A motor-generator voltage controller for a turbocharger is provided with a transformer and a switching circuit mechanism. The transformer has input and output windings with the output windings being connected to the motor-generator. The input windings of the transformer have first and second portions. The winding ratio between the first portion of the input windings and the output windings is input power supply voltage: motor drive voltage. The switching circuit mechanism connects the second portion of the input windings to the input power supply when the motor-generator is operated as a motor so that the transformer functions as an invertor. The switching circuit mechanism connects the first portion of the input windings to the input powers apply when the motor-generator is operated as a generator. The motor-generator voltage controller has three transformers and three corresponding switching circuit mechanisms, one for each of a U-phase, a V-phase and a W-phase. A controller controls each of the three switching circuit mechanisms.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotating motor-generator voltage controller for a turbocharger incorporated in a motor-generator mounted on the turbocharger shaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many designs have been proposed which mount a turbocharger to the exhaust of an engine and directly connect a motor-generator to the turbocharger shaft in order to recover the exhaust energy, and a number of these proposed designs have been implemented. This design fundamentally consists of a rotating motor-generator mounted to the turbocharger which functions as a motor or a generator. The operation mode changes according to the operation status of the internal combustion engine. For example, when the internal combustion engine is operating under high load, the motor-generator is operated in the motor mode, assisting compressor rotation which in turn enhances turbocharger operation. On the other hand, when the internal combustion engine is operating at a high rpm, the large volume of exhaust gas which is discharged is transfered into rotating force by the turbine which turns the compressor, and the revolving motor-generator is operated in the generator mode in order to recover the exhaust gas energy and convert it into electric energy. Design proposals of this type have been published repeatedly, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 1-155027 published by the Japanese Patent Office.
The turbocharger unit described above consists of a voltage converter which converts 12 V DC into 100 V AC, a rectifier which converts 100 V AC into 70 V DC, an inverter which converts 70 V DC power and outputs it as variable frequency 3-phase AC power, and a low-voltage rectifier which converts the 3-phase AC voltage recovered by the generator into 12 V power.
Furthermore, when the rotating motor-generator in this turbocharger is functioning as a generator, the low-voltage rectifier operates, converting the electric power generated into 12 V DC power. When the rotating motor-generator is operated as a motor to drive the compressor, the AC output with the required frequency and waveheight is obtained after a step where the 12 V DC power is boosted to 100 V AC by the voltage converter, another step where the 100 V AC power is converted to 70 V DC, and another step where the 70 V DC power is converted into 3-phase AC output, enabling operation of the rotating motor-generator as a motor.
As explained above, with conventional turbochargers, the voltage applied to the motor had to be converted from DC to AC to DC to AC when the rotating motor-generator was operated as a motor, requiring an extremely complicated circuitry configuration. This inevitably led to high production costs, a high level of difficulty to perform assembly and adjustment, and large dimensions.

Motor-generator voltage controller for turbocharger


A shelf unit for use in an electronic equipment rack, comprises an electronic equipment structure for holding electronic equipment. An auxiliary equipment structure, such as a fiber management plate, is provided for holding auxiliary equipment. A fan tray is movable in and out of a corresponding tray support structure forming part of the shelf unit. The tray support structure is configured such that when the associated fan tray is pushed in, the fan tray extends in a plane behind the auxiliary equipment structure, but when pulled out the fan tray drops down to clear the auxiliary equipment structure and provide access to the fan in the tray.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to racks for electronic equipment and, more particularly, to a shelf unit for such racks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to stack electronic equipment in racks. Such racks typically include a plurality of vertically spaced-apart shelf units fitted to a frame. For instance, each shelf unit can include a plurality of printed circuit board assemblies mounted side-by-side with the major planar surface thereof vertically oriented. Each printed circuit board assembly has optical fibers extending therefrom. The optical fibers are bundled together and guided sideways below or above the boards for allowing the same to be removed without having to disturb the fiber bundles.
The shelf units must be cooled to ensure long life and stable operation of the electronic components of the printed circuit board assemblies. This is typically achieved by means of cooling fans. Since the fans require maintenance from time to time, they are generally mounted in the racks below or above the fiber bundles so that the fiber bundles do not have to be moved out of the way to gain access to the fans. This mounting arrangement results in dead spaces behind the fiber bundles and, thus, in less equipment being stacked for a given height of rack.
There is thus a need for a new fan mounting arrangement which would allow more electronic equipment to be stacked in a rack without increasing the height thereof, while still allowing access to the fans without having to disturb the optical fibers extending from the electronic equipment.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a compact rack for electronic equipment.
It is also an aim of the present invention to provide a new fan tray and tray arrangement allowing for vertical space savings.
Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a shelf unit for use in an electronic equipment rack, comprising an electronic equipment structure for holding electronic equipment, an auxiliary equipment structure associated to said electronic equipment structure for holding auxiliary equipment, said auxiliary equipment structure having a depth substantially smaller than a depth of said electronic equipment structure, and being accessible from a front side of the shelf unit; and a tray movable relative to said electronic and auxiliary equipment structures between a retracted position wherein said tray extends in a plane behind said auxiliary equipment structure and an extended position for providing access to the tray, wherein said tray departs from said plane while being moved between said retracted and extended positions thereof in order to clear said auxiliary support structure.
In accordance with a further general aspect of the present invention, there is provided a shelf unit for use in an electronic equipment rack, comprising an electronic equipment structure for holding electronic equipment, an auxiliary equipment structure for holding auxiliary equipment, a tray movable in and out relative to said equipment structures, and a tray support structure configured such that when said tray is pushed in, the tray extends in a plane behind said auxiliary equipment structure, but when pulled out said tray departs from said plane to clear said auxiliary equipment structure and provide access to said tray.
In accordance with a further general aspect of the present invention, there is provided a shelf unit for use in an electronic equipment rack, comprising an electronic equipment structure for holding electronic equipment, an auxiliary equipment structure for holding auxiliary equipment, a tray movable in and out on a tray support structure, said tray support structure being configured for allowing said tray to be tilted so as to clear said auxiliary equipment structure when the tray is pulled out from a retracted position, wherein said tray extends depth-wise behind said auxiliary equipment structure in the retracted position.

Compact shelf unit for electronic equipment rack


A wheel protector has utility in protecting a wheel when a chemical solution is applied to a tire which is mounted upon the wheel where the solution lengthens the lifetime and enhances the aesthetic appeal of the tire. The wheel protector includes a flat, rectangular shield formed of a flexible material that partially surrounds the wheel during the application of the chemical solution to the tire. The shield is moved as needed to complete an application. The shield is formed of a resilient material and is curved to match the radius of the wheel when in us. A shape retainer, preferably formed of aluminum, is secured to the shield during use to prevent the shield from flattening out. The shield is secured to the shape retainer by a strip of hook and loop fastening material secured to the shield that mates with a complementary strip of hook and loop fastening material that is secured to the shape retainer. After use, the shield is easily detached from the shape retainer and the shape retainer is bent to conform to the radius of another wheel as needed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to devices that cover wheels while a tire mounted on the wheel is being treated with a chemical solution. More particularly, it relates to a device that adjusts to many different sizes yet which has an elegant structural simplicity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
If left unprotected, tire sidewalls can crack or harden when exposed to ultraviolet radiation and other natural phenomenon. To prolong the lifetime of tire sidewalls, chemists have developed a number of protective coatings that block or inhibit penetration of ultraviolet rays, that inhibit or delay cracking and hardening of the sidewalls, and that generally prolong the aesthetic appearance of the tire sidewalls. Depending upon the characteristics of the protectant, the chemical may be applied by spraying or with a cloth, sponge, and the like.
Regardless of the application method selected, the wheel upon which the tire is mounted should be protected from the chemical being applied to the sidewalls so that the chemical is applied only to the sidewalls and not to the wheel rim or hubcap. Over the years, inventors have developed a number of differing wheel protectors. All of them are believed to perform their intended function, but the art still has not reached its highest pinnacle of development.
For example, one of the best solutions to the wheelmasking problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,191 to Farmer. A circular disc is formed into a cone; the cone is held at its apex and its annular rim is disposed into covering relation to the wheel upon which a tire is mounted. Advantageously, the diameter of the annular rim may be varied by changing the position of tab members which are inserted into slots. This allows the device to be used to protect or mask wheels of differing diameters.
There are still a few drawbacks with the cone design, however. First of all, the diameter of the cone is not infinitely variable; thus, a particular wheel diameter might be somewhere between two tab and slot settings. Secondly, the depth of the cone may be insufficient to receive protrusions from some hubcaps. Thirdly, the cone requires a substantial amount of material. Moreover, the cone is highly resilient so that it quickly returns to its flat configuration if a tab slips out of a slot.
Thus, there is a need for a wheel shield having an infinitely variable radius so that it can be used to mask wheels of all diameters. There is a further need for a wheel shield that can accommodate any hubcap protrusions. Moreover, there is a need for a wheel shield that requires less material than a cone-shaped shield, and there is a need for a shield that is not subject to failure in the event of slippage.
However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how the needed improvements could be provided.


