A fully differential amplifier performs common-mode voltage control while having reduced sensitivity to random offsets and mismatches and improved common-mode control loop bandwidth. The amplifier disclosed comprises an additional common-mode control sub-amplifier, which senses common-mode voltage of the fully differential main amplifier at nodes within the continuous-time signal path feedback network, compares the common-mode voltage sensed with a reference voltage, and regulates depending on the result of the comparison the output common-mode voltage via the existing continuous signal path feedback network. Furthermore the internal common-mode control can be implemented in such a manner as to provide a feed-forward transconductance function in addition to common-mode control if desired. Moreover it is possible to use feedback from other amplifier stages in an amplifier chain to implement common-mode feedback.

Differential circuit implementations are widely used for realizing mixed-signal systems owing to their ability to substantially reject (as common-mode) ambient noise signals e.g. supply noise, reference noise and substrate noise that can ruin signal integrity in single-ended circuit implementations. An issue to address when designing fully differential amplifiers is designing a common-mode voltage control loop to set the differential output common-mode voltage.
Common-mode control requires methods for both sensing and forcing the differential output voltage's common-mode voltage. Typical requirements for common-mode sensing are to achieve sense circuit linearity to avoid common-mode to differential signal conversion.
Disadvantages with prior art include high sensitivity to any offset or device matching errors, causing large common-mode dc voltage errors, and also reduced bandwidth leading to extended settling time of the common-mode control loop in response to common-mode disturbances.
It is a challenge to designers of fully differential amplifiers to overcome these disadvantages.


A chair arm adjustment device according to embodiments of the present invention includes an arm pad base slidably coupled to the arm support, the arm pad base sliding substantially horizontally in two degrees of freedom with respect to the arm support within a range of motion of the arm pad base with respect to the arm support, and an arm brake assembly coupled with the arm pad base, the arm brake assembly moveable between a locked position in which the arm brake assembly substantially inhibits movement of the arm pad base relative to the arm support and an unlocked position in which the arm brake assembly does not substantially inhibit movement of the arm pad base relative to the arm support, wherein the arm brake assembly moves from the unlocked position to the locked position at any position of the arm pad base within the range of motion.

Current adjustable arms often require a high degree of force to activate a button which permits movement of the arm pad; often, such force has a level of magnitude at or above the force required to move the arm pad. Often, adjustable chair arms do not permit arm pad movement in both side to side and forward to backward directions in the horizontal plane, or often require separate buttons to be activated to move the arm pad in different directions in the same horizontal plane. Adjustable chair arms which do offer adjustment often do not permit subsequent locking in an infinite number of selectable positions. In addition, current adjustable arms often do not permit horizontal translation in more than one non-parallel direction, swiveling in the horizontal plane, and also vertical height adjustment. Buttons for controlling adjustable arms are often not located near to each other or in a location easily accessible for a user seated in the chair.


A device, for determining road tolls having a road storage unit in which, in addition to a road network, parameters are electronically stored which represent a proportional toll due for each route section of the road network. A device for determining the vehicle position is provided, as well as a computer unit which determines the toll for a vehicle travelling over a particular route as least in dependence on the parameter and position data. An adaptation to changing tolls is possible in a simple matter with this device by storing new or further parameters influencing the toll.

The present invention relates to a device for determining the toll for a vehicle travelling over a route section.
Systems for collecting such a toll are recently becoming more important, particularly for cars travelling on roads. In some countries, a "vignette" system is used, for example for highways, which provides for the charging of a fixed annual amount independently of the degree of usage. In contrast, in the so-called "Maut" system, which is used, in particular, for expensive highway sections, for example roads through mountain passes or tunnels, a fee is only charged for the actual use in each case.
Known Maut systems in which the road toll is only charged usage-dependently for travelling on the chargeable road section require roadside facilities as system components. Thus, a Maut system disclosed in German Patent Document 38 30 643 A1 contains a roadside base station with computer unit and suitable barrier arrangements at the Maut boundaries.
Roadside detector devices within a Maut section of a particular length are also provided in the Maut system known from German Patent Document 41 12 472 A1. In addition to those detectors used for location detection at the Maut boundaries, a number of other detectors are used there for detecting the respective vehicle speed, significant deviations from a reference speed value leading to an increase in the Maut toll.
Another Maut system in which a vehicle-borne station and a base station installed at the roadside exchange coded information for Maut toll charging purposes is mentioned in German Patent Document 40 39 887 A1. In this system, a first roadside transmitter which is mounted, for example, on a beacon, is provided which, after the entry of the vehicle into the Maut zone has been detected, transmits signals to the vehicle station which determine the amount of Maut toll. A second roadside transmitter which is mounted, for example, on another beacon receives an acknowledgement message from the vehicle station and checks that the toll has been paid.
Because of the necessity of barrier facilities at the Maut boundaries, the known Maut systems are mainly suitable for charging a road toll for sufficiently closed road sections in which it is not possible to bypass the detector or pay stations at the Maut boundaries. When there are many branches in the section, this becomes correspondingly expensive since a correspondingly large number of roadside facilities is required.
Taxi meters such as are used, for example, in taxis, are known for determining a distance-dependent fee for using a vehicle. Such taxi meters which primarily determine the fare in dependence on the distance travelled and possible waiting times are described for example, in German Patent Document 40 23 110 A1 and German Patent Document 25 12 954 C3. Taxi meters as such are not suitable for determining a road toll since they do not register the variables primarily influencing this toll such as, for example, the type of road used.
From European Patent 0 387 474 A2, it is known to have the fare determined by a taxi meter debited from a user-owned credit card.
The prior art also includes vehicle-borne facilities for determining the position of the vehicle with the aid of satellite signals, see, for example, German Patent Document 41 30 367 A1. To be able to reproduce the position of the vehicle within a road map which can be visibly displayed in the vehicle, it is known from German Patent Document 40 33 527 A1 to combine such a vehicle position detector with an electronically stored road map, by means of which an evaluating unit determines the vehicle position on the road map by means of comparison of the respective data.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device for determining the accrued toll for a vehicle travelling over a route section, by means of which it is possible to determine the toll vehicle-autonomously without stationary roadside facilities and for any road sections of a road network travelled on.
This and other objects are achieved by the present invention which provides a device for determining a toll for a vehicle travelling over a road section, comprising vehicle-carried means for determining the position of the vehicle, and a vehicle-carried road storage device in which data of at least one entire toll-chargeable road network with associated road toll parameters are electronically stored, an individual road toll parameter being associated with a particular road section of the road network and representing a proportional road toll due for the use of this section. A vehicle-carried computer unit is connected to the road storage device and the means for determining the position. The computer unit determines the toll due for the use of the route sections travelled by the vehicle at least from the data of the means determining the position and the road storage device.
Each chargeable road section of a total road network stored in a vehicle-borne electronic storage device is associated with a section toll parameter which represents the proportional toll due for this section. The present invention allows the toll to be determined for the case of a general charge for the entire road network accessible to a vehicle which is then stored as a whole together with the associated road toll parameters. It also allows for cases of only partial charging, for example only for motorways, expensive road sections or roads located within particular country or city boundaries. In such cases, the present invention makes it possible to store only the chargeable roads in the road network together with the associated road toll parameters, or to store a larger network, for example the entire accessible road network and to allocate the road toll parameter value for a toll of "zero" to the non-chargeable road sections.
Corresponding to the density of the stored road network, the means for determining the position of the vehicle have an adequate local resolution which allows an unambiguous correlation of the road section travelled with the individual, possibly directly adjacent road sections of the stored road network. Depending on the accuracy required, the use of a satellite-based position determining system and/or other vehicle-carried devices such as, for example, wheel tachometers, direction sensors or digital maps, is provided for this purpose.
In an embodiment of the invention, the stored data of the road network and/or the road toll parameters can be updated in that the new data are received by a receiver unit, for example a radio or mobile radio receiver and are newly stored in the memory of the storage device via an input unit. This allows flexible adaptation of the system to changing tolls for the respective road sections.
In another embodiment of the invention, a storage device is arranged in which environmental toll parameters are stored which influence the toll, in addition to the road toll parameters, in dependence on the surrounding vehicle situation such as, for example, the traffic density or the pollution level. The data for the time-dependent environmental toll parameters are preferably overwritable, for which purpose the memory is preceded by a receiver unit and an input unit.
In another embodiment of the invention, a storage device is provided in which vehicle- and/or trip-specific toll parameters also influencing the toll are stored such as, for example, the loading, the travelling speed or the axle load. For the registration and possible updating of these vehicle toll parameters, the memory is preferably preceded by suitable sensors and an input unit for writing into the memory data obtained by the sensors or otherwise input.
In certain embodiments, the computer unit determines an instantaneous road toll for the road section currently travelled from the data extracted from the memories and the signals of the position determining means and reproduces this toll on a visual display device.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the computer unit adds together the proportional tolls previously accrued from a starting point to form a total toll and outputs them on a visual display unit and/or supplies this value for the total toll to a debiting unit into which a user card can be inserted from which the toll is automatically debited.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A wet clutch friction plate is provided in which a plurality of oil channels (22) are formed in a friction material (21) bonded to one side face or opposite side faces of a core plate (20), the plurality of oil channels (22) providing communication between inner and outer peripheral edges of the friction material (21), and a plurality of oil channels (22) having a discharge angle (β) that discharge oil from an inner peripheral side to an outer peripheral side of the friction plate (15) when the friction plate (15) rotates and a plurality of oil channels (22) having an inflow angle (α) that draw oil in from the outer peripheral side to the inner peripheral side of the friction plate (15) are mixed at substantially equal intervals. In this way, the frictional properties can be stabilized when connection of the clutch is in transition, and the phenomenon of drag due to oil viscosity resistance can be suppressed when the clutch is in an off state.

