Methods are disclosed for separating a component of interest from a mixture containing the component of interest and other components. The method comprises contacting a first liquid medium containing the component of interest and other components with a second liquid medium that is of different density than and/or of different viscosity than the first liquid medium. The contact is carried out in such a way that mixing of the media is minimized or avoided. The component of interest is bound to magnetic particles. The contacted first liquid medium and second liquid medium are subjected to a magnetic field gradient to allow the magnetic particles to migrate into the second liquid medium and separation of the component of interest from other components is realized. Also disclosed are assays employing the present method. Kits for carrying out the present method and assays are also disclosed.

This invention relates to methods for separating a component which may or may not be particulate, from other components in a liquid medium using magnetic particles and a second liquid medium. The invention has particular application to separation of cells from biological fluids such as blood, lymphatic fluid, urine, cell cultures, etc, microorganisms, organelles, molecular aggregates, nucleic acids, and ligands.
Detection and identification of microorganisms, particularly in biological samples and food and drug products, are required for clinical diagnosis of disease, prevention of disease transmission, and food quality. Traditionally, bacteria and fungi are detected and identified by culture methods, which are notoriously slow and tedius. More recently, immunoassays for microbial antigens and nucleic acid probe assays have been developed. However, these methods usually only permit detection of a specific organism. In determination of septicemia, as assay for a general indicator of growth, such as carbon dioxide, is often used. This is followed by culture methods to identify the organism and then by antibiotic susceptibility testing. There is a need to obtain test results more rapidly with less labor.
Several techniques are known for carrying out separations. For example, in ligand binding assays one may employ centrifugation and washing; differential migration of bound and free fractions, e.g., chromatoelectrophereses, gel filtration, etc.; chemical precipitation of the bound or free fraction, e.g., by means of organic solvents, salts, acids, etc. followed by filtration or centrifugation; immunological precipitation of the bound fraction, e.g., by double antibody technique followed by filtration or centrifugation; absorption of the bound or free fraction onto selective sorbing media, e.g., charcoal, silicates, resins, etc.; magnetic separation techniques, and the like.
Magnetic separations generally fall into two general categories. There are those separations in which the material to be separated is intrinsically magnetic. On the other hand, one or more components of a mixture can be rendered magnetic by the attachment of a magnetically responsive entity. In biochemical separations, materials of interest are generally not sufficiently magnetic and thus magnetic particles bound to antibodies, lectins, and other targeting molecules have been used for isolating many of these materials. Magnetic particles targeted for specific molecules have also been used in a variety of immunoassays.
Many of the separation techniques, including those used in immunoassays, are relatively long and complicated procedures. Such procedures reduce operator efficiency, decrease thoughput, and increase the costs of tests. Other separation techniques which are rapid and simple do not adequately distinguish between the bound and free fractions and therefore are unsuited for immunoassays or can only be utilized in a limited number of tests.
In a particular application of separation techniques, red cell washing to remove unbound IgG is one of the most critical steps of the antibody screen, which is designed to detect relatively uncommon antibodies in blood that bind to hterologous erythrocyte antigens. Due to the relatively high level of IgG in normal human plasma (about 10mg/ml), exhaustive washing of the erythrocytes is required prior to detection of antibodies bound to the erythrocytes. A typical manual assay uses 3 or 4 wash cycles with 3-5 mls of saline per cycle. Inefficient cell washing can cause partial or complete neutralization of Coombs reagent (anti-human IgG) that is used for detection of bound antibodies by causing red cell agglutination when antibodies are present.

Method of separation employing magnetic particles and second medium


The general idea of one embodiment in accordance with the present invention is to provide a dynamic media distribution infrastructure. For example, once a client computer downloads encrypted media content (e.g., audio, video, graphics, information, software, data, etc.) from an existing media supplier, it becomes a part of the media distribution infrastructure. Specifically, the client computer is now able to provide that specific downloaded media content to other requesting client computers in an encrypted format. It should be appreciated that within the present embodiment, a directory server computer regulates the distribution of media content over the dynamic media distribution infrastructure.

Modern research and technology have provided society with a wide variety of electronic devices. It is appreciated that some of these modern electronic devices are very powerful and useful to their users. For example, some of the electronic devices which fall into this category include: computers which occupy large office space down to computers which are held in one's hand, satellites which orbit around earth relaying a multitude of communication signals, global positioning system (GPS) devices capable of determining the specific locations of their users on the earth, cellular phones which enable their users to communicate wirelessly with other people, to name a few. Additionally, it should be appreciated that some modern electronic devices also provide entertainment to their users. For instance, some of the electronic devices which fall into this category include: portable and fixed radio receivers which provide their users music along with a wide array of different audio programming, video game consoles which challenge their users with varying situations within different virtual realities, portable and fixed compact disc (CD) players which provide music to their users, and portable and fixed televisions which provide a wide variety of visual and audio programming to their users.
Currently, in order to provide entertaining media content to the general public, there are many different ways to distribute it. For example, television content providers distribute their television content to the general public by broadcasting it via different types of communication networks (e.g., wireless, wired, or a combination of both). As such, the general public is able to receive hundreds of channels of television programming within their respective households and/or businesses via personal satellite dishes (large or small), coaxial cables, and the like.
In another example, video content providers distribute their video content to the general public by utilizing computer network infrastructures such as local area networks (LANs) and/or the Internet. Specifically, these type of computer network infrastructures typically include a main frame computer which functions as the main source for distributing video content. Furthermore, the video content source computer is connected to several designated cache server computers which also distribute video content. As such, a client computer that requests a download of video content may receive it from the video source computer or from one of the designated cache servers. Usually, if one of the cache servers is located closer to the client computer than the video source computer, that cache server provides the requested video content to the client computer. In this manner, the designated cache server computers are utilized to off-load some of the video distribution functionality performed by the video content source computer.
It should be appreciated that there are disadvantages associated with the video distribution infrastructure described above. For example, the video content source computer and designated cache servers may be overwhelmed by too many requests for video content downloads such that they cannot handle them in a timely manner. In other words, the video download response time of the video distribution infrastructure may be adversely prolonged.
Another disadvantage associated with the type of video distribution infrastructure described above is that it is usually costly to increase its distribution capacity in order to handle a larger amount of video download requests. For example, one common way to increase the distribution capacity of the video distribution infrastructure is to add more dedicated cache servers to it in order to help fulfill the download requests for video content. However, buying and properly setting up additional cache servers to handle video download requests can be expensive to a company.

Method and system for providing a dynamic media distribution infrastructure


The method of the invention provides the use of a replacement-type targeting construct to delete large fragments of genomic DNA by gene targeting. The replacement targeting construct, which may contain a selectable marker, is constructed to contain two regions of sequences which are homologous to the 5' and 3' flanking sequences of the targeted locus. After transfection of the targeting construct into the desired cell line, gene targeted-mediated deletions are identified by selection and further characterized. The invention is useful in any situation where one would want to create a large genomic deletion. Examples of suitable loci include MHC Class I and II antigens and immunoglobulin genes, including, for example, variable and constant region of kappa, lambda, or heavy chains.

Gene targeting by means of homologous recombination between exogenous DNA and endogenous homologous chromosomal sequences has proven to be a great tool to create a designed mutation or correct a gene mutation in cultured mammalian cells in mice, including mouse embryonic stem (ES cells) and upon "injection of the targeted E cells", to transmit these mutations into the mouse germline (Smithies et al., Nature, 317:230-234, 1985; Thomas et al., Cell, 51:503-512, 1987; Koller et al., Proc. Natl. Acad, Sci. USA, 86:8927-8931, 1989; Kuhn et al., Science, 254:707-710, 1991; Thomas et al., Nature, 346:847-850, 1990; Schwartzberg et al., Science, 246:799-803, 1989; Doetschman et al., Nature, 330:576-578, 1987; Thomson et al., Cell, 5:313-321, 1989; Shesely et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88:4294-4298, 1991). It is also well appreciated in the field that the ability to create large deletions by gene targeting would be extremely useful, especially with respect to large genes or complexed loci which contain gene clusters and/or multiple copies. In these genes, complete targeting usually requires sequential targeting using differential markers which necessitates longer passages of the ES cells, during which transmission capability to germline may be reduced. Also for primary mammalian cells longer passages may affect their propensity to differentiate. While good sized deletions of 15 kb have been achieved in the T-cell antigen receptor .beta.-subunit locus (Mombaerts et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88:3084-3087, 1991), there remains a significant need for a method by which even larger genomic deletions can be achieved.

Generation of large genomic DNA deletions


A wheeled walker for training an individual to walk by enabling hip flexion. The walker is equipped with a pulley located between two anchors points to which the ends of an elastic cord are attached a middle portion of the elastic cord runs over the pulley. A first harness for receiving a foot of the user is slidingly coupled to the segment of the elastic cord located between the first anchor point and the pulley. A similar harness for receiving the other foot of the user is slidingly coupled to the segment of the elastic cord located between the second anchor point and the pulley.

