A winding shaft is described, having self-tensioning individual winding elements (6) for winding mandrels mounted on it in such a way that they can be driven, which include in each case in an annular groove (14) of each individual winding element a compliant tensioning means, the outside diameter of which is greater than the inside diameter of the winding mandrels. The winding means comprises a plurality of cylindrical-annular segments (2) arranged on the circumference of the individual winding element in the annular groove, the end faces (13) of which segments are beveled and are mounted radially displaceably on the inner face of the intermediate pieces (3), there being seated between the inside of the segments and the bottom of the annular groove a spring element, comprising either a leaf spring or a plurality of helical springs with ball thrust pieces.

In winding machines, in particular in combined slitting and winding machines, for example for magnetic tapes, the winding shafts each take a multiplicity of winding mandrels. Fitting the shafts with winding mandrels is problematical, since the numerous wound mandrels are to be drawn off the winding shaft very quickly and replaced by empty winding mandrels in the correct position. The tensioning means should not hinder easy, trouble-free displacing of the winding mandrels on the shaft during fitting. Therefore, numerous tensioning means on the winding shaft are already known, such as tensioning rollers, tensioning pins or the like. These tensioning means are mechanically complex constructions which force up the costs of the winding shaft. The difficulties become that much greater if individual winding elements with separate frictions are used.
EP 0,250,898 discloses a tensioning means which comprises a rotatably mounted block which is seated on a circular disk and includes as tensioning elements two opposite bushes which have in each case two spring-supported balls, the tensioning elements being at a distance from the circular disk, so that when pushed onto the block, the winding mandrel bears on one side against the circular disk and is arranged in the correct position on the other side by the tensioning elements. In the case of this arrangement, it is extremely disadvantageous that the fitting and removal of the winding mandrels on the shaft is extremely time-consuming.
DE 2,241,783 describes a tensioning means in which tensioning prisms are arranged on both sides of a winding mandrel along a regular polygon, lying parallel to the base area of the winding mandrel, and are in each case rotatable about the prism edge.
Tensioning means of the abovementioned generic type are described in the applications
DE-U 8,815,051. A winding mandrel holder is described, comprising an annular leaf spring and a rubber pad lying underneath, which is intended to prevent unwanted turning of the leaf spring and to increase the flexibility of the leaf spring. PA0 EP 0,133,648 and 0,356,744. In this case, the tensioning means is designed as a shaft ring or hub rim which is compliant in the radial direction or as a tensioning ring having tongues directed alternately against each other, which rests on a compliant underlay, such as for example an O-ring or a rubber band. PA0 EP 0,297,609 describes as tensioning element circular-cylindrical segments which are held together by a spiral spring lying in a central groove, silicone tubes being arranged as resilient elements on both sides between inner ring and the segments. PA0 the individual winding element has a smooth surface, in order to reduce the abrasion when pushing the winding mandrels on and off PA0 the spring excursion is to be great PA0 the tensioning force of the spring element can be varied simply by means of its dimension PA0 little installation space is required, in order to permit a large diameter of the winding shaft.
In the case of the abovementioned applications, it is disadvantageous that the spring effect is not timestable and, moreover, there is inadequate spring excursion, so that, at least after prolonged use, the positionally stable fixing of the winding mandrels on the tensioning means is no longer ensured and therefore the winding performance is unsatisfactory.


The present invention relates to semiconductor integrated circuit technology and discloses an electrochemical mechanical processing system for uniformly distributing an applied force to a workpiece surface. The system includes a workpiece carrier for positioning or holding the workpiece surface and a workpiece-surface-influencing-device (WSID). The WSID is used to uniformly distribute the applied force to the workpiece surface and includes various layers that are used to process and apply a uniform and global force to the workpiece surface.

Conventional semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits (IC) generally include a semiconductor substrate, usually a silicon substrate, and several sequentially formed conductive material layers separated by insulating material layers. Conductive material layers, or interconnects, form the wiring structure of the IC. A wiring structure is isolated from the neighboring wiring structures by insulating layers or interlayer dielectrics. A dielectric material that is commonly used in silicon ICs is silicon dioxide, although there is a current trend to replace at least some of the standard dense silicon dioxide material in the IC structure with low-k dielectric materials. This replacement is necessary in high performance ICs where the RC time constant needs to be reduced to increase the speed of the circuit. To reduce the capacitance, the high dielectric constant materials in the interconnect structure needs to be replaced with low-k materials.
There are various low-k materials that have been used in the industry. These are organic, inorganic, spin-on and CVD materials. Some low-k materials are porous with dielectric constants well below 3.0. As is well known, implementing low-k dielectrics presents many manufacturing challenges. For example, their low mechanical strength and/or poor adhesion to the substrate present some challenges in the semiconductor industry.
IC interconnects are formed by filling a conductor such as copper in features or cavities etched into the dielectric interlayers by a metallization process. Copper is becoming the preferred conductor for interconnect applications because of its low electrical resistance and desired electromigration property. Currently, electroplating is the preferred process for copper metallization.
In the typical IC, multiple levels of interconnect structures extend laterally with respect to the substrate surface. Interconnects formed in sequential layers can be electrically connected using features such as vias or contacts. In a typical interconnect fabrication process, an insulating layer is first formed on the semiconductor substrate. Patterning and etching processes are then performed to form features or cavities such as trenches, vias, and pads etc., in the insulating layer. Then, copper is electroplated to fill the features. In such electroplating process, the workpiece or wafer (these terms are used interchangeably herein) is placed on a wafer carrier and a cathodic (−) voltage with respect to an electrode is applied to the wafer surface while the electrolyte or the electrolyte solution wets both the wafer surface and the electrode.
Once the plating process is over, a material removal step such as a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is performed to remove the excess copper layer (also called copper overburden) from the top surfaces (also called field region) of the wafer, thereby leaving copper only within the features. An additional material removal step is then performed to remove other conductive layers such as the barrier/glue layers that are on the field regions. In this manner, deposited copper within the features are physically as well as electrically isolated from each other. It should be noted that material removal processes include, but are not limited to, CMP, electroetching and etching processes. Furthermore, processes for removing both copper and barrier/glue layers from the field regions in one step may also be employed.
During CMP, the plated wafer surface is pressed on a moving polishing pad or a polishing belt and planarized while the wafer is rotated. As mentioned above, this process electrically isolates the copper deposited into various features on a given interconnect level. After repeating these processes several times, multi-level interconnect structures may be formed in which copper within via or contact features may electrically connect the various interconnect levels. However, the CMP processes can create problems with low-k dielectrics because of the mechanical force applied on the wafer surface during the processes. For instance, during CMP, the low-k materials may be stressed and delaminate or other defects may result due to the low mechanical strength or poor adhesion of the low-k materials. The longer the CMP process, these problems become more prominent. Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the CMP time and force applied on the wafers, especially those using low-k insulators.
There are efforts to lower the force or pressure used in CMP processes. There is also efforts to employ etching or electroetching techniques instead of CMP to remove the copper overburden from the field regions of plated substrates.
The adverse effects of CMP may be minimized or overcome by employing a planar copper deposition approach that can provide thin layers of planar copper on the workpiece surface. One such planar deposition technique is the Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition (ECMD) method. In one aspect of ECMD, a workpiece-surface-influencing device (WSID) such as a mask, pad or a sweeper is used during at least a portion of the electrodeposition process when there is physical contact and relative motion between the workpiece surface and the WSID. Descriptions of various planar deposition methods and apparatus can be found in the following patents and pending applications, all commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,992 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition"; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/740,701 entitled "Plating Method and Apparatus that Creates a Differential Between Additive Disposed on a Top Surface and a Cavity Surface of a Workpiece Using an External Influence," filed on Dec. 18, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,534,116; and U.S. application Ser. No. 09/961,193 entitled "Plating Method and Apparatus for Controlling Deposition on Predetermined Portions of a Workpiece," filed on Sep. 20, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,551. The methods disclosed in these patent/applications can be used to deposit metals in and over cavity sections on a workpiece in a planar manner.
Using ECMD methods, the workpiece surface is wetted by the electrolyte and is rendered cathodic with respect to an electrode, which is also wetted by the electrolyte. This results in material deposition on the surface of the workpiece. These techniques can also be used for electroetching by reversing the polarity of the applied voltage and rendering the workpiece surface more anodic compared to the electrode. Very thin planar deposits can be obtained by first depositing a planar layer using an ECMD technique and then electroetching this planar film in the same electrolyte or in a special electro-etching or electro-polishing solution by reversing the applied voltage. In this manner, the thickness of the deposited layer may be reduced in a planar manner. In fact, this etching process can occur until all/most of the metal on the field regions are removed. It should be noted that a WSID may or may not be used during the electroetching process since planar etching can be achieved with or without the WSID.
In greater detail, during ECMD, the workpiece surface is pushed against the surface of the WSID or vice versa for at least portion of the time when the surface of the workpiece is swept by the WSID. Planar deposition occurs due to the sweeping action as described above. It is also desirable to reduce the force applied on the workpiece surface by the sweeper surface, especially for workpieces with structurally weak low-k materials. When the force is reduced, however, the integrity of the contact between the workpiece surface and the sweeper surface need to be preserved. In other words, this physical contact needs to be uniform and repeatable for optimal results. Accordingly, there is need for an improved ECMD method and apparatus for minimizing the force applied to the substrate surfaces during planar metal deposition or electroetching while keeping this force uniformly distributed over the sweeper area.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Low-force electrochemical mechanical processing method and apparatus


A method for folding a liner for packaging and/or insertion into an overpack. The method may include providing a liner comprising a substantially tubular body portion and a closed top and bottom, and a fitment formed in or affixed to the top of the liner, forming a gusset in the bottom panel of the liner, forming a gusset in the body portion of the liner, and fan-folding the liner. In some embodiments, the top of the liner may be a substantially circular top panel and the bottom of the liner may be a substantially circular bottom panel, with the top panel being attached to one end of the tubular body portion and the bottom panel being attached to an opposite end of the tubular body portion. In other embodiments, the liner may be a flexible, blow molded liner, thereby having no weld seams.

