A method, system and apparatus for interleaving XForms with JSF request processing can be provided. The system can include an XForms definition generated for a form configured for rendering in a Web application. Specifically, the XForms definition can specify a data model for data to be processed within the form. The system further can include a JSF code generation module programmed to process the forms model to produce a form bean, a faces configuration, and a JSF page for each navigable view defined in the XForms definition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to forms processing and more particularly to XForms forms processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Form based input is the enabling technology which permits the widespread distribution of applications across generic client platforms such as the conventional content browser. In the prototypical distributed application, a markup language defined interface can form the principal conduit through which end users can interact with backend application logic. Often configured in the form of a Web page, the interface can be provided to the content browser by a content server and can take the form either of a pre-defined static page, or a dynamically generated page. Form input fields can be positioned within the interface through which user input can be accepted and posted to the backend application logic for further processing.
Despite the flexibility afforded by hypertext markup language (HTML) defined forms, HTML defined forms mix data, logic and presentation in contravention of standard programming practices. In this regard, the well-known model-view-controller paradigm demands that each of data, logic presentation remain separable. In this way, though the presentation layer may change to suit the user interface requirements of an end user, the underlying logic layer need not also change. To accommodate the increasing complexity of transactions conducted through forms, the XForms specification has been proposed as a presentation independent way of handling interactive Web transactions. Significantly, the XForms specification separates data and logic from presentation in that XForms utilizes the extensible markup language (XML) for data transport and HTML for data display.
Forms technologies are typically bound directly to a presentation specification such as the XHTML specification, the portable document format (PDF) specification and the like. Yet, currently, there is no way to integrate XForms with the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) programming model as interactive J2EE applications assume a server side processing model often complimented with a robust MVC application framework. One such framework is the Java Server Faces (JSF) framework. Designed to be flexible, JSF leverages existing, standard user interface and web-tier concepts without limiting developers to a particular mark-up language, protocol, or client device.
The user interface component classes included with JSF encapsulate the component functionality, not the client-specific presentation, thus enabling JSF user interface components to be rendered to various client devices. By combining the user interface component functionality with customized renderers, which define rendering attributes for a specific user interface component, developers can construct custom tags to a particular client device. As a convenience, JSF provides a custom renderer and a JSP custom tag library for rendering to an HTML client, allowing developers of J2EE applications to use JSF technology in their applications.

Interleaving the XForms processing model with java server faces request processing


Disclosed herein are methods and apparatuses for sequencing a nucleic acid. These methods permit a very large number of independent sequencing reactions to be arrayed in parallel, permitting simultaneous sequencing of a very large number (>10,000) of different oligonucleotides.

Many diseases are associated with particular DNA sequences. The DNA sequences are often referred to as DNA sequence polymorphisms to indicate that the DNA sequence associated with a diseased state differs from the corresponding DNA sequence in non-afflicted individuals. DNA sequence polymorphisms can include, e.g., insertions, deletions, or substitutions of nucleotides in one sequence relative to a second sequence. An example of a particular DNA sequence polymorphism is 5′-ATCG-3′, relative to the sequence 5′-ATGG-3′ at a particular location in the human genome. The first nucleotide 'G' in the latter sequence has been replaced by the nucleotide 'C' in the former sequence. The former sequence is associated with a particular disease state, whereas the latter sequence is found in individuals not suffering from the disease. Thus, the presence of the nucleotide sequence '5-ATCG-3' indicates the individual has the particular disease. This particular type of sequence polymorphism is known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP, because the sequence difference is due to a change in one nucleotide.
Techniques which enable the rapid detection of as little as a single DNA base change are therefore important methodologies for use in genetic analysis. Because the size of the human genome is large, on the order of 3 billion base pairs, techniques for identifying polymorphisms must be sensitive enough to specifically identify the sequence containing the polymorphism in a potentially large population of nucleic acids.
Typically a DNA sequence polymorphism analysis is performed by isolating DNA from an individual, manipulating the isolated DNA, e.g., by digesting the DNA with restriction enzymes and/or amplifying a subset of sequences in the isolated DNA. The manipulated DNA is then examined further to determine if a particular sequence is present.
Commonly used procedures for analyzing the DNA include electrophoresis. Common applications of electrophoresis include agarose or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. DNA sequences are inserted, or loaded, on the gels and subjected to an electric field. Because DNA carries a uniform negative charge, DNA will migrate through the gel based on properties including sequence length, three-dimensional conformation and interactions with the gel matrix upon application of the electrical field. In most applications, smaller DNA molecules will migrate more rapidly through the gel than larger fragments. After electrophoresis has been continued for a sufficient length of time, the DNA molecules in the initial population of DNA sequences will have been separated according to their relative sizes.
Particular DNA molecules can then be detected using a variety of detection methodologies. For some applications, particular DNA sequences are identified by the presence of detectable tags, such as radioactive labels, attached to specific DNA molecules.
Electrophoretic-based separation analyses can be less desirable for applications in which it is desirable to rapidly, economically, and accurately analyze a large number of nucleic acid samples for particular sequence polymorphisms. For example, electrophoretic-based analysis can require a large amount of input DNA. In addition, processing the large number of samples required for electrophoretic-based nucleic acid based analyses can be labor intensive. Furthermore, these techniques can require samples of identical DNA molecules, which must be created prior to electrophoresis at costs that can be considerable.
Recently, automated electrophoresis systems have become available. However, electrophoresis can be ill-suited for applications such as clinical sequencing, where relatively cost-effective units with high throughput are needed. Thus, the need for non-electrophoretic methods for sequencing is great. For many applications, electrophoresis is used in conjunction with DNA sequence analysis.
Several alternatives to electrophoretic-based sequencing have been described. These include scanning tunnel electron microscopy, sequencing by hybridization, and single molecule detection methods.
Another alternative to electrophoretic-based separation analysis is solid substrate-based nucleic acid analyses. These methods typically rely upon the use of large numbers of nucleic acid probes affixed to different locations on a solid support. These solid supports can include, e.g., glass surfaces, plastic microtiter plates, plastic sheets, thin polymers, or semi-conductors. The probes can be, e.g., adsorbed or covalently attached to the support, or can be microencapsulated or otherwise entrapped within a substrate matrix, membrane, or film.
Substrate-based nucleic acid analyses can include applying a sample nucleic acid known or suspected of containing a particular sequence polymorphism to an array of probes attached to the solid substrate. The nucleic acids in the population are allowed to hybridize to complementary sequences attached to the substrate, if present. Hybridizing nucleic acid sequences are then detected in a detection step.
Solid support matrix-based hybridization and sequencing methodologies can require a high sample-DNA concentration and can be hampered by the relatively slow hybridization kinetics of nucleic acid samples with immobilized oligonucleotide probes. Often, only a small amount of template DNA is available, and it can be desirable to have high concentrations of the target nucleic acid sequence. Thus, substrate based detection analyses often include a step in which copies of the target nucleic acid, or a subset of sequences in the target nucleic acid, is amplified. Methods based on the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), e.g., can increase a small number of probe targets by several orders of magnitude in solution. However, PCR can be difficult to incorporate into a solid-phase approach because the amplified DNA is not immobilized onto the surface of the solid support matrix.
Solid-phase based detection of sequence polymorphisms has been described. An example is a "mini-sequencing" protocol based upon a solid phase principle described by Hultman, et al., 1988. Nucl. Acid. Res. 17: 4937-4946; Syvanen, et al., 1990. Genomics 8: 684-692. In this study, the incorporation of a radiolabeled nucleotide was measured and used for analysis of a three-allelic polymorphism of the human apolipoprotein E gene. However, such radioactive methods are not well-suited for routine clinical applications, and hence the development of a simple, highly sensitive non-radioactive method for rapid DNA sequence analysis has also been of great interest.


