A member for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes an alumina electrostatic chuck, a cooling plate, and a cooling plate-chuck bonding layer. The cooling plate includes first to third substrates, a first metal bonding layer between the first and second substrates, a second metal bonding layer between the second and third substrates, and a refrigerant path. The first to third substrates are formed of a dense composite material containing Si, SiC, and Ti. The metal bonding layers are formed by thermal compression bonding of the substrates with an Al—Si—Mg or Al—Mg metal bonding material interposed between the first and second substrates and between the second and third substrates.

Electrostatic chucks are heated to high temperatures in a semiconductor process and have a cooling plate for heat dissipation. In this case, the material of the electrostatic chucks may be alumina, the material of the cooling plate may be aluminum, and a resin may be used as a bonding material. There is a very large difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient between alumina and aluminum. For example, alumina has a linear thermal expansion coefficient of 7.9 ppm/K (RT-800° C.: Uchida Rokakuho "Seramikku no butsuri (Physics of ceramics)"), and aluminum has a linear thermal expansion coefficient of 31.1 ppm/K (RT-800° C.: "Shinpen netsubussei handobukku (Thermophysical properties handbook new edition)", edited by Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties). In such electrostatic chucks, soft resins used as bonding materials can relieve stress resulting from a difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient. However, since resins are organic materials, resins have low heat dissipation ability, decompose easily at high temperatures, and tend to deteriorate over time. It is therefore difficult to use resins in a high temperature process for a long time. Thus, metal bonding was found to be effective as a heat dissipation bonding material that replaces resins. Bonding materials, such as aluminum, solder, and silver solder, are used in metal bonding. However, unlike resins, metals are stiff and cannot relieve stress resulting from a difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient between an electrostatic chuck and a cooling plate.
In metal bonding between an electrostatic chuck and a cooling plate, the characteristics required for the cooling plate include a small difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient from the electrostatic chuck, high thermal conductivity in order to maintain heat dissipation ability, high denseness that allows the passage of a coolant liquid or gas, and high strength that allows processing or installation. Patent Literature 1 discloses a composite material that can satisfy these characteristics to some extent. The composite material is a TiC-based Ti—Si—C composite material having a phase containing Ti3SiC2: 1.0% to 20.0% by volume, SiC: 0.5% to 8.0% by volume, and TiC as the remainder. Because of a small difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient between TiC and alumina, it is supposed that the Ti—Si—C composite material containing the TiC main phase described in Patent Literature 1 and alumina also have a small difference in thermal expansion coefficient.

Cooling plate, method for manufacturing the same, and member for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus


A dental flossing system for allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing. The dental flossing system includes a body having a pair of arms and a rear portion containing a spool rotatably positioned within, a platform structure movably positioned within the body, a wheel is rotatably attached within the platform structure, a shaft concentrically attached to the wheel and extending from a side of the platform structure for receiving a length of dental floss, and a locking arm that is pivotally attached to the platform structure for locking the dental floss in a desired position within a locking groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dental flossing devices and more specifically it relates to a dental flossing system for allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of dental floss is considered to be of great importance in the exercise of healthy dental hygiene. Dentists recommend at least daily use of dental floss in conjunction with brushing to promote health, teeth and gums. Because of the difficulty and discomfort of flossing the teeth, many flossing devices have been developed in the prior art.
A first class of such prior art devices includes non-motorized flossing stationary flossing devices. For example, the dental cleansing device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,256 to Barth (xe2x80x9cBarthxe2x80x9d) includes a fork-shaped device having two arms extending from the distal end of a shaft. One end of a length of dental floss is fastened to the shaft. From the shaft, the floss is strung through an aperture in one arm, through an aperture in a second art, and strung down to and fastened to the shaft at the other end. The floss is strung tightly between the two fastening points to provide a tight length of floss between the arms of the device. The user then holds the operative end of the shaft and positions tight length of shaft between abutting teeth. The user causes cleansing action to take place by moving the shaft in a reciprocating manner, which movement is directly translated to the floss.
The drawback of this and similar devices are that only the small length of floss between the arms is available for cleansing at any one time, and gets dirty and worn quickly, requiring constant restringing. Further more, the reciprocating motion of the arms within the mouth can cause the arms to hit and irritate the gums and cheeks.
Another group of fork-shaped devices include a motorized mechanism for causing movement of the dental floss relative to the shaft and thus the teeth. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,632 to Gross et al. (xe2x80x9cGross et al.xe2x80x9d), a length of floss is secured such that it extends tautly between two arms of the device. A motor causes circular motion of the floss to effectuate cleaning action. Another device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,500 to Stella (xe2x80x9cStellaxe2x80x9d) shows a motor and cam mechanism that causes a length of floss to reciprocate between two arms. The reciprocating floss movement effectuates cleaning when the floss is inserted around or between abutting teeth.
Motorized flossing devices such as the Stella device provide floss movement without requiring the movement of the shaft or arms of the structure. As a result, they provide an advantage over devices such as that described in Barth in that floss motion is achieved without having to effectuate motion of the arms within the mouth. A drawback of the motorized flossing devices is that they are mechanically complex, presenting manufacturing difficulty and reliability questions. A further drawback of such devices is that they require a source of power, such as batteries. Finally, such devices involve the placement of an electrical appliance into the mouth, thereby requiring extra safety mechanisms to be employed.
Another problem inherent with flossing devices is the requirement of steady arm control during use. In the use of flossing devices, only small controlled movements, or in some cases no movement at all, is required. Such control over the flossing device can cause the user to experience hand and arm fatigue. Consequently, a need exists for a flossing device that when used, requires less control and thereby reduces hand and arm fatigue.
Another patent related to the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,674 to Ali et al. entitled xe2x80x9cDental Flossing Device.xe2x80x9d Ali et al. overcomes many of the problems with conventional dental floss devices. However, Ali et al. does not provide a convenient mechanism for dispensing, locking and removing the dental floss during usage. The present invention provides a structure that overcomes the limitations of Ali et al.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing. Conventional dental floss devices are difficult to utilize and require both hands to properly operate.
In these respects, the dental flossing system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of dental flossing devices now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new dental flossing system construction wherein the same can be utilized for allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing.
The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new dental flossing system that has many of the advantages of the dental flossing devices mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new dental flossing system which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art dental flossing devices, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention generally comprises a body having a pair of arms and a rear portion containing a spool rotatably positioned within, a wheel is rotatably attached within a central portion of the body, a shaft concentrically attached to the wheel and extending from a side of the body for receiving a length of dental floss, and a locking arm that is pivotally attached to the body for locking the dental floss in a desired position within a locking groove.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and that will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of the description and should not be regarded as limiting.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a dental flossing system that will overcome the shortcomings of the prior art devices.
A second object is to provide a dental flossing system for allowing an individual to floss their teeth with only one hand and without positioning their fingers within their mouth during flossing.
Another object is to provide a dental flossing system that allows for a continuous and clean length of dental floss to be utilized without requiring cutting or reloading each time an individual flosses their teeth.
An additional object is to provide a dental flossing system that is convenient to utilize.
A further object is to provide a dental flossing system that is comprised of a simple construction.
Another object is to provide a dental flossing system that may be utilized by users of all ages and abilities.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to the reader and it is intended that these objects and advantages are within the scope of the present invention.
To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, this invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only, and that changes may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described within the scope of the appended claims.


For a mobile door or container, a lock that will hold firm against shock. The lock can be opened using a keypad to turn on a motor that disengages it, or manually, using a key. To disengage the lock, a shockproofer element of the lock includes components that must first be pivoted about one axis and components that must then be pivoted about a second, different axis, usually nearly perpendicular to the first axis. The lock resists opening under shock loading because the two pivoting rotations about different axes must be made to occur in a particular sequence, and cannot occur simultaneously.

