Novel methods are disclosed for treating oncological disorders in an individual or animal using a superantigen expressed in tumor cells. A gene encoding a superantigen, such as an M-like protein of group A streptococci, can be introduced into a tumor cell in order to make the tumor cell more immunogenic in the host. Also contemplated are methods wherein a cell expresses a superantigen or superantigens, and immunogenic or immunostimulatory proteins, such as foreign MHC, cytokines, porcine-derived hyperacute rejection antigen, Mycobacterium-derived antigens, and the like. The subject invention also pertains to cells transformed with polynucleotides encoding a superantigen and foreign MHC antigen, cytokines, and other immunogenic or immunostimulatory proteins. Transformed cells according to the subject invention are then provided to an individual or animal in need of treatment for an oncological disorder. The immune response to tumor cells transformed according to the present invention inhibits in vivo tumor growth and results in subsequent tumor regression. The subject invention also pertains to cell lines transformed with genes encoding a superantigen and, optionally, a foreign Class II MHC antigen and/or a cytokine.

While a place for somatic gene therapy in the treatment of inherited single gene disorders is no longer disputed, the potential of gene therapy for the treatment of malignancies may not be readily apparent. Because most forms of cancer have been shown to be complex, multifactorial, and multigenic in nature, there are many conceptual and technical obstacles which must be overcome in order to approach this disease at the genetic level. Yet, it is the molecular nature of tumorigenesis, i.e., the activation of dominant oncogenes and/or the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes, that provides insight for such strategies in that these genetic events represent novel targets for molecular therapy. Already, genetic analysis is being used in diagnostic and prognostic predictions in certain malignancies (e.g., amplification of erb-B2 in breast and ovarian cancer; amplification of N-myc in neuroblastoma; and ras mutations in adenocarcinoma of the lung).
At present, there are two general strategies for gene therapy: gene augmentation and gene replacement. Gene augmentation or gene addition is simply the introduction of foreign genetic sequences into a cell. Usually this means the insertion of a normal copy of a particular gene into a cell expressing a mutant form of that gene. In many cases, the addition of functional genetic information has been used successfully to restore a genetic function in these defective cells. However, in other cases, the addition of a normal gene is not sufficient to repair the abnormality because this technique does not remove or correct the resident, nonfunctional mutant gene. Furthermore, the random insertion of foreign sequences into nonspecific sites of the genome may result in mutagenic events such as insertional inactivation of genes necessary for the viability of that cell, or uncontrolled regulation of the transgene and/or flanking chromosomal sequences. In these instances it will be necessary to modify specific gene sequences by targeted gene replacement, i.e., site-specific recombination of foreign DNA into targeted genomic sequences. Each of these approaches have applications in gene therapy for cancer.
The immune system has demonstrated the potential to play a protective role in cancer. However, the vast majority of malignancies arise in immunocompetent hosts. Although cellular activity is normally regulated by the various protein kinases, growth factors, growth factor receptors, and DNA binding proteins encoded by proto-oncogenes, together with genes that can suppress malignant transformation, such as the retinoblastoma and p53 genes, if one or more of these genes is or becomes defective, it can result in a clone with an abnormal pattern of growth control. The fact that such a clone grows uncontrolled in an individual, indicates that the immune system has either failed to recognize tumor-specific antigens or has failed to effectively respond. Transgenic immunotherapy, an important arm of somatic gene therapy for cancer, aims at strengthening the immune surveillance of the body.
It is known that the presence of cytokines at the site of a tumor can drastically alter tumor/host relations. In some cases a highly destructive and specific response to otherwise nonimmunogenic tumors can be elicited by the insertion of genes encoding cytokines (e.g., interleukin-2, interleukin-4, interferon-γ, and tumor necrosis factor) into tumor cells which are then used as "tumor vaccines." Anti-tumor responses can also be enhanced by the transfection of these genes into cytotoxic lymphocytes or macrophages. Autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes have been used successfully in such genetic immunomodulation studies because of their inherent specificity for the tumor, and their ability to home back to the tumor site when reinfused into the patient. This approach has been termed "adoptive immunotherapy." It is also possible to protect normal tissue by stably transfecting normal bone marrow cells with cytokine genes prior to chemotherapy, thereby achieving a more continuous effect while obviating the need to infuse these drugs which have short half-lives and produce systemic side effects when delivered intravenously.
Despite the widespread use of chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of solid tumors, efficacy has been restricted by their toxicity to normal cells. Transfection of normal stem cells with transgenes conferring resistance to these agents would result in cytotoxic drug-resistant cells and allow the administration of more therapeutically significant doses. Another type of gene therapy that is gaining momentum and which is now in clinical trails is the use of "informational drugs." Antisense oligonucleotides, small synthetic nuclease-resistant nucleotide sequences complementary to specific RNA sequences, are perhaps the best known example of this. By specifically binding and thereby inhibiting transcription and/or translation of a single oncogene, it may be possible to reverse clinical symptoms.
It is well established that T lymphocytes recognize two different types of antigens, one being peptides derived from conventional protein antigens and the other being superantigens. The classical model for superantigen activity suggests that the superantigens react in some ways like conventional antigens but exhibit critical differences in others (Johnson et al., 1992). Before a T helper cell can recognize conventional protein antigens, these proteins must first undergo processing by macrophages or other antigen presenting cells (APC). APCs then display the peptide on the cell surface in combination with MHC. Unlike typical antigens, however, superantigens bind MHC directly without uptake and processing by APCs (Johnson et al., 1992).
Unlike conventional antigens, where recognition by T cells involves both variable elements of the α and β chains of TCR, superantigen recognition depends primarily on the TCR Vβ region. Also, unlike ordinary antigens, superantigens bind to specific Vβ segments of TCR which are outside of the normal antigen-binding groove. This binding occurs regardless of the remaining structure of the TCR. These interactions lead to strong Vβ-specific T cell activation (Dellabona et al., 1990, and Rust et al., 1990). Furthermore, because the number of different types of Vβ segments is small compared with the number of α, β receptors, many more T cells are capable of recognizing a particular superantigen than are able to identify a specific antigen (Herman et al., 1991).
The classical model of superantigen activity has since been revised. New observations suggest that there are additional interactions between the TCR and MHC molecules during superantigen engagement and this can have a significant impact on superantigen specificity and function (Webb and Gascoigne, 1994). For example, some studies show that it is not only Vβ, but also the α chain of the TCR which plays a role in the recognition of superantigens (Karp et al., 1990, and Panina et al., 1992). Furthermore, the MHC molecule does not function as an inert platform for superantigen presentation, but plays a role in T cell activation by superantigens. Some studies indicate that individual T cell clones are able to distinguish superantigens presented on MHC molecules with different specificity. Some murine T cell hybridomas can recognize superantigens in context of two different MHC molecules (Mollick et al., 1991; Hartwig and Fleischer, 1993). The revised model assumes that the molecular mechanism of T cell stimulation is probably a multivalent cross-linking of the TCR with MHC molecules. Additional adhesion molecules such as CD 2, LFA-1 or CD 28, may play a role during T cell stimulation (Fleischer and Hartwig, 1992, and Fraser et al., 1992). Another interesting observation suggests that in spite of the requirement for MHC class II molecules in T cell stimulation, there is evidence that superantigens interact with TCRs directly, in the absence of class II molecules. Binding to MHC II is not a prerequisite for T cell activation as superantigen-mediated cytotoxicity has been found against several class II-negative target cells. However, the interaction of the superantigen with TCR is apparently of low avidity and is usually insufficient to generate a full response (Dohlsten et al., 1991, Herman et al., 1991, and Avery et al., 1994).
Two general categories of superantigens have been described. The soluble exotoxins produced by gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus typify bacterially-derived superantigens and are well known for their ability to cause food poisoning and symptoms of shock. Viral superantigens have also been described. In mice, prototypical viral superantigens are encoded by endogenous mouse mammary tumor viruses (MMTVs). These viral superantigens include M1s antigens and are strongly immunogenic for murine T cells.
Because of their ability to stimulate strong T-cell responses in vivo, superantigens have elicited wide interest. M-like proteins of group A streptococci act as a key virulence factor on the bacterial surface. M protein is defined by its antiphagocytic function, whereas M-like proteins, while structurally related to M protein, lack an established antiphagocytic function. The emmL 55 gene, derived from the M stereotype 55 group A streptococci isolate A928, has an amino acid sequence typical of M-like proteins (Boyle et al., 1994, and Boyle et al., 1995).
Bacterial superantigens, when covalently linked to mAbs specific to the cell surface molecules of malignant, MHC II− target cells, can direct lysis of these cells (Dohlsten et al. 1991). It has been demonstrated that conjugation between the superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin-A (SEA), and mAbs recognizing human colon cancer enabled T cells to lyse colon carcinoma cells in vitro. The use of Staphylococcal enterotoxins has been contemplated for cancer vaccines (WO 95/00178).
Immunotherapeutic modalities for the treatment of oncological disorders have been described by a number of scientific investigators. The immunological rejection of tumors has been shown in response to the transfection of tumor cells by such antigens expressed by MHC genes (Hock et al., 1996) and Mycobacterium (Menard et al., 1995). Research into immunotherapy for oncological diseases using MHC antigens and the delivery thereof has been described (EP 569678; WO 95/13092). Other antigens, bacterial and viral, have also been used in combination with cytokine or other immunomodulator gene expression and delivered by means of adenovirus, retrovirus or plasmid vectors (WO 94/21808; WO 96/29093).

