When rich data is tunneled, its associated link identified by a primary data reference is changed by swapping primary references of original data with changed data. Thus, without duplicating the rich data, it is now associated with the changed data, preserving it in constant time. The primary references can include, but are not limited to, names and/or other item identifications. This technique allows preservation of rich data to occur without burdening processing and/or time constraints based on the size and/or number of rich data elements. The technique also allows disparate applications and/or systems to maintain data integrity even when rich data is not expected for a given application and/or system. Since the rich data follows a primary reference, awareness of the rich data is not required for it to be properly handled, ensuring its integrity.

Most traditional file systems do not support transactional capabilities. Applications need to give better guarantees to the user in terms of maintaining data integrity when unexpected events like power glitches, hard disk errors, etc. occur as they try to save files. In the absence of transactional capabilities, applications employ various schemes to maintain data integrity of files. A common strategy involves writing to a temporary file whenever an update is performed and its contents are saved. On a successful completion of the write and save operation on the temporary file, applications replace the original file with the temporary file. Typically, the files are identified by their names, although most file systems also use one or more additional internal identifiers. The strategy described above, often referred to as safe save, creates an illusion to the user that his/her actions were always directly happening to the original file.
Note, however, that some key data in the original file could be lost as part of replacing the original file with the temporary file. For example, in the case of NTFS (one of the file systems supported by Microsoft Windows operating system) these key data may include creation time, long/short name, object ID, alternate streams, etc. Operating systems may provide one or more APIs to assist users in automatically copying over some of these key data while doing safe save of files. The process of copying over one or more of the attributes (and data in some occasions) from one file to another by the operating system is called Attribute Tunneling. Attribute tunneling typically gets triggered when a file name disappears and reappears in the same directory within a stipulated time. File names can disappear through delete, rename or move operations. And, they can reappear through create, rename or move operations. Sometimes, applications may have to copy more data (e.g., security descriptor) or attributes in addition to what the operating system provides while doing a safe save.
Richer storage systems often provide the ability to associate or attach additional data like sticky notes, annotations, references, pictures, etc. to items including files. These additional data (rich data) can be arbitrary in their number and size. For efficiency, these systems internally tend to associate the rich data with the ID of the item (say, itemID). As part of the safe save operation the temporary file created gets a new ID and subsequently when the original file is replaced with the temporary file, the rich data associated with the ID of the original file fails to get transferred. To the user this manifests as simple loss of data, partial or full, while doing an operation like saving a document.
This type of traditional file saving requires that applications and systems be aware of rich data and how to preserve it. As often is the case, different applications and different systems can be of varying levels of sophistication and age, causing mismatches between how data is saved. Thus, if a system is not expecting rich data, it may not properly transfer it to the changed data. Additionally, the act of transferring the data can also add to the processing burden of a system or application depending on the size and number of data elements associated with the core data.


An apparatus for encapsulating seed by gel comprising a seed supplying portion and a processing portion, wherein seed has fallen from a hopper of a seed supplying portion are carried to a plurality of processing nozzles of a processing portion, for encapsulating seed by gelling. A supplying portion comprising the hopper filled with seed, a carrying device disposed below the hopper for arranging seed in correspondence with the number of processing nozzle of the processing portion, and switching devices disposed respectively at the end portions of seed carriage lanes formed by the carrying device so many as the processing nozzles. The carrying device comprising a box-shaped trough, partitions disposed at the upstream portion of the trough for restriction of the height of the flowing of seed, partitions for dividing the flowing of seed into streams so many as the processing nozzles, and a vibrator disposed below the trough.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for encapsulating seed by gel, which is particularly applied to production of large seed encapsulated by gel on a plurality of lines continuously.
2. Related Art
The Japanese Laid Open Gazette Hei. 8-149906 describes a well-known conventional technique with respect to encapsulating seed by gel by use of gelling mixed with nutrition, medicine and the like, wherein seed are inserted one after another into a single nozzle so as to be encapsulated by gel. Encapsulated seed in gel produced by use of the technique are supplied enough for the generality of farmers, however, cannot overtake the desired sum for a nursery company, an agricultural cooperative association, an extensive farmer and the like. Thus, such a well-known technique for continuous production of encapsulated seed in gel that seed are inserted into a plurality of nozzles simultaneously as described in the Japanese Laid Open Gazette Hei. 9-149710, for example, is used conventionally.
However, the conventional gel encapsulating apparatus of the above prior arts aim at processing seed like paddy rice having diameters between about 7 and 12 mm. It cannot process larger seed than those, because there occasionally happens that large seed cannot be suspended in a seed supplying hopper, some of them cannot be absorbed by suction of a vacuum pump, or some of those absorbed by the vacuum pump fall by empty weight on the way of carriage thereof. Furthermore, in such a construction for encapsulating seed by gel as to comprise absorbing nozzles and processing nozzles disposed in a plurality of lines, the absorbing nozzles absorb and carry seed to the processing nozzles simultaneously in parallel, however, even if only one of the absorbing nozzles has failed to absorb a seed, all of the absorbing nozzles are obliged to repeat their movement of absorption simultaneously again, thereby waste the time for carriage.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which can encapsulate seed by gel steadily, even if the seed are such large seed as to have diameters larger than 12 mm, so as to enable continuous production of encapsulated seed in gel.


A light intensity controlling device has a beam splitter which splits light fluxes emitted from a plurality of independently controlled semiconductor lasers, guided by optical fibers, into monitor light fluxes and main light fluxes. A gain adjusting circuit corrects the changes of output of light receiving elements depending on the polarization states of the light fluxes incident into the beam splitter. The changes result from the polarization characteristics of the optical fibers and/or the beam splitter. Alternatively, a filter is provided at one of the light receiving elements to compensate for the changes, thus providing a corrected output signal. Laser control circuits control the light emitting intensity of each semiconductor laser based on corrected output signals. The light receiving elements are set at an angle to the incoming light as so to avoid directing reflected light back toward an imaging system or the lasers.

The present invention relates to a device and method for the detection and control of the light intensity of a laser light source used in a laser printer or the like.
In a conventional laser printer, output from a laser light source is guided via an optical system to a rotating or oscillating mirror, and is scanned across a photoconductive drum by the mirror. The photoconductive drum is thereby exposed, and an electrostatic latent image (to be transferred to a recording sheet) is formed on the photoconductive drum.
Since the density of the electrostatic latent image changes with the light intensity of the laser flux output from the laser light source, the power of the laser flux must be controlled to a predetermined magnitude. Conventionally, in laser printer systems, the intensity is controlled according to an intensity detector provided as part of the laser light source or at the laser light source.
However, the intensity of the laser flux guided to the photoconductive drum changes as it passes through the optical system between the laser light source and the photoconductive drum, or is changed during transmission due to environmental variations, causing the printing precision of the laser printer to become unstable.
One method of controlling the intensity includes splitting the light flux emitted from light source into a monitor light flux and a main light flux. The light intensity of the main light flux is controlled by detecting the light intensity of the monitor light flux. This kind of light intensity controlling device is widely used in the field of optical disk devices. A light flux emitted from a light source (such as a semiconductor laser) is split by a light splitting element (such as a beam splitter), and one of the split light fluxes is used as a monitor light flux. The other (main) flux is introduced to an optical disk, and is modulated to write information on the disk. This method is known as automatic power control (ARC).
However, in the conventional light intensity controlling device, where more than one light source emit light fluxes having differing states of polarization, the intensity on an image plane can not be kept at an predetermined value by the APC operation. This is also the case in a device using one or more light sources, where the state of polarization of the light flux from the light source(s) is changed due to environmental fluctuations.
In general, the transmissivity or reflection index of an optical splitting element, and the indices of other optical elements guiding the main light flux onto the image plane, have polarization dependency. In other words, depending on the state(s) of polarization of an incident light flux, the light energy (light quantity) of the transmitted light or reflected light varies. In particular, since only an extremely small portion of the light quantity is split to be used as a monitor light flux in comparison to the main light flux (in order to secure the optical utilization efficiency on the main light flux side) the light intensity of the monitor light flux may change significantly according to the state(s) of polarization of incident light. Furthermore, the balance between the light intensity of the main light flux and that of the monitor light flux, when split by an optical splitting element, changes according to the state(s) of polarization of incident light flux.
Therefore, when the balance between split light fluxes is lost, a conventional. APC operation based on the light intensity of the monitor light flux fails to keep the light intensity of the main light flux on the image plane at a predetermined level.
This problem is particularly significant in an optical system utilizing optical fibers. In optical transmission, general-use optical fibers do not maintain a plane of polarization (although there is a case where the polarization direction of incident linearly polarized light is orthogonal to that of outgoing linearly polarized light). The change in the plane of polarization are caused by the bending and twisting of the optical fibers (as is necessary for installation).
For example, a situation where the problem of a loss of a plane of polarization is significant is in a multi-beam optical system in which light fluxes emitted from several light sources are introduced by optical fibers corresponding to each light source, and spot light sources are formed for each light source. If the light fluxes from the optical fibers are split by a beam splitter to obtain a monitor light flux, even when the state of polarization of light entering the respective optical fibers from each light source may be uniform, the state of polarization of each light flux emitted from the respective optical fibers (and incident into the beam splitter) differs. Therefore, even though an APC operation may be performed on the basis of the light intensity detected from the monitor light flux, it is difficult to keep the light intensity of the main light flux on an image plane constant.


