Processes for making an organozinc reagents are disclosed comprising reacting (A) organomagnesium or organozinc complexes with (B) at least one coordination compound comprising one or more carboxylate groups and/or alcoholate groups and/or tertiary amine groups, optionally in combination with zinc ions and/or lithium ions and/or halide ions, wherein the halide ions are selected from chloride, bromide and iodide, the organozinc complex comprises an aryl group, a heteroaryl group or a benzyl group when the coordinating compound is a chelating polyamine, and the reaction is conducted in the presence of zinc complexed with at least one coordinating compound when reactant (A) comprises at least one organomagnesium complex. The resulting organozinc reagents may optionally be isolated from solvents to obtain a solid reagent. The reagents may be used for making organic compounds via Negishi cross-coupling reactions or via aldehyde and/or ketone oxidative addition reactions. The organozinc reagents are stable and, due to their high selectivity, permit maintenance of sensitive functional groups such as aldehydes during cross-coupling.

Transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of organometallics are key transformations in organic synthesis. Their broad spectrum of applications ranges from the synthesis of small molecular units to the construction of organic materials and complex natural products. Besides Kumada-Corriu-coupling, the Suzuki-Miyaura-, and the Negishi-cross-coupling reactions are of great importance in various chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing applications.
Organozinc reagents used in Negishi-couplings can be prepared in a convenient and cheap way by direct oxidative addition of zinc metal into organic halides. Various functionalized aryl, heteroaryl and benzylic zinc reagents are accessible via such cross-coupling reactions in good yields. Cross-coupling reactions with zinc organometallics can be performed under mild conditions and in good yields with a broad spectrum of electrophiles. Consequently, organozinc reagents are of considerable interest for industrial applications. They can be stored as solutions in THF under inert gas atmosphere for several weeks without significant loss of activity.
However, it would be advantageous in terms of storage as well as transportation and manipulation on an industrial scale to use organozincs as solid materials. So far, zinc reagents of the composition RZnX, RZnX.LiCl and RZnX.MgCl2.LiCl (R=aryl, heteroaryl, benzyl, alkyl and X=Cl, Br, I) have only been obtained as highly viscous oils after the evaporation of the solvent and have therefore not been available as solids.
There is also a desire to increase the selectivity of cross-coupling reactions to allow sensitive functional groups such as ester, aldehyde, nitrile and nitro to be present in the electrophiles.
The invention disclosed herein addresses this and other shortcomings in metalated reagents suitable for use in commercial-scale cross-coupling reactions as further described and disclosed below.

Organozinc complexes and processes for making and using the same


Fastener components, and method of making fastener components for securing loop-carrying members are disclosed. The fastener component includes a tubular structure, and a plurality of discrete projections extending from a surface of the tubular structure. Each projection includes a molded stem of resin integral with the surface from which the projection extends, and a loop-engageable head formed at a distal end of the stem to overhang the surface. A majority of the projections are directed away from a common, open longitudinal end of the tubular structure to allow longitudinal overlap of the fastener component with a complementary loop-carrying member received from the longitudinal end, but to resist subsequent removal of the loop-carrying member toward the longitudinal end due to engagement of the projections.

Arrays of molded male fastener elements, e.g., hooks are often formed integrally with a sheet-form base, to provide a sheet-form fastener component. This component can then be engaged with female fastener elements to form a "hook and loop" fastener. It is generally desirable that the fastener elements have good strength and toughness, so as to provide strong engagement during repeated use of the fastener.
Hook and loop fasteners have numerous applications, including the manufacture of automobile seats. In recent years, seats for cars and light trucks have been formed by molding a foam bun that will serve as the seat cushion, and then attaching a pre-stitched fabric cover to the foam bun. Often, the fabric cover is attached to the foam bun by insert molding touch fastener strips into the outer surface of the foam bun and attaching cooperating touch fastener strips to an inner surface of the fabric cover. Generally, the fastener strips are attached to the fabric cover along the seams where the cover is stitched together, and held in place by the seam stitching. The touch fastener strips allow the seat manufacturer to rapidly and semi-permanently attach the fabric cover to the foam bun by pulling the fabric cover over the foam bun and pressing the opposed touch fastener strips on the foam bun and fabric cover together.
The touch fastener strips on the foam bun are typically recessed in trenches, to allow the seams in the fabric cover to be indented below the surface of the seat cushion. Indenting the seams in this manner forms aesthetically appealing indented creases in the surface of the seat cushion upholstery for a tailored look. The trenches also accommodate the additional thickness of upholstery fabric that is created where the seam is stitched.
For example, a foam bun 10, shown in FIG. 1, includes a central, generally planar portion 12, and a pair of bolsters 14,16 disposed on either side of the central portion 12. The central portion 12, and bolsters 14,16 are separated by trenches 18 which define sweeping curves. Trenches 18 are located in the seat cushion at the point of change in curvature formed where the surface of bolsters 14,16 on the side of seat cushion 10 intersect central portion 12.
As shown in FIG. 2, touch fastener strips 24 are bonded to the bottom surface 17 of trenches 18, e.g., by insert molding the foam bun 10 onto the touch fastener strips 24 with hook elements 25 exposed for engagement with cooperative fastener strips 27 that are sewn to the fabric cover 29 along seams 31. Because the trenches 18 are indented below the surface 33 of the central portion 12, when the cooperative touch fastener loops 27 are pressed against the touch fastener strips 24 the double thickness of fabric 35 that is below seam 31 will be recessed in the trenches, resulting in a smooth outer surface at the seam area of the seat cover.
This attachment method works well for fabric covers having straight seams. However, if the fabric cover has seams that define sweeping curves, e.g., seams that have a curvature similar to that of trenches 18 in FIG. 1, problems can occur because as the touch fastener strip extends around the curve in the trench the strip will tend to buckle. Seat designs having curved seams have become increasingly popular in the automotive industry, and thus attempts have been made to address this problem. Some manufacturers have cut and pieced together short sections of straight touch fastener strips. Other manufacturers have cut out curved sections from wider strips of touch fastener material. Both methods can be inefficient, time consuming, can waste material, and can result in an undesirably high production cost.
In general, the attachment of a pre-stitched fabric cover to the foam bun requires considerable time, skill, and dexterity because space is tight, and alignment of the fabric over the bun is difficult, especially at trench edges 36 (FIG. 1).
There is a need in certain applications for fasteners that are simple to use, and when engaged, provide strength in a desired direction.
There is also a need to be able to consistently, and efficiently produce fastener components having differing functional characteristics, using techniques that require limited changeover in basic tooling, yet allow for adjustments to produce the desired fastener characteristics.


A backup device and a one-key data backup method for the same use a backup device having ability to retrieve a memory card and an optical disc. The backup device is connected to an external computer. A backup application is installed having backup conditions configured in the external computer. When an input unit of the backup device is triggered, the backup device sends a backup request instruction to the external computer. The external computer executes the backup application upon receiving the backup request instruction, and records data of the memory card to an optical disc, or saves the data of the optical disc in the memory card based on configured backup conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a backup method, in particular, relates to a backup method using a one-key trigger.
2. Description of Prior Art
With the spread of computers and the advancement of technology, people nowadays heavily depend on digital technology in everyday life, which leads to a rapid increase of digitalized data. Analogue mediums used for data storage for example: photos, motion films as well as music tapes, rolls and cassettes, are converted to and replaced by digital storage medium providing people ease of use.
Along with the trend in using digital data in common, digital data storage mediums such as an optical disc, a hard drive, a memory card and a portable drive become indispensable necessities one cannot live without. Yet, each mentioned storage medium is used in specific fields. For example, a rewritable optical disc (CD-RW or DVD-RW) is used for recording data backup, a hard drive is used as main database in a computer, and a memory card is generally used in a digital camera. Nonetheless, digital mediums come with diversified choices, data transfer or data backup between above mentioned storage mediums involves complicated procedures which troubles users.
For example, data capacity of a memory card increases while the price drops significantly. Yet, a data storage configuration of a memory card supported by a digital camera was limited by the architecture of the digital camera during development. Currently, a digital camera typically supports a memory card with data storage capacity up to 4 G Bytes or 8 G Bytes the maximum. There are older models only supports a memory card with data storage capacity up to 2 G Bytes, which are totally behind the technology development of memory cards. As a result, users of old models have to keep more than one memory card as spare in case the users need more storage space. It is also an essential procedure to the users to regularly create data backup of the memory card and delete old data in the memory card. Generally, users of digital cameras categorize photos according to shooting date, locations or themes and record data backups on different optical disc. In an example of creating digital photo backup, required steps are listed in the following:                1. Insert a memory card into a card reader and connect the card reader to a computer;        2. Put an optical disc in an optical disc recorder, and connect the optical disc recorder to a computer;        3. Launch a recording application;        4. Select a source location and a target location;        5. Select data to record in the source location;        6. Performing data recording;        7. Delete data in the memory card upon the recording is completed.
As mentioned above, the backup data steps are complicated and uninteresting. The whole back up process is repetitive and lengthy. Further, not every user is familiar with detailed operation steps of a recording application. It is desirable to provide a most convenient and simplest method to rapidly create data backup between various storage mediums.

