Disclosed herein are an ultraviolet-screening scale pigment comprising scale-like inorganic particles and a zinc oxide coating layer of 50 to 250 wt% (calculated as ZnO) based on the scale-like inorganic particles, a water content of said zinc oxide coating layer being not more than 7 wt%; a process for producing the scale pigment; and cosmetics containing the scale pigment.

The present invention relates to an ultraviolet-screening scale (flake) pigment comprising scale-like (flaky) inorganic particles having their surfaces coated with a zinc oxide, a process for preparing such pigment, and cosmetics containing such pigment.
The ultraviolet rays existing in nature are roughly divided into two types according to wavelength. One is called UV-A having wavelengths ranging from 320 to 400 nm and the other is UV-B having wavelengths less than 320 nm. It is said that UV-A, when applied to the human skin, causes pigmentation, while UV-B is causative of suntan (see, for example, "Shikizai (Toner)", 63 (3), 171-175, 1990).
The pigments used for the anti-suntan cosmetics are required to have an ability to effectively screen the ultraviolet rays. Many studies have been made on this subject, and various ultraviolet-screening pigments have been proposed.
For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 49-450 (1974) proposes an ultraviolet-protecting cosmetic composition containing fine titanium dioxide particles.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 62-228006 (1987) proposes fine zinc oxide particles as a substance which can effectively screen UV-A having wavelengths around 360 nm.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-257909 (1986) proposes cosmetics containing particles having a specific surface area of 15 to 100 m.sup.2 /g and coated with zinc white and/or zinc carbonate, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 62-16408 (1987) discloses hiding cosmetics blended with mica particles having their entire surfaces coated uniformly with one or more of metallic oxides or metallic hydroxides such as oxides or hydroxides of titanium, zinc or ferrite to a thickness of 5 to 30 nm.
Fine titanium dioxide particles have an ultraviolet screening effect, but their screening effect is low against the ultraviolet rays with wavelengths of not less than 350 nm which falls within the wavelength region of UV-A.
Also, fine zinc oxide particles, which have been reported to be capable of effectively screening UV-A with wavelengths around 360 nm, are poor in dispersibility when blended in cosmetics and also costly.
Further, in the case of the inorganic particles coated with a zinc-based substance, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-257909 (1986), since the zinc-based substance is merely deposited on the surfaces of the inorganic particles by dry-mixing, the substance is not uniformly coated on the surfaces of the inorganic particles, therefore the screening effect thereof against UV-A is not satisfactory.
In the case of mica coated with an oxide of a metal such as zinc, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 62-16408 (1987), the object thereof is to improve the surface properties of mica, and the coating amount of the metallic oxide is too small to provide a sufficient screening effect against UV-A.
As viewed above, any of the hitherto proposed ultraviolet-screening pigments had some disadvantages such as unsatisfactory screening effect against ultraviolet rays, poor dispersibility, etc.
Thus, an offer of a pigment for cosmetics which has an excellent ultraviolet-screening effect, especially high screening effect against UV-A and a good dispersibility in cosmetic compositions, is demanded.
As a result of the present inventors' studies, it has been found that by suspending scale-like inorganic particles in water, adding an aqueous solution of a water-soluble zinc compound into the suspension, adjusting the pH of the resulting suspension to 9 to 11, hydrolyzing the zinc compound while gradually lowering the pH of the suspension to 5.5 to 7.5 over a period of one to 10 hours, and baking the resulting scale-like inorganic particles coated with the zinc compound hydrolyzate at a temperature of 300.degree. to 700.degree. C., the obtained scale pigment coated with a zinc oxide has a high screening effect against ultraviolet rays including UV-A, shows good dispersibility in cosmetics when blended therein, and is capable of providing cosmetics which are excellent in tactile properties. The present invention has been achieved on the basis of this finding.

Ultraviolet-screening scale pigment, process for preparing the pigment and cosmetics containing the pigment


A collectable mounting device is configurable to a wall-mounted configuration, and a horizontal support surface (or shelf) mounted configuration. In the wall-mounted configuration, support members are secured together via a fastener through the adjustment slots such that support channels extend in the same direction to support the collectable on a wall. In the shelf-mounted configuration, the support members are fastened together such that the support channels extend in opposite directions, and a tensioning member is inserted between the support members in opposed tensioning member receiving slots to flex the support members away from each other. A packaging method includes stacking the support members and tensioning member to align holes therein; wrapping a label around the stacked support members and tensioning member to align holes in the label and holes in the support members and tensioning member; and inserting a fastener through the aligned holes.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to mounting and display devices and systems, mounting and for displaying collectable items, such as comic books, vinyl albums, books, magazines, and figurines. The disclosure also relates to packaging for mounting system products and to methods for assembling a package for a mounting system.
2. Prior Art
Devices for mounting pictures and collectables, such as comic books, on a wall or shelf are generally known. Prior art mounting devices are generally complex in their design and therefore relatively costly to manufacture. Moreover, when a person desires to change the mounted location of their collectable from a wall mount to a standing mount, such as a shelf, they must typically purchase a new mounting system at an added cost. Thus, one challenge in the relevant art is to provide versatile mounting systems that are easily adaptable to both hanging and standing mounting configurations.
Another challenge in the relevant art is to provide collectable mounting systems that may be manufactured from inexpensive materials, yet which provide for stable, secure and aesthetically pleasing mounting of the collectables.
Yet another challenge is to provide packaging configurations and packaging assembly methods for display systems that provide for compact packaging, so as to reduce shipping costs and retail store "footprint," and which are environmentally friendly and reduce waste.
There is thus a need in the art for display systems that address the aforementioned problems in the prior art. The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems or needs set forth above, and others.

Mounting system for collectables and mounting system packaging


The invention concerns a reagent composition that employs at least two different terminators of a nucleic acid template-dependent primer extension reaction to determine the identity of a nucleotide base at a specific position in a nucleic acid of interest. The invention also concerns the method for determining such identification. The invention may be used to determine the presence or absence of a specific nucleotide sequence in a sample. It may also be employed in determination of genotype and in the identification of different alleles.