Numerous applications use liners for storing, shipping, and/or dispensing materials. One type of storage and dispense system includes a liner that is used with an overpack. For example, a liner may be filled with a material that may be stored, shipped and then dispensed at a later time. The liner may be a generally flexible liner that may be disposed within an outer container that may be more rigid and self-supporting than the liner. Typically, such a system requires that the liner be inserted into the outer container through the mouth of the outer container. Depending on the size of the mouth of the outer container, insertion of the liner may be difficult and/or may stress, or even significantly stress the liner during the insertion procedure. Stressing the liner may cause the liner to be weakened, damaged, or destroyed, resulting in a waste of time and/or materials. Accordingly, there is a need for a liner that may be relatively easy to insert into an outer container that places relatively little stress on the liner and is also relatively easier to insert.

Folded liner for use with an overpack and methods of manufacturing the same


An operator-propelled, four-wheel vehicle uses a treadmill to drive two rear wheels through a bicycle type derailleur and sprocket gear shifter which provides gear changing capability. The front wheels, each of which have disk brakes, are steered by an automotive type steering apparatus. A vertical extension from the steering mechanism at the front of the vehicle mounts a horizontal steering bar to provide steering control. The steering bar also mounts control grips and cables for the front disk brakes and clutch assembly, as well as the gear shifter. An automatic breaking system ensures that an unmanned vehicle will remain in place.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to operator-propelled and directed land vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of operator propelled land vehicles. These include such things as bicycles, miniature automobiles, roller skates and scooters. None of these vehicles are intended to provide a variable walking or running exercise when carrying an individual from place to place.

Self-propelled treadmill recreational vehicle


A Bi-CMOS ( Bipolar-Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon ) gate array includes bipolar transistors, and P-channel and N-channel MOS transistors all formed on the same single chip in the form of an array. Such a chip may provide desired bipolar and MOS transistor characteristics at the same time by itself.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gate array, and, particularly, to a Bi-CMOS gate array comprising bipolar transistors and CMOS ( Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon transistors arranged in the form of an array.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Semiconductor integrated circuits ( ICs ) are indispensable for miniaturization and a reduction in power consumption of various electronic devices and appliances. Custom ICs tend to be expensive because its volume of manufacture is relatively small and it takes a relatively long period of time for development, and, thus, it has often been the case to use discrete components and standard ICs in combination to construct desired circuits. In order to satisfy the demand for inexpensive custom ICs, a gate array has been developed. In the case of a gate array, the manufacturer has already prepared the so-called master chips, on which unit cells comprised of standardized resistor and transistor elements are arranged regularly and the diffusion process of which has already been completed. The manufacturer then produces an interconnection mask in accordance with the circuit design which meets the user's specification, and, then, using such a mask, an interconnection pattern of Al or the like is formed on the master chip, thereby completing the wafer processing. In this manner, in the case of a gate array, using different interconnection patterns, various ICs having different circuit configurations may be obtained from the master chips of identical structure. Since it is only necessary to design an interconnection pattern, only a short period of time is required to provide an IC chip having a desired function.
Heretofore, gate arrays have been formed either from bipolar transistors or from MOS transistors exclusively. However, in some applications, it is often required to use not only the characteristics of bipolar transistors but also the characteristics of MOS transistors, and, in such circumstances, it is obliged to use a plurality of IC chips in order to attain a desired function, which is apparently disadvantageous.

Processes for manufacturing a semiconductor device


The present invention is directed towards an air relief valve for a pressure vessel which automatically releases air from the system during filling with liquid, and which automatically seals when the liquid in the system reaches a predetermined level to prevent the liquid from leaving the system. The air relief valve of the present invention includes a valve body which provides communication between the pressure vessel and a series of output ports. These output ports are provide with a pressure indicator, a manual pressure release valve, and an automatic air relief valve. The manual pressure release valve is operable by the user to introduce air into the system, which is necessary during draining. The automatic air relief valve is generally a one-way valve, allowing air to exit but not enter the system. Communication of air to the automatic air relief valve is controlled by a float which prevents fluid communication between the pressure vessel and the automatic air relief valve when the water within the system reaches a predetermined level. A second embodiment modifies the automatic air relief valve for use in low pressure situations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to pressure vessels and, more particularly, to air relief valves for such vessels.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the development of pressure vessels, it has become common to include valves which release air during filling of the vessel with liquid. Over the years, these valves have been developed to automatically bleed air from the pressure vessel until the water therein reaches a predetermined level, at which point the valve automatically prevents the further escape of air.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,829, which issued on Jan. 22, 1974, discloses a common type of pressure vessel air relief valve. The '829 patent includes a downwardly directed tube which extends between the interior of the pressure vessel and an inner chamber of the valve body. The chamber, which is located intermediate the tube and a vent, is provided with a float ball which operates to seal the vent when the water in the pressure vessel reaches a predetermined level. During filling of the pressure vessel, air is allowed to escape from the vessel by way of the tube, chamber, and vent. A flow diverting plate positioned under the ball permits escaping air to rise around the ball without causing the ball to prematurely seal the vent. When the water reaches a predetermined level, air from the vessel is no longer admitted to the tube. Thereafter, the addition of further water into the pressure vessel causes water to flow into the chamber via the tube, forcing the float ball to rise and sealingly engage the upper end of the chamber. There is no provision for a manual air valve to bleed or introduce air into the inner chamber of the valve body to facilitate draining of the system.
The automatic air relief valves known in the art generally operate under the principle that a certain amount of air should remain in the pressure vessel during operation of the system to encourage pressure build-up therein. However, such air is undesirable in many applications, such as swimming pool filter systems. In such systems, it is most desirable that substantially all of the air is removed from the system prior to operation thereof. Also, the air valves known in the art generally do not include a manual air valve to introduce air into the system to aid in draining thereof. Furthermore, the known systems are generally unsatisfactory when the system is operated at low pressure due to leakage of air or Water around the float valve.


One or more devices within a transaction services hub collect session data of transaction services for multiple customers and provide a user interface with reporting options for transaction services associated with a particular customer. The user interface is accessible to a user device via a public network connection. The one or more devices receive a report request from a user account associated with the particular customer and retrieve, from the collected session data, data responsive to the report request. The one or more devices generate a report for the particular customer based on the report request and the data responsive to the report request.

Transaction services may generally include data communications over a network to support a secure transaction. Transaction services may be characterized by short sessions to support inquiry-and-response applications. Transaction applications may include, for example, credit/debit card authorization, automated teller machine (ATM) activity, insurance verification, and home health monitoring. Customers of transaction services may include payment processing entities, which can benefit from a variety of report options regarding the transaction services.


A traveling rock crusher has a vehicle body adapted to travel along the ground in a horizontal travel direction, a drum mounted at a front end of the body and rotatable about a horizontal axis generally perpendicular to the direction, an array of radially outwardly projecting chisels mounted on the drum, and a plurality of angularly spaced breaker elements mounted on the drum between the chisels. A support is mounted on the body spaced back in the direction from a rear side of the drum and carries a plurality of vertically spaced breaker bars spaced from the drum. A drive is provided for forcibly rotating the drum about the axis in a sense with a front side of the drum moving upward and the rear portion of the drum moving downward for engaging the chisels and elements with rocks on the ground, picking up the rocks, and comminuting the rocks against the breaker bars.

A piece of equipment is known for scarifying roadways, clearing paths in a forest, or preparing ground for agricultural use which comprises a vehicle body adapted to travel along the ground in a horizontal travel direction, a drum mounted at a front end of the body and rotatable about a horizontal axis generally perpendicular to the direction, an array of radially outwardly projecting chisels mounted on the drum, and a plurality of angularly spaced breaker elements mounted on the drum between the chisels. As described in Austrian patent document 400,452 a breaker bar is mounted on the body spaced from the drum. When the drum is rotated such that its front side moves upward and its rear side moves downward the chisels and elements engage rocks on the ground, pick them up, and comminute them by crushing them against the breaker bar.
When used for clearing paths in, for example, a forest, this machine does not work well, as opposed to when used to scarify a concrete or macadam roadway. In nature the rocks that need to be cut back or crushed are of varying sizes, so the one-size-fits-all construction of the standard traveling crusher is often ineffective. When, for instance, a large rock is pulled by the chisels out of the ground, it can get wedged between the drum and the breaker bar unless same is set back relatively far, in which case smaller stones will pass through without being comminuted.