An edge-lit backlighting system for liquid crystal displays employs a number of light strips in the form of thin, light weight sections of a thermally conductive substrate each of which mounts a plurality of light engines having an array of densely packed, primary color light emitting diodes, which, when collectively illuminated, produce a white light of desired reference white chromaticity.

Liquid Crystal Displays ("LCDs") are the technology of choice for avionics displays and a number of other applications. Among the advantages of LCDs are: they conserve weight and space, have simple electrical interfaces, are capable of preserving contrast for sunlight viewing with appropriate enhancements, can be made sufficiently rugged to withstand difficult mechanical and environmental conditions, can be made to operate over extreme temperatures and can be made compatible with night vision imaging systems. The LCD is a transmissive device; as such, it requires a source of rear illumination (backlight) to render the intended image. Each of the subassemblies of the overall system, e.g. LCD and backlight, shoulder different responsibilities in the integrated system. Some performance attributes are shared, while others are unique to each subassembly. As such, design considerations for each subassembly must be friendly to the other to ensure the integrated system can accommodate the rigor of the intended application.
Currently, the most popular method of back-illuminating an LCD is to use a serpentine fluorescent lamp in a reflecting housing with a heavy diffuser overlying the lamp to provide balanced luminance. The serpentine fluorescent lamp is mounted in a frame or housing having a reflecting surface, and a diffuser panel or sheet is then placed between the lamp and LCD. An alternative arrangement is the so-called "edge-lit" backlight subassembly which employs one or more thin, elongated fluorescent lamps each mounted along a side edge of a light guide. A sheet or film of reflective material is located on one side of the light guide, and one or more enhancement films such as light diffusers or Brightness Enhancement Films (BEF) are positioned on the opposite side of the light guide in between it and the LCD. When the fluorescent lamp(s) are illuminated, the light guide transmits and directs the light toward the enhancement films to illuminate the LCD.
Backlight subassemblies of the type described above are considered the "weak link" which can compromise the optical performance, environmental performance, and life expectancy of LCDs systems in many applications. This is principally due to shortcomings of the fluorescent lamps. Although an effective means of producing visible light, fluorescent lamps have a number of deficiencies which present difficulties when employed in backlighting subassemblies. Fluorescent lamps have poor reliability and poor efficiency when used in a backlight system. It is estimated that as much as 75% of the theoretical maximum luminance is lost with fluorescent lamp backlights. Fluorescent lamp backlights are not mechanically robust, they are difficult to dim, they are difficult to start at cold temperature and have significantly reduced light output at both high and low temperatures. The color gamut of fluorescent backlights is reduced as compared to LEDs, for example, and reduced color gamut of the light which illuminates the LCD reduces image fidelity. Serpentine fluorescent lamps have a relatively deep profile which increases the overall weight and size of the LCD system, making it less than desirable in some applications. Further, fluorescent lamps of all types contain mercury which presents a disposal issue when the lamps are replaced.
A color display is an additive color system. It takes at least one red, green and blue sub-pixel to make a white light color group. The white light color group is commonly referred to as a pixel. In an LCD, there are discreet color filters, e.g., red, green and blue, resident at each sub-pixel. These filters subtract unwanted wavelengths of light from the aggregate white-light backlight to produce the desired color. With the relatively recent (circa 1997) development of blue LEDs, considering that red and green LEDs were already in existence, the LED has been suggested as a replacement for fluorescent lamps in backlight systems as discussed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,727,862 and 6,719,436. The LED produces light when electrons flow across a P—N junction doped with the proper light-emitting compound. Whereas phosphor chemistry employed in the manufacture of fluorescent lamps is a mature science, LED chemistry is still in its infancy and significant gains in efficiency compared to fluorescent lamps, perhaps on the order of 200%, are expected in the coming years.
There are three competing configurations for generating white light using LEDs. These include an assembly which mounts discrete red, green and blue LEDs immediately adjacent to one another so that when they are collectively illuminated white light is produced, an ultraviolet LED coated with a red, green and blue phosphor coating, and, a blue LED coated with a yellow phosphor coating. To enhance the images produced by an LCD, the backlight spectra should produce emission peaks for the red, green and blue emission bands which match the peak transmission of the color filters on the LCD. The latter two approaches for producing white light noted above perform relatively poorly in that respect. Although improved performance can be obtained with an assembly which combines red, green and blue LEDs, the question has been how clusters or assemblies of such primary color LEDs can be efficiently and effectively incorporated into a backlight system to obtain the desired physical and other performance parameters, e.g. size, weight, durability, luminance, intensity, color gamut etc.

LED light engine for backlighting a liquid crystal display


A method, system, and related computer program products are provided for processing a medical image of a body part according to a computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithm, the medical image having an image border, the body part comprising imaged tissue appearing inside the image border and outlying tissue not appearing in the medical image, wherein likely anatomical abnormalities in the outlying tissue near the imaged tissue border are detected by the CAD algorithm. In one example, the detected likely abnormalities in the outlying tissue are located within a first distance from the imaged tissue border, wherein the first distance corresponds to a spatial ambit of a neighborhood-based feature computed by the CAD algorithm.

Computer-aided detection (CAD) generally refers to the use of computers to analyze medical images to detect anatomical abnormalities in the subject body part. Sometimes used interchangeably with the term computer-aided detection are the terms computer-aided diagnosis, computer-assisted diagnosis, or computer-assisted detection. Upon acquisition of a digital or digitized medical image, a CAD algorithm usually identifies a preliminary set of candidate locations in a medical image and then selects which ones, if any, will qualify as actual CAD detections based on a variety of computed features associated with the candidate detections. The CAD results are most often communicated in the form of annotation maps comprising graphical annotations (CAD markers) overlaid on a diagnostic-quality or reduced-resolution version of the medical image, one CAD marker for each CAD detection.
CAD results are mainly used by radiologists as "secondary reads" or secondary diagnosis tools. When analyzing a medical image, the radiologist usually makes his or her own analytical determinations before looking at the CAD results, which either verify those determinations or trigger further inspection of the image. Some CAD implementations have used CAD results in a "concurrent reading" context in which the radiologists look at the CAD results at the same time that they look at the images.
In the field of x-ray mammography, thousands of x-ray mammography CAD systems are now installed worldwide, and are used to assist radiologists in the interpretation of millions of mammograms per year. X-ray mammography CAD systems are described, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,620, U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,591, U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,929, U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,879, U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,435, U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,378, U.S. Pat. No. 6,434,262, U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,156, and WO 2002/045437A2, each of which is incorporated by reference herein. X-ray mammography CAD algorithms analyze digital or digitized images of standard mammographic views (e.g. CC, MLO) for characteristics commonly associated with breast cancer, such as calcifications, masses, and architectural distortions.
Although at least one preferred embodiment is described herein in the context of x-ray mammography CAD systems, it is to be appreciated that the present teachings are applicable for a variety of present or prospective medical imaging modalities (e.g., CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, ultrasound, x-ray tomosynthesis, thermography, electrical conductivity-based modalities, and other modalities) for a variety of different body parts (e.g., head, neck, chest, abdomen, etc.) It would be desirable to provide a CAD system having enhanced functionality with respect to one or more of anatomical coverage, information usage completeness, and overall screening effectiveness. It would be further desirable to provide a CAD user interface accommodating such enhanced functionality. Other issues arise as would be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading the present disclosure.

Processing medical image information to detect anatomical abnormalities


It is intended to provide a process for conveniently producing phosphorylase at a high purity using a phosphorylase-producing microorganism. Namely, a process for producing phosphorylase characterized by culturing a phosphorylase-producing microorganism in a medium containing phosphoric acid or its salt at a concentration of 50 mM or above and collecting the phosphorylase thus produced in the medium.