Such a wet clutch friction plate is already known, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-221252.
In such a wet clutch friction plate it is necessary, for example, to improve frictional properties in order to suppress the occurrence of abnormal noise or vibration due to stick-slip by stabilizing frictional properties when connection of the clutch is in transition even under conditions in which there is a small amount of oil (first problem), and it is also necessary to reduce the phenomenon of drag due to oil viscosity resistance when the clutch is disengaged (second problem).
However, conventionally, countermeasures are taken against the first problem by reducing the oil discharge properties by narrowing the width of the oil channels on the surface of the friction material, whereas countermeasures are taken against the second problem by enhancing the oil discharge properties by widening the width of the oil channels on the surface of the friction material, which is the opposite of the above-mentioned countermeasures; as a consequence, it is difficult to solve the two problems simultaneously and, in reality, solution of one of the first and second problems is sacrificed in accordance with the intended application or the specification of the wet clutch.


The present application relates to a computer implemented method, a computer program product and a computer system for controlling a data stream from a server computer to a client computer. The client computer comprises a data stream client and the server computer comprises a data stream server. While receiving, by the data stream client from the data stream server, the data stream, the method may comprise generating, by the client computer, a power management decrease event, receiving, by the data stream client, the power management decrease event, sending, from the data stream client to the data stream server, a first pause request to temporarily halt the data stream, and transitioning, by the client computer, from a fully working power state to a decreased power consumption state in response to the power management decrease event.

Data streaming, particularly media streaming, is becoming more and more common. Services that provide data streaming make use of network resources. In particular, data streaming, particularly video streaming, consumes network bandwidth, data stream server processing power, and routing and switching resources.
Accordingly, it may be a problem to conserve network resources consumed by a data stream.


A method of automatically measuring sphericity of a ball end mill on a machining device under nearly identical conditions to those at the time of machining. Under a cross rail 1 of the machining device, a laser measuring device (6) is placed through a mount (7) so that a laser optical axis "a" is in the X-axis direction. A ball end mill T is fixed through a milling chuck (5) to a main spindle (4) carried rotatably by a main spindle ram (3) that can be positioned along the Z-axis direction of a main spindle head 2, which can itself be positioned in the Y-axis direction. While rotating, the tip of ball end mill T is set using laser beams. A position shifted by one radius of a tool from the tip is set as the ball center. One radius of a cutting face is measured by sliding the ball end mill on the nominal of the ball per an arbitrary angle within 90.degree.. The sphericity of the ball end mill T is obtained from the respective one radius at each angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of measuring the roundness of a ball end mill.
2. Description of the Background Art
In metal mold machining, the formation of free curved surfaces is normally performed by machining methods utilizing ball end mills because, when machining a curved surface, a cutting point is present on the normal to a machined surface, and ordinary angle end mills therefore, can not machine along such a shape.
In finish machining, it is especially necessary to form a desired curved surface, which requires high precision ball end mills.
As shown in FIG. 11(a), when a dish-shaped circular arc of a work W is cut by a ball end mill T whose cutting edge shape is far from a sphere, it is impossible to finish a machined surface into a desired shape. A result is shown in FIG. 11(b).
In general, the sphericity of ball end mills depends on precision at the time of purchase. In actual machining, it is difficult to obtain precise roundness because precision is lowered due such ordinary factors as the tool holders deflection and main spindle, the wearing-out of cutting edges, and the like.
Tool manufacturers often use visual means to confirm precision while rotating a tool by using a tool microscope with a projector. As a result, visual observation measuring error is added to error from cutting edge grinding and from removal for measurement. The guarantee precision for general tools is about 0.1 mm, while that for high precision tools is about 0.03 mm. It is therefore evident that the total error when these tools are used for machining makes it impossible to achieve the required precision.
Normally, in machining employing ball end mills, the diameter of tools is altered depending on machining shape in a range from about 50 mm to about 3 mm in terms of machining efficiency and tool rigidity. In finish machining, the previous tool leaves a machining line, causing a partial concave-shape.
As described above, in high precision machining employing ball end mills, precise sphericity is an essential property desired in balls (cutting faces). Devices for tool inspection that measure the sphericity of cutting edges have recently been developed. As shown in FIG. 12, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 7-49955 (1995) discloses a device for tool inspection comprising a work head 101 that horizontally fixes a base of a ball end mill T and carries it rotatably and a measuring probe 102 that measures the shape of a cutting part of the ball end mill. The measuring probe 102 is pivotable horizontally in the center of a pivot 103 on the horizontal and also can advance or retreat to the pivot 103 on the horizontal. The ball end mill T carried by the work head 101 is rotatable around the X-axis crossing at a right angle with the pivot 103.
The above publication also discloses a measuring method of ball end mills utilizing the aforesaid device for tool inspection. In this method, in the process of preparation the measuring probe 102 is allowed to come into contact with the tip of the ball end mill T to calculate the distance from the center of the pivot 103 to the tip of the cutting edge. The rotated angular position of the measuring probe 102 and the horizontal plane are calculated. Thereafter, the measuring probe 102 is turned to a position where it crosses at a right angle to the X-axis on the horizontal, thereby measuring the diameter of a ball to obtain its radius. Based on the results, the ball end mill is positioned by moving along X-axis direction so that the pivot is located one radius away from the tip of the ball end mill T. The distance from the ball end mill T to the tip of the measuring probe 102 is then measured.
Both the microscope for tool inspection in the prior art and the device for tool inspection disclosed in the above publication, however, introduce error due to attachment for inspection and thus fail to obtain the actual value of roundness precision. For tools users, roundness as measured when fixed to a main spindle is of importance and it is a serious defect that the ultimate roundness, obtained by adding the deflections of a main spindle and a tool holder to the precision of a tool itself, cannot be measured.

Measuring method of sphericity of ball end mill


A preferred embodiment of the present invention is directed to a tool accessory case having first and second housing members pivotally connected to each other along a hinge portion and forming a tool holding cavity. A latch is connected to the first housing member and is moveable between latched and unlatched positions. The latch has a gripping structure configured for gripping the second housing member, and at least one flexure member configured to contact the first housing member and bias the latch toward the latched position. The latch also has at least one fixed hinge guide for pivoting with respect to the first housing member and with respect to the flexure member. The tool accessory case also has a receiving structure disposed on the second housing member and is configured to receive the gripping structure of the latch when the latch is in the latched position.

Accessory cases are commonly used by consumers and individuals in many professions to organize small parts such as drill bits, fasteners, and nails. Frequently, accessories of this sort are available in sets of varying size and shape and are used for different purposes. It is desirable to keep the accessories organized so that the user can easily locate the specific tool accessory for the particular purpose.
Tool accessories are commonly organized in individual compartments that are stored within the tool accessory case, and the case is secured with a latch to prevent the tool accessories from escaping the compartment. While a tool accessory case has the advantage of confining the tool accessory to the inner organizational compartment, the latch on the case may be difficult to open and close, particularly if the user is wearing work gloves or only has one hand available. Further, some latches are prone to open upon impact, such as when the case is dropped, allowing the tool accessories to escape the tool accessory case.


A method of manufacturing a high-performance printed wiring board assembly, and the resulting product, utilize a substrate component that has a reinforcement material embedded in a condensation-reacted and thermally-crosslinked nadic end-capped polyimide resin electrically conductive lamina component pathways directly adhered to the substrate component resin and high-temperature soldered or otherwise attached connections that electrically join the conductor leads of included electrical devices to the lamina component conductive pathways.