The sleeve has a cylindrical metal tube with a plastic core. The metal tube has one or more grooves on the inner surface of the tube that run along at least a portion of the length of the tube. The plastic core fills the annular space between the metal tube and the rod of a rotary dental instrument, such that plastic material (1) fills the grooves to anchor the plastic core to the metal sleeve and (2) is molded to rigidly link the rod to the sleeve. The present invention reduces the exposure of plastic material in the sleeve, thereby reducing plastic swelling that can occur when the dental instrument is repeatedly cleaned using disinfectants.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dentistry equipment, and, in particular, to sleeves for rotary dental instruments, such as those for treating tooth cavities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Instruments used in dental surgery require absolute hygiene which obliges dentists to regularly clean and disinfect the instruments. This repeated cleaning and disinfecting can actually damage the sleeves that are often part of rotary dental instruments. In particular, aluminum sleeves may be attacked by the disinfectants, and plastic sleeves may swell under the effect of formaline, which is often used as a disinfectant.
To overcome these drawbacks, French patent 2 499 446 describes a mixed sleeve, namely one that is not solely made of plastic, which enables the sleeve to be less sensitive to cleaning or disinfecting. Nevertheless, the sleeve described in the patent has some drawbacks. In particular, the patent describes anchoring means in the form of a perforation or opening in a cylindrical metal tube where plastic material projects into that opening. Such anchoring means have the drawback that, when the user cleans and/or disinfects the instrument with products that cause plastic to swell, the plastic material in the sleeve will protrude slightly from the outer surface of the cylindrical metal tube and thereby form a projection that may make it difficult to place the instrument in the hand-piece.
Moreover, application of the invention of French patent 2 499 446 to certain types of dental instruments would require a redesign of how the cylindrical metal tube is manufactured which would cause the manufacturing process to be more expensive.
The present invention addresses the drawbacks of the devices of the prior art as described above. Aspects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description which follows.


An image-capturing apparatus adapted to receive a detachable lens apparatus having a mechanical shutter includes an image-capturing unit configured to capture an image of a subject, a communication unit configured to enable communication with the lens apparatus, and a control unit configured to perform an image generating operation using a video signal supplied from the image-capturing unit. The control unit controls timing of the image generating operations performed together with a plurality of opening and closing operations of the mechanical shutter on the basis of information received via the communication unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image-capturing apparatuses detachably mounted with lens apparatuses having mechanical shutters, lens apparatuses, image-capturing systems, methods for controlling image-capturing apparatuses, and methods for controlling lens apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video cameras, especially those having interlaced imaging devices, such as CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensors, are capable of shooting not only movies but also fine still images by employing mechanical shutters (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-724383 (paragraphs 0019 to 0020, FIG. 1) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-169248 (paragraphs 0021 to 0024, FIG. 1)).
In addition, lens apparatuses, which are detachably mounted on video camera systems (i.e., image-capturing apparatuses), having mechanical shutters have been suggested. Furthermore, a continuous shooting function has been introduced to such video cameras. With this feature, users can continuously shoot a plurality of still images by continuously pressing a still image recording switch disposed on such video cameras.
However, to perform a continuous shooting operation with a lens apparatus having a mechanical shutter and an image-capturing apparatus having a continuous shooting function, several conditions have to be met. First, the timing of an opening and closing operation of the mechanical shutter performed in the lens apparatus and that of a continuous shooting operation performed in the image-capturing apparatus have to be synchronized. And second, the opening and closing operation of the mechanical shutter and the continuous shooting operation in the image-capturing apparatus have to be repeated at the same speed.
More specifically, when the image-capturing apparatus has continuous shooting speed of 5 fps (frames per second), the lens apparatus has to perform the opening and closing operation of the mechanical shutter at a speed corresponding to 5 fps. However, synchronization of the timing of the continuous shooting operation and that of the opening and closing operation may be insufficient. Also, the maximum continuous shooting speed of a mechanical shutter varies among different lens apparatuses. For example, the lens apparatus may have a recommended value for the continuous shooting speed (i.e., maximum continuous shooting speed) of less than 5 fps. The recommended value is determined taking the durability of the mechanical shutter into account. In such a case, it is not preferable to perform the opening and closing operation of the mechanical shutter at a speed of 5 times per second or more, exceeding the recommended value, even if an instruction is given by the image-capturing apparatus.
Therefore, it would be desirable for an image-capturing apparatus to capture as many still images as possible in continuous shooting at a speed not exceeding the maximum continuous shooting speed of the mechanical shutter disposed in each lens apparatus.

Image-capturing apparatus, lens apparatus, image-capturing system, method for controlling image-capturing apparatus, and method for controlling lens apparatus


A magnetic data processing device sequentially receives magnetic data samples each of which is three-dimensional vector data represented by a linear combination of fundamental vectors and which are outputted from a three-dimensional magnetic sensor. The magnetic data processing device defines a statistical population which includes a plurality of the magnetic data samples sequentially inputted and which signifies a rotation of the three-dimensional magnetic sensor of a predetermined range, and operates when a distribution of the magnetic data samples of the statistical population is flat, for deducing a direction perpendicular to a plane which approximates the flat distribution of the statistical population, as vertical-direction data representing a vertical direction.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a magnetic data processing device, method, and program, and a magnetic processing system, and more particularly, to a technology for deducing an attitude and an orientation without use of an acceleration sensor.
2. Background Art
In recent years, mounting a magnetic sensor and an acceleration sensor in a mobile entity such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable cellular phone, or a vehicle has prevailed. The magnetic sensor includes magnetic sensor modules for decomposing a vector of a magnetic field into mutually orthogonal components and detecting the decomposed components. Magnetic data that is an output of the magnetic sensor is a combination of the outputs of the respective magnetic sensor modules, and is vector data represented by a linear combination of mutually orthogonal fundamental vectors. The direction and magnitude of the magnetic data correspond to the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field detected by the magnetic sensor.
The acceleration sensor detects a gravitational acceleration in a static state, and can therefore detect the inclination of a mobile entity with a vertical direction as a reference. Once the direction of geomagnetism is identified with a mobile entity as a reference and the inclination of the mobile entity is identified with the vertical direction as a reference, the attitude of the mobile entity can be deduced with an azimuth as a reference. For example, Reference is made to International Patent Publication No. WO/2006-009247 Pamphlet.
However, in order to deduce the attitude of a mobile entity with an azimuth as a reference, both a magnetic sensor and an acceleration sensor are conventionally needed.

Magnetic data processing device, method, and program, and magnetic processing system


A subsurface well safety valve having a flow tube telescopically movable in the housing for controlling movement of a valve closure member. A piston and cylinder assembly actuates the flow tube and it is in communication with hydraulic control fluid on one side and a gas biasing chamber on a second side and includes a biasing spring acting on the flow tube to close the valve. A second piston is telescopically positioned in the first piston with two different sized sealing areas, one of which is exposed to hydraulic fluid and the second of which is exposed to the gas chamber. In the event of loss of gas pressure, the second piston will separate from the first piston causing hydraulic pressure equalization and failsafe closure of the valve.

