Azithromycin, administered systemically, is an effective treatment for nodules associated with acne vulgaris.

Acne vulgaris, often referred to simply as acne, is a common skin disease that typically, although not exclusively, affects adolescents. When untreated, most cases of acne persist for several years and then spontaneously remit, usually when an individual is in the mid-twenties.
The etiology of acne is multi-factorial. The disease is thought to originate primarily due to increased production of sebum, hypercornification of the infundibulum of pilosebaceous glands, proliferation of microbial flora especially Propionibacterium acnes, and subsequent inflammation. The normal process of epidermal maturation, called keratinization, involves the growing and shedding of cells that line the pores and glands of the skin. In acne, this process is disrupted, causing an overproduction of epithelial cells (hyperkeratosis) in the follicular infundibulum of the sebaceous gland duct, forming a blockage of the pore.
The resulting lesions can be divided into inflammatory and non-inflammatory lesions. Non-inflammatory lesions, classified as open and closed comedones, are commonly known as blackheads and whiteheads, respectively. Cases of acne presenting solely non-inflammatory lesions are sometimes referred to as mild acne.
Inflammatory lesions are a result of excessive growth of the common bacteria, Propionibacterium acnes, and its interaction with the normal oils of the skin (sebum), resulting in the generation of byproducts that elicit an inflammatory reaction. In addition to these primary lesions, patients may also suffer from scars as a complication of inflammatory lesions.
Inflammatory lesions of acne may be divided into two groups. Less severe cases of acne are associated with pustules and papules, as well as with non-inflammatory lesions. Papules are inflamed, red, tender bumps with no head that range from 2 to 5 mm in diameter. Pustules are papules that are superficial and contain grossly purulent material, that is they have a head with a white or yellow center. Depending on the number of papules and pustules present, papulopustular acne cases may be graded in a range from moderate to severe acne. Individuals with severe cases of papulopustular acne may also have one or two acne nodules or cysts.
More severe cases of acne are associated with nodules and cysts as a predominant lesion. Such individuals present with three or more nodules and typically also have multiple other inflammatory lesions, such as pustules and papules, and non-inflammatory lesions, such as comedones. Cysts and nodules are blockages of the oil glands of the skin that have burst open and produced inflammation and pus in the surrounding tissues. Nodules are large, hard bumps 5 mm or more in diameter present under or within the surface of the skin, which can be painful and can last for many months. Cysts are similar to nodules but are pus-filled. Cases of acne presenting with inflammatory acne with cysts and/or nodules are often referred to as severe acne. However, since there is no accepted definition for the term "severe acne" and often papular or pustular acne is referred to as severe acne, it is preferred to refer to cases of acne presenting with cysts and/or nodules by the more specific term of "nodular" acne.
The Food and Drug Administration has recognized that nodular acne is a distinct entity that is to be considered independently of other, milder forms of acne. In the Draft Guidance for Industry—Acne Vulgaris: Developing Drugs for Treatment, issued in September 2005 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), the IGA Scale for Acne Vulgaris was utilized to grade the severity of non-nodular acne for the purposes of clinical trials of topical drugs. The IGA Scale for Acne Vulgaris, as depicted in the Draft Guidance for Industry, is as shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1GradeDescription0Clear skin with no inflammatory or noninflammatory lesions1Almost clear; rare noninflammatory lesions with no morethan one small inflammatory lesion2Mild severity; greater than Grade 1; some noninflammatorylesions with no more than a few inflammatory lesions(papules/pustules only, no nodular lesions)3Moderate severity; greater than Grade 2; up to manynoninflammatory lesions and may have some inflammatorylesions, but no more than one small nodular lesion4Severe; greater than Grade 3; up to many noninflammatory andinflammatory lesions, but no more than a few nodular lesions
In the Draft Guidance for Industry, immediately below the IGA Scale, the FDA further distinguishes nodulocystic acne from other forms of acne and states that, "It is recommended that enrollment of acne vulgaris patients not include patients with nodulocystic acne." The Draft Guidance for Industry also states that because there are specific information needs with regard to treatment for nodular acne, applicants should seek additional guidance from the FDA regarding treatments that are targeted for nodular/nodulocystic acne.
Mild acne is typically treated with topical cleansers and benzoyl peroxide. Moderate inflammatory acne is often treated with cleansers and keratolytic or comedolytic agents such as retinoids (tretinoin, adapalene or tazaratene), salicylic acid or alphahydroxy acids, often in combination with topical or systemic antibiotics. Systemic antibiotics, including tetracycline, minocycline, doxycycline, erythromycin, and azithromycin, have been used successfully to treat pustular or papular acne. In May 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved SOLODYN™ (minocycline HCl, Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., Scottsdale, Ariz.) for treatment of non-nodular moderate to severe acne. The prescribing information on the package insert for Solodyn™ as approved by the FDA specifically states that "Solodyn™ is indicated to treat only inflammatory lesions of non-nodular moderate to severe acne vulgarism" To date, no antibiotic has been shown to be effective or has been approved by the FDA for treatment of nodular acne.
In cases of nodular acne, a dermatologist will often prescribe isotretinoin (ACCUTANE®, Roche Laboratories, Inc., Nutley, N.J.). Isotretinoin has been found to be effective in clearing nodular acne lesions. The drug works by reducing the size of oil glands in the skin so that much less oil is produced and the growth of bacteria is decreased.
The use of isotretinoin, however, has severe disadvantages. Isotretinoin has been shown to cause birth defects in the developing fetus and, therefore, pregnant women should not use isotretinoin. Additionally, isotretinoin has been associated with depression and suicidal thoughts in users. Because of the dangers associated with the use of isotretinoin, the FDA has initiated a program to permit only registered pharmacies and health care providers to dispense isotretinoin and to closely monitor the prescriptions and any adverse reactions occurring in patients receiving isotretinoin.
Because of the severe side effects of isotretinoin, there is currently no safe, approved therapy for treating nodular acne vulgaris.
Pigatto et al, "Isotretinoin versus Minocycline in Cystic Acne: A Study of Lipid Metabolism", Dermatologica, 172:154-159 (1986) compared the efficacy of treatment of nodular cystic acne with isotretinoin and with minocycline, a member of the tetracycline family of antibiotics. Pigatto found that isotretinoin was highly efficacious in treating nodular cystic acne. In contrast, Pigatto found that, although minocycline was initially effective in reducing the number and size of nodules and cysts, treatment with minocycline beyond 4 weeks resulted in no further improvement. Moreover, treatment with minocycline did not, at any time during the study, decrease the number or size of cysts to a level that would be considered to be less than severe. As shown in FIG. 1 of Pigatto, treatment with minocycline reduced the number of cysts from an average of 20 to 10 during the first 10 weeks of treatment, but that further treatment with minocycline did not further decrease the number of cysts in the patients. Likewise, initial 10 week treatment with minocycline reduced the average diameter of cysts from 15 mm to 8 mm, but further treatment failed to produce any further reduction in diameter. In fact, after 20 weeks of treatment, average cyst diameter had increased once again to 10 mm. The Pigatto study establishes that minocycline is not an effective therapy for treatment of nodular acne.
The question of whether minocycline could be an effective therapeutic agent for nodular acne when used in combination with an additional anti-acne therapy was studied in Gollnick et al, "Comparison of Combined Azaleic Acid Cream Plus Oral Minocycline with Oral Isotretinoin in Severe Acne", Eur. J. Dermatol., 11:538-544 (2001). Golinick evaluated patients treated for six months with a combination of oral minocycline and topically applied azaleic acid cream and found that treatment after two months with this combination resulted in a decrease of 60% in number of deep acne lesions (cysts and nodules) and a decrease of 100% after four months. Thus, minocycline is an effective therapy for nodular acne when combined with topically applied azaleic acid.
The mode of action of minocycline and other tetracycline antibiotics in treating lesions of acne is uncertain. Ashley, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0147492 discloses that tetracycline compounds, including minocycline and doxycycline, are effective in treating acne when administered to an individual in an amount that has substantially no antibiotic effect. The data of Ashley indicates that it is something other than the antibiotic effect of these drugs that provides the favorable anti-acne effect, although what the anti-acne mode of action of the tetracyclines is has not been determined. Because it is not the antibiotic activity of these compounds that provides their anti-acne effect, it is clear that one cannot extrapolate the level of effectiveness of tetracycline antibiotics in the treatment of acne to antibiotics that are not members of the tetracycline family.
Azithromycin is the generic name for 9-deoxo-9a-aza-9a-methyl-9a-homoerythromycin A, a broad spectrum antibiotic derived from erythromycin A. It was independently discovered by Bright, U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,768 and Kobrehel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,359, where it was referred to by the name of N-methyl-11-aza-10-deoxo-10-dihydroerythromycin A. Bright and Kobrehel disclosed azithromycin as a hygroscopic form. Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,489, discloses a non-hygroscopic dihydrate form of azithromycin. Both the monohydrate form and the dihydrate form are effective in treating bacterial infections when administered systemically.
Several scientific articles have published studies concerning the efficacy of azithromycin in treating lesions of inflammatory acne. Fernandez-Obregon, "Azithromycin for the Treatment of Acne," International Journal of Dermatology, 39:45-50 (2000), discloses that azithromycin administered in a pulse-dose regimen is as effective as other antibiotics tested in treating lesions of inflammatory acne.
Fernandez-Obregon compared daily systemic administration of doxycycline, erythromycin, minocycline, and tetracycline to three-times-weekly administration of azithromycin and found that the azithromycin treatment regimen was as effective as the daily treatment regimens of the other antibiotics in treating the lesions of inflammatory acne, even though azithromycin was administered at a much lower frequency than were the other antibiotics.
Treatment of acne with azithromycin, rather than with minocycline or doxycycline, is desirable because of the broad range of deleterious side effects that are experienced by users of minocycline and doxycycline. Minocycline use has been associated with skin discoloration, central nervous system effects such as dizziness and pseudomotor cerebri, and a lupus-like syndrome. Doxycycline use has been associated with gastrointestinal upsets, erosive esophagitis and photosensitivity. Both minocycline and doxycycline are also associated with candida vaginitis. Although there is some question as to whether azithromycin use may cause candida vaginitis, azithromycin has not been known to cause any of the other above side effects associated with minocycline or doxycycline. Additionally, minocycline and doxycycline are placed in Pregnancy Category D, which includes drugs that have some significant risks and that should be used during pregnancy only when the alternatives are worse. In contrast, azithromycin is a Pregnancy Category B drug, which category includes drugs that are used routinely and safely during pregnancy and which are considered safe to use if there is a clinical need for the drug.
The Fernandez-Obregon study treated patients suffering from at least 12 lesions of inflammatory acne, defined as papules, pustules, or cysts. Patients were graded on the reduction of the number of lesions associated with each treatment. The Fernandez-Obregon article did not distinguish between the various types of inflammatory lesions and it is possible, if not likely, that none of the patients treated had nodular or cystic lesions, or had at most one or two such lesions. Also, because nodular or cystic acne is considered to be a distinct form of acne requiring specific therapy and the intent of the Fernandez-Obregon study was to compare the efficacy of azithromycin to that of other antibiotics, which are known in the art to be efficacious to treat papular and pustular inflammatory lesions but not nodular or cystic lesions, it is evident to one of skill of the art that the patients treated in the Fernandez-Obregon study, although possibly having one or two cystic lesions, would not have been included in the study if they had been suffering from a distinct and more severe nodular acne.
A similar study was reported by Singhi, MK, et al, "Comparison of Oral Azithromycin Pulse with Daily Doxycycline in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris," Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprology, 69(4):274-276 (2003). Singhi compared azithromycin given at a dose of 500 mg for three consecutive days in a 10 day cycle with doxycycline given daily to a population of individuals suffering from moderate to severe inflammatory acne. Each of the individuals also received topical erythromycin therapy throughout the study.
Each of the patients was graded for severity of acne prior to commencement of therapy and at the end of therapy. The severity of acne was graded counting the number of comedones, papules, pustules, infiltrated, and cystic lesions, multiplying the number of each type of lesion by the lesions severity index (0.5 for comedones, 1 for papule, 2 for pustule, 3 for infiltrated lesion, and 4 for cyst), and summing the results.
Like Fernandez-Obregon, Singhi does not disclose that any of the subjects studied suffered from nodular acne and there is no suggestion that any of the subjects had multiple acne nodules. The results of Singhi were disclosed to be similar to those of Fernandez-Obregon and showed that azithromycin is an effective medication for treating moderate to severe acne vulgaris.
It is clear from the disclosures of Fernandez-Obregon and Singhi that nodular acne was not treated in their studies. Because an effective therapy for nodular acne that does not produce the severe side effects of isotretinoin has long been sought, if either of these studies had shown an effective antibiotic therapy against nodular or cystic acne, this result would have been proclaimed clearly as a breakthrough in acne therapy.
Accordingly, the need persists to the present day for an effective therapy for nodular acne that does not present severe side effects, such as those that occur with isotretinoin and possibly with tetracycline family antibiotic therapy.