There are a number of applications of a lock in which it is desirable for the lock to be shockproof. Examples include a gun container and a car door. A shockproof lock will remain engaged despite inadvertent or intentional shock of the locked container.
A shockproof lock eliminates the danger and risk of the container opening by accident or by force. In the collision of an automobile with another automobile or a stationary object, the shock experienced by the automobile can be transmitted to the locks of the car doors, which may then accidentally open, permitting the occupants to be thrown from the car and seriously injured. In the case of a container for a firearm, a shockproof lock will prevent brute tampering--such as dropping the container from a height--from disengaging the lock and allowing access to the firearm by someone other than the owner. Some states have passed laws holding the owner of a firearm liable for use of the firearm by another, and such risks can often be reduced or eliminated by the use of the present invention.
Some prior art is known to the applicants, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,396 to Loeff which discloses a tamperproof lockable firearm case, in which the lock is made tamperproof by controlling the opening and closing of the lock using a computer, which opens the lock only after keys on an attached keypad are pressed in proper sequence. The tamperproof lock of Loeff is not shockproof; it may be opened as the result of a jarring impact. The mechanical elements of the tamperproof lock of Loeff are not designed to withstand shock; they comprise a conventional locking mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,010 to Dyer et al. discloses a handgun case with lock and block designed against prying and jimmying, that protects against an attempt at opening the case by application of non-shocking (non-jarring) forces. The lock of Dyer et al. is not shockproof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,838 to Cislo discloses a lock box for pistols, in which the closed compartment is only accessible by selecting the code that unlocks a latch to open the compartment. This lock box is similar in concept to the tamperproof lockable firearm case of Loeff. It is not shockproof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,466 also to Cislo discloses an improved apparatus to lock a handgun within a compartment while the compartment is lockable to a stationary object using a detachable bracket. The locking mechanism of this improved apparatus is similar in its functioning to the lock of the earlier patent by Cislo; it is not shockproof, nor is it designed to be shockproof.
All of the prior art known to the applicants allows the possibility that striking the container hard enough will cause elements of the lock to move relative to each other in a way that permits the container to open. None of these locks include elements and a means of interaction designed to resist opening as a result of jarring impact.


A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a first data storage region configured to be supplied with a driving voltage via a first voltage line, a second data storage region configured to be supplied with a driving voltage via a second voltage line and a switch configured to one of electrically couple the first voltage line with the second voltage line and decouple the first voltage line from the second voltage line in response to a switching control signal.

A semiconductor memory apparatus typically includes a plurality of data storage regions. One or more internal voltage lines are often used to distribute an external voltage received from an external voltage source to the plurality of data storage regions. In many cases the internal voltage lines distribute the received voltage in a generally uniform manner to the plurality of data storage regions.
In some cases, different data storage regions may perform different operations. In some instances different data storage regions may process different amounts of input/output data. One or more of the data storage regions may consume different amounts of power compared to the other data storage regions.


A system and method dynamically adjusting the rate at which incoming content data is transferred into a media gateway appliance, and the rate at which outgoing content data is provided to one or more client devices by the media gateway appliance. This dynamic adjustment is performed in accordance with a predetermined program and as a function of real-time data streaming rates and predetermined rate parameters and preferences. The system and method enable the provision of an improved viewing and content acquisition experience for users.

With the increased availability of residential broadband delivery of digital video content and the ever-growing number and variety of digital video content sources, consumers are storing more content than ever on digital video recorders ("DVRs"). These devices, often integrated into set-top boxes, offer consumers a convenient means of capturing one or more live streams of digital content for later and/or repeated viewing.
Unfortunately, the increased availability of digital video has led to a situation where the demands upon a given content repository, such as a DVR, may exceed the capabilities of the storage device or devices associated with such an appliance. For example, a single DVR appliance may have more than one user making demands for the retrieval of content, and therefore placing demands upon the DVR storage device (typically a hard disk drive) to output multiple high-density data streams that may exceed the device's ability to do so. In addition, the same storage device may simultaneously need to accommodate the storage of one or more incoming content streams. This could result in conflicts between the read and write processes to the memory device, further reducing the overall rate of data both to and from the device. Some of the problems alluded to above can be remediated through the use of queues and caches utilized as buffers to the disk-based storage within a DVR, but the capacity, and therefore the utility, of such of buffering has its limits.
Consequently, there exists a need for a system and method supporting an adaptive means of storing and retrieving data from a media storage device. Such a means would ideally adapt the rate at which data is written to and retrieved from a storage device as a function of media and system characteristics, such as the type and rate of the data source, the needs of the user or users consuming the data, and the paths available for data transmission.

System and method for dynamic adjustment of content streaming rates


A method and system for reducing registration errors in a printing system are disclosed. A plurality of tension zones is defined in the printing system. Tension on the web in one tension zone is controlled independently of the tension on the web in the other tension zones. The printing system also includes at least one roller for each tension zone. The rollers receive tension control commands and control the amount of tension on the web in their respective tension zones. The printing system is used to print a first copy of the print job on the web and a plurality of registration errors is determined. Tension control adjustments are computed for each tension zone based on the registration errors. The tension control adjustments are used to adjust the tension control commands to the rollers to print a second copy of the print job, thereby reducing registration errors.

Continuous web printing permits economical, high-speed, high-volume print reproduction. In this type of printing, a continuous web of paper or other substrate material is fed past one or more printing subsystems that form images by applying one or more colorants onto the substrate surface. In a conventional web-fed rotary press, for example, a web substrate is fed through one or more impression cylinders that perform contact printing, transferring ink from an imaging roller onto the web in a continuous manner.
Proper registration of the substrate to the printing device is of considerable importance in applications such as print reproduction, particularly where multiple colors are used in printing color images. Similarly, in the printing of electrical circuits, proper registration is critical in the deposition of electrically conductive or insulating layers in forming a multi-layer electrical circuit such as touch panels. Conventional web transport systems in today's commercial offset printers address the problem of web registration with high-precision alignment of machine elements. Typical of conventional web handling subsystems are heavy frame structures, precision-designed components, and complex and costly alignment procedures for precisely adjusting substrate transport between components and subsystems.
Alignment during actual print production is aided by vision systems monitoring the printed output in real time, comparing the output with a reference image and displaying the information to the operator to consider taking corrective actions. Such vision systems can monitor the color reproduction or the registration or both aspects of the print production to ensure the desired output quality.
The problem of maintaining precise and repeatable web registration and transport becomes even more acute with the development of high-resolution non-contact printing, such as high-volume inkjet printing. With this type of printing system, finely controlled dots of ink are rapidly and accurately propelled from a print station onto the surface of the moving media, with the web substrate often coursing past the print station at speeds measured in hundreds of feet per minute. No impression roller is used; synchronization and timing are employed to determine the exact timing of the sequential deposition of ink by different print stations onto the moving media. The requirements for the printed output are driven by intended use and function of the printed product. For any multi-step printing process, the image quality attributes always include registration, print resolution and the reduction of print artifacts. Other attributes, specific to the output can be added, for example color reproduction for graphic arts printing. With dot resolution of 600 dots-per-inch (DPI) and better, a high degree of registration accuracy can be achieved theoretically, limited only by the digital resolution inherent in the digital print station. During printing, variable amounts of ink is applied to different portions of the rapidly moving web, with drying mechanisms typically employed after each print station or bank of print stations. Variability in ink or other liquid amounts and types and in drying time can cause substrate stiffness and tension characteristics to vary dynamically over a range for different types of substrate, contributing to the overall complexity of the substrate handling and registration challenge.
One approach to the registration problem is to provide a print module that forces the web of print media along a tightly controlled print path. This is the approach that is exemplified in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0122126, entitled "Web Flow Path" by Ray et al. In such a system, there are multiple drive rollers that fix and constrain the web of print media position as it moves past one or more print stations.
Problems with such a conventional approach include significant cost in design, assembly, adjustment, and alignment of web handling components along the media path. While such a conventional approach permits some degree of modularity, it would be difficult and costly to expand or modify a system with this type of design. Each "module" for such a system would itself be a complete printing apparatus, or would require a complete, self-contained subassembly for paper transport, making it costly to modify or extend a printing operation, such as to add one or more additional colors or processing steps, for example.
Various approaches to web tracking are suitable for various printing technologies. For example, active alignment steering, as taught for an electrographic reproduction web (often referred to as a belt on which images are transported) in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,417 entitled "Web Tracking Apparatus" to Joseph et al. would require multiple steering stations for continuous web printing, with accompanying synchronization control. It would be difficult and costly to employ such a solution with a print medium whose stiffness and tension vary during printing, as described above. Other solutions for web (or belt as referred to above) steering are similarly intended for endless webs in electro-photographic equipment but are not readily adaptable for use with paper media. Steering using a surface-contacting roller, useful for low-speed photographic printers and taught in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,070 entitled "Web Tracking Apparatus" to Blanding et al. would be inappropriate for a surface that is variably wetted with ink and would also tend to introduce non-uniform tension in the cross-track direction. Other solutions taught for photographic media, such as those disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,903 entitled "Web Guiding Apparatus" to Blanding are well suited to photographic media moving at slow to moderate speeds but are inappropriate for systems that need to accommodate a wide range of media, each with different characteristics, and transport each media type at speeds of hundreds of feet per minute.
In order for high-speed non-contact printers to compete against earlier types of devices in the commercial printing market, the high cost of the web transport should be greatly reduced. There is a need for an adaptable non-contact printing system that can be fabricated and configured without the cost of significant down-time, complex adjustment, and constraint on web of print media materials and types.
One aspect of such a system relates to components that feed the continuous web substrate into the printing system and guide the web of print media into a suitable cross-track position for subsequent transport and printing. This problem is exacerbated by the shrinking and expanding of web of print media due to wetting and drying. The change in the structure of the web of print media results in color-to-color registration errors during printing.
In other applications such as the manufacture of touch screens, the web of print media is typically made of plastic with a solvent based ink used in the printing process. Drying at elevated temperatures will change the dimensions of the support during the printing process much like in conventional printing applications.
In commercial inkjet printing systems, the web of print media is physically transported through the printing system at a high rate of speed. For example, the web of print media can travel 650 to 1000 feet per minute. The print stations in commercial inkjet printing systems typically include multiple jetting modules that jet ink onto the web of print media as the web of print media is being physically moved through the printing system. A reservoir containing ink or some other material is typically behind each nozzle plate in a print station. The ink streams through the nozzles in the nozzle plates when the reservoirs are pressurized.
The jetting modules in each print station in commercial printing systems typically jet only one color. In printing systems designed to manufacture electrical circuits, the jetting modules in each print station jet only electrically conductive inks, electrically insulating inks or inks to form protective coatings for the circuit. In printing systems designed for commercial printing or system designed to manufacture electrical circuits, the sequential deposition of inks along the conveyance path of the print media will form the printed product. The quality requirements and attributes of the printed product are derived from the use and application of the printed product. For example, in commercial printing systems the registration of the four colors forming the color image has to be performed precisely, the printed image should not have image artifacts and the overall color reproduction should resemble closely the color of the original object. In the manufacture of electrical circuits, the registration of the insulating and conductive layers should be performed precisely to avoid electrical short circuits. There should be no image artifacts such as voids affecting the electrical traces, making them non-conductive. Similarly, the crossing of two conductors not properly insulated from each other should be avoided. The current carrying capacity of each trace can require a certain density of conductive ink. For each of the example applications, the ink is jetted sequentially and deposited on the moving print media web as it is conveyed passed multiple print stations. In the examples, the printed output is composed of multiple layers, also referred to as separations, which should be aligned to each other to produce a single color impression for the observer of the commercial print or the desired function selected by the user on the touch screen panel forming the user interface.
The mis-alignment of layers or separations of a multi-layer print is typically referred to as registration error. Registration errors are partitioned into different types. Examples of registration errors include, but are not limited to, a separation having a linear translation with respect to another separation, a separation being rotated with respect to another separation, and a separation being stretched, contracted, or both stretched and contracted with respect to another separation. There are several variables that contribute to the registration errors in separation alignment including physical properties of the web of print media, conveyance of web of print media, ink application system, ink coverage, and drying of ink. Registration errors can be reduced by controlling these variables.
US 20140064817 discloses operating a printer at a fixed drive speed ratio during printing to reduce registration errors as compared to operating at a servo controlled tension. Stretch and tension are related through the elastic modulus of the web. If the modulus of the web is fluctuating due to inking of the paper and the tension is held constant then the stretch must vary to account for the changing modulus. On the other hand if a fixed speed ratio is maintained, yielding a fixed paper stretch, the tension must fluctuate to account for the modulus fluctuations. If the modulus of the paper fluctuates due to inking of the paper at least one of the stretch and the tension must fluctuate as well. If the tension is servoed so that it doesn't change, as in US 20140064817, then the stretch of the paper must fluctuate which hurts registration.
There is, then, a need for a tension control system that can reduce registration errors by controlling the conveyance of the web of print media in a high-speed commercial printing system for non-contact printing applications and compensate for varying tensions in the receiver web due to modulus changes of the material such as paper or plastic due to the sequential inking and drying steps employed to form the final image on the receiver web.