It is known to use a subsurface safety valve which is actuated to the open position by the application of hydraulic fluid from the well surface and which is moved to the closed position by biasing means such as an enclosed pressure gas chamber and a mechanical spring.
It is imperative that a safety valve must close under all circumstances and if there is a failure it must be failsafe in a closed position. As valves are set deeper in the well, pressurized chambers having compressed gas are used as a biasing force in addition to a biasing spring. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,660,646 and 4,976,317 disclose gas biased safety valves which allow a valve to failsafe close if the gas charge is lost.
The prior failsafe gas safety valves included numerous parts and seals. The present invention is directed to a minimum number of parts and seals and this reduction will reduce manufacturing cost, decrease friction, reduce assembly time, and improve reliability. In addition, the present improved safety valve will overcome other problems associated with prior art valves.


A driving circuit for a liquid crystal display comprises a light sensitive element configured to be arranged on a liquid crystal panel of the liquid crystal display, and detect an operation state of a backlight source of the liquid crystal display; and a reset signal output device configured to receive an input signal from the light sensitive element in accordance with the operation state of the backlight source, and output a reset signal to a gate line driver of the liquid crystal display so as to turn on all of gate lines on the liquid crystal panel.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a display of flat panel type commonly used at present, of which a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a mainstream product. With development of the LCD industry, LCD products with large size have gradually been a mainstream on market. However, an increase in size of the LCD may lead to an increase in resistance and capacitance of data lines and gate lines. Due to a problem of delay by the resistance and the capacitance, a phenomenon of afterimage may be occurred to a picture at time of shut down.
In the related arts, a power supply module with a reset function or an independent chip with a reset function are used to remove the afterimage phenomenon occurred to the picture of the LCD. These devices mainly detect an input voltage of the TFT-LCD. When the input voltage is less than a reference voltage inside the chip, a reset signal is outputted to a gate driving integrated circuit (IC), which pulls all of output voltages of the gate driving IC up to a gate ON voltage, thus the gates of the TFTs of corresponding pixels are turned on, and the function to remove the afterimage is realized.
However, the afterimage phenomenon basically exists in a time period subsequent to the OFF of a backlight source and prior to the OFF of the input signal. According to characteristics of a general product, only when at least 200 ms has been elapsed after the backlight source is turned off, will the input signal and then the input voltage be turned off. Therefore, for a method according to the related arts, the afterimage still may be occurred in 200 ms after the backlight source is turned off. Moreover, in the method according to the related arts, since the reset signal is outputted only when the input signal is detected to be decreased to a certain value, and at the same time, the input voltage is still in a threshold state in which the power supply module and the driving IC are operated and the fall time of the output voltage is from 0 to 10 ms generally (operation states of the power supply module and the gate driving IC are both in a threshold state), the pixel capacitance and the storage capacitance of the TFT-LCD can not be discharged rapidly, which fails to rapidly eliminate the afterimage.

Driving circuit and driving method thereof and liquid crystal display

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An enzyme-treated hesperidin, comprising alpha-glucosyl hesperidin, hesperidin and beta-monoglucosyl hesperetin, wherein the content of hesperidin is 0.1 part or less by weight; and that of beta-monoglucosyl hesperetin, 0.1 to 0.5 part by weight, on the basis of 1 part by weight of alpha-glucosyl hesperidin. The present invention also provides a process to produce enzyme-treated hesperidin, which comprises subjecting a solution containing alpha-glucosyl hesperidin and intact hesperidin to alpha-L-rhamnosidase to convert the intact hesperidin into beta-monoglucosyl hesperetin. The enzyme-treated hesperidin, which is excellent in water solubility and is free from crystal precipitation (clouding) even if stored for a prolonged period of time, can be produced from a material containing alpha-glucosylhesperidin and hesperidin by conducting the above simple treatment of material. The present invention further provides a method of using the enzyme-treated hesperidin. The enzyme-treated hesperidin can be used in the prevention of clouding of a canned tangerine and prevention of fading of natural coloring matter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an enzyme-treated hesperidin with a superior water solubility, as well as to its production and uses.
2. Description of Prior art
Hesperidin is the name of a compound where, as seen in the formula I!, rutinose or L-rhamnosyl-(alpha-6)-glucose is bound via beta-linkage to the hydroxyl group at 7-position in hesperetin or 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-4'-methoxyflavanone. ##STR1##
Hesperidin, which is contained in unripe pericarps of citruses, is used in medicines and cosmetics as a source of vitamin P. Vitamin P exhibits a variety of physiological activities such as those of strengthening the capillary blood vessel, preventing bleeding and regulating blood pressure. Hesperidin is soluble in aqueous alkaline solution but substantially insoluble in water and acids: Fifty liters of water dissolves only about 1 g hesperidin (about 0.002 v/v %) at ambient temperature. For example, even when a small amount of hesperidin is contained, in the syrup of canned products, the syrup may become turbid and impair their commercial value.
A variety of methods have been proposed which may prevent turbidity in syrups due to the presence of hesperidin.
For example, Japanese Patent Kokai No. 7,593/91 discloses a process to produce an enzyme-treated hesperidin with an elevated water solubility, where a saccharide-transferring enzyme, in particular, an enzyme possessing alpha-glucosyltransferase activity is allowed to act on hesperidin in the presence of a partial starch hydrolyzate as alpha-glucosyl saccharide compound to form alpha-glucosyl hesperidin as represented by the formula II!. ##STR2##
Alpha-glucosyl hesperidin is, as seen in the formula II!, either a single compound where n (1 to 20) units of glucose (G) are sequentially bound via 1,4-linkage to the glucose at the 4-position in hesperidin as represented by the formula I!, or a mixture of alpha-glucosyl hesperidins which differ from each other in the number of the glucose units.
In the above mentioned enzymatic reaction, 40 to 80% hesperidin in material liquid is converted into alpha-glucosyl hesperidin during the enzyme treatment, while 20 to 60% hesperidin remains intact. Although intact hesperidin exhibits a relatively high solubility in aqueous solution when alpha-glucosyl hesperidin coexists, an elevated ratio of intact hesperidin to alpha-glucosyl hesperidin results in the insolubilization and precipitation of hesperidin within a short time period.
One may contemplate another method which may prevent the precipitation of intact hesperidin, where glue materials such as carboxymethyl cellulose are added to solutions with hesperidin to elevate their viscosity. Such method is, however, generally unacceptable because the addition of glue material may reduce customer interest, as well as because the use of glue material is prohibited in products to be exported.
There is available still another method which may retard the precipitation of intact hesperidin, where intact hesperidin is precipitated and then removed by separation using, for example, filtration, thus decreasing the ratio of intact hesperidin to alpha-glucosyl hesperidin.
This method, however, does not provide complete solutions because the intact hesperidin still causes precipitation after a lapse of prolonged time period.
There is available still another method, where fractions of alpha-glucosyl hesperidin are isolated from an aqueous solution containing both alpha-glucosyl hesperidin and intact hesperidin by means, for example, of chromatographic separation, prior to its use. This method is, however, unacceptable from an economical viewpoint because it may result in increased cost.
To solve these problems, the present inventors have the found that when alpha-glucosyl hesperidin and intact hesperidin in solution are subjected to alpha-L-rhamnosidase (E.C.184.108.40.206), the former alpha-glucosyl hesperidin undergoes no changes and substantially remains intact, while the latter hesperidin is hydrolyzed into rhamnose and monoglucosyl hesperetin as represented by the formula III!. This reaction yields an enzyme-treated hesperidin with a very superior water solubility which does not cause tubidity even when allowed to stand over a prolonged time period. The present invention is based on these findings.
The method, in which, in order to elevate the water solubility of hesperidin, alpha-L-rhamnosidase is allowed to act thereon to convert hesperidin into beta-monoglucosyl hesperetin, has been practiced on an industrial scale to prevent turbidity in the syrup of canned tangerines.
Prior Art, however, does not disclose the method of the present invention, where hesperidinase as an enzyme possessing alpha-L-rhamnosidase activity is allowed to act on a solution containing both alpha-glucosyl hesperidin and intact hesperidin so that the rhamnose moiety in the former alpha-glucosyl hesperidin is left intact, while that in the latter hesperidin is specifically hydrolyzed to change hesperidin into beta-monoglucosyl hesperetin, thus elevating the water solubility of the solution.
Japanese Patent Kokai No.80,177/96 discloses a method to prevent the precipitation of hesperidin crystals, where a solubilized hesperidin is added to a solution with hesperidin. Said Japanese Patent Kokai describes that the solubilized hesperidin is a compound where 1 to 10 or more glucose moieties are sequentially bound via alpha-1,4-linkage to the 4-position of the glucose moiety in hesperidin. This reference also teaches that the solubilized hesperidin can be produced by subjecting hesperidin in the presence of cyclodextrin to a saccharide-transferring enzyme which may be CGTase or 1,4-alpha-D-glucan; 1,4-alpha-D-(1,4-glucano)-transferase (E.C.188.8.131.52), for example, that harvested from cultures of strain A2-5a of the genus Bacillus.
Said Japanese Patent Kokai, however, discloses only the technical idea that solubilized hesperidin is admixed with intact hesperidin to prevent the precipitation of hesperidin crystals in products with hesperidin. Further, such a method gives a mixture of alpha-glucosyl hesperidin and hesperidin where intact hesperidin remains intact. Thus, canned products prepared by this method have the disadvantage that their syrups gradually become turbid. For coping with this problem, in the embodiments in the Japanese Patent Kokai, fractions of alpha-monoglucosyl and alpha-diglucosyl hesperidins are isolated, prior to uses. One may, however, encounter technical difficulties if he or she attempts to isolate the fractions at low cost.