Backup device and one-key data backup method for the same


Methods and apparatus provide a means to rapidly develop and modify prototype surface coverings for customer review and approval, and fill the commercial pipeline while more conventional production equipment is obtained, installed and tested. The present apparatus to rapid prototype and fill the commercial pipeline includes a digital printing system to print a film and a press for laminating and embossing the printed film to a substrate. The press uses an embossing plate or roll, which is made from ebonite or by three-dimensional printing equipment. These plates and rolls can be produced within two or three days or less.

Developing new designs for surface coverings, by producing a prototype to show a potential customer prior to making a mass produced product available, is expensive and typically takes three months or more. This is mainly due to the cost and time to develop print cylinders and embossing cylinders.
Customers are demanding shorter and shorter development times and more input into the final design of the product. It would be advantageous to have a means to quickly (within a matter of days) modify a design, produce a prototype that will faithfully imitate the final product, and be capable of producing commercial quantities of the final product at a rate to meet initial commercial demand.
Current methods of prototyping surface covering are expensive, because each change in design requires the rotogravure printing cylinder and the standard embossing roll to be re-etched or re-engraved. If the surface covering is chemically embossed, any change in the chemical embossing also requires re-etching or re-engraving of the print cylinder. The process of remaking the cylinders is expensive and time consuming.

Rapid prototyping and filling commercial pipeline


The subject invention provides totipotent, chlorophyllous, cell cultures of maize. In addition, the methods of producing such cultures are applicable to other related species, including cereals such as rice, oats, barley, and heat. The subject cultures are valuable for herbicide studies, studies for enhancing photosynthesis, and genetic manipulation, such as plastid transformation. The methods of the subject invention are capable of providing high percentages of totipotent cells. These cells are capable of sustained cell division and are competent for regeneration over long periods; they provide high-quality target tissue for nuclear and organelle transformation. The invention also describes methods for the introduction of heterologous DNA into the chloroplast genome. The present invention also provides methods, vectors, and gene constructs for enhancing expression of a recombinant nucleic acid sequence in transgenic plants and plant tissues.

Recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering have made it possible to introduce desired DNA sequences into plant cells to allow for the expression of proteins of interest. The relative ease of obtaining commercially viable transformation events in important crops, however, remains a challenge.
Transformation of plant cells and tissues with foreign DNA can be achieved in a number of ways known to the art. For example, (a) particle bombardment of cultured cells (Gordon-Kamm et al., 1990, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,244), immature embryos (Koziel et al., 1993), meristems (Lowe et al., 1995); (b) electroporation of immature embryos (D'Halluin et al., 1992), cultured cells (Laursen et al., 1994); (c) electroporation and/or polyethylene glycol treatment of protoplasts (Rhodes et al., 1989; Omirulleh et al., 1993), and (d) co-cultivation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Ishida et al., 1996; Hiei et. al., 1997; Zhao et al., 1998). See also U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,394, which relates to the use of magnetizable microparticles and magnetic fields for transformation.
Cho et al. (Plant Science 138 [1998] 229-244) relates to a system for transformation of barley. Cho et al. (Plant Science 148 [1999] 9-17) relates to a system for transformation of oats. Cho et al. (Plant Cell Reports [2000] 19:1084-1089) relates to the production of transgenic fescue by particle bombardment. Cho et al. (Plant Cell Reports [2001] 20: 318-324) relates to transformed orchardgrass. U.S. 20010031496 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,235,529 relate to plant transformation and regeneration. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,736,369 and 6,486,384 relate to the transformation of cereals. U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,555 relates to maize transformation. Zhang et al. (Plant Cell Reports [1999] 18: 959-966) relates to an oat transformation system that uses high concentrations of mannitol and sorbitol (0.2M) as osmotic treatments prior to particle bombardment. This is done to partially desiccate the cells so that they do not burst upon impact by the particles.
Plant cells can be grown in isolation from intact plants in tissue culture systems. Plant tissue cultures can be initiated from almost any part of a plant. Pieces of plant tissue will slowly divide and grow into a colorless mass of cells if they are kept in special in vitro culture conditions. The cells have the characteristics of callus cells, rather than other plant cell types. Callus cells appear on cut surfaces when a plant is wounded; these cells gradually cover and seal the damaged area.
Tissue culture cells generally lack the distinctive features of most plant cells. They have a small vacuole, and lack chloroplasts and photosynthetic pathways; structural or chemical features that distinguish many cell types within the intact plant are absent. They are most similar to the undifferentiated cells found in meristematic regions; the cells become fated to develop into each cell type as the plant grows. Tissue cultured cells can also be induced to re-differentiate into whole plants by alterations to the growth media.
Totipotency is the ability of undifferentiated plant cells to develop, in vitro, into whole plants or plant organs, when given the optimum in vitro culture conditions. Totipotent cells that undergo rapid division are generally regarded as highly suitable targets for introduction of DNA as a first step in the generation of transgenic plants. In corn, one prolific source of such cells is the so-called Type II callus (Armstrong and Green, 1985).
In maize, totipotent cell cultures typically proliferate in vitro as clusters of non-green cells and only synthesize chlorophyll in mature chloroplasts upon shoot differentiation during plant regeneration. However, green or chlorophyllous cultures organize plastome structures in the presence of light and develop chloroplasts. The cell cultures of photoautotrophic or photomixotrophic cells have functional chloroplast in a sugar-free or minimal medium, respectively. Such cultures are common in dicots, and several plants such as soybean, tobacco, Chenopodium, Datura, and cotton can be used for making such cultures routinely. However, such cultures are rare or nonexistent for most or all monocots, with an exception of blue grama grass (green embryogenic suspension cells) (Aguado-Santacruz et al. 2001: Plant Cell Rep 20: 131-136). There are few, if any, other reports of monocots where some green callus/tissue development was achieved. Any such attempts were typically aimed at improving regeneration or improved recovery of transgenic plants.
The plastids of higher plants are an attractive target for genetic engineering. Chloroplast (a type of plastid) transformation has been achieved and is advantageous. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,932,479; 6,004,782; and 6,642,053. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,693,507 and 6,680,426. Advantages of transformation of the chloroplast genome include:                1) potential environmental safety because transformed chloroplasts are only maternally inherited and thus are not transmitted by pollen out crossing to other plants;        2) the possibility of achieving high copy number of foreign genes; and        3) eduction in plant energy costs because importation of proteins into chloroplasts, which is highly energy dependent, is reduced.
Plant plastids (chloroplasts, amyloplasts, elaioplasts, etioplasts, chromoplasts, etc.) are the major biosynthetic centers that, in addition to photosynthesis, are responsible for producing many industrially important compounds such as amino acids, complex carbohydrates, fatty acids, and pigments. Plastids are derived from a common precursor known as a proplastid; thus, the plastids in a given plant species all have the same genetic content.
Plastids of most plants are maternally inherited. Consequently, unlike heterologous genes expressed in the nucleus, heterologous genes expressed in plastids are not disseminated in pollen. Therefore, a trait introduced into a plant plastid will not be transmitted to wild-type relatives. This offers an advantage for genetic engineering of plants for tolerance or resistance to natural or chemical conditions, such as herbicide tolerance, as these traits will not be transmitted to wild-type relatives.
The plastid genome (plastome) of higher plants is a circular double-stranded DNA molecule of 120-160 kb which may be present in 1,900-50,000 copies per leaf cell (Palmer, 1991). In general, plant cells contain 500-10,000 copies of a small 120-160 kilobase circular genome, each molecule of which has a large (approximately 25 kb) inverted repeat. Thus, it is possible to engineer plant cells to contain up to 20,000 copies of a particular gene of interest; this can potentially result in very high levels of foreign gene expression.
Stable transformation of the tobacco plastome has been achieved through the following steps: (i) introduction of transforming DNA, encoding antibiotic resistance, by the biolistic process (Svab et al. 1990; Svab and Maliga 1993) or PEG treatment (O'Neill et al., 1993), (ii) integration of the transforming DNA by two homologous recombination events and (iii) selective elimination of the wild-type genome copies during repeated cell divisions on a selective medium. Spectinomycin resistance has been used as a selective marker encoded either in mutant plastid 16S ribosomal RNA genes (Svab et al. 1990; Staub and Maliga 1992), or conferred by the expression of an engineered bacterial aadA gene (Svab and Maliga 1993). Vectors that utilize aminoglycoside adenyltransferase (aadA) as a selectable marker gene, and target the insertion of chimeric genes into the repeated region of tobacco plastome, are available (Zoubenko et al., 1994). Selection of plastid transformants by kanamycin resistance, based on the expression of neomycin phosphotransferase, is more difficult but also feasible (Carrer et al., 1993).
Until recently, successful plastid transformation techniques for higher plants have been limited to model crop plants such as tobacco (U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,513; Svab et al. (1990), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87: 8526-8530 and Svab et al. (1993), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90: 913-197) and Arabidopsis (Sikdar, et al. (1998) Plant Cell Reports 18: 20-24). A review of plastid transformation of flowering plants is provided by Maliga (1993) Trends in Biotech. 11: 101-107.
Furthermore, the methods described for Arabidopsis plants, produce infertile regenerates. PCT Publication WO 97/32977 also describes methods for the plastid transformation of Arabidopsis and provides prophetic examples of plastid transformation of Brassica plastids. However, transplastomic Brassica plants were not produced using the methods described therein. U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,206 relates to plastid transformation of Brassica.
Plastomic transformation was extended to potatoes and tomatoes (see e.g. Sidorov et al., The Plant Journal, vol. 19, iss. 2, page 209 (July 1999); and Ruf et al., Nature Biotechnology, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 870-875 (September 2001); respectively). However, these plants are closely related to tobacco, and it is possible to work the tobacco protocol to produce transplastomic tomato and potato. Thus, one would not have expected to apply the tobacco technology beyond the tobacco family (Nicotinaceae) to crop plants.
More recently, three more plants have been shown to be susceptible to plastomic transformation: cotton, carrots, and soybeans (see e.g. Kumar and Daniell, Plant Molecular Biology, "Manipulation of gene expression facilitates cotton plastid transformation of cotton by somatic embryogenesis and maternal inheritance of transgenes" in press (2004); Kumar and Daniell, Plant Physiology, "Plastid expressed betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase gene in carrot cultured cells, roots and leaves confers enhanced salt tolerance," in press (2004); and Nathalie Dufourmantel, Bernard Pelissier, Frederic Garcon, Gilles Peltier, Jean-Marc Ferullo, Ghislaine Tissot, "Generation of fertile transplastomic soybean," Plant Molecular Biology, Volume 55, Issue 4, July 2004, Pages 479-489). The use of tissues other than leaf explants as target material has been demonstrated in all three of these plants, where the target material was embryos or embryogenic callus. However, there appears to be limitations in the selectable markers that could be successfully used to achieve plastomic transformation. This is currently limited to only Spectinomycin, aphA6/npt (neomycin class antibiotic), and EPSPS (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase) marker (including the other ones glyphosate oxido -reductase (GOX) and the aroA gene see U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,060). Biolistics is the most preferred DNA delivery method that is used to enable this technology in these system. PEG mediated delivery has been also reported, but not widely used to transform plastids.
With possibly one exception of blue grama grass (Aguado-Santacruz et al. 2001: Plant Cell Rep 20: 131-136), no other monocots (including any cereal cultures) are reported to be chlorophyllous, photoautotropic, and/or photomixotropic. The methods of Aguado-Santacruz et al. were unsuccessfully applied to maize. See Example 10, below.
For corn and cereals, as well as dicots, a chlorophyllous photoautotropic suspension system that remains embryogenic and could regenerate into plants would be ideal for photosynthetic, herbicidal, and plastid genetic manipulation studies. However, such systems have not heretofore been known in the art.

