The present invention provides an cycloalkyl derivative of 3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone which is useful for the chelation of metal ions such as iron. Its preparation and use is described. In particular, the invention concerns the removal of iron in chemical and biological systems including chelating agents having the formula (I); wherein R1 is X with the proviso that R2 is Y; or R1 is T with the proviso that R2 is W; or R1 is X with the proviso that R2 R5 N when taken together form a heterocyclic ring selected from piperidinyl, morpholinyl, pyrrolidinyl or piperazinyl, wherein the group piperidinyl, morpholinyl, pyrrolidinyl or piperazinyl is either unsubstituted or substituted with one to three C1 to C6 alkyl groups. X is C3-C6 cycloalkyl; Y is selected from the group consisting of C1 to C6 cycloalkyl; C1 to C6 alkyl, and C1 to C6 alkyl monosubstituted with a C3-C6 cycloalkyl; T is C1 to C6 alkyl; W is C3-C6 cycloalkyl; R3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and C1 to C6 alkyl; R4 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and C1 to C6 alkyl; R5 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and C1 to C6 alkyl; and its pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. Pharmaceutical compositions of such compounds are useful in the removal of excess body iron from patients with iron overload diseases.

3-Hydroxy-4-pyridinones are bidentate ligands that chelate to the Fe(III) ion in the ratio of 3:1 and are useful in the removal of excess body iron in humans. Iron overload may be due to excess dietary consumption of iron, inherited genetic conditions such as haemochromatosis and regular blood transfusion. Such transfusions are used to treat medical conditions such as thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia, idiopathic haemochromatosis and aplastic anaemia. Increased iron absorption from transfusion leads to iron overload. Upon saturation of ferritin and transferrin in the body, iron deposit in many tissues such as the myocardium, liver and endocrine organs resulting in toxic effects.
The scope of iron chelator research and the proposed utility of chelators have been reviewed (Current Medicinal Chemistry, 2003, 10, 983-985, Tim F. Tam, et al). Iron chelators may be useful to prevent hydroxy radical formation, treatment of cancer, malaria, post-ischaemic reperfusion, and neurodegenerative diseases. Iron chelators such as Desferal™ (desferrioxamine mesylate) and Ferriprox™ (deferiprone) are used to remove excess body iron in thalassemia major patients because the human body has no effective means to excrete the iron accumulated from blood transfusion. Desferrioxamine is administered daily by subcutaneous infusion over a period of 8 to 12 hours. At present, deferiprone (1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone) is the only orally drug available. It undergoes extensive metabolism in the liver and more than 85% of the administered dose is recovered in the urine as the non-chelating O-glucuronide (Drug Metab. Dispo. 1992, 20(2), 256-261, S. Singh, et al.). A relatively high oral dose of 75 mg/kg (3.5 to 4 gm per day) is required for the treatment of iron overload conditions. Therefore, there is a need to identify a new orally active hydroxypyridinone with improved pharmacological properties than deferiprone.
Voest et. al. (Annals of Internal Medicine 1994, 120, 490-499) reviewed the clinical experience of iron chelators in non-iron overloaded conditions. Iron chelators were used to produce antioxidant effects, antiproliferative effects, antiprotozal effects and for aluminum chelation, and may be used be for a variety of disease state such as the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the protection against anthracycline cardiac poisoning, for limiting mycocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, as antitumour agents, and for the treatment of malaria. In addition, van Asbeck B. S. et. al. (J Clin Virol. 2001 February;20(3):141-7) reported that iron chelators have anti-HIV activities. Therefore the utitlies of iron chelators are not only restricted to the treatment of iron-overloaded conditions.
The members of the 3-hydroxy-4-pyridinones class are known for their ability to chelate iron. Prior art includes RE 35,948, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,448,273, 6,335,353 and 5,480,894. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,353, the ester prodrug derivatives of 3-hydroxy-4-pyridinones are used to facilitate efficient iron extraction from the liver, however none of the designed compounds has reached evaluation in humans.
In other approaches, selected new compounds were designed to block the phase II metabolism of O-glucuronidation at the C3 oxygen of the deferiprone skeleton. U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,815 reported 1-alkyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyrdinones with a C2 methyl group substituted with a phenyl or heteroyl ring and a hydroxy group, and the N1 substituent being a lower alkyl. U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,353 described 1-alkyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone with a C2 alkylcarbamoyl, arylcarbamoyl, or an aralkylcarbamoyl group and the N1-substituent is an aliphatic hydrocarbon group. The use of C2-methylcarbamoyl functionality in compound such as CP502 (1,6-Dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinone-2-carboxy-(N-methyl)-amide hydrochloride; U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,353) effectively blocked the O-glucuronidation at the C3 oxygen. Other analogues in U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,353 include CP506 (1,6-Dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinone-2-carboxy-(N-isopropyl)-amide hydrochloride), the C2-isopropylcarbamoyl analogue and CP508 (1,6-Dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinone-2-carboxy-(N,N-dimethyl)-amide hydrochloride), the dimethylcarbamoyl analogue. CP502, CP506 and CP508 are prior art and have not been evaluated in humans.

Cycloalkyl derivatives of 3-hydroxy-4-pyridinones


A rotor assembly for a synchronous reluctance machine has a plurality of steel punched star-shaped supports secured along a shaft at spaced locations for retaining a plurality of laminated rotor sections. The star-shaped supports have four equiangularly spaced arms having arcuate valleys disposed therebetween that define a plurality of channels for receiving the rotor sections. The rotor sections have a plurality of linearly-disposed apertures for receiving mounting members that extend radially from the valleys of the star-shaped supports. The portions of free ends of the mounting members that extend through the apertures, are stamped or formed to secure the rotor sections to the star-shaped supports. A rotor bar may be disposed within a concave cavity defined by the rotor sections to reduce audible noise produced as the rotor rotates at a high rate of speed.

It is to be understood that the present invention relates to generators as well as to motors, however, to simplify the description that follows a motor will be described with the understanding that the invention also relates to generators. With this understanding, a synchronous reluctance motor is a synchronous machine that has a stator with poly-phase windings forming a plurality of poles which are similar to those of induction motors. The synchronous reluctance motor also includes a rotor that does not use windings or permanent magnets but does have the same number of poles as the stator. By providing a rotating field in the stator windings, a magnetomotive force acts upon the rotor resulting in the rotor being driven at a synchronous speed proportional to the rotating field in the stator.
The synchronous reluctance rotor generally includes a plurality of rotor sections formed of magnetic laminations secured to a unitary core. The core has a central axial bore for receiving a shaft. The laminations are inserted between radially extending arms of the core which are formed with a smooth, arcuate recess therebetween. The laminations are secured in the recesses by means of radial fasteners that secure radially-opposing rotor sections to the core. The rotor sections are also secured together by end caps and axial fasteners. The end caps are cup-shaped members with an axially extending outer rim that is disposed about the outermost periphery of the laminations. The axial fasteners extend through the end caps and core to secure the end caps to the rotor. The rotor laminations may also be bonded to one with another to the core using an epoxy or other adhesive material. A fill description of a synchronous reluctance rotor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,733 also assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

Rotor section containment with steel punched star


The present invention discloses an embedded touch array substrate, which comprises: multiple pairs of gate scanning lines and data lines arranged alternately; a pixel switch electrically connected with the gate scanning lines and the data lines; a pixel electrode electrically connected with the pixel switch; a touch emission line provided between two pairs of the gate scanning lines adjacent to each other; a touch receiving line provided between two pairs of the data lines adjacent to each other and intersecting the touch emission line; and a touch unit electrically connected with the intersection of the touch emission line and the touch receiving line. The gate scanning line and the data line according to the present invention utilize double lines, which provide individual trace area for the touch emission line and the touch receiving line. It further decreases the interference between the panel driving signal and the touch signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technology fields of image display, and in particular to an embedded touch array substrate and a liquid crystal display panel.
2. The Related Arts
Recently, liquid crystal display (LCD) technology has developed rapidly. It has made great progress from the size of the screen to the display quality. LCD has several characteristics of small size, low power consumption, and no radiation, which has dominated the field of flat panel display.
Liquid crystal display touch screen is one of the major carriers to integrate the input and the output terminal. Recently, with a series of available products of the handheld devices with compact and lightweight, the market demand for liquid crystal display touch screen is surging.
The development directions of touch technology trend to low cost, high yield, large-size, high reliability, etc. In order to achieve the goal, in structure, there are on-cell and in-cell built-touch structures. In-Cell structure are highly integrated and low qualified. The touch device has thin thickness and light weight. FIG. 1 shows the circuit structure of the in-cell touch array substrate panel according to the existing technology, which comprises multiple gate scanning lines 1′ and data lines 2′ used for display arranged alternately, and a touch emission line 3′ and a touch receiving line 4′ used for touch. Wherein, because the touch emission line 3′ is closer to the gate scanning line 1′, and the touch receiving line 4′ is closer to the data line 2′, there are interference existing between the panel driving signal and the touch signal, which greatly reduces the touch sensitivity.

