To establish the integrity of a product located in a container a given feature of the product in the container is determined by means of a first measurement method in which a first physical property of the product is ascertained, the given feature is additionally ascertained at least directly or by means of a second measurement method which is based on a second physical property which is different from the first physical property, and the values obtained by means of the two measurement methods of the given feature are compared. If the product is a drink in a bottle and if the given feature is the fill level, the first measurement method can consist of the fill level being measured by means of absorption of an X-ray beam, and the second measurement method can consist of the change effected by the bottle in the resonant frequency of a high-frequency oscillating circuit being measured.

In the case of products in containers, e.g., liquids in bottles or a powdered product in a can, several features are of interest. In the case of liquids in bottles, methods are known for measuring the fill level or the internal pressure. The fill level can be measured directly by means of a broad light beam and a plurality of optical sensors arranged vertically staggered. In addition there are also indirect measurement methods, e.g., by means of the absorption of X-rays or gamma rays or by means of the damping of a high-frequency oscillating circuit. When measuring the fill level by means of X-rays or gamma rays a measuring bridge, which has a radiator on one side of an opening and a radiation detector on the opposite side of the opening, is arranged on the path of the containers such that the nominal fill level lies approximately in the centre of the beam diameter. The beam can for example have a width of 2 cm. The extent of the absorption of the X-ray or gamma ray depends on the fill level as, with a higher fill level a greater proportion of the beam cross-section is absorbed by the product in the container, e.g., the liquid in the bottle. Thus, the lower the fill level the higher the beam output measured by the detector.
A substantial disturbance variable during this measurement arises because the absorption of the X-radiation depends substantially on the atomic weight of the elements contained in the molecules of the product. As a result, two different products show different absorption rates with the same fill level under otherwise identical conditions (same container, same temp. etc.). For example Diet Cola and classic Cola show a difference of approximately four percent in the absorption rate, which means that different threshold values must be entered in order to determine the fill level in order to obtain a uniform result.
In the case of the high-frequency measurement method, the damping due to the fill level is measured by means of a high-frequency oscillating circuit. The fill level substantially changes the capacitive part of the oscillating circuit, i.e., conductivity or dielectric constant and loss resistance, as properties of the contents or product greatly influence the measurement result alongside the fill level. Here too in the case of different products, e.g., two mineral waters with different salt contents, different threshold values must be entered to obtain an equivalent fill-level result.
A further method for determining the fill level of liquids in bottles is described in WO 98/21557, wherein here the result obtained depends on the pressure inside the bottle.
It is known from WO 99/56094 to ascertain the fill level of containers by generating mechanical oscillations in the container wall, by pulse-like deflection of the latter, and then analyzing the oscillations, wherein the decay time, the frequency, the intensity and/or the integral of the intensity or the site of the maximum intensity are recorded.
A further method for determining the fill level in containers is known from WO 99/01722, wherein here the fill level is determined by means of the heat radiation from the container.
The mass of a filled container can also be ascertained in another way, directly by weighing the container or indirectly by measuring the absorption of X-rays taking into account the capacity of the container.
The integrity of products is usually tested by means of chemical analyses. The integrity of the product, in particular of foods, can be destroyed unintentionally by errors in the production process or intentionally or maliciously.

Method of establishing the integrity of a product located in a container


A method of displaying gene data assists in discovering expression patterns specific to gene functions and inferring the function of a gene of which the function is unknown. A threshold value representing the degree of similarity of expression patterns is established in advance, and genes having the same function and genes with similar expression patterns to them are extracted and displayed. Cluster analysis is performed on the extracted genes by re-selecting the experiment patterns for clustering. Calculations are performed to see how many functions the genes belonging to a subtree have, and the proportion of each function in the subtree is determined. If a proportion exceeds a predetermined threshold value, they are regarded as a cluster (collection of genes with similar functions) and extracted.

As genome sequences are determined for an increasing variety of species, a great deal of attention is being paid to a so-called genome comparison method aimed at discovering new information from genetic differences between them. The genome comparison method aims to find out genes responsible for the development of individual species, in order to look for groups of genes which are believed to be common to all living organisms, or, conversely, estimate characteristics specific to individual species.
Recent years have witnessed the development of an infrastructure in the form of DNA chips and DNA microarrays (hereinafter referred to as 'biochips'. As a result, the interests of molecular biologists are turning from inter-species data to intra-species data, in other words, they are focusing on the analysis of genes expressed simultaneously in a particular cell. Thus, there is an increasing number of ways in which data is extracted and used, alongside the more conventional comparisons between species.
For instance, if a previously unknown gene is discovered and found to exhibit the same expression pattern as a known gene, it may be inferred to have a similar function to that of the known gene. The functional significance of such genes and the proteins themselves are being studied in the form of functional units and groups. Meanwhile, as far as interactions between them are concerned, the direct and indirect effect of a given gene is being analysed by comparison with known enzyme reaction data or metabolic data, or more directly by destroying the gene or causing it to overreact, thus eliminating the expression thereof or expressing it in quantity to study the expression patterns of all genes. An example of success in this field is provided by an expression analysis of yeast performed by a group led by P. Brown of Stanford University in the USA (Michael B. Eisen et al.; Cluster analysis and display of genome-wide expression patterns. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95 (25); 14863–8, 8 Dec. 1998). This group used DNA microarrays to hybridise genes extracted from cells in a time series, representing the degree of gene expression (intensity of hybridised fluorescent signals) numerically. By allocating colours to the numerical values they then displayed the expression processes of the individual genes in a manner which was easy to understand. They then clustered genes with similar expression pattern processes in a cycle of cells (those with similar degrees of expression at a given point in time).
FIG. 27 is an example of how the result of a standard cluster analysis of gene expression is displayed according to this method. The experiment cases are displayed in the horizontal direction, and the genes arranged in the vertical direction. The degree of expression of each gene in each experiment case is denoted by the density of colour. Denser colours represent higher degrees of expression. A dendrogram is displayed on the left of the drawing. The dendrogram shows how in the process of clustering two closest clusters have been merged in each case, while the length of each branch corresponds to the relative distance between two clusters on merging.
FIG. 28 is an example of another display representing the similarity of gene expression patterns. Observed data on individual genes is arranged on the right, while the dendrogram displayed on the left has been prepared on the basis of these gene expression patterns.
With developments in biology the functions of genes are gradually being clarified, and biologists are attempting to analyse them by combining expression data and known information. Analysis by dendrogram allows biologists to look for biologically meaningful clusters (groups of genes). In other words, if the expression patterns of individual genes in a cluster are similar and there are many of known function with the same pattern, this is extracted as a meaningful cluster. Such clusters are herein referred to as function clusters. Vertical bars 2801 and 2802 in FIG. 28 are examples of such function clusters. For instance, if there is a gene of unknown function within a function cluster, it is possible to infer that it possesses a similar function to those in the same cluster with a known function. What is more, by examining the expression pattern of a function cluster it is possible to discover the expression process specific to the function.
A huge amount of gene data needs to be handled in the actual analysis of gene expression patterns. This is because biochips make it possible to observe genes of the order of between several thousand and several tens of thousands at the same time. With developments in biochip technology the number of genes which it is possible to observe simultaneously is set to increase by leaps and bounds, lending powerful support to the process of clarifying the mechanism of life.
As the number of such genes increases in this manner, it becomes extremely difficult to comprehend the workings of all of them. A dendrogram will contain thousands or tens of thousands of genes, and even the subtrees illustrated in FIGS. 27 and 28 will be very complex and include many fine branches, making it difficult to decide what sort of classification has been carried out.
Researchers will have to spend much time and effort choosing function clusters for these dendrograms. Some commercially available gene expression clustering tools have display functions for dendrograms and gene names, but none gives any suggestion as to what clusters merit attention.
In view of the above problems with conventional technology, it is a first object of the present invention to take the results of clustering, extract from them groups of genes having the same function and genes having similar expression patterns to the groups of genes, and provide a function and display for re-analysing these genes. This makes it possible to assist in discovering specific expression patterns for gene functions, surmise unknown gene functions, and infer whether or not genes known to have one function have other functions as well.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a means of automatically sorting clusters of genes having similar expression patterns and the same function, and displaying them in a form in which it is easy for researchers to understand their characteristics.

Method of displaying gene data, and recording medium


The invention relates to copolymers for producing cast glass or thermally dimensionally stable formed materials.