Enzyme-treated hesperidin, process for producing the same and method of using enzyme-treated hesperidin

Kabushiki Kaisha Hayashibara Seibutsu Kagaku Kenkyujo


Improved approaches for evaluating performance of data storage systems used with computers are disclosed. The performance evaluation of the data storage systems utilizes dynamic performance evaluation by use of data throughput as a diagnostic. The data storage systems include, for example, either disk drives or RAIDs. In one embodiment, the invention identifies a sustained performance rate for a disk drive or RAID.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data storage systems for use with computers and, more particularly, to performance evaluation of data storage systems used with computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disk drives are commonly used with computers, including desktop computers, notebook computers and servers, to store data. Over the years disk drives have become more advanced so as to offer greater performance and storage capacity. Manufacturers of disk drives provide data sheets or specifications that detail performance and capacity of their disk drives. However, once manufactured, computer companies may want to examine the performance of the disk drives in more detail or in specific applications.
Conventionally, a computer company would either assume that the disk drives are satisfactory given the manufacturer provided performance guarantees, or they perform their own performance testing of the disk drives. Typical testing by computer companies is table-driven, meaning that a table of manufacturer-specific performance data is needed to evaluate the disk drives. One problem with such testing is that different tables would be needed as different disk drives are tested. Such tables are not always readily available. Further, the need for various different tables is cumbersome to those having to perform the testing. Another problem with such testing is that it is dependent on the table data, which is normally provided by the manufacturer, and thus is not necessarily provided for serious performance testing. Still another problem with such testing is that disk drives typically report hard errors but do not report soft errors (i.e., recovered errors). For example, in reading data, if the disk drive initially has an error (i.e., soft error) but on a re-read is able to recover the data correctly, then no error is reported. However, the performance of the disk drive during such read operation is diminished because additional revolutions are required to re-read the data. Each additional revolution causes a performance penalty on the order of seven (7) milliseconds with today's technology.
Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to test performance of disk drives.

Method and apparatus for dynamic performance evaluation of data storage systems


An object-based event communications system supplies an event distribution object having an outgoing-from-publisher event interface and associated with unique identifiers defined for a publisher that is programmed to fire events by calling a method on the event distribution object's outgoing-from-publisher event interface. The event communications system stores subscriptions of subscriber objects to methods of the outgoing-from-publisher event interface. On receiving a call from a publisher to its outgoing-from-publisher interface methods, the event distribution object multi-casts calls to counterpart methods of subscriber objects that have stored subscriptions to the respective outgoing-from-publisher interface methods.

A prevalent programming problem is that of advertising availability of and distributing information to interested parties without a prior knowledge of their identity. In these situations, there are two types of programs involved: a program that produces information and one or more programs that consume the information. For efficiency, it is preferable that the information producer proactively notify the interested information consumers when information becomes available, rather than force the consumer to repeatedly call or poll for available information. Yet, the identity of the consumers is not known a priori by the producer (e.g., at development or compile time of the producer program). This programming problem is encountered in a variety of situations from delivering information between very granular objects running in a single process to delivering information across an enterprise between very large applications. For example, it may be desirable to inform several thousand employees of an enterprise when its stock price reaches a given amount, or inform managers when certain tasks in a project are complete, among many other information distribution scenarios. Also, a number of network or enterprise events are of interest to many applications, such as changes in network security policy, replication failures, network printer failure, or moving server software to a new machine. There also are a large number of events that occur within a single machine and have great utility, including login/logout, network connect/disconnect, startup/shutdown, disk full, CPU idle, etc.
Traditional object-oriented programming models and systems use method calls according to a request/reply model to communicate data between objects. Object-oriented programming models, such as the Microsoft Component Object Model ("COM"), define a standard structure of software objects that can be interconnected and collectively assembled into an application (which, being assembled from component objects, is herein referred to as a "component application"). The objects are hosted in an execution environment created by system services, such as the object execution environments provided by COM. This system exposes services for use by component application objects in the form of application programming interfaces ("APIs"), system-provided objects and system-defined object interfaces.
In accordance with object-oriented programming principles, the component application is a collection of object classes which each model real world or abstract items by combining data to represent the item's properties with functions to represent the item's functionality. More specifically, an object is an instance of a programmer-defined type referred to as a class, which exhibits the characteristics of data encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance. Data encapsulation refers to the combining of data (also referred to as properties of an object) with methods that operate on the data (also referred to as member functions of an object) into a unitary software component (i.e., the object), such that the object hides its internal composition, structure and operation and exposes its functionality to client programs that utilize the object only through one or more interfaces. An interface of the object is a group of semantically related member functions of the object. In other words, the client programs do not access the object's data directly, but must instead call functions on the object's interfaces to operate on the data.
Polymorphism refers to the ability to view (i.e., interact with) two similar objects through a common interface, thereby eliminating the need to differentiate between two objects. Inheritance refers to the derivation of different classes of objects from a base class, where the derived classes inherit the properties and characteristics of the base class.
These object-oriented programming models traditionally use a request/reply model to communicate data between objects. In the request/reply model, one object (typically the object that consumes or acts on the information) implements an incoming interface. FIG. 1, for example, shows a program listing 10 according to COM of an "IStockEvents" interface exposed by an object to receive communications of stock information, such as stock symbols and price updates. A client of the object (such as one that produces information acted on by the object) communicates with the object through the incoming interface, by first creating the object and calling a method in the interface of the object. FIG. 2, for example, shows a program listing 12 of client code to communicate stock information to the object by calling a method in the IStockEvents interface. In such request/reply models, however, there is a one-to-one relationship between the client and object. Also, the identity of the object must be "known" a priori to the client. Specifically, the relationship of client to object is "early-bound," i.e., established at development by compiling in a class identifier (e.g., shown in FIG. 2 by the "CLSID_StockSubscriber" parameter of the "CoCreateInstance( )" call).
A more effective approach to this distribution problem (i.e., of many unknown consumers) is to use a publish and subscribe event communications model, which generally provides an information distribution mechanism that in many ways resembles the magazine publishing industry. In magazine publishing, a publisher (e.g., McGraw-Hill) advertises magazines (e.g., Byte magazine) to potential subscribers. Subscriptions to a given magazine are placed by the subscriber or possibly also by another person on behalf of the subscriber. The subscription is an agreement by the publisher to distribute an event (e.g., issues of the magazine) to the subscriber when the event is produced by the publisher. Publish and subscribe event communications models use a similar approach for distributing information from a producing program (the "publisher") to a consuming program (the "subscriber").
Two representative publish and subscribe event communications models are Sun Microsystems' JavaBeans™ Events architecture and the Connection Points model of Microsoft Corporation's Component Object Model (hereafter, COM Connection Points). Both of these feature an internal events model in which the eventing semantic is completely contained within the scope of the publisher and subscriber. In other words, the subscriber contains the program code that implements the subscription logic.
More specifically, JavaBeans™ Events defines structures of a set of interfaces to be implemented by the publisher and subscriber, as well as an event object with standard interfaces. The publisher (called an "event source") identifies itself as sourcing particular events by implementing registration methods that conform to a specific design pattern (e.g., declared as "FooListener AddFooListener(FooListener fel);" in the Java programming language) and accept references to instances of particular subscriber's (called an "event listener") interfaces. The information produced by the event source is encapsulated in an "event state" object (which is derived as a subclass from "java.util.EventObject"). The subscriber identifies itself as interested in particular events by implementing some set of "event listener" interfaces with methods that receive the event state object. The subscriber must include code to call the registration method of the publisher and pass a reference to its event listener interface. The publisher, on the other hand, contains code that, upon producing information which is to be published, creates an event state object to contain the information and calls an appropriate method on the registered event listener interfaces of the event listener to which the event state object is passed.
In COM Connection Points, a publisher (called a "connectable object") defines outgoing interfaces and provides an associated "connection point" sub-object for distributing information to interested "client objects" or subscribers. The connectable object implements an interface, "IConnectionPointContainer," which indicates the existence of outgoing interfaces. The client object uses the "IConnectionPointContainer" interface to obtain a reference to an interface, "IConnectionPoint," of the connection point sub-object for a desired outgoing interface (specified by an interface identifier or "IID") defined by the connectable object. Using the "IConnectionPoint" interface, the client object establishes an advisory connection with the connectable object by passing in a reference to a sink object that implements the desired outgoing interface. The connectable object then publishes an event via calls to the connected outgoing interfaces.
In both the JavaBeans™ Events and COM Connection Points models, the subscriber is required to contain "subscription logic" (i.e., program code) that establishes the subscription or connection from the publisher to the subscriber. In JavaBeans™ Events, the event listener contains logic to locate the appropriate event source that produces event state objects with desired information, and to register its event listener interface with that event source so as to receive the event state object. In COM Connection Points, the client object contains logic to locate the appropriate connectable object that produces desired information, and establish an advisory connection with the connectable object to the client object's sink interface. This need in such internal event models to incorporate subscription logic built into the publisher and/or subscriber complicates the programming model, making it more difficult for developers to write application objects that make use of the event model for information distribution.
A further disadvantage of these event communications models is that the publisher and subscriber are required to have concurrent lifetimes. In JavaBeans™ Events, the event listener registers an "event listener" interface reference with the event source. In COM Connection Points, the client object passes a sink object interface reference to the connection point object to establish the advisory connection from the connectable object. In either case, the interface reference is only valid during the lifetime of the event listener or client sink object, requiring that the subscriber and publisher be in existence (i.e., instantiated) when the subscription is made and when the event is published.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Object connectivity through loosely coupled publish and subscribe events


