A fluorescence observation or fluorescence measuring system has at least one of a low-fluorescence objective lens including optical elements made of low-fluorescence glass, satisfying Condition (a) described below, a low-fluorescence immersion substance satisfying Condition (b) described below, and a low-fluorescence cover glass satisfying Condition (c) described below:BOB′/BOB≦0.7  (a)BIM′/BIM≦0.7  (b)BCG′/BCG≦0.7  (c)where BOB′, BIM′, and BCG′ are average intensity values of auto-fluorescence from the low-fluorescence objective lens, immersion substance, and cover glass, respectively, and BOB, BIM, and BCG are average intensity values of auto-fluorescence from a conventional objective lens, immersion substance, and cover glass, respectively, generally used.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fluorescence observation or fluorescence measuring system, and a fluorescence observation or fluorescence measuring method.
2. Description of Related Art
By the developments in recent years of measuring instruments and apparatuses in the fields of microscopes, fluorescence microscopes, and protein and DNA analytical apparatuses, tendencies of observations and measurements in these fields are changed. In the changes of the tendencies, there are two great currents described below.
One of them is a change of observation-measurement objects from the observations and measurements of fixed cells to those of living cells. The advent of the post-genome era has increased the importance of the technique that allows accurate observation and measurement of feeble fluorescent light in a broad band with respect to fluorochrome single-molecule fluorescence measurement and a simultaneous analysis of functions of living bodies by the color diversification of fluorochrome. In particular, in the most advanced research field, the need that observations of cells, in vivo, should be continued for a long period of time (in the range from several days to a few weeks) has recently been increased for purposes of the functional clarification of living bodies and the behavior analysis and interaction clarification of proteins, and various techniques of such observations have been developed. In order to observe the cell, the technique of producing a fluorescent protein in a desired cell or introducing the fluorochrome to observe fluorescent light emanating therefrom is often used. The latest technique involves a single-molecule fluorescence observation that is thought of as an ultimate feeble-fluorescence observation and trends to feebler-fluorescence observation and measurement. In a general fluorescence observation, when light for exciting a fluorescent substance (excitation light) is too intense, damage is caused to the cell. Thus, in order to keep the cell alive for a long period of time, it is necessary to set as low an intensity of the excitation light as possible. It is known that when the fluorescent substance is irradiated with the excitation light, the fluorescent light is bleached, not to speak of the cell observation. Even for the purpose of suppressing bleaching by irradiating the substance with faint excitation light, it is very useful to enable an image with a good S/N ratio to be observed with feeble fluorescent light.
When faint excitation light is used, however, the intensity of fluorescent light to be detected is lowered and it becomes difficult to obtain an image with a high S/N ratio. As the fluorescent light becomes feeble, including the case of the single-molecule fluorescence observation that is the ultimate feeble-fluorescence observation, a contribution to the noise increases and the S/N ratio is reduced. Here, the noise refers to auto-fluorescence mainly emanating from an optical system or a specimen.
The other is a change from an apparatus provided with only the function of observation like a conventional microscope apparatus to an apparatus further provided with a means for measuring and quantifying the intensity of fluorescent light, the wavelength, and the localization of matter to be detected. Accurate quantification, including the noise, has been required.
In a fluorescence observation apparatus such as a fluorescence microscope, and a fluorescence measuring apparatus such as a genome/protein analytical apparatus, various wavelengths are observed and measured in a wide range from ultraviolet to infrared. In particular, the fluorescence observation and measurement by three excitations, called U excitation, B excitation, and G excitation, respectively, are typical. The U excitation is caused at a wavelength of about 365 nm and fluorescent light of wavelength about 450 nm is observed and measured; the B excitation is caused at a wavelength of about 488 nm and fluorescent light of wavelength about 540 nm is observed and measured; and the G excitation is caused at a wavelength of about 550 nm and fluorescent light of wave-length about 600 nm is observed and measured.
Conventional fluorescence observation apparatuses and fluorescence measuring apparatuses are proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai Nos. Hei 08-320437 and Hei 08-178849.
A conventional microscope for fluorescence observation is set forth, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai No. 2001-83318, as the microscope constructed so that the fluorescence observation by ordinary reflecting illumination and that by totally reflecting illumination are switched to each other.
A fluorescence detecting system through the conventional fluorescence microscope such as the microscope set forth in Kokai No. 2001-83318 is constructed so that a fluorescent substance is irradiated with excitation light to detect fluorescent light emanating from the fluorescent substance through a detector and thereby a specimen is observed.

Fluorescence observation or fluorescence measuring system, and fluorescence observation or fluorescence measuring method


Disclosed herein is a spray coating process for a robotic spray gun assembly comprising importing a discretized model of an object geometry to be coated; importing a numerically characterized spray pattern file; importing a robot motion file comprising a plurality of motion positions, dwell times and orientations defining a spray direction of the robotic spray gun; reading each motion position within the motion file; determining which portions of the object geometry are visible at each motion position; computing a void volume fraction at each visible portion of the object geometry based on the core compression, the incident angle of the robotic spray gun and the ricocheting of the spray for each motion position; and calculating total coating thickness on portions of the object geometry for the complete motion step.

This disclosure relates to methods for controlling plasma spray coating porosity on an article and articles manufactured therefrom.
Spray coating processes such as air plasma processes, vacuum plasma processes, high velocity oxygen fuel thermal spray processes, and the like, are used to coat turbine buckets. These processes may produce coatings that are partially porous. Porosity in coatings may be detrimental to the performance and life of the turbine bucket. In order to repair turbine buckets that have coatings with excess porosity, it is necessary to strip and recoat them. Stripping and recoating the turbine buckets is time consuming and expensive. Moreover there is no assurance that porosity level will be acceptable after the recoating of the bucket.
The porosity in the coatings is influenced by several factors. One factor is the deposition of non-molten or partially molten particles on the turbine bucket during the coating process. Non-molten or partially molten particles are generally deposited on the coated surface in a porous ring along the edge of the spray cone. Another factor is the rebounding of non-molten particles from concave surfaces on the turbine bucket. Yet another factor is the rebounding of non-molten particles from surfaces upon which the spray impinges. There is also an interplay amongst the aforementioned three factors that may produce porosity in the coating.
It is therefore desirable to develop a method for spray coating turbine buckets that determines the contribution to porosity from each of the aforementioned factors and their respective interactions with one another and that can be used to control porosity in the coating on the turbine buckets.

Methods for controlling plasma spray coating porosity on an article and articles manufactured therefrom


An object of the present invention is to solve inhibition of biopolymer measurement in a nanopore, which involves three-dimensional conformation of a biopolymer containing a nucleic acid. The present invention provides a device for analyzing a biopolymer containing a nucleic acid, the device including: an array device including a plurality of thin film parts having a nanopore; a single common container and a plurality of individual containers capable of storing a measurement solution which is brought into contact with the thin films; and individual electrodes respectively provided in the plurality of individual containers, wherein: the measurement solution is introduced into each of the individual containers and the common container so as to be brought into contact with the thin films; and the measurement solution has a pH equal to or greater than pKa of a guanine base and contains cesium ions as electrolyte cations.