It is conventional to use polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in the manufacture of molding materials which make plastic mold parts. The resulting molded articles often exhibit a high transparency and an excellent optical quality. Unfortunately, the usefulness of PMMA molding materials is limited by the softening properties of PMMA: at temperatures above approximately 115.degree. C. PMMA softens and is no longer useful. Furthermore, the "service temperature" (i.e., the highest temperature at which PMMA can be stored for any reasonable length of time) is even lower than the softening temperature, such that at temperatures >95.degree. C. PMMA exhibits deficient storage life and serviceability.
Consequently, at higher temperatures other plastics must be used. For example, polycarbonates having a Vicat temperature of approximately 150.degree. C. can be considered as transparent plastics for this purpose. However, like PMMA, the service temperature of polycarbonates is far less than the Vicat temperature--about 20.degree. C. lower (or approximately 130.degree. C.). Compared to PMMA, polycarbonates are very sensitive to scratches and are significantly less resistant to atmospheric corrosion.
Other transparent plastics having a high thermal dimensional stability include polymethacrylimides, which have a Vicat temperature of up to 175.degree. C. at complete imidization. Polymethacrylimides are obtained by reacting methacrylic polymerizates with a primary amine in a reactor. The imide structures form on the side arms of the PMMA macromolecule. The Vicat temperature rises with the degree of imidization.
Polymethacrylimides have greater water absorption properties than PMMA. The production and properties of this polymer are known from the patent DE-A-40 02 904.
DE-A-26 52 118 describes a method for imidization of polymerizates of acrylic- and/or methacrylic acid esters, novel, imidized thermoplastic polymerizates and a molding material of such polymerizates. Such polymethacrylimides with Vicat temperatures of between 134.degree.-163.degree. C. are commercially available.
It is known that the thermal dimensional stability of PMMA can be increased by copolymerization of methylmethacrylate (MMA) with suitable monomers. For example, MMA can be copolymerized with styrene and maleic acid anhydride. French patent 1,476,215 describes copolymers of MMA with styrene and maleic acid anhydride, wherein the copolymers have a Vicat temperature between 130.degree. and 145.degree. C. However, due to the aromaticity of the copolymer, the resulting plastic does not resist atmospheric corrosion as well as plastics formed with PMMA.
British patent 641,310 describes the mass polymerization of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone and .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-methyl-.gamma.-butyrolactone. Dibenzoyl peroxide, azo-bis-isobutyronitrile or radiation with a mercury lamp are described as initiators for the radical polymerization. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,624,723 describes homopolymers of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone and .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-methyl-.gamma.-butyrolactone. This patent also describes a copolymer of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone with acrylonitrile. The polymers are produced by radical polymerization with peroxides as initiators, or by irradiation with UV light. The compounds in these two patents are characterized by high glass transition temperatures. They are hard and brittle and have a slightly yellow color. In addition, these polymers and copolymers are produced without chain transfer agents, and consequently have a relatively high molecular weight which makes them unsuitable as molding materials. Indeed, even their usefulness for producing cast glasses is doubtful.
Macromolecules 12, pp. 546-551 describes the homopolymer of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone and its glass transition temperature (Tg). In this reference, a relatively high Tg of 195.degree. C. and low solubility are indicative of considerable stiffness of the polymer chain.
Furthermore, copolymerization studies of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone and methylmethacrylate (Polymer 20, pp. 1215-1216) showed that the former disposes over a distinctly higher reactivity than the latter.
Dent Mater 8, pp. 270-273 describes the use of exo-methylene lactones as a comonomer in dental resins. It was found that exo-methylene lactones further the conversion of dental resins in the polymerization by lowering the viscosity. The result is a harder dental filling.
More specifically, the production of homopolymerizates from .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone, .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-phenyl-.gamma.-butyrolactone, 3-methylene-1-oxaspiro4.5!decan-2-one as well as methylene phthalide is known from this reference. Data for synthesis for the three latter exo-methylene lactones is also presented. The polymerization of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone in a binary mixture with bis-GMA (2,2-bis-4-(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloxypropoxy)phenylene! propane) or in a ternary mixture with bis-GMA and TEGDMA (triethylene glycol dimethacrylate) to obtain the corresponding copolymers is known.
According to the Dent Mater reference, the homopolymerizates of the exomethylene lactones produced are glassy, brittle materials. In contrast, the use of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone with the bifunctional methacrylates acting as cross-linking agents results in copolymers which exhibit a higher degree of cross-linking and, consequently, an increased conversion which leads to a greater hardness. Although the hardness of the copolymers was increased as a result of increased conversion, the copolymers exhibit a thermal dimensional stability which was unsatisfactory.
Furthermore, the radical copolymerization of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone with styrene in various ratios is known from the Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Chemistry Edition, vol. 20, 00. 2819-2828 (1982). The experiments described in this reference served to determine the parameters of copolymerization. As the results indicate, .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone is very reactive as a cyclic analogue to MMA and has greater Q and e values than the MMA. The reference also mentions that the homopolymer of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone is more thermally stable than the polymethylmethacrylate. According to the reference, thermal stability is understood as resistance to depolymerization or thermal decomposition. Thus, the differential thermoanalysis of the .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone homopolymerizate showed an endothermy at approximately 320.degree. C., whereas that of PMMA was approximately 50.degree. C. lower.
Finally, Makromol. Chem. Rapid Comm. vol. 3, pp. 311-315 (1982) describes the alternating ionic polymerization of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-butyrolactone with styrene in the presence of a Lewis acid. Macromolecules 1986, 19, pp. 558-565, describes the radical copolymerization of .alpha.-methylene-.delta.-valerolactone with styrene. Methods of producing the homopolymer of .alpha.-methylene-.gamma.-methyl-.gamma.-butyrolactone by means of radical, anionic or group-transfer polymerization are accessible from Macromolecules 1984, 17, pp. 2913-2916.

Copolymers useful for producing cast glass and thermally dimensionally stable molding materials

Agomer Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung


An abdominal exercise device includes a frame comprising top, middle, and bottom frame sections. The middle frame section has a curved shape for creating a teeter-totter movement during exercise. The device includes a headrest connected to the bottom frame section, a plurality of connectors for connecting elastic bands to the frame, and an elastic band connected to at least two connectors. The two ends of the elastic band are connected to two straps. The device creates the teeter-totter movement to exercise the abdominal muscles in response to a person lying down in supine position with the back of the head on the headrest and the feet in the two straps, the person applying a downward pressure with the feet to the straps to move the headrest from a resting position, and the person removing the downward pressure to allow the headrest to go back to the resting position.

Abdominal exercise devices, commonly known as ab rollers, have been used to exercise the abdominal muscle group. These devices include a mechanism to raise the upper torso of a person to contract the abdominal muscles. The person, while in a supine position and the knees bended in an upward position, may grab the handlebars on the device and pull down the handlebars while lifting the upper torso from the supine position.


Various arrangements for compressing a cylindrical battery cell are presented herein. The cylindrical battery cell may be wrapped in a buffer material. The buffer material may then be compressed using a compression mechanism. The buffer material may uniformly distribute pressure applied to the buffer material to a curved sidewall of the cylindrical battery cell. The cylindrical battery cell may be heated while the buffer material is being compressed using the compression mechanism.

Certain types of battery cells function more effectively when a significant amount of pressure has been applied to each battery cell prior to installation in a device which will be powered by the battery cell. The pressure may increase the amount of surface area in contact between an anode, a separator layer, and/or cathode or the pressure may increase the amount of surface area contact between an anode, an electrolyte, and/or a cathode. Such pressure may be applied as part of a manufacturing process.

Isostatic press devices and processes for cylindrical solid-state batteries


Methods and apparatus combine patient measurement data with demographic or physiological data of the patient to determine an output that can be used to diagnose and treat the patient. A customized output can be determined based the demographics of the patient, physiological data of the patient, and data of a population of patients. In another aspect, patient measurement data is used to predict an impending cardiac event, such as acute decompensated heart failure. At least one personalized value is determined for the patient, and a patient event prediction output is generated based at least in part on the personalized value and the measurement data. For example, bioimpedance data may be used to establish a baseline impedance specific to the patient, and the patient event prediction output generated based in part on the relationship of ongoing impedance measurements to the baseline impedance. Multivariate prediction models may enhance prediction accuracy.

The present invention relates to monitoring and treatment of people and animals, and more specifically to patient monitoring and treatment of disease. Although embodiments make specific reference to monitoring impedance and electrocardiogram signals with an adherent patch, the system methods and device described herein may be applicable to many applications in which physiological monitoring is used, for example wireless physiological monitoring with implantable devices for extended periods.
Patients are often treated for diseases and/or conditions associated with a compromised status of the patient, for example a compromised physiologic status such as heart disease. In some instances a patient may have suffered a heart attack and require care and/or monitoring after release from the hospital. While such long term care may be at least partially effective, many patients are not sufficiently monitored and eventually succumb to cardiac decompensation, or heart failure. One example of a device that may be used to monitor a patient is the Holter monitor, or ambulatory electrocardiography device. Although such a device may be effective in measuring electrocardiography, such measurements alone may not be sufficient to reliably detect and/or avoid an impending cardiac decompensation.
In addition to measuring heart signals with electrocardiograms, known physiologic measurements include impedance measurements. For example, transthoracic impedance measurements can be used to measure hydration and respiration. Although transthoracic measurements can be useful, such measurements may use electrodes that are positioned across the midline of the patient, and may be somewhat uncomfortable and/or cumbersome for the patient to wear. Also, known methods of using hydration as a measure of impedance can be subject to error in at least some instances.
Work in relation to embodiments of the present invention suggests that known methods and apparatus for long term monitoring of patients may be less than ideal to detect and/or avoid an impending cardiac decompensation. In at least some instances, cardiac decompensation can be difficult to detect, for example in the early stages. Although bioimpedance and other physiological parameters have been used to assess HF condition and track patient improvement or worsening, at least some of the current methods and apparatus may not predict an impending patient event and can result in false positives in at least some instances.
Therefore, a need exists for improved patient monitoring. Ideally, such improved patient monitoring would avoid at least some of the short-comings of the present methods and devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for personalized physiologic parameters


A stair tread and method of building a stairway is provided. Each stair tread includes a metal pan having one or more walls forming a cavity. Concrete filler is disposed in the cavity to provide an upper walking surface. Reinforcement bars and foam blocks can be positioned within the cavity. Concrete treads including the pan can then be transported to a job site for attachment between a pair of stringers.

Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is generally directed to pre-fabricated stair treads and to methods for manufacturing pre-fabricated stair treads. Moreover, the present disclosure relates to novel methods of manufacturing a stairway from pre-fabricated stair treads.
Description of the Related Art
Presently, traditional concrete stairway treads are constructed in one of two ways. A first manufacturing technique entails forming a mold onsite and pouring the concrete in place. This process creates a stairway that includes a heavy fat slab and requires unnecessarily large amounts of concrete. Typically the stairway treads are formed very roughly, and mortar can be applied to provide a finished surface.
The second method for constructing a stairway includes forming the concrete treads offsite. This process typically includes utilizing pans which form a mold. Concrete is poured into the mold and allowed to harden. The hardened concrete step is removed from the mold and then transported to the construction site for affixing the stair tread to a stairway stringer.

Stair tread and improved method of building a stairway


A line head includes a lens array having a plurality of positive lens systems in a first direction. Each positive lens system has a pair of lenses with positive refractive power. A light emitter array disposed on an object side of the lens array has a plurality of light emitting elements disposed corresponding to the positive lens systems. An aperture plate forms an aperture stop on the object side of the pair of lenses. A focal distance f1 of one of the pair of lenses disposed on the object side satisfies the conditional formula f1≦d0/(1+W0/D1).

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a line head and an image forming device using the same, and in particular to a line head, which projects an image of a light emitting element array on a projection surface using a microlens array to form an imaging spot array, and an image forming device using the line head.
2. Related Art
JP-A-2-4546 proposes an optical writing line head having a plurality of LED array chips disposed in an LED array direction, enlargedly projecting the image of the LED array chips on a photoconductor using a positive lens disposed corresponding to the LED array chips, and thereby forming images of the light emitting dots at the ends of the adjacent LED chips so as to be adjacent to each other on the photoconductor with a distance identical to a pitch between the images of the light emitting dots of the same LED array chip, and also proposes a device using the optical writing line head as an optical reading line head with the optical path reversed.
Further, JP-A-6-344596 proposes composing the positive lens of JP-A-2-4546 as a pair of lenses so as to approximate the projection light to collimated light, thereby increasing the focal depth.
Further, JP-A-6-278314 proposes an optical writing line head having LED array chips arranged in two lines with a distance, shifting the phases of the repeated arrangements of the tow lines a half cycle from each other, and having positive lens arrays arranged in two lines corresponding to the LED array chips so that the images of the light emitting dot arrays on the photoconductor are arranged in a line.
In these past technologies, although arrays of positive lenses (systems) corresponding to the arrangement of the LED arrays are used, there is a cross talk problem that a light beam from a light emitting dot outside the axis of the LED array enters a positive lens (system) adjacent to the corresponding positive lens (system) in the lens array instead of the corresponding positive lens (system), and reaches a position different from the predetermined imaging position, which causes ghosting or loss in light intensity to problematically degrade the image quality and reduce the light efficiency.
Further, even in the case in which the images of the light emitting dot arrays are aligned on an ideal image plane at a constant pitch, if the image plane moves back and forth in the optical axis direction of the lens owing to fluctuation of the photoconductor, position error of the light emitting dot on the photoconductor is caused, which problematically causes a variation in the pitch between scan lines drawn by the light emitting dot array relatively moving in the sub-scanning direction (the pitch variation in the main-scanning direction).

Line head and image forming device using the same


The present invention provides composite biological devices that include biological material as an integral component thereof. The devices can be used for measuring metals, for example, particularly toxic metals such as mercury.

Metabolically active biological materials (e.g., cells) are phenomenal biochemical catalysts capable of carrying out sequential, stereospecific biochemical reactions, and can function as sensitive biosensors. There are significant potential industrial, biomedical, and environmental uses of metabolically active biological materials. They can be used for a variety of purposes such as detecting and/or measuring the amount of an environmental contaminant, particularly metals.
Metal contamination, particularly mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and nickel contamination, continues to be a public health and environmental problem. Conventional chemical detection techniques include atomic absorption spectrophotometery, ion chromatography, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, as well as cold-vapor atomic absorption or cold-vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy. At least some of these techniques can be highly sensitive but complex to perform and expensive in terms of equipment and training. Furthermore, these techniques must typically be conducted in the laboratory. Plus, these techniques do not always reflect the true biological availability of toxic metals in a system.
Microorganisms that quantitatively detect toxins in the environment offer a less expensive alternative to conventional methods. For example, microbial biosensors aimed at measuring the bioavailability of mercury have been developed as an alternative to chemical or physical analysis. U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,184 (Rosson) discloses a device for the detection of mercury in water using an aqueous suspension of recombinant biosensory microorganism cells containing a lux bioluminescence gene. The cells are bioluminescent in the presence of Hg2+ ions and/or monomethyl mercury. The resultant bioluminescence can be detected using a variety of means, e.g., photographic film, photomultiplier, photodiode, or scintillation counter. However, this patent only discloses the use of such a suspended cell biosensor for the detection of mercury in water. Furthermore, suspended cell biosensors are limited because of handling difficulties and short useful life of the cell stock solution.
Immobilization of cells for the biodetection of contaminants in aqueous environments offers advantages over the use of suspended cell systems. Immobilized cells are easy to handle, can remain viable for long periods of time, and show excellent plasmid retention. However, immobilization methods for use in biosensors have focused on reusable detection methods where the immobilized cells are used repeatedly. In such methods, control over immobilized cell stability and cell outgrowth become considerable problems together with slow biosensor response times.

Composite devices incorporating biological material and methods


An improved armature construction in which a coil winding wiring board and cooperating insulator around which the coils are wound at least in part wherein the insulator and wiring board are interconnected by an attachment arrangement that automatically positions and retained components in the desired circumferential, axial and radial positions.

This invention relates to a rotating electrical machine and more particularly to an improved armature construction for such machines.
As is well known, most armatures for rotating electrical machines be they either motors or generators consist of a core made of a ferromagnetic material and generally laminated in construction. The core defines a plurality of radially extending pole teeth around which electrical coils are wound. Generally these windings surround an insulating bobbin arrangement. In addition the armature includes a wiring base to which the ends of the coil windings ate attached to provide the external electrical connection for the machine. Thus there are a number of separate components that must be fixed together.
In addition to the establishment of the connection of the various elements it also is important to insure their correct axial, radial and circumferential relationship. U.S. Letters Pat. No. 6,566,779, issued May 20, 2003 and assigned to the assignee hereof and Japanese Published Application, publication number 2002-58228, which represents an improvement in the structure shown in that patent and its Japanese priority application, illustrate a construction in which a wiring base of a three layer constitution placed on the axial end of the armature of a rotary electric machine. Like the other and above described prior art, the armature comprises a laminated core comprised of a circular portion from which a plurality of magnetic pole teeth extend radially. A two part bobbin made of insulating resin attached to the core and has portions that encircle each of the magnetic pole teeth.
In accordance with that patent and the published Japanese application, the bobbin is provided with a stopper for attaching the wiring base. The stopper is made of a metallic plate that projects outward from the bobbin and is bent toward the wiring base to form an L shape. The wiring base comprised of three layers for three phases of U, V, and W and is of an annular shape. It also has a plurality of engaging holes arranged in a circular row near its periphery that receive the stopper. Parts of the stoppers project out of the engaging hole. The wiring base is fixed to the remainder of the armature by depositing a solder mass on the projecting ends of the stopper.
Although effective, this attachment method is labor intensive. In addition, the shape, dimension and axial, circumferential and radial positioning may vary unacceptably.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an improved armature structure.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved attachment method for the wiring base that is simpler, less labor intensive and more accurate.