The invention relates to methods and products for generating diverse libraries of genetic material. The products include libraries and constructed nucleic acids as well as kits and databases and systems thereof.

Many cellular functions are encoded in gene clusters, the manipulation of which is complicated by their size and genetic complexity. Several challenges inhibit the engineering of large systems composed of many genetic parts. First, the process of design is tedious, with computational design environments focused at combining parts at the primary DNA-sequence level1-4. Second, the time required to prototype a design is slow. While DNA synthesis is now routine for individual genes5,6 and has been used to build entire 500 kilobase genomes7, it remains too expensive to simultaneously synthesize many alternative designs. This slows the design build-test cycle because only small sets of designs can be constructed and evaluated per iteration. Further, native genetic systems are riddled with overlapping and cryptic elements that complicate part replacement and optimization8-11.

Directed evolution of synthetic gene cluster


An ablation probe comprising an elongate body extending a length along a longitudinal axis from a first end to a second end, the first end extending into a housing and the second end comprising an ablation probe tip configured for insertion into a biopsy tract in a patient. In example forms, the elongate body of the ablation probe can be inserted into a patient through an existing trocar needle or biopsy access cannula following completion of a biopsy. In other example forms, the elongate body of the ablation probe defines a lumen. In one example form, the lumen contains a wire for heating the ablation probe tip, which may be composed of graphite, a resistive metal, or another electrically-resistive material. In another example form, the lumen additionally contains a thermocouple or other temperature sensor for monitoring the temperature of the ablation probe tip. In any of the above example forms, use of the ablation probe to heat tissue following a biopsy effects cauterization of the tissue, stopping bleeding and reducing or preventing the seeding of additional tumors.

Biopsies are performed to determine whether tumors are cancerous, to diagnose certain inflammatory conditions, and to assess organ function. In a standard core needle biopsy, a trocar needle is often inserted into the biopsy site on the patient, creating a hollow portal through which the biopsy needle is then inserted. In some instances, such as percutaneous biopsies, the biopsy needle may additionally cut small tissue samples of tissue from the patient for further analysis.
Whenever a needle is placed into the body, there is a risk of injury to the blood vessels and/or bleeding. This is a particularly strong risk during core-needle biopsies (CNBs), which are the most common biopsy procedures performed. The risk of bleeding associated with biopsies increases when larger samples and/or more samples are taken; however, diagnoses based on biopsy results are typically more accurate when larger and/or more samples are analyzed. During surgeries, cauterization is typically used to stop bleeding, but surgical cauterization methods may not be compatible with the small scale of the typical biopsy needle.
Furthermore, when the trocar needle is removed from the biopsy tract, tumor seeding may occur as cancer cells dislodge from the biopsied mass, adhere to the needle, and spread along the needle tract. Because many cancer cells lack cohesiveness, they can migrate and either grow along the tract of the needle or enter the bloodstream or interstitial fluid of nearby tissue, potentially causing cancer to spread to previously unaffected organ systems. Currently, no commercial devices are known to suitably minimize tumor seeding after biopsy, and some types of suspected cancers may not be safely biopsied due to a particularly high risk of tumor seeding.
Thus it can be seen that needs exist for a system and method that reduces or eliminates the risks of both bleeding and tumor seeding after collection of biopsy samples. Such a system and method has the potential to greatly reduce treatment costs for patients and could even prevent the conversion of a curable cancer into a metastasized, non-operable, or deadly cancer. Ideally, the system and method can be used in conjunction with existing imaging systems such as ultrasounds, CT scans, or MRI in order to guide the medical practitioner to the lesion or other area of interest. It is to the provision of system and method that meets these needs and addresses both bleeding and tumor seeding that the present invention is primarily directed.

Biopsy tract ablation system for tumor seeding prevention and cauterization


Systems and methods for detecting device failures in a network having nodes coupled to a central controller, in which a first of the nodes communicates with the central controller via a second of the nodes. When the second node determines that the first node has not transmitted a predetermined number of messages over a predefined number of time periods, the second node provides a failure alert to the central controller. The central controller records a failure alert received from the second node in a log. Based on a set of failure alerts received from a number of nodes recorded in the log, the central controller determines whether the first node has failed.

It is necessary for the operators of communication networks to remotely detect when devices fail within their networks. Very large networks, such as those used by utility services, cannot be effectively monitored by actively polling devices due to limitations the size of these networks place on bandwidth, transmission time and power. In addition, failures caused by, for example, power loss are difficult to predict and identify.

Method and system for detecting failures of network nodes


Spray-dried thrombin materials obtained from feedstock solutions comprising less than 5% by weight albumin and excluding trehalose or other excipients as well as methods of manufacturing the thrombin materials and methods of treating bleeding wounds are disclosed. The methods of use include applying reconstituted spray-dried thrombin topically to a bleeding site, optionally in conjunction with gelatin.

