To provide a method for producing a polymer for semiconductor lithography which can attain high uniformity in the polymer from lot to lot. The method for producing a polymer for semiconductor lithography includes the step (P) of heating a polymerizable monomer and a polymerization initiator in a solvent, to thereby polymerize the monomer, the step (P) having the step of controlling a polymerization pressure by regulating a liquid level in a container (WO) which is disposed between a polymerization tank and the atmospheric air and which provides liquid sealing.

Production of semiconductor devices requires formation of finer lithography patterns for increasing the degree of integration. A key technique for forming such micropatterns is use of a radiation (light) source of short wavelength (as used herein, "light" refers to a type of radiation). In addition to g-line and i-line, which have hitherto been used, deep-UV radiations such as krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser radiation (wavelength: 248 nm) and argon fluoride (ArF) excimer laser radiation (wavelength: 193 nm) have been introduced for mass production of semiconductor devices. Meanwhile, studies have been conducted on lithography techniques employing, as a radiation source, fluorine dimer (F2) excimer laser radiation (157 nm), extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV), an electron beam (EB), or the like.
In the lithographic techniques, a resist film is employed for transferring a pattern to a substrate, and a variety of thin films may be optionally attached on or under the resist film. These thin films are formed through preparing a composition containing a polymer having a function of interest and an additive dissolved in an organic solvent, applying the composition to a substrate through spin-coating or a similar technique, and removing the solvent by optional heating or by curing the composition.
Resist films are divided into two types: a positive type resist; i.e., an irradiated portion is dissolved in a developer, and a negative type resist; i.e., a non-irradiated portion is dissolved in a developer. There have also been known, for example, a resist containing a compound whose solubility in a developer is varied by the effect of radiation, and a polymer as a binder which is soluble in an alkaline developer; a resist containing a compound which generates an acid by the effect of radiation (hereinafter may be referred to as "radiation-sensitive acid-generator"), and a polymer as a binder whose solubility in an alkaline developer is varied by the action of an acid. Particularly, the latter resist is called a chemical amplification-type resist, inter alia, a chemical amplification-type positive resist is particularly preferably employed in fine pattern processing.
As thin films formed on or under the resist film, there have been known, for example, an anti-reflection film, a gap-filling film, and a top coating film. The anti-reflection film is provided on a surface of a high-reflective substrate (forming a layer under the resist film) or a surface of the resist film (forming a layer on the resist film), to thereby suppress light reflection at the interface between the resist film and the reflective substrate and a standing wave, whereby fine resist patterns are accurately formed. The gap-filling film is provided on a surface of a substrate (forming a layer under the resist film or an anti-reflection film) in resist pattern formation on the pattern-formed substrate, whereby gaps present in the substrate surface are filled therewith, to thereby planarize the surface. The top coating film is provided on the resist film in immersion photolithography, in order to prevent migration of immersion liquid to the resist film and release of components such as a radiation-sensitive acid-generator from the resist film.
In the aforementioned composition in solution form for forming thin film, the polymer for lithography is an important component which is required to have optical, chemical, and physical properties so as to exhibit a function of interest to the thin film. Thus, extensive studies on the polymer for lithography are currently being carried out.
For example, as has been known, a chemical amplification-type positive resist with a KrF excimer laser employs, for example, a copolymer having a repeating unit derived from hydroxystyrene; and a repeating unit in which a phenolic hydroxyl group derived from hydroxystyrene is protected by an acid-dissociable dissolution-inhibitive group (e.g., an acetal structure or a tertiary hydrocarbon group), or a repeating unit in which a carboxyl group derived from (α-alkyl)acrylate is protected by an acid-dissociable dissolution-inhibitive group (e.g., an acetal structure or a tertiary hydrocarbon group) (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 4). There has also been known a copolymer having a repeating unit in which an alicyclic hydrocarbon group serves as an acid-dissociable dissolution-inhibitive group for increasing the dry etching resistance of the copolymer or for increasing the difference in rate of dissolution of the copolymer in an alkaline developer between before and after light exposure (see, for example, Patent Documents 5 and 6).
As candidates for a chemical amplification-type positive photoresist with ArF excimer laser radiation, there have been studied copolymers having no repeating unit which is derived from hydroxystyrene having a large absorption coefficient with respect to a wavelength of 193 nm. Actually, there have been known such copolymers formed of repeating units having a lactone structure, which is a polar group for enhancing adhesion to a semiconductor substrate or the like and regulating solubility of the copolymers in a solvent for lithography or in an alkaline developer (see, for example, Patent Documents 7 to 10).
As polymers for forming anti-reflection film, there have been known polymers formed of repeating units having an aromatic ring (e.g., benzene ring, naphthalene ring, or anthracene ring) serving as a functional group for enhancing absorption coefficients to wavelengths of 248 nm and 193 nm and refractive indexes of the polymers, and optional repeating units having a reactive functional group (e.g., amino, amide, hydroxyl, or epoxy), which reacts with a curing agent or the like to cause curing, for preventing intermixing with resist film (see, for example, Patent Documents 11 to 14).
As polymers for forming gap-filling film, there have been known polymers formed of repeating units having a reactive functional group, which has an appropriate viscosity suitable for pouring into narrow gaps and which reacts with a curing agent or the like to cause curing, for preventing intermixing with resist film or anti-reflection film. One specific example is a polymer formed of repeating units derived from hydroxystyrene and optional repeating units derived from a polymerizable monomer (e.g., styrene, alkyl (meth)acrylate, or hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylate) (see, for example, Patent Document 15).
As copolymers for forming top coating film for immersion lithography, there have been known, for example, copolymers formed of repeating units having a carboxyl group (see, for example, Patent Document 16) and copolymers formed of repeating units having a hydroxyl group-substituted fluorine-containing group (see, for example, Patent Document 17).
In a trend for producing finer device patterns, there is keen demand for attaining uniformity in performance of a polymer from production lot to production lot (hereinafter "production lot" may be referred to as simply "lot"). In particular, when the weight average molecular weight (hereinafter may be referred to as "Mw") of the polymer varies, variations arise in the thickness of the polymer film formed through lithography, exposure energy for producing the polymer film, and lithographic characteristics such as dissolution rate in alkaline developer, raising problems such as failure to form consistent lithographic patterns. Therefore, there is demand for a method for producing a polymer, which method can considerably reduce the difference in Mw between production lots of the polymer.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-1984-045439    Patent Document 2: JP-A-1993-113667    Patent Document 3: JP-A-1998-026828    Patent Document 4: JP-A-1987-115440    Patent Document 5: JP-A-1997-073173    Patent Document 6: JP-A-1998-161313    Patent Document 7: JP-A-1997-090637    Patent Document 8: JP-A-1998-207069    Patent Document 9: JP-A-2000-026446    Patent Document 10: JP-A-2001-242627    Patent Document 11: JP-A-2000-313779    Patent Document 12: JP-A-2001-27810    Patent Document 13: JP-A-2001-192411    Patent Document 14: JP-A-2001-226324    Patent Document 15: JP-A-2003-57828    Patent Document 16: JP-A-2006-193687    Patent Document 17: JP-A-2006-243308

Process for producing polymer for semiconductor lithography


The present invention provides a book rack formed from interlocking puzzle pieces.

Devices for holding books are well known in the art. For example, devices have been patented for providing a bookrack which is detachable from a chair in Baker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,474. Other book racks have been developed for providing tall displays of books, such as in Kelly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,242. Book racks have also been disclosed which are portable and/or adjustable. See for example, Petryszak, U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,420 and McKearin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,624. Gold discloses bookracks formed from standard interlocking pieces in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,105 and 4,759,449.
There have also been disclosures in which books have employed puzzles in association with the book. See for example, McQueeny, U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,112 and Koehn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,471.
However, none of the prior art references teach or suggest that a book rack could be formed from puzzle pieces. A bookrack which is formed from puzzle pieces would have significant advantages over those of the prior art. Specifically, a book rack made from puzzle pieces would be a useful educational tool for children learning spatial relationships of objects. Additionally, the puzzle pieces would add fun to the construction of a bookrack. Further, the puzzle pieces could be made of varying complexity to add to the challenge of puzzle construction, or the pieces could be made interchangeable to assist in fostering imaginative skills, or the pieces could also be designed to form a floor puzzle when not in a book rack configuration.


A method for flexographic multi-color printing, wherein a print medium web is passed continuously through a flexographic printing press having at least two ink units, each ink unit including a printing cylinder, an anilox roller and an ink sup-ply system adapted to supply liquid ink of a specific color to the anilox roller, wherein the inks supplied in the different ink units differ in both, color and mass density, the method including the steps of mounting, in at least one of the ink units, an anilox roller having a larger diameter than the anilox roller of another one of the at least two ink units, and during printing, supplying the ink with the largest mass density to the anilox roller having the larger diameter.

