The present invention teaches a GOA circuit driving method and a GOA circuit driving device. Through the configuration of a buffer capacitor electrically connected to the level shift IC, the level shift IC connects to the buffer capacitor and switches to the transition level during shifting the target clock signals from high to low level or from low to high level. Through the buffer capacitor, the present invention is able to keep the transition level always equal to one half of the sum of the low voltage and the high voltage, thereby maximizing reduction of power consumption and feedthrough effect of the GOA circuit.

Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (AMLCDs) are currently most common display devices. An AMLCD includes multiple pixels, each having a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) whose gate is connected to a scan line extended along a lateral direction, whose source is connected to a data line extended along a vertical direction, and whose drain is connected a corresponding pixel electrode. By applying appropriate voltage to a scan line, all TFTs connected to the scan line are turned on and data signals on the data lines are written into the pixel electrodes, thereby showing an image.
A type of display panel using AMLCD has the Gate Drive on Array (GOA) structure where Gate Drive IC is integrated on the TFT array substrate so as to achieve the line-by-line scanning to the display panel. Compared to the prior art that has the Integrated Circuit (IC) outside the display panel, the GOA structure is able to reduce manufacturing processes and costs, to enhance the integrity of the display panel, and to facilitate the fulfillment of thin and narrow-bezel display panel.
The GOA structure however requires a Level Shift IC configured on a circuit board external to the display panel for conducting level shifting to clock signals from the timing controller and providing the level-shifted clock signals to the GOA circuit so as to drive the GOA circuit to function. As shown in FIG. 1, an existing GOA circuit driving device usually includes a timing controller 100 and a level shift IC 200 electrically connected to the timing controller 100. The timing controller 100 produces and transmits a clock signal CKV. The level shift IC 200 is connected to a high voltage source VGH and a low voltage source VGL, and switches the high and low levels of the clock signal CKV from the timing controller 100 respectively to the high voltage source VGH and the low voltage source VGL. The level-shifted clock signal CKV′ is then provided to the GOA circuit so as to drive the GOA circuit to function. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the clock signal CKV from the timing controller 100 has a high level of 3.3V and a low level of 0V. After the level shifting by the level shift IC 200, the clock signal CKV′ has a high level of 33V and a low level of −10V. Periods and pulse widths of the clock signal remain the same before and after level shifting.
As shown in FIG. 2, the clock signal CKV′ from the conventional level shift IC 200 has only two states of high (33V) and low (−10V) levels. As the dimension and resolution of LCD panel increase, the GOA circuit involves more stages. The two-state clock signal CKV′ leads to high power consumption and obvious feedthrough effect from the GOA circuit. To resolve these problems, a solution teaches a Charge Sharing technique that short-circuits a high-level clock signal with a low-level clock signal so as to produce a transition level. This solution however is applicable only to clock signals with 50% duty ratio. Another solution therefore teaches that the level shift IC 200 is further connected to a transition level voltage. When the clock signal CKV′ is switched from high to low or from low to high level, the clock signal CKV′ is first switched to the transition level, and then to the low or high level, thereby achieving three-state output. This solution is applicable to clock signals having duty ratios other than 50%. This solution has the transition level provided by a power management IC 300. When the high or low voltage is varied, the transition level does not vary along with the high or low voltage and cannot be kept at one half of the sum of the high and low voltages. Its function in reducing power consumption and feedthrough effect as such cannot be maximized.

GOA circuit driving method and driving device

SHENZHEN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A method for optimizing an image classification model can include determining a first image classification model based on initial training data; in response to model optimization, determining a second image classification model based on the first image classification model and a noise data set; and obtaining a third image classification model by optimizing the second image classification model based on the initial training data, the third image classification model being configured to update the noise data set based on noise data generated within a predetermined time period and the noise data set.

Recently, the deep learning has made breakthrough progresses in such fields of content-related understandings as natural language processing and text translation. The progresses of the deep learning in the above fields depend mainly on the scale of training data of deep learning-based models. The training data is mainly intended to train models based on deep learning. Therefore, the scale of the training data is a challenge to apply relevant technologies in the fields of content-related understandings to actual production environments. Accordingly, how to reduce workload of annotating of the training data, and update the models is the concern in the industry.

Method for optimizing image classification model, and terminal and storage medium thereof

Beijing Dajia Internet Information Technology Co., Ltd.


A system and a device that are used for liquid-gas phase mass transfer with elimination of contaminants. The systems includes a plurality of liquid membrane-producing cells. Upon contact, the liquid membranes collapse with a gas stream and the collapsed liquid material covers the suspended particles, and eliminates them by decantation. Moreover, the membrane cells increase the speed of the gas stream and cause the gas stream to hit the surface of the liquid at an incident angle of 45°, which serves to improve the transfer of vapor into the gas.

Atmospheric air is a mixture of dried air, and steam water and is called humid air. This mixture of gases is the one that is conditioned in ambient control systems by means of humidifiers, and conditioned air units. From now on, the word "air" will be used to denote the mixture of dried air, and water vapor as naturally occurring in the atmosphere.
According to standard 55-1981 from ANSI/ASHRAE (American National Institute of Standards/American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) a series of ideal conditions for comfortable indoor environments were set forth. According to this standard, humidity is a determinant factor for human comfort. At temperatures between 20° C. and 26° C. an indoor environment is comfortable as long as the air humidity is between 30 and 70%.
From the above, there is a need for humidifiers as co-adjuvants of human comfort.
In the state of the art, a diverse kind of humidifiers is known; humidifiers are classified according to their functions. Such classification consists of:
Evaporative humidifiers: In such systems, a fan makes air circulate through a moisturized material. Water contained in the material is transferred to the air stream, thereby increasing the relative humidity of the air stream.
Liquids have a physicochemical property called vapor pressure. Such property determines the balance between the vapor phase, and the liquid phase of a liquid. By virtue of such property, a liquid will always tend to establish a balance between the liquid and vapor phases.
The evaporation phenomenon takes place when vapor is generated as a result of the balance between the liquid-vapor phases. If a gas stream absorbs vapor at balance with the liquid phase, fresh vapor will be generated to re-establish the liquid-vapor balance.
In the evaporative humidifiers, an air stream takes up the vapor that is balanced with the liquid phase, the balance is broken, and new vapor is generated to re-establish the balance. The air that comes out of the humidifier is humid air.
The evaporative humidifiers have the disadvantage that the moisturized material can become a source for the growth of fungus, algae, and aerobic germs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,842 published on the 4th of Jul., 1989 describes an apparatus of this sort. According to such patent, the moisturizing element being formed as a rotatable disc. The bottom of the disc is submerged in a water bath or in an aqueous liquid while the top is in contact with an air stream. When such disc rotates, the top is submerged in the liquid while the submerged part emerges already wet, and gets in contact with the air stream.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,038 describes an evaporative humidifier that consists of an absorbent material where a portion of the humidification material is submerged, and the upper portion is exposed to air, in such patent the use of a floater to control the water supply is also described.
Boiling Humidifiers. In such evaporators, an air stream is mixed with a steam stream that was obtained from boiling water.
Such evaporators have the advantage of eliminating all kinds of microorganisms; however, they generate a "white dust" that consists of insoluble salts and minerals contained in water that are entrained along with the steam streams. On the other hand, boiling humidifiers have the disadvantage of using a great deal of energy to boil water. On the other hand, such humidifiers do not provide the means to remove those pollutants already present in the air stream.
Warm Mist Humidifiers. These humidifiers operate with water vapor near the dew point temperature. Water vapor is cooled just before contacting the air stream, in such a way that a gaseous mixture of steam water and small droplets of water, and air is obtained.
Such units have the disadvantage of keeping air pollutants. Besides, such humidifiers do not provide means to remove pollutants present in the air stream either.
Cold Mist Humidifiers. In these humidifiers, water or an aqueous liquid is sprayed, and then mixed with the air. Such equipment has the disadvantage of keeping the pollutants, and microorganisms in the humid air stream.
Such humidifiers do not provide the means to remove those pollutants present in the air stream either.
Ultrasonic humidifiers. These humidifiers use high frequency vibrations to spray, and evaporate water.
The ultrasonic evaporators have the disadvantage of requiring very costly maintenance. Besides, these humidifiers do not provide the means to remove the pollutants present in the air stream either.
As above mentioned, the boiling humidifiers, the warm mist humidifiers, the cold mist humidifiers, and the ultrasonic humidifiers do not remove those pollutants present in the air streams so that in such humidifiers, the pollutants are entrained along with the humidified air stream.
On the other hand, in the case of evaporative vaporizers, still when the dust is removed by filtering the moisturized material, such dust that is in contact with the moisturized material promotes the growth of fungus, algae, and aerobic germs. Besides, as times passes by, the accumulated dust in the moisturized material tends to obstruct the air circulation through the moisturized material, and then affects water transfer to the steam stream.
To remove dust, different kinds of filters are known. Also, it is known the use of foam to control dust in mining environments, for instance, in carbon mines. The foam is generated by means of ejectors where an air stream is mixed with a water stream at high speeds.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,000,992, and 4,400,220 of Jan. 4th, 1977, and Aug. 23rd, 1983, describe a system for dust removal by bubbles into a cyclone.
Therefore, in the state of the art, there is no evaporator that also removes dust, and pollutants from the humidified air stream without generating fungus, algae, and aerobic germs.
For this reason, an object of the invention is to provide a system and an apparatus to transfer liquid molecules by evaporation to a gas stream in contact with the liquid.
For this reason, an object of the invention is to provide a humidifier system and an apparatus capable of eliminating air pollutants.
Another object of the invention is to provide a humidifier system, and an apparatus capable of eliminating dust and microorganisms from the air stream.
One more object of the invention is to provide a system of easy maintenance capable of efficiently humidifying, removing air particles, disinfecting, and providing aroma to the air.