Embedded touch array substrate and liquid crystal display panel

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


Mobile devices are able to determine their location based radio transmitters that are visible at the device to provide geographic location services. A knowledge of the location of the transmitters is required for the mobile device to determine a location estimate, however this can be difficult in network environments where the transmitters are temporary and their locations are not identified in location databases. Locations of temporary transmitters can be provided to mobile devices in order to augment the available location data used in determining the mobile device location. 3rd parties can provide temporal location data on transmitters that are set up for short period of time, as well as better control the distribution of the location data.

Mobile electronic devices may include functionality for determining a geographic location of the device. The location may be determined using various different techniques. For example, a mobile device may use satellite based positioning system such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) that determines the position based on received signals from a number of satellites, an assisted-GPS (A-GPS) system which uses a combination of GPS and wireless network transmitter infrastructure information to determine a location, a network-only based location system using network transmitter locations to determine a location, or a handset-based system where the mobile device may have knowledge of transmitter locations and can provide a location estimate but may utilize location databases retrievable from a network. While some location techniques may work well in outdoor environments, they require reception of a signal or signals from a satellite, which may be difficult in various locations or conditions such as indoor applications. In addition, location databases used by location services, either network or mobile device based, may not have accurate network information to be able to determine a location in a changing wireless environment and where network or satellite based location services are not available or do not provide sufficient resolution.
FIG. 1 depicts determining the location of the mobile device using transmitter locations. As depicted, a number of Wi-Fi routers 102a, 102b, 102c (referred to collectively as routers 102) transmit RF signals, which are received by a user's mobile device, depicted as user 104. If the location of the routers 102 is known, it is possible to estimate the user's location based on the known router locations. In this example the user's location is depicted as being estimated as a simple centroid of the router locations. It is possible to incorporate the received signal strength, or other means of estimating a distance from a receiver such as time pulse, from the different routers 102 in order to improve the accuracy of the estimated location. Further, although described as being Wi-Fi routers, the same technique may use different transmitters such as cellular transmitters and Bluetooth transmitters or similar devices from which the strength or the pulse of an RF signal may be measured.
As described above, it is possible to estimate a user's location, or more particularly a user's mobile computing device, using the locations of transmitters. However, these techniques require that the locations of transmitters be available to the mobile device. It is possible to maintain a list of transmitters that were observed by user devices and their location when the observations were made. Although this technique can provide the locations for transmitters, it has a relatively large latency from when transmitters are first observed and their locations are propagated to location databases and then to mobile devices.
As such, it is difficult to determine a mobile device's location using the locations of transmitters whose geographical locations change periodically. For example, during a conference a hotel or conference organizer may setup a number of temporary Wi-Fi transmitters to provide capacity to service a temporary capacity influx. Although the conference organizer or hotel may know the locations of the temporary transmitters, the transmitter locations typically would not propagate into a location database used by the mobile device quickly enough to be of use to help location services. That is, by the time the location data for the conference transmitters is available in the location database, the conference may be completed. In addition, the temporary transmitters may have been previously used at another location which can provide incorrect location data if propagated to the location database.
It is desirable to have an additional or alternative method for determining a mobile devices' location using temporary location data of transmitters.

Augmenting location data at a mobile device


The invention disclosed relates to a composition and method for enhancing the contrast of the lipid component of fingerprints and the like. The composition includes a metal chelate of the structural formula I ##STR1## wherein R is a UV-absorbing aromatic group, X is an electron attracting group, G is a synergic group containing a suitable polar functional group, and M is a metal ion, a suitable water-soluble organic solvent and water, at pH of 3 to 10.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the detection of fingerprints and the like, and in particular to the enhancement of lipid fingerprints on porous and other surfaces.
Sweat glands are located all over the body except for the soles of the feet whereas sebaceous glands are found primarily on the face, neck, upper chest and upper back. Although only secreted over a relatively small area of the skin the sebum (lipids), which are viscous liquids at the skin surface temperature of 32.degree. C., will diffuse over the entire area. Fingerprints are comprised of sweat and sebum in varying quantities. Although sebum is not directly secreted onto the fingers it is easily transferred in significant amounts by frequent contact of the hands and fingers with the face. The exact composition of the fingerprint not only varies from one individual to the next but will also vary for each individual depending upon many uncontrolled factors such as the time of day, the time period since washing the hands, the temperature, whether the individual frequently touches their face with their hands as well as any circumstances that may lead to excessive sweating such as stress or physical exercise.
Fingerprints that have been deposited onto surfaces that are then subjected to water will only be comprised of lipids since the water removes the water soluble components such as amino acids and leaves the water insoluble components such as lipids. In these circumstances the fingerprint can only be visualised using a lipid detection method.
Fingerprints that have been deposited onto cocaine exhibits are extremely difficult to visualize since the drug reacts with cyanoacrylate which is the chemical treatment most commonly used for the plastic packaging in which cocaine is usually contained. The use of chemicals for the visualisation of amino acids is restricted to porous surfaces excluding plastics. The fingerprint may be visualised using a lipid detection technique which does not interact with the cocaine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of techniques for the detection of fingerprints have been documented.
Fingerprints developed by 1,8-diazofluoren-9-one (DFO) and Ninhydrin (followed by zinc chloride toning) on porous surfaces such as paper and cardboard are well recorded in the literature. For example, see The Use of 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO) for the Fluorescent Detection of Latent Fingerprints on Paper, a Preliminary Evaluation, Pounds et al., Journal of Forensic Sciences, JFSCA, vol. 35, No. 1, January, 1990. More specifically, these treatments react with the amino acid content of the fingerprint resulting in fluorescent images of the ridges which tend to be spotty in appearance. The ridges of the fingerprint are lined with sweat pores and the amino acids are contained within the sweat component of the fingerprint which explains the spotty pattern of fingerprints visualised by these methods.
One drawback with these fluorescent dyes is the requirement for an expensive light source in the price range of $10-20,000 for forensic lamps. Such costly equipment restricts the availability of this technology to police forces which have large budgets.
Another drawback is the spotty nature of the images obtained with amino acid detection techniques. The interpretation of the ridge detail and the comparison to a known sample is made that much harder when the ridges of the fingerprint do not appear as a continuous image. A ridge ending may well be confused with an unusually large gap between two consecutive sweat pores. In addition these techniques do not work for porous material that has been exposed to water since the amino acids are water soluble and will be removed from the fingerprint residue.
Fingerprints developed by physical developer on porous surfaces that have been exposed to water are also well documented in the literature. More specifically, the fingerprints develop a dark grey silver residue on their ridges which is visible to the naked eye providing the background is not heavily patterned or dark.
The main drawback with physical developer is that the technique is not fluorescent and therefore the ability to remove any complicated background patterns by using filters that only allow the wavelength corresponding to the fluorescence through can not be applied. In addition physical developer is a very expensive technique approximately $275 (canadian) for 4 litres and it has a shelf-life of about one year.
The application of europium for visualising fingerprints on paper has been described in the literature by E. R. Menzel (Fluorescent Metal-Ruhemann's Purple Coordination Compounds: Applications to Latent Fingerprint Detection, Journal of Forensic Sciences, JFSCA, Vol. 35, No. 1, January, 1990, pp. 25-34). Latents were reacted with ninhydrin which yields the product Ruhemann's Purple. This compound was then reacted with europium ions as opposed to zinc ions to form a weakly fluorescent chelate when viewed under laser light. This method is very inefficient and expensive, as time-resolved imaging is required to minimize the background fluorescence.

Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada as represented by the Solicitor General Acting Through the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police


An ink jet recording apparatus which includes a recording head, and forms an image by ejecting printing liquid including a volatile organic compound (VOC) from the recording head onto a recording medium, wherein the ink jet recording apparatus includes a volatile organic compound decomposer for decomposing the volatile organic compound.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus which forms an image by using printing liquid such as ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a call for reduced usage of various volatile organic compounds (VOC: Volatile Organic Compound) discharged from ink jet type copy machines or electrophotographic copy machines/printers/complex machines used in offices in order to reduce the environmental load.
Further, in order to define the achievement standard in meeting such requirements, there are cases in which public third-party organizations or a companies manufacturing such products have set specific standard (Eco Label Certification Standard) for regulating TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds).
On the other hand, printing liquid (ink or treatment liquid and the like for accelerating flocculation of a colorant in ink) used in an ink jet recording apparatus includes various VOC components such as a water-soluble organic solvent and the like. Therefore, from now on, not only will it become important to suppress the amount of VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus, but also to meet the above-mentioned standard.
Further, higher speed and higher image quality are required of the ink jet recording apparatus. In order to realize higher speed, improvement in printing speed, that is, increase in the ejection amount of printing liquid ejected from the recording head per unit of time is required. Moreover, in order to realize higher image quality, it is necessary to further reduce the size of a liquid droplet of the printing liquid ejected from the recording head.
Therefore, it is inevitable that the amount of VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus per unit of time increases along with faster speed and higher image quality, which contradicts the above trend of suppressing VOC generation.
On the other hand, regarding the VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus, since the above-mentioned need for reducing VOCs has become marked only in recent years, not much concrete investigation has been conducted as yet.
As an example, since there is a case where ink used in the ink jet recording apparatus includes a component having volatile odor, an ink jet recording apparatus (refer to JP-A-2003-112412) including a means for deodorizing or reducing this volatile odor has been proposed.
However, the above-mentioned ink jet recording apparatus uses an activated carbon or an aromatic substance in order to deodorize or reduce the volatile odor. Therefore, in a case where activated carbon is used, once the VOCs that have volatilized from the printing liquid have been adsorbed to the activated carbon to some degree, the adsorption capacity of the activated carbon becomes saturated, so that the outflow of VOCs from the apparatus cannot be suppressed. In a case where the adsorption capacity diminishes, exchange of the activated carbon is required. Furthermore, in a case where the activated carbon is left to stand under an environment of high temperature, there is a possibility that the VOC component adsorbed once may be discharged again. In a case where an aromatic substance is used, this merely deceives the sense of smell, and the VOC component itself is not removed from the room in which the ink jet recording apparatus is set.


A toggle-action dispensing closure is provided for manipulation between a closed, non-dispensing orientation and an open, dispensing orientation that is easily assembled, resists inadvertent opening and has an improved aesthetic appearance for variously shaped closures. The closure includes an actuator rotationally mounted on a housing whereby the housing may be secured to a container. The axis of rotation of the actuator is asymmetrically disposed in the housing. The actuator has a rear flange with an articulatable hinge that is longer than its front flange. When the closure is securely mounted to a container, the portion of the rear flange below the hinge resiliently contacts the container assisting in preventing inadvertently opening the closure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toggle-action dispensing closure which can be manipulated between a closed orientation and an open, dispensing orientation.
2. The Related Art
Dispensing closures deliver consumer convenience and allow for product dispensing using simple mechanical action. Several versions of dispensing closures have been employed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,341,950; 5,058,775; 4,952,869; 4,776,501; 4,545,086 and 3,516,581. One common version of the dispensing closure is commonly referenced as a "disk top" or "two piece pivot closure". Prior art closures that require a separate housing and actuator and that rely on a centralized, symmetrically disposed pivot point to function are disadvantageous because the closure requires a secondary assembly step after molding to marry the actuator and housing parts together making a closable cap. This requires precision alignment under tight clearances in order to properly assemble the two pieces. The pivot point of the movable actuator must have a centered fulcrum point to have equal movement in the housing to create an unbroken seal between the two pieces during actuation. The captive actuator is held in the housing only by the two pivot points. This makes the closure more sensitive to premature opening or dislodging during handling.
Surprisingly the problems of precision assembly and inadvertent opening were found to be solved by an actuator with an articulatable rear flange that is pivotally and asymmetrically mounted (off-centered) in the closure housing. The articulated actuator flange can be deflected inward to create a smaller foot print which eases the alignment of the actuator and housing during assembly improving quality, speed of assembly, expand design possibilities, be more tolerant of part variation due to tolerances and shrinkage, and potentially reduce part weight. This same feature also helps eliminate inadvertent opening due to housing deformation during shipment or due to rough handling. The articulatable hinge in the actuator was surprisingly seen to absorb energy transferred from housing deflection, thereby reducing the moment generated about the pivot point which prevents unintended opening. The force to actuate the articulation is less than what is required to open the closure.
Prior art toggle closures with a long actuator flange or "tail" require sufficient clearance under the location (or "button") that the user applies manual pressure to in order to open the toggle. The size and shape of the actuator will determine the amount of clearance required. The present invention allows for reduced or zero clearance beneath the button side of the actuator. Downward movement on the button of the actuator will articulate the rear flange of the actuator allowing the nozzle orifice to advance and open for dispensing.
A further unexpected improvement was seen with respect to the elimination of a rear gap created between the housing and actuator with specific shaped actuators when the toggle is opened. This improves aesthetics and eliminates negative issues created by such a gap (e.g. cleanliness and sharp edges).

Toggle action dispensing closure with articulated rear flange


A system and method enable generating a specific object detector for a category of interest. The method includes identifying seed objects in frames of a video sequence with a pre-trained generic detector for the category. An appearance model is iteratively learned for each of the seed objects using other frames in which the seed object is identified. The appearance models are learned jointly to optimize a loss function which accounts for the loss of incorrectly labeling sub-images and a regularization term which measures a distance between the appearance models. The loss of incorrectly labeling sub-images is determined using a motion model which predicts the location of the seed object in the subsequent frames so that sub-images outside the location that the current appearance model contribute to the loss. The specific object detector is then generated by aggregating the optimized appearance models.

The exemplary embodiment relates to object detection and finds particular application in connection with an automated system and method for generating an object detector based on a sequence of images.
Algorithms for the automatic analysis of video data have been developed for detecting objects of interest, such as pedestrians and vehicles, in videos. Applications for such methods include long-term tracking of objects (K. Fragkiadaki, et al, "Two-granularity tracking: mediating trajectory and detection graphs for tracking under occlusions," ECCV (2012)), event retrieval (R. Feris, et al., "Large-scale vehicle detection, indexing, and search in urban surveillance videos," IEEE Trans. on MM, (2012)), and human behavior understanding (S. Pellegrini, et al., "You'll never walk alone: Modeling social behavior for multi-target tracking," CVPR (2009)). In one approach to object detection, an "object vs. background" classifier is applied to a sliding window which is traversed over all possible locations in an image (see, N. Dalai, et al., "Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection," CVPR (2005); P. F. Felzenszwalb, et al., "Object detection with discriminatively trained part-based models," IEEE TPAMI (2010), hereinafter, "Felzenszwalb 2010"). To achieve a good accuracy and low false alarm rate, such a classifier is trained using manually annotated images defining the category of interest. To account for variability within the category, many examples may be needed. Accordingly, object detectors typically exploit large, high-quality, curated training data from a specific source of images. For example, labeled images in selected visual object classes, such as from the PASCAL VOC challenges or ImageNet may be employed. This form of supervised learning, however, is expensive and may still not provide object detectors that generalize well to a new source of data as the training examples may not be representative of the target domain of application (see, A. Torralba and A. A. Efros, "Unbiased look at dataset bias," CVPR (2011)).
As an example, video cameras could be positioned at different locations to capture video images for identifying objects in the same category, such as cars or pedestrians. Conditions at each of the locations may be different, for example in terms of lighting, type of buildings, and so forth. To address these differences, a specific detection model for the object of interest could be generated for each video camera. This would entail regular collection and labeling of data and may be cost prohibitive for a large number of cameras. As an alternative, a generic detector could be learned and employed for all the cameras. However, this approach may lead to suboptimal performance, for example, exhibiting high precision at very low recall, with only the few best ranked detections being correct.
There remains a need for a reliable method for generating detection models for objects of interest that are well adapted to different conditions without requiring large quantities of specific training data.

Self-learning object detectors for unlabeled videos using multi-task learning


An apparatus for compressing electronically stored images comprises a converter configured to use a principal components transform to convert initial color information included in image information into converted color information; a partitioner configured to partition the image information into partitioned information; a transformer configured to use a discrete cosine transform to transform the partitioned information into transformed information; a quantizer configured to quantize the transformed information into quantized information; a sequencer configured to use a Hilbert curve scan to sequence the quantized information into sequenced information; and an encoder configured to encode the sequenced information into encoded information. Methods of using the apparatus are also disclosed.