Materials and methods for treating oncological disease


Methods and compositions for the topical or transdermal treatment of neuropathy. More particularly, transdermal or topical compositions including a combination of ingredients that provide a surprising degree of effective relief from the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and methods for administering the compositions to treat various neuropathies.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for the topical treatment of neuropathy. More particularly, the present invention relates to transdermal compositions including a combination of ingredients that provide a surprising degree of effective relief from the symptoms of neuropathy and to methods for administering topical compositions to treat neuropathy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Peripheral neuropathy is a condition involving nerve-end damage anywhere in the body. Peripheral neuropathy generally refers to a disorder that affects the peripheral nerves, most often manifested as one or a combination of motor, sensory, sensorimotor, or autonomic neural dysfunction. The wide variety of morphologies exhibited by peripheral neuropathies can each be uniquely attributed to an equally wide variety of causes. For instance, peripheral neuropathies can be genetically acquired, can result from a systemic disease, can manifest as a post-surgical complication, or can be induced by a toxic agent. Some toxic agents that cause neurotoxicities are therapeutic drugs, antineoplastic agents, contaminants in foods or medicinals, and environmental and industrial pollutants.
Neuropathy is a major complication of diabetes mellitus. No well-established treatments exist for either its symptomatic treatment or for prevention of progressive decline in nerve function. Estimates of the prevalence of neuropathy in diabetes vary widely, from a low of 5% to a high of 80%, largely due to the numerous definitions and clinical descriptions of neuropathy. Nevertheless, the additive effects of neuropathy in the suffering diabetic patient are well known and documented. The effect of the neuropathy is complex. The loss of sensory information from the foot is related to abnormal and prolonged pressure on the areas of the foot (sensory neuropathy). Motor neuropathy leads to deformity, further increasing pressure loading on the foot. In autonomic neuropathy, loss of innervation of the sweat glands results in dry skin that cracks creating an environment amenable to infection. Autonomic dysfunction contributes further by altering the distribution of micro-circulatory blood flow, directing the blood flow through shunts and away from the nutritive skin capillaries. These factors as a whole, in conjunction with foot trauma, result in skin breakdown and ulcers.
Scientists have not yet determined the mechanism that leads to nerve damage in diabetes, but it is believed to be multifactorial. These factors include genetic predisposition, metabolic and vascular abnormalities, and lack of perturbation of growth factors. The response of the peripheral nervous system to the metabolic effects of diabetes does not appear to differ between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which suggests a likelihood of similar clinical response to therapies in the two primary forms of the disease. There seem to be a number of susceptibility factors, as yet unknown, for the development of neuropathy, which operate in the presence of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
Although a number of neuropathies are related to the disease diabetes mellitus, others, although not known to be related to diabetes are similar in their physiological effects on the peripheral vascular system. Such diseases include Raynaud's Phenomenon, including CREST syndrome, autoimmune diseases such as erythromatosis, and rheumatoid diseases. Other peripheral neuropathies include the following: HIV associated neuropathy; B12-deficiency associated neuropathy; cranial nerve palsies; drug-induced neuropathy; industrial neuropathy; lymphomatous neuropathy; myelomatous neuropathy; multi-focal motor neuropathy; chronic idiopathic sensory neuropathy; carcinomatous neuropathy; acute pain autonomic neuropathy; alcoholic neuropathy; compressive neuropathy; vasculitic/ischaemic neuropathy; mono- and poly-neuropathies.
For example, among the most important toxic agents causing peripheral neuropathy are therapeutic agents, particularly those used for the treatment of neoplastic disease. In certain cases, peripheral neuropathy is a major complication of cancer treatment and is the main factor limiting the dosage of chemotherapeutic agents that can be administered to a patient (Macdonald, Neurologic Clinics 9:955-967 (1991)). This is true for the commonly administered agents cisplatin, paclitaxel and vincristine (Broun, et al., Am. J. Clin. Oncol. 16:18-21 (1993); Macdonald, Neurologic Clinics 9:955-967 (1991); Casey, et al., Brain 96:69-86 (1973)). The identification of methods for preventing or alleviating dose-limiting peripheral neuropathologic side effects would allow higher, and more therapeutically effective doses of these chemotherapeutics to be administered to patients, i.e., the therapeutic efficacy of such chemotherapeutics is typically a function of dose and therefore, increasing dosage provides increased patient survival (Macdonald, Neurologic Clinics 9:955-967 (1991); Oxols, Seminars in Oncology 16, suppl. 6:22-30 (1989)).
Tragically there is no existing method for adequately, predictably and specifically treating established neuropathic pain (Woolf C. et al., Neuropathic Pain: Aetiology, Symptoms, Mechanisms, and Management, Lancet 1999; 353: 1959-64). Present treatment methods for neuropathic pain consists of merely trying to help the patient cope through psychological or occupational therapy, rather than by reducing or eliminating the pain experienced.
Currently, there are a limited number of drugs available for the treatment of neuropathy. Most treatments composition and methods are directed towards relief of pain. Currently, there are several categories of treatments utilized, including medical procedures and drugs, which are provided locally or systemically. For example, current methods to treat neuropathic pain include administration of local anesthetic blocks targeted to trigger points, peripheral nerves, plexi, dorsal roots, and to the sympathetic nervous system. However, these treatments have only short-lived antinociceptive effects. Additionally, longer lasting analgesic treatment methods, such as blocks by phenol injection or cryotherapy raise a considerable risk of irreversible functional impairment. Furthermore, chronic epidural or intrathecal (collectively called "intraspinal") administration of drugs such as steroids, opioids or midazolam have significant side effects and questionable efficacy. Medical procedures are ineffective and often expensive, leading to various pains that many times supercede the original pain.
The current standard of practice for the non-invasive treatment of the various neuropathies include the following drug classes: (1) The Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs); (2) Narcotic analgesics; (3) Tricyclic antidepressants; and (4) Anticonvulsants, e.g., carbamazepine and gabapentin. These classes are available commercially as oral products and, generally, are administered via the oral route. Because they are distributed systemically throughout the body, their various side effects limit their effectiveness. The NSAIDs, for example, when taken orally cause gastric distress including ulcers. The other three classes share other common side effects, including drowsiness, dizziness, disorientation, and gastrointestinal upset to name but a few.
Several topical agents (creams, ointments, liniments and the like) have been utilized for the relief of the pains and aches of neuropathies. Most of these have provided a little, but only temporary, relief to persons suffering from pain. Many combinations of varying ointments, creams, aqueous solutions, liniments and the like for the treatment of neuropathies have been employed. The most efficacious of these contains as its active ingredient the vegetable products derived from the seed and pods of the capsicum plant, commonly known as red pepper. Capsicum-derived ointment is devised for external application to the affected area of the body by applying to the area adjacent to the muscle, joint or tendon and rubbing it into the skin. The active ingredient is capsaicin. With initial as well as persistent application, capsaicin is effective to relieve the aches and pains of various muscle or skeletal origin, such as arthritis, muscle strains, tendonitis, bursitis and soft tissue diseases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,360 (Mann) relates to the treatment of peripheral neuropathies associated with diabetes mellitus by periodic topical application of a composition containing capsaicin as the active ingredient. When applied to the skin of the affected area, pain and burning associated with the neuropathy are said to be reduced. However, capsaicin has been shown to kill nerve endings in some cases and is extremely irritating to the dermis. Thus this composition suffers from these disadvantages.
The use of ketamine transdermally in an organogel has shown some promise in the treatment of neuropathy. Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist and thus blocks a cascade of intracellular events that inhibit the hyper excitability of spinal cord neurons. Animal data show that certain spontaneous pains and allodynia have been treated successfully with Ketamine. Also, in humans, phantom limb pain has been treated with success (Nadine & Bouhassira, Acta. Neurol. Scand 1999 (Supp 173):12-24). Ketamine has been used experimentally to treat neuropathic pain by a variety of routes including the intravenous and subcutaneous. The topical form of Ketamine is effective in treating painful neuropathy when other traditional medicines have failed. (Crowley et al., International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding 1998; 2:122-1273).
Other compositions have been employed, including combinations of individual compounds. U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,957 B1 (Frome) relates to the treatment of Sympathetically Mediated Pain (SMP), which include various neuropathies, employing the compounds ketamine (NMDA receptor antagonist), amitriptyline (anticholinergic antidepressant), and guanethidine (sympathetic blocking agent), in combination or independently. However, the compounds employed by Frome act independently of each other as illustrated by the effectiveness of individual compounds. Frome's invention lacks any synergism of the compounds as the compounds merely complement the other compounds, but does not synergize, or supplement, the activities of the other compounds. For example, ketamine a very potent antineuropathic agents was used in limited concentrations. Whether alone or in combination, small concentrations of ketamine were likely used due to ketamine's known neurotoxic effects. Frome's invention also suffers from limitations in the preparation, dosage, application or administration methods and potential side effects. The effectiveness of Frome's compounds depends on the volume of the preparation and whether the compounds are alone or in combination. The side effects of amitriptyline and guanethidine are well known. These are disruptive to a person's quality of life and are not addressed by Frome in his patent.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for effective treatments for neuropathies, and other neuropathic pains.