Azithromycin for the treatment of nodular acne


A measuring tape device with automatic locking mechanism comprises of a casing, a bobbin that is set within the casing with a spring, a coilable tape that is contained in the casing. One end of the tape is connected to the spring and is wound around the bobbin, while the other end is extended outside through an aperture that is formed at the lower end to of casing, and this other end is connected to a hook member. The device also comprises of a stopper, it consists of an end that is positioned on the linear portion of tape, and an actuator that is connected to the end portion by a linkage part. The actuator is extruded outside and is settled at the surface of the casing. The device includes a hinge joint for fixating the stopper inside the casing and for allowing the stopper to rotate, and an elastic member placed between the casing and the linkage portion. The measuring tape device of present invention will lock the tape in place after the tape is extracted out from the casing, the locking mechanism of the tape is considered effective, and it has relatively low production cost, hence it is beneficial for mass production.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measuring tape device, in particular, it refers to a measuring tape device that has an automatic locking to mechanism.
2. Description of Prior Art
With the increasing demand for surveying, the measuring tape devices get to be more widely used. An early conventional measuring tape device comprises of a casing, there is a coilable tape contained inside the casing. At the center of the casing is a bobbin, one end of the tape is connected to the bobbin with a spring, and the other end of the tape extends out of the casing through an aperture. This type of measuring tape device does not have a locking mechanism, when a user release the distal end of the tape after the tape is extracted out of the casing, the tape is immediately retracted back into the casing, so it is inconvenient for the user to read the measurement on the tape.
According to Chinese Patent Publication (No. CN 2767951Y), in which it disclosed an utility model entitled "A measuring tape device with an automatic position locking", the construction of the measuring tape device is as shown in FIG. 1, it comprises of a casing 1, in the center of which is a bobbin 4 that is connected to a spring. One end of a coilable tape 2 is connected to the bobbin 4 and is wound around the bobbin 4 inside the casing, while the other end of the tape extends out of casing 1 through an aperture that is formed on the lower end of the casing. Inside the casing near the location of the aperture is a stopper 3, the stopper 3 is positioned above the linear part of the tape 2 that reaches the aperture. At the upper end of the casing 1 is a button 5, the front end of the button 5 is a "J" shape extension piece, and the end of the "J" shape extension piece is settled against the back of the stopper 3. In between the casing 1 and the stopper 3 is a spring 6, the spring 6 is for exerting a force of restoration onto the stopper 3.
In its natural state, the stopper 3 is spring-loaded to be biased towards the tape 2, causing the stopper 3 to come in contact with the linear part of the tape 2, and thus exerting a friction against the tape 2, the tape 2 is then locked in place, and user can readily read the measurement on the tape. When the user need to retract the tape back into the casing, the user presses the button 5, so the stopper 3 is pushed by the "J" shape extension piece that is at the front end of the button 5, which causes the stopper 3 to depart from the tape 2, the tape 2 is then retracted back into the casing by the spring loading.
However, this kind of measuring tape device consists of too many components, so the structure of the device becomes too complicated, and the production cost becomes too high. Furthermore, since the locking mechanism of the measuring tape depends on the "J" shape extension piece at the front end of button 5 to move the stopper 3, if the contact between the "J" shape extension piece and the stopper 3 deteriorates due to extensive usage, the effectiveness of the locking mechanism of the measuring tape will be affected, which decreases the reliability of the locking mechanism.

Automatic locking mechanism for a measuring tape device


A method and apparatus for safely and quickly mounting a heat sink in heat conducting relation with an electronic component on a supporting member such as a printed circuit board, allow sequential assembly of the heat sink and a wire clip for mounting the heat sink on the supporting member in a manner which reduces the possibility of damaging the electronic component or components on the supporting member. A load centering part is arranged between an elongated central portion of the wire clip and the heat sink to help locate the clip force on the heat sink generally opposite the electronic component without retaining the central portion of the mounting device on the heat sink.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for mounting a heat sink in heat conducting relation to an electronic component on a supporting member.
Various methods and apparatus are known for mounting a heat sink in heat conducting relation to an electronic component on a supporting member. For example, in one known method and apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,338, a heat sink attachment subassembly comprising a heat sink and a spring clamp which is secured to the heat sink by a clip, is formed. The subassembly in turn, is mounted on an electronic component.
It has been found by applicants that when mounting such a heat sink attachment subassembly on an electronic component on a supporting member, such as a printed circuit board, the manipulation of the subassembly necessary during mounting can cause damage to an exposed die or other electronic component on the board. It has also been found that the exposed die is susceptible to damage during shipping. There is a need for an improved method and apparatus for mounting a heat sink in heat conducting relation to an electronic component on a supporting member which permit the heat sink to be safely and quickly mounted in heat conducting relation with the electronic component while minimizing the likelihood of damage to the electronic component and adjacent electronic components on the supporting member, and which, at the same time, help locate the spring clamp force on the heat sink opposite the electronic component. The load locating addresses the physical damages susceptible during shock and vibration induced by user interaction and shipping and also maintains an even force distribution between the heat sink and die.