Phosphorylase is an enzyme which catalyzes phosphorolysis of the substrate saccharide in the presence of inorganic phosphoric acid. The phosphorylases are generally named based on the substrate sugar molecule, and include, for example, maltodextrin phosphorylase, sucrose phosphorylase, maltose phosphorylase, cellobiose phosphorylase, trehalose phosphorylase. Such phosphorylases are useful as a reagent for the quantitative assay of the substrate of inorganic phosphoric acid or saccharide, and also useful as an enzyme applicable to the synthesis of various glycosides from phosphorylated saccharide using its catalytic property of reversible phosphorolysis.
Phosphorylases are known to be stored as intracellular enzymes in various microorganisms such as those belonging to genus Leuconostoc.
To utilize the phosphorylase for the purpose described above, it is desirable that the purity of the enzyme preparation is increased to some reasonable level. For the purpose of obtaining such enzyme preparation, a phosphorylase producing microorganism is cultured, and after that, several complicated processes such as recovery of the cultured microorganism (cell), washing the cell, lysing the cell, isolation of enzyme fraction, and purification of the enzyme have to be carried out (for example, refer to patent documents 1 to 5). In this process, addition of a lytic enzyme or a chelating agent which is required for cell lysis becomes necessary, and further, almost all the cell components are released; therefore a heavy burden is added onto the enzyme purification process.
As the means to reduce such a load of purification, a method of increasing intracellular phosphorylase level, for example by optimization of the medium composition (for example, refer to patent documents 6 and 7), a method of generating objective phosphorylase with high purity using recombinant microorganisms (for example, refer to non-patent document 1 and patent documents 3 to 5), a method of simplifying the purification process (for example, refer to patent document 8), and the like have been known. However, as the process itself can not be changed, these methods have not provided satisfactory results.
Patent document 1: JP-A-1989-91778
Patent document 2: JP-A-1996-280382
Patent document 3: JP-A-1998-14580
Patent document 4: JP-A-1998-276785
Patent document 5: JP-A-1998-327887
Patent document 6: JP-A-1990-154686
Patent document 7: JP-A-1991-4785
Patent document 8: JP-A-2002-345458
Non-patent document 1: Kitao et al., J. Ferment. Bioeng., 73, 179-184(1992)


A video surveillance system has a camera equipped with a fisheye lens having a substantially hemispheric field of view. The system implements operations equivalent to the panning, tilting and zooming of a conventional camera without the use of moving parts. The lens is mounted vertically above a plane under surveillance. The camera produces a fisheye image made up of a plurality of pixels. The fisheye image is distorted due to the properties of the fisheye lens. The system corrects the distortion by mapping the pixels of the fisheye image to coordinates produced by selecting a particular part of the fisheye image to be viewed. This allows an operator to select parts of the field of view of the fisheye lens and view them as if they had been produced by a camera having a conventional lens being panned tilted or zoomed. The fisheye image formed by the camera is split into four separate image components carried by four bundles of optical fibers. Each bundle has a CCD and associated image processing circuitry which forms an electronic representation of the image component carried by that bundle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of video surveillance systems. More specifically, it relates to an image forming and processing device including a fisheye lens having a substantially hemispherical field of view. The invention allows an operator to view a selected part of the image formed by the fisheye lens as if it were formed by a normal lens by simulating the panning, tilting or zooming of the normal lens. This allows the operations of panning, tilting and zooming to be implemented without the use of moving parts.
2. Description of Related Art
Surveillance cameras are commonly used to monitor areas of retail stores, factories, airports and the like. In order to use a single camera to survey a large area, the camera is typically provided with mechanisms to enable it to pan, tilt and zoom. Such mechanisms increase the complexity and hence the cost of the camera and can also adversely affect its reliability. Due to the presence of moving parts, mechanical pan, tilt and zoom devices are subject to damage and degradation brought on by extremes of temperature, moisture and dust. In addition, such mechanical systems consume relatively large amounts of power. A surveillance camera capable of panning, tilting and zooming without the use of moving parts would therefore provide significant advantages over existing surveillance cameras.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,667, Zimmermann proposes such a camera having no moving parts. In the device specified in that patent, a fisheye lens is coupled to a video camera such that the camera produces an electronic image. Due to the characteristics of the fisheye lens, the image is distorted. The distortion in the image is corrected by means of an algorithm.
One of the limitations of the system proposed by Zimmermann is that the camera is unable to provide sufficient resolution for effective zooming. Since a fisheye lens renders a distorted image of an entire hemisphere, parts of the image, especially at its peripheries are distorted. The image is formed on a change coupled device (CCD) having a limited number of pixels. In order to view the image as a normal (non-distorted) image, it is necessary to transform the image electronically. The limited number of pixels in the CCD causes the transformed image to be poorly resolved. In order to provide acceptable resolution, a CCD made of approximately 156,000,000 would be needed.
The best available CCD's have approximately 16,000,000 pixels (4,000.times.4,000) and operate at clocking rates of the order of 10 Mhz. However, in order to satisfy the NTSC sampling rate of 30 samples per second, a clocking rate of 480 MHz is needed. Thus, the type of resolution required for an NTSC picture with the desired magnification cannot be achieved using the prior art.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,818, Neta et al. describe a system in which a wide angle scene is monitored by means of a plurality of sensor arrays mounted on a generally hemispherical surface. Each sensor array has its own lens system. This allows a wide field to be monitored without the need for moving parts to effect panning and tilting. The resolution of the system would be relatively high due to the plurality of sensor arrays. However a system such as that described by Neta et al. would be very costly to implement due to the large number of high quality components needed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a surveillance camera apparatus, having a substantially hemispherical field of view and capable of effecting the operations of panning, zooming and tilting without the use of moving parts, while still providing sufficient resolution to allow the desired magnification.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surveillance camera apparatus, having a substantially hemispherical field which allows an operator to view parts of the field of view as if they were acquired by a camera having a conventional lens and being capable of panning, tilting and zooming.
These and other advantages are achieved by the invention described herein.

Image splitting forming and processing device and method for use with no moving parts camera


In a coal fired power plant (17) incorporating a feed-water heater (10), energy is provided to the feed-water heater by pumping geothermal hot water through supply and return pipes (15, 16) from a geothermal reservoir (14) located beneath an adjacent coal seam (19). The coal seam acts as an insulating layer, increasing the temperature of the geothermal reservoir (14). Solar heat collectors (21) and (25) can also be provided to boost the temperature of the geothermal hot water and/or the feed water.

It is well-known to provide conventional coal-fired power plants in which coal is burnt in a furnace to turn feed-water into steam which is in turn fed to a steam turbine used to drive an electrical generator. Exhaust steam from the turbine is then fed to a condenser where it is cooled and returned to water before being pumped back into the furnace to continue the cycle. The condenser is effective in improving the operating efficiency of the turbine by providing a low pressure environment for the exhaust steam from the turbine.
It is also known to increase the efficiency of such a conventional coal-fired power plant by bleeding partially expanded steam from the turbine to a feed-water heater located between the condenser and the furnace in order to preheat the feed-water into the furnace and improve the operating efficiency. Such arrangements, while generally increasing the overall efficiency of the power plant do reduce the amount of power available from the steam turbine to drive the electrical generator.


A method and system for providing a connection between a client and a server with load balancing between servers are disclosed. A computer-implemented method of the present invention generally includes binding a primary virtual server to a set of URLs, each URL having an associated real server and receiving a request from a client for connection to the primary virtual server. One of the real servers are selected for connection with the client and a redirect message is sent to the client specifying the URL associated with the selected real server. The method further includes receiving a new connection request from the client for connection with the selected real server.