There has been a demand for a new method for producing a steviol glycoside and steviol. The present invention provides a method for producing a steviol glycoside and/or steviol, the method comprising a step of breaking bonds of steviol glycoside: a glucosidic bond at position 13; a glucosyl ester bond at position 19; and/or a glycosidic bond in a side chain (excluding a rhamnoside bond).

The leaves of Stevia rebaudiana of the Asteraceae family contain a secondary metabolite called "steviol" which is a kind of diterpenoid. Steviol glycosides, which are products of the addition of sugars to steviol, include those having sweetness about 300 times higher than that of sucrose. Such steviol glycosides are used as non-caloric sweeteners in the food industry. Obesity is becoming more of a serious social issue on an international scale, and non-caloric sweeteners are increasingly demanded from the viewpoint of promotion of health and reduction of medical cost. Currently, aspartame and acesulfame potassium, which are artificially-synthesized amino acid derivatives, are used as artificial sweeteners. However, naturally-occurring non-caloric sweeteners such as steviol glycosides are expected to be safer and gain more public acceptance.
Among steviol glycosides, stevioside (stv) is a compound in which three glucose units are added to steviol, and is contained in the largest amount in the leaves of common Stevia rebaudiana. Stevioside (stv) has a degree of sweetness about 300 times higher than that of sucrose, but has slightly bitter taste. Rebaudioside A (rebA), which is another steviol glycoside, is a compound in which four glucose units are added to steviol, and has a degree of sweetness about 400 times higher than that of sucrose. Stevioside and rebaudioside A are primary substances responsible for the sweetness of Stevia rebaudiana. There are also known glycosides such as rebaudioside D (rebD) in which five glucose units are added to steviol and rebaudioside M (rebM) in which six glucose units are added to steviol. It is also known that Rubus suavissimus contains rubusoside (rub) in which one glucose unit is added at each of the 13 and 19 positions of steviol and that this rubusoside is a primary sweet component of Rubus suavissimus. In addition to the above glycosides, glycosides considered to be reaction intermediates and analogs differing in the type of sugar are known to exist (FIG. 1).
Meanwhile, steviol is known to have, for example, improving effect on cognitive function.
If an enzyme acting only on a specific glycoside bond in steviol glycosides can be used, selective production of a specific glycoside or elimination of an unnecessary glycoside will become possible. This will bring a lot of merits such as facilitating the improvement in taste of Stevia rebaudiana extracts or the purification of a specific steviol glycoside.
Furthermore, steviol is also useful for the step of using steviol as a starting material and glycosylating the steviol through the use of yeast or the like to obtain a steviol glycoside. Yeast is capable of taking up steviol into its cells by adding the steviol into a culture medium. Therefore, when yeast caused to express steviol glycosidase gene in its cells is cultured in a culture medium containing steviol, the yeast can take up the steviol into its cells and glycosylate the steviol. On the other hand, it is known that yeast can neither take up a steviol glycoside into its cells nor further perform glycosylation even if the steviol glycoside is added into a culture medium. As stated above, steviol is more desirable than steviol glycosides for cellular uptake by yeast. Thus, there is a demand for steviol.
An enzyme activity to hydrolyze steviol glycosides has been reported to be observed in some organism species. In particular, concerning the production of steviol glycoside-hydrolyzing enzymes by filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, it has been reported that raw soy sauce has an activity to hydrolyze stevioside into rubusoside (Non Patent Literature 1) and that a pectinase enzyme agent, hesperidinase enzyme agent, and takadiastase enzyme agent have an activity to hydrolyze stevioside into steviol (Non Patent Literatures 2 to 4). A method has also been reported in which steviol is produced from stevioside by the combined use of a pectinase enzyme agent from filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus and an enzyme agent from Helix pomatia (Patent Literature 1). Viscozyme L (novozyme), an enzyme agent from Aspergillus aculeatus, has been described to have an activity to hydrolyze stevioside into rubusoside and then into steviol monoglycosyl ester (Non Patent Literature 5). Additionally, an extract obtained from Aspergillus aculeatus by solid culture has been described to have an activity to convert stevioside into steviol (Non Patent Literature 6).
As stated above, filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, including koji mold, have been suggested to have an enzyme gene having steviol glycoside-hydrolyzing activity. However, there has been no report of any enzyme responsible for enzyme activity or gene encoding the enzyme.
It has been reported that the β-glucosidase of the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 3 encoded by the AO090009000356 gene of koji mold hydrolyzes disaccharides with a β-glucoside bond (Non Patent Literature 7). Specifically, its specificity for hydrolysis is the highest for laminaribiose with a β-1,3 linkage, followed by β-gentiobiose with a β-1,6 linkage, cellobiose with a β-1,4 linkage, and sophorose with a β-1,2 linkage. However, there has been no report on whether the β-glucosidase has an activity to hydrolyze terpene glycosides typified by steviol glycosides.
Some other organisms have also been reported to have an activity to hydrolyze steviol glycosides. For example, it has been disclosed that bacteria of the genus Clavibacter have an enzyme that decomposes the glucosyl ester bond at the 19 position of rubusoside but does not decompose the glucoside bond at the 13 position (Patent Literature 2). Additionally, it has been reported that Flavobacterium johnsoniae-derived β-glucosidase has an activity to decompose steviol glycosides (an activity to hydrolyze the β-glucoside bond at the 13 position and the glucosyl ester bond at the 19 position) (Non Patent Literature 8).
It has been reported that Penicillium decumbens-derived naringinase includes an enzyme hydrolyzing stevioside through rubusoside, steviolbioside, and steviol monoglucoside into steviol, and this enzyme is a protein having a molecular weight of 121 kDa and is stable at a pH of 2.3 to 6.0 and a temperature of 40 to 60° C. (Non Patent Literature 9).
Although these have been found to have an activity to hydrolyze steviol glycosides, the gene responsible for this activity has not been identified.
Moreover, koji mold contains a large number of genes considered to encode GH3 family or GH5 family enzymes having β-glucosidase-like activity, and thus, even if an enzyme activity can be detected, it is not easy to determine which gene is responsible for the activity.

Method for producing steviol and steviol glycoside by using AOBGL11 homolog


The present invention relates, in an embodiment, to a system for automatically ingesting data into a data lake. In an embodiment of the present invention, the system comprises computer readable memory having recorded thereon instructions for execution by a processor having an ingestion engine and a metadata model. In an embodiment of the present invention, the instructions are configured to determine, via the metadata model, a type of metadata the ingested data contains; to generate guidelines for processing and transforming the ingested data based on the determined metadata; to apply the guidelines at the ingestion engine for how the ingestion engine processes and transforms the ingested data based on the determined metadata; and to store the transformed ingested data to a storage repository.

Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate to deal with them. Data sets grow rapidly—in part because they are increasingly gathered by cheap and numerous information-sensing devices and networks. The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has increased phenomenally.
The current approaches to ingesting data into an Enterprise Data Lake (EDL) involve using extract, transform, load (ETL) tools and manual mapping using the tools of data from source system into the target system (the EDL in this case). The output of these tools is code that must be processed through the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), in order to be promoted from a development environment all the way through to a production environment. This cycle creates lengthy delays between the time a user of the data makes a request to add the data to the EDL, and the time the data becomes available to them.
Furthermore, nuances between the way different developers write these ETLs create inconsistencies in the output and the landed data in the EDL can never be fully standardized. Consumers then have difficulties trying to develop a self-serve model, since considerable time would be exhausted attempting to standardize each format and structure of every dataset they need to consume. Often, the consumer would have to contact the developer of the associated ETL.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,949,175 provides a generic approach for automatically ingesting data into an Hadoop File System (HDFS)-based data warehouse including a datahub, a generic pipelined data loading framework, and a meta-data model that, together, address data loading efficiency, data source heterogeneities, and data warehouse schema evolvement. The generic loading framework, datahub, uses a MapReduce framework to address loading efficiency. The meta-data model is comprised of configuration files and a catalog. The configuration file is setup per ingestion task. The catalog manages the data warehouse schema. When a scheduled data loading task is executed, the configuration files and the catalog collaboratively drive the datahub server to load the heterogeneous data to their destination schemas automatically.
There is an increased need for a self-serve approach for data providers to make their data available within a data lake. Data providers currently require the intervention of IT to either develop code to ingest their datasets, or to deploy any producer code/workflows that need to be tested following the SDLC process.
There is an increased need for data providers to have control over their datasets, particularly with respect to security. The data lake should respect the security classification of datasets as specified by their owners.
There is an increased need for a self-serve approach for data consumers for searching, discovering, validating, and consuming the data that is made available to them in the data lake. Furthermore, there is a need for a self-serve approach for data consumers to specify how they want to integrate sources, targets, algorithms (e.g., decisioning, machines learning, analytics), and visualization components together. There is a need to be able to test their integration dynamically, but also have the ability to save and promote their changes in a controlled matter into other environments (e.g., BAT, Production).
There exists a need for a self-serve approach to deploying and scheduling transformations and data management rules.