A microphone array input type speech recognition scheme capable of realizing a high precision sound source position or direction estimation by a small amount of calculations, and thereby realizing a high precision speech recognition. A band-pass waveform, which is a waveform for each frequency bandwidth, is obtained from input signals of the microphone array, and a band-pass power of the sound source is directly obtained from the band-pass waveform. Then, the obtained band-pass power is used as the speech parameter. It is also possible to realize the sound source estimation and the band-pass power estimation at high precision while further reducing an amount of calculations, by utilizing a sound source position search processing in which a low resolution position estimation and a high resolution position estimation are combined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microphone array input type speech recognition scheme in which speeches uttered by a user are inputted through microphone array and recognized.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the speech recognition, a surrounding environment under which the speech input is made can largely affect the recognition performance. In particular, background noises and reflected sounds of the user's speeches can degrade the recognition performance so that they are sources of a serious problem encountered in a use of a speech recognition system. For this reason, in general, a short range microphone designed for use near the mouth of the user such as a headset microphone or a hand microphone has been employed, but it is uncomfortable to wear the headset microphone on a head for any extended period of time, while the hand microphone can limit a freedom of the user as it occupies the user's hands, and there has been a demand for a speech input scheme that can allow more freedom to the user.
A microphone array has been studied as a potential candidate for a speech input scheme that can resolve the conventionally encountered inconvenience described above, and there are some recent reports of its application to the speech recognition system. The microphone array is a set of a plurality of microphones which are arranged at spatially different positions, where noises can be reduced by the synthetic processing of outputs of these microphones.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a conventional speech recognition system using a microphone array. This speech recognition system of FIG. 1 comprises a speech input unit 11 having a microphone array formed by a plurality (N sets) of microphones, a sound source direction estimation unit 12, a sound source waveform estimation unit 13, a speech detection unit 14, a speech analysis unit 15, a pattern matching unit 16, and a recognition dictionary 17.
In this configuration of FIG. 1, the speech entered at the microphone array is converted into digital signals for respective microphones by the speech input unit 11, and the speech waveforms of all channels are entered into the sound source direction estimation unit 12.
At the sound source direction estimation unit 12, a sound source position or direction is estimated from time differences among signals from different microphones, using the known delay sum array method or a method based on the cross-correlation function as disclosed in U. Bub, et al.: "Knowing Who to Listen to in Speech Recognition: Visually Guided Beamforming", ICASSP '95, pp. 848-851, 1995.
A case of estimating a direction of the sound source and a case of estimating a position of the sound source respectively correspond to a case in which the sound source is far distanced from the microphone array so that the incident sound waves can be considered as plane waves and a case in which the sound source is relatively close to the microphone array so that the sound waves can be considered as propagating in forms of spherical waves.
Next, the sound source waveform estimation unit 13 focuses the microphone array to the sound source position or direction obtained by the sound source direction estimation unit 12 by using the delay sum array method, and estimates the speech waveform of the target sound source.
Thereafter, similarly as in the usual speech recognition system, the speech analysis is carried out for the obtained speech waveform by the speech analysis unit 15, and the pattern matching using the recognition dictionary 17 is carried out for the obtained analysis parameter, so as to obtain the recognition result. For a method of pattern matching, there are several known methods including the HMM (Hidden Markov Model), the multiple similarity method, and the DP matching, as detailed in Rabiner et al.: "Fundamentals of Speech Recognition", Prentice Hall, for example.
Now, in the speech recognition system, it is custom to input the speech waveform. For this reason, even in the conventional speech recognition system using the microphone array as described above, the sound source position (or the sound source direction) and the speech waveform are obtained by processing the microphone array outputs according to the delay sum array method, due to a need to estimate the speech waveform by a small amount of calculations. The delay sum array method is often utilized because the speech waveform can be obtained by a relatively small amount of calculations, but the delay sum array method is also associated with a problem that the separation power is lowered when a plurality of sound sources are located close to each other.
On the other hand, as a method for estimating the sound source position (or direction), there is a parametric method based on a model as disclosed in S. V. Pillai: "Array Signal Processing", Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989, for example, which is presumably capable of estimating the sound source position at higher precision than the delay sum array method, and which is also capable of obtaining the power spectrum necessary for the speech recognition from the sound source position estimation processing at the same time.
FIG. 2 shows a processing configuration for this conventionally proposed parametric method. In the configuration of FIG. 2, signals from a plurality of microphones are entered at a speech input unit 21, and the frequency analysis based on the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is carried out at a frequency analysis unit 22. Then, the sound source position estimation processing is carried out for each frequency component at a power estimation unit 23, and the final sound source position estimation result is obtained by synthesizing the estimation results for all the frequencies at a sound source direction judgement unit 24.
Here, the sound source position estimation processing is a processing for estimating a power at each direction or position while minutely changing a direction or position over a range in which the sound source can possibly be located, so that a very large amount of calculations are required. In particular, in a case of assuming the propagation of sound waves in forms of spherical waves, it is going to estimate a position of the sound source rather than an arriving direction of the sound waves, so that two- or three-dimensional scanning is necessary and consequently an enormous amount of calculations are required.
Moreover, in the conventionally proposed parametric method described above, it is necessary to carry out this scanning processing for each frequency component obtained by the fast Fourier transform of the speech, so that it is difficult to reduce a required amount of calculations.

Method and system for microphone array input type speech recognition using band-pass power distribution for sound source position/direction estimation


Performance issues of wireless equipment (WE) or a wireless network are diagnosed through an alternative communication channel enabled by an alternative wireless network available to the WE. A service platform (SP) probes performance condition of the WE through a mobility control node (MCN) and, in response to a fault condition, collects data related to operation of the WE. Based at least on part of the data, the SP diagnoses the fault condition and related performance issue(s). To probe performance, the SP requests the MCN to collect data related to performance metric(s) of the WE. The alternative communication channel is established, and such data is collected therefrom, in response to low-grade connectivity amongst the MCN and the WE. The SP notifies the WE of at least the fault condition through the MCN or, in case of network fault condition, via the alternative communication channel.

Quality of wireless services provided by a telecommunication carrier and perceived quality of such services as experienced by a subscriber is driven primarily by performance of the wireless network deployed and administered by the telecommunication carrier. A myriad of equipment and related software and firmware applications can affect performance of a wireless network. Accordingly, telecommunication carriers typically monitor operation of such equipment and assess performance through multiple key performance indicators (KPIs). For user equipment (UE), performance generally is monitored by collecting data from UE when a connection is established amongst the UE and at least one network component of the wireless network. The data and the at least one network component typically are specific to the radio technology (Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Wi-Fi, WiMax, satellite-based telecommunication, etc.) employed by the wireless network to provide wireless service. In addition, the data generally is collected at various operational stages of the UE, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection setup in a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) UMTS network. Accordingly, in conventional wireless networks, the integrity or accuracy of the data collected to evaluate network performance is dictated by the network performance itself. Moreover, in conventional wireless networks, the availability of such data generally is hindered in underperforming operating conditions of the wireless equipment or the network components associated with performance assessment. Compromised integrity, accuracy, and availability of data related to network performance can lead to unsatisfactory network performance, unwarranted utilization of network resources to address subscriber concerns with received wireless service, and lost opportunities to diagnose and rectify performance issues.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Performance diagnosis of wireless equipment and a wireless network over out-of-band communication


Semiconductor devices 340 are formed in semiconductor wafer 300. Contact pads 332 are formed in each die 330. An interconnect connects the contact pads 332 to die surface contact regions 210, 212. Scribe trenches 348 are formed in device wafer 300; corresponding trenches 358 are formed in cover wafer 360. The cover wafer 360 is thinned to open scribe trenches 348. Conductive vias 310-313 connect the contact pads 210, 212 to external surface bump contacts 333.

The packaging of semiconductor devices is conventionally carried out, whether in plastic or in ceramic packages, after the active circuit elements have been formed by semiconductor device processing. Individual circuits or groups of circuits are broken into so-called dice. The dice are then attached to lead frames. Bond pads on each die are bonded to the leads of the lead frame and the wired bonded lead frame and die are packaged. Such individual handling of dice in the fabrication of the devices is labor-intensive and thus undesirable.
High speed semiconductor devices often use air bridges to decrease the capacitance between metal lines and the silicon substrate. Air is an excellent dielectric and it is desirable to dispose air bridges between metal lines carrying high speed signals and the substrate.
While semiconductor devices are very small devices, miniaturization thereof is desirable but is adversely affected by the need to package the devices in a way that will protect them from damage or contamination. While encapsulation in plastic or ceramic provides suitable protection and isolation from contamination, the plastic or ceramic package is often many times the size of the semiconductor device and limits miniaturization thereof. In addition, plastic encapsulation may fill voids in the device, particularly voids that are provided for air bridges. The filling of these voids with plastic, which has a dielectric constant greater than air, increases the parasitic capacitance of the device and reduces its high frequency response limiting the speed at which signals can propagate in the device. Similar limitations exist where other devices, such as micromachines or machinable components, are needed.


The purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged-particle beam device capable of stable performance of processes such as a measurement or test, independent of fluctuations in sample electric electric potential or the like. To this end, this charged-particle beam device comprises an energy filter for filtering the energy of charged particles released from the sample and a deflector for deflecting the charged particles released from the sample toward the energy filter. A control device generates a first image on the basis of the output of a detector, adjusts the voltage applied to the energy filter so that the first image reaches a prescribed state, and calculates deflection conditions for the deflector on the basis of the post-adjustment voltage applied to the energy filter.

A charged-particle beam device such as a scanning electron microscope generates an image or a signal waveform based on detection of charged particles (secondary electrons or backscattered electrons) obtained by irradiating a sample with a charged-particle beam. Such a charged-particle beam device includes an energy filter or a spectrometer used for selectively detecting charged particles having specific energy emitted from the sample.
PTL 1 discloses a scanning electron microscope in which a deflection condition of a secondary electron deflector is set so that the number of secondary electrons entering a spectrometer is maximized. PTL 2 discloses a charged-particle beam device that compensates for an electric potential fluctuation of a sample by adjusting a voltage applied to an energy filter. PTL 3 discloses a charged-particle beam device that adjusts a trajectory of electrons entering an energy filter so that a luminance difference between specific portions is maximized.


A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a unit which generates a diffusion weighted image based on a magnetic resonance signal from an object, a unit which calculates an apparent diffusion coefficient based on the diffusion weighted image, and a processing unit which subjects the diffusion weighted image to a process of indicating a region having the apparent diffusion coefficient of less than a threshold value with a highlight in contrast with other region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and a magnetic resonance imaging method that can form a diffusion weighted image (to be called as DWI image hereinafter) and an apparent diffusion coefficient image (to be called as ADC image) obtained by diffusion weighted imaging, and an image processing apparatus that handles DWI images and ADC images.
2. Description of the Related Art
The magnetic resonance imaging is an imaging method in which nuclear spin of an object placed in a static magnetic field is magnetically exited with a high-frequency signal of its Larmor frequency, and an image is reconstructed from an MR signal generated along with the excitation.
The diffusion weighted imaging method is one of the imaging methods in the field of the magnetic resonance imaging, and DWI images that shows the diffusing manner (speed, direction, etc.) of water molecules in tissue. The DWI imaging is used to identify a tumor in, for example, the trunk of body and it has such an advantage of a high sensitivity and a high contrast as compared to those of the other imaging methods. This diffusion weighted imaging method has been made popular by the following publications, "Le Bihan D, MRM 19(2):221-227 (1991)", "Takahara T, Radiat Med 22(4):275-282 (2004)" and "Tsunehiko Nishimura et al., diffusion•perfusion MRI (Ichibousennri (unlimited expansion of view):32, Medical View Co. 2006". The last publication discloses DWI (Diffusion Weighted Imaging), especially "T2 shine-through".
However, there is a tendency with the DWI imaging that a tissue with a large T2 value is extracted at a high signal even though it is not a tumor (which is the so-called "T2 shine-through"). (See "Burdette J H, Radiology 212:333-339(1999)".) Under these circumstances, some special attention must be paid when visually analyzing a DWI image. On the other hand, when a DWI image is subjected to an MIP (maximum intensity projection) process, a tumor, in some case, is hidden behind some normal tissue of a high intensity signal. Further, although it is possible to a certain extent to distinguish a tumor from a normal tissue of a high intensity signal by measuring the ADC value with an ADC image formed from DWI images having different b factors from each other, such an observation based solely on the ADC value is not sufficient since the ADC value is an apparent diffusion coefficient, which is naturally not absolute one. Further, solely with the ADC image, it is difficult to make a judgment on the form of tissue itself. Furthermore, DWI and ADC are separate images, and therefore it is laborious to visually observe them for comparison and contrast.
As described above, it is conventionally difficult to read an image accurately with each individual image regardless of whether it is a DWI image or ADC image.
A more accurate reading of image can be achieved by comparing the DWI image and ADC image; however it is conventionally laborious to compare and contrast them since they are separate images.

MRI apparatus, method and process generating diffusion weighted images using apparent diffusion coefficients and threshold values


A mouse monoclonal antibody for antagonizing and inhibiting binding of a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor (VEGF-R), and a heavy chain variable region and light chain variable region amino acid sequence thereof. Also disclosed are a humanized preparation process of the antibody and a heavy chain variable region and light chain variable region amino acid sequence of the humanized antibody. The humanized antibody or its derivative can act as an ingredient of a pharmaceutical composition or be prepared into a suitable pharmaceutical preparation, is administered alone or in combination with a chemotherapy drug or other treatment means, and is used in broad-spectrum treatment of various solid tumors such as colon cancer, breast cancer and rhabdomyosarcoma.

In biology, angiogenesis refers to a process of generation of new blood vessels by budding or dividing from the existing blood vessels (capillaries, small arteries and veins) in the body. Angiogenesis is beneficial and essential for maintaining many normal physiological processes, such as embryonic development, wound healing, and repair. On the other hand, excessive blood vessel proliferation or angiogenesis is also associated with pathological processes, such as tumor growth, metastasis and inflammation. The key reason for the in vivo proliferation of the blood vessels is due to the ability of endothelial cells to divide and proliferate incisively and to insert to the existing vascular wall. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the most important and most potent angiogenic factor responsible for vascular endothelial cell growth. The importance of VEGF in angiogenesis has been well demonstrated by studies in VEGF knock-out mice: mouse embryos carrying one copy of VEGF gene, while the other one was knocked-out, would die at 11 to 12 days of development due to a decrease and abnormality in vascular angiogenesis (Carmeliet P et. al., Nature 1996, 380:435; Ferrara N et. al., Nature 196, 380:439).
Overexpression of VEGF has been observed in a variety of malignancies, such as colorectal, stomach, ovarian, breast cancers, hepatocelluar carcinoma and multiple myeloma; the level of VEGF expression is highly correlated with tumor growth, relapse and metastasis (Dvorak H F et. al: J Exp Med 1991; 174:1275-8; Brown L F et. al., Cancer Res 1993; 53:4727-35; Weidner N, Semple J P, Welch W R and Folkman J: N Engl J Med 1991; 324:1-8.4-5). In recent years, accumulating data from a series of animal experiments have shown that blocking angiogenesis by inhibiting the interaction of VEGF and VEGF-R, via gene manipulation or administration of drugs, leads to tumor ischemia and necrosis, which in turn, results in inhibition of tumor growth, metastasis and ultimately, prolongation of overall survival. Therefore, drug development targeting VEGF mediated angiogenesis has become a hot area of research worldwide.
Currently there are two major approaches to the anti-angiogenesis drug development targeting VEGF and VEGF-R pathway.
The first approach involves an inhibitor that antagonizes the tyrosine kinase located in the intracellular domain of the VEGF receptor (VEGF-R). Such antagonistic inhibitors are generally small-molecule chemical drugs, the prototypic drugs include Sutent (Sunitinib), which was developed and made available on the market in 2006 by Pfizer, and Nexavar (Sorafenib), developed and marketed by Bayer (Germany) and Onyx Pharmaceuticals.
The second approach involves large protein molecules, either an antibody or a fusion protein employing the Fc receptor of an antibody, which can directly block the binding of VEGF to its receptor (VEGF-R). One drug developed via this approach is Avastin (Bevacizumab), a humanized anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody drug which was developed and produced by Roche/Genentech and obtained FDA approval in February 2004. Avastin is so far the only anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody available on the global market. Avastin, by highly specific binding to VEGF, prevents VEGF from binding to VEGF-R, and thus blocks angiogenesis and inhibits tumor proliferation (Presta L G et. al., Cancer Res, 1997, 57: 4593; Hurwitz H et. al., N Engl J Med, 2004; 350:2335). Avastin has currently been approved by the FDA to be used for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), glioblastoma, metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), and various other solid tumors. Avastin also received approval from China SFDA in February 2010 for the treatment of colon cancer.
The precursor of Avastin can be traced back to a mouse monoclonal antibody, A4.6.1. The origin of this antibody, the hybridoma cell lines secreting it, and its use are described in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,959 (inventor: Kim, Kyung Jin; patent date: Jun. 24, 2003; patent title: Antibodies to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor); and U.S. Pat. No. 7,227,004 (Inventor: Kim, Kyung Jin; patent date: Jun. 5, 2007; patent title: Antibodies to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor). The amino acid sequence of this murine antibody and its humanized version, rhuMab-VEGF (i.e. Avastin) was published (Presta L G et. al., Cancer Res, 1997, 57: 4593). The method of preparation was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,297 (Inventor: Carter; Paul J. and Presta; Leonard G; patent application date: May 9, 1995; patent date: Apr. 25, 2000; patent title: Humanized Antibodies and Methods for Making Them).
However, this antibody still has the following shortcomings:
1) Similar to most other monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibody A4.6.1 (or Avastin) can only bind to a part of VEGF region or epitope, but cannot bind to other epitopes or cover other areas of VEGF antigen.
2) Previous animal experiments and recent clinic research have shown that administering A4.6.1 or Avastin alone was not able to neutralize VEGF entirely, or completely inhibiting VEGF mediated angiogenesis in vivo.
Therefore, it is important and necessary to develop new monoclonal antibodies or therapeutic agents which have the ability to bind to VEGF on new binding sites and same time can inhibit the binding of VEGF to VEGF-R.