The present invention relates generally to server load balancing, and more specifically, to server load balancing using HTTP redirection.
Applications that communicate over the Internet typically communicate with each other over a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) connection. TCP/IP is an industry standard suite of protocols designed for large internetworks spanning wide area network (WAN) links. TCP/IP was developed in 1969 by the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the result of a resource-sharing experiment called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The purpose of TCP/IP was to provide high speed communication network links. DARPA and other government organizations understood the potential of packet-switched technology and were just beginning to discover that virtually all companies with networks needed to support communication among dissimilar computer systems. With the goal of heterogeneous connectivity in mind, DARPA funded research by Stanford University and Bolt, Beranek, and Newman to create a series of communication protocols. The result of that development effort was the Internet protocol suite, of which the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP) are the two best-known members.
TCP is a connection-orientated transport layer protocol that sends data as an unstructured stream of bytes. By using sequence numbers and acknowledgment messages, TCP can provide a sending node with delivery information about packets transmitted to a destination node. Where data has been lost in transit from source to destination, TCP can retransmit the data until either a timeout condition is reached or until successful delivery has been achieved. TCP can also recognize duplicate messages and will discard them appropriately. If the sending computer is transmitting too fast for the receiving computer, TCP can employ flow control mechanisms to slow data transfer. TCP can also communicate delivery information to the upper-layer protocols and applications it supports. As a result of these capabilities, TCP is a connection oriented protocol.
IP is the primary network layer protocol in the Internet suite. In addition to internetwork routing, IP provides error reporting and fragmentation and reassembly of information units called datagrams for transmission over networks with different maximum data unit sizes. In the TCP/IP protocol, in order to properly route packets, it is necessary to use the source IP address and port number and the destination IP address and port number found in the packet header.
For many business enterprises, it has become important to reach customers, vendors, and employees through the Internet. Web-based communication is different from mainframe and client-server arenas. One difference is that HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), an underlying protocol of Web communication, is both connectionless and stateless. This causes a problem for dynamic interactions with the user where a Web system needs to be able to keep track of the user's state during a session involving multiple Web interactions (e.g., Web page requests). Without a way to manage state between Web transactions, the system will forget information about the user and the context of the session. This can be further complicated by the fact that in many large Web systems the user does not interact with the same Web server from transaction to transaction.
Moreover, in Web applications, it is often necessary to provide a persistent or "sticky" connection between a browser (the user) and the Web or database server to which it is connected. A sticky connection allows a server load balancer to direct each client connection in a session to the same server so that all requests from a given client are redirected to the same server and the client remains attached to a single server for the duration of the transaction between the client and the server. Examples of applications that require a sticky connection include shopping baskets, financial transactions, and some forms of interactive games. Because HTTP does not carry any state information for these applications, it is important for the browser to be mapped to the same server for each HTTP request until a user's transaction is complete.
The sticky connection is often controlled by a configurable timer. If the timer is configured on a virtual server, new connections from a client are sent to the same real server that handled the previous client connection, provided that the amount of time between the end of a previous connection from the client and the start of a new connection is within the timer duration. If a session is timed out, the client may be connected to a different real server, thus losing state information.
Current implementations of sticky use the client IP address/TCP port, SSL session ID, or a user's cookies. As described below, each of these methods has drawbacks.
A TCP connection is initialized through a three-way handshake which is used to synchronize the sequence number and acknowledgement numbers of both sides of the connection and exchange segment sizes. The client first sends a TCP segment to the server with an initial sequence number for the connection and maximum segment size. The server sends back a TCP segment containing its chosen initial sequence number, an acknowledgement of the client's sequence number, and a maximum segment size. The client then sends a TCP segment to the server containing an acknowledgement of the server's sequence number. If an acknowledgement is not received within a specified period of time a browser may time out the session.
Furthermore, the client IP address is not effective when connections to the Internet service provider (ISP) pass through a proxy server. In many network applications, it is often desirable or necessary to prevent a user from making a direct connection to a machine that has information that the user needs. For example, it is often desired from a security standpoint not to allow connections from potentially hostile machines to a machine that stores sensitive information. Instead, it may be required that a connection first be made to a proxy which itself has various security features such as user authentication and possibly encryption. Also, there are cases where thousands of users are coming into a site from a mega proxy (e.g., America On-Line (AOL) users) all accessing the same application and all coming from the same source IP address. In this scenario, a sticky requirement causes all client connections to be directed to the same real server, thus creating a load imbalance. The load imbalance may be worsened if the proxy server is located directly in front of the server load balancer, which is a common practice for site security.
SSL (secure socket layer) is encryption technology used to provide secure transactions on the Web, such as the transmission of credit card numbers for e-commerce. The SSL protocol uses a combination of public key and symmetric key encryption. An SSL session also begins with an exchange of messages called the SSL handshake. The handshake allows the server to authenticate itself to the client using public key techniques, then allows the client and the server to cooperate in the creation of symmetric keys used for rapid encryption, decryption, and tamper detection during the session that follows. Web sites that use mixed SSL/non-SSL connections create problems for sticky connections. An example of a mixed SSL/non-SSL connection is an online vendor who provides a shopping cart for use in collecting items for purchase while browsing. Since the contents of the shopping cart are not considered confidential, most administrators deploy this area of the site in non-SSL pages. However, at checkout time when confidential information such as the user's credit card number is entered, the vendor switches to a secure SSL connection. Since the SSL session ID is effective only when the server is running SSL, the client may be switched to a different server during the transaction.
The cookie sticky keeps clients directed to the same physical or real server using standard HTTP cookie technology. Cookies are strings passed from servers to browsers using HTTP. After a client has received a cookie as the result of a "set cookie" HTTP command, any server can poll that cookie, providing it knows the structure, with a "get cookie" command. This allows the querying server to positively identify the client as the one that received the cookie earlier. In a server load balancer implementation, this technology may be used to route users back to the same real server based on the cookie the client shows the server load balancer. The cookie sticky typically does not work with SSL since the cookies are encrypted. Furthermore, the cookie can also time out, thus resulting in a new connection being made with possibly a different server.
There is, therefore, a need for a method and system for implementing sticky connections while performing effective load balancing whether or not SSL is running and despite the presence of a proxy server.


An image forming apparatus includes a conveyor configured to convey a sheet in a first direction; and an image forming portion which uses liquid developer to form an image on the sheet, wherein the image forming portion includes a first transfer unit, which transfers a first image to the sheet, and a second transfer unit, which transfers a second image after the first transfer unit, the first transfer unit includes a first rubbing unit configured to rub the first image on the sheet, and the second transfer unit includes a second rubbing unit configured to rub the second image on the sheet.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure herein relates to an image forming apparatus, which uses liquid developer to form an image on a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus which uses liquid developer is known as a device for forming an image on a sheet. This type of image forming apparatuses typically has a fixing device configured to fix images onto sheets. The fixing device generates relatively high heat in order to melt toner contained in the liquid developer, which is transferred onto the sheet.
It is not necessary for a fixing device to generate heat if the fixing device uses liquid developer which has characteristics such that its components (carrier solution) permeate into a sheet and high-molecular compounds with dispersed pigment therein deposit on the surface of the sheet. However, the present inventors have discovered disadvantageous properties which are likely to cause peel-off of the image formed on the sheet by means of such liquid developer.
An object of the disclosure is to provide an image forming apparatus which prevents an image from peeling off from a sheet.

Image forming apparatus for forming images with liquid developer


An improved silverware basket is provided for a dishwasher. The basket has opposite side walls, opposite end walls, a bottom wall, and an internal dividing wall which define compartments within the basket. One of the compartments is provided for a lid so that small and lightweight objects can be housed within the compartment. The lid is slidably and pivotally mounted within angularly disposed slots in the side walls of the basket for movement between open and closed positions with respect to the compartment.

