An image reading apparatus includes a photoelectric conversion unit which is held, together with a first movable optical reading unit and a second movable optical reading unit, on a guide member instead of a chassis. Since all of the first movable optical reading unit, second movable optical reading unit and photoelectric conversion unit are held on the common guide member, the positional relationship between the photoelectric conversion unit and the guide member is held always constant even when a chassis is deformed due to an environmental change or an external force. This arrangement insures a high image quality reading. The image reading apparatus also includes a transparent plate disposed on an upper surface of an original holding glass plate so as to cover a moving original reading position defined at that glass plate portion. An exit guide have a front end which is disposed adjacent to a downstream end of the transparent plate and held at a level below an upper surface of the transparent plate. With this arrangement, a moving original sheet can smoothly move from the transparent plate to the exit guide without being caught by the front end of the exit guide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to image reading apparatus such as image scanners, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus of the so-called "flat bed" type which is capable of reading a stationary original sheet and a moving original sheet by scanning the original sheet with a movable optical unit including a light source and a mirror and by reading scanned information on the original sheet as two-dimensional information by a fixed photoelectric conversion unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional image reading apparatus of the type concerned includes, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, a housing or case 1, an original holding plate 2 made of transparent glass, a chassis 3 attached horizontally to the case 1, a pair of parallel spaced guide members 4 attached to the chassis 3 and extending in a plane parallel to the original holding plate 2, a first movable optical reading unit 5 movably mounted on the guide members 4 and having a light source (not shown) and a mirror 6, a second movable optical reading unit 7 movably mounted on the guide members 4 and having two mirrors 8 and 9, a photoelectric conversion unit 10 fixedly mounted on the chassis 3 and having a lens 11 and an image sensor 12, and a drive mechanism (not shown) for moving the first and second optical reading units 5 and 7 along the guide members 4. In general, the chassis 3 is molded of a synthetic resin such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin, and the guide members 4 are elongate metal plates.
The image reading apparatus is so constructed as to deal with both a stationary original sheet which is manually placed on the original holding plate 2, and a moving original sheet which is automatically supplied onto the original holding plate 2 by an automatic document feeder described later on. To this end, as shown in FIG. 11, the original holding plate 2 is composed of a first flat bed glass 2a for holding thereon a stationary original sheet 13 (FIG. 9) to be read, and a second flat bed glass 2b for guiding therealong a moving original sheet 13 as it passes through a moving original reading position located on the second flat bed glass 2b. The first movable optical reading unit 5 incorporating therein the light source 14 and the mirror 6 is locatable directly below the moving original reading position. The first and second flat bed glasses 2a and 2b are attached to the case 1 by a pair of bed glass support members 15 and 16 so that the first and second flat bed glasses 2a and 2b are flush with each other or extend in the same plane.
An automatic document feeder 17 which is an optional part of the image reading apparatus is disposed above the original holding plate 2 for automatically feeding original sheets 13 one after another through the moving document reading position. The automatic document feeder 17 includes an original conveyor roller system 18 composed of a plurality of mating roller pairs for feeding the original sheet 13 onto said second flat bed glass 2b and subsequently discharging the original sheet 13 downstream from said second flat bed glass 2b, a pair of confronting entrance guide members 19 and 20 for guiding the original sheet 13 over and across the second flat bed glass 2b while the original sheet 13 is being conveyed by the original conveyor roller system 18, and an exit guide 21 for guiding the original sheet 13 as the original sheet 13 is discharged from the moving document reading position on the second flat bed glass 2b to the outside of the automatic document feeder 17.
When the image reading apparatus is used with a stationary original sheet as a stationary original exposure type image reading apparatus, an original sheet 13 is placed on the first flat bed glass 2a (FIG. 11) of the original holding plate 2, as shown in FIG. 9. Then, the original sheet 13 is irradiated with the light source 14 (FIG. 11), and light reflected from the original sheet 13 is guided by the mirrors 6, 8 and 9 into the photoelectric conversion unit 10. The first optical reading unit 5 is moved along the entire surface of the original sheet 13 and, in synchronism with the movement with the first optical reading unit 5, the second optical reading unit 7 is moved so that the entire surface of the original sheet is scanned and thus information is read from the original sheet.
When the components of the image reading apparatus are thermally deformed due to a change in environmental conditions (temperature change, for example), the amount of thermal deformation of the chassis 3 is greater than that of the guide members 4 because, as described above, the chassis 3 is molded of a synthetic resin and the guide members 4 are made of metal. Due to the difference in thermal deformation, the chassis 3 tends to deform or bend, thus displacing the photoelectric converting unit 10 held thereon relative to the guide members 4. As a result, an optical axis which is defined by the mirrors 6, 8 and 9 of the first and second optical reading units 5 and 7 held on the guide members 4 is displaced out of alignment with an optical axis of the photoelectric conversion unit 10, so that the quality of an image read on the image reading apparatus is deteriorated.
Furthermore, when the chassis 3 is twisted or otherwise deformed by an external force or pressure, the photoelectric conversion unit 10 is displaced relative to the guide members 4 on which the first and second optical reading units 5 and 7 are held. Thus, the above-mentioned misaligned optical axes problem occurs again.
When the image reading apparatus is used with a moving original sheet as a moving original exposure type image reading apparatus, a leading one 13 of original sheets set on the automatic document feeder 17 is supplied by the original conveyor roller system 18 and then guided by the entrance guide members 19 and 20 so that the original sheet 13 passes through the moving original reading position on the second flat bed glass 2b in a sub-scanning direction, as shown in FIG. 11. During that time, the light source 14 of the first optical reading unit 5 held at a position directly below the second flat bed glass 2b irradiates the moving original sheet 13. Light reflected from the moving original sheet 13 is directed by the mirror 6 in a direction parallel to the original holding plate 2 as indicated by the arrow 22 and then it is further directed by the mirrors 8 and 9 (FIG. 9) toward the photoelectric conversion unit 10 (FIG. 10) so that information is read from the original sheet 13. The original sheet 13 is subsequently guided by the exit guide 21 and discharged to the outside of the automatic document feeder 17.
In the moving original reading operation described above, it is important that the original sheet 13 after having been read above the second flat bed glass 2b is smoothly and stably guided by the exit guide 21 and then discharged to the outside of the automatic document feeder 17. To this end, the first flat bed glass 2a and the second flat bed glass 2b are separated by a space so that this space can be used for setting a front end (upstream end) of the exit guide 21 at a level below an upper surface of the second flat bed glass 2b. Instead of using two flat bed glasses 2a and 2b, a single flat bed glass 2c may be used as shown in FIG. 12 in which instance, however, the upper surface of the flat bed glass 2c must be recessed at a portion immediately downstream of the moving original reading position. A guide member 23 is disposed in the recess for guiding the original sheet 13 toward the outside of the automatic document feeder 17 after the original sheet 13 moves past the moving document reading position on the flat bed glass 2c.
The image reading apparatus having two flat bed glasses 2a and 2b such as shown in FIG. 11 is costly to manufacture due to the use of two flat bed glasses 2a and 2b. In addition, in order to attach the two flat bed glasses 2a and 2b, the image reading apparatus requires additional bed glass support members 15, 16 which makes the case complicated in construction and increase the overall size of the image reading apparatus. The image reading apparatus having a single flat bed glass 2c such as shown in FIG. 12 is free from the foregoing problems caused by the use of two flat bed glasses 2a and 2b, however, due to the necessity of providing the recess, the flat bed glass 2c is costly to manufacture and eventually increases the overall production cost of the image reading apparatus.

Image reading apparatus with the optical reading units and photoelectric conversion device mounted on a common guide member

Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.


A vehicle rotary electric machine to be mounted in an engine is comprised of a rotor having a shaft, a stator, a front housing, a rear housing and a pulley. The front housing has a first mounting stay disposed at a side of the front housing to be fixed to a cylinder block of an engine by a bolt and a second mounting stay disposed at the opposite side of the front housing with respect to the shaft to be fixed to a cylinder head of the engine by a bolt having the same outside diameter. The rear housing has a third mounting stay to be fixed to the cylinder head at the same side of the rear housing as the second mounting stay. The first mounting stay has an elliptical first bolt-hole extending perpendicularly to the stack direction. The a major axis of the elliptical hole extends in parallel to the stack direction.