A novel gene defining a novel enzyme in the UDP-N-acetyl-.alpha.-D-galactosamine: polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase family, termed GalNAc-T3, with unique enzymatic properties is disclosed. The enzymatic activity of GalNAc-T3 is shown to be distinct from that of two previously identified enzymes of this gene family. The invention discloses isolated DNA molecules and DNA constructs encoding GalNAc-T3 and derivatives thereof by way of amino acid deletion, substitution or insertion exhibiting GalNAc-T3 activity, as well as cloning and expression vectors including such DNA, cells transfected with the vectors, and recombinant methods for providing GalNAc-T3. The enzyme GalNAc-T3 and GalNAc-T3-active derivatives thereof are disclosed, in particular soluble derivatives comprising the catalytically active domain of GalNAc-T3. Further, the invention discloses methods of obtaining N-acetylgalactosamine glycosylated peptides or proteins by use of an enzymically active GalNAc-T3 protein or fusion protein thereof or by using cells stably transfected with a vector including DNA encoding an enzymatically active GalNAc-T3 protein as an expression system for recombinant production of such glycopeptides or glycoproteins. Also a method for the production of a vaccine by modifying the O-glycosylation pattern of an eukaryotic cell, and a method for the identification of DNA sequence variations in the GalNAc-T3 gene by isolating DNA from a patient, amplifying GalNAc-T3-coding exons by PCR, and detecting the presence of DNA sequence variation, are disclosed.

Enzymatic protein glycosylation involves an initiation stage in which glycosyltransferases catalyze the addition of a monosaccharide, or, in the case of asparagine N-linked glycosylation, a preformed oligosaccharide, to an amino acid residue in a given protein. The initiation step of protein glycosylation may be considered the key controlling event leading to the formation of a given glycopeptide linkage (glycoconjugate type), and it involves the essential recognition events between protein and glycosyltransferase which determine the specific sites of glycan attachment. Processing of glycan chains involves the cooperative action of part of the estimated hundreds of different glycosyltransferases successively adding a monosaccharide to the growing glycan chain. Identification and characterization of glycan structures of glycoproteins as well as the specific sites of glycan attachment are important for understanding the structure of a given glycoprotein, its function, and its immunobiology.
The glycosylation of serine and threonine residues during mucin-type O-linked protein glycosylation is catalyzed by a family of polypeptide GalNAc-transferases (EC 18.104.22.168). Two distinct human GalNAc-transferase genes, GalNAc-T1 and -T2, have previously been cloned and characterized (Homa et al. 1993; Hagen et al. 1993; White et al. 1995). In preliminary studies the specificity of recombinant GalNAc-T1 and -T2 with respect to polypeptide acceptors (i.e., acceptor substrates) has been analyzed. Comparison of the total acceptor substrate specificity of recombinant GalNAc-T1 and -T2 with the substrate specificities previously described in extracts of various organs showed that several peptides served as substrates only for galactosyltransferase enzymes present in the organ extracts (Sorensen et al. 1995).
Matsuura et al (1988) reported a tumor-associated de novo O-glycosylation of fibronectin in the IIICS region with the peptide sequence VTHPGY SEQ IN NO:3. In a more recent study Matsuura et al (1989) reported that O-glycosylation of this epitope was only achieved by transferase-containing extracts from fetal tissue or tumor tissue and not normal tissue. Recombinant GalNAc-T1 and GalNAc-T2 have not been found to catalyze O-glycosylation of this peptide sequence.
A peptide derived from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV.sub.IIIB) gp120 (GRAFVTIGKIG SEQ ID NO:4) was found to be an effective acceptor substrate for crude GalNAc-transferase extracts from several organs (Sorensen et al. 1995). However, purified GalNAc-T2 (Clausen et al. 1994; Sorensen et al. 1995) and recombinant GalNAc-T1 and GalNAc-T2 did not catalyze glycosylation of this substrate. These implicate additional GalNAc-transferases.
Families of glycosyltransferases with related but distinct acceptor and/or donor substrate specificities may be encoded by homologous genes showing segments of sequence similarity (Schachter, 1994; Kleene et al., 1993). The human GalNAc-transferases T1 and T2 share a segment of 61 amino acids with 82% sequence similarity and this segment is also found in a homologous gene from C. elegans (White et al. 1995, EMBL accession # L16621).
At present, knowledge of the key controlling event of initiation of O-glycosylation of proteins is limited to the involvement of two GalNAc-transferase genes, GalNAc-T1 and GalNAc-T2, and their encoded enzymes. The action of the two hitherto identified enzymes does not account for all observed O-glycosylation, with fibronectin and HIV being notable examples of O-glycosylation not mediated by said enzymes. Access to additional existing GalNAc-transferase genes would allow production of enzymes capable of performing such O-glycosylation initiation. Such enzymes could be used, for example, in pharmaceutical or other commercial applications that require synthetic O-glycosylation of these or other substrates that are not acted upon by GalNAc-T1 or -T2, in order to produce glycosylated polypeptides having particular enzymatic, immuogenic, or other biological and/or physical properties.
Consequently, there exists a need in the art for additional UDP-N-acetyl-.alpha.-D-galactosamine: polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases and the primary structure of the genes encoding these enzymes. The present invention meets this need, and further presents other related advantages.

UDP-N-acetyl-.alpha.-D-galactosamine: polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase, gAlnAc-T3


A catheter assembly according to the present invention includes a handle assembly, an introducer sheath, and a distal tip assembly. The distal tip assembly can include first and second retaining sleeves and a slotted tip with a non-traumatic tip guard positioned at the proximal end of the slotted tip. The handle assembly can include a fixed main handle and two or more rotating handles that allow a user to control the distal tip assembly of the catheter. Each control knob on the handle assembly controls a portion of the components on the distal by of the catheter by allowing for precise manipulation of various delivery shafts. Each delivery shaft extends from the handle assembly to respective positions towards the distal end of the catheter.

Field
The present invention relates to catheters for delivering a prosthesis and, particularly, to delivery catheters having an a traumatic distal tip assembly.
Background
Recently, minimally invasive approaches have been developed to facilitate catheter-based implantation of prostheses, for example, transcatheter aortic-valve prosthesis implantation. Typically, during transcatheter prosthesis implantations, a prosthesis is radially contracted onto a delivery catheter so that the prosthesis can be introduced into a body lumen, for example, into the femoral artery, the brachial artery, or the aorta, or into a body cavity, for example, a chamber of the heart (e.g., the ventricle). The contracted configuration of the prosthesis on the delivery catheter can be maintained by a retaining sleeve positioned over the prosthesis. Using the delivery catheter, the prosthesis can then be guided to the desired implantation site through the body lumen or body cavity. Once the prosthesis is advanced to a desired target site, the prosthesis can be deployed by removing the retaining sleeve and allowing the prosthesis to expand, for example, through balloon expansion or self-expansion.
A delivery catheter sometimes must be navigated through the tortuous anatomy of a body lumen or cavity. As the catheter articulates through the tortuous anatomy, the retaining sleeve can bend. The bending action of the retaining sleeve can cause the distal, leading edge of the retaining sleeve to flex outward (e.g., "fishmouth") from an adjacent distal tip of the delivery catheter, exposing the distal edge. The exposed edge of the retaining sleeve can contact the wall of the body lumen or cavity, which can cause damage to the wall, especially in diseased body lumens. For example, during a trans-femoral delivery of a heart valve prosthesis, the delivery catheter must navigate around the aortic arch, which can cause the retaining sleeve to bend and can expose the retaining sleeve's distal, leading edge. The exposed leading edge of the retaining sleeve may damage the aortic wall if the edge contacts the wall.
Accordingly, there is a need for delivery catheters that have an atraumatic distal tip assembly that can reduce the risk of damage to the walls of the body lumen or cavity that may occur during delivery of a prosthesis to a desired target site.

Distal tip assembly for a heart valve delivery catheter


A metal chelate compound comprising a monoazo compound of the following formula (I): ##STR1## (wherein A is a residue forming a hetero ring together with the carbon atom and the nitrogen atom to which it is bonded, B is a residue forming an aromatic group together with the two carbon atoms to which it is bonded, and X is a hydrogen atom or a cation), and a metal, and an optical recording medium comprising a substrate and a recording layer formed thereon for information to be written in and/or read out by laser, wherein said recording layer contains the metal chelate compound comprising a monoazo compound of the above formula (I) and a metal.

Optical recording employing laser makes storage and reproduction of high density information records possible, and its developments have been remarkable recent years.
As an example of optical recording, an optical disc may be mentioned. An optical disc is usually designed to irradiate a focused laser beam of about 1 .mu.m, to a thin recording layer formed on a substrate of disc shape to conduct high density information recording. The recording is carried out in such a manner that upon absorption of the laser beam energy, the irradiated portion of the recording layer will undergo a thermal deformation such as decomposition, vaporization or melting. Reproduction of the recorded information is carried out by reading the difference in the reflectance between the portion having a deformation formed by the laser beam and the portion having no such deformation.
Accordingly, the recording layer is required to efficiently absorb the energy of the laser beam, and a laser-absorbing dye is employed for this purpose.
Various structures are known for optical recording media of this type. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 97033/1980 discloses the one having a single layer of a phthalocyanine type dye formed on a substrate. However, the phthalocyanine type dye is poor in the sensitivity and further has a problem such that the decomposition point is high and it is hardly vaporized. Further, its solubility in an organic solvent is very low, and thus it has a problem that it can not be used for coating by a coating method.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 11279/1983, No. 114989/1983, No. 85791/1984 and No. 83236/1985 disclose the one having a cyanine type dye as a recording layer. Such a dye has a merit that the solubility is high, and it is thereby possible to conduct coating by a coating method. However, it has a problem that it is inferior in the light fastness. Therefore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 55795/1984 proposes to improve the light fastness by adding a quencher to this cyanine type dye, but the improvement has not yet been sufficient.
In connection with these problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 30090/1987 discloses complexes of certain specific monoazo compounds and metals, as media having the solubility in an organic solvent and the light resistance improved. However, these compounds have short photosensitive wavelengths and thus are poor in the sensitivity, and they are also poor in the storage stability under a high temperature high humidity condition. Thus, they have problems in their use for optical recording media.