Short for "discrete cosine transform," a DCT is a technique for representing waveform data as a weighted sum of cosines, and is commonly used for image compression. Closely related to the discrete Fourier transform ("DFT"), discrete cosine transformations involve manipulation of real numbers only, offering energy compaction improvements over DFT by eliminating artificial discontinuities that appear in DFT.
Attributed to these and other appealing qualities, the DCT is popularly deployed in a broad class of coding techniques, known as transform coding or block quantization, which attempt to reduce image signal redundancy by representing signals with a new set of orthogonal bases, reducing the spatial correlations that occur between adjacent pixels. Using direct cosine transformations, a fraction of the transform coefficients is encoded, with tolerable deterioration in image fidelity.
JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is one standardized DCT-based image compression mechanism for still images. An acronym for "Joint Photographic Experts Group" (the original name of the committee that wrote the standard), JPEG is designed to compress either full-color or gray-scale images of natural, real-world scenes. Conventional JPEG typically works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material, but is not as effective on lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawings. In addition to conventional JPEG, other DCT-based image compression mechanisms are well known in the data compression art.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the baseline algorithm or encoding process utilized by the conventional JPEG coding standard. The processes and functionalities associated with each step of the conventional JPEG image compression algorithm, including the image data input step (Step S102), the image partitioning step (Step S104), the forward DCT step (Step S105), the quantization step (Step S106), the zigzag re-sequencing step (Step S107), the entropy encoding step (Step S109), and the compressed data output step (Step S110) are well known in the art, and for this reason these steps are largely not described herein, for the sake of brevity.
FIGS. 2A to 2C illustrate one problem associated with the conventional JPEG image compression mechanism. FIG. 2A depicts an example of an 8×8 vector of normalized quantized coefficients that would typically be output by the quantization step (Step S106), for an 8×8 random image patch. As depicted in FIG. 2B, the zigzag re-ordering step (Step S107) attempts to group low-frequency coefficients at the top of a vector, mapping the 8×8 vector to a 1×64 vector, by zigzagging through the coefficients as shown. The resulting 1×64 vector, illustrated in FIG. 2C, is used in the entropy encoding process (Step S109) to further compress the quantized image data.
While attempting to group coefficients of like magnitude, the trellis-coding approach used by conventional JPEG, which zigzags back and fourth between quantized DCT coefficients, does not necessarily preserve coefficient adjacency, and the zigzag path often introduces jump discontinuities. For these and other reasons, zigzag re-sequencing of quantized DCT coefficients according to the conventional JPEG image compression mechanism typically results in an increased loss of coefficient magnitudes, decreasing overall compression efficiency.
It is therefore considered highly desirable to provide an enhanced DCT-based image compression mechanism which increases compression efficiency. In particular, it is desirable to provide an image compression mechanism which orders DCT coefficients in a manner which reduces jump discontinuities, and preserves coefficient adjacency, resulting in more efficient JPEG block coding.

Enhanced image compression utilizing Hilbert curve scanning of quantized discrete cosine transform coefficients


The present invention discloses a single-wire asynchronous serial interface, and a method for transmitting commands and data through one transmission wire, wherein the transmission wire is capable of transmitting signals of three level states. The disclosed interface comprises a signal level extraction circuit receiving signals transmitted through the wire and outputting logic or functional bits according to the received signals; a clock extraction circuit generating clock signals according to the functional bits, and a memory circuit controlled by the clock signals and storing the logic bits. The disclosed method comprises: using two of the level states to represent logic 0 and logic 1, and the third of the states as a functional bit; and determining whether a group of signals is a command or data by the existence of a functional bit within the group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single-wire asynchronous serial interface, in particular to a single-wire asynchronous serial interface which is capable of transmitting commands, data, and even power, and it is not required for the transmission side and the receiving side to synchronize their clocks.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional arrangement for single-wire serial transmission between a transmitting side Tx and a receiving side Rx. The signals transmitted by the transmitting side Tx should include a start bit, a command of fixed bit length, data of fixed bit length, and a stop bit. The function of the start bit is for synchronization between the transmitting side Tx and the receiving side Rx; as shown by the arrow, when the receiving side Rx receives this start bit, it begins to generate clock signals in synchronization with the rising edge of the start bit. The receiving side Rx receives and counts the bit lengths of the command and the data according to the synchronous clock signals. The bit lengths of the command and the data should follow a protocol previously agreed between the transmitting side Tx and the receiving side Rx. Such a conventional arrangement is called "synchronous transmission" because the transmission side Tx and the receiving side Rx have to synchronize their clocks, and the transmitting side Tx has to transmit data according to the clock frequency of the receiving side Rx.
The above-mentioned conventional arrangement has the following drawbacks. First, the transmitting side Tx has to know the clock frequency of the receiving side Rx in advance. Second, to ensure correct receipt of command and data signals, the transmitting side Tx needs to properly arrange the set-up time and hold time of the transmitted signals. Furthermore, since the bit lengths of the command and data are fixed, there are only limited number of commands that can be transmitted. For example, if the bit length of a command signal is 5 bits, it can only transmit 25=32 types of commands.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional arrangement for single-wire tri-state data transmission, in which the transmitted data have three level states: 0, 1, or T (third-state). However, conventionally, such an arrangement is still for data transmission, except that there are three level states instead of two. No other use has been proposed.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks, the present invention proposes a single-wire asynchronous serial interface which is capable of transmitting commands, data, and even power, and it is not required for the transmission side and the receiving side to synchronize their clocks.

Single-wire asynchronous serial interface


A non-woven needle-punched filter fabric for use in a geocomposite having a filter face and a laminating face, the fabric having a first filter and cushion zone adjacent the filter face produced from spun bond, continuous filament, a second stiff and bend resistant zone adjacent the first zone produced from a blend of staple non-fusible fiber and staple fusible fiber, and a third zone at the laminating face produced from fiber from both the first and second zones whereby the third zone has a hairy characteristic which facilitates laminating the fabric to a drainage net or a geogrid.

A geocomposite is manufactured by laminating a geotextile onto one or both sides of an integral net structure. The typical geotextile is not specially manufactured for this end use. Instead, the geotextiles used in geocomposite manufacture are general purpose products not specially designed or manufactured for use in geocomposites. A typical geotextile used for this application is a continuous filament, polyester, non-woven needle-punched fabric.
The conventional geocomposite has several deficiencies. First, the bond of the fabric to the net structure may be inadequate. Second, the fabric frequently inhibits or reduces flow due to undesired sagging of the fabric into the channel when the product is placed under a load. Third, the filtration characteristics of the fabric are not ideally suited for certain applications. And, fourth, the cushioning effect of the fabric may be inadequate for certain applications.


The present disclosure relates to performing an unrolled iterative reconstruction of image data. Such approaches may include use of neural networks used for one or both of data fidelity and/or image update steps, resulting in improved image quality and accelerated reconstruction for various imaging modalities including CT, PET and MR.

Non-invasive imaging technologies allow images of the internal structures or features of a patient/object to be obtained without performing an invasive procedure on the patient/object. In particular, such non-invasive imaging technologies rely on various physical principles (such as the differential transmission of X-rays through a target volume, the reflection of acoustic waves within the volume, the paramagnetic properties of different tissues and materials within the volume, the breakdown of targeted radionuclides within the body, and so forth) to acquire data and to construct images or otherwise represent the observed internal features of the patient/object.
Reconstruction of images using non-invasively acquired scan data may be performed using various types of reconstruction processes and routines. All reconstruction processes and routines are subject to various trade-offs, such as between computational efficiency, patient dose, scanning speed, image quality, and artifacts.
In certain imaging contexts, iterative reconstruction techniques may be employed as part of the image reconstruction process. Iterative image reconstruction may be employed in computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), ultrasound-based imaging, and magnetic resonance imaging (MR or MM) in medical contexts as examples where an iterative solution is applied to an inverse problem. Such solutions, however, may suffer from relatively lengthy (e.g., long compute time) image reconstruction and may also have poor image quality that manifest as image noise, insufficient contrast-to-noise ratio, insufficient spatial resolution, insufficient quantitative accuracy, and/or poor detectability in reconstructed images.