Monoclonal antibody for antagonizing and inhibiting binding of vascular endothelial growth factor to its receptor, and coding sequence


An piezoelectric actuated injector is provided which includes a nozzle valve element, a control volume, and an injection control valve including a control valve member for controlling fuel flow from the control volume so as to control nozzle valve movement. Importantly, the injector includes a preload chamber positioned along an injection control valve member for receiving high pressure fuel. The high pressure fuel acts on the injection control valve member to apply a preload force to supply a preload force to the stack of piezoelectric elements thereby ensuring more accurate control over fuel injection timing and metering.

In most fuel supply systems applicable to internal combustion engines, fuel injectors are used to direct fuel pulses into the engine combustion chamber. A commonly used injector is a closed-nozzle injector which includes a nozzle assembly having a spring-biased nozzle valve element positioned adjacent the nozzle orifice for resisting blow back of exhaust gas into the pumping or metering chamber of the injector while allowing fuel to be injected into the cylinder. The nozzle valve element also functions to provide a deliberate, abrupt end to fuel injection thereby preventing a secondary injection which causes unburned hydrocarbons in the exhaust. The nozzle valve is positioned in a nozzle cavity and biased by a nozzle spring to block fuel flow through the nozzle orifices. In many fuel systems, when the pressure of the fuel within the nozzle cavity exceeds the biasing force of the nozzle spring, the nozzle valve element moves outwardly to allow fuel to pass through the nozzle orifices, thus marking the beginning of injection.
In another type of system, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,704, the beginning of injection is controlled by a servo-controlled needle valve element. The assembly includes a control volume positioned adjacent an outer end of the needle valve element, a drain circuit for draining fuel from the control volume to a low pressure drain, and an injection control valve positioned along the drain circuit for controlling the flow of fuel through the drain circuit so as to cause the movement of the needle valve element between open and closed positions. Opening of the injection control valve causes a reduction in the fuel pressure in the control volume resulting in a pressure differential which forces the needle valve open, and closing of the injection control valve causes an increase in the control volume pressure and closing of the needle valve.
Internal combustion engine designers have increasingly come to realize that substantially improved fuel supply systems are required in order to meet the ever increasing governmental and regulatory requirements of emissions abatement and increased fuel economy. Specifically, it is well known that improved control of fuel metering, i.e. the rate of fuel flow into the combustion chamber, is essential in reducing the level of emissions generated by the diesel fuel combustion process while minimizing fuel consumption. As a result, many proposals have been made to provide metering, or injection rate, control devices in closed nozzle fuel injector systems.
Piezoelectric devices are desirable for use as valve actuators for several reasons. One being that the devices allow for precise metering and control of small quantities of pressurized fuel. Another desirable feature is that piezoelectric actuators have reliable characteristics when calibrated properly and precisely. However, in a fuel injection valve, the amount of displacement of a piezoelectric element necessary to move the valve element through its valve stroke is very small. Therefore, any slight unintended separation between the piezoelectric elements or layers forming the piezo stack may interfere with effective stack expansion and/or the initial force on the valve thereby possibly adversely affecting fuel injection timing and metering, regardless of the accuracy of the initial calibration. Although piezo stacks are initially preloaded using some mechanism, such as pulling devices, e.g. nut and washer assemblies including a center rod, outer rods and/or outer cages, that pull the ends of the stack toward one another in compression, these preloading device do not provide sufficient preload on the stack throughout operation of the injector.
In addition, establishing an accurate interface between a piezo actuator and movable valve element can be difficult and costly due to small strokes and large forces associated with piezoelectric actuators. Stack-up tolerances due to the assembly of various components also make it difficult to create a match or flush interface between the actuator and valve element. At least one injector manufacturer has produced a piezoelectric injector which uses a hydraulic chamber, between the piezo actuator and the servo injection control valve, filled with low pressure drain fuel to equalize minimal manufacturing tolerances while also compensating for temperature-induced and wear-induced changes in length.
Also, the required size (cross section of the stack) of the piezoelectric elements forming the piezo stack is proportional to the valve opening force. With larger injectors, where the injector needle diameter is larger, a larger size control valve is necessary to reach the desired control chamber pressure dynamic. High opening forces are required to open these larger control valves at high pressures, thereby requiring larger stacks. However, larger piezo stacks are more expensive and less widely available.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,221 to Crofts et al. discloses a servo-controlled fuel injector nozzle assembly having feedback control. The injector includes a piezoelectric actuator to actuate a valve member controlling fuel flow from a control volume positioned adjacent one end of a needle valve element to thereby control movement of the needle valve element. This design may not adequately provide preload on the actuator stack throughout operation and does not compensate for thermal expansion, wear and manufacturing tolerances.
Therefore, there is still a need for a simple, improved piezoelectric fuel injector which is capable of maintaining sufficient piezo stack preload throughout operation to ensure effective control over fuel injection.

Fuel injector with piezoelectric actuator preload


The present invention relates to a device and a method for displaying images. To combat the copying of images by a camcorder in a cinema auditorium, modulating the luminance of the pixels of a pattern around the value to be displayed to a high frequency which makes the pattern invisible to the human eye but which generates artifacts on the sequence filmed by the camcorder is known. According to the invention, it is proposed to temporally modulate the pattern only in the fixed areas (background or indoor scenes) or, where appropriate, the areas with weak movements. Thus, rather than degrading the image in the areas with movement by applying to them the temporal modulation processing, a decision is taken not to temporally modulate the pattern in these critical areas.

Visual contents, whether fixed or moving pictures, are normally creations that are covered by copyright-related guarantees of exclusivity. Reproducing them is normally allowed only within a strictly defined framework which allows the authors and their beneficiaries to be remunerated.
In order to ensure that these legal rules are correctly observed, numerous systems have been developed to prevent illegal copies or sufficiently degrade their quality to make them unusable.
In this context, the object of patent application EP 1 237 369 is to combat the copying of images by picture taking when they are displayed, for example by a camcorder in a cinema auditorium. To this end, it is proposed to modulate the luminance of the pixels of a pattern around the value to be displayed to a high frequency that makes the pattern invisible to the human eye but that generates artefacts on the sequence filmed by the camcorder. This pattern is commonly called a tattoo or an anti-copy pattern.
The form of the pattern is determined to produce, for example, messages of the "ILLEGAL COPY" type that will appear in the images displayed by the camcorder.
For the pattern to be invisible to the naked eye, the modulation consists in alternating images in which the pattern is light with images in which it is dark, the average intensity of the pattern over several images corresponding to that to be displayed in the images in the absence of a pattern. When these images are displayed, the eye performs an integration and, in fact, perceives the average intensity.
Another method consists in modulating the colour of the pixels of the pattern without modifying their luminance. The colour of the pixels of the pattern is modulated around the colour to be displayed at a high frequency that makes the pattern invisible to the human eye. This method is then based on colour fusion. It is described in very great detail in international patent application WO 05/027529.
Generally, the purpose of this temporal modulation is to distribute over time a parameter that is received at a given instant t. This parameter is normally linked to the video and can be, as indicated previously, the luminance or colour. The temporal distribution is done at instants separated by "frame" or "subframe" times.
This technique does, however, present a problem when the images represent a moving scene. In practice, since the eye tends to follow the movement in the image, the temporal integration is no longer done correctly and the pattern then appears to the naked eye. Consider the example of a modulation creating a luminance deficit for a pixel P of the pattern in a first image and a complementary luminance surplus for the same pixel in a second picture. If the eye does not move, it adds together the luminances of these two pixels and then perceives the average luminance value. The perception of the eye is then correct. If the eye moves, the pixel P in the first image is not integrated by the same retinal area of the eye as this same pixel in the second image. The visual sum between these two pixels is no longer correct and the pattern is then detected by the eye.
To overcome this problem, it is possible to have the pattern move in accordance with the movement of the eye in such a way that the latter integrates the video parameters relating to one and the same pixel in the two successive images displayed. This movement compensation technique can be used to limit the defects and improve the quality of the processing but presupposes a high accuracy of the movement vectors and a good reliability of the movement estimator.


In a device with an elongate housing for examining the gums of a patient, with the housing having a connecting area for connecting a replaceable, movable exploratory tip and with mechanical and/or electronic detection elements provided in the housing for detecting and converting the movements of the exploratory tip. The invention proposes that the detection elements be designed to be liquid-tight and/or liquid-resistant, and surrounded by a potting compound inside the housing.

