An adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) (40) for a digital cellular mobile radio channel demodulator (30) employs a Complex Fast-Kalman Adaptation algorithm (56) to track channel variations. Sensitivity to sample timing jitter is reduced by providing the DFE with fractionally spaced feed-forward taps (50'). Deficiencies inherent in using a reduced precision implementation are overcome by adding a dither signal to sets of operations in the algorithm, the dither signal comprising an appropriately selected Gaussian random variable. For small delay spreads of approximately one third of a symbol duration or less, a resulting degradation in Bit Error Rate is avoided by switching the DFE out of the circuit or by reducing the number of taps of the DFE. For delay spreads of less than 40 microseconds and greater than approximately 10 microseconds, a (2,3) fractionally spaced DFE provides an adequate compromise between complexity and performance.

A requirement for increased capacity in the U.S. cellular radio system has resulted in adoption of digital technology. The digital system employs Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) as a channel access method in conjunction with a digital modulation scheme. A proposed IS-54 standard for digital cellular communication specifies a particular frame and slot structure. Under this standard, three to six users share a common 30 KHz radio frequency (RF) channel. Each user transmits data in an assigned time slot which is part of a larger frame. The gross bit rate of data transmitted over the channel is 48.6 Kbits/sec. The transmitted digital data is first mapped onto .pi./4-shifted Differentially encoded Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK) symbols and then pulse shaped using a square root raised cosine filter. The pulse shaped signal is subsequently modulated onto an RF carrier.
Data transmission in this digital cellular system is adversely affected by multipath propagation which causes delay spread and consequent Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), where a symbol is comprised of a pair of binary bits. Delay spreads exceeding one third of the symbol duration cause a significant increase in Bit Error Rate (BER), necessitating use of an equalizer in the receiver. Typical delay spreads encountered in urban and rural areas in the U.S. are less than 40 microseconds, implying a need for equalization of one symbol of interference for a data rate of 48.6 Kbits/sec. (One symbol of interference has a 40 microsecond duration.) Mobile receivers also experience rapid channel variations and Doppler-induced frequency shifts that are proportional to vehicle speed.
The channel impairments described above require that nonlinear adaptive equalizers be incorporated in cellular radios. Two suitable equalizers are the Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) and an equalizer based on Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (MLSE). The MLSE method employs the well known Viterbi algorithm and is referred to in the art as a Viterbi Equalizer or an MLSE-VA equalizer.
Both the MLSE and DFE techniques have been researched in some detail for use in the European CEPT/GSM cellular radio system. Results of this research are reported by, for example, R. D'Avella et al. "An Adaptive MLSE Receiver for TDMA Digital Mobile Radio", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 122-129, Jan. 1989, G. D'Aria et al. "Design and Performance of Synchronization Techniques and Viterbi Adaptive Equalizers for Narrowband TDMA Mobile Radio", proceedings of 3rd Nordic Seminar on Digital Land Mobile Radio Comm., Copenhagen, Denmark, September 13-15, and A. Baier et al., "Bit Synchronization and Timing Sensitivity in Adaptive Viterbi Equalizers for Narrowband TDMA Digital Mobile Radio Systems", proceedings of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, Philadelphia, pp. 372-382, 1988. The following two references also relate to DFE for the CEPT/GSM system: G. D'Aria et al., "Adaptive Baseband Equalizers for Narrowband TDMA/FDMA Mobile Radio", CSELT Technical Report, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 19-27, Feb. 1988; and G. D'Aria et al., "Results on Fast-Kalman Estimation to Adaptive Equalizers for Mobile Radio with CEPT/GSM System Characteristics", Proc. of IEEE Globecom, pp. 26.3.1-26.3.5, 1988.
The CEPT/GSM system is quite different from the system proposed for use in the U.S. in that it employs a narrower time slot, partial response modulation (GMSK), a wider bandwidth and a higher data rate (270.8 Kbits/sec.). The narrower time slot typically permits the channel to be treated as being time invariant while the wider bandwidth implies a reduced fade depth. Furthermore, the higher data rate results in increased ISI. As a result, the receiver equalization requirements of the European and the proposed U.S. cellular systems are different.
An MLSE-VA equalizer for use with the proposed US digital cellular system is disclosed by the present inventors S. Chennakeshu, A. Narasimhan and J. B. Anderson in copending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/753,578, filed Sep. 3, 1991 entitled "Adaptive MSLE-VA Receiver for Digital Cellular Radio." This MLSE-VA technique is related to an approach described by G. Ungerboeck in "Adaptive Maximum Likelihood Receiver for Carrier Modulated Data Transmission Systems", IEEE Trans. Comm., Vol. COM-22, No. 5, pp. 624-636, May 1974, which is incorporated herein by reference. The novel modifications made to this receiver, to render it operational in the mobile channel, include: splitting the front-end matched filter into (a) a fixed transversal filter that is matched to the transmitted signal pulse shape and (b) into an adaptive transversal filter that uses a Complex Fast-Kalman Algorithm to obtain an initial estimate of the channel. The adaptive transversal filter employs a newly derived normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm for signal element updates and for relating an adaptation rate to the decision depth of the Viterbi algorithm. The Complex Fast-Kalman Algorithm described therein is an extension of the type taught by D. Falconer et al. in "Application of Fast Kalman Estimation to Adaptive Equalization", IEEE Trans. Comm. Vol. Com-26, No. 10, pp. 1439-1446, October 1978, which is incorporated herein by reference. The novel extensions made to Falconer's technique provide for use with complex input data and without requiring matrix inversions.
Another MLSE demodulation approach, incorporated herein by reference, is described by G. D. Forney in "Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation of Digital Sequences in the Presence of Intersymbol Interference", IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, Vol. IT-18, pp. 363-378, May 1972. Forney's approach uses the Viterbi algorithm with a squared metric that is based on an assumption that the additive noise in the received signal, at the input to the maximum likelihood sequence estimator, is white and Gaussian. This is accomplished through use of a whitening filter at the input of the maximum likelihood sequence estimator.
Another equalization technique employs an equalizer based on a lattice structure and is disclosed by the present inventors S. Chennakeshu, A. Narasimhan and J. B. Anderson in copending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/753,579, filed Sep. 3, 1991 entitled "Order Recursive Lattice Decision Feedback Equalization For Digital Cellular Radio." This DFE method employs a Least Squares (LS) adaptive algorithm of a type described in the article entitled "Adaptive Lattice Decision-Feedback Equalizers--Their Performance and Application to Time Variant Multipath Channels", by F. Ling and J. G. Proakis, in IEEE Trans. Comm., Vol. COM-33, No. 4, pp. 348-356, April 1985, which is incorporated herein by reference. The lattice DFE is enhanced to make it order recursive through the addition of a stage reduction algorithm.
R. D. Gitlin et al. in an article entitled "Fractionally-Spaced Equalization: An Improved Digital Transversal Filter", Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 275-296, Feb. 1981 describe the use of a fractionally spaced feedforward section of a transversal filter-based DFE to reduce sensitivity to sampling jitter. However, this discussion, incorporated herein by reference, is in the context of microwave and satellite channels and not in the context of a digital cellular radio.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide an improved DFE receiver for a digital cellular radio system that includes digital, mobile and digital trunked radio systems.
Another object of the invention is to provide an adaptive DFE receiver for a digital cellular radio system that is suitable for use with the proposed U.S. cellular radio signal standard.

Decision feedback equalization for digital cellular radio


Disclosed is a process for producing a shelf-stable, pourable fruit product from fresh and processed fruits, fruit purees and fruit juices, as well as the product so produced. The product is produced by a process which intentionally breaks the intact cellular structure of the fruit in order to substantially reduce average fruit particle size and facilitate formation of a complex or matrix of small particles surrounded by fluid. The product so produced has a high level of solid materials but is, due to the very small particle size, essentially free of sedimentation-related problems associated with soluble and suspended solids. The product has a moderate viscosity despite the large solids content and lack of viscosity enhancers, as well as an optimal .degree.Brix without the addition of non-fruit sugar or acid.