The invention relates to a method for flexographic multi-color printing.
In a typical flexographic multi-color print process, an endless web of a print medium, e.g. paper, is passed around a major portion of the periphery of a central impression cylinder, and, while the central impression cylinder is rotating, inks of different colors are successively printed onto the web by means of ink units that are distributed along the periphery of the central impression cylinder. Each ink unit comprises a print cylinder, which is adjusted against the web on the periphery of the central impression cylinder and carries a printing plate which defines a print pattern that corresponds to a color component of the image to be printed. The ink is applied to the printing cylinder by means of an anilox roller the peripheral surface of which has a regular pattern of finely distributed pits. The periphery of the anilox roller passes through an ink fountain, e.g. a chambered doctor blade, where the pits are filled with ink. When the anilox roller rotates, the ink to the pits is transferred to a nip formed between the anilox roller and the printing cylinder, and, in this nip, the ink is transferred onto elevated, printing parts of the print pattern that is formed on the printing plate.
The color image that is to be printed on the endless web has a certain repeat length which defines the required peripheral length of the printing cylinders. Since the color component images that are printed with the printing cylinders of all the ink units contribute to the same image, they all have the same repeat length, and, accordingly, the printing cylinders of all ink units have the same diameter. Likewise, in a conventional flexographic printing press, the anilox rollers of all ink units have the same diameter.
The peripheral speed of the anilox roller is equal to the peripheral speed of the printing cylinder which itself is essentially equal to the speed with which the web is advanced on the peripheral surface of the central impression cylinder, i.e. the printing speed. Due to the rotation of the anilox roller, the ink in the pits at the peripheral surface of the anilox roller are subject to centrifugal forces which have to be overcome by adhesive forces between the liquid ink and the surface of the anilox roller. Since the centrifugal forces increase with increasing speed of rotation of the anilox roller, the printing speed can only be increased up to a limit, where the centrifugal forces would overcome the adhesive forces between the ink and the anilox roller. Since, for a given printing speed and hence a given peripheral speed of the anilox roller, the centrifugal forces are inversely proportional to the diameter of the anilox roller, this diameter should be increased in order to permit a higher printing speed. However, an increased diameter of the anilox rollers leads not only to increased manufacturing costs for the printing press, increased power consumption due to increased weight and moment of inertia of the anilox rollers, and to increased overall dimensions of the printing machine, but also implies longer transfer times for the ink on its way from the ink fountain to the nip between the anilox roller and the printing cylinder. When rapidly drying inks are employed, in order to permit high printing speeds, the increased transfer time may give rise to problems in an initial set-up phase of a print run, in which the machine is operated with a reduced speed. Then, the transfer time may become so long that, undesirably, a portion of the ink dries-out already on the surface of the anilox roller. Thus, a suitable compromise has to be made for the diameter of the anilox rollers.

Method for flexographic multi-color printing using anilox rollers having different diameters


A chromatography column frame comprising at least two legs, a support arrangement connected to said at least two legs, and a holder connected to said support arrangement. Said holder is arranged to releasably hold an adaptor rod of a chromatography column, so that the adaptor rod is prevented to move in a horizontal direction and so the adaptor rod is allowed to move in a vertical direction.

The chromatography technique is widely used in different forms for separating chemical and biological substances and there are many applications in compound preparation, purification and analysis. Liquid chromatography is of particular importance in the pharmaceutical and biological industries for the preparation, purification and analysis of proteins, peptides and nucleic acids.
A typical liquid chromatography apparatus has an upright housing in which a bed of packing material, which is usually particulate in nature and consists of a porous medium, rests against a permeable retaining layer. A liquid mobile phase enters through an inlet, for example at the end of an adaptor rod which has an elongated extension within the column. The liquid mobile phase thereafter enters a distributor plate which distributes the liquid mobile phase through a porous, perforated filter, mesh, frit or net, which together with the distributor plate is arranged on an adaptor. The liquid mobile phase thereafter moves through the bed of packing material and is finally removed via an outlet, typically through a second filter, mesh, frit or net and a second distributor plate.
Columns used in liquid chromatography typically comprise a tubular body enclosing the porous chromatography medium through which the carrier liquid or mobile phase flows, with separation of substances or analytes taking place between the mobile phase and solid phase of the porous medium. Typically, the porous medium is enclosed in the column as a packed bed, generally formed by consolidating a suspension of discrete particles, known as slurry that is pumped or poured into the column when the uppermost, first end unit and the adaptor assembly have been removed. The production of a stable, even bed is often critical to the final separation process.
Conventional distribution systems for use in liquid chromatography comprise a distributor plate attached to the net. The distributor plate comprises channels arranged in a pattern to substantially uniform distribute the fluid over the plate. The distributor plate is perforated with holes or openings which lead the fluid from the channels and uniformly into the packed bed.
During the chromatography process the packed bed may be damaged and fines may occur in the column. After several chromatography cycles the fines may clog the net or nets in the column, which may result in higher back pressure and lower process efficiency. Therefore, maintenance of the chromatography columns must be conducted frequently and the nets or filters must be replaced after a number of cycles.
The backing plate or the lowermost, second end unit of the chromatography columns generally acts as a support for the column, being itself supported on legs or some other base arrangement positioned on the floor which allows clearance for outlet pipe work projecting beneath the column.
When such a column should be packed with a packing material and/or requires maintenance to, or cleaning of, internal components, such as the valves, seals, meshes/screens/filters, distribution systems etc., heavy lifting gear such as a crane or hoist is necessary to lift the uppermost, first end unit and the adaptor assembly away from the column tube and also the column tube away from the lowermost, second end unit as these assemblies can have e considerably weigh. The use of heavy overhead lifting equipment to disassemble the column in order to carry out internal maintenance is not desirable. Operator safety is obviously a concern when heavy equipment is lifted overhead and technicians exposed below. Furthermore, alignment structures are required to keep the column and its base/adaptor assemblies axially aligned as they are separated from each other, to avoid damage to the precision components.
The presence of such alignment and lifting structures imposes significant obstructions around the tube and need to be carefully laid out to provide sufficient clearance at some point of the circumference for insertion/removal of the internal components. Furthermore, the requirement to use heavy lifting equipment imposes constraints on housing such columns, sufficient overhead space and support being required to accommodate hoists or cranes. As many chromatography columns are now run in "clean" environments under GMP, to avoid microbiological contamination, where it is extremely difficult to accommodate overhead equipment, the requirement of moving the column to another room for disassembly, maintenance and/or packing is problematic. This problem is exacerbated by the need to clean and verify the column before re-turning it for use to the clean environment. The presence of hoists or cranes in GMP facilities used for biopharmaceutical manufacturing is thus highly undesirable for the above mentioned reasons, together with the fact that these machines shed particulate matter, in the form of dirt, during their operation and maintenance.
Document US 2004/0164012 A1 discloses a chromatography column that removes the longitudinal load from the column tube altogether and transfer it to a yoke and stanchion arrangement situated around but external to the column tube. By using the yoke and stanchion sys-tem a central adjuster can be used to move the top and end into and out of the housing. When internal pressure is applied to the column, the tube experiences no longitudinal load. The yoke and stanchion allow for complete removal of the end from the tube and provides a place to retain the end while the tube is being filed emptied, cleaned or repaired.
However, the chromatography column in US 2004/0164012 A1 has significant disadvantages associated with it by virtue of its design. As can be seen from US 2004/0164012 A1 the end is always connected to the yoke and the rest of the column and may therefore not be handled on separate places. Also, in order to remove the end from the interior of the column, the operator must lift the yoke and the end part to the retained state. As industrial columns typically have diameters ranging from about 200 mm to 2000 millimeters, this means that heavy lifts sometimes have to be performed. Therefore, maintenance and packing of the column disclosed in US 2004/0164012 A1 may thus be complicated and imposes a significant safety risk for the operator.
There are known chromatography columns provided with welded or heat shrinked nets on the distributor plate, which distributor plate in turn is removably connected by fastening elements on the adaptor. Time and cost consuming operations are necessary in order to remove the clogged net from the distributor plate. Especially, when the chromatography column is of a large size the removal of the net from the distributor plate by using milling or turning machines is complicated. The replaced net must be welded or heat shrinked on the distributor plate before remounting on the adaptor. The chromatography column may not be used under a substantially period of time during the replacement of the nets. This may lead to production losses in the pharmaceutical and biological industries.
Notwithstanding the existence of such prior art chromatography columns, there is a need to improve the maintenance and packing methods available for chromatography columns by providing columns which are safer and easier for operators to use. Also, there is a need to reduce cost and time when conducting maintenance on and packing of chromatography columns. Also, there is a need to reduce complexity and to reduce needed floor space when conducting maintenance on and packing of chromatography columns.

Chromatography column frame and method of conducting maintenance on and packing of a chromatography column


A plasma display device comprising a plasma display panel, a chassis member which is disposed substantially in parallel with the plasma display panel, and a thermally conductive medium which is interposed between the plasma display panel and the chassis member.