A toner is provided which has toner particles and a fine silica powder mixed by external addition to the toner particles. The toner has a weight average particle diameter of 4.0 to 9.0 μm. The fine silica powder is subjected to hydrophobic treatment with dimethylsilicone oil, and has, in particle size distribution based on volume, a peak at which cumulative frequency is largest, in the measurement range of 0.02 μm to 1,000.00 μm; the cumulative frequency of 0.10 μm to less than 1.00 μm being 7.0% or less, and, the fine silica powder fulfills the following conditions:                1) A+B≧93.0;        2) 0.45≦A/B≦6.00; and        3) the value of [(carbon content of the treated fine silica powder)/(BET specific surface area of fine silica powder before hydrophobic treatment)] is 0.030 or more to 0.055 or less.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toner having at least a fine silica powder, which is favorably usable when electrical latent images are formed and developed in electrophotography, electrostatic printing or toner jet recording; and an image forming method making use of the toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electrophotography is a process in which a recorded image is obtained by forming an electrostatic latent image on a latent image bearing member (photosensitive member) by various means, subsequently developing the latent image by the use of a toner to form a toner image on the photosensitive member, transferring the toner image to a recording material by the use of a direct or indirect means as occasion calls, followed by fixing by the action of heat, pressure and/or light.
As developing systems, conventionally a one-component developing system and a two-component developing system are available. In either developing system, as printers, or copying machines, for business use or personal use which are operated by electrophotography, there is in recent years an increasing demand for making them smaller in size, higher in speed, longer in lifetime (making stable images obtainable over long-term use) and so forth.
As toners for electrophotography which are commonly used in both the one-component developing system and the two-component developing system, they use a surface-treated fine powder of silica, titanium oxide or alumina, having been subjected to hydrophobic treatment, for the purposes of providing the toners with fluidity and charge stability and making them less adherent to structural members.
A common one-component developing system is a system in which recorded images are obtained by bringing a toner carrying member on the surface of which a toner is coated in the form of a thin layer and an electrostatic latent image bearing member into contact with each other to render electrostatic latent images visible and further transferring and fixing the resultant visible images one after another onto a recording material. Here, the toner assumes any desired state of charging, where in such charging the toner is provided with charge by forming a thin layer of the toner on the toner carrying member surface by the aid of a layer thickness control member and simultaneously bringing the toner into friction with the toner carrying member surface and the control member surface. Further, the charge polarity of this toner is utilized to render the electrostatic latent images visible potentially by utilizing an electric field at a developing zone.
Hence, when the thin layer of the toner is formed on the toner carrying member surface by the control member, the toner and/or an external additive such as a fine silica powder tend(s) to come to melt-stick to the toner carrying member surface and control member surface because of pressure put by the control member. As the result, any toner layer disorder due to the matter having thus melt-stuck thereto may appear on images to tend to cause line marks (development line marks) on the images. Accordingly, a toner and/or an external additive such as a fine silica powder is/are desired which can not easily melt-stick to the toner carrying member surface and control member surface.
In the two-component developing system, the toner and/or the external additive such as a fine silica powder tend(s) to come to melt-stick to carrier particles as a result of long-term service. As the result, such matter having melt-stuck thereto tends to cause a lowering of charge-providing ability of the carrier to the toner, so that in some cases the charge quantity of toner can not stabilize to make image density unstable or cause fog seriously and make it unable to obtain stable images over a long period of time. Accordingly, a toner and/or an external additive such as a fine silica powder is/are desired which can not easily melt-stick to the carrier particles.
Meanwhile, as conventional fine silica powders, fine silica powders the particle surfaces of which have been subjected to hydrophobic treatment are known in the art (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. S54-016219 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Applications No. S59-201063 and No. S55-120041). These hydrophobic fine silica powders are those having been treated with dimethyldichlorosilane or hexamethyldisilazane, and can not be said to be sufficiently hydrophobic, thus, in a severe high-temperature and high-humidity environment, these may cause a lowering of charge quantity because of moisture absorption. As the result, a problem tends to come about such that, as a result of long-term service, image density becomes unstable or fog occurs seriously.
A method is also disclosed in which a fine silica powder is treated with silicone oil and used in a toner (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. S49-42354). This method can ensure hydrophobicity to a certain degree. However, since the silicone oil is a high-molecular substance, agglomeration takes place when the fine silica powder is treated with the silicone oil, to produce agglomerates of about 200 μm in size or produce powder lumps of various sizes upon further mutual agglomeration of such agglomerates. As the result, the toner may have a poor fluidity to tend to cause fog.
Such a surface-treated fine silica powder has an average primary particle diameter of approximately from a few nm to tens of nm, whereas the fine silica powder is, as a state before mixing by its external addition to toner particles, present in the form of about 200-μm agglomerates of primary particles, or powder lumps formed upon further mutual agglomeration of such agglomerates. In particular, the fine silica powder treated with what is of a silicone oil type is so strongly agglomerative between primary particles or agglomerates as to have a tendency to easily melt-stick to the toner carrying member and control member or to the carrier particles, and so forth.
Accordingly, in order to stabilize surface treatment performance, a method is proposed in which, aiming to keep particles from agglomerating to have low fluidity or dispersibility when a treating agent is used in a large quantity, the surface-treated fine silica powder is used after it has been disintegrated (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Applications No. H08-152742 and No. 2004-168559).
For example, in the above Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. H08-152742, it is disclosed that a surface-treated fine powder is used after it has been disintegrated by means of a jet mill. However, such a powder subjected to disintegration treatment has a portion remaining untreated, and hence, though it is temporarily made fine, has a problem that it may again agglomerate with lapse of time. As the result, in long-term service, the fine silica powder tends to come liberated from toner, where the fine silica powder having come liberated therefrom tends to adhere or melt-stick to the toner carrying member and control member in the case of the one-component developing system, or to carrier particles in the case of the two-component developing system, tending to cause difficulties in images.
For another example, in the above Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2004-168559, a fine silica powder is disclosed which has been subjected to disintegration treatment until its agglomerates come very fine, so as to have particle size distribution in a specific range. However, where the powder subjected to disintegration treatment in this way is mixed in the toner by external addition, the fine silica powder tends to come buried in toner particles during long-term service because the agglomerates have been too finely disintegrated. As the result, as a toner, it tends to become greatly low in fluidity to become poor in transfer performance, or the charge quantity of toner tends not to stabilize to make image density unstable or cause fog seriously.
Thus, it has been difficult to make the charge quantity of toner stabilize in every environment and also to keep the toner and/or the fine silica powder from melt-sticking to the toner carrying member and control member or to the carrier particles.


A ceiling system having a primary grid network which includes a plurality of grid members that are in generally perpendicular relation and form points of intersection. The ceiling system includes one or more joint clips, each of which is attached to the grid network at a point of intersection. Each joint clip partitions the primary grid network into smaller networks, which move independently of one another. At the same time, the appearance of an overall primary grid network is preserved.

The invention relates to a suspended ceiling grid network which utilizes clips to connect a primary grid member to a secondary or cross grid member in generally perpendicular relationship. More specifically, the invention relates to a grid network having a clip which permits lateral movement of the cross grid member relative the primary grid member in at least two horizontal directions with respect to the ceiling plane, while maintaining the assembled relationship of the primary and cross grid members.
Clips for securing two grid members in generally perpendicular relation to one another in order to form a ceiling grid network are widely known in the art. In geographical regions subject to earthquakes, steel buildings are designed with lateral force resisting (seismic) systems to resist the effects of earthquake forces. Seismic systems make a building stiffer against horizontal forces, thus minimizing the amount of relative lateral movement and resultant damage. Although the buildings may be designed structurally to provide seismic resistance to lateral forces, suspension ceiling systems remain very susceptible to displacement under seismic conditions.
ASTM E 580-02 provides a standard practice for "Application of Ceiling Suspension Systems for Acoustical Tile and Lay-in Panels in Areas Requiring Seismic Restraint." This standard practice covers acoustical ceiling suspension systems and their additional requirement for application both in areas subject to light to moderate seismic disturbance such as Uniform Building Code (UBC) Seismic Zone 2, and areas subject to moderate to severe seismic disturbance such as UBC Seismic Zones 3 and 4. The intent of this standard practice is to provide an unrestrained ceiling system designed to accommodate the horizontal movement of the grid network when loads are applied laterally to a ceiling surface, such as during a seismic event. ASTM E 580-02 requires, in areas subject to light to moderate seismic disturbance, that the primary and cross grid members of the ceiling system, including their splices, connectors and expansion devices be designed and built to carry an average test load of 60 lbs. in tension with a 5 degree misalignment of the primary and cross grid members in any direction.
Typically, a ceiling system having a ceiling area of less than 2500 square feet, is attached to the wall via wall angles on two adjacent sides. On the other two sides, wall angles with 2 inch horizontal legs are used along with spacer bars and hanger wires. Thus, during a seismic event, the grid members abutting the wall can move laterally away from the wall, i.e. float on the 2 inch perimeter wall angle. The 2 inch wall angles provide the 5 degree misalignment of the primary and cross runners in the direction of the horizontal ceiling plane as required by ASTM E 580-02.
In order to comply with ASTM E 580-02 at an interior ceiling location, one solution that has been contemplated by those skilled in the art is to utilize primary and cross grid members having four inch horizontal flanges, in other words, two inch flanges on either side of the vertical web. This solution effectively provides the same effect as the 2 inch wall angles at an interior ceiling location. However, from an aesthetic standpoint, it is undesirable to use grid members having such wide flanges.
Additionally, the 2000 International Building Code specifies that "for ceiling areas exceeding 2,500 square feet a seismic separation joint or full height partition shall be provided." Essentially, this requires a large ceiling area to be segmented into independent smaller areas to prevent the ceiling from completely collapsing during a seismic event.
In order to comply with both ASTM E 580-02 and the 2000 International Building Code, a grid network is needed which eliminates for primary grid members having 4 inch lower flanges and which partitions a single ceiling area into smaller independent ceiling areas.

Suspended ceiling grid network utilizing seismic separation joint clips


A routing tool is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method and system include receiving flight data and geographic data in the aircraft, and generating route data based on the flight data and the geographic data. The route data provides information about attainable landing areas for the aircraft.

In-flight emergencies that result in off-airport landings can result in the loss of life and property. The problem of selecting a suitable emergency landing site ("safe landing area") has been around since the beginning of aviation. During in-flight emergencies, pilots have been limited to using their planning, experience, vision and familiarity with a given area to select a suitable, safe landing area.
During a forced landing, the time that a pilot has to react can be very short and compounded by the workload of finding a suitable landing site, executing emergency procedures, preparing the passengers, and flying the aircraft. In any in-flight emergency that requires an off-airport landing, time management and an informed decision making process is critical. This problem is compounded by single pilot operations, Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) conditions, and undetected hazards and obstacles at the landing site.
Aircraft energy management is another pilot dilemma. The information presented to pilots during training is generally conservative and/or worst case conditions. Consequently, pilots currently rely on their training and experience to make emergency landing decisions.
With the advent of global positioning system (GPS) navigation, manufactures have added a "nearest airport" feature to GPS receivers. This feature allows the pilot to display the navigation information to the nearest airport. However, this solution is effective only if the plane can actually make it to the airport.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved method and system for facilitating emergency situations.