In this time of fast-paced living, fast food and health consciousness, there is an ever increasing demand for nutritious, convenient, all natural food products. Although fresh fruit and fruit-based products generally fulfill these requirements, both fresh fruit and processed fruit products suffer disadvantages.
The primary reasons consumers decline to purchase fresh fruit include that the fruit is too expensive, has a distasteful appearance, takes too much time to select and prepare (e.g., wash, cut, peel), is under or overripe, is not always in season, has too-short a shelf life and is of inconsistent quality. Consequently, some consumers purchase processed fruit for better taste and flavor, longer shelf life, ready availability, more consistent quality and price and to minimize the time and energy expended in selecting and preparing it. However, consumers generally see processed fruits as less nutritious and as offering less value and variety than fresh products.
In order to overcome the foregoing and other disadvantages associated with processed fruit products, the prior art teaches that manufacturers of such fruit products usually need to add sugar, viscosity enhancers, flavorings, vitamins and other additives to such products.
Another problem routinely encountered in processed fruit products incorporating fruit solids or fiber is sedimentation or settling of the soluble and insoluble solids to the bottom of the product container under the influence of gravity. Such sedimentation or settling can, among other things, adversely affect the flavor profile of a processed fruit product. For example, settling or sedimentation of soluble sugars in a fruit product, although often visually unnoticeable, can make the product at the bottom of the product container more sweet and the product at the top of the product container less sweet. As a result, the consistency of the product is variable. This, in turn, often leads to customer dissatisfaction and decreased, or at least varying, shelf-life of the product.
What would thus be advantageous is a natural fruit product which is nutritious (e.g., contains substantial fruit solids and fiber from the fruit), ready to use (e.g., pourable, spreadable), shelf-stable (e.g., no product sedimentation or separation due to gravity), lacking the flavor harshness commonly associated with fruit products and free of nonfruit additives such as preservatives, viscosity enhancers and colorings.

Process for producing shelf-stable fruit products by fruit cell fragmentation and products thereby


A radar horn antenna in which, to reduce or remove unnecessary echo from a specific angular range such as ground clutter, divergence in axial direction of a horn antenna 8 accommodated in a casing and covered with a radome is asymmetrical with respect to the axis of the horn antenna so that a maximum radiation direction in a radiation pattern of the horn antenna is deviated from front to another and/or gain in the specific angular range is controlled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radar horn antenna and, more particularly, to a radar horn antenna that is mounted on a vehicle and detects an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, on-vehicle radar used in automatic drive and collision prevention of a vehicle has a disadvantage that it is difficult to detect an echo from a target due to reception of radio waves reflected from a road surface, i.e., due to influence of so-called ground clutter, depending on radiation pattern of a transmission/reception antenna and on how the radar antenna is mounted on the vehicle.
The Japanese Patent Publication (unexamined) No. 2001-201557 proposed a countermeasure to overcome such ground clutter incidental to the on-vehicle radar. In this known countermeasure, the radar antenna transmitting and receiving radio waves is accommodated in a casing for fixing the radar antenna, and a radome (cover) for protecting the radar antenna from hit stone, rain, snow, etc. is disposed at the front side of the radar antenna. The radar sensor constructed as described above is fixed onto the vehicle with a metal bracket. Lower portion of the metal bracket is provided with a shielding member projecting forward from a lower portion of the radar sensor. The shielding member reflects and attenuates side lobe radiated from the radar antenna, and this makes it possible to reduce ground clutter caused by the side lobe.
However, in the conventional on-vehicle radar of foregoing structure, a problem exists in that the radar becomes large and heavy as a whole. Moreover, another problem exists in that any desired radiation pattern is disturbed by radio waves reflected from the shielding member projecting forward at the lower portion of the radar antenna.


Method of treating autistic spectrum disorder includes administration to a person of a product, which contains stable water clusters, such as stable double helix water clusters, by taking the products by mouth, applying the products on a skin of the person, intaking the product by breathing, introducing the products intravenously, etc.

The present invention relates to a method of preventing and treating autistic spectrum disorder.
The number of children that suffer from autistic spectrum disorder is increasing at an alarming rate. However, there is no known cure for it. While the definition of the autistic spectrum disorder implies that it is linked to neurological problems, it was determined that most of the children with autistic spectrum disorder have other problems, such as gastrointestinal problems, and therefore treatment of autistic spectrum disorder as a problem of the brain is too limited. It is therefore believed that it is advisable to develop efficient methods of prevention and treatment of autistic spectrum disorder.

Method of preventing and treating autistic spectrum disorder


A three-frame difference target-tracking system includes at least one processor configured to generate multiple aligned image frames of a scene. The aligned image frames include first, second, and third image frames. The at least one processor is also configured to identify differences between the first image frame and the second image frame, between the second image frame and the third image frame, and between the first image frame and the third image frame. The at least one processor is further configured to identify a direction of movement of a target in the scene based on the identified differences.

Video tracking systems may be used to locate a moving object over time using a camera or other imaging device. These systems have a variety of uses that include human-computer interaction, security and surveillance, video communication and compression, augmented reality, traffic control, medical imaging, and video editing. Video tracking can be processing-intensive due to the amount of data that is contained in video. Adding further to the complexity of video tracking is the possible need to use object recognition techniques for tracking.
Some tracking systems identify moving targets by subtracting background estimates from current frames of video. One problem with these tracking systems is that the background estimates may take many frames to compute and may be corrupted by motion of a target. Another problem with these tracking systems is that they are not suitable for moving platforms because parallax-induced motion affects the background estimates.

Three-frame difference target acquisition and tracking using overlapping target images


A chain pin manufacturing method that requires only one heat treatment step of forming a boundary part composed of (V, Cr) 8C7 by Cr and C in a base material at first through a cementation process in a VCl atmosphere by using Cr-rich steel as the pin base material and of forming a surface layer composed of V8C7. A Cr content in the boundary part decreases gradually toward the base material and the surface layer and the boundary part is not clearly divided. The inventive manufacturing method is simple and enables to manufacture the pin having high abrasion resistance and suitably used in a severe environment like a timing chain.

Generally, a relative revolutionary sliding movement occurs between a pin and a link plate in case of a silent chain and between a pin and a bush in case of a roller chain, thus causing abrasion of the pin. Then, various surface treatments have been implemented on the surface of the pin in order to reduce such abrasion.
Conventionally, as a pin whose surface is treated, there have been known a pin in which a chrome carbide layer is formed on the surface thereof (referred to as a chromizing pin hereinafter) and a pin in which a vanadium carbide layer is formed on the surface thereof (referred to as a VC pin hereinafter). Because there are cases when the chromizing pin causes peeling at the surface of the chrome carbide layer and when the VC pin causes peeling at the boundary surface between the vanadium carbide layer and a base material (raw material of the pin) under a use environment in which high surface pressure is repeatedly applied, it is considered that resistance of chrome carbide to surface pressure is low even though its adhesion (binding quality) with the base material is good and that resistance of vanadium carbide to surface pressure is high even though its adhesion with the base material is low.
Based on the result of the above consideration, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-195356 has proposed a method of forming a chrome carbide layer on the surface of a pin base material made from steel by carrying out a chrome cementation process and of forming, thereon, a mixed layer which is thicker than the above-mentioned chrome carbide layer and which contains vanadium carbide as its main component and a small amount of chrome carbide by carrying out a vanadium cementation process at temperature higher than that of the chrome cementation process for the purpose of improving the abrasion resistance under high surface pressure.
However, the pin proposed as described above has had a problem that because the chrome and vanadium cementation process has to be carried out after carrying out the chrome cementation process at the temperature higher than that of the chrome cementation process, it has been cumbersome and costly to carry out such surface treatments.
Especially, in case of a timing chain or the like to which high surface pressure is applied under a high temperature environment within an engine, the surface pressure resistance of the outermost surface of the pin is not enough as compared to one composed of vanadium carbide (Vx Cy, V8C7 for example) because it is formed of the mixed layer of vanadium carbide and chrome carbide [(V, Cr)xCy, (V, Cr) 8C7 for example]. Thus it may cause peeling on the surface and abrasion thereof may advance with the advance of peeling. Still more, because a clear intermediate layer composed of the chrome carbide layer exists between the chrome and vanadium mixed layer and the steel, i.e., the base material, there is a possibility of causing peeling at the boundary surfaces between the intermediate layer and the mixed layer, i.e., the upper layer thereof, and between the intermediate layer and the steel base material, i.e., the lower layer thereof, causing quick abrasion as a result.

Pin for chain and method for manufacture thereof


The invention relates to macrophages which have at least one of the following properties: their cytotoxic activity without IFN-.gamma. is increased by about 20 to 30% with respect to standard macrophages, and is preferably of about 70%; their cytotoxic activity with IFN-.gamma. is increased by about 20 to about 40% with respect to standard macrophages, and is preferably of about 93%; the extension of the deactivation of the cytotoxic activity in reply to an activation of IFN-.gamma. is in a ratio such that after 60 h of activation with IFN-.gamma., the cytotoxic activity is higher than or equal to 30%, preferably of about 55%, compared to the maximum cytotoxic activity presented by the macrophages due to IFN-.gamma. activation, with said cytotoxic activity being measured as the percentage of inhibition of 3-H thymidine incorporation by target tumoral cells, particularly U 937 cells.