The invention relates to an exploratory device for examining the oral cavity of a person. Devices of this kind are known in the art and described for example in DE 44 38 603 A1.
Prior art exploratory devices general comprise an elongate housing having a connecting area for connecting a releasable movable exploratory tip. The housing includes a mechanical or electronic element for detecting and converting movements of the exploratory tip into usable signals. These prior art devices are generally constructed such that the electronics located inside the housing RE temperature-resistant, so that the entire exploratory device can be sterilized at temperatures of for example 134.degree. C. to 156.degree. C.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved exploratory device that is relatively easy to handle, relatively sturdy and relatively safe to operate.

Exploratory device with potting material


A storage device and a method for making the storage device are described. In one implementation, the storage device comprises first and second walls having interior and exterior portions. The second wall opposes and is connected to the first wall so that the interior portions of the first and second walls define an interior of the storage device and the exterior portions of the first and second walls define an exterior of the storage device. An access opening is located between the first and second walls, and the access opening is sized to receive an electronic device. A plurality of voids is located in the first wall and the voids are configured to permit air passage between the interior and exterior of the storage device. A porous material that permits airflow through the voids may be connected to the first wall. Other implementations are described.

Electronic devices, including, but not limited to, notebook computers and tablet computers, are often stored in cases when not being actively used. Similarly, electronic devices generally are transported in cases when the owners or users of the electronic devices need to transport the electronic devices. Cases typically do not permit airflow between the compartments where the electronic devices are stored and the air outside of the cases when the cases are closed.
When electronic devices are powered by batteries, the batteries may become warm or hot when the electronic device is being used. Users of battery powered electronic devices generally "shut down" or turn the power off of the electronic devices and then put them in cases before the temperature of the batteries decreased. When this happens, the heat from the batteries may be trapped within the cases. When a battery including, but not limited to, a rechargeable battery, is not in use and is or becomes warm or hot, the battery's capacity, number of recharge cycles, and general lifespan may decrease.
There is thus a need for a storage device that allows airflow from outside of the storage device to the area in which the electronic device's battery is located.


There is provided a technique for determining cell allocation in a network supporting different communication standards.

In the near future second-generation (2G) mobile networks will be complemented and partly replaced with third generation (3G) mobile networks. In many parts of the world this will mean a transition from a situation where the 2G standard is the only dominant mobile network technology to a situation where there are two dominant mobile network technologies: 2G and 3G. In Europe, for example, there will be a switch from GSM being the sole dominant standard to GSM and 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) both being dominant standards.
Thus a network operator will in the future have often a mobile network containing GSM and 3GPP technology, where the 3GPP technology may be deployed using several 5 MHz 3GPP carriers. Also the cell sizes in both standards may differ from indoor and street level pico-cells and micro-cells to large macro-cells. It will then be necessary for the operator to have to decide how to serve the required traffic using the different network technologies and cell types available thereto.
The operator's goal is to maximise the number of users served and to provide some predefined coverage probability in the coverage area. The required traffic in the coverage area will consist of various connections where different quality of service (QOS) requirements are desired. QOS may be defined by, for example, bit rate, maximum allowed delay and bit error rate (BER). To maximise the number of users served, the different type of connections must be served in such a cell type and with such technology where it is possible and where it requires the least effort.
For example, consider a user equipment (UE) requesting a real-time connection at a bit rate 384 kbit/s. The operator may primarily want to serve this user with a 3GPP cell, because the 3GPP standard can provide 384 kbit/s bit rate.
In current proposed systems the operator would have to rely on cell selection or handover algorithms provided by the vendor, which might not result in satisfactory distribution of different type of connections in the available technologies and cell types from the operators point of view.
In the second-generation systems e.g. GSM and IS-95, the problem of dividing required traffic to cells with different technology and type based on the service type is not important for two reasons. Firstly, in second generation systems the required traffic consists mostly of speech services. Data services are also possible but are less used than speech. The variety in the offered traffic in terms of bit rates, maximum delay and BER requirements is significantly smaller than in 3GPP networks. Secondly, prior to the deployment of 3GPP networks it has not been common for an operator to operate a network consisting of systems from several standards, where intersystem handovers would be possible.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an improved technique for selecting a target cell in a wireless communication system supporting more than one communication standard.

Service priorities in a multi-cell network


A liquid crystal display device includes multiple data lines and multiple scan lines insulatedly intersecting each other. Each of the pixel units includes a common electrode and a pixel electrode insulated from each other by an insulating layer, an in-plane electric field is formed by the common electrode and the pixel electrode The common electrodes are connected together to form a common electrode layer, which comprises multiple touch electrodes and touch signal wires. Each of the touch signal wires is electrically connected with a corresponding touch electrode, first slits are arranged in parallel to the data lines, each of the first slits is disposed between two adjacent touch electrodes or between a touch electrode and an adjacent touch signal wire, except at a junction between the touch signal wire and the touch electrode. A first slit overlaps with a pixel electrode within a pixel unit.

When used as a flat panel display device, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a plasma display panel (PDP) device, a field emission display (FED) device, and an electroluminescent display (ELD) device each include a flat display panel for displaying images. The flat display panel includes a pair of combined opposite transparent insulated substrates, and a special luminescent or polarized material layer is placed between the pair of substrates. Among these flat panel display devices, the LCD device controls transmittance of liquid crystals via an electric field to display images. In this end, the LCD device includes a display panel having liquid crystal units, a backlight unit for guiding lights to the display panel, and a drive circuit for driving the liquid crystal units. Recently, there are increasing needs for incorporating a touch panel into the LCD device, to sense an area of the touch panel that is touched by a finger or other means and send information related to the touch event. Moreover, for the miniaturization of the device, some components may be shared by the LCD device and the touch panel, however, sharing components between the LCD device and the touch panel may cause adverse interactions therebetween.

Liquid crystal display device with touch function

SHANGHAI TIANMA MICRO-ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A process for producing a structural member of an amorphous alloy, which includes the steps of subjecting a material formed from an amorphous alloy having a glass transition temperature Tg and a crystallization temperature Tx, which is higher than the glass transition temperature Tg, to a thermal treatment in which the material is kept at a heating temperature equal to or lower than the glass transition temperature Tg, thereby generating a structure relaxation phenomenon in the material, and subjecting the material to a hot plastic working while setting the hot working start temperature of the green compact at a level equal to or lower than the crystallization temperature Tx. In this process, the workability of the material can be improved to produce a high strength amorphous alloy structural member that has an increased volume fraction of an amorphous phase. Furthermore the generation of any defect due to gas inclusion is suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is processes for producing a structural member of an amorphous alloy, and more particularly, processes for producing such structural member from a material formed of an amorphous alloy having a glass transition temperature Tg and a crystallization temperature Tx higher than the glass transition temperature Tg.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, to produce a member of such type, a procedure is employed which comprises forming a green compact from an amorphous alloy powder, heating the green compact, and subjecting the green compact to a hot plastic working. The hot working start temperature of the green compact is set at a level equal to or lower than the crystallization temperature.
The hot plastic working of the green compact utilizes a plasticization accompanied by an endothermic phenomenon which the amorphous alloy exhibits at a temperature range exceeding the glass transition temperature Tg. Therefore, in order to improve the workability of the green compact to produce a structural member having a high volume fraction Vf of an amorphous phase, it is necessary to permit such endothermic phenomenon to occur sufficiently.
However, the amorphous alloy has an instable nature after production, and, therefore, when heated, it generates a structure relaxation phenomenon accompanied by an exothermic phenomenon due to a rearrangement of atoms. The prior art process, therefore has a problem that because the structure relaxation phenomenon is, of course, generated even at a green compact working step, the degree of plasticization of the green compact is low and the elongation of the green compact is small due to endothermic and exothermic phenomenons being generated simultaneously.