Metadata-driven data management platform


Biological processes for treating wastewater include the conventional activated sludge process, which has continuous flow in and out of each treatment cell, and the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process, which operates on a batch fill and draw basis. The first process operates at a constant level and requires the use of dedicated, relatively expensive external clarifiers to settle mixed liquor suspended solids and recycle activated sludge. The second process does not use separate clarifiers because treatment and settling of mixed liquor suspended solids is accomplished in a single basin, but has a variable level operation and resulting inefficient use of the treatment volume. This substantially constant level biological wastewater treatment process and system enables efficient treatment of wastewater, combining the advantages and eliminating the disadvantages of both SBR and activated sludge processes. In the present case, wastewater continuously flows in one direction through a plurality of treatment cells hydraulically connected in series. The wastewater is subjected to biological treatment in at least one of the cells and settled in at least one last treatment and discharge cell, immediately prior to discharge from the system.

This invention relates to a method and a system for treatment of water and wastewater. More specifically, the method and system of the present invention are designed for the biological removal from wastewater of contamination in the form of solids and soluble organic material, and optionally the biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients.
The biological treatment of sewage and other apparatuses for effecting such treatment are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,907,463, issued to D. J. N. Light et al,. on Oct. 6, 1959; 3,964,998, issued to J. L. Bernard on Jun. 22, 1976; 4,279,753 issued to N. E. Nielson et al. on Jul. 21, 1981; 4,430,224 issued to U. Fuchs on Feb. 7, 1984; 4,468,327 issued to A. D. Brown on Aug. 28, 1984; 4,522,722 issued to E. M. Nicholas on Jun. 11, 1985; 4,663,044, issued to M. C. Goronszy on May 5, 1987; 4,798,673 issued to C. Huntington on Jan. 17, 1989; 4,867,883 issued to G. T. Daigger on Sep. 19, 1989; 4,948,510 issued to M. D. Todd et al. on Aug. 14, 1990; 5,013,441 issued to M. C. Goronszy on May 7, 1991; and in Canadian Patents Nos. 997,488, issued to B. K. Tholander et al. on Sep. 21, 1976 and 1,117,042, issued to M. L. Spector on Jan. 26, 1982.
In general, suspended growth activated sludge processes and modifications thereto have recently been shown to be able to accomplish the objectives set out above, but the costs of specialized clarifiers required to settle and recycle biological solids are quite high. Moreover, the size, complexity and operating problems encountered with such systems make them unattractive to many potential users. In addition, the basic activated sludge process often results in poor treatment because of the continuous flow through characteristics in the final clarifier and the resulting constant sludge management requirements.
As a consequence of the foregoing, during the past ten years improved final clarification and solids removal has been sought by using larger and improved but more complex and expensive designs for final clarifiers. Moreover, final effluent filtration is often necessary to reliably meet permitted environmental standards.
There has also been a recent revival of interest in the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) suspended growth activated sludge process because of the inherently more efficient batch settling and often higher treatment efficiency for batch organic contaminants removal than is possible with the conventional continuous flow activated sludge process. The SBR process uses the same vessel for batch aerated biological reaction and quiescent batch settling. Thus, the SBR process eliminates the major cost of dedicated final clarifiers necessary for the conventional activated sludge process as well as improving solids removal performance.
However the SBR process has several disadvantages, the principle one being that it does not operate with a constant level and continuous flow, but requires intermittent operation for cycles of fill, react, settle, decant and idle. Typical level fluctuations are 30% to 50% of the maximum operating depth or as much as 5 to 10 feet of level fluctuations. The result is a much lower use to total volume ratio than the conventional activated sludge process. Accordingly, the SBR process is generally not cost effective for flows greater than five to ten million gallons per day (MGD).
Another disadvantage of the SBR process is that significant head loss occurs from the influent to the final effluent, requiring additional energy and pumping costs. Additionally, because the effluent flow is not continuous, flow equalization systems may be required to prevent peak loadings and adverse impacts on receiving waters.
Finally, the basic process and design limitations of the SBR process make it difficult to achieve the same high efficiency biological nutrient removal possible using the continuous flow activated sludge process, especially for weak or colder wastewaters.
Several improvements have been attempted to overcome the limitations of the conventional SBR process. A continuous inflow, partitioned SBR process U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,327 was issued to A. D. Brown on Aug. 28, 1984, and cyclically operated intermittent flow path sequencial cycle, multi-zoned recycle SBR process U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,663,044 and 5,013,441 were issued to H. G. Goronszy on May 5, 1987 and May 7, 1991 respectively. Significant level fluctuations, head losses and intermittent high flow rate discharges, however, still prevent these processes from overcoming all the limitations of the conventional SBR process.
Attempts have also been made over the years to overcome the level variation limitations of all SBR type processes and the cost of dedicated final clarifiers for the conventional activated sludge process. The Degremont S.A. U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,092 issued to J. J. P. Bernard on Sep. 30, 1969 illustrates a first attempt to develop a new suspended growth activated sludge process utilizing the concepts of both batch treatment and continuous flow. This two cell process was partially interconnected at the water surface. The alternate cell feed concept was not effective because it did not achieve a high treatment efficiency, had a low aerator utilization factor, and required long detention times to operate, resulting in expensive systems. Union Carbide U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,366 issued to J. R. Kaelin on Dec. 18, 1979 added a third bottom interconnected cell, but also suffered from low treatment efficiency and ineffective changeover of untreated wastewater from the first cell to the third cell. The processes disclosed by both patents also required significant level fluctuations in the treatment cells between operating cycles which made it difficult to control flows and operate fixed, level-sensitive mechanical aeration systems.
Linde AG German Patent No. 3,147,920 issued on Oct. 13, 1983 utilized the same three cell concept as U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,366. Although this three cell process achieved a more constant level, and overcame some of the limitations of the prior art, the process failed because it relied on expensive and unreliable mechanical gates to separate the treatment cells at various cycle times, and because treatment efficiency and effectiveness was too low to be commercially useful.
VOR SA French Patent No. 2550522 issued on Feb. 15, 1985 describes another constant level apparatus including three separate, identical basins. This process required a large, expensive treatment system because three independent basins were required, only 1/3 of the total treatment volume was used for biological treatment at any time, and only 1/3 of the aeration equipment could be used at one time.
In spite of these attempts to improve on the performance and effectiveness of the SBR and conventional activated sludge processes, they do not provide a higher treatment efficiency and hence they are not significantly more cost effective. Such attempts have either failed to totally achieve the desired benefits, or have new inherent disadvantages which result in little or no net benefits compared to conventional methods.
All these attempts to develop constant level processes to improve on the conventional suspended growth activated sludge process, rely on the management control and recycle of mixed liquor suspended solids by back flushing or forward flushing through or around the treatment system by control of the timing and direction of wastewater flow into and through the treatment system. These methods of solids management differ significantly from variable level SBR's, and also differ from the constant level conventional activated sludge process, which settles the mixed liquor suspended solids in a dedicated final clarifier to collect and recycle the resulting activated sludge back to the aeration basin.
In contrast, this present invention relies on biological solids management by a novel substantially constant level wastewater treatment method and system in which mixed liquor suspended solids are positively transferred alternatively from at least one last treatment discharge cells to a previous hydraulically connected treatment cell simultaneously with the co-mingled partially treated wastewater, while being subjected to mixing prior to each last cell sequentially functioning once again as a quiescent clarifier for discharge of final treated effluent.
This novel treatment method and system makes it possible to achieve many worthwhile objectives to significantly increase the usefulness and lower the cost of wastewater treatment.

Method and system for treatment of water and wastewater


A method of determining in a three-dimensional operating space a measure of super-imposition M between at least a portion of an object and a spatial representation of the object or part thereof in an object representation pose, a pose comprising position and orientation in operating space includes:                a) obtaining a similarity measure S between a first imaging data taken in first respective imaging poses of the object or part thereof and second imaging data comparable to the first imaging data taken in second respective imaging poses that are digitally reconstructed from the spatial representation of the object or part thereof in the object representation pose;        b) locating in operating space at least one point on the surface of the object or part thereof;        c) obtaining a distance measure D between the at least one point in operating space and a surface of the spatial representation of the object or part thereof in the object representation pose; and        d) obtaining a measure of superimposition M by a combination of the similarity measure S and the distance measure D.