Schmid & Schneiber Planungs- Und Vertriebs-Ges.mbH


A zinc electrode for use in alkaline batteries comprises a mixture of 0.425 to 1.55 volume parts of zinc oxide with a volume part of a metallic oxide chosen from the group consisting of: calcium oxide, barium oxide, and mixtures thereof, together with hydroxy-ethyl cellulose, an oxide dispersant chosen from the group consisting of: soap derivatives, anionic polyelectrolytes, anionic surfactants, and mixtures thereof, and a binder. The electrode is prepared by mixing zinc oxide with the chosen metallic oxide in an aqueous medium such as water or potassium hydroxide, stirring overnight, filtering and drying the mixture, optionally adding a further small amount of zinc oxide, optionally adding other metallic oxides, and adding hydroxy-ethyl cellulose, an oxide dispersant, and a binder. The aqueous paste os slurry thus formed is placed on a conductive substrate, drawn through a sizing gap, cut and dried, to form low cost pasted zinc oxide electrodes.

A conundrum develops with respect to the use of zinc electrodes in high rate, high performance batteries. On the one hand, the use of zinc electrodes provides low cost negative electrodes. On the other hand, when such electrodes are pasted, as is usually the case, they are very difficult and very expensive to make, especially when steps are taken to avoid shape change as will inevitably occur while the zinc electrode is cycled during the life of the rechargeable battery in which it is placed.
The present inventor has unexpectedly discovered that mass production of environmentally benign zinc electrodes can be provided for, by adapting certain aqueous pasting techniques, and by the provision of a stable zinc-based slurry or paste which particularly has an additional oxide of calcium, magnesium, or barium included therein for purposes of stability.
It is well known that rechargeable batteries having zinc electrodes have the advantage of using a low cost negative electrode. Of course, they also provide high voltage, and light weight.
On the other hand, the zinc electrode in alkaline batteries will exhibit some solubility in most alkaline electrolytes, resulting in the loss of integrity of the zinc electrode as the battery is cycled. This phenomenon of zinc electrode disfigurement is well known, and is referred to in the industry as shape change.
Many approaches have been taken to control shape change. The most successful attempts have limited the solubility of the zinc electrode, so as to thereby reduce its ability to migrate.
For example, EISENBERG U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,391, issued Sep. 23, 1980, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,836 issued Jun. 1, 1993, each provides electrolyte formulations that employ mixtures of potassium hydroxide and boric acid, phosphoric acid, or arsenic acid. The purpose, in all events, is to limit the solubility of the zinc electrode.
Another approach is that taken by ADLER et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,475, issued Apr. 12, 1994. In that patent, the inventors teach an electrolyte which contains potassium hydroxide and a combination of potassium fluoride and potassium carbonate salts. The zinc electrode is reported to exhibit low shape change.
Yet another approach which is known to the inventor, is the addition of material such as calcium oxide to the electrode itself. This approach will modify the chemical composition of the discharge product to effectively lower the concentration of the zinc ion in the solution. However, in order to do so a method must be devised whereby a calcium zincate water based paste or slurry is manufactured, for pasting into the conductive substrate of a zinc electrode.
Moreover, the method by which the zinc electrode is manufactured may have significant effect upon cycle performance of the battery. A number of preparation processes have been used to further optimise the performance of zinc electrodes. They include powder pressing as taught by HEIN et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,793, issued Feb. 29, 1972. In that patent, the inventors teach pressing metallic powder into highly porous metallic battery electrodes structures, and the powders are first cleaned by the action of mild acids prior to and during the pressing operation.
Another approach is that taken by CHARKEY et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,676, issued Jan. 26, 1999. Here, a non-aqueous sheet formation is employed, where a calcium zincate constituent is formed external of the battery, and then placed in the battery in layers.
However, any process which employs a pasting operation is difficult to control as far as managing the "set" time during pasting is concerned. This is reported in a paper entitled Pasted-Rolled Zinc Electrodes Containing Calcium Hydroxide for Use in Zn/NiOOH Cells by Gagnon et al, published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, September 1987, at pages 2091 to 2096. It is reported at page 2092 that the electrode fabrication was carried out in such a manner that the same amount of paste is added to both sides of a grid, by sandwiching the paste between backing papers and passing it through rollers to make a thin film. Thereafter, the current collector was placed between 2 films, and the composite was pressed to make a zinc electrode. This provided a longer set-time in which to paste the electrodes, and adhered the paste to the current collector grid in satisfactory manner. The thickness of the electrode, and therefore the zinc loading density, was controlled by the gap between the rollers.
Regrettably, none of the above mentioned processes can be readily transferred to mass production techniques, for high rate production of zinc electrodes for use in high performance batteries. Therefore, it has not been possible to provide a commercial product at a reasonable price, even though the chemical problems of the shape change of the zinc electrode have been effectively resolved.
The present invention provides a method for mass production of any environmentally benign zinc electrode, where the electrode will demonstrate excellent mechanical characteristics, good rate capability, and high cycle life, without significant shape change.
Indeed, the methods of the present invention may be readily and easily adaptable to all rechargeable zinc battery production, so that in time low cost zinc-based batteries may be manufactured in substantial quantities, and thereby replace toxic cadmium-based batteries. Such cadmium-based batteries enjoy a strong market position, even now, due to their relatively low cost, notwithstanding their toxicity and notwithstanding memory effect, and the like.
It is very difficult to uniformly coat an aqueous paste of zinc oxide onto a metallic current collector. When calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide is added to the mix, the problem of uniformly coating an aqueous paste zinc oxide onto a metallic current collector is even more difficult.
These problems come as a consequence of the rapid solidification which may prevent further work with the mix, or the final pasted plate may be structurally unsound in such a manner that further handling is impossible.
These problems, of course, have lead to non-standard manufacturing techniques in the manufacturer of zinc electrodes, thereby adding to the costs of the manufacture of the zinc electrodes. However, if a successful adoption of aqueous based manufacturing techniques such as those which are applied to cadmium electrodes could be developed for zinc-based electrodes, then a reliance on toxic cadmium-based batteries would be overcome.
The present invention provides such a solution. In keeping with the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a continuous coated electrode without setting problems, and to provide a mechanically sound electrode. Briefly, the present invention provides for a calcium zincate or other precursor constituent for an aqueous solution, based primarily on mixtures of zinc oxide with calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, or barium oxide, together with further optional metal oxides, and appropriate pasting constituents as a cellulose compound, a dispersant, and a binder.