The present invention generally relates to a plasma display panel (PDP) for displaying characters or images through utilization of gas discharge and more particularly, to a plasma display device which includes a means for efficiently dissipating heat produced by the plasma display panel, and its manufacturing method.
Recently, plasma display devices acting as flat, thin and light display units having large screens are used for information terminals such as portable computers and their applicable field is expanding due to their clear display and their wide angle of field of view. In a plasma display device, a plasma display panel is formed by front and rear glass plates bonded to each other, and gas for electrical discharge is contained in a minute gap between the glass plates. Ultraviolet rays produced by electrical discharge in the gas are irradiated to phosphor on the rear glass plate such that display of light emission from the phosphor is performed. Hence, the plasma display device as a whole reaches rather high temperature through repetition of electrical discharge in the gas.
In a plasma display device, as display luminance of a plasma display panel is raised further, more heat is produced by the plasma display panel, so that the temperature of the plasma display panel rises and thus, display performance of the plasma display panel deteriorates. To actuate the plasma display panel for a long time will result in, for example, a drop in reliability of a driver circuit for driving the plasma display panel and therefore, is not preferable for performance and properties of the plasma display panel. Meanwhile, if a state in which a large difference in temperature exists in a plane of the plasma display panel continues for a long time, glass forming the plasma display panel is distorted, thereby resulting in fracture of the glass.
Therefore, in order to lower the temperature of the plasma display panel in operation and lessen distortion of the glass leading to its fracture, difference in temperature in the plane of the plasma display panel should be reduced and performance and quality of the plasma display device should be upgraded. As one of such countermeasures in a known plasma display device, a pair of draft fans 92 are provided on a rear face of a plasma display panel 91 through spacers 93 as shown in FIG. 1 and blow wind to the plasma display panel 91 as shown by the arrow A in FIG. 2 so as to lower temperature of the plasma display panel 91.
In case the plasma display panel 91 is installed in parallel with a vertical plane, temperature is distributed in a plane of the plasma display panel 91 as shown in FIG. 3 by natural convection of heat and thus, temperature difference between a high-temperature portion and a low-temperature portion reaches 10 plus several .degree.C. Meanwhile, temperature difference in the plane of the plasma display panel 91 increases according to a pattern of an image displayed on the plasma display panel 91. For example, if a state in which a small bright image (bright display) is present in a dark background (dark display) as shown in FIG. 4 continues for a long time, temperature difference between the bright image and the dark background increases considerably, so that glass forming the plasma display panel 91 is distorted, thus resulting in fracture of the plasma display panel 91. Especially, if temperature difference in the plane of the plasma display panel 91 reaches 20.degree. C. or more, there is a great risk of fracture of the plasma display panel 91.
In the conventional plasma display device provided with the draft fans 92, temperature of the plasma display panel 91 can be lowered but such a problem arises that it is difficult to reduce temperature difference in the plane of the plasma display panel 91. Furthermore, the prior art plasma display device has such drawbacks that noise of motors for the draft fans 92 is annoying, electric power is required to be supplied for driving the motors for the draft fans 92, the plasma display device as a whole becomes large due to the need for providing space for mounting the motors for the draft fans 92 and dust sucked together with external air into a casing of the plasma display device by the draft fans 92 stains the interior of the casing.
Meanwhile, in a known plasma display device, in order to lower the temperature of a plasma display panel in operation and upgrade performance and quality of the plasma display device as a whole, it is effective to attach a chassis member to a rear face of the plasma display panel. In this case, it is important that the plasma display panel and the chassis member are brought into close contact with each other.

Plasma display device and its manufacturing method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A gas analysis apparatus, and a method for calibrating it and for compensating measurement errors, are disclosed. This method and apparatus are particularly suited for use during a cardiopulmonary exercise test by a test subject. The oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations of the subject's breath are measured, and errors are compensated based on the results of previous calibration. These compensated measurements, as well as other physiological data monitored during the cardiopulmonary exercise test quantities calculated from these measurements, are presented as a series of graphs in a logical order to enhance their diagnostic and prognostic value. A facemask and headstraps are adapted for use with the gas analysis apparatus. The facemask possesses a plurality of pins fitting into corresponding holes in the headstraps, and the headstraps possess quick-release attachment means to provide for quickly securing the face mask to or removing it from a subject.

The field of invention is cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
Exercise capacity is the best predictor of the future health of patients who suffer coronary artery disease or who have suffered heart failure. These diseases are the leading causes of hospitalization and mortality in the United States. Thus, exercise testing is a basic tool of clinicians, and is widely used. Analysis of expired gas during exercise is commonly known as cardiopulmonary exercise testing ("CPX") or metabolic exercise testing, and is often referred to as exercise testing with gas analysis. CPX has been considered by many clinicians to be difficult and expensive to perform, and because of this many clinicians have foregone CPX in favor of less accurate tests that merely estimate the measurements made directly by CPX. Such tests typically require the patient to exercise under steady state conditions—that is, a constant work level—for a fixed period of time, at the end of which the patient's heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen consumption ideally plateau out to constant levels. The constant work level is then increased to a higher constant work level for a fixed time, and the patient's measurements are again expected to plateau out at the end of that time. This process may be repeated several times.
The measurement {dot over (V)}O2 is the patient's oxygen uptake; that is, the rate of oxygen consumption by a patient during an exercise test. This measurement is sometimes referred to in terms of Mets, which are multiples of resting {dot over (V)}O2, assumed to be 3.5 milliliters per kilogram per minute. Peak {dot over (V)}O2, which is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption by a patient during an exercise test, is a good objective measurement of a patient's aerobic exercise capacity, and usually reflects cardiac function. As commonly performed, exercise testing merely estimates peak {dot over (V)}O2 from exercise duration on a treadmill, workload on a stationary bicycle or distance walked. Such estimates may be substantially influenced by factors other than the patient's medical condition, however, such as the degree of patient effort and motivation, the degree of patient familiarity with the test equipment (sometimes referred to as the training effect); the disparity between expected oxygen requirements and actual oxygen uptake widens as heart disease worsens. This gap is filled by anaerobic processes, which result in the production of lactic acid when carbohydrate is metabolized in the absence of oxygen uptake. This leads to errors when {dot over (V)}O2 is estimated by assuming the whole exercise process is fueled by aerobic metabolism.
{dot over (V)}CO2 is the rate of carbon dioxide production by a patient during exercise. {dot over (V)}CO2 relative to {dot over (V)}O2 is influenced by which substrate is metabolized (fat vs. carbohydrate) and whether anaerobic processes and lactic acid production occur. Therefore, {dot over (V)}CO2 cannot be estimated. {dot over (V)}E (minute ventilation) is the volume of air breathed per minute by a patient, which varies proportionally to {dot over (V)}CO2. {dot over (V)}CO2 relative to {dot over (V)}E is influenced by the presence of heart or lung disease. The calculation of {dot over (V)}O2 and {dot over (V)}CO2 by numerical integration of the product of expiratory airflow with O2 and CO2 concentrations over the duration of a breath is taught in the prior art.
Two different sources of error are commonly found in gas analysis equipment: delay time and response time. Delay time is the time taken for the physical transport of a gas sample from the mouth to the gas analyzers. On the other hand, response time, also known as rise time, is intrinsic to a gas analyzer. Response time is the time that elapses between exposure of a gas sample to a gas analyzer and an output signal from the gas analyzer achieving 67% of the full-scale signal that would correspond to the actual concentration of the gas. For example, if a gas sample containing carbon dioxide at a 10% concentration were exposed to a gas analyzer, the response time of that gas analyzer would be the time taken for that gas analyzer to output a signal indicating a 6.7% concentration of carbon dioxide. The errors introduced by the delay time and the response time prevent the accurate time synchronization of O2 and CO2 signals with separately-measured flow signals that do not experience delay time and response time errors, and thus prevent realtime measurement of {dot over (V)}O2 and {dot over (V)}CO2 and real-time calculation of derived parameters that depend on {dot over (V)}O2 and {dot over (V)}CO2, such as {dot over (V)}E/{dot over (V)}O2 and {dot over (V)}E/{dot over (V)}CO2.
Before calibrating a CPX system, it is often desirable to purge it of remnants of test gas or previous reference gas and ensure that ambient air is present in the system. This is essential for calibration, because if the system is not filled with ambient air before calibration, it will not be at a standard baseline state for the initiation of calibration.
Masks for collecting gas during exercise testing are known in the art, and may be used instead of the traditional mouthpiece and noseclip. However, tradeoffs are made between patient comfort during use, ease with which the operator can place the mask on the patient, and security of attachment to the patient. Typically masks which securely attach to the patient during exercise are difficult to put on the patient, and are uncomfortable; such discomfort can distract the patient during CPX and result in submaximal effort, or in early test termination due to patient discomfort.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing apparatus and method


According to some embodiments, a system to manage a query plan cache for a Database Management System (“DBMS”) includes a DBMS query plan cache data store. The DBMS query plan cache data store may contain, for example, electronic records representing a plurality of query plans each associated with a set of instructions created in response to a query previously submitted by a user. A DBMS query plan cache management platform may then calculate a utility score for each query plan in the DBMS query plan cache data store. At least one query plan may be evicted from the DBMS query plan cache data store based on the calculated utility score, wherein the evicting is not based on a size of the DBMS query plan cache.