A light-guide plate includes a body for guiding incident light, and at least an inserting portion penetrating a portion of the body, wherein at least a light source for providing the light-guide plate with the light is inserted into the inserting portion. The inserting portion can be formed at an end portion of the body. A side surface of the body can be recessed to form the inserting portion. A light-diffusing pattern can be formed at a side surface of the inserting portion, and the side surface of the inserting portion is substantially parallel with the side surface of the body.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a light-guide plate, a backlight assembly, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) device having the same, and more particularly, to a light-guide plate capable of improving brightness, and a backlight assembly and an LCD device having the light-guide plate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is thinner and lighter, and consumes less driving voltage and less power as compared to other display devices. Therefore, the LCD device is widely used in devices such as, for example, notebook computers or cellular phones.
The LCD device may include a backlight assembly providing an LCD panel with light because the LCD panel is not self-emissive. The backlight assembly includes a light source providing light and an optical member improving brightness of light provided from the light source. A cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) and a light-emitting diode (LED) can be used as the light source. For example, a medium- or small-sized LCD device such as a cellular phone includes an LED having high brightness. The LCD device includes a light-guide plate for guiding light that is provided from the light source toward the LCD panel.
The LED is a point light source having a smaller range of emitting area than that of the CCFL. The point light emitted from the LED enters the light-guide plate through a side surface of the light-guide plate, so that the light-guide plate changes the point light into surface light and provides the LCD panel with planar light.
The LCD device includes a printed circuit film on which a circuit pattern for driving the LED is formed, and the LED is attached to the printed circuit film. The LED attached to the printed circuit film is disposed at a side surface of the light-guide plate.
In a conventional technology, a gap between the LED and the light-guide plate is designed so that the light provided from the LED does not leak from the light-guide plate. However, the gap between the LED and the light-guide plate may be larger than the initially designed configuration because of, for example, the manufacturing tolerance of the light-guide plate or a receiving container receiving the light-guide plate and the LED. Therefore, a portion of the light provided from the LED is not transmitted to the light-guide plate, and leaks from the light-guide plate.
Accordingly, optical efficiency and driving efficiency of the backlight assembly having the LED, and display quality of an LCD device having the backlight assembly can be deteriorated.

Light-guide plate, backlight assembly and liquid crystal display having the same


A device for connecting male and female piping or tubing, where the female pipe includes an inner wall portion with a first holding section positioned at the inner periphery of the female pipe. The male pipe includes a sleeve with a second holding section positioned on the outer periphery of the male pipe, The device includes a ring-shaped element arranged between the male/female pipes. The ring-shaped element includes at least one axially protruding resilient tongue with a first device engaging the first holding section of the female pipe, and a second device configured to resiliently snap into a holding position within the second holding section of the male pipe when inserting the male pipe into the ring-shaped element and the female pipe.

In automotive industry, municipal heating networks, ventilation industries and plumbing it is needed to connect pipes, tubes etc. in a fast and air tight way. These connections often have to bear different kind of fluids and pressures since they may be used in different areas, for example the connections may be used to assembly tanks and canisters. It is known to connect two tubes to each other in many different ways. A flexible tube may be arranged via a connecting part to a second flexible tube or directly to a rigid pipe with for example a hose clamp. Rigid pipes or tubes may be connected to each other via other connecting parts known in the art.
A device of interconnecting two rigid tubular objects is known from WO00/09934. This device can be used to interconnect two rigid objects, such as two tubes, which are made of a rigid, non-elastic material.
However, there is always a need to further develop a device for connecting two rigid objects, in order to make them less space demanding, cost effective and to improve the security of correct mounting etc.

Device for connecting male and female piping


An air purifier is disclosed having a bubble generator configured to generate fine air bubbles with a diameter of about 50 μm or less and a negative electrical charge. The bubble generator is coupled to an air purification tank, which contains a liquid for purifying the air within the air bubbles, by dissolving impurities. The tank also has a positive electrode disposed within the liquid. The positive electrode is configured to attract the negatively charged air bubbles, thereby promoting defoaming and increasing the air throughput rate.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Recently, technology for purifying indoor air has attracted public attention in accordance with the increase of contemporary airtight houses and buildings and widespread viruses hazardous to human health, such as SARS and influenza viruses. This has led to active research for improving indoor conditions by removing microparticles in air, such as cigarette smoke and pollen, and hazardous gases, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Air purifiers that are widely used have a common structure, which intakes indoor air and removes microparticles in the air with filters. Many of these filters include "solid" filters, which may be activated charcoal and/or high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters which is a type of air filter that satisfies standards of efficiency set by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). In these purifiers, the filters themselves are expensive and have to be periodically replaced in order to sustain the performance, and thus, they can be costly to operate. Alternatively, air purifiers using liquid, such as water, which removes pollutants in the air, have been proposed. These purifiers are able to remove hazardous gases, VOCs, etc., in addition to dust, cigarette smoke, viruses, and bacteria. Thus, these purifiers can be more versatile than the "solid" filters.
Air purifiers using liquid can be classified into two types, based on their operating principle. One is a spray type which involves spraying liquid into air, and the other is a bubble type which involves dispersing air into liquid as air bubbles.


A method of adjusting a panel on a vehicle includes determining positions of mounting sites on a body frame in relation to 2-way and 4-way master locator holes and calculating a position of an inner perimeter of a panel opening in the body frame in relation to the body frame mounting sites. Positions of mounting sites on the panel in relation to 2-way and 4-way locator pins on a fixture the panel is mounted to are also determined and a position of an outer perimeter of the panel in relation to the panel mounting sites is calculated. The panel is mounted to the body frame and a calculated position of the outer perimeter of the panel in relation to the inner perimeter of the panel opening is displayed to a fitter in real time who uses the calculated position to adjust the panel.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The manufacture of a vehicle on an assembly line includes mounting various panels onto the body frame. Such panels include rear quarter panels, a trunk lid, rear and/or front doors, front quarter panels, and a hood, among others. Mounting, i.e., positioning and connecting, the panels to the body frame involves alignment of the panels within or in relation to panel openings in the body frame such that an exterior surface of the assembled vehicle meets engineering and design specifications. For some panels, e.g., front and/or rear vehicles doors, a "fitter" on the assembly can make a corrective positioning adjustment such that a final position of the panels meets the engineering and design specifications.
The present disclosure addresses issues related to adjusting panels mounted to a vehicle body frame along with other issues related to the manufacture of vehicles.

Method and system for adjusting a panel on a vehicle


SAR imaging may be performed using a short-pulse laser to generate range-resolved reflection data. A short-pulse laser may be advantageous over other techniques to acquire the range-resolved data, especially in cases with very distant targets or other cases with low signal-to-noise ratio information, because a short-pulse laser can determine the range to individual reflectors with a single photon return and is more adaptable to a photon-starved inversion algorithm. This technique can be used with both mono-static and bi-static SAR configurations.