Methods for production of zinc oxide electrodes for alkaline batteries


For a method of inducing differentiation of cardiomyocytes from stem cells, a method is provided to induce efficiently and selectively differentiation of cardiomyocytes by such a method in which the stem cells are cultured to induce differentiation into cardiomyocytes in the presence of a substance that inhibits BMP signaling.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of preparing cardiomyocytes selectively and efficiently from ES cells and other pluripotent stem cells, and to cells for regenerative medicine obtained by this method.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
In general, cardiomyocytes undergo active cell division with beating autonomously before birth, but immediately after birth they lose the ability to divide, and since they have little undifferentiated precursor cells, when cardiomyocytes die due to exposure to various forms of stress including myocardial infarction, myocarditis and the like, the lost cardiomyocytes cannot be replaced. As a result, the surviving cardiomyocytes try to maintain myocardial function through compensatory hypertrophy and the like, but if the stress continues and exceeds an allowable threshold, it leads to further exhaustion and death of cardiomyocytes and a consequent lowering of myocardial function (that is, heart failure).
Heart failure and other types of heart disease are the second leading cause of death in Japan, and prognoses are very poor, with a 5-year survival rate of only about 50% for patients with heart diseases. Therefore, it is hoped that development of highly effective therapies for heart failure will lead to great advances in medical welfare as well as improved medical economics. Conventional therapeutic drugs for heart failure include digitalis preparations that increase the contractive force of the myocardium and xanthine preparations and other heart stimulants, but long-term administration of these drugs is known to make the condition worse because there is too much expenditure of myocardial energy. More recently, mainstream therapy has shifted to beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors, which reduce the excess burden on the heart due to stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and rennin-angiotensin system, but these methods only deal with the immediate symptoms and cannot restore damaged cardiac tissue. By contrast, heart transplantation is a fundamental treatment for severe heart failure, but it is one that is difficult to apply commonly because of such problems as the shortage of heart donors, ethical concerns, the physical and financial burden on patients and the like.
Therefore, it would seem that methods of transplantation to replace weakened or lost cardiomyocytes would be extremely useful for the treatment of heart failure. In fact, it is known from animal experiments that when immature cardiomyocytes obtained from fetuses are transplanted into adult cardiac tissue, the transplanted cells function effectively (See Non-Patent Document 1). However, it is difficult to obtain sufficient cardiomyocytes for this method, and application to clinical medicine is also difficult from an ethical standpoint.
Attention has therefore focused in recent years on inducing differentiation of stem cells into cardiomyocytes and using these cells for transplantation. At present it has not yet been possible to clearly identify a population of precursor cells or stem cells capable of producing cardiomyocytes in adult cardiac tissue, so pluripotent stem cells, which are less differentiated and can differentiate into a variety of cells, are considered to be useful for above method.
Pluripotent stem cells are defined as cells which are capable of indefinite or long-term cell proliferation while remaining in an undifferentiated state in an in vitro culture, which retain normal karyotypes, and which have the ability to differentiate into all of three germ layers (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm). At present, the three well-known pluripotent stem cells are embryonic stem cells (ES cells) derived from early-stage embryos, embryonic germ cells (EG cells) derived from primordial germ cells at the embryonic stage, and multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPC) isolated from adult bone marrow.
It has long been known that ES cells in particular can be induced to differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro. Most of the early studies were done by using ES cells derived from mice. When ES cells are cultured in floating culture as single cells (individual cells dispersed with no adhesion between cells due to enzyme treatment or the like) without the presence of a differentiation-inhibiting factor such as leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) or the like, the ES cells adhere to one another and aggregate, forming a structure called embryoid bodies (EBs) which are similar to the early embryonal structures. It is also known that cardiomyocytes with spontaneous beating ability appear when these EBs are cultured in suspension or in adhesion on the surface of culture devices.
ES cell-derived cardiomyocytes prepared as described above exhibit very similar properties to those of immature cardiomyocytes in fetal hearts (See Non-Patent Documents 2 and 3). Moreover, it has been confirmed from animal experiments that when ES cell-derived cardiomyocytes are transplanted into adult cardiac tissues they are highly effective, with results similar to those obtained by transplantation of fetal myocardium (See Patent Document 1; Non-Patent Document 4).
In 1995, Thomson et al first established ES cells from primates (See Patent Document 2; Non-Patent Document 5), and thus the regeneration therapy using pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes has become realistic. Subsequently they also succeeded in isolating and establishing human ES cell lines from early human embryos (See Non-Patent Document 6). Moreover, Gearhart et al established human EG cell lines from primordial human germ cells (See Non-Patent Document 7; Patent Document 3). Kehat et al (See Non-Patent Document 8) and Xu et al (See Patent Document 4; Non-Patent Document 9) have reported that human ES cells can differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro, as mouse ES cells can do. According to these reports, human ES cells-derived cardiomyocytes which have been induced to differentiate from human ES cells not only have the ability to beat spontaneously but also express and produce myocardial-specific proteins such as myosin heavy and light chains, alpha-actinin, troponin I and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and myocardial-specific transcription factors such as GATA-4, Nkx2.5, MEF-2c and the like, and from microanatomical observation and electrophysiological analysis it appears that they retain the properties of immature cardiomyocytes at the fetal stage, and could be used for regenerative therapy.
However, one serious problem remains to be elucidated to use pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes for cell transplantation therapy and other purposes. When EBs are formed from ES cells or EG cells by conventional methods, not only cardiomyocytes, but also other types of differentiated cells, such as blood cells, vascular cells, neural cells, intestinal cells, bone and cartilage cells and the like, are developed. Moreover, the proportion of cardiomyocytes in these differentiated cell population is not so high, only about 5 to 20% of the total.
Methods of isolating only cardiomyocytes from a mixture of various kinds of cells include a method of adding an artificial modification to the ES cell genes, conferring drug resistance or ectopic expression, and collecting cells having the properties of cardiomyocytes or precursor cells thereof. For example, by introducing a gene cassette capable of expressing a neomycin (G418) resistance gene under the control of the α-myosin heavy chain promoter into mouse ES cells, Field and his co-researchers established a system in which those ES cells, could only survive in medium to which G418 had been added when they differentiated into cardiomyocytes and expressed the α-myosin heavy chain gene (See Patent Document 1; Non-Patent Document 4). 99% or more of G418-resistant cells selected by this method were confirmed to be cardiomyocytes. However, although the purity of the cardiomyocytes is extremely high in this method the final number of cardiomyocytes obtained is only a few percent of the total cell count, making it difficult to obtain enough amounts of cardiomyocytes for transplantation.
Recently, Chunhui et al have reported that when human ES cells are treated with 5-azacytidine, the percentage of troponin I-positive cells (candidate cardiomyocytes) in EBs rises from 15% to 44% (See Non-Patent Document 9), but even in this method the percentage of cardiomyocytes in EBs does not exceed 50%. Moreover, 5-azacytidine is a demethylation agent that alters the expression of genes by removing methyl groups bound to DNA, and because it acts directly on the chromosomes, it is not a suitable drug for preparing cells for cell transplantation.
Other methods for producing cardiomyocytes more efficiently from ES cells include, in the case of mouse ES cells, addition of retinoic acid (See Non-Patent Document 10), ascorbic acid (See Non-Patent Document 11), TGF beta, BMP-2 (See Non-Patent Document 12), PDGF (See Non-Patent Document 13) and Dynorphin B (See Non-Patent Document 14) and treatment to increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) (See Non-Patent Document 15) and Ca2+ (See Non-Patent Document 16) in the cells, all of which are known to act positively to induce cardiomyocyte differentiation. However, cardiomyocyte-specific, selective differentiation has not been achieved with any of these methods.
The secretory proteins Noggin and Chordin were initially identified as nerve induction factors in Xenopus embryos (See Non-Patent Documents 17 and 18; Patent Documents 5-8). Further study has shown that Noggin and Chordin bind with BMP (Bone Morphogenic Protein) family of molecules, which impair the signal transduction, and cause neural induction and differentiation. (See Non-Patent Documents 19-21). In fact, experiments using mouse ES cells have shown that nerve cell differentiation is induced in cells in which the Noggin or Chordin gene is constantly expressed (See Non-Patent Document 22).
When human ES cells are cultured in medium to which Noggin has been added, the function of endogenously produced BMP-2 is diminished, and ES cells into extraembryonic endodermal cells are impaired and so that they are maintained in an undifferentiated state. In addition, when noggin-treated ES cells are subsequently cultured under neural differentiation condition, the development of neural cells is induced (See Patent Document 9).
It has also been reported from earlier studies using chicken (See Non-Patent Document 23), Xenopus (See Non-Patent Document 24) and mouse embryonic carcinoma cells (See Non-Patent Document 25) that the BMP family of molecules acts to promote development and/or differentiation of cardiomyocytes, and when that action is blocked by Noggin treatment, development and/or differentiation of cardiomyocytes is suppressed.
Heretofore there have been no efforts to encourage development and differentiation of cardiomyocytes by using Noggin, Chordin or other BMP signal-inhibiting factors.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,671;    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,780;    Patent Document 3: U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,622;    Patent Document 4: International Patent Disclosure 03/06950, pamphlet;    Patent Document 5: International Patent Disclosure 94/05791, pamphlet;    Patent Document 6: U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,783;    Patent Document 7: U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,770;    Patent Document 8: U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,056;    Patent Document 9: International Patent Disclosure 01/98463, pamphlet;    Non-Patent Document 1: Soonpaa et al, Science 264:98, 1994;    Non-Patent Document 2: Maltsev et al, Mech. Dev. 44:41, 1993;    Non-Patent Document 3: Maltsev et al, Circ. Res. 75: 233, 1994    Non-Patent Document 4: Klug et al, J. Clin. Invest. 98: 216, 1996;    Non-Patent Document 5: Thomson et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:7844, 1995;    Non-Patent Document 6: Thomson et al, Science 282: 114, 1998;    Non-Patent Document 7: Shamblott et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 13726, 1998;    Non-Patent Document 8: Kehat et al, J. Clin. Invest. 108: 407, 2001;    Non-Patent Document 9: Xu et al. Circ. Res. 91: 501, 2002;    Non-Patent Document 10: Wobus et al, J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 29: 1525, 1997;    Non-Patent Document 11: Takahashi et al, Circulation 107: 1912, 2003;    Non-Patent Document 12: Behfar et. al, FASEB J. 16: 1558, 2002;    Non-Patent Document 13: Sachinidis et al, Cardiovasc. Res. 58: 278, 2003;    Non-Patent Document 14: Ventura et al, Circ. Res. 92: 623, 2003;    Non-Patent Document 15: Sauer et al, FEBS Lett. 476:218, 2000;    Non-Patent Document 16: Li et al, J. Cell Biol. 158: 103, 2002;    Non-Patent Document 17: Smith & Harland, Cell 70: 829, 1992;    Non-Patent Document 18: Sasai et al, Cell 79: 779, 1994;    Non-Patent Document 19: Re'em-Kalma et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92: 12141, 1995;    Non-Patent Document 20: Zimmerman et al, Cell 86: 599, 1996;    Non-Patent Document 21: Piccolo et al, Cell 86: 589, 1996;    Non-Patent Document 22: Gratsch & O'Shea, Dev. Biol. 245: 83, 2002;    Non-Patent Document 23: Schultheiss et al, Genes Dev., 11: 451, 1997;    Non-Patent Document 24: Sparrow et al, Mech. Dev. 71:151, 1998    Non-Patent Document 25: Monzen et al, Mol. Cell. Biol. 19:7096, 1999.