The present application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 2000-198257, filed Jun. 30, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle rotary electric machine and, particularly, an AC generator to be mounted on an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A-2-414650 and JP-A-10-248191 disclose a side-mounting type AC generator that includes a pulley and a housing having a plurality of bolt-holes extending in a direction perpendicular to a shaft of the generator. Usually, such bolt-holes have a diameter that is much larger than the diameter of bolts so that the bolt-holes can absorb dispersion in positions of the female threads that are formed at an engine so that the generator can be easily mounted on the engine. In the meanwhile, it is very difficult to accurately position the cylinder head of the engine on the cylinder block thereof because both members are fastened by bolts to each other via a gasket.
As the diameter of the bolt-holes becomes larger, it becomes more difficult to locate the pulley of the AC generator at a proper position. If the pulley is not positioned properly, the friction loss of the belt may increase and the lifetime thereof may decrease. Therefore, it has been recommended that the bolt-holes are formed by a machine to provide an accurate diameter.
Therefore, a main object of the invention is to provide a pulley-driven vehicle rotary electric machine that has an improved bolt-fastening structure.
Another object of the invention is to provide a pulley-driven vehicle rotary electric machine that is easy to mount on an engine at a proper position where the friction loss o the belt may not increase.
In a vehicle rotary electric machine according to a feature of the invention, a housing has an elliptical first bolt-hole extending in a direction perpendicular to a shaft at a position outside an axial end of the housing and a circular second bolt-hole disposed at the opposite position with respect to the shaft to extend approximately in the same direction as the first bolt-hole. The elliptic second bolt-hole has a major axis approximately extending in a direction perpendicular to the shaft and a minor axis extending in the direction parallel to the shaft. The major axis may extend in a direction between xe2x88x9210xc2x0 and 10xc2x0 from said direction perpendicular to said shaft. The housing may have a circular third bolt-hole that is larger than the minor axis of the first bolt hole disposed at the same radial position as the second bolt-hole extending in parallel with the first bolt-hole.

Mounting arrangement of vehicle rotary electric machine


A traveling field harvester for pepper plants comprises a pair of generally mirror image tapered helical rod assemblies located on each side of a longitudinally extending slot in which plants to be treated by the harvester are located. The rods are rotated in timed and phased relationship about horizontally spaced apart axes of frustoconical surfaces with axes closer together at their rear than at their front and both located in a forwardly and downwardly inclined horizontally extending flat plane. The phasing and timing of the moving rods controllably and evenly contacts and shakes and kneads the pepper plants standing in the field to selectively remove mature peppers from those pepper plants in an automatic smooth harvesting action that does no harm to the plants and allows a subsequent similar treatment of the plants for later selective harvesting of later maturing peppers.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of art to which this invention pertains are machines for harvesting crops.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Representative pertinent prior U.S. Pat. Nos. known are: 3,830,048; 3,705,482; 3,587,216; 3,581,484; 3,301,331; 3,286,774; 2,903,839.
While the prior art has provided harvesting apparatuses it has not provided apparatuses that provide a discriminating action between the fruit and non-mature fruit but rather has provided principally apparatuses and processes for harvesting substantially all of the separable fruit on a vine or plant or have severed the fruit in such a manner as to not permit further growth of the fruit which at the time of harvesting is not yet mature. Such apparatus have not provided for a discriminating action between those fruits of a plant which are adequately mature to be properly picked and those fruit which are not in a sufficiently mature state to justify removal and, additionally, to provide for subsequent action on the same plant while growing in the field so that the fruit which were initially insufficiently mature for proper picking could be subsequently harvested following a growth which was not interfered with by the initial harvesting action.

Apparatus and process for field harvesting of peppers


According to the present invention, a composite including amorphous iron molybdate islands, shows a smaller island size and a uniform distribution of islands compared with a conventional composite including crystalline islands, and thus has a higher specific surface area, thereby exhibiting excellent activity as a catalyst.

Metal molybdenum as silver-white hard transition metal has characteristics of having specific gravity of 10.22, very high melting point and boiling point of 2,610° C. and 5,560° C., respectively, good thermal conductivity, and low thermal expansion coefficient and thus has been frequently used as alloy elements for increasing hardness, strength, tensile strength, and wear resistance to high-temperature lightweight structural materials such as airplanes and missiles, high-temperature electrical materials such as filament supports and electrodes for electric furnaces, and special steel such as stainless steel, heat-resistant steel, and superalloy steel.
All around the world, about 70 to 80% of the used amount of the molybdenum metal is manufactured in a form of molybdenum oxide (MoO3) briquettes or ferromolybdenum alloys to be used as alloy elements of steel and further, in a form of a molybdenum compound such as ammonium molybdate, sodium molybdate or molybdenum oxide powder, a considerable amount is also used in many petrochemical products such as catalysts, lubricants and pigments.
The molybdenum oxide may be used as a catalyst by forming a composite with metal molybdate and researches on the method of manufacturing the composite have been conducted and development of techniques to be performed in a better condition is required.

Molybdenum oxide composite and preparation method therefor


The present invention relates to both a surveying apparatus with a picking-up device and a electronic storage medium, and particularly to a surveying apparatus capable of combining a background image captured by a picking-up device with survey data obtained by the surveying apparatus and displaying the combined image on a display unit, wherein the surveying apparatus is configured such that the picking-up device can be connected to the surveying apparatus, the picking-up device having an optical axis approximately parallel with an optical axis of the surveying apparatus, the surveying apparatus comprising: an operation unit for associating measurement data obtained by the surveying apparatus with image data obtained by the picking-up device and displaying a measurement target position mark in the image data; a first storage unit for storing the measurement data associated with the image data; a second storage unit for storing the image data associated with the measurement data; and a display unit for, when necessary, displaying at least one of the measurement data and the image data stored in the first storage unit and the second storage unit, respectively.

The present invention relates to both a surveying apparatus with a picking-up device and an electronic storage medium, and particularly to a surveying apparatus capable of combining a background image captured by a picking-up device and survey data obtained by the survey device, and displaying the combined image on a display unit.
In survey work, a horizontal angle, an altitude angle, a distance, etc. of a target point is measured from a reference point. The measured data is used to calculate the location of the target point in a map. Surveying provides reference data for drafting of a work plan, site execution, construction work for a building, etc. It is necessary to obtain the geographic locations of lands owned by other people and existing buildings before carrying out any civil or construction work. Surveying is work for specifying these existing locations as well as planned ones.
For example, before carrying out civil or construction work at a target place, a survey of the place is conducted. Based on the survey data of the current conditions of the place, a work plan is drafted. After drafting the work plan, another survey is conducted to specify the location determined by the work plan. Site execution, construction of a building, etc. are performed according to the work plan and the survey results.
In most small-scale survey companies, the same person is responsible for surveying and drafting a work plan based on the survey results, acting as both a person in charge of surveying and a person in charge of work. In such a case, since the person in charge of work knows the site very well, the person can smoothly draft the plan. However, human memory tends to be ambiguous, causing a small discrepancy in some cases. This may lead to a delay of work or inappropriate work, sometimes raising a serious problem.
In many large-scale survey companies, on the other hand, surveying and drafting of a work plan are each carried out by a respective person in charge separately, considering the work efficiency. The person in charge of work prepares a work plan with reference to survey data, site pictures, etc. This division of work may cause a discrepancy between the understanding of the site by the person in charge of surveying and that by the person ire charge of work, imposing an unnecessary burden on site workers and thereby causing serious problems such as a large delay of work, execution of inappropriate work, and increased work cost.
A surveying apparatus according to the present invention is capable of combining a background image captured by a picking-up device and survey data obtained by the surveying apparatus and displaying the combined image on a display unit, wherein the surveying apparatus is configured such that the picking-up device can be connected to the surveying apparatus, the picking-up device having an optical axis approximately parallel with an optical axis of the surveying apparatus, the surveying apparatus comprising: an operation unit for associating measurement data obtained by the surveying apparatus with image data obtained by the picking-up data and displaying a measurement target position mark in the image data; a first storage unit for storing the measurement data associated with the image data; a second storage unit for storing the image data associated with the measurement data; and a display unit for, when necessary, displaying at least one of the measurement data and the image data stored in the first storage unit and the second storage unit, respectively.


A heater for physiological solutions that is effective at low and high flow rates includes first and second heat exchangers that have different fluid heating characteristics. The first heat exchanger is capable of heating solutions at high flow rates, while the second heat exchanger is designed to heat the solutions at low flow rates. A warming fluid is circulated through the heat exchangers, and a manifold is provided to control the flow of the warming fluid that is directed to the two heat exchangers. The solution to be warmed is directed to both heat exchangers such that a warmed solution is provided irrespective of the flow rates.

Heat exchangers that are designed to heat physiological solutions at relatively high solution flow rates, e.g. greater than about 60 ml/min., are known. For example, see my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,749 where a heat exchanger having an inner tube that carries a warming fluid and an outer tube that forms a channel for the solution to be warmed is described. It is also known to provide a heat exchanger for maintaining the temperature of a physiological solution that is flowing at a substantially lower rate. For example, see my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,994 where a heat exchanger having a central tube for carrying the solution to be warmed and outer channels for carrying the warming fluid is described.
Heat exchangers such as those described above have been designed to be operated as separate units. That is, each heat exchanger has fluid heating characteristics for particular uses, and each has its own, independent source of warming fluid. While the heat exchangers can be used simultaneously for the same patient, such use is awkward, at best, because of the duplication of various parts, particularly the pumps and reservoirs for the warming fluids. This often means that the physician chooses to use only one of the units, which leads to the patient's receiving (1) heated solutions too slowly, as when the unit having a lower flow rate capability is used even though it is too small, or (2) solutions that are at lower than optimum temperature, as when the unit having a higher flow rate capability is operated at a rate that is too low to maintain temperature in the line to the patient.