Determining suitable areas for off-airport landings


The present invention provides a new method for returning context specific questions during the process of authoring a document or report. The questions alert an author of possible omissions and vague or general statements. The method employs techniques in semantic analysis including corpus linguistics and sentential logic. The method takes as input sentences created by the document author, and looks up semantic propositions connected to these sentences, which are in the document's knowledge domain, and questions linked to these propositions or other related propositions. The questions are sorted based on priority determined by a knowledge engineer. Additional methods are used to suppress redundant or nonspecific questions to increase their usefulness to the document author. The resulting question list aids the author in creating a high quality document.

Often professionals author reports or documents to convey useful information so that other professionals can take action. Sometimes hundreds or thousands of reports may be generated by a single expert during the course of a year. For example, a radiologist interprets a medical image, and produces a short one page report which conveys diagnostic findings and conclusions to a referring physician. The quality of the report is crucial to patient diagnosis and treatment. Even infrequent lapses in report quality can affect the lives of many individuals since a typical radiologist dictates 18,000 reports per year. Unfortunately, radiology reports, like many other types of medical documents are non-standardized and frequently vague, incomplete and error prone [Johnson A J, Radiology Report Quality: A Cohort Study of Point-and-Click Structured Reporting versus Conventional Dictation. Academic Radiology 2002; 9:1056-1061.]
Although some guidelines are available to construct reports and documents of different types, rarely are those guidelines codified in a form that can be displayed in a context specific manner. Templates have been used to improve data collection by reducing missing, incorrect, and inconsistent data. Templates are outlines that structure text into blocks, paragraphs, or sentences. Frequently they contain well defined delimiters that are meant to be completed (instantiated) to produce a final document. Some physicians have used templates to improve report quality since a number of important observations may be embedded in a template.
However, in medicine as well as other complex domains, specialized knowledge must be conveyed, which is not stereotyped or easily encoded in a few master templates. There are simply too many different document types and context specific conditions, which vary from case to case to make template use practical. For example, a radiology report for a normal head computed tomography (CT) scan, is different from a normal sinus x-ray exam, which in turn is vastly different than a head CT with evidence of intraparenchymal hemorrhage.
Expert Critiquing Systems (ECSs) have been used in a variety of situations to provide a broad array of supportive functions. One appeal of such systems [Silverman B G. Survey of Expert Critiquing Systems:
Practical and Theoretical Frontiers. Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery, Volume 35(4): 106-127: 1992] is to complement problem-solving systems through useful "critiques." In medical expert critiquing systems, a physician typically defines his/her treatment plan, after which the ECS performs a separate analysis. The ECS then calculates a "difference" between the proposed and computed solution, and highlights weaknesses in the proposed treatment plan. These rule-based expert systems are generally aimed at providing an analysis of a proposed treatment, rather than pertinent questions to further explore the problem space or refine document content. One drawback of "critiques" is professionals are more likely to modify a plan or a report by considering specific questions rather than simply being told what is wrong. Additionally, medical ECSs often give their critiques after all the input is known, and are thus of limited value in real-time document creation.
Nevertheless, ECSs have aided writers through grammar and spelling critiques. Domini, et al. (Method and system for verifying accuracy of spelling and grammatical composition of a document, U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,206) disclosed a system for verifying the accuracy of the grammatical composition of sentences within electronic documents. The real-time display of pertinent corrections provided a way to improve the grammatical aspects of document quality. However, similar systems have not been used to generate additional content suggestions or questions which may improve more fundament aspects of document quality.
Commercial structured documentation applications exist that can produce coded input to an expert system, and with additional engineering could be designed to generate questions that could improve report quality. [Langlotz C P. Enhancing the expressiveness of structured reporting systems. J Digit Imaging 2000 May; 13 (2 Supplement 1):49-53.] However, these systems restrict users input to a predefined number of "codeable" entries, which in complex domains such as medicine, fall far short of the expressiveness of natural language required by their target audience.
One major hurdle to providing context specific questions, which could improve document content, is having a detailed semantic understanding of the language used by document authors. Semantic extraction starts with defining the relevant concepts in a circumscribed area of knowledge—a domain. Few tools and methods are available for systematically categorizing domain knowledge, especially for medium to large scale domain. Knowledge engineers often spend months creating even modest knowledge bases. Without a semantic knowledge-base, it is impossible to trigger context specific questions.
Another hurdle that must be overcome to make the questions helpful to authors, is a control system that prioritizes the most important questions that should be considered, and suppresses questions that have already been answered by the information in the document.
Finally, the cost of building an automated advisory system is currently prohibitive because there are no tools to create the questions or control under which context they will appear.

Process for improving the quality of documents using semantic analysis


The present disclosure relates to a spectrum management apparatus and method, a wireless network management apparatus and method, and a medium. According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus for spectrum management comprises a processing circuit configured to generate measurement configuration information and to conduct control to send the measurement configuration information to one or more wireless network management apparatuses. The measurement configuration information comprises a measurement mode, and the measurement mode comprises at least one of the following modes: the wireless network management apparatus managed by the electronic apparatus performing measurement, and one or more specific nodes of the wireless network management apparatus performing measurement.

With the rapid growth of the number of wireless devices and the diversity of wireless services, the problem of spectrum scarcity is becoming more and more serious. One promising solution is to perform spectrum sharing, which enables multiple systems to share a target frequency band through coexistence and coordination, improving usage efficiency of resources. The frequency band currently opened for sharing is referred to as an unlicensed frequency band, which includes, for example, 3.5 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz.
Graph theory has a natural advantage for the systematic representation of network information no matter in physical structure or logical structure. The numerous models and algorithms accumulated in the research of graph theory provide effective solutions for the allocation of network resources, which are currently highly valued by industries. In more and more standards, the method of constructing a network graph model and performing resource allocation based on the model is adopted, for example, the Spectrum Access System (SAS) developed by the Wireless Innovation Forum (WINNF) organization, which studies coexistence management between multiple systems in the 3.5 GHz frequency band, and the Broadband Radio Access Networks (BRAN) project initiated by the European Commission, which studies central collaboration of wireless access systems/wireless local area networks (WAS/RLAN) in the 5 GHz band.

Spectrum management apparatus and method, wireless network management apparatus and method, and medium


A generator for unitary power factor arc welders, comprising a current transformer that supplies, at a secondary winding thereof, a welding arc and is in turn supplied, at a primary winding thereof, by an input leveling and rectifying unit, between the rectifier unit and the transformer being interposed an electronic circuit with two electronic switches that provide a half-bridge structure that performs DC/DC conversion by way of the combination of the transformer and of a rectifier stage connected to the secondary winding of the transformer, and a leveling inductor, the circuit having the combination of resonant capacitive and inductive components arranged on the side of the primary winding of the transformer, the components charging the bank of capacitors arranged downstream of the electronic switches, furthermore keeping the voltage across it constant.