When a solution containing an electrolyte is brought into contact with a pore having a diameter of about 0.9 nm to several nanometers (hereinafter referred to as a nanopore) and embedded in a thin film having a thickness of about several angstroms to several tens of nanometers, and a potential difference is applied across the thin film, the solution containing the electrolyte can be passed through the nanopore. At this time, when an object to be measured passes through the nanopore, the electrical characteristics, in particular, the resistance value, of the periphery part of the nanopore change, whereby the object to be measured can be detected and analyzed by detecting a change in the electrical characteristics. When the object to be measured is a biopolymer, the electrical characteristics of the periphery part of the nanopore change in a pattern form according to the monomer sequence pattern of the biopolymer. A method for analyzing the monomer sequence of the biopolymer utilizing the change has been actively studied in recent years. Among them, a system based on the principle that the amount of a change in ion current observed when a biopolymer passes through a nanopore varies depending on the kinds of monomers (blocked current method) is considered to be viable. In this case, since the analysis accuracy of the monomer sequence is determined by the amount of a change in ion current, a difference in ion current amount between monomers is desirably larger. Unlike a conventional method, the blocked current method can directly read a biopolymer without requiring a chemical procedure which involves fragmentation of the biopolymer. When the biopolymer is DNA, the blocked current method is a next-generation DNA nucleotide sequence analysis system. When the biopolymer is a protein, the blocked current method is an amino acid sequence analysis system. These are expected as systems capable of reading much longer sequence lengths than those of the conventional method.
There are two types of nanopore devices: a biopore device using a protein embedded in a lipid bilayer membrane and having a center pore; and a solid pore device having a pore formed in an insulating thin film formed by a semiconductor processing process. The biopore device uses a pore (diameter: 1.2 nm, thickness: 0.6 nm) of a modified protein (such as Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA)) embedded in a lipid bilayer membrane as a biopolymer detection part, to measure the amount of a change in ion current. On the other hand, in the solid pore device, there has been used a structure including a nanopore formed in a thin film made of silicon nitride which is a semiconductor material or a thin film consisting of a single molecule layer made of graphene or molybdenum disulfide.
In such analysis devices, as a basic unit, there has been used a device which includes a nanopore device, a solution containing an object to be measured and an electrolyte, and a pair of electrodes between which the nanopore device is sandwiched. Such a constitution is described in Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 1, for example. A material which can perform an electron transfer reaction with the electrolyte in the solution (can perform an electrochemical oxidation-reduction reaction) is typically employed for the electrode. Specifically, a silver/silver chloride electrode is often used because of its electrochemical potential stability and high reliability. As the electrolyte, an aqueous potassium chloride solution under pH neutralization is most typically used. The reason is that chloride ions can perform an electron transfer reaction with the silver/silver chloride electrode, and potassium ions have electric mobility equal to that of chloride ions, whereby electric conductivity can be sufficiently secured. In the solid pore (semiconductor nanopore), reports have been made that the amount of blocked current of a homopolymer consisting of an adenine base, a cytosine base, or a thymine base is measured by using an aqueous potassium chloride solution under pH neutralization (Non-Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 2).

Measuring reagent and analysis device for analyzing biopolymer


A management system manages a computer system including multiple monitoring-target devices. A storage device of the management system stores a general rule, general plan information, unresolved information, and configuration information. A control device of the management system creates multiple expanded rules based on the general rule and the configuration information, and if an event related to any of the multiple monitoring-target devices has occurred, identifies, based on the multiple expanded rules, a first conclusion event constituting a candidate for the cause of the occurred event, creates, based on the general plan information, one or more expanded plans, which are recovery plans that can be implemented if the first conclusion event is a cause, identifies an unresolved event based on the unresolved information, identifies a risk site based on the identified unresolved event, and displays data showing the first conclusion event, expanded plan, and risk site.

In the management of a computer system, the use of Event Correlation technology or another such technology for identifying the cause of an event-based failure makes it possible for the administrator of the computer system to detect the cause of a failure, which has occurred in the computer system (refer to Patent Literature 1).
There exists technology in which an analysis engine for analyzing the causal relationship between multiple failure events, which have occurred in a machine that is under management, applies a general rule, which comprises a predetermined condition statement and conclusion statement, to an event related to the machine under management, for example, an event in which a performance value exceeds a prescribed threshold, to create an expanded rule comprising a conclusion event, which is the cause of a drop in performance, and a condition event group caused thereby, and identifies the failure based on the created expanded rule (refer to Patent Literature 2).
There are numerous useful methods capable of being implemented in recent computer systems as recovery methods with respect to the cause of a failure identified in accordance with cause analysis, and, for example, there is a method for recovering from a failure by performing an appropriate data migration at system resource (virtual machine, data) allocation. As data migration technology in an environment in which multiple virtual host computers (that is, virtual machines, hereinafter called "VM") are running on a physical host computer, for example, technology (first VM migration) for transferring a VM operating environment from a certain physical host computer to another physical host computer, and technology (second VM migration) for migrating a VM stored in a certain storage area to another storage area, in accordance with information denoting VM performance and resource utilization information are known. Here, the VM is a type of data stored in a storage area, and the VM migration (the first VM migration and the second VM migration) is a type of data migration between storage areas. Data migration technology (volume migration) between data storage areas (volumes) in a storage apparatus is also known (refer to Patent Literature 3).

Management system for managing computer system comprising multiple monitoring-target devices


In a local antenna arrangement for a magnetic resonance apparatus, an antenna structure is connected to a signal generator via an inhibiting circuit. The signal generator is fashioned to generate and emit a detection signal from the radio-frequency signal received from the antenna structure when the local antenna is not connected. The inhibiting circuit is fashioned to electrically decouple the signal generator from the antenna structure when the local antenna is connected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a local antenna for a magnetic resonance apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Local antennas are utilized in diagnostic magnetic resonance systems because they deliver a better signal-to-noise ratio compared to whose-body antennas. Due to the more uniform intensity profile, the whole-body antenna is often utilized for the excitation of the nuclear spin procession, with only the resulting magnetic resonance signal being received with the local antenna. In addition to local antennas that are fashioned as receive-only antennas, local antennas for transmitting and for receiving are also employed for specific examinations.
Given proper operation, receive-only local antennas are detuned during the transmission phase of the whole-body antenna, so that a coupling of the local antenna with the whole-body antenna becomes minimal, as disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,244. U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,972 discloses a decoupling of the whole-body transmission antenna, by means of radio-frequency switching diodes inserted into the antenna leads. German OS 42 42 592 discloses the use for decoupling of a second winding with an opposite winding direction connected in addition to the usual winding of the reception coil. Transmit/receive local antennas are usually not operated simultaneously with the whole-body antenna; accordingly, they have no possibility for detuning.
German OS 44 40 619 discloses a radio-frequency antenna that wirelessly forwards the received magnetic resonance signals to the magnetic resonance apparatus.
Problems can arise when a local antenna that is improperly connected to the magnetic resonance apparatus is exposed to the transmission field of the whole-body antenna. Even a receive-only local antenna cannot be detuned in this case, and thus the high-frequency currents induced therein can lead to the destruction of antenna components or to an endangerment of the patient as well. Before the beginning of a measurement, conventionally the operator of the magnetic resonance apparatus must confirm that any local antenna which is present is connected to the magnetic resonance apparatus and that no local antenna in an unconnected condition is located in the magnetic resonance apparatus.

Local antenna arrangement for a magnetic resonance apparatus


The present invention relates to compositions and methods for sensitizing cancer therapy. The invention provides such compositions comprising a SPARC family polypeptide or polynucleotide, as well as recombinant cells containing a SPARC family polypeptide or polynucleotide. The compositions and methods of the invention are useful in in vitro study of cancer therapy resistance, as well as ex vivo and in vivo therapy of cancer.