Spatial representations of a body or body portions of a patient are indispensable in computer-assisted surgery (CAS), for instance. Imaging means available to date, however, such as computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are more suited for preoperative imaging, and less suited for use during surgery. It is therefore a general custom to acquire spatial representations comprising serial sections acquired from CT or MRI scans prior to surgical interventions.
For example, during surgery the patient or portions of interest of the patient may be brought into alignment with pre-operatively acquired spatial representations of the patient or portions of the patient. In particular, two-dimensional imaging techniques may be applied to match or register an object, the body of a patient or a body portion of a patient, for instance, to pre-operatively acquired spatial representations of the object.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,934 (Brunnett) describes a system wherein the current actual position of a patient and diagnostic data comprising a spatial representation of a body portion of the patient are brought into registration by taking two-dimensional radiographic reference images of a body portion of interest from a selected spatial position and angular orientation (pose) of a radiographic imaging apparatus. Subsequently, a shadowgraphic image synthesizer may be used to synthesize analogous shadowgraphic images from the diagnostic data forming a spatial representation of the body portion of interest. The synthetic images are taken from the same spatial position and angular orientation (pose) as the reference images. By adjusting the spatial position and angular orientation (pose) of the synthetic camera, an optimal match between the superimposed reference and synthetic images can be achieved. From the adjusted spatial position and angular orientation (pose) of the synthetic camera, the pose of the spatial representation of the body portion of interest can be adjusted accordingly and, thus, be brought into alignment with the actual position of the patient.
In "A Comparison of Similarity Measures for Use in 2-D-3-D Medical Image Registration", IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 17, No. 4, August 1998, Penney et al. describe alignment techniques to register pre-operative three-dimensional CT scans forming spatial representations of an object to intra-operatively acquired two-dimensional X-ray fluoroscopy images. By casting rays through a CT volume, integrating values derived from the volume elements (voxels) of the CT scan along the ray, and projecting them onto an imaging plane, digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) can be produced that may resemble a radiograph. Penney et al. continue to describe various similarity measures between fluoroscopic reference images of an object and digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) of a spatial object representation based on normalized cross-correlation of image pairs, on normalized cross-correlation of gradient filtered image pairs, and on entropy evaluation in a difference image between image pairs, for instance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,475 (Gueziec et. al) describes a system for registering two-dimensional fluoroscopic images with a three-dimensional model of a surgical tissue of interest, without using digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs). Instead, a bundle-adjustment technique is implemented using contours detected in the two-dimensional fluoroscopic images.
In "Intensity-Based 2D-3D Spine Image Registration Incorporating one Fiducial Marker", MICCAI 2003, pp. 287-294, 2003, Russakoff et al. propose the usage of an additional fiducial marker for the registration of a three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) image to one or more two-dimensional X-ray projection images. This method requires the implantation of a marker in the patient. An implanted fiducial marker is used as an additional pair point or corresponding point for the registration. An image similarity measure and a point distance are additively combined as an optimization measure for the registration. However, the additive combination of image similarity values and distance values within the optimization measure is not independent of the scaling of grey-level intensity values in the X-ray projection images. Thus, the registration procedure according to Russakoff et al. depends on variations in the image quality.
In conventional 2D/3D registration of the pelvis, for instance, two fluoroscopic images are typically acquired. With known techniques, minor directional errors in the alignment of the pubis may lead to significant errors in the acetabulum and spina region. In order to be suited to hip surgeries, for instance, very accurate registration, especially in these areas, is required.


A foot-operated keyboard device comprises a support structure and a plurality of switch elements. The support structure extends along a centrally-disposed longitudinal axis and includes an upper panel member. The upper panel member has a first surface with a foot resting region disposed thereon. The foot resting region has a forward toe resting section and a rear heel resting section. The plurality of switch elements are mounted to the support structure and are accessible from the first surface. The plurality of switch elements include at least a first array of switch elements extending traversely to the longitudinal axis in the vicinity of the forward toe resting section of the foot resting region and a second array of switch elements extending transversely to the longitudinal axis in the vicinity of the rear heel resting section of the foot resting region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foot-operated keyboard device and, more particularly, is directed to a foot-operated keyboard device that is adapted for use to provide input signals to a computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Many different types of input devices are used to provide input signals to a computer system. Perhaps the most common input device is a finger-operated keyboard. Other input devices include a mouse, a track ball and a joystick which are hand operated. Unfortunately, each of these input devices requires that the operator must have sufficient manual dexterity in order to provide the appropriate input signals to the computer system. Thus, handicapped computer operators who suffer from hand or arm disabilities sometimes experience difficulty in operating these hand-operated or finger-operated input devices.
One type of input device that does not require manual dexterity is a speech recognition system. Although speech recognition systems are readily available in the marketplace, none has become commonplace. One reason for their lack of popularity is that the most proficient manner to input punctuation commands is by hand-operated or finger-operated input devices.
There is a need in the industry to provide a foot-operated keyboard device which can be easily operated by a computer operator regardless of any hand or arm disability. It would be advantageous if such a foot-operated keyboard device could be used in conjunction with a standard, i.e., finger-operated, keyboard to significantly reduce the stress of repetitive commands typically found in text editing, computer programming and computer-assisted design. There is also a need in the industry to provide a foot-operated keyboard device that can be used in conjunction with a speech recognition system to eliminate the need to enter punctuation commands by hand. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides these advantages.


A method and apparatus for grinding bone for use in orthopaedic procedures includes a bone shoot for receiving bone segments which are fed into a grinding assembly rotatable about an axis such that a plurality of cutting plates rotate about such axis to grind bone into uniform and desirable sized portions suitable for use in cementing of bone implants.