Reducing print artifacts using isolated tension zones


The present disclosure discloses a luminaire, including a supporting frame, a power supply device, a left bracket, and a right bracket. The side edge of the left bracket is provided with a plurality of left fixed frames; the side edge of the right bracket is provided with right fixed frames symmetric to the left fixed frames one by one; one LED bar is buckled between the symmetric left fixed frame and right fixed frame in each group; the right fixed frames and the left fixed frames include box type brackets; the front and rear ends of each box type bracket are provided with buckle slots; the left and right ends of each LED bar are each provided with one bar plug; the inner sides of the box type brackets of the right fixed frames are provided with female head copper pins.

The lighting environment is one of the important physical environmental factors that are indispensable for plant growth. Controlling building of plant morphology through light quality regulation is an important technology in the field of facility cultivation. Grow lights simulate the principle that plants need the sunlight for photosynthesis. For supplementing light for plants or completely replacing the sunlight, the grow lights are very suitable for growth, flowering, and fruiting of the plants. In order to provide sufficient light to the plants, luminaires will be added.
The existing luminaire has several following technical problems:
1. During mounting of the luminaire, due to the relatively complex structure, the luminaire needs to be operated and mounted by professionals, which is inconvenient, time-consuming and labor-intensive.
2. Currently, in order to change the lighting angle, the whole fixture needs to be adjusted. That results in one-direction illumination and limits the projected area, and impacts the lighting effects. The goals of wide-range, multi-angle illumination, quick dismantling and rotate-to-adjust function are not fulfilled.
Therefore, the current luminaire needs to be improved.


An improved chain locking pliers being of the type having a fixed handle, a movable handle, a fixed jaw affixed to the fixed handle for movement therewith, a movable jaw pivotally mounted to both the movable handle and the fixed handle, and apparatus for holding a chain and being associated with detents in both the fixed jaw and the movable jaw, respectively. The improvement includes the apparatus detachably lockingly capturing the chain to the fixed jaw.

A. Field of the invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate to locking pliers, and more particularly, the embodiments of the present invention relate to locking pliers for detachably lockingly capturing a chain thereto.
B. Description of the prior art
Numerous innovations showing locking pliers and methods of use are shown in the prior art that will be described below, which are in chronological order to show advancement in the art, and which are incorporated herein by reference thereto. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, however, they differ from the embodiments of the present invention in that they do not teach locking pliers for detachably lockingly capturing a chain thereto.
(1) U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,948 to Myers
U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,948 issued to Myers on Apr. 25, 1972 in class 81 and subclass 367 teaches a locking plier employing the over-center locking principle. A movable jaw is pivotally connected to a rigid handle terminating in a rigid jaw and a movable handle is pivotally connected to the movable jaw. A sliding adjuster having an opening therethrough is positioned over the rigid handle and teeth along the opening mate is locking engagement with teeth along the rigid handle. A link pivotally connects the sliding adjuster and the movable handle to permit the over-center locking position when the teeth are in locking engagement.
(2) U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,214 to Sisson Jul. 25, 1995
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,214 issued to Sisson on Jul. 25, 1995 in class 81 and subclass 376 teaches a plier-type locking wrench having an elongated body with a pair of jaws at one end and a pair of handles at an opposite end. The pair of jaws include a fixed jaw and a movable jaw. The pair of handles includes a fixed handle and a movable handle. A threaded member engages the fixed handle. An operating crank is pivotally attached to the body adjacent the fixed handle. The movable jaw is connected to the operating crank by a connecting rod. The movable handle is pivotally connected to the operating crank. A locking lever has a first end pivotally connected to the movable handle and a second end cammingly engageable with the threaded member. The movable handle is displacable relative to the fixed handle to displace the operating crank which in turn displaces the connecting rod and the movable jaw. The locking lever permits the movable jaw to be locked in a desired position relative to the fixed jaw. The threaded member is adjustable to adjust the locking position of the pivotal jaw. A release lever releases the movable jaw from its locked position.
(3) U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,080 Flavigny
U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,080 issued to Flavigny on Mar. 11, 1997 in class 81 and subclass 368 teaches locking pliers including a fixed unit of generally elongate shape forming at one end a fixed handle and at the other end a fixed jaw. A movable unit includes a movable jaw articulated to the fixed jaw and an actuating lever of which one end is articulated to the movable jaw and the other end forms a movable handle. Also, a toggle mechanism includes a link articulated to an intermediate point of the lever and extends to a rear bearing point adjustable along the length of the fixed handle. The actuating lever crosses a straight line joining the articulation of the movable jaw to the bearing point of the link and the fixed handle extends substantially along a straight line joining the articulation to the bearing point.
(4) U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,371 Liaw
U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,371 issued to Liaw on Dec. 1, 1998 in class 72 and subclass 409.12 teaches a wire crimper having a body with a fixed jaw, a lever, a movable jaw pivoted between the body and the lever, a ratchet member coupled between a body and a lever thereof, a release plate pivoted to the lever and forced by a spring into engagement with the ratchet, and an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the angular position of a ratchet member relative to the body. The adjustment mechanism includes an eccentric shaft to which the ratchet member is pivoted. A fixed stub is locating rod at the body, an adjustment wheel is axially movably supported on the eccentric shaft and adapted for turning the eccentric shaft to change the angular position of the ratchet member. A spring washer retained to the eccentric shaft and forcing the adjustment wheel into engagement, with the fixed stub locating rod to stop the adjustment wheel from rotary motion.
(5) U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,273 to Galea
U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,273 issued to Galea on Nov. 30, 1999 in class 81 and subclass 368 teaches a set of adjustable locking pliers having two pivotally mounted jaws. A lock lever is pivotally mounted to one handle member and slidably retained in the longitudinal grooved portion of the opposite handle and an adjustment screw is threaded longitudinally into the grooved handle member bears upon the sliding end of the lever. Handle members are pivotally connected to retaining plates. The plates have a pin projecting between them, with the jaws pivotally mounted and laterally disposed thereon. The gripping surfaces of the jaws interlock above the pin and meet flush in the locked position. The handle member having the adjustment screw has a curved end spreading the bottom of the jaws apart in the locked position, thereby forcing the gripping surfaces together.
(6) U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,304 to Hegemier
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,304 issued to Hegemier on Dec. 14, 1999 in class 81 and subclass 370 teaches a chain pliers including a body and a first jaw. A component is for attaching in a stationary manner the first jaw to a top end of the body. A second jaw is provided. An element is for attaching in a pivotal manner the second jaw to the top end of the body opposite from the first jaw. A vise grip assembly is between the body and the second jaw. A person can operate with one hand the vise grip assembly and move the second jaw towards the first jaw to engage with opposite ends of a chain to tighten the chain.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, which is diagrammatic perspective view of a typical prior art chain locking pliers, the typical prior art chain locking pliers is shown generally at 10 and is of the type having a fixed handle 12, a movable handle 14, a fixed jaw 16 affixed to the fixed handle 12 for movement therewith, a movable jaw 18 pivotally mounted to both the movable handle 14 and the fixed handle 12, and apparatus 20 for holding a chain 22 and being associated with detents 21 in both the fixed jaw 16 and the movable jaw 18, respectively.
(7) U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,458 to Wrigley et al
U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,458 issued to Wrigley et al. on Mar. 13, 2001 in class 81 and subclass 319 teaches a pair of locking pliers including a first assembly defining a first handle and a first jaw, a second handle, and a second jaw rotatably coupled to the first assembly and the second handle. The second handle is movable relative to the first handle to move the second jaw relative to the first jaw. A lock and release mechanism have a first setting wherein the second jaw is freely movable relative to the first jaw, a second setting wherein the second jaw locks at a preset distance from the first jaw when the second handle is moved toward the first handle, and a third setting wherein the second jaw unlocks when the second handle is moved toward the first handle.