The reason for cancer treatment failures following induction with chemotherapy or radiation therapy is still unclear. Many factors have been implicated in therapeutic resistance, such as upregulation of efflux pumps from multidrug resistance family (MDR) p-glycoprotein and other non-classical MDR proteins (multidrug resistance-associated protein, MRP; lung resistance protein, LRP) have been described in a variety of cancers (Lehnert, M. Anticancer Res 1998; 18:2225-2226; Ringborg, U. and Platz, A. Acta Oncol 1996; 5:76-80; Shea, T. C., Kelley, S. L., and Henner, W. D. Cancer Res 1998; 48:527-533). Unfortunately, many tumors that are intrinsically resistant to chemotherapy, such as the gastrointestinal malignancies, have relatively low levels of expression of the MDR genes. For example, only 23% of primary colorectal tumors express MRP and 65% express p-glycoprotein (Filipits M, Suchomel R W, Dekan G, Stigilbauer W, Haider K, Depisch D, Pirker R. Br. J Cancer 1997; 75: 208-212). Therefore, resistance to therapeutic agents cannot be explained solely on the basis of activation and up-regulation of known MDR genes. Studies have also shown that genetic mutations responsible for tumorigenesis may also contribute to drug resistance. For example, loss of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes found in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), have been associated with a more rapid emergence of clinical drug resistance (de las Alas MM, S Aebi, D Fink, S B Howell, G Los. J Natl Canc Inst 1997; 89:1537-41; Lin X, Howell S B (1999). Mol Pharmacol 56:390-5). Mutations in the K-ras gene, detected in approximately 40% of adenomatous polyps and adenocarcinomas, are associated with an increased relapse rate, mortality and a poor chemotherapeutic response (Arber N, I. Shapira, J. Ratan et al. Gastroenterology 2000; 118:1045-1050). Genes involved in cell cycle regulation, such as p21 and p27, have been shown to protect tumors from undergoing apoptosis elicited by various anticancer agents (Waldman T, Lengauer C, Kinzler K W, Vogelstein B. Nature 1996, 381:713-716; St. Croix B, Florenes V A, Rak J W, Flanagan M, Bhattacharya N, slingerland J M, Kerbel R S. Nature Med 1996, 2:1204-1210). In addition, cell adhesion molecules, such as E-cadherin, confer resistance to cells when exposed to chemotherapeutic agents (Skoudy A, Llosas M D, Garcia de Herreros A. Biochem J 1996).
The mechanisms involved in therapeutic resistance therefore appear to be very complex. Recent evidence suggests that the selectivity of chemotherapy for the relatively few tumors ever cured by drugs depends, to a large extent, upon their easy susceptibility to undergo apoptosis, i.e., to kill themselves (Makin G, Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2002 6(1):73-84; Johnstone R W, Ruefli A A, Lowe S W, Cell. 2002 108(2):153-64; Kamesaki H, Int J Hematol. 1998 68(1):29-43).
Secreted protein acidic and rich in cystein (SPARC) belongs to a family of extracellular proteins, called matricellular proteins. Since its identification and cloning, the functional role of SPARC remains unclear. Its high evolutionary conservation suggests an important physiological role for this protein (Iruela-Arispe M L, Lane T F, Redmond D, Reilly M, Bolender R P, Kavanagh T J, Sage E H. Mol Biol Cell. 1995 March; 6(3):327-43). Initial studies showed that SPARC is important in bone mineralization (Termine J D, Kleinman H K, Whitson S W, Conn K M, McGarvey M L, Martin G R. Cell. 1981 October; 26(1 Pt 1):99-105). While SPARC is expressed at high levels in bone tissue, it is also distributed widely in other tissues and cell types (Maillard, C., et al., Bone, 13:257-264 (1992)). Its role has been expanded to include tissue remodeling (Latvala T, Puolakkainen P, Vesaluoma M, Tervo T. Exp Eye Res. 1996 November; 63(5):579-84; Kelm R J Jr, Swords N A, Orfeo T, Mann K G. J Biol Chem. 1994 Dec. 2; 269(48):30147-53); endothelial cell migration (Hasselaar P, Sage E H. J Cell Biochem. 1992 July; 49(3):272-83), morphogenesis (Mason L T, Murphy D, Munke M, Francke U, Elliott R W, Hogan B L. EMBO J. 1986 August; 5(8):1831-7; Strandjord T P, Sage E H, Clark J G. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 1995 September; 13(3):279-87), and angiogenesis (Kupprion C, Motamed K, Sage E H. J Biol Chem. 1998 Nov. 6; 273(45):29635-40; Lane T F, Iruela-Arispe M L, Johnson R S, Sage E H. J Cell Biol. 1994 May; 125(4):929-43). SPARC has also been shown to have an antiproliferative effect on endothelial cells, mesangial cells, fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells (Sage E H. Biochem Cell Biol. 1992 July; 70(7):579-92).
Experiments in vitro have also identified SPARC in tumors (Schulz, A., et al., Am. J. Pathol., 132:233-238 (1988); Porter, P. L., et al., J. Histochem. Cytochem., 43:791-800 (1995)). There is conflicting evidence that SPARC can function either as an oncogene, as suggested by studies in melanoma (Ledda M F, Adris S, Bravo A T, Kairiyama C, Bover L, Chernajovsky Y, Mordoh J, Podhajcer O L. Nat Med. 1997 February; 3(2):171-6) or as a tumor suppressor, as demonstrated by its strong inhibition of growth in vJun-ml and v-Src-transformed chicken embryo fibroblasts (Vial E, Castellazzi M. Oncogene. 2000 Mar. 30; 19(14):1772-82). Although the growth inhibitory properties of SPARC have been mainly shown in primary cells, such as endothelial, fibroblast, mesangial and smooth muscle cells, this may also contribute to the role of SPARC in tumorigenesis. SPARC has also been shown to have tumor invasive properties. Variable SPARC expression has been observed in a variety of cancers. Higher levels of expression have been detected in breast cancer (Bellahcene A, Castronovo V. Am J Pathol. 1995 January; 146(1):95-100), esophageal cancer (Porte H, Triboulet J P, Kotelevets L, Carrat F, Prevot S, Nordlinger B, DiGioia Y, Wurtz A, Comoglio P, Gespach C, Chastre E. Clin Cancer Res. 1998 June; 4(6):1375-82), hepatocellular carcinoma (Le Bail B, Faouzi S, Boussarie L, Guirouilh J, Blanc J F, Caries J, Bioulac-Sage P, Balabaud C, Rosenbaum J. J Pathol. 1999 September; 189(1):46-52), and prostate (Thomas R, True L D, Bassuk J A, Lange P H, Vessella R L. Clin Cancer Res 2000; 6:1140-1149). However, conflicting results have been seen with ovarian cancers (Brown T J, Shaw P A, Karp X, Huynh M H, Begley, Ringuette M J. Gynecol Oncol 1999; 75: 25-33; Paley P J, Goff B A, Gown A M, Greer B E, Sage E H. Gynecol Oncol 2000; 78: 336-341; Yiu G K, Chan W Y, Ng S W, Chan P S, Cheung K K, Berkowitz R S, Mok S C. Am J Pathol 2001; 159:609-622), and colorectal cancers (Porte H, Chastre E, Prevot 5, Nordlinger B, Empereur S, Basset P, Chambon P, Gespach C. Int J Cancer 1995; 64: 70-75; Lussier C, Sodek J, Beaulieu J F. J Cell Biochem. 2001; 81(3):463-76).
Recently, SPARC has been suggested to be involved in inducing apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells (Yiu G K, Chan W Y, Ng S W, Chan P S, Cheung K K, Berkowitz R S, Mok S C. Am J Pathol 2001; 159:609-622). Yiu et al. (2001, supra) has showed that there was downregulation of SPARC expression following malignant transformation, and that there were anti-proliferative properties of SPARC on both normal ovarian and cancer cells. Yiu et al. (2001, supra) further provided additional evidence that exogenous exposure to SPARC alone was capable of inducing apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells. However, human pathological specimens of tumors with high SPARC expression levels have not been shown to have higher number of apoptotic cells.
WO0202771 discloses a novel hSPARC-h1 polypeptide and its potential applications in tissue remodeling, tissue repair and general modulation of various growth factor activities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,664 provides a SPARC fusion protein obtainable by fusing SPARC to thioredoxin which can be used for basic research in neurobiology and/or for treating various neuropathologies.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,326 provides a SPARC-deficient transgenic mouse model for testing drugs in promoting or retarding wound healing and treating or preventing cataracts, diabetes mellitus or osteoporosis.
All references cited herein above and throughout the specification, including patents, patent applications, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.


A solid-state laser (10) has a laser resonator (20) with output ports (22) at both ends to provide two separate laser micromachining beams (42). A set of wavelength converters (26) can be employed to convert the laser machining beams (42) to harmonic wavelength outputs, thus reducing the risk of damage to the wavelength converters and enabling higher total average harmonic power to be generated from a single laser. The laser machining beams (42) can be different to perform different laser operations independently or can be adapted to have substantially identical parameters to permit simultaneous parallel high-quality laser operations on substantially identical workpieces (54), or the laser machining beams (42) can be combined to provide a single laser system output (42e). The two laser machining beams (42) can be further split or multiplexed to suit particular applications.

Conventional solid-state lasers provide only a single beam of laser output at a given time, and conventional solid-state harmonic lasers provide only a single harmonic beam of laser output at a given time. An exemplary solid-state harmonic laser produces UV laser pulses of 8–10 W average power in a single beam at a repetition rate of about 1–100 kHz. To increase laser system throughput for a given laser micromachining operation, skilled practitioners have used laser systems with more than one laser head or a variety of beam-splitting techniques. These techniques have several disadvantages.
If two or more lasers are employed to increase system throughput by processing identical targets simultaneously with parallel processing operations, then the extra lasers require additional space for and multiply the cost of the laser system. Even when such lasers employ identical pumping sources, laser media, harmonic converters, and output coupling mirrors in an "identical" design, and additionally employ identical optical-path components and system control electronics, skilled persons will appreciate that it is difficult to match the laser output parameters, such as energy per pulse, beam shape or quality, and/or divergence angle or focused spot size, of each of the different laser beams due to variations in the quality of the components when they are new and due to variations in age-related deterioration of the components.
On the other hand, beam-splitting techniques, such as those employed to increase throughput in applications such as via drilling, require a higher-power laser beam to be generated from the laser so that the generated beam can be divided into the number of desired beams. Unfortunately, the highest practical available harmonic power is primarily limited by the risk of damage to the harmonic converter. Higher power capabilities also tend to decrease the reliability of the laser head, increase the damage risk to various optical components, and decrease the laser system lifetime.
Solid-state harmonic lasers and methods for employing such lasers that overcome these disadvantages are, therefore, desirable.