Chlorophyllous totipotent maize cell cultures


This method comprises the following steps of applying a watermarking function to motion vectors calculated by estimation of movement between images of a video signal, followed by a step of generating the watermarked video signal by compensating movement with the aid of the watermarked motion vectors. The watermarking function is applied by marking the coordinates of the selected motion vector in a reference space, certain portions of this space constituting a first zone and the other portions of this space constituting a second zone complementary to the first, assigning a binary value to each of the two zones, and, if necessary, modifying the coordinates of the selected motion vector so that it is in the zone whose binary value corresponds to a bit of a marking key associated with the selected motion vector.

A method of the above kind is described in the paper by F. Jordan, M. Kutter, and T. Ebrahimi, "Proposal of a watermarking technique for hiding/retrieving data in compressed and decompressed video", ISO/IEC document JTC1/SC29/WG11/MPEG97/M2281, of July 1997. In that document, the watermarking function is applied with the aid of a marking key. This is a binary word of 16 or 32 bits inserted into the motion vectors of the video signal, which motion vectors are obtained with the aid of an MPEG4 encoder. The number of motion vectors selected is the same as the number of bits in the marking key, i.e. 16 or 32 motion vectors are selected. Then, for each of the vectors selected, the corresponding bit of the marking key is inserted into one of the components of the motion vector, for example the vertical component, modifying its parity.
Unfortunately, that solution is not very robust, since the slightest attack can transform an even ordinate into an odd ordinate and vice-versa. Here, the term "attack" means malicious attacks and also non-malicious attacks such as compression or changing the spatial or the temporal format of the video signal. Moreover, by always modifying the same predetermined component of the selected motion vectors, for example the vertical component, that solution runs the risk of making the watermarking more visible in the video signal.

System and method of watermarking a video signal and extracting the watermarking from a video signal


A variable arc gap plasma igniter element includes electrodes moveable relative to each other. The electrodes are preferably set to define a smaller air gap to initiate a plasma arc and later extended to obtain longer plasma arc.

An ignition system for a gas turbine engine may include a plasma igniter. A plasma arc is generated across an air gap between two electrodes to light fuel in a combustion chamber. The size of the air gap between the two electrodes is a problematic in igniter design. Larger air gaps provide plasma arcs with higher energy but require higher breakdown voltages which can lead to failure in other locations such as at lead connections. Smaller gaps are subject to short circuit if carbon accumulates in the gap.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved plasma igniters.


The invention concerns methods and devices for bending a cylindrical tube or the like (1) so as to obtain two consecutive sections (2, 3) of said tube forming between them a non-null angle alpha. The method is essentially characterised in that it consists in producing, in the wall (4) of the tube (1), a wave (20) defined between two flanks (22, 23) forming between them a non-null angle beta substantially centred on the separation plane (21) between the two sections, then in producing a permanent plastic deformation of the wave (20) until the value of the angle between the two sections (2, 3) is obtained. The device enables to implement said method. The invention is useful in particular but not exclusively, for producing pipes for transporting fluids in motor vehicles or the like.

The present invention relates to methods for curving, or bending in the usual terminology in the art, a tube that is cylindrical or substantially cylindrical, or the like, i.e. of a general shape that even if not purely cylindrical can be considered as having that shape, said substantially cylindrical shape being optionally circularly symmetrical, and optionally rectilinear.
The present invention also relates to apparatus for implementing such methods, having applications that are particularly, but not exclusively, advantageous in making fluid admission and exhaust tube necks for motor vehicle engines.
Methods already exist for curving or bending a cylindrical tube or the like. The simplest method consists in exerting forces on the two segments of tube situated on either side of the location where the bend is to be made, said forces tending to bring said two segments angularly towards each other. That solution presents major drawbacks that are described below.
The tube flattens where it is being bent, thereby changing the size of its cross-section which can constitute a fluid-flow constriction that is unacceptable in certain applications. In addition, cracking occurs at the bend, which weakens the strength of the tube wall and can lead to leaks.
To mitigate those drawbacks, an angularly-deformable guide is placed inside a tube such as a string of cone inserts hinged one after another so that while the tube is being bent, its inside section remains substantially constant.
However, that method still presents a drawback because it can be used only if the segments situated on either side of the bend are relatively long and if the radius of curvature is quite large. It therefore does not enable a sequence of relatively tight bends to be made close to one another.

Method and device for bending a cylindrical tube or the like


A synthetic resin pallet including a top board, a bottom board disposed opposite to the top board, and a plurality of cylindrical blocks for connecting the two boards. A fork entry port is formed between the blocks. The synthetic resin pallet is manufactured by making one pallet constructive member and another pallet constructive member face to each other. The one pallet constructive member includes the board and cylindrical block constructive members integrally formed on the inside of the board. The other pallet constructive member includes the board and block constructive member integrally formed on the inside of the board. Reinforcing ribs are formed lengthwise and crosswise on the inside of the surface of at least one pallet constructive member. The reinforcing ribs include surface reinforcing ribs formed lengthwise and crosswise on the inside of the surface of the synthetic resin pallet. Hollowed portions are formed in inner parts of at least some of the surface reinforcing ribs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a synthetic resin pallet and, more particularly, to a pallet for a forklift used when transporting, moving and storing articles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A synthetic resin pallet has hitherto been manufactured as a pallet for a forklift. Normally, this kind of synthetic resin pallet is basically is constructed by forming two pallet constructive members by injection molding and making these pallet constrictive members integral with each other.
To be specific, each of the two pallet constructive members formed by the injection molding includes a board, block (foot) constructive members provided in adequate positions on the inside of the board, and reinforcing ribs provided intersecting lengthwise and crosswise on the inside of this board. The synthetic resin pallet is manufactured by making these pallet constructive members face to each other, matching the block constructive members with each other and integrally welding the matched portions thereof. In this construction, the welded block constructive members serve as the blocks (feet) of the synthetic resin pallet, and a space between these blocks serves as a fork entry port.
It is a well-known fact that the formation of such reinforcing ribs on the inner surface of the board of each pallet constructive member is extremely effective in terms of enhancing a flexural strength of the board and preventing an occurrence of flexure on the board when transporting and moving a load with the forklift.
The above-described reinforcing ribs exhibit a large effect in terms of increasing the flexural strength of the board as described above. While on the other hand, however, there arises a problem in which a weight of the synthetic resin pallet increases correspondingly. Hence, there has been contrived a method of reducing the weight of the whole by hollowing those reinforcing ribs while enhancing the board flexural strength. This type of synthetic resin pallet is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No.5-162751.
Incidentally, the above-described prior art synthetic resin pallet acquired a high evaluation because of the board flexural strength being very large owing to the hollowed reinforcing ribs but lighter in weight than the conventional products.
The hollowed reinforcing ribs is not, however, so strong against an impact although large in terms of the flexural strength. Accordingly, the reinforcing ribs peripheral to the port area of the fork entry port of the synthetic resin pallet present a problem in terms of a durability of the synthetic resin pallet, wherein if mistakenly collided with the fork just when the fork is inserted, the hollowed reinforcing ribs are liable to be broken by the impact.
Further, the prior art synthetic resin pallet has, in addition to the problems given above, a problem in which the portions adjacent to the port area of the fork entry port, in other words, block edge portions on both sides of the port area of the fork entry port are also liable to be damaged by the collision with the fork, and, when it happens that the block edge portions on both sides are damaged even if the strength of the port area of the fork entry port is enhanced, the durability of the pallet as a whole can not be increased.