It is conventional practice in connection with the manufacture of printed wiring boards to adhere an electrically-conductive metal lamina upon a thin, glass fabric-reinforced, polymerized resin substrate, to then selectively coat desired electric current pathways on the adhered metal lamina with a photo-sensitive etchant resist, and to afterwards remove unprotected portions of the metal lamina from adhesion to the substrate component by etching whereby only electrical current pathway metal remains adhered to the reinforced and polymerized resin substrate. Subsequently, mounting holes for the leads of various to-be-added electrical circuit elements are drilled through the retained pathway metal and supporting substrate, the electrical leads of various added electrical elements are inserted in the mounting holes, and the inserted electrical leads are afterwards soldered to the pathway metal by dipping of pathway metal and inserted leads into a pool of molten solder. Another conventional method used for creating metal pathways is to selectively plate conductive materials directly onto the reinforced and polymerized resin substrate.
Also, the known printed wiring boards have hereto been manufactured using conventional resins such as known epoxy, bismaleimide, or cyanate resin systems for the assembly glass fabric-reinforced substrate component. The use of such resin systems in the substrate component have consequently and undesirably required the use of solders that have lower melting temperatures and lower operating environment temperatures than those of the comparatively high-temperature solders that may be advantageously utilized in the practice of our invention. Further, the conventional or prior art printed wiring boards have necessarily utilized a less-dense spacing of inserted electrical component leads than can be advantageously obtained by practice of our invention.
The above-mentioned advantages of the present invention are attributed primarily to the nature of the resin system we utilize in the manufacture of the printed wiring boards, to particular resin system and reinforcement processing to form the printed wiring board substrate component B-staged preform, or completely cured preform, and to the improved adhesion of electrical current pathway metal, usually copper, to the substrate component B-staged preform that is obtained in the course of subsequent metal cladding lamination or alternatively adding metal to the completely cured preform by chemical, plasma, or ion vapor deposition. Still other advantages of the present invention will become apparent during consideration of the various descriptions which follow.

National Center For Manufacturing Sciences


An apparatus for reducing data unavailability time after a loss of main power in a storage controller is described. The controller backs up its volatile memory containing posted-write data to a non-volatile memory upon detecting a loss of main power. The controller continues to provide battery power to the volatile memory to sustain the posted-write data. If the battery is able to supply power to the volatile memory until main power is restored, the controller foregoes restoring the posted-write data to the volatile memory from the non-volatile memory. By not incurring the restore time, which may be substantial if the volatile memory is large since read rates from volatile memories are typically slow, the data unavailability time is reduced. The selective restore feature is user-disableable and also includes a brown-out timer for allowing a user to specify how long to battery-power the volatile memory if the feature is enabled.

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk (RAID) systems have become the predominant form of mass storage systems in most computer systems today that are used in applications that require high performance, large amounts of storage, and/or high data availability, such as transaction processing, banking, medical applications, database servers, internet servers, mail servers, scientific computing, and a host of other applications. A RAID controller controls a group of multiple physical disk drives in such a manner as to present a single logical disk drive (or multiple logical disk drives) to a computer operating system. RAID controllers employ the techniques of data striping and data redundancy to increase performance and data availability.
An important characteristic of RAID controllers, particularly in certain applications such as transaction processing or real-time data capture of large data streams, is to provide fast write performance. In particular, the overall performance of the computer system may be greatly improved if the write latency of the RAID controller is relatively small. The write latency is the time the RAID controller takes to complete a write request from the computer system.
Many RAID controllers include a relatively large cache memory for caching user data from the disk drives. Caching the data enables the RAID controller to quickly return data to the computer system if the requested data is in the cache memory since the RAID controller does not have to perform the lengthy operation of reading the data from the disk drives. The cache memory may also be employed to reduce write request latency by enabling what is commonly referred to as posted-write operations. In a posted-write operation, the RAID controller reads the data specified by the computer system from the computer system into the RAID controller's cache memory and then immediately notifies the computer system that the write request is complete, even though the RAID controller has not yet written the data to the disk drives. Posted-writes are particularly useful in RAID controllers, since in some redundant RAID levels a read-modify-write operation to the disk drives must be performed in order to accomplish the system write request, i.e., not only must the specified system data be written to the disk drives, but some of the disk drives may also have to be read before the user data and redundant data can be written to the disks, which may make the write latency of a RAID controller even longer than a non-RAID controller.
However, posted-write operations make the system vulnerable to data loss in the event of a power failure. This is because the cache memory is a volatile memory that loses the user data when power is lost and the data has not yet been written to the disk drives.
To solve this problem, some RAID controllers include a battery to continue to provide power to the cache memory in the event of a loss of main power. Typically, the system automatically notifies a system administrator who attempts to restore power to the system. Although the battery greatly reduces the likelihood that user data will be lost, because the charge on the battery is finite, the possibility still exists that the battery power will run out before main power can be restored, in which case the user data will be lost. To avoid this possibility of user data loss, other RAID controllers include some form of non-volatile memory, such as a FLASH memory or small disk drive. When main power is lost, while the battery supplies power, the RAID controller copies the cache memory contents to the FLASH memory and then disables battery power. When main power is restored, the RAID controller restores the contents of the cache memory prior to the main power outage from the FLASH memory so that the posted-writes can be completed and the user data can be made available again.
However, the time required to restore the cache memory contents from the FLASH memory may be relatively lengthy, particularly, on the order of minutes. Assume, for example, a RAID controller that has 512 MB of cache memory and current FLASH memories that provide a sustained read rate of approximately 9 MB/second. In this example, the time required to restore the cache memory from FLASH memory is approximately one minute; that is, one minute more is required to boot the RAID controller after main power is restored. This is one minute more that the user data is not available to the host computer system, which in some user applications may translate to thousands of dollars of lost income. Furthermore, the additional time spent restoring the cache memory from FLASH may cause the predetermined timeout values of some server applications to be exceeded, thereby causing the application to fail. Finally, the restore time—and therefore user data unavailability time—is even greater for RAID controllers with larger cache memories than the example; and, the problem will be exacerbated even further as RAID controller cache memory sizes increase, which appears to be a definite trend.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for reducing the data unavailability time after a loss of main power in a cached RAID controller with a non-volatile device for backing up the volatile cache memory.

Apparatus and method in a cached raid controller utilizing a solid state backup device for improving data availability time


A collapsible binocular foldable between an open operable position and a closed position made of a semirigid material. The foldable binocular includes an objective lens panel, an ocular lens panel and top and bottom panels hingedly connected to the objective and ocular lens panels. A lateral flap is attached to and extends outward from the lateral edges of the front panel. The objective, ocular and top and bottom panels define the side opening which is generally trapezoidally shaped in the open position. The lateral flaps include a middle portion which is likewise generally trapezoidally shaped and which covers the side openings when the binocular is in the open position. The lateral flap has a length which is greater than a length of the side openings so that when the lateral flap is closed to cover the side openings, the flap will engage the ocular lens panel to prevent overinsertion.

This invention relates to a foldable binocular assembly, and more particularly to a binocular assembly that is foldable from an open, operable position to a folded, collapsed position in which the foldable binocular is relatively flat. Several binoculars of the foldable type are known in the prior art. Such binoculars are made of a relatively thin, semirigid material such as cardboard. Binoculars of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,341 to Riley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,111 to Green et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,498 to Ohno, U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,747 to Bresnahan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,328 to Justice, Sr., et al., and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,443,071 and 4,486,079 to Ueda. Although numerous foldable binoculars are known, there is a need for a foldable binocular which can be easily folded into a compact shape, and which at the same time has a support means to adequately support and hold the binocular in the open, operable position so that the proper distance between the objective and ocular lenses is maintained. Finally, it is desirable that the lenses be protected when the binocular is in the collapsed position.


A voltage-coupling and loop current supply mechanism controllably turns on an output transistor within the tip amplifier circuitry portion of the speech amplifier to controllably apply a prescribed voltage to the telephone line during on-hook/standby mode. This controllably applied voltage serves as a source of loop current when the phone goes off-hook. The ring lead portion of the tip/ring wireline pair is connected to a controlled current sink, which is coupled to the output of a voltage regulator referenced to the battery voltage. This controlled current sink is used to sink a prescribed loop current from the tip/ring pair when the phone goes off-hook. When the phone goes off-hook and loop current is detected, the voltage-supply mechanism provided by the tip amplifier's output transistor is terminated, and the speech amplifier is placed in its normal speech amplifier mode.

Present day subscriber line circuits (SLICs) customarily employ some form of low power, standby mode of operation to provide a prescribed voltage to the subscriber line when the subscriber's telephone is in its on-hook condition, and to provide current to the phone when the subscriber takes the phone off-hook, so that current-sensing circuitry can detect the flow of loop current and thereby the off-hook condition of the phone. The loop and phone resistance is typically on the order of 200 ohms, and the supplied voltage may be on the order of −42V to −56V. This implies the need for current-limiting, in order to prevent damage to the SLIC. In the past this has been accomplished by a set of switching circuit components, in the form of relatively large (high current demand rated) transistors and associated resistors dedicated for the purpose, namely, circuitry that is separate and distinct from that of the speech amplifier. These speech circuit add-on components undesirably increase the complexity and cost of the SLIC.