In a Database Management System ("DBMS"), the term "plan" may refer to a set of specific instructions associated with execution of a query submitted by a user. Note that the compilation of a plan from a query can be resource intensive (e.g., using CPU time, memory, etc.) due to many complex steps that must be performed. A plan "cache" may refer to a logical container of plans that have already been compiled in response to previously submitted queries. Since plan compilation is an expensive operation, a DBMS typically attempts to re-use previously created plans whenever possible. Note that checking to see if a plan already exists in a plan cache is typically a relatively fast operation.
If a plan in the plan cache will never be used again, it is not worth being stored in the cached. It would be better to delete or evict that particular plan to free up memory for more useful work. Typically, a plan cache has an upper limit representing the size of all plans in the cache (e.g., a maximum 2 Gigabyte limit). When the size of the plan cache exceeds this value, the plan cache may begin to evict plans by prioritizing eviction targets with a Least-Recently-Used ("LRU") scheme.
Such an approach, however, only frees resources then the query plan cache has reached its storage limit (and does not address resources when the query plan cache is below that limit. It would be desirable to provide systems and methods to improve DBMS query plan cache management in an accurate and efficient manner.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Database management system query plan cache management


An apparatus and a method for introducing an optical lens into a turning device are disclosed. The apparatus includes a carrier body and a carrier element for receiving the lens. The carrier element is arranged in the carrier body. The carrier element has a supporting surface for receiving the lens and is displaceably mounted in relation to the carrier body.

The related art has disclosed apparatuses and methods for introducing optical lenses, typically spectacle lenses, into a turning device. Such apparatuses and methods have been used for a relatively long time, particularly in the industrial manufacture of spectacle lenses.
DE 16 52 019 A1 discloses means for ablating excess glass from the edges of a spectacle lens blank and means that can be used to quickly align a lens blank to be edged with respect to an edging apparatus, quickly clamp the lens blank and remove the latter from the apparatus. To this end, a tensioning member tensions the lens blank by means of a rubber head in relation to a retaining arm, while a bearing shell receives the vibrating member. During operation, the front of the lens blank is introduced against the tensioning member on the outer surface of the vibrating member, which has a supporting surface for receiving the lens blank. Here, the vibrating member is mounted to be displaceable by means of a spring in relation to the bearing shell.
EP 0 215 261 A2 discloses a holder for a spectacle lens in the form of an elastically deformable ring, which, on its inner side, has yokes for receiving the spectacle lens to be held.
EP 0 406 484 A1 discloses that, in the case of a lens holder, in particular for spectacle lenses to be coated in a high vacuum vapor deposition installation or a sputtering installation, the lens holder being substantially embodied as a ring carrying the lens to be held, the ring, in turn, being connectable to a substrate holder held in the vicinity of the coating source in the process chamber of the high vacuum installation, the lens can be inserted between two rings which can be tensioned against one another by way of wire springs, wherein the first ring is provided with ramps on its outer lateral surface, the ramps interacting with the wire springs that are fastened on the radial outer lateral surface of the second ring, and wherein at least one of the rings has two diametrically opposite pins at its radial outer lateral surface, by means of which pins the ring is supported in corresponding bearing yokes of the substrate holder and in which the ring is rotatable through approximately 180°.
DE 101 46 542 A1 and EP 1 295 962 A1 each disclose a method for machine-based handling of a spectacle lens, wherein the spectacle lens is secured in a holder for the duration of the handling and the combination of holder and spectacle lens is guided through at least one handling or method step. To this end, a holder is proposed, which has holding means for the spectacle lens in a receptacle opening, wherein the holding means are formed by a clamping section of the holder itself or configured as a spring element.
DE 10 2004 026 523 A1 discloses an interchangeable frame for receiving an optical component comprising a planar main body, which has a perforation with a form corresponding to the optical component to be received. Moreover, the interchangeable frame has notches in the main body, which extend from the perforation and which are provided for contactless immersion of clamping elements and/or holding elements present at the edge region of the optical component when the optical component is handled.
DE 10 2006 041 137 A1 discloses an apparatus and a method for turning an ophthalmic plastic lens in a vacuum coating installation, comprising a holder, rotatably mounted about an axis of rotation, for the lens and comprising a turning device that turns the holder about the axis of rotation. Here, provision is made for the turning device to generate a force, more particularly a magnetic force, which turns the holder without mechanical coupling between the turning device and the holder.
Despite numerous advantages, these apparatuses and methods still have potential for improvement. Particularly when using the apparatus of DE 10 2006 041 137 A1, it may be disadvantageous if a spectacle lens is clamped in a turning ring in such a way that the center of gravity of the spectacle lens is situated higher up than the center of the axis of rotation of the turning ring. This is because the turning ring with the clamped spectacle lens may fall back into an initial position before the turning procedure has been completed if the center of gravity of the spectacle lens is located too far away from the axis of rotation of the turning ring. The turning procedure of a turning ring is not fully completed if the magnetic field, which was activated to turn the turning ring, is deactivated before the turning ring was completely turned. By way of example, this may occur at the end of a turning procedure for the last spectacle lens to be turned on a spherical cap collar, particularly if the magnetic field is deactivated before the turning ring on the same collar, already turned at the start of the turning procedure, was attracted thereby again.

Apparatus and method for introducing an optical lens into a turning device


A seat component for a vehicle seat having at least one air outlet unit configured to be connected to an air supply. In order to be able to adapt a ventilation function of the vehicle seat individually to a contact area between the vehicle seat and a person sitting thereon, the air outlet unit has at least one flexible air guide funnel and at least one diaphragm valve which is arranged within the at least one flexible air guide funnel and which is connected to the at least one flexible air guide funnel in such a way that the diaphragm valve closes the air guide funnel when the air guide funnel is not deformed, and at least partially opens the air guide funnel when the air guide funnel is deformed.

A vehicle seat can be ventilated in various ways in order to be able to guide cooled or heated air to a person sitting on the vehicle seat. The ventilation systems conventionally used for this purpose typically have the disadvantage in that they generally do not distinguish whether or not a region of the vehicle seat is in contact with a person's body. Instead, the air is usually discharged in a full-area manner including regions in which there is no contact with the person's body.
It would be desirable to adapt a ventilation function of a vehicle seat individually to a contact area between the vehicle seat and a person sitting thereon.

Seat component for a vehicle seat and vehicle seat


An image processor for processing image signals corresponding to an original image including a character image region, a halftone image region, and a continuous tone image region. The image processor includes a generator of a first kind of image signals corresponding to the character image region, and of a second kind of image signals corresponding to the halftone image region and the continuous tone image region, according to the image signals; a processor of the first image signals; and a processor of the second image signals. The generator includes a converter to convert the image signals into binarized image signals, which express the image with a black pixel and a white pixel, according to the density level of respective pixels of the image; a recognition circuit that recognizes partial image regions, each of which has a predetermined number of pixels in the image, as black regions when more than a predetermined number of the black pixels exist in each of the partial image regions, so that the original image comprises at least one of the group of the black regions and the group of a non-black regions; and an estimation circuit of a continuous length of the black regions.

The present invention relates to an image recognition apparatus which recognizes whether an inputted image is a character image or a halftone image.
Various image recognition apparatus to recognize a character image region, a halftone image region or a continuous tone image region have been proposed.
After an image has been recognized by such an image recognition apparatus, image processing appropriate for the image is carried out at each image region by an image processing apparatus.
Image processing is conducted as follows:
With regard to a character image, the edge portion is preferably emphasized. On the other hand, with regard to a halftone image or a continuous tone image, smoothing is conducted so that noises such as moire stripes and the like can be mitigated. Therefore, it is important to recognize the region of an image before image processing is carried out.
When consideration is given to photographic density, it is rather easy to recognize a photographic image and a character image or to recognize a photographic image and a halftone image. However, it is very difficult to recognize a character image and a halftone image.
In the case where a halftone image is mistakenly recognized as a character image, moire stripes caused by a mutual action of the pitch of halftone and that of pixels, is emphasized due to the aforementioned edge emphasizing processing. As a result, a good image can not be obtained.
The present invention has been achieved in order to solve the aforementioned problems in the prior art. It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an image recognition apparatus which can accurately recognize a halftone image and a character image.


A light-emitting device operating on a high drive voltage and a small drive current. LEDs (1) are two-dimensionally formed on an insulating substrate (10) of e.g., sapphire monolithically and connected in series to form an LED array. Two such LED arrays are connected to electrodes (32) in inverse parallel. Air-bridge wiring (28) is formed between the LEDs (1) and between the LEDs (1) and electrodes (32). The LED arrays are arranged zigzag to form a plurality of LEDs (1) to produce a high drive voltage and a small drive current. Two LED arrays are connected in inverse parallel, and therefore an AC power supply can be used as the power supply.

When light emitting means such as a light emitting element (LED) is used for display or the like, typical usage conditions are approximately 1 V to 4 V for the drive voltage and approximately 20 mA for the drive current. With the recent development of short-wavelength LEDs which uses a GaN-based compound semiconductor and commercialization of solid light sources of full color, white color, etc., application of LEDs for illumination purposes has been considered. When an LED is used for illumination, there may be cases in which the LED is used under conditions other than the above-described conditions of 1 V-4 V of drive voltage and 20 mA of drive current. As a result, steps have been taken to enable a larger current to flow through the LED and to increase the light emission output. In order to flow a larger current, an area of a pn junction of the LED must be increased so that the current density is reduced.
When the LED is used as a light source for illumination, it is convenient to use an AC power supply and allow use with a drive voltage of 100 V or greater. In addition, if the same light emission output is to be obtained with supply of the same power, the power loss can be reduced by applying a high voltage while maintaining a low current value. In the LEDs of the related art, however, it is not always possible to sufficiently increase the drive voltage.