Multi-output harmonic laser and methods employing same


An anchoring method of fabric panels for flood control and water control, wherein the anchoring method comprises the steps of: attaching a plurality of anchors. Each anchor has a base, a first wall and a second wall disposed on opposite ends of the base, a chamber, and arms attached to the walls projecting away from the walls. An extension is attached to the first arm, wherein the extension projects over the chamber, then a deformable tube goes in the chamber near the first wall, a fabric panel attached to a mooring is then put in the chamber on top of the deformable tube, then inserting a chock into the chamber against the deformable tube, wherein the deformable tube is compressed, then inserting a key into the chamber between the chock and the second wall, wherein the chock engages the key and the deformable tube is uncompressed.

During adverse weather conditions heavy rain can lead to rivers breaking their banks and lakes overflowing causing flooding to the surrounding countryside. Coastline defenses can also be breached by increased sea swell and large waves. The main form of defense against such flooding is to build a physical barrier constructed from sand bags. Often little warning is given of flooding and the transport communications to remote locations can delay, or even prevent, the raw materials for the sand bags being delivered in time.
Another situation where a fluid barrier is required at short notice is when a chemical or oil leak has occurred. In such cases, the spillage must be prevented from spreading into neighboring water supplies.
A barrier system may also be required to prevent the flow of particle matter, such as snow or sand. A mass of small particles can move in a fluid-like manner. The movement of both snow and sand can have fluid characteristics. The barrier system is quick to erect and prevents the movement of such matter.
The continued development of terrain that is subject to flooding has heightened the need for temporary flood control barriers that can be easily transported, quickly erected at the desired site and then disassembled when the need for flood protection is relieved. High-yield crop land, for example, is typically found in the floodplains of significant rivers of the world. Although a substantial amount of such crop land is normally protected from flooding by permanent earth dikes or levees, such levees are often inadequate and are subsequently breached causing flooding of large areas of land that has various kinds of development thereon including residential and commercial structures, roadways, railroads, and virtually all forms of civilian development. Such development also takes place in flood prone areas that are not protected from flooding by permanent dikes or levees.
The time available to provide at least temporary flood protection for structural developments in flood prone areas may range from several hours to several days. For example, during the severe flooding of the Mississippi River floodplains in July, 1993, predicted flood levels or "crests", particularly downstream of the source of flooding, were available several days prior to the critical flood period. In this case, attempts to protect many structures in floodplain areas behind the threatened levees or dikes were unsuccessful in that sand bag barriers or temporary earthen dikes or levees were quickly breached once the flood waters impinged on these structures. The permanent earthen levees or dikes were, in many cases, topped by the rising flood waters and efforts to increase the height of these levees using wooden planks, sandbags, or temporary sand or earth fill were largely unsuccessfully. Moreover, the erection of sandbag and earth fill barriers are labor and equipment intensive and time consuming and such structures can rapidly become saturated and structurally weakened to the point of failure. Still further, earth fill barriers create a problem with respect to removal after the flood-waters have subsided.
Accordingly, the aforementioned continued development of floodplain and other flood prone areas has created a need for temporary flood control barriers that are easily transported and erected, are not subject to structural weakening from water saturation, are not particularly labor or equipment intensive, and may be removed and reused when needed.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for rapidly deploying a fabric panel edge for flood control


A device including a holder and a transmitter supported by the holder is provided. The transmitter is capable of transmitting an electromagnetic signal toward the surface any transmission frequency (Fe). The device also includes a receiver for receiving a signal reflected on the surface. The device also includes a guide assembly for guiding the movement of the holder to move the transmitter and the receiver across from the surface, tangentially relative to the surface. The device also includes an extraction unit for extracting, in the signal received by the receiver, a shifted frequency component of the transmission frequency resulting from a local impedance variation of the surface. The extraction unit produces an extracted signal representative of the state of the surface from the shifted frequency component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for testing a surface, comprising a holder; a transmitter supported by the holder, the transmitter being able to transmit an electromagnetic signal to the surface at a transmission frequency; a receiver for receiving a signal reflected on the surface. Such a device is intended to test the heterogeneity and/or local defects that may be present on surfaces.
In particular, such a device is designed to determine the radioelectric homogeneity of the surface, by determining the variations in the radioelectric properties of the surface using a non-destructive test method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Good radioelectric surface homogeneity may be required in many applications, in particular those designed to produce and incorporate antennas, in the insulation of equipment sensitive to strong fields, and in reducing the diffusion of waves lighting those surfaces.
In particular, the parabolic reflectors used in certain high-gain antennas must have a homogenous surface conductivity. Without such homogeneity, the conductivity defects cause dispersions of the electromagnetic radiation that increase the standing wave levels and amplify the interactions between adjacent systems.
The radomes present across from the antennas must on the contrary be radioelectrically transparent. Transparency discontinuities decrease the intensity of the signals transmitted and received and diffuse the waves outside the angular sectors of interest.
Furthermore, in the case where part of the antenna system must be isolated, an absorbent material may be used to cover the antenna system. It is then necessary for the surface reflectivity to be homogenous.
To detect radioelectric surface defects, it is known to examine the variations of the radioelectric properties of the surfaces.
In that context, non-destructive techniques are used. Among these techniques, it is known to use Foucault currents using a coil by creating a magnetic field near the surface penetrating the material. This penetration creates induced currents that are picked up by the coil or measured by an adjacent coil.
The induced currents result from the conductivity and magnetic permeability of the material and influence the impedance specific to the coil or the mutual impedance between two coils of the device.
In certain cases, to improve the measuring quality, it is known to perform localized electromagnetic reflectivity measurements. These measurements may be done using an antenna and a reflector, or using a waveguide.
Radar techniques may also be used by moving a pair of transmission and receiving antennas relative to a scene to obtain a spatial resolution along the movement axis.
However, the existing techniques have many limitations. Thus, the technique using Foucault currents only makes it possible to test conductive or magnetic surfaces. Furthermore, for frequencies above 300 MHz, the coils used as sensors generate spatial radiation and become sensitive to echoes outside the area of interest.
Local electromagnetic reflectivity measurements are limited in terms of resolution, in particular in light of the width of the lighting area, which is typically in the vicinity of a half-wavelength. These measuring methods are therefore not suited to detecting localized impedance discontinuities, for example resulting from a slit related to a crack in a metallization layer.
Radar techniques are expensive and sometimes difficult to carry out, in particular to avoid outside echoes that saturate the measurement. It is generally necessary to perform the measurements in an anechoic enclosure.
Furthermore, to obtain a good spatial resolution on the detection of the defects, the measuring frequency band must be wide, which leads to significant measuring times.

Device for testing a surface including an extraction unit for extracting a shifted frequency component and associated method


Even when power is to be simultaneously supplied to a plurality of power-supplied devices by using one primary coil, it is possible to properly supply power to the respective power-supplied devices. More specifically, a power-supplying device stops non-contact power supply in accordance with the detection of a plurality of power-supplied devices set in a power supply area.

Conventionally, there has been known a power-supplying device that supplies power to a power-supplied device in a non-contact manner by using electromagnetic induction. Such a power-supplying device uses a mechanism to generate an electromotive force on the secondary coil side of a power-supplied device by feeding a current to the primary coil side. By using this electromagnetic induction to supply power, the displacement between the primary coil and the secondary coil will become the less power efficiency or cause excessive power supply. For this reason, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-103037 discloses a method to control the power to be supplied, based on the information received from a power-supplied device.
The above conventional technique, however, is not based on the assumption that power is simultaneously supplied to a plurality of power-supplied devices in a non-contact manner by using one primary coil. Assume a situation in which power is simultaneously supplied to a plurality of power-supplied devices in a non-contact manner by using one primary coil. In this case, in order to properly supply power to the respective power-supplied devices, it is necessary to control power to be supplied in accordance with the power-supplied devices with different allowable amounts associated with power supply, for example, allowable voltage and current values.

Power-supplying device, control method for the same, and power-supplying system


A plane position for a standard view is detected from three-dimensional echocardiographic data. The position of the plane within the volume is defined by translation, orientation (rotation), and/or scale. Possible positions are detected and other possible positions are ruled out. The classification of the possible positions occurs sequentially by translation, then orientation, and then scale. The sequential process may limit calculations required to identify the plane position for a desired view.