Locking pliers for detachably lockingly capturing a chain thereto


A control panel for a laundry appliance includes a cycle type section comprising a reconfigurable display, and a cycle parameter section graphically illustrating selected laundry cycle parameters.

This invention relates generally to control systems for appliances, and more specifically, to user interfaces for clothes washers and dryers.
Laundry appliances (e.g., clothes washers and dryers) typically include a number of mechanical components housed in a cabinet to perform different aspects of clothes washing and clothes drying. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,298 describing a washing machine.
Conventionally, mechanical switches and actuators have been employed for user manipulation thereof to operate a clothes washer or dryer in selected settings and to activate or deactivate appliance features and options. Known electronic controls, however, have facilitated washer and dryer features and modes of operation not found in conventional mechanically controlled systems. For example, an increased number of washing cycles and associated options are now available in washing machines, and various drying cycles and features have also been developed to increase appliance performance and convenience. Known control interfaces to implement these features, however, tend to be cumbersome and difficult to new users, and tedious and time consuming for other users. Some washer and dryer operations and features require rather complex manipulation of a control interface that includes a large number of selectors for a large number of washing options, which can be overwhelming to new users and less than intuitive even to experienced users. Significant cognitive effort is therefore required to operate these machines.


A digital signal transmission system is provided which minimizes the AM signal envelope distortion caused by multiple digitally modulated carriers in the same band as the AM signal. The system transmits an amplitude modulated signal. Digital carriers for the digital signal are placed both above and below the frequency of the analog AM carrier. Certain digital carriers that are above the frequency of the analog AM carrier have an associated digital carrier that is at an equal frequency offset below the analog AM carrier. The data and modulation placed on the upper digital carrier and its counterpart are such that the signal resulting from their addition has no component that is in-phase with the analog AM carrier. The signal envelope is predistorted to counteract the distortion added by the digital carriers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to radio broadcasting and, more particularly, to methods of and apparatus for improving AM compatible digital broadcast analog fidelity.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been increasing interest in the possibility of broadcasting digitally encoded audio signals to provide improved audio fidelity. Several approaches have been suggested. One such approach, set forth in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/206,368, filed Mar. 7, 1994, assigned to the assignee hereof, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,022, teaches a method for simultaneously broadcasting analog and digital signals in a standard AM broadcasting channel. An amplitude modulated radio frequency signal having a first frequency spectrum is broadcast. The amplitude modulated radio frequency signal includes a first carrier modulated by an analog program signal. Simultaneously, a plurality of digitally modulated carrier signals are broadcast within a bandwidth which encompasses the first frequency spectrum. Each of the digitally modulated carrier signals is modulated by a portion of a digital program signal. A first group of the digitally modulated carrier signals lies within the first frequency spectrum and is modulated in quadrature with the first carrier signal. Second and third groups of the digitally modulated carrier signals lie outside of the first frequency spectrum and are modulated both in-phase and in-quadrature with the first carrier signal. Both transmitters and receivers are provided in accordance with that method.
Monophonic detectors for consumer AM radios respond only to the envelope and not the phase of the received signal. For this reason, when digital transmission is added to an amplitude modulated system, envelope distortion is minimized if the digital information is placed in quadrature with the amplitude modulated carrier. The waveform in the AM compatible digital audio broadcasting system described in U.S. Pat No. 5,558,022 hereby incorporated herein by reference, combines analog amplitude modulation with multiple digitally modulated carriers in the same spectrum as the analog AM signal. Because of the use of the multiple digitally modulated carriers, there is a need for a means to reduce the envelope distortion caused by this hybrid signal.

Method and apparatus for improving AM compatible digital broadcast analog fidelity


A leaf carrying cart having a contoured receiving body supported by a pair of spaced parallel arms that converge at a single wheel assembly. The receiving body is defined by a trough in which leaves can be directly raked. The arms extend beyond the receiving body to act as both transportation handles and with deployable ground engagement stakes as anchors for the cart when in use.

1. Technical Field
This device relates to leaf and yard debris collection and transportation carts and the like which are used to collect and transport leaves from one location to another. The carts facilitate the collection of leaves so that their contents can be transferred into other disbursing conveyances, such as disposable bags.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art devices of this type have relied on a variety of wheel carts that are used to transport bulk material, such as leaves, garden debris or even snow. Typically, such carts have a pair of spaced wheels with a collection body positioned therebetween and some sort of hinged system to allow the cart in some instances to be lowered to the ground or elevated for dumping, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,026,310, 4,629,203, 4,921,305 and 4,957,306.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,310 a shoveling hand cart is disclosed wherein a receptacle is pivotally secured to handles on a wheeled frame. A second set of handles extends directly from the receptacle which allows for tipping of the receptacle for loading and dumping.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,203 is directed towards a yard caddy comprising a cart supported by a pair of wheels with an extended handle. The cart can be pivoted on its wheels for ground engagement and then elevated for transportation by manual input to the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,305 claims a wheelbarrow having a pair of support and transportation wheels with a bin positioned on a frame pivoted thereto. A contoured handle assembly is provided having cam shaped ground engaging portions that allow the bin to be lowered to the ground for ease of loading.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,306 illustrates a leaf wagon having a rectangular frame with a pair of hinge baskets thereon. One of the baskets has an open end for ease of loading and can be pivoted up over the remaining basket when not in use. A gated opening is positioned in the bottom of the first basket to aid in unloading bulk granulated type material.


To provide a water-absorbing resin composition having both a high centrifuge retention capacity (CRC) and a sufficient urine resistance and a method for producing such a water-absorbing resin composition, an aspect of the present invention is a water-absorbing resin composition having the following properties: (1) A centrifuge retention capacity (CRC) being not less than 35 g/g; (2) A post-degradation-test one-hour eluted soluble component being not more than 19% by mass; (3) An absorbency against pressure 0.7 psi (AAP0.7) being not less than 10 g/g; and (4) A content of a water-absorbing resin in dust being not more than 300 ppm with respect to a total mass of the water-absorbing resin composition.