Preventing excessive bleeding and promoting healing is an important aspect of many medical procedures. Preventing excessive bleeding can reduce transfusion rates and avoid minor complications in surgery, including cardiovascular surgery.
A variety of products are available that can act as hemostatic agents. For example, barrier materials have been proposed to assist in reducing bleeding as well, but many are made of non-biodegradable materials and can remain in the body with undesirable side effects. Additionally, it is often difficult to place and immobilize implants properly onto the bleeding site. Using non-solid anti-adhesive materials may also be problematic, because such materials often should be sufficiently fluid to enter and conform to the regions being treated, while simultaneously being sufficiently viscous enough to remain on the bleeding site until the tissue is healed. These objectives also have to be balanced with the requirements of biocompatibility and resorbability.
Certain hemostatic compositions currently used to prevent excessive bleeding and promote healing implement an aqueous carrier or form a hydrogel. These compositions may be delivered in the form of a powder and reconstituted at the time of use, the composition being biocompatible and permitting optimization of the release characteristics, including release rate, composition persistence, drug carrying capacity, product delivery characteristics (such as injectability), and the like. However, initial preparation of aqueous carrier or hydrogel composition often is time-consuming, which may be undesirable in certain environments such as emergency medicine situations. Moreover, the hemostatic compositions may require active agents, such as thrombin, which require additional preparation and delivery steps.
Certain compositions also require additional additives in order to improve reconstitution times, stability, or hemostatic performance. These additives, such as trehalose, increase the complexity of the product and can lead to problems for patients with intolerances to the additives.
For the above reasons, it is desirable to provide improved hemostatic compositions, methods of making these compositions, and related methods of using the compositions for preventing excessive bleeding and promoting healing following surgery or other trauma using powdered formulations that may be provided in powdered form and dissolved and reconstituted quickly and effectively. These compositions do not require additional additives in order to perform well.

Spray-dried thrombin and methods of using and making spray-dried thrombin


A disc drive comprises an enclosure, a disc carrying unit, a pair of rotating members, and a pair of light sources. The enclosure has an opening for insertion and ejection of the disc. The disc carrying unit carries a disc having been inserted into the opening to the inside of the enclosure and ejects the disc having been carried into the inside of the enclosure from the opening. Each of the rotating members has a disc contact portion in contact with the end face of the disc and moves the disc contact portion in the state where the disc contact portion is in contact with the end face of the disc when the disc carrying unit carries the disc. Each of the light sources is provided at the disc contact portion and has light enter the inside of the disc from the end face of the disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc drive used for recording image or musical tune information in a disc (an optical disc or a magneto optical disc having optical transparency) and playing the recorded information, and more specifically to a slot-in type disc drive in which a disc emits light at insertion or ejection of the disc so that an excellent illumination effect can be exerted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disc drives include one type in which a disc is loaded on a tray and carried into the disc drive and another type in which a tray is not provided but a disc is carried into the disc drive through a slit-like opening (slot) provided on the front face of an enclosure of the disc drive. The disc drive in which a disc is directly inserted into the opening is referred to as a slot-in type.
In the slot-in type disc drive, various types of provision of a light emitting body in the disc drive are proposed in order to improve visibility in a dark place or to provide an illumination effect. In the disc drive provided with a tray on which a disc is loaded, light emission of the tray is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. S60(1985)-194797. Also, light emission in the vicinity of the opening in the slot-in type disc drive is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. H02(1990)-072497.
The slot-in type disc drive with light emission in the vicinity of the opening has an effect that the position of the opening into which the disc is to be inserted is made clear even in a dark place. However, since the disc itself does not emit light, the illumination effect is poor. Thus, a disc drive with excellent visibility and illumination effect in a dark place is in demand in the slot-in type disc drive.


An excimer lamp which can emit UV radiation with a high degree of efficiency and high degree of uniformity, has a UV-reflecting film that does not peel. The excimer lamp is fitted with a silica glass discharge vessel that encloses a discharge gas which forms excimer molecules by dielectric barrier discharge in an internal space enclosed by a top wall panel, a bottom wall panel, side wall panels and end panels and with an electrode on both the outer surface of the top wall panel and another electrode on the outer surface of the bottom wall panel. On the inner surface of the discharge vessel, a UV-reflecting film comprised of silica and alumina particles is formed, at least, on the inner surface area of the side wall panels with the silica particles composing at least 30 weight % of the UV-reflecting film.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to excimer lamps that emit UV radiation; more precisely, it relates to excimer lamps in which a UV-reflecting film is formed on the inner surfaces of a discharge vessel facing the discharge space.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, excimer lamps have been employed as UV light sources for surface finishing when performing such processes as cleaning, ashing or coating by irradiation with UV radiation in, for example, the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, liquid crystal displays, etc.
In such an excimer lamp, the technology of installing a UV-reflecting film on the inner surface facing the discharge space of the discharge vessel has been proposed as a means of emitting highly efficient UV radiation (see, JP 3580233 B2, for example). In an excimer lamp with a structure like this one, in which a UV-reflecting film is installed on the inner surface of its discharge vessel, a light exit window for emitting UV radiation generated in the discharge space inside said discharge vessel is formed by an area where no UV-reflecting film is formed on part of the inner surface of the discharge vessel.
Moreover, in this kind of excimer lamp, when UV radiation generated inside the discharge vessel is radiated in other directions besides the direction facing the light exit window, it can be emitted from the light exit window together with the UV radiation directly radiated onto the light exit window by being reflected by the UV-reflecting film and therefore, the UV radiation can be emitted with high efficiency.
The UV-reflecting film on an excimer lamp consists of UV scattering particles having a high rate of UV scattering and these UV scattering particles have a laminated structure. Particles of such substances as silica, alumina, magnesium fluoride, calcium fluoride, lithium fluoride and magnesium oxide are employed as UV scattering particles in the UV-reflecting film.
When UV radiation hit this kind of body UV-reflecting film composed of laminated UV scattering particles, it is scattered in a direction which is different from the initial direction of the UV radiation by being refracted or reflected on the surfaces of numerous UV scattering particles.
On the other hand, silica glass is widely employed as the material for discharge vessels in lamps that emit UV radiation, such as an excimer lamp.
As shown in FIGS. 10 & 11, some types of excimer lamps are constructed in such a way that both ends are hermetically sealed and are provided with a nearly cylindrically shaped silica glass discharge vessel 20 inside of which is a discharge space S, and the outside of which are a top wall panel 21, bottom wall panel 23, side wall panels 25 and end wall panels 26 which enclose the discharge space S which contains the discharge gas. On each of the outer surfaces 21A and 23A of the facing top and bottom wall panels 21, 23, an electrode 11 and another electrode 12 are installed opposite from each other. In this excimer lamp, the UV-reflecting film 50 is formed on the inner surface 21B of top wall panel 21 on which one of the electrodes 11 is formed and also, a light exit window for emitting UV radiation generated in the discharge space S through an area where there no UV reflective coating 50 is formed on the inner surface of the discharge vessel 20 (specifically, the inner surface 23B of the bottom wall panel 23 and the inner surface 25A of the side wall panel 25. In FIG. 10, 28 is a chip tube and 29 is a flange.
In this type of excimer lamp, when high frequency voltage is applied between the electrodes 11, 12, the discharge vessel 20 and the UV-reflecting film 50 function as a dielectric body and, in discharge space S, a discharge starting point is generated on the surface facing discharge space S on the UV-reflecting film 50 and the bottom wall panel 23 facing the UV-reflecting film 50 (specifically, the surface 51 of the UV-reflecting film and the inner surface 23B of the bottom wall panel 23), and as a result, dielectric barrier discharge occurs and through this dielectric barrier discharge, excimer molecules are formed in the discharge gas and UV radiation is emitted from the light exit window comprised of the bottom wall panel 23 and the side wall panels 25 of the discharge vessel 20.
Nevertheless, as shown in FIG. 12, when the excimer lamp is turned on, there may be abnormal discharges (a) from the end area 55 of the UV-reflecting film 50 and, when the abnormal discharge occurs, a problem arises, since unevenness in illuminance occurs on the target surface of the target body, the target surface cannot be irradiated uniformly and the discharge energy consumption balance of the entire excimer lamp is destroyed.
In other words, in an excimer lamp, if there is no occurrence of abnormal discharge (a), a countless number of column-shaped discharges (hereafter referred to as "columnar arc discharges") (b) are almost uniformly generated at an identical discharge power in the discharge space (S), but if abnormal discharge (a) occurs, the discharge energy will be consumed by this abnormal discharge (a), so around the peripheral area of the area where said abnormal discharge (a) occurs, the discharge power of the columnar arc discharge (b) is low. Therefore, in the area where abnormal discharge (a) occurs, the discharge power of the UV radiation is lower and, as a result, on the target surface of the target body, the illuminance of the area where abnormal discharge (a) occurs is lower than for other areas.
In the example in FIG. 12, in one end area 55 (right end area) of the UV-reflecting film 50 in the excimer lamp, abnormal discharge (a) occurs, and therefore, in this excimer lamp, the light intensity where end area 55 is located is less than that of other areas.
Also, a problem arises in excimer lamps when, due to this arc discharge (a), peeling occurs at the end area 55 of the UV-reflecting film 50.