Metal chelate of a monoazo compound and optical recording medium using it


A display panel includes a source-pad portion, a first source fan-out portion and source lines. The source-pad portion has a group of pads to which a driving signal is applied from an external source. The source fan-out portion has output lines that are extended from the group of pads and are formed to have an asymmetric structure. The source lines are extended from the output lines, and pixels of different colors are connected to each of the source lines. Accordingly, a unit pixel portion is formed to be perpendicular to each other and a fan-out portion is formed to have the asymmetric structure, so that a size of a printed circuit board is remarkably decreased. Thus, costs for manufacturing a display apparatus may be decreased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel, a display apparatus having the display panel, and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to the display panel capable of decreasing manufacturing costs, the display apparatus having the display panel, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display ("LCD") apparatus includes an LCD panel, a printed circuit board ("PCB") on which a driving chip driving the LCD panel is mounted, source or data tape carrier packages ("TCPs") which electrically connect the LCD panel with the PCB and a source driving chip mounted thereon, and gate TCPs on which a gate driving chip is mounted.
In order to decrease a size of the LCD apparatus and costs for manufacturing the LCD apparatus, a gate integrated circuit ("IC") less ("GIL") structure that does not have the gate TCPs and has the gate driving circuit directly mounted on the LCD panel, has been developed and used in various fields.
Accordingly, as the LCD apparatus becomes larger and less expensive, technology for decreasing the size and the manufacturing costs of the LCD apparatus is required.

Display panel, display apparatus having the same, and method thereof


A rejection mechanism for a conveyor system, which pushes parcels across a surface, includes a linear actuator and a paddle mounted to the linear actuator for movement between a first position and a second position. The paddle includes a bracket portion, an upright portion, and a lateral wall portion. The lateral wall portion is configured to push parcels across a surface positioned below the lateral wall portion as the paddle is moved from the first position to the second position. In some embodiments, the rejection mechanism can further include a way cover which expands and contracts with movement of the paddle. In some embodiments, the lateral wall portion can be configured to rotate about an axis of rotation defined by a hinge to transition between an engaged and a disengaged position.

The present invention relates to the handling of parcels within a sorting or similar facility.
In a sorting facility for parcels, various parcels are unloaded from trucks or other vehicles at unloading locations, sorted, and then loaded onto trucks or other vehicles at loading locations for delivery to the intended recipients. Thus, within the sorting facility, there is often a complex system of conveyors and equipment that facilitates transport and sorting of the various parcels within the facility.
When first introduced into the system of conveyors and equipment, the parcels are randomly positioned on a conveyor in a "bulk flow." Thus, within the sorting facility, the first step is often to transform the bulk flow into a singulated flow of parcels in which the parcels are positioned at substantially equal intervals and aligned (i.e., in a single file line) along a conveyor for subsequent processing. A wide variety of singulators exist in the art, many of which employ various combinations of belt conveyors and/or roller conveyors to achieve the desired singulation of the parcels. However, there are certain deficiencies in such prior art systems. For example, a surge in the volume of parcels may overwhelm the mechanical systems, and parcels may not be fully singulated. Non-singulated parcels may then interfere with subsequent processing, including downstream sorting.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,646,898, which is incorporated herein by reference, thus describes a system and method for identifying and transferring parcels from a bulk flow on the first conveyor (or "pick conveyor") to a singulated stream of parcels on the second conveyor (or "place conveyor"). Specifically, a robot singulator (or robot) receives parcels via the first conveyor, engages each parcel, and then places it onto the second conveyor. The robot singulator thus includes an end effector with a means for engaging the selected parcel. For example, the end effector may include one or more vacuum cups for engaging the selected parcel. The end effector is mounted on a framework, which is controlled to move and position the end effector. To position the framework and the end effector to engage the selected parcel, the system also includes a vision and control subsystem associated with the robot. The vision and control subsystem includes one or more cameras that are operably connected to a computer for receiving and processing image data. Specifically, the one or more cameras are used to generate a three-dimensional representation of the parcels. Parcels are identified in the three-dimensional representation, and the computer then communicates instructions to position the robot such that the end effector can engage and manipulate each parcel.
However, in some cases, certain parcels may exceed size and/or weight limitations or otherwise may be characterized as "unconveyable." In other cases, the vision and control subsystem may not be able to accurately identify a parcel because of a "hidden" edge or other anomaly that makes it difficult to identify the parcel. Thus, there is a need for a rejection mechanism to handle those parcels that cannot be readily transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. Furthermore, in handling those parcels, it is important that the rejection mechanism not inadvertently "trap" parcels.

Rejection mechanism for a conveyor system


A boat is fitted with retractable wheels which can pivot between an extended land position and a retracted water position. A slot is formed in the hull of the boat. A housing sealing engages about the slot to prevent water entering the boat through the slot. The housing supports a pivot. An arm member is connected to the pivot and a wheel is connected to the arm member. The arm member can pivot through the slot between the wheel retracted and wheel extended positions.

Any references to methods, apparatus or documents of the prior art are not to be taken as constituting any evidence or admission that they formed, or form part of the common general knowledge.
Many boats are transported to and from water via a towed boat trailer. There are disadvantages with this arrangement including the cost of the trailer and loading and unloading the boat. The trailers are not suited for soft sand or uneven surfaces. Furthermore, a considerable amount of physical strength may be required to load and unload the boat onto and from the trailer so that for some people there may be a barrier to using the boat.
It is known to provide boats with attached wheels. One simple arrangement comprises separate wheels that are clamped onto the boat when required and removed when not required. A disadvantage with this arrangement is in the time required to attach and detach the wheels and the risk that the wheels may become dislodged when the boat is maneuvered on land.
Another arrangement has the wheels permanently attached to the boat and able to be moved between a lowered land position and a raised water position. These wheels, when in the lowered land position, generally extend from behind the boat (rear of the transom) or generally below the transom.
A disadvantage with this arrangement is that most, if not all, of the boat's weight will be forward of the wheels and this can make lifting of the boat from the front difficult. If a front wheel is used, the load on this wheel can be excessive making it more difficult to maneuver the boat across sand or other soft ground as the front wheel will dig in.
There would be an advantage if the wheels could enable towing of the boat without the requirement of a boat trailer. However, in most jurisdictions there are regulations regarding towing weights of unbraked wheels. The maximum unbraked towing weight is about 750 kg. Thus heavy wheel designs can cause even smallish boats to exceed the unbraked load limit requiring the wheels to have brakes.
Furthermore car manufacturers place restrictions on the tow hitch vertical weight and the weight limit for most cars is 100 kg. This can be exceeded if most of the boat weight is supported forward of the rear wheels so that even small boats cannot be legally towed.
Many known boats with retractable wheels have powered wheels to allow the boat to be driven onto land. While powered wheels may assist in maneuvering the boat on land, the design is complex, expensive and heavy, making this arrangement less suited to smaller boats.
Another problem with existing retractable wheels on boats is that most of the weight of the wheel assembly—due to the wheels, the hydraulic rams or other lifting and lowering devices and the housings—sits outwardly from the transom or close to the transom resulting in a large amount of weight being at the rear of the boat. Having the weight proximal the housing can reduce the boat's performance and can cause "hobby horsing". Hobby horsing, i.e. pitching of a boat through large angles, is disruptive to sail boats as the motion disrupts the flow of air over the sails and can be uncomfortable to passengers. Similarly in power boat applications, hobby horsing resulting from poor weight distribution can result in a less comfortable ride, and reduce the seaworthiness of the vessel. This can be overcome by redesigning the boat hull but this makes such retractable wheels less suited to an aftermarket fitment to a conventional boat.
Another problem with existing retractable wheels on boats is that the working parts (the lifting and lowering mechanism) may be in contact with saltwater and are therefore prone to corrosion.
Another problem with existing retractable wheels is that the wheels and mechanism can extend from sides of the boat making the wheels susceptible to damage, for instance when mooring.
Another problem with existing retractable wheels is in raising and lowering them. In the case of small dinghies, this is usually accomplished by the operator reaching their hand over the transom of the boat, grabbing the wheel, uncoupling it, lowering it beneath the water into position, and recoupling it. In cases of boats with motors, this involves placing hands underwater in a position next to the propeller. Not only can this be dangerous, but it is also awkward, and requires a certain level of strength and agility that may make it unachievable for certain people.
It is an object of the invention to provide retractable wheels for a boat which could overcome one or more of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide a useful or commercial choice in the marketplace.