As a sanitary material for a disposable diaper, a sanitary napkin, an incontinence pad, and the like, a water-absorbing resin composition including a water-absorbing resin as a main component is widely used for the purpose of absorbing a body fluid.
In recent years, such sanitary materials have increasingly higher performance. Research and development are being carried out in which a surfactant and/or an ion sealing agent, for example, is added to impart various functions to a water-absorbing resin composition.
Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses a method for producing a water-absorbing agent, the method including adding a surface-treating agent including (A) a surface-crosslinking agent and (B) a surfactant or a lubricant powder to a water-absorbing resin for surface-crosslinking the water-absorbing resin, as a method for achieving a high fluidity and a high water absorption performance and reducing a decrease caused in the surface tension of an absorption liquid when the water-absorbing agent comes into contact with the absorption liquid.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a method for producing a water-absorbing agent, the method including adding water and a chelating agent to a surface-crosslinked water-absorbing resin for granulation, as a method for producing a urine-resistant water-absorbing agent, that is, a water-absorbing agent that is not easily degraded as a result of urine absorption.
Patent Literatures 3, 4, and 5 each disclose a method for producing a water-absorbing agent, the method including adding a surfactant and a chelating agent after a surface-crosslinking step.


A power amplifier output module 200 having low insertion loss and self-shielding properties for dual-mode digital systems is provided. Module 200 has a first power amplifier drive circuit comprising a first power amplifier 220 and a first output impedance matching network having integrated suppression of higher order harmonics 222. A second power amplifier drive circuit comprising a second power amplifier 224 and a second output impedance matching network having integrated suppression of higher order harmonics 226 is also provided. Module 200 also comprises a single diplexer 228 coupled to the first impedance matching network and the second impedance matching network. Module 200 also comprises a single broadband directional coupler 230, coupled to the diplexer 228, for coupling both the first power amplifier drive circuit and the second power amplifier drive circuit. Module 200 provides an integrated solution involving greater performance in a smaller package.

As the use of many different telecommunication systems simultaneously in different locales creates greater flexibility for the user of cellular telephones, it also creates many challenges for the designers of the internal architecture of those cellular telephones. In addition to the traditional technological trends such as smaller size, lighter weight, and fewer part counts, designers are now being asked to also include greater capabilities into cellular telephones such as the ability to function at two or more different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Incorporating dual mode/dual band capabilities into the radio architecture design is not a trivial process and may involve a significant change of thinking at the earliest stages of the design process.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a radio architecture for a dual band cellular telephone in accordance with the prior art 100 is provided. Referring to FIG. 1, a radio transmit signal from a first band (Band #1) will pass through a driver 102, a power amplifier 104, an impedance matching network 106, a directional coupler 108, a harmonic filter 110. At this point, the signal will pass through a diplexer 112, and finally out the antenna 114. Similarly, for a radio transmit signal from a second band (Band #2) will pass through another driver 202, another power amplifier 204, another impedance matching network 206, another directional coupler 208, and another harmonic filter 210. The second signal will then pass through the diplexer 112, and finally out the antenna 114.
With this design, each of the bands have their own dedicated components. Each band has it's own impedance matching network, directional coupler, and harmonic filter. Such duplication of components may lead to a cellular telephone having additional circuitry, a high parts count, increased switching and power consumption, as well as increased volume, weight, and size.
A radio architecture design which provides a power amplifier output module for dual mode digital systems in a monolithic component and which integrates harmonic filtering requirements into an impedance matching network and which is capable of handling two discrete power amplifier drive circuits using a single coupler and a single antenna in a highly integrated multilayer ceramic package and which provides improved insertion loss and self-shielding properties would be considered an improvement in the art.

Power amplifier output module for dual-mode digital systems


A gas generator includes a chamber in which inert gas under high pressure is stored, a diffuser chamber, and a chamber containing a pyrotechnic heater and initiator. Upon receiving an electrical signal the initiator fires igniting the pyrotechnic charge. As pressure in the combustion chamber of the pyrotechnic heater rises and exceeds the storage chamber pressure, a plug in a shoulder covering the pyrotechnic nozzle orifice is unseated, subsequently rupturing a thin metal sealing diaphragm since the latter is unsupported for a pressure differential in this direction. Hot gas and particles from the burning pyrotechnic heat the stored gas causing a rapid pressure rise in the storage chamber. When the storage chamber pressure exceeds the structural capability of a thin metal disc between the diffuser and storage chambers, it ruptures allowing the heated gas to vent through the diffuser orifices into the air bag assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inflator for an air bag, and more particularly, to the type of inflator known as a hybrid inflator.
2. The Related Art
Many types of inflators have been disclosed in the art for inflating an air bag for use in an inflatable restraint system. One involves the utilization of a quantity of stored compressed gas which is selectively released to inflate the air bag. Another derives a gas source from a combustible gas generating material which, upon ignition, generates a quantity of gas sufficient to inflate the air bag. In a third type, the air bag inflating gas results from a combination of stored compressed gas and a gas generating material. The last mentioned type is commonly referred to as an augmented gas or hybrid inflator.
Hybrid inflators that have been proposed heretofore are subject to certain disadvantages. They require glass-to-metal-seals or other complex sealing methods to maintain the high pressure seal and/or require an actuation means (mechanical or pyrotechnic) to open the flow passages to the air bag. Many hybrid inflator arrangements dispense cold inflating gas followed by heated gas. This is a disadvantage for an air bag driver system. Additionally, end diffusers typically used on hybrid inflators make packaging in modules difficult.
Thus, there is a need and a demand for improvement in hybrid inflators to the end of overcoming the foregoing disadvantages. The present invention was devised to fill the gap that has existed in the art in these respects.

Hybrid gas generator for air bag inflatable restraint systems


Disclosed is a dissolvable film adapted to adhere to an oral mucosal tissue of a subject, wherein the film comprises at least three indigestible hydrophilic polymers constituting from 35% to 55% of the film dry weight and wherein the at least three polymers comprise xanthan gum and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) in a weight ratio of between 1:0.8-1.6, and at least one other cellulose based polymer. Optionally, the film may further include an active agent in an amount of 0.01% to 35% of the film dry weight. Disclosed also is a method for preparing the film and a method for treating or preventing oral conditions comprising implementing the film. Particularly, the film may be applied between dentures and the gums of the user.

There are many conditions, including oral conditions that may be treated with tablets, capsules, and lozenges containing active agents, wherein masticating and/or licking the objects freely moving in the mouth may release active agents affecting the treated conditions. Halitosis and dry mouth are examples of conditions that are difficult to handle, and a need is felt for means that would not require incessant chewing and sucking.
WO 2012/104834 discloses an oral film for slow release of insulin in mouth, the film consisting of a plurality of polymeric materials being arranged into two or more distinct layers. U.S. Pat. No. 7,132,113 discloses a breath-freshening film containing hydroxypropyl cellulose and starch, wherein the starch was found to be essential for the film properties. However, starch can be decomposed by mouth enzymes, producing lower sugars that can feed undesired microorganisms. However, U.S. Pat. No. 7,132,113 discloses a film that dissolves within one minute and therefore, is extremely limited in its potential applications.

Adhesive oral dissolved films in managing oral care


An arrangement for fixing a tubular element, such as a shaft, that is provided with a bore and a flange in position with respect to plate element involves the use of a ball that pressed into the bore in the tubular element. To achieve a simple fixation that is secure in both axial directions, the plate element is fixed on one side by the flange of the tubular element and on the other side by the bulge that is created through insertion of the ball into the bore in the tubular element. The ball has a greater diameter than that of the bore in the tubular element so that insertion of the ball into the bore causes the tubular element to become enlarged, thus forming the bulge.

A known method for fixing bored machine parts on shafts or similar objects involves providing the shaft ends with blind bores into which spreading elements, such as for example balls, are pressed with a preload to expand the shaft end and thus create a connection between the parts which can no longer be reversed. GB 274,954 discloses this type of fixing arrangement.
In a similar connection of guide rods, two balls of various diameters are arranged so as to lie on top of one another. The bottom ball that rests on the bottom of a blind bore of one of the parts being fixed is adapted to the blind bore diameter while the top ball resting on the former is pressed into the other part's axial bore which possesses a smaller diameter than the ball in such a way that the steel ball expands this axial bore. A connection such as this is disclosed in DE 34 25 079.
In both of these arrangements, to achieve a press fit, the ball is pressed into the blind bore extending over part of the width of the machine part which is being fixed. However, this requires the application of great force in order to establish a secure press fit connection. The use of two or more balls per connection is also complex. Further, if the connection must also be designed to be secure in both axial directions, additional measures are required.
In light of the foregoing, a need exists for a fixing arrangement and method that results in a fixed connection that is secure in both axial directions. It would also be desirable to provide a fixing arrangement and method that utilize a relatively simple construction.

Arrangement and method for fixing tubular element in a hole in a plate element


A tread portion includes land portions partitioned by circumferential grooves extending in a tire circumferential direction and lateral grooves extending in a tire width direction. At least one land portion comprises an annular sipe. A surface of a portion of the land portion surrounded by the annular sipe includes at least one inner side inclining face that inclines toward the annular sipe. A surface of a portion of the land portion along a periphery of the annular sipe includes at least one outer side inclining face that inclines toward the annular sipe. The inner side inclining face and the outer side inclining face are disposed so as not to be opposite each other. A step is formed between a first edge of the annular sipe of the inner side inclining face or the outer side inclining face and a second edge of the annular sipe opposing the first edge.