In view of the aging population in the Western world, there is an increase in the number of people with limited mobility. These may be people post a neurologic or orthopedic trauma or even people whose muscles weaken and atrophy with disuse. They would typically rely on assistive devices to allow them to ambulate but the assistive devices are generally stabilizers and support structures—they do not typically provide a solution for specific gait problems. The resulting loss of mobility greatly interferes with the quality of life of these individuals and can lead to psychological and financial hardship.
Many of the individuals with limited mobility have the aptitude to regain some measure of mobility but lack the appropriate equipment to do so. Existing equipment such as standard walkers can help support an individual's weight bearing as he walks but does little with respect to training the muscles responsible for elevating or progressing the limb. As for existing types of body building equipment, they can help in strengthening targeted muscles but usually offer only resistance training, i.e., they provide an opposing force to the muscles being trained, they do not assist in flexing these muscles in any way. This constitutes a major hurdle for individuals who have lost most of their ability to control some key muscles used in walking, such muscles being, for example, the hip flexor muscles. Further, the existing equipment does not lend itself well to help individuals regain coordination of the different movements required in walking. Even with the help of assistive devices like walkers and canes, individuals who are not able to lift and progress their legs due to weak flexors, would not be able to ambulate and hence, would typically continue to atrophy and deteriorate. Strengthening the hip muscles in supine or in standing position is very important but even more important is to setup a training situation which is part of walking and coordinates in sequence the movements required for walking.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an apparatus for training an individual to walk by assisting the individual in flexing the hips and by assisting in the coordination of the sequence of movements associated with walking.


A differential device (17) for use in a four wheel drive system, the device including a viscous coupling (29), a ball ramp actuator (31), and a clutch pack (33). Under normal driving conditions, most of the torque is transmitted to the front drive wheels (11), and the device (17) rotates as a unit. If the front wheels (11) begin to slip, the input shaft (15) and input coupling member (35) rotate faster than the output coupling member (43), thus transmitting torque to the output coupling member (43). This torque is transmitted to the first ramp plate (51) of the ball ramp actuator (31), displacing the actuator from its neutral position (FIG. 3), such that the second ramp plate (52) begins to load the clutch pack (33) and transmit torque from the housing (25) to the output shaft (19), and from there to the rear drive wheels (23). The device (17) includes a housing (25) which preferably comprises a unitary member having a plurality of axially-extending grooves (77) which receive mating ridges (79) on the outer surface of the input coupling member (35), and ears (81) on the outer friction discs (65). Rollovers (76,83) at opposite ends of the housing retain the various components, thus providing a simple and inexpensive housing and method of assembly of the device.

The present invention relates to a driveline system for a four wheel drive vehicle, and more particularly, to a differential device for use in such a driveline system. The use of the term "differential" does not imply the presence of conventional differential gearing, but instead, the term is used primarily because the device of the present invention replaces the typical prior art center differential. However, it should be understood that the device illustrated, described and claimed herein has uses other than as a center differential.
In many of the vehicles being produced today, the basic vehicle platform is a front wheel drive. However, in many such vehicles, especially in vans and sport utility vehicles, it is considered desirable to be able to provide four wheel drive, at least under certain operating conditions.
Typically, the various arrangements for achieving part-time four wheel drive have been complex and expensive, and in some cases, have required some sort of control scheme to achieve the four wheel drive (or rear wheel drive) in response to certain predetermined operating conditions.
In certain vehicle applications, it is acceptable to provide only front wheel drive under most operating conditions, and rear wheel drive is required only when the front drive wheels are slipping (e.g., under poor traction conditions). However, the prior art has not provided a suitable device wherein only front wheel drive is provided, with no substantial torque being transmitted to the rear wheels, until the front wheels begin to slip. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,897 discloses a viscous clutch in the driveline, between the front transaxle and the rear wheels, but requires a selector arrangement in order to choose among transmitting torque through the viscous coupling, or disconnecting the viscous coupling, or bypassing the viscous coupling. Implementation of such a selector arrangement adds substantially to the overall complexity and cost of the driveline system, and as is well known to those skilled in the art, component cost is a major factor in determining whether or not a particular system or component will be utilized on a vehicle.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,975 and from European Application EP 0 314 420 to use, as a center differential in a four wheel driveline, a viscous actuated ball ramp type friction clutch to transmit torque to the rear axles when there is a speed difference between the front and rear wheels. It is believed that the torque transmitting capability of the device of the cited patent and application would be somewhat limited by the fact that one of the ball ramp plates comprises the input to the viscous coupling, but despite the limited torque capability, the device of the cited patent would probably be substantially more expensive than would be acceptable for typical vehicle applications. One of the reasons for the excessive cost of the device of the cited patent is the use of a fairly conventional type of cast housing, having several different machined internal diameters, internal snap ring and O-ring grooves, and a set of internal splines.

Viscous actuated ball ramp clutch and improved housing therefor


An exemplary zoom ratio adjusting switch includes a panel, a rotary member and a spring. The panel defines first and second grooves whose innermost extremities are on a circumference of a circle. Each groove includes a wide part and a narrow part. The rotary member includes a body positioned to a top side of the panel and first and second locking legs extending from the body. The first and second locking legs extend though the wide parts and slide in the narrow parts respectively. Feet extend from the locking legs respectively at the bottom side of the panel and are restrained at the bottom side of the panel. The spring is positioned to the bottom side of the panel and restrains travel of the first locking leg from the narrow part to the wide part of the first groove.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an optical device with a zoom lens and, particularly, to a zoom ratio adjusting switch.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of compact cameras equipped with zoom lenses have been put on the market. Motor driven compact cameras of this kind are equipped with a zoom ratio adjusting switch for actuating an electric motor to drive the zoom lens to adjust a zoom ratio.
One conventional zoom ratio adjusting switch comprises a camera panel and a rotary member. The panel defines three arc-shaped and elongated grooves therethrough, which are uniformly arranged in the panel, adjoining an outermost portion of a round region of the panel. The rotary member comprises a base attached to a side of the round region of the panel, and three elastic fingers extending perpendicularly from the base. The elastic fingers respectively elastically extend through the grooves and grasp an opposite side of the round region of the panel, to thereby secure the rotary member to the panel. The elastic fingers can slide in the grooves along a circumferential direction of the round region of the panel. Thus, the rotary member is kept in a neutral position until acted on by a force to rotate between a tele-angle end position and a wide-angle end position. Specifically, the electric motor rotates in one direction to shift the zoom lens toward the telephoto side while the rotary member is turned toward the tele-angle end position, and rotates in a reverse direction to shift the zoom lens toward the wide-angle end while the rotary member is turned to the wide-angle end position.
In order to firmly secure the rotary member to the panel, a diameter of the round region of the panel must be slightly larger than a diameter of a circle defined by innermost extremities of the elastic fingers. The elastic fingers must be expanded outwardly to extend through the grooves in the panel, and then rebound to grasp said opposite side of the round region of the panel. However, the elastic fingers are slim and at risk of being broken due to excessive force or deformation. As a result, the zoom ratio adjusting switch is unreliable.
What is needed, therefore, is a zoom ratio adjusting switch which is reliable and durable.


An edge adaptive system and method for image filtering. The method maps each output pixel onto input image coordinates and then prefilters and resamples the input image pixels around this point to reduce noise and adjust the scale corresponding to a particular operation. Then the edge in the input image is detected based on local and average signal variances in the input pixels. According to the edge detection parameters, including orientation, anisotropy and variance strength, the method determines a footprint and frequency response for the interpolation of the output pixel. In a more particular implementation, the method divides the input pixel space into a finite number of directions called skews, and estimates the edge orientation with the nearest skew direction. This further facilitates pixels inclusion in the interpolation of the output pixel.