System and device for mass transfer and elimination of contaminants


A tub for a dishwasher where the tub includes at least a first panel and a second panel to form a multi-piece tub. The tub may at least partially define a treating chamber for receiving dishes and the dishwasher may be configured to automatically execute a treating cycle within the treating chamber.

Many contemporary dishwashers include a tub having an opening leading to an interior chamber for washing utensils. One or more racks or baskets may be located in the tub for supporting utensils within the tub for treatment according to a cycle of operation of the dishwasher. A pump may be provided for recirculating wash liquid throughout the tub to apply the liquid to any utensils within the racks or baskets. The tub is typically formed from injection molded plastic or stamped and welded stainless steel.


Methods for processing a substrate in a plasma processing chamber employing a plurality of RF power supplies. The method includes pulsing at a first pulsing frequency a first RF power supply to deliver a first RF signal between a high power state and a low power state. The method further includes switching the RF frequency of a second RF signal output by a second RF power supply between a first predefined RF frequency and a second RF frequency responsive to values of a measurable chamber parameter. The first RF frequency and the second RF frequencies and the thresholds for switching were learned in advance during a learning phase while the first RF signal pulses between the high power state and low power state at a second RF frequency lower than the first RF frequency and while the second RF power supply operates in different modes.

Plasma processing has long been employed to process substrates (e.g., wafer or flat panels or other substrates) to create electronic devices (e.g., integrated circuits or flat panel displays). In plasma processing, a substrate is disposed in a plasma processing chamber, which employs one or more electrodes to excite a source gas (which may be an etchant source gas or a deposition source gas) into a plasma for processing the substrate. The electrodes may be excited by one or more RF signals, which may be furnished by one or more RF generators, for example.
In some plasma processing systems, multiple RF signals, some of which may have the same or different RF frequencies, may be provided to one or more electrodes to generate plasma. In a typical capacitively-coupled plasma processing system, for example, one or more RF signals may be provided to the top electrode, the bottom electrode, or both in order to generate the desired plasma.
In some applications, one or more of the RF signals may be pulsed. For any given RF signal, RF pulsing involves alternately changing the RF signal between a high power set point and a low power set point. When an RF signal from an RF generator (e.g., RF_GEN1) is pulsed, the amount of RF power delivered by RF_GEN1 to the plasma load changes depending whether the RF signal is pulsed high or pulsed low. The changes in the RF power level delivered to the plasma load result in changes in the plasma impedance. For example, the plasma impedance may be at one level when RF generator RF_GEN1 is pulsed high, and at another level when RF generator GF_GEN1 is pulsed low.
If other RF generators have their frequencies tuned to maximize their power delivery based on the plasma impedance that exists during the high pulse of the RF signal from RF generator RF_GEN1, these RF frequencies will likely result in inefficient power delivery when the plasma impedance changes due to the fact that the RF power level delivered by RF generator RF_GEN1 has changed when the RF signal from RF_GEN1 pulses low, for example.
To further elaborate on the frequency tuning aspect, a modern RF generator may self-tune its RF frequency in order to more properly match the output impedance of that RF generator to the plasma load. As the term is employed herein, the independently pulsing (IP) RF signal refers to the RF signal that pulses independently of other RF signals. Such independently pulsing RF signal may pulse in response to a command from the tool host or another control circuit for example. A dependent RF signal is an RF signal that tunes or changes its RF frequency in order optimize its power delivery to the plasma load in response to the pulsing of the IP RF signal.
In the prior art, the dependent RF generator that provides the dependent RF signal may sweep through multiple frequencies during its frequency tuning process (such as in response to a plasma impedance change event caused by the pulsing of the IP RF signal). The dependent RF generator may monitor the forward power and reflected power during the frequency self-tuning process to determine the RF frequency that most efficiently delivers power to the plasma load as it sweeps through different frequencies.
In theory, the prior art self-tuning works adequately for certain applications. However, the RF signal pulsing frequency specified by modern processes is generally too fast (e.g., 10 KHz or faster) for self-tuning feature of dependent RF generators to keep up. This is because, in part, multiple samples are needed for frequency self-tuning, which requires the tuning/dependent RF generator to operate at impractically high frequencies in order to perform acceptable frequency tuning.
If the RF frequency of a dependent RF generator is not tuned quickly enough to adapt to the changing plasma impedance (such as the plasma impedance change following a high-to-low or low-to-high transition of the IP RF signal), power delivery by that dependent RF generators remains inefficient until the dependent RF signal has its frequency tuned. The longer the dependent RF generator takes to tune its frequency, the longer the time period during which power delivery by that dependent RF generator is non-optimal.
In view of the forgoing, there are desired improved methods and apparatus for ensuring that the RF frequencies of the dependent RF generators can quickly react to changes in the plasma impedance caused by IP RF signal pulsing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Frequency enhanced impedance dependent power control for multi-frequency RF pulsing


A system for displaying content, such as a computer's displayed desktop, to a user such that remote content may be easily accessed, is presented. An exemplary display system includes a preferred interaction area through which the user interacts with the displayed content. The display system detects a user's reposition action and repositions the displayed content on the display system according to the detected reposition action. A user may reposition any portion of the displayed content to any location within the preferred interaction area. That portion of the displayed content falling outside of the preferred interaction area is displayed according to the available display area outside of the preferred interaction area. The displayed content outside of the preferred interaction area may be scaled according to the available display area. Display areas uncovered by repositioning the displayed content may be displayed with empty space.

Over the past few years, numerous types of display systems, attached to computers and computing systems, have become increasingly more available and commonplace, such as wall-sized display systems, pen- and touch-operated display systems, multi-monitor display systems, and the like. On such display systems, users often encounter difficulties when accessing certain displayed content (called target acquisition), especially when the desired content is relatively remote from the user's current position or reach, or displayed on a display unit that is not interactive. For example, on wall-size display systems, a user may need to walk, or even climb a ladder, in order to access certain content displayed in a remote location. As another example, a tablet computer with a touch sensitive screen, with which a user interacts via a conforming pen or stylus, is often connected to a second display monitor, such as a CRT monitor, that is not touch sensitive. If the user wishes to switch from working on content currently displayed on the tablet computer to working on content displayed on the second display monitor, i.e., the CRT monitor, the user must switch user-interaction paradigms by switching from a stylus to a mouse, locating the mouse's corresponding cursor, moving the cursor to the target content, and interacting with the content of the second display monitor now using the mouse.
As those skilled in the art will appreciate, rather than having large display areas, computer systems, and their corresponding software, have historically focused on displaying content that is larger than the display area. For instance, large documents, pictures, and spreadsheets are displayed in windows/views, where only a portion of the content is visible. To make other portions visible, the window/view typically includes a scrolling mechanism, such as scroll bars, for moving portions of the content into the window/view. Unfortunately, only a portion of the content is ever visible. Furthermore, the content is only scrolled so far as the extent of the content becomes visible. A computer's desktop, i.e., the entire displayed content of the computer system, may also be larger than the displayable surface, especially for notebook and tablet computers, or for personal digital assistants (PDAs.) When the desktop is larger than the displayable surface, the computer system provides for scrolling the undisplayed portions into the displayable surface, typically by trying to move the cursor beyond the edge of the displayable surface. However, just as with a large documents and pictures, the desktop stops scrolling when the furthest extent of the desktop is scrolled/displayed on the displayable surface.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, content visibility does not imply easy accessibility, especially in regard to display systems such as the wall-sized units, or multi-unit display systems that use disparate input mechanisms per display unit. In light of these and other issues found in the prior art, what is needed is a system and method for facilitating the access of remotely displayed content. The present invention addresses these and other issues found in the prior art.

Moving computer displayable content into a preferred user interactive focus area


A scanner is provided for reading a target containing indicia, such as bar codes, which includes a means for directing the a light source so that it illuminates a target, a photodetector that generates an electrical signal indicative of the intensity of the detected light, a means for decoding the electrical signal to identify the presence of a target containing a region of relatively high reflectivity, and a means for modifying the level of illumination of the light source either from low to high upon recognition of said region of relatively high reflectivity or from high to low when some predetermined condition, such as the end of the indicia scan, or the passage of a time period without reading indicia, is met.