Light-emitting device having light-emitting elements


The object of the invention is to provide a coding/decoding method in which degradation of sound quality perceptible by the listener does not occur at an low bit rate. A shift number calculation section of a decoding device divides a frequency domain into at least two sub-bands, and approximates each of normalized transform coefficients in the sub-band whose allocated bit value is less than a predetermined threshold using a quantized value of the transform coefficient in a predetermined sub-band other than the sub-band so as to obtain information concerning the approximation, and a multiplexer multiplexes the information and another signal and transmits them. A de-multiplexer of a decoding device separates the code of information concerning the approximation, and a shift number restore section restores the information based thereon. An approximation coefficient calculation section assigns, based on the information concerning the approximation, the transform coefficient values in the predetermined sub-band to the normalized transform coefficients whose allocated bit value is less than the predetermined threshold.

This invention is related to a coding/decoding method and a coding/decoding apparatus for coding a signal or decoding a coded signal. More specifically, it is related to a coding/decoding method and a coding/decoding apparatus which is suitable for obtaining a high quality decoded acoustic signal at a low bit rate.
Recently, a number of techniques for coding wide-band speech or an acoustic signal have been proposed for use in multi-media. These techniques often use the adaptive transform coding method, in which an acoustic signal in a time domain is transformed into one in a frequency domain and, using the spectral envelope thereof, the coding is accomplished by adaptably determining a bit allocation or the like on a frequency axis. This is because in the adaptive transform coding method speech quality is not affected by the input acoustic signal and the bit rate can be low due to the application of auditory masking effects. Such coding/decoding methods are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application laid open No. 3-184098, and "Transform Coding of Acoustic Signals Using Perceptual Noise Criteria: James D. Johnston: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 6, No. 2".
The above mentioned adaptive transform coding/decoding method will now be briefly explained with reference to FIG. 7 which is a block diagram of a system to which the adaptive transform coding/decoding method is applied. As shown in FIG. 7, the system 10' comprises a coding device 12' and a decoding device 14'.
The coding device 12' comprises a buffer 16 which receives a digital acoustic signal supplied from an analog-to digital (A/D) converter (not shown) and temporarily stores it in coding blocks each consisting of an acoustic signal of appropriate data length, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) section 18' connected to the buffer 16 for receiving each coding block from the buffer 16 and subjecting it to fast Fourier transformation, a spectral envelope calculation section 20 connected to the buffer 16 for producing a spectral envelope of the coding block received from the buffer 16, a spectral envelop coding section 22 which produces a spectral envelope code and a coded spectral envelope based on the spectral envelope produced by the spectral envelope calculation section 20, a transform coefficient normalization section 24 which receives transform coefficients produced by the FFT section 18' and the coded spectral envelope produced by the spectral envelop coding section 22 and produces normalized transform coefficients which are normalizations of the transform coefficients, a bit allocation calculation section 26 which receives the coded spectral envelope and calculates a bit allocation for quantizing the normalized transform coefficients, a transform coefficient quantization section 28 which quantizes the normalized transform coefficients based on the bit allocation calculated by the bit allocation calculation section 26, and a multiplexer 30 which outputs a digital transmission code obtained by multiplexing the quantized normalized transform coefficient code and spectral envelope code. The digital transmission code produced by the thus structured coding device 12' is stored in a storage medium such as an optical disk or transferred to the decoding device 14' via a communication line.
On the other hand, the decoding device 14' comprises a de-multiplexer 32 which de-multiplexes the digital transmission code received from a storage medium such as an optical disk or from the multiplexer 30 of the coding device 12' to obtain quantized normalized transform coefficients and a spectral envelope code, a spectral envelope decoding section 34 which receives the spectral envelope code and decodes it, a bit allocation calculation section 36 which calculates a bit allocation based on the spectral envelope produced by the spectral envelope decoding section 34, a transform coefficient inverse-quantization section 38 which inverse-quantizes the quantized normalized transform coefficient based on the bit allocation calculated by the bit allocation calculation section 36, a transform coefficient restore section 40 which restores the transform coefficients based on the spectral envelope produced by the spectral envelope decoding section 34, an inverse FFT section 42' which performs inverse fast Fourier transformation based on the transform coefficients restored by the transform coefficient restore section 40, and a buffer 44 which temporarily stores each signal (coding block) produced by the inverse FFT section 42'. The coding block temporarily stored in the buffer 44 is read out in an appropriate manner, whereby an acoustic signal 45 can be obtained.
It is well known that components having large power often concentrate in the low frequency band of the acoustic signal. The above mentioned adaptive transform coding method can be called a technique for obtaining codes of low distortion and high compression rate efficiently using unevenness of power in a frequency band.
However, it is also known that in the adaptive transform coding method, decreasing the bit rate in order to increase the compression rate increases signal degradation. This is because the adaptive quantization of the normalized transform coefficients often produces no bit for certain frequency bands, especially high frequency bands generally having low power.
In the conventional adaptive transform coding method, an attempt is made to solve this problem by setting that the normalized transform coefficient in a band having no allocated bit to 0 (zero) or to a random value. If the number of bands to which one of those techniques is applied is relatively small in the adaptive transform coding method, problems seldom occur. However, if the technique is applied to a number of successive bands at an extremely low bit rate, the sound quality is degraded to an extent noticeable to listeners. The degradation includes dropout of bands due to setting the normalized transform coefficient to 0 (zero) and occurrence of noise due to setting it to the random value. This disarranges the harmonic elements of the acoustic signal, which results in a serious problem.
In other words, the conventional adaptive transform coding method does not sufficiently deal with the degradation owing to the occurrence of a number of bands having no allocated bits and is therefore not sufficient for coding an acoustic signal at an extremely low bit rate.

Method for coding/decoding, coding/decoding device, and videoconferencing apparatus using such device


A dispersion compensating optical fiber is connected to an optical fiber having chromatic dispersion at a transmission wavelength to cancel the chromatic dispersion out, thereby making the chromatic dispersion of an entire transmission system at the transmission wavelength substantially zero or making the chromatic dispersion close to zero. The dispersion compensating optical fiber comprises a core consisting of a quartz-based glass and a cladding formed on the surface of the core and consisting of a quartz-based glass, and a coating layer formed on the surface of the cladding and consisting of a resin, and the dispersion compensating optical fiber has an outer diameter of less than 250 .mu.m. The coating layer has a thickness of 20 .mu.m or more and a two-layer structure consisting of at least two layers including an inner layer and an outer layer having a Young's modulus higher than that of the inner layer.

The present invention relates to a dispersion compensating optical fiber which is connected to an optical fiber having positive dispersion and has negative dispersion so as to make the chromatic dispersion of the optical fiber almost zero.
An optical fiber which is generally installed as an optical communication transmission path at present is a single-mode optical fiber which exhibits zero dispersion at a wavelength of 1.3 .mu.m. In order to increase the capacity of an optical communication network constituted by single-mode optical fibers which are generally installed, it is discussed to perform high-speed communication with light having a wavelength of 1.55 .mu.m.
A single-mode optical fiber which has zero dispersion at a wavelength of 1.3 .mu.m exhibits a positive dispersion with a value of about 17 ps/nm/km near a wavelength of 1.55 .mu.m. For this reason, light having a wavelength of 1.55 .mu.m is used, a dispersion compensating means is required.
As a practical method for dispersion compensation, a method of inserting a great negative dispersion optical fiber into an optical fiber transmission path to cancel the dispersion out. This method uses a phenomenon that a negative structure dispersion having a large absolute value can be obtained by properly selecting the refractive index distribution of an optical fiber.
One concrete dispersion compensating structure using this method is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 6-11620. A dispersion compensating optical fiber disclosed in this publication, which has a great negative dispersion, has the same structure as an ordinary optical fiber except for refractive index. When this dispersion compensating optical fiber is only inserted into an optical fiber transmission path in serial, dispersion compensation can be easily performed to chromatic dispersion of the single-mode optical fiber.
Since the dispersion compensating optical fiber is considerably long, in general, the optical fiber is wound into a coil and then packaged to be used. When the optical fiber is incorporated in a transmission apparatus, the optical fiber is preferably packaged with a small size.
However, a long optical fiber is wound, the space occupied by the coil depends on the volume of the optical fiber sectional area.times.length and the percentage of void. For this reason, when the sectional area, i.e., diameter, of the optical fiber is large, a coil having a large size is obtained. The coil cannot be stored within the transmission apparatus.
As another problem, polarization mode dispersion is posed. When the winding diameter of the optical fiber is decreased, the polarization mode dispersion increases in inverse proportional to the square of the winding diameter.
The dispersion compensating optical fiber has as its object to compensate for the chromatic dispersion of a single-mode optical fiber and to make it possible to perform high-speed communication. However, when polarization mode dispersion increases, even if chromatic dispersion is compensated for, the waveform of a transmission signal is disturbed by polarization mode dispersion. As a result, a reduction in size of a dispersion compensating optical fiber is obstructed.