Method of inducing the differentiation of stem cells into myocardial cells


A resistance welding electrode includes a shaft-shaped holder and an electrode part in the form of an electrode cap or a pin electrode which are non-positively connected via tapered surfaces. Furthermore, cooling bores are also present. In such a resistance welding electrode the tapered cone angle is in a region of about 1 degree to 3 degrees and the holder and the electrode part are connected such that the holder and the electrode part are further in axial contact with each other via a radial surface contact, and the edge of the electrode part facing the holder is restrained in an associated reception recess on the holder side by means of reduction.

The invention relates to a resistance welding electrode, which has a shaft-shaped holder and an electrode part. The electrode part can be constructed in form of an electrode cap (female) or a rod electrode (male). The respective electrode part is non-positively connected with the associated holder via matching conical surfaces. Optionally, a cooling bore can be provided for a high-performance application.
In conventional welding electrodes of this type, a cone angle of 4 to 7 degrees is used to create the non-positive connection between the holder and electrode part. An interference fit connection is then produced between the holder and the electrode part via the matching conical surfaces. For tolerance reasons, the respective electrode parts must be spaced apart in the axial direction from the respective associated end faces of the holder, so that a gap is present instead of a direct contact to guarantee a tight seat of the electrode part on the holder. Due to the cone angle, this interference fit connection is established with a relatively small relative axial movement between the holder and the associated electrode part. During force transmission, in particular with the pressing force applied during welding by this type of resistance welding electrode, the electrode part can dig into the holder and form bead-shaped peripheral protrusions on the holder. When the electrode parts need to be exchanged, difficulties can arise, such as leaks, a poor interference fit and the risk that the electrode part becomes detached from the holder, as well as an increased consumption of holders which have relatively high manufacturing costs. Additional cost due to lost production can also occur.
DE 101 48 035 B4 discloses an apparatus for resistance welding of workpieces, wherein a welding electrode includes an electrode body, to which an electrode cap is attached or can be attached. The drawing suggests, assuming that the illustration is to scale, that the electrode cap which is placed on the electrode body makes axial contact with the holder via a radial contact surface. Otherwise, the conventional approach is mainly directed to a solution for obtaining information of interest about the electrode temperature more reliably and more cost-effectively. To this end, the welding apparatus has measurement means for measuring the temperature which advantageously reliably measure the temperature of the electrode body and/or the temperature of the electrode cap.


A stabilizer tool (15) for a drill string (10) has a circular body (16) with recesses (17) containing projecting pad assemblies (18) arranged in a spaced helical configuration, each pad assembly (18) having at least one projecting wear block (20) maintained in abutment with an undercut recess surface by a wedge block (21) the outer wear surface (30) being of harder material than the remainder of the blocks (20, 21).

Boreholes are frequently drilled as vertical holes, and prior art provides sufficient technology to frequently achieve continued alignment along a single axis, both when the drilling string penetrates the ground and upon withdrawal.
However difficulties are encountered when boreholes are drilled firstly vertically downwardly, and then curve to an inclined or horizontal direction, and maintaining of complete control is very important but very difficult to achieve. A borehole drill may, for example, comprise three cutters which are circumferentially spaced from one another, and when the drill bit is inclined to the original axis, the space between the cutters can cause erratic or irregular operation in negotiating a curve. This is slightly improved by the use of rotary roller reamers, and the most relevant prior art to this invention known to the Applicant is disclosed in its own two previous inventions, respectively Australian Patent 594885 and Application PM 2305 (PCT/AU94/00691). The former Application disclosed a reamer having a plurality of hard inserts projecting therefrom (or continuous with the outer surface of the reamer in some instances), and the reamer was carried in respective end blocks in a recess in a reamer body. The arrangement for retention of the blocks utilising wedge surfaces was an important aspect of that invention. However even with the improvements which have been disclosed in the above specifications, difficulty is still encountered when the drill bit is required to traverse a curve, particularly upon withdrawal, when the string tends to straighten. The tendency to straighten sometimes causes the drill string to lock into the borehole, whereupon abandonment is unavoidable. This sometimes occurs even when a curve is not intentionally traversed. Since the cost of a drill string is very high, it is the main object of this invention to provide improvements which will make it easier to control a drill string when in a curved portion of a borehole.


A diffusion solder position between two parts has intermetallic phases formed by two solder components. Nanoparticles of a filler material are three-dimensionally distributed in its diffusion region in addition to the intermetallic phases. Furthermore, a process for producing the diffusion solder position and for producing an electronic power component, which has a plurality of diffusion solder positions, is provided.

During diffusion soldering, brittle intermetallic phases are formed. Although these phases ensure a diffusion solder position, which is able to withstand high temperatures, these phases cause problems when connecting parts with different coefficients of thermal expansion such that microcracks migrate through the diffusion solder position. In the extreme, the parts to be connected may even become delaminated. Therefore, higher thermal stability of diffusion solder position connections between two parts is partially offset by an increased sensitivity to mechanical stress and, in particular, to fluctuating thermal loads. This manifests itself when control and power modules for automotive engineering are manufactured using diffusion solder positions.

Diffusion solder position, and process for producing it


The present invention relates to an echo canceler for training an echo path estimation without providing a hindrance to a speech. The echo canceler of the present invention includes a pseudo noise generator for generating a certain pseudo noise. This pseudo noise is forcibly supplied to a transmission line for transmitting a far-end talker's voice. Here, in the case where the far-end talker's transmitting speech level is faint or the far-end talker is in a speechless condition, a certain correlation is established between the pseudo noise and a signal of the transmission line for transmitting the near-end talker's voice. Based on such a correlation as just mentioned, a coefficient for generating an echo replica is calculated. Therefore, a training for estimating an echo path is performed based on the pseudo noise and without depending on the far-end talker's voice, thereby enabling to generate an appropriate echo replica.