This invention relates to a scanner for reading indicia such as bar codes. When used herein "reading indicia" means extracting information from indicia, as in determining the presence and width of black bars and white spaces in reading bar code. More particularly it relates to a scanner for reading indicia such as bar codes, where the illumination level of the light source is maintained at a low value when the scanner is not reading indicia and is modified to a high level when indicia are to be read, the change in illumination level being precipitated by exposure of the scanner to a surface of relatively high reflectivity.

Reduced power scanner for reading indicia


A stabilized cell suspension is prepared by treating the cell suspension with a solution of a heavy metal compound, which has been aged at pH 6.5-7.5 prior to use to allow a precipitate to form, removing the precipitate from the heavy metal solution, mixing the aged heavy metal solution with the cell suspension to form a first mixture, and mixing the first mixture with a paraformaldehyde solution to form a stabilized cell suspension which is still capable of lysis.

This invention relates to the preparation and stabilisation of cell suspensions, and more particularly to a novel method for preparing and stabilising cell suspensions, and to the use of novel stabilised cell suspension preparations in the quality control of analytical techniques such as UV microscopy and flow cytometric leucocyte immunophenotyping techniques, immobilised antigen/antibody detection systems and haematology analysers, and blood monitoring techniques such as zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP), red cell folate and blood glucose measurements.
UV microscopy and flow cytometry are techniques used in the diagnosis of haematological malignancies. They are also used to monitor the progress of patients infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) whether asymptomatic or suffering from ARC or full-blown AIDS. Quality control (QC) of these two techniques is extremely important to arrive at the correct diagnosis and to monitor effective therapeutic regimes. The current QC methods use freshly drawn blood or microspheres coated with a fluorochrome.
The use of fresh blood on a daily basis fails to provide the information on day to day variation of the technique or equipment. Furthermore, fluorochrome coated microspheres, though providing a day to day monitor of the flow cytometer's performance cannot be used for UV microscopy work. In addition, they cannot be used to provide quality control for the labelling techniques of leucocytes.
Fixation of normal leucocytes, utilising compounds such as paraformaldehyde, although giving stability for 5-7 days increases cellular autofluorescence. This makes the preparation unsuitable for use as a long term quality control material. Furthermore, the lysis of red calls by the whole blood lysing technique requires a preparation that will quality control this procedure. The current methods of fixing the leucocytes inhibit this lysing procedure resulting in a significant increase in debris that interferes with the tests.
Other QC equipment requiring the use of whole blood samples or blood products for calibration include haematology analysers where currently fixed blood from donkeys and turkeys is used because a suitable source of stabilised human blood is not available. Zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) and red cell folate monitoring techniques also require a fresh suspension of red blood cells for calibration, again because a suitable stabilised source is not available. Finally the lack of a stabilised source of whole human blood for calibration purposes limits the possibility for diabetics to carry out blood sugar monitoring at home.
In International Application No. WO 91/17436, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, there is described a blood diluent and lysing agent for differential determination of white blood cells (leucocytes) in which the stabilising agent is diazolidinyl urea. Such leucocyte preparations have not been suggested as flow cytometric preparations possibly because they have insufficient stability and lack certain specific antigenic activity for those routine quality control procedures which need to assess-results from a large number of laboratories.
International Application No. WO92/19951 discloses the use of diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, dimethylol-5,5-dimethylhydantoin, dimethylol urea, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol and quaternary adamantane as tissue fixatives which are free of aldehydes. The formulations may contain inter alia mordants such as zinc, calcium, barium and chromium salts. It is not suggested, however, that any of these salts have stabilising properties.
G81563839 provides a process for preparing a stabilised preparation of erythrocytes, wherein a suspension of erythrocytes in an aqueous isotonic solution is reacted with, simultaneously or successively in any sequence, an aliphatic aldehyde and a water-soluble salt of 2- or 3- valent chromium. In the examples, the erythrocytes are treated with formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, followed by an aqueous solution of chromium III chloride.
It has been found that cell suspensions containing erythrocytes treated in this way are no longer suitable for use in a whole blood lysing technique, and thus the process of GB1563839 cannot be used to prepare stabilised whole blood samples, for example, for flow cytometry quality control.
GB2001757 describes a method of preparing a stable suspension of blood platelets which comprises adding chromium ions to a platelet-rich plasma and adding at least one organic aldehyde to the chromium-platelet-rich plasma mixture. In the examples, the platelet-rich plasma is treated with solutions of potassium dichromate and glutaraldehyde. This process, if used on leucocyte cells, substantially increases autofluorescence and renders the suspension unsuitable for use in flow cytometry.
The entire disclosures of the above-mentioned patent and applications are incorporated herein by reference.
It will be appreciated from the above, that there is a need for an improved method for stabilising cell suspensions, particularly of whole blood and blood products, giving a cell preparation that is still capable of lysis, for a variety of quality control, monitoring and calibration applications.
In UK Patent Application No. GB2279653 it is disclosed that certain heavy metal compounds can stabilise leucocyte preparations formed from lysed whole blood, and that such stabilised preparations can be added to leucocyte-deplated blood to provide a stabilized whole blood preparation with high antigenic activity. The entire disclosures of these applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Method to stabilize cell suspensions using aged heavy metal solution and paraformaldehyde


A reciprocating piston internal combustion engine having at least one camshaft with at least one sliding cam element with sliding cams and sliding grooves (2 and 2a) intersecting in an X-shape, wherein the sliding cam element with internal teeth (4) is mounted for conjoint rotation but axially movably on a toothed shaft (5), and wherein a guide element is fixed between the sliding grooves (2 and 2a), which guide element has elastically movable switch blades (10 and 10a) that are guided on a rotary joint plate (12) mounted in the intersection area. The engine further has an actuator device with at least one actuator pin (9) movable out of a housing, wherein the actuator device can be mounted on a component of a cylinder head or on the cylinder head of the reciprocating piston internal combustion engine, and, after having moved out, the actuator pin (9) comes into connection with at least one sliding groove (2 or 2a) of the sliding cam element, said guide element being constructed as a C-shaped spring (6) and fixed, at least at the ends thereof, on the toothed shaft (5).

Such a sliding cam system with guide element is known from DE 10 2008 024 911 A1. In this sliding cam element, the guide element is formed as a nearly circular ring that is linked to a rotary joint plate with the ends of the switch blades. On its side turned away from the rotary joint plate, the guide element has an inward directed extension with which it is inserted into a groove in the sliding cam base.
In this guide element, there is the problem that it must be spread apart very far in order to be able to be pushed over the groove or the base circle of the sliding grooves with the free ends of the switch blades, so that there is the risk of plastic deformation of the guide element. In addition, the guide element is inserted in the groove in the sliding groove base on only one small part of the inner periphery, so that the free switch blades have a very elongated construction, whereby the guiding force while displacing the sliding cam elements is reduced. Even if the ends of the switch blades are supported on the flanks of the X-shaped intersection area, there is the risk that these bend in an impermissible manner on the free sections in front of this support.

Sliding cam system of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine with sliding grooves and guide elements arranged in an X-shape


An optical accessory for reflection spectroscopy having a very small sampling area and provided with a microscope for aiding the user to locate a sample to be analyzed on the active sampling area where it can interact with a radiation beam. The microscope is characterized by fiber optic bundles to supply sample illumination via a cone-shaped light-funnelling tip terminated in a thin hard optically transparent wear tip, e.g., of sapphire. The microscope is also used to apply pressure via the wear tip to the sample while it is being illuminated and while it can be viewed to maximize interaction with the radiation.

This invention relates to spectroscopic accessories for analysis of samples by various reflectance techniques, and in particular to such accessories equipped with a microscope.
The referenced copending application describes an optical accessory for analysis of samples by internal reflection spectroscopy, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. A feature of the accessories in that case is a small sampling surface located at the flat top of a hard hemisphere. The analyzing radiation--which for this accessory is in the spectral range from near to far infrared--enters the curved hemisphere surface and is focussed to a very small active area, typically 1 mm or less in size, at the top of the sampling surface. This irradiated area, referred to as the active sampling area, is often referred to as the "hot spot". A sample pressed down hard on the top sampling surface over the hot spot will interact with the radiation as is well known in internal reflection spectroscopy (IRS), modulate the radiation, which internally reflects from the sampling surface, exits the hemisphere, and ultimately is directed to the spectrometer for detection and processing into the usual spectra. A feature of this accessory is that small samples and small areas of large samples can be analyzed under high pressure with good signal-to-noise ratios providing excellent spectra despite the relatively low interaction level. However, a problem that can arise is that the precise area of the sample to be analyzed may not be located over the hot spot because of its small size.