Disclosed is a molded brick module including two opposite outer surface portions and a middle connecting portion. The surface portion each is integrally formed from two offset strata, such that two pairs of adjacent edges of the outer stratum respectively project beyond and withdraw from two corresponding pairs of adjacent edges of the inner stratum. Engagement of the projected edges on one molded brick module with the corresponding withdrawn edges on the other molded brick module permits two modules to fit together. Cylinders with insertion holes are provided on inner side of two opposite inner strata. The connecting portion has a concavo-concave cross section and includes a central connecting circle and two side connecting semicircles to form communicable passages in the brick module for mounting conduits, bar reinforcements, etc. and for grouting concrete. Epoxy resin may be applied on the surface portions for paving the modules with tiles.

The present invention relates to a molded brick module, and more particularly to a brick module integrally molded from plastic material and provided at outer peripheries with connection structure and at inner portion with through holes to serve as conduit passages. With the molded brick module of the present invention, conduit systems can be planned and routed in advance to simplify the wall construction works.
There are two conventional ways for constructing a wall. The first way is by laying bricks. After the brick wall is completed, the wall might need to be locally bored or knocked off to mount conduits and then be repaired with primary cement grout and be screeded. After the primary cement grout has become dried, the wall is finished with fine cement grout or other construction materials, such as tiles, marble slabs, or metal panels. The second way is by grouting concrete. In this way, bar reinforcement and templates must be erected before grouting. After the concrete is set, the templates must be removed and the wall must be finished with fine cement grout or other construction materials, just as in the case of brick wall. The conventional way of constructing a wall by laying bricks includes complicated and time-consuming steps while the water and electric wire conduits can not be easily mounted in the wall. And, the conventional way of constructing a wall by grouting also includes complicate steps and difficult subsequent works to finish fissures and scars caused by templates. Any negligence will cause uneven wall surface. It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a molded brick module to avoid disadvantages of the conventional ways of constructing walls.


Methods of refining using a plurality of refining elements are discussed. A refining apparatus having refining elements that can be smaller than the workpiece being refined are disclosed. New refining methods, refining apparatus, and refining elements disclosed. Methods of refining using frictional refining, chemical refining, tribochemical refining, and electrochemical refining and combinations thereof are disclosed. A refining apparatus having magnetically responsive refining elements that can be smaller than the workpiece being refined are disclosed. The refining apparatus can supply a parallel refining motion to the refining element(s) for example through magnetic coupling forces. The refining apparatus can supply multiple different parallel refining motions to multiple different refining elements for example solely through magnetic coupling forces to improve refining quality and versatility. A refining chamber can be used. New methods of control are refining disclosed. The new refining methods, including magnetic refining methods, apparatus, and refining elements, including magnetically responsive refining elements, can help improve yield and lower the cost of manufacture for refining of workpieces having extremely close tolerances such as semiconductor wafers. New methods of control are also discussed. Methods and apparatus which use processor readable memory devices are discussed. Refining fluids are preferred. Reactive refining aids are preferred. Electro-refining for adding and removing material is disclosed. New methods and new apparatus for non-steady state refining control are disclosed.

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is generally known in the art. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,908 issued to Tuttle in 1993 describes a finishing element for semiconductor wafers, having a face shaped to provide a constant, or nearly constant, surface contact rate to a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer in order to effect improved planarity of the workpiece. U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,867 to Schultz et al. issued in 1993 describes an apparatus for planarizing semiconductor wafers which in a preferred form includes a rotatable platen for polishing a surface of the semiconductor wafer and a motor for rotating the platen and a non-circular pad is mounted atop the platen to engage and polish the surface of the semiconductor wafer. Fixed abrasive finishing elements are known for polishing. Illustrative examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,245 to Callinan, U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,855 to Robinson, and WO 98/06541 to Rutherford.
An objective of polishing of semiconductor layers is to make the semiconductor layers as nearly perfect as possible.


A semiconductor package includes a substrate, and a semiconductor die flip chip mounted to the substrate. The package also includes substrate circuitry on a circuit side of the substrate, die circuitry on a back side of the die, terminal contacts on the die circuitry, bonded connections between the substrate circuitry and the die circuitry, and an encapsulant on the bonded connections and edges of the die. The die can include an image sensor on the circuit side configured to receive electromagnetic radiation transmitted through the substrate. A method for fabricating the package includes the step of providing a wafer with multiple dice, forming the die circuitry on the dice, and simulating the wafer into individual dice. The method also includes the steps of providing a substrate panel with multiple substrates, forming the substrate circuitry on the substrates, flip chip bonding the dice to the substrates, forming bonded connections between the dice and the substrates, forming the terminal contacts on the die circuitry, and singulating the panel into separate components.

As the semiconductor industry advances, manufacturers are developing different packaging methods that make semiconductor components smaller, faster and more reliable. For example, chip scale packages (CSP) have a peripheral outline that is about the same as the dice contained in the packages. In addition, chip scale packages are designed for flip chip bonding to a supporting substrate, such as a package substrate, a module substrate or a printed circuit board (PCB). With flip chip bonding, bumps, pins or other terminal contacts on the package, are bonded to mating contacts on the supporting substrate. The bonded terminal contacts provide the physical and electrical connections between the package and the supporting substrate.
One important design consideration for chip scale packages is the signal transmission system between the die contacts on the dice, and the terminal contacts for the package. Some prior art chip scale packages incorporate relatively complicated electrical interconnections between the die contacts and the terminal contacts, such as beam leads, mechanical clips and edge contacts on the dice. These electrical interconnections can be unreliable and expensive to manufacture. It would be desirable for a chip scale package to have an internal signal transmission system that is reliable and capable of volume manufacture at a low cost.
One particular type of semiconductor package includes a die configured as a CMOS image sensor. With a CMOS image sensor, an active area of the die includes a photo diode, a photo transistor or a similar device configured as a light detecting element. The output of the light detecting element is an analog signal whose magnitude is approximately proportional to the amount of light received by the element. Recently, image sensor dice are being developed for use in mainstream consumer products, such as digital cameras, camcorders, and scanners. As with conventional semiconductor devices, it would be desirable to package a CMOS image sensor die in a chip scale package.
The present invention is directed to a chip scale image sensor semiconductor package, to a method for fabricating the package, and to systems incorporating the package.