Cytotoxic leukocytes (NK, T lymphocytes, monocytes-macrophages) are potent effectors in the host defense against tumors. In vitro expansion and enhancement of the tumoricidal potential of autologous effector cells and their subsequent reinfusion into the host are currently being used in local or systemic adoptive immunotherapy (Rosenberg et al.: Progress report on the treatment of 157 patients with advanced cancer using LAK cells and IL2 or IL3 alone. N. Engl. J. Med. 316: 889, 1990; Rosenberg et al.: Use of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and IL2 in the immunotherapy of patients with metastatic melanoma. N. Engl. J. Med. 319: 1676, 1990; Lacerna et al.: Adoptive cancer immunotherapy utilizing lymphokine activated killer cells and IFN-.gamma. activated killer lymphocytes. Pharm. Ther. 38: 453, 1988).
Macrophages play a central role in the antitumoral response and can be activated against neoplastic cells by immunopotentiators (Adams D. and Hamilton T.: Activation of macrophages for tumor cell kill: effector mechanism and regulation. In Heppner & Fulton (eds), Macrophages and cancer. CRC Press, 1988, p. 27; Fidler I.: Macrophages and metastases. A biological approach to cancer therapy. Cancer Res. 45: 4714, 1985).
In murine models, it has been demonstrated that activated macrophages given locally in the tumor inhibited tumor growth and decreased metastatic development (Bartholeyns et al.: Immunotherapy of cancer: experimental approach with activated macrophages proliferating in culture. Cancer Detect. & Prev. 12: 413, 1988; Chokri et al.: Antitumoral effect of LPS, TNF, IFN and activated macrophages: synergism and tissue distribution. Anticancer Res. 9: 1185, 1989). Human monocytes isolated from blood could be differentiated in vitro into macrophages by a 7 day culture in hydrophobic bags (Chokri et al.: Antitumoral effects of LPS, TNF, IFN, and activated macrophages: synergism and tissue distribution. Anticancer Res. 9: 1185, 1989). After incubation in the presence of IFN-.gamma., these macrophages became activated and tumoricidal, (Macrophages activated killer=MAK) for a number of human tumors in vitro or for tumors engrafted in nude mice (Andreesen et al.: Surface phenotype analysis of human monocytes to macrophages differentiation. J. Leuk. Biol. 47; 490, 1990; Dumont et al.: Control of the antitumoral activity of human macrophages produced in large amount in view of adoptive transfer. Eur. J. Cancer 24: 1691, 1988).
Adoptive transfer of MAK has undergone phase I clinical trials by different investigators in Strasbourg, Freiburg and Paris for patients with metastatic cancer infused systematically or intraperitoneally with 10.sup.8 to 2.times.10.sup.9 autologous MAK (Andreesen et al.: Adoptive transfer of tumor cytotoxic macrophages generated in vitro from circulating monocytes: a new approach to cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Res. 50: 7450, 1990; Bartholeyns et al. Adoptive immunotherapy of solid tumors with activated macrophages: experimental and clinical results. Anticancer Res. 11: 1201, 1991; Lopez et al.: One step separation by elutriation of monocytes from leukapheresis products of cancer patients for production of IFN-.gamma. activated macrophages in view of adoptive immunotherapy. J. Immunotherapy, 11: 209, 1992; Faradji et al.: Phase I trial of IV infusion of ex-vivo activated blood derived macrophages in patient with non small cell lung cancer: toxicity and immunomodulatory effects. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 33: 319, 1991).
The clinical tolerance was excellent with minor side effects such as low grade fever and chills. The maximal tolerated dose could not be attained due to the limited number of MAK generated from one cytapheresis.
The recovery of larger quantities of MAK is therefore a need for optimal antitumoral efficacy in clinical trials and in therapy.
The macrophages prepared thus far in the conventional culture medium are obtained in a yield which is less than about 40%.
However, the need for macrophages presenting a higher cytotoxic activity is present in order to increase the efficacy in vivo and, subsequently, to delay the next macrophage administration.

Macrophages, process for preparing the same and their use as active substances of pharmaceutical compositions


Points accumulated through a customer's purchase from a point service provider are kept track of by customer information databases in corresponding point service provider servers. A user uses user terminals to access a trade service provider, and receives various services, for example, point trading and point cash, offered by the trade service provider. The trade service provider accesses, as appropriate, the point service provider servers, so that the user's accumulated points are checked or updated. In this manner, the user can effectively use his/her points with no waste, and accordingly the point service system can be improved in its effective use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to point service systems and, more specifically, to point service systems for providing customers with various services over a network in accordance with their acquired points.
2. Description of the Background Art
Point services have been popularly offered by shops to their customers. The customers acquire points in accordance with their purchases, and their points are accumulated to exchange for any particular gifts. Such point services are varying in type, and the customers' acquired points may be recorded on point cards which are handed to the customers at whatever shop offering point services. The points may also be stored in a database on a customer basis, and the shops notify, as appropriate, their customers of how many points they have acquired so far.
With such point services, the customers have the merit of obtaining various gifts by regularly doing their shopping at specific shops. On the other hand, the shops can feel assured that their offering point services encourage customers to visit them again, leading to an increase in their sales.
Some point services set expiration dates. In such a case, once an expiration date has been passed, the corresponding points will be useless. Accordingly, if the expiration date is getting close, the customers feel prompted to make purchases at the corresponding shop to acquire some more points to exchange those for any desired gifts. This will also lead to an increase in sales.
Such conventional point services, however, do not work effectively enough if the customers make purchases at shops where they hardly visit, during a trip, for example. If the resultant points are not enough to exchange for any gifts, the points will be wasted.
Moreover, as to point services with expiration dates set, the points will be also wasted if there are not enough, even a few points, to exchange for any desired gifts before their expiration date. If the customers do not want to waste their points, they have no choice but to exchange those for any other gift available for the points. If there is no available gift, the points will be totally wasted.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A suction fitted garment is disclosed. There is provided a garment for water-related activities, said garment including a body shaped to fit a wearer and a pump mounted to the body for operation out of water and underwater to remove the air and water trapped between the body and the wearer and to generate a vacuum between the body and the wearer. Generating a vacuum between the body and the wearer provides a close fit to the wearer, whereby said close fit enhances the wearer's tactile sensitivity through the body.

Wetsuits and booties are typically used by water-goers when engaging in water-related activities, such a scuba diving, snorkeling, surfing, sailing, kite surfing, surf skiing, wind surfing, canoeing, kayaking, jet skiing or any other application where wet-quits, and the like are used.
In the course of these activities, but particularly with surfing, air and water becomes trapped between the wet-quit, booties, or other similar such garments and the wearer's body. While the trapped air and water provides an insulative layer due to being heated by the wearer's body heat, the trapped air and water separate the wearer's body from the wet-quit, bootie or other similar such garment.
In this manner the trapped air and water act as a cushion to diminish the wearer's tactile sensitivity through the wet-quit, bootie or other similar such garment. This reduced sensitivity deprives the wearer of information, or feel, which would otherwise be available if the wet-quit, bootie or other similar such garment were closely fitted to the wearer. In surfing, for example, the cushioning effect may reduce a surfer's information feedback from their surfboard on the board handling and wave conditions and ability to balance and move on and around the surfboard.
In relation to the close fitting of snow ski boots to a wearer's feet to improve feel while snow skiing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,338, to George et. al, uses pumps to evacuate air from a rigid ski boot and to generate a vacuum within the boot such that the soft boot liner fits closely to the wearer's foot. Similar vacuum fitting boots are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,022 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,986.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms any part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other jurisdiction.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a garment having improved tactile sensitivity.


A crop bucket having an aux-bail release mechanism wherein movement of the chains is restrained such that an auxiliary hook actuating the release mechanism can do so in a smooth and controlled manner from a variety of angles and positions, while reducing or eliminating bucket roll from offset pulling. The release mechanism can include a carriage configured to translate along at least a portion of a mast and operatively connected to first and second clamshell portions such that movement of the carriage away results in rotation of the clamshell portions toward the open position.

Clamshell buckets are often used for transporting bulk and/or heavy materials within factories and other facilities. Clamshell buckets are also used in other settings as well. Such buckets generally have a bottom comprised of two clamshell portions that can be selectively pivoted away from each other to dump the contents of the bucket.
In one application, a clamshell bucket may be employed as a scrap bucket (also referred to as a crop bucket) in a casting operation for collecting and transporting of crops and/or other scrap material. Crops are generally deposited into the crop bucket in a random fashion which can often result in uneven loading of the crop bucket. Once full, the crop bucket can be lifted and transported to an unloading location by a crane having a main hook and an auxiliary hook. The main hook is used to lift and transport the crop bucket, and the auxiliary hook is used to actuate a release mechanism of the crop bucket configured to move the two clamshell portions of the crop bucket to a dumping position.
Typical release mechanisms rely on chains or cables connected to the clamshell portions of the crop bucket. The auxiliary hook is used to lift the chains via a chain support (also called an aux-bail) to thereby cause the clamshell portions to pivot away from each other thereby dumping the contents of the crop bucket. Prior art crop buckets can present challenges for safe and smooth operation in situations where the crop bucket is not loaded evenly, or in installations where the auxiliary hook imposes a rotating force to the crop bucket during actuation of the release member. The latter condition may occur, for example, when the auxiliary and main hooks of the crane are in a position 90 degrees from the axis about which the clamshell portions are configured to pivot, and/or when the auxiliary hook otherwise applies tension to the release mechanism along a vector that is not aligned to produce efficient rotation of each clamshell portion about its respective axis of rotation about which it pivots between a closed position and an open position.