Heater for physiological solutions effective at both low and high flow rates


A duty correction circuit is provided which includes a level shifter receives complementary differential input signals having a duty ratio and controls levels of the differential input signals; a TrTf control circuit receives output signals of the level shifter and controls edge angles of the output signals; a waveform shaping circuit receives output signals of the TrTf control circuit and shapes waveforms of the output signals; a first common mode comparator extracts common modes of the output signals of the TrTf control circuit and compares the common modes; and a second common mode comparator extracts common modes of output signals of the waveform shaping circuit and compares the common modes. The level shifter controls the levels based on outputs of the first common mode comparator and the TrTf control circuit controls the edge angles based on outputs of the second common mode comparator.

1. Field
An embodiment discussed herein relates to correction of a duty ratio of a reference signal used for transmission inside or outside a large-scale integrated (LSI) chip.
2. Description of Related Art
Operating frequencies of components of information processing devices have increased, such as operation frequencies of computers, static RAMS (SRAMs), dynamic RAMs (DRAMs), processors, or LSIs for switches. Hence, an increase in signal transmission speed, for example, an increase in transmission capacity measured by bit per second (bps) and a decrease in transmission delay are desired.
A communication backbone device etc. may desirably have a high data rate for signal transmission/reception. As the amount of information for transmission/reception increases, the number of I/O channels on systems, substrates or chips increases.
A digital circuit performs data transfer in synchronization with a reference signal such as a clock signal. Accordingly, a circuit is designed so that a reference clock satisfies the strictest condition.
Related arts are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,015,739, 5,945,857, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-329924, or the document of Digital Systems Engineering, William J. Dally, ISBN 0-521-59292-5, P606-607.

Duty correction circuit, duty correction system, and duty correction method


A room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition is provided which includes (A) an organopolysiloxane terminated with hydroxyl groups, having a viscosity of from 25 mPaxc2x7s to 1,000,000 mPaxc2x7s at 25xc2x0 C.; (B) a compound selected from the group consisting of a hydrolyzable silane represented by the following general formula (1):

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition which has a superior storage stability, and also is rapid-curable upon mere blending, becomes an elastic body having superior heat resistance, moisture resistance and water-exposure adhesive properties and is preferably usable as a sealant for various electric and electronic parts and common constructional joints, as an oil seal for automobiles and also as a coating material required to have follow-up properties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, in the market for silicone, room temperature rapid-curable materials of a two-part or three-part type have increasingly become important for the purpose of the rationalization of operation.
Room temperature rapid-curable silicone materials conventionally used include addition reaction curable materials, condensation rapid-curable materials and amine-ketone dehydration condensation curable materials. However, in the case of the addition reaction curable materials, platinum catalysts may be poisoned by any impurities on substrate surfaces to cause curing inhibition which provides an obstacle, and hence the materials can not be expected to be applicable to a wide range of substrates. In the case of the condensation rapid-curable materials, water necessary for curing is brought in the form of an emulsion or the like, and hence they have critical disadvantages that their curability may vary with time and, in the worst case, they may separate. Also, in the case of a ketimine and water-producing material based on an amine-ketone reaction as reported in Japanese Laid-open Publication (Kokai) No. 5-279570, materials generally good in respect of curability and storage stability are obtainable, but especially an irritating odor due to the amine compound and a corrosive action on substrates come into question. Hence, such materials may be limited to some operation and use.
The present invention was made in order to improve the above circumstances. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition having superior curability, durability and storage stability while sufficiently exhibiting properties inherent in silicone compositions.
As a result of extensive studies made in order to achieve the above object, the present inventors have discovered that the use of a composition comprised basically of an organopolysiloxane, a hydrolyzable silane and a water-containing wet-process silica makes it possible to obtain a composition having a good rapid-curability, being completely deep-curable and adhesive without regard to materials of substrates and also having very superior storage stability. They have also discovered that this composition has properties such as sealing properties, substrate follow-up properties and dust-proofing properties and can furnish a cured product having superior general physical properties such as various electrical properties and mechanical properties. Thus, they have accomplished the present invention.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition making use of a wet-process silica as a chief source for feeding water necessary for condensation curing reaction.
More specifically, the silicone composition of the present invention is a room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition comprising:
(A) 100 parts by weight of an organopolysiloxane terminated with hydroxyl groups, having a viscosity of from 25 mPaxc2x7s to 1,000,000 mPaxc2x7s at 25xc2x0 C.;
(B) from 2 parts by weight to 50 parts by weight of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a hydrolyzable silane represented by the following general formula (1):
RnSiX4xe2x88x92nxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
wherein R may be the same or different when it is in plurality, and represents a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms; X represents at least one group selected from the group consisting of a ketoxime group, an alkoxyl group, an alkenoxyl group and an acyloxyl group; and n represents an integer of 0 to 2, and a partial hydrolysis-condensation product thereof; and
(C) from 3 parts by weight to 200 parts by weight of a water-containing wet-process silica having an average particle diameter of 100 xcexcm or smaller; the component (C) being a chief source for feeding water necessary for condensation curing reaction.

Room temperature rapid-curable silicone composition

Abstract: wherein R represents a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms; X represents a compound selected from the group consisting of a ketoxime group, an alkoxyl group, an alkenoxyl group and an acyloxyl group; and n represents an integer of 0 to 2, and a partial hydrolysis-condensation product thereof; and (C) a water-containing wet-process silica having an average particle diameter of 100 xcexcm or smaller, which is a chief source for feeding water necessary for condensation curing reaction. This composition has a good storage stability, is rapid-curable upon mere blending, and becomes an elastic body with good heat resistance, moisture resistance and water-exposure adhesive properties. The composition is useful as a sealant for various electric and electronic parts and common constructional joints, as an oil seal for automobiles and also as a coating material.


A roll commutator for electric motors has a plurality of bars adjacent to one another and produced from a continuous metal section. The metal section already has projections on one of its sides before the production of the bars, which projections serve as anchoring claws after rolling up the line portions produced from the metal section. Additional tools and processing steps are not needed since it is not necessary to process the claws when manufacturing the roll commutator.

The present invention relates to a roll commutator for electric motors and dynamos, as well as to a method of its manufacture.
In a known roll commutator of the type in question (DE-AS 12 18 053), the bars are produced from a metal section in that grooves are stamped in transversely to the longitudinal direction of the section. To anchor the material used for injecting around the bars, anchoring claws are worked out of these bars by rough-turning. These anchoring claws are formed on the surface of the metal section subsequently forming the inside of the commutator. Thus, a separate production process is required for working out the anchoring claws from the metal section.

Roll commutator for electric motors and dynamos, and method of manufacturing it


A method for regenerating a nickel metal hydride battery is provided. The nickel metal hydride battery includes a hydrogen absorbing alloy that serves as a negative electrode material and a safety valve that opens when an internal pressure of a battery case is greater than or equal to a predetermined pressure. The method includes connecting a plurality of nickel metal hydride batteries in parallel. Each nickel metal hydride battery is formed by integrating one or more battery cells. The method further includes overcharging the nickel metal hydride batteries by supplying current from a charge unit that is connected in parallel to the nickel metal hydride batteries. The method further includes, when each nickel metal hydride battery is overcharged, restoring a discharge reserve of a negative electrode by releasing at least some of an oxygen gas generated at a positive electrode out of the battery case through the safety valve.