Spectroscopic accessory with microscope illuminator


The pendulum bow sight is a sight apparatus for an archery bow that provides a luminescent sighting element disposed without the use of supporting pins in a field of view of an optic lens without obstructing the field of view used for sighting a target. The sight apparatus provides unobstructed viewing through a pendulum sight regardless of a bow elevation angle. The pendulum sight has a pivoting lens assembly, which is suspended by a supporting structure capable of being mounted to e.g., the riser of a bow. The bow sight lens assembly is freely rotatable about a pivot axis disposed across a region encompassed by the supporting structure. The pendulum bow sight provides independent horizontal and vertical adjustments of the sighting element for calibration that is good for up to thirty-five yards, and with any bow elevation angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sighting devices for use with an archery bow, and more particularly to an archery pendulum bow sight that provides a sighting element configured for an unobstructed view of the target in a sighting field of view.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users of archery bow and arrow systems for hunting usually must deal with several problems to consistently kill prey. The problems include focusing on the prey through a sighting element in order to position the bow to shoot at the target. Bow sights are normally used on the bow to aid the hunter in properly aiming the arrow at the intended target. However, many bow sights fall short of the ideal in that they often obscure some part of the target because the sighting elements employed have too much width or length.
Horizontal sight pins spaced apart from each other are a common type of sight apparatus where each of the pins represents a particular distance. Thus, an arrow is properly aimed at a target when a distance to the target is known and the corresponding pin is aligned with the target. Use of the correct sight pin relies on a hunter accurately estimating the exact distance to the target. Moreover, the more pins used as sighting elements, the more chances that a potential target will be obscured by one or more of the pins.
While these particular devices have met with some success, problems have been encountered with the use of pins for sighting elements.
Since a hunter often only has one chance to take down the quarry, the hunter should be able to view through a sighting element that clearly frames the target without any obstructing pins and the like. The capability to view the target in an unobstructed manner is especially problematic on hilly terrain, or when there is an elevation difference between hunter and the hunted.
When the hunter and her target are not in the same horizontal plane, e.g., when the hunter is positioned in a tree stand or on a hillside, a pendulum sight is usually the sighting mechanism of choice. Conventional pendulum sights have been limited due to the fact that often sighting pins used in the pendulum obscure at least some portion of the target. When shooting from an elevated position utilizing a pendulum sight, it would be highly desirable to have an unobstructed field of view within the pendulum sighting device.
Thus an improved pendulum bow sight solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A coating agent for preventing the adsorption of extracellular vesicles represented by exosomes to a tool has been developed. Adsorption of extracellular vesicles to a tool can be prevented by using a coating agent which contains a hydrophilic polymer having a weight average molecular weight of 10,000 or more and 1,000,000 or less, wherein a coated layer formed by the coating agent has a contact angle of 0 degree or more and 30 degrees or less.

Extracellular vesicles are vesicles originating from cells, present outside the cell, and classified as exosomes, microvesicles, apoptotic bodies depending on their size. Exosomes and microvesicles contain proteins and nucleic acids such as mRNA and miRNA, and apoptotic bodies contain fragmented nuclei and organelles. Among extracellular vesicles, since exosomes and microvesicles contain proteins and nucleic acids, they also contain information from the emitting cell, and thereby have the possibility to be used as biomarkers. Especially, exosomes include the possibility to be used as diagnostic markers and in treatments and have attracted attention in recent years.
Exosomes are vesicles with a diameter of 30 to 100 nm, formed by a lipid bilayer membrane secreted by the cell. Exosomes are known to be secreted by most cells and their presence has been confirmed in body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and breast milk. Since exosomes contain RNA and proteins from the cell from which they were secreted, it has been suggested that they may transmit information to distant cells by circulating in body fluids (Non Patent Literature 1). It has been shown that the progress of cancer may be promoted by the nucleic acids and proteins contained in the exosomes from cancer cells, thereby the possibility of a establishing cancer diagnosis system using exosomes has been suggested (Non Patent Literature 2).
As mentioned above, it has been made clear that the proteins and nucleic acids contained in exosomes differ depending on the cell type they were secreted from. Therefore, the nucleic acids and proteins from exosomes are useful as diagnostic markers. Moreover, since exosomes are also contained in saliva and urine, it is possible to have a non-invasive diagnosis method if a testing method with high accuracy using exosomes can be established. Moreover, attempts are made to use exosomes taken and collected from healthy cells for the recovery of damaged cells or diseased cells, by using the information transmission function of exosomes (Patent Literature 1).
A purifying method with a good recovery rate is necessary to purify exosomes from a small amount of sample, such as saliva, or to purify a large amount of exosomes for therapeutic purposes. As conventional methods for purifying exosomes, methods for isolating them by centrifugal separation or columns are disclosed (Patent Literatures 2 and 3). Among these, centrifugal separation method using ultracentrifugation is an established recovery technique and is an excellent technique in that the shape of exosomes can be maintained.
For example, if recovering exosomes from the culture supernatant of cells, after removing cell debris from the culture medium containing the exosomes by low-speed centrifugation, the exosomes can be recovered as pellets by ultracentrifugation for about 2 h. The thus obtained exosomes can be redispersed in a buffer solution such as PBS and further purified, or directly used for analysis in tests, research and the like.

Method of recovering extracellular vesicles and container for extracellular vesicles


An earphone with adjustable volume of a front chamber between a speaker and a housing is provided, which includes a speaker unit, a housing and a movable element. The speaker unit is disposed within the housing, and the housing includes an earplug formation formed in front of the speaker unit. A chamber within the earplug formation has a volume, and the movable element is disposed on the housing and moves correspondingly with the chamber, so as to adjust the volume of the chamber. Therefore, the frequency response of the sound sent by the speaker unit varies depending upon the variation of the volume of the chamber.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an earphone, and more particularly, to an earphone with adjustable volume of a front chamber between a speaker and a housing.
2. Description of Related Art
With the rapid progress of the science and technology, the electronic product has gradually become light, chic and miniaturized, and people can use the miniaturized electronic products, such as radio or walkman, at anytime and anywhere. Moreover, the personal digital product, such as common MP3 walkmans, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) or notebooks, has increasingly become popular, and thus being indispensable in the daily life. In addition, the cell phone integrated with functions of both radio and MP3 has immerged.
No matter what kind of electronic products, the earphone has become an essential fitting for the electronic product, so that the user can listen to the sound information provided by the electronic product without interfering others. Moreover, the earphone also provides a preferable sound transmission for the listener, such that he/she can hear and understand the content of the sound more clearly, unlike the circumstance that the sound is unclear when transmitting from computer speakers. Especially, when the user is moving, for example, when doing exercises, driving, conducting acute motions or in a noisy environment, since the earphone is used, the sound transmission will not be influenced.
However, since the size and structure of the ear and the ear canal are different from person to person, and a different person has a different favor for the music, thus, the judgment for the sound quality of the earphone varies as for different persons, and it is hard to meet the requirements of each person. Meanwhile, the frequency response curve of most earphones available in the market is fixed, and if the frequency response on high tone portion or low tone portion of the signal is to be changed, it requires changing the distribution characteristics of the sound field by an electronic equalizer or relevant software. Even though the additional electronic equalizer may change the frequency response of the earphone, the time delay caused by the inductance or capacitance within the electronic equalizer cannot be compensated. Therefore, it is an unavoidable task to improve the structure of the earphone.

In-ear type and ear-plug type earphone with adjustable volume of front chamber between speaker and housing


A wheeled board apparatus has a platform with first and second concave portions. At least two primary wheels are located along a central longitudinal axis, with at least three outrigger wheels located generally along each concave sidecut.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to skateboard type devices for recreation and athletic training. More particularly, the present invention relates to wheeled devices which reproduce faithfully the sensation of using a snowboard, a mono ski or ski.
2. Brief Description of the Background Art
Recreation devices for gliding across various surfaces are well known. These devices include, for instance, water skis, inner tubes and the like for traversing water, and skis, snowboards, toboggans and the like for traversing snow. Lately, there has been a need to recreate these activities on dry land, specifically pavement or synthetic surfaces. Most notably, this need has resulted in the development of in-line skates to imitate ice skates, as well as the development of wheeled skis to imitate the movement of cross country skiing. However, there has not previously been a successful dry land imitation of the snowboard, monoski or downhill ski.
Previous attempts to create dry land monoskis have largely utilized skateboard technology. As is well known, skateboards utilize front and rear wheel assemblies (called "trucks") mounted on a substantially rigid elongate platform. The trucks each feature two wheels mounted with low friction bearings disposed on a metal axle housing. The axle housing is mounted on the underside of the platform fixed at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the platform at a fixed distance therefrom. Although the axle housing is fixed at 90 degrees to the longitudinal axis of the platform, the axle housing is spring biased so that it is nominally disposed parallel to the closest lateral axis of the platform. However, under stress, the lateral plane of the platform of the skateboard is permitted to rotate about the centerpoint of the axle housing in order to permit turning.
In practice, skateboards do not successfully mimic the dynamics of snowboards or skis. That is, snowboards, skis and monoskis are one track devices that turn primarily by edging, whereas skateboards are of necessity two track devices that turn by steering. For this reason, they are not generally usable as warm weather training aids for snowboarding athletes, nor are they especially enjoyable for recreation.
Other dry land monoskis have been less successful. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,687 relates to a rollerboard for road skiing. The rollerboard has large wheels mounted along the central longitudinal axis with an outrigger wheel disposed axially therefrom. As described in the patent, the front wheel along the longitudinal axis pivots for steering when the rollerboard is leaned onto one of the outrigger wheels. In this configuration, although the rollerboard travels in a straight line as a one track device, it functions when turning as a two track device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,824 teaches another rollerboard having two skateboard trucks mounted along the central longitudinal axis of the platform. The platform provides inclined planes along the left and right sides of the longitudinal axis with a single truck pivotally mounted on each inclined plane as an outrigger. U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,576 teaches a similar rollerboard in which the trucks mounted along the central longitudinal axis are pivoting and the outrigger wheels are nonpivoting.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,706 provides wheeled skis having wheels pivotally mounted along the central longitudinal axis of a platform with nonpivoting outrigger wheels mounted along parallel longitudinal axes. As depicted therein, the wheels along the central longitudinal axis extend further beneath the platform so as to prevent the outrigger wheels from contacting the ground until the skis are banked for turning.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,265 teaches a skateboard having ball rollers mounted along the central longitudinal axis with smaller diameter ball rollers mounted along parallel longitudinal axes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,786 teaches a board device particularly for use on nonpaved inclines. The device features a platform having a nonpivoting central wheel with outrigger skids. By shifting the operator's weight forward or rearward, the skids can contact the ground, maintaining a substantially level footing surface while braking the device.