This invention relates to the field of nucleic acid sequence detection. The detection of nucleic acid sequences can be used in two general contexts. First, the detection of nucleic acid sequences can be used to determine the presence or absence of a particular genetic element. Second, the detection of nucleic acid sequences can be used to determine the specific type of a particular genetic element that is present. Variant genetic elements usually exist. Many techniques have been developed (1) to determine the presence of specific nucleic acid sequences, and (2) to compare homologous segments of nucleic acid sequence to determine if the segments are identical or if they differ at one or more nucleotides. Practical applications of these techniques include genetic disease diagnoses, infectious disease diagnoses, forensic techniques, paternity determinations, and genome mapping.
In general, the detection of nucleic acids in a sample and the subtypes thereof depends on the technique of specific nucleic acid hybridization in which the oligonucleotide probe is annealed under conditions of high stringency to nucleic acids in the sample, and the successfully annealed probes are subsequently detected (see Spiegelman, S., Scientific American, Vol. 210, p. 48 (1964)).
The most definitive method for comparing DNA segments is to determine the complete nucleotide sequence of each segment. Examples of how sequencing has been used to study mutations in human genes are included in the publications of Engelke, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 85:544-548 (1988) and Wong, et al., Nature, 330:384-386 (1987). At the present time, it is not practical to use extensive sequencing to compare more than just a few DNA segments because the effort required to determine, interpret, and compare sequence information is time-consuming.
A commonly used screen for DNA polymorphisms arising from DNA sequence variation consists of digesting DNA with restriction endonucleases and analyzing the resulting fragments by means of Southern blots, as described by Botstein, et al., Am. J. Hum. Genet., 32:314-331 (1980) and White, et al., Sci. Am., 258:40-48 (1988). Mutations that affect the recognition sequence of the endonuclease will preclude enzymatic cleavage at that site, thereby altering the cleavage pattern of that DNA. DNAs are compared by looking for differences in restriction fragment lengths. A major problem with this method (known as restriction fragment length polymorphism mapping or RFLP mapping) is its inability to detect mutations that do not affect cleavage with a restriction endonuclease. Thus, many mutations are missed with this method. One study, by Jeffreys, Cell, 18:1-18 (1979), was able to detect only 0.7% of the mutational variants estimated to be present in a 40,000 base pair region of human DNA. Another problem is that the methods used to detect restriction fragment length polymorphisms are very labor intensive, in particular, the techniques involved with Southern blot analysis.
A technique for detecting specific mutations in any segment of DNA is described in Wallace, et al., Nucl. Acids Res., 9:879-894 (1981). It involves hybridizing the DNA to be analyzed (target DNA) with a complementary, labeled oligonucleotide probe. Due to the thermal instability of DNA duplexes containing even a single base pair mismatch, differential melting temperature can be used to distinguish target DNAs that are perfectly complementary to the probe from target DNAs that differ by as little as a single nucleotide. In a related technique, described in Landegren, et al., Science, 41:1077-1080 (1988), oligonucleotide probes are constructed in pairs such that their junction corresponds to the site on the DNA being analyzed for mutation. These oligonucleotides are then hybridized to the DNA being analyzed. Base pair mismatch between either oligonucleotide and the target DNA at the junction location prevents the efficient joining of the two oligonucleotide probes by DNA ligase.
A. Nucleic acid hybridization
The base pairing of nucleic acids in a hybridization reaction forms the basis of most nucleic acid analytical and diagnostic techniques. In practice, tests based only on parameters of nucleic acid hybridization function poorly in cases where the sequence complexity of the test sample is high. This is partly due to the small thermodynamic differences in hybrid stability, generated by single nucleotide changes, and the fact that increasing specificity by lengthening the probe has the effect of further diminishing this differential stability. Nucleic acid hybridization is, therefore, generally combined with some other selection or enrichment procedure for analytical and diagnostic purposes.
Combining hybridization with size fractionation of hybridized molecules as a selection technique has been one general diagnostic approach. Size selection can be carried out prior to hybridization. The best known prior size selection technique is Southern Blotting (see Southern, E., Methods in Enzymology, 69:152 (1980). In this technique, a DNA sample is subjected to digestion with restriction enzymes which introduce double stranded breaks in the phosphodiester backbone at or near the site of a short sequence of nucleotides which is characteristic for each enzyme. The resulting heterogeneous mixture of DNA fragments is then separated by gel electrophoresis, denatured, and transferred to a solid phase where it is subjected to hybridization analysis in situ using a labeled nucleic acid probe. Fragments which contain sequences complementary to the labeled probe are revealed visually or densitometrically as bands of hybridized label. A variation of this method is Northern Blotting for RNA molecules. Size selection has also been used after hybridization in a number of techniques, in particular by hybrid protection techniques, by subjecting probe/nucleic acid hybrids to enzymatic digestion before size analysis.
B. Polymerase extension of duplex primer:template complexes
Hybrids between primers and DNA targets can be analyzed by polymerase extension of the hybrids. A modification of this methodology is the polymerase chain reaction in which the purification is produced by sequential hybridization reactions of anti-parallel primers, followed by enzymatic amplification with DNA polymerase (see Saiki, et al., Science 239:487-491 (1988)). By selecting for two hybridization reactions, this methodology provides the specificity lacking in techniques that depend only upon a single hybridization reaction.
It has long been known that primer-dependent DNA polymerases have, in general, a low error rate for the addition of nucleotides complementary to a template. This feature is essential in biology for the prevention of genetic mistakes which would have detrimental effects on progeny. The specificity inherent in this enzymological reaction has been widely exploited as the basis of the "Sanger" or dideoxy chain termination sequencing methodology which is the ultimate nucleic acid typing experiment. One type of Sanger DNA sequencing method makes use of mixtures of the four deoxynucleoside triphosphates, which are normal DNA precursors, and one of the four possible dideoxynucleoside triphosphates, which have a hydrogen atom instead of a hydroxyl group attached to the 3' carbon atom of the ribose sugar component of the nucleotide. DNA chain elongation in the 5' to 3' direction ("downstream") requires this hydroxyl group. As such, when a dideoxynucleotide is incorporated into the growing DNA chain, no further elongation can occur. With one dideoxynucleotide in the mixture, DNA polymerases can, from a primer:template combination, produce a population of molecules of varying length, all of which terminate after the addition of one out of the four possible nucleotides. The series of four independent reactions, each with a different dideoxynucleotide, generates a nested set of fragments, all starting at the same 5' terminus of the priming DNA molecule and terminating at all possible 3' nucleotide positions.
Another utilization of dideoxynucleoside triphosphates and a polymerase in the analysis of DNA involves labeling the 3' end of a molecule. One prominent manifestation of this technique provides the means for sequencing a DNA molecule from its 3' end using the Maxam-Gilbert method. In this technique, a molecule with a protruding 3' end is treated with terminal transferase in the presence of radioactive dideoxy-ATP. One radioactive nucleotide is added, rendering the molecule suitable for sequencing. Both methods of DNA sequencing using labeled dideoxynucleotides require electrophoretic separation of reaction products in order to derive the typing information. Most methods require four separate gel tracks for each typing determination.
The following two patents describe other methods of typing nucleic acids which employ primer extension and labeled nucleotides. Mundy (U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,127) describes a method whereby a primer is constructed complementary to a region of a target nucleic acid of interest such that its 3' end is close to a nucleotide in which variation can occur. This hybrid is subject to primer extension in the presence of a DNA polymerase and four deoxynucleoside triphosphates, one of which is an .alpha.-thionucleotide. The hybrid is then digested using an exonuclease enzyme which cannot use thio-derivatized DNA as a substrate for its nucleolytic action (for example Exonuclease III of E. coli). If the variant nucleotide in the template is complementary to one of the thionucleotides in the reaction mixture, the resulting extended primer molecule will be of a characteristic size and resistant to the exonuclease; hybrids without thio-derivatized DNA will be digested. After an appropriate enzyme digest to remove underivatized molecules, the thio-derivatized molecule can be detected by gel electrophoresis or other separation technology.
Vary and Diamond (U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,331) describes a method similar to that of Mundy wherein the last nucleotide of the primer corresponds to the variant nucleotide of interest. Since mismatching of the primer and the template at the 3' terminal nucleotide of the primer is counterproductive to elongation, significant differences in the amount of incorporation of a tracer nucleotide will result under normal primer extension conditions. This method depends on the use of a DNA polymerase, e.g., AMV reverse transcriptase, that does not have an associated 3' to 5' exonuclease activity. The methods of Mundy and of Vary and Diamond have drawbacks. The method of Mundy is useful but cumbersome due to the requirements of the second, different enzymological system where the non-derivatized hybrids are digested. The method of Vary is complicated by the fact that it does not generate discrete reaction products. Any "false" priming will generate significant noise in such a system which would be difficult to distinguish from a genuine signal.
The present invention circumvents the problems associated with the methods of Mundy and of Vary and Diamond for typing nucleic acid with respect to particular nucleotides. With methods employing primer extension and a DNA polymerase, the current invention will generate a discrete molecular species one base longer than the primer itself. In many methods, particularly those employing the polymerase chain reaction, the type of reaction used to purify the nucleic acid of interest in the first step can also be used in the subsequent detection step. Finally, with terminators which are labeled with different detector moieties (for example different fluorophors having different spectral properties), it will be possible to use only one reagent for all sequence detection experiments. Furthermore, if techniques are used to separate the terminated primers post-reaction, sequence detection experiments at more than one locus can be carried out in the same tube.
A recent article by Mullis (Scientific American, April 1990, pp. 56-65) suggests an experiment, which apparently was not performed, to determine the identity of a targeted base pair in a piece of double-stranded DNA. Mullis suggests using four types of dideoxynucleosides triphosphate, with one type of dideoxynucleoside triphosphate being radioactively labeled.
The present invention permits analyses of nucleic acid sequences that can be useful in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, the diagnosis of genetic disorders, and in the identification of individuals and their parentage.
A number of methods have been developed for these purposes. Although powerful, such methodologies have been cumbersome and expensive, generally involving a combination of techniques such as gel electrophoresis, blotting, hybridization, and autoradiography or non-isotopic revelation. Simpler technologies are needed to allow the more widespread use of nucleic acid analysis. In addition, tests based on nucleic acids are currently among the most expensive of laboratory procedures and for this reason cannot be used on a routine basis. Finally, current techniques are not adapted to automated procedures which would be necessary to allow the analysis of large numbers of samples and would further reduce the cost.
The current invention provides a method that can be used to diagnose or characterize nucleic acids in biological samples without recourse to gel electrophoretic size separation of the nucleic acid species. This feature renders this process easily adaptable to automation and thus will permit the analysis of large numbers of samples at relatively low cost. Because nucleic acids are the essential blueprint of life, each organism or individual can be uniquely characterized by identifiable sequences of nucleic acids. It is, therefore, possible to identify the presence of particular organisms or demonstrate the biological origin of certain samples by detecting these specific nucleic acid sequences.

Method for determining nucleotide identity through primer extension


A multi-deck filter comprising a plurality of filter plates arranged horizontally one above another which are held in parallel planes by respective frames surrounding them. A filtrate chamber and a sludge chamber are formed in each case alternately between adjacent filter plates and frames. A filter belt, which is moveable stepwise by a transport device, is positioned between two pairs of filter plates. The filter belt is unwound from a supply roll positioned outside of the multi-deck filter and, after removal of the dirt filter cake, collected by the multi-deck filter wound onto a collecting roll. A scraper, which contacts the surface of the filter belt, is positioned transversely and obliquely to the filter belt between multi-deck filter and collecting roll, for scraping off the dirt filter cake from the filter belt. An abutment positioned below the filter belt is associated with the scraper.