A digital image is basically a two-dimensional array of digital data with each entry representing a pixel of the digitized image. Each pixel data can have a few components like color, e.g. red, green, and blue. A crucial image processing operation is expanding an image by an arbitrary factor and thereby creating an enlarged image. Deinterlacing is an example of such an operation where a video field is enlarged in vertical direction with a 1:2 scale factor. It is well known that in creating an enlarged image from an original image, it is necessary to interpolate between pixels of the original digital data array to achieve a high quality output image. Some prior art methods for image expansion interpolate the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the digitized image separately. These methods generate noticeable artifacts in the expanded images. The worst two types of resulting artifacts are zigzags (also called "jaggies") and the blurring effects. Most zigzag and blurring effects occur along the edges, substantially affecting the perceived quality of expanded edges.
It is known in the art that edge adaptive interpolation, i.e., interpolation along the edges in a digital image produces better quality results over interpolation across the edges of the image.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,664, to Hsu et. al., discloses a system for enhancing the resolution of a video image with classification and adaptive interpolation modules. The classification module generates a dominant orientation parameter for each original image pixel, and the adaptive interpolation module reads the dominant orientation parameter and selects one of the pre-determinant parametric coefficient sets responsive to generate each target image pixel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,463 to Greggain et al. discloses a method of generating an upsampled target pixel, positioned between two lines of input source data. First, the difference in values of pixels of the digital source data in a region surrounding the upsampled target pixel to be generated in a number of directions are calculated and examined to detect an interpolation direction. Then, intermediate pixels between pixels on line segments of the input image are generated based on determined interpolation directions. And then, interpolations between the intermediate pixels are performed to generate the upsampled target pixel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,957 to Campbell discloses an adaptive diagonal interpolation method for image resolution enhancement that consists of interpolation direction detection by analysis of a weighted combination of a vertical direction and a best-choice diagonal direction. An interpolation circuit then generates a target pixel by interpolating neighborhood pixels that are along a direction represented by interpolation direction signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,918 to Pereira et al. discloses an edge-oriented intra-field/inter-field interpolation filter for improved quality video appliances comprising four circuits. The first circuit detects an image edge. The second circuit uses output from the first circuit to generate a first signal corresponding to an average of the discrete image elements along a direction of the image edge. The third circuit uses output from the first circuit to detect a texture image area and for generating a second signal depending on a degree of existence of the image edge. The fourth circuit generates an output signal by combining the first signal with the third signal in a proportion dependent upon the second signal.
However, these and other prior art systems do not provide a high degree of adaptivity. The edge detection modules in prior art usually generate a direction of an edge but do not provide parameters describing the certainty of the edge, which can control the adaptive filter for better image quality. These systems are not adaptive to a certain edge scale. They usually exploit simple bilinear or bicubic interpolations that restrict the quality of the generated image. Therefore, there is a need for an improved interpolation system and method to support more flexible edge orientation and scale adaptive image enlargement and enhancement.

Edge adaptive image expansion and enhancement system and method


A water heater control for an electric water heater operates according to at least one fixed hardware and/or software temperature limit and a variable software temperature limit. The control monitors a temperature of water in a tank of the electric water heater to determine if the temperature exceeds the fixed hardware and/or software temperature limit. If the temperature exceeds the fixed temperature limit, the control turns off one or more heating elements of the electric water heater. The variable software temperature limit is indicative of a desired user temperature and an offset temperature. If the temperature exceeds the variable software temperature limit, the control turns off the one or more heating elements.

This application relates to the art of controls and methods for operating electric water heaters. The invention is particularly applicable to a control apparatus and method that uses a control module running software for operation of a water heater. However, it will be appreciated that the invention has broader aspects and can be practiced in other forms.
An electric water heater energizes one or more heating elements located within the water heater tank to heat water. Electrical power to the heating elements is managed through the operation of a control module, which controls the opening and/or closing of electrical relays connected in series between a power source and the heating elements. The thermal energy generated by the heating elements dissipates in the water, thereby heating the water according to a desired or preset water temperature. The control module is operable to interrupt power to the heating elements, limiting the possibility that the water temperature will substantially exceed the desired temperature, by opening one or more of the electrical relays. However, certain circumstances may cause the heating elements to heat the water above the desired water temperature, resulting in a high temperature condition. For example, one or more of the relays may malfunction and/or fuse shut, limiting the ability of the control module to open and/or close the relays. If a relay fuses shut, the control module will not be able to open the relay and the heating elements will continue to heat the water.
It is known that one or more electric water heater components involved with the heating of the water may be designated as "critical" components. Electric water heater components are identified as critical components if failure of that particular component may directly result in a high temperature condition in the water heater. For example, if the failure of a relay would cause a high temperature condition, the relay is identified as a critical component. Critical components are more costly and have very high reliability requirements. It is desirable, therefore, to minimize the number of critical components in an electric water heater, which simultaneously minimizes the potential for a high temperature condition.

Control and method for operating an electric water heater


A contractile handle containing a longitudinal slot and a flexible grip is described. By the use of this handle heated hair curler rollers may be individually removed from a vat of boiling curling solution, strands of hair easily rolled around each roller, the handle removed and the process repeated the desired number of times. When all the rollers have cooled and dried, the handle is again used to unwind and remove the rollers one at a time. The now-curled strands then are lightly combed to combine individual curls.

A popular method for the curling and setting of women's hair is to use plastic rollers wetted with heated curling solution. The rollers are placed in a vat containing a heated curling solution. One roller is then removed from the vat, applied to a group of hair strands and spun to form a curl. Each roller has a fuzzy external surface to which the hair strands will adhere. The process is repeated to produce the number of curls desired. After the applied hair solution has cooled and dried, it is possible to unwind the rollers. The unwound curls will spring back and the hair is "set" in a wavy pattern. There are, however, several difficulties encountered in this process. It is easy to scald the fingers when handling a roller which has been immersed in a hot solution. It is also uncomfortable to turn the roller because of its rough surface. A partial remedy which has been used in the past to alleviate these problems is to provide the rollers with smooth end bands or caps. These bands or caps permit easier turning during the coiling the uncoiling process but the problem of working with the hot liquid remains.
The present invention is essentially a flexible tongs which is inserted into the hollow interior of a roller and locks in place. This facilitates the lifting of the individual rollers from the heated vat, the application of each roller to a strand of hair, the coiling and subsequent uncoiling and the removal of the rollers.


A method and apparatus is provided for performing an active impedance differential current feedback. A signal is received. A current feedback of an output signal in an active feedback synthesis mode is performed based upon the signal. The active current feedback includes using an active feedback network for conditioning an output signal, converting the signal into a differential current signal, and summing at least two components of the differential current signal for performing a differential feedback.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and, more particularly, to providing a differential current feedback in an active impedance feedback circuit for signal reception and/or transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
In communications systems, particularly telephony such as a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), it is common practice to transmit signals between a subscriber station and a central switching office via a two-wire, bi-directional communication channel. A line card generally connects the subscriber station to the central switching office. The functions of the line card include supplying talk battery, performing wake-up sequences of circuits to allow communications to take place, and the like. Voltage signals are processed and conditioned when being driven onto telecommunication lines.
POTS was designed primarily for voice communication, and thus provides an inadequate data transmission rate for many modern applications. To meet the demand for high-speed communication, designers have sought innovative and cost-effective solutions that would take advantage of the existing network infrastructure. Several technological solutions proposed in the telecommunications industry use the existing network of telephone wires. A promising one of these technologies is the Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL or DSL) technology.
xDSL is making the existing network of telephone lines more robust and versatile. Once considered virtually unusable for broadband communications, an ordinary twisted pair equipped with DSL interfaces can transmit video, television, and very high-speed data. The fact that more than six hundred million telephone lines exist around the world is a compelling reason for these lines to be used as the primary transmission conduits for at least several more decades. Because DSL utilizes telephone wiring already installed in virtually every home and business in the world, it has been embraced by many as one of the more promising and viable options.
There are now at least three popular versions of DSL technology, namely Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Very High-Speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), and Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL). Although each technology is generally directed at different types of users, they all share certain characteristics. For example, all four DSL systems utilize the existing, ubiquitous telephone wiring infrastructure, deliver greater bandwidth, and operate by employing special digital signal processing. Because the aforementioned technologies are well known in the art, they will not be described in detail herein.
DSL and POTS technologies can co-exist in one line (e.g., also referred to as a "subscriber line"). Traditional analog voice band interfaces use the same frequency band, 0–4 Kilohertz (KHz), as telephone service, thereby preventing concurrent voice and data use. A DSL interface, on the other hand, operates at frequencies above the voice channels, from 25 KHz to 1.1 Megahertz (MHz). Thus, a single DSL line is capable of offering simultaneous channels for voice and data. It should be noted that the standards for certain derivatives of ADSL are still in definition as of this writing, and therefore are subject to change. DSL systems use digital signal processing (DSP) to increase throughput and signal quality through common copper telephone wire. It provides a downstream data transfer rate from the DSL Point-of-Presence (POP) to the subscriber location at speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second (MBPS). The transfer rate of 1.5 MBPS, for instance, is fifty times faster than a conventional 28.8 kilobits per second (KBPS) transfer rate typically found in conventional POTS systems.
DSL systems generally employ a signal detection system that monitors the telephone line for communication requests. More specifically, the line card in the central office polls the telephone line to detect any communication requests from a DSL data transceiver, such as a DSL modem, located at a subscriber station. There are multiple types of signals that are received and transmitted over multiple signal paths during telecommunication operation. Many times, feedback configurations in the amplifiers that process the transmission signals cause noise and power problems.
Many of today's amplifier circuits may call for electronic components that have high bandwidth, which may increase consumption of power. Many times, power consumption in the line card can become undesirably high. Amplifier circuits that are used to condition communication signals often consume large amounts of power. Excessive power use can compromise the effectiveness of line cards, particularly for remote line cards, which rely upon portable power supplies. Excessive power consumption can also require additional resources to counteract the effects of high power consumption, such as additional cooling systems to keep line card circuitry in operating condition. Excessive power consumption can also require additional circuits to furnish the required amounts of power needed for efficient operation of line cards. Excessive power consumption can cause appreciable inefficiencies in the operation of line cards and the communication system as a whole.
The prior art implementations of signal conditioning circuits generally implement signal feedback configurations that generally take the output voltage signal and then feed the voltage signal back to a negative input of an amplifier within a circuit. In other words, the direct output voltage signal is the feedback signal used in the implementations described above. Among the problems associated with the current implementations, include the fact that a larger signal is fed back into the circuit described above. The problem with such an implementation is that larger signals may generally carry larger amounts of noise. Therefore, feeding back larger signals amounts to feeding back larger amounts of noise into the circuit, this may cause performance problems in the amplifier circuit.
Additionally, feeding back the output voltage signal may require amplifiers that have relatively large bandwidth capabilities. Utilizing amplifiers with larger bandwidth capabilities generally increases power consumption. Additionally, many prior art systems employ feedback configurations that use single-ended feedback signals. The circuits that use these types of configurations may experience an excessive amount of longitudinal signals, such as longitudinal currents. Longitudinal signals may enter one of more amplification stages within a circuit and cause excessive noise. Utilizing the current methodologies, the performance of a signal conditioning circuit may be compromised.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Method and apparatus for a differential feedback in an active impedence feedback circuit