1. Technical Field
The present technology relates to a pneumatic tire by which driving performance, braking performance, and turning performance on snowy and icy roads are enhanced to or beyond conventional levels.
2. Related Art
Superior driving performance, braking performance, and turning performance or similar steering stability when traveling on snowy and icy roads is necessary for studless tires such as winter tires and all-season tires used for traveling on snowy and icy roads. Conventionally, as illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12, a land portion 3 formed from a block or a rib partitioned by circumferential grooves 1 and lateral grooves 2 including lug grooves is provided in a tread portion. A plurality of sipes 15 and 16 are formed in this land portion 3 thereby increasing pliability of the land portion and increasing actual ground contact area. Moreover, steering stability on snow (performance on snow) is ensured due to the biting action by the edges of the sipes 15 and 16. This performance on snow can be enhanced by increasing the snow traction component by adjusting the length, number, and the like of the sipes 15 and 16. However, with such conventional sipes, while high traction in the tire circumferential direction can be obtained, traction in the tire width direction declines and steering stability on snow and ice when turning cannot be sufficiently obtained.
In response, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-347468A and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-274800A propose, as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14, disposing a sipe that is a combination of a round annular sipe 17 and a cross-shaped sipe 18, and a honeycomb shaped sipe 19 having collectively arranged hexagonal annular sipes. Compared to the conventional sipes 15 and 16, the sipes described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-347468A or Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-274800A function to enhance driving performance, braking performance, turning performance and similar steering stability when traveling on snowy and icy roads. However, these improvement effects are not always sufficient and further enhancements in performance on snow and ice is needed.


An organic electroluminescent device (1) including an anode (2), a cathode (6), and at least a first layer (3), a second layer (4), and a third layer (5) provided between the anode (2) and the cathode (6) in that order from the anode side. At least one of the first to third layers (3), (4), and (5) includes a phosphorescent compound. At least one of the first to third layers (3), (4), and (5) is an emitting layer. At least three compounds respectively forming the first layer (3), the second layer (4), and the third layer (5) other than the phosphorescent compound are compounds of the following formula (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device. In particular, the invention relates to a phosphorescent organic electroluminescent device.
2. Description of Related Art
An organic electroluminescent device (organic EL device) using an organic material is a promising solid-state emitting type inexpensive and large full-color display device, and has been extensively developed.
In general, when an electric field is applied between electrodes of an organic EL device, electrons are injected from the cathode and holes are injected from the anode. The electrons recombine with the holes in the emitting layer to produce an excited state, and the energy is emitted as light when the excited state returns to the ground state.
An organic EL device includes an emitting layer, a pair of opposing electrodes positioned on either side of the emitting layer, and a layer which transports holes or electrons to the emitting layer. As a specific example of the configuration of the organic EL device, a configuration including anode/hole transporting layer/emitting layer/electron transporting layer/cathode has been known. The hole transporting layer assists in transporting holes generated from the anode to the emitting layer, and the electron transporting layer assists in transporting electrons generated from the cathode to the emitting layer.
Patent document 1 discloses use of a compound having a carbazole group as a host material for the hole transporting layer (electron transporting layer) and the emitting layer. The patent document 1 utilizes a non-conjugated polymer compound for the hole transporting layer to obtain a device with a green emission of 371 m/W. However, the compound of the patent document 1 does not achieve a satisfactory luminous efficiency.
Patent document 2 utilizes a compound having a carbazole group for the hole transporting layer (electron transporting layer). Patent document 3 utilizes a compound having a carbazole group for the hole transporting layer and the emitting layer.
[Patent document 1] JP-A-2004-220931
[Patent document 2] JP-A-2002-203683
[Patent document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,997
An object of the invention is to provide a low-voltage, high-efficiency, and long-lived organic EL device.

Abstract: wherein R1 to R7 each represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent, provided that adjacent substituents may form a ring.


A method for fusing two or more source images to form a composite image with extended information content and apparatus for forming the composite image from the source images is disclosed. Each source image is decomposed into a number of source images of varying resolution. The decomposed source images are analyzed using directionally sensitive operators to generate a set of oriented basis functions characteristic of the information content of the original images. The oriented basis functions for the composite image are then selected from those of the different source images and the inverse of the decomposition performed to construct the composite image. Apparatus for fusing two or more source images to form a composite image is also disclosed.

Image fusion is a process that combines two or more source images to form a single composite image with extended information content. Typically images from different sensors, such as infra-red and visible cameras, computer aided tomography (CAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, are combined to form the composite image. Multiple images of a given scene taken with different types of sensors, such as visible and infra-red cameras, or images taken with a given type of sensor and scene but under different imaging condition, such as with different scene illumination or camera focus may be combined. Image fusion is successful to the extent that: (1) the composite image retains all useful information from the source images, (2) the composite image does not contain any artifacts generated by the fusion process, and (3) the composite image looks natural, so that it can be readily interpreted through normal visual perception by humans or machines. The term useful information as determined by the user of the composite image determines which features of the different source images are selected for inclusion in the composite image.
The most direct approach to fusion is to align the source images, then sum, or average, across images at each pixel position. This and other pixel-based approaches often yield unsatisfactory results since individual source features appear in the composite with reduced contrast or appear jumbled as in a photographic double exposure.
Pattern selective image fusion tries to overcome these deficiencies by identifying salient features in the source images and preserving these features in the composite at full contrast. Each source image is first decomposed into a set of primitive pattern elements. A set of pattern elements for the composite image is then assembled by selecting salient patterns from the primitive pattern elements of the source images. Finally, the composite image is constructed from its set of primitive pattern elements.
Burt in "Fast Filter Transforms For Image Processing", in Multiresolution Image Processing And Analysis, volume 16, pages 20-51, 1981 and Anderson et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,806 entitled "Image-Data Reduction Technique", incorporated herein by reference for its teaching on image decomposition technique, have disclosed an image decomposition technique in which an original comparatively high-resolution image comprised of a first number of pixels is processed to derive a wide field-of-view, low resolution image comprised of second number of pixels smaller than the first given number. The process for decomposing the image to produce lower resolution images is typically performed using a plurality of low-pass filters of differing bandwidth having a Gaussian roll-off. van der Wal in U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,514 entitled "Programmed Implementation Of Real-Time Multiresolution Signal Processing Apparatus", incorporated herein by reference, has disclosed a means for implementing the pyramid process for the analysis of images.
The Laplacian pyramid approach to image fusion is perhaps the best known pattern-selective method. P. Burt in Multiresolution Image Processing and Analysis, A. Rosenfeld, Ed., Springer Verlag, New York, 1984 first disclosed the use of image fusion techniques based on the Laplacian pyramid for binocular fusion in human vision. E. H. Adelson in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,986 disclosed the use of the Laplacian technique for the construction of an image with an extended depth of field from a set of images taken with a fixed camera but with different focal settings. A. Toet in Machine Vision and Applications, volume 3 pages 1-11 (1990) has disclosed a modified Laplacian pyramid that has been used to combine visible and IR images for surveillance applications. More recently M. Pavel et al in Proceedings of the AIAA Conference on Computing in Aerospace, volume 8, Baltimore, October 1991 have disclosed a Laplacian pyramid for combining a camera image with graphically generated imagery as an aid to aircraft landing. Burt and Adelson in ACM Trans. on Graphics., volume 2, pages 217-236 (1983) and in the Proceeding of SPIE, volume 575, pages 173-181 (1985) have developed related Laplacian pyramid techniques to merge images into mosaics for a variety of applications
In effect, a Laplacian transform is used to decompose each source image into regular arrays of Gaussian-like basis functions of many sizes. These patterns are sometimes referred to as basis functions of the pyramid transform, or as wavelets. The multiresolution pyramid of source images permits coarse features to be analyzed at low resolution and fine features to be analyzed at high resolution. Each sample value of a pyramid represents the amplitude associated with a corresponding basis function. In the Laplacian pyramid approach to fusion cited above, the combination process selects the most prominent of these patterns from the source images for inclusion in the fused image. The source pyramids are combined through selection on a sample by sample basis to form a composite pyramid. Current practice is to use a "choose max rule" in this selection; that is, at each sample location in the pyramid source image, the source image sample with the largest value is copied to become the corresponding sample in the composite pyramid. Finally, the composite image is recovered from the composite pyramid through an inverse Laplacian transform.
In the case of the Laplacian transform, the component patterns take the form of circularly symmetric Gaussian-like intensity functions. Component patterns of a given scale tend to have large amplitude where there are distinctive features in the image of about that scale. Most image patterns can be described as being made up of edge-like primitives. The edges in turn are represented within the pyramid by collections of components patterns.
While the Laplacian pyramid technique has been found to provide good results, sometimes visible artifacts are introduced into the composite image. These may occur, for example, along extended contours in the scene due to the fact that such higher level patterns are represented in the Laplacian pyramid rather indirectly. An intensity edge is represented in the Laplacian pyramid by Gaussian patterns at all scales with positive values on the lighter side of the edge, negative values on the darker, and zero at the location of the edge itself. If not all of these primitives survive the selection process, the contour is not completely rendered in the composite. An additional shortcoming is due to the fact that the Gaussian-like component patterns have non-zero mean values. Errors in the selection process lead to changes in the average image intensity within local regions of a scene. These artifacts are particularly noticeable when sequences of composite or fused images are displayed. The selection process is intrinsically binary, the basis function from one or the other source image is chosen. If the magnitude of the basis functions vary, for example because of noise in the image or sensor motion, the selection process may alternately select the basis functions from different source images. This leads to unduly perceptible artifacts such as flicker and crawlers.
Thus there is a need for improved methods of image fusion which overcome these shortcomings in the prior art and provide better image quality in a composite image formed by the image fusion process, particularly when sequences of composite images are displayed.