Specially made combination cards for learning and practicing the optimal decisions which arise in the game of blackjack as played in casinos. The face of each card is an overlapping combination of cards found in a standard deck of playing cards. They are presented so as to resemble the way they look to the player when dealt with both initial cards dealt face down or face up. A first card portion (11) appears at the upper left-most edge. A second card portion (12) appears to overlap the first one. Each of the composite cards has the same combination in separate sections (10 and 10) presented in opposing orientations so that they can be readily read in either direction. The back of each card is either blank or patterned similarly to those used in casinos. No information about the front of the card can be deduced or inferred from the back of the card. Each combination card represents a situation in which the optimal way to play the hand varies according to which playing strategy the player uses, the number of cards played and the number of cards yet to be dealt, the composition of the cards yet to be dealt and the rules of the casino and/or its governing authority.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to learning and practicing how to play the game of blackjack in a casino so as to optimize one's opportunity to win under any set of rules and strategies.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Previous inventions in this field have been based on the flash card model in which a situation is presented on one side of a card with the recommended action presented on the other.
The printing on flash cards is usually unidirectional, that is, the cards must be oriented right-side up to be read correctly. Therefore, when stacked and shuffled, not only must they all be facing up, but in addition, their orientations must be consistent so that as each card is viewed and discarded, the next one is able to be viewed in a similar orientation. This restriction means that care must be taken when shuffling or otherwise mixing unidirectional cards to keep them oriented correctly. Such unidirectional cards sometimes have a unique mark or physical anomaly which facilitates proper orientation when stacking, such as a single notched or flattened corner.
There are card devices which do not have the unidirectional nature of the cards described above. A common example is standard playing cards used to play bridge, poker or blackjack. The card faces are essentially the same when viewed right-side up or upside down, because the symbols and numbers on the faces are arranged symmetrically about a line drawn across the card from one side to the other. The nondirectional nature of playing cards facilitates shuffling of the cards because the orientation of the cards with respect to one another is not a factor, as long as they are stacked all facing the same direction.
Flash cards present a useful way to learn a particular strategy for playing blackjack under a particular set of rules, and have been produced heretofore.
In his book Million Dollar Blackjack (1981), page 124b, Ken Uston presented a set of flash cards for learning how to play blackjack. These cards have subsequently been produced as a stand alone product. The flash cards are about 4 cm square and are printed on the front only. They have numbers and letters in large print representing the playing cards belonging to the player and the dealer. The "answer" is a number in small print in the corner of the card. The player must learn the numbers corresponding to each combination of playing cards, and he uses this knowledge in optimizing his playing of the game. These flash cards have at least two deficiencies. First, they are unidirectional in nature, and therefore very inconvenient to shuffle. Moreover, the numbers and letters in large print are only representations of the values of the player's or dealer's cards. They do not depict the cards as they actually appear when held in the hand. The user must translate what the numbers or letters show into a visualization of the playing situation. This process of translation causes a delay in the learning process, and does not accurately simulate the playing situation.
Another blackjack flash card product is Flash Jack, initially manufactured by V. R. Clavel (1986). Flash Jack comprises a deck of cards which describe the playing situation in words on the front and which have the answers in words on the back. There is no pictorial representation whatsoever of the playing situation, and the cards are unidirectional. The information presented is overly complex and requires significant time and thought to assimilate.
Another blackjack flash card product is a "Free Learning Kit" of flash cards included in John Sharpe's book Low Stakes Blackjack (1994), pages 31-45. Each card is about 2-1/4".times.4" with six 2-card hands and a dealer's card depicted on the face. Each depiction is about 3/8".times.1/2" with a number in the middle. On the back is Sharpe's one recommended action for each hand with page references for why it is recommended. The cards are unidirectional and suffer from bearing no resemblance to the playing conditions of a casino.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,549 to Cywar (1977) discloses a blackjack card deck. Each card has a number and suit printed in the corner to simulate one of the player's cards (Patent FIGS. 1-13). The card has a chart summarizing the action a player should take depending on what other cards are present. The chart has the player's cards and the dealer's cards along its two axes. The cards are unidirectional, and therefore inconvenient to shuffle. Though the symbols in the corners of each card simulate the printing on a playing card, they do not substantially depict any actual playing card situation. The information presented on the card in chart form is relatively complex and difficult to interpret compared to similar charts portrayed in current blackjack literature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,326 to Leep, et al. (1992) discloses a pack of flash cards for teaching and practicing blackjack. The face of each card contains two playing situations on opposite ends of the card arranged so that each appears either right side up or upside down regardless of which end is up. Each half also contains within a frame a smaller perspective image of a card and a still smaller oblong box containing an identifier for a method of grouping subsets of the total deck. The back of each card also presents two separate sections which provide a recommended action for the situation represented on the same half of the card's face. (Patent FIGS. 1-4).
The prior art has not addressed the issue that the optimal way to play most hands varies for different casino rules and for different strategies. They are designed to present one set of playing options in any one embodiment of the design. However, to maximize the opportunities to win at blackjack, a player must know what play to make for each combination of dealer and player cards under different playing rules and regulations. Proper play for some situations can be described in words as a set of rules, such as "Always stand when you have a hard total of nineteen.", "Always take a card when you have a hard total of 11 or less.", "Always take a card when you have a soft total of 17.", Always split a pair of aces.". However, for many situations--particularly those which offer the player the opportunity to increase his bet by as much as double, the optimal play depends on the number of decks being used, the number of cards yet to be dealt, the composition (values) of the cards not yet dealt, and the casino and regulatory rules governing both the dealer's and the players' options.
There are many sources of information for making optimal decisions and for devising one's own. Edward O. Thorp "Beat The Dealer" (1962, 1966) presented the first system for counting cards to guide both betting and playing strategy ascribing from 1 to 10 points for each different card denomination. Julian Braun's "How To Play Winning Blackjack" (1980) derives a "basic strategy" from running several billion hands through a computer and making detailed probability calculations from the results. Peter A. Griffin "The Theory of Blackjack" (1979, 1981) developed mathematical models for determining the player's advantage or disadvantage. Stanford Wong "Professional Blackjack" (1975, 1994) and others (e.g., Ian Anderson, Bryce Carlson, Lawrence Revers, Arnold Snyder, Michael Dalton, J. Paterson) develop simplified plus and minus counting systems which indicate for each hand dealt both the preferred bet size or betting option and how to best play the hand.
While the flash cards disclosed in prior art could be presented in sets with each set showing a preferred way to play for each combination of house and/or regulatory rules, it would mean having at least twelve sets for each strategy recommendation: 6 for when the Dealer is dealt one card face up and one face down and 6 for when the Dealer is dealt both cards face up. 1) Dealer stands on soft seventeen; 2) Dealer hits soft seventeen; 3) Doubling down after splitting a pair; 4) no doubling down after splitting a pair; 5) lose all, except a player two card blackjack, to a dealer's blackjack; 6) doubling and splitting bets returned if the dealer has blackjack. In the popular literature available where gaming books are sold one can find at least four counting systems in addition to each author's presentation of "basic strategy".
However, even if the sixty or more sets of flash cards inferred from the prior art were available to choose from, they do not permit the practice session to resemble the way the cards appear in a casino setting.
Learning to play can be facilitated by the use of a special deck of combination cards. Although 2,652 two-card combinations are possible with one deck of cards, only 1,164 (44%) offer options to the player. For those that do offer playing and betting options it is advantageous to practice them in random order as they would appear during a game in a casino. Since the optimal play varies with both the rules governing play, the dealer's exposed card(s), the number of cards yet to be played and their values, the combination cards used for learning and practicing should not present recommendations that are only optimal for one matrix of conditions.
In summary, cards heretofore known for practicing of blackjack suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) The flash cards do not portray a true-to-life depiction of the player's cards as the player would see them when playing at a casino. Instead, plain numbers or letters are used to represent the values of the visible cards. Where pictorial combinations are provided, the cards do not resemble the way the cards faces look to a player in that they have additional graphics and text. PA1 (b) They are flash cards with a situation presented on one side and the provider's recommended action on the other. This prevents the player from simulating actual playing conditions while practicing. PA1 (c) They either assume, erroneously, that there is one preferred method for playing the hands depicted or that the user will need to have a separate set for the particular circumstances at each casino at which he may want to play. PA1 (d) Flash cards cannot be assembled into a deck and dealt out randomly face down so that the player does not know what combination is presented as the backs indicate the combination on the face and present the play the author deems best for one particular set of casino rules and regulations. PA1 (e) Those that are unidirectional in nature, prevent easy shuffling as is possible with a standard deck of playing cards. PA1 (f) The information on the cards is frequently complex. Complexity deters the user from practicing under simulated casino conditions. PA1 (g) There exists no simple means for accurately representing the multiple card combinations in the player's hand as they would appear to him in a casino game setting. PA1 (h) The additional information on the back of the cards provide clues or guides to the situation depicted. Since the backs of casino cards reveal nothing about the faces, this impedes the transition from practice to casino play. PA1 (a) to provide a method of pictorial representation of combinations of playing cards on cards which will facilitate and expedite the comprehension of card combination situations in the game of blackjack; PA1 (b) to provide a method of pictorial representation of playing cards which will present a more accurate simulation of the activity of playing the game of blackjack than provided by the current art; PA1 (c) to provide a method of pictorial representation of playing cards which permit the identification of the proper play according to whichever strategy the user opts for and to permit the same set of combination cards to be used for other strategy choices when and if the user wants to use another; PA1 (d) to provide a method of arranging information on cards which will enable ease of shuffling of the cards; PA1 (e) to provide a set of cards having the 47 combinations out of a possible 2,652 in which the optimal play varies according to the playing rules promulgated by the governing authority and/or those established by the casino--which can vary from table to table; the cards in play and the cards yet to be played before the dealer reshuffles.

Combination cards for learning and practicing blackjack and blackjack strategy systems


An aircraft control structure for drag management includes a nozzle structure configured to exhaust a swirling fluid stream. A plurality of swirl vanes are positioned within the nozzle structure, and an actuation subsystem is configured to cause the plurality of swirl vanes to move from a deployed state to a non-deployed state. In the non-deployed state, the plurality of swirl vanes are substantially flush with the inner surface of the nozzle structure. In the deployed state, the plurality of swirl vanes produce the swirling fluid stream.

Current and future aircraft are expected to operate more economically than their predecessors under more stringent environmental and airspace constraints. Aircraft engine-integrated drag management technologies have been identified as one way to achieve future operational improvements, such as lower-noise approaches that benefit from reduced engine thrust on approach and descent.
Conventional systems for managing aircraft drag are unsatisfactory in a number of respects. For example, airframe drag generating components are often noisy and place the aircraft in an aerodynamic configuration that requires relatively high engine idle inertia to enable emergency procedures where rapid acceleration is required.
Generation of swirling outflow from the engine's exhaust has the potential to deliver equivalent drag at a given engine operating condition without the need for such noisy airframe-based components. However, technologies to generate such swirl require structures configured to partially redirect the stream of fluid exiting the nozzle of the turbofan engine in a manner that can rapidly and reliably return the engine to a high thrust mode when necessary.
Commonly known components used in such systems—e.g., turning vanes and other such structures—are not stowable in a manner that is optimal. That is, even when not deployed, the geometry and placement of such swirl vanes and other structures can change the flow path of fluids within the turbofan engine, resulting in a drag penalty for the aircraft when in a cruise configuration. Additionally, conventional turning vanes may reduce nozzle flow capacity, resulting in a potentially adverse back pressuring of the engine's pumping system.