Clamshell bucket with aux-bail carriage assembly


A carrier injected dynamic random access memory is defined. A depletion region adjacent to a source/drain region of a transistor is used as a storage cell in a memory array, and logic levels may then be measured by sensing the conductive portion. A low logic level is stored by a reduced formation of the depletion adjacent the conductive portion. These logic levels are sensed and periodically refreshed by conduction through the access device. The logic levels may be read by measuring potential through the access device, or by measuring punch through voltage between the source/drain region and a nearby conductive region. As the level of injected carriers increases, the punch through also increases. A punch through results in a readable increase in current through the access device, thereby providing an indicia of a in logic level.

The invention uses various materials which are electrically either conductive, insulating or semiconducting, although the completed semiconductor circuit device itself is usually referred to as a "semiconductor". The invention refers to a method of controlling addressed devices, and is not restricted to implementations which involve memory devices or semiconductor devices.
An electronic circuit is chemically and physically integrated into a substrate such as a silicon wafer by patterning regions in the substrate, and by patterning layers on the substrate. These regions and layers can be conductive, for conductor and resistor fabrication. They can also be of differing conductivity types, which is essential for transistor and diode fabrication. Degrees of resistance, capacitance, or conductivity are controllable, as are the physical dimensions and locations of the patterned regions and layers, making circuit integration possible.
In this disclosure, "n type material" denotes silicon that has been doped with atoms having more than four valence electrons (group V or higher), such as arsenic or phosphorous which introduce negatively charged majority carriers into the silicon, and "p type material" denotes silicon doped with atoms having less than four valence electrons (group III or lower), such as boron, which introduce positively charged majority carriers. The majority charge carrier type is also referred to as conductivity type. A plus or minus superscript on an n or p indicates heavy or light doping, respectively. "Poly" denotes polycrystalline silicon.
In a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a plurality of cells consisting of capacitors are each connected to respective access devices. The access device is usually a field effect transistor, and is used to conduct current between the capacitor and address circuitry, in order to charge the capacitor to a logic level and to read that charge.
The memory cells of dynamic random access memories are comprised of two main components: a field-effect transistor (FET) and a capacitor. In DRAM cells utilizing a conventional planar capacitor, far more chip surface area is dedicated to the planar capacitor than to the field-effect transistor. The gate of the FET and an interconnect word line are formed from an etched polycrystalline silicon layer. The FET has source and gate connections to bit line and word line connections. The capacitor has a lower plate formed from an n+ silicon substrate. The upper capacitor plate is formed from a layer of polycrystalline silicon, and is electrically insulated from upper plate by a dielectric layer.
Planar capacitors have generally proven adequate for use in DRAM chips up to the one-megabit level, but appear to be unusable beyond the one-megabit DRAM level when constructed with conventional dielectric materials. As component density in memory chips has increased, the shrinkage of cell capacitor size has resulted in a number of problems. Firstly, the alpha-particle component of normal background radiation will generate hole-electron pairs in the n+ silicon substrate plate of a cell capacitor. This phenomena will cause the charge within the affected cell capacitor to rapidly dissipate, resulting in a "soft" error. Secondly, the sense-amp differential signal is reduced. This aggravates noise sensitivity and makes it more difficult to design a sense-amp having appropriate signal selectivity. Thirdly, as cell capacitor size is decreased, the cell refresh time must generally be shortened, thus requiring more frequent interruptions for refresh overhead. The difficult goal of a DRAM designer is therefore to increase or, at least, maintain cell capacitance as cell size shrinks, without resorting to processes that reduce product yield or that markedly increase the number of masking and deposition steps in the production process.
Several methods for providing adequate cell capacitance in the face of shrinking cell size are either in use or under investigation. Basically, the efforts fall into two categories. Efforts within the first category are aimed at creating complex three-dimensional capacitors; those within the second are aimed at improving the dielectric of the planar capacitor.
The three-dimensional technique currently receiving the most attention involves the creation of "trench" capacitors in the cell substrate. The trench is employed to provide greater plate area, and hence, greater capacitance. The lower plate and upper plates are still insulated with a dielectric layer, but these layers are arranged vertically, when viewed in cross section with the substrate horizontal. DRAM chips employing trench capacitors have been built by a number of European, Japanese and U.S. companies, including Texas Instruments Inc., Nippon Electric Company, Toshiba, Matsuchita and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. There are several problems inherent in the trench design, not the least of which is trench-to-trench capacitive charge leakage which is the result of a parasitic transistor effect between trenches. Another problem is the difficulty of completely cleaning the capacitor trenches during the fabrication process; failure to completely clean a trench will generally result in a defective cell.
Another three-dimensional technique, which is being used by Mitsubishi Electric Company, Hitachi, and Fujitsu Ltd., is the stacking of capacitor plates between dielectric layers on the DRAM cell surface. Both the lower plate and the upper plate are made from n-type polycrystalline silicon layers and are separated by a dielectric layer and arranged in a high-profile cell which requires more stringent process control for the connection of bit line to FET source. The capacitor thus formed also fails to use the n+ silicon substrate extension of FET drain as a plate of capacitor.
Alternatively, other schemes involve the use of ferroelectric materials for DRAM cell capacitor dielectrics. Since ferroelectric materials have a dielectric constant more than 100 times that of silicon oxides, the use of such materials has the potential for allowing the size of the DRAM-cell capacitor to be shrunk to one of the smaller cell elements without resorting to three-dimensional structures. Critics of ferroelectric materials point out that such materials suffer from a "wearout" mechanism. In addition, they warn that there are many chemical incompatibilities with the other materials used in integrated circuit fabrication and that the layering of ferroelectric films within integrated circuit structures has not yet been done successfully.
Since the capacitor is very small on a high density DRAM, the cell must be frequently refreshed. This is done by reading the stored logic level in that cell before the logic level is lost through leakage current, followed by rewriting the same value into the cell.
The capacitors consist of conductors separated by dielectric material. The capacitor, despite its small size, must therefore maintain a significant surface area of these conductors and dielectric material in order to store enough charge to provide enough potential and current to be read. Of course, larger capacitors consume more current when charged. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a dynamic random access memory which does not require the use of capacitors for storage of memory logic levels.
In the operation of a field effect transistor, such as a MOSFET, an electrical charge on an electron gate is used to induce a change in electric charge carriers in a semiconductor material, beneath the gate, between source and drain regions. This change changes the conductive status of the semiconductor material beneath the gate. In that manner, an electric potential applied to the gate can modulate current flow across the semiconductor beneath the gate, between the source and drain.
The application of potential to a portion of a semiconductor creates depletion depth region, which is essentially a "hot zone" of injected depletions surrounding that portion of the semiconductor which is charged to the potential.
It is possible to use such a depletion region of a semiconductor as a storage cell in a memory array. The depletion region is charged through a conductive region, such as a source/drain area of a transistor. When the depletion region is used in this manner, logic levels may then be measured by sensing the conductive region.
A high logic level is stored by the formation of the depletion region by causing the region under the conductive portion to be injected with carriers which are injected by a charge potential at the conductive portion. A low logic level is stored by a reduced formation of the depletion under the conductive portion. These logic levels are sensed and periodically refreshed by conduction through the access device.
In an initial concept, the depletion region was located in a semiconductor substrate below source/drain areas of transistors. The source/drain areas were also implanted into the substrate. A doped substrata was located subjacent the depletion region. When a charge is applied to the substrata, current would pass to the source/drain areas if the depletion region is not already charged. This results in an increased voltage level in the cell if the cell had previously had a reduced charge. The preferred location for the substrata was within the substrate, which means that addressing of portions of an array is difficult. This also means that a large portion of the semiconductor device must be brought to an elevated voltage. The formation of the substrata was accomplished by increasing the depth of an implant (such as phosphorous implant) under or through an active area, so that the dopant density profile ("dopant density") peaks are significantly separate in depth, preferably 0.6 microns or more.
In that configuration the depletion layer is located between an area of a substrate which is rendered conductive by doping and a substrata consisting of a doped level below the surface of a substrate. The storage cell is read by measuring potential through the access device, or by measuring punch through voltage between the substrata and the access device. As the level of injected carriers increases, the punch through also increases. A punch through results in a readable increase in current through the access device, thereby providing an indicia of a change in logic level.
The reading of storage cells by causing a punch through to occur means that the read operation will reverse the charge of the cell. Therefore, all cells which are subjected to the charge across the depletion area must be refreshed, or the inversion of the logic levels be otherwise accounted for.
One modification included differentially doping source/drain regions of the access device. This reduces the depletion region on an address line side of the access device and increase the depletion region on the opposite side of the access device, where the injected carriers corresponding to logic levels were stored.