There is provided a product information supply method for supplying a user who desires to purchase a product with proper information about a related product that could be bought in combination with the product, so that the user is assisted in purchasing products. Registration of combination information to be supplied to the user is made with a database managed by a service provider server by a person who has bought the above product by means of a registration page so that a lot of combination information is accumulated in the database. The registered information includes not only information specifying a combinable product but also information about the effects of the combination and the ways of using products in combination. The database is searched in response to inquiry information from the user who makes reference to a page of products. Thus, corresponding combination information is extracted from the database and is sent to the user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing a user who wishes to purchase a certain product via a network with information about related products that can be combined with the above product when purchasing the same. The present invention is also concerned with a method for enable the user to acquire information about related products. Further, the present invention relates to a method for enable a registered user to register information about related products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been an increased number of online shops from which users can purchase products via the Internet, and Web sites called online mall in which a plurality of online shops are gathered. On such Web sites, a user places a buy order by seeing a Web page that introduces products, choosing a product that he or she wants from among the introduced products, specifying the way of settling and personal information such as his/her address. The way of settlement may, for example, be a bank transfer, a credit card or electronic money.
Generally, the user who utilizes online sales service chooses a product that he or she wants from a list of products on a Web page and temporarily puts it in a shopping cart. This procedure is repeated until the user chooses all products that he or she wants. Then, the user places a buy order. It is generally said that 65% of the products that the user once chooses is cancelled until the user finally places the buy order. This shows that the user wavers in his/her choice of products during purchasing. It is therefore desired to provide means for assisting the user in purchasing. Such means is also important to online sales providers in terms of sales promotion.
Taking the above into consideration, there are some Web pages that present comments on products to the users. However, in practice, it is difficult to provide the users with valuable comments. There are also many Web sites that utilize an electronic bulletin board in which a variety of information about products can be written. However, there is no function of associating these Web sites with online shopping Web sites and providing the users with proper information. This fails to supply the user with useful information in shopping.
It is conceivable to employ a so-called cross sell in which products that could be bought in combination with a product that the user wants to buy are proposed so that the user can be stimulated to buy these products. For example, a peripheral device such as a printing machine could be combined with a personal computer that the user wants. A carry bag could be combined with a notebook type personal computer that the user wants. A guidebook could be combined with a computer software package. It is necessary to obtain information concerning products that can be combined with the original product. For example, a conventional online shop shows a product that was simultaneously bought together with the product that another user originally wanted to buy in the past. There is another method for collecting information by data mining for POS data or the like and analyzing the results of data mining. However, either of these methods makes it possible to extract information about only combinable products. In other words, these methods could not bring about tangible information concerning, for example, effect, usage and notes resulting from the combination of products. Thus, the conventional method could not greatly assist purchasing.

Product information supplying method, product information acquiring method, product information registering method and recording medium


An automated raffle game and method making use of prize pools, the prize pools having elements, the elements representing one of: winning prizes; or, both winning prizes and no-win (0 value) prizes. Raffle tickets are associated with a prize pool. Upon closure of the game, either by a time-out or by number of tickets sold, a number of elements are taken from the pool. The number of elements taken from the pool is directly related to the number of tickets associated with the pool and further depends on which type of pool is being used (one having only win-elements or both win and 0-value elements). The results are sent to the player terminal, where a player may simply take a winning voucher or ticket, or, may chose to view an entertainment display.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to raffle games. More particularly, the invention is a fully automated raffle game and system using fixed prize pools and providing entertainment displays.
2. The Prior Art
Traditional raffle games, using manual raffle cards, are known. In a manual raffle, players purchase tickets that allow them to be in contest for a prize, and then watch for a manual or automated draw corresponding to the game for which they bought tickets. Players then turn in winning tickets at a cashier's station or redemption station to receive their prize. Prior art raffle play is limited to the single game (raffle) for which the tickets were purchased, and takes a long time to complete.
There are more automated raffle-style games, which are characterized by many state lottery systems. Tickets are purchased by a player at a sales counter, after which the player watches winning ticket numbers being drawn and/or displayed on a video screen, or, simply waits until they know the winning ticket has been drawn after which they present their tickets to an automated ticket reader, which lets them know if the ticket is a winner or not.
The above systems leave much to be desired. The turn-around is slow per game, the notification and redemption is slow, players have to keep track of paper tickets, and the ability to play with multiple games using different betting amounts is severely limited.


Various implementations described herein are directed to a device configured for mounting a marine display to a vessel. The device may include a bracket having a housing with a compartment for receiving a power source. The device may include an electrical circuit configured to connect the power source to the multi-function display.

This section is intended to provide information to facilitate an understanding of various technologies described herein. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of related art. That such art is related in no way implies that it is prior art. The related art may or may not be prior art. It should therefore be understood that the statements in this section are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
When trolling, marine displays are used to locate fish. Typically, conventional marine displays rely on remote power wired in from elsewhere on a vessel. For some vessels, remote power may be difficult to implement.


An internal power supply circuit, comprising a plurality of charge accumulators, a first power supply terminal, a second power supply terminal, a first switch for connecting the plurality of charge accumulators in parallel to each other in a first state, and a second switch for connecting the plurality of charge accumulators in series with each other in a second state, the charge accumulators connected between the first power supply terminal and the second power supply terminal at either the first state or the second state, and the first state and the second state set repeatedly to raise or lower a voltage between the first power supply terminal and the second power supply terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply circuit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a booster circuit generating a voltage higher than an external power supply voltage by raising the voltage from the external power supply voltage or a down converter or other DC (direct current)-DC converter generating a voltage lower than the external power supply voltage by lowering the voltage from the external power supply voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the practice in EEPROMs, flash memories, and other read only memories which can be electrically rewritten has been to supply only a single low power supply voltage from the outside, generate inside the chip an internal voltage higher than the voltage supplied from the outside, and write data into the memory by the high voltage inside the chip.
However, the voltage of the external power supply is being reduced as a general trend and the boosting efficiency decreases with the lower external voltage. Therefore, it has not been possible to generate an internal boosted voltage having a sufficient power.
On the other hand, the external power supply used is usually a 5 V single power supply, but it has become necessary to operate semiconductor devices at a lower internal voltage due to the desire to deal with the deterioration of the voltage resistance of semiconductor devices accompanying higher integration and the desire to reduce the power consumption.
However, the loss caused by the operation of a power supply circuit in the chip is large and obstructs the reduction of the power consumption.


The present invention is intended to improve the output characteristics of a capacitance acceleration sensor to increase the stability on the detection accuracy by ensuring that a movable electrode can be displaced while remaining as constantly parallel with stationary electrodes as possible. The invention provides a capacitance acceleration sensor having a frame Fm which constitutes the body of the sensor, a movable electrode 13 which is disposed in the frame Fm and which is supported so as to be capable of being displaced in a specific direction in response to acceleration, and stationary electrodes 12 which are disposed so as to face the movable electrode 13 in the specific direction; and detecting the magnitude of an acceleration acting in the specific direction, on the basis of the change in an electrostatic capacitance caused by the variations in the distances between the electrodes. The capacitance acceleration sensor is characterized in that the movable electrode 13 is cantilevered by the frame Fm with a plurality of beams 14 which are provided in a plane parallel with the specific direction and which are capable of elastically flexing in the specific direction.