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for grinding bone for use in orthopaedic procedures.
Various bone grinding devices are known in the art utilizing a variety of mechanisms in order to achieve a desired particle size of bone. Many of such devices are powered with a motor whereas others are manually driven by a hand crank. The size, expense and weight of available bone grinders, however, limit their practical application. Moreover, many of such bone grinders do not consistently produce bone particles of a uniform size which is deemed necessary in order to achieve desired tissue growth once the ground bone particles are placed adjacent to a surgical implant. Other prior art devices are prone to jam during cutting and grinding operations and motorized devices are often too heavy and cumbersome to provide easy access by a surgeon in an operating room environment. Still other bone grinding devices suffer from the fact that the grinding operation destroys bone cells such that a significant portion of the ground bone fraction is unusable for its intended purpose of promoting additional bone growth around surgical implants.
There is therefore a long-felt, but unsolved need in the industry to provide a method and system for grinding bone in a fashion that generates bone fragments of a desired size such that such bone fragments can be used in the regeneration of bone tissue surrounding surgical implants. Preferably, such a device would be relatively lightweight, be manually operated to facilitate use in various operating environments and would have a grinding mechanism that permits easy cleaning/autoclaving in order to ensure the requisite sterile nature of surgical instruments.
The present invention is a novel bone grinder for use in orthopaedic procedures such as in surgical procedures where bones are removed from one portion of a patient""s body, and subsequently ground so that the resulting bone fragments may be utilized to augment or repair defects in other areas of the patent""s skeletal system. The bone grinder of the present invention provides bone fragments of a preferred size, wherein substantially 100% of the bone segments provided to the present invention are transformed into appropriately sized bone fragments. Moreover, the present invention performs such uniform grinding on substantially all sizes and types of bone using a novel arrangement and configuration of bone cutting teeth on a rotatable bone grinding assembly, wherein the cranking force for rotating the grinding assembly effectively to grind bones input into the present invention can be readily manually applied by even petite medical professionals.
The novel bone grinding assembly of the present invention has a configuration of novel bone cutting teeth that is particularly useful in grinding bones via a manual cranking operation. In particular, the grinding assembly includes a plurality of bone cutting plates, each having a plurality of teeth on their outer circumference, wherein the cutting plates are positioned in contacting fixed alignment to one another on a rotatable shaft of the grinding assembly. Moreover, the configuration of cutting teeth on a fully assembled grinding assembly is such that there is: (a) relatively small amount of the total number of teeth contacting and cutting the input bone segments at any one time during operation, and (b) the arrangement of cutting teeth on immediately adjacent cutting plates is such that the teeth are offset circumferentially around the rotatable grinding shaft whereby each tooth is able to take advantage of a preceding cut made into a bone segment by an immediately adjacent tooth. That is, since each tooth both cuts into the bone segments as well as shears the bone segments along the tooth sides perpendicular to the tooth""s cutting edge, and since the cutting teeth are both offset radially around the grinding shaft and have immediately adjacent cutting paths, substantially every tooth upon contacting the bone segments already has one tooth side that has been sheared by a preceding adjacent tooth. Thus, each tooth substantially shears (unassisted by adjacent teeth) the bone from the bone segments on at most a single side of the cutting tooth. Moreover, the configuration of the cutting teeth are such that each cutting tooth cuts (along its cutting edge) and shears (along a tooth side) bone fragments having substantially the desired size without fracturing these bone fragments into unacceptably small sizes.
It is also an aspect of the present invention that the bone grinding assembly, as well as all other bone contacting portions of the present invention, may be manufactured and assembled without any welds coming in contact with bone matter. In fact, it is an aspect of at least some embodiments of the present invention that it can be manufactured without any welds whatsoever. Note that this lack of welds is advantageous in that bone matter or other contaminants from, e.g., a previous use of the present invention can become entrapped in or about such welds and thereby in a subsequent operation, compromise the purity of the bone fragments produced by the present invention.
It is a further aspect of the present invention that the cutting plates, and indeed the entire grinding assembly, can be easily removed from the bone grinder of the present invention. In particular, each of the cutting plates of a grinder assembly have a central opening therethrough for sliding uniquely and fixedly onto the grinding shaft. Thus, since the adjacent side-to-side contact of the cutting plates extends substantially the entire width of the grinding chamber residing within the bone chute, the cutting plates remain in proper alignment without the use of welds or other techniques for fixing the position of cutting plates within the bone grinding assembly. Further note that each collection of cutting plates used together in an assembled grinding assembly may be slightably replaced upon the grinding shaft by a different such collection of cutting plates for providing a different size of resulting bone fragments, and/or easily replacing a dulled or chipped collection or any cutting plates within a collection.
It is a further aspect of the present invention that a gear box is provided thereon for increasing the cutting force that is applied by, for example, a manual crank for the present invention. In particular, the Applicant has discovered that the present invention effectively grinds bones, via a manual cranking operation, by utilizing a gear reduction of approximately 2.4 to 1.
It is a further aspect of the present bone grinder that it is sufficiently lightweight (approximately less than 20 lbs and preferably less than about 15 lbs, in one embodiment approximately 14 lbs), and compact in size so that the entire device can be sterilized in, e.g., an autoclave. Moreover, such repeated sterilization will not affect the performance of the bone grinder in that there are no parts that are subject to degrading during harsh sterilization techniques, and the bone grinder of the present invention neither requires nor uses any lubricants.
It is a further aspect of the present invention that the plunger used to force bone segments toward and into contact with the bone grinding assembly is connected, via a linkage 102 assembly, to an ergonomically designed handle that allows an operator to maintain uniform pressure on the bone segments within the bone chute by lightly squeezing a trigger-like handle oriented at approximately 30xc2x0 to 60xc2x0 from horizontal. Thus, even petite operators may easily maintain an effective pressure on the bone segments within the bone chute with one hand while operating a manual crank of the present invention with the other hand for thereby producing appropriately sized bone fragments. Moreover, a hand held bone grinding (sub)assembly of the bone grinder is removable from a base upon which the hand held assembly may be mounted. Accordingly, the hand held assembly of the present invention as capable of being used both on the base as well as when detached from the base.
It is a further aspect of the present invention that once bone fragments have been cut away from the input bone segments, such bone fragments readily exit the bone grinder and thereby do not clog the grinding assembly or the bone fragment exiting portion of the bone chute. In particular, the exiting portion of the bone chute is vertical and short in length (e.g., in the range of 1 inch to 4 inches, preferably less than about 2 inches). Moreover, the bone cutting teeth of the grinding assembly, even though configured to scoop an appropriate volume of bone material from the bone segments, has a relatively shallow convex leading face so that the reduced surface area and the centrifugal force from the rotating of the grinding assembly tends to eject the bone fragments vertically downward and through the short bone fragment exiting portion of the bone chute without sticking to the interior of the bone grinder. The grinding teeth are preferably made of hardened steel and are honed until very sharp.

Method and device for surgical bone grinding


An interior trim attachment apparatus for an automotive vehicle includes a fastener and a bezel secured together in a screw free manner by rotating one of the components relative to the other. An interior trim member is sandwiched between the fastener and bezel. In another aspect of the present invention, a sun visor is attached to either or both of the fastener and bezel components.

This invention relates generally to attachment devices and more specifically to an interior trim attachment apparatus for an automotive vehicle.
Traditionally, automotive vehicle interior trim components are attached to sheet metal body panels by screws or barbed Christmas tree fasteners. Screws are problematic during installation on a quickly moving assembly line since the power screw drivers often inadvertently disengage the screw head and irreparably mar the adjacent trim panel or bezel. This leads to poor quality or costly removal and scrappage of the expensive trim panel. Furthermore, insertion of multiple screws is time consuming. Moreover, the installed screws are typically considered to be unattractive and are sometimes hidden by extraneous caps, especially for luxury vehicles. Christmas trees, on the other hand, are more aesthetically pleasing and easy to install but are rarely reusable once removed and are not suitable for withstanding loads within moving parts.
The recent modularization of interior trim systems, such as modular headliners, has allowed for the use of snap together parts which sandwich the headliner trim panels. These modular units have encouraged preassembly of various components prior to shipment and final assembly of the system into the automotive vehicle. This has significantly reduced cost while improving quality and aesthetic design flexibility. Notwithstanding, most of the modular sun visor attachments continue to use some screws either during preassembly or final assembly.
Examples of various conventional quick connect sun visors are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,544,927 entitled "Twist-In Visor Mount" which issued to Snyder et al. on Aug. 13, 1996; 5,499,854 entitled "Mounting Bracket Assembly for a Vehicle Sunshade and Method of Installing Same in a Vehicle" which issued to Crotty, III et al. on Mar. 19, 1996; 5,242,204 entitled "Visor Mount" which issued to Kitterman et al. on Sep. 7, 1993; 5,031,954 entitled "Mounting Bracket and Arm Assembly for a Vehicle Sunshade and Method of Installing Same in a Vehicle" which issued to Peterson et al. on Jul. 16, 1991; 4, 989,911 entitled "Snap-In Visor Mount" which issued to Van Order on Feb. 5, 1991; 4,913,484 entitled "Headliner and Sunshade Fastener" which issued to Dowd et al. on Apr. 3, 1990; and 4,729,590 entitled "Visor Rod Mount" which issued to Adams on Mar. 8, 1988.

Interior trim attachment apparatus for an automotive vehicle


A light having integrated light and thermal guides and separable electrical connectors. The light has a base for connection to a power supply, a light circuit electrically connected with solid state light sources such as LEDs, and a driver circuit for receiving power from the power supply and providing power to drive the light sources. A light guide is coupled to the light sources for receiving and distributing light from the light sources, and a thermal guide is integrated with the light guide for providing thermal conduction from the light source for cooling the light. The separable connectors include a first connector for providing an electrical connection between the driver circuit and light circuit, a second connector for providing an electrical connection between the power supply and driver circuit, and a third connector for providing a ground connection to the driver circuit.

Solid state lights, such as those using light emitting diodes (LEDs), are an alternative to incandescent light bulbs. LED lights can provide for more efficient energy use compared with incandescent light bulbs. The assembly of an LED light bulb can require hand soldering operations for various electrical connections, which is a time consuming and expensive process. Accordingly, a need exists for improved electrical connectors for LED lights and other solid state lights.

Electrical connectors for solid state light


An electrostatographic printing machine and apparatus that utilizes a foam roll aquatron with a hydrophilic web between it and the photoreceptor. The porous web captures and removes toner particles which ordinarily would be trapped in the foam roll nip and cause image quality defects, such as streaking.