Wheeled board apparatus having platform with concave sidecuts


There is provided a substrate for an optical recording disk capable of preventing non-uniformity of thickness of the transfer layer due to a camber of the substrate, and having a transfer layer excellent in uniformity of the thickness thereof. The substrate for the optical recording disk is manufactured in such a manner that a portion ranging from a center portion to an outer circumferencial portion of the substrate is forcively deformed in advance prior to the formation of the transfer layer so as to provide substantially a conical-convex shape, and thereafter, the transfer layer is formed onto a surface side of the conical-convex shape of the substrate.

The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of substrate means for optical recording disk comprising a disk-like substrate and a transfer layer having grooves formed on a surface of the substrate, and also relates to an apparatus for embodying the manufacturing method.
Generally, in an optical recording disk, tracking grooves are provided on a surface of a substrate in the form of concentric circles or spiral. As a method of providing such grooves, various methods are known. Among these, there has been proposed a method wherein the substrate and the grooves are integrally formed by utilizing a plastic injection molding technique. There has also been proposed a photo-polymerization method, so called, 2P method wherein a transfer layer having the grooves shall be provided on the substrate.
In these methods, the latter 2P method is effected in accordance with the following processes shown in FIGS. 7 to 10. That is, an ultraviolet setting resin solution 112a is coated onto either a surface of a groove forming original board 130 (hereinafter referred to as a "stamper 130") or a light transmissive substrate 111 which is formed of an optical glass or a transparent resin in the form of concentric circle with respect to a central axis (see FIG. 7). Then, the stamper 130 and the substrate 111 are press-contacted to each other thereby to spread over the coated ultraviolet setting resin solution. Thereafter, the ultraviolet setting resin solution 112a is set (or hardened) by irradiating the ultraviolet rays (UV) through the substrate 111, thereby to form a transfer layer 112 (see FIG. 8). When the transfer layer which is integrally formed with the substrate is released from the stamper 130, a groove pattern corresponding to a configuration of the stamper 130 is transferred and reproduced on a surface of the hardened transfer layer 112 (see FIGS. 9 and 10). Subsequently, a recording layer is formed on the surface of the transfer layer 112, and further, another substrate such as a protection plate is provided on the recording layer through an adhesive layer, whereby a conventional optical recording disk is manufactured.
In the transferring and reproducing process for forming the grooves of the conventional optical recording disk, however, the following problems have been raised.
That is, for example, a glass substrate to be used as a substrate for the optical recording disk does not originally have a complete flat surface, but necessarily have a camber of in some degree caused by various forming strains. Therefore, even though the transfer layer formed by utilizing the 2P method is formed on such a glass substrate, the thickness of the transfer layer will not become uniform. The non-uniformity of thickness of the transfer layer will cause a serious problem. That is, because an optical system of the optical recording disk has been designed in consideration of an aberration due to the thickness of the substrate so as to increase an aperture number (NA) of a lens, the non-uniformity of thickness of the transfer layer will have a great influence on the aberration.

Manufacturing method of substrate means for optical recording disk and apparatus therefor


A fan module for use in a computer or server is disclosed to include a rack, which defines a holding chamber and has a plurality of guiding grooves symmetrically disposed at two sides inside the holding chamber, and a plurality of locating plates insertable into the rack at different elevations to carry a respective fan in the holding chamber, each locating plate having two guiding portions symmetrically disposed at two sides and insertable into two sliding grooves at same elevation inside the rack without the use of any tool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan module for use in a computer, electronic apparatus, etc., and more particularly, to a mobile fan module in which fans of different sizes may be selectively detachably installed in the rack thereof without the use of any tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of high technology, lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller are becoming the key words for electronic instruments, including personal computers. Electronic instruments of new generation use sophisticated semiconductor chips or devices that release heat during operation. For example, an advanced personal computer uses a sophisticated CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) for processing any of a variety of data. These electronic devices release much heat during operation. The amount of heat energy released by these electronic devices during operation may be relatively increased subject to their operation speed. The working temperature of a CPU is normally at about 60˜95° C. In order to keep normal working of the CPU, GPU and other heat-releasing electronic devices in a computer or electronic apparatus, heat must be quickly carried away. Currently, electric fans are used to cause currents of air for dissipating heat. It is practical to use currents of air as a working medium for dissipation of heat without causing damage to electronic component parts. Various fan modules have been disclosed for this purpose. FIG. 7 shows a prior art fan having a plurality of centrifugal type turbofans B are mounted in a frame bar A1 inside a server's mainframe A. Each centrifugal type turbofan B has an exhaust hole B1 for guiding the output turbulent flow of air toward a specific electronic component part inside the mainframe A. This design of fan module is still not satisfactory in function. Because there are many component parts inside the mainframe A around the frame bar A1, it is difficult to mount/dismount the centrifugal type turbofans B with a hand tool, complicating the cleaning or repair work of the centrifugal type turbofans B. Further, because the centrifugal type turbofans B are affixed to the frame bar A1 at predetermined locations and because different models of electronic devices (CPU, chip, interface card or hard disk drive) have different arrangements and specifications, the exhaust hole B1 may be not accurately aimed at the respective heat source, thereby lowering the heat dissipation efficiency. In this case, an overheat may occur, resulting in a failure of the mainframe.


A bag holder for supporting bags and to aid in filling the bags with debris comprises a base, a standard extending from the base, and a Support attachable to the standard. The base, standard and support may be disassembled into a compact form. The support is removable from the standard and includes a handle by which a user may exert control. A bag is supported by the support via frictional engagement therewith. This configuration protects the mouth of the bag from coarse debris entering therein and from lawn and garden implements used to fill the bag. A portion of the support which contacts the ground is structured aid configured to conform to the surface of the ground when downward pressure is exerted against the support. The support comprises a cylindrical peripheral wall which is expandable and contractible to engage and disengage the inner surface of the mouth of a plastic bag. A flange is integral with the cylindrical wall and includes a rough surface and protrusions or nodules which frictionally engage the mouth of the bag. The support includes a clamp which is coupled to the cylindrical wall by a living hinge. The cylindrical wall and the clamp are structured and configured to engage one another when the clamp is closed to lock the support in place. A pan for use as a lawn and garden tool includes a trough for scooping up debris. The trough has an open end through which debris may be scooped up and a handle opposite the open end. A rake is disposed at the open end of the pan. The rake comprises a series of spaced fingers which are configured to comb through an irregular surface to enhance the ability of the pan to scoop up debris. It is contemplated that the pan would be carried by the bag holder. The bag holder may also include a trough to carry sundry items.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to support devices and more particularly, to a substantially lightweight bag holder for holding the mouth of plastic refuse bags open and for supporting the refuse bags in horizontal or upright position, and which is capable of being broken down and stored in compact form.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Plastic bags have become extremely popular for the containment of refuse and debris. Of particular concern is the use of large plastic bags for collecting lawn and garden waste. Filling large plastic bags is generally difficult because they are awkward to hold open, especially when shoveling or raking lawn and garden waste therein. The task generally involves laying the bag on the ground, and while the bag is lying on the ground, the user holds the mouth of the bag open with one hand and shovels waste into the bag with the other hand, or with a lawn and garden tool. Attempts to address this problem have been made through the use of bag holders which hold the bags open while they are being filled. Many types of bag holders are known and used. Some comprise enclosures, such as containers with lids, while others comprise lightweight, open frames. Some bag holders are free standing while others are configured to be attached to supporting structures or surfaces. An example of a prior art bag holder is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,853, issued Apr. 1, 1997, to Byirl J. Hearst, who discloses a flexible and horizontal bag support. U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,622, issued Dec. 31, 1996, to M Brian Gorgon, Sr., discloses a clamping ring bag holder. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,862, issued Nov. 5, 1996, to John T. Nugent, discloses a vertical and horizontal bag stand. (See FIGS. 2 and 3.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,152, issued Dec. 26, 1995, to David M. Bogle, discloses a bag stand with a circular clamp. (See reference number 16b.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,431, issued Oct. 10, 1995, to Allen M. Ilinsky, discloses a circular clamping bag stand. (See FIG. 1.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,394, issued May 9, 1995, to Marilyn Mitchell, discloses a horizontal and upright bag stand. (See FIGS. 1, 6 and 7.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,126, issued Jan. 19, 1993, to Charles O. Bennett, discloses a horizontal and upright bag stand. (See FIGS. 4 and 5.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,666, issued Apr. 28, 1992, to Gregory Rahtican, discloses a lawn scoop and clamp. (See FIG. 4.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,948, issued Jul. 16, 1991, to James A. Groth et al., discloses a horizontal and upright bag holder and handle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,783.090, issued Nov. 8, 1988, to Lee A. Moulton, discloses a hoop and handle bag holder. U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,233, issued Dec. 16, 1986, to Dieter Pfisterer, discloses a horizontal and upright holder. (See FIG. 8.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,785, issued Aug. 28, 1973, to John E. Anderson discloses a bag holding hoop. U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,046, issued Mar. 12, 1996, to Andre T. Ridley, Sr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,027, issued May 3, 1994, to Tom P. Fullilove, U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,041, issued Apr. 21, 1992, to James J. Jelinicic, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,742, issued Sep. 6, 1988, to Edward P. Kaaloa, all show various types of apertures for engaging and holding the mouth of a sack or bag open.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