Speech amplifier-resident mechanism for controllably supplying power to a line circuit


An X-ray diagnostic apparatus has at least one radiation transmitter and at least one radiation receiver arranged spaced therefrom and an examination subject support plate. The radiation receiver is fashioned as a matrix detector and extends over the entire area of the examination subject support plate. Such an X-ray diagnostics apparatus is simply constructed in terms of structure and supplies high-contrast X-ray exposures in a short time and with low radiation exposure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an X-ray diagnostic apparatus with at least one radiation transmitter and at least one radiation receiver arranged spaced therefrom as well as with a examination subject support plate, wherein the radiation receiver is fashioned as matrix detector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An X-ray detector of the above type is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,426. In this known apparatus, a radiation detector fashioned as a matrix detector is immovably arranged under a examination subject support plate of the X-ray diagnostic apparatus.
Further, German OS 195 06 810 discloses an X-ray examination apparatus for X-ray slit exposure technology having a radiation detector is fashioned as a matrix detector, but the arrangement of the matrix detector in the X-ray examination apparatus is not described.
PCT Application WO 96/03077 discloses a method for registering X-ray images as well as an examination subject support means with a examination subject support plate. The examination subject support means has a longitudinally and transversely displaceable X-ray receiver that can be fashioned as a matrix detector. In the examination subject support means of PCT Application WO 96/03077, whole-body exposures or large-area X-ray exposures, for example examinations of the leg vessels, require a relatively large amount of time because of the displacement of the matrix detector required therefor. Moreover, overlapping exposures can occur in the adjustment of the radiation receiver, leading to an undesirable radiation exposure in the overlap region.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,268 discloses a matrix detector that has a sensor surface of amorphous selenium.
The Siemens brochure "Vertix U--Universelles Rontgenaufnahmegeratt", order number A91001-M1024-G241-04, also discloses an X-ray diagnostic apparatus wherein the radiation receiver is fashioned as a catapult screen compartment. A film cassette can be inserted into the catapult screen compartment. The film arranged behind a screen plate is exposed by the incident X-rays. High costs arise due to the employment of films for the registration of the X-ray image. Moreover, the required film developing represents a certain environmental pollution. Moreover, an electronic evaluation of the image signals is also not possible given this X-ray diagnostics apparatus.


A charging device includes: a casing provided with an opening opposing a member-to-be-charged; a discharging wire provided in the casing; a grid electrode provided in the opening; a shutter for opening and closing the opening; a cleaning member for cleaning the grid electrode; and a moving mechanism for reciprocating the shutter and the cleaning member along a longitudinal direction of the opening. The moving mechanism includes a driving member for being rotationally driven, a first moving member, held by the driving member, for moving the shutter with rotational drive of the driving member, and a second moving member, held by the driving member, for moving the cleaning member with the rotational drive of the driving member. The charging device further includes: a mechanism for forming an interval between the shutter and the cleaning member so that the cleaning member moves in advance of the shutter by a predetermined distance when the shutter moves in a closing direction; and a stopper for stopping movement of the cleaning member, and the second moving member includes a holding portion for permitting idling when the shutter moves in the closing direction toward the cleaning member, stopped by the stopper, with rotation of the driving member.

An image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic type in which a photosensitive member is electrically charged by a corona charger. Especially, a product using the corona charger which is called scorotron including a grid electrode for stabilizing a charge potential of the photosensitive member has been known.
With use of the corona charger, when a foreign matter (a toner, an external additive, an electric discharge product or the like) is deposited on the grid electrode, charging non-uniformity occurs on the photosensitive member.
On the other hand, when the corona discharge occurs, an electric discharge product (ozone, nitrogen oxide or the like) is generated. When this is deposited on the photosensitive member and the electric discharge product takes up moisture in a high-humidity environment, the electric discharge product causes image defect which is called image flow. Therefore, a constitution in which with respect to a cleaning member for cleaning a surface of the grid electrode and an opening of the corona charger, the grid electrode is cleaned and the same time the opening is shielded by moving a sheet-like shutter in a longitudinal develop of the opening is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2012-063592.
Here, in a constitution in which both the shutter and a cleaning member for cleaning the grid electrode are provided, when the foreign matter to be dropped from the grid electrode by cleaning deposits on the shutter, there is a liability that an agglomeration of the deposited foreign matter drops on the photosensitive member by vibration or the like during movement of the shutter, and therefore the deposition of the foreign matter is not preferred. For that reason, it would be considered that the drop of the agglomeration of the foreign matter on the shutter is suppressed by providing a gap between the cleaning member for cleaning the grid electrode and a leading end of the shutter with respect to the longitudinal direction of the opening so that the foreign matter does not deposit on the shutter.
However, in the constitution in which the gap is provided between the cleaning member and the shutter leading end with respect to the longitudinal direction of the opening, when an entire area of the opening of the corona charger is intended to be shielded, upsizing of the corona charger is caused.


The present invention relates to a locking arrangement for a cover structure of a portable terminal device of a telecommunication system. The cover structure comprises at least one frame part (14), a cover part (16) connected to the frame part that can be removed from the frame part by the user, and locking elements for attaching the cover part to the frame part. In order that one could achieve a secure attachment and locking for the accumulator cover or accumulator packet of the device that at the same time enables the eliminating of the excessive clearances between the can parts, the locking elements comprise, in the frame part and cover part, slide bars (50, 51) and slide grooves (80) corresponding to each other.

The body of a subscriber terminal device such as e.g. a mobile station typically comprises two cover parts, a so-called A cover and a B cover, of which the A cover forms the front part of the device body and the B cover the rear part of the body. In addition, the device comprises some kind of cover or corresponding for closing the battery space in other words the accumulator space of the device. The accumulator may also be integrated into the cover, in which case one speaks about a so-called accumulator packet. In that case, there is no separate cover in the device; instead the accumulator packet forms a part of the outer cover of the device. An accumulator packet is herein used to mean such an arrangement in which the accumulator is integrated into the cover structure.
The accumulator cover may also be responsible for pressing the accumulator against the device structure to prevent the accumulator from moving. It is, however, possible that excessive clearance is created between the cover and the rest of the device structure, in which case the cover is not pressing the accumulator with a sufficient force. At least part of the clearance may be created in the manufacture phase, and it may naturally increase as a result of abrasion caused by use. If the accumulator cover, due to a clearance, manages to move too much, also the accumulator may move, which may cause problems in the current supply of the device. If the locking of the accumulator cover fails to hold, the cover may even open by itself, in which case the accumulator may fall off its space.
The goal of the invention is to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages and to achieve a solution by means of which one can get the attachment and locking of an accumulator cover, accumulator packet or other cover part, removable and attachable by the user, to the device structure more dependable than before, and thus also the operating reliability of the device better than before.

Locking arrangement for a cover part of a subscriber terminal device


An antenna device includes a grounding element, a radiating element, and first and second feeding elements. The radiating element includes a first segment that extends from the grounding element and that has an end distal from the grounding element, and second and third segments that extend from the end of the first segment in opposite directions. Each of the first and second feeding elements includes first and second segments. The first segment of each of the first and second feeding elements is disposed proximate to a respective one of the second and third segments of the radiating element. The second segment of each of the first and second feeding elements is disposed proximate to the grounding element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an antenna device, more particularly to an antenna device that is suitable for wireless wide area network (WWAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional antenna device that is operable in wireless wide area network (WWAN) frequency bands, i.e., from 824 MHz to 960 MHz and from 1710 MHz to 2170 MHz, and wireless local area network (WLAN) frequency bands, i.e., from 2412 MHz to 2462 MHz and from 4900 MHz to 5875 MHz. The conventional antenna device is installed in a space 90 in a top edge of a display unit 95 of a notebook computer 9, as illustrated in FIG. 2, and includes first and second antennas 91, 92, and first and second feeding lines 93, 94, each of which is connected to a respective one of the first and second antennas 91, 92.
Although the aforementioned conventional antenna device achieves its intended purpose, the first and second antennas 91, 92 thereof have to be separated from each other to prevent interference therebetween.

Antenna device for wireless wide area network (WWAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN)


Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable media are disclosed for automatically, accurately, and efficiently correcting eye region artifacts including dark eye regions and wrinkles within a digital image portraying a human face. In particular, in one or more embodiments the disclosed systems localize areas within a digital image to identify eye region artifacts including dark eye regions and wrinkles. In one or more embodiments, the disclosed systems generate a corrected color image by correcting dark eye regions in a low frequency layer of the digital image by replacing the dark eye regions with candidate eye regions. Furthermore, in one or more embodiments the disclosed systems generate a corrected texture image by correcting wrinkles in a high frequency layer by processing the digital image utilizing a smoothing algorithm. The disclosed systems further generate a corrected digital image by combining the corrected color image and the corrected texture image.