The present invention relates to a method and device for regenerating a nickel metal hydride battery that restores the capacity of a negative electrode.
A nickel metal hydride battery includes a positive electrode of which the main component is nickel hydroxide, a negative electrode of which the main component is a hydrogen absorbing alloy, and an alkaline electrolytic solution. In the nickel metal hydride battery, the negative electrode generally has a larger capacity than the positive electrode. Thus, the discharge capacity of the battery is limited by the capacity of the positive electrode (hereinafter referred to as positive electrode restriction). In a normal nickel metal hydride battery, the negative electrode includes a non-charged portion referred to as a charge reserve, which is chargeable but not charged when the positive electrode is fully charged, and a charged portion referred to as a discharge reserve, which is dischargeable but remains in the negative electrode when the positive electrode no longer includes a charged portion. In this manner, the positive electrode restriction limits increases in the internal pressure that results from overcharging and reactions caused by overcharging.
Hydrogen absorbed by the hydrogen absorbing alloy may permeate a battery case and leak out. The hydrogen absorbing alloy absorbs hydrogen when the battery is charged and releases hydrogen when the battery is discharged. When hydrogen permeates the battery case and leaks out, the hydrogen is released from the hydrogen absorbing alloy in order to maintain the hydrogen partial pressure in the case. This decreases the discharge reserve of the negative electrode. In particular, when the discharge reserve drastically decreases over a long usage period of the battery, the negative electrode restriction that limits the capacity of the negative electrode may decrease the capacity of the battery.
To solve this problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2014-186817 describes an example of a method for regenerating a battery that includes overcharging a nickel metal hydride battery and discharging hydrogen gas generated at a positive electrode out of a battery case through a safety valve arranged on the battery case. More specifically, when the nickel metal hydride battery is overcharged, a positive electrode reaction occurs in which the positive electrode generates oxygen and a negative electrode reaction occurs in which a hydrogen absorbing alloy absorbs hydrogen. When the oxygen generated at the positive electrode reacts with hydrogen absorbed by a hydrogen absorbing alloy, the hydrogen absorbing alloy returns to a state in which hydrogen is not absorbed in the hydrogen absorbing alloy. Thus, the discharge reserve does not increase. In the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2014-186817, oxygen gas generated at the positive electrode is discharged from the safety valve. This limits the reaction of oxygen with the hydrogen absorbed in the hydrogen absorbing alloy and maintains a state in which hydrogen is absorbed in the hydrogen absorbing alloy. Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2014-186817 describes that the charge amount from when the safety valve opens is proportional to the hydrogen absorbing amount of the negative electrode and thus adjusts the charge amount in accordance with a target increase amount after opening the safety valve.

Method and device for regenerating nickel metal hydride battery


An implantable device with in vivo functionality, where the functionality of the device is negatively affected by ROS typically associated with inflammation reaction as well as chronic foreign body response as a result of tissue injury, is at least partially surrounded by a protective material, structure, and/or a coating that prevents damage to the device from any inflammation reactions. The protective material, structure, and/or coating is a biocompatible metal, preferably silver, platinum, palladium, gold, manganese, or alloys or oxides thereof that decomposes reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydrogen peroxide, and prevents ROS from oxidizing molecules on the surface of or within the device. The protective material, structure, and/or coating thereby prevents ROS from degrading the in vivo functionality of the implantable device.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the catalytic protection of materials and devices that are sensitive to oxidation by integrating the catalytic protection with the material or device. The present invention particularly relates to devices designed to be implanted or inserted into the body of an animal, including humans. More particularly, the invention relates to (but is not limited to) electro-optical-based sensing devices for detecting the presence or concentration of an analyte in a medium which are characterized by being totally self-contained and of an extraordinarily compact size which permits the device to be implanted in humans for in situ detection of various analytes.
Description of Related Art
None of the references described or referred to herein are admitted to be prior art to the claimed invention.
Implantable devices for monitoring various physiological conditions are known. They include, for example, the sensors described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,313 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,661 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,605 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,351 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,766 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,360 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,464 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,974 to Lesho; U.S. Pat. No. 6,794,195 to Colvin; U.S. Pat. No. 7,135,342 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,940,590 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,451 to Daniloff et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,375,347 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,157,723 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,308,292 to Colvin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,445 to Colvin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,553,280 to Lesho; U.S. Pat. No. 7,800,078 to Colvin, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,713,745 to Colvin, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,851,225 to Colvin, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,939,832 to J. Colvin et al.; and in the following U.S. patent applications: Ser. No. 10/825,648 to Colvin et al. filed Apr. 16, 2004; Ser. No. 10/923,698 to Colvin et al. filed Aug. 24, 2004; Ser. No. 11/447,980 to Waters et al. filed Jun. 7, 2006; Ser. No. 11/487,435 to Merical et al. filed Jul. 17, 2006; Ser. No. 11/925,272 to Colvin filed Oct. 26, 2007; Ser. No. 12/508,727 to Colvin, Jr. et al. filed Jul. 24, 2009; Ser. No. 12/493,478 to Lesho filed Jun. 29, 2009; Ser. No. 12/764,389 to Colvin, Jr. et al. filed Apr. 21, 2010; Ser. No. 12/966,693 to Colvin, Jr. et al. filed Dec. 13, 2010; Ser. No. 13/103,561 to Colvin et al. filed May 9, 2011; and Ser. No. 13/171,711 to J. Colvin et al. filed Jun. 29, 2011; the contents of all of the foregoing are incorporated by reference herein. Where terms used in the current application are in conflict with use of the terms in the incorporated references, the definitions in the current application will be controlling.
When a foreign object enters a body, there is an immediate immunological response (i.e., inflammation) to eliminate or neutralize that foreign object. When the foreign object is an intentionally implanted material, device, or sensor, the inflammation response can cause damage to or otherwise negatively impact the functionality of the implant. Thus, a need exists for an implantable device (or material) that can endure the biochemical activity of an inflammation response and chronic foreign body response, i.e. oxidation, such that the efficacy and useful life of the device is not adversely impacted. A corresponding need exists for a method of manufacturing or treating an implantable device (or material) such that it can endure the biochemical activity of inflammation and foreign body response without significant loss of efficacy or useful life.
The problem of in vivo oxidation and the corresponding in vivo destruction of materials and function by reactive oxygen species (ROS) associated with inflammation response is well known. As used herein, ROS stands for reactive oxygen species, highly reactive oxygen species, or reactive oxygen radical species, and includes peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide. Some means of at least partially protecting an implanted device or material from destructive oxidation have included the use of antioxidants that may be either immobilized within or leached from an implanted device or material into the in vivo surrounding space. Systemic drugs such as anti-inflammatory varieties, superoxide dismutase mimetics, and other similar agents may also be leached or injected locally into the region around the implanted device or material in combination with, or alternatively to, antioxidants. In such cases, the device or material must either include or leach a drug or substance into the local in vivo environment and thus can become influential on wound healing, and causes the device itself to become a drug delivery mechanism in addition to its original intended purpose. Adding in the additional drug/substance release features may add complexity, variability, and uncertainty into an implant design and may complicate proving the safety and efficacy of the device or material. Also, since the inflammation response is a normal part of healing that serves to kill any bacteria that may be in the wound, drugs or leached reagents which may disable this otherwise normal aspect of wound healing might compromise the patient. Ideally, an integrated device solution which can protect just the susceptible and vulnerable component(s) of the implant would be the safest and most efficient means of solving the problem.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Integrated catalytic protection of oxidation sensitive materials


Methods of image calibration and in particular of image calibration having a multiple of color scales as well as to quantitative imaging such as quantitative medical imaging, or to a display device or to a system for displaying an image, or to a controller of a display, or to software to enable the image calibration, or to a visualization application and a display. The method for processing an image, includes the steps of: —selecting at least one trajectory in a color space; —defining a transformation which primarily increases perceptual linearity of consecutive points belonging to the at least one trajectory; —applying the transformation to the image. This has the advantage that the perceptual linearity can be restricted to the trajectory.