A magnetic coupler arrangement that includes two quarter wave length strip patches, an input signal source, a signal splitter that splits an input signal from the input signal source into two signals and phase-shifts one of the two signals, wherein the phase-shifted signal and the non-phase-shifted signal are fed into the patches of the coupler to achieve a balanced signal configuration.

An antenna is a well known arrangement for radiating or receiving electromagnetic waves. While antennas are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, they all function based on the same basic principles. In the reception mode, an antenna intercepts a propagating electromagnetic wave, which then induces an electronic signal within the antenna. The electronic signal can be then fed into an integrated circuit that deciphers the signal. In the transmission mode, an antenna receives an electronic signal through a feed line, which then induces a field surrounding the antenna that results in the formation of a free-space propagating electromagnetic wave. The antenna's features such as its dimensions can be obtained by reference to its operation frequency, radiation patterns, loss, gain, and the like. Antennas are typically made from metallic materials and have a wide variety of configurations. One known configuration is a dipole antenna that includes two conductive bodies of equal length each receiving an input signal at one end thereof. The two conductive bodies of a typical dipole antenna are elongated bodies that are aligned with one another. Each body may be one-quarter of the wavelength of the target wavelength which is to be transmitted or received by the antenna.
Antennas are prevalently used in wireless devices such as cell phones and the like to direct incoming and outgoing electromagnetic waves between a free space and a transmission line. Antennas are also used in radio frequency identification device (RFID) applications.
An RFID device that includes an antenna is usually referred to as an inlay. An inlay may include an antenna as well as a transponder, which is an integrated circuit for deciphering signals sent to the inlay and received by the antenna and also for sending a signal to the antenna which is then transmitted by the antenna. The inlay antenna may be tuned (i.e. sized) to communicate at a certain target frequency with a transceiver which is sometimes referred to as the interrogator. The interrogator typically includes an antenna for communication with the RFID inlay. An inlay may be active or passive. An active inlay would include its own power source such as a battery, while a passive inlay would receive its power from an external source such as an interrogator.
A magnetic coupler that employs a terminated transmission line can be used in encoding of RFID-enabled labels, tickets, tags, cards or other media. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,425,887 and 7,190,270 disclose RFID printers/encoders which employ single transmission line couplers for communication with RFID inlays.    PTL 1: U.S. Pat. No. 7,425,887 U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,270 U.S. Pat. No. 7,348,885

Magnetic RFID coupler with balanced signal configuration

Kabushiki Kaisha Sato Chishiki Zaisan Kenkyusyo


A bypass assembly is provided for preventing unwanted liquids from collecting within fuel gas risers, exiting such risers and contaminating fuel gas systems. A conduit extends from a riser vessel to a natural gas flow line. An insert extends from the bypass line into the natural gas flow line. As production flows through the flow line and insert, a suction force is created that draws liquids from the riser into the conduit and, ultimately, back into the flow line system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing unwanted liquids from vessels used to collect fuel gas. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing liquids from fuel gas risers used in connection with oil and/or gas wells and related facilities. More particularly still, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for preventing liquids from flowing out of fuel gas risers used to provide fuel gas to production platforms and/or similar facilities.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Oil and gas production installations in general, and offshore platforms and other similar structures in particular, typically include various automated facilities and other equipment requiring fuel to operate. Such facilities and equipment include, but are not limited to, production processing equipment, control panels, automatic valves and/or other facilities.
Frequently, natural gas produced from one or more wells supported by a platform or other structure can be used as fuel to power equipment situated on or otherwise associated with such platform or other structure. In such cases, a relatively small volume of natural gas—commonly referred to as "fuel gas"—is typically diverted to such equipment from production flow line(s) used to transport such production from the platform or other facility to a sales or custody-transfer point (such as, for example, a gas sales meter).
In such cases, at least one fuel gas riser is typically connected to a natural gas flow line at a location upstream of the gas sales meter. Although such fuel gas risers can have any number of different shapes, sizes and configurations, such risers are typically substantially hollow, upright vessels that are connected to a gas flow line. An opening at or near the base of a riser extends into the flow line, and permits communication between the inside of the flow line and the inner chamber of the substantially hollow riser.
As natural gas flows through the flow line, a relatively small volume of such gas is diverted from the flow line and into the inner chamber of the substantially hollow fuel gas riser. An outlet extends from said riser near the upper end of said riser. Natural gas ascends within the riser vessel, and exits said riser via said outlet. Natural gas exiting the vessel via the outlet is ultimately piped to equipment that is powered using such fuel gas. In many cases, such fuel gas is first piped to a control panel, and is thereafter distributed to other downstream equipment where it is ultimately consumed.
Frequently, natural gas production contained within flow lines contains associated liquid components including, but not necessarily limited to, oil, water and/or condensate. In certain situations, such liquid components can collect within such fuel gas risers along with the natural gas. If liquid components inside a fuel gas riser reach the fuel gas outlet of such riser, the liquid components can exit the riser vessel via the fuel gas outlet.
In most cases, equipment and piping designed to receive fuel gas from a fuel gas riser are specifically designed to handle, process and/or consume only fuel existing in a gaseous state. As a result, such equipment and piping are generally incapable of handling, processing and consuming fuel in a liquid state. In such cases, unwanted liquid(s) exiting the fuel gas riser can render such downstream equipment inoperable. Frequently, unwanted liquids exiting a fuel gas riser can trigger automatic valves that, in turn, can cause wells to be shut-in and production to be interrupted. Moreover, such liquid production can spill out of such equipment (including, without limitation, the control panel), and into the surrounding environment, thereby resulting in contamination of such environment. In marine environments in particular, such spillage can create oil slicks that are difficult to contain and can cover very large areas.
In many cases, fuel gas risers are installed on unmanned platforms and other structures. Escape of liquids from such risers is particularly problematic on such unmanned platforms and other structures because personnel are usually not present to take immediate corrective action. Typically, personnel must be dispatched from one or more distant locations to remove unwanted liquids from the riser, clean all contaminated equipment, restore the wells and associated equipment to production and remediate any pollution of the surrounding environment.
Unwanted escape of liquids from fuel gas risers can have significant adverse consequences for owners and/or operators of platforms or other structures equipped with such risers. When wells are unexpectedly shut in, revenues generated from the sale of production from such wells are interrupted; in some cases, such interruptions can be for extended periods of time (especially in the case of unmanned platforms or structures). Further, it is often costly to dispatch personnel and equipment from distant locations in order to address such problems. Environmental remediation of pollution in particular can be extremely expensive. In some cases, such pollution can also result in fines or penalties from governmental bodies and/or regulatory agencies.
Thus, there is a need for an inexpensive, efficient and effective means for preventing unwanted liquids from collecting in fuel gas risers and escaping from such risers into associated equipment and/or the surrounding environment. Said means should be capable of beneficially functioning on unmanned platforms and similar structures. Further, such means should prevent unexpected shutting-in of producing oil and/or gas wells, as well as unwanted pollution associated with discharge of such liquids into the environment.