Apparatus and method for sealing the passageway between two conduits in an injection molding apparatus, including two abutting conduits for transporting molten plastic under pressure having an interface between the abutting conduits, and a device for sealing the interface between the two abutting conduits operative induce a sealing stress distribution that reaches a maximum value adjacent the common longitudinal axis of the abutting conduits.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for sealing the passageway between two conduits located in an injection mold and transporting high pressure, heated molten plastic towards mold cavities in a cycling operation.
Avoiding leakage of the hot and pressurized molten plastic material represents a major concern when designing an injection molding machine or an injection mold. For example, a critical leakage area in an injection molding machine is between the machine's injection nozzle and the mold's sprue bushing. Leakage commonly appears in an injection molding machine between the manifold and the mold nozzles or at the interface between the mold nozzle and the cavity mold.
Injection molding manifolds are usually made of a massive runner block communicating with the injection nozzles located adjacent the mold cavities. Leakage of the molten plastic material traveling from the runner block to the injection nozzle, for example, represents a major problem caused by the high pressure of the heated, flowing molten plastic and the relative thermal expansion of the materials which makes the runner block slide laterally with respect to the injection nozzles. Sealing of the fluid passageway between the internal conduits located in the runner block or manifold and the injection nozzle represents, therefore, a crucial design problem, especially taking into account that the injection process must be stopped if leakage occurs.
Several sealing methods and elements have been developed, but these do not satisfactorily solve the leakage problem especially at the interface between the manifold and the mold nozzle.
Known design concepts in injection molds use a small pre-load in cold conditions between the manifold and the nozzle. This additional pre-load accompanies the inherent thermal expansion of the manifold to provide sufficient compression between the parts to maintain sealing between the manifold and nozzle or between other conduits in the system. However, while too little compression results in plastic leakage, extreme compression causes either permanent setting of the manifold steel or damage to the nozzle housing. In addition to this, the prolonged and cyclic injection molding operation will reduce the effectiveness of the pre-load, thus increasing the likelihood of leakage.
Several improvements to these design concepts have been developed that use different methods and means to prevent leakage of the plastic resin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,367 to Schad teaches a thermal expansion element to seal the flow of resin through the passageway between the manifold conduit and injection nozzle, or a thermal expansion element with an undercut to give it additional elastic sealing properties, or a thermal expansion element with a spring element to enhance the sealing properties by adding an elastic feature. The thermal expansion element allows relative movement between the manifold, thermal expansion element and nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,182 to Gessner uses a spring which deflects as the nozzle body and the air piston housing expand due to the increase in temperature. The sealing device uses Belleville style disc springs assembled on an insulating sleeve. As the manifold heats up the disc spring package absorbs the thermal expansion and prevents over-stressing the nozzle housing or setting of the manifold's plate steel. This design provides a superior anti-leaking solution in many situations where the injection pressure remains relatively small. The disc spring system of the '182 patent loads the flange of the nozzle housing in a purely axial direction perpendicular to the interface surface between the nozzle and the manifold plate. By providing an axial sealing force, the profile of the sealing stress shows a significant decrease towards the melt channel relative to the peak achieved at the point of contact between the spring and the nozzle. In the event that the injection pressure reaches higher valves this improved design does not effectively prevent leakage of the molten plastic resin outside the passageway.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,637 to Schad et al. teaches a sealing clamp ring attached to the manifold and surrounding the nozzle housing that prevents leakage of the resin at the interface between the manifold and the nozzle. A certain lateral clearance that remains between the clamp ring and the nozzle allows the manifold and the clamp ring to slide laterally without affecting the alignment of the nozzle tip with respect the mold gate.
The design concepts of the '367, '182 and '637 patents represent a significant advance and use a sliding interface between the manifold and the nozzle housing. As the manifold heats and expands it also slides across the nozzle housings which are held in the cavity plate counter bores. This allows the nozzle tip location to be maintained in proper alignment with the mold gate, independent of the temperature of the manifold. However, in a sliding interface between the nozzle and the manifold it is difficult to fully seal the passageway between the conduits of the two parts using the sealing means disclosed in these references and one cannot achieve a sealing stress distribution which has its peak adjacent the passageway.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for sealing the passageway between two conduits in an injection molding apparatus, especially between an injection nozzle conduit and a hot runner manifold conduit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus as aforesaid which obtains a sealing stress distribution which has its peak adjacent the conduits or passageways.
Further objections and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.


A surveying data processing device includes a point cloud data acquiring unit, a three-dimensional model acquiring unit, a first correspondence relationship determining unit, an extended three-dimensional data generating unit, and a second correspondence relationship determining unit. The point cloud data acquiring unit acquires first point cloud data obtained by laser scanning, at a first viewpoint, and acquires second point cloud data obtained by laser scanning, at a second viewpoint. The three-dimensional model acquiring unit acquires data of a three-dimensional model. The first correspondence relationship determining unit obtains a correspondence relationship between the first point cloud data and the three-dimensional model. The extended three-dimensional data generating unit generates extended three-dimensional data in which the first point cloud data is extended, on the basis of the correspondence relationship. The second correspondence relationship determining unit determines a correspondence relationship between the extended three-dimensional data and the second point cloud data.

The present invention relates to a technique for laser scanning.
Techniques of obtaining point cloud data by laser scanning are publicly known. In these techniques, three-dimensional coordinates of large numbers of points are obtained by laser scanning, and the scanned object is recognized by an aggregation of the points from which the three-dimensional coordinates are obtained. This aggregation of points, from which the three-dimensional coordinates are obtained, is point cloud data.
In laser scanning, there may be parts that are not irradiated by scanning laser light. In this case, laser scanning is performed again, on an area that was not scanned at the previous time, by changing the instrument point or the viewpoint. Japanese Patent No. 5057734 discloses a technique for again performing laser scanning for a part that was not scanned.
In one example, it is assumed that two sets of point cloud data are obtained by performing laser scanning at two instrument points at locations different from each other. This case requires an operation for determining a correspondence relationship between the two sets of point cloud data. This operation is also called "position matching" or "registration" of point cloud data. Determination of the correspondence relationship between the two sets of point cloud data enables describing the two sets of point cloud data in the same coordinate system, thereby integrating the two sets of point cloud data.
The operation for determining the correspondence relationship between two sets of point cloud data involves an operation of searching for parts commonly contained in the two sets of point cloud data and making these parts coincide with each other. The greater the amount of common parts that exist, the more easily and accurately the operation for determining the correspondence relationship is performed.

Surveying data processing device, surveying data processing method, and surveying data processing program


An electronic pin fastener (29) for use in a security system for garments, merchandise, and the like mounted for sale or display on a display fixture, rack, or bin causes an alarm to be produced upon removal of the pin fastener (29). The pin fastener (29) has an enclosed housing (60) having top (68) and bottom (63) walls, a hole centrally disposed in the bottom wall (63), a pin (61) having a head and a stem, the stem extending through the hole in the bottom wall (63), and bias means effective to bias the head of the pin (61) towards a predetermined position such as to cause an alarm. The stem of the pin (61) is retained in a depressed position such as to not produce an alarm by an EAS tag or locking device after the pin (61) is inserted through a garment.