Process for producing structural member of amorphous alloy


A ferroelectric liquid crystal panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposed to and spaced from the first substrate, and a ferroelectric liquid crystal interposed between the first and second substrates and having a given layer structure. The second substrate expands and contracts in a direction normal to the layer structure of the liquid crystal according to deformation of the first substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ferroelectric liquid crystal panel and a method of manufacturing the same. The present invention relates also to a display device employing the ferroelectric liquid crystal panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that ferroelectric liquid crystals provide a high-speed response in microseconds, because liquid crystal molecules thereof have spontaneous polarization. When the ferroelectric liquid crystals are made thin, they show a memory effect. Because of this, even if the number of display lines is increased, the ferroelectric liquid crystals provide a high contrast display. Furthermore, the ferroelectric liquid crystals are very wide in viewing angle. These superior properties can be realized with a simple matrix panel, which can be readily manufactured at a low cost (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,924).
FIG. 1 depicts a molecular orientation of a ferroelectric liquid crystal at the time a ferroelectric liquid crystal panel was made thin. It was confirmed by X-ray diffraction that liquid crystal molecules 20 were aligned parallel to upper and lower substrates by alignment layers formed on respective substrates, and liquid crystal layers 21 were bent between the substrates, as shown in FIG. 1.
Although chiral smectic liquid crystals are generally used as the ferroelectric liquid crystals, the smectic phase has a higher-order orientation than the nematic phase, and smectic liquid crystal molecules tend to orient by forming a layer structure. Due to the higher-order orientation, the smectic liquid crystals provide a high-speed response. When an easy-to-align low molecular ferroelectric liquid crystal panel is subjected to deformation, for example, by a mechanical shock, the molecular orientation and the layer structure thereof fall into disorder, and the memory effect is lost. As a result, no display can be presented on the ferroelectric liquid crystal panel. The disorder of orientation cannot be restored until the ferroelectric liquid crystal experiences processes wherein the temperature thereof is raised to a temperature of the nematic phase or isotropic phase and is subsequently gradually reduced.
Because the layer structure tends to fall into disorder if a cell warps, U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,839 discloses the use of a protection means operable to avoid direct transmission of an external force to the cell to thereby to avoid the possibility of the disorder in the layer structure. In order to prevent the external force from being applied to the cell by the use of the protection means, the cell must be kept out of contact with the protection means. To this end, it is necessary to make the protection means thick and to keep the cell a suitable distance away therefrom. As a result, a display unit becomes considerably thick, and the advantage of the liquid crystal panel is lost.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,839, a flexible substrate is employed as one of substrates so that a liquid crystal layer may be made thin and uniform in thickness. This prior art document teaches that the layer structure is liable to be disordered by warping of the flexible substrate, which may be caused by an impact or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,839 teaches a preferred structure wherein the flexible substrate is placed on the display side and a transparent protection means is spaced therefrom. In this structure, another substrate placed on a side opposite to the display side and the protection means are both made thick to restrain warping the cell. As a result, a display unit becomes thick.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 3-203773 discloses a liquid crystal panel having an air damper. The air damper is formed by a closed space defined by a cell and a support member. The provision of the air damper is based on the fact that the protection means is not so effective against a mechanical shock caused by inertia, which would be produced, for example, by spontaneous falling of the cell. As is the case with the protection means, the provision of the air damper also makes a display unit thick. In addition, the structure becomes complicated, thus increasing the cost of manufacture.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 64-33524 discloses a method of bonding upper and lower substrates via spacers to rigidify a cell itself. Although this method can enhance resistance to impact shock to some extent, it is necessary to inject a liquid crystal into a space defined between the upper and lower substrates after both the substrates have been bonded. Because ferroelectric liquid crystals are generally very high in viscosity, and the spacing between the substrates is extremely narrow, it is very difficult to uniformly inject a liquid crystal into a large cell.
According to experiments conducted by the inventors of the instant application, when two generally available panels each having a thickness of 1.1 mm or 0.7 mm were bonded, the strength thereof was approximately three times greater than the case where these panels were not bonded. However, when the panel surface was depressed somewhat strongly by a finger, an uneven display occurred.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,858 teaches making a liquid crystal layer thin and unifying the thickness thereof using a flexible substrate as one of two substrates. In general, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer showing the memory effect ranges from 1 .mu.m to 2 .mu.m. This range in thickness is appropriate to obtain a desired memory effect and also to approximate the color produced by birefringence effect to water-whiteness. According to this disclosure, because the liquid crystal layer is thin and has a small tolerance of, for example, 0.1 .mu.m in thickness, as compared with conventional TN (Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystals, if a cell is defined by generally available glass plates, it is impossible to uniformly form the thin liquid crystal layer therein. Accordingly, this disclosure teaches placing the flexible substrate in accord with undulation of another thin substrate made of glass or plastic film to prevent unevenness in thickness of the liquid crystal layer. According to this disclosure, after the two substrates have been bonded via spacers, the cell is evacuated to allow the liquid crystal to be injected thereinto through an injection hole. During the injection, however, because the cell is subjected to a pressure difference of approximately 1 atm between the inside and the outside thereof, the spacers cut into the plastic film, thus considerably narrowing the distance between the two substrates. As a result, it is extremely difficult to inject the liquid crystal into the cell.
According to this disclosure, supposing that the flexible substrate is an elastic plate which is carried by two spaced supports and which is subjected to deformation under the influence of an external force, the deformation of the flexible substrate is expressed by a formula. Based on this formula, the distance between the spacers is determined. In the case of a plastic substrate, however, the spacers are likely to cut thereinto. In particular, of generally available spherical spacers, hard ones cut into the substrate with ease. Accordingly, the aforementioned formula indicative of elastic deformation is not applicable to such a case. Even in the case of a glass substrate, because the spacers are likely to cut thereinto according to the relationship between the hardness thereof and that of electrodes, insulating layers, and alignment layers on the substrate, the aforementioned formula is not applicable to this case also. Furthermore, the provision of a reduced pressure space inside the cell reduces the volume of the liquid crystal at low temperatures, thereby enlarging a vacant internal space. This space occasionally appears on the display or slightly remains even if the temperature of the cell is returned to normal temperature. In some cases, a defect of molecular orientation would occur.
Although glass is generally used for substrates of a liquid crystal panel, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 56-155920 and 64-33524 disclose the use of plastic films for the substrates to make them thin. According to these disclosures, transparent electrodes of, for example, indium tin oxide are initially mounted on a transparent plastic resin film of, for example, polyether sulfon, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, or the like. Then, an alignment layer is coated on the plastic resin film, and liquid crystal is appropriately oriented through a rubbing treatment. In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 64-33524, a cell is fabricated by bonding upper and lower substrates to each other via spacers coated with an adhesive. Thereafter, a ferroelectric liquid crystal is injected into the cell.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal panel and method of manufacturing same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


In a motor having a permanent magnet built in a rotor, a hole for preventing a short-circuit of magnetic flux is disposed so that the hole is adjacent to the outer rim of rotor core, and adjoins to a slit for receiving a permanent magnet as well as the permanent magnet per se. This structure prevents a short-circuit of magnetic flux generated by both ends of the permanent magnet, and the magnetic flux at both ends of the magnet can flow to a stator, thereby contributing to generate torque effectively. As a result, the highly efficient motor with less cogging torque, less vibration and lower noise can be provided.

A high efficiency motor, which can utilize magnet torque as well as reluctance torque by mounting an interior magnet into a rotor core, is well known in the market, one example of which is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. H08-331823. FIG. 15 is a cross section illustrating this kind conventional motor.
In FIG. 15, a stator 1 comprises a plurality of teeth 11 and yokes 12 which connects roots of the plural teeth, and the stator 1 is shaped like a ring. A plurality of slots 13 formed between the teeth are wound with a three-phase winding. A rotor 7 is substantially coaxial with the stator 1 and is shaped like a cylinder. The rotor 7 has four rotor poles facing the inner face of stator 1, and is supported by a bearing (not shown) so that the rotor 7 can rotate on a shaft 24. Four slits 72 punched through axially and disposed at an equal interval along a rotational direction of the rotor core 71 are provided on the rotor 7, and a plate-like permanent magnet 73 is inserted into each slit. A terminal plate (not shown) is disposed on each axial end of the rotor core 71 to cover the permanent magnet 73. The terminal plate is fixed on the end face by riveting a pin 26 through a hole 25, whereby the permanent magnet 73 is fixed into the rotor core 71. An outer circle of the rotor 7 has a notch 77 at a boundary area between the rotor poles, and both of longitudinal ends of the permanent magnet 73 are adjacent to the notch 77. An electric current runs through the stator coil to form a rotating magnetic field. Then, the rotor poles attract/repel the teeth 11 of the stator 1, whereby the rotor 7 is rotated.
In the above structure, the following relation is established between inductances Ld and Lq: EQU Ld<Lq
where Ld is an inductance along "d" axis which crosses the rotor pole at a right angle, and
Lq is an inductance along "q" axis runs through the boundary area between the rotor poles. PA1 Pn: a number of paired rotor poles, PA1 .phi.a: interlinkage magnetic flux PA1 I: stator coil current PA1 .beta.: leading phase angle of the current I (electrical angle)
In general, motor torque T is expressed by the following equation: EQU T=Pn{.phi.a.multidot.I.multidot.cos .beta.+0.5(Lq-Ld)I.sup.2 .multidot.sin 2.beta.} (1)
where,
In the equation (1), the first term represents magnet torque, and the second represents reluctance torque. Since the relation of Ld<Lq is satisfied, a winding current is so controlled to advance the phase of the winding current I with regard to respective induced voltage generated in each phase winding, thereby .beta. becomes greater than zero (.beta.>0), and the reluctance torque is generated. When .beta. is set at a predetermined value, the greater torque T can be produced with a same current than the case where only the magnet torque is available.
However, according to the above structure, since a steel portion 78 having a high permeability exists between the slit 72 and the notch 77, magnetic flux at the longitudinal end of the permanent magnet 73 runs through Pa (magnetic path of the steel portion 78) and is short-circuited as shown in FIG. 15, although it would be expected to reach the stator 1 and contribute to generate the torque. In other words, the magnetic flux decreases by the short-circuited amount, thereby lowering a motor efficiency. Further, the magnetic flux resulted from short-circuited increases cogging torque, which makes a motor noisy and vibrational.