Quantitative medical imaging is a fairly recent technology field in medical imaging. Quantitative imaging is the extraction of quantifiable features from medical images for the assessment of normal or the severity, degree of change, or status of a disease, injury, or chronic condition relative to normal. Quantitative imaging includes the development, standardization, and optimization of anatomical, functional, and molecular imaging acquisition protocols, data analyses, display methods, and reporting structures. These features permit the validation of accurately and precisely obtained image-derived metrics with anatomically and physiologically relevant parameters, including treatment response and outcome, and the use of such metrics in research and patient care.
The quantitative calculated values are typically visualized as colours, either as pseudo colours on top of other medical image, or as colour images on their own. Examples of such images are shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG. 1 shows an image of PET SUV (Positron Emission Tomography Standardized Uptake Value) uptake values. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine, functional imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide (tracer), which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule. Three-dimensional images of tracer concentration within the body are then constructed by computer analysis. In modern PET-CT scanners, three dimensional imaging is often accomplished with the aid of a CT X-ray scan performed on the patient during the same session, in the same machine. If the biologically active molecule chosen for PET is fludeoxyglucose (FDG), an analogue of glucose, the concentrations of tracer imaged will indicate tissue metabolic activity by virtue of the regional glucose uptake. Use of this tracer to explore the possibility of cancer metastasis (i.e., spreading to other sites) is the most common type of PET scan in standard medical care (90% of current scans). However, on a minority basis, many other radioactive tracers are used in PET to image the tissue concentration of many other types of molecules of interest.
The colours are used to indicate specific calculated/measured numbers, and a scale is shown next to the image such that the radiologist can estimate the value from comparing the scale with the colours in the image. The dashed lines in the scale emphasize the different colours of the scale. There are, however, only two ranges where it is really possible to deduce the quantitative number from the colour image: around value 0.75 and around 1.75. For the other values there is hardly any visible difference in colour visible and therefore it is difficult to accurately deduce the quantitative value in a visual way.
FIG. 2 shows a calculation of Quantitative Dynamic Image Analysis for Contrast Enhanced MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and CT (Computed Tomography). Note the scale which is used to make it possible for the radiologist to deduce the quantitative value from the colour image. The dashed lines in the scale emphasize the different colours of the scale. Here, the blue and green parts of the scale are each larger than the red part of the scale. For the other values there is hardly any visible difference in colour visible and therefore it is difficult to accurately deduce the quantitative value in a visual way. Further, this scale is not perceptually uniform but consists mostly out of green and blue. It would be better for human perception to equally spread out all colours over the scale, which would improve ability to visually estimate the quantitative value being visualized.
Two more examples are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Both images are ultrasound images with additional quantitative information being visualized on top of the ultrasound. In FIG. 4 it concerns an elastography ultrasound image. Please note the different colour scale/colour coding used herein. Also here the scale is perceptually not uniform. The dashed lines in the scale emphasize the different colours of the scale. The scale contains more blue and red than e.g. yellow or green.
Current state-of-the-art uses well known colour coding/colour mappings/colour lookup tables (LUTs) to translate quantitative numbers into colours. Examples of such LUTs are fire LUTs, rainbow LUTs, hot iron LUTs, Hot/heated/black-body radiation colour scale, . . . . These images then are typically stored in a particular colour space (CIE 1931 XYZ; CIELUV; CIELAB; CIEUVW; sRGB; Adobe RGB; ICC PCS; Adobe Wide Gamut RGB; YIQ, YUV, YDbDr; YPbPr, YCbCr; xvYCC; CMYK; raw RGB colour triplets; . . . ) and visualized on a display system. Sometimes (in an ideal situation) there is a colour management module (such as the ICC colour management module (CMM)) present that will take care of the appropriate transformation of the image in a particular colour space, to raw colour values (RGB; RGBW; . . . ) that can be visualized on a display system. In many cases though, the application that generates the image data is assuming that this data will be visualized on a display system with sRGB behaviour and therefore the colour data is just forwarded to the display system.
Most of the colour coding s/colour mappings/colour LUTs that are frequently used to visualize quantitative imaging data, are not perceptually linear. This means that equal steps in the input data (the quantitative value being visualized) will be converted into colour values that are perceived as steps of different magnitude. This is a non-desirable situation since it makes it difficult to visually estimate from the image what exact value of quantitative is being visualized. This can be observed e.g. from FIG. 1, where it is clearly visible that the green part of the colour scale is dominant while in fact (in a perceptually linear situation) all colours should be perceptually equally spread over the scale such that the quantitative value being visualized can be equally easily visually estimated independent of the exact value of the quantitative data. Moreover, even if (in a rare situation) an appropriate colour mapping is used that maps quantitative imaging data onto perceptually linear colour values, even then in the current state-of-the-art typically one does not take into account the (non-linear) behaviour of the display system, resulting into a non-linear perception of the visualized colour values.
In current state-of-the-art, systems comprising a visualization application and a display are not optimized to visualize quantitative colour coded data. For example:                The state-of-the-art does not maximally make use of the capabilities of the display system        The state-of-the-art does not take into account human perception and maximization of perceived contrast        The state-of-the-art is perceptually not uniform, meaning that there are ranges in the scale where it is easier to deduce the values than for other ranges.
Papers have been published about display calibration methods that calibrate the display in such a way that it will behave as perceptually linear throughout its entire colour gamut, e.g. "Toward a Unified Colour Space for Perception-Based Image Processing", Ingmar Lissner and Philipp Urban (IEEE Transactions on Image Processing Volume 21 issue 3, March 2012).
In case of perceptually linear display systems, equal distances in the input signal will also result into equal perceptual distance (defined e.g. by deltaE76, deltaE94, deltaE2000, DICOM GSDF JND, JNDMetrix etc.) of the visualized output. So in theory, perfectly perceptually linear displays solve the problem of the non-optimal colour scales (under the condition that an appropriate perceptually linear colour scale is used). However in the state-of-the-art perceptual linearity of a display is achieved by restricting the addressable colour gamut, luminance and contrast of the display such that within these reduced display capabilities a perceptually linear behaviour can be achieved. In other words: existing perceptually linear colour displays require serious compromises in display luminance, display gamut and display contrast. In practice, the lower luminance/contrast/colour gamut makes these displays not useful for many applications.
Patent application EP2620885A2 discloses a method for improving medical images for human perception by selecting a region in the image to improve, and map all points within this region to a linearized scale. Thus EP2620885A2 selects a range of pixel values to be calibrated. Pixel values outside of this are typically clipped to minimum (black) or maximum (white) pixel value. As such image features that are represented by pixel values outside of the selected range will not be visualized anymore after the calibration of EP2620885A2 is applied. EP2620885A2 further explains that selection of the range can be done based on the specific part of the body that is of interest. E.g. EP2620885A2 describes that one could select a "blood vessel" preset (range) that will enhance visualization of blood vessels by selecting a range of pixel values that corresponds to "blood vessels" and mapping pixel values in this range to an optimized scale. However, when "blood vessels" is selected then it will be impossible to perceive image features that are outside of the selected range as these will all be mapped to a single pixel value. So for example, while the "blood vessel" range is selected, it will not be possible to perceive features of bone in the body (since blood vessels and bone typically consist of separated ranges of pixel values).
The deficiency with visualization of colour scales according to state-of-the-art can be illustrated by investigating a commonly used colour scale that ranges from red to yellow. A commonly used perceptually linearity metric is for example deltaE2000.
FIG. 5 shows a perceptual linearity of the "red to yellow" colour scale when visualized on a standard sRGB display, as well as on a DICOM GSDF calibrated display. It can be seen that throughout the entire scale, visualization on neither the sRGB nor the DICOM GSDF calibrated display leads to perceptually linear behaviour. This can be seen from the fact that the deltaE2000 steps are not constant but vary over the entire colour scale. Please note that this shows that despite the fact that a DICOM GSDF calibrated display was used (which means that the display was calibrated to have perceptually linear behaviour for greyscales), the colour behaviour of a commonly used colour scale still is highly perceptually non-linear.
If the display would be calibrated (with methods from prior-art) to be perfectly perceptually linear, then the deltaE2000 step would be constant throughout the entire scale, but there would be a significant loss of luminance, contrast and colour saturation of the display system. The reason why this loss occurs is due to the nature of aiming for perfect perceptually linear (e.g. deltaE2000) calibration: this comes down to trying to position an as large as possible cube inside the total gamut of the display (when visualized in the perceptually linear space). It would be like fitting a cube in the colour space in FIG. 6, and where the display behaviour is then limited to the area within the cube. This would lead to a huge loss in gamut, luminance and contrast.

Image colour calibration with multiple colour scales


The invention comprises an electrical connection member including a main body and a connection formation extending generally from the main body. The connection formation includes walls extending from the main body and defining a pair of elongate, parallel, spaced apart shoulders. A female receptacle is recessed inwardly from the shoulders therebetween and adjacent one end thereof, and a male projection extends outwardly from the shoulders therebetween and adjacent the other end thereof by a distance no greater than the depth of the female receptacle. The connection formation further includes a generally planar interface surface, an inner portion of which defines a wall of the female receptacle, and an outer portion of which defines a wall of the male projection. The connection member can be matingly engaged with another connection member having a substantially identical connection formation. The interface surface of each of the two connection formations has a linear row of electrical contacts thereon. The interface surfaces form universal faces which are in identical positions on the respective ones of the connection formations but positioned to oppose each other when the connection formations are so matingly engaged. Furthermore, the configuration of the connection formations maintains a relative end-to-end order of the contacts of the respective rows of the universal faces, which order is the same whether the connection formations are identically oriented or matingly engaged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to electrical connectors. The most conventional way of providing for electrical connection between two electrical members, such as two cables, a piece of electrical equipment and a cable, or two pieces of electrical equipment, is to provide a male connector or pin on one of the members and a female connector or socket on the other. In many instances, such an arrangement proves to be inconvenient for a variety of reasons. For example, in electronic operations such as sound systems a number of system components or members may frequently be moved or interchanged within the context of the system as a whole. Such changes in the system may introduce problems where the connectors of two components to be connected are incompatable with each other. For example, it may happen that the connectors of two components to be connected are both male or both female. Likewise, even though the connector of one such component may be male and the other female, they may still be incompatable due to differences in size, cross sectional configuration, etc. Accordingly, adaptors must be used to make such connections, and it can be appreciated that, the more different types of connectors there are among the components of a given system, the more different types of adaptors are needed to connect the various components in all possible combinations.
A somewhat similar problem may arise where a plurality of relatively long cable sections are connected in end-to-end relationship, for example in forming seismic cables. Where each cable section has a male connector at one end and a female connector at the other, it is necessary to arrange the sections so that the male connector of each is disposed adjacent, the female connector of the next section, or to provide adaptors for making male-to-male or female-to-female connections.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an effort to solve these and similar problems in various types of electrical systems, a number of bisexual electrical connectors have been devised. Such connectors are provided with both male and female portions arranged such that two identical connectors can, when properly oriented, be matingly engaged with one another. Some such connectors, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,086,641 to Riley and U.S. Pat. No. 741,052 to Mahon are designed only to make a single connection. Other connectors, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,164 to Glance at el, U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,915 to Miller, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,511 to Fussell are adapted to make multiple electrical connections by matingly engaging only two of the connectors in question. However, such prior devices for making multiple connections in essence make such provision by providing both a plurality of male members and a plurality of female members on each connector.
Another problem with such prior art connectors, regardless of whether they are designed to make single or multiple connections, is that, even though two mating connectors may have identical external structural configurations, they are electrically dissimilar in the sense that the two contacts which must mate in order to connect a given pair of conductors are not located in identical positions on the respective connectors.