Carrier injection dynamic random access memory having stacked depletion region in Mesa


The invention, in some aspects relates to synthetic, light-activated fusion proteins and their encoding polynucleotide molecules. In some aspects the invention additionally includes expression of the light-activated fusion proteins in cells and their use in methods such as therapeutic methods and candidate compound screening methods.

The recently emerged framework of optogenetic technology combines optical and genetic tools to use light for controlling the activity of electrically excitable cell in a cell-targeted, cell-autonomous with millisecond temporal resolution (Miesenböck, G., (2009) Science 326, 395-399). Some technologies rely on chemical means through direct targeting of endogenous channels and receptors with caged signaling molecules, such as glutamate that are biologically inert until they become uncaged by the application of a light pulse. (Zemelman et al., (2003) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100, 1352-1357; and Ellis-Davies, G. C. R., (2007) Nat Methods 4, 619-628). These reagents do not allow for consecutive stimulation, they have little cellular specificity and force the researcher to target the treated brain regions based on anatomical rather than function considerations. Several groups have pioneered the use of photoisomerizable groups and reverse-engineered ion channels as light-controlled switches for vastly improved specificity and cycling properties (Banghart, M. et al., (2004) Nat Neurosci 7, 1381-1386; and Volgraf, M. et al., (2006) Nat Chem Biol 2, 47-52). While promising, the need for access to chemical expertise has hindered the widespread adoption of these reagents. However, most optogenetic technology takes the form of genetically encoded photoreceptors, microbial opsins such as Channelrhodopsin and Halorhodopsin that conduct or pump ions in a light-dependent manner and can be used without exogenously added chemical. Microbial opsins are not ion selective; they can therefore not be used to modulate a cell's K+ independently from Na+ conductance. They also do not allow the modulation of endogenous channels with analog precision.
Peptide neurotoxins and endogenous neuropeptides work by binding with extraordinarily high affinity and specificity to receptors in animal targets, that most of the time are proteins critical in neuronal signaling and muscle contraction. Because of this high affinity and specificity, peptide toxins have been used to identify and purify various receptors and channels, and are useful in study signaling pathways. Venomous animals produce biomolecule libraries that have evolved to paralyze prey by perturbing ion channel homeostasis. One major constituent of animal venoms are small peptide ligands, which are instrumental in ion channel research and have allowed scientists to probe the function of one of the most complex biological machines, the brain (Olivera, B. M., (1997) Mol Biol Cell 8, 2101-2109; Harvey, A. L., (2001) Toxicon 39, 15-26; Blumenthal, K. M. and Seibert, A. L., (2003) Cell Biochem Biophys 38, 215-238; Corzo, G. and Escoubas, P., (2003) Cell Mol Life Sci 60, 2409-2426; Nirthanan, S., and Gwee, M. C. E., (2004) J. Pharmacol. Sci. 94, 1-17; Terlau, H. and Olivera, B. M., (2004) Physiol Rev 84, 41-68; Koh, D. C. I. et al., (2006) Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 63, 3030-3041; and Kini, R. M. and Doley, R., (2010) Toxicon 56, 855-867). Toxins that target ion channels block either ion conduction through the channel pore or allosterically affect the channel's gating properties; however, their activity cannot be controlled by light.

Light-activated fusion proteins and uses therefor


A portable telephone comprises: a battery pack detachable from a portable telephone body, the battery pack including: a recess in a head section thereof; a hook formed in a bottom section thereof; and a back protrusion on the back of said head section, the portable telephone body includes: a bottom recess engageable with said hook; a slide pawl engageable with said recess in the head section of the battery pack; and a slide protrusion which is integral with the slide pawl, and which, when the slide pawl is slid, is slid and brought into contact with the back protrusion, thereby to forcibly push the head of the battery pack out of the electronic device.

This invention relates to battery pack removing device, and more particularly to a battery pack removing device which is used to mount a battery pack in or detach the same from a small radio terminal unit such as a portable telephone set.
FIGS. 8 and 9 show the relation between the body of a conventional portable telephone set and a conventional battery pack. More specifically, FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a battery pack 50 mounted in a portable telephone set body 10, and FIG. 9 is also a perspective view showing only the portable telephone set body 10.
The battery pack 50 is mounted in the portable telephone set body 10 as follows: With the hooks of the battery pack 50 fitted in recesses formed in the bottom section of the portable telephone set body 10, the battery pack 50 is pushed into the portable telephone set body 10 while being swung towards the latter 10. As a result, the head section of the battery pack 50 is brought into contact with the sloped surface of the slide pawl 21 of the slide knob 20 of the telephone set body 10, thus pushing down the slide pawl 21. Hence, the slide pawl 21 of the slide knob 20 of the portable telephone set body 10 is engaged with a recess formed in the head section of the battery pack 50. Thus, the battery pack 50 has been mounted in the portable telephone set body 10. The portable telephone set body 10 has right and left side walls which are confronted with each other, and the inner surfaces thereof have protrusions 32. On the other hand, the battery pack 50 has right and left side walls on which protrusions are formed, respectively, so that they are engaged with the protrusions 32 of the side walls of the portable telephone set body 10, which prevents the play of the battery pack 50 with respect to the portable telephone set body 10.
The portable telephone set body 10 has power source spring terminals 40, and in correspondence to those terminals 40 the battery pack 50 has power source terminals. The power source terminals are brought into contact with power source spring terminals 40, so that current is allowed to flow to the portable telephone set body 10.
The battery pack 50 is detached from the portable telephone set body 10 as follows: The slide knob 20 of the portable telephone set body 10 is slid; that is, the slide pawl 21 is slid, thus disengaging from the battery pack 50. The latter 50 is moved upwardly by the elastic force of the power source spring terminals 40. Hence, by holding the protrusions 65 (which are formed on the outer surfaces of the right and left side walls of the battery pack) with the fingers, the battery pack 50 can be removed from the portable telephone set body.
In the case of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-330687/(1997), 10-70595/(1998), or 10-144274/(1998), the battery pack is pushed upwardly with a push-up member or the like, so as to be removed from the portable telephone set body.
As was described above, the conventional battery pack 50 is pushed upwardly by the elastic force of the power source spring terminals 40; however, the elastic force is not strong enough. Hence, in order to remove the battery pack 50 from the telephone set body 10, it is necessary to use the protrusions 65 formed on the right and left side walls of the battery pack 50; that is, it is necessary to hold the protrusions 65 with the fingers and to pull the battery pack 50 upwardly. Therefore, it is rather difficult to remove the battery pack 50, and during the use of the portable telephone set those protrusions obstructs the operation of the portable telephone set. In addition, the protrusions spoil the external appearance of the portable telephone set as a whole.
As was described above, the battery pack may be pushed upwardly with the push-up member or the like. However, in this case, the portable telephone set is intricate in structure, and large in the number of manufacturing steps, and accordingly high in manufacturing cost, and difficult in miniaturization.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to eliminate the above-described difficulties accompanying a conventional portable telephone set. More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a battery pack removing device which is simple in structure and with which the battery pack is readily and positively mounted in or detached from the portable telephone set body.
In order to solve the above-described problems, a battery pack removing device is provided which, according to the invention, has a slide protrusion which is formed on an electronic device such as a portable telephone set. The slide protrusion is integral with a slide pawl which is engageable with a recess formed in the head section of a battery pack. When the slide pawl is slid, the slide protrusion is brought into contact with the protrusion formed on the back of the battery pack, so that the head section of the battery pack is forcibly pushed out of the electronic device, whereby the battery pack can be removed from the electronic device with ease.
With the battery pack removing device, the side protrusions are eliminated which are formed on the conventional battery pack to mount the latter in the electronic device or to detach the same from the latter. That is, the battery pack removing device is simple in structure. And yet the battery pack mounting or detaching operation can be positively achieved with ease.
According to the present invention, it is provided a battery pack removing device for removing from an electronic device a battery pack which has a recess in a head section thereof, and a hook formed in a bottom section thereof, and a back protrusion on the back of the head section, and which is separable from the electronic device; in which the electronic device includes: a bottom recess engageable with the hook, a slide pawl engageable with the recess in the head section of the battery pack, and a slide protrusion which is integral with the slide pawl, and which, when the slide pawl is slid, is slid and brought into contact with the back protrusion, thereby to forcibly push the head of the battery pack out of the electronic device.
With the device, the slide protrusion of the electronic device body pushes the back protrusion of the battery pack upwardly, so that the battery pack is positively pushed upwardly.
According to the present invention, it is provided a portable telephone comprises: a battery pack detachable from a portable telephone body, the battery pack including: a recess in a head section thereof; a hook formed in a bottom section thereof; and a back protrusion on the back of said head section, the portable telephone body includes: a bottom recess engageable with said hook; a slide pawl engageable with said recess in the head section of the battery pack; and a slide protrusion which is integral with the slide pawl, and which, when the slide pawl is slid, is slid and brought into contact with the back protrusion, thereby to forcibly push the head of the battery pack out of the electronic device.
With the device, the slide protrusion of the portable telephone set body pushes the back protrusion of the battery pack upwardly, so that the battery pack is positively pushed upwardly.

Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd.


A tubular knitted fabric is guided over a first rotatably arranged system of squeezing roller pairs and is then squeezed out, during a simultaneous continuous pulling off of the fabric, by a second system of squeezing rollers cooperating with the first system. The creation of edge markings is thereby completely prevented. An apparatus for the squeezing out process has a first system of rotatably arranged squeezing roller pairs which is held inside of the tubular fabric front the outside thereof and which has an adjustable outer periphery and a second system of rotatably arranged squeezing rollers also held on the outside of the tubular fabric. The second system is adapted to the periphery of the first system of squeezing roller pairs. Both systems cooperate with each other.

It is necessary to carry out the squeezing of the tubular fabric in an exactly defined manner during dyeing of the fabric with active dyes, in order to achieve a flawless product quality, that is to say, dyeing quality.
After squeezing by the generally known squeezing devices, wherein the tubular textile material strip is guided through two motorized squeezing rollers, one of which is rotatably mounted in a fixed position on the machine frame and the other of which is mounted to be adjustable relative to the first, two-ply flat tubular-fabric always has edge-markings. More specifically, the edge of the two-ply, flat tubular-fabric is deformed when squeezing rollers with relatively hard surfaces are used, while the squeezing effect is diminished if the rollers have a relatively soft surface. A portion of the refining solution that has been squeezed out of the tubular fabric, thereby flows along both sides of the two-ply, flat tubular-fabric back into the edge area of the fabric after the fabric has left the squeezing roller groove. This leads to qualitatively varying results in the removal of the refining solution across the width of the fabric. This means, for example, that in the center of the fabric the refining solution is almost completely removed, while undesired refining solution is still found in the edges, that is, in the bent edge. Thus, fabrics with a poor wettability have light edge-markings, while fabrics with a good wettability have darker markings.
Various efforts have been made to overcome the above problem which adversely affects the fabric quality. According to German Patent Publication (DE-OS) 3,619,922, a method of dyeing tubular fabrics and an apparatus to carry out the known method are described, which aim at reliably avoiding a permanent edge-marking even with hard to process materials and even when the recipe of the reaction dye is not optimally set.
It is shown in the DE-OS 3,619,922 that the edge-markings which form in the fabric during padding are displaced after said padding, and that after this displacement of the edge-markings, but before the cold dwelling time, the fabric is squeezed again. The apparatus to carry out the known method is only sketchily described. The construction of the apparatus for displacing the edge markings and for squeezing the tubular fabric is not described in detail.
German Patent Publication (DE-OS) 3,600,559 discloses an apparatus for wet processing continuously moving tubular fabric, which has for its aim the forming of the tubular fabric in such a way that all edge markings resulting from the squeezing out process are avoided and so that an especially uniform fabric output is achieved. To achieve this aim, it is suggested that a tubular spreader with a circular cross-section that reaches into the edge markings on both sides and spreads the fabric out, is provided along the right and left edges downstream of the squeezing rollers as viewed in the motion direction of the fabric. Each ring of the tubular spreader should thereby cooperate with a pressure roller lying on the outside, in such a way that the edge marking of the tubular fabric between the respective ring and pressure roller becomes equalized. However, this solution in the DE-OS 3,600,559 does not offer the possibility of generally avoiding edge markings altogether during wet processing of tubular fabric.
European Patent EP 0,166,316 describes a method for the removal of edge-markings in tubular knitted fabric and an apparatus for carrying out the method, whereby the edge-markings resulting from the squeezing-out effect during the dyeing of the tubular knitted fabric should be avoided altogether. According to European Patent EP 0,166,316 this is achieved in that the stitched fabric is inflated like a balloon by means of steam and then laid flat again at least once during the fixing of the applied dye. An apparatus to carry out the known method has at least one nozzle for inflating the stitched fabric, attached between the dipping trough and the guide rollers which guide the tubular fabric.

Method for avoiding edge-markings in tubular knitted fabrics and apparatus for carrying out the method


Systems and methods of microsuture training include receiving an image or video of a suture; extracting features of the suture from the image or video; scoring the suture based on the extracted features of the suture and based on a rating and complexity of the suture to determine a quality of the suture in an objective manner. A suture training system includes a suture training apparatus configurable with a plurality of orientations of simulated or actual tissue to simulate natural anatomical orientations encountered in actual surgery, wherein the plurality of simulated tissue orientations are objective based on fiducial markings on the suture training apparatus; and an image analysis system configured to receive an image or video of a suture performed on the suture training apparatus; extract features of the suture from the image or video; score the suture.

There is a set of basic surgical moves, which, when sequenced forms a surgical procedure. A fundamental difference between surgical procedures is the orientation of the surgical target upon which basic surgical moves are performed. For example, anastomosis is a key surgical procedure used in establishing continuity in the blood vessels. It consists of a series of steps to suture a vessel or a nerve, starting from grasping the tool, entering the tissue, exiting and tying the knot. However, depending on the orientation of the vessel, the basic movements become more complex. The practice of the surgical tasks such as tool grasping and suture placement is important so is practicing them in different anatomical orientations encountered in surgery. The practice of these surgical moves in natural anatomical positions improves surgery training.
Medical, dental and veterinary students, as well as more experienced doctors, dentists and veterinarians, learning new surgical techniques, must undergo extensive training before they are optimally qualified to perform surgery. It would be advantageous for students and medical personnel to obtain as much hands-on experience as possible, operating on actual or simulated body structures when learning surgical procedures. These skills are generally learned by observation and didactic instruction from an accomplished surgeon tutor. Learning of these basic skills can be enhanced by viewing video presentations of procedure-specific instructions. Such practice can shorten the learning curve in the operating room.
For example, a student may perform procedures on human cadavers or animals. Both are expensive. In addition, unnecessary surgery on animals is resisted for ethical and legal reasons. Moreover, objective assessment of surgical skill is difficult on animals or cadaver. A surgeon may be trained to a new surgical procedure, but the amount of training time is very insufficient to perfect the practice. Moreover, the training needs to be continuous to sustain the skill. Therefore, even practicing surgeons need a tool to train them outside the operating room. It is observed that an experienced surgeon makes, the less amount of and less number of movements to complete a surgical procedure, resulting less trauma of the surrounding tissue and improved healing time.
Presently, there exists virtual and non-virtual simulators on which to practice surgical skills. Most virtual simulators rely on sophisticated haptic sensors and software integrated with large computer systems that are immobile and often extremely expensive. Teaching institutions that can afford them are usually only able to purchase a limited quantity. Therefore, students often have restricted access and limited times to practice surgical techniques using virtual simulators. In addition, virtual simulators are used for more specialized and complex surgery techniques. For example, endoscopic vessel harvesting systems which are made to model a specific procedure are available. In these specialized prior-art systems, a specific procedure, for example, harvesting of the saphenous vein is modelled. Hence it cannot be adapted to practice newer surgery techniques since it does not teach the basic surgical skills. Basic surgical skills include cutting, knot-tying techniques, suturing techniques, dissection, clamping, clipping, grasping, ligating, cannulation, stapling, cauterization, and suture cutting, among others.
Repetitive practice of these skills is necessary to achieve competency and subsequent mastery characterized by rapidity, automaticity, and delicacy. Coordinated motions of both hands to move and stabilize tissues with the non-dominant hand and precise cutting, clamping, or suturing by the dominant hand are characteristic of most basic surgical tasks. A surgical simulation system ideally should provide facility to practice these basic skills.
Though there are some training tools and kits available, the effectiveness of such training tools are limited due to the disparity between the actual surgery and the surgery training. For example, Lumely's practice block allows synthetic vessels to be placed, divided and sutured for practice. The practice is limited to a 2D orientation and hence is of limited use. In real life surgery, the anatomical orientations are more complex and there is no method for objective analysis of the quality of the suturing.
Many other existing practice systems focus on providing real life simulations such as blood flow, but do not focus on improving surgeon's skills to manipulate the tools under anatomical orientations that restrict surgeon's movement. Many of the available systems present the simulated tissue in the horizontal plane, such as natural or synthetic specimens prepared and presented in a convenient horizontal plane. For example, latex sheets provided by 'Braun' allow simulation of suturing in various angles, but are limited to the horizontal plane.
A similar device called the anastomosis simulator is marketed by Sharpoint, which uses silicone tubes that simulate vessel anastomosis. It is also limited to simulation in one horizontal plane.
Existing systems ignore the fact that coordinated hand movements are difficult when surgical tissues are oriented in oblique or vertical plane, which is a more natural presentation of the clinical task. Hence, existing surgery training systems do not pose similar type of dexterity challenges as in a real surgery.