Recent years have seen a significant improvement in hardware and software platforms for capturing and editing digital images. Indeed, conventional systems can modify, retouch, or otherwise edit digital images that portray human faces to generate enhance digital images. To illustrate, conventional systems can edit facial features within digital images to remove red eyes, remove spots or blemishes, and reshape facial structures.
Despite these advances, conventional systems still have several shortcomings, particularly with regard to the accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility of implementing computing devices. For instance, in addressing visual artifacts around the eyes in digital images portraying human faces, many conventional systems inaccurately produce digital images that appear unnatural and artificial. For example, to modify wrinkles or dark regions under a human eye, conventional systems rely on voluminous user inputs via graphical user interfaces to generate retouched images. Using a process that relies heavily on user interface interactions and selections often results in digital images that include artifacts and other inaccuracies. For instance, in applying existing correction tools and processes, it is common for conventional systems that rely on user interaction with user interfaces to misidentify a correction region, erroneously apply a series of correction tools, perform digital image modification steps in an incorrect order, and/or select inappropriate colors and other parameters for correcting artifacts. Thus, conventional systems often produce inaccurate retouched images that appear unnatural or contain visual artifacts.
Additionally, conventional image editing systems are often inefficient. For example, to correct dark eyes or wrinkles from a face within a digital image, conventional systems require significant user interactions and time (e.g., through repeated selection and application of mouse input-based tools). Indeed, conventional systems can require user interaction with dozens of different tools (that are often imprecise and difficult to use) in addition to modifications to multiple different digital image layers to correct digital image defects. Thus, conventional systems waste substantial computing resources in detecting, displaying, and correcting artifacts within digital images.
Conventional systems also suffer from inflexibility in generating enhanced digital images. Indeed, the voluminous user interactions and selections required by conventional systems can make it difficult or impossible to perform retouching operations using hand-held devices such as smart phones or tablets (e.g., due to the lack of screen space). Accordingly, conventional systems often rigidly require correction of digital images to be performed on traditional desktop computers with traditional input devices (e.g., a computer mouse). As many photographs are captured using handheld devices, conventional systems often require users to transfer images to other devices in order to correct images with eye region artifacts. Thus, conventional systems often require the use of additional computing and communication resources to transfer image files between handheld devices and traditional desktop computers.
These, along with additional problems and issues exist in image editing systems.

Automatically correcting eye region artifacts in digital images portraying faces


A massage apparatus including a casing having an open bottom chamber therein. A pair of spaced apart end rollers are rotatably mounted in the chamber so that they ride in sealing contact against two side walls and top wall of the chamber. A suction is applied to the region between the rollers so that a skin fold is created in the chamber between the rollers when the rollers are applied to the skin of a patient.

The present invention relates to an improved massage apparatus making it possible, in simple and efficient fashion, to perform massages in which an action of suction and mobilization of the skin tissue is exerted on the patient.
In the rest of the description, the invention will be described with reference to an apparatus used for the treatment of human beings, but it is clear that an apparatus of this type could also be used for massaging animals such as horses, cattle, etc.
The invention relates more particularly to an improvement made to the massage apparatuses of the type which formed the subject-matter of patents published under 224 422 and 284 527, the apparatus according to the invention making it possible, at the same time, to obtain the advantages provided by the general design described in these documents, while eliminating the drawbacks which they may present.
In general, the apparatuses described in the aforementioned documents include, mounted inside a casing, two parallel rollers with a smooth surface and mounted free to rotate (or rotationally driven) in the casing, the said casing being connected to means which comprise a conduit whose end opens into the space contained between the rollers and which make it possible to create a reduced pressure in the casing in the space contained between these rollers, when the latter are applied against the patient's body.
In the solution described in FR-A-2 579 100, one of the rollers is positively driven in rotation and the second is combined with means making it possible to move it away from the drive roller. This solution is very complex and is not satisfactory because it involves specific means, such as a mechanical control system consisting of a lever actuated by the user in order to move the free roller away from the drive roller when starting. Furthermore, during the treatment, the separation is obtained by action of the skin fold formed between the rollers.
From the functional point of view, in this equipment the pressure exerted on the skin fold is difficult to control and, above all, it may be too high, and therefore traumatizing. Indeed, this pressure is given both by the suction and also by the action of the return means on the rollers, which tend to move them towards one another.
The solution in which the rollers though which a suction is drawn are mounted with a fixed inter-axial distance is satisfactory in the case of small apparatuses, for example ones with rollers 0.5 to 6 centimetres long, but it has been observed that, in the case of apparatuses in which the roller are longer, the efficiency obtained is less than that attained with the solution in which the rollers can move apart or move towards one another automatically during the massage operation.

Roller massaging apparatus with suction function


A recording/reproducing apparatus 11 has a directory service block 22 that stores management data for enabling search for stream data recorded in a virtual recording space, a controlled block 21 for receiving stream data identification information and a reproducing or recording command, a configuration information block 24 that stores division management data having information specifying storage units, in which divided stream data are respectively stored, and also specifying an order of division, a virtual disc control block 23 for editing the division management data and for requesting of plural slave discs 40 for reproducing or recording of stream data, and a streaming control block for transferring stream data, which is inputted thereto and outputted therefrom, according to a command issued from the disc device control block 26.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording/reproducing control apparatus for dividing stream data, for recording divided stream data on plural storage units, and for continuously reproducing the divided data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of recording and reproducing digital broadcasting programs or the like, sometimes, the free space of one storage unit is insufficient therefor. This may cause a demand for storing digital broadcasting programs over plural storage units.
Also, in recent years, many visual devices each having an interface based on IEEE 1394 standards have appeared. For example, digital video recording can be performed among plural devices by connecting devices, which have tuner functions, to device having digital recording functions.
Hitherto, there have been disclosed techniques of storing continuous video data over plural storage units (see JP-A-2002-298501, JP-A-2001-318881, JP-A-2002-359794, and JP-A-2003-199012).


A rugged, all-electronic fluid dispensing system for use with pipettes or in other contexts indirectly measures fluid flow by using a non-linear system model to correlate vacuum existing at the top of a column of suspended fluid. Non-contact operation is provided to eliminate the need for contact-type closed-loop fluid flow sensing and associated potential cross-contamination risks. In one particular exemplary non-limiting illustrative implementation, an electronic controller within a gun-shaped, cordless self-contained pipetter housing dynamically calculates valve opening time based on a non-linear equation. Calibration is used to derive equation constants, and column vacuum pressure before the valve is opened is used as the independent variable to derive a valve opening time that will result in accurate dispensing of a desired programmed fluid quantity. Repetitive automatic dispensing with accuracies greater than 1% are possible within the context of a relatively inexpensive portable pipette or device without the need for mechanically-complex positive displacement arrangements.