Membranes suitable for use in membrane distillation are provided. Such membranes may include nano-fibrous layers with adjustable pore sizes. The membranes may include a hydrophobic nanofibrous scaffold and a thin hydrophilic protecting layer that can significantly reduce fouling and scaling problems.

Water purification is an important issue throughout the world. Water purification may be necessary for both industrial and non-industrial purposes. Difficulties with water purification can arise because of the diverse amounts of impurities in water, including polluted water and/or waste water from industrial processes.
Membrane distillation (MD) aims mainly at energy-efficient purification of highly contaminated waste water possessing a diverse amount of impurities. Membrane distillation is a thermally driven separation process that may be used to purify water in which separation is provided by a phase change across a barrier formed by a hydrophobic membrane for the liquid phase, but letting the vapor phase (e.g. water vapor) to pass through the membrane pores. The condensed water then coalesces to form droplets, which are then removed from the membrane, leaving the impurities behind.
Improvements in technology that can purify liquids, including water possessing a number of diverse contaminants, remain desirable.

Nanostructured fibrous membranes for membrane distillation

The Research Foundation for the State University of New York


A polyphonic instrument comprises a geometric system coupled with a user interface and a method for generating tone using fluid. The geometric system is arranged such that each point corresponds to a mechanism underlying a malleable surface and is sequentially based upon the 12 tone system of music. The instrument also provides a new method for generating tone by the means of using fluid, whereby a specific frequency is picked up by a separate hydrophone or fluid based transducer submerged in a sealed and removable fluid containment unit having a rotational element also contained within for each note indicated. The rotational element when arranged in a series of graduated units and/or in combination with graduated sub-containment units of fluid changing in scale for separate frequencies, will generate separate tones which may be manipulated through physical and/or analog/digital electronic means.

The present invention relates to tone generation methods, polyphonic and monophonic instruments, and instrument interfaces that a user or a musician may interact with for the purpose of creating an array of different sounds.
The technique of a touch sensitive based surface as a user interface, has been developed for many different applications, including musical instruments and other pragmatic means. This technique was developed by such scientists as Hugh Le Caine, who also created the first voltage controlled synthesizer which was a monophonic performance instrument. More specifically in relation to a touch sensitive based instrument however, was Hugh Le Caine's invention of the "Printed Circuit Keyboard." This particular invention, which was completed in 1962, was operated by the conductivity of a musician's finger using conductive material evaporated onto an insulator backed sheet. A small current was translated from the musician's finger from one conductive section to another, to complete the circuit. Although this was a brilliant and inventive step towards the evolution of many of it's applications, including a tone generation based instrument, this particular system, governed initially by electronic means, was still limited to a single indication of essentially turning the note on or off with a limited frequency range. This also meant that the availability of changing the dynamics or the intensity of the sound by the musician was not an option.
At present, such familiar methods that are prominently employed are capacitance and resistance based touch pads or surfaces which again, when utilized in the context of a musical instrument, may often present the limitation of at most switching the tone on or off. Other touch sensitive based musical instruments in the past and present have continually been limited for similar reasons including the constant reliability to the traditional piano keyboard arrangement.
Instruments that do retain a conventional user interface and/or arrangements based upon the 12 tone system of music, such as stringed instruments, or chordophones and wind instruments, or aerophones, commonly hold a limiting factor to the number of notes that one may produce. This is apparent when a limited number of strings or valves are available to the user. In addition to this restrictive factor, the length of strings, or in the case of aerophones, the given length of air columns that have been established creates another limitation to the accessibility of a much broader range of frequencies within each given instrument. When these acoustical methods for generating variations in pitch are coupled with an analog and/or digital electronic means for the output of sound, pitch shifting can often be a plausible solution to extending these parameters. However the essential interface that corresponds to the physically generated sounds is still condensed to the specific range that the given instrument is fundamentally capable of providing, which again may present a small range of tones and pitches. These systems, which an instrument and its relative pitches relate to, ultimately have a number of limitations that inhibit one from creating a multiplicity of acoustical features, pitches, tones, and overall sound without the use of otherwise fundamentally creating sounds through digital means. This is especially dominant among monophonic instruments that rely on digital filters for the initial manipulation in creating a variety of tonal features.
A primary difficulty with certain interfaces such as instrument keyboards, is that particular acoustic qualities can not be realized in accordance with a key. These qualities include tones created by such instruments as the violin, whereby a violin can provide a musician with the ability to sustain a note while changing its dynamic. A violin can also provide the user with such qualities as the effect of vibrato. A mechanical based instrument such as the piano, where one may create a specific staccato effect through the mechanics of a key, however can be improved upon by combining the attributes of both kinds of interfaces.
Furthermore, the maximization of notes or keys available to the user within an interface autonomous from the sound generation element is often restrained in the case of smaller sized instruments. In this instance, the arrangement of spacing is simply not condensed in an efficient way restricting the number of notes or keys that a user may access. This can also confine one from creating certain kinds of musical qualities and complexities in the overall composition of sound design that one may prefer to achieve.
The method of creating polyphonic sounds by using the means of fluid or water for tone generation, is also at present, a rarely utilized technique, when it is in fact just another method for creating physical sound that holds versatility that may compare with the possible range of sounds created by a string, wind, percussive or even digitally sound generating instruments.
The use of a "Tone Wheel" is another technique for providing sound that is not often presently employed as well. This idea was pioneered by Thaddeus Cahill, who used the principle within his invention of the "Dynamophone" or "Telbarmonium." The invention of this instrument preceded another invention named the "Hammond Organ" "Hammond Organ," which also used the concept of the tone wheel and was patented approximately 37 years after the "Dynamophone" in 1934. The "Hammond Organ," which was invented by Laurens Hammond, also uses the same principle of having a multiplicity of tone wheels to create separate pitches. In this instance, each tone wheel is made up of a different number of teeth, to ultimately create a change in the magnetic field and the voltage of each rotating tone wheel's respective magnetic pickup. This creates a variation in the frequency given off by each and every given tone wheel within a set. Although this method results in an efficient and prominent system for creating a variation in frequency, the realization of an oscillating or rotating element coupled with a transducer of some form, has rarely ever included the addition of a third factor, such as the element of friction or the density and the state of the fluid surrounding its particular configuration.
Moreover, although the concept of using the physical state of water, or more generally, the concept of utilizing fluid in its liquid state coupled with fluid in its gaseous state is also not commonly employed as a means for tone generation. Such methods have however, been realized in the past, including within such instruments as a water driven tone generating organ dating back hundreds of years. The methods for combining water or fluid with new techniques, or previously existing tone generation methods, such as the tone wheel, is also rarely utilized for musical purposes, which again, can in fact provide a very broad range of acoustical, tone and pitch generation qualities.

Geometric system and method for generating tone using fluid


The present invention relates to a process for preparing a compound of formula (Ia), (Ib), (Ic) or (Id), or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, hydrate, solvate, complex or prodrug thereof, said process comprising the steps of: (A) (i) treating a compound of formula (IVa), where R48 is alkyl or tosyl, with an oxidizing agent to form a compound of formula (Va); and (ii) converting said compound of formula (Va) to a compound of formula (Ia) or (Ic); or (B) (i) treating a compound of formula (IVb), where R48 is alkyl or tosyl, with an oxidizing agent to form a compound of formula (Vb); and (ii) converting said compound of formula (Vb) to a compound of formula (Ib) or (Id).