In a long-distance telephone line via a submarine cable or via a communication satellite, the subscriber's line, in general, connected to both ends of the line is of a two-wire circuit and its long-distance transmission portion is of a four-wire circuit for the purposes of amplification of a signal, etc. Similarly, in the mobile communications network using a mobile telephone (or cellular phone), the subscriber's line of a terrestrial analog telephone is of a two-wire circuit and its portion from a terminal of the mobile telephone to a switch, etc. is of a four-wire circuit. In this case, the connection region between the two-wire and the four-wire is provided with a hybrid circuit for performing a four-wire/two-wire conversion.
This hybrid circuit is designed to match with the impedance of the two-wire circuit. However, since it is difficult to obtain always a good matching condition, a received signal reaching an input side of the four-wire of the hybrid circuit tends to leak toward an output side of the four-wire, thereby generating a so-called echo. Since such an echo is lower in level than the talker's voice and reaches the talker after a delay of a predetermined time period, a speech hindrance is created. Such a speech hindrance caused by echo becomes more significant as the signal propagation time becomes longer. Particularly, in the case of a mobile communication using a mobile telephone, since various processing procedures are carried out in the radio communication section leading to the switch, etc., the delay of signal is increased, thus resulting, particularly, in the problem of speech hindrance caused by echo. FIG. 2 shows one example of the waveform of an echo with respect to impulse response.
As an apparatus for preventing a generation of echo, there are an echo suppressor and an echo canceler. FIG. 1 shows a schematic construction of an echo canceler which can be used in a mobile communications network. The echo canceler 1 illustrated here is located on a front stage of a hybrid circuit 2. In this illustration, the subscriber of an ordinary analog telephone is referred to as the "near-end talker" and the subscriber of a mobile telephone as the "far-end talker". A far-end voice signal input into the echo canceler 1 is represented by Rin; a far-end voice signal output from the echo canceler 1, by Rout; a near-end voice signal input into the echo canceler 1, by Sin; and a near-end voice signal output from the echo canceler 1, by Sout; respectively.
The echo canceler 1 shown in FIG. 1 comprises an echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3, a control unit 4, an adder 5, and a non-linear processor 6. Here, the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3 detects a response characteristic of the hybrid circuit 2 based on both the far-end voice input Rin and near-end voice input Sin and estimates an echo path (namely, echo propagating line). Then, an anticipated echo (namely, echo replica) from the hybrid circuit 2 is generated through a convolutional operation based on the result of estimation and the far-end voice input Rin. This echo replica is generated by an FIR filter which is constituted of so many taps as 512, for example. A convolutional operation in an echo replica refers to this. In the adder 5, this echo replica is subtracted from the near-end voice input Sin, thereby canceling the echo. As the above-mentioned echo path estimation algorithm, a learning identification algorithm is used. Among many adaptive algorithms, this learning identification algorithm is comparatively small in computational complexity and good in convergence characteristic.
Specifically, the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3 has an FIR filter. An echo replica signal Y(z) output from the FIR filter can be obtained by the following equation (1). ##EQU1##
In the equation (1), N is the number of taps of the FIR filer, and b.sub.i (where i=0, 1, 2, . . . N-1) is a tap coefficient in each tap. If appropriate values of the tap number N and tap coefficient b.sub.i can be obtained by estimation of an echo path, the echo replica signal Y(z) is approximated to an actual echo. Thus, echo is canceled in the adder 5. As the above-mentioned echo path estimation algorithm, an adaptive filter technique, for example, a learning identification algorithm, which among many other adaptive algorithms, is comparatively small in computational complexity and good in convergence characteristic, is used. Details of the learning identification algorithm is disclosed, for example, in Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers of Japan (IECE) Journal '77/11 Vol. J60-A NO.11, article under the heading of "Regarding Echo Canceling Characteristic of Echo Canceler Using Learning Identification Algorithm".
As conditions for enabling the above learning, the following requirements must be met.
1 A far-end voice output Rout of the level sufficient for an echo to come back as a near-end voice input Sin is present. In other words, the far-end taker is currently engaged in speech.
2 The near-end voice input Sin is constituted of an echo (or an echo and a white noise) alone. In other words, the near-end taker is not engaged in speech.
On the other hand, when the far-end talker is in a speechless condition and when the far-end talker and the near-end talker are simultaneously engaged in speech (this state is hereinafter referred to as the "double talk"), it is necessary to turn off the learning function because there is a fear to cause a mis-learning state of echo path estimation.
In the transmission line, digital signals are transmitted, and a D/A conversion (in a general expression, a .mu.-LAW conversion) is made between the echo canceler 1 adapted to process such digital signals and the hybrid circuit 2 adapted to undertake a conversion to the analog line. For this reason, a non-linear characteristic relation is established between the far-end voice output Rout and the near-end voice input Sin. Therefore, echo cannot be canceled fully and completely merely through the linear computation by means of the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3, etc. As a consequence, an echo component unable to be completely canceled is produced.
In order to remove such an echo component (hereinafter referred to as the "residual echo"), the non-linear processor 6 is employed. This non-linear processor 6 undertakes a non-linear switching operation. Specifically, in the case where the near-end voice output Sout is constituted merely of an echo, in other words, in the case where only the far-end talker is currently engaged in speech (this state is hereinafter referred to as the "far-end talker's single talk"), a switching operation is made such that the transmission of the near-end voice output Sout is prohibited or an operation is made such that the near-end voice output Sout is replaced by a pseudo noise.
The control unit 4 controls the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3 and the non-linear processor 6. That is, the control unit 4 detects the far-end taker's speechless condition or detects the double talk, controls the ON/OFF state of the learning function of the echo path estimation in accordance with a double talk signal DT, detects the far-end talker's single talk, and controls the switching operation of the non-linear processor 6.
Incidentally, in the above-mentioned techniques, there are encountered with the following problems.
1 Firstly, since the above-mentioned techniques merely employ an adaptive filter technology such as the learning identification algorithm, if the delay time of an echo to be canceled is increased, the number of taps of the adaptive filter is increased and the computational complexity is also increased.
In other words, the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3 estimates an echo path presuming that the far-end voice input Rin and the near-end voice input Sin are time-wise coincident with each other, and generates an echo based on the estimated echo path. However, since the near-end voice input Sin from the hybrid circuit 2 is delayed, with respect to the far-end voice input Rin, by a delay time attributable to a transmission path between the echo canceler 1 and the hybrid circuit 2, the far-end voice input Rin is input first in the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3 and then, the near-end voice input Sin corresponding to Rin is input therein with the above-mentioned delay time. During this time, it becomes impossible to satisfactorily carry out a learning based on the estimation of an echo path.
2 Also, in the above-mentioned conventional techniques, the echo canceler did not have any information of the echo path at the start of an operation. However, observation of the present inventors revealed that characteristic of an echo path is substantially controlled by characteristic of a hybrid. Specifically, the waveform of an echo determined by a hybrid was longitudinally shifted on the time axis in accordance with a delay in the transmission line and attenuated in accordance with the attenuation in the transmission line. As a result, a waveform of an echo in the transmission line with respect to an impulse input was obtained with a considerable accuracy.
3 A digital signal is transmitted in the transmission line and a D/A conversion (in general, .mu.-LAW conversion) is performed between the echo canceler 1 for processing the digital signal and the hybrid circuit 2 for performing a conversion to an analog line. For this reason, a linear relation is established between the far-end voice output Rout and the near-end voice input Sin. Therefore, it is impossible to fully and completely cancel the echo merely by linear operation using the echo path estimation/echo replica generation circuit 3, etc.
In order to improve the shortcomings of 1 to 3 as a group, it is necessary to change the design of the echo canceler extensively or to modify it entirely. This being the case, it was unexpectable that the existing equipment is effectively used. Further, recently, there is a demand of a high-speed convergence with respect to an echo canceler.

Echo canceler and echo path estimating method


A personal cleansing composition that increases the deposition and retention of benefit agent containing polyacrylate microcapsules onto hair and/or skin. The personal cleansing composition is based on the combination of anionic charged polyacrylate microcapsules, cationic deposition polymers, detersive surfactant, and a carrier.

Many of the personal cleansing products in the market today work to deliver benefits to hair and/or skin by depositing benefit agents such as perfumes, moisturizers, and skin care agents onto the desired situs. As a result, there is a desire to maximize the effectiveness of such benefit agents by increasing their delivery and retention. One method of achieving this objective is to encapsulate such benefit agents in microcapsules. While these microcapsules are able to encapsulate a wide variety of benefit agents and deliver them to the desired situs, it is still difficult to improve the retention and delivery efficiencies of such benefit agents. Such agents may be lost due to the agents' physical or chemical characteristics, or such agents may be incompatible with other compositional components or the situs that is being treated. Consumers today desire personal cleansing compositions that deposit and retain encapsulated benefit agents onto hair and/or skin, even after an extended period of time.
One known method for improving the deposition of microcapsules onto the situs during treatment involves the use of certain cationic deposition polymers. However, this alone does not necessarily ensure adequate deposition of microcapsules.
Accordingly, there is a need for a personal cleansing composition that provides an increased deposition of encapsulated benefit agents. In addition, there is a need for a polymer system that associates with microcapsule surfaces, and that when sheared, allows the encapsulated benefit agents to be released. Furthermore, there is a need for a personal cleansing composition that provides an increased retention of encapsulated benefit agents onto the situs for an extended period of time.

Personal cleansing compositions with increased deposition of polyacrylate microcapsules


An updating display system of a display list and the method thereof are provided. A first version information of the display list at a local end is checked against with a second version information on a server. If they are different, only a modification item file containing a data item to be modified is downloaded from the server. The display list is then modified according to a line number given in the modification item file. The data item in the display list are ordered according to the time tags in the modification item file. This can solve the problems of spending too much time in downloading the display list and an unclear play list. This helps to achieve efficient update and better display.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an updating display system of a display list and the method thereof. In particular, the invention pertains to an updating display system that can download and update items with differences and clearly show the display list.
2. Related Art
Singing has become one the common leisure activities of modern life. In addition to singing at KTV, more and more families have purchased karaoke systems to sing at home. The biggest drawback of the home karaoke systems is that the songs cannot be updated in real time or the user has to update them manually. This is quite inconvenient for most users.
Thanks to advances in network technology, digital TV or set top box (STB) has started providing services similar to those of karaoke systems. In such a system, songs are stored on a server host. The digital TV or STB stores a display list of names of all songs on the server for the user to browse. After the user selects a song from the display list, the digital TV or STB downloads the song from the server for the user to sing along. When the display list of songs needs to be updated, the digital TV or STB simply download the new display list from the server via a network.
However, there are usually a large number of songs on the server. The display list file is thus sizeable. It takes some time to download the display list. Therefore, when the digital TV or STB directly downloads the display list from the server, the user usually has to wait some time before he or she can use the digital TV or STB to sing.
Besides, some songs on the server are newly released. The current technology does not have a clear display for the display list. Consequently, the user often needs to spend a long time to find the latest songs for singing. This is extremely inconvenient.
In summary, the prior art long has the problems of long display list download time and unclear display. It is imperative to provide a solution.

Updating display system of display list and method thereof


A towed array handling system is provided for installation within the enled sails of future submarines. The system has a large diameter reel which provides storage for the entire array and tow cable when not deployed. The area within the enlarged sail is sufficient to allow for a dual winch and reel system for separately storing and deploying single line and/or multi line arrays. The reel applies the full tension of the streamed array as it is deployed and retrieved. When locked, the reel applies the full array streaming tension during high speed tow. The towed array is ducted from the winch to a mid ships tow point via a guide path through a ballast tank which contains only two bends. The upper sheave at the bend closest to the winch is free wheeling and the lower sheave is part of a transfer device which pulls the array from the winch during the initial phase of deployment. The guide duct is aligned with the winch to provide even spooling of the array, especially the multi line array, onto the winch.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cable towing systems, and more particularly to a towed array handling system having a tow point located in the mid ships area of a submerged vessel.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Current thin line towed arrays are deployed and retrieved from a submarine through a tow point located at the tip of the horizontal stabilizer as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,751 to Wood. That location is not only the best from the standpoint of the affects on ship maneuvering, but it is the only location which avoids entanglement and severing of the array in the ship's screw on submarines not equipped with a shrouded screw. The towed array handling system on submarines is located either in the aft ballast tank or in a mid ships area. From either of these positions, the towed array must be ducted through a long, curved guide tube extending from the handling equipment to the aft tow point. Even though equipped with rollers to reduce friction, the guide tube still increases the free stream drag on the array, thus necessitating the use of a dual capstan type traction device to reduce the array tension to a level considered safe for wrapping onto a storage reel. Current traction devices are designed with three foot diameter sheaves. Repeated cycling of the array over the guide tube rollers, in addition to repeated wrapping around the three foot diameter sheaves at elevated tensions, degrades the towed array structure and reduces the life of the towed array.
Future submarine sonar capabilities will demand either multiple, long, single line arrays or multi line arrays in which several shorter arrays are towed by a single tow cable. Furthermore, the arrays may be towed from two separate tow points. The aft ballast tanks are not expected to offer space for either a second handling system the size of the current single line handling system or a handling system capable of accommodating a multi line array. Tests performed on multi line arrays, especially those equipped with lateral force devices, have demonstrated that these arrays cannot be deployed or retrieved through a guide tube having multiple three dimensional curves; nor can the multiple arrays be detensioned on dual capstan type traction devices. The various studies and tests of handling system characteristics have determined that the following characteristics are necessary for handling multi line arrays: (1) A large diameter, narrow faced reel must be used for storage or the array and to apply the primary inhaul force for both the single line arrays and the multi line arrays; (2) The arrays must be ducted from the storage reel to the tow point via a guide duct having the minimum number of bends, the planes of which are coincident with the plane of the storage reel; and (3) A simple transfer device located in one of the bends must be used to assist the initial phase of deployment and to eliminate friction in the bend at retrieval.