Apparatus for filtering spa water includes a therapy pump and a circulation pump. A filter of unitary construction includes a surface loading filter element for filtering water passing through the therapy pump and a depth loading filter element for filtering water passing through the circulation pump. A connector releasably interconnects the two filter elements.

This invention relates to filter apparatus utilized with a spa to filter the spa water.
Spas typically incorporate both a circulation pump and a therapy pump. The circulation pump is conventionally a small capacity pump which provides continuous water circulation, while the therapy pump is relatively large and is utilized to pump relatively large quantities of water to provide therapeutic action.
It is known to incorporate separate filters for these pumps. These filters are both conventionally surface loading filters which must be separately cleaned and maintained on a periodic basis. This is a time consuming process. Furthermore, conventional surface loading filters, such as pleated filters are not particularly effective in removing oils, soaps or the like from the spa water. Several passes of the water through the filter is required to provide a reasonable degree of filtering of foreign substances.
The present invention relates to apparatus for filtering spa water which is characterized by its efficiency and effectiveness. The apparatus incorporates unique filter structure which facilitates spa maintenance. A depth loading filter element employed in the system achieves cleaner water than industry standard surface loading filter elements and improves spa water clarity by capturing on a single pass basis finer particulates and oils than is possible with conventional spa filters. The depth loading filter element is readily installed and removed and is a disposable item. With the arrangement of the present invention, single pass filtration speeds the water clarification process by at least half as compared to conventional spa filter systems.
The filter of the present invention is of unitary construction and includes a surface loading filter element having a surface loading filter element outlet and a depth loading filter element having a depth loading filter element outlet. The surface loading filter element outlet is for placement in fluid flow communication with the inlet of a spa therapy pump and the depth loading filter element is for placement in fluid flow communication with the inlet of a spa circulation pump.
A connector releasably connects the surface loading filter element and the depth loading filter element.
Other features, advantages and objects of the present invention will become apparent with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings.


A method is provided for configuring a final data set to use for modeling a manufacturing process, the method including requesting a real-time data set from a real-time database, requesting an historical data set from an historical database, and defining a required format for the final data set. The method also includes combining the real-time data set from the real-time database with the historical data set from the historical database using the required format for the final data set.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor fabrication technology, and, more particularly, to a method for semiconductor fabrication supervision and optimization.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a constant drive within the semiconductor industry to increase the quality, reliability and throughput of integrated circuit devices, e.g., microprocessors, memory devices, and the like. This drive is fueled by consumer demands for higher quality computers and electronic devices that operate more reliably. These demands have resulted in a continual improvement in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, e.g., transistors, as well as in the manufacture of integrated circuit devices incorporating such transistors. Additionally, reducing defects in the manufacture of the components of a typical transistor also lowers the overall cost per transistor as well as the cost of integrated circuit devices incorporating such transistors.
The technologies underlying semiconductor processing tools have attracted increased attention over the last several years, resulting in substantial refinements. However, despite the advances made in this area, many of the processing tools that are currently commercially available suffer certain deficiencies. In particular, such tools often lack advanced process data monitoring capabilities, such as the ability to provide historical parametric data in a user-friendly format, as well as event logging, real-time graphical display of both current processing parameters and the processing parameters of the entire run, and remote, i.e., local site and worldwide, monitoring. These deficiencies can engender nonoptimal control of critical processing parameters, such as throughput accuracy, stability and repeatability, processing temperatures, mechanical tool parameters, and the like. This variability manifests itself as within-run disparities, run-to-run disparities and tool-to-tool disparities that can propagate into deviations in product quality and performance, whereas an ideal monitoring and diagnostics system for such tools would provide a means of monitoring this variability, as well as providing means for optimizing control of critical parameters.
Among the parameters it would be useful to monitor and control are critical dimensions (CDs) and doping levels for transistors (and other semiconductor devices), as well as overlay errors in photolithography. CDs are the smallest feature sizes that particular processing devices may be capable of producing. For example, the minimum widths w of polycrystalline (polysilicon or poly) gate lines for metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs or MOS transistors) may correspond to one CD for a semiconductor device having such transistors. Similarly, the junction depth dj (depth below the surface of a doped substrate to the bottom of a heavily doped source/drain region formed within the doped substrate) may be another CD for a semiconductor device such as an MOS transistor. Doping levels may depend on dosages of ions implanted into the semiconductor devices, the dosages typically being given in numbers of ions per square centimeter at ion implant energies typically given in keV.
However, traditional statistical process control (SPC) techniques are often inadequate to control precisely CDs and doping levels in semiconductor and microelectronic device manufacturing so as to optimize device performance and yield. Typically, SPC techniques set a target value, and a spread about the target value, for the CDs, doping levels, and/or overlay errors in photolithography. The SPC techniques then attempt to minimize the deviation from the target value without automatically adjusting and adapting the respective target values to optimize the semiconductor device performance, as measured by wafer electrical test (WET) measurement characteristics, for example, and/or to optimize the semiconductor device yield and throughput. Furthermore, blindly minimizing non-adaptive processing spreads about target values may not increase processing yield and throughput.
Traditional control techniques are frequently ineffective in reducing off-target processing and in improving sort yields. For example, the wafer electrical test (WET) measurements are typically not performed on processed wafers until quite a long time after the wafers have been processed, sometimes not until weeks later. When one or more of the processing steps are producing resulting wafers that WET measurements indicate are unacceptable, causing the resulting wafers to be scrapped, this misprocessing goes undetected and uncorrected for quite a while, often for weeks, leading to many scrapped wafers, much wasted material and decreased overall throughput. Similarly, process and/or tool problems throughout the wafer processing are typically not analyzed fast enough, and final wafer yields are not evaluated on a die-by-die basis. Furthermore, data sets for making correlations between processing and/or tool trace data, on the one hand, and testing data, such as WET measurements, on the other, are typically manually extracted by the process engineers and put together, a very time-consuming procedure.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Automated system for extracting and combining tool trace data and wafer electrical test (WET) data for semiconductor processing


A plurality of circular disks or rings, each disk or ring having a different color, number or other indicia affixed, printed or otherwise incorporated onto each of its two flat sides may be spun by hand to fall with one or the other of their two flat sides facing upward and showing the color, number or other indicia from which to determine score or playing action. Indicia on the disks or rings may be linked to other indicia, such as that on playing cards, game boards, pawns and the like, providing increased game complication. As an educational game, such linking of the ring indicia with external indicia may provide pre-game opportunities to select the level of difficulty. A plurality of such two-sided rings may provide combinations of the ring indicia, such as color combinations, and these combinations themselves may bring into play external indicia or may denote other playing action.

A number of spinning toys are known in the prior art, such as tops, where the object is to keep the top rotating around its axis, and hula hoops, which spin concentrically around a person's body. Games of chance are also known where rolling or throwing dice and spinning wheels or pointers are used.
Monson, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,571,901, 1,587,127, 1,595,611, and 1,610,530, issued Feb. 2, 1926, Jun. 1, 1926, Aug. 10, 1926, and Dec. 14, 1926, respectively, each describe a game of chance involving a disk which is held perpendicular to the base on which it rests and is spun by hand. This disk is thickest at its center with thinner edges, these edges being segmented into areas which provide resting places. As the disk drops, it comes to rest on a section of the disk which is marked with particular indicia. This disk depends on its own shape for a random selection of indicia.
Brotz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,896, issued Jun. 11, 1996, discloses a game of chance involving spinning a flat ring until it drops. The ring has a central aperture containing cross hairs through which, when the ring has fallen, the player observes indicia on the board underneath the cross hairs. Brotz does not teach or suggest placing indicia on the ring itself and using the position of the ring i.e., one side versus the other) as an indicator of the chance outcome.

Ring-spinning games with game parts and methods of play


A process for continuous carbonylation of carbonylatable reactants with carbon monoxide in the gaseous phase in the presence of a catalyst, wherein said catalyst is a Supported Ionic Liquid-Phase (SILP) catalyst comprising a solution of a Group VIII metal in an ionic liquid confined on a support. The SILP catalyst offers a very large active catalyst area resulting in a very efficient use of catalyst material and a simple apparatus design.