Apparatus, method and system for microsurgical suture training


Command reordering in the hub interface unit (HIU) of Enhanced Direct Memory Access (EDMA) functions is described. Without command reordering in the EDMA, commands are issued by the HIU to the peripheral in order of issue. If the higher priority transfers are issued later by the EDMA, the previously issued lower priority transfers would block the higher priority transfers. Command reordering in the HIU causes transfers to be reordered and issued to the peripheral based on their priority. Reordering allows the EDMA and HIU to give due service to high priority transfer requests with decreased weight placed on the order in which the requests were issued.

Current microprocessor designs have emphasized the need to centralize data transfer operations under control of integrated functional units that have been variously called data transfer controllers or enhanced direct memory access (EDMA). This application concerns EDMA designs employing a hub-and-port style architecture. Such EDMAs feature a hub unit, which maintains a queue of transfer requests and provides priority protocol and proper interfacing for the handling of a large number of such requests. Secondly, hub-and-port EDMAs have one or more hub interface units (HIU), each providing a seamless interface between the EDMA hub and its ports. These ports include application units (AU) peripherals.
FIG. 1 illustrates the essentials of a prior art microprocessor system having a CPU 101 and a transfer controller 102 as part of an EDMA 103. The transfer controller 102 is connected to one or more hub-interface-units (HIU) 104, 105, and 106. HIUs 104, 105 and 106 are connected to a plurality of several varieties of application-unit-interface (AUI) functions blocks 107, 108, and 109. A wide variety of application units known more commonly as peripheral units having significant performance ranges and having a variety of functional requirements are shown represented by blocks 117, 118, and 119. Some peripheral units only receive data under control of the EDMA and these have no need to generate data transfer requests. Peripheral unit 117 connected to AU interface 107 is one such peripheral. Other peripheral units, such as PUs 118 and 119, generate and communicate data transfer requests to the transfer controller 102. Inputs 113 and 114 from respective peripheral units 118 and 119 initiate the transfer requests generated in transfer request generator block 111. These transfer requests are passed to the transfer controller 102 via path 112.

Command re-ordering in hub interface unit based on priority


The present disclosure describes techniques of editing a video. The techniques described in the present disclosure comprise converting a to-be-edited video comprising a plurality of frames into an image sequence comprising a plurality of images, wherein a resolution of each image in the image sequence is lower than a resolution of a corresponding frame in the to-be-edited video; generating a script of editing the to-be-edited video based at least in part on selecting and editing at least some of the plurality of images in the image sequence; displaying a preview of editing effects based on the script; and sending the script to a server computing device in response to determining the preview satisfies requirements, wherein the to-be-edited video is processed by the server computing device based on the script of editing the to-be edited video.

At present, various terminal devices are equipped with video editors. A user can use a video editor to edit a video. An editing interface of the video editor is provided editing function item of different editing types, such as adding a filter, adding a special effect or adding a text. The user performs a corresponding video editing effect by searching for a required editing function item in the editing function item.


A system and method for high-quality variable speed playback of audio-visual (A/V) media is provided. The system receives an encoded visual signal and an encoded audio signal. The encoded visual signal is decoded to generate a decoded visual signal and the encoded audio signal is decoded to generate a decoded audio signal. The decoded audio signal is time scale modified to generate a time scale modified audio signal. The decoded visual signal and the time scale modified audio signal are then synchronized for playback at a predefined playback speed. Only partial decoding of the encoded audio signal may be performed to conserve processing power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the decoding and playback of audio-visual (A/V) media.
2. Background
Conventional systems for playing audio-visual (AV) media include analog systems, such as video cassette recorders (VCRs), and digital systems, such as DVD players, personal video recorders (PVRs), set-top boxes, and personal computers (PCs). Many of these conventional systems include functionality that permits a user to play back the visual component of the A/V media in a fast forward or slow motion mode. During these modes of operation, the audio component is typically turned off entirely. In other words, during a fast forward or slow motion mode, the user is permitted to view the visual component at an accelerated or decelerated rate, but is not permitted to hear the audio component at all. This is undesirable from the user standpoint, since the user may be interested in hearing the audio component of the A/V media during fast or slow playback.
This concept will now be illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram 100 showing how a conventional system for playback of A/V media operates to achieve playback at a normal speed. As used in this context, "normal" indicates that the A/V media is not being played back in a fast forward or slow motion mode. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram 200 showing how the conventional system operates during a fast forward or slow motion mode. Both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are intended to be generic in that they describe both analog and digital systems, as well as systems for processing both single channel audio signals as well as multi-channel audio signals.
As shown in FIG. 1, playback at normal speed involves functional blocks 102, 104, 106 and 108. At block 102, the conventional system receives an encoded A/V signal and splits it into an encoded visual signal and an encoded audio signal. At block 104, the conventional system decodes the encoded visual signal at normal speed to generate a decoded visual signal. At block 106, the conventional system decodes the encoded audio signal at normal speed to generate a decoded audio signal. At block 108, the conventional system synchronizes the decoded visual and audio signals with each other and finally plays them back at normal speed.
As shown in FIG. 2, fast or slow playback only involves functional blocks 202, 204, and 206. At block 202, the conventional system receives the encoded A/V signal and extracts an encoded visual signal from it. At block 204, the conventional system decodes the encoded visual signal at a speed factor X, where X is a predefined multiplier of the normal decode/playback rate. Where fast playback is desired, X will be greater than 1, and where slow playback is desired, X will be less than 1. Thus, for example, where X=0.5 playback will be slowed down by a factor of 2 and where X=2 playback is sped up by a factor of 2. At block 206, the conventional system then plays back the decoded visual signal at the desired speed factor X.
As shown by FIG. 2, fast forward or slow motion playback in a conventional system typically provides no audio playback whatsoever. This may be because in a fast forward mode, the rate at which data must be decoded is increased relative to the speed of the fast forward function. Thus, if playback is accelerated by a factor of two, then the rate at which the visual and audio data must be decoded is doubled, if playback is accelerated by a factor of three then the rate at which visual and audio data must be decoded is tripled, and so forth. Consequently, additional processing power must be available to meet these increased decoding demands. Where the audio signal is multi-channel encoded audio, such as Dolby Digital (AC-3) or MPEG multi-channel audio, the system must include significant additional processing power to perform accelerated processing of all of the audio channels. These increased demands for processing power result in an increase in the cost required to implement a system for playing A/V media.
Another difficulty that may arise in attempting to enable audio playback during a fast forward or slow motion mode is synchronizing the audio signal with the visual signal while still achieving high-quality audio playback. For example, simply speeding up or slowing down playback of the audio component to match the speed of the visual component will affect the timbre and pitch of the audio, such that human speech will have a high-pitched "chipmunk"-like quality in a fast forward mode or a low-pitched "sleepy giant"-like quality in a slow motion mode.
It would be beneficial, then, to provide a system for playing A/V media in which the audio component can be played along with the visual component during a fast forward or slow motion mode. It would be further beneficial to provide such a system wherein the audio component played during the fast forward or slow motion mode is of a high quality, such that the timbre and pitch of human speech is not changed. It would be still further beneficial to provide such a system wherein the processing power required for decoding and otherwise processing the audio signal during the fast forward mode or slow motion is minimized, and ideally does not exceed the processing power required for processing the audio signal at a normal playback speed.

System and method for high-quality variable speed playback of audio-visual media


A hose system comprising a generally Y-shaped first hose section having first and second arm members and a faucet-connecting member, the first section further comprised of flexible walls of the first and the second arm joining the faucet-connecting member at a junction, and connectors adapted to the ends of the first arm member, second arm member, and faucet-connecting member removed from the junction for connecting the first section to either a hose or a faucet.

Frequently, a single outside water faucet, to which a single water hose is attachable, is insufficient for a homeowner's needs. More specifically, a homeowner may wish to simultaneously wash the car in the driveway and to water the lawn at the same time. With but a single outlet available, and a single hose, a homeowner would be required to choose one or the other; or the homeowner would have to provide a rigid T-fitting and purchase two separate hoses to run off the T-fitting.
Applicant, however, provides in a unique hose system a Y-shaped water hose that overcomes the limitations of a single outside faucet. More specifically, applicant's bifurcated hose, where a single hose splits into two sections, provides sufficient flexibility to the homeowner to permit the performance of two jobs at once from but a single outside faucet.