The present embodiments relate to medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging. In particular, views of desired planes are extracted from echocardiographic data representing a volume.
Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging systems are used for 3D echocardiography. 3D echocardiography allows evaluation of both morphology and pathology. Research studies have shown that 3D analysis provides more precise information about the pathophysiology of the heart than conventional analysis of two-dimensional (2D) views and is of particular help for volume and ejection fraction (EF) calculation. However, interpretation and quantitative analysis of the 3D volumetric data is more complex and time consuming than that of conventional two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography. Detection of anatomical structures in 3D volumetric data may allow better analysis, but may be used less for diagnosis due to complexity.
Standard views are used to visualize cardiac structures and are the starting point of many echocardiographic examinations. For example, all four chambers, i.e., left and right ventricles, and left and right atria, are present in the apical four chamber (A4C) view. In the apical three chamber (A3C) view, the left ventricle, the left atrium, and the aorta are present. In a 3D volume, such views can be re-constructed as multiplanar reformatted/reconstruction (MPR) planes. Finding the standard 2D planes in a 3D volume may improve consistency among users and may be used to adjust acquisition parameters for better image quality.
Although 3D echocardiographic volumes provide much richer information about a heart than 2D echocardiographic images, a heart can be located in different positions with various orientations within each volume. It is time consuming for users to navigate through a 3D volume to search the target structure. A major barrier for using 3D echocardiography for quantitative analysis of heart function in routine clinical practice is the absence of accurate and robust detection methods necessary to make the analysis automatic. In addition to the ultrasound operator's capability, other factors including transducer selection, instrument settings, patient comfort and positioning, the configuration of the scan, and the patient's breathing pattern may affect the quality of the ultrasound images or data for analysis. This leads to large appearance variations and inconsistent image qualities, which makes the automatic detection task much more difficult.

Automated detection of planes from three-dimensional echocardiographic data


An automated banking machine (10) includes a mechanism for accepting deposited items. Items deposited into the machine through a deposit inlet (44) pass through a deposit transport (48) in which properties of the deposited item such as thickness are measured and indicia corresponding to the sensed properties are recorded on the deposited item. The deposited item is stored in a storage area (50) in the machine. Each deposited item is subsequently removed from the machine and the content thereof compared to the indicated value for the item input to the machine by the person making the deposit. The data corresponding to the indica recorded on the deposited item is usable to determine if the deposited item had content which may correspond to the value indicated at the time of deposit, and the user's account may be credited accordingly.

Automated banking machines are known in the prior art. A common type of automated banking machine is an automated teller machine (ATM). ATMs are used to carry out banking transactions on a self service basis. ATMs may dispense cash to users from their account. Some ATMs may accept deposits. Other ATMs may perform functions such as dispensing stamps, printing tickets, producing scrip, cashing checks, printing money orders and performing other types of transactions. For purposes of this disclosure any machine which is capable of carrying out transactions involving transfers of value is referred to as an automated banking machine.
Automated banking machines which accept deposits often require the user to input a deposit item into the machine in which it is processed and/or stored for later removal by authorized persons. Sometimes the deposit item may be an envelope or other container which holds deposit content therein. Such content may include items of value such as cash, checks, money orders, gift certificates, coupons, coin or other types of instruments. When deposit items are deposited in this manner the user is sometimes required to provide inputs through input devices on the banking machine indicative of the value associated with the item that is being deposited. Typically this is a total value of the cash, checks or other content within the deposited item. The automated banking machine may store the information about the indicated deposit value and/or may print value information on the deposited item along with a transaction number, account number or other information that allows the deposit to be traced back to a user and/or a particular transaction.
In order to verify the indicated deposit value, the operator of the banking machine must later recover the deposit item from a storage area within the machine. The operator opens the deposit item and determines if the content and the actual deposit value thereof correspond to the indicated deposit value. In most cases the actual deposit value corresponds to the indicated deposit value and the customer's account is credited accordingly. In other instances a discrepancy is noted between the actual deposit value and the indicated deposit value. In such cases the customer may be notified as to the amount of credit that they will be given for the deposit instead of the indicated deposit value that was provided to the machine.
Sometimes when deposited items are removed from the banking machine, the items are damaged. Such damage may include for example a torn or otherwise open envelope. In some cases the deposit item or the remnants thereof may not contain any deposit content. In some cases the deposit content may be loose in the storage area in the banking machine. In other cases the content may not be found at all.
Deposited items are sometimes removed from the banking machine in a tamper indicating deposit holding container and are transported to a remote location for verification. In other situations the deposited items may be transferred to a bag or other container at the site of the automated banking machine. The items may be taken to a remote location for verification of the contents of the deposited items.
In some circumstances at the remote location the content of a damaged or open deposit item may not be found. This may present issues as to whether the customer may have deliberately deposited an empty and damaged envelope into the banking machine. Alternatively questions may arise as to whether the persons responsible for removing deposits from the machine may have wrongfully taken the deposit content. Finally questions may arise as to whether persons responsible for verifying the amount of the deposit may have lost or misappropriated the content of the deposit item. In some circumstances because responsibility for the missing content cannot be established, the operator of the ATM may choose to credit the customer for the indicated deposit value even though the deposit content has never been found. In some circumstances the user may be perpetrating a fraud by deliberately attempting to deposit a damaged deposit item.
Thus there exists a need for a deposit verification system and method for an automated banking machine that reduces the risks of fraud associated with damaged or empty deposit items that are found during a deposit verification process.


A cable holder for retaining cables in a system sled is disclosed. The cable holder includes a base bracket, a clip holder, a retention clip, and a releasable latch. The base bracket is couplable to the system sled. The clip holder is coupled to the base bracket via a hinge. The clip holder is configured to rotate relative to the base bracket, and around a rotational axis through the hinge between a first lowered position proximate to the system sled and a second raised position substantially distal from the system sled. The retention clip is coupled to the clip holder, and configured to retain a portion of the cables in the system sled. The releasable latch is operable to lock the clip holder into either the first lowered position or the second raised position.

A conventional system sled for a computer server can include various computer components, and a number of cables that allow external communication with the various computer components. Typically, a system sled has a standard width and a standard height. Due to the system sled's space limit, a portion of the cables is often placed above the various computer components, such as the air duct and/or the PCBA. Therefore, when performing maintenance and/or replacement of the various computer components in the sled, the cables need to be removed. Further, in some instances, the cables may even have to be disconnected to allow access to the computer components and then reconnected after maintenance.
Thus, a need exists for a system sled that allows for cables that pass above computer components needing maintenance and/or replacement to be quickly changed. The present disclosure is directed to solving these problems.


The present invention relates to a diene rubber composition reinforced with an inorganic filler comprising a thermoplastic polymer bearing, at at least one end, a silanol or silyl ether functional group. The presence of the functional thermoplastic polymer makes it possible to improve the compromise of performances, which are the handling and the grip, of a tire having a tread that is based on such a composition.

1. Field
The present invention relates to the treads of tires and to the rubber compositions used for the manufacture of such treads.
It relates more particularly to the treads of tires reinforced with reinforcing inorganic fillers such as siliceous or aluminous fillers, these treads being intended in particular for tires that are fitted to motor vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
Ideally, a tire tread must meet a large number of often conflicting technical requirements, including a high wear resistance, a low rolling resistance, a high grip both on dry ground and on wet, snowy or icy ground, while giving the tire a very good level of handling on a motor vehicle, in particular a high drift thrust or cornering.
To improve the handling it is known that a greater stiffness of the tread is desirable, it being possible for this stiffness of the tread to be obtained for example by increasing the amount of reinforcing filler or by incorporating certain reinforcing resins into the constituent rubber compositions of these treads.
However, such a stiffness of the tread, at the very least for its surface portion that is in contact with the ground when the tire is running, as is known adversely affects, usually prohibitively, the grip properties.
In order to satisfy these two contradictory requirements, which are the handling and the grip, one solution consists in creating a stiffness gradient via an accommodation phenomenon of the rubber composition of the tread as is described in patent application WO 02/10269. This accommodation phenomenon is expressed by the ability of the rubber composition to become less stiff at the surface of the tread under the effect of the strains undergone by the tread when the tire is running. This reduction in the stiffness at the surface of the tread does not occur, or occurs only slightly, on the inside of the tread, which thus retains a higher level of stiffness than the surface of the tread. This stiffness gradient of the rubber composition has the advantage of being long-lasting, since the accommodation phenomenon occurs throughout the lifetime of the tire when it is running.
In view of the aforegoing, it is a constant objective to provide rubber compositions for tire treads that satisfy a compromise of performance between grip and handling.
This objective is achieved in that the inventors have discovered that the use of certain thermoplastic polymers as a non-reinforcing filler in a rubber composition reinforced by an inorganic filler gave the rubber composition, unexpectedly, a stiffness gradient and thus made it possible to improve the compromise of performances which are the handling and the grip, especially on wet ground, of a tire having a tread that is based on such a composition.
The use of thermoplastic polymers is well known in rubber compositions, as demonstrated by the publication of numerous documents relating to this subject, such as for example patent applications EP 0 867 471 A1, EP 1 008 464 A1 or US 2002/0019484. More particularly, polyvinylaromatic thermoplastic polymers having a weight-average molar mass between 2000 g/mol and 50000 g/mol are known for being used in rubber compositions for tread in order to increase the hysteresis of the rubber compositions comprising them without adversely affecting their breaking property. Such rubber compositions are described in patent applications EP 1 748 052 A1 and JP 2006-274045, which actually show an increase in the hysteresis without degrading the breaking strength.