Multi-deck filters are pressure filters in which the filter-plate frames rest against one another and are pressed together. The filtrate that is fed to the filter plate frames is discharged through the frames and its outlet openings. The filtering process takes place with the plates pressed together, so that a filter belt is positioned between two adjacent filter plates which are clamped in place. The filtrate flows through the filter plates, while particles of dirt are collected by the filter belt. The dirt cake which is collected must be removed from the multi-deck filter from time to time. For this purpose, the filter plates, together with their frames, are unclamped and separated by a suitable device so that the dirty portion of the filter belt can be moved out from between the filter plates by means of a transport device and replaced by a clean portion of the filter belt. The filter plates and frames are then clamped together so that the multi-deck filter is again ready for filtering.
In conventional belt filters, the filter cake is removed by a deflection roll of the filter belt. The filter cake is broken up by the deflection of the filter belt and formed into pieces which then drop into a receiving means below the filter belt. In multi-deck filters where several chambers are positioned one above the other and thus several filter belts also travel one above the other, this method of removing the dirt filter cake is disadvantageous. Because the filter belt must be deflected, the subsequent winding of the filter belt from which the dirt filter cake has been removed cake onto collecting rolls is impeded due to considerations of space. Problems also arise with regard to the guiding of the belt.
European Patent No. 03 04 579 discloses a device in which the filter belt is guided around a deflection edge positioned obliquely to the direction of the belt and turning the bottom face of the belt upward. In this way, better guidance of the belt is obtained while effective detachment of the filter cake is also achieved. This device, however, is very expensive due to its large number of deflection rolls and is thus subject to disturbance, and furthermore requires extensive maintenance.


A precipitation gauge for measuring liquid and frozen precipitation includes a support structure having at least one light sensor, or pair of electrodes, and at least one light source disposed thereon so that the light sensor may receive light that is emitted from the light source. The light sensor or light sensors and the light source or light sources generally extend a substantial height of the support structure. The light sensor or light sensors generate an output signal in response to the amount of light received from the light source. A microprocessor receives the output signal or output signals from the light sensor or light sensors and determines whether precipitation is present between the light sensor or light sensors and the light source or light sources. Based on the output signal or output signals, the microprocessor determines and displays the level of precipitation. The microprocessor may also determine the density of frozen precipitation. A heating element is disposed on the support structure to melt frozen precipitation. The microprocessor determines the density of the frozen precipitation from the amount of frozen precipitation and the amount of liquid that results from melting the frozen precipitation. Alternatively, the microprocessor determines the density of frozen precipitation from the amount of frozen precipitation and the weight of the frozen precipitation.

Although precipitation may be measured by manual or electronic means, electronic instruments that measure rainfall typically do not measure snowfall and vice versa. In fact, frozen precipitation is difficult to measure by electronic instrument. While snowfall may be measured manually by a simple gauge comprising a cylinder having a measurement scale affixed to it, snowfall is difficult to measure by electronic instrument.
Snowfall may be measured electronically by a gauge that melts the snow to water and converts the amount of snow fall to a liquid equivalent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,699 discloses such a gauge. The gauge comprises a support structure or an open cylinder, a reservoir for collecting precipitation, means for weighing the reservoir and electronic means for converting the weight measurement to accumulated precipitation. The cylinder includes a small, steeply sloped tapered section to reduce turbulence around the collector. The length of the collector assembly is minimized to reduce area for frozen precipitation to accumulate. The cylinder is heated sufficiently to raise the temperature of the collector assembly so that frozen precipitation is melted. U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,711 discloses a winter precipitation measuring system for quantifying the precipitation rate of winter precipitation that attempts to overcome problems associated with the weighing type snow gauge as disclosed in the '699 patent. The system includes an elongated tube, a thermal plate within the tube and an apparatus for maintaining the thermal plate at a substantially constant temperature relative to a reference plate and for determining a precipitation rate in response to the difference in power consumption required to maintain the thermal plate at a substantially constant temperature. These snow gauges do not provide the amount of snow fall in depth nor do they measure the "wetness" or density of the snow which would be useful in areas where snow blowing equipment is used.
Other patents disclose devices for detecting frozen precipitation and differentiating between rain and frozen precipitation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,333 discloses a moisture sensing detector of snow, sleet, ice and rain. The detector includes a sensing probe and coacting control circuitry for receiving the moisture signal from the probe and actuating associated equipment. The probe includes electrically charged electrodes spaced apart by a small distance. Any moisture bridging the gap completes a circuit between the electrodes. This device only detects moisture or precipitation but does not measure the amount or rate of precipitation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,040 discloses a method and apparatus for precipitation detection and differentiation. A direct backscatter technique provides for the detection of precipitation in a measuring volume. A source light beam is projected into the measuring volume. Light in the volume, including source light scattered from any precipitation within the volume, is collected and detected. A signal is generated corresponding to the detected light. This signal is used to determine whether precipitation is present in the measuring volume. The light scattered from precipitation within the measuring volume may also be used to differentiate between types of particles such as rain or snow. Rain or snow can be differentiated based on whether the transmitted light changed from its original polarization state. Thus, while the '040 patent discloses an apparatus and method for detecting the presence of precipitation and differentiating between rain and snow, the patent does not disclose a method or apparatus for measuring the amount of frozen precipitation that has fallen or the rate at which frozen precipitation falls.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,942,762 and 5,138,301 disclose a well-known type of rain gauge comprising a stationary reception funnel having a water discharge nozzle at its lower end. A receptacle having two symmetrical compartments of a known volume is located below the discharge nozzle. As one compartment fills with water it rocks in one direction to dump the water and to allow the other compartment to fill with water. A switch that is affixed to the receptacle is opened and closed by the rocking motion. From the cross-sectional area of the input of the funnel and from the amount of water which causes the receptacle to rock, the amount of precipitation can be determined by counting the number of times the switch has opened and closed for a given period of time. This instrument cannot, however, measure snowfall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,280 discloses a rainfall intensity sensor that measures the rate of rainfall or snowfall by determining the electrical power required to evaporate water or snow as it contacts an exposed sensor. A number of assumptions are made in order to correlate the electrical power used by the device with the rate of rainfall or snowfall which may affect the accuracy of this device. Moreover, the device disclosed in the '280 patent does not determine the total amount of rain or snow (i.e., in inches) that fallen over a certain period of time or the density of the snowfall.
A snow gauge device which uses an infrared proximity sensor is disclosed at the website www.howmuchsnow.com/snow/. The infrared proximity sensor, such as an infrared triangulation measurement sensor, comprises a light detector and light emitter that are adjacent to each other. The sensor is attached near the top of a vertical post that is mounted on a base board so that the light emitter and light detector are pointed downwardly toward the base at an angle. As snow accumulates on the base, the infrared LED emits a beam of light, which is reflected off of the snow and back to the detector, which is a linear array. The location that the reflected light strikes the linear array is related to the distance that the snow is from the sensor. An ultrasonic sensor may be used but must be mounted perpendicular to the snow surface because the ultrasonic beam is wide and hard to focus on a surface. This snow gauge device may be limited to the height of snowfall that it can measure and is not capable of measuring rainfall.
With the advance of electronics, electronic weather stations that provide wind speed temperature, humidity, pressure, and rainfall have become popular, particularly for residential use. Because of the difficulty of automating the measurement of frozen precipitation, these weather stations do not provide measurements of frozen precipitation, particularly snow. The prior art snow gauges are not suitable for electronic weather stations made for residential use. These prior art gauges are expensive or do not provide electronic display of the amount of frozen precipitation that has fallen in a given time period. Instead, the prior art snow gauges provide the amount of frozen precipitation in liquid equivalent or the amount of snow must be manually read from a scale on the snow gauge.
What is needed is a simple, relatively inexpensive instrument to measure, display, and record amounts of precipitation whether rain, snow, sleet or frozen rain. What is particularly needed is an instrument that measures frozen precipitation in, for example, inches—not liquid equivalent. What is also needed is an instrument that measures both liquid and frozen precipitation and records and displays the rate of the falling precipitation. What is further needed is an instrument that measures, records and displays the rate of the precipitation. What is also needed is an instrument that determines the density of frozen precipitation, particularly snow, so that snow blowing equipment can be adjusted and operated for optimum use.