This invention relates generally to an apparatus for depositing a substantially uniform charge on an adjacent surface, and, more particularly, concerns an apparatus for enabling ion transfer via ionic conduction through an ionically conductive liquid, primarily for use in electrostatographic applications, for example, for charging an imaging member such as a photoreceptor or a dielectric charge receptor.
Generally, the process of electrostatographic reproduction is initiated by exposing a light image of an original document to substantially uniformly charged photoreceptive member. Exposing the charged photoreceptive member to a light image discharges the photoconductive surface thereof in areas corresponding to non-image areas in the original document, while maintaining the charge on image areas to create an electrostatic latent image of the original; the original is subsequently developed into a visible image by a process in which a charged developing material is deposited onto the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor such that the developing material is attracted to the charged image areas on the photoconductive surface. Thereafter, the developing material is transferred from the photoreceptive member to a copy sheet or some other image support substrate to which the image may be permanently affixed for producing a reproduction of the original document. In a final step in the process, the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptive member is cleaned to remove any residual developing material therefrom in preparation for successive imaging cycles.
The above-described electrostatographic reproduction process is well known and is useful for light lens copying from an original, as well as for printing applications involving electronically generated or stored originals. Analogous processes also exist in other printing applications such as, for example, digital laser printing where a latent image is formed on the photoconductive surface via a modulated laser beam, or ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images.
Various devices and apparatus have been proposed for use in electrostatographic applications to apply an electrostatic charge or a charge potential to a photoconductive surface prior to the formation of a light image thereon. Typically, corona generating devices are utilized, wherein a suspended electrode comprising one or more fine conductive elements is biased at a high electric potential, causing ionization of surrounding air which results in deposition of an electric charge on an adjacent surface. An example of such a corona generating device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,725 to R. G. Vyverberg, wherein a conductive corona electrode in the form of an elongated wire is partially surrounded by a conductive shield. The corona electrode is provided with a DC voltage, while the conductive shield is usually electrically grounded. A dielectric surface to be charged is spaced from the wire on the side opposite the shield and is mounted on a grounded substrate. Alternatively, the corona device may be biased in a manner taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,395, wherein an AC corona generating potential is applied to the conductive wire electrode and a DC potential is applied to a conductive shield partially surrounding the electrode. This DC potential regulates the flow of ions from the electrode to the surface to be charged. Because of this DC potential, the charge rate can be adjusted, making this biasing system ideal for self regulating systems. Other biasing arrangements are known in the prior art and will not be discussed in great detail herein.
In addition to charging the imaging surface of an electrostatographic system prior to exposure, corona generating devices, so-called corotrons, can be used in the transfer of an electrostatic toner image from a photoreceptor to a transfer substrate, in tacking and detacking paper to or from the imaging member by neutralizing charge on the paper, and, generally, in conditioning the imaging surface prior to, during, and after the deposition of toner thereon to improve the quality of the xerographic output copy.
Several problems have historically been associated with corona generating devices as described hereinabove. The most notable problem centers around the inability of such corona devices to provide a uniform charge density along the entire length of the corona generating electrode, resulting in a corresponding variation in the magnitude of charge deposited on associated portions of the adjacent surface to be charged. Other problems include the use of very high voltages (6000-8000 V) requiring the use of special insulation, maintenance of corotron wires, low charging efficiency, the need for erase lamps and lamp shields and the like, arcing caused by non-uniformities between the coronode and the surface being charged, vibration and sagging of corona generating wires, contamination of corona wires, and, in general, inconsistent charging performance due to the effects of humidity and airborne chemical contaminants on corona devices. More importantly, corona devices generate ozone, resulting in well-documented health and environmental hazards. Corona charging devices also generate oxides of nitrogen which eventually desorb from the corotron and oxidize various machine components, thereby adversely effecting the quality of the final output print.
Various approaches and solutions to the problems inherent to the use of suspended wire corona generating charge devices have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,723 to Sarid et al. shows a dielectric coated coronode uniformly supported along its length on a conductive shield or on an insulating substrate. That patent shows a corona discharge electrode including a conductive wire coated with a relatively thick dielectric material, preferably glass or an inorganic dielectric, in contact with or spaced closely to a conductive shield electrode. U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,970 discloses a bare wire coronode attached directly to the outside of a glass coated secondary electrode. U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,447 discloses an ion modulating electrode that has a plurality of apertures capable of enhancing or blocking the passage of ion flow through the apertures. In addition, alternatives to corona generating charging systems have been developed. For example, roller charging systems, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,912,586 to Gundlach; 3,043,684 to Mayer; 3,398,336 to Martel et al., have been disclosed and discussed in numerous articles of technical literature.
The present invention relates to a device for charging photoconductive imaging members by ionic conduction through a fluid media, wherein corona generating devices together with their known disadvantages can be avoided. The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention and may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,626 to Facci et al. discloses an apparatus for applying an electrical charge to a charge retentive surface by transporting ions through an ionically conductive liquid and transferring the ions to the member to be charged across the liquid/charge retentive surface interface. The ionically conductive liquid is contacted with the charge retentive surface for depositing ions onto the charge retentive surface via a wetted donor blade supported within a conductive housing, wherein the housing is coupled to an electrical power supply for applying an electrical potential to the ionically conductive liquid. In one specific embodiment, the charging apparatus includes a support blade for urging the donor blade into contact with the charge retentive surface and a wiping blade for wiping any liquid from the surface of the charge retentive surface as may have been transferred to the surface at the donor blade/charge retentive surface interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,505 to Lewis discloses an apparatus for applying an electrical charge to a charge retentive surface by transporting ions through an ionically conductive liquid and transferring the ions to the member to be charged across the liquid/charge retentive surface interface. The ionically conductive liquid is contacted with the charge retentive surface for depositing ions onto the charge retentive surface via a wetted donor blade supported within a mechanically sealable housing adapted to permit movement of the wetted donor blade from an operative position in contact with the charge retentive surface, to a non-operative position stored within the housing to prevent loss of the ionically conductive liquid in its liquid or vapor form so as to extend the functional life of the apparatus. In one specific embodiment, a wiper blade may be provided for removing any liquid droplets from the surface of the photoreceptor as may have been transferred at the donor blade/charge retentive surface interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,523 to Facci et al. discloses a device for applying an electrical charge to a charge retentive surface by transporting ions in a fluid media and transferring the ions to the member to be charged across the fluid media/charge retentive surface interface. The fluid media is positioned in contact with a charge retentive surface for depositing ions onto the charge retentive surface. In one specific embodiment, the fluid media is a ferrofluid material wherein a magnet is utilized to control the position of the fluid media, which, in turn, can be utilized to selectively control the activation of the charging process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,944 to DeBolt et al. discloses an apparatus and method for applying offset preventing liquid to a fuser roll including an oil impregnated web member adapted to be moved by a motor from a supply core to a take up core; and a control to vary the duty cycle operation of the motor to drive the web member at a relatively constant linear speed at a contact nip, the control including a timer to monitor the cumulative time of operation of the motor to drive the web member at a relatively constant linear speed at a contact nip, the control including a timer to monitor the cumulative time of operation of the motor and to progressively decrease the duty cycle of the motor in response to the cumulative time of operation wherein the progressively decreased duty cycle of operation compensates for the increasing radius of the web member on the take up core to maintain the relatively constant linear speed at the contact nip.

Web liquid charging: improved resistance to contamination


A solid image pickup unit is provided which is capable of preventing the brightness of a reproduced screen from changing (a change in a storage time) due to hand shake correction and which is thus able to obtain a natural photographed image. An X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit having a hand shake correction function includes a reading vertical scanner for reading in sequence pixel information for each scanning line while performing vertical scanning and for determining the position of an image pickup area in the vertical direction within a photoreceiving surface on the basis of hand shake information, an electronic shutter scanner for resetting the pixel transistors in correspondence with the position of the image pickup area in the vertical direction when a predetermined storage time is reached whose upper limit is set to be shorter than the time corresponding one field, and a timing generator for supplying scanning clocks .phi.VCK and .phi.SCK and start pulses .phi.VS and .phi.SS to these scanners and for controlling the generation timing of the start pulses .phi.VS and .phi.SS on the basis of the hand shake information from an acceleration sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid image pickup unit and a video camera employing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit which has a photoreceiving surface of an area larger than an image pickup area for outputting a video signal, and in which pixel information is read for each scanning line and is reset.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of an X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit typified by an amplification type solid image pickup unit or an MOS type solid image pickup unit, unlike a charge transfer type solid image pickup unit typified by a CCD type solid image pickup unit in which information of all the pixels is read at the same time in a vertical blanking time period, pixel information is read for each scanning line and is reset, and therefore the X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit is called a focal plane shutter. For this reason, in the X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit, the storage time period of pixels is shifted for each pixel row in correspondence with each scanning line. That is, there is a lag of approximately 1/60 sec between the pixel of the topmost portion of the angle of view (the image pickup area) and the pixel of the bottommost portion.
In the X-Y address-type solid image pickup unit having a hand shake correction function, an example will be shown in which 20% of hand shake correction is possible with 120% of the image pickup area being the entire photoreceiving surface, as shown in FIG. 10. In an extreme case, if it is assumed that the image pickup area is positioned in the topmost in a certain field, and the image pickup area is moved to the bottommost in the next field, the pixel row of the certain line reaches the read timing shown in FIG. 11, and the signal from the moved field increases by 20% in the storage time period more than the signal of the previous field, and becomes 1.2 times greater than 1/60 sec. As a result, when the image pickup area moves to the bottom of the figure, the storage time period becomes long, and becomes short when the image pickup area moves to the top of the figure. Therefore, problems arise, for example, the phenomenon of the reproduced screen brightening or darkening occurs.