Proteinases participate in an enormous range of biological processes and constitute approximately 2% of all the gene products identified following analysis of several completed genome sequencing programmes. Proteinases mediate their effect by cleavage of peptide amide bonds within the myriad of proteins found in nature.
This hydrolytic action involves recognising, and then binding to, specific three-dimensional electronic surfaces of a protein, which aligns the bond for cleavage precisely within the proteinase catalytic site. Catalytic hydrolysis then commences through nucleophilic attack of the amide bond to be cleaved either via an amino acid side-chain of the proteinase itself, or through the action of a water molecule that is bound to and activated by the proteinase.
Proteinases in which the attacking nucleophile is the thiol side-chain of a Cys residue are known as cysteine proteinases. The general classification of "cysteine proteinase" contains many members found across a wide range of organisms from viruses, bacteria, protozoa, plants and fungi to mammals.
Cysteine proteinases are classified into "clans" based upon similarity of their three-dimensional structure or a conserved arrangement of catalytic residues within the proteinase primary sequence. Additionally, "clans" may be further classified into "families" in which each proteinase shares a statistically significant relationship with other members when comparing the portions of amino acid sequence which constitute the parts responsible for the proteinase activity (see Barrett, A. J et al, in 'Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes', Eds. Barrett, A. J., Rawlings, N. D., and Woessner, J. F. Publ. Academic Press, 1998, for a thorough discussion).
To date, cysteine proteinases have been classified into five clans, CA, CB, CC, CD and CE (Barrett, A. J. et al, 1998). A proteinase from the tropical papaya fruit 'papain' forms the foundation of clan CA, which currently contains over eighty distinct entries in various sequence databases, with many more expected from the current genome sequencing efforts.
Over recent years, cysteinyl proteinases have been shown to exhibit a wide range of disease-related biological functions. In particular, proteinases of the clan CA/family C1 (CAC1) have been implicated in a multitude of disease processes [a) Lecaille, F. et al, Chem. Rev. 2002, 102, 4459; (b) Chapman, H. A. et al, Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1997, 59, 63; Barrett, A. J. et al, Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes; Academic: New York, 1998]. Examples include human proteinases such as cathepsin K (osteoporosis), cathepsins S and F (autoimmune disorders), cathepsin B (tumour invasion/metastases) and cathepsin L (metastases/autoimmune disorders), as well as parasitic proteinases such as falcipain (malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum), cruzipain (Trypanosoma cruzi infection) and the CPB proteinases associated with Leishmaniasis [Lecaille, F. et al, ibid, Kaleta, J., ibid].
The inhibition of cysteinyl proteinase activity has evolved into an area of intense current interest [(a) Otto, H.-H. et al, Chem. Rev. 1997, 97, 133; (b) Heranandez, A. A. et al, Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2002, 6, 459; (c) Veber, D. F. et al, Cur. Opin. Drug Disc. Dev. 2000, 3, 362-369; (d) Leung-Toung, R. et al, Curr. Med. Chem. 2002, 9, 979]. Selective inhibition of any of these CAC1 proteinases offers enormous therapeutic potential and consequently there has been a concerted drive within the pharmaceutical industry towards the development of compounds suitable for human administration [for example, see (a) Bromme, D. et al, Curr. Pharm. Des. 2002, 8, 1639-1658; (b) Kim, W. et al, Expert Opin. Ther. Patents 2002, 12(3), 419]. To date, these efforts have primarily focused on low molecular weight substrate based peptidomimetic inhibitors, the most advanced of which are in early clinical assessment.
Cysteinyl proteinase inhibitors investigated to date include peptide and peptidomimetic nitriles (e.g. see WO 03/041649), linear and cyclic peptide and peptidomimetic ketones, ketoheterocycles (e.g. see Veber, D. F. et al, Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery Dev., 3(4), 362-369, 2000), monobactams (e.g. see WO 00/59881, WO 99/48911, WO 01/09169), α-ketoamides (e.g. see WO 03/013518), cyanoamides (WO 01/077073, WO 01/068645), dihydropyrimidines (e.g. see WO 02/032879) and cyano-aminopyrimidines (e.g. see WO 03/020278, WO 03/020721).


A waterproof multi-layered non-woven fabric having good vapor permeability and method for its production are provided. At least one layer of coarse melt-spun filaments of a thermoplastic polymer is thermally bonded at intermittent points to at least one layer of fine melt-blown microfibers. The bonded layers next are subjected while heated to a force in at least one direction in the absence of tearing so as to accomplish the permanent elongation of coarse melt-spun filaments and the straightening of fine melt-blown microfibers in the direction of the force in the substantial absence of drawing. Fine melt-blown microfibers when straightened in this manner form a less thick and denser array within the resulting fabric. The resulting product is capable of deterring the passage of liquid water, exhibits substantial vapor permeability, and exhibits a reduced basis weight. According, the product is suitable for use as a filter to remove solid particles from a gas, as a diaper component, to form protective clothing for medical applications, in the production of a roofing material, etc. The resulting product provides significant economic advantages since a reduced quantity of thermoplastic polymer is required per unit area of product while retaining desired service characteristics.

Strong waterproof multi-layered non-woven fabrics of substantial basis weight are known which include a spun filament layer and a melt-blown fiber layer. Such multi-layered fabrics are known to invariably possess a substantial basis weight since the melt-blown layer must be of a substantial thickness in order to make possible the desired waterproofness in the resulting fabric. Strength is contributed primarily by the spun filament layer.
Such multi-layered fabrics of the prior art have been used as leg-cuffs for diapers, in the production of protective clothing and covering materials for medical applications, and as roof insulation sheets, etc. Good vapor permeability is known to be desirable for such end uses.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved multi-layered non-woven fabric having good vapor permeability of reduced basis weight when compared to the prior art while retaining a waterproof character and which thereby requires a lesser quantity of the thermoplastic polymer starting material per unit of area as well as a method for its production.
Other objects of the invention, as well as its scope, nature, and utilization will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and appended claims.

Waterproof multi-layered non-woven fabric of reduced weight having good vapor permeability and method for its production


A programmable logic device (PLD) includes first and second circuits. The first and second circuits are part of a user's design to be implemented using the PLD's resources. The first circuit is powered by a first supply voltage. The second circuit is powered by a second supply voltage. At least one of the first and second supply voltages is determined by a PLD computer-aided design (CAD) flow used to implement the user's design in the PLD.

Modern PLDs have increased, and continue to increase, in complexity. Typical PLDs contain several tens of millions of transistors. On the one hand, the increased complexity of the PLDs has resulted in improved performance levels and increased flexibility. On the other hand, PLDs' complexity and the large number of transistors has resulted in increased power consumption in the device. As device dimensions decrease below 0.1 micron, power becomes a more critical concern. This trend will likely continue, as the complexity of PLDs increases.
One method of addressing power consumption is to reduce the supply voltage of the chip, but this technique is less attractive in a PLD because the threshold drop of the n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) pass transistors causes a relatively serious degradation in speed. It is possible to overcome this limitation by boosting the gate voltage on the pass transistors, but doing so may cost extra processing steps to provide an extra oxide thickness, as well as possibly require a charge pump to supply the extra current. A need therefore exists for optimizing power consumption of PLDs for desired performance characteristics.

Apparatus and methods for optimizing the performance of programmable logic devices