Method and apparatus for removing liquids from risers


To simplify the manufacture of terminals for the use of chip cards, the system is designed so as to place a minimum set of instructions in these terminals and to transfer the storage of complementary instructions pertaining to uses of greater complexity and/or pertaining to the chip card into the chip card. To bring about the performance of these complementary instructions, an address designating an instruction of a complementary set is stored in a reserved memory of the chip card. The microprocessor of the chip card is furthermore provided with a microprogram enforcing the performance of an instruction thus designated as soon as it is detected that the reserved memory has been designated by an instruction of an elementary set of instructions of this microprocessor. It is shown that it is possible, in this way, to simplify and rationalize the manufacture of very powerful terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
An object of the present invention is a system of communications between an electronic service center and a user by means of an interface. It is designed particularly for fields in which access to the interface is conditioned on the presence of an electronic microcircuit of the token, chip carrier, chip card or other type, that is temporarily and detachably or permanently inserted into the interface. This type of system is found for example with portable telephones that are kept available to users but must be barred to persons who have not inserted a corresponding circuit. It also pertains to all payment terminals making direct use of chip cards notably in order to bring about cash withdrawals from bank accounts.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The problem encountered with systems of this type is related to the definition of the interface. Indeed, at a given instant, the known requirements of safety and comfort of the transaction entail the implementation of procedures using the interface. These procedure are open-ended and constantly developing. The consequence or drawback thereof is that obsolete interfaces need to be changed as and when the system develops.
It is possible, nevertheless, to envisage the updating of the interface operation systems in a manner similar to that used to update operating systems in microcomputers. However, the drawback of this method is that several updating operations have to be carried out. Furthermore, the owner, or manager, of an interface is not its user, i.e. the person who possesses the authorizing electronic circuit in question. For example, for a terminal enabling payment by chip cards in a restaurant, the owner of the interface is the restaurant-owner while the user or payer is the bearer of the chip card. This is also the case with portable telephone systems, notably in the field of rented cars in which the portable telephone (and hence the interface) belong to a car rental firm (or to a telecommunications network utility company) and where the chip card or electronic circuit concerned belongs to the user. In this case, a difference in updating, from one interface to another, may make the use very complicated for a user.
There is a necessary gap between the wishes of the user whose interest lies in obtaining access, with his card, to the very latest improvements and the concerns of the interface manager who may be tempted, for reasons of cost, to limit the number of campaigns for updating the interfaces that he is managing.
A practical example of a need is the one felt in the field of portable telephones where the interface manager or else the owner of the electronic service center would like to be able to count down prepaid units in users' chip cards, somewhat as is done for public telephones. Now, in present-day portable telephone sets, the interfaces are not provided, in their operating system, with a set of instructions that enables this countdown or reverse counting operation. This will be the case at a later date. The problem to be resolved in this particular case, therefore, is that of carrying out a countdown in the chip card, with an interface that is not provided with means for this purpose, of the countdown pulses that would be sent by a telephone electronic service center. The difficulty of the problem can clearly be seen.
An object of the invention is to find a solution to this problem and to propose far greater flexibility of use of the interfaces or operating terminals. Several approaches may be envisaged. It is possible, notably, to define a "universal" mechanism that enables the terminals to be managed transparently from the electronic service center. For this purpose, it would be necessary to equip every existing terminal with this new mechanism. This approach is therefore an unrealistic one. The approach envisaged in the invention does not call for any modification of the terminal, and only uses resources of this terminal that are already available. These resources are either procedures available from the electronic service center or card instructions (these cards being fitted into the terminal) controlled from the electronic service center that enable data elements to be conveyed through the terminal up to the card. Furthermore, according to the invention, these terminals will themselves have the simplest possible operating system which, ultimately, will not even need to be constantly updated.
The idea of the invention entails the use, in the operating system of the interfaces, of a minimum set of instructions or even an existing procedure from the existing set of instructions. This set or this procedure is used to cause the designating, in a reserved zone of the memory of the chip, of an instruction of a complementary set, or extended set. This complementary instruction is then carried out either by the microprocessor of the chip card or by the microprocessor of the interface, these microprocessors acting on the designated peripherals. They prompt, for example, a display of information elements on a screen of the interface, a counting down of prepaid units in a memory of the chip card, a dispatching, to the electronic service center, of a report relating to the chip card and/or to the call in progress (notably for purposes of billing related to transmission times) or an invalidation of the chip card, etc.
With the existence of a reserved zone whose place and use are known, it is thus possible, with the minimum set of instructions of the interface operating system, to load the characteristics of an instruction. The characteristics of this instruction are either the instruction code of this instruction itself or an address of this instruction in a memory of the chip. In addition to this reserved zone, the microprocessor of the chip card contains an automatic process for carrying out the instruction whose characteristics have been loaded into the reserved zone. As soon as it is sought to increase the utilization capacity of a system, the characteristics of the instruction to be carried out are sent to the chip from the electronic service center. They are transmitted naturally by the interface. Since this interface is capable in practice of selecting and writing (this is a minimum) in a memory zone in the memory of the chip card, it can write the characteristics of this instruction therein. Subsequently, the microprocessor of the chip card takes over the operation in order to bring about the performance of this instruction with its automatic process.
In one improvement, rather than sending the instruction from the electronic service center, additional instructions will be loaded into updated chip cards, in additional sets of instructions. In this case, the characteristics of instructions to be sent by the electronic service center consist only of a designator, designating that one of the instructions which is to be carried out.
As a variant, an existing procedure is used to manage the card that is associated with the sending of a data element. A data element is given a particular form and, at reception in the card, it is ascertained that the data element has this particular form. If desired, an instruction of the extended set of instructions is carried out, and this instruction then corresponds to this particular data element.

Device having automatic process for upgrading the performance of mobile systems


The invention relates to an electrical circuit arrangement for driving switching power semiconductor components at high voltage potential with a control signal predetermining a switching information for the power semiconductor component and an output voltage directly controlling the power semiconductor component. A non-controllable semiconductor valve is used as component with high dielectric strength for transferring the switching energy and the switching information.

The invention relates to an electrical circuit arrangement for driving switching power semiconductor components at high voltage potential with a control signal predetermining a switching signal for the power semiconductor component and an output voltage directly controlling the power semiconductor component, a non-controllable semiconductor gate being used for transferring a switching energy.
The power of electrical loads such as, e.g., electric motors, is set by converter circuits which have one or more controllable or non-controllable power semiconductor components such as, e.g., power semiconductor gates. Controllable power semiconductor gates are transistors and thyristors, the diode is non-controllable. The switching state of controllable semiconductor gates is predetermined as a function of input signals, particularly power control signal, speed or rotor position of a motor, by an open- or closed-loop control. The open- or closed-loop control provides the switching signal in the form of logic signals which are converted by driver circuits to the levels and potentials required for driving the power semiconductor components.
In the case of electrical loads needing high supply voltages, e.g. machines connected to single-phase or three-phase AC voltage systems, semiconductor components having a high dielectric strength must be used. Implementation of these as integrated circuits is only possible with great expenditure. The cost for the driver circuit will present a considerable proportion of the total cost of a power controller.
From the prior art, circuit arrangements are known in which a power transistor as controllable semiconductor component determines the load current flowing via its collector-emitter path to a load, and thus the electrical power supplied to the load. Via a driver stage, a gate-emitter voltage of predetermined magnitude is generated, which in switching mode puts the collector-emitter path of the transistor into the conductive state. In this arrangement, the power supply to the driver stage is independent of the switching state of the transistor via a capacitor which is charged up to the operating voltage of a voltage source via a non-controllable semiconductor gate, a diode. To set the power of the load, a control signal A, which is used as input signal to the driver stage, is predetermined as a switching signal in a control section. Since the driver stage is coupled to the high emitter potential of the power transistor, the control signal A must be converted to this voltage potential by a level converter. Such a circuit arrangement is also called a bootstrap circuit.
Such a circuit arrangement corresponding to the prior art is implemented in the driver chip IR2106 by the company International Rectifier (data sheet IR2106, April 1999). To convert the levels of the switching signal, high-voltage-resistant transistors are used here.
The disadvantageous factor in the prior art shown is that both the semiconductor components, via which the capacitor provides the switching energy for the circuit breaker, and the level converter, via which the switching information is transferred, must have a high dielectric strength. The implementation of the level converter, in particular, is associated with high cost expenditure.
The present invention is based on the object of providing a circuit arrangement for driving electronic circuit breakers at high voltage potential which, compared with the prior art, manages with fewer components with high dielectric strength and can be constructed more inexpensively.
According to the invention, this object is achieved in that the non-controllable semiconductor gate is constructed as component with high dielectric strength for transferring the switching signal.
The arrangement according to the invention enables a switching power semiconductor at a high voltage potential to be driven with only one non-controllable semiconductor valve, i.e. a diode, as a high-voltage component. Compared with the prior art, it is possible to omit an expensive level converter since the non-controllable semiconductor gate according to the invention is not used only for the energy transfer as is the case in the above bootstrap circuit of the prior art but, at the same time, also for converting the desired switching state of the power transistor to the high voltage potential. As a particular advantage compared with known circuit arrangements, this results in distinctly lower costs since a level converter would need at least one further controllable high-voltage, and thus expensive, semiconductor component.
The control signal, as input signal to the circuit arrangement according to the invention, determines the variation of an output voltage of a controllable voltage source which is connected in series with the non-controllable semiconductor gate, polarized in the forward direction, and a capacitor. Advantageously, the signal parameters, particularly magnitude, frequency and duty ratio, of the output voltage of the controllable voltage source can be predetermined by this control signal in such a manner that a continuous change in the power consumption of the load is obtained.
A further advantageous embodiment provides that a circuit section is connected in parallel with the capacitor and is supplied by a voltage occurring across the capacitor which stores the switching information and the switching energy.
Due to this circuit combination, i.e. the signal path via the non-controllable semiconductor gate, of two functionally different tasks, in this case the energy supply and the information transfer, there is no necessity for expensive level conversion.
As an extension of this embodiment, a series circuit of a second capacitor and a second non-controllable semiconductor gate, i.e. a diode, but with only little dielectric strength, is provided in parallel with the capacitor. Due to this circuit measure, the second capacitor can handle the task of energy supply whilst the first one stores the switching information and the diode decouples both functions. In this manner, a downstream circuit section can be driven over a greater range.
It is of particular advantage that the circuit section generates an output voltage for driving the power semiconductor component as a function of the capacitor voltage present at the input end. In this arrangement, the output voltage generated is exclusively dependent on the capacitor voltage present at the input of the circuit section. Since this capacitor voltage, in addition to the switching energy, also conveys the information of the switching state according to the invention, the expensive transformation of the switching information to high voltage levels via a level converter can be omitted.
Further suitable embodiments can be found in the subclaims.