The present invention relates to mechanical security systems particularly adapted for providing protection against shoplifting of merchandise such as garments displayed on garment fixtures, bins or racks. More particularly, the present invention provides a mechanical fastening system for use with electronic security devices which is of complex as well as comparatively simplified construction and is characterized by novel features of construction and arrangement providing versatile adaptation to existing furnishings, systems and store fixtures in garment display section of stores while providing maximum accessibility to individual items of merchandise or apparel displayed on racks, bins or fixtures.
Clothing sales are primarily made by displaying the garment on open racks such that customers may put on the clothing to determine proper fit and may view themselves in the clothing to determine the appropriate aesthetic appeal. However, high risk items such as suits, high end fashions and coats or other outerwear garments have a relatively high value, and concern for security is important. Accordingly, efforts have been made to reduce the likelihood of theft or other unauthorized removal of the merchandise or garments from the store.
Security devices for merchandise and garments are, of course, not new per se. A number of systems have been proposed which allow the potential customer to inspect the items on display racks, bins or fixtures without setting off an alarm and at the same time preventing the removal of the item from the premises or immediate vicinity of the display. A typical low end system involves the step of threading a single steel cable through all the garments on a particular rack, such that the ends of the cable are secured by a manual key locking mechanism to the rack. This system has obvious drawbacks due to potential cutting of the cable without sounding an alarm as well as the inaccessibility of the garments to the customer for fitting without assistance nor are they capable of being purchased until such cable is removed by a staff member. That is not convenient, even if the desired garment is close to the end of the cable. Particularly with jackets and coats, such a removal and reinsertion process for the steel cable is both time consuming and not conducive to what are called impulse sales.
Attaching an individual cable to each garment is a known way to resolve the difficulties of collective security attachment. It is desirable that a customer be able to select a number of garments, and reach the point of decision to purchase a particular item. One system which has been found to be effective for both security and display of clothing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,827. This system includes a housing in which a plurality of cables are employed, with each cable being attached at one end to the garment and at the other end to the housing. The attachment to the housing is detachable, such that any one or individual cables can be removed or attached to the housing without disturbing the other cable attachments. However, this system still does not deter the cutting of the cable without alarm or tampering due to the duplication of keys for the housing.
One method of attaching the cable to the garment is shown in the above patent, where a cable is passed through an opening such as a buttonhole in the garment, where the cable has an enlarged plastic button at one end to prevent that end from passing through the opening. The other end of the cable is then attached to the security monitoring housing. The problem with this system, which has been effective up to a point, is that the security housing is attached to a stanchion of the supporting rack by suitable bolts or screw-type fasteners, thereby exposing the security system to direct tampering due to forceful entry or duplication of keys. Also, the cable shown in this patent is not secure against cutting, and would not send an alarm if cut and removed from the garment.
Another system of garment security and protection is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,1.82. In this system, an alarm mechanism is employed for signaling a closed circuit condition, such as when the cable which mechanically connects the retail item to the security device is cut. This system has been found to be effective in securing garment which have been displayed on a rack, bin or other store fixture by attaching to the merchandise or garment as in the prior patent discussed above and to the housing by plugging the other end of the cable into a jack or other electrically connecting fixture.
In this system, the cable is also sensitive to being cut and will sound an alarm via the disclosed electronic circuitry when, for example a pair of conductive elements are contained in the cable and complete a circuit when joined together by actions such as cutting of the cable. The system is very effective in some situations, but concern for having exposed ports for attachment of the cable still exists. It is possible for clever shoplifters to tamper with the cable ports, such as by insertion of an element into the port to keep the system in steady state even when the cable is cut. Since the system operates on battery, and since it is in a normally open circuit condition, jamming an object into the port might be possible, whereby the circuit would not be completed upon removal of the jack from the port.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,220 discloses a security clip consisting of a pair of opposing jaws pivotally mounted on the clip in a normally closed position. The clip also includes a switch for activating the alarm upon placement of a garment in the jaws of the clip. whereby removal of the garment causes the switch to trigger the alarm.
None of the prior art systems provide for complete security, particularly for the attachment of the cable to the security housing. This has been found to be the point where the security system is most likely to fail, either from inattentive or careless use by the sales personnel. For example, if the jack is not properly inserted into the plus when the garment is placed in the system, it may be removable without alarming the system because it has not been placed fully into the system. Alternative, failure to lock the unit because of neglect or because the sales person is trying to show several customers several garments at the same time will permit unauthorized removal of additional garments by someone in the midst of the confusion and focused attention on others. It is of prime importance that the connection to the alarm box or security monitoring/alarm sending unit not be disturbed each time one garment is removed from the system such as when one garment has been sold. Also, if cables are improperly attached and the manufacturer's codes are not adhered to, this can cause an aesthetic problem from tangling, due to multiple handling, as well as a safety problem due to the improper positioning of the cables.
Other more sophisticated equipment in the market place is referred to as Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS). These systems Generally consist of a self energized tag for each garment or merchandise, which are attached by a steel pin through the garment or merchandise into the tag. On payment for the merchandise the tag would be removed or desensitized. A receiver would then be located at each exit door way or department exit to generate an alarm if the merchandise was removed without payment. This type of system allows for more freedom of movement and impulse buying within a designated area. Another type of EAS security tag is shown in International Publication WO 91/13416. The security tag consists of a housing containing a battery and radio frequency transmitter. The security tag is attached to the garment by a tack. Unauthorized removal of the tack causes a cam element within the housing to trip a switch resulting in the tag transmitting a radio frequency which is detected by a remote receiver which activates an alarm. The downfalls to all of these systems have been the cutting of the pin creating no alarm and disabling the tag from the merchandise or garment prior to the item reaching an exit. It has also been recorded that proper pin removal tools normally used by staff have turned up in the general population, creating a potential risk factor. Other factors creating minor downfalls to these systems are detuning of the tags, receiver false alarms which generate mistrust in the operators of the systems and general confusion of staff when more than one party exits the area simultaneously. In general, these systems have done an adequate job on general merchandising but have left high risk items relatively unprotected.


A flip-flop is configured to operate either in a double data-rate mode or a normal mode. When configured to operate in the double data-rate mode, the flip-flop outputs data on both edges of the applied clock. When configured to operate in the normal mode, the flip-flop outputs data on either the rising or falling edges of the applied clock. In the double data-rate mode, when a first latch disposed in the flip-flop operates in a sampling mode, the second latch disposed in the flip-flop operates in a holding mode to supply the output data, and when the second latch operates in the sampling mode, the first latch operates in the holding mode to supply the output data. Accordingly, with each of the rising or falling edge of the clock, one of the latches supplies an output data.

The present invention relates to electronic circuits, and more particularly to storage elements used in sequential logic circuits.
Flip-flops are widely used in electronics circuits to store data. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a flip-flop 10 commonly referred to as master-slave flip-flop. Master-slave flip-flop 10 includes a master D-latch 12, a slave D-latch 14, and an inverter 16. When clock signal CLK is at a high logic level (high), slave latch 14 is enabled, i.e., samples the data, and its output Q is the same as the master latch 12 output Y. When clock signal CLK is high, master latch 12 is disabled, i.e., latches (holds) its data. When signal CLK is at a low logic level (low), master latch 12 is enabled and the data in the external D input is transferred to the master latch 12 output Y. When signal CLK is low, slave latch 14 is disabled, holds its data, and thus any changes in the external D input changes the master latch output Y and cannot change the slave output Y. When signal CLK returns to high, master latch 12 is in the latched mode and is isolated from the D input. At the same time, slave latch 14 is enabled and the value of Y is transferred to the output Q.
A D-latch may be formed using transmission gates and inverters, as shown in FIG. 2. Input CLK controls the two transmission gates 22, 24. When CLK is low, transmission gate 22 has a closed path and transmission gate 24 has an open path, therefore, D-latch 20 is in a sampling mode. This cause output Q to be the inverse of input D and output Q to be the same as input D. When CLK is high, transmission gate 24 has a closed path and transmission gate 22 has an open path, therefore, D-latch 20 is in a holding mode; this causes outputs Q and Q to hold their previous values.
A need continues to exist for a flip-flop that can operate at higher data rates for any given clock frequency.


A gas turbine includes a compressor, a combustor downstream from the compressor and a heat transfer system, wherein the heat transfer system receives a compressed working fluid from the compressor. A fluid coupling between the heat transfer system and the combustor, wherein the fluid coupling receives the compressed working fluid from the heat transfer system. A conditioner in fluid communication with the compressor and a fluid coupling between the heat transfer system and the conditioner, wherein the fluid coupling receives a cooling media from the heat transfer system. A method for operating the gas turbine includes flowing a compressed working fluid from the compressor to the heat transfer system, transferring heat energy from the compressed working fluid to the heat transfer system, flowing the compressed working fluid from the heat transfer system to a combustor, and flowing a cooling media from the heat transfer system to a compressor inlet.

Gas turbine engines are widely used to generate power for numerous applications. A conventional gas turbine engine includes a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. In a typical gas turbine engine, the compressor provides compressed air to the combustor. The air entering the combustor is mixed with fuel and combusted. Hot gases of combustion are exhausted from the combustor and flow across the blades of the turbine so as to rotate a shaft of the turbine connected to the blades. Some of that mechanical energy of the rotating shaft drives the compressor and/or other mechanical systems.
Temperatures in modern gas turbine combustors may exceed two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, the mechanical components exposed to these temperatures within the combustor may experience significant thermal stress during operation of the gas turbine, thus significantly reducing the mechanical life of the combustor. In addition, when the gas turbine is operated in an environment in which the ambient temperature of the air entering the compressor is above certain levels, the core engine temperature may rise to an unacceptably high level, thus affecting engine efficiency and possibly decreasing the life of the gas turbine components.
Various methods exist for reducing the temperatures within a gas turbine. For example, one method for controlling the temperature within the combustor of a gas turbine involves passing the air entering the compressor through a chiller at the compressor inlet, thereby decreasing the temperature of the compressed air as it enters the compressor. However, the compressed air temperature provided to the combustor in this manner may not provide sufficient cooling of the mechanical components within the combustor. In addition, this method does not allow for directing the cooled compressed air to the individual components or zones within the combustor. Therefore, an improved gas turbine and a method for operating the gas turbine would be useful.