According to the prior art, a classic diagram of an arc welder with electronic control and power supply circuit is shown in FIG. 1.
This diagram provides a rectifier stage 1, followed by a bank of leveling capacitors 2 that supply a power transformer 4 by means of an inverter block 3 with high-frequency electronic switches.
The secondary winding of the transformer 4 is followed by a rectifier stage 5 and by an inductor 6 for leveling the output current, which is the current that circulates in a welding arc 7.
During operation, a welder with a diagram of this kind absorbs from the mains a current whose waveform has a shape of the kind shown in FIG. 2, which, as shown, has a high content of harmonics.
In this situation, the power factor is low, and in order to have a high output power on the arc it is necessary to draw a high RMS current value from the mains.
The high RMS factor and the high harmonic content of the absorbed current are a severe problem, particularly when power supply lines are not sized for this kind of load.
This occurs in particular when using welders in domestic environments, where the systems are sized for modest consumptions.
In this case the lines become dangerously warm and it is therefore necessary to limit the power delivered by the generator of the welder, with all the related consequences for the arc and for the possibility to perform welding.
If one did not proceed in this manner, the high intensity of the RMS current absorbed by the generator would cause the tripping of the safety thermal cutout of the system even though the useful power in output is lower than that of an equivalent resistive load.
A generator with this electrical diagram is also sensitive to variations in the input power supply voltage, particularly when the voltage decreases.
In this case, there is a marked decrease in the performance of the generator and therefore of the welder.
In view of these problems, generators for welders with additional stages have been developed so that they absorb on the power supply side a current that is as sinusoidal as possible.
In this manner, the generator is equivalent to a resistive load, and this allows to utilize all the available active power.
The additional stages also allow to adapt automatically the generator to the variation in mains voltage, thus ensuring the performance of the welder throughout its operating range.
A typical diagram with additional stages is shown, in its essential parts, in FIG. 3.
This diagram allows to notice, by comparing it with the diagram of FIG. 1, the addition of a stage 11, interposed between a rectifier block 12 and a leveling capacitor block 13.
Such additional stage 11 is known technically as a BOOST-type PFC and comprises an inductor 14, an electronic switch 15, and a diode 16, arranged as in FIG. 3.
The block 11, by means of an appropriate device 17 for controlling the switch 15, in addition to making the input current absorption practically sinusoidal as shown in FIG. 4, allows to keep constant the value of the voltage and the terminals of the leveling capacitor block 13 as the input voltage varies.
This also allows to optimize the size of the electronic power switches used in inverter block 18.
Another known generator is the one shown schematically in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7.
In this case there is a single input rectifier stage 21, capable of ensuring both sinusoidal absorption from the mains and automatic adaptation to input voltage fluctuations.
The input stage 21 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 6 in the case of a single-phase power supply and in FIG. 7 in the case of a three-phase power supply.
These circuits are illustrated in greater detail in WO 01/03874 by the same Applicant.
In this case, the generator is composed of a set of blocks that are designated, in FIG. 5, as an input rectifier stage 21, a level stage 22 with capacitors, an inverter stage 23 with electronic switches, a current transformer 24, and a power supply stage 25 for the welding arc 26.
The most important part of the generator is located in the input rectifier stage 21, shown in detail in FIGS. 6 and 7.
FIG. 6 shows a first detail of the input stage 21 related to a single-phase power supply generator.
In this circuit configuration, there is an inductor 27 that is directly connected to the mains input 28.
This inductor is followed by two diodes 29 and 30, which are mutually connected in opposition, each one being served by an electronic switch, designated by the reference numerals 31 and 32 respectively.
The outputs 33 and 34 supply the stage of the leveling capacitors 22.
In the case of a three-phase power supply, as shown in FIG. 7, there are three inductors, one for each phase, designated by the reference numerals 35, 36 and 37, which are directly connected to the mains 38.
Each one of the inductors is followed by a respective diode 39, 40 and 41, each of which is served by an electronic switch, designated by the reference numerals 42, 43 and 44 respectively.
This configuration allows to increase the overall efficiency of the system, since the power components used are reduced.
The problem of all known devices of the illustrated type is that two stages are always used in combination, i.e., a first input adaptation stage (PFC) and a second conversion stage that provides the welding inverter.
Moreover, there are two electronic control circuits dedicated respectively to the input adaptation stage (PFC) and to the inverter stage.

Generator for unitary power factor arc welders


The line section of a gas-insulated line contains a high-voltage electric conductor and a pressure pipe which is made from a thermoplastic material and filled with insulating gas. The pressure pipe holds the electric conductor on insulated supports. The pressure pipe has two pipes which are welded to one another on the end faces thereof, the end section being respectively widened to flare outwardly in the radial direction with the welding of the two pipes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention proceeds from a line section of a gas-insulated line having at least one high-voltage electric conductor and a pressure pipe which is made from a thermoplastic material, is filled with insulating gas and holds the at least one electric conductor on insulated supports. Gas-insulated lines are used with advantage to transmit energy in conurbations, since they can be laid underground and can be set up or extended without being substantially impaired by the infrastructure determined by the traffic, the supply of water and gas and the disposal of sewage.
2. Discussion of Background
A line section of the type mentioned at the beginning is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,763. In this patent application, a gas-insulated line is described in which a high-voltage electric conductor is arranged in a pipe which is filled with compressed SF.sub.6 and is made from an insulating material such as polyethylene, in a typical case. Provided on the lateral surface of the insulating pipe is a layer which is made from conductive or semiconducting material, acts in a field-controlling fashion and conducts any return current which may occur.


The present invention is directed toward a device, kit, and related method for an adhesive film for application to the sole of a shoe. More specifically, the film is easily attached to the shoe sole so that a user may decorate their shoe soles and continuously change the appearance of the soles of a single pair of shoes instead of purchasing multiple shoes of a variety of styles. It also serves as a shoe sole protector, as it covers the original sole protecting it from wear and abrasion. A cutting device to trim the film to size without trimming the shoe material is also contemplated.

Shoes, and particularly women's shoes, are more than foot protection, and are typically regarded as fashion accessories. When consumers buy shoes, especially high-heeled varieties, women are typically concerned not only with comfort and durability, but also with shoe aesthetics, how the shoes comport with fashion trends, and clothing compatibility. Because the shoe is regarded as a particularly important fashion accessory, consumers often buy numerous pairs of shoes to match a variety of outfits.
Like other forms of fashionable apparel, trendy shoes can be extremely expensive, and particularly so if made by a famous designer. Because such shoes are typically designed with style and fashion in mind—and not necessarily comfort or longevity—it is not uncommon for the sole of a woman's shoes to show wear after a relatively short period of time. Women's shoes may wear particularly badly from repeated exposure to rough surfaces such as asphalt or pavement. The combination of the desire for new, fashionable shoes and the fact that such shoes may wear somewhat quickly results in a huge market for women's shoes. In 2007, for example, the U.S. consumed over 950 million pairs of women's shoes (non-rubber). Meanwhile, the U.S. only consumed approximately 240 million pairs of men's shoes in the same time frame.
There is a need in the art of women's shoes for a means to allow easy attachment and removal of ornamentation to the sole of any woman's shoe, which is particularly difficult for high heels with severe and complex curvatures.

Shoe sole ornamentation apparatus and related method


The present invention is directed to a plate feeder and a method of supplying plates. The plate feeder supplies plates on an as-needed basis and includes a holding structure for holding a plate. A proximity sensor detects whether a plate is held by the holding structure. A control system is connected to the proximity sensor to receive a plate absent signal therefrom. When the control system receives a plate absent signal, the control system commands a pusher to move a plate into an ejection area and then commands a blade with a non-linear front edge to engage a rear edge of the plate and push the plate from the ejection area to the holding structure, where the plate is available for use by a technician.

The present invention is directed toward feeders and, more particularly, toward feeders for supplying plate-like objects to a work area.
Plate feeders for continuously supplying plates to machines, or for continuously moving plates between different processes are known. Examples of such plate feeders are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,942,392 to McCain et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,996 to Dunn and U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,740 to Lange et al. Such plate feeders are not suitable for supplying plates to a work area (such as on an assembly line) where the fed plates are manually worked on and/or manually installed into a device by an on-line technician. In such a situation, the on-line technician does not need the plates to be continually supplied to him/her, but rather needs the plates to be supplied to him/her on an as-needed basis.
Conventionally, the on-line technician is supplied with stacks of plates from which individual plates must be removed to be worked on and/or installed. In many applications, such as on an automotive assembly line, the plates are covered with oil and are difficult to separate from a stack. Accordingly, offline technicians often separate the plates and restack them in alternating positions to facilitate their removal from the stack by the online technician. As can be appreciated, this separating and restacking operation is tedious and time consuming.
Based on the foregoing, there exists a need in the art for a plate feeder that can supply plates to an online technician on an as-needed basis. The present invention is directed to such a plate feeder and to a method of feeding plates.


An electrostatic fluid accelerator includes an electrode array including an array of corona discharge electrodes and an array of accelerating electrodes. A detector is configured to sense a constituent component of the fluid as present in an output from the electrode array. A control circuit supplies power to the electrode array, the control circuit being responsive to an output from the detector for operating the electrode array responsive a level of the constituent component.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a device for accelerating, thereby imparting velocity and momentum to a fluid, and particularly to the use of corona discharge technology to generate ions and electrical fields for the movement and control of fluids including gases such as air, liquids, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of patents (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,847 by Shannon, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,766 by Spurgin) describe ion generation using an electrode (termed a "corona electrode"), for accelerating charged particles (i.e., "ions") toward another electrode (termed an "accelerating", "collecting" or "target" electrode), thereby imparting momentum to the ions in a direction toward the accelerating electrode. Collisions between the ions and an intervening fluid, such as surrounding air molecules, transfer the momentum of the ions to the fluid inducing a corresponding movement of the fluid to achieve an overall movement in a desired fluid flow direction (e.g., from corona electrode toward the accelerating electrode).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,801 of Lee, U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,564 of Weinberg, U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,977 of Taylor, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,745 of Sakakibara, et al. also describe air movement devices that accelerate air using an electrostatic field. Air velocity achieved in these devices is very low and is not practical for commercial or industrial applications.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,812,711 and 5,077,500 of Torok et al. describe the use of Electrostatic Air Accelerators (EFA) having a combination of different electrodes placed at various locations with respect to each other and different voltage potentials.
Unfortunately, none of these devices is able to produce a commercially viable amount of the airflow. Varying relative location of the electrodes with respect to each other provides only a limited improvement in EFA performance and fluid velocity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,711 of Torok et al. reports generating an air velocity of only 0.5 m/s, far below that expected of and available from commercial fans and blowers. One of the main reasons for such poor air velocity is due to the impermissibly high amount of ozone generated by EFAs when operated at high power levels.
Accordingly, a need exists for a practical electrostatic fluid accelerator capable of producing commercially useful flow rates and providing a safe environment for human habitat.