The most common form of imaging radar is SAR. Carl Wiley of the Goodyear Corporation, a legacy company of Lockheed Martin, invented the SAR concept in 1952. The first airborne SAR was flown on a DC-3 in 1953. Since then, SAR has become a ubiquitous imaging technique, capable of all-weather sub-meter resolution imaging.
In conventional SAR systems, the radar generates radio frequency (RF) images with near-optical quality by coherently integrating the return of a frequency-chirped radar as it travels over some distance in order to form a synthetic aperture for the antenna. Conventional SAR employs a transmitted radio frequency (RF) signal with a frequency chirp to interrogate a target region (i.e., a patch) at different angular views. Target reflections (i.e., a reflected RF signal) lead to a received signal, and the image is formed from the phase information from the received signal. Basically, the bandwidth B of a SAR resolves range, with a resolution of
                              s          range                =                  c                      2                        B                                              (        1        )
where c is the speed of light.
In the case of a conventional "spotlight-mode" SAR, the radar stays pointed at the center of a target patch. The different views typically result from the radar traveling by the target on a path, as shown in FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram 100 illustrating spotlight-mode SAR parameters and definitions using a plane-based SAR. A target patch on the ground is interrogated at some distance orthogonal to a flight path. The direction away from the flight path is called "down-range" and the direction on the ground parallel to the flight path is called "cross-range." The SAR transmits at a frequency that chirps through a frequency bandwidth. Each chirp occurs very fast, and for simplicity, the plane can be considered stationary during the chirp since the distance traveled between chirps is very small. These chirps are repeated as the plane moves through discrete angular positions along the flight path relative to the target patch center, with a chirp and the associated reflected signal received at these specific angular locations.
For a conventional spotlight mode SAR, phase interferometry is used to resolve cross-range, with a cross-range resolution of
                              s                      cross            -            range                          =                              1            .            2                              2                                              λ                            R                        S                                              (        2        )
where λ is the wavelength of the SAR's center frequency, S is the distance along the path over which the different angular views are taken, and R is the distance from the path to the target (known as the offset). Phase interferometry requires that there is a negligible phase drift in the carrier frequency over the entire viewing path with length S, on the order of 45° or less.
In a conventional spotlight mode SAR, at each angular location, the received data is mixed with the transmission signal (i.e., a carrier) as a function of the chirped frequency, both in-phase (resulting in the in-phase signal I) and out-of-phase (resulting in the quadrature signal Q). In other words, the radar return is mixed with the in-phase and out-of-phase transmit signal, which gives I and Q. A key aspect of SAR is that the constructed quantity l+jQ is very nearly the two-dimensional Fourier transform G(kx,ky) of the target's scattering function (also known as the reflection function), defined as g(x,y), where (x=0, y=0), defines the center of the target, since twice the angular frequency divided by the speed of light, 4πƒ/c, is the wavenumber k (the Fourier transform of real space).
The quantity l+jQ can be inverted to approximately find the reflection function g(x,y) within the target patch. Importantly, this inversion can be thought of as first integrating along the direction of view (known as "de-ramping" because the Fourier integral is over the frequency chirp) and then integrating along the angular spread of the wavenumber (which, from a fundamental theory of Fourier transforms, is the same angle as the physical viewing angle). The first de-ramping integral identifies the distance to the reflectors in the target patch, but cannot resolve their relative cross-range positions.
The de-ramping process bins down-range locations into "range cells", shown as lines along the target patch in FIG. 1. These cells are the width of the SAR's range resolution. For example, points A and B in FIG. 1 would be indistinguishable from the de-ramping process. Importantly, each return signal from each range cell has a phase of l and Q associated with the offset of that position from the target patch center. The second Fourier integral is equivalent to an integral correlating these phases of each individual reflector, which change as the angular view changes.
The resolution of the SAR image (i.e., the range cell size) in the down-range direction is 2B/c, where B is the SAR's frequency bandwidth and the resolution in the cross-range direction is the SAR's carrier wavelength divided by the total angular view on the target (λ/θ, in radians). To get fine down-range resolution, a very high bandwidth is needed. To get fine cross-range resolution, both a small carrier wavelength and a large angular view of the target patch are needed. Increasing the carrier frequency leads to increased phase drift over the viewing path and increased bandwidth leads to increased deviation of I+jQ from G(kx,ky), known as phase distortion. Combined, these effects lead to fundamental limitations for conventional spotlight SARs in achieving very fine resolution of targets that need long integration paths due to large offset distances.
Here, and in the following example, two-dimensional scattering and imaging is considered. The extension to three dimensions is straightforward and follows the conventional extension for three-dimensional SAR algorithms. The domain of the constructed quantity G(kx,ky)≈I+jQ in Fourier space is shown in graph 200 of FIG. 2.
Note that the Fourier-space wavenumbers appear through the frequency chirp, i.e., kx=(4πƒ/c) cos θ and ky=(4πƒ/c) sin θ, where ƒ is the transmit frequency and θ is the view angle (which is the same angle in Fourier space by the Slice Projection Theorem). The Fourier transformed scattering function is
                              G                                (                                          k                x                            ,                                                                                k                y                                      )                          =                              1                          2                            π                                                                    ∫                              -                ∞                            ∞                                                                  ∫                                  -                  ∞                                ∞                                                                            g                                                        (                                          x                      ,                      y                                        )                                                                                e                                      -                                          j                                                                    (                                                                              x                                                                                k                              x                                                                                +                                                      y                                                                                k                              y                                                                                )                                                                                dx                                                                                dy                                                                        (        3        )
and the original scattering function can be recovered from
                              g                                (                          x              ,              y                        )                          =                              1                          2                            π                                                                    ∫                              -                ∞                            ∞                                                                  ∫                                  -                  ∞                                ∞                                                                            G                                                        (                                                                  k                        x                                            ,                                                                                k                        y                                                              )                                                                                e                                      -                                          j                                                                    (                                                                              x                                                                                k                              x                                                                                +                                                      y                                                                                k                              y                                                                                )                                                                                dk                  x                                                                                dk                  y                                                                                (        4        )
However, the approximation of G(kx,ky) is not known over the entire k-space. Rewriting in polar coordinates to indicate the limits of the received SAR data, the reconstructed scattering image using direct Fourier inversion is then given by