Conventional dishwashers have a washing chamber in which upper and louver racks are movably mounted. The racks typically are a lattice structure adapted to hold items such as dishes, plates, glasses, cups, pots and pans for washing within the chamber. The racks are rollably or slidably supported on the side walls of the dishwasher so as to be forwardly movable to a position substantially outside the washing chamber for easy loading and unloading of the items. One of the racks normally has a silverware basket mounted or formed therein for holding knives, forks and spoons.
Some silverware baskets have a compartment for holding small items, such as baby bottle nipples and caps, small lids, and similar objects which cannot be held in place in the lattice structure of the racks. Some silverware baskets provide a lid for closing the compartment. Such lids normally are pivotally mounted upon the basket for movement between an open position providing access to the compartment and a closed position closing the compartment. However, these lids are awkward to move between the open and closed positions, and tend to fall from the open to the closed position. Also, since the lid extends substantially above the upper edge of the basket when in the open position, it is easy to accidently knock the lid from the open to the closed position. Furthermore, if the compartment is left open during the wash cycle, the height of the lid above the edge of the basket tends to partially block the spray of water onto silverware and other items contained in the basket.


A new cultivar of Verbena named ‘KLEVP08392’ particularly characterized by large orange-red inflorescences, good heat tolerance, and high resistance to powdery mildew, is disclosed.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'KLEVP08392'. 'KLEVP08392' was discovered as a seedling resulting from a cross conducted in Spring 2005 in New South Wales, Cobbitty, Australia between the proprietary female Verbena parent, '00.102.30' (unpatented) and the proprietary male Verbena parent, '00.102.10' (unpatented). A single plant selection was subsequently chosen for further evaluation and for asexual propagation.
The new cultivar was first propagated in Fall 2005 by vegetative cuttings in Stuttgart, Germany and has been asexually reproduced repeatedly by vegetative cuttings over six generations. 'KLEVP08392' has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations.
Plant Breeder's Rights for this cultivar have not been applied for. 'KLEVP08392' has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to filing of this application.


An up modifier is provided which includes a bed, a modifier, a clamp, a modifier linkage system, a clamp linkage system, and a lever. The modifier is disposed below the bed and is vertically traversable thereunder. The clamp is disposed above the bed and is vertically traversable thereabove. The lever defines a modifier pivot, clamp pivot and a pedal portion. The clamp pivot is interposed between the modifier pivot and the pedal portion. The clamp pivot is vertically traversable, and the modifier pivot and the pedal portion are pivotable about the clamp pivot. The modifier linkage system is attached to the modifier and the lever at the modifier pivot, and the clamp linkage system is attached to the clamp and the lever at the clamp pivot.

This invention relates generally to line boring machines which bore holes in a work piece from a side of the work piece resting on a bed, and more particularly, to machines which have a lever mechanically attached to both a clamp and a drill so as to advantageously produce a self-adjusting downward clamp force on the work piece which is always greater than an upward drill force.
In manufacturing, a block of metal or a piece of wood is formed into a useful shape. For example, in a wood cabinet with adjustable shelves, the same may have side panels with a series of bored holes. The holes are used to insert pins such that the shelf may rest thereon to make a shelf height adjustable. To this end, the bored holes are commonly drilled out. When the holes are drilled from above, wood chips tends to clog up the holes. Typically, a drill bit has flutes to allow the chips to exit the holes. Nonetheless, the chips rest on a top surface of the side panels. In this regard, the chips may re-enter the hole and/or may visually block the hole from an operator of the drill. As such, the operator must frequently clear off the chips from the side panels prior to continuing the process of drilling. To alleviate the problem of continually clearing out the holes, the holes would be automatically cleared out if the holes were drilled from a bottom side of the side panel because gravity would clear the holes through gravitational forces.
Currently, machines exist where the work piece rests on a bed, and drills are located below the work piece and bed and traverse upwardly to make holes in the side panels. In this regard, the wood chips are cleared from the holes through gravitational forces. These machines typically have a push down clamp which applies a downward clamp force to the work piece such that the work piece does not lose stability in relation to a bed when the work piece is being drilled from its underside. In these machines, the power which traverses the drill between an up position and a down position is independent from the power which provides the downward clamp force exerted by the clamp.
This dual system of power transmission is inefficient because it requires constant adjustment and more parts. In particular, an upward drill force is exerted on the work piece by the drills and is a function of the number of drills. If a plurality of drills were to simultaneously drill holes from the underside of the side panel then the drill upward force may be greater than the downward clamp force because of the dual system. This situation would cause the work piece to lift off the bed and become unstable thereby the holes may not be properly positioned. In response, the operator must continually adjust (i.e., increase or decrease) the downward clamp force when the number of drills are changed or when the upward drill force changes.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved apparatus to alleviate the problems of the prior art such as the need to constantly adjust the downward clamp to be greater than a upward drill force and the additional parts to support the dual system.


Embodiments include a multiphase flowmeter system (300). The multiphase flowmeter system (300) may include a first inline flow conditioner (310) for reducing a slip velocity between a liquid phase and a gas phase of a multiphase fluid, a flowmeter for measuring a flow rate of the multiphase fluid, a second inline flow conditioner (350) for separating the liquid phase and the gas phase of the multiphase fluid, a non-radioactive sensor system for measuring one or more of a gas void fraction of the multiphase fluid and a water-cut of the multiphase fluid, and a processor (480) for computing one or more flow rates of the multiphase fluid. Embodiments further include methods of measuring one or more flow rates of a multiphase fluid and other related methods, apparatuses, devices, and systems.

Despite technological advances in renewable energy, hydrocarbons will likely remain a primary source of energy for decades to come. Nevertheless, with continuous depletion of hydrocarbon resources in oil fields, and continuous growing demand of energy which is expected to rise by up to 50% by year 2040, efficient production management is required, through accurate and online monitoring of individual wells, using low cost and compact multiphase flow meters. For instance, knowing the amount of produced water, gas, and oil per well can facilitate reservoir engineering and improve the recovery factor by shutting the less efficient producing wells and treat them with a suitable enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique. Conventional techniques for determining these parameters, such as γ-ray sensors and the like, are hazardous, expensive, fail to provide real-time measurements, provide poor representations of multiphase flow as a whole, and/or is not equipped to handle gas phase. Accordingly, improved techniques would advance the art and provide more efficient production management options.

Multiphase flowmeter system with a non-radioactive sensor subsystem and methods thereof


Ta-Al-N is formed on a semiconductor device structure, such as a wiring line, to prevent interdiffusion between surrounding layers. The Ta-Al-N material serves as a diffusion between (i) two conductor layers, (ii) a semiconductor layer and a conductor layer, (iii) an insulator layer and a conductor layer, (iv) an insulator layer and a semiconductor layer, or (v) two semiconductor layers. Another use is to promote adhesion with adjacent layers, such as between (i) two conductor layers, (ii) a conductor layer and an insulator layer, (iii) a semiconductor layer and a conductor layer, or (iv) two semiconductor layers. The Ta-Al-N material also is used to form a contact or electrode. The Ta-Al-N material includes between 0.5% and 99.0% aluminum, between 0.5% and 99.0% tantalum, and between 0.5% and 99.0% nitrogen. The Ta-Al-N layer has a thickness between 50 angstroms and 6000 angstroms, and as part of a wiring line structure, has a thickness which is between 1% and 25% of the wiring line structure thickness.