The present invention relates to a method for introducing a substance into a plant. The method of the present invention comprises the steps of: obtaining an enzymatically treated and isolated fertilized egg cell by (1-i) isolating a fertilized egg cell from a plant tissue containing a fertilized egg cell, and then treating the fertilized egg cell with an enzyme solution containing a plant tissue-degrading enzyme under a low-titer condition, (1-ii) treating a plant tissue containing a fertilized egg cell with an enzyme solution containing a plant tissue-degrading enzyme under a low-titer condition, and then isolating the fertilized egg cell that has been enzymatically treated, (1-iii) treating a plant tissue containing a fertilized egg cell with an enzyme solution containing a plant tissue-degrading enzyme under a low-titer condition, and simultaneously isolating the fertilized egg cell that has been enzymatically treated, (1-iv) isolating an egg cell and a sperm cell from a plant to produce a fertilized egg by fusing the cells, and then treating the fertilized egg cell with an enzyme solution containing a plant tissue-degrading enzyme under a low-titer condition, or (1-v) treating a plant tissue containing an egg cell with an enzyme solution containing a plant tissue-degrading enzyme under a low-titer condition, and then isolating the egg cell that has been enzymatically treated, and further fusing the egg cell with an isolated sperm cell; and (2) introducing a substance selected from the group consisting of nucleic acids, proteins, and peptides into the resultant enzymatically treated and isolated fertilized egg cell.

Transgenic technologies in plants, particularly, in monocotyledonous plants, have been widely adopted rapidly, since methods using Agrobacterium for rice and maize have been developed in the 1990's, and various transformation methods have been developed so far. However, it is known that the efficiency of transformation greatly differs among species and varieties, since many of such methods need to go through dedifferentiation and regeneration of plant tissues. For certain species and varieties, the efficiency of transformation is low, and transformed plants with reproducibility cannot be obtained. For example, in B73, which is a very important strain for breeding maize, reproducible transformation methods have not been developed yet.
Further, it is becoming possible to efficiently practice a genome editing in recent year. However, practical use of genome editing in plants is also hindered since the point that the ease of tissue culture differs depending on crop species and varieties greatly affects the efficiency of genome editing.
Meanwhile, artificial fertilization in which a sperm cell and an egg cell isolated from plants are artificially fused has been attempted in the 1990's, and plants have been successfully produced. Non-Patent Literature (NPL) 1 discloses a method of producing a fertilized egg cell by electrofusion of an egg cell and a sperm cell of maize and culturing them into plants. In NPL 1, an enzyme mixture (0.75% of pectinase (Serva), 0.25% of pectolyase, 0.5% of hemicellulose, and 0.5% of cellulase) is used for separating an egg cell, where the enzymes used, particularly, pectinase have a high titer. Further, there is no mention that gene introduction and transformation have been performed using a fertilized egg cell produced by using the egg cell.
Further, NPL 2 discloses a method of isolating male and female gametes (an egg cell and a center cell) of rice. Specifically, an enzymatic treatment in a 0.3-M mannitol solution (for 10 to 15 minutes using a mannitol solution (650 mosmol/kg.H2O)+0.3% of pectolyase Y-23, 1.5% of pectinase, 1% of cellulose, and 1% of hemicellulose) is performed after the ovule is isolated from a plant, where the enzymes, particularly, pectinase have a high titer, in the same manner as in NPL 1. Further, the target is not a fertilized egg but an egg cell before fertilization, and there is no mention that regeneration to a plant, and gene introduction and transformation into a plant have been performed.
NPL 3 and NPL 4 disclose methods of producing fertilized eggs by electrofusion of male and female gametes of rice and culturing them into plants. These prior art literatures indicate that plants can be induced from a fertilized egg cell obtained by artificially fusing male and female gametes. However, also in the aforementioned literatures, gene introduction and transformation are not mentioned at all, in the same manner as in NPL 2, and it has been unknown whether or not transformation can be performed using fertilized eggs. In NPLs 3 and 4, there is also no mention about performing the enzymatic treatment of an egg cell.
In species such as maize (NPLs 5 and 12), rice (NPLs 6 and 11), wheat (NPL 7), barley (NPLs 8 and 10), and tobacco (NPL 9), examples in which fertilized eggs are collected and cultured from the embryo sac after fertilization to produce plants are known. In some of the examples, it has been reported that DNA can be introduced into a fertilized egg cell by the microinjection method, as in NPLs 5 and 10, but it has not been reported that the method has been put to practical use. Further, gene introduction by other methods has not been found at all.
Examples of the method for introducing genes into a plant cell include the polyethylene glycol method (polyethylene glycol: PEG method) and the electroporation method, other than the microinjection method. Among them, the microinjection method enables gene introduction into a cell having a cell wall and does not particularly need to remove the cell wall of a plant cell by an enzymatic treatment or the like. However, there is a disadvantage that only one cell can be handled in a one-time introduction. In contrast, the electroporation method and the PEG method, particularly, the PEG method have an advantage that a lot of cells can be handled at one time, as compared with the microinjection method, but need a process of removing cell walls using an enzyme or the like. For a fertilized egg cell, a method for removing a cell wall with cell activity being maintained, so as to enable continuous cell division after the removal of the cell wall and growth to a plant has been unknown. Therefore, it has not been reported that gene introduction to a fertilized egg cell is performed by a method such as the PEG method to achieve cell division. Among the aforementioned reports, the fertilized egg cells of rice, wheat, and barley are released using only glass needles or the like, without using enzymes to remove a cell wall such as cellulases. Since a cell wall remains in such fertilized eggs isolated by a physical approach, application of the PEG method is inferred to be difficult, and no examples of application of the PEG method have been reported in fact.
In the removal of a cell wall by the enzymatic treatment, it is conventionally known that treatments with cell wall-degrading enzymes, such as celluloses and pectinase, are effective for protoplastization of a plant cell. However, a high-concentration or long-term treatment may possibly cause an adverse effect on a plant cell. Meanwhile, a low-concentration or short-term treatment may fail to achieve the desired purpose of protoplastization, due to the cell wall being incompletely removed. Therefore, even in maize for which isolation and culture of an egg cell and a fertilized egg cell have been studied comparatively much in plants, there are no examples of gene introduction by the PEG method through protoplastization of a fertilized egg cell, and whether or not such gene introduction is possible has been unknown.
Actually, NPL 5 discloses that gene introduction has been performed by microinjection, in which fertilized eggs are isolated by enzymatic treatment of maize for a very short time (for 2 minutes). Further, NPL 9 discloses a two-step enzymatic treatment for a total of one hour at maximum, using tobacco as a material and Macerozyme R10 having a very weak pectinase activity. It is inferred that the reason why such an exceptionally short-term enzymatic treatment or long-term enzymatic treatment with a very weak enzyme is performed, as in the two methods disclosed in NPLs 5 and 9, is to minimize the negative effects on a fertilized egg cell since the enzymatic treatments are considered to cause negative effects on the activity and development capacity. However, it is considered that a cell wall of a fertilized egg cell is not completely removed by short-term enzymatic treatments or enzymatic treatments with weak activity, and thus the fertilized egg cell is unsuitable as materials in the PEG method. Therefore, there have been no examples of application of the PEG method to fertilized eggs, and whether or not a fertilized egg cell subjected to the PEG method can maintain the division capacity has been unknown.

Method for introducing substance into plant


A vibration damping device having improved air-tightness of a chamber holding a rolling mass in an oscillatable manner is provided. A cover member that covers an oscillating range of the rolling mass liquid-tightly or air-tightly comprises a first flange and a second flange. The first flange is pushed onto one of lateral faces of a holding member by a first pushing member fitted onto a rotary member while being prevented to move axially to seal a clearance between the holding member and the first flange by a first sealing member. The second flange is pushed onto the other lateral face of the holding member by a second pushing member fitted onto the rotary member while being prevented to move axially to seal a clearance between the holding member and the second flange by a second sealing member.