                              f                                (                          x              ,                                                                        y                        )                          =                              1                          2                            π                                                                    ∫                                                π                  /                  2                                -                                  θ                  0                                                                              π                  /                  2                                +                                  θ                  0                                                                                ∫                                  k                  min                                                  k                  max                                                                                G                                                        (                                          k                      ,                                                                                θ                                        )                                                                                e                                      -                                          j                                                                    (                                                                              xkcos                                                        θ                                                    +                                                      yksin                                                        θ                                                                          )                                                                                k                                                                                dk                                                                                d                                    θ                                                                                (        5        )
where kmin and kmax are respectively given by 4π(ƒc−B/2)/c and 4π(ƒc+B/2)/c functions of the carrier frequency ƒc and the bandwidth B, and the angular views extend from π/2−θ0 to π/2+θ0. Note that (x cos θ+y sin θ) is the distance δx,y of (x,y) projected onto the view angle from the target center with the geometry shown in FIG. 3. The function ƒ can be rewritten as
                              f                                (                          x              ,                                                                        y                        )                          =                              1                          2                            π                                                                    ∫                                                π                  /                  2                                -                                  θ                  0                                                                              π                  /                  2                                +                                  θ                  0                                                                                ∫                                  k                  min                                                  k                  max                                                                                G                                                        (                                          k                      ,                                                                                θ                                        )                                                                                e                                                            -                      j                                                            k                                                              δ                                              x                        ,                        y                                                                                k                                                                                dk                                                                                d                                    θ                                                                                (        6        )
There are several approaches for reconstructing the scattering image, including polar reformatting and convolution backprojection (CBP) for direct Fourier inversion. Additionally, standard inversion techniques like the Maximum Entropy Method can be used to improve on the direct Fourier inversion. In polar reformatting, the data in Fourier space is first interpolated onto a Cartesian grid and then a Cartesian two-dimensional FFT is performed to recover ƒ(x,y), requiring O(N2 log N) operations for an N×N SAR image. In CBP, ƒ(x,y) is directly calculated from Eq. (6) using the polar coordinates, typically requiring O(N3) operations. Since FFTs require a Cartesian frame, non-FFT Fourier transforms need to be numerically completed for CBP. Several schemes have been proposed to reduce the complexity of the CBP approach down to O(N2 log N). Despite the typically larger computational complexity, CBP has the advantage that the image can be initially formed with few angular views and continually improved as more views are added, making it especially attractive to applications where limited computer memory is available.
A significant issue with conventional spotlight SAR is that it requires phase coherency of the transmitter over the entire pass over the target. For relatively high radar frequencies, such as those needed for fine resolutions (e.g., 100 GHz is needed for centimeter-scale resolutions), coherency can only be maintained for seconds. However, tens of minutes may be required to complete the angular looks.
To address this shortcoming, a modified SAR approach may be used based on using range-resolved reflection data instead of a chirped RF signal. This modified approach is a two-step process. First, the range-resolved reflection data is gathered. Second, this data is used to exactly construct a highly accurate approximation of the two-dimensional Fourier transform G(kx,ky) of the target's scattering function. This approximation is more accurate than the I+jQ approximation in a conventional SAR.
Gathering the range-resolved reflection data may be accomplished by using a spread-spectrum approach instead of a simple frequency chirp. At each angular look of the target, range-resolved reflections may be obtained from scatterers within the target. The range-resolved reflections may be generated, for example, by imposing a spread-spectrum code-division multiple access (CDMA) coding on a carrier. More specifically, an M code signal may be coded onto the carrier by changing the phase 0 or π degrees. As an example, the phase may be changed at 10 GHz on a 100 GHz carrier using an M code with N separate bits. The returned signal may be correlated with a delayed version of the transmitted signal. If the delay time is exactly the same as the round trip time of the returned signal, the correlation is N. If the delay time is off by a time of at least ½B, the correlation is −1. If the delay time is off by <½B, the correlation is proportionally between N and −1. Thus, the range of a reflector can be determined with resolution of c/2B. This notional CDMA-SAR can theoretically have 1.5 cm resolution, which is better than any conventional SAR.
In addition to CDMA coding, other spread-spectrum frequency techniques can be equivalently used to determine range-resolved reflection data. All different spread spectrum approaches with equivalent bandwidth will lead to equivalent range-resolved reflection data.
Once the range-resolved data at an angular look is obtained, the Fourier transform of the image G(kx,ky) may be synthetically constructed mathematically. As an example of direct Fourier inversion, a radial Fourier transform may be performed at each of the angular views, and an angular Fourier transform may then be performed as more views are collected. This builds the image as the views are conducted. As an example of a non-direct Fourier inversion, the Fourier transform may be inverted via in iterative scheme such as the Maximum Entropy Method which, through iteration, fills in the values of G(kx,ky) that were not directly measured with their most likely value (based on maximum entropy).
Graphs 300 and 400 of FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate what is meant by range-resolved scattering information along each angular view. The basic idea is that there is a target patch to be imaged with a local x-y coordinate system. From some distance, scatters are interrogated within the patch (denoted as reflectors A, B, C, and D in FIG. 3) by series of RF signals, while traveling in a line offset s from the patch (the line can also be curved, with no change in the results). Each interrogation occurs at an angle θ relative to the x-axis and consists of looking at reflections from these scatters. For the interrogation angle shown in graph 300 of FIG. 3, the returns from reflectors A and B arrive at the receive antenna at the same time, and are preceded by signals from reflector D and then and then reflector C. As the angle θ varies, the relative spacing of the reflectors varies. Assuming the interrogation locations move to the left, reflectors B and C are next seen at the same range. Finally, B and D, as well as A and C, are seen as equidistant.
"Fast time" and "slow time" are considered, or that both the transmission and receiving locations are fixed for each chirp (i.e., the time it takes to chirp the frequency and to receive the signal leads to a negligible motion of the transmit and receive antenna). The Fourier transform of the reflection function G is approximated from the reflection data at each angular view θ by
                                          G            approx                                          (                          k              ,              θ                        )                          =                              ∑            n                                                                        A                n                                            R                n                2                                                                e                              jkδ                n                                                                        (        7        )
where An is the amplitude returned for range bin n, Rn is the distance to range bin n, and δn=Rn−R0, where R0 is defined as the distance to the center of the patch. This approximate function is then inverted by using Eq. (5).
Fourier transforming the phase offset over angular positions interferometrically determines the reflector's (x,y) coordinates. Importantly, the analysis of some embodiments does not require that the RF phase fronts are parallel at the location of the target. The range-resolved approach eliminates phase drifts that lead to image distortion in conventional SARs.
This approach requires O(N4) operations even when an analytic form is used for the frequency integration. However, this approach has significant advantages. These include, but are not limited to, eliminating the requirement for long coherency times (especially easing issues for very high-frequency SARs), eliminating phase drift and errors associated with frequency de-ramping, eliminating issues associated with non-parallel RF phase fronts at the target location, the ability to use the raw data as a mask to sharpen the SAR-produce image, and smaller computer memory requirements because each angular view data set is only sequentially needed and can be discarded once it is added to the image being processed.
While this modified SAR approach addresses long coherency times, phase drift in the image, and non-parallel RF phase fronts, it still requires enough signal reflected from the target to decode the spread-spectrum coding to determine the range-resolved reflection data. Accordingly, an improved approach to SAR imaging may be beneficial.