Solid image pickup unit and video camera employing same


The present invention provides a method for producing beer comprising filtering beer through a porous membrane until such time that the porous membrane is in need of cleaning, contacting the porous membrane with an enzyme selected from the group consisting of cellulases, amylases, and combinations thereof, particularly a cellulase having a crystalline:soluble cellulose activity ratio at 60 minutes of at least about 0.1, to clean the porous membrane, and then reusing the porous membrane to continue filtering beer. The present invention further provides a method for producing beer comprising filtering beer through a porous membrane that progressively clogs during filtration, monitoring the streaming or zeta potential of the porous membrane as a measure of the extent of clogging of the porous membrane, halting filtration of the beer through the porous membrane before the porous membrane becomes fully clogged as determined by the streaming or zeta potential of the porous membrane, cleaning the porous membrane, and then reusing the porous membrane to continue filtering beer.

In view of the extended marketing channels, germs (e.g., bacteria) have to be removed from the beer in order to make it storable. Nowadays, germ removal is mainly carried out by pasteurization of the beer. To this end, the beer is, for example, bottled or canned, and heated to a temperature of between 62 and 69° C. to kill the germs.
This pasteurization does, however, involve considerable energy consumption. It has the further disadvantage that the energy introduced can trigger chemical reactions which impair the product and are difficult to control. These reactions can, for example, adversely affect the flavor of the product ("pasteurized taste"), and there is also the danger that undesired substances will form. Pasteurization is, therefore, a relatively expensive germ removing method involving high energy expenditure and, consequently, having harmful effects on the environment as well as reducing the quality of the product.
Another known germ removing method is cold-filtration. Cold-filtered beer is available as so-called "draft beer" in, for example, the United States, Japan and Korea. This beer is prohibited in Europe because it contains technical enzymes.
These technical enzymes are present in the beer to counteract a drawback inherent in the cold-filtration method: early clogging of the filter. This clogging is due to deposits of substances to be filtered out of the beer on the upstream side of the filter, e.g., a membrane filter. The deposits are difficult or even impossible to remove from the filter and reduce the service life of the filter. This increases the cost of producing the beer as membrane filters are expensive.
To prolong the service life of the filter, the manufacturers of membrane filters recommend cleaning the used membranes by treating them with proteases, glucanases, and xylanases, as well as with chemicals such as surfactants, acids/bases, and oxidizing agents, to make them reusable. This cleaning can be carried out at, for example, two stages, with the above-mentioned enzymes at a first stage, followed optionally by additional cleaning with the above-mentioned chemicals in a second stage.
The literature also discloses methods of cleaning membrane filters used in filtering beer, which cleaning methods involve a variety of techniques. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,819 discloses a method for the cleaning of a polyamide microporous membrane used in cold-filtering beer by passing a dilute alkaline solution through the microporous membrane. International Patent Application WO 96/23579 discloses a somewhat different method of cleaning a membrane filter used in beer filtration. That method is characterized by treating the membrane filter with an enzyme-containing aqueous solution of β-glucanases, xylanases, and cellulases, cleaning the membrane filter with an acidic aqueous cleaning solution, and cleaning the membrane filter with a peroxide-containing alkaline cleaning solution.
Given, for example, a filter area of approximately 320 m2, a cleaning procedure will, by way of example, make provision for enzymatic cleaning after every 5,000 hectoliters filtered and an additional chemical cleaning after every 20,000 hectoliters filtered. The typical service life of filters with the above-mentioned filter area of approximately 320 m2 having undergone the manufacturer-recommended cleaning is approximately 100,000 hectoliters.
The previously known cleaning procedures do, however, have the disadvantage that they are unable to remove the deposits on the filter to a satisfactory extent, which causes the cleaning efficiency to diminish strongly as the membrane filter increases in age.
Yet another disadvantage is the sudden, random clogging of the filter membrane, unrelated to standard norms like total nitrogen content, or percent of original wort. A fully clogged membrane filter cannot be satisfactorily cleaned under procedures following the current state of technology, which greatly reduces the service life of the filter. It is difficult to determine when a filter will become so clogged that it cannot be satisfactorily cleaned, and, therefore, a filter may be cleaned prematurely or not in time, i.e., too early or too late.
In view of the foregoing problems, there exists a need for an improved method of producing beer, particularly wherein the beer can be filtered through a filtration medium that can be satisfactorily cleaned and reused. The present invention provides such a method. These and other advantages of the present invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.


In an image pickup device, a controller includes a surplus area calculation unit to detect a surplus area for use in correcting camera shake based upon a size of an effective area on an image pickup surface and a size of an efficient area extracted in response to camera shake. Thus, this image pickup device can prevent a troublesome aspect in which camera shake correction reaches the correction end from occurring, even when a large camera shake that is beyond the surplus area occurs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup device for effecting camera shake correction on an image signal and a camera shake correction method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cited patent reference 1 has disclosed so far a camera shake correction device comprising a pitching and yawing amount detecting means for detecting an amount in which an image is pitched or yawed due to vibrations of a video camera body, a correction signal generating means for generating a correction signal to correct pitching or yawing of an image based upon a detected output from the pitching and yawing amount detecting means, the correction range of the correction signal generating means being set freely variable, a correcting means operable so as to correct pitching or yawing of the image in response to the correction signal generated from the correction signal generating means, an operation range detecting means for detecting an operation range of the correcting means and a correction range setting means for variably setting a correction range based upon a detected output from the operation range detecting means.
The above-mentioned related-art image pickup device is able to shoot a wide-angle image by extending an efficient area that is extracted when camera shake is corrected. In that case, although the image in the efficient area has to be converted into an image with resolution of a television signal, it is possible to realize an image of wider-angle by extending the efficient area to the size of the whole area of the image pickup surface.
[Cited Patent Reference 1]
Japanese laid-open patent application No. 7-327160
However, the above-mentioned related-art image pickup device is requested to correct large camera shake as a magnification of lens is increased. When a surplus area used to correct camera shake decreases as an image becomes a wide-angle image and large camera shake which is beyond the surplus area occurs, there is then a disadvantage that a troublesome aspect in which camera shake correction reaches the correction end will occur. The reason for this is that the camera shake correction is suddenly limited at the correction end so that an image extraction area is fixed.
In accordance with the cited patent reference 1, since the operation range of the correction means is a linear integration output and this linear integration output indicates an output obtained when a constant integration coefficient is designated regardless of the size of the surplus area, the linear integration output is limited at the same time it reaches the correction end, and hence there is then a disadvantage that a troublesome aspect in which an image suddenly reaches the correction end will occur.