A rotary member such as a gear, a driveshaft etc. for transmitting torque of a prime mover to a predetermined portion or member is vibrated inevitably by a torque pulse, a change in a load, and friction and so on, and frequency of vibrations is changed depending on a rotational speed. In this situation, higher vibrations such as secondary vibrations are also generated. Amplitude of vibrations of the rotary member thus generated may be increased by resonance, and if amplitude of the vibrations of the rotary member is increased, the rotary member may be damaged and noise may be increased. In order to avoid such disadvantages, a vibration damper device or mechanism is widely used in various kinds of rotary power transmission devices.
For example, a dynamic damper is known as a device for damping torsional vibrations of the rotary member. In the dynamic damper, a rolling mass is oscillated by torque pulses of a rotary shaft, and the vibrations of the rotary shaft are suppressed by an oscillating motion of the rolling mass. If such oscillation of the rolling mass is restricted by an increase in viscosity of oil or the like, vibration damping performance of the dynamic damper may be restricted. Likewise, if contaminants are interposed between the rotary member and the rolling mass, the vibration damping performance of the dynamic damper may also be restricted.
One example of the dynamic damper adapted to prevent hindrance of oscillation of the rolling mass is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-197886. According to the teachings of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-197886, the dynamic damper is held in a torque converter connected to an output shaft of an engine. The torque converter is provided with a lockup clutch, and an output torque of the engine is delivered to an input shaft of a transmission through the oil and the lockup clutch. Specifically, the dynamic damper is disposed on the input shaft of the transmission inserted into the torque converter. In order not to hinder the oscillation of the rolling mass by the oil in the torque converter, an oscillation range of the rolling mass is covered liquid-tightly by a cover member. The cover member is comprised of an annular first cover member opening toward the engine in an axial direction that is rotated together with a rotary shaft, and a second cover member that is fitted into the opening of the first cover member through a sealing member while being allowed to move in the axial direction. The rolling mass is enclosed by the first cover member and the second cover member while being allowed to oscillate therein. That is, a holding chamber is formed by the first cover member and the second cover, and the holding chamber is sealed liquid-tightly by the sealing member.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-504987 also describes a dynamic damper in which a rolling mass is held oscillatably by a plate member rotated together with a turbine runner of a torque converter. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-311309 also describes a dynamic damper in which a rolling mass is held in a chamber formed in the torque converter close to an engine. In the chamber, a through hole is formed on a wall of the chamber to provide a connection between an inner space of the chamber and an inner space of the torque converter.
In the dynamic damper taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-197886 in which the second cover member is fitted into the opening of the first cover member in a movable manner, a pushing force for pushing the sealing member interposed between the first cover member and the second cover member may not be ensured sufficiently. For this reason, a clearance between the first cover member and the second cover member may not be sealed sufficiently liquid-tightly, and hence the oil may intrude into the chamber.
In the dynamic damper taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-504987 in which the member is held by the plate member, the plate member is basically made of material having relatively high strength. If the chamber is formed by combining a cover member with the plate member made of high strength material, the cover member is not required to have especially high strength and hence the cover member may be made of different metal material. In this case, it would be difficult to connect the cover member to the plate member by a welding method. In addition, if the chamber is formed by attaching the cover members on both sides of the plate member through the sealing member, more bolts are required to compress the sealing member sufficiently. Further, in the chamber in which the sealing member interposed between the cover member and the plate member is pushed from both sides of the plate member, if the plate member or the cover member is inclined for any reason, the cover member may be subjected to a pulling force to be isolated away from the plate member and hence a sealing tightness may not be ensured.


The invention is directed to a method which is provided for controlling coordinate measuring apparatus wherein a probe head (2) is moved and has a movably attached probe unit (24) attached thereto. The probe unit (24) is charged with a measurement force Fmeas relative to the probe head (2). The measurement force Fmeas operates against the mass inertial forces Fzp which occur because of acceleration of the probe. The measurement force Fmeas is comprised of a desired measurement force Fdes and a corrective measurement force Fcorr. The desired measurement force Fdes is constant in magnitude and is directed perpendicularly to the surface of the workpiece (15) to be measured. The corrective measurement force Fcorr at least partially compensates for the mass inertial forces (Ftr, Fzp) which occur because of the acceleration of the probe unit (24).

A method of this kind is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,406. In this known method, geometric data of geometric elements of the workpiece in the form of desired data are transferred from a computer to the control system of the coordinate measuring apparatus. In the control system, the desired data are transformed into the machine coordinate system and are thereafter transferred to an interpolator which generates the position desired values along which the probe head with the movably attached probe is control driven. Furthermore, and in one embodiment, a desired measuring force is transferred additionally from the computer to the control system. A force controller continuously charges the probe with a measuring force relative to the probe head. This measuring force has a constant magnitude and is always normal to the workpiece surface to be measured.
Particular to the above method is that the magnitude of the adjusted measuring force is constant during the entire measuring sequence and corresponds to the pregiven desired measuring force. The actual probe force with which the probe ball of the probe is pressed against the surface of the workpiece to be measured, however, changes because of mass inertial forces which occur with accelerations of the probe. Centrifugal accelerations occur especially when scanning curved surface sections of the workpiece. These centrifugal accelerations act in the direction of the measuring force in concave curves so that the actual force with which the ball of the probe is pressed against the surface of the workpiece is increased. For convex curves, the centrifugal accelerations operate opposite to the measuring force and thereby reduce the actual force with which the ball of the probe is pressed against the surface of the workpiece. For a rapid movement on convex curves, the centrifugal force can even be greater than the applied measuring force so that the probe, that is, the probe ball attached thereto, lifts off of the workpiece surface. In each case, the measuring results are made incorrect by the above effects so that the path speed of the probe must be greatly reduced before reaching the curved surface sections of the workpiece to avoid the above effects. This is described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/693,632, filed Aug. 9, 1996, and incorporated herein by reference.
The reduction of the path speed, however, leads to increases in measuring time especially for workpieces which have many curves such as gear wheels, shafts, engine blocks, et cetera.

Coordinate measuring apparatus and method for controlling the same


A goalkeeper's glove includes: a wrinkle-releasing slot formed in a palm side of the glove for relieving any wrinkles formed when bending or curving the glove when grasping a football for well manipulating the catching of the football; an adjustable fastening strap formed on a wrist portion of the glove consisting of a first Velcro hook and loop tape and a second Velcro tape which are adjustably fastened on the wrist portion respectively corresponding to a fat or a slim goalkeeper's hand (wrist) for a comfortable wearing of the glove; and an extending flap protruding downwardly from a palm side of the glove having an anti-slipping pad fixed on the extending flap for holding a football in cooperation with a smooth surface as effected by the wrinkle-releasing slot formed in the palm side of the glove for manipulation of the football.

A conventional goalkeeper's glove is generally made of elastomer such as latex or Neoprene artificial leather having thickness of 3 mm. Such a thick glove when worn by a goalkeeper may affect his or her manipulability because a bending or curving glove may produce wrinkles especially on the palm side of the glove when grasping a football. Meanwhile, a goalkeeper's glove includes a fixed wrist strap, lacking of adjustment for properly matching a fat or a slim goalkeeper's hand and thereby easily causing wearing uncomfortableness for the goalkeeper.
The present inventor has found the drawbacks of the conventional goalkeeper's glove and invented the present glove with wrinkle-free and smooth manipulation.

Smoothly manipulatable wrinkle-free glove for goalkeeper


The present invention may be a method, a system, and/or a computer program product. An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for paraphrasing, on a client computer, text in a webpage, the method comprising the following: transferring a request for a webpage including a plurality of passages of text to a server; receiving the webpage from the server in response to the request; judging whether or not the received webpage has text which is a subject of paraphrase; in a case where the judgment is positive, paraphrasing the text; and displaying, on a display, the webpage including the paraphrased text. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for updating on a server, text in a webpage, the method comprising the following: receiving, from each of the devices, a set of URLs of a webpage, a location path of text which is a subject of paraphrase in the webpage, and paraphrased text; and replacing text in the webpage with text among the received text.

The present invention relates to a technique for paraphrasing, on a client computer, text in a webpage. The present invention also relates to a technique for updating, on a server, the text in the webpage.
Text displayed on a screen of a web application is generally managed integrally by a server as a part its of resources and, in normal cases, cannot be freely edited by individual users. In some cases, however, it would be preferable for the text to be changed in accordance with preferences of a company or a user. To accomplish this, the resources stored in the server currently need to be edited directly, even though the changes may affect all users. Alternatively, a different resource must be stored in the server for the edits corresponding to each user.

International Business Machines Corporation


Technologies for monitoring a health-risk condition of a user include a virtual reality compute device having one or more near infrared (NIR) sensors. The virtual reality compute device presents a virtual reality (VR) presentation to the user. The virtual reality compute device produces sensor data through the one or more NIR sensors that is indicative of a heart rate of the user and a blood pressure of the user while the VR presentation is presented to the user. The virtual reality compute device determines whether the user is in a health-risk condition based on a comparison of the heart rate of the user to a heart rate safety threshold and a comparison of the blood pressure of the user to a blood pressure safety threshold. The virtual reality compute device performs a health-risk condition response in response to a determination that the user is in the health-risk condition.