Circuit arrangement for driving an electrical circuit breaker at high voltage potential


An apparatus has a main conveyor and feed conveyors. The main conveyor is provided with elongate receiving elements that are arranged transversely with respect to their movement path. At feed locations, the circulatory paths of the feed conveyors run over the main conveyor. The feed conveyors have clamps that are spaced apart one behind the other and are driven in circulation in a feed direction. The clamps are adapted to feed the products to the receiving elements and to discharge them to these receiving elements at the feed locations. The clamps are arranged obliquely with respect to their circulatory path. As a result, a straight line running parallel to a clamp-mouth plane and a receiving-element plane, and perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the clamp mouth, forms an acute angle with the circulatory path.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing sheet-like products, in particular printed products.
An apparatus of this type is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/741,259 (corresponding to EP-A-0 771 754), commonly assigned with the present application. It has a main conveyor that leads past a plurality of feed locations and has a circulating drawing member, on which elongated receiving elements are spaced apart one behind the other. These receiving elements are positioned obliquely with respect to their movement path. The circulatory path of each feed conveyor runs horizontally, in a rectilinear manner, over the main conveyor and past the feed locations. Each feed conveyor has individually controllable clamps that are spaced apart one behind the other on a circulating chain and are intended for transporting sheet-like products in a suspended state. When the clamps are open, the sheet-like products are transferred to the receiving elements of the main conveyor at the feed locations. The circulatory paths run in vertical planes that are perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the receiving elements. The clamps are arranged perpendicular to the circulatory path, and thus parallel to the receiving elements. As a result, the products are fed to the receiving elements from the side.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for processing sheet-like products, in particular printed products, that, while handling the products carefully, permits a high degree of flexibility in the arrangement and design of the main conveyor and the feed conveyors.

Apparatus for processing sheet-like products


In one embodiment, a computing system accesses a number of features extracted from one or more first images. The extracted features are associated with at least one object captured in the first images. The first images are captured by a camera associated with a vehicle. The computing system identifies, in a reference map, reference features matching one or more of the features extracted from the first images. The reference features are associated with the at least one object captured in the first images. The computing system generates, for the camera, a calibration model by comparing the identified reference features in the reference map and the features that match the one or more reference features. The calibration model is used to calibrate second images captured by the camera associated with the vehicle.

A modern vehicle may include one or more vehicle cameras or sensors for monitoring the surrounding environment of the vehicle while the vehicle drives around. For example, the vehicle may use vehicle cameras to capture images or videos of the surrounding environment and may use a GPS to track the location of the vehicle. The cameras may capture a series of scenes of the surrounding environment at different locations. The vehicle may use one or more computing systems (e.g., an on-board computer) to collect data from the cameras and sensors. The collected data may be processed by the computing systems and may be uploaded to a cloud using a wireless connection.
However, the images or videos collected by typical vehicle cameras are unsuitable to be used in the aggregate, especially in applications that require high precision or accuracy. One reason for this is that the collected images or videos, or data extracted therefrom, are captured by a variety of different vehicle cameras, such as cameras of mobile phones, detachable dash cams, or integrated cameras of the vehicle, with different makes, models, software/hardware configurations, and even placements within the vehicle. As a result, the collected images or videos are generated by cameras with different lensing parameters (e.g., focal distance, field of view, distortions, etc.), image sensors, image processing algorithms (e.g., for white balancing, chromatic aberration, anti-aliasing, saturation adjustment, etc.), viewing angles, and any other optical, physical, or logical attributes of the cameras that affect the captured images. Due to, at least in part, the non-uniformity and relatively low quality of typical vehicle cameras, the collected images or videos, or data extracted therefrom, are unsuitable to be used in the aggregate for applications that require high accuracy and precision.


A simpler and more humane animal restraint and training device, and a method of using the device, having magnetic members and locking teeth that prevents animal choking, retains contact between the two clasp portions to prevent collar loosening, and does not require the use of fine motor skills by the animal owner. Training signals can also be generated to teach proper gait for the animal as well as other training commands.

Animal restraint devices such as pet leashes and harnesses are well known, and are available in a wide variety of configurations and with many different features. Many of these known leashes and harnesses include one or both of a buckle for attaching the ends of adjacent straps together and a leash connector for securing a leash for lead to the collar or harness. The buckle provides a releasable mechanism for securing the leash or harness on an animal or the animal collar. The leash connector facilitates attachment of a leash typically associated with such leashes and harnesses by providing a convenient anchoring point for the hook or other connecting device provided on an end of the leash. The buckle and leash connectors are provided as separate components on known and available leashes and harnesses.
In certain instances, the leash or harness may include a traditional buckle having a pivoting prong that is received in one of several spaced holes in an end of a strap to be connected by the buckle. These buckles are effective at creating a desired length of the leash or harness strap, but can be difficult to use. Alternatively, quick release buckles may be provided on the leash or harness, which may include depressible side members that allow a first portion of the buckle to be removed from a second portion of the buckle. While these quick release buckles are somewhat effective at alleviating the deficiencies of the traditional buckle, they are generally not strong and therefore are not always acceptable on leashes and harnesses for most dogs.
Connectors are typically provided on leashes and harnesses in the form of an O ring or D ring that is secured to the webbing of the leash or harness during manufacturing. These leash connectors are effective at providing a connection point between the leash or harness and the leash, but they add complexity to the component and manufacturing costs of the products.
Many connectors also require significant manual dexterity to operate when connecting and disconnecting, sometimes beyond the ability of older and physically challenged people. For example, the traditional set-up type pet leash of the prior art has a hook trigger for attaching to an external collar, and the external collar has a ring for fastening to the hook trigger. If the owner wants to walk the dog, the owner must attach the hook trigger to the ring, to combine the traditional set-up type pet leash and the external collar which is sometimes beyond the ability of older and physically challenged owners.
Also, the British slip lead type pet leash of the prior art has a leash and a slip knot movably connected to the leash in a manner that applies a pet choking action when tension is used. The size of the collar will become smaller if the dog pulls too hard. Thus, the owner applies a choking action to the neck of the pet thereby potentially injuring the pet esophagus and causing the pet to 'gag'.
Furthermore, the semi slip lead type pet leash of the prior art has a leash and the size adjusting buckle that limits the movement of the slip knot, such that the collar can have a minimum size, but has no buckling ability to prevent loosening of the collar. Lastly, the Martingale type pet leash has a collar belt and a size adjusting belt fastened to the two ends of the collar belt such that when the dog pulls, the leash will tighten such that the size of the collar will become smaller, thereby potentially injuring the pet esophagus and causing the pet to 'gag'.
There is a need in the art for a simpler and more humane clasp for animal restraint and training devices that alleviates the use of fine motor skills and other deficiencies of the prior art.


The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable mediums for reconstructing an image. Image data may be obtained, wherein the image data may be generated by a detector array. A weighting window may be determined based on at least one parameter relating to the detector array. A first set of data may be determined based on the image data and the weighting window. An objective function associated with a target image may be determined based on the first set of data, wherein the objective function may include a first model, the first model may represent a difference between the target image and the first set of data, and the first model may be identified based on the first set of data. The target image may be reconstructed by performing a plurality of iterations based on the objective function.

Computed tomography (CT) makes use of computer-processed combinations of X-ray images taken from various angles to produce cross-sectional images. Iterative reconstruction techniques are widely used in CT image reconstruction. A motion of an object during scanning may cause motion artifacts and/or noise in a CT image reconstructed using an iterative reconstruction technique. Thus, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for reducing or removing motion artifacts and/or noise in image reconstruction.