Bi-static and mono-static synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging using a short-pulse laser


A system and method for surface rendering and for the display and analysis of arbitrary structures within the interior of a solid body is presented. The method uses as a starting point a voxel element which is known to be crossed by a surface of interest. The surface is rendered in a topologically consistent way by connecting encountered surface hits at each voxel face. A pair of voxel face hits, surrounding a vertex value exceeding the surface value are used to form a triangle, spun around a third articulating point in the interior of the voxel. Voxel faces sharing the surface hits are sequentially examined, and a set of approximation triangles is formed, to build a triangularization grid. The rendered surfaces are interactively displayed and analyzed for global structure properties.

In many practical applications it is required to obtain and analyze three-dimensional (3D) arrays of data representing one or more physical properties at regular grid positions within the interior of solid bodies. Typically, the data is obtained by methods such as computer axial tomography (CAT), x-ray scanning, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging systems, or by other non-intrusive mechanisms such as ultrasound scanning, positron emission tomography (PET), emission computer tomography (ECT) and multimodality imaging (MMI). Each of these techniques produces a planar, grid-like array of values for a continuous sequence of planes or slices of the solid object, thus providing a three-dimensional array of values. A typical application is in medicine where the solid object can be a human body or a part of it and the objective is to detect and model certain internal structures for diagnostic and surgical planning purposes. The methods to which the present invention relates are, however, equally applicable to other natural or artificial bodies and fields of study.
Examples of the physical properties measured at regular 3D positions include the coefficient of x-ray absorption in the CAT case or, for NMR imaging, the spin-spin or the spin-lattice relaxation parameters. In each case, the measured physical values reflect variations in the composition, density or structural characteristics of the underlying physical objects, providing knowledge about their internal structure. The 3D data array typically corresponds to a plurality of measurements of the given physical property, taken at regular intervals along an appropriately selected system of 3D (X, Y, Z) physical coordinates. Each measurement V.sub.XYZ of the physical property is thus associated with a specific array index position in a cubic lattice within the volume in study. A cubically adjacent set of eight such positions defines an unit cubic volume of the body under study and is known in the art as a voxel.
It is further known in the prior art to utilize such three-dimensional arrays of interior physical values to generate visual images of the structures within the body on a display system. In order to display two-dimensional (2D) images of such 3D interior structures, however, it is necessary to locate the position of the surface of such structure within the array of physical values. This is accomplished by comparing the array values to a threshold value or to a range of threshold values which correspond to the physical property values normally associated with that surface.
For example, in the case of the human body, bones, brain or any other tissues can be characterized by the known range of their density values which is compared to the measured and stored 3D array values in order to separate out a surface model of their structure. The displayed visual images can next be used to assist the medical practitioner in providing a diagnosis or in the planning of complex surgical procedures.
Once the location of the surface of an internal structure is determined, this surface is typically illuminated and shaded so as to give the human eye the impression of a natural shape and spatial disposition of the surface when it is displayed. Normally, to provide such shading the angular direction of a vector orthogonal to the surface at each point on the surface (the surface normal) is compared to the viewing angle of the observer. The intensity of shading can be adjusted to be proportional to the difference between these angles.
There are several problems associated with the surface rendering of structures in the interior of a solid body. First, it is necessary to accurately determine which of the voxel elements of the 3D array have been crossed by the surface of interest and at which physical location. Next, it is important to provide a mechanism for displaying the internal structure of a three-dimensional body on the two-dimensional computer or TV screen. Another important problem is that data acquired from physical data collections systems is often noisy and is not capable of being directly displayed prior to some kind of a filtering operation.
Several solutions have been proposed in the past to address these problems. An approach that is frequently used is the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,876 to Cline et al. on the so-called "marching cubes". In this method, the surface segment intersecting a voxel is approximated by one of a limited number of standardized plane polygonal surfaces intersecting the voxel. One particular standardized surface tiling is selected from a library of available surfaces by a vector which represents the binary differences between the threshold value for the given surface of interest and the eight voxel vertex values. The surface-to-voxel intersection coordinates, as well as the vector normal to the surface for each such standardized polygonal surface tiling can be obtained by table look-up techniques. The final surface is assembled as a mosaic using all the standardized triangular tiles.
The marching cubes method has found significant acceptance in the industry because it is relatively simple to implement and is fast. Several modifications have been proposed since 1987. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,098 granted in March 1988 to Cline et al. a variation of the marching cubes methods is proposed, in which non-linear interpolation is used to more accurately locate the coordinates of the standardized polygons.
Another known method for approximating the surface of an internal structure is the so-called "dividing cubes" method, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,585 to Cline et al. In this method, the values at the vertices of the voxel are used to interpolate in three dimensions values at regularly positioned intra-voxel sub-grid locations. The interpolated sub-grid values can then be used to locate the surface position and calculate the normal vector more accurately.
In order to distinguish between different internal structures having the same or similar physical property and thus having close or similar values on the three-dimensional grid, U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,643 to Lorensen discloses a technique for labeling surfaces with similar property values and using adjacency criteria in respect to a "seed location" in the particular structure of interest to segregate the desired surface from all of the labeled surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,567 to Cline et al. discloses another technique of segregating similar internal structures by determining connectivity from adjacency information. U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,213 to Cline et al. discloses yet another technique for differentiating internal structures in which a linear path is made through the data array to locate and label all different structures along the scan line by counting structure interfaces.
In the methods described above, voxels within the solid object under study are typically traversed sequentially and progressively, so that every voxel within the data space is checked for a crossing by the surface of interest, and is subsequently assigned to belong either to the outside or to the inside of the surface. Because of the large volumes of data to be processed, the methods are computationally intensive and relatively slow. An improvement in this respect is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,876 to Cline, issued in November 1992. The disclosed method significantly speeds up the rendering of a surface within a boundary by only processing voxels on the surface. This approach saves significant computation time but still uses the same case table and the limited set of approximating surfaces which were described in the original marching cubes patent.
As noted above, the marching cubes surface rendering method is widely accepted but has certain deficiencies. These deficiencies are generally related to the fact that the fifteen canonical cases used in the surface segments' approximation do not cover the entire spectrum of possible tiling combinations. This results in occasional approximation errors, occurring at lower levels of resolution, specifically if a voxel face is intersected by the surface twice resulting in four crossings ("hits") with the voxel edge. The errors manifest themselves in incorrect surface rendering, visually appearing as unexpected spots, tears and missing tile elements. The problems are aggravated if the collection data is noisy and/or with low contrast.
A number of corrections to the marching cube algorithm have been offered in the past. Notable is a paper by Neilson and Hamann, "The Asymptotic Decider: Resolving the Ambiguity in Marching Cubes," in the Proceedings of Visualization 1991, pp. 83-91. This and other publications show that the case table approach produces inconsistent results in some cases. Thus, no topologically correct algorithm for isosurface tiling has been offered so far. Accordingly, reliable measurements of internal structure parameters, such as surface area and volume, are also not available.
The display of 3D graphic images has been principally driven by the goals and directions of computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. Systems accepting data in several basic formats have been developed for displaying solid bodies and manipulating images in various ways to create models of parts being manufactured, or internal organs being monitored.
The present systems for surface rendering and display are, however, still incapable of meeting the requirements for a fast and truly interactive display of continuously monitored 3D data. The complexity of the task can be better appreciated by noting that a typical surface rendering operation involves processing on the order of 512.times.512.times.512 pixels. In the presence of noise the task becomes even more complicated because of the necessity for additional noise filtering, smoothing and data interpolation, which takes processing time and often results in the loss of important structural details.
It is thus desirable to provide a method for rendering topologically correct surface approximations of arbitrary internal structures within a volume of interest and a system for the display and analysis of such surface structures. It is also desirable to provide high quality, interactive display of the surface structures of interest from a set of collected data and minimize the effects of possible noise interference. Additionally, it is desirable to provide an efficient implementation of the method which facilitates the use of specialized hardware for real time data processing.

System and method for surface rendering of internal structures within the interior of a solid object


A signal separation device is a duplexer in which a reception frequency band is located at higher frequencies than a transmission frequency band. A series arm of a ladder transmission filter includes a plurality of series arm resonators, and parallel arms respectively include parallel arm resonators. The parallel arm resonators include the parallel arm resonators having resonant frequencies lower than those of the series arm resonators and the parallel arm resonator that has a resonant frequency which is located within the reception frequency band and which is higher than the resonant frequency of the series arm resonators and that has a lower capacitance than the series arm resonators and the parallel arm resonators.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal separation devices, and specifically relates to signal separation devices including a first passband and a second passband adjacent to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-271230 discloses a signal separation device that includes a transmission filter and a reception filter connected to an antenna and that has a configuration in which a ground potential connected to the reception filter is isolated from other ground potentials.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-109894 discloses a ladder-type signal separation device that has a transmission filter and a reception filter and that has a configuration in which a single parallel-arm resonator is used as a notch filter, thereby suppressing a sub-resonant response in the sub-resonant frequency band of the transmission filter or reception filter.
In the invention disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-271230, routing of wiring lines for isolating the ground potentials from each other is necessary and the arrangement of ground electrodes is restricted. As a result, there may be a case in which it is difficult to reduce the size of the signal separation device.
In the invention disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-109894, a sub-resonant response is suppressed in the sub-resonant frequency band which is relatively widely spaced apart from the passband of the transmission filter or reception filter. However, when the passband of the transmission filter and the passband of the reception filter are close to each other, the isolation characteristics between the transmission filter and the reception filter are degraded in some cases.


An optical functional element including two diffraction gratings having metal films formed on their surfaces, which are arranged to oppose each other to form a photonic band, and an optical functional film interposed between these diffraction gratings, the optical functional film consisting of a polymer containing an optical functional material, such as a nonlinear optical material and electro-optic material, dispersed in the polymer.

The present invention relates to an optical functional element which can be used as an optical delay element, wavelength converter, optical switch, optical modulator, optical amplifier, optical memory, dispersion compensator, soliton generator, and the like.
In optical communications and optical circuits, improvements of various optical functional elements have been demanded. For example, optical communications require an optical switching that has an optical delay element to set a communication route. Since the optical switching cannot simultaneously process a plurality of optical signals, the optical delay element delays some of the optical signals to sequentially input them to the optical exchange or to process them by changing the order of the signals. Conventionally, as an optical delay element, an optical fiber which has a length corresponding to a required delay time and is arranged in addition to the optical fibers used as signal lines is used, and the optical signal to be delayed is input to and output from this optical fiber via optical switches. However, the optical fiber used as the optical delay element must have a length of several ten meters, and a large space is required to accommodate the optical fiber.
In a wavelength converter (second harmonic generation, SHG) that uses the second-order nonlinear optical effect, it is important to realize phase matching between the fundamental wave and second harmonic wave (SH wave) in terms of the wavelength conversion efficiency. However, the refractive index of a substance depends on the wavelength of light, and it is hard to realize phase matching. As a conventional method of realizing phase matching, an angle tuning method that utilizes birefringence of a single crystal, Cerenkov-radiation type phase matching and quasi-phase matching are known. In consideration of the conversion efficiency, the method using the single crystal is advantageous. However, it is difficult to grow a large single crystal. Also, although angle tuning is realized in bulk, since in a waveguide the crystal orientation cannot be finely adjusted three-dimensionally, it is hard to realize angle tuning. Cerenkov radiation assumes strict angle of phase matching between the SH and fundamental waves and it can provide only a low conversion efficiency. In quasi-phase matching, it is difficult to manufacture a complicated element structure. Also, since quasi-phase matching is attained by adding an offset to the shifted phase, phase matching is not achieved in the strict sense.
Due to these problems, it is difficult to put the wavelength converter into practical applications although various applications such as a light source of an optical disk are expected. In particular, an organic nonlinear optical material is advantageous as compared to an inorganic material since it has a very large nonlinear susceptibility, but has not reached the stage of practical use due to problems in the manufacturing process of elements. Also, when a polymeric second-order nonlinear material or a material prepared by dispersing an organic nonlinear optical material in a polymer is used, an orientation treatment by means of poling is required, and a measure against orientation relaxation must also be taken.
In an element such as an optical switch that uses the third-order nonlinear optical properties, the nonlinear susceptibility is known to be larger as the phase relaxation time becomes longer. For this reason, the nonlinear susceptibility becomes large in the resonance region of absorption, and becomes small in the nonresonance region. However, since signal light is absorbed in the resonance region, the intensity of the switched light decreases, or decomposition of the functional material occurs due to heat generated by absorption. In consideration of this fact, the third-order nonlinear optical element that operates in the resonance region is not preferred in practical applications. In view of such problems, elements that operate in the non-resonance region have been demanded. However, since such elements have a small nonlinear susceptibility, as described above, they have not reached the level of practical use yet.
As the methods of optical modulation, electro-optic modulation (EO modulation) using the Pockels effect, absorption modulation that attains modulations based on an absorption change by applying an electric field and direct modulation that controls the injection current of a semiconductor laser are known. The direct modulation does not require any special modulator and requires only a small total number of parts. However, it is hard to achieve high-speed modulation, and the half width of wavelength undesirably broadens. In view of such drawback, high-speed external modulators using materials such as GaAlAs and, LiNB.sub.3 have been developed, but satisfactorily high performance has not been obtained to date. For this reason, a modulator which can be easily manufactured, allows high-speed modulation, and has a high ON-OFF ratio, has been demanded.