Popularity of virtual reality devices is increasing as it is applied to content viewable by smartphones, video games implementing a virtual reality headset, and the like. The content presented by these virtual reality devices range from a variety of genres. The spectrum of content can include movies (e.g., action movies), games (e.g., first-person shooter games), and/or other active content.
However, some content presented by virtual reality devices, such as very active or abrupt content (e.g., a scare scene in a horror movie), can cause some users to react negatively if not properly monitored. For example, users who are susceptible to being scared by horror movies or the like may have had reactions while using the virtual reality devices. Such users may, for example, develop a feeling of being trapped and accidentally hurt themselves or others nearby while operating the virtual reality device. In addition, extreme content may place some users in a condition for a health risk. That is, in certain situations users could potentially experience heart attacks from the use of the virtual reality device.

Technologies for monitoring health-risk condition of user


A method and system for detecting faults with a self-exciting sensor includes a monitor circuit coupled to the self-exciting sensor for monitoring a signal associated with the sensor and generating a failure signal. A voltage limiting circuit is coupled to a receiver circuit associated with the self-exciting sensor for generating a first output signal within a valid range of operation in the absence of the failure signal. The voltage limiting circuit also generates a second output signal outside the valid range of operation in response to the failure signal so as to eliminate the necessity of an additional input to control logic associated with the self-exciting sensor.

Self-exciting sensors are used in many applications. Self-exciting sensors internally generate an excitation signal that is received by the sensor itself. The sensor then measures variations in the excitation signal to sense certain physical parameters. For example, an optically coupled sensor is utilized in sensing a relative position of an automotive steering wheel.
Some automotive vehicles incorporate a control system for carrying out given control in response to a steering angle calculated from the relative position. The typical optics-based position sensor includes an exciter ring concentrically surrounding a steering wheel shaft. Optical pulses are generated in accordance with rotation of the steering wheel when the driver operates the steering wheel. Information on the steering angle of the vehicle is obtained by means of a counter which counts signal pulses based on the optical signal pulses.
However, in the event that a failure occurs in the sensor itself, it is impossible to carry out proper control in response to the steering angle. Typically, a sensor is coupled to the position sensor to detect any failures associated with the sensor itself. However, it is desirable to eliminate such cost and unreliability associated with an additional sensor or input to a control logic when detecting a failure associated with the position sensor, or any other similar self-exciting sensor.

Method and system for detecting failures in self-exciting sensor


Broadly contemplated herein, in accordance with at least one embodiment, is a multi-flute end mill configuration that maintains circumferential spacing between the rake surface and clearance surface adjoining two adjacent end face cutting edges, respectively, regardless of the number of flutes and the desired end face configuration.

An end mill having both axial-end cutting edges and peripheral cutting edges is widely used for deep and high-speed machining, particularly slotting, in both the axial and sideways directions. A corner is produced in prior art end mills to merge each peripheral cutting edge with a corresponding end cutting edge.
End mills have helical flutes through which chips are evacuated after being cut from a workpiece. An end mill having a higher number of flutes, such as six or eight flutes, supports a higher feed rate of a workpiece to reduce machining time since less material is removed per flute. An increased number of cutting edges, both peripheral cutting edges and end face cutting edges, helps to improve tool stability to provide a better-quality work surface, facilitates an increased chip removal rate, and decreases noise generated by the end mill.
The workpiece can be machined with a desired contour, depending on the type of end face configuration that has been selected. The end face can include a square end to machine flat surfaces, or a ball-nosed end for milling up, down and along the contours of complex milled shapes (such as die and mold surfaces). Other end face configurations for an end mill include a corner radius configuration and a chamfer configuration.
Often, it is very difficult or even impossible to produce a desired end face configuration due to the large number of flutes that are provided with an end mill. As the peripheral cutting edges extend continuously to a corresponding end face cutting edge, albeit at a different angular position about the circumference of the end mill (viewed in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the end mill) and thereby converge toward a central region of the end face, the circumferential spacing between adjacent end face cutting edges significantly decreases. Thus, the rake surface and clearance surface adjoining two adjacent end face cutting edges, respectively, can consequently contact each other due to the reduced circumferential spacing therebetween, reducing the overall effectiveness of the end face cutting edges and hindering the flow of chips through the flutes.


A method for discharging fluid, includes while keeping two members relatively moving to each other along a gap direction of a gap formed by two opposing surfaces of the two members, feeding fluid from a fluid supply device to the gap, and intermittently discharging the fluid by utilizing a pressure change made by changing the gap, and controlling a fluid discharge amount per dot depending on pressure and flow rate characteristics of the fluid supply device.