System and method for reconstructing an image

SHANGHAI UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.


An improvement of current lens roll-off systems is provided. The improvement embodies a goggle module operatively associated with a remote module by way of a wireless signal transmitted by a user engaging a remote button of the remote module, wherein the remote module may be removably connected along handlebars of the vehicle. The goggle module has an upper arm and lower arm, wherein the upper arm confirms the presence of the supply canister of the lens roll-off system, and wherein the lower arm engages a pull cord of the lens roll-off systems. The wireless signal urges the pull cord by way of the lower arm, thereby the rider can automatically operate the lens roll-off system hands-free.

The present invention relates to riding goggle lens roll off systems and, more particularly, an automated goggle lens roll-off system that will operatively associate with any existing goggle lens roll-off film system, allowing the rider to clear their vision wirelessly, without having to let go of the vehicle.
When riding a motorcycle, mountain bike, off-terrain vehicles, or the like, especially if riding off road, the rider's goggle lens inevitably get covered with mud, dirt, rain, etc., impairing their vision. Riding with impaired vision is a huge safety concern. Luckily there are a lot of goggles on the market that offer roll-off film that covers the goggle lens enabling the rider to roll the film so that the impaired film is removed and replaced with a clean film lens, restoring the rider's vision. However, current roll-off film systems require the rider to let go of at least one of their hands off the handlebars to clear their vision—at the point when the riders' vision is impaired—to pull the cord on the roll-off system, possibly several times, to clear their vision. Riding a motorcycle with one hand can be difficult and dangerous, especially in off-road conditions where these type of goggle systems are often used. But riding with impaired vision is also very dangerous. If the rider is in a situation where he or she cannot let go of the handlebars they are forced to continue riding with impaired vision until they can safely ride with one hand or stop.
As can be seen, there is a need for an automated goggle roll-off system that can attach to any existing goggle lens roll-off system, allowing the rider to clear their vision wirelessly, without having to let go of the handlebars.
The system embodied in the present invention attaches to any goggle lens roll-off system. It has an electrically powered "arm" that grabs or engages the pull cord. When the rider presses the button mounted on their handlebar with their thumb (while also keeping a safe grip of the handlebar grip), a wireless signal is sent to the goggle mounted system. When the system receives the signal, the arm grabbing the roll-off system pull cord makes short, quick pulls of the string which activates the lens clearing mechanism, enabling clear vision at all times.
The present invention enables riders to quickly access the wireless button with their thumb and clear their vision instantly without removing their hands from the handlebars, minimizing the risk of losing control of their motorcycle. Activation of the thumb button is as easy and natural as operating the hand brake or clutch, so a rider will feel comfortable clearing their vision anytime.
The present invention attaches to any goggle with almost any roll-off system since all roll-off systems are currently nearly identical. Therefore users of the present invention can improve their existing goggle roll-off system by attaching the present invention, making their existing system an automated wireless system.


An auction system for use in auctions is provided. In the auction system, a recording medium is attached to an auction item. An auction participant reads information about the auction item out of the recording medium using a mobile data device. In order to place a bid on the auction item, the auction participant writes a bid price to the recording medium using the mobile data device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auction system. In particular, the present invention relates to an auction system in which a recording medium is attached to each auction item and auction participants can bid in an auction using mobile data devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Auctions in which an auction clerk allows a plurality of auction participants to submit a bid price for an auction item and sells the item to the highest bidder are popular. Furthermore, internet auctions have been developed in which an auction participant browses or searches for an auction item over the Internet. If the auction participant finds the desired item, the auction participant can place a bid on the item by setting a bid price and carrying out a predetermined operation.
A variety of technologies that increase the productivity of an auction have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-122629 describes a winning bid information storage system in which information about an auction item can be stored in a database immediately after an auction participant has won the auction item so as to increase the operating efficiency of the auction.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-228231 describes technology in which an auction participant can place bids on a plurality of auction items and, when the winner of a bid on one item is determined, the auction participant can set appropriate bid prices for the other auction items without the need for monitoring the bid status of the plurality of auction items.
However, in known internet auction systems, auction participants cannot view actual auction items, but can only view images of the auction items. Thus, some auction participants are reluctant to buy the auction items. Additionally, the above-described winning bid information storage system does not describe technology for executing an auction while managing intermediate steps of the bid (i.e., the bidding status), although information about a successful bid item of an auction can be immediately stored in a database.


A de-interlacing processing method, a de-interlacing processing device and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The method includes acquiring image content characteristic information of a pixel point to be interpolated; and determining according to the image content characteristic information whether a de-interlacing algorithm based on motion adaptive or a de-interlacing algorithm based on motion compensation is adopted to perform de-interlacing processing.

Interlaced scanning is to divide each frame of image into an odd field and an even field, and a line scan frequency, a frequency spectrum of video signals, and a channel bandwidth for transmission of the video signals of the interlaced scanning are half of those in progressive scanning. Due to early undeveloped communication technology, the interlaced scanning is widely used in analog televisions in the existing art for saving the limited bandwidth. However, the interlaced scanning has some disadvantages, such as flickering, image jitter and jagged vertical edges.
Moreover, the de-interlacing processing methods in the existing art also have their own disadvantages.

De-interlacing processing method and device, and computer-readable storage medium


A set of target peptides are presented by HLA A*0101, A*0201, A*0301, B*4402, B*2705, B*1402, and B*0702 on the surface of disease cells. They are envisioned to among other things (a) stimulate an immune response to the proliferative disease, e.g., cancer, (b) to function as immunotherapeutics in adoptive T cell therapy or as a vaccine, (c) facilitate antibody recognition of tumor boundaries in surgical pathology samples, (d) act as biomarkers for early detection and/or diagnosis of the disease, and (e) act as targets in the generation antibody-like molecules which recognize the target-peptide/MHC complex.