Life science research has developed into an extremely important area of modern scientific inquiry. Such research is used for example to discover new drugs, to investigate and sequence DNA and other genetic material, and to culture tissues for disease diagnosis to name a few of many areas of concentration.
Laboratory personnel in such laboratory environments are often required to accurately and safely handle and dispense relative small quantities of fluids. For example, a lab technician may prepare an aqueous (water-based) solution of cell nutrient that must be distributed in accurate quantities among a relatively large number of different containers (e.g., small culture tubes, test tubes, microcentifuge tubes, etc.). Often, the technician is faced with a need to dispense precise amounts of such a prepared solution into a large number of containers in multiple trays. See FIG. 1. To provide accurate results, the liquid must be dispensed in relatively accurate and consistent amounts (e.g., better than 5% accuracy).
One common way of dispensing relatively small quantities of liquid is to use a narrow glass or plastic tube called a pipette. Most of us have, at one time or another, experimented with dispensing liquid using a drinking straw. Think of a drinking straw inserted into a glass of liquid so the liquid partially fills the straw. If you seal the uppermost open end of the drinking straw with your finger or thumb, you will be able to remove the drinking straw from the glass of liquid while still retaining the liquid within the straw. The liquid column remains in the straw because a vacuum is created at the top of the liquid column due to the force of gravity pulling the liquid down toward the bottom of the straw. The outside atmospheric pressure presses against the liquid at the open bottom end of the straw to maintain the liquid within the straw. When you release your finger or thumb to open up the drinking straw's top end, the vacuum is filled by atmospheric pressure rushing in to the top end of the straw and the liquid immediately runs out of the straw's bottom end.
Of course, laboratory researchers generally do not use drinking straws to handle and dispense liquids, but they use something quite similar in principle—a narrow disposable glass or plastic tube pipette. Such pipettes come in various standard sizes such as 5 ml, 10 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml, etc. Typically, the pipette has graduations so that the laboratory researcher can read the level of liquid in the tube as it is being dispensed.
Several decades ago, it was common for laboratory researchers to apply mouth suction to the top end of the pipette to suck or "aspirate" a column of liquid into the tube—thus allowing the level of liquid in the pipette to rise above the liquid level in container from which it was being drawn. However, this was relatively time consuming and could be dangerous if the fluids being dispensed were hazardous to health. In addition, mouth suction techniques were not conducive to a sterile environment or the exacting procedures required for genome sequencing and tissue culturing. Accordingly, there came a time several decades ago when various companies began developing "pipetter" handheld devices that accepted common disposable or non-disposable pipettes and which would supply powered suction and positive pressure to the open uppermost end of the pipette to draw up and release liquids. A leader in this development effort was Drummond Scientific Co. of Broomall Pa.—the owner of this patent. Drummond's vanguard development efforts resulted in a number of issued United States patents including for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,240; 3,963,061; 4,461,328; 4,624,147; 5,104,625; 5,214,968; 5,294,405; 5,616,871; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,255.
Drummond Scientific's associated pipetter products have been highly successful in the marketplace—making Drummond a leader in the pipetter field. For example, Drummond was one of the first if not the first to develop a practical, economical handheld gun-shaped portable pipetter device that allowed a laboratory technician or other user to depress variable-stroke push buttons to vary the amount of suction applied to the uppermost end of a pipette. To dispense liquid using this type of device, the user simply attaches a pipette to the gun-shaped handle and places the bottom end of the pipette into a liquid to be dispensed. Depressing the top button with a forefinger causes the pipetter to apply suction that draws liquid up into the pipette tube. This power suction allows the pipette to draw a liquid level higher than the level in the liquid reservoir sourcing the liquid being drawn. Upon attaining a desired column height, the user releases the top button to seal the top end of the pipette tube and thus maintain the liquid column level in the tube. The user may then lift the pipette out of the initial fluid reservoir and place it into or above the container into which the fluid is to be dispensed.
The user dispenses the fluid by depressing a down button while watching the descending column height relative to the graduations marked on the pipette tube. The user releases the down button when the desired quantity has been dispensed. The user may dispense additional quantities, or "aliquots," into additional receptacles until most or all of the fluid within the pipette tube has been dispensed. The entire process may be repeated multiple times. Power dispensing reduces dispensing time and can also help to mix the fluid with contents already present in the container into which the fluid is being dispensed.
In this type of device marketed by Drummond in the past, the up and down buttons are coupled to needle or other valves having variable apertures. This allows the user to control the speed of aspiration or dispensing by varying the amount of pressure he or she applies to the up and down buttons respectively. A light touch on the button results in slower aspiration or dispensing, while a more firm depression increases the rate at which the fluid is drawn up or dispensed from the pipette tube. In come contexts, users may wish to dispense with some force so the dispensing agitates and mixes the resulting solution in the receptacle into which the liquid is being dispensed. In other cases, the user may be very concerned about dispensing nearly exact quantities and so will use a slower dispensing speed while more carefully watching the fluid column height relative to visual graduations on the pipette tube.
The Drummond products described above have worked extremely well over the years in a wide variety of laboratory contexts and have therefore been very successful. However, there are some instances when it would be desirable to reduce the amount of skill and potential tedium required to accurately dispense a large number of nearly identical quantities of fluid aliquots into a number of receptacles. In the industry, there has been a long felt but unsolved need for a relatively inexpensive, handheld or other dispensing apparatus that can be coupled to a standard laboratory pipette and which can be programmed to accurately and repetitively dispense a precise amount of liquid.
In the early 1990s, Drummond Scientific worked to solve this problem by developing an automatic pipetter based on a precision syringe and piston. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,255. A microcontroller operated a motor which in turn was mechanically coupled to the piston via a threaded shaft. Moving the piston out of the syringe by a precise displacement created suction which drew liquid into the pipette. Plunging the piston into the syringe a precise displacement caused a precise corresponding quantity of fluid to be dispensed from the pipette. The amount the piston was displaced precisely controlled the amount of fluid being "aspirated" or dispensed. This design was quite successful in automatically repetitively dispensing programmable amounts of liquid with a high degree of accuracy and precision. However, a disadvantage was the relatively high cost and complexity of the positive-displacement syringe-and-plunger arrangement. Positive-displacement-type devices are often handicapped by slower dispensing speeds and total column-height volumes that are limited to the plunger displacement volume. This means that handheld devices are generally limited due to the portability issue. It would therefore be highly desirable to provide automatic dispensing functionality in the context of a less expensive, more portable, all-electronic design not subject to these limitations.
One of the challenges to providing an improved automatic dispensing design relates to the number of variables that computer control needs to take into account in the context of a so-called "non-contacting" open-loop system to provide a requisite degree of accurate dispensing. One might initially think, for example, that it would be relatively straightforward to use a liquid flow sensor to accurately measure the amount of liquid being dispensed in the context of a conventional closed-loop control system. However, it must be remembered that many laboratory procedures require that no part of the dispensing apparatus other than the disposable or non-disposable, sterilized pipette come into contact with the fluid being dispensed. It is therefore undesirable or impossible in many contexts to use a flow sensor in contact with the fluid being dispensed to monitor fluid flow amount.
We have now discovered a way to control a relatively simple, inexpensive pipetter or other fluid dispenser to provide precision, repetitive, automatic dispensing of programmable fluid quantities. One exemplary, illustrative implementation of our technique mathematically models the pneumatic system of the dispensing apparatus—including the removable pipette tube—with a non-linear model. There are various methods by which the pipette and pipetter systems can be modeled. One exemplary illustrative non-limiting arrangement is aspirating to a specific and consistent column height, and dispensing in fixed time increments. Through such non-linear mathematical modeling, a computing element such as for example a relatively inexpensive microprocessor can be used to accurately control valve aperture and/or pump power to achieve relatively high precision of dispensing quantity in the context of an inexpensive handheld gun shaped or other pipetter or other dispensing system.
Non-limiting, exemplary illustrative advantages of our approach include for example: avoids need for positive displacement type syringe-piston arrangements and/or expensive, complicated peristaltic or other pumps                mathematically and physically models non-linear system to provide a high degree of accuracy and precision        open-loop system—avoids need for closed-loop control        relatively light weight        inexpensive, rugged design        simple, reliable mechanics        easy to operate, intuitive operation        precise repetitive automatic dispensing of aliquots        relatively quiet operation        can correct for a variety of factors including, for example, dispensing at different angles, different pipette diameters, changing pump motor efficiency, different fluid viscosities, other        drip prevention or elimination        users not required to constantly pay attention to graduations on pipette tube during automatic dispensing        electronic controller/substantially all electronic design        programmable dispensing amount        electronic valve and pressure sensor        no contact/no fluid sensing orifice        pressure and vacuum operation        handheld (e.g., gun shaped)        controllable automatic dispensing rate and quantity        accommodates differently sized pipettes in some implementations        high accuracy (e.g., 1% or greater)        high repeatability        relativistic in operation        self-powered        intuitive graphical display and associated user interface        vane type electronic pump in some implementations        reversible orifice valve in some implementations        reversible pump motor in some implementations        plural pressure sensors in some implementations        look-up table in some implementations        no pressure sensors in some implementations        combined high-speed multiple decrements to achieve single larger volume aliquot dispensings        blocked filter detector        substantial increase in speed and efficiency of dispensing, reducing lab labor expenses and time        use of large volume pipettes to accurately dispense very small aliquots, reducing aspirations and decreasing the quantity of pipettes required and/or changed        automatic aspiration to preset column heights        automatic aspiration when pipette tip is inserted in liquid look-up table or formula-based dispensing single calibration for all pipette sizes make use of any volume pipette, including 100 ml or greater, without being negatively impacted in dispensing accuracy or precision.
In one non-limiting, exemplary illustrative implementation, a pressure calibration technique is used to establish a base line. In one exemplary illustrative implementation, two column height pressure readings are taken: one for a given column height near the top of the pipette and another for a given column height near the bottom of the pipette. These pressure readings are used to calculate constants for a mathematical equation that outputs valve open time and/or pump power for dispensing a desired quantity of liquid. During active dispensing, column height pressure is continually monitored and used to calculate or look up the corresponding valve and/or pump control parameters. Accuracies better than 1% have been achieved.

Automatic precision non-contact open-loop fluid dispensing


A global history vector (GHV) mechanism maintains a folded (XORed) GHV with higher order entries and an unfolded (no XORed) GHV with lower order entries. When a new entry arrives at the GHV, the GHV mechanism performs an XOR of the oldest unfolded entry in the unfolded GHV with the new entry. The XOR result is then shifted into the folded GHV as the newest folded entry. The oldest folded entry is discarded during the shift in of the newest folded entry. The GHV mechanism thus provides a resulting folded GHV that is current and can be utilized for XORing with an IFAR by performing an XOR operation. Only a single XOR logic is required to perform a single bit XOR operation between the oldest entry and the youngest entry, resulting in reducing the cycle time required to complete the folding (XORing) operation on a GHV.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer systems and in particular to branch prediction tracking mechanisms. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to global history vectors utilized with branch prediction and folding techniques for optimizing timing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Branch prediction, and in particular global branch prediction, is known in the art. Global branch prediction involves making a branch prediction based on the path of execution, i.e., the history of the last few branches to have been executed. Global branch prediction may implement a special shift-register storing a bit-vector, referred to as a "global history vector," that represents the recent path of execution. The global history vector may store n bits of data, with each bit of data associated with a group of instructions. The position of a bit in the global history vector corresponds to how recently the associated group of instructions was fetched. For example, the least significant bit in the global history vector may represent the most recent fetch and the nth most significant bit may represent n fetches ago. If the group of instructions fetched contained a branch instruction whose branch was taken, then a "1" may be indicated in the global history vector corresponding to that group of instructions. Otherwise, a "0" may be indicated in the global history vector. That is, a "0" may be indicated in the global history vector if the corresponding group of instructions did not contain a branch instruction or if the group of instructions did contain one or more conditional branch instructions and each of these branches were not taken. Upon each successive fetch of a group of instructions, the global history vector is updated by shifting in an appropriate "1" or "0" and discarding the oldest bit.
The GHV is generally exclusive ORed with the Instruction Fetch Address Register (IFAR), and the resulting address is used to address a portion of the Branch History Tables (BHT). The calculation of both GHV and the IFAR is generally critical to cycle time, which is a key measure of processor efficiency. Also, conventional use of the GHV requires the GHV be folded along upper and lower bits before XORing the folded GHV values with the IFAR. Precious system resources and time are utilized as GHV address and IFAR address are individually calculated. Also, a measurable amount of scarce system resources and time are required when the addresses of the GHV and IFAR are exclusive ORed together.