Rubber composition including a functionalized thermoplastic polymer

Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin


An integrated device is constructed by integrating an FBAR and a tunable capacitor. The integrated device includes a substrate; a resonator formed on the substrate; a driving electrode layer formed on the substrate apart from the resonator; a first electrode layer formed upwardly apart from the substrate and facing the resonator; and a second electrode layer formed upwardly apart from the substrate and facing the driving electrode layer, the second electrode layer stepped from the first electrode layer. Accordingly, the integrated device can increase the tuning range and mitigate the parasitic resistance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated device and fabricating method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated device and its fabricating method for increasing a tuning range using a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and a tunable capacitor integrated together and reducing a parasitic resistance occurring from a discrete connection.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as mobile communication devices, such as cellular phones, are prevalently used, effort has been made to enhance the performance of mobile communication devices and fabricate them to have smaller size and lighter weight. In response, research is conducted to improve the performance of components of the mobile communication device and miniaturize the components with light weight at the same time.
One of the crucial components of the mobile communication device is a duplexer. The duplexer, which is one of representative devices using a filter in a composite manner, adequately separates signals transmitted and received over a single antenna in a frequency division duplex (FDD) communication system, thus enabling the device to share the antenna efficiently.
A basic structure of the duplexer includes a transmit filter and a receive filter besides an antenna. The transmit filter is a band pass filter which passes only signals in a frequency band to be transmitted, and the receive filter is a band pass filter which passes only signals in a frequency band to be received. The duplexer differently regulates frequencies passed through the transmit filter and the receive filter and thus allows transmission and reception on the single antenna.
The transmit filter and the receive filter, forming the basic structure of the duplexer, can employ a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR). It is known that the FBAR, which can be implemented with small size and light weight, is the dominant means for configuring a filter suitable for high power. The FBAR can be manufactured with minimum cost in miniature size. Also, the FBAR can realize high Quality Factor (Q) value which is an important property of the filter and can be used in a micro-frequency band. In particular, the FBAR can even implement personal communication system (PCS) band and digital cellular system (DCS) band.
The FBAR is fabricated by depositing a lower electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and an upper electrode in that order, to generate resonance when an external electric field is applied. Specifically, when the time-variant electric field is induced by applying electric energy to the upper and lower electrodes of the FBAR, the piezoelectric layer generates the piezoelectric effect which transforms the electric energy to an acoustic mechanical energy to thus generate the resonance. Since the FBAR passes only signals in a specific band based on the resonant frequency, it functions as a band pass filter.
In the mean time, as communication devices become miniaturized and complicated, there has been a demand for small terminals capable of using multiple frequency bands. To use multiple frequency bands at one terminal, a filter bank using multiple filters can be employed. However, the filter bank hinders the recent trend toward size reduction. To avoid this problem, a tunable filter is adopted. The filter bank can be replaced by one or two tunable filters of which the frequency changes by about 30% because of the voltage. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator capable of tuning enables the implementation of a tunable filter. It is a FBAR using bulk resonance characteristics that shows good characteristics in the 2˜5 GHz band with the smallest size up to now. Also, since the FBAR is low-priced and uses a silicon substrate having integration compatibility with an IC, it is easy to integrate with a MEMS tunable L/C for frequency tuning.
FIGS. 1A and 1B depict a conventional tunable FBAR.
FIG. 1A shows a structure 10 in which a tunable device and a FBAR are linked to each other. Since the FBAR 11 and the tunable capacitor 12 are not integrated but discretely connected, parasitic resistance may occur and there is a limit to the miniaturization.
FIG. 1B shows a structure 20 in which a tunable capacitor and a FBAR are integrated together. The capacitance is varied by vertically moving the FBAR 22 which is fixed in the cantilever structure. In this situation, disadvantageously, the tuning rate is limited to 1:1.5 due to the pull-in effect and the FBAR characteristics (Q value) are subject to variation because the FBAR 22 moves as a whole.

Integrated device and fabricating method thereof


An X-ray apparatus includes an X-ray source with an X-ray tube (2) arranged in a protective tube housing (1) and a filament converter which is connected to the cathode (3) of the X-ray tube (2) and accommodated in the protective tube housing (1). Because of its volume, the filament converter usually cannot be accommodated in the protective tube housing (1) of conventional X-ray apparatus unless major structural modifications are made. However, the use of attenuated high-voltage cables at the cathode side is then impossible still. The invention utilizes a filament converter in the form of a coreless filament transformer (14, 15, 16, 17) and the primary coil (14, 16) of the filament transformer is arranged so as to be coaxial with the secondary coil (15, 17) of the filament transformer. Moreover, the two coils are arranged around a carrier (5, 10), which is preferably the high-voltage connection socket (10) or the tube neck (5). This is an inexpensive and structurally simple solution which enables integration of the filament converter in the protective tube housing (1) in conventional X-ray apparatus.

The invention relates to an X-ray apparatus which includes an X-ray source with an X-ray tube arranged in a protective tube housing and a filament converter which is connected to the cathode of the X-ray tube and accommodated in the protective tube housing.
An X-ray apparatus of this kind is known from DE-A 42 01 616. The filament converter thereof is constructed, for example as a type of bushing transformer which includes a ferrite core.
A filament converter constructed as a filament transformer having a ferrite core is generally comparatively voluminous so that such a filament converter cannot be built into the protective tube housing of an X-ray source with conventional X-ray tubes without modifying the construction of the X-ray source.


A method for ablating a first area of a light emitting diode (LED) device which includes an array of nanowires on a support with a laser is provided. The laser ablation exposes a conductive layer of the support that is electrically connected to a first conductivity type semiconductor nanowire core in the nanowires, to form a first electrode for the LED device. In embodiments, the nanowires are aligned at least 20 degrees from the plane of the support. A light emitting diode (LED) structure includes a first electrode for contacting a first conductivity type nanowire core, and a second electrode for contacting a second conductivity type shell enclosing the nanowire core, where the first electrode and/or at least a portion of the second electrode are flat.

Nanowire light emitting diodes (LED) are of increasing interest as an alternative to planar LEDs. In comparison with LEDs produced with conventional planar technology, nanowire LEDs offer unique properties due to the one-dimensional nature of the nanowires, improved flexibility in materials combinations due to less lattice matching restrictions and opportunities for processing on larger substrates.
Contacting of the nanowire LEDs requires new routes—compared to planar technology. Since nanowire LEDs comprise large arrays of nanowires, thereby forming a three-dimensional surface with high aspect ratio structures, deposition of contact material using line-of-sight processes is a challenging operation, and alternative methods of forming contacts would be useful.

Nanowire LED structure and method for manufacturing the same


An electrophotographic imaging member is prepared by forming a dispersion of a charge transport material in a solvent system including at least two non-chlorinated solvents selected from tetrahydrofuran, dioxane and toluene, and applying the dispersion to an electrophotographic imaging member layer by solution coating.