Image pickup device and camera shake correction method


A method of manufacturing a patterned substrate for culturing cells. The method includes the steps of: (1) preparing a substrate, (2) forming a first plasma polymer layer by integrating a first precursor material on the substrate using a plasma, wherein the first plasma layer inhibits cell adsorption, and wherein the first precursor material is a siloxane-based compound having a siloxane functional group with the Si—O—Si linkage, (3) placing a shadow mask having a predetermined pattern on the first plasma polymer layer thus formed, and (4) forming a second patterned plasma polymer layer by integrating a second precursor material using a plasma, wherein the second patterned plasma layer permits culturing of cells, whereby the patterned substrate is obtained.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a patterned substrate for culturing cells, a patterned substrate for culturing cells, a patterning method for culturing cells, and a cell chip; and more particularly, a method of manufacturing a patterned substrate for culturing cells, a patterned substrate for culturing cells, a patterning method for culturing cells, and a cell chip, in which a substrate capable of inhibiting cell adsorption is manufactured using a plasma and cells are selectively cultured by patterning and integrating many numbers of functional groups on the substrate.
Background Information
Researches relating to human life including a human genome project are rapidly increasing. Information analysis and operation of living organisms are gathering strength with ongoing researches on living organisms. Accordingly, an interest in biochips for rapidly analyzing information of organisms has been dramatically increased more than ever before.
Biochips can be divided by a DNA chip, a protein chip and a cell chip according to a biomaterial which is fixed or cultured on a substrate. In the beginning of the biochip era, a DNA chip appeared as a great issue with understanding of human genetic information but protein chips and cell chips have been recently become new attractions of the biochip with the interest in proteins and cells in which a protein binds. Even though non-specificity binding has been an important problem associated with the protein chip, a variety of notable methods are now being introduced.
Among them, the cell chip which is capable of culturing a large amount of cells without affecting their properties is appeared as the most effective tool to access into various fields including novel drug developments, genomics, and proteomics, etc. The cell chip is different from the protein chip in that the rate of cell growth on a substrate in the cell chip is one of indications representing the performance of the cell chip. Meanwhile, when the growth and division of cells cultured on a substrate is observed, the behavior of the cells will be easily analyzed. For example, an effect of cells to a new drug or response of cells to materials in vivo such as hormones can be easily examined.
Various methods for culturing cells on a substrate have been developed, and can be broadly divided by a method using a biomaterial and a method using physical and chemical characteristics of the substrate itself. In the method using a biomaterial, peptides or proteins are first fixed on a substrate, and cells are cultured using cell receptors contained in their biomaterials [Mann B K, Tsai A T, Scott-Burden T, West J L. Modification of surfaces with cell adhesion peptides alters extracellular matrix deposition. Biomaterials 1999; 20(23-24):2281-6].
Examples of the method using physical and chemical characteristics of a substrate include a method using hydrophobic characteristics, a method using electrical characteristics, a method using surface characteristics [Curtis A S, Wilkinson C D. Reactions of cells to topography. J Biomater SciPolym Ed 1998; 9(12):1313-0.29], a method using collagen [On-chip transfection of PC12 cells based on the rational understanding of the role of ECM molecules: efficient, non-viral transfection of PC12 cells using collagen IV, Neuroscience Letters 378 (2005) 40-43], etc.
There are several drawbacks associated with cell chips of which the most general one is that cells are not cultured well on a substrate. When cells are cultured evenly without conglomeration on a substrate, the cells can grow or divide on the substrate. On the other hand, when cells are not cultured properly on the substrate, the cells fail to grow and divide. Further, successful cell culture means that a small amount of cells are exactly cultured. A small amount of cells has to be exactly cultured on a substrate, which can eventually increase the sensitivity of cell chip.
Second, when cells are cultured on the substrate, their intrinsic properties or organization have to be well maintained. If the cells fail to grow or the cells' characteristics are lost due to the substrate even though the cells are well cultured on the substrate, the cell chip cannot perform its function fully. Therefore, it is required to consider the above factors in the development of cell chips.
To solve the above problems, there is a method of efficiently and effectively performing cell culture using a plasma, which is disclosed in PCT/KR2008/001117. This application discloses a method of manufacturing a substrate for fixing cells, a substrate for fixing cells, a method of fixing cells and a cell chip. This application mentions a method of a substrate for fixing cells, a substrate for fixing cells, a method of fixing cells and a cell chip, which is able to fix cells efficiently by integrating many numbers of functional groups on a substrate using a plasma. However, this application mentions only the method of fixing cells on a substrate using a plasma or the like, but does not mention a method of selectively culturing cells by cell adsorption and inhibition of cell adsorption.
When the substrate is patterned to have a surface for inhibition of cell adsorption and a surface for effective cell culture, it can be applicable in the development of implantable chips and artificial organs, genetic experiment, and drug test. However, the application discloses only the method of uniformly culturing cells, and thus it is impossible to selectively culture a small amount of cells in a desired position.
Therefore, the present inventors have studied and invented a method of manufacturing a patterned substrate for culturing cells, which is capable of selectively culturing cells in the desired position of the substrate using a plasma.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of manufacturing patterned substrate for culturing cells, patterned substrate, and patterned cell chip

Sungkyunkwan University Foundation for Corporate Collaboration


An apparatus comprising a sensor and a processor. The sensor may be configured to generate a first video signal based on a targeted view from a vehicle. The processor may be configured to (A) receive the first video signal, (B) generate a second video signal and (C) present the second video signal to a display. The second video signal presents a series of video frames configured to fit a shape of the display. The processor selects among a plurality of fields of view for the video frames based on a decision by the processor.

Electronic mirrors (eMirrors) are replacing physical reflective side mirrors in vehicles. In a conventional electronic mirror, a camera is located in one location of a vehicle and an LCD screen is located in another location of a vehicle. Processing/cabling connects the camera and screen. Electronic mirrors have problems similar to physical reflective side mirrors. A mirror with a narrow field of view (FOV) will leave the driver with a blind spot in the space between the FOV of the mirror and the peripheral vision of the driver. A mirror with a wide FOV will make objects appear farther away than they really are, which can cause the driver to misjudge distance.
Conventional physical reflective mirrors attempt to solve some of these problems. Some reflective mirrors split the mirror surface to offer drivers a narrow FOV on one side and a wider FOV on another. Some reflective mirrors include overlaid mirrors to offer a driver a narrow FOV on most of the space and a wide FOV in one of the corners. Some vehicles have mechanical switches that allow drivers to switch from one FOV to another FOV.
It would be desirable to implement an electronic mirror that provides multiple FOVs.

Electronic side-mirror with multiple fields of view


An apparatus for separating a mixed granular material into granules of different specific gravities or ranges of specific gravity using a powered air flow is described. A divider plate is located below the air flow path within the apparatus to separate the two material flows from each other. The divider plate can be rotated about an axis and can also be translated or displaced within the apparatus in order to precisely define the separation point between the material flows. Hoppers are used to collect and discharge the separated granular materials, and a conveyor belt is provided within the apparatus to transport one of the separated granular materials to the corresponding hopper. The conveyor belt reduces clogging of the separated granular material and also allows a greater degree of separation to be maintained between the hoppers, thereby allowing standard conveyors to be placed beneath the hopper discharge openings. The disclosed separation apparatus finds particular utility in the environmental remediation of outdoor firearm training facilities which have been contaminated with lead from used bullets, by allowing the lead bullets to be separated from rocks, soil and other debris for recycling.

There are many situations in which it is necessary to separate a mixed granular or particulate material into granules or particles of different sizes, specific gravities or both. One example, in connection with which the present invention finds particular utility, is the environmental remediation of outdoor firearm training facilities which have become contaminated with lead from used bullets. In order to restore these sites to an uncontaminated condition, the lead bullets must be removed from the soil and rocks with which they are mixed, and the soil and rocks must then be chemically treated to stabilize any lead which has leached from the bullets before being returned to the site. Mechanical screening can, at least to some degree, be used to separate the mixture of soil, rocks and bullets into its component parts; however, since mechanical screening relies on size differences between the granules or particles to be separated, it is not capable of separating rocks and bullets which are of the same or similar size. Such separation is necessary to allow for recycling of the lead (which requires a certain level of purity in the product to be recycled) and to avoid having to remove a larger volume of material from the site than is necessary. By separating the lead bullets from similarly sized rocks, the rocks can be returned to the site after being chemically treated and the lead bullets can be removed from the site in a relatively pure form for recycling and reuse.
Air separation (also known as dry separation) provides a method for separating mixed granular or particulate materials into their component parts by relying on differences in the specific gravity (rather than size) of the granules or particles to be separated. The theory of air separation is well understood, and is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,828,011, 4,519,896 and 5,032,256, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Briefly, air separation is carried out by allowing the mixed granular or particulate material to fall vertically by gravity across a horizontal stream or flow of air. Assuming that all of the granules or particles are of approximately the same size (and hence experience approximately the same drag force from the moving air), granules or particles of greater mass will be accelerated move slowly by the moving air than those of lesser mass. As a result, the heavier granules or particles will fall closer to the initial drop point than the lighter granules or particles. By positioning hoppers or receptacles at these locations, the heavier and lighter granules or particles can be collected and processed separately. Additional examples of air separators may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 775,965 and 2,978,103.
In theory, air separation provides a useful way to separate lead bullets from rocks of similar size in an environmental remediation operation of the type described above. In reality, however, there are a number of problems with this approach. For example, air separators are generally designed to operate with dry, easily separated granular or particulate materials, but the soil at an outdoor remediation site may be clumped or agglomerated as a result of precipitation, high clay content or other factors. This can result in poor separation between the rocks and lead bullets, in soil adhesion to both the rocks and lead bullets, and in clogging of the internal passages of the air separator. Another problem is the difficulty of adapting the air separator (whose geometry is generally fixed) to operate with granular or particulate materials other than those for which it was designed. In the case of an outdoor firing range, for example, the rocks found at different sites may have different specific gravities relative to that of lead; similarly, the lead to be removed from the site may in some cases consist of lead shot, which is relatively small in size, rather than lead bullets. In these situations, the use of an air separation process is practical only if the process can be adapted to the specific conditions encountered at the site.
Still another problem with existing types of air separators is the fact that the placement of the output hoppers or collection receptacles is dictated, at least to some extent, by the trajectories of the falling granular or particulate materials being separated. In air separators whose vertical dimensions or air flow rates are not large, the points at which the heavier and lighter granules or particles arrive at the bottom of the separator may be spaced apart by a relatively small horizontal distance. If hoppers or chutes are placed at these points and are arranged to discharge the separated granular materials vertically downward from the bottom of the separator, the discharge locations will also be relatively close together. This can be disadvantageous if, for example, the separated granular or particulate materials are to be discharged onto powered conveyors whose dimensions require that a certain minimum separation be maintained between them. It is possible to increase the distance between the discharge locations by angling the hoppers or chutes away from each other, but this results in discharge paths for the granular or particulate material that are more nearly horizontal and hence more prone to clogging, particularly if the granular or particulate material is wet or moist.

Separation apparatus and method for granular material