Carbonylation of carbonylatable reactants, especially alcohols, in particular methanol, is an industrially important homogeneous catalysed batch reaction. Processes for the manufacture of acetic acid from methanol by carbonylation are operated extensively throughout the world. Acetic acid is used in a variety of applications, among which are in the manufacture of (poly) vinyl acetate, cellulose acetate, acetic anhydride, and acetyl chloride.
The manufacture of acetic acid from methanol and carbon monoxide at high temperature and high pressure was described by BASF as early as 1913. In 1941 BASF developed an improved process using Group VIII metal carbonyls as catalysts for carbonylation reactions. This led to the development of a high-pressure, high-temperature process (70 MPa, 250° C.) with a cobalt iodide catalyst.
Monsanto developed a low-pressure process for the manufacture of acetic acid in the late 1960s with a rhodium iodide promoted catalyst system that demonstrated a pronounced higher selectivity and activity than the cobalt-based process, U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,329. The Monsanto operating conditions in the reactor were milder (3-4 MPa and 180-220° C.) than in the BASF process.
In the early 1980s Celanese Chemical Company developed a low-reaction-water rhodium -catalysed methanol carbonylation process using inorganic iodide salts to improve catalyst stability and activity, U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,259.
BP developed in the early 1990s a process using iridium instead of rhodium in the catalyst system, a process known as the Cativa™ process (Process Engineering, 1996, July, p. 21). Said process is claimed to improve catalyst stability, increase reaction rates, increase yields, and produce less liquid by-products.
Thomas Swan & Co. discloses in WO 01/07388 a continuous process for carrying out carbonylation reactions with carbon monoxide using a heterogeneous catalyst with or without use of a solvent medium, wherein at least one component is under supercritical or near critical conditions.
Ionic liquids have been used as solvents for organic reactions and metal-catalysed reactions including carbonylation reactions.
US 2004/0059153 (Institut Francais du Petrole) discloses a process for liquid phase carbonylation of alcohols by carbon monoxide in the presence of at least one catalyst comprising at least one rhodium and/or iridium complex and a halogenated promoter in at least one non-aqueous ionic liquid. The liquid product of the process must be separated by distillation after decreasing the pressure. Said decrease in pressure may cause more or less pronounced deactivation of the catalyst system used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,259 discloses a high pressure batch process for preparing acetic acid and propionic acid and their esters by contacting a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas with a catalyst system comprising a ruthenium-containing compound and a cobalt halide dispersed in a low melting quaternary phosphonium or ammonium base or salt. The liquid product must be separated by distillation.
The liquid phase processes discussed above require separation of the reaction products from the catalysts by distillation from the reactor or by flashing of the reaction solution at reduced pressure. Catalyst decomposition and precipitation may cause problems during the flashing process wherein the liquid products from the reactor are sub-jected to a pressure decrease. Furthermore these separation processes are often cumbersome, require additional reaction steps, and require the use of expensive corrosion-resistant equipment..
US 2003/0212295 (Charles et al.) discloses a continuous process for the preparation of carbonylatable products wherein carbon monoxide, a reactant and a halide in the gas phase are contacted with a non-volatile catalyst solution comprising an ionic liquid and a Group VIII metal to produce a carbonylation product in the gas phase. The process is said to be useful for the continuous preparation of acetic acid by the carbonylation of methanol. The catalytically active component is incorporated in the ionic liquid, which is positioned in the reactor on a metal filter.
A need still exists for an improved process for the carbonylation of carbonylatable reactants, which provides for use of less catalyst materials, presents few requirements for the equipment used and allows a simple process design without the need for recirculation of and pressure change for the catalyst system.

Process for continuous carbonylation by supported ionic liquid-phase catalysis


Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for generating computer-mediated reality display data based on user instantaneous motion data. A system includes at least one sensor, a mediated reality data source, and a mediated reality display generator that generates displayable mediated reality scene data based on (a) current reality data of the system from the at least one sensor; (b) mediated reality data from the mediated reality data source; and (c) instantaneous motion data of the system from the at least one sensor. In one example the mediated reality display generator generates the displayable mediated reality scene data by generating displayable mediated reality frame data based on the current reality data and the mediated reality data. The operations further include selecting a portion of the displayable mediated reality frame data as the displayable mediated reality scene data based on the instantaneous motion data. The portion that is selected is offset from a center of the displayable mediated reality frame data and is less than a frame size of the displayable mediated reality frame data and the offset is selected based on said instantaneous motion.

Conventional computer-mediated reality systems (e.g., virtual reality systems and augmented reality systems) have been developed in which a user is provided with a head mounted display. When the user moves his or her head around, the head mounted display changes the images being displayed to the user based on the new position (e.g., reality) of the head mounted display. Conventional head mounted display systems have a tendency to induce dizziness or excessive eye fatigue on the user. These negative effects can become even more pronounced if the user rapidly moves his or her head. These negative effects can be caused by the head mounted display system's inability to present images to the user in a manner that is commensurate with the user's head movements. That is, when the user's head movements and images being displayed in response thereto are out of sync, the user may not be presented with the best virtual reality or augmented reality experience. Accordingly, improved display data generation for computer-mediated reality systems and methods are needed.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for generating computer-mediated reality display data

Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC


A disk drive includes a disk drive base. The disk drive further includes at least one rotatable disk including a disk surface extending to an outer disk edge. The disk drive further includes a head stack assembly rotatably attached to the disk drive base in operable communication with the disk. The disk drive further includes an airflow suppressor comb coupled to the disk drive base and stationary relative to the disk drive base during operation of the disk drive. The comb includes a comb body disposed adjacent to the outer disk edge, and at least one tine extending from the comb body along the disk surface for mitigating disk rotation induced airflow upon the head stack assembly adjacent to the disk surface. The comb further includes a curved extension extending along the outer disk edge for mitigating turbulent airflow adjacent the outer disk edge.

The present invention relates generally to disk drives, and more particularly to a disk drive having an airflow suppressor comb for reduced disk rotation induced airflow.
The typical hard disk drive includes a disk drive base, a head disk assembly (HDA), and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) attached to the disk drive base. The head disk assembly includes at least one magnetic disk, a spindle motor for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly (HSA) having an actuator assembly having at least one transducer head, typically several, for reading and writing data from the disk. The printed circuit board assembly includes a servo control system in the form of a disk controller for generating servo control signals. The head stack assembly is controllably positioned in response to the generated servo control signals from the disk controller. In so doing, the attached heads are moved relative to tracks disposed upon the disk.
A topic of concern is the desire to reduce the effects of airflow generated within the disk drive due to rotation of the disks. Of particular concern is the occurrence of turbulent airflow which may tend to excite a resonance response of the actuator assembly. This results in an increase in the percent off-track values of the associated head. Further, such disk rotation induced airflow may result in a force applied to the actuator assembly, i.e., windage. Further, such disk rotation induced airflow may result in vibration of the disk or disk flutter. In addition, it is contemplated that the disk rotation induced airflow tends to become turbulent radially beyond the outer disk edges due to boundary layer separation occurring within various cavities within the disk drive. Such turbulent airflow further tends to impact the resonance response of the actuator assembly and disk flutter. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved disk drive for mitigation of such disk rotation induced airflow in comparison to the prior art.
An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a disk drive including a disk drive base. The disk drive further includes at least one rotatable disk including a disk surface extending to an outer disk edge. The disk drive further includes a head stack assembly rotatably attached to the disk drive base in operable communication with the disk. The disk drive further includes an airflow suppressor comb coupled to the disk drive base and stationary relative to the disk drive base during operation of the disk drive. The comb includes a comb body disposed adjacent to the outer disk edge, and at least one tine extending from the comb body along the disk surface for mitigating disk rotation induced airflow upon the head stack assembly adjacent to the disk surface. The comb further includes a curved extension extending along the outer disk edge for mitigating turbulent airflow adjacent the outer disk edge. The curved extension preferably extends from the comb body towards the head stack assembly along the outer disk edge.

Disk drive having airflow suppressor comb with curved extension for reduced disk rotation induced airflow


Radiator panels include two spaced-apart face-sheets including an inside face-sheet and an outside face-sheet that are constructed of a fiber reinforced composite material, a honeycomb core positioned between the two spaced-apart face-sheets, and one or more heat pipes extending through the honeycomb core. Spacecraft include a body and two radiator panels operatively coupled to the body opposite each other.

Spacecraft include a plethora of equipment, such as electronic equipment, that generates heat. This heat must be dissipated, and because space is essentially void of air, the heat must be radiated to outer space. Spacecraft, such as satellites, typically include radiator panels that draw the heat from electronics and other equipment to an outer surface of the spacecraft. Thermal expansion and contraction of a radiator panel may affect the precision of a spacecraft's communication equipment's pointing to Earth and/or to another spacecraft or other object in outer space. For some spacecraft, the precise pointing of communication equipment is critical to its function. Historically, radiator panels have been constructed of materials that have similar coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) so as to minimize distortions of the radiator panels due to thermal imbalance and thus to minimize the effect on the pointing of communication equipment. Additionally, radiator panels historically have been used as a ground, or power return, for electronic equipment, including communication equipment, that is supported by radiator panels. Accordingly, radiator panels historically have been constructed with aluminum honeycomb cores sandwiched between aluminum face-sheets and with aluminum heat pipes extending through the cores.