This invention relates to materials used in semiconductor device fabrication for interconnects, contacts, electrodes and other conductive applications. More particularly, this invention relates to materials having desirable interdiffusion barrier properties, desirable adhesion properties, and/or low contact resistances.
Semiconductor devices, also called integrated circuits, are mass produced by fabricating hundreds of identical circuit patterns on a single semiconductor wafer. During the process, the wafer is sawed into identical dies or "chips". Although commonly referred to as semiconductor devices, the devices are fabricated from various materials, including conductors (e.g., aluminum, tungsten), non-conductors (e.g., silicon dioxide) and semiconductors (e.g., silicon). Silicon is the most commonly used semiconductor, and is used in either its single crystal or polycrystalline form. Polycrystalline silicon is often referred to as polysilicon or simply "poly". The conductivity of the silicon is adjusted by adding impurities--a process commonly referred to as "doping".
Within an integrated circuit thousands of devices (e.g., transistors, diodes, capacitors) are formed. These devices are formed by various fabrication processes, including doping processes, deposition processes, etching processes and other processes. Interconnects are formed to serve as wiring lines connecting the many devices. Contacts are formed where a device interfaces with other devices. Electrodes are formed for capacitors and other devices. Gate structures are formed for transistor devices. These interconnects, contacts, electrodes and gates are formed using conductive materials or alloys.
In forming interconnect stacks, for example, it is desirable to perform an annealing step to densify material formation and improve material properties. Often such processes include exposing the wafer to elevated temperatures, such as 500.degree. C. or higher. Exposure to these elevated temperatures may result in undesirable effects such as interdiffusion of metals, morphology changes, melting or other undesirable reactions with adjacent materials. Incorporating alloys with aluminum, for example, is used to raise the melting point and reduce electromigration effects. However, even at a low temperature, such as 100.degree. C., aluminum and silicon may react interdiffusing with each other. Such interdiffusion alters the desired device properties, resulting in product defects. Accordingly, it is known to provide a barrier layer at a silicon/metal interface. Known barrier materials for such interfaces include titanium nitride (TiN), titanium-aluminum-nitride (Ti-Al-N), titanium-tungsten (TiW), tantalum-nitride (TaN), and other materials. Such barrier layers often are 100 to 1000 .ANG. thick.
Conventional diffusion barriers such as TiN and TiW, while generally effective at lower temperatures such as room temperature, tend to fail at elevated temperatures. As many preferred semiconductor fabrication processes require elevated temperatures, these materials often prove unsatisfactory. As a result the implemented diffusion barrier often limits the types of fabrication processes that can be performed. The Ti-Al-N material as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,306 is an improvement over the TiN and TiW materials being more effective and being more thermally stable at elevated temperatures. Other barrier materials for preventing interdiffusion also are desirable.
Further, as more complex wiring line structures are implemented for decreasingly smaller line pitches, additional layers are being included. One difficulty in dealing with the smaller dimensions and the increasingly complex structures is promoting adhesion among the layers. Accordingly there is a need for materials useful at decreasing line pitches having improved adhesion qualities.

Tantalum-aluminum-nitrogen material for semiconductor devices


In fiber telecommunications network where an optical fiber is extended to the subscriber's neighborhood, mechanized loop testing is performed by a test unit located in a network unit in the subscriber's neighborhood. The test unit is responsive to commands from a controller located in the network unit to perform metallic line tests on the lines extending to the subscriber. Test results are stored in a memory associated with the controller in the network unit. Upon receipt of a test request from a central test controller, the controller within the network unit determines if there is sufficient time to perform the test; if so, a new test is performed and the results are conveyed back to the central test controller controller. If sufficient time is not available, the results of the last performed routine test contained in the memory are transmitted back to the central test controller. The test results sent back to the central test controller are conveyed firstly in the form of a particular four-digit code, which code is interpreted at a remote terminal and converted to a specific resistive signature which is conveyed back to the central test controller. The specific resistive signature is interpreted by the standard remote measurement unit located in a remote terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for subscriber loop testing and, more particularly, to such a system used in a telecommunications network having fiber extending to the curb. The system is designed to implement Mechanized Loop Testing (MLT).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Optical fibers are rapidly becoming the preferred means for transmission in telecommunications systems. The advantages of using optical fibers are well known and are fully accepted as being desirable. Optical fiber transmission provides exceedingly wide bandwidths which will allow for the future provision of broadband services directly to individual subscribers on a relatively universal basis. Such broadband services may include data transmission; however, there is a broader market for the distribution of video services over the telecommunications network to the vast number of residential subscribers.
There have been many proposals to provide optical fiber networks; however, in most cases the cost of providing fiber directly to the home or to remote areas of the network proved to be prohibitive. Thus, fiber has been proposed for use in feeder trunks, and even for further distribution down to some remote unit closer to the actual subscriber. At such a remote unit, the typical line cards would be used for providing twisted pair metallic drops to the actual subscriber.
Once line cards migrate to a remote unit, the cost of providing a remote test unit, as used in Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) remote housings, becomes prohibitive. A recent Bellcore Technical Advisory TA-NWT-000909 requires that certain line faults be tested for, with the results transmitted to a Remote Measurement Unit (RMU) in the form of a series of resistor signatures. Thus, any fiber optic transmission network architecture that will be commercially accepted must have provisions that satisfy this Bellcore Technical Advisory.

Subscriber loop testing in a fiber-to-the-curb communications network


Nucleotide sequence defining a polymorphic locus useful for identification of an individual. Also disclosed are oligonucleotide primers useful in amplification of the locus and methods for detecting the amplified locus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the detection of a polymorphic locus nucleotide sequence which can be used to identify an individual of a species.
2. Related Art
Mammalian genomes consist of unique DNA sequences interspersed with moderately and highly repetitive DNA sequences. Gene mapping by meiotic linkage analysis has traditionally been carried out using variations in unique sequence DNA, such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms (Botstein, et al., Am J. Hum. Genet, 32:314-331, 1980), as genetic markers. Recently, variations in the repetitive sequence elements such as minisatellite or variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) sequences (Jeffreys, et al., Nature, 314:67-73, 1985; Nakamura, et al., Science, 235:1616-1622, 1987), and microsatellite or variable simple sequence motifs (VSSM) (Litt and Luty, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:397-401, 1989; Weber and May, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:388-396, 1989) have been found to be useful for linkage studies. One advantage to the use of repetitive sequence variations rather than unique sequence variations is the apparent greater number of alleles present in normal populations when compared to restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). A second advantage is the ability to readily detect sequence length variations using the polymerase chain reaction to facilitate the rapid and inexpensive analysis of large numbers of DNA samples.
Microsatellite elements consist of simple mon-, di-, or tri-nucleotide sequences where alleles differ by one or more repeat units (Luty, et al, Am.J. Hum. Genet., 46:776-783, 1990; Tautz, et al., Nature, 322:652-656, 1986; Weber and May, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:388-396, 1989). Minisatellites, or VNTR sequences, typically have a repeat unit of 20 to several hundred nucleotides and alleles differ by as little as one repeat unit. Among simple sequences, the (TG).sub.n or (CA).sub.n repeat elements have recently proven extremely useful for meiotic mapping since (1) they are abundant in the genome, (2) display a large number of different alleles, and (3) can be rapidly assayed using the polymerase chain reaction (Litt and Luty, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:397-401, 1989; Weber and May, Am. J. Hum. Genet, 44:388-396, 1989).
A number of other short sequence motifs have been found in mammalian (Hellman, et al., Gene, 68:93-100, 1988; Knott, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 14:9215-9216, 1986; Litt and Luty, Am. J. Hum. Genet, 44:397-401, 1989; Milstein, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 12:6523-6535, 1984; Stoker, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 13:4613-4621, 1985; Vassart, et al., Science, 233:683-684, 1987; and Vergnaud, Nuc. Acids Res., 17:7623-7630,1989), and avian (Gyllensten, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 17:2203-2214, 1989; Longmire, et al., Genomics, 2:14-24, 1988) genomes and are thought to accumulate by DNA slippage during replication (Tautz, et al., Nature, 322:652-656, 1986) or unequal recombination events (Wolff, et al., Genomics, 5:382-384, 1989). Many of these repeat elements display a high degree of genetic variation and thus are also useful for meiotic mapping.
The VNTR sequence isolated by Jeffreys contains an invariant core sequence GGGCAGGAXG (SEQ ID NO:1) which bears some similarities to the chi sequence of phage lambda (Wolff, et al., Genomics, 5:382-384, 1989) and is detected by a restriction fragment of bacteriophage M13 (Vassart, et al., Science, 233:683-684, 1987). Similar repeat elements have been detected by Nakamura, et al. (Science, 235:1616-1622, 1987) and contain a similar, but distinctive, common core unit GGG--GTGGGG (SEQ ID NO:2). Elements of this type occur within several known gene sequences including the .beta. globin locus. Similar VNTR elements have been described within the apolipoprotein B (Boerwinkle, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86:212-216, 1989; Knott, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 14:9215-9216, 1986) and collagen type II genes (Stoker, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 13:4613-4621, 1985) and contain a distinct AT-rich motif. Though a physiological function for repetitive elements of this type has not been defined, they have been suggested as potential hot spots for chromosome recombination (DeBustros, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 85:5693-5697, 1988) or elements important for the control of gene expression (Hellman, et al., Gene, 68:93-100, 1988; Milstein, et al., Nuc. Acids Res., 12:6523-6535, 1984).
In addition to linkage analysis, highly variable probes are useful for identity testing in practical applications such as paternity testing and forensics. One disadvantage to the use of VNTR probes, is the necessity for carrying out Southern blot analysis for allele detection. Frequently DNA samples for these applications are of poor quality and low quantity. The analysis of (CA).sub.n polymorphisms may be difficult since the elements may be short and alleles may differ by as little as 2 nucleotides, necessitating the use of DNA sequencing gels and radioactive labeling for allele detection (Litt and Luty, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:397-401, 1989; Weber and May, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 44:388-396, 1989). Consequently, an unfulfilled need exists for a technique which can detect a unique DNA sequence in specimens of poor quality or in low quantity without having to rely on isotopic detection. The present invention provides such a technique.