Mid ships tow point for single line and multi line towed arrays

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


Provided are a transmitter for processing an L1 signaling including an L1-pre signaling and an L1-post signaling, a receiver of the L1 signaling, and methods of controlling the transmitter and the receiver. The transmitter includes: an encoder configured to perform Bose, Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (BCH) encoding and Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoding with respect to the L1-post signaling, and a puncturing unit configured to puncture at least a part of LDPC parity bits constituting an LDPC codeword generated by the LDPC encoding of the L1-post signaling, wherein the number of bits to be punctured is calculated based on the number of bits available for transmission of the LDPC codeword and a modulation order of the L1-post signaling.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a transmitter and a puncturing method thereof, and more particularly, a transmitter and a puncturing method thereof which punctures at least a part of parity bits of a Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codeword.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the 21st century information-oriented society, broadcasting communication services are moving into the era of digitalization, multi-channel, wideband, and high quality. In particular, as high quality digital televisions and portable multimedia players and portable broadcasting equipment are increasingly used in recent years, there is an increasing demand for methods for supporting various receiving methods of digital broadcasting services.
In order to meet such demand, standard groups are establishing various standards and are providing a variety of services to satisfy users' needs. However, there is still a demand for a method for providing improved services to users with higher transmission and reception performance.

Transmitter and puncturing method thereof


To simply and accurately determine the concentration of a water treating agent in thermal equipment upon management of a supply amount of the water treating agent, a method of controlling a supply amount of a water treating agent according to the present invention includes the steps of: supplying a water treating agent containing a scale inhibitor selected from chelating agents to a water-supply system of thermal equipment; collecting a water sample from the thermal equipment; quantitatively determining the scale inhibitor in the collected water sample; and determining a concentration of the water treating agent in the thermal equipment on the basis of a quantitative value of the scale inhibitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to method of supply amount management of a water treating agent to thermal equipment as represented by a boiler or a cooling tower.
2. Description of the Related Art
In thermal equipment such as a boiler or a cooling tower, for preventing water from causing corrosion or scale formation on a heat-transfer surface, water treating agents have generally been added to water to be supplied. In recent years, in the boiler, water treating agents made of food additives containing silica, an alkaline agent, and a scale inhibitor have been used, as described in JP 2003-159597 A. Here, the silica is blended so that it forms a coating on the heat-transfer surface of the boiler to protect the surface from corrosion by water. In addition, the alkaline agent is typically an alkali metal hydroxide, which is blended for adjusting water to a pH range of 11 to 12 to make the heat-transfer surface difficult to be corroded. Further, the scale inhibitor is a chelating agent, which is capable of forming a complex with any of hardness components (calcium and magnesium ions) each of which is a scale-promoting component, a copper ion, a zinc ion, an iron ion, and the like in water to be supplied. The scale inhibitor is blended for preventing the scale formation on the interface between the heat-transfer substance and the water.
The supply amount of a water treating agent is determined so that the concentration of the water treating agent in the thermal equipment is within a given range on the basis of the quality of water to be supplied and the operating conditions of the thermal equipment (i.e., the concentration rate of the water treating agent in the boiler). This kind of setting is generally performed by a maintainer for the thermal equipment. For exerting the effect of the water treating agent at maximum, it is important to keep the concentration of the water treating agent within a predetermined range. The maintainer should readjust the supply amount of a water treating agent when the concentration of the water treating agent is insufficient or overabundant. The maintainer also should inform a user that the concentration of a water treating agent is within a predetermined range to allow the user to recognize the maintenance conditions and running costs of the thermal equipment. For those reasons, the concentration of a water treating agent in the thermal equipment should be clarified to manage the supply amount of the water treating agent.
For clarifying the concentration of a water treating agent, it will require a great deal of time and efforts to individually determine all of components to be supplied in the water treating agent in a quantitative manner. In addition, to determine a specific component to be supplied in the water treating agent in a quantitative manner, for example, in the case of the water treating agent disclosed in JP 2003-159597 A, there is a problem in that the concentration of the component calculated from the supply amount thereof does not correspond to the actual concentration thereof. This is because silica forms a coating on the heat-transfer surface. Further, an alkali metal hydroxide is generated when an alkaline component such as sodium hydrogen carbonate in water to be supplied is thermally decomposed. Therefore, particularly in the boiler, there is also a problem in that the concentration of the component calculated from the supply amount thereof does not correspond to the actual concentration thereof.

Method of supply amount management of water treating agent


A composition to prevent dehydration, supply energy and prevent cramps contains electrolytes, carbohydrates and quinine and/or quinine salts and a method of preventing cramping caused by strenuous bodily activity. Palatability of the composition is improved by the effective use of carbohydrate, pH adjustment, flavoring and carbonation.

Engaging in strenuous exercise causes the body to become depleted of water and electrolytes, requiring replenishment. If water and electrolytes are not replaced, symptoms of dehydration can occur.
Physical activity, such as exercise, particularly in the heat, places a great metabolic demand on the body. During exercise, fluid in the form of sweat, lost from the body, can produce a state of dehydration. Associated with dehydration is an impairment of body heat dissipation and endurance. Although body electrolytes are also lost through perspiration, the net concentration of electrolytes per unit volume of body fluid actually increases. This is because perspiration causes a proportionately greater loss of water in comparison to the loss of body electrolytes. In addition, physical activity places an extra demand on the body's carbohydrate stores, such as muscle glycogen, liver glycogen and plasma glucose. Loss of water, redistribution and loss of electrolytes and the depletion of endogenous carbohydrate stores are the primary causes of fatigue which impairs one's ability to perform.
With stores of carbohydrates replenished during physical exertion, fatigue can be overcome. To maintain the body's physical capabilities, it is essential that water, electrolytes, carbohydrates, as well as other nutrients be provided in a timely and appropriate manner. Fluid replacement during physical activity has been shown to be an effective way of preventing dehydration and allowing for top physical performance. Of significance is the fact that the sports drink prevents dehydration. Dehydration itself can produce cramping.
Different theories abound as to the cause of muscular cramping during exercise. One theory postulates that cramping is due to electrolyte imbalance; another holds physical exercise causes damage to muscular tissue; and still another theory holds that muscle cramping is brought on by oxygen radicals produced by the body during strenuous exercise.


The invention is directed to a control system in combination with an internal combustion engine and/or a motor vehicle especially in connection with the air metered to the engine. An electrically actuable element for influencing an operating variable of the engine and/or of the vehicle is present. A control unit acts on the electrically actuable element by means of a pulse-shaped signal. At least one changeable parameter of the pulse-shaped signal is changed during a pulse dependent upon actual measured values.

In motor vehicle technology, it is known to operate on an operating characteristic variable of an internal combustion engine and/or of the motor vehicle for control purposes. An electrically actuable element is driven by pulse-shaped signals and the control can be a closed-loop control or an open-loop control.
A system of this kind is disclosed in German patent publication DE-OS 3,621,937 with the system being applied to an electronic engine power control arrangement as an example. In this system, a pulse-shaped drive signal is generated by a computer unit in dependence upon measured values, especially the position of a power positioning element of the engine and a service element actuable by the driver. The signal generated in this manner is for an actuator influencing the power of the engine and at least one parameter of the drive signal is changeable such as the pulse width at fixed drive periods of the drive signal. The system described in this publication carries out a control of the position of the power actuator for controlling engine power. With the realization of a control system of this kind in digital form, the difficulty occurs that the control does not provide the desired characteristics with respect to dynamics, stability and/or precision because, in order to determine the pulse-shaped drive signal, the measured values are used which were detected directly in advance of the drive period of the drive signal or during a previous drive period. Accordingly, the drive signal formed on the basis of these measured values does not consider the changes occurring during the immediate drive period with reference to the control segment and/or its limit conditions.