Motor using a rotor including an interior permanent magnet


In a facsimile apparatus, a received image data is stored in a memory, and an image represented by the image data is enlarged according to an enlargement ratio determined by the user and is outputted onto recording paper. The image data stored in the memory is maintained until another image data is received.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more specifically, to an image receiving function to receive an image information transmitted through a telecommunication line to output the image onto recording paper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An image received by a facsimile apparatus has conventionally been outputted in the exact size of the original, and an image of a long-sized original is outputted being divided or reduced.
When a document is received as an image by a facsimile apparatus, there are occasions when letters, in the document, represented by the received image outputted onto recording paper is so small that it is difficult to read them or when some letters are defaced so that they cannot be read. Particularly in a facsimile apparatus such as a plain paper facsimile (PPF) apparatus, etc. where an outputted image is formed with toner, reproducibility of fine lines of outputted images deteriorates due to a characteristic of toner, so that letters are apt to be defaced. Since communication itself is normally completed even in this case, it is required to ask the communication partner to transmit the document (original) again after enlarging the letters therein.

Facsimile apparatus with enlargement feature


Triazaspiro Compounds, compositions comprising a Triazaspiro Compound, methods for treating or preventing pain in an animal comprising administering to an animal in need thereof an effective amount of a Triazaspiro Compound and methods for stimulating opioid-receptor function in a cell comprising contacting a cell capable of expressing an opioid receptor with an effective amount of a Triazaspiro Compound are disclosed.

Pain is the most common symptom for which patients seek medical advice and treatment. Pain can be acute or chronic. While acute pain is usually self-limited, chronic pain can persist for 3 months or longer and lead to significant changes in a patient's personality, lifestyle, functional ability or overall quality of life (K. M. Foley, Pain, in Cecil Textbook of Medicine 100-107 (J. C. Bennett and F. Plum eds., 20th ed. 1996).
Pain has been traditionally managed by administering a non-opioid analgesic, such as acetylsalicylic acid, choline magnesium trisalicylate, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, fenoprofen, diflusinal and naproxen; or an opioid analgesic, including morphine, hydromorphone, methadone, levorphanol, fentanyl, oxycodone and oxymorphone. Id.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,238,216 to Janssen et al. discloses particular spirocompounds allegedly useful as neuroleptic, including analgesic, agents.
International Publication No. WO 99/45011 by Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. discloses particular spirocompounds allegedly useful for the treatment of pain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,991 to Hohlweg et al. discloses particular spirocompounds allegedly useful for the treatment of migraine headache.
Traditional non-opioid analgesics exert their pharmacological activity once they have passed through the blood-brain barrier. But this blood-brain barrier passage can lead to many undesirable central nervous system-mediated side effects, such as respiratory depression, increased drug-abuse potential, increased drug tolerance, increased drug dependence, constipation and unwanted euphoria.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,203 to Mogi et al. discloses particular 4-hydroxy-4-phenylpiperidine compounds allegedly useful as peripheral analgesic agents.
There remains a clear need in the art for new drugs useful for treating or preventing pain and that reduce or avoid one or more side effects associated with traditional therapy for treating pain.
Citation of any reference in Section 2 of this application is not to be construed as an admission that such reference is prior art to the present application.

Triazaspiro compounds useful for treating or preventing pain


Techniques are provided for using the mobility support features of IPv6 to allow client and server nodes to communicate without the continuing intervention of a load-balancing node that selected the server node. A load-balancing node intercepts a TCP SYN packet addressed to a virtual IP address. The load-balancing node selects a server node from among multiple server nodes, and sends the packet toward the server node. The server node sends an IPv6 packet toward the client node. The packet contains a Binding Update option that specifies the virtual IP address as a Home Address. This information causes the client node to replace destination addresses in outgoing IP packets so that packets that the client node would have sent toward the virtual IP address are sent toward the selected server node's IP address instead. Consequently, the IP packets are routed toward the selected server node instead of the load-balancing node.

It is commonplace nowadays for a Web browser ("client") to access content that is stored on a remote server by sending a request to the remote server using the remote server's Universal Resource Locator (URL) and receiving the content in response. Web sites associated with very popular URLs receive an extremely large volume of such requests from separate clients. In order to handle such a large volume of requests, these Web sites sometimes make use of a proxy device that initially receives requests and distributes them, according to some scheme, among multiple servers.
One such scheme attempts to distribute requests relatively evenly among servers that are connected to the proxy device. A proxy device employing this scheme is commonly called a "load balancer." When successful, a load balancer helps to ensure that no single server in a server "farm" becomes inundated with requests.
When a proxy device receives a request from a client, the proxy device determines to which server, of many servers, the request should be directed. For example, a request might be associated with a session that is associated with a particular server. In that case, the proxy device might need to send the request to the particular server with which the session is associated.
A proxy device typically communicates with servers using a suite of protocols. For example, the proxy device may use the Internet Protocol (IP), Transport Control Protocol (TCP), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) in combination to communicate with a server. Some of these protocols are connection-oriented. Connection-oriented protocols typically require the negotiation of connection-related parameters between the nodes that are to be involved in the connection before the connection is "opened." Data can be sent through the connection only after these parameters have been negotiated and the connection has been opened.
Parameter negotiation is often achieved through a "handshake" phase of a protocol. A handshake phase usually requires a significant amount of communication between the nodes. When encryption is involved, a handshake phase also may require a significant amount of processing by the nodes.
After a connection has been opened between the proxy device and a particular server, the proxy device receives a request from a client and forwards that request to the particular server through the connection. The particular server sends a response to the proxy device through the connection. The proxy device forwards the response to the client. Several requests and responses might be sent through the connection during the course of a transaction between the client and the particular server.
The proxy device acts as an intermediary throughout the communications between the client and the server. Data packets sent from the client pass through the proxy device on the way to the server. Data packets sent from the server pass through the proxy device on the way to the client. This can produce a communications "bottleneck" at the proxy device. When a single proxy device acts as an intermediary for many clients and servers, communications between those clients and servers may be delayed significantly.
Furthermore, when all communications that transpire between a client and server must pass through a proxy device, the client and the server become absolutely dependent upon the proxy device. If the proxy device fails for any reason, then the connection path between the client and the server is severed. The client and the server might not be able to resume communications at all until the proxy device becomes operational again. Even after the proxy device becomes operational again, client-to-proxy device and proxy device-to-server connections will need to be re-established via another round of time-consuming handshake phases.
In addition to causing communications between a client and a server to be interrupted, the failure of a proxy device can result in the loss of session state information that pertains to client-server sessions. Under some current approaches, session state information is stored at a proxy device rather than a server, so that if the server fails, then the proxy device can seamlessly continue the session with another server. However, viewed from one perspective, this approach merely pushes vulnerabilities from the server to the proxy device. If the proxy device suffers data loss, then all sessions that were being maintained by the proxy device may be irreparably lost also.
Some approaches attempt to compensate for this vulnerability by providing a "backup" proxy device, to which the "primary" proxy device periodically transmits updated session state information. If the "primary" proxy device fails, then the "backup" proxy device can be made, quickly, to function as a substitute for the "primary" proxy device. Unfortunately, if the "primary" proxy device fails soon before transmitting updated session state information to the "backup" proxy device, then the session state information that the "backup" proxy device will use to resume the client-server sessions may be stale, outdated, and inaccurate. The transmission of updated session state information between "primary" and "backup" proxy devices also may consume a substantial amount of network bandwidth.
Consequently, a technique that enables load-balanced communications between clients and servers, and which does not suffer from the disadvantages of some of the approaches discussed above, is desirable. The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Load balancing using IPv6 mobility features


A substrate cleaning apparatus includes a first processing unit configured to supply a first processing liquid for removing a residue adhering to a substrate onto the substrate on which a metal film is exposed at a recess of a pattern; a second processing unit configured to supply, onto the substrate, a second processing liquid for forming a protective film insoluble to the first processing liquid; a third processing unit configured to supply, onto the substrate, a third processing liquid for dissolving the protective film; and a control unit. The control unit performs forming the protective film on the metal film in a state that an upper portion of the pattern is exposed from the protective film; removing the residue adhering to the upper portion of the pattern after the forming of the protective film; and removing the protective film from the substrate after the removing of the residue.

Conventionally, there is known a substrate cleaning apparatus configured to remove a residue adhering to a substrate such as a silicon wafer or a compound semiconductor wafer by supplying a chemical liquid to the substrate.
There may be a substrate on which a metal film formed as a base film of a pattern is exposed at a recess of the pattern. When removing a residue from this substrate, a chemical liquid which hardly erodes the metal film may be used to suppress the metal film from being eroded by the chemical liquid (see, for example, Patent Document 1).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2012-227291