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The present invention relates to, for example, a manufacturing technology of a semiconductor device in which a semiconductor chip mounted at a lead frame is sealed with a resin.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6(1994)-37231 (Patent Document 1), and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-347769 (Patent Document 2) describe as follows: a through hole is formed at a position of the lead frame overlapping the groove for air vent provided at a die for forming a sealing body.
Whereas, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 4 (1992)-96261 (Patent Document 3) describes as follows: a broad part for air vent is provided at a position in the opening provided at the corner part of the package of the lead frame overlapping the air vent part of the mold die, thereby to prevent leakage of a resin into the opening.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11(1999)-220087 (Patent Document 4), and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-258680 (Patent Document 5) describe a structure in which a groove for air vent is formed in the lead frame.
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The present invention relates to network attached storage (NAS), and more specifically, to NAS configuration.
Network attached storage is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration. NAS is often manufactured as a computer appliance (i.e. a purpose-built specialized computer). NAS implementations typically provide access to files using network file sharing protocols such as NFS or CIFS.
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The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Information retrieval typically requires a user to have a minimum level of skill with a particular query language. Furthermore, in order to properly construct a query, the user must often know how stored data is structured. For example, a user who wishes to retrieve information from a Structured Query Language (SQL) database may need to be familiar with both SQL and the database schema.
Although user interfaces may be used to push some of the requisite skill for users to programmers, the user interfaces may be limited in the complexity and efficiency of the queries they can be used to generate. For example, web interfaces that employ drop-down menus can be used to specify a limited number of predetermined query parameters. Furthermore, the predetermined query parameters may be used to construct a query that is executed in an inefficient order.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor apparatus mounted using solder or other metal bumps and a process of production of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital video cameras, digital cellular phones, notebook-type personal computers, and other portable electronic equipment have spread widely. There are mounting demands for reducing the size, reducing the thickness, and reducing the weight of these portable electronic equipment.
To realize this reduction in size, reduction in thickness, and reduction in weight of portable electronic equipment, the most important issue is the improvement of the mounting density of the components.
In particular, even in semiconductor ICs and other semiconductor devices, high density mounting technology using flip-chip-type semiconductor devices instead of the package-type semiconductor devices of the related art is being developed and put into practical use.
In the past, as the form of packaging of semiconductor apparatuses, use has been made of DIP (Dual Inline Package) or PGA (Pin Grid Array) and other through hole mounted devices (THD) mounted to printed circuit boards by inserting leads through holes provided there and QFP (Quad Flat (L-Leaded) Package) or TCP (Tape Carrier Package) or other surface mounted devices (SMD) mounted by soldering leads to the surfaces of the boards.
To further reduce sizes, attention has focused on the method of mounting a semiconductor chip with its pad opening surface facing the mounting board by a package called a chip size package (CSP, also called a FBGA (Fine-Pitch BGA)) for realizing further smaller sizes and higher densities to bring the package size extremely close to the size of the semiconductor chip (flip-chip mounting). Active research has been conducted up until now and numerous proposals have been made.
One of the mounting methods for mounting such a flip-chip type semiconductor device (flip-chip mounting) is for example the method of forming for example spherically shaped (ball shaped) solder bumps (solder ball bumps) on electrode pads comprised of aluminum (Al) etc. of a semiconductor IC and bringing the connection terminals of the semiconductor IC into contact with the solder ball bumps to directly mount the IC chip on a printed circuit board.
A semiconductor apparatus comprised of a CSP type semiconductor chip mounted on a mounting board will be explained with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 11 is a sectional view of the above semiconductor apparatus.
The surface of the semiconductor device (semiconductor wafer) 10 on which electrode pads 11 comprised of Al etc. are formed is covered for example by a first surface protective film 12 comprised of a silicon nitride layer and a second surface protective film 13 comprised of a polyimide layer in a state leaving only the electrode pad 11 portions open. Further, a conductive film 14 comprised of a stacked films of chrome (Cr), copper (Cu), gold (Au), etc. is formed at the openings of the electrode pad 11 portions to be connected to the electrode pads 11. The conductive film is sometimes called a BLM (Ball Limiting Metal) film.
Further, solder bumps 16b comprised of for example high melting point solder balls are formed connected to the conductive film (BLM film) 14.
A CSP type semiconductor chip 1 is constituted in this way.