This invention relates in general to electrophotography and, in particular, to a process for preparing electrophotographic imaging members containing a charge transport layer formed using non-chlorinated solvents.
In electrophotography, the surface of an electrophotographic plate, drum, belt or the like (hereinafter referred to simply as an imaging member) containing a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is first uniformly electrostatically charged. The imaging member is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation such as light. The radiation selectively dissipates the charge on the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image on the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic marking particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The resulting visible image may then be transferred from the imaging member directly or indirectly to a print substrate, such as paper. The imaging process may be repeated many times with reusable imaging members.
An electrophotographic imaging member may be provided in a number of forms. For example, the imaging member may be a homogeneous layer of a single material such as vitreous selenium or it may be a composite layer containing a photoconductor and another material.
In addition, the imaging member may be layered. Current layered organic imaging members have at least a substrate layer and two active layers: (1) a charge generating layer containing a light-absorbing material, and (2) a charge transport layer containing electron donor molecules.
The substrate layer may be formed from a conductive material. In addition, a conductive layer can be formed on a nonconductive substrate.
The charge generating layer is capable of photogenerating charge and injecting the photogenerated charge into the charge transport layer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,203 to Miyaka teaches charge generating layers comprising a resin dispersed pigment. Suitable pigments include photoconductive zinc oxide or cadmium sulfide and organic pigments such as a phthalocyanine type pigment, a polycyclic quinone type pigment, a perylene pigment, an azo type pigment and a quinacridone type pigment.
In the charge transport layer, the electron donor molecules may be in a polymer binder. In this case, the electron donor molecules provide hole or charge transport properties, while the electrically inactive polymer binder provides mechanical properties. Alternatively, the charge transport layer can be made from a charge transporting polymer such as poly(N-vinylcarbazole), polysilylene or polyether carbonate, wherein the charge transport properties are incorporated into the mechanically strong polymer.
Imaging members may also include a charge blocking layer and/or an adhesive layer between the charge generating layer and the conductive layer. In addition, imaging members may contain protective overcoatings. Further, imaging members may include layers to provide special functions such as incoherent reflection of laser light, dot patterns and/or pictorial imaging or subbing layers to provide chemical sealing and/or a smooth coating surface.
Suitable coating methods used for applying the various layers to electrophotographic imaging members include dip coating, roll coating, Meyer bar coating, bead coating, curtain flow coating and vacuum deposition. Solution coating is a preferred approach because it is more economical than vacuum coating and can be used to deposit a seamless layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,790 to Umeda et al. teaches applying charge transport layers from coating solutions comprising a charge transport material and suitable organic solvents including tetrahydrofuran, dioxane, toluene, monochlorobenzene, dichloroethane, methylene chloride and cyclohexanone.
Chlorinated solvents, such as those described above, provide charge transport layers having good coating quality. However, chlorinated solvents have environmental safety problems. As a result, the use of these solvents requires solvent abatement systems in order to eliminate leakage. Therefore, non-chlorinated solvent systems that provide coating qualities similar to or better than those of chlorinated solvent systems are desired.

Process for preparing electrophotographic imaging member


A method and system performs an analysis to compare and evaluate the performance of an investment portfolio. The method and system includes fiscal data realignment and multiple holdings date evaluations for fundamental financial analyses for each stock in the investment portfolio. The fundamental financial analysis can include a negative base number inclusion process and uses financial data for the stocks selected from comparable weighted time periods, each weighted time period including holdings of the investment portfolio as of each time period, thereby generating a more accurate evaluation of the investment portfolio.

Fundamental analysis of a company's financial statements is a methodology used to analyze the performance of securities, especially stock. Financial data made available in company disclosures generally serve as the basis for the fundamental analysis. For example, these financial data can be extracted from financial statements such as 10-Ks and 10-Qs. These statements are reported based on fiscal years and fiscal quarters. The financial data can be entered into various formulae in order to gauge the performance of a company's underlying business. Fundamental analysis uses data from these financial statements to measure growth, profitability, capital structure and valuation. Examples of fundamental measures are: earnings/sales growth rates; return on equity; debt:equity ratios; PE ratios.
Stock databases containing the financial data are commercially available. The financial data associated with a specific company are usually referenced by a CUSIP number. CUSIP numbers, operated by Standard & Poor's for the American Bankers Association, establish a standardized system for identifying financial instruments, for example, the stock of all registered U.S. and Canadian companies and U.S. government and municipal bonds.
Not until recently were databases that identify all of the stocks of a mutual fund by CUSIP number made commercially available. The CUSIP number allows the financial data in a stock database to be associated with the respective stock in a mutual fund in a fund database.
As with individual securities, analytic methods can be used to measure the overall performance of a mutual fund or other financial portfolio. Traditional analyses of mutual funds which measure performance are based upon price changes and volatility. For example, with respect to the analyses of mutual funds, references to total return represent a fund's gains over a specified period of time. Total return includes both income (in the form of dividends or interest payments) and capital gains or losses (the increase or decrease in the value of a security). Commercial providers of investment information, for example Morningstar, Inc. of Chicago, Ill., calculate total return by taking the change in a fund's net asset value, assuming the reinvestment of all income and capital-gains distributions (on the actual reinvestment date used by the fund) during the period, and then dividing by the initial net asset value.
Unless marked as load-adjusted total returns, conventional commercial analyses of mutual funds do not adjust total return for sales charges or for redemption fees. (e.g., Morningstar Return, Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Ratings, and the load-adjusted returns do incorporate those fees.) Total returns do account for management, administrative, and 12b-1 fees and other costs automatically deducted from fund assets.
These conventional mutual fund analyses do not, however, use methods that resemble the fundamental analysis techniques used in fundamental equity analysis. For example, there are analyses of mutual funds which measure performance based on price changes and volatility measures. There also are analyses which list the top ten (or some other small number) stocks (as measured by market value). Yet other mutual fund analyses measure industry or sector overlap among funds (e.g., the percent in technology in find A versus the percent in technology in fund B). There also are systems which compare the securities in investment portfolios to determine overlap. However, these performance measurements of mutual funds do not accurately reflect the overall or cumulative fundamental analyses of the individual stocks of the portfolio.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that evaluates the performance of a mutual fund, or other investment portfolio, that uses comparable and complete fundamental data based on the individual stocks within the portfolio. In addition, there is a need for a system and method that evaluates the performance of an investment portfolio using the actual holding of the portfolio, such as are reported on each holdings date of the portfolio.
Buyside Research of Darien, Connecticut has developed a computer program (referred to herein as the "Stock System") including text and screen displays which graphically compare the performance of one company with its six closest competitors using fundamental financial data. In June of 1999, these graphic comparisons became commercially available over the Multex system, now owned and operated for Reuters, which distributed "Wall Street" research to more than two million users. The present invention combines unique processes of this Stock System with other unique processes in order to aggregate the stock measures for mutual funds or investment portfolios.
Because financial measures and aggregate financial measures of companies are being compared, special processes must be employed to insure that these comparisons are made over similar time periods and are as inclusive as possible. The present invention features unique processes to improve comparability and inclusiveness.

Method and system for comparison and evaluation of investment portfolios


The present invention discloses a digital thermal transfer printer comprising not only several heaters drying sequentially transfer ink printed to textile materials, but also a thermal transfer moving horizontally and ejecting hot winds of 180˜600° C. to heat the transfer ink directly to have the production speed of general direct printers to maximize work efficiency, to embody more clear colors of the transfer ink due to the very fast and rapid heating to the textile materials, and eventually to give more trusts to customers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital thermal transfer printer, and more particularly, to the digital thermal transfer printer comprising not only several heaters drying sequentially transfer ink printed to textile materials, but also a thermal transfer moving horizontally and ejecting hot winds of 180˜600° C. to heat the transfer ink directly to have the production speed of general direct printers to maximize work efficiency, to embody more clear colors of the transfer ink due to the very fast and rapid heating to the textile materials, and eventually to give more trusts to customers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, development of various technologies makes industry, especially industrial products, highly advanced and more competitive than ever. As a result, advertisement or design of the industrial products becomes more important factor of the product market shares. Sequentially, to get better effects of advertisement or design of the industrial products such as a banner or a curtain, various printing methods are applied to form figures or patterns to the industrial products. Thermal transfer printing method or direct printing method is one of such various printing methods.
Thermal transfer printing method utilizes heat to activate transfer ink to transfer the contents (pictures, letters, logos, or designs) described in a transfer paper to textile materials or other transfer objects (an iron plate, a tile, a film, etc). The procedure of such thermal transfer printing method will be explained briefly in the following statement.
Pictures, letters, logos, or designs are inputted to, and edited by a computer. Those edited contents (pictures, letters, logos, or designs) are transformed to a transfer paper, and cut into various shapes, which is called a cutting process. While preparing an original copy of the edited contents through manual works, a transfer object, such as a wood-free paper or a textile material, is arranged. Sequentially, the contents are transferred to the transfer object by utilizing a thermal transfer, which is called a transfer process.
However, the thermal transfer printing method described in the above statements is used to manufacture a banner or a flag in general, and is not suitable to describe various colorful images. Therefore, to describe various colorful images, additional offset printing process is applied. In other words, a print film describing the colorful images is prepared additionally, and transferred to a transfer paper by utilizing transfer ink, which is called the offset printing process.
As described in the above statements, the process transferring the colorful images requests to manufacture additional print film. Therefore, it is troublesome works, and in more, spends too much time and expenses to prepare a sample of the print film.
Particularly, in a process of a small quantity batch production, the print film should be prepared to each colorful image, respectively. Therefore, the print film is hardly prepared because of the problems of time and expenses.
On the contrary, the direct printing method different from the heat transfer printing method utilizing heat, is mostly applied to manufacture all kinds of banners. After editing designs by computer, the direct printing method applies a digital printer, shown in FIG. 1, to manufacture the banners immediately. Therefore, the direct printing method printing the banners through the digital printer directly does not require the process of preparing the print film, and eventually save time and expenses.
However, the direct printing method utilizing the digital printer should adopt an exclusive paper manufactured specially, and does not apply to general textile materials.
In other words, the drying temperature using hot winds at the digital printer is about 60° C., manufacturing efficiency is extremely low so that it takes too much time to dry completely the transfer ink printed to the exclusive paper. In more, the low drying temperature makes the color of the transfer ink change to hardly express the natural color sense of the designs. Therefore, the direct printing method makes merchantability of the product low, and does not provide satisfaction to customers.