Branch prediction with partially folded global history vector for reduced XOR operation time

International Business Machines Corporation


An electroless copper plating bath comprises a water soluble copper salt, a complexing agent, and a reducing agent consisting of phosphorous acid or a phosphite. As compared with conventional acidic bath using hypophosphorous acid, the bath is less expensive while depositing a uniform copper film at equivalent efficiency.

It is well known in the prior art to form copper deposits on plastics and non-conductive materials for providing electromagnetic shield layers thereon. In general, parts which require electromagnetic shield layers to be formed thereon are relatively large in size. Then electroless copper plating techniques are often used for forming copper deposits since uniform deposits can be formed even on such large size parts. More illustratively, copper deposits are formed on plastics and non-conductive materials in accordance with conventional chemical plating techniques by effecting suitable pretreatments such as degreasing and etching, forming metallic palladium or silver nuclei on the surface of non-conductive material for activation and then performing chemical copper plating.
As is well known in the art, better electromagnetic shields are manufactured by paying up an electroless nickel deposit on an electroless copper deposit for protecting the copper deposit against oxidation which would otherwise detract from shielding effect.
In the manufacture of such electromagnetic shields, the electroless copper plating process uses a bath containing a water soluble salt of copper, a complexing agent and a reducing agent, which is typically formalin. However, since the electroless copper plating bath containing formalin as a reducing agent is an alkaline bath due to the inclusion of formalin, it is sometimes difficult to apply to some types of non-conductive material which should be shielded against electromagnetic radiation.
In such cases, an acidic or neutral bath containing hypophosphorous acid or a salt thereof as the reducing agent would be useful. Unfortunately, hypophosphorous acid and salts thereof are relatively expensive chemicals. For electromagnetic shield manufacture which often involves processing of relatively large size parts over relatively large surface areas, an increase in processing cost due to the use of expensive chemicals becomes non-negligible.
Therefore, it is desired to have an electroless copper plating bath of the acidic type capable of forming copper deposits at a cost as low as possible.


In the field of staining methods for histology and cytology specimens, the improvements of the invention are three-fold. First included is a drying-clearing step whereby a specimen is cleared by drying. Thus, the use of hazardous chemical-clearing agents to remove washing-dehydrating solution prior to cover-slipping is eliminated. Second, in a staining method using spray staining equipment, the use of a low molarity, combination, bluing-washing solution which serves the dual purpose of a washing solution and a bluing reagent, eliminates the use of water in a staining procedure. Third, and also in a staining method using spray staining equipment, the use of a series of sprays of fresh, essentially anhydrous, washing-dehydrating solution to dehydrate a specimen replaces immersion in a series of washing-dehydrating solutions and thereby decreases the amount of chemical consumed and also avoids contamination of the reagent with water and specimen debris.

1. Field
The invention is in the field of staining cytology and histology specimens.
2. State of the Art
The field of pathology involves the microscopic examination of fixed cytology specimens (individual cells in a smear or cell block) and histology specimens (cell aggregates that form a structure with a specific function). These specimens are examined to determine if tissue is normal or diseased. A specimen is processed and applied to a microscope slide and then stained to make the normally transparent cells brilliantly colored for easier observation and to distinguish the various cellular elements which have differing affinities for the various stains.
Cytology specimens are prepared by smearing a sample onto a microscope slide and wet fixing with an alcohol solution which usually contains polyethylene glycol [PEG]. Cytocentrifugation may also be used to deposit cells onto slides from dilute cell suspensions, e.g., body fluids. The PEG is removed prior to staining by exposing the specimen to a washing-dehydrating reagent. The washing-dehydrating reagents employed in staining may include alcohols of one to three carbon atoms. Typically ethanol is employed. However, it is possible to use compounds such as glycols, ketones, esters and ethers of from two to about five carbon atoms, or mixtures thereof.
Specimen preparation for histology and cytology samples require different procedures. For histology specimens, the tissue pieces are fixed in a suitable fixative, typically formalin, and embedded in melted paraffin wax. The wax block is then cut on a microtome to yield a thin slice of paraffin containing the tissue. The specimen slice is then applied to a microscope slide, air dried, and heated to cause the specimen to adhere to the glass slide. Residual paraffin is then dissolved with a suitable solvent, typically xylene, toluene, or others. These so-called deparaffinizing solvents are then removed with a washing-dehydrating type reagent prior to staining. Alternatively, slices may be prepared from frozen specimens, fixed briefly in 10% formalin, then infused with dehydrating reagent. Consequently, a common step for both cytology and histology specimens is the removal of the dehydrating reagent prior to staining with an aqueous stain.
The usual method for staining cytology samples is the Papanicolaou staining technique, usually a progressive stain, while the most common method for histologic staining is the hematoxylineosin [H&E] staining technique which is typically a regressive stain. After the initial preparation of the specimen, these methods share common steps and are quite similar in their characteristics.
The typical technique for performing Papanicolaou and H&E staining is the immersion (dip) technique of staining either manually or with the aid of automated equipment. Immersion Papanicolaou staining consists of the following steps with the steps that are omitted from the H&E method indicated:
(a) Removing dehydrating reagent from a specimen affixed to a microscope slide and hydrating the specimen by soaking in water; PA0 (b) Applying hematoxylin for staining the cell nuclei in the specimen; PA0 (c) Removing excess hematoxylin by rinsing with water [For a regressive hematoxylin stain, the water rinse is usually followed by rinsing with an acid-alcohol followed by rinsing with water to remove the acid-alcohol]; PA0 (d) Contacting the slide with a concentrated solution having a pH above 5.0 to turn the hematoxylin blue [bluing solution]; PA0 (e) Removing the bluing solution by rinsing with water; PA0 (f) [Omitted from H&E method] Staining cytoplasmic elements in the specimen with an alcoholic solution of the dye, orange G, that stains keratinized tissue yellow to orange; PA0 (g) [Omitted from H&E method] Washing away excess orange G by rinsing with a dehydrating reagent; PA0 (h) Staining other cytoplasmic elements with an alcoholic solution of eosin Y, a red stain, and light green or fast green, [Together, this stain combination is the Papanicolaou EA stain. The Papanicolaou EA stain differentiates between superficial cells which stain red and intermediate cells which stain blue to green. The green stain is omitted from the H&E method.]; PA0 (i) Removing excess stain and water by a series of sequential washes in a dehydrating reagent; PA0 (j) Contacting the slide with a chemical-clearing agent (toluene, xylene, or t-butanol) to remove residual dehydrating reagent remaining from the washing step; PA0 (k) Applying a cover-slip mountant and a cover-slip after first removing the slide from the chemical-clearing agent. The clearing agent evaporates and the mountant hardens leaving a stained and mounted slide. PA0 1. In an H&E method for histology specimens, the hematoxylin in step (d) is usually more concentrated for tissue sections than for cytology specimens. Regressive hematoxylin stain usually employs a more concentrated hematoxylin. PA0 2. In the H&E method, steps (f) and (g) are omitted. PA0 3. The green component of the cytoplasmic stain in step (h) for cytology specimens is omitted when performing an H&E stain on histology specimens.
As seen from the above steps, the staining of cytology and histology specimens are very similar. However, for clarity's sake the following differences between the handling of histology specimens as compared to cytology specimens are noted:
There are several disadvantages to the prior art immersion staining techniques. The chemical-clearing agents typically employed in the chemical-clearing step include many toxic substances which can harm the environment and present a hazard to laboratory personnel. Furthermore, the immersion staining techniques usually take from fifteen to twenty minutes and include many washes, each performed several times. Still further, the open baths of volatile dehydrating reagents used lead to reagent loss due to vaporization of reagent. Dipping slides into a bath also lends itself to loss of reagents. Dipping in a bath also leads to contamination of the bath with the reagent of the previous step resulting in inefficient use of washing-dehydrating reagents. In addition, cells can come off the slide into the reagent bath and contaminate other specimens, i.e., cross-contamination of specimens.
In the past, the baths of washing-dehydrating reagent typically consisted of three increasingly concentrated ethanol solutions, typically 50%, 75%, and 95%. It was thought that initial exposure to a more dilute solution was needed to reduce shock to the specimen. Current practice is to start with primary, secondary, and tertiary baths of 95% ethanol so that the sequential baths becomes more and more diluted as the number of slides exposed to the bath increases. When the tertiary bath begins to show significant contamination with dye or otherwise becomes diluted it is used as the secondary bath, the secondary bath is then used as the primary bath, and a new, fresh, concentrated tertiary ethanol bath is employed. Current practice has a similar disadvantage to that of the prior practice in that it consists of exposing the slide to essentially a series of three reagent solutions, each increasingly more concentrated than its predecessor.
Improved staining methods for histology and cytology specimens, decreasing the number of steps and the number and quantity of reagents consumed has long been needed, but providing for same has remained a problem. Immersion staining has been automated. However, it has been done by merely adapting the hand staining procedure to be performed by machine without any change in the steps of the procedure. In the related field of staining bacterial specimens, the Gram stain method has been adapted to be performed on automated spray staining equipment, such as the Aerospray.RTM. stainer manufactured by Wescor, Inc. of Logan, Utah. However, although the automated spray method of performing the Gram stain solves the contamination problem, it does not teach or suggest how to decrease the number of steps and the number an quantity of reagents consumed in cytology and histology staining procedures.