Optical functional element comprising photonic crystal


An image forming apparatus capable of processing data at a relatively high speed in accordance with a data transmission speed from a host system. The image forming apparatus includes a central processing unit, a memory, and a host system interface. When data inclusive of print data and control data is transmitted from the host system to the image forming apparatus, the host system interface starts a direct memory access (DMA) with the memory to store the print data at a relatively high speed in accordance with the data transmission speed from the host system. The host system interface includes a data receiver to be connected to the host system, a data determiner, a control data checker, a print data register, a control data register, a DMA address register, and an address counter. The data determiner determines whether received data is print data or control data by comparing control data stored in the control data checker, executes DMA operation when the received data is print data, while terminating DMA when the received data is control data.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer which is capable of processing data at a relatively high speed in accordance with a data transmission speed provided from a host system to the laser beam printer through an interface operative in a high speed data transmission mode such as ECP (extended capabilities port) defined by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
2. Discussion of the Background
A new parallel port interface operative for data transmission between a host system and an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer has recently been standardized by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). This interface is called IEEE-1284 and includes a new bidirectional communication mode generally referred to as ECP (extended capabilities port). A maximum of 2 Mbytes per second is a data transmission speed featured by ECP, which is faster than a popular interface known as Centronics connecting an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer to a personal computer and transmitting data at 100 to 150 Kbytes per second as a maximum speed. ECP, in addition, features a bidirectional communication capability although it has a relatively simple specification similar to that of the background Centronics, a uni-directional interface, and is thus called bi-directional Centronics to differentiate from the background uni-directional Centronics.
Data transmitted from a host system to an image forming apparatus generally includes two types of data. One type of data is defined as print data which includes image data, image form related data such as a carriage return code, and the like. These print data are needed to be processed together in an originally received sequence. The other type of data is defined as control data for requesting various actions, such as, a cancel data command for canceling designated data, a status request command for requesting printer status information, and so forth. These control data can also be classified by levels of urgency requesting immediate actions. As an example, the above-mentioned cancel data command may be classified as a highly urgent command because if the action of the image forming apparatus in response to this command is delayed, then the canceled data may possibly be printed and the command consequently fails. A paper tray selection, as another example for the command classification, may be classified because the paper tray selection is needed only when the image forming apparatus starts printing after completing data processing. When such data including print data and control data is transmitted from a host system to a background image forming apparatus through ECP mentioned above, the background image forming apparatus receives the data and then transmits the received data into a RAM (random access memory) thereof. For the data transmission to the RAM, the background image forming apparatus generally adopts DMA (direct memory access) since DMA is a high speed data transmission and host independent operation. Because of this host-independent operation, the load of the CPU of the background image forming apparatus is not increased by DMA. In the event of the data transmission, if data storage in the RAM is made without distinguishing commands from print data, the background image forming apparatus can not transmit the print data from the RAM to a print unit before separating the print data and control data. The background image forming apparatus thus causes problems in executing DMA and actions requested by control data.
There has been proposed a solution to obviate the above-mentioned problems. An image forming apparatus having this solution can determine whether received data from a host system represents print data or control data by arranging a CPU thereof to check a so-called Host Ack signal transmitted together with the data from a host system for indicating whether the data under transmission is print data or control data. On the other hand, when utilizing this solution the CPU increases its load with increasing data transmission speed through a high speed data transmission interface such as ECP.
Furthermore, since the load to the CPU of the background image forming apparatus is variant, the CPU does not always have enough power for processing immediate actions requested by the control data. In such a situation, an event may subsequently be caused in which the CPU only processes the control data in a temporary manner and leaves a remaining part of the actions requested by the control data to be processed later. A resultant delay in processing the control data may pose a serious problem, particularly in a case that immediate actions are requested by the control data.
Because of these problems in processing data, a great delay has resulted in the development of an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer including a data transmission interface compatible to the new high speed data transmission interface such as ECP of IEEE-1284 defined by IEEE. Subsequently, an image forming apparatus that obviates the above-mentioned problems, or that is capable of processing data including print data and control data at a relatively high speed in accordance with a data transmission speed from a host system using ECP has not yet been developed.

Image forming apparatus capable of processing data at high speed in accordance with a high speed data transmission interface


Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for making germanium-based glass polyalkenoate cements. Also disclosed are methods for their use as bone cements for bone augmentation procedures.

Glass polyalkenoate cements (GPC) (also referred to as glass ionomer cements) are frequently used in dentistry as restorative and luting agents. GPCs are theoretically attractive for other clinical uses, such as orthopedics, because they set with a negligible exotherm. This is important because materials which generate heat upon setting can lead to thermal necrosis of adjacent healthy tissue. Additionally, GPCs bond with hydroxyapatite (present in both teeth and bones) and thus the set GPC is less likely to loosen over time. Finally, GPCs can be modified to release therapeutically beneficial ions over time. However, conventional GPCs are based on aluminosilicate glasses which are contraindicated in orthopedics as release of Al3+ in vivo leads to significant adverse effects for the patient. Fatal aluminum-induced encephalopathy, impaired osteoblastic function and hindered bone mineralization have been reported when using GPCs that include aluminum. GPCs free of aluminum have been attempted but those materials were not suitable as they set too quickly and did not provide sufficient handling time prior to setting to be able to deploy them. Some materials that did have longer handling times before setting had lower mechanical strength and thus were unsuitable for that reason.
What is needed are new GPCs for orthopedic applications that do not release aluminum ions but whose characteristics allow sufficient time to handle the material prior to setting and deliver sufficient mechanical strength.

Germanium-based glass polyalkenoate cement


The ablation systems, ablation probes, and corresponding methods according to the present disclosure reduce or eliminate energy radiating from an ablation probe into the environment. Some ablation probes include a retractable sheath that shields at least the radiating portion of the ablation probe. The retractable sheath and/or the ablation probe may include conduits through which a fluid may flow to shield the radiating portion and to drive the retractable sheath to an extended state. Other ablation probes include apertures defined in the probe walls through which the fluid can flow to expand a balloon surrounding the radiating portion. Yet other ablation probes include a thermal indicator to indicate the temperature of the ablation probe to a user. The ablation systems include fluid circuits and associated mechanical controls for varying the contents and/or flow rate of the fluid provided to the radiating portion of the ablation probe.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to ablation systems. More particularly, the present disclosure is directed to ablation systems, probes, and methods for reducing or eliminating energy radiating from an ablation probe into a surgical environment.
2. Background of Related Art
In the treatment of diseases such as cancer, certain types of cancer cells have been found to denature at elevated temperatures (which are slightly lower than temperatures normally injurious to healthy cells.) These types of treatments, known generally as hyperthermia therapy, typically utilize electromagnetic radiation to heat diseased cells to temperatures above 41° C., while maintaining adjacent healthy cells at lower temperatures where irreversible cell destruction will not occur. Other procedures using electromagnetic radiation to heat tissue include ablation and coagulation. These procedures are typically done to denature or kill the targeted tissue.
Many medical procedures and devices that use electromagnetic radiation are known in the art. Some of these procedures and devices are used to treat tissue and organs, such as the prostate, heart, liver, lung, kidney, and breast. These medical procedures and devices can be broken down into two general categories: non-invasive and invasive.
Some non-invasive procedures involve treating tissue (e.g., a tumor) underlying the skin with microwave energy. The microwave energy non-invasively penetrates the skin to reach the underlying tissue. However, this non-invasive procedure may result in unwanted heating of healthy tissue. Thus, non-invasive procedures that use microwave energy require precise temperature control.
Some invasive procedures have been developed in which a microwave antenna probe is either inserted directly into a point of treatment via a normal body orifice or inserted percutaneously. These invasive procedures can provide better temperature control of the tissue being treated. Because of the small difference between the temperature required for denaturing malignant cells and the temperature injurious to healthy cells, a known heating pattern and predictable temperature control is important so that heating is confined to the tissue being treated. For instance, hyperthermia treatment at the threshold temperature of about 41.5° C. generally has little effect on most malignant growth of cells. However, at slightly elevated temperatures above the approximate range of 43° C. to 45° C., thermal damage to most types of normal cells is routinely observed. Accordingly, great care must be taken not to exceed these temperatures in healthy tissue.
To prevent damage to healthy tissue, the non-radiating portion of the ablation probe is cooled with a cooling solution having dielectric properties that are matched to the dielectric properties of the target tissue. When the ablation probe is removed from tissue, however, the probe still has the ability to efficiently radiate microwave energy because of the dielectric buffering provided by the cooling solution. Therefore, if the generator is still powering the probe after it is removed from tissue, individuals near the probe may be unnecessarily exposed to microwave energy.