The present invention relates to fluid discharging method and device for very small flow rates required in such fields as information/precision equipment, machine tools, and FA (Factory Automation), or in various production processes of semiconductors, liquid crystals, displays, surface mounting, and the like.
For liquid discharging devices (dispensers), which have hitherto been used in various fields, there has arisen a growing demand for a technique of feeding and controlling very small amounts of fluid material with high precision and high stability, against the background of recent years' needs for smaller-size electronic components and higher recording density. For example, in the fields of plasma displays, CRTs, organic EL, or other displays, there has been a great demand for direct patterning of fluorescent material or electrode material on the panel surface without any mask instead of conventional screen printing, photolithography, or other like methods.
Issues of dispensers for those purposes can be summarized as follows:    {circle around (1)} Scale-down of application amount,    {circle around (2)} Higher accuracy of application amount, and    {circle around (3)} Reduction of application time.
The machining accuracy in machining work has been moving from micron into submicron orders. Whereas the submicron machining is commonly used in the field of semiconductor and electronic components, the demand for ultraprecision machining has been rapidly increasing also in the field of machining work that has been making progress along with mechatronics. In recent years, along with the introduction of the ultraprecision machining technique, electromagnetostriction devices typified by ultra-magnetostriction devices and piezoelectric devices have been coming to be applied to micro actuators. With one of these electromagnetostriction devices used as a generation source for fluid pressure, there has been proposed an injection device for injecting very small amounts of droplets at high speed. For example, a method of injecting one arbitrary droplet with an ultra-magnetostriction device is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-167467. Referring to FIG. 24, reference numeral 502 denotes a cylinder made of a nonmagnetic material such as glass pipe or stainless pipe. At one end portion of this cylinder 502 is formed an injection nozzle 504 having a liquid storage portion 503 and a minute injection port. Inside the cylinder 502, an actuator 505 made of a bar-shaped ultra-magnetostriction material is accommodated so as to be movable. A piston 506 is contactably and separably provided at an end portion of the actuator 505 suited for the injection nozzle 504.
Between the other end portion of the actuator 505 and a stopper 507 of the one end portion of the cylinder 502, a spring 508 is interposed so that the actuator 505 is biased by the spring 508 so as to be moved forward. Also, a coil 509 is wound at a position near the piston 506 on the outer periphery of the cylinder 502.
In the injection device having the above construction, a current is instantaneously passed through the coil 509 so that an instantaneous magnetic field acts on the ultra-magnetostriction material, by which an instantaneous transient displacement due to an elastic wave is generated at an axial end portion of the ultra-magnetostriction material. By the action, it is described, the liquid filled in the cylinder 502 can be injected from the nozzle 504 as one minute droplet.
As the dispenser, conventionally, such a dispenser employing the air pulse system as shown in FIG. 25 has been widely used, and this technique is introduced, for example, in "Jidoka-Gijutsu (Mechanical Automation), Vol. 25, No. 7, '93" etc.
A dispenser of this system applies a constant mount of air supplied from a constant-pressure source into the interior 601 of a vessel 600 (cylinder) in a pulsed manner and then discharges from a nozzle 602 a certain amount of liquid corresponding to a pressure increase in the cylinder 600.
With an aim of high-speed intermittent application, such a dispenser as shown in FIG. 26 (hereinafter, referred to as "jet system" for convenience' sake) has already been put into practice. Reference numeral 550 denotes a micrometer, 551 denotes a spring, 552 denotes a seal member of the piston, 553 denotes a piston chamber, 554 denotes a heater, 555 denotes a needle, 556 denotes an application material flowing toward a sheet portion, and 557 denotes a dot-shaped application material which flies from the dispenser. FIGS. 27A and 27B are model views showing a discharge portion proximity 558 of FIG. 26, where FIG. 27A shows a suction process and FIG. 27B shows a discharge process. Numeral 559 denotes a spherical-shaped convex portion 559 formed at a discharge-side end portion of the needle 555, 560 denotes a discharge tip portion, 561 denotes a spherical-shaped concave portion formed at this discharge tip portion 560, and 562 denotes a discharge nozzle. Numeral 563 denotes a pump chamber formed by the spherical-shaped convex portion 559 and concave portion 561.
Referring to FIG. 27A, which shows a suction process, when the feed air pulse of the piston chamber 553 is ON, the needle 555 moves up against the spring 551. In this case, a suction portion 564 formed between the spherical-shaped convex portion 559 and concave portion 561 is opened, an application material 556 is filled from the suction portion 564 into the pump chamber 563. Referring to FIG. 27B, which shows a discharge stroke, when the air pulse is OFF, i.e., when no air pressure is applied to the piston chamber 553, the needle 555 is moved down by the force of the spring 551. In this case, the suction portion 564 is shielded, and the fluid within the pump chamber 563 is compressed by the tightly closed space excluding the discharge nozzle 562, thus generating a high pressure and making the fluid fly and flow out.
There has been being made development for applying the ink jet system, which has been widely used as consumer printers, to application devices for industrial use. Referring to FIG. 28, which shows a prior art example of a head portion in an ink jet recording device (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 11-10866), numeral 651 denotes a base, 652 denotes an oscillation plate, 653 denotes a stacked-type piezoelectric element, 654 denotes an ink chamber, 655 denotes a common ink chamber, 656 denotes an ink flow passage (throttle portion), 657 denotes a nozzle plate, and 658 denotes a discharge nozzle. When a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element 653, which is a pressure applying means, the piezoelectric element 653 makes the oscillation plate 652 deformed thicknesswise, causing the ink chamber 654 to be decreased in capacity. As a result, the fluid is compressed so that the pressure of the ink chamber 654 increases, causing a part of the fluid to pass through the ink passage 656 and reversely flow toward the common ink chamber 655 while the rest of the fluid is discharged out to the atmosphere from the discharge nozzle 658.
In the field of circuit formation, or in the fields of electrodes, ribs, and fluorescent-screen formation of PDP, CRT, or other image tubes, and manufacturing processes of liquid crystals, optical disks, organic EL, or the like, where higher precision and higher micro-fineness have been increasingly demanded for those fields in recent years, the fluid material to be micro-finely applied is high-viscosity powder and granular material in many cases. For replacement of conventional methods with a direct patterning method using dispensers, the greatest issue is how it can be practicable that very small amounts of high-viscosity powder and granular material containing fine particles having mean outside diameters of several microns to several tens of microns, exemplified by fluorescent material, electrically conductive capsules, solder, and electrode material, are micro-finely applied onto the object substrate at high speed and high precision and without causing clogging of flow passages and moreover with high reliability.
With regard to the fluorescent material-layer forming process of plasma display panels as an example, issue of the prior art are described below.
<1> Issues of Screen Printing Method and Photolithography Method
<2> Issues in Direct Patterning of Fluorescent Material Layer by Conventional Dispenser Technique
First, the issue <1> is explained.
(1) Construction of Plasma Display Panel
FIG. 29 shows an example of the construction of a plasma display panel (hereinafter, referred to as PDP). The PDP is composed roughly of a front side plate 800 and a rear side plate 801. A plurality of sets of linear transparent electrodes 803 are formed on a first substrate 802, which is a transparent substrate forming the front side plate 800. Also, on a second substrate 804 forming the rear side plate 801, a plurality of sets of linear electrodes 805 are provided parallel to one another so as to be perpendicular to the linear transparent electrodes. These two substrates are opposed to each other with interposition of barrier ribs 806 on which the fluorescent material layer is formed, and then discharge gas is sealed into the barrier ribs 806. When a voltage not lower than the threshold is applied to between the two substrates, electric discharge occurs at the positions where the electrodes perpendicularly cross each other, causing discharge gas to emit light, where the light emission can be observed through the transparent first substrate 802. Then, by controlling the discharge positions (discharge points), it becomes possible to display an image on the first substrate side. For color display by PDP, fluorescent materials which emit light of desired colors by ultraviolet rays radiated upon discharge at individual discharge points are formed at positions corresponding to the discharge points (partition walls of barrier ribs), respectively. For full-color display, fluorescent materials for R, G, and B, respectively, are formed.
The constitution of the front side plate 800 and the rear side plate 801 is explained in more detail.
As to the front side plate 800, a plurality of sets of linear transparent electrodes 803, each one set comprising two electrodes, are formed from ITO or the like, parallel to each another, on the inner surface side of the first substrate 802 formed of a transparent substrate such as a glass substrate. Bus electrodes 807 for reducing the line resistance value are formed on the inner-side surfaces of these linear transparent electrodes 803. A dielectric layer 808 for covering those transparent electrodes 803 and bus electrodes 807 is formed all over the inner surface of the front side plate 800, and a MgO layer 809 serving as a protective layer is formed all over the surface of the dielectric layer 808.
On the other hand, on the inner surface side of the second substrate 804 of the rear side plate 801, a plurality of linear address electrodes 805 which perpendicularly cross the linear transparent electrodes 803 of the front side plate 800 are formed in parallel from silver material or the like. Also, a dielectric layer 810 for covering those address electrodes 805 is formed all over the inner surface of the rear side plate 801. On the dielectric layer 810, the address electrodes 805 are isolated and moreover the barrier ribs (partition walls) 806 of a specified height are formed so as to protrude between the individual address electrodes 805 for the purpose of maintaining the gap distance between the front side plate 800 and the rear side plate 801 constant. With these barrier ribs 806, cells 811 are formed along the individual address electrodes 805, and fluorescent materials 812 of respective R, G, and B colors are formed one by one in the inner surfaces of the cells 811. The PDP in cell structure comes in two types, one in which such discharge points as shown in FIG. 29 are provided one in each one independent cell and the other in which the discharge points are partitioned by partition walls on an array basis (not shown). In recent years, the "independent cell system" has been drawing attention as a system that allows performance improvement of PDPs. The reason of this is that enclosing the cell with four-side barrier ribs in a waffle-like state makes it possible to prevent optical leakage between adjoining cells as well as to increase the area of the light emitter. As a result, the luminous efficiency and the emission amount (brightness) are increased so that a high-contrast image can be implemented, which is regarded as a characteristic of the "independent cell system". The fluorescent material layer formed on the cell wall surfaces is deposited generally to a thickness of about 10–40 μm with a view to better coloring property. For the formation of the R, G, and B fluorescent material layers, a fluorescent-material use coating liquid is filled into each cell and thereafter dried, thereby making volatile components removed, by which a thick fluorescent material is formed on the cell inner surface while a space for filling the discharge gas is formed at the same time. In order to form such a thick-film fluorescent-material pattern, the coating material containing a fluorescent material is prepared as a reduced-in-solvent-quantity paste fluid (fluorescer-member use paste) having a high viscosity of several thousands of mPas to several tens of thousands of mPas and, conventionally, applied to the substrate by screen printing or photolithography.
(2) Issues of Conventional Screen Printing Method
With the conventional screen printing method adopted, a large-scaled screen size would cause a large elongation of the screen plate due to tensile force, making it harder to achieve high-precision alignment of the screen printing plate for the whole screen. Also, in filling the fluorescent material, the material might be placed even on the top portions of the partition walls, which would lead to crosstalk between barrier ribs as a problem in the case of the "independent cell system". As a result of this, it has been necessary to take measures such as introduction of a polishing process for removing the material deposited on the top portion. Further, since the amount of filled fluorescent material varies depending on the difference in squeegee pressure, pressure control therefor is extremely subtle work, which largely depends on the degree of the skill of the operator. Thus, it is quite hard to obtain a constant filling amount for every independent cell over the entire rear side plate.
(3) Issues of Conventional Photolithography
The conventional photolithography PDP method has had the following issue. In this method, a photosensitive fluorescent-material use paste is press-fitted into the cells between the ribs, and then only the photosensitive composition that has been press-fitted into specified cells is left through exposure and development processes. Thereafter, through a baking process, organic matters in the photosensitive composition are dissipated, by which a fluorescent material-layer pattern is formed. In this method, in which the paste in use contains fluorescent-material powder so that the method is low in sensitivity to ultraviolet rays, there has been a difficulty in obtaining a 10 μm or more film thickness of the fluorescent material layer. Thus, the method has had an issue that enough brightness cannot be obtained.
Also, in the case where photolithography is adopted, exposure and development processes are essential for each color. However, since the fluorescent material is contained in the paste coating layer at high concentration, the loss of the fluorescent material due to the development removal is such large that the effective utilization ratio of the fluorescent material is a little less than 30% at most. Thus, there has been a large issue in terms of cost.
<2> Issues in Direct Patterning of Fluorescent Material Layer by Conventional Dispenser Technique
(1) Issues of Air Nozzle Type Dispenser
Conventionally, an attempt is made that coating of the imaging tube is performed by using an air nozzle-type dispenser (FIG. 25) which is widely used in the fields of circuit mounting and the like. Since continuous application with high-viscosity fluid at high speed is difficult to do with the air nozzle-type dispenser, fine particles are diluted with a low-viscosity fluid before applied. In the case of fluorescent-material application on PDP, CRT, or other image tubes, the particle size of fine particles is 3 to 9 μm as an example and their specific gravity is about 4 to 5. In this case, there has been an issue that when the fluid flow is stopped, the fine particles would be immediately deposited inside the flow passage due to the weight of a single particle. Furthermore, the dispenser of the air type has had a drawback of poor responsivity. This drawback is due to the compressibility of air entrapped in the cylinder as well as to the nozzle resistance during the passage of air through narrow gaps. That is, in the case of the air type, the time constant of the fluid circuit that depends on cylinder capacity and nozzle resistance is such a large one that a time delay of about 0.07 to 0.1 second has to be allowed for after an input pulse is applied until the fluid is started being dispensed and further transferred onto the substrate.
The discharging device using as the drive source a piezoelectric material or ultra-magnetostriction material as described before in FIG. 24 is a proposal targeted for application of fluid containing no powder, and it is predicted to be difficult to respond to the aforementioned challenge related to the application process of powder and granular material. Also, in the case where a fluid is applied by using instantaneous transient displacement due to elastic waves, the liquid storage portion 503 has to be normally filled with the fluid without gaps, where the capacity is constant. There is no description as to, for example, how the fluid is supplied to the liquid storage portion 503 in order to replenish the fluid that is consumed on and on as time elapses.
(2) Issues of Jet Type Dispenser
The dispenser shown in FIG. 26 is enough fast in application speed, as compared with the air type, the thread groove type, and the like which are a prior art, and also capable of treating high-viscosity fluid. Also, this type of dispenser is capable of letting the fluid flown from the nozzle and intermittently applied while a sufficient distance is kept between the nozzle and its opposing surface. Such an application method that the fluid is let to fly from the nozzle is difficult to do with the air type and the thread groove type, both of which are incapable of producing an abrupt pulsed pressure.
This type of dispenser, as described before, is a method that a spherical-shaped convex portion formed at an end portion of the needle 555 and a spherical-shaped concave portion formed on the dispensing side are engaged with each other, thereby creating a tightly closed space 563 excluding the discharge nozzle 562, and this tightly closed space is compressed so that a high pressure is generated to let the fluid fly and flow.
In this case, in the compression process, the gap at the suction portion 564 between the relatively moving members (convex and concave portions) becomes zero, so that the fluorescent-material fine particles having mean particle sizes of 3 to 9 μm undergo a mechanical squeezing action, thereby broken. Because of various failures that would result therefrom, such as the clogging of the flow passage and deterioration of the sealing performance of the suction portion 564 due to wear of the members, it is difficult, in many cases, to apply this dispenser to powder and granular material application such as fluorescent material.
Another issue of this type of dispenser is to ensure application absolute-quantity precision per dot on a precondition of long-time continuous use. On the assumption that the fluorescent material is intermittently applied into the "independent cells" of the foregoing PDP, several tens of heads are necessary in consideration of the production cycle time in mass production. In this dispenser, the application quantity per dot is determined by the capacity of the tightly closed space, i.e. the stroke of the needle 555, and the sealing performance of the suction portion 564. However, it is predicted to be extremely difficult from the viewpoint of practical use to maintain the strokes and the absolute positions of individual needles 555 of the dispensers, Which are provided in a quantity of several tens, as well as the sealing performance of the suction portions 564 that is subject to wear, at a constant state for long time without variations.
(3) Issues of Ink Jet Type Dispenser
The ink jet type dispenser shown in FIG. 28, for which the viscosity of the fluid is limited to 10 to 50 mPas from the restrictions of drive method and structure, is incapable of treating high-viscosity fluids. Also, the particle size of the powder contained in the fluid is about 0.1 μm at most from the viewpoint of clogging.
In order to draw a fine pattern by using the ink jet type dispenser, there has been developed a low-viscosity nano-paste in which particles having a mean particle size of about 5 nm and covered with a dispersant are independently dispersed. Here is assumed a case in which a fluorescent material layer is formed on the inner wall of the barrier rib (partition wall) of the aforementioned PDP "independent cell" with the use of this nano-paste. However, in order that a 10 to 40 μm thick fluorescent material layer is deposited in the process of filling the fluorescent-material use coating liquid into the individual cells and thereafter drying the liquid, originally, a high-viscosity pasty fluid with a reduced amount of solvent is used as the coating material containing the fluorescent material, as described before. For a low-viscosity nano-paste that allows only a dilute content of fluorescent material to be contained therein, it is impossible to form a fluorescent material layer of a specified thickness because of its insufficient absolute quantity of fluorescent material. Also, whereas fluorescent-material fine particles having a micron-order particle size is commonly considered most suitable for the display to obtain high brightness, the ink jet type dispenser is incapable of easily changing the fluorescent-material particle size for the present stage, which is also a great issue of the ink jet type.
In summary of the above discussions, there cannot be found, for the present stage, a technical method having a capability of substituting for the screen printing method and the photolithography method, which is exemplified by a direct patterning method that implements the formation of an independent-cell fluorescent material layer for PDPs.
Now, proposals in the past relating to the intermittent-application dispensers by the present inventor are briefly explained. In order to meet the recent years' various requests related to the minute-flow-rate application, the present inventor has proposed and applied for patent a method for controlling the discharge amount of fluid, "Fluid Feeding Device and Fluid Feeding Method" (Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-188899, corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,127 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/118,156), in which, with relative linear motion and rotational motion given to between a piston and a cylinder, fluid transporting means is implemented by the rotational motion while a relative gap between the fixed side and the rotation side is changed by using the linear motion.
This proposal is intended to control the interruption of the fluid by a dynamic sealing effect based on the arrangement that a thrust hydrodynamic seal is formed on a discharge-side end face of the piston and a relatively moving surface of its opposing surface, where the effect is produced when the gap between the opposing surfaces are narrowed.
In Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-208072 (corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,333), the present inventor has proposed a dispenser in which a piston and a cylinder for accommodating therein the piston are driven independently of each other by using two independent linear motion means, respectively, by which a positive displacement pump is implemented.
Also, the present inventor has proposed intermittent discharge method and apparatus (Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-110945, corresponding U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/118,156) which uses a squeeze pressure generated by abruptly changing the gap between a piston end face and its relative-movement face based on theoretical analysis performed on the dispenser structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-188899. Whereas this squeeze pressure is known as a dynamic effect of hydrodynamic bearings, it is necessary for use of this squeeze pressure that the gap between the piston end face and its opposing surface be set to a narrow one, e.g., 20 to 30 μm or less.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An output buffer circuit is disclosed that minimizes ground bounce problems. The buffer circuit provides for an output pull-down pre-driver circuit that can be controlled by a programmable signal to minimize the ground bounce. By placing a strong and weak transistor on the gate of the output driver transistor and providing control circuitry for disabling the stronger transistor appropriately, an output signal is provided that can be driven quickly or slowly to its active level. By disabling the stronger transistor, ground bounce problems associated with high to low transitions of output drive transistor are significantly reduced.