A pressure device maintains the raceways (48, 160 to 165) of the main moving components (3, 5, 7 and 40) of a variable compression ratio engine permanently in contact with one another and with the faces on which they rest in a cylinder case. The inventive device includes pressure elements which are solidly connected to the cylinder case (100) and which exert a pressure force on a control rack (7) having a toothed segment (75) formed by teeth (74). The pressure force is applied against a support surface (78) provided on the lower part of the rack (7).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pressing device which maintains the raceways of the main moving components of a variable volumetric ratio engine permanently in contact with one another and with the faces on which they bear in the cylinder block.
2. Description of the Related Art
International patents WO98/51911, WO00/31377, WO03/008783, belonging to the Applicant, disclose various mechanical devices for a variable volumetric ratio engine.
It will be seen that international patent WO98/51911, in the name of the Applicant, describes a device which serves to improve the overall efficiency of internal combustion piston engines used at variable load and speed by adapting their effective displacement and/or their volumetric ratio during operation.
It will be observed from international patents WO00/31377 and WO03/008783, in the name of the Applicant, that the mechanical transmission device for a variable volumetric ratio engine comprises at least one cylinder in which there moves a piston which is secured, in its lower portion, to a transmission member cooperating, on the one hand, by means of one small-sized rack, with a rolling guide device and, on the other hand, by means of another large-sized rack, with a toothed wheel secured to a connecting rod, this making it possible to transmit the movement between said piston and said connecting rod.
Said mechanical transmission device for a variable volumetric ratio engine also comprises at least one control rack cooperating with the toothed wheel, means for fastening the piston to the transmission member that offer a clamping preload, connection means which make it possible to stiffen the teeth of the racks, and means for reinforcing and lightening the structure of the toothed wheel.
It will be noted that the minimum operating clearance between the toothings of the large-sized racks and those of the toothed wheel is fixed by the location of raceways formed on said large-sized racks and on said toothed wheel.
It will also be noted that the maximum operating clearance between the toothings of the large-sized racks and those of the toothed wheel is fixed by the difference between, on the one hand, the sum of the dimensions along a horizontal axis of the various moving components of the variable volumetric ratio engine, namely a synchronized roller forming part of the rolling guide device, the toothed wheel, the transmission member secured to the piston, and the control rack, and, on the other hand, the distance between the internal surfaces of the cylinder block on which, on one side of the engine, the synchronized roller and, on the other side of the engine, the control rack come to bear.
The maximum operating clearance between the toothings of the large-sized racks and the toothings of the toothed wheel can be adjusted in various ways which all have the disadvantage of requiring a high degree of precision in the production of the cylinder block and/or of adjustment shims.
This high degree of precision is required to obtain the smallest possible maximum operating clearance between the various raceways of the moving components of the engine so as to obtain the smallest possible maximum operating clearance between the toothings of the large-sized racks and those of the toothed wheel. Obtaining said smallest possible maximum operating clearance is necessary to limit the acoustic emissions of the engine which result particularly from the clearance between the teeth of the toothed wheel and the teeth of the racks with which said toothed wheel cooperates, the later clearance giving rise to hammering.
Equally, a high degree of precision is required for the production of the cylinder block and/or the adjustment shims in order to limit as far as possible the defects in parallelism between the various internal functional surfaces of said cylinder block. This is because said parallelism defects can lead to the moving components jamming inside said cylinder block when the engine is operating.
In addition to providing a high degree of precision for the cylinder block and/or the adjustment shims in order to limit the acoustic emissions of the engine and prevent any jamming of the moving components, it should also be ensured that the differences in temperature existing between said cylinder block and the moving components of the engine do not lead either to excessive clearances which can increase the acoustic emissions or to zero or negative clearances which can destroy the engine.
Specifically, the differences in temperature can lead to an expansion of the moving components which differs from that of the cylinder block, and hence to negative or positive variations in the operating clearance of the engine.
High temperature differences can also occur in operation between the top and bottom parts of the cylinder block. These differences can modify the orientation of the surface secured to the cylinder block along which the synchronized roller rolls.
Consequently, the maximum operating clearance between the various raceways of the moving components of the engine can vary during the stroke of the piston.
Another production difficulty stems from the need to reduce as far as possible the operating clearance between the jack piston which actuates the control rack and its bore in order to limit the acoustic emissions of the engine. This is because the jack piston comes to bear cyclically on either side of its bore because of the tilting of the rack which takes place under the thrust action of the toothings alternately above and below the bearing point of said control rack on the cylinder block, said bearing point being embodied for example by a ball joint connection as described in international patent application PCT/FR05/00584 belonging to the applicant.
Moreover, another defect relating to the operation of the control rack by the control jack will be noted: said operation takes place less quickly to increase the volumetric ratio than to lower it. This is due to the fact that the volumetric ratio is reduced by using the high forces applied to the control jack by the expansion of the gases, while the volumetric ratio is increased by using the less intense forces generated by the inertia of those parts of the engine subjected to a reciprocating movement.

Pressure device for a variable compression ratio engine


A system, method, and computer program product for fast and efficient searching of large virtual combinatorial libraries based on a fitness function. According to the method of the present invention, a first set of N reagent combinations are selected, for example, at random, from a virtual combinatorial library. Each reagent combination in the first set is then enumerated to produce a first set of enumerated compounds. M number of compounds of the first set of enumerated compounds are selected based on the fitness function. The M compounds are then deconvoluted into reagents to generate a focused library. Substantially every reagent combination associated with the focused library is enumerated to produce a second set of enumerated compounds. K number of compounds of the second set of enumerated compounds are then selected based on the fitness function. These K compounds represent a near optimal selection of compounds based on the fitness function.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to searching of virtual combinatorial libraries. More particularly, the present invention relates to the selection of compounds, based on fitness functions, from large virtual combinatorial libraries.
2. Related Art
The explosive growth of combinatorial chemistry in recent years has been greeted as both a blessing and a curse. While it has solved the problem of throughput and has allowed the traditionally slow drug discovery process to be conducted in a massively parallelized fashion, it has created the need to deal with compound collections of truly staggering size. These include both physical collections of compounds that are synthesized using automated parallel synthesis, as well as virtual collections containing molecules that could potentially be synthesized by systematic application of established synthetic principles. The initial ambition to 'make and test them all' has given way to a more pragmatic approach once it became evident that 'all' was a number of immense proportions. For example, a simple diamine-based combinatorial library built from only commercially available reagents can include up to 1012 compounds which is equivalent to approximately 300 years of synthesis and testing at a rate of 10 million compounds per day (Cramer et al., "Virtual Compound Libraries: A New Approach to Decision Making in Molecular Discovery Research," J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1998, 38, 1010-1023). The recognition of these practical limitations and the desire to use the available synthetic and screening resources in an efficient way has generated interest in virtual chemistry and, in particular, systems and methods for handling and analyzing large chemical libraries. More specifically, for example, there is an interest in efficiently selecting compounds that are similar to a particular query structure (e.g., drug lead) or selecting compounds that have desired properties.
Searching a virtual combinatorial library for compounds that are similar to a particular query structure (or query structures) or have a set of desired properties typically involves three steps for each compound: enumeration, calculation of descriptors, and evaluation of similarity or estimation of the property of interest. Due to the large number of possible products in many virtual combinatorial libraries (particularly three- and four-component ones), just the enumeration part alone can take a few weeks of computational time. Additionally, the storage requirements for a fully enumerated virtual combinatorial library can be prohibitive. Since in these cases neither the generation nor the storage of fully enumerated libraries and their associated descriptors is feasible, there is a need for systems and methods that can identify the desired compounds without enumerating the entire library.
One possible solution is to look at the far less numerous reagents instead of the products. The reagent-based approach is frequently used to maximize molecular diversity, and is based on the assumption that diverse reagents will lead to diverse products. However, it was recently shown that a selection based on the products themselves can be substantially more diverse, perhaps by as much as 35-50% (Gillet et al., "The Effectiveness of Reactant Pools for Generating Structurally-Diverse Combinatorial Libraries," J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1997, 37, 731-740). When the selection criterion is similarity, the final products themselves must be considered, and the only proposed solution has been to use additive or otherwise "decomposable" descriptors. These are descriptors which, for combinatorial products, can be computed from the values of the corresponding descriptors of their constituent reagents (Cramer et al., "Virtual Compound Libraries: A New Approach to Decision Making in Molecular Discovery Research," J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1998, 38, 1010-1023).
Thus, the need remains for a system and method for efficiently and effectively generating product-based selections from large virtual combinatorial libraries. More generally, there is a need for a system and method for efficiently and effectively searching large virtual combinatorial libraries based on a fitness function.
There do exist some virtual combinatorial libraries that have already been fully or partially enumerated. However, there is currently a deficiency of satisfactory systems and methods for efficiently and effectively searching these enumerated virtual combinatorial libraries based on a fitness function. Accordingly, there is also a need for a system and method for efficiently and effectively searching large enumerated virtual combinatorial libraries based on a fitness function.

System, method and computer program product for fast and efficient searching of large chemical libraries

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C.


A wrist band for attaching a portable electronic device to a user includes articulating segments which may be releasably connected so as to provide the user the capability of sizing the wristband by adding or removing links as desired. A clasp is also disclosed for securing the wristband to a user. A manufacturing device and method are disclosed for machining complex surfaces on the segments and clasp.

Portable electronic devices such as watches, smart watches, smart phones and the like have become ubiquitous in recent years. Users carry these devices while moving in various environments during their daily activities. Modern portable electronic devices may be hand-carried by a user or they may be removably attached to the person of a user by means of straps or other tethers which may be decorative or aesthetically pleasing tethers. Many users have grown accustomed to carrying portable electronic devices while engaging in strenuous activities such as running, climbing and the like. Because users are in possession of these devices in such environments, they must be securely fastened to the person of the user or risk being lost or dropped. In a situation where the portable electronic device is dropped into water, the user may face a risk of losing the device altogether. Tethers prevent the user from dropping or losing the device and function as a convenience to the user.
Flexible bands or bracelets have been used to secure wristwatches to the person of a user for many years. These bands have made from a variety of materials including leather, cloth, metal, plastic and other suitable materials. From an aesthetic and durability point of view, metal wristbands have been very popular. However, metal wristbands have had some drawbacks including difficulty in sizing the wristband to a particular user which often requires special tools or expertise which may inconvenience a user. In addition, once sized, the band may need to be adjusted at a later time due to changes in the size of the wrist of the user or other factors. In such instances, resizing the wristband again often requires special tools or expertise and results in inconvenience to a user.