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies


A carton feeding system for feeding a series of cartons into selected flights of a carton conveyor is disclosed. The carton feeding system generally includes a rotary feeder having a series of carton feeding assemblies rotated thereabout. The carton engaging assemblies are attached to a gearing system or mechanism that controls the operating angle of the carton engaging assemblies as they engage or pick the cartons from a magazine or supply. Thereafter, the cartons are erected within the flights of a carton conveyor moving beneath the rotary feeder as the carton engaging elements are carried about their path of travel.

In the automated packaging of goods such as soft drink cans, pouches, and other similar products into cartons or boxes, the cartons typically can be fed from a stack or supply of preglued carton sleeves, opened, and deposited on a carton conveyor prior to being fed into a product packaging machine. The cartons generally will be deposited within the flights of a carton conveyor with the products thereafter being inserted through the open ends of the carton sleeve. Thereafter, the end flaps of the cartons are folded and typically adhesively attached to seal the ends of the cartons. The cartons often are fed into the flights of the carton conveyor for a packaging machine by a rotary style carton feeder. Such rotary feeders typically will include a series of vacuum cups that are rotated about a carton path for picking individual cartons from a stack or supply of cartons, and rotating the cartons downwardly and into a flight of the carton conveyor moving therebelow.
Such conventional rotary feeders tend to have a fixed geometry, however, which limits their path of movement, and thus limits the size or range of sizes of cartons that can be fed and/or deposited into the flights of the carton conveyor. To feed different size cartons, it therefore generally has been necessary to adjust or reconfigure the feeder elements of most conventional rotary feeders, and/or adjust the height or position of the feeder to accommodate the feeding of tall, narrow cartons or shorter, wider cartons as necessary. Such adjustments are needed to ensure that there will be a sufficiently deep draw and/or pick of the cartons to enable the cartons to be sufficiently opened by the time they are deposited in the next selected flight of the carton conveyor, as well as to ensure that the vacuum cups of the rotary feeder, will not interfere with or engage the lugs of the carton flights as the cartons are deposited therein.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a carton feeder that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.


In a lens group which is disposed forward of a photographing device and which includes at least a ceramic lens that is combined with a glass lens, wherein a conjugate surface of the photographing device by a combined surface between the ceramic lens and the glass lens is formed forward of the combined surface in an optical system that follows an optical system residing between the combined surface and the photographing device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small, high performance optical system lens group for use mainly in a small photographing unit such as a digital camera, and more particularly to a combination lens utilizing a ceramic lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
In these days, various small photographing units such as cameras and image scanners have been in use which use photographing devices such as two-dimensional CCD's.
Then, in recent years, in optical equipment such as digital still cameras, small and high performance zoom lenses have been in use.
In a combination lens such as a zoom lens for optical equipment, compactness and high resolution are required.
Due to this, the applicant of this patent application has filed a patent application for an invention for specifying combination conditions for a small and high performance zoom lens for digital still cameras which is an inexpensive combination lens with a small number of lenses which makes up a zoom lens (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-057542).
In addition, in these days, light-transmitting ceramics have been developed. These light-transmitting ceramics have higher refractive indices than those of optical glass, and their hardness and flexural strength exhibit higher values than those of optical glass. This has allowed to produce lenses which are suitable for the tendency of making optical systems small in size and thin in thickness.
As has been described above, while photographing units using two-dimensional CCD's are small in size and high in resolution and hence make high quality photographing units, due to reflection of image forming light on the surface of a CCD, part of light that is incident on a photographing device is reflected, and the resulting reflected light from the photographing device is incident on a lens provided in front of the photographing device from the rear thereof as stray light. Then, the stray light so incident on the lens is reflected on the surface of the lens so as to be incident again on the photographing device.
Then, in the small photographing unit, a distance between the photographing device and the lens is small, and there sometimes exists a risk that a ghost image is produced on an image by the stray light.
In addition, since light-transmitting ceramics have the higher refractive indices and greater hardness and flexural strength, when used for lenses, the light-transmitting ceramics become optimal for use in making an optical system in optical equipment smaller in size.
In the light-transmitting ceramics, however, while the refractive indices and reflectance of optical glass range roughly from 1.5 to 1.8 and 4 percents to 8 percents, respectively, the light-transmitting ceramics have greater refractive indices. In a case where a light-transmitting ceramic whose refractive index is 2.08 is used as a ceramic lens, the resulting reflectance becomes about 12 percents, which is extremely greater than the reflectance of the optical glass, and hence there has existed a problem that reflected light from the CCD is reflected by the lens and the resulting reflected light returns to the CCD to impose a great effect on the production of a ghost image.

Lens for photographing system and camera assembly utilizing the lens


A thin film transistor includes a multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit including a plurality of coaxial silicon nanowires on a substrate, the multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit including a central portion and end portions of the central portion; a gate electrode on the central portion; and a source electrode and a drain electrode on the respective end portions, respectively, so as to electrically connect to the multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit.