The present invention relates to a capacitance acceleration sensor for detecting the magnitude of an acceleration acting in a specific direction on the basis of the change in an electrostatic capacitance caused by the variations in the distances between a movable electrode and stationary electrodes.
As disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-36065, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. Hei 5-333052 and Hei 918017, there has been conventionally known a capacitance acceleration sensor in which a movable electrode to be displaced in a specific direction in response to acceleration and stationary electrodes facing the movable electrode in the specific direction are disposed in a frame constituting the sensor body so that the magnitude of an acceleration acting in the specific direction is detected on the basis of the change in an electrostatic capacitance caused by the variations in the distances between these electrodes.
In this type of acceleration sensor: the movable electrode acts as a mass for use in the detection of acceleration; the movable electrode (the mass) swings when an acceleration is exerted in the specific direction; and the magnitude of the swing (the magnitude of the acceleration) is detected on the basis of the change in an electrostatic capacitance caused by the variations in the distances between the movable electrode and the stationary electrodes, and is outputted as an electric signal. In the capacitance acceleration sensor, it has been found that the displacement of the movable electrode remaining parallel with the stationary electrodes would provide a linear output and increase the stability on the detection accuracy.
The thickness of beam(s) supporting the movable electrode as the mass is typically set so small as to allow the quantity of the swing of the mass caused by an acceleration to be as large as possible to improve the detection accuracy and the sensitivity.
In the sensor disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-36065, the movable electrode (the referential mass) is supported with an elastic hinge by the frame, so that an acceleration causes an angular displacement of the movable electrode about the hinge. That is, it is difficult to ensure the linearity of the outputs of the sensor because the movable electrode pivoting about the hinge is incapable of remaining parallel with the stationary electrodes when the movable electrode is displaced by an acceleration.
In the sensors disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. Hei 5-333052 and Hei 9-18017, the movable electrode is supported by the frame with a plurality of beams, which are provided so as to extend in a plane orthogonal to the specific direction (the direction in which the movable electrode is displaced).
Such sensors as shown in FIG. 7 or 8 are known as sensors in which the movable electrode is supported with one or more beams provided within a plane parallel with the specific direction of the displacement of the movable electrode.
In the sensor shown in FIG. 7 (hereinafter referred to as a prior art 1), a movable electrode 63 is supported with a beam 64 by a frame 61. As shown in FIG. 9 in detail, when an acceleration acts in the direction of the arrow, the movable electrode 63 is tilted and displaced in the direction of the arrow and is incapable of remaining parallel with the stationary electrodes 62 (see the dashed lines in FIG. 9). As shown in the dot-and-dash curve in FIG. 4, for example, the linearity of the sensor outputs resulted from the variations in the distances between the electrodes is impaired relative to the variation in the magnitude of acceleration, and it is therefore difficult to obtain a sufficient reliability of the detection accuracy.
In the sensor shown in FIG. 8 (hereinafter referred to as a prior art 2), a movable electrode 73 is supported by a frame 71 with two beams 74 extending from both sides of the electrode 73 and the two beams 74 are disposed in different positions (in diagonal corners of the movable electrode 73) with respect to the specific direction in which the movable electrode 73 is displaced.
As shown in FIG. 10 in detail, when an acceleration acts on the sensor in the direction of the arrow, the movable electrode 73 is tilted and displaced in the direction of the arrow, as shown in the dashed lines in FIG. 10, and is incapable of remaining parallel with the stationary electrodes 72. This tendency becomes more noticeable particularly in the case that the center "Gv" of gravity of the movable electrode 73 is apart from the symmetrical center of the electrode 73. As a result, it has been impossible to ensure the linearity of the outputs of the sensor and it has been difficult to sufficiently increase the stability on the detection accuracy.


Preparation of chicken embryo allantoic fluids for animal health requires opening the eggshell by cutting, drilling or punching methods. Laser cutting and drilling is used as an alternative to known processes. Both CO.sub.2 and Nd:YAG lasers are employed. A focused CO.sub.2 laser beam at a power of 200 watts in conjunction with an X-Y motion table produced 25 mm diameter "clean-cuts" in eggshells with a cutting time of 0.5 seconds per egg. The material removal mechanism was vaporization. When an axicon/lens combination is used with a CO.sub.2 laser, the cutting time was further reduced to 0.2 seconds per egg and the mechanism of material removal is changed from vaporization to decomposition of the eggshell into fine powders. Small holes, typical diameters of 0.5 mm to 1 mm are generated in the eggshell using the pulsed Nd:YAG laser.

Biological industries that produce chicken embryo allantoic fluid from eggs require drilling or punching holes on the top of the egg for inoculation, and cutting for removal of the top of the egg for harvesting the fluid or embryo. Traditionally, holes are drilled in the egg top by a mechanical method using a dental drill. The holes may also be punched by using stainless steel needles. The cuts are made by a thermal process which involves two steps: punch a hole on the egg top, and then place and rotate a propane torch burner over the end of the egg. During mechanical drilling and punching, the forces that act on the tool and on the egg may cause fracture of the egg if the process is not carefully controlled. In addition, the problem of sterility with the drill requires the application of antiseptic fluid. Thermal cutting with the propane torch causes strong heating of the eggshell, generates thermal stresses, and if not controlled properly, results in destruction of the egg. In fact, the rationale for punching a hole prior to propane torch cutting is to eliminate the stresses caused by gas pressure increase inside the egg due to the heating process. Both the mechanical and flame processes have several drawbacks including: sterility, long process time, poor cut quality and high scrap rate.
Those concerned with these and other problems recognize the need for an improved method for machining eggshells.

Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.


The present invention relates to a wear resistant materials having excellent wear resistance and a method of manufacturing the materials, comprising a process that lugs are formed on surface by electro-sparking welding apparatus having a vibrator, and a process that coats solid lubricant layer having wear resistance on the said lugs (ref. FIG. 3).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wear resistant material having excellent wear resistance and a method of manufacturing the material, and more particularly to a wear resistant material and a method of manufacturing the material, which has excellent wear resistance and has multi-layers including a solid lubricant layer that provides lubrication into bearing inside lace or contact moving side of pin/bush joint where it is difficult to re-fill the lubricant or to stop the contact moving side for oiling as in the case of a food machine, ship or plane.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, wear resistance material used in the joint part of a machinery has resistance against friction wear under high-load and low-speed because of hardness improved by surface hardening method such as carburization, induction hardening and nitriding. However, lubrication of the material is so poor that its friction coefficient is high when the corresponding friction material is iron, since a hard compound layer on the material is formed on iron substrate by the carburizing layer, the nitriding layer or the induction hardening layer or hardened by the martensite transformation of simple rapid heating-cooling as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,544.
In one prior art attempt to solve the above problem, lubricating film has been formed by providing lubricant to the contact moving side. If, however, low viscous lubricant oil is used as the lubricant, the film will break readily so that there will be the metal-metal friction. Also a high performing leak-preventing apparatus is needed to keep constant lubrication. Use of a highly viscous grease oil with respect to said problem results in preservation of the oil film and little oil-leaking. But there are some problems, e.g., the lubricant swept away from the surface during contact moving can not be provided again, and which the grease is decomposed by heating from the friction. In order to apply the high viscous lubricant such as grease, a given pressure under which the lubricant can be refilled into the oil crack of the friction substrate is used. On the friction substrate, groove is formed as a passage for active filling of the lubricant.
To maintain the lubricating effect, the lubricant needs to be filled periodically and many filling places are required due to the short term of filling, leading to time consumption. Also, if the filling place is located high or amidst complicated parts, it will be hard to mend or check the machine. Accordingly, the lubrication conditions should be noticed because, otherwise there will be damage caused by scoring and scuffing friction, and then the damage will grow into seams or result in stoppage of the machine.
To prevent the above problem, a method of applying MoS.sub.2 and PTFE solid lubricant is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,271,679, 5,332,422, 5,222,816, 5,207,513, and 5.271,619. These solid lubricant coating leads not only to low friction coefficient, but to the decrease of load supporting capability (pressure resistance) of their surface. In particular, under shearing force by friction, the lubricant layer can be removed readily from the surface, and required lubrication and its function can be lost earlier.
In addition, hard chromium coating as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,785 leads not only to high hardness and high iron affinity, but to scoring friction wear by being peeled during friction due to the fact that the thickness of the coating layer is 20-30 microns. There are additional coating methods for surface hardening, e.g., plasma spraying of hard materials such as alumina dislosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,726, high melting and hardness chromate oxide disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,750, tungsten carbide disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,917, boron compound disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,194,304, 5,313,919 and 5,332,422, and titanium nitrate disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,848. These materials, however, have low adhesion to steel substrate, and their physical property such as thermal expansion coefficient differs from all. Also their low bending and impact resistance that of the steel substrate limit their use to wear material for mere sliding action.

Wear resistant materials having excellent wear resistance and method of manufacturing the material