Method and apparatus for operating a gas turbine engine


A cache system supports a re-sizable software-managed fast scratch pad that is implemented as a cache-slice. A processor register indicates the size and base address of the scratch pad. Instructions which facilitate use of the scratch pad include a prefetch instruction which loads multiple lines of data from external memory into the scratch pad and a writeback instruction which writes multiple lines of data from the scratch pad to external memory. The prefetch and writeback instructions are non-blocking instructions to allow instructions following in the program order to be executed while a prefetch or writeback operation is pending.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods which provide a processor with fast memory access and particularly to cache and scratch pad memory systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Processors often employ memories which are relatively slow when compared to the clock speeds of the processors. To speed up memory access for such processors, a relatively small amount of fast memory can be used in a data cache or scratch pad. A scratch pad typically occupies a portion of the address space of a processor, and programs executed by the processor access the scratch pad to take advantage of the faster memory access. A scratch pad has the disadvantage of only improving memory access time for the relatively small portion of the address space that corresponds to the scratch pad.
A cache can mediate memory accesses and improve the average memory access time for all or a large portion of the address space of a processor even though the cache is small relative to the address space. Caches do not occupy a specific portion of the address space of the processor but instead include tag information which identifies addresses for information in cache lines. Typically, a cache compares an address from a processor to tag information to determine whether the cache contains a valid entry for the memory address being accessed. If such an entry exists (i.e., if there is a cache hit), the processor accesses (reads from or writes to) the faster cache memory. In addition to tag information, a cache entry typically contains a "validity" bit and a "dirty" bit which respectively indicated whether the associated information in the entry is valid and whether the associated information contains changes to be written back to the slower memory. If there is no cache entry for the address being accessed (i.e., if there is a cache miss), access to the slower memory may be required for the cache to create a new entry for the just accessed memory address. Caches use schemes such as "least recently used" replacement to determine which old entries are replaced with new entries. Typically, programs access the same addresses repeatedly so that the most recently accessed data is likely to be accessed again soon and be available in the cache when required. Accordingly, caches can improve access time across the address space of the processor, but the overhead for hit/miss calculations, entry creation, and writebacks can make caches slower than scratch pads.

Resizable and relocatable memory scratch pad as a cache slice


A user terminal device stores user information in a memory, and stores constant data in another memory. The user terminal device selects one or more other equipment to be combined suitably for use with the service equipment, based on the model information and operational conditions of the service equipment as well as the stored constant data. Then, the user terminal device transmits the user information and the selection information to the host computer, and requests display permission from the host computer for displaying the selection information onto the display section. The selection information is displayed on the display section only when the display permission is obtained from the host computer. Thus, workload on the host computer end may be reduced. In addition, the host computer does not fail to obtain the user information.

The combination and specification of various equipments have been conventionally determined by a computer system using a communication network. For example, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 24562/2000 discloses a technology by which a host computer performs operations and transmits the result to a user terminal device when a specification is determined between a registered user and a supplier or dealer. The Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication no. 41875/2000 discloses a technology by which a host computer obtains user information by allowing a user to carry out cost estimation of order-made house building at a user terminal device using a pre-distributed program and to transmit the estimation to the host computer.
With the arrangement according to the former technology, as the number of users increases, the workload on the host computer side becomes heavier, which lead to prolonged time until the user obtains the result. With the arrangement according to the latter technology, since the user can confirm the cost estimation without transmitting the estimation result to the host computer, there is a problem that the host computer cannot securely obtain the user information. In addition, with the latter technology, there is another problem that variable data are not provided to the user.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a combined equipment selection system which is capable of securely obtaining the user information while reducing the workload on the host computer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combined equipment selection system which is capable of providing the user with the selection information based on the recent information.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a program which is executed on a user terminal device in the combined equipment selection system which is capable of securely obtaining the user information while reducing the workload on the host computer.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a program which is executed on a user terminal device in the combined equipment selection system which is capable of providing the user with the selection information based on the recent information.

Combination equipment selection system using network


An artificial lift system provides an artificial lift design specifically for the pumping of liquids from natural gas wells, but not limited to this application. In doing so, production rates and reserves recovered can be significantly increased. The artificial lift system uses small diameter continuous tubing to run the pump in the hole and deliver small volumes of high pressure dry gas as a power fluid to the pump. This power fluid forces liquid that has been drawn into the pump from the bottom of the wellbore to surface. By removing the liquids from the wellbore the natural gas can flow unrestricted to surface. The design and equipment allow for a cost effective artificial lift alternative.

Subterranean wells have been drilled primarily to produce one or more of the following desired products for example fluids such as water, hydrocarbon liquids and hydrocarbon gas. There are other uses for wells but these are by far the most common. These desired fluids can exist in the geologic layers to depths in excess of 5,000 m below the surface and are found in geological traps called reservoirs where they may accumulate in sufficient quantities to make their recovery economically viable. Finding the location of the desirable reservoirs and drilling the wells present their own unique challenges. Once drilled, the wellbore of the well must be configured to transport safely and efficiently the desired fluid from the reservoir to surface.
Whether or not the desired fluid can reach surface without aid is a function of numerous variables, including: potential energy of the fluid in the reservoir, reservoir driver mechanisms, reservoir rock characteristics, near wellbore rock characteristics, physical properties of the desired fluid and associated fluids, depth of the reservoir, wellbore configuration, operating conditions of the surface facilities receiving fluids and the stage of the reservoirs depletion. Many wells in the early stages of their producing life are capable of producing fluids with little more than a conduit to connect the reservoir with the surface facilities, as energy from the reservoir and changing fluid characteristics can lift desired fluids to surface.
Typically fluids in a liquid phase cause the most problems when attempting to move the fluids vertically up the wellbore. Fluids in the liquid phase are much denser than fluids in a gaseous phase and therefore require greater energy to lift vertically. These fluids in the liquid phase can enter the wellbore in the liquid state as free liquids or they can enter the wellbore in the gas phase and later condense into liquid in the wellbore due to changing physical conditions. The liquids that enter the wellbore may be desirable fluids, such as hydrocarbon liquids or useable water, or they may be liquids associated with the desired fluids, for example, water produced with oil or gas. Often the liquids associated with the desired fluids must be produced in order to recover the desired fluid. Regardless of the desirability of the liquid, energy is required to transport the liquid vertically from the reservoir to surface. Optimizing the energy required through improved wellbore dynamics or with the aid of artificial lift has been an area of intense study and literature for those dealing with subsurface wells.
To improve the economics of a well, it is desirable to increase the production rate and maximize the recovery of the desired fluid from the well. Transportation of fluids from reservoir to surface, that is well bore dynamics, is one of the variables of the well that can be controlled and has a major impact on the economics of a well. One can improve the well bore dynamics by two methods—1) designing a wellbore configuration that optimizes and improves the flow characteristics of the fluid in the well bore conduit or 2) aiding in lifting the fluid to surface with artificial lift. Artificial lift can significantly improve production early in the life of many wells and is the only options for wells if they are to continue producing in the later stages of depletion. Regardless of whether the well can lift the desired fluids to surface on its own or requires artificial lift, the well bore dynamics should be reviewed continually as the variables change over the life of the well and the economics for the well need to be maximized.
The methods of improving flow characteristics include: proper tubing selection, plunger systems, addition of surface tension reducers, reduced surface pressures, downhole chokes and production intermitters. These methods do not add energy to the fluids in the well bore, and therefore are not considered artificial lift systems; however, they do optimize the use of the energy that the reservoir and fluids provide. These methods optimize the well bore dynamics and/or add energy to the fluid transportation process at the surface. Depending on the application, each of the different methods above has numerous models and configurations each having their own unique advantages and disadvantages.
There are numerous systems of artificial lift available and operating throughout the world. The more common systems are reciprocating rod string and plunger pumps, rotating rod strings and progressive cavity pumps, electric submersible multi-stage centrifugal pump, jet pumps, hydraulic pumps and gas lift systems. Again, depending on the intended application, each of the different systems has numerous models each having their own unique advantages and disadvantages. To fit in the category of artificial lift, additional energy not from the producing formation and fluids is input into the well bore to help lift fluids in the liquid phase to surface. The artificial lift systems listed above have been developed for water and hydrocarbon liquids as they require the greatest assistance when being transported to surface and provide the greatest economic incentive. They also have applications in lifting liquids that are associated with the gas in natural gas wells.
With the depletion of the world gas reserves there is a need to develop an artificial lift system that is better suited to removing liquids associated with natural gas production from the wellbore. These liquids, if not removed from the wellbore, will significantly limit the natural gas production rates as wells as the ultimate recovery of the natural gas reserves.
Other artificial lift systems have been designed and used based on injection of high-pressure gas. Gas lift is a common form of artificial lift and relies on injection of enough gas to reach the critical rate for removing liquids from the wellbore (Turner et al in 1969: Turner, R. G., Hubbard, M. G., and Dukler, A. E., 1969, "Analysis and Prediction of Minimum Flow Rate for the Continuous Removal of Liquids from Gas Wells," J. Pet. Technol., 21(11), pp. 1475-1482.)
U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,242 by Malcolm W Coleman and J Byron Sandel outlines the complete removal of fluids from the well on each cycle, which requires large gas volume and therefore large associated equipment with pumping, for example large tubing, a large compressor, large power source valves, etc.
There is a need for pumps that can be installed and serviced without the use of a service rig using wireline or coiled tubing equipment and techniques, to allow for easy installation and servicing. There is a need for pumps that fit with existing technologies, services and equipment, and may fit with existing wellbore configurations with only minor modifications.