Staining methods for histology and cytology specimens


A method for preparing a gel containing nanometer titanium dioxide particles for visible light photocatalysis, the method has the following acts of: obtaining titanium hydroxide; inverting titanium hydroxide into titanium dioxide by adding an oxidant, an improving agent, an optional acid, and an optional surfactant to compose a solution; and aging the solution by heating to make the solution become a gel. The gel made by the present invention has photocatalystic characteristic and self-cleaning efficiency particularly in visible light but not in ultraviolet light as conventional gel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preparing a gel containing nanometer titanium dioxide powders, and more particularly to a gel containing nanometer titanium dioxide powder in sizes ranging from 2 to 50 nm and having photocatalystic characteristic and self-cleaning efficiency in visible light.
2. Description of Related Art
Since 1970, most studies of titanium dioxide for manufacturing semiconductor have been subjected to photochemical reactions and semiconducting reactions on the present titanium dioxide particles. In these studies, crystalline configuration and grain sizes certainly affect the photochemical and semiconducting reactions. Preferably, anatase or anatase/rutile in the size of 30 nm is the optimal material. However, no study refers to the preparation and actual application to the titanium dioxide. Since 1990, titanium dioxide has been found to have great application in environmental cleaning and has actually been used since 1997. However, the studies still focus on the application but not the preparation of the titanium dioxide.
Conventional preparations of the titanium dioxide particles are divided into two types and are illustrated as follows:
1. Grinding pulverization: the titanium dioxide particles made by grinding are uneven in particle sizes as of 10 to 500 nm and have non-united crystalline configurations. Therefore, the titanium dioxide particles do not have photocatalytic characteristic and self-cleaning efficiency and are only applied in paints, cosmetics or correction fluids. Although the grinding method is improved by applying ultrasonic technology or adding acid solutions for chemical grinding to make the titanium dioxide particles even, the crystalline configuration of the titanium dioxide particles does not improve much.
2. Chemical synthesis: the chemical synthesis comprises three methods such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis, organic solvent synthesis, and aqua synthesis. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method generates stable and highly pure titanium dioxide but is expensive in manufacturing. The organic solvent synthesis is to use titanium oxyalkyl (Ti(OR)4) to synthesize titanium dioxide particles, wherein the titanium oxyalkyl is sopped into an organic solvent such as glycol and heated to obtain titanium dioxide. However, the titanium oxyalkyl is expensive and operation must be carried out at a high temperature and a high pressure. Thus, the manufacturing cost of the organic solvent synthesis is not economic for manufacturers.
With regard to the aqua synthesis, titanium chloride (TiCl4) solution is mixed with a binding agent or an acid solution to heat to generate a gel containing titanium dioxide. However, chlorine ions are also generated which make the gel unstable and easily decomposed. Additionally, titanium dioxide made by the chemical synthesis is only efficient in ultraviolet light so that application of the gel containing titanium dioxide is limited.
According to the above description, the titanium dioxide is only used with ultraviolet light and that limits the application of the titanium dioxide. Therefore, the present invention has arisen to provide a method for preparing a gel containing nanometer titanium dioxide particles for visible light to improve the usage of the titanium dioxide.

Method for preparing a gel containing nanometer titanium dioxide powders for visible light photocatalysis


The present invention provides a supporting pole. The supporting pole includes a metal inner pipe having an upper end and a lower end, with a reserved pipe portion on at least one of the upper end and the lower end. The supporting pole further includes an outer wrap layer wrapping the metal inner pipe except the reserved pipe portion, and a cone-shaped sleeve covering the reserved pipe portion. The reserved pipe portion has a plurality of axial grooves formed by a clamping and closing process that invigilates a wall of the reserved pipe portion, such that the reserved pipe portion has alternating protrusions and grooves. A maximum outer diameter of an open end of the reserved pipe portion is less than an outer diameter of the metal inner pipe. The cone-shaped sleeve is produced by injection molding.

Supporting poles are often tied to stems of flowers, trees and other plants as supporting structures, or can be used to support or be a part of fences surrounding gardens, yards, or vegetable fields. However, current supporting poles, such as disclosed in Chinese Utility Model Application No. 200420062930.1 and Chinese Patent Application No. 201410011456.8, are often difficult to install or produce.
The disclosed method and system are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.

Supporting pole and manufacturing method thereof

CHANGZHOU TINGYUAN GARDEN PRODUCTS CO., LTD.


A novel process for the preparation of calvulanic acid and pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, such as potassium clavulanate, is described. According to the novel process, crude clavulanic acid, which is present in the form of an extract in an organic solvent, such as ethyl acetate, the extract having been obtained in known manner upon fermentation with a calvulanic acid producing microorganism, is reacted with substituted alkylenediamines of the formula II ##STR1## wherein the substituents R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 and n have the meanings as defined in claim 1, e.g. with N,N'-diisopropylethylenediamine, to the novel alkylenediammonium diclavulanates of the formula I ##STR2## wherein the substituents R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 and n have the meanings as defined in claim 1, e.g. to N,N'-diisopropylethylenediammonium diclavulanate. The obtained compounds of the formula I are optionally isolated and converted with alkali alkanoates, such as potassium 2-ethylhexanoate in isopropanol, to potassium clavulanate.. Because of their high inhibitory action against beta-lactamases and because of a significant synergistic action in combination with the beta-lactam antibiotics from the group of penicillins and cephalosporins, clavulanic acid and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are valuable compounds for the preparation of galenic compositions, which are active in the treatment of infectious diseases induced by numerous grampositive and gram-negative microorganisms.

Clavulanic acid, (2R,5R,Z)-3-(2-hydroxyethylidene)-7-oxo-4-oxa-1-azabicyclo-[3,2,0]-heptane -2-carboxylic acid, is a known compound of the following structure: ##STR3##
This compound as well as the salts and esters thereof are active as inhibitors of betalactamase, i.e. they inhibit beta-lactamases produced by gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. Hence clavulanic acid and its salts are used in gelenic preparations in order to inhibit the inactivation of beta-lactam antibiotics. Commercial preparations contain a stable potassium salt of clavulanic acid (clavulanic acid itself being rather unstable) in combination with amoxicillin trihydrate.
Clavulanic acid is obtained by a fermentation method from various microorganisms belonging to various Streptomycetes strains such as S. clavuligerus NRRL 3585, S. jumoninensis NRRL 5741, S. katsurahamanus IFO 13716 and Streptomyces sp. P 6621 FERM P2804.
Clavulanic acid and its salts were first disclosed in GB 1,508,977. However, the process for the preparation of clavulanic acid described therein is time-consuming and is based on exacting purifications by means of various chromatographic methods. The salts of clavulanic acid are obtained by binding the clavulanate anion present in the filtrate of the fermentation broth on an anionic exchange resin, subsequent elution of the clavulanate anion therefrom by means of an electrolyte, desalting the obtained eluate, passing the latter through another anionic exchange resin and a subsequent chromatographic elution therefrom by means of an electrolyte, repeatedly desalting the obtained eluate and removing the solvent.
The process requires the use of preparative chromatographic columns, which represents a considerable investment expenditure; in addition, the applicability on a large scale is limited.
A further drawback of this process is the fact that the most steps thereof are carried out in an aqueous medium where clavulanic acid is very unstable.
GB 1,543,563 discloses a modified fermentative process, wherein the pH value of the medium is maintained within the range from 6.3 to 6.7, which results in an increased yield of the desired compound. The salts of clavulanic acid such as potassium clavulanate are obtained from lithium clavulanate by double exchange.
According to the process for the preparation of clavulanic acid and of pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof as disclosed in EP-0-026044, the exacting methods of purification by means of exchange resins are largely avoided. The process is based on the preparation of the tert. butylamine salt of clavulanic acid, preferably in the form of its acetone solvate. The tert. butylamine salt of clavulanic acid is prepared by treating the extract, preferably the ethyl acetate extract, containing crude clavulanic acid, which was prepared according to the process as described in GB 1,508,977, with tert.butylamine in an organic solvent such as acetone, followed by the conversion of the isolated tert. butylamine salt of clavulanic acid to clavulanic acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

Alkylenediammonium diclavulanate derivatives, a process for the preparation thereof as well as the use thereof