With the ever increasing edge rate of the output drivers in programmable integrated circuits (PICs), ground bounce or ringing on the output of a device has become a significant problem in both the programming/ testing and the usage of PICs. The ground bounce problem is exacerbated by a noisy wafer sort environment, poorly designed programmer circuits and system board layouts that are carelessly designed.
It is known that many existing programmer circuits are very poorly grounded in use, and when verified, a PIC is more likely to fail. Hence, to provide a mode in which the output signal speed can be reduced which will also reduce the likelihood of "snap back" is highly desirable. Snap back occurs due to a large voltage difference present between the input pin and negatively going ground. In addition, during normal operation output overshoots/undershoots that are due to ringing should be minimized to prevent device failures. Finally, many customers want to be given the opportunity to select the output in which the signal speed is to be reduced. In many cases, it is not important that all of the output signals be high speed outputs.
A programmable integrated circuit normally requires that a "super voltage" be provided at one of its input pins to cause the device enter into an "Edit" mode where the EEPROM array can be erased, programmed, and verified. During the verify cycle, where all of the outputs of this device can switch from high to low simultaneously, the ground bounce can cause the device to fail to verify correctly and/or cause the high voltage pin to snap back due to the large voltage difference between the pin and the undershooting ground. This situation is especially severe in the wafer sort and third party programmer environment where ground integrity is fairly weak.
In the normal logic mode output overshoots/undershoots and ringing can cause the device that it is driving to double clock and fail. Another possible failure mechanism in logic mode is that the ground bounce is fed back into the input of the device thereby causing the device to oscillate.
The present invention provides circuitry that minimizes the above-mentioned problems in a high speed programmable integrated circuit.


A method for protecting a touch-sensitive device includes: switching the touch-sensitive device from a normal mode to a protection mode when a preset operation is exerted; determining whether a touch operation is exerted after the touch-sensitive device enters the protection mode, and further determine whether a duration of the touch-sensitive device in the protection mode exceeds a preset time interval; comparing a touch size of the touch operation with a preset size when the duration of the touch-sensitive device in the protection mode exceeds the preset time interval; and generating an alarm signal when the touch size is less than the preset size. A related touch-sensitive device is also provided.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to touch-sensitive devices and, particularly, to a touch-sensitive device with protection function and a method for providing the touch-sensitive device.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable devices, for example, smart phones, are easily suffered from theft. If a portable device having important personal information is lost, a great loss may bring to the owner of the portable device. Therefore, a protection function for a mobile device to safeguard against theft of the device would be desirable.

Touch-sensitive device with protection function and protection method