Apparatus and method for measuring precipitation


The invention relates to a conical screw blender which comprises an inverted cone-shaped vessel. The blender also includes a material inlet, a material outlet, a driven screw housed within the vessel, and at least two non-diffuse gas injection lines attached to the vessel. The conical screw blender of the present invention can be used not only for the mixing of materials, but also for the drying of materials.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conical screw blender.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In the production of many foods, beverages, and nutritional or pharmaceutical products, intermediate or final products may require substantial mixing and/or drying. It is important in these industries that the mixing and/or drying be accomplished efficiently and thoroughly without unnecessarily damaging the materials being mixed or dried. For materials that are sensitive to elements such as heat or moisture, these considerations may be particularly relevant.
For example, probiotics, which are defined as living microbial cell preparations or components of microbial cells that have a beneficial effect on the health and well being of a host, are often added to food or beverage products because they have various health benefits for consumers. Salminen S., et al., Probiotics: How Should They Be Defined? Trend Food Sci. Technol. 10:107-10 (1999). These health benefits may include inhibition of bacterial pathogens, reduction of colon cancer risk, stimulation of immune response, and reduction of serum cholesterol levels. In many situations, probiotics are incorporated into nutritional supplements, children's enteral products, and infant formulas.
Probiotics are adversely affected by four elements: light, heat, oxygen and moisture. Probiotic stability is achieved by minimizing these four elements during production and storage, including during the time that the probiotics are being incorporated into the nutritional or food products. Thus, mixing and drying methods for materials containing probiotics or other similar materials should attempt to eliminate light, heat, oxygen, and moisture.
Generally speaking, the mixing of materials can be accomplished in many ways. As examples, a continuous mixer or a batch mixer may be utilized. A continuous mixer is a process line vessel that is continuously fed the correct proportion of ingredients. The ingredients are quickly mixed, agitated, and discharged to the next piece of equipment in the process. A batch mixer is a stand-alone vessel in which all the ingredients are loaded, agitated until homogeneously dispersed or mixed, and then discharged. A batch mixer is well-suited to applications requiring high mixing accuracy and validation of batch-to-batch consistency. Hixon & Ruschmann, Using a Conical Screw Mixer for More than Mixing, Powder and Bulk Engr. 37-43 (January 1992).
One of the most versatile batch mixers is a conical screw mixer, also referred to as a vertical orbiting screw mixer or conical screw blender. These mixers can handle exclusively dry ingredients, such as powders, as well as combinations of dry and liquid ingredients, such as slurries or pastes. A conical screw mixer can be designed to handle large quantities of material while permitting accurate ingredient and additive proportioning.
A typical conical screw mixer has a vessel which is shaped like an inverted cone. A material inlet is typically located near the top of the vessel and a material outlet is typically located near the bottom of the vessel. A drive motor is often mounted on the top of the vessel and is linked to an orbital arm inside the vessel's top. A cantilevered screw is mounted onto the orbital arm. The cantilevered screw allows near-complete discharge of the vessel contents after mixing. The screw can also be supported at the bottom of the vessel for large batches or viscous materials.
In operation, the drive motor moves the orbiting arm and, in turn, the screw around the vessel's inner wall. As the screw orbits the vessel, the screw also rotates, directing material upward.
The various movements of the materials inside the conical screw blender each contribute to its mixing effectiveness. Firstly, the screw revolves around the blender's own axis and pushes the material upward. Secondly, the orbiting arm causes the materials to be mixed in a circular motion. Lastly, the material that has been pushed upward by the screw descends slowly through the center of the vessel, mixing with the materials being moved upward by the orbiting screw. These various motions ensure thorough mixing, both vertically as well as horizontally.
While there are certain advantages to using conical screw blenders, there disadvantages as well. One major disadvantage in the use of conical screw blenders is the effect of shear force on the materials contained therein. Shear force is a force that acts parallel to a surface. When shear force acts over a certain area, it is referred to as shear stress. In a conical screw blender, gravity pulls the materials downward, creating shear stress due to the compaction of the materials. Shear stress can detrimentally damage materials within a blender, especially if any viable microorganisms are being mixed.
In addition to the shear stress created in a conical screw blender, the mixing process also generates a great deal of friction. This increased level of friction increases the temperature of the materials being mixed. This can also be detrimental to heat-sensitive materials such as probiotics.
In addition to mixing, conical blenders can also serve as drying containers for particulate and biological substrates. Several adaptations such as vacuum pumps or hot-air inlets can be added to a conical mixer in order to make it function as a drying apparatus. Vacuum pumps, however, are inherently expensive to produce, operate, and maintain and it is often difficult to control the product temperature in a vacuum dryer. Vacuum dryers also require a long time period to bring material to high degree of dryness and, thus, have not made conventional conical blenders completely acceptable as drying apparatus. Similarly disadvantageous, hot air-driven conical mixers can be detrimental to heat-sensitive materials, such as probiotics.
The prior art does not provide a conical screw blender that effectively reduces shear force and avoids the generation of friction and heat in the materials being blended. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a conical screw blender that is useful in drying materials, while at the same time reducing shear stress and friction within the vessel.

Method for blending heat-sensitive material using a conical screw blender with gas injection


A method for assessing wave propagation in a physical system by numerical simulation; a computational domain comprises first grid cells with a first-grid time step, refined second grid cells with a second-grid time step, and intermediate grid cells of first-grid cell size and second-grid time step, with solution points located on the cells; obtaining values of a physical quantity after a first-grid time step at a solution point of one first-grid cell; using values from the first grid to obtain values at a perimeter of the intermediate grid; obtaining values of the physical quantity after the second-grid time step; using values from the intermediate grid to obtain the values at the perimeter of the second grid; using the values at the perimeter of the second grid, to obtain values of the physical quantity after a second-grind time step for solution points of the second-grind cell.

There is an ever increasing need to simulate and consider the effect of a wide variety of wave phenomena, such as electromagnetic wave propagation, arising in a variety of environments. Being able to simulate, for example, the dynamics of fluid propagation, heat transfer or electromagnetic radiation is highly advantageous in a number of industries. In particular, electromagnetic field simulation plays an important role in the design and development of electronic products. In this rapidly-changing technology, the time taken in bringing a product to the market place can be critical in maintaining a commercial advantage. In this regard, electromagnetic simulation can provide a highly advantageous tool for design engineers in advancing the development of a device. It may be used, for example, to approximate the surface currents and interior fields arising in complex electronic objects. Electromagnetic simulation is also employed to analyze the electromagnetic radiation emitted by electronic devices, particularly mobile communication devices, in order to assess the health and safety issues for these devices. Furthermore, the study of electromagnetic scattering plays a central role in the design of many complex structures, such as aircrafts, in order to optimize the design and shape of a structure surface. The simulation of convective heat transfer is a useful aid in the analysis and development of ventilation (cooling and/or heating) systems such as those employed in electronic devices. It also provides a tool suitable for use in fire simulation methods which seek to consider the potential fire hazards arising in the electronics industry and other industries.
Generally speaking, the main steps involved in any modeling process are:                1) To define the geometry of a system (i.e. structure or environment) under consideration on a structured grid, taking into account the need to impose boundary conditions on the finite grid as well as the material properties (e.g., for electromagnetic modeling, the magnetic permittivity ε, the magnetic permeability μ, and the electric conductivity σ should be defined);        2) To calculate the numerical solutions for the physical phenomenon under consideration at each node within the grid at a given instant in time; and        3) To provide means for visualizing and potentially manipulating the solutions obtained at each time step of the calculation.
One scheme which finds use in such modeling methods is the FDTD scheme. It was first proposed by Yee in 1966 and is used in a number of computational simulation tools for analyzing the behaviour of electromagnetic propagation within a one-, two-, or three-dimensional domain. Broadly speaking, the scheme employs a finite difference and finite time domain approach to discretise the differential form of Maxwell's equations. By this method, derivatives of the electric and magnetic field variables required by Maxwell's equations are approximated by spatial finite differences and the calculation then proceeds in a series of time steps.
In accordance with the FDTD technique, the computational domain or "space" in which the simulation will be performed is represented by a Cartesian grid, discrete in both time and space, comprising a plurality of cells in one, two or three dimensions. FIG. 3 shows a three-dimensional cell, each point of the cell being represented by a set of integers (i, j, k), where i, j and k are grid coordinate numbers in the x-axis, y-axis and z-axis directions respectively. Each of the cells comprises a number of solution points or nodes for the electric and magnetic fields at a given instant in time. In this illustration, the electric field components are defined on the cell faces and the magnetic field components are defined on the cell edges. In accordance with the FDTD principle, the electric field is staggered both spatially and temporally from the magnetic field.
As with any explicit numerical modeling technique, which employs a grid structure for the computational domain, there exists a restriction on the time step Δt with respect to the cell size to ensure stability. Within the FDTD scheme this is given by:
      Δ                          t    ≤            〈              v                                                    1                                                                                〈                                          Δ                                                                                x                                        〉                                    2                                                      +                          1                                                                                〈                                          Δ                                                                                y                                        〉                                    2                                                      +                          1                                                                                〈                                      Δ                                                                                z                                    〉                                                                                2                                                                                〉              -      1
where ν is the speed of light in free space.
This stability condition, known as the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition, imposes a restriction on the size of the time step Δt in relation to the cell dimensions of the grid.
In many instances, the object or environment to be modeled exhibits so-called inhomogeneities, such as complex or small-scale geometry, or curved boundaries. In order to accurately simulate and consider the effect of these inhomogeneities, the computational domain should preferably allow the numerical solution procedure to capture different levels of detail throughout the system. Analyzing electromagnetic fields using a grid which cannot adequately resolve intricate or small-scale structures leads to an inaccurate simulation which, in many applications, can have critical consequences. Obtaining a model of insufficient accuracy is particularly unacceptable in applications where human safety is being investigated, for example analyzing the effect of electromagnetic radiation from mobile communication devices on the human body. Furthermore, in complex multi-dimensional situations, for example when trying to simulate and forecast the electromagnetic dynamics for a complex object, such as a laptop computer, it is necessary to be able to resolve and precisely represent the electromagnetic interactions arising within the laptop at component level.
Thus, it is apparent that the grid dimensions (Δx, Δy, Δz) employed in any grid-based domain for simulation must be small enough to accurately represent the smallest feature in the model. Naturally, fine geometric features require fine grid cells for precise representation and thus, where a grid is employed throughout the domain in which Δx=Δy=Δz for three dimensions, any spatial refinement needed to resolve small details leads to a global refinement of the computational grid dimensions. Similarly, the simulation of any wave phenomenon varying at a high frequency requires fine grid cells to represent accurately the propagation of the wave with time. If the object under consideration, or a part of it, is a small-scale or complex geometrical structure, such as a wire, it is clear that a fine grid is required accurately to model the field arising in the vicinity of the wire when an electric current is passed through the wire. Similarly, the errors that arise when modeling curved surfaces, due to the way in which they are 'staircased' to fit into the Cartesian grid, can be alleviated by employing a higher level of grid refinement.
Thus, to attain accuracy, fine grid cells are essential. An obvious consequence of the need to use fine grid cells in a uniform computational grid is an increase in the number of cells, and thus solution points, in the model. This in turn leads to a higher computing cost in terms of both memory and calculation time. In the example of FDTD schemes, the problem is further compounded by the CFL stability condition which bounds the time step Δt in relation to the grid size so that the finer the grid cell, the smaller the time step Δt, thus further increasing the calculation workload. Software tools developed to analyze three-dimensional, highly intricate, high-frequency models therefore require substantial computing resources in the form of a large memory and high-processing-power central processing units to conduct a simulation that takes a considerable time to run.
Parallel processing, in which the grid is partitioned amongst the processing elements available for a collective computation to attain the solution, offers one means by which the calculation time of a numerical approximation can be reduced. However, this approach is often not cost effective, particularly in complex situations, since any advantage gained in the reduction of the calculation time may be countered by the considerable cost of adding the extra processing elements.
Rather than dividing the entire computational domain into a grid of fine cells, it is known to employ a coarse grid globally over the domain and then to apply one or more fine grids, each fine grid having a plurality of fine-grid cells in regions where they are needed. A domain comprising a coarse grid and having an embedded fine grid is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. This technique, known as subgridding, can therefore reduce the computational resource requirement by intelligently embedding fine grids locally in regions where they are needed within a coarse-grid model in order to resolve small-scale structures or to improve the modeling of curved boundaries. The savings in both memory and calculation time can be substantial, yet the technique substantially upholds the solution accuracy to that attained by a fine-grid model.
Despite the significant computational advantages that can be achieved by this technique, which circumvents the need to use a very small time step throughout the whole computational domain, subgridding methods are not commonly applied, at least in FDTD, primarily due to numerical instabilities arising at an interface between the coarse and fine grids in the form of late-time instability. This instability is still not yet fully understood and thus can not be predicted beforehand. This is a serious drawback of the subgridding method. The numerical instability arises as a consequence of the discontinuity in the number of solution points at the interface between the coarse grid and the fine grid. In particular, errors are introduced by the temporal and spatial interpolation required to convey information at the interface between the two grids.