Generally, the FPD includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a plasma display panel (PDP) and an organic electroluminescent display device (OLED) or the like. Here, the TFT is utilized as a switching element or a driving element of the FPD.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a structure of an LCD according to the related art.
In FIG. 1, an LCD 3 includes upper and lower substrates 5 and 22 facing each other and a liquid crystal layer 11 between the upper and lower substrates 5 and 22.
A gate line 12 and a data line 24 crossing the gate line 12 are formed on the lower substrate 22 to define a pixel region P. A TFT T is disposed at a position adjacent to the crossing of the gate line 12 and the data line 24, and a pixel electrode 17 is connected to the TFT T and is disposed in the pixel region P. The pixel electrode 17 includes a transparent conductive material such as, for example, indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO).
The TFT T includes a gate electrode 30 connected to the gate line 12, a source electrode 34 connected to the data line 24, a drain electrode 36 spaced apart from the source electrode 34, and a semiconductor layer 32 between the gate electrode 30 and the source electrode 34 and between the gate electrode 30 and the drain electrode 36.
Here, the gate line 12 provides a scanning signal from a first external circuit with the gate electrode 30 and the data line 24 provides a data signal from a second external circuit with the source electrode 34.
Further, red, green and blue sub-color filters 7a, 7b and 7c are formed on the upper substrate 5, wherein each of the red, green and blue sub-color filters 7a, 7b and 7c is repeatedly disposed in a region corresponding to the pixel region P. A black matrix 6 is formed in an intervening space between the red, green and blue sub-color filters 7a, 7b and 7c and a common electrode 9 is formed on the red, green and blue sub-color filters 7a, 7b and 7c and the black matrix 6.
Liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 11 have an anisotropic dielectric constant and anisotropic refractive index characteristics due to their long, thin shape. In addition, two electric field generating electrodes are formed on the two substrates, respectively. Accordingly, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules can be controlled by supplying a voltage to the two electrodes. Transmittance of the LCD panel is thus changed according to the polarization properties of the liquid crystal material.
The TFT may have various configurations. Typically, an inverted staggered type TFT of amorphous silicon or a top gate type TFT of polysilicon are utilized.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an inverted staggered type TFT according to the related art.
In FIG. 2, an inverted staggered type TFT T includes a gate electrode 52 on a substrate 50, a gate insulating layer 54 on an entire surface of the substrate 50 having the gate electrode 52, an active layer 56 on the gate insulating layer 54 over the gate electrode 52, and an ohmic contact layer 58 on the active layer 56. Here, the ohmic contact layer 58 has an opening portion 59 that exposes a central portion of the active layer 56. Source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 are formed on the ohmic contact layer 58. The source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 are spaced apart from each other by the opening portion 59. Substantially, the opening portion 59 defines a channel portion (not shown) of the TFT T.
Further, a passivation layer 64 is formed on the TFT T. The passivation layer 64 has a drain contact hole 66 that exposes a portion of the drain electrode 62. The pixel electrode 68 is formed on the passivation layer 64 and is connected to the drain electrode 62 via the drain contact hole 66.
FIGS. 3A to 3E are schematic cross-sectional views showing an array substrate including an inverted staggered TFT in accordance with a manufacturing process thereof of the related art.
In FIG. 3A, a gate electrode 52 is formed by depositing and patterning a conductive material such as aluminum (Al), Al alloy, copper, tungsten (W), or molybdenum (Mo) on a substrate 50.
Next, a gate insulating layer 54 is formed by depositing an inorganic insulating material, such as silicon nitride or silicon oxide, on the substrate 50 where the gate electrode 52 is formed.
In FIG. 3B, amorphous silicon and doped amorphous silicon are deposited on the gate insulating layer 54 and patterned into an active layer 56 and an ohmic contact layer 58, respectively. For example, the amorphous silicon is deposited by a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) after decomposing a silane gas (SiH4) by radio frequency (RF) power. Forming the doped amorphous silicon includes preparing a chamber (not shown) where the substrate 50 having the amorphous silicon formed thereon is disposed and injecting a doping gas such as silane (SiH4), a dilution gas of hydrogen, phosphine (PH3) and diborane (B2H6), into the chamber. Here, when the gas pressure reaches a predetermined level, impurities such as phosphorous (P) or boron (B) may be incorporated as dopants into the amorphous silicon by providing RF power in the chamber.
The active layer 56 and the ohmic contact layer 58 can be formed having predetermined patterns by performing a mask process for patterning the amorphous silicon layer and the doped amorphous silicon layer.
FIG. 3C, source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 are formed by depositing and patterning a conductive material, such as the same material as the gate electrode material, on the ohmic contact layer 58. Here, the source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 are spaced apart from each other by an opening portion 59 that exposes a portion of the ohmic contact layer 58.
Sequentially, a portion of the ohmic contact layer 58 corresponding to the opening portion 59 is removed and a portion of the active layer 56 corresponding to the opening portion 59 is exposed. The exposed portion of the active layer 56 is defined as a channel region (not shown).
The active layer 56 and the ohmic contact layer 58 form a semiconductor layer 57.
Using the above-described process, a TFT T including the gate electrode 52, the semiconductor layer 57, and source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 may be formed.
In FIG. 3D, a passivation layer 64 is formed by depositing an inorganic insulating material such as silicon nitride (SiNx) and silicon oxide (SiOx) or by coating an organic insulating layer such as benzocyclobutene (BCB) and acrylic resin on the substrate 50 where the source and drain electrodes 60 and 62 are formed.
Next, a drain contact hole 66 is formed by patterning the passivation layer 64. The drain contact hole 66 exposes a portion of the drain electrode 62.
In FIG. 3E, a pixel electrode 68 is formed by depositing and patterning a transparent conductive material, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO), on the passivation layer 64. Here, the pixel electrode 68 is connected to the drain electrode 62 via the drain contact hole 66.
Although the semiconductor layer 57 of the inverted staggered TFT T includes amorphous silicon, the amorphous silicon is unsuitable for a large size LCD. It is because the amorphous silicon has a low mobility regarding an electron and a hole thereof.
As one means to solve the problem, a top gate TFT using polysilicon having a higher mobility than the amorphous silicon has been suggested.
FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a top gate type TFT according to the related art.
In FIG. 4, a top gate type TFT T includes an active layer 72 of polysilicon on a substrate 70, an ohmic contact layer 74 on the active layer 72 which has an opening portion 73 that exposes a central portion of the active layer 72, and source and drain electrodes 76 and 78 spaced apart from each other by the opening portion 73.
The opening portion 73 defines a channel region (not shown). A gate insulating layer 80 is formed on an entire surface of the substrate 70 where the active layer 72, the ohmic contact layer 74 and the opening portion 73 are formed. A gate electrode 82 is formed on the gate insulating layer 80 at a position corresponding to the opening portion 73. A passivation layer 84 is formed on the gate electrode 82 and has a drain contact hole 85 that exposes a portion of the drain electrode 78. A pixel electrode 86 is formed on the passivation layer 84 and is connected to the drain electrode 78 via the drain contact hole 85. For example, the active layer 72 is made of polysilicon formed by crystallizing amorphous silicon.
As explained above, the inverted staggered type or the top gate type TFT is manufactured through a complicated process for forming the active layer 72 and the ohmic contact layer 74. Furthermore, forming the array substrate includes forming the TFT T, and, for example, forming the TFT T is not independent from forming and the data line (not shown) applying signals to the source and drain electrodes 76 and 78 of the TFT T.
Therefore manufacturing the array substrate increases the process time and the production cost.
A TFT using a silicon nanowire has been suggested in order to solve this problem.
FIG. 5 is a schematic cross sectional view showing a structure of a TFT including a silicon nanowire according to the related art.
In FIG. 5, a gate electrode 92 is formed on a substrate 90, source and drain electrodes 98 and 99 are formed on both sides of the gate electrode 92, and a silicon nanowire 95 is disposed on the gate electrode 92 so as to directly contact the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99 through both sides thereof. Typically, forming the silicon nanowire 95 is performed before forming the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99.
To connect the silicon nanowire 95 and the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99, an insulating layer 96, such as an oxide layer of the silicon nanowire 95 surrounding a crystalline silicon 94 of the silicon nanowire 95, is removed at each end of the silicon nanowire 95 before forming the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99.
Accordingly, an additional process for connecting the silicon nanowire 95 and the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99 is required. Therefore, since the silicon nanowire 95 is unstably disposed on the gate electrode 92, an electric contact state between the semiconductor material, such as the silicon nanowire 95, and the metal layer, such as the source and drain electrodes 98 and 99, is unstable. Therefore, a number of variables may undesirably affect the operation of the device.

Thin film transistor and method of fabricating the same