Ablation systems, probes, and methods for reducing radiation from an ablation probe into the environment


A current range control circuit for a data driver in an organic light emitting display. The data driver includes a shift register for outputting a latch control signal, a data latch for sequentially receiving video data and to output the video data in parallel, a digital to analog converter for converting the outputs of the data latch into analog currents, and the current range control circuit for outputting data currents corresponding to the analog currents and controlling the data current range using current range control signals. Because it is possible to control the range of the data currents output from the data driver, it is possible to use the data driver in various pixel circuits or electroluminescent devices by changing the current range control signals, and to make the drain voltages of the transistors that form a current mirror equal to each other to obtain the desired current values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current range control circuit, a data driver, and an organic light emitting display, and more particularly to, a current range control circuit, a data driver, and an organic light emitting display capable of controlling the range of the output currents of the data driver.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recently, various flat panel displays of lower weight and volume than the traditional cathode ray tubes (CRT) have been developed. Flat panel displays include liquid crystal displays (LCD), field emission displays (FED), plasma display panels (PDP), and organic light emitting displays.
Among the flat panel displays, the organic light emitting displays are spontaneous emission devices that emit light by re-combination of electrons and holes. The organic light emitting display may be referred to as an organic electroluminescent display. Compared to a passive electroluminescent device that requires an additional light source, such as an LCD, the organic light emitting display has high response speed more similar to the CRT.
The organic light emitting display may be driven either by a passive matrix method or an active matrix method. In the passive matrix method, an anode and a cathode are formed to intersect and a line is selected to be driven. In the active matrix method, the amount of current that flows through an electroluminescent device is controlled by an active device. A thin film transistor (TFT) is mainly used as the active device. The active matrix method is complicated, while having the advantages of low power consumption and long emission time.
The programming methods of the organic light emitting display are divided into a voltage programming method and a current programming method. In the voltage programming method, a data driver outputs a voltage corresponding to a data signal, a capacitor that is part of a pixel stores voltage corresponding to the output voltage, and an electroluminescent device emits light in response to the stored voltage. In the voltage programming method, it is possible to use the data driver used for the LCD as is. However, it is difficult to obtain a uniform image due to variation between the threshold voltage and mobility of the various TFTs used as the active device of the pixel circuit.
In the current programming method, the data driver outputs currents corresponding to the data signals, the capacitor built in the pixel stores the voltage corresponding to the output current, and the electroluminescent device emits light in response to the stored voltage. In the current programming method, it is possible to easily compensate for the variation of the threshold voltage and mobility of the TFTs and to thus obtain a uniform screen.
On the other hand, in the data driver of the current programming method, the range of the data currents may vary with the pixel circuit. In the case of the pixel circuit that transmits current whose magnitude is equal to the magnitude of the data currents, the required range of the data currents is not large. However, when the data currents are M times the current that flows through the electroluminescent device by using an M:1 current mirror, the range of the data currents is large. Also, because luminous efficiency varies with the type of the electroluminescent device, the required range of the data currents may vary. As described above, because the required range of the data currents varies with the type of the pixel circuit or the type of the electroluminescent device, a different data driver must be designed whenever the pixel circuit or the electroluminescent device change.

Current range control circuit, data driver, and organic light emitting display


A chemical process tower tray construction incorporating a tapered semi-conical downcomer adaptive for discharging liquid along an arcuate edge portion of an underlying tray. The underlying tray is of the type supported within the chemical process tower by a support ring which is positioned beneath the edge of the tray for the support thereof. The solid support ring typically forms a nonactive area beneath this region of the tray and the tapered downcomer discharges liquid directly onto the inactive region wherein the remaining portion of the tray can be utilized for mass transfer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chemical process towers and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a tapered downcomer assembly for maximizing mass transfer performance across an adjacent tray.
2. History of Related Art
Distillation columns are utilized to separate selected components from a multi component stream. Successful fractionation in the column is dependent upon intimate contact between liquid and vapor phases. Some columns use vapor and liquid contact devices such as trays.
The above-referenced trays are generally installed on support rings within the tower and have a solid tray or deck with a plurality of apertures in an "active" area. Liquid is directed onto the tray by means of a vertical channel from the tray above. This channel is referred to as the downcomer. The liquid moves across the active area and exits through a similar downcomer. The location of the downcomers determine the flow pattern of the liquid. Vapor ascends through the apertures in the trays and contacts the liquid moving across the tray. The liquid and vapor mix in the active area and fractionation occurs. It is the active area of the tray that is of critical concern.
The maximum fractionation capacity of the tray generally increases with an increase in the active or bubbling area. Maximum utilization of active area of a tray is an important consideration to chemical process tower design. Regions of the tray which are not effectively used for vapor-liquid contact can reduce the fractionation capacity and efficiency of the tray. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that optimize the active design area design of a fractionation tray in a chemical process tower.
It is well known that the concentration-difference between the vapor and the liquid is the driving force to effect mass transfer. Said concentration-difference can be effected in many ways; some reducing fractionation efficiency. When operating pressure is such as to produce a vapor density above about 1.0 lbs/cu. ft., there is the possibility that some amount of vapor bubbles are commingled or entrained with the downcomer incoming liquid. For example, as operating pressure increases due to an increase in the vapor concentration, descending liquid begins to absorb vapor as it moves across a tray. This is above that normally associated as dissolved gas as governed by Henry's Law and represents much larger amounts of vapor bubbles that are commingled or "entrained" with the liquid. This vapor is not firmly held and is released within the downcomer, and, in fact, the majority of said vapor must be released, otherwise the downcomer can not accommodate the liquid/vapor mixture and will flood thus preventing successful tower operation.
Similarly, an exothermic reaction in the downcomer will generate vapors from the equilibrium mixture, which also will be released. For conventional trays, the released vapor will oppose the descending frothy vapor/liquid mixture flowing into the downcomer. In many cases, such opposition leads to poor tower operation and premature flooding. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that facilitate the release of vapor entrained in the liquid within a downcomer of a chemical process tower.
Another serious problem which manifests itself in such operational applications is entrainment of liquid droplets in the ascending vapor. This phenomenon, which is virtually the opposite of the above vapor entrainment, can prevent effective vapor liquid contact. Liquid entrainment is, in one sense, a dynamic flow condition. High velocity vapor flow can suspend descending liquid droplets and prevent their effective passage through the underlying froth mixture zone. It is particularly difficult to prevent this problem when the tower applications require high volume vapor flow in a direction virtually opposite to that of high volume, descending liquid flow. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that will reduce the liquid entrained in the vapor within a chemical process tower.
Efficiency of a tray is also reduced when vapor ascending through the process column is allowed to by-pass the active area of a tray. One area where vapor can by-pass the active area of a tray is the downcomer. When vapor intended for the active area of the tray unintentionally passes through the downcomer the efficiency of the active area in the tray is reduced. Also, vapor unintentionally passing through the downcomer will reduce the flow of liquid through the downcomer and potentially cause a backup of the liquid flowing through the process column. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that reduce the amount of vapor that flows through a downcomer.
Efficiency of the active area in a tray is also influenced by the flow of liquid across the active area. At the initial point of contact of liquid from a downcomer onto the tray, the flow of the liquid is not typically a flow characteristic that provides optimum efficiency for the active area of a tray. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that assist in the change of flow characteristics of fluid from a downcomer on to the active area of a tray. The present invention provides such a method and apparatus for maximizing mass transfer efficiency in chemical process towers.

Downcomer for chemical process tower and method of forming the same