Method for fusing images and apparatus therefor


The present invention relates to a reflecting optical system, wherein the reflecting optical system comprises a first reflecting surface having a positive power and a second reflecting surface having a negative power, wherein at least one of the surfaces is inclined and the reflecting optical system comprises a substantially afocal optical system of the surfaces.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reflecting optical system and, more particularly, to a reflecting optical system constituting an afocal optical system.
2. Related Background Art
An example of the conventional optical system parts of which are comprised of reflecting surfaces is the telescope as illustrated in FIG. 1. This telescope is of a type called Cassegrain reflecting telescope, which is composed of a concave mirror 151, a convex mirror 152, and an eyepiece lens 155. This telescope is constructed in such an arrangement that the concave mirror 151 reflects parallel light 154 from an object at infinity into a converging beam on the object side, the convex mirror 152 disposed on the object side of the concave mirror 151 reflects the beam toward an observer to form an object image on an intermediate image plane 153, and then the object image is observed using the eyepiece lens 155 disposed behind the intermediate image plane 153.
In this way, the Cassegrain reflecting telescope has the optical system the total length of which is shortened by folding an optical path of a telephoto lens system with a long total length of lens comprised of refracting lenses by the two opposed reflecting mirrors.
Further, the above-stated telescope is arranged to receive a nearly parallel incident beam from the object at infinity and to emit a nearly parallel beam. The optical system of this type is normally called as an afocal optical system, which is used mainly in an observation optical system such as a viewfinder of telescope or camera.
In addition to the example of the afocal optical system having the imaging point in the optical system as in the above-stated telescope, there are afocal optical systems having no imaging point of real image in the optical system.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 59-204817, U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,209, or the like discloses a wide converter lens, which is an example of the afocal optical system having no imaging point of real image in the optical system.
The simplest arrangement of the afocal optical system having no imaging point in the optical system is a so-called inverted Galilean telescope comprised of a combination of a negative lens with a positive lens as shown in FIG. 2.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 163 designates a negative lens the focal length of which is -f.sub.0 (f.sub.0 is positive), and 164 a positive lens the focal length f.sub.E of which is f.sub.E =f.sub.0 +e. Here, e is a distance between the negative lens 163 and the positive lens 164.
The action of this optical system is next described. A parallel beam 161 from the object at infinity is first incident to the negative lens 163 disposed nearest to the object to be refracted by the negative lens 163, thereby forming a virtual image of the object at point A f.sub.0 apart from the negative lens 163 on the object side.
Then the beam refracted by the negative lens 163 is incident to the positive lens 164. Since the object point A at that time is coincident with the position of the front focal point of the positive lens 164, the positive lens 164 focuses the image at infinity. Accordingly, this optical system is an afocal optical system 162 arranged to receive the parallel beam incident thereto from the object at infinity and to emit the parallel beam and having no imaging point of real image in the optical system.
At this time, the angular magnification .gamma. of the afocal optical system 162 can be obtained as a ratio of absolute values of the focal lengths of the negative lens 163 and positive lens 164, i.e., .gamma.=f.sub.0 /f.sub.E. The ratio .gamma. in this case is smaller than 1.
The afocal optical system can change the angular magnification of optical system while emitting the parallel beam from the incident parallel beam in this way. Therefore, by locating the afocal optical system in front of an imaging optical system, the image magnification (focal length) of the imaging optical system can be changed without changing the position of the image plane of the imaging optical system alone.
FIG. 3 is an optical layout drawing in which the afocal optical system shown in FIG. 2 is disposed in front of the imaging optical system. In FIG. 3, the afocal optical system 162 of FIG. 2 is located in front of the imaging optical system 171 with the focal length f.sub.M, whereby the combined focal length f.sub.A becomes one obtained by multiplying the focal length f.sub.M of the imaging optical system 171 by the angular magnification .gamma. of the afocal optical system 162. That is, f.sub.A =.gamma..multidot.f.sub.M. In the case of FIG. 3, f.sub.A is smaller than f.sub.M and therefore, the afocal optical system 162 becomes a wide converter.
The telescope of FIG. 2 has the negative lens 163 disposed on the object side and the positive lens 164 disposed behind thereof, but another example may be of an arrangement of so-called Galilean telescope in which the positive lens is disposed on the object side and the negative lens is disposed behind thereof. Since in this case .gamma. is greater than 1, the telescope has a function of tele-converter.
Although the Cassegrain reflecting telescope has the shortened total length as compared with the case of the optical systems composed of only the refracting optical system, it is arranged to once form the object image and locate the eyepiece lens behind it, and therefore, the Cassegrain reflecting telescope has the relatively long total length among the afocal systems.
In contrast with it, the afocal optical systems having no imaging point of real image can be constructed with short total lengths like the inverted Galilean telescope or the Galilean telescope as described above.
Such afocal optical systems having no imaging point of real image in the optical system are used as converter lens systems such as the so-called wide converter or tele-converter in such a way that the afocal optical system of a desired magnification is mounted on the object side of the imaging optical system as shown in FIG. 3 to change the focal length of the imaging optical system by the magnification of afocal optical system, or used in cameras or the like as a finder optical system such as an Albada finder.
The afocal optical systems of this type, however, need at least two lens systems and normally have to include two or more lenses in order to further improve the performance and specifications.
In addition, most of the conventional afocal optical systems were composed of rotationally symmetric refracting lenses and reflecting surfaces, which imposed restriction on the degrees of freedom of arrangement of optical components in optical apparatus.
This situation will be described referring to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are explanatory drawings where a converter lens composed of conventional lenses rotationally symmetric is mounted on a camera. FIG. 4A is a front view thereof and FIG. 4B is a side view thereof.
In FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, the converter lens 183 is mounted in front of the imaging optical system (master lens) 182 of camera 181.
In general, the so-called front converter lens mounted in front of the imaging optical system 182 is easy in correction for aberration of converter lens but on the other hand, the lens size thereof tends to be extremely greater than that of the imaging optical system. As a result, since the converter lens 183 with a large outer diameter was mounted to the camera 181, there occurred some cases that the converter lens covered a part of the optical path of another optical system built in the camera 181, for example, such as a finder system 184 or a photometry optical system 185.
There were some other cases in which the converter lens 183 did not cover another optical component directly but interrupted a part of optical path 191 of another optical system, for example, of the finder system 184, as shown in FIG. 4B.