Spacecraft and spacecraft radiator panels with composite face-sheets


A system (10) is disclosed for storing and selectively retrieving planar film records, such as microfiche (25). The microfiche are stored in a carousel assembly (12) and are retrieved from the carousel by a positioning assembly (18). The carousel assembly (12) includes several carousels (22, 24), each defined by two slot plates (26, 30; 28, 32). The slot plates have a plurality of slots (37) formed therein, and the microfiche are held by their edges in these slots. Each microfiche is stored in a known slot location in the carousel, and is retrieved through reference to this slot location. The positioning assembly (18) moves an extractor head (16) in two dimensions for retrieval and reading of the microfiche. Movement in both dimensions is entirely accomplished by binary linear actuators (FIG. 6).

The present invention relates to information retrieval systems, and more particularly to a system for storing and selectively retrieving planar film records, wherein the film records may be accessed without reference to any data contained on the microfiche.
Microfiche storage and retrieval systems have been developed in response to the growing need for information storage systems which are compact, and yet provide rapid and efficient access to large volumes of information. In order to provide rapid access of the information contained on the microfiche, some means must be provided for automatically identifying a particular microfiche, without having to actually view the information contained thereon. In the past, various systems have been employed which met this requirement by including unique identification coding along one edge of each of the microfiche. This was implemented by either providing notches along that edge of the microfiche or else by providing a magnetic strip containing the code in a magnetic pattern recorded thereon. The particular microfiche could thus be identified through reference to this coded data.

Apparatus for storing and randomly accessing planar film records


Fuel vapor is produced in a fuel tank and absorbed in a canister. The absorbed fuel vapor is purged through a purge passage into an engine induction passage under predetermined engine operating conditions. The air/fuel ratio is learned for air/fuel ratio feedback control. The learning control is inhibited when the fuel temperature exceeds a reference value during the air/fuel ratio feedback control. In another aspect of the invention, a purge valve is provided in the purge passage. The air/fuel ratio correction factor is set at an initial value in response to a movement of a purge valve from its open position toward its closed position.

This invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the air/fuel ratio of an air/fuel mixture supplied to an internal combustion engine associated with an evaporated fuel purging unit.
It is the current practice to avoid discharge of fuel evaporated in the fuel tank to the atmosphere with the use of a canister having an absorbent therein for accumulating the fuel vapor introduced from the fuel tank into the canister. Fresh air is introduced into the canister to purge the accumulated fuel vapor from the absorbent and introduced the purge (or purged) fuel vapor, along with the fresh air, into the engine induction passage. In order to correct deviations of the air/fuel ratio from stoichiometry due to variations and changes in the fuel injectors and airflow meter with time, the air/fuel ratio is learned to update the last air/fuel ratio for air/fuel ratio feedback control. During the learning control, however, an error will be introduced into the learned air/fuel ratio value when the fuel vapor is introduced from the canister to the engine.
For example, Japanese Patent Kokai No. 4-109050 discloses an air/fuel ratio control apparatus adapted to inhibit the air/fuel ratio learning control when the fuel vapor is purged from the canister and introduced into the engine. This condition is judged when the rate of temperature decrease of the absorbent placed in the canister exceeds a predetermined value. However, the air/fuel ratio learning control is influenced not only by (1) fuel vapor purged from the canister, but also by (2) fuel vapor introduced from the fuel tank into the engine without absorption in the canister. The second case occurs at high fuel temperatures and cannot be judged from the absorbent temperature.


A method and system of detecting obstacles on railroad lines. Sensors for observing the railroad line are arranged along the railroad line, and automatic evaluation takes place. One advantage of the invention is that the railroad lines are divided into given, known line sections, each of which is monitored by a respective sensor, whereby the evaluation process is simplified. If the sensors are designed as video cameras, for example, a comparison with still images may suffice for the evaluation. Furthermore, as the line sections re known, a simple masking technique can be used. Obstacles outside a set route to be monitored are masked out using suitable masks.

This invention relates to a method of detecting obstacles on railroad lines.
In manually controlled rail vehicles, it is incumbent upon the driver to continuously check whether the track ahead is free, and to initiate safety reactions if necessary. In automatically controlled, driverless rail vehicles, this function must be performed in a different manner. One possible solution is to design the route in such a way that no obstacles can occur. This can be accomplished through the use of elevated track beam structures, tunnels, or fences. Aside from subway systems, where tunnel construction is an inherent requirement, implementation is very costly. Another solution is to replace the observation performed by the driver by automatic obstacle detection from the train. Considerable problems may arise in curves, at entries into stations due to standing trains, and in the case of obstacles close to the route. Due to obstructions of view, obstacles are perceived so late that stopping of the train before the obstacle to avoid a collision is no longer possible. In addition, complex and expensive evaluation electronics are necessary to be able to perform a reliable evaluation of moving images of an unknown route at speeds in excess of 200 km/h.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method of detecting obstacles on railroad lines which does not have the above disadvantages.
This object is attained by a method of detecting obstacles on railroad lines for automatically controlled, driverless rail vehicles, wherein sensors operating in the optical range, the infrared range or the radio-wave range are arranged along the railroad lines for observing the respective routes ahead of the automatically controlled, driverless rail vehicles traveling on the railroad lines, and wherein an automatic evaluation of the sensor output signals is performed which is used at least in part to control the automatically controlled, driverless rail vehicles.
One advantage of the invention is that the railroad lines are divided into given, known line sections, each of which is monitored by a respective sensor, whereby the evaluation process is simplified. If the sensors are designed as video cameras, for example, a comparison with still images may suffice for the evaluation.
Furthermore, as the line sections are known, simple masking can be performed. Obstacles outside a set route to be monitored are masked out using suitable masks.
The components required to carry out the method need to be installed essentially only once along the railroad lines rather than on all trains. Use can be made of existing components such as masts and telecommunications and power cables laid along the railroad lines. This provides a saving in cost, particularly at high train densities.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, automatic obstacle detection is used as a substitute for or in addition to xe2x80x9cline-clearxe2x80x9d signaling. Conventional xe2x80x9cline clearxe2x80x9d signaling methods use axle counters. The axle counters count the axles of a passing train. One axle counter is located at the beginning of a line section to be monitored, and another at the end. If the axle counter at the beginning registers a train entering the line section, the latter will be closed for further trains. If the axle counter at the end registers a train leaving the line section, the latter will be cleared. Instead of or in addition to this relatively costly and complicated technique, automatic obstacle detection can be used. Automatic obstacle detection is coupled with a xe2x80x9cline-clearxe2x80x9d signaling facility. If no obstacles are detected, the respective line section will be cleared automatically.
Another advantage of the invention is that obstacles of any kind can be detected. This also includes persons on the railroad tracks, so that attempted sabotage, for example, can be detected at an early time and appropriate measures can be taken.
By the arrangement of sensors along the railroad lines, all available railroad lines can be monitored simultaneously. This makes it possible to detect obstacles at the earliest possible time. Appropriate measures to remove the obstacles can be taken at the earliest possible time. Delays caused by obstacles are thus minimized.
If video cameras are used for the sensors, these can be rigidly or movably mounted, for example. Furthermore, remote control can be implemented. From a center, a person can select one camera, for example the one that has just detected an obstacle and is drawing attention to itself by, e.g., an audible and/or visual alarm signal. The person can then remotely pan the camera, operate the zoom of the camera, and bring the object into focus.

Method of detecting obstacles on railroad lines


Diversity string based pattern matching is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for inspecting multiple data patterns in a data block includes scanning the data block for a diversity string of each data pattern, where the diversity string is a subset of the each data pattern. The method further includes comparing the each data pattern with a respective segment of the data block only if the diversity string is present in the data block, and forwarding flag data if the each data pattern matches with the respective segment of the data block.

A deep packet inspection (DPI) is a form of computer network packet filtering that examines data and/or header part of a packet as it passes an inspection point. During the inspection, non-protocol compliance, viruses, spam, intrusions or predefined criteria may be perused to decide if the packet can pass or if it needs to be routed to a different destination. With the advancement in the networking industry, it has become increasingly necessary to find more economical ways for DPI solutions at ultra high speed.
There are several methods of the DPI, which include analyses by port, by string match, by numerical properties, and by behavior and heuristics. Among the methods, the analysis by string involves the search for a sequence of textual characters or numeric values within the contents of one or more packets. Since the method involves the comparison of data patterns to textual characters within the contents of the packet, it often takes long time to complete the task when the data patterns or the textual characters are many. Since the packets have to be processed with the arduous pattern matching routine, a delay in the flow of communication can result. This becomes even more problematic especially for ultra high speed communication systems.