Control system for an internal combustion engine and/or motor vehicle


A driving position adjusting system automatically adjusts a driving position in a second vehicle appropriately to a target user based on a driving position in a first vehicle adjusted by the target user. The driving position adjusting system includes a storage device, a detection device, an estimation device, a transmission device, and a control device. The storage device stores statistic data. The detection device detects a selected one of a plurality of divided range segments of the driving position in the first vehicle, the selected one being selected by the target user. The estimation device estimates an optimum one of the plurality of divided range segments in the second vehicle based on the statistic data and the selected one. The transmission device transmits to the second vehicle the optimum one in the second vehicle. The control device controls the driving position in the second vehicle correspondingly to the optimum one.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving position adjusting system for automatically adjusting a driving position in a second vehicle different in a vehicle model from a first vehicle, in which a target user rides, based on an adjustment result of a driving position in the first vehicle such that the adjusted driving position in the second vehicle is appropriate to the target user.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-22599 discloses a device adjusting system for adjusting a device (e.g., a seat), which is adjustable according to the physical features of a user, to fit the physical features of the user for any models (types) of vehicles.
The device adjusting system comprises a data center, which converts the set positions and angles of devices (e.g., a steering, a seat, individual mirrors) transmitted from a vehicle to coordinate data on three-dimensional coordinate axes using the position of an accelerator pedal as a reference point based on the structure information of the vehicle model (type), and which stores the coordinate data in a memory. When the settings of the above-mentioned devices in a vehicle of a different type are to be changed, coordinate data on the set positions and angles of the above-mentioned devices included in the structure information of the different type of a vehicle is retrieved, set positions and angles of corresponding coordinate data having the highest degree of correspondence to the above coordinate data stored in the memory are determined, and the determined set positions and angles are transmitted from the data center to the vehicle of the different type.
However, vehicles of different types have, for example, different configurations of a seat (e.g., the height of a seat surface, the thickness of a cushion, the width and height of a back rest, and the like) in most cases. As a result, the settings adjusted by the process as described above might not necessarily give a sense of a perfect fit to a user. For example, in the adjusting process, even when the set positions and angles of devices (e.g., a steering, a seat, individual mirrors) in a certain vehicle are indicated by coordinate data on three-dimensional coordinate axes using the position of an accelerator pedal as the reference point and the set positions and angles of the corresponding coordinate data having the highest degree of correspondence to the coordinate data are determined in the different vehicle to perform the adjustment of the set positions and angles of the above devices.


A projection color liquid crystal display (LCD) system uses a large reflecting liquid crystal (LC) panel as a screen. The system includes three unicolor light sources for emitting lights of the colors red, green and blue, respectively, the light sources being disposed remote from the screen; three light shutters for permitting the red, green, and blue light beams to successively and periodically pass to the screen; and three diffusing lenses for diffusing the respective beam which is passing to the screen. Each respective light shutter permits the passage of a corresponding light beam. The color driving signal corresponding to the light beam from the image controlling circuit is applied to the driver to drive the LC panel. As a result, the red, green and blue light beams are successively reflected from the reflection type LC panel according to the color driving signal. Since the reflecting frequency of successive three color light beams is under 1/30 of a sec and, a person who is looking at the front side of the screen recognizes successive three color light beams as the composite color screen.

A conventional color image projection system granted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,963 as illustrated in FIG. 4.
This color image projection system includes a large screen 1, three lenses 2, three identical liquid crystal panels 3, three color filters 4, 5 and 6, respectively of the colors red, green and blue, three white light sources 7 and three reflectors 8.
In this projection system, light from the light sources 7 passes through the corresponding filters 4, 5 and 6 and a liquid crystal (LC) panel 3, resulting in its incidence into the respective lenses 2.
Since the respective lenses 2 are focused in the same place onto the screen 1, the mixture of the three colored composites projected on the screen via the lenses 2 creates a multicolor image.
For example, if the composite portions of an image or picture must be in the color red, the light intensity is modulated by connecting the variable frequency and/or amplitude voltage source 31 to the LC panel 3 and varying the applied voltage and the frequency of the applied volatge.
Behind the LC panel 3 is disposed the red filter 4, which is made of red transparent glass or plastic. The color filters 4, 5 and 6 could alternatively be disposed in front of the LC panel 3 or even in front of the lenses 2.
Behind the light sources 7, there are reflectors 8 for improving light efficiency. Light from each of the sources 7 passes through a respective filter and through a liquid crystal panel 3. Each respective lens magnifies and projects all of the energized port ions of the liquid crystal panel onto the screen. By such manner, the mixture of the three colored composites on the screen creates a multicolor image or picture with high resolution.
However, in the case of a conventional projection system, due to the close distance between the sources 7 and the LC panels 4, 5 and 6, in order to raise the brightness, a cooling device is needed because heat generated from the source 7 has an influence over the LCD characteristics. However, difficulties in the technology of this device result in a limitation in the light intensity. Accordingly, the light intensity cannot be suitably modulated, so that there are difficulties in the modulation of the brightness. Thus, a conventional system has a definite disadvantage of reducing the brightness on the screen.


A playing card having a substrate entirely of a first predetermined colour overlaid with a removable surface coating entirely of a second predetermined colour contrasting with said first predetermined colour, said removable surface being sufficiently friable so as to be able to be scratched off by a player in a pattern predetermined by said player to reveal said substrate in said pattern. The scratched playing card uses the high contrasting colors (typically primary and secondary colors) to produce letters or image(s). These cards are interchangeably used in a strategic and non gambling card game often utilising the Stroop effect.

The following discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.
The inventor has devised a card game where players are dealt from a deck of cards, a number of cards face down, bearing words which are colored black or a color having an unambiguous and commonly understood identifying name, typically a primary or secondary color selected from red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
These words are printed a contrasting color background, so as to be visible. Thus the card has a coloured surface providing the contrasting color of the background to the color of the word. The contrasting color of the background also has an unambiguous and commonly understood identifying name, and is also typically a primary or secondary color selected from red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. While not absolutely necessary, for best effect, throughout the deck, the colors adopted for the background, with the exception of black, are the same colors used for the words.
The colors used for the words and for the background surface are solid colors, or rendered in a way so as to visually present to the eye as a clearly identifiable single color That is to say, there is no shading or pattern of different colors forming the card background or the word, in a way that the player could not identify a single color. The player of the game should be able identify the name of a single colour without any ambiguity, although it is noted that there may be some conjecture over whether purple is violet or vice versa. Other colors that can unambiguously be identified may be used, such as pink or grey. The important point, as will be understood from the following discussion regarding game play, is that the player shall not be required to identify colors by names often used in paint color charts, such as seafoam, arctic, sand dollar, hog bristle, or the like.
The obverse of the cards can carry a common pattern such as the manufacturer's trade mark, and is of no consequence.
The words printed on the cards are the name of a colour printed in black ink or in an ink of a color, and curse words printed in black ink or in an ink of a color, in both cases the color being as noted above. The color background contrasts with the color of the word.
The words which are the name of a color selected from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple, printed in black or printed in a color selected from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple. The curse words may comprise low level coarse language words and high level coarse language words. The low level coarse language words are swear words or curse words that generally do not cause offence to most sections of the community and can be selected from words such as (expletives deleted) and the like. A high level coarse language word is considered to be more confronting and can be the four letter words meaning fornicate (i.e. (expletive deleted)). Gameplay proceeds differently, depending on whether the curse word is deemed or considered to be a high level coarse language word.
The text content of words on cards in a game can be varied to suit the language and culture of a target market.
The card game requires players in turn, to turn up a card and place it word side up in the center of the table. Then as quickly as possible call out the correct answer based on the games rules. The game rules are as follows:
where the word is the name of a color printed in black, the player must state the background color;
where the word is the name of a color printed in a color, the player must state the color that the word is printed in;
where the word is a low level coarse language word, the player must state the word; and
where the word is a high level coarse language word, which is ostensibly impolite to use, the rules are the same as for the name of the color.
If the player is correct and says the answer in a fast enough time then the card stays word side up on the table. The next player in turn plays on top of the previously played card. The game proceeds in this manner, and the first player to play out all of their cards in this manner is the winner of the game. If the player says the incorrect answer or takes a long time to answer then the other players will complete to slap the placed card. The first player to slap the placed card can choose to distribute two cards from the played cards to any one or two players and the remaining played cards are picked up by the player who answered incorrectly. The player who answered incorrectly will take their turn again until they are correct after which the next person will take their turn.
The game makes use of the Stroop effect and contrasts this with the ease of saying a common word, curse words in this case. To increase the Stroop effect, the cards also use a flat color background. Typically, the Stroop effect is only displayed on a white background. In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color (e.g., "blue", "green", or "red") is printed in a color that is not denoted by the name (e.g., the word "red" printed in blue ink instead of red ink), naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color.
The reason for using swear words and color words is to contrast and confuse the brain by using mentally challenging Stroop effect color words and words that are not mentally challenging. Take stubbing ones toe and cursing for example, there is no thinking involved and cursing is often involuntary. During a typical game this contrast between the words can confuse even the most intelligent players.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a playing card for use in a card game where players take turns to call out information where the card game utilizes the Stroop effect.
Throughout the specification unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.
In this specification, color also is taken to include the colors black and white, in addition to other colors which are readily identifiable by ordinary persons, such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (or violet), grey and pink.