Methods and apparatus for deployable swirl vanes


While a semiconductor memory operates in a first operation mode with high security, an encrypted command is inputted and then decoded to acquire the first address information. After the semiconductor memory comes into a second operation mode where the level of security is lower than that of the first operation mode, a command is inputted. Then, the second address information is acquired from the command. A control circuit in the semiconductor memory generates an address of 10 bits by using the first address information as a high-order 4 bits and the second address information as a low-order 6 bits and outputs the address to a memory array. With this operation, it becomes possible to read/write data from/to the memory array.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a security technique for a semiconductor memory.
2. Description of the Background Art
For protection against unjust reading of data stored in a semiconductor memory or against unjust writing of data into a semiconductor memory, encryption techniques have been used. Encryption of commands for a semiconductor memory makes it hard to observe the commands and further makes it impossible to actually generate any unjust command.
As another method specialized for protection against unjust writing, a memory array is divided into blocks of certain capacity and a flag bit (implemented by a nonvolatile memory) for protection against writing is provided for each block. For a flag bit corresponding to an object block for writing, a system makes it "write enabled" prior to writing and then writes data into the object block. After writing of data, the system makes the flag bit "write disabled" (protected), to ensure protection against writing.
The Patent Document 1, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette No. 2005-108273, relates to a semiconductor memory in which a protect flag is stored in a memory block. In the technique disclosed in the Patent Document 1, when a write command is inputted from a host, the content of the protect flag is checked and if the protect flag indicates "write enabled", writing of data is performed.
As discussed above, using an encryption technique makes it difficult to observe a command. When a command is encrypted, however, the processing speed disadvantageously decreases. That is because the encrypted command needs to be decrypted by using a predetermined algorithm and the load of this processing is heavy. Though a scramble processing whose load is light may be used in order to avoid this problem, since the scramble processing is weak in security, this processing disadvantageously increases possibility of decoding the command.
Further, the above method in which a flag bit is provided to ensure protection against writing can not also protect a semiconductor memory in terms of security. Specifically, this method is a technique for protection against unintended writing due to, e.g., runaway of software in a writing system, not against writing by a malevolent outsider.
The technique disclosed in the above Patent Document 1 is used to disable a system from writing data if the protect flag is on, not used to take protective measures against fraudulent actions in consideration of the possibility of manipulating the protect flag by using an unjust program.

Semiconductor memory and data access method


This invention provides a linear motion guide unit provided with lubricating plates capable of being applied to existing linear motion guide units without changing the basic specifications thereof, and capable of being fixed to and removed from a casing easily. The lubricating plates are disposed between spacers fixed to end surfaces of end caps and end seals, and fixed to a casing, the lubricating plates slidingly contacting at least the raceway grooves in a track rail and being moved relatively to the track rail. The lubricating plates comprise sintered resin members having lubricating oil-impregnated porous structures. The sintered resin members are made by filling a predetermined metal mold with fine particles of a synthetic resin, and thermally molding the same particles.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a linear motion guide unit applied to various kinds of robots, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and cutting and grinding machines, and more particularly to a linear motion guide unit provided with lubricating plates which can be incorporated simply in an existing linear motion guide unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the mechatronic techniques have remarkably been developed, and a linear motion guide unit has been demanded to improve accuracy and speed and the reduction of dimensions. Moreover, a wider use of the linear motion guide unit has been seen at present with the development of the relative techniques. The linear motion guide unit is used in the technical field of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, an inspection machine and an industrial robot. For example, an assembling robot demands the wider use thereof, and from large-sized to small-sized assembling robots are being manufactured. Especially, the linear motion guide unit incorporated in these assembling robots has come to meet the requirements for improving the accuracy and speed and reducing the dimensions, and providing self-lubrication.
A linear motion rolling guide unit shown in FIG. 20 is known. The linear motion rolling guide unit has a slider 1 mounted in a saddled state on a track rail 2 and slid freely thereon via rolling elements circulated along raceway grooves in the track rail 2. The track rail 2 is provided with the raceway grooves 4 in both of longitudinal side surfaces thereof. The track rail 2 is provided with a plurality of mutually spaced fixing holes 13 in a longitudinally extending upper surface thereof. The track rail 2 is fixed on a mounting base 20, such as a bed, a machine base and a working base. In the fixing holes 13 made in the track rail 2, bolts are inserted, which are then driven into threaded holes formed in the mounting base 20, whereby the track rail 2 is fixed on the mounting base 20. The slider 1 has a casing 5 movable relatively to the track rail 2, and end caps 6 fixed to both ends of the casing 5.
The casing 5 is provided in an upper portion thereof with fixing holes 19 used to fix some other machine, a part of a machine, a chuck or a clamp to the casing 5. The casing 5 and end caps 6 are provided in lower surfaces thereof with recesses 10 so that the casing 5 and end caps 6 are saddled at these recesses on the track rail 2 and moved thereon, and the portions of opposite surfaces of the recesses 10 which are opposed to the raceway grooves 4 in the track rail 2 raceway grooves 9. The rolling elements 7, such as balls are inserted in raceways formed by the opposed raceway grooves 4, 9, in such a manner that the rolling elements 7 roll therein. In order to prevent the rolling elements 7 from falling from the casing 5, retainer bands 18 are fixed to the casing 5 so as to enclose a large number of rolling elements 7. Lower seals 8 are provided on lower surface of the slider so as to attain the sealing of clearances between the track rail 2 and slider 1.
The end caps 6 are provided at both sides thereof with claws, by which the rolling elements 7 are scooped from the raceway grooves 4 forming load raceways between the end caps and track rail 2, and direction changing passages for changing the direction of the rolling elements 7 for the circulation thereof. End seals 17 for attaining the sealing clearances between both of longitudinal end portions of the track rail 2 and slider 1 are attached to the end caps 6. The end caps 6 are fixed to both end surfaces of the casing 5 by screws 25 inserted through a plurality of fixing holes. The rolling elements 7 in load regions which roll in the raceway grooves in the track rail 2 are guided into the direction changing passages formed in the end caps 6, and then moved into return passages 12 formed in parallel with the raceway grooves 9 in upper portions of the casing 5, whereby the rolling elements 7 roll in endless circulating passages. Owing to the rolling of the loaded rolling elements 7 rolling in the raceways formed between the raceway grooves 9 in the slider 1 and those 4 in the track rail 2, the track rail 2 and slider 1 can be moved relatively to each other.
The conventional seal means for linear guides include, for example, seal means disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 346919/1994, 35146/1995, 200362/1996, 247144/1996 and 247145/1996.
For example, the seal means for linear guides disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 346919/1994 comprise seal means, such as side seals and underseals provided on a slider of a linear guide which have seal lips formed out of lubricant-containing rubber or synthetic resin, and the seal lips contact outer surfaces of a guide rail and seal clearances between a slider and the guide rail, a lubricating oil which oozes constantly and continuously from a lubricant-containing seal bodies being supplied to the parts to be sealed.
A method of manufacturing communicating porous sintered bodies disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 283634/1986 is known as a porous sintered body manufacturing method. The communicating porous sintered body manufacturing method mentioned above is a method of obtaining porous sintered bodies having communicating pores of an average pore diameter of 10-150 .mu.m and an average porosity of 25-45 vol. % by mixing polyethylene powder of superhigh molecular weight and powder of a polyolefin resin molding material with each other at a predetermined ratio, and then sintering the resultant mixture.
In the linear motion rolling guide unit shown in FIG. 20, grease or a lubricating oil is used widely in general as a lubricant. When the lubricant comprises grease, it is supplied from grease nipples 11 to rolling passages of the rolling elements to lubricate the rolling passages. When the lubricant comprises a lubricating oil, the lubricating operation is carried out through pipe joints provided instead of the grease nipples. The linear motion guide unit is provided on end surfaces thereof with end seals usually, so as to prevent waste and dust from entering the slider. The end seals comprises rubber members formed out of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), and metal cores.
In recent years, in which the range of use of a linear motion guide unit has been expanded, it has been demanded that imperfect lubrication does not occur even in the condition in which the oil feeding cannot be carried out or under severe condition of use of the guide unit, for example, in an environment in which a large quantity of waste, dust and chips occur and are deposited on parts or in a region of severe temperature conditions. For example, the end seals in the seal means for the linear guide disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 346919/1994 are formed out of lubricant-containing rubber or synthetic resin, and those in the seal means for the lubricant-containing polymer-lubricated linear guide unit disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 200362/1996 comprise lubricant-containing polymer members.
In the seal means disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 346919/1994 and 200362/1996, the lubricant-containing polymer members comprise a material obtained by mixing polyolefin polymer and .alpha.-olefin oil with each other, thermally melting the mixture thus obtained, injecting the molten mixture into a predetermined mold, and molding the mixture by cooling and solidifying the same while pressing the same. Thus, complicated, high-degree techniques are required to manufacture the lubricant-containing polymer members.

Lubricating plate-carrying linear motion guide unit


A digital projector is provided that includes a projector housing, and a manually openable panel that provides access to the interior of the projector housing. The panel is configured so that it remains associated with the projector housing while open.

Digital projection systems may be used to display a still or video image, or to enable the image to be viewed simultaneously by a large or small audience. As digital projectors become smaller and more versatile, they may be used in a variety of different environments and positions, either temporarily or as a permanently mounted fixture. In any environment, access to the internal components of the projector may be hindered by the projector design, or the orientation of the projector, making routine maintenance, repair, or upgrading of the projector more difficult.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.