A moisture-curable, substantially solvent-free and anhydrous blend of a bituminous material such as asphalt and a liquid prepolymer is disclosed, which blend when cured, results in an elastomer having excellent adhesion to surfaces exposed outdoors. The stability of the blend derives from asphalt being microdispersed in a dispersed phase within a continuous phase of the liquid prepolymer so that particles of asphalt are in the size range from 0.5 .mu.m to 100 .mu.m. The asphalt is treated to react all functional groups it may have because they may react with a functional group of the liquid prepolymer. The prepolymer is a polyurethane, a terpolymer of ethylene-propylene-diene, or a silicone. The microdispersion is stably maintained by a compatibilizer having opposed substantially polar and non-polar terminal portions, present in an amount in the range from 0.01 to 5 parts per 100 parts of the blend. The compatibilizer is chosen from (A) an ester of a C.sub.2 -C.sub.12 branched or straight chain polyol; (C) a mono- or diester of a polyether polyol; (D) an ester of a polyester polyol and a C.sub.9 -C.sub.24 fatty acid; (E) an ester of a polyether diol such as a polyalka(C.sub.5 -C.sub.6)diene diol and, a polydimethylsiloxane diol; or, (F) an ester of a polyester polyol having a repeating unit derived from acrylic acid and a polyol selected from the group consisting of a C.sub.2 -C.sub.12 alkylene diol, or triol; a polyalkylene C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 diol; and a polyoxyalkylene C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 diol.

The present invention relates to curable, substantially solvent-free materials, particularly prepolymer curing systems in combination with a bituminous material. More specifically, the present invention is directed to the use of a compatibilizer to disperse the bituminous material into a liquid prepolymer system so as to form a stable dispersion, without using a solvent such as an aliphatic or aromatic liquid commonly used to dissolve asphalt and form a miscible blend with the liquid prepolymer. The goal was to form a solvent-free, stable dispersion of the bituminous material in the prepolymer which upon being cured, preferably at ambient conditions, would result in an adhesive elastomer useful as a coating, adhesive, sealant, caulk, or similar material.
By "bituminous material" is meant bitumen or asphalt. Tars and pitches are not covered by the present invention. Tars are obtained from the thermal decomposition of natural organic substances. Pitches are the residue of tar distillation. Bitumens are complex mixtures comprising polycyclic hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing acyclic and heterocyclic compounds. Bitumens are the dark, solid or semi-solid, high molecular weight hydrocarbons obtained from processing crude oil and the natural asphalt fraction soluble in carbon disulfide. Asphalt is a dark, cementitious material having a solid or semi-solid consistency, which occurs naturally or as a petroleum derivative. Asphalts are generally mixtures of bitumens and mineral substances.
For ease and convenience, since bitumens and asphalts., are both used in the dispersions of this invention, and because of their similar behavior herein, the term "asphalt" will be used hereafter to refer to both asphalts and bitumens.
Because asphalt is inexpensive, has a relatively high penetration value when applied to most porous surfaces, and is relatively weather-resistant and water-impermeable, it has traditionally been used as a main component of protective films, adhesives, binders, etc. Asphalt in blends or emulsions, are used in large quantities for a wide array of products used in paving and roofing; for joint sealants, specialty paints, electrical laminates and hot melt adhesives; as diluents in the manufacture of low-grade rubber products, as diluents for the disposal of radioactive waste; for hot-dip coatings, and for water-retention barriers. Many such blends or emulsions are formulated with a curable liquid prepolymer, to be spread at ambient conditions, and to cure after they are spread, into a rubbery mass.
However, the spreadability of such blends generally derives from their being diluted with a volatile solvent, which is a common solvent for the bituminous material as well as for the prepolymer. Such solvents used have been toluene, aromatic oils, naphtha, mineral spirits or carbon disulfide. Though the amount of a solvent used may only provide partial solubility of the asphalt, the effect of the solvent is to suspend the base material forming a dispersion. After mixing, the dispersion can be easily applied by conventional technology so that, after the solvent evaporates, the asphalt is left intermixed with the other constituents.
As long as more than 25 years ago, an effort to avoid using a solvent in a blend of a polyurethane prepolymer and asphalt was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,179,610 to Wood, but because of the problem of maintaining a stable dispersion he mixed the components and immediately used them to bind an aggregate such as is used in road paving. He then cured and tested the cured aggregate-binder mixture for stability.
The problem of incorporating a bituminous material in a polyurethane prepolymer was solved in a method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,792 to Lucke who used a combination of a primary plasticizer, namely butylurethane-formaldehyde-carbamic acid ester resin, and a secondary plasticizer, namely 1-methyl-2,3-dibenzylbenzene (2,3-dibenzyl toluene), to provide the requisite solubility of the bitumen in the prepolymer. As he states, his goal was to produce a "onecomponent", that is, single phase, system. This solution to the problem is quite different from the one set forth in this specification which teaches producing a stable dispersion of a bituminous material ("asphalt") which is maintained as a separate phase because it is not soluble in the prepolymer phase.
Thus, though there have been numerous attempts to provide a blend of a liquid, preferably ambient-curable prepolymer, with asphalt, the critical importance of maintaining the asphalt as the dispersed phase in a continuous phase of a polyurethane prepolymer was recognized only in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,311 but I was unaware of the importance of the size of dispersed asphalt microglobules or microdroplets (hereafter "particles") to maintain stability. Maintaining a stable dispersion of the asphalt particles in the continuous prepolymer phase is made possible by the use of a compatibilizing agent, or "compatibilizer", having long chains of connected carbon atoms, one end of each chain having, at or near its end, at least one OH group, thought to provide hydrogen bonding with repeating units derived from the ether, ester, isocyanate, siloxane, clefin or diolefin repeating units; the other end of each chain having a high affinity for an asphalt particle. The OH group of the compatibilizer may also react with some of the isocyanate groups on the prepolymer chains, though the extent to which this occurs is not known, and if such a reaction does occur, it will enhance the compatibility of the polar portion of the compatibilizer with the prepolymer.

Substantially solvent-free, stable dispersion of a bituminous material in a liquid prepolymer, and method for forming the dispersion


The present invention relates to a semiconductor device in which an electric resistance in a carrier path is modulated by changing a voltage applied to the carrier path. The semiconductor device is provided with a semiconductor layer in which conductive particles are dispersed to scatter carriers, a first electrode, and a second electrode for passing the carriers through the semiconductor device in cooperation with the first electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device in which an electric resistance in a carrier path is modulated by changing a voltage applied to the carrier path.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional semiconductor integrated circuit device, a field-effect transistor (FET) and a bipolar transistor are mainly used as active elements, and a large scaled integrated circuit can be cheaply manufactured.
However, the number of interconnections in a chip has been recently increased enormously, an operation test of the chip has recently become impossible as a matter of fact, and a consumed electric power required for the chip cannot be moreover increased. Therefore, the integration level of chips in the conventional semiconductor device almost reaches its limit.
Therefore, an active element which is operated at a high speed and a low consumed electric power according to a new operation principle is required in place of the FET and the bipolar transistor.
Also, it has been recently required to process and store a large volume of data at a high speed, so that a magnetic recording device in which a large volume of data is recorded at a high density and a high speed has been recently required. In addition, a magnetic sensor operated at a higher speed and a higher sensitivity than a conventional one has been recently required.