Provided is a refrigerator that includes a cabinet, a refrigerator door, and a cabinet sealing part. The cabinet defines a storage compartment. The refrigerator door opens and closes the storage compartment. The cabinet sealing part is provided to a contact portion between the refrigerator door and the cabinet to prevent a communication between the storage compartment and an outside. The refrigerator door includes a door liner defining an ice compartment, an ice maker in the ice compartment, the ice maker generating ice, an ice bin storing ice generated by the ice maker, an ice compartment door opening and closing the ice compartment, and a plurality of sealing parts at positions spaced apart from each other. The sealing parts prevent a communication between the ice compartment and the storage compartment.

The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
Generally, a refrigerator is an apparatus that stores foods at a low temperature using low temperature air.
The refrigerator includes a cabinet in which a storage compartment is defined and a refrigerator door opening and closing the storage compartment. The storage compartment may include a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment. The refrigerator door may include a refrigerator compartment door opening and closing the refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment door opening and closing the freezer compartment.
Also, the refrigerator may include an ice making assembly that makes ice using cool air to store the made ice. The ice making assembly includes an ice maker generating ice and an ice bin in which ice removed from the ice maker is stored. For user's convenience, the refrigerator compartment door may further include a dispenser for dispensing ice stored in the ice bin.

Refrigerator with a plurality of sealing parts


An apparatus for controlling a vibration of a drill string, the apparatus including: a plurality of sensors in operable communication with the drill string; and a controller in operable communication with the plurality of sensors, the controller connectable to a drill string motivator and capable of outputting a signal to the drill string motivator to control the vibration of the drill string.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to drill strings. More specifically, the invention relates to apparatus and methods for controlling vibrations of the drill strings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of drill strings are deployed in a borehole for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. A drill string generally includes drill pipe and a bottom hole assembly. The bottom hole assembly can be used for drilling, sampling, and logging for example.
While deployed in the borehole, the drill string may be subject to a variety of forces or loads. The loads are generally specific to the borehole being drilled. Because the drill string is in the borehole, the loads are unseen and can affect the dynamic behavior of the drill string. For example, the loads may cause the drill string to vibrate. Vibration at a resonant frequency, in particular, can cause severe vibrations at high amplitudes.
An immediate result of the unseen loads may be unknown. If the loads are detrimental, then continued operation of the drill string might cause damage or unreliable operation. In addition, vibrations can limit the lifetime of components in the drill string.
Traditionally, control of the drilling process is performed by a drill operator or driller. The driller relies on his or her experience to control vibrations in the drill string. However, each borehole presents its own challenges and experience may not be able to prevent damaging vibrations in each case.
Therefore, what are needed are techniques for controlling vibrations of a drill string.

Distributed sensors-controller for active vibration damping from surface


In a phase-locked circuit which is operable in response to an input complex signal to produce an output complex signal, a first complex multiplication is carried out between the input and the output complex signals to obtain a phase difference therebetween which appears as a complex phase difference. The complex phase difference is composed of a real part and an imaginary part which are individually allowed to pass through a low pass filter and to be supplied to a numerically controlled oscillator as a control signal. The control signal includes a frequency component even when the phase-locked circuit is put into an asynchronous state. The low pass filter may be replaced by a digital circuit comprising phase dividers.

This invention relates to a phase-locked circuit for use in responding to a sequence of input sample signals to produce a sequence of output sample signals phase-locked with the input sample signals.
A conventional phase-locked circuit of the type described has been usually implemented by a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit which comprises a phase comparator (namely, a mixer), a low pass filter (LPF), and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). With this structure, the mixer is supplied with a sequence of input sample signals carried by an input carrier frequency together with a local carrier signal generated by the voltage controlled oscillator. The local carrier signal has a local carrier frequency. The mixer produces a phase difference signal representative of a phase difference between the input carrier frequency and the local carrier frequency. The phase difference signal is filtered by the low pass filter into a filtered difference signal and is thereafter sent to the voltage controlled oscillator. As a result, a phase of the local carrier signal is controlled so as to be phase-locked with a phase of the input carrier signal in accordance with the phase difference in the voltage controlled oscillator.
Herein, it often happens that the filtered difference signal includes a frequency component such that the frequency component falls outside of a pull-in range of the phase-locked loop circuit. In this event, the phase-locked loop circuit is put into an inactive state. In other words, a phase lock operation can not be accomplished in the conventional phase-locked loop circuit as long as the filtered difference signal does not fall within the pull-in range. This means that the phase-locked loop circuit can be put in an asynchronous state while the local carrier frequency is not close to the input carrier frequency. This makes a quick phase lock operation difficult and brings about retardation of the phase lock operation.
Recently, consideration is made about a digital phase-locked circuit which carries out a phase lock operation by digitally processing input complex sample signals each of which is divisible into a real component and an imaginary component orthogonal to the real component. In this event, only one of the real and the imaginary components is derived from the input complex sample signal and is successively sent from a mixer to an integrator through an adder. The integrator is formed by a delay unit which delays each imaginary component by a single sample period to produce a delayed component which is fed back to the adder to be added to the following component on one hand and which is also fed back to the mixer to be mixed with the following imaginary component. With this structure, it is possible to carry out a phase lock operation like in the conventional phase-locked loop circuit which comprises the voltage controlled oscillator, as mentioned above.
However, a long time is also required in the digital phase-locked circuit until a phase-locked state is accomplished.