Reflecting optical system and optical apparatus


A method is provided which comprises providing a block of IWT (integer wavelet transform) coefficients for preferably one high frequency sub-band of an image; determining a mean value of said coefficients within said block; and establishing an encoded mean value to embed one of a logical-0 bit value and a logical-1 bit into said first block.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for embedding data in an image and recovering the embedded data therefrom.
Data hiding, also known as data concealing, is a process for embedding useful data (information) into a cover media, such as image data. Cover media with data embedded therein is referred to herein as "marked media." Data hiding may be employed for the purposes of identification, annotation, copyright protection, and authentication. In such applications, the hidden data and the cover media may be closely related. This type of data embedding is often referred to as watermarking or more generally as "marking." It is desirable for the hidden data to be perceptually transparent. Otherwise stated, the marked media should resemble the cover media as closely as possible.
The cover media will generally experience some distortion due to the presence of embedded data. Moreover, even after the embedded data are removed, it is generally difficult to restore the cover media to the condition it was in prior to embedding the data. Specifically, some permanent distortion of the cover media generally remains even after the hidden data have been extracted. The sources of distortion include round-off error, truncation error, and quantization error. This distortion presents a problem since for some applications such as medical diagnosis and law enforcement, it is important to accurately restore the cover media to the pre-embedding condition once the hidden data have been retrieved. The marking techniques satisfying this requirement are referred to as lossless or distortionless. Such marking techniques are also known as reversible marking techniques and are generally suitable for applications where the original media data should be accurately recovered.
Recently, some lossless marking techniques have been reported in the literature. The first method is carried out in the image spatial domain. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,791, issued Aug. 21, 2001, entitled "Lossless Recovery of an Original Image Containing Embedded Data," by C. W. Honsinger, P. Jones, M. Rabbani, and J. C. Stoffel (referred to herein as "Honsinger"), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Another spatial domain technique was reported in Fridrich. J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and R. Du, "Invertible authentication," Proc. SPIE, Security and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents, San Jose, Calif., January (2001) (referred to herein as "Fridrich"). The entire disclosure of this document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. There also exists a distortionless marking technique in the transform domain. B. Macq and F. Deweyand, "Trusted headers for medical images," DFG VIII-D II Watermarking Workshop, Erlangen, Germany, October 1999 (referred to herein as "Macq"). The entire disclosure of this document is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The capacity of the method reported in "De Vleeschouwer" is also very limited except that it exhibits robustness against high quality JPEG compression. C. De Vleeschouwer, J. F. Delaigle and B. Macq, "Circular interpretation on histogram for reversible watermarking," IEEE International Multimedia Signal Processing Workshop, Cannes, France, pp. 345-350, October 2001 (referred to herein as "De Vleeschouwer") The entire disclosure of this document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. These techniques are directed to authentication rather than to data hiding, and the total quantity of data embedded in the cover media is therefore limited.
The first lossless marking technique that is suitable for high embedding rate data hiding was presented in Goljan, M. Goljan, J. Fridrich, and R. Du, "Distortion-free data embedding," Proceedings of 4th Information Hiding Workshop, Pittsburgh, Pa., April, 2001 (referred to herein as Goljan), the entire disclosure of which document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. In Goljan, the pixels in an image are divided into non-overlapped blocks, each block consisting of a number of adjacent pixels. For instance, this block could be a horizontal block having four consecutive pixels. A discrimination function is established to classify the blocks into three different categories: Regular, Singular, and Unusable. The authors used the discrimination function to capture the smoothness of the groups.
An invertible operation can be applied to groups. Specifically, the invertible operation can map a gray-level value to another gray-level value. This operation is invertible since applying it to a gray level value twice produces the original gray level value. This invertible operation is therefore called "flipping." For typical images, flipping with a small amplitude will lead to an increase of the discrimination function, resulting in more regular groups and fewer singular groups. It is this bias that enables distortionless data hiding. While this approach hides data without distorting the cover data, the quantity of data which may be hidden employing this technique is still not large enough for certain applications. The payload was estimated to be in a range from 3,000 bits to 24,000 bits for a 512×512×8 gray image according to Goljan. Another problem with the method is that as the quantity of data embedded in the image increases, the visual quality of the image decreases. For instance, the PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) may drop as low as 35 dB (decibels), and some undesired artifacts may appear in the image.
A method by Xuan, based on the integer wavelet transform, is a recently proposed reversible data hiding technique that can embed a large quantity of data. Guorong Xuan, Jidong Chen, Jiang Zhu, Yun Q. Shi, Zhicheng Ni, Wei Su, "Distortionless Data Hiding Based on Integer Wavelet Transform," IEEE International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing, St. Thomas, US Virgin islands, December 2002 (referred to herein as "Xuan"). This document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The main idea in Xuan is as follows. After the integer wavelet transform is applied to the original image, the bias between binary ones and binary zeroes in the bit-planes of the sub-bands LH, HL, and HH is significantly increased. Hence, the ones and zeroes in these bit planes can be losslessly compressed to leave a lot of storage space for data embedding. After data embedding, an inverse integer wavelet transform is applied to form the marked image. The capacity achieved in this technique is quite large. The PSNR of the marked image is, however, not high due to the histogram modification applied in order to avoid overflow or underflow conditions. For some images, the PSNR is only 28 dB.
One method based on histogram manipulation is a recently disclosed lossless data hiding technique, which can embed a large amount of data (5 k-80 k bits for a 512×512×8 grayscale image) while preserving high visual quality (the PSNR is guaranteed to be above 48 dB) for a vast majority of images. Z. Ni, Y. Q. Shi, N. Ansari and W. Su, "Reversible data hiding," IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, May 2003, Bangkok, Thailand, (referred to herein as "Ni"). This document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. This document (Ni) is not conceded to be prior art merely through its placement in the "Background of the Invention" section of this patent application.
However, only one prior lossless data hiding technique (De Vleeschouwer) is robust against compression applied to the stego-image (the image including the embedded data). Specifically, only in Vleeschouwer can the hidden data still be extracted out correctly after the stego-media has gone through compression. With the other existing techniques, the embedded data cannot be recovered without error after stego-media compression.
With reference to FIGS. 1A and B, while the De Vleeschouwer technique is robust to compression, it generates annoying salt-and-pepper noise because it uses modulo-256 addition. That is, when the pixel grayscale value is close to 256 (brightest) and/or 0 (darkest), the modulo-256 addition will likely cause flipping over between the brightest and darkest gray values. This often happens with medical images. This type of salt-pepper noise is unacceptable for many applications.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method for embedding an amount of robust data into cover media in a reversible manner (the original cover media can be reserved without salt-and-pepper noise).

System and method for robust lossless data hiding and recovering from the integer wavelet representation


A method for monitoring various engineering conditions of a pneumatic tire such a temperature, pressure, tire rotation and other operating conditions of the tire. A tire tag is mounted on the interior of the tire within the pressurizable cavity and contains the stored data and sensors for detecting certain conditions within the cavity. A separate transponding device is mounted on the tire rim. The tire tag contains a battery, an antenna and stored data pertaining to the tire. The transponding device uses electronic circuitry which collects data from the tire tag. The tire tag is actuated by transmitted radio frequency waves from the transponding device, which data is retransmitted by the transponding device to the remote location by an antenna which extends from the transponding device through the rim to a location externally of the tire.

Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for monitoring various physical conditions of a pneumatic tire and to a tire having a memory device containing stored information relating to the tire, and a monitoring device which senses engineering conditions within the tire. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and tire construction in which the memory and monitoring devices attach to the tire innerliner and contain electronics to maintain stored data regarding the tire, preferably an antenna and a low-powered battery to transmit and receive data to and from a transponder mounted on the tire rim. The transponder transmits the received data to a remote location via an antenna external of the tire.

Method and apparatus for transmitting stored data and engineering conditions of a tire to a remote location


A pixel array display system which has an illumination source with a plurality of emitters in a sparse array, collimators in front of the emitters, a condenser lens downstream of the collimators, an optical homogenizing element downstream from the condenser lens, a relay lens downstream from the optical homogenizing element, a pixel array downstream from the relay lens, a rear group of lens elements of a projection lens downstream from the pixel array, a polarization converter stack downstream from the rear group of lens elements and a front group of lens elements of the projection lens downstream from the polarization converter stack, so that light from the emitters is imaged onto input apertures of the polarization converter stack.

A pixel array display system may modulate light from an illumination source as a function of input image data for each pixel to produce a display. It may be desirable to provide modulated light from the pixel array which is linearly polarized, for example, to enable a three-dimensional (3D) display system which alternates polarization directions between frames. Common methods of providing polarized modulated light from a pixel array may be undesirably inefficient from an optical throughput standpoint. Adding a polarizer to a projection lens discards half of the modulated light, which may add cost and complexity to an illumination source of the display system. Providing a polarized illumination source may require all optical elements to maintain the polarization state of the illumination source, which may add cost and complexity to the optical elements. Additional background information is given in Destain U.S. Pub. No. US 2011/0298842 A1, entitled "Sparse Source Array for Display Pixel Array Illumination with Rotated Far Field Plane."


A smoke exhauster includes one or more drawing devices secured in a hood for drawing a smoke. A plate is secured to the bottom of the hood and has one or more holes aligned with the drawing devices and has a number of slots formed in the peripheral portion. A casing is disposed on the plate and has a number of grooves formed in the lower peripheral portion for allowing the smoke in the peripheral portion of the plate to be drawn into the casing and for allowing the smoke to be effectively drawn out by the smoke exhauster.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a smoke exhauster, and more particularly to a smoke exhauster having a peripheral air drawing mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical smoke exhausters comprise one or two openings formed in the bottom and one or more fans for drawing the air or smoke through the openings. However, a portion of the air or smoke will not be drawn through the openings and may also flow bypass the smoke exhauster. Some of the smoke exhausters includes a chute directed to the rear portion of the smoke exhauster for drawing the smoke flowing to the rear portion of the smoke exhauster. However, the smoke flowing to the front portion and the side portions of the smoke exhauster may also not be drain out through the openings.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional smoke exhausters.

Smoke exhauster having peripheral air drawing effect