A PDP includes a first substrate and a second substrate disposed to face each other, a plurality of address electrodes on the first substrate, a plurality of display electrodes on the second substrate, the display electrodes facing the first substrate and crossing the address electrodes, a first dielectric layer on the second substrate, the display electrodes being between the first dielectric layer and the second substrate, a first protective layer on the dielectric layer, the first protective layer including a low work function material, and a second protective layer on the first protective layer, the second protective layer including a high work function material and openings exposing the first protective layer in regions corresponding to the display electrodes.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a plasma display panel (PDP). More particularly, example embodiments relate to a PDP having high luminance and low power consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PDP is a display device that may display an image by exciting phosphor with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) rays generated by gas discharge in discharge cells. As the PDP enables a wide screen with a high resolution, it has been spotlighted as a future generation flat panel display.
For example, a conventional PDP, e.g., a three electrode surface-discharge type PDP, may include a front substrate with display electrodes, a rear substrate with address electrodes and positioned a predetermined distance from the front substrate, and a dielectric layer on the display electrodes. A space between the front substrate and the rear substrate may be partitioned with barrier ribs into a plurality of discharge cells, and a discharge gas may be injected into the discharge cells. A phosphor layer may be formed on the rear substrate.
A conventional dielectric layer may be covered with a protective layer to minimize impact of charged particles, e.g., minimize or prevent etching and removal of portions of the dielectric layer due to impact of ions during discharge and to prevent electrode short due to metallic material such as Na+. The conventional protective layer may include MgO.
However, the conventional MgO protective layer may insufficiently reduce the discharge initiating voltage, thereby insufficiently reducing power consumption. Further, MgO may be relatively hygroscopic, thereby changing chromaticity of phosphor by the discharge sputtering and reducing luminance of the PDP.

Plasma display panel with improved luminance and low power consumption


An apparatus for fastening a shoelace threaded in a shoe includes a wheel bin having a receptacle on its top surface, a toothed ring inside the receptacle, and protrusions configured for coupling with mating orifices, a winding wheel having a central cylinder with protruding load ribs, a channel for storing shoelace and orifices through which the shoelace is threaded, a pawl ring with ratcheted ends that engage the toothed ring, a base including a curved surface and a receptacle having mating orifices for coupling with the protrusions of the wheel bin, a screw cap configured for placement on top of the wheel bin, the screw cap having a ring structure configured for coupling with the protruding load ribs of the winding wheel, wherein when the screw cap is rotated, the winding wheel tightens the shoelace and stores excess length of shoelace in the channel.

With a history dating back over 5,500 years, the evolution of shoes, and consequentially shoelaces, is made up of a robust portfolio of ideas and concepts thought to improve the shoe tying and wearing experience for people of all kind. Today, the most commonly used shoes by far and large include shoelaces typically made of nylon or some other synthetic material, made for tying by hand in a variety of ways. The most common method of tying shoes is often referred to as the "bunny ears" method, and comprises holding a portion of the string in each hand, crossing the hands to create an "X" with the laces, tucking the top string underneath the bottom and pulling it through, creating bunny ears and creating a second "X" with them, and finally taking the bottom bunny ear and looping over and then under the top to finish the knot. Unfortunately, this process can be inconvenient, complicated for some, such as children typically under age 6, and onerous for others, such as those dealing with physical limitations like arthritis, and other ailments of varying severity that impact dexterity, mobility, and flexibility.
Additionally, for those who are able tie their shoes without issues arising relating to comprehension or physical ability, other problems remain. For many, during use, the impact with ground loosens the knot, thereby allowing the flailing of the string ends to lead to further loosening of the string until eventually the tied knot comes entirely undone. This creates the risk of injury to not only the wearer but often times others in the vicinity. Some users report feeling foot pain associated with tightness of their strings when trying to avoid the dangerous loosening of laces discussed above, specifying pain in the arch of their foot, heel, and toes.
Many shoe styles and products with lace alternatives have been released in response to the issues recognized above, but in most cases these alternatives likewise fall short in providing the solution needed. For example, self-tying shoes, one of the more recent developments in the space, require a battery to be recharged using a peripheral device as well as a smart phone for control and analytic reporting. These shoes have also been reported as having numerous bugs associated with software updates and impacting convenient and proper use. Lace-less (or slip-on) shoes often fit poorly, presenting a risk of injury similar to that of untied or ill-fit shoes, and causing discomfort or pain as a result of the inability to customize the fit in anyway. Cord locks, or lace locks, come in many forms however their configuration, using a spring and requiring that laces be passed through manually, as well as size leaves those with physically limiting situations like arthritis similarly unable to operate the product.
In light of at least the above-mentioned examples, it is clear that numerous shortfalls still exist in the present state of the shoe and shoelace markets, leaving many consumers searching for alternatives to fit their needs. Specifically, consumers have a need for a safe, reliable, and adjustable apparatus for securing shoes while reducing the physical and cognitive burden of doing the same, and ensuring that the laces will not loosen, thereby reducing the risk of injury.


A heat dissipation module for a mobile computer, the mobile computer having a base (10) and a display unit (20) pivotally coupled to the base, the base having a number of through holes (13) defined on a shell (18) thereof, the heat dissipation module including: a cooling fan (14) disposed near the through holes of the shell; and a heat pipe (15) having a evaporating section (52), a condensing section (56), and an intermediate section (54) connecting the evaporating section and the condensing section; wherein the evaporating section of the heat pipe is disposed between the shell and the cooling fan, and the condensing section of the heat pipe is disposed on the display unit of the mobile computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to devices for transferring and dispersing heat of a heat-generating electronic device and, more particularly to devices for transferring and dispersing heat of an electronic device in a hinged mobile computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Successive new models of mobile computers, such as notebook computers, are continuing to shrink in size and become lighter, smaller and thinner. In addition, with the improvement of the functionality of such computers, electrical power consumed by many of these computers continues to increase. Thus, heat generated from microprocessors, disk drives, power supplies and other components of the computers is often increased. Accordingly, heat dissipation devices having relative small sizes and high efficiency of heat dissipation are required to be installed in such computers.
Heat pipes are widely used in notebook computers for dissipating heat, due to their properties of light weight, compact size and high thermal conductivity. For example, a conventional heat dissipation module for dissipating heat from a notebook computer employs a heat pipe. The notebook computer includes a base and a display unit pivotally connected to the base. One end of the heat pipe, i.e., an evaporating section, is disposed in contact with an electrical component (such as a microprocessor) inside the base of the computer for absorption of heat generated by the component. Another end of the heat pipe, i.e., a condensing section, is disposed at a shell of the base for dispersing the heat to the environment. A number of through holes are defined in the shell of the base where the condensing section is located, for expelling heat therethrough with the aid of an electric fan.
In this configuration, heat generated by the electrical component is extracted therefrom and transferred away. Thereby, a temperature of the electrical component is lowered, and an operational reliability of the electrical component is improved. However, the heat extracted from the electrical component is not discharged outside of the base of the computer. Instead, the heat extracted from the electrical component is merely transferred onto the shell of the computer. Although part of the heat can be dispersed by means of the electric fan, a considerable part of the heat remains accumulated around the condensing section of the heat pipe. Therefore when the computer operates for a relatively long period of time, a local temperature of the shell around the condensing section of the heat pipe may increase to beyond a safe threshold level. This can reduce the reliability and operational lifetime of components located around the hot area.
Therefore, what is needed is a heat dissipation device that can disperse heat from the base efficiently and uniformly.

Heat dissipation module for hinged mobile computer


An insulated lattice is prepared with a plurality of lattice oriented atoms to create a substantially planar surface having a lattice arrangement. Any unsatisfied chemical bonds are terminated along the substantially planar surface by placing atoms at the site of the unsatisfied chemical bonds to terminate the unsatisfied chemical bonds and insulate the surface to form an insulated lattice platform. Atoms are placed at predetermined locations on the insulated lattice platform to form a first atomic chain which behaves as one of a conductor, a semiconductor and an insulator. A second chain of atoms is also placed at predetermined locations on the insulated lattice platform so that the second chain behaves as another of a conductor, a semiconductor and an insulator. These placements are made such that the second chain of atoms is electrically coupled to the first chain of atoms, and the second chain of atoms behaves differently than the first chain of atoms. That is, in the first chain the atoms are placed at a first separation distance and in the second chain the atoms are placed at a second separation distance, where the second separation distance is different than the first.

In a conventional circuit network based on semiconductor device technology, functional devices made of semiconductors or insulators are connected together by relatively large metal traces designed to carry electrical signals. These structures typically require real estate on the order of tens of square micrometers, and more.
Mesoscopic structures are smaller, but still require significant real estate. To fabricate such a circuit network on a silicon substrate, diodes or transistors based on p-n junctions, or resistors made of doped semiconductors are connected by several ten nanometer wide metal lines deposited on the substrate, power is fed from a battery or an external generator, and a large ground plane is made by deposition of metal on the substrate which may be connected to the main ground. The resulting structure quickly becomes complicated and can typically require real estate on the order of hundreds of square nanometers, and more.
If the circuit network together with device elements is simply scaled down, the physical operation principle for these macroscopic devices undergoes a drastic change even at nanoscale, where the wave nature of the electrons play an important role in device operation. To further miniaturize the structures, a new device principle must be developed, adopting the atomic nature of constituent atoms forming the device.

Method of fabrication of atomic chain circuit network

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Research Development Corporation of Japan