Phase-locked circuit capable of being quickly put in a phase-locked state


A novel surgical procedure is an endoscopic assisted abdominoplasty. This procedure eschews the use of abdominal incisions and obtains the desired result with no visible scars on the abdomen of the patient. A traditional or standard abdominoplasty (also called a dermolipectomy of the abdomen) has always required a surgical incision in the abdomen followed by surgical removal of part of the skin, the underlying fat layer, and suturing the opening. The endoscopic assisted abdominoplasty shown herein uses two small incisions, one in the umbilicus for introduction of the surgical instruments, and a small incision within the pubic hair line for endoscopic observation and control of the procedure. While observing the procedure through the endoscope, the surgical instruments are inserted through the umbilicular incision to remove fat (by liposuction) and plicate and repair the muscles (by use of a tenaculum and fascial staples or a single instrument which combines the function of these instruments). After removal of the instruments, the small incisions are sutured and the skin layer allowed to retract and tighten. The procedure has had considerable success and leaves no visible scars, which is of great importance to most patients.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention related to new and useful surgical procedures and more particularly to an endoscopic assisted adbominoplasty which eschews the use of large abdominal incisions and leaves no visible scars on the patient.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Abdominoplasty (sometimes called a dermolipectomy of the abdomen) is a procedure which has been known for more than one hundred years. The procedure has always required a surgical incision in the abdomen followed by surgical removal of part of the skin, plication of the fascia with suturing, and finally suturing of the incision in the skin.
"Reconstructive Plastic Surgery", Second Edition, Volume 7 "The Lower Extremity The Trunk The Genitourinary Tract, Chapter 92 "Dermolipectomy of the Abdominal Wall, Thighs, Buttocks, and Upper Extremity" by Ivo Pitanguy, M.D.; 1977 W.B. Saunders Company is a treatise on dermolipectomy of the abdomen. Several traditional or standard procedures are described and shown.
"ABDOMINOPLASTY" by Frederick M. Grazer, M.D. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 51 No. 6 June 1973 The Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Md. 21202, pp. 617-623, describes further procedures in abdominoplasty of the abdomen.
References are given in both publications to many additional reports on varied procedures for abdominoplasty or dermolipectomy of the abdomen.
Acknowledgement is made to both authors for the use of some of their material in describing traditional or standard procedures for abdominoplasty or dermolipectomy of the abdomen.
According to "Reconstructive Plastic Surgery", Second Edition, Volume 7, Chapter 92, p. 3800-3807, the first dermolipectomies of the abdominal wall were performed by surgeons who were repairing massive umbilical hernias. The dermolipectomy facilitated the herniorrhaphy and relieved the patient of a pendulous abdomen. A number of procedures are described which illustrate the development of this surgical procedure. The classic lipectomy incisions are shown in FIG. 92-2 on page 3802 of the text. These illustrations of the various incisions are reproduced herein as FIG. 1 of the drawings illustrating the prior art. The author of the text (Ivo Pitanguy, M.D.) reports an improved procedure using a lower abdomen incision to reduce the visibility of the resulting scar. In "ABDOMINOPLASTY" by Frederick M. Grazer, M.D. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 51 No. 6 June 1973, the author reports (at pp. 617-623) a modified Pitanguy technique which confines the final scar to the "bikini" area. For a more detailed description, one should consult the full text of the reference.


An optical connector includes a circuit board. The circuit board includes a substrate and a circuit unit. A photoelectric element and a driver chip are located on the substrate. The photoelectric element includes a conductive pin and a metallic layer. The conductive pin is formed on a surface of the photoelectric element away from the circuit board, and the metallic layer is formed on another surface of the photoelectric element facing the circuit board. The conductive pin and the metallic layer serve as terminals of the photoelectric element. The driver chip is electrically connected to the photoelectric element by the circuit unit.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to communication devices, and particularly to an optical connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical connectors include a circuit board, a photoelectric element, and a driver chip. The photoelectric element and the driver chip are located on the circuit board and are electrically connected to each other by circuits formed in the circuit board. However, the circuits are often complicated, resulting in an increased cost of the optical connector.
Therefore, what is needed is an optical connector addressing the limitations described.


In a three-dimensional LUT for color conversion, the values of converted color component data C', M', and Y' are varied for a specific combination of the values of color component data C, M, and Y representing white, and the values of converted data are then changed for other combinations accompanied by the variation with respect to the specific combination. Referring to FIG. 1B, a concrete procedure first calculates variations of the values of color component data C', M', and Y' at step S20, and then selects combinations of the values of color component data C, M, and Y for which the values of color component data C', M', and Y' are not changed, among a plurality of combinations of the values of color component data C, M, and Y at step S22. For colors between white and cyan, magenta, yellow or black, the variations of the values of color component data C', M', and Y' are set to decrease in an increase in distance from a point corresponding to white in a three-dimensional color space at step S24. The procedure then leads Laplace's Equation including the variations and the values of color component data C, M, and Y as variables at step S26, and solves the Laplace's Equation to determine the variations of the values of color component data C', M', and Y' for each combination of the values of color component data C, M, and Y at step S28. This procedure enables the contents of the three-dimensional LUT for color conversion to be changed readily within a short time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data conversion table that outputs values of at least one piece of converted data according to each of a plurality of combinations of values of three different pieces of color component data. More specifically the present invention pertains to a method of changing a data conversion table, in order to change values of converted data for other combinations with a change in value of converted data for a specific combination among the plurality of combinations of the values of three different pieces of color component data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of printing and prepress, the user generally desires to check the results of printing before producing a mass of prints with a printing machine. Prior to mass printing, the typical procedure produces a small quantity of prints using an economy proof press, such as a thermal sublimation printer or an ink jet printer, to check the results of simulated printing. The color range expressed by prints produced with a printing machine is, however, different from the color range expressed by prints produced with an economy proof press. When image data to be printed are directly given to the economy proof press, it is thereby difficult to check the results of simulated printing accurately. The general procedure accordingly carries out color conversion of image data before feeding the image data to the economy proof press. In accordance with a concrete process, color component data consisting of the image data are input into a look-up table (hereinafter referred to as LUT) for color conversion, and fed to the economy proof press after the color conversion. This makes the color range expressed by the prints produced with the economy proof press substantially identical with the color range expressed by the prints produced with a printing machine. Such color machining enables the economy proof press to give the similar results of printing to those of the printing machine. In the description below, the device such as a printing machine is referred to as a target device, and the device such as an economy proof press as a simulation device.
FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating a color conversion apparatus with the LUT for color conversion discussed above. The color conversion apparatus of FIG. 24 primarily includes an LUT element with the LUT for color conversion and an LUT generating element for creating the contents of the LUT for color conversion. The LUT element mainly includes an input one-dimensional LUT 20 for canceling .gamma. correction made on every color component data, cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), a three-dimensional LUT 22 functioning as the LUT for color conversion, and an output one-dimensional LUT 24 for making .gamma. correction on every output color component data C, M, Y, and K. The LUT generating element mainly includes a processing circuit 42 for formation of a polynomial (1+C+M+Y)n of three primary color component data, cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), a matrix arithmetic operation circuit 26 for transforming the three primary color component data C, M, and Y to L*a*b* data in an CIE LAB color space, and a gamut mapping circuit 28 for, in case that a specific color can not be reproduced by the simulation device, determining a substitutive color that is visually closest to the specific color and can be reproduced by the simulation device. The LUT generating element further includes a processing circuit 44 for formation of a polynomial (1+L*+a*+b*)n of L*a*b* data, a matrix arithmetic operation circuit 30 for transforming the L*a*b* data to three primary color component data C, M, and Y, and C,M,Y fixed values output circuit 32 for outputting fixed values of the three primary color component data C, M, and Y. The color conversion apparatus is also provided with four switches 34 to 40 for switching the three primary color component data C, M, and Y. The term `CIE` in the above description represents Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage.
The following describes the process of converting color component data in the LUT element. In a normal operation, the switches 34 and 38 are in contact with the side `a `, and the LUT element is thus separated from the LUT generating element. The input one-dimensional LUT 20 receives the color component data C, M, Y, and K to be fed to a target device, and cancels .gamma. correction made on every color component data C, M, Y, and K as discussed previously. The color component data C, M, and Y are input into the three-dimensional LUT 22 via the switch 34, whereas the color component data K skip the three-dimensional LUT 22 and are input into the output one-dimensional LUT 24.
The three-dimensional LUT 22 carries out color conversion of the input color component data C, M, and Y and outputs the color-converted data. For distinction, the data of three primary colors C, M, and Y prior to being input into the three-dimensional LUT for color conversion are expressed as C, M, and Y, whereas the data of three primary colors C, M, and Y output from the three-dimensional LUT after the color conversion are expressed as C', M', and Y'.
The three-dimensional LUT 22 stores combinations of the values of color-converted color component data C', M', and Y' corresponding to the combinations of the values of input color component data C, M, and Y. In accordance with a concrete procedure, the three-dimensional LUT 22 receives a combination of the values of input color component data C, M, and Y as an address specifying signal and reads out the corresponding combination of the values of color-converted color component data C', M', and Y'.
In case that the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 have been created in a manner discussed below, the color component data C, M, and Y are transformed from a color space proper to a target device to a standard color space not depending upon any device and further to a color space proper to a simulation device via the three-dimensional LUT 22. This enables the simulation device to obtain color component data that can be handled in the common color space with the target device.
In order to reduce the required storage capacity of the three-dimensional LUT 22, the number of combinations of the values of color-converted color component data C', M', and Y' to be stored therein is decreased. The decrease in number of combinations to be stored, however, causes deterioration of the quality of the printing results. In order to prevent deterioration of the quality with the decrease in number of combinations, interpolating arithmetic operations are carried out in the three-dimensional LUT 22 for the combinations not stored therein. The details of the interpolating operations are, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,413.
The color-converted color component data C', M', and Y' output from the three-dimensional LUT 22 are input into the output one-dimensional LUT 24 via the switch 38. The one-dimensional LUT 24 also receives the color component data K output from the input one-dimensional LUT 20, makes .gamma. correction on every input color component data C', M', Y', and K, and outputs the corrected color component data C', M', Y', and K to a simulation device.
The following describes the process of creating the contents of the LUT for color conversion by the LUT generating element. The required measurement data are collected for both the target device and the simulation device, prior to the generation of the LUT for color conversion. Pre-defined, various values of color component data C, M, Y, and K are input into the respective devices for printing, and the results of printing obtained are measured with a spectral colorimeter to yield L*a*b* data. A table of the CMY data and L*a*b* data is then created for each device.
The switch 34 is brought into contact with the side `b` and the switch 36 with the side `c`, and the color component data C, M, Y, and K, which have been input into the target device, are thereby input into the input one-dimensional LUT 20 shown in FIG. 24. Among the color component data C, M, Y. and K input into the input one-dimensional LUT 20, the three primary color component data C, M, and Y are given to the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 26 for transformation of CMY data to L*a*b* data via the processing circuit 42 for formation of a polynomial, and transformed therein to L*a*b* data by an arithmetic operation using a transformation matrix A defined as Equation (1) given below. The values of L*a*b* data obtained by the transformation are compared with the values of L*a*b* data written in the table that has previously been created for the target device. In order to make the values obtained by the transformation approach the values written in the table, the transformation matrix A used in the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 26 is calculated by the least squares approximation. ##EQU1##
The switch 38 is then brought into contact with the side `b` and the switch 40 with the side `c`, and the data of the same values as the L*a*b* data written in the table that has previously been created for the simulation device are thereby input into the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 30 for transformation of L*a*b* data to CMY data via the processing circuit 44 for formation of a polynomial. The matrix arithmetic operation circuit 30 transforms the input L*a*b* data to three primary color component data C, M, and Y by an arithmetic operation using a transformation matrix B defined as Equation (2) given below. In order to make the values of color component data C, M, and Y obtained by the transformation approach the values of color component data C, M, and Y written in the table, the transformation matrix B used in the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 30 is calculated by the least squares approximation. ##EQU2##
The processing circuit 42 or 44 forms a polynomial of the data which are to be input into the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 26 or 30. This procedure enhances the precision of approximation of the CMY to L*a*b* transformation or the L*a*b* to CMY transformation in the matrix arithmetic operation circuit 26 or 30.
After the calculation of the transformation matrices A and B used in the matrix arithmetic operation circuits 26 and 30, the switches 36 and 40 are respectively brought into contact with the side `d`, so that predetermined, various fixed values of three primary color component data C, M, and Y are output from the C,M,Y fixed values output circuit 32. The output data C, M, and Y are processed by the formation of a polynomial, the CMY to L*a*b* transformation, the gamut mapping, the formation of a polynomial, and the L*a*b* to CMY transformation in this order, and successively written into the three-dimensional LUT 22.
These steps create the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 functioning as the LUT for color conversion. Conversion of color component data C, M, and Y by the three-dimensional LUT 22 thus prepared is equivalent to implementation of the above processing for the color component data.
The contents of the input one-dimensional LUT 20 and the output one-dimensional LUT 24 are created based on the results of measurement, which measures the .gamma. characteristics of the target device and the simulation device with respect to the four colors C, M, Y, and K when the results of printing by both the devices are measured with a spectral calorimeter. The contents of the gamut mapping circuit 28 are created based on the results of measurement, which measures the results of printing representing, for example, a gradation scale, for each color.
In the color conversion apparatus described above, data to be input into the matrix arithmetic operation circuits 26 and 30 are formed to polynomials, in order to enhance the precision of least squares approximation, by which the transformation matrices A and B used in the matrix arithmetic operation circuits 26 and 30 are calculated. When the three primary color component data C, M, and Y output from the C,M,Y fixed values output circuit 32 are written into the three-dimensional LUT 22 via the matrix arithmetic operation circuits 26 and 30, the colors of intermediate lightness having the enhanced precision of approximation are hardly affected by the transformation errors in the matrix arithmetic operation circuits 26 and 30. The precision of approximation is, however, not significantly improved for the colors of high lightness or low lightness. Such high-light or low-light colors may thus be significantly affected by the transformation errors and converted to different hues. The eyes of the man are rather insensitive to the colors of low lightness, but sensitive to the colors of high lightness. The change to different hues for the high-light colors is thus noticeable.
The type of paper used in the simulation device is often different from that used in the target device. Even when the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 are created to attain the color matching including the color of paper, since the very light color, such as the color of paper, is easily affected by the transformation errors, it is difficult to reproduce the color of paper used in the target device accurately on the paper used in the simulation device.
The method applied to solve this problem rewrites the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 in order to reproduce the color of paper more accurately by taking into account the effects due to the transformation errors. The color component data C, M, and Y representing the color of paper given to the simulation device is registered at an address specified by the combination of input color component data C, M, and Y representing white (that is, the combination of (C,M,Y)=(0,0,0)) in the three-dimensional LUT 22. The values of color-converted color component data C', M', and Y' registered at the address are thus to be changed to the values that can reproduce the color of paper accurately.
As discussed previously, the conversion of color component data is carried out by referring to the contents of the LUT and executing the interpolating arithmetic operations in the three-dimensional LUT 22. Rewriting the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 may accordingly deteriorate the quality of printing results. In accordance with a typical procedure, only a specific combination of color component data C, M, and Y representing the color of paper is replaced by another combination, and printing is carried out with a variation in only shade or gradation of a certain hue. In case that a certain color existing in the colors of varied gradation happens to be identical with an original color prior to the rewriting, the certain color is undesirably converted to a new color after the rewriting. This causes a color of different variation to appear in smooth gradation, which results in a distinct color skip.
In order to prevent such troubles, the contents of the three-dimensional LUT 22 should be rewritten not only for one combination but for a relatively wide range of combinations. This rewriting process is fundamentally based on the trial and error and thereby requires much time and skill of color evaluation.


An improved T-bar row exercise device (10) includes a pivot bar (20) with an intermediate transverse weight tube (40) located behind the handle (32) and footrests (28) in order to minimize inertial effects for smoother motion, better form and more effective training by the user. If desired, the weight tube (40) can be mounted in a raised position to provide more proportional resistance over the lift angle.

Various exercises have been devised for developing muscles in the shoulders and back for upper body training, such as deltoid muscles. For example, this can be done with a bar bell by putting one end on the floor in a corner, placing weights only on the other end, gripping that end and pulling upward from a straddle position in the desired number of repetitions. This is a somewhat makeshift approach, however. Exercise devices specifically adapted for this purpose have been available heretofore. Such so called T-bar row exercise devices generally include a bar which is securely pivoted at one end, with a handle mounted near the outer end on which the weights can be placed. Such devices are used from a similar straddle position. Foot rests are sometimes provided to assist the exerciser in maintaining proper form. However, because of the placement of weight at the outer end of the pivot bar, there tends to be a fair amount of inertia developed when using either of these approaches, especially when the repetitions are done rapidly, whereby impact occurs with the chest of the user. The user effectively becomes the stop for the pivot bar, but this makes it difficult to do the exercise with smooth motion while maintaining proper form for most effective training.
There has been a long standing need for an improved T-bar row exercise device which allows for smooth motion without such adverse inertial effects.


The present invention relates to a method for curing a hydrocarbon polymer having at least 2 glycidoxy groups in its molecule, said method comprising reacting the hydrocarbon polymer with a curing amount of an organosilicon compound having at least 2 nitrogen-bonded hydrogen groups as well as at least one silicon-bonded group selected from --R or --OR in its molecule, wherein R is selected from alkyl radicals having 8 to 18 carbon atoms or alkenyl radicals having 8 to 18 carbon atoms.

Various epoxy-functional polymers are well known in the art. These resins can be cured with an organic amine, such as diethylenetriamine, to form insoluble resins (for example, see the article by Ivan and Kennedy in Journal of polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.28, 89-104 (1990)). Further, certain amine-functional silanes, such as .gamma.-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, have been used to cure epoxy systems such as the glycidyl ether of bisphenol A (Serier et al. in Makromol. Chem., Macromol. Symp. 25, 85-90 (1989)). U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,074 to Fosconte et al. additionally discloses interpenetrating networks comprising epoxy polymer and polysiloxane prepared by reacting an organic amine and/or an amine-functional alkoxysilanes, having six or fewer carbon atoms in its alkoxy group, with an epoxy resin.
However, when such organic amines or amine-functional silanes are used to cure certain polymers, such as epoxy-functional polyisobutylene, it has been observed that the crosslinking process is quite slow, especially at low temperatures. In these systems, a long curing time is generally required and the resulting cured materials often have poor mechanical properties and tacky surfaces. Such protracted cure time is generally not acceptable in commercial applications and improved cure agents for the epoxy-functional systems are desired.

Glycidoxy-functional polymer cured with amine-functional organosilicon compound


Techniques are disclosed for decentralized data management using a geographic location-based consensus protocol in a network of computing resources such as, by way of example, a highly distributed system. For example, at a given consensus node of a consensus network comprising a plurality of consensus nodes configured to participate in a consensus protocol wherein at least a portion of the consensus nodes are mobile, a list is obtained of at least a subset of the plurality of consensus nodes that are predicted to be currently available to participate in the consensus protocol based on geographic location information. A message comprising a transaction to be validated is sent from the given consensus node to the subset of the plurality of consensus nodes in the obtained list. Techniques are also disclosed for adjusting a data protection policy based on the number of computing nodes, some of which are mobile, available to participate.

Enterprises or other entities typically have a large information technology (IT) infrastructure comprising a network of computing resources distributed across a geographic environment. In many scenarios, these computing resources are mobile and may be referred to as mobile compute platforms. These mobile compute platforms, along with servers that communicate with the mobile compute platforms, collectively form a highly distributed system. Mobile compute platforms may be in a variety of forms including, but not limited to, employee mobile devices, customer mobile devices, vehicles (e.g., drones, planes, cars, trucks, other shipping transports, etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) devices (e.g., sensors, tags, other monitoring or display systems, etc.), etc.
It is often necessary to transfer data sets to these mobile compute platforms, many of which are continuously moving. However, data management in such highly distributed systems can be very challenging.

Decentralized data management via geographic location-based consensus protocol


An axial conversion gear device includes: a crankshaft having a first eccentric portion and a shaft gear; a first oscillation gear having first external teeth; a transmitting gear having a first gear engaged with the shaft gear and a second gear spaced apart from the first gear in an axial direction of the first gear; an axial conversion unit having an external tooth gear engaged with the second gear and an axial conversion gear converting input torque into torque in an axial direction of the external tooth gear; and an outer cylinder having inner tooth pins engaged with the first external teeth of the first oscillation gear, wherein in the axial direction of the external teeth gear, the axial conversion gear is located between the first gear and the second gear.

An axial conversion gear device that converts a first direction of input torque into a second direction is known.
FIG. 4 illustrates a gear transfer device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-101366 as an example of an axial conversion gear device. The gear transfer device includes an axial conversion unit 200 and a speed reduction unit 300. The axial conversion unit 200 includes a first bevel gear 210, a second bevel gear 220 engaged with the first bevel gear 210, and an input gear 230 that has a same axis as the second bevel gear 220 and that has an outer diameter smaller than the second bevel gear 220. On the other hand, the speed reduction unit 300 includes a center gear having a first outer gear 310 and a second outer gear 320 having a diameter greater than the first outer gear 310, a crankshaft having an outer gear 330 engaged with the first outer gear 310 and an eccentric portion 340, and an external tooth gear 350 that oscillates and rotates as the eccentric portion 340 oscillates and rotates. The second outer gear 320 of the center gear is engaged with the input gear 230 of the axial conversion unit 200, and in an axial direction of the input gear 230, the second bevel gear 220 is located farther from the first outer gear 310 than the input gear 230. In the gear transfer device, input torque of a motor is transferred to the second bevel gear 220 through the first bevel gear 210 so as to transfer the input torque to the axial direction of the input gear 230. The torque is transferred from the input gear 230 to the external tooth gear 350 through the center gear and the crankshaft. As a result, the external tooth gear 350 oscillates and rotates.
FIG. 5 illustrates a gear transfer device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-159851. In this gear transfer device, an input gear 230 is located closer to a bottom surface B1 side than a second bevel gear 220 in an axial direction of the input gear 230. The input gear 230 and an outer gear 330 of a crankshaft are disposed nearly on a same plane.
In a gear transfer device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-101366, since the second bevel gear 220 and the input gear 230 have the same axis, the gear transfer device can be prevented from radially becoming large. However, in this gear transfer device, the second bevel gear 220 is located farther from the first outer gear 310 than the input gear 230 in the axial direction of the input gear 230. Thus, the first bevel gear 210 engaged with the second bevel gear 220 and the motor that outputs torque to the first bevel gear 210 are located far from the first outer gear 310 in the axial direction of the input gear 230. A bottom surface B1 of the gear transfer device is designed for example based on a height of a side surface of the motor. Thus, if the motor is located far from the first outer gear 310 in the axial direction of the input gear 230, the bottom surface B1 is accordingly located far from the first outer gear 310. As a result, a dead space is formed between the second bevel gear 220 and the bottom surface B1 of the gear transfer device in the axial direction of the input gear 230. Consequently, the gear transfer device is likely to axially become large.
On the other hand, in the gear transfer device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No, 2010-159851, since the input gear 230 is located axially closer to the bottom surface B1 side than the second bevel gear 220, the gear transfer device can be prevented from axially becoming large. However, in this gear transfer device, since the input gear 230 and the outer gear 330 are located nearly on a same plane, the axes of the second bevel gear 220 and the input gear 230 have to be located apart from the axis of the crankshaft having the outer gear 330 to some extent so as to prevent the input gear 230 and the outer gear 330 from interfering with each other. Thus, it is difficult to radially downsize the gear transfer device.


A method and apparatus for providing IP address filtering. The method identifies one or more suspicious Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and resolves the one or more suspicious URLs to one or more suspicious IP addresses. A suspicious IP address list is created containing the one or more suspicious IP addresses. The suspicious IP address list may be used to facilitate a security response to filter one or more of the IP addresses in the suspicious IP address list.

Computer devices (e.g., smart phones, laptop computers, desktop computers, gaming devices, etc.) that access the Internet identify information sources (e.g., servers) using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The URL contains an identifier of the server, the location of the information, and the protocol (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, etc.) to be used to access the information. Using a URL, a browser may access content stored on the server using the proper transfer protocol and information location. Information available at servers at some URLs may be undesired, i.e., pornography, advertisements, viruses, malware, phishing attacks, misinformation sources, and the like. Users may selectively block access to such URLs by adding the URL to a rule set, e.g., a block list. However, to add a URL to the block list, the computer device may have already accessed the malicious content and harmed the computer device. As such, block listing URLs is a manual, time consuming process and may result in harm to a computer device before the malicious content is identified.
Therefore, there is a need for improved methods and apparatuses for providing computer security and identifying servers with malicious or otherwise undesirable content before such a server is accessed by the computer device.

Method and apparatus for providing IP address filtering


The invention relates to methods for producing lipids such as fatty acid products in recombinant host cells engineered to express a non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase. The recombinant microorganisms are able to proliferate at a higher rate as compared with microorganisms that do not express a non-native dehydrogenase gene, and cultures of microorganisms that are engineered for lipid production and that express a non-native dehydrogenase produce more lipid than cultures of control microorganisms that do not include a non-native dehydrogenase gene.

Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years. Fossil fuels are a finite, non-renewable resource.
Increased demand for energy by the global economy has also placed increasing pressure on the cost of hydrocarbons. Aside from energy, many industries, including plastics and chemical manufacturers, rely heavily on the availability of hydrocarbons as a feedstock for their manufacturing processes. Cost-effective alternatives to current sources of supply could help mitigate the upward pressure on energy and these raw material costs. Major efforts to this end are focused on the microbial production of high-energy fuels by cost-effective consolidated bioprocesses. However, some alternatives to fossils fuels production, such as fermentation-based approaches for generating combustible products rely on the use of a large quantity of carbohydrate-rich feedstock such as sugar cane, rice, corn, or the like. Use of such resources to produce combustible fuel has the undesirable consequence of increasing the market pressures on feed stocks, driving up the price of the world's food supply.
Fatty acids are composed of long alkyl chains and represent nature's petroleum, being a primary metabolite used by cells for both chemical and energy storage functions. These energy-rich molecules are today isolated from plant and animal oils for a diverse set of products ranging from fuels to oleochemicals. A more scalable, controllable and economical route to this important class of chemicals would be beneficial to the development of renewable energy sources.

Cell systems and methods for improving fatty acid synthesis by expression of dehydrogenases

ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company


The present disclosure provides a thermosetting resin composition including a benzoxazine component comprising two or more benzoxazine monomer compounds and at least one epoxy resin characterized in that a resultant cured product formed by curing the thermosetting resin composition possesses high heat resistance and low dielectric loss at high frequency. The thermosetting resin composition is especially suited for use in high speed printed circuit boards and semiconductor devices.

Articles prepared from resin compositions having improved resistance to elevated temperatures as well as low dielectric loss are desirable for many applications. In particular, such articles are desirable for use in prepregs and laminates for printed circuit board (PCB) and semiconductor applications as industries head toward higher circuit densities, increased board thickness, lead free solders, higher temperature and higher frequency use environments.
Laminates, and particularly structural and electrical copper clad laminates, are generally manufactured by pressing, under elevated temperatures and pressures, various layers of partially cured prepregs and optionally copper sheeting. Prepregs are generally manufactured by impregnating a curable thermosettable epoxy resin composition into a porous substrate, such as a glass fiber mat, followed by processing at elevated temperatures to promote a partial cure of the epoxy resin in the mat to a "B-stage." Complete cure of the epoxy resin impregnated in the glass fiber mat typically occurs during the lamination step when the prepreg layers are pressed under high pressure and elevated temperatures for a certain period of time.
While epoxy resin compositions are known to impart enhanced thermal properties for the manufacture of prepregs and laminates, such epoxy resin compositions are typically more difficult to process, more expensive to formulate, and may suffer from inferior performance capabilities for complex printed circuit board circuitry and for higher fabrication and usage temperatures.
In light of the above, there is a need in the art for resin compositions which may be used in preparing articles having improved thermal properties and low dielectric loss at high frequency and for processes to produce such articles.

Low dielectric loss thermoset resin system at high frequency for use in electrical components