The mammalian immune system has evolved a variety of mechanisms to protect the host from cancerous cells. An important component of this response is mediated by cells referred to as T cells. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are specialized T cells that primarily function by recognizing and killing cancerous cells or infected cells, but they can also function by secreting soluble molecules referred to as cytokines that can mediate a variety of effects on the immune system. T helper cells primarily function by recognizing antigen on specialized antigen presenting cells, and in turn secreting cytokines that activate B cells, T cells, and macrophages. A variety of evidence suggests that immunotherapy designed to stimulate a tumor-specific CTL response would be effective in controlling cancer. For example, it has been shown that human CTL recognize sarcomas (Slovin et al., 1986), renal cell carcinomas (Schendel et al., 1993), colorectal carcinomas (Jacob et al., 1997), ovarian carcinomas (Peoples et al., 1993), pancreatic carcinomas (Peiper et al., 1997), squamous tumors of the head and neck (Yasumura et al., 1993), and squamous carcinomas of the lung (Slingluff et al., 1994; Yoshino et al., 1994). The largest number of reports of human tumor-reactive CTLs, however, has concerned melanomas (Boon et al., 1994). The ability of tumor-specific CTL to mediate tumor regression, in both human (Parmiani et al., 2002; Weber, 2002) and animal models, suggests that methods directed at increasing CTL activity would likely have a beneficial effect with respect to tumor treatment.
Melanoma, or skin cancer, is a disease that is diagnosed in approximately 54,200 persons per year. Conventional therapy for the disease includes surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. In spite of these approaches to treatment, approximately 7,600 individuals die in the United States every year due to melanoma. Overall, the 5-year survival rate for the disease is 88%. The survival rate drops, however, in more advanced stages of the disease with only about 50% of Stage III patients and 20-30% of Stage IV patients surviving past five years. In patients where the melanoma has metastasized to distant sites, the 5-year survival dips to only 12%. Clearly, there is a population of melanoma patients that is in need of better treatment options. More recently, in an attempt to decrease the number of deaths attributed to melanoma, immunotherapy has been added to the arsenal of treatments used against the disease.
Dramatic regressions of melanoma have been induced with several types of immune therapies, including high-dose interleukin-2 and anti-CTLA4 antibody, which is FDA approved therapies for advanced melanoma, and adoptive T cell therapy, with reported objective response rates of 17%, 13%, and 51%, respectively, and with complete response (CR) rates in the range of 4-7%. Results with these therapies provide proof-of-principle for the therapeutic potential of immune therapy in melanoma. Unfortunately, the toxicities for all three therapies limit participant eligibility; so less toxic immune therapies with vaccines are being explored as alternative treatment options. This is especially true in the adjuvant setting where the only FDA-approved adjuvant therapy for patients with resected high-risk melanoma is high-dose, systemic interferon alpha. However, the most recent pooled analysis of interferon alpha therapy highlights the questionable survival advantage even of that therapy, for patients in the adjuvant setting. Thus, there is a critical need for additional new therapies for melanoma, both for adjuvant therapy of high-risk resected melanoma and for therapy of patients who are not candidates for, or fail, other therapies in the setting of advanced disease.
In order for CTL to kill or secrete cytokines in response to a cancer cell, the CTL must first recognize the cancer cell (Townsend & Bodmer, 1989). This process involves the interaction of the T cell receptor, located on the surface of the CTL, with what is generically referred to as an MHC-peptide complex which is located on the surface of the cancerous cell. MHC (major histocompatibility-complex)-encoded molecules have been subdivided into two types, and are referred to as class I and class II MHC-encoded molecules. In the human immune system, MHC molecules are referred to as human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Within the MHC complex, located on chromosome six, are three different loci that encode for class I MHC molecules. MHC molecules encoded at these loci are referred to as HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C. The genes that can be encoded at each of these loci are extremely polymorphic, and thus, different individuals within the population express different class I MHC molecules on the surface of their cells. HLA-A1, HLA-A2, HLA-A3, HLA-B7, HLA-B14, HLA-B27, and HLA-B44 are examples of different class I MHC molecules that can be expressed from these loci.
The peptides which associate with the MHC molecules can either be derived from proteins made within the cell, in which case they typically associate with class I MHC molecules (Rock & Goldberg, 1999); or they can be derived from proteins which are acquired from outside of the cell, in which case they typically associate with class II MHC molecules (Watts, 1997). The peptides that evoke a cancer-specific CTL response most typically associate with class I MHC molecules. The peptides themselves are typically nine amino acids in length, but can vary from a minimum length of eight amino acids to a maximum of fourteen amino acids in length. Tumor antigens may also bind to class II MHC molecules on antigen presenting cells and provoke a T helper cell response. The peptides that bind to class II MHC molecules are generally twelve to nineteen amino acids in length, but can be as short as ten amino acids and as long as thirty amino acids.
The process by which intact proteins are degraded into peptides is referred to as antigen processing. Two major pathways of antigen processing occur within cells (Rock & Goldberg, 1999). One pathway, which is largely restricted to professional antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells, macrophages, and B cells, degrades proteins that are typically phagocytosed or endocytosed into the cell. Peptides derived from this pathway can be presented on either class I or to class II MHC molecules. A second pathway of antigen processing is present in essentially all cells of the body. This second pathway primarily degrades proteins that are made within the cells, and the peptides derived from this pathway primarily bind to class I MHC molecules. Antigen processing by this latter pathway involves polypeptide synthesis and proteolysis in the cytoplasm, followed by transport of peptides to the plasma membrane for presentation. These peptides, initially being transported into the endoplasmic reticulum of the cell, become associated with newly synthesized class I MHC molecules and the resulting complexes are then transported to the cell surface. Peptides derived from membrane and secreted proteins have also been identified. In some cases these peptides correspond to the signal sequence of the proteins which is cleaved from the protein by the signal peptidase. In other cases, it is thought that some fraction of the membrane and secreted proteins are transported from the endoplasmic reticulum into the cytoplasm where processing subsequently occurs. Once bound to the class I MHC molecule, the peptides are recognized by antigen-specific receptors on CTL. Several methods have been developed to identify the peptides recognized by CTL, each method of which relies on the ability of a CTL to recognize and kill only those cells expressing the appropriate class I MHC molecule with the peptide bound to it. Mere expression of the class I MHC molecule is insufficient to trigger the CTL to kill the target cell if the antigenic peptide is not bound to the class I MHC molecule. Such peptides can be derived from a non-self source, such as a pathogen (for example, following the infection of a cell by a bacterium or a virus) or from a self-derived protein within a cell, such as a cancerous cell. The tumor antigens from which the peptides are derived can broadly be categorized as differentiation antigens, cancer/testis antigens, mutated gene products, widely expressed proteins, viral antigens and most recently, phosphopeptides derived from dysregulated signal transduction pathways. (Zarling et al., 2006).
Adoptive T cell therapy of melanoma is described in two recent publications: Dudley et al., 2008 and Rosenberg & Dudley, 2009. For adoptive T cell therapy, late stage metastatic melanoma patients are treated as if they were undergoing an organ transplant operation. Tumor is resected and cytotoxic T cells that have infiltrated the tumor are harvested and exposed to a particular class I peptide antigen (MART-1). Those that recognize this antigen are then allowed to expand until the total number of MART-1 specific cells reach 100 billion. The patient receives whole body irradiation and chemotherapy to wipe out 98% of his/her immune system. The MART specific T cells are then given back to the patient and circulate throughout the body looking for tumor. In the most recent clinical trial, tumors in 72% of the patients showed objective responses with this therapy at all sites of metastasis including lymph nodes, bone, lung, liver, and brain. Twenty-eight percent of the patients had complete remission of the disease.
Immunization with melanoma-derived, class I or class II MHC-encoded molecule associated peptides, or with a precursor polypeptide or protein that contains the peptide, or with a gene that encodes a polypeptide or protein containing the peptide, are forms of immunotherapy that can be employed in the treatment of melanoma. Identification of the immunogens is a necessary first step in the formulation of the appropriate immunotherapeutic agent or agents. Although a large number of tumor-associated peptide antigens recognized by tumor reactive CTL have been identified, there are few examples of antigens that are derived from proteins that are selectively expressed on a broad array of tumors, as well as associated with cellular proliferation and/or transformation.
Attractive candidates for this type of antigen are peptides derived from proteins that are differentially phosphorylated on serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), and tyrosine (Tyr). See Zarling et al., 2000. Due to the increased and dysregulated phosphorylation of cellular proteins in transformed cells as compared to normal cells, tumors are likely to present a unique subset of phosphorylated peptides on the cell surface that are available for recognition by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL). Presently, there is no way to predict which protein phosphorylation sites in a cell will be unique to tumors, survive the antigen processing pathway, and be presented to the immune system in the context of 8-14 residue phosphopeptides bound to class I MHC molecules.
Thirty-six phosphopeptides were disclosed as presented in association with HLA A*0201 on cancer cells. (see Table 1 of Zarling et al., 2006). Parent proteins for four of these peptides—beta-catenin, insulin receptor substrate-2 (IRS-2), tensin-3, and Jun-C/D—are associated with cytoplasmic signaling pathways and cellular transformation.
While both normal and cancer cells lines express the parent proteins, only the three cancer lines express phosphorylated class I peptide sequences within IRS-2 and beta-catenin, respectively. Mice expressing a transgenic recombinant human A*0201 MHC molecule were immunized with a synthetic class I phosphopeptides from IRS-2 and beta-catenin that were pulsed onto activated bone-marrow derived dendritic cells. Cytotoxic T cells were generated that recognized all three cancer cell lines but not the control JY cell line (i.e., an Epstein-Barr virus transformed B lymphoblastoid cell line).
β-catenin, a protein involved in cell adhesion and a downstream mediator of Wnt signaling, has been implicated in tumor development and progression (Takemaru et al., 2008). An HLA-A*0201-restricted phosphorylated peptide derived from β-catenin and (residues 30-39) that is presented by melanoma cell lines was described by (Zarling et al., 2006). Mutations in this region of β-catenin or in "destruction complex" proteins diminish phosphorylation and degradation of β-catenin and thereby stabilize the protein (Yost et al., 1996). Once stabilized, β-catenin translocates into the nucleus by an unknown mechanism where it associates with TCF/Lef proteins to activate transcription of genes such as cyclin D1 (Tetsu & McCormick, 1999), c-myc (He et al., 1998), and metalloproteases (Crawford et al., 1999; Takahashi et al., 2002), which promote tumorigenesis and metastasis.
While mutations in β-catenin or the destruction complex proteins are involved in the development of gastrointestinal cancers (Morin et al., 1997; Ogasawara et al., 2006), they are rarely found in human melanoma samples (Rimm et al., 1999; Omholt et al., 2001; Worm et al., 2004) and cell lines (Pollock & Hayward, 2002; Worm et al., 2004). Additionally, the expression of β-catenin in melanoma cells diminishes with disease progression (Sanders et al., 1999; Kageshita et al., 2001; Maelandsmo et al., 2003; Krengel et al., 2004; Hoek et al., 2006; Pecina-Slaus et al., 2007). Despite the reduced expression, nuclear β-catenin has been observed in melanoma samples and may be transcriptionally active in promoting invasive behavior of melanoma cells (Rimm et al., 1999; Bachmann et al., 2005; Chien et al., 2009; Arozarena et al., 2011).
Degradation of β-catenin is dependent on phosphorylation of the protein at S33, S37, and T41 by GSK-3β (Kimelman & Xu, 2006). Thus detection of this phosphorylated form of the protein in cells indicates that β-catenin has been marked for degradation. Phosphorylated β-catenin has been detected in metastatic melanomas and to a lesser extent, primary melanomas (Kielhorn et al., 2003) but the relative abundances of the different forms of phosphorylated β-catenin (S33/S37/T41, S37/T41, S33/S37, T41, S37, or S33 only) were not distinguished.
Until the present disclosure, no studies have examined MHC class-I-bound phosphopeptide displayed on primary human tumor samples, and there is only limited evidence of a human immune response against class-I restricted phosphopeptides.

Target peptides for immunotherapy and diagnostics

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