdrawal/activation/passivation,
C-number (transfer) definition,
pass code changes, and
serial number changes.
The transactions may further relate to authentication administration tasks such as authentication activation/change/deactivation/status. Additionally, the transactions relate to numbering plan configuration including number range assignment, numbering plan deletion and numbering plan viewing.
A service operator is the entity that implements and maintains the infrastructure comprising the telecommunications network 10. The service operator typically utilizes licensed retailers to market and sell subscriptions for telecommunications services to individual users (i.e., the subscribers). The service operator may further sell blocks of subscriptions to yet another entity referred to as a service provider. The service provider then markets and leases/sells these subscriptions (perhaps also through the use of its own retailers) on an individual or group basis to end user subscribers.
Access to and management of the data stored in the customer administrative system 14 and the database network elements 16 is typically restricted to the service operator. In this regard, the service operator takes responsibility through its customer administrative system 14 for controlling the transactions discussed above relating to the administration of the permanent data stored in each database network element 16. Now that more and more service providers are purchasing blocks of subscriptions for their own management, there is an interest in granting the service provider access to the customer administrative system 14 and each database network element 16 for transactions and/or limited or restricted data entry, review and modification purposes in connection with the permanent data administration tasks. Similarly, in connection with the establishment of new subscriptions, retailers also desire access to the customer administrative system 14 and each database network element 16 for transactions and/or limited or restricted data entry, review and modification purposes. Furthermore, the users themselves desire access to their home database network element 16 for transactions and/or limited or restricted data entry, review and modification purposes in connection with maintenance of certain aspects of the permanent data comprising their subscription (such as, for example, their forward-to, speed dialing, and call screening lists).
Concerns over maintaining the integrity and security of the data stored in the customer administrative system 14 and each database network element 16 must be addressed before these kinds of external entity accesses are granted. Furthermore, an economical and user friendly mechanism is needed to provide the service providers, retailers and users with transaction-related data access to the customer administrative system 14 and each database network element 16.

Use of web technology for subscriber management activities


Radar signals can be detected by a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) receiver by modifying one or more pattern matching attributes. In one embodiment, the pattern matching attributes are modified when signal pulses received by the WLAN receiver are determined to have an increased likelihood of being radar signals. In one embodiment, a frequency variance of received signal pulses is used to determine the likelihood of received signal pulses being radar signals. The frequency variance is based, at least in part, on frequencies of Fast Fourier Transforms of the received signal pulses.

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of communication systems and, more particularly, to radar detection in a wireless communication system.
Some Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceivers share an operating spectrum with radar devices in the 5 GHz frequency band. The WLAN transceivers are typically designed to detect radar signals within the frequency bands of operation and, if any radar signals are detected, then the WLAN transceivers vacate operations in that particular band. Detecting radar signals can be difficult, particularly when wireless traffic is being transmitted in a currently selected frequency band.

Enhanced radar detection for communication networks


Dynamic adaptation is provided within web service composition and execution. Within a logical composition stage, a set of abstract workflows for a web service is selected from a number of generated abstract workflows. Within a physical composition stage, a set of executable workflows is selected from a number of executable workflows that are generated at least based on the set of abstract workflows selected. Within a runtime stage, an executable workflow to be executed is selected from the set of executable workflows and that particularly satisfies specified requirements. The executable workflow selected is executed within an execution environment. The executable workflow within the runtime stage, the set of executable workflows within the physical composition stage, and the set of abstract workflows within the logical composition stage are periodically dynamically assessed and reselected.

The demand for quickly delivering new applications and adaptively managing them has become a business imperative. For example, given the intense competition within the telecommunications sector, mobile telephony service providers have to continually develop compelling applications to attract and retain end users, and quickly bring them to market. However, as the applications run, network configurations and quality-of-service (QoS) offerings and requirements may change, new service providers and business relationships may emerge, and existing ones may be modified or terminated. It is thus a challenge to design robust and responsive systems that address these changes effectively, while continually trying to optimize the operations of a given service provider.
Web services assist the transition of businesses towards being on-demand and responsive, by facilitating seamless business-to-business or enterprise application integration. Within the prior art, a principled web service composition approach has been proposed that drives the process from specification to deployment and execution of a composite workflow. This solution introduces a differentiation between web service types and instances, and uses efficient techniques to create the desired functionality, as well as select components that optimize the non-functional attributes.
However, existing approaches to provide end-to-end service composition environments lack the ability to adapt to changes. Nevertheless, such ability to adapt to change can be a critical requirement within dynamic business environments. A limited, albeit naive, approach is to adapt a solution by statically recomposing the solution from scratch every time a change occurs. However, this is not a feasible solution for multiple reasons. First, a significant amount of intervention from the developer is required. Second, there can be an inability to cope with the rate at which change occurs. Third, the complexity involved in exploring the composition search space can prohibit complete static recomposition.
Therefore, there is a need within the prior art for creating and executing Internet web services that adapts to changes within the operating environment at various stages of composition, deployment, and runtime. In the case of a failure or QoS or other changes, such a system should recover by replacing failed components with available alternatives. For these and other reasons, there is thus a need for the present invention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic adaptation in web service composition and execution

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is directed to novel synthetic methods for preparing a spiro cyclopropyl indolinone compound represented by Structural Formula (A):

Certain spiro cyclopropyl indolinone compounds, such as those described U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/211,988, published internation application WO2010/115279 and the international application entitled "Kinase Inhibitors and Method of Treating Cancer With Same", filed Apr. 6, 2011, are potent kinase inhibitors, such as polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) and Aurora Kinases (the entire teachings of the three foregoing applications are incorporated herein by reference). A need exists for new synthestic methods of these compounds.

Synthesis of chiral 2-(1H-indazol-6-yl)-spiro[cyclopropane-1,3′-indolin]-2′-ones

Abstract: or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. Also included are synthetic intermediates described herein.


Provided is a deposition apparatus including a connection channel connecting a gas inflow channel and a gas outflow channel so as to increase cleaning efficiency by providing a portion of cleaning gas to the dead space of the gas inflow channel and controlling a flow of a cleaning gas.

1. Field
The described technology relates generally to a deposition apparatus and a cleaning method using the deposition apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a semiconductor device is gradually miniaturized and demand for precision control of a thin film to be deposited is increased, deposition reactors with various structures for satisfying the demand have been proposed.
Traditionally, a shower-head type of reactor has been frequently used, but due to complexity of its structure, generation of contaminants such as particles and difficulty of removing the contaminants have been pointed out as problems. As an alternative, a flow-type reactor in which gases flow horizontally on the substrate was proposed and has been successfully applied in the actual mass production. Particularly, the flow-type reactor has an advantage of having a simpler structure than the shower-head type reactor and optimizing a volume of a reaction space to swiftly switch gases.
Meanwhile, the importance of cleaning efficiency when the reactor is cleaned after deposition has been increased as much as deposition efficiency when the deposition apparatus is operated. When the cleaning efficiency is low, the maintenance period of the apparatus is increased as much as the low cleaning efficiency and thus actual production efficiency is decreased.
Particularly, in the case of a flow-type deposition apparatus, reaction gas flows through a plurality of gas flow channels, and cleaning gas is supplied through some of the plurality of gas flow channels.
When the cleaning gas is supplied, there is a problem in that cleaning is not sufficiently performed in the gas flow channel because the cleaning gas is not sufficiently supplied to the gas flow channel.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Deposition apparatus and cleansing method using the same