A vehicle is described with a frame having a plurality of frame members. An engine and a straddle seat are disposed on the frame, the straddle seat accommodating a rider. A handlebar is disposed on the frame for steering the vehicle. A front suspension with at least one front wheel is disposed on the frame. A rear suspension is also disposed on the frame, the rear suspension having a rear swing arm pivotally connected to the frame and a shock absorber disposed between the frame and the rear swing arm. At least one rear is wheel disposed on the rear swing arm. A continuously variable transmission operatively connects the engine to the rear wheel. The continuously variable transmission includes a housing that acts as one of frame members.

Small motorcycles, more precisely scooters, incorporating a continuously variable transmission or CVT are well known in the art.
Often, on such two-wheeled vehicles, the CVT is packaged with the engine. This provides a practical layout where the engine and the CVT are provided as a unitary structure. Most of the time on scooters, the CVT casing acts as a swing arm for the suspension of the rear wheel. The CVT belt is located inside the swing arm, connecting both drive and driven pulleys of the CVT. With such a design, the rotational axis of the driven pulley is co-axially located on the axis of rotation of the rear tire.
One disadvantage with this design is that the packaging, although it is convenient, precludes a compact mechanical engine and CVT layout for the vehicle. This is because the swing arm extends toward the rear of the vehicle while the engine is positioned close to the center of gravity of the vehicle. Accordingly, the CVT is positioned a relatively far distance from the vehicle's center of gravity or CG. Since the CVT itself is a heavy component of the vehicle, this arrangement changes the center of gravity of the vehicle to a location that may not be optimal for performance of the vehicle.
Another disadvantage of incorporating the CVT casing as a part of the rear swing arm is that the unsprung weight of the vehicle is increased. It is well known in the art that the dynamic behavior of a vehicle improves when there is less unsprung weight. As a result, increasing the unsprung weight of the vehicle by incorporating the CVT into the rear swing arm negatively impacts on the operational performance of the vehicle, as would be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
In addition, as also is known to those skilled in the art, a compact arrangement for the engine and its transmission (the CVT) is desirable because the vehicle dynamic behavior is better when the mass of the CVT is centered close to the vehicle's center of gravity. Having the CVT casing at the rear of the vehicle is, therefore, not optimal.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved CVT-engine layout over the prior art.
In particular, there is a need, among others, for a compact vehicle construction with a CVT where the CVT does not contribute significantly to the unsprung weight of the vehicle.


An apparatus and methods of using the apparatus are included herein which apparatus includes a longitudinally extending bar body having an exterior surface and extending from a gripping end on a first bar section thereof to a second end comprising a hammer portion; wherein the hammer portion comprises a hammer head and the bar body comprises a second bar section extending from the hammer head at least partially along the bar body configured for receiving at least one weight positioned adjacent the hammer head. The apparatus is useful, for example, as a strength training fitness apparatus, a construction or demolition tool capable of supporting variable weight, and/or a strength training device for training workers.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fields of exercise equipment, specifically equipment for strength and core training based on hammer motion exercise, and hand held devices such as tools, which may be used other construction or building purposes, such as demolition work.
Description of Related Art
Weight-lifting and strength training for improvement to upper body, core and overall muscular groups is increasingly popular. The desire to build and sculpt the human musculature for overall strength and well-being is a focus of a large amount of specialty exercise equipment, both electronic weight training machines, resistance machines, and traditional free weights. Free weights operate by incorporating a central bar having typically a knurled portion for resistance to slip on the end areas thereof, for receiving one or more weights in the form typically of circular plates or discs having a hole through the center thereof to receive the bar. Such assemblies are also known as barbells. Free weights allow for changing the amount of weight applied by addition or removal of weights.
In use, a person exercising can use varied length bars and amounts and number of weights to bench press, lift, and do other exercises. In most cases a holding bar and/or bench may be used for certain exercises. Hand weights are also known that can be of a fixed weight (dumbbells having a solid core and fixed overall weight) or having the ability to interchange the ends are also known. Such smaller free weights can be used for arm exercises as well as upper body and back exercises.
Interchangeable weights are generally held on a bar using a tightenable collar. Weights may be polymeric on the outside and filled with sand or other substances on the inside, hard rubbers which may have an open or filled interior, solid and/or cast metals and metal alloys.
In the desire for further and further specialized fitness options, various specialty workouts have been developed. One recent development is exercise based on hammer motion such as the motion used in operating a large mallet or sledgehammer. Such exercise is itself not new, having been a source of exercise at the turn of the last century. However, it fell out of favor and is enjoying a revival of sorts based on new exercise trends and equipment. New developments are based on equipment which can enable the swinging force action with the involvement of resistance weights, while finding a way to minimize recoil impact from striking an object.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,182,401 of Clemons teaches an impact-receiving member having a shock-absorbing mechanism therein so that if one is exercising using a hammer device the impact is dissipated energy to help ensure that can cause injury. A similar device can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 712,623 of Aronstein developed in 1902, wherein a user is training for drill-striking and also getting exercise by hammering against a base in which uses a rubber collar to absorb recoil. Other early developments from as early as 1871 using weighted clubs for exercise may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 115,856. A similar weighted club for strengthening a golf swing may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,408.
A new version of this revived exercise trend can be seen in U.S. Published Patent Application No. US 2012/0149539 A1 of Quader. Quader has attempted to balance the impact and recoil effect against the power needed for exercise by forming a strength training apparatus using an elongated handle with grip and having a headpiece on the other end thereof formed of elastic material that may have a bladder therein, and may also include various weighted headpieces that can be interchangeable.
While new devices are developing for safely taking advantage of traditional physical labor movements for upper body, core, back and all-around physical strength training, such devices require a lot of adaptation or specialty materials. There is a need in the art for a simple device that can enable a unique exercise program using the sledgehammer-type motion, while keeping the overall cost of the device reasonable for average users and making the device easy to manufacture. Such a device can also be used for training workers and/or as a tool for construction or similar purposes.

Variable weight hammer useful as exercise apparatus


A device which restricts movement of the knee during lunge and squatting exercises prevents weight imbalance which may result in undue strain and knee injury. The device has a foot engagement member stepped upon by the user and held in place by the user's weight, or the foot engagement member conforms to the side of the user's foot and is held in place by a strap. Attached to the foot engagement is a vertical member extending upwardly from the foot engagement member. A shin engagement member attached to the vertical member is generally positioned in a position along the lower leg of the user, below the knee and laterally adjacent to the user's tibia. As the user performs exercise, the shin engagement member prevents the user's knees from forward movement which extends forward of the user's feet. The device also has structure which prevents inward collapse of the knees.

The disclosed device generally relates to devices used during physical exercise and rehabilitation and specifically to devices to strengthen the lower body and leg muscles by assisting in the safe and proper execution of squat and lunge exercises.
Various exercises are utilized for toning, strengthening, and rehabilitating muscles of the lower body. Among these exercises are squats and lunges. In a properly performed squat, a repletion of the exercise has the person starting in a standing position with his or her feet flat on the floor, mat, etc. with their feet spread approximately a shoulder width apart with his or her toes pointing forward. The person thereafter pushes his or her hips rearward and begins to bend at the knees, while simultaneously maintaining the lower legs a substantially motionless position. The person continues to bend at the knees until the top of his or her have descended below the top of their knees. The repetition is completed by rising back to a standing position
A similar exercise is the lunge, which focuses on each individual leg. In the lunge, the person starts in a standing position with his or her feet flat on the ground surface, with the toes of each foot generally pointing forward, with one leg in front of the other. The person thereafter pushes leans forward on the front leg, simultaneously bending the knee of the front leg, and shifting the rear foot from being flat on the floor, to where the heel of the rear foot is raised. The person continues to lean forward and bending the front knee until the thigh of the front leg is substantially parallel to the ground surface. The repetition is completed by rising back to a standing position. In the proper performance of the lunge, the person's front knee does not extend forward of the toes of the front foot and the knee does not turn inward.
When performed properly squats, lunges and similar leg exercises result in toning of lower body and leg muscles such as the glutes, the hamstrings and the quads. However, if not properly performed however, squats, lunges, and similar exercises can lead to pain and even injury. For example, during the execution of a squat exercise, it is very important to assure that the knees are not thrust forward beyond the toes of the feet, and that the legs do not collapse inwardly. The result of moving the knees beyond the toes or allowing the knees to collapse inwardly can be undue strain and even injury to the knees.