On the other hand, the mounting board 2 is a board 20 comprised of for example a glass epoxy-based material on the top of which are provided lands (electrodes) 21 formed at positions corresponding to the positions of formation of the solder bumps 16b of the semiconductor chip 1 to be mounted and comprised of copper etc. and a not shown printed circuit connected to the lands 21 and formed on the front surface or back surface or the two surfaces of the board 20. The surface of the board 20 other than the land 21 portions is covered by a solder resist 23.
The above CSP type semiconductor chip 1 is mounted on the mounting board 2 with the bumps 16b aligned with the lands 21. The bumps 16b and lands 21 are mechanically and electrically connected by eutectic solder layers 19.
Further, the space between the CSP type semiconductor chip 1 and mounting board 2 is sealed by a sealing resin 3 comprised of an epoxy resin etc.
In the above semiconductor apparatus, as the method of forming the bumps at predetermined positions, for example there is known the method of using electrolytic plating. In this case, there is the disadvantage that the thickness of the solder bumps formed is affected by the surface conditions of the layer of material forming the underlayer of the bumps or the slight variation in the electrical resistance and that the formation of uniform solder bumps of the same height in a semiconductor chip is extremely difficult.
Therefore, a method is being developed for formation of solder ball bumps with a uniform height using formation of a solder film by vacuum deposition and lift-off of the photoresist layer.
This method will be explained below with reference to the drawings.
First, as shown in FIG. 12A, electrode pads 11 comprised of an aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu) alloy etc. are formed by patterning on a semiconductor wafer 10 formed with circuit patterns of semiconductor chips by for example the sputtering method or etching etc. and a surface protective film 13 comprised of for example a silicon nitride layer or polyimide layer etc. is formed on top of it covering the entire surface.
The electrode pad 11 portions of the surface protective layer 13 are opened, then for example a pattern is formed by the sputtering method so as to connect a conductive layer (BLM layer) 14 comprised of a stacked film of chrome, copper, and gold to the electrode pads 11.
Next, as shown in FIG. 12B, a resist film R2 having pattern openings P is formed by patterning at the conductive film (BLM film) 14 forming areas by a photolithography step.
Next, as shown in FIG. 12C, solder layers 16 are formed in the pattern openings P of the resist film R2 by forming a solder layer over the entire surface by for example a vacuum evaporation method. At this time, solder layers 16a are formed over the resist film R2 as well.
Next, as shown in FIG. 13A, the solder layers 16a formed over the resist film R2 are simultaneously removed by removing the resist film R2 by lift-off. Due to this, it is possible to leave only the solder layers 16 formed in the pattern openings P of the resist film R2.
Next, as shown in FIG. 13B, heat treatment is performed to make the solder layers 16 melt. These are cooled and solidified in a state forming spheres due to the surface tension so as to form solder ball bumps 16b.
As explained above, the solder ball bumps 16b are formed in the semiconductor wafer state (that is, the state before being cut into individual semiconductor chips).
The semiconductor wafer formed with the solder ball bumps 16b in this way is cut by dicing etc. into individual semiconductor chips, then as shown in FIG. 11, the solder ball bumps 16b are made to abut against the lands 21 comprised of Cu etc. formed on the board 20 of the mounting board 2.
Here, the board 20 is covered by a solder resist 23 over its entire front surface except for the lands 21 and is precoated by a eutectic solder layer 19 over the areas of the lands 21 or the surfaces of the solder ball bumps 16b.
Therefore, using a reflow step, the eutectic solder 19 is melted and the melted eutectic solder enters between the solder ball bumps 16b and lands 21. By cooling and hardening it, the solder ball bumps 16b are soldered and electrically connected to the lands 21.
The thermal stress becomes a major disadvantage for the reliability of the joint by the bumps after flip-chip mounting due to the differences in the coefficients of heat expansion of the semiconductor chips and the mounting board (printed circuit board).
While the coefficient of heat expansion of silicon is 3.4 ppm/° C., the coefficient of heat expansion of the generally widely used glass epoxy-based mounting board is a large about 15 ppm/° C. When thermal stress is repeatedly applied to bump joints by the temperature difference caused by the on/off operation of a chip, cracks are caused in the joints and breakage or malfunctions are caused in some cases.
To deal with the above disadvantage, as shown in FIG. 11, the method is generally adopted of injecting a sealing resin 3 between the semiconductor chips 1 and mounting board 2 and relieving the thermal stress applied to the weak strength bump joints by having the stress of heat expansion received by the sealing resin as a whole.
In the above flip-chip mounting method of the related art, however, since the semiconductor chips and the mounting board are secured by a sealing resin, when a defect occurs in a device chip, the only method was to discard the entire mounting board 2 on which that semiconductor chip 1 was mounted or apply a chemical or mechanical external force to forcibly tear off that semiconductor chip.
Here, the replacement of the entire mounting board 2 of the former case has the disadvantage of the cost ending up higher, while the forcibly tearing off of the semiconductor chip 1 of the latter case ends up damaging the mounting board 2.
Therefore, the work of replacing a defective component in the case of a defect occurring in a semiconductor chip 1, that is, the so-called rework, is difficult. This has become one factor behind the failure of flip-chip mounting from spreading widely.
Further, along with the reduction of pitch accompanying the reduction of size of semiconductor devices, at the time of injection of the sealing resin, the circulation of the sealing resin 3 becomes poor and full injection of the sealing resin 3 can no longer be achieved, so there is also the disadvantage that the thermal stress cannot be sufficiently relieved.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dielectric recording/reproducing head, a dielectric recording apparatus, a dielectric reproducing apparatus, and a dielectric recording/reproducing apparatus for recording information with multivalued data in microdomains of a dielectric substance or for reproducing it.
2. Description of the Related Art
As high-density, large-capacity recording/reproducing apparatuses of randomly accessible type, there are known an optical disk apparatus and a hard disk drive (HDD) apparatus. Moreover, a recording/reproducing technique using a scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy (SNDM) for nanoscale analysis of a dielectric (ferroelectric) substance has been recently proposed by the inventors of the present invention.
Optical recording uses an optical pickup with a laser as a light source. Data is recorded by forming pits that are concavo-convex on a disk surface or by forming the crystal phase in a phase shift medium. The data is reproduced by using the difference in the reflectance between an amorphous phase and a crystal phase or by using magneto optical effect. However, the pickup is relatively large, which is inappropriate for high-speed reading. Also, the size of the recording pit is defined by the diffraction limit of light, so that its recording density is limited to 50 G bit/inch2.
In the longitudinal recording of magnetic recording as represented by the HDD, a magnetic resistance (MR) head has been recently realized by using giant magnetic resistance (GMR). Its recording density is expected to be larger than that of the optical disk by using perpendicular magnetic recording. However, the recording density is limited to 1 T bit/inch2 because of thermal fluctuation of magnetic recording information and the presence of a Bloch wall in a portion in which a code is reversed, even if patterned media are used in view of the above cause.
The SNDM can distinguish the plus or minus of a ferroelectric domain by measuring a non-linear dielectric constant in a ferroelectric material. Moreover, it is known that the SNDM has sub-nanometer resolution with an electrically conductive cantilever having a small probe on its tip, which is used for atomic force microscopy (AFM) or the like.
In the recording/reproducing apparatus using the current SNDM technique, a head is provided with: a probe; an inductor connected with the probe; an oscillator which is also connected with the probe; and a return electrode for returning a high-frequency electric field which is applied from the tip of the probe and then passed through a ferroelectric recording medium. A resonance circuit is formed from a capacitance of the ferroelectric recording medium just under the probe and from the inductor. Data reproduction is performed by detecting changes in oscillation frequency in polarization states in the vertical direction of the surface of the ferroelectric recording medium. Moreover, data recording is performed by applying an electric field from the probe to the ferroelectric recording medium in the vertical direction of the surface of the ferroelectric recording medium and by forming the polarization states corresponding to the data in the vertical direction of the surface of the ferroelectric recording medium. Namely, information recorded in the ferroelectric material is binary data, which is either “0” or “1”, and the information is recorded in the ferroelectric recording medium as polarization directions in the vertical direction of the surface of the ferroelectric recording medium.
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The systems and methods according to this disclosure are directed to reducing data recovery errors including low frequency distortions that can degrade the quality of timing loop information and/or detection of address information in digital data recording systems, particularly those in which data is recorded on recordable or re-recordable optical disc data storage media.
With a need to provide removable non-volatile data storage media on which increasing amounts of data can be recorded and/or re-recorded, optical disc data storage media have proven both comprehensive and flexible enough to support expanding data storage requirements. Optical disc data storage relates to placing data on a recordable, re-recordable and/or readable surface of an optical disc. In general, to record data on, or recover data previously recorded on, an optical disc, a light beam is used to scan the surface of the optical disc using systems specifically designed for such data recovery. Currently-available recordable or re-recordable optical disc data storage media include: CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable), DVD-R (Digital Video Disc-Recordable), DVD-RW (DVD-Rewritable), DVD+R (Writable Optical Disc), DVD+RW (Rewritable Optical Disc), DVD-RAM (DVD-Random Access Memory), and new technology higher density recordable or re-recordable optical data storage discs known as BD technology, such as HD-DVD (High Density-DVD or High Definition-DVD) and Blu-ray Discs.
Differing methodologies are, therefore, required by which, when data is recorded or re-recorded to such optical disc data storage media, a timing synchronization signal is provided, monitored and adjusted in order that the readback, or data retrieval, system is cued to retrieve the discretely recorded or re-recorded data from a discrete portion of the disc at the precise speed with which the data was recorded.
A conventional optical disc formatted for land-groove recording is shown in exemplary embodiment in FIG. 1. Digital data is stored on such optical discs in the form of arrangements of data marks in spiral tracks. As shown in FIG. 1, grooves 100 and lands 110 are formed by means of a guide channel cut into the surface of a disc substrate. A recording layer (not identified) is then formed over the entire disc surface including the surfaces of the grooves 100 and the lands 110. The grooves 100 and the lands 110 each form continuous recording tracks on the disc. Data recording and reproducing are accomplished with such an optical disc storage medium by scanning the groove recording track or the land recording track with a focused light beam spot of an optical disc drive device, as shown in, and described in connection with, FIGS. 2 and 3 below. It should be noted that, in some formats, data is recorded both on lands and grooves. In other formats, data is recorded only in the grooves.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary conventional apparatus for implementing a process to write data to an optical disc data storage medium. As shown in FIG. 2, an input stream of digital information 200 is converted using an encoding/modulating unit (encoder/modulator) 205 into a drive signal 210 for a light source such as a laser source 220. The laser source 220 emits a light beam 225 that is directed toward, and focused onto, a recording surface 250 of an optical disc data storage medium 245. The focusing of the light beam 225 typically involves an illumination optics unit 230 to produce a very precise scanning spot 240. The diameter of the scanning spot 240 precisely coincides with the width of the groove and/or the land in the optical disc data storage medium 245. In order to accommodate more information on a single optical disc data storage medium, the lands and the grooves are made individually thinner in a radial direction requiring that the illumination optics unit 230 ever-more-precisely focus the scanning spot 240, thereby reducing the diameter of the scanning spot 240. As the surface 250 of optical disc data storage medium 245 is rotated under the scanning spot 240, energy from the scanning spot 240 is absorbed by a surface treatment on the surface 250 of the optical disc data storage medium 245 through heating of a small, localized region of the surface 250. The reflective properties of the surface 250 of the optical disc data storage medium 245 are thus locally discretely altered in accordance with, and to reflect recording of, the input data stream 200. Modulation of the light beam 225 is synchronous with the drive signal 210, so a circular track of data marks is formed as newly written data 235 as the surface 250 rotates.
FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary conventional apparatus for implementing a process to read data from an optical disc data storage medium. As shown in FIG. 3, a light beam 305 from a light source such as a laser source 300 (which may be the same as the writing laser source 220 shown in FIG. 2) is directed through a beam splitter device 310 into an illumination optics unit 320 (which may be the same as illumination optics unit 230 shown in FIG. 2) to focus the light beam 305 onto a surface 340 of the recorded optical disc data storage medium 335. As previously-recorded data marks to be read 345 pass under a scanning spot 350, light is reflected toward the illumination optics unit 320. Reflected light is collected by the illumination optics unit 320 and directed by the beam splitter 310 toward a collector of a data optics unit 360. The data optics unit 360 converges the reflected light onto one or more detectors in a light detector array 370. Detectors in the detector array 370 convert the reflected light into a current modulated signal 375. This collected current modulated signal 375 is amplified and/or decoded in an amplifier/decoder unit 380 to produce an output data stream 385 that corresponds to the previously-recorded data marks to be read 345 from the surface 340 of the optical disc data storage medium 335.
In data storage applications, inclusion of synchronizing marks, also referred to as timing information marks, and physical location information, are essential for recording data at a certain location on the optical disc data storage medium to facilitate, among other capabilities, finding the data location at a later time. A sector number, sector type and a land track/groove track can be recognized from the address information. In other words, the address information provides information for finding a specified sector to record/reproduce data to/from a certain location in an optical disc data storage medium.
When data is stored randomly on an optical disc data storage medium, various methods are included in the recording process to encode address and timing synchronization information. One method includes recording such information on, for example, a non-data area or non-recording area of the optical disc data storage medium by forming embossed pits separately from data recording sectors. These pits are pre-formed and then during the recording process recorded with non-data information to facilitate data identification and location, and timing synchronization for readback. A drawback to this method, however, is that these pre-pitted areas reduce the effective recording area of the optical disc data storage medium. Another method employed, particularly for higher density recording applications, is referred to as “wobbling” in which the lands and grooves of an optical disc data storage medium are pre-wobbled, in a radial direction, at a specific frequency.
FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a conventional optical disc data storage medium 400 into which a predetermined reference wobble 410 is physically encoded, i.e., the grooves (and/or lands) of the recordable surface of the optical disc data storage medium are physically pre-wobbled at a given frequency. As shown in FIG. 4, a sinusoidal wave with an amplitude in a radial direction is physically introduced into the grooves. When data is recorded, frequency or phase modulation is then performed around this reference wobble. Alternatively, land pre-pits may be performed on the wobble signal to carry data, such as address information. The address information is encoded in a modulated wobble signal, and introduced, for example, with a measurable, modulated signal offset when the data is recorded to the optical disc data storage medium 400. During readback of, and/or other recovery of data from, the optical disc data storage medium, an address of the pre-recorded data may be identified by demodulating the recorded wobble signal from the reference wobble. Timing synchronization information for, for example, controlling rotation speed of the optical disc data storage medium precisely to facilitate clear readback or data recovery may be implemented by demodulating a modulated wobble signal in comparison to a wobble reference signal. Precise timing synchronization for readback and/or other data recovery is implemented through use of a timing loop such as, for example, a phase-locked loop to control a readback speed of data from a sector of the optical disc data storage medium in response to the demodulated recorded wobble signal.
Errors in detecting and properly employing a wobble signal may be introduced by, for example, presence of low frequency distortion and/or a DC-offset component in the wobble signal.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a circuit board such as an IC board, and more particularly, to a circuit board constructed using a functionally gradient material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, circuit boards made of various materials have been used so as to construct an electronic circuit. Of the circuit boards, a high power IC board and a power module board are constructed using a material superior in thermal conductivity because a circuit element carried thereon generates a great amount of heat.
One example of the circuit boards constructed using, for example, a metal material is shown in FIG. 6. A metal composite board 1 shown in FIG. 6 has a structure in which a metal plate 1a made of aluminum or the like, a synthetic resin layer 1b made of epoxy resin or the like, and a copper foil 1c are laminated. In the metal composite board 1, heat generated in a circuit element carried thereon is effectively radiated utilizing high thermal conductivity of the metal plate 1a. In addition, the metal composite board 1 is superior in mechanical strength to a ceramic board because it uses the metal plate 1a as a base material.
However, the metal composite board 1 has the disadvantage in that it is not sufficiently high in heat resistance so that it is liable to be softened at a temperature of a maximum of 300.degree. C. because the synthetic resin layer 1b is provided so as to achieve electrical insulation.
Moreover, since the metal composite board 1 has the above described laminated structure, it also has the disadvantage in that thermal stress is concentrated on the boundary between the layers due to the difference in coefficients of thermal expansion of materials of the respective layers, so that stripping or the like is liable to occur in the boundary between the layers due to heat shock.
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RNA interference (RNAi) is a potent method to suppress gene expression in mammalian cells, and has generated much excitement in the scientific community (Couzin, 2002, Science 298:2296-2297; McManus et al., 2002, Nat. Rev. Genet. 3, 737-747; Hannon, G. J., 2002, Nature 418, 244-251; Paddison et al., 2002, Cancer Cell 2, 17-23). RNA interference is conserved throughout evolution, from C. elegans to humans, and is believed to function in protecting cells from invasion by RNA viruses. When a cell is infected by a dsRNA virus, the dsRNA is recognized and targeted for cleavage by an RNaseIII-type enzyme termed Dicer. The Dicer enzyme “dices” the RNA into short duplexes of 21 nt, termed siRNAs or short-interfering RNAs, composed of 19 nt of perfectly paired ribonucleotides with two unpaired nucleotides on the 3′ end of each strand. These short duplexes associate with a multiprotein complex termed RISC, and direct this complex to mRNA transcripts with sequence similarity to the siRNA. As a result, nucleases present in the RISC complex cleave the mRNA transcript, thereby abolishing expression of the gene product. In the case of viral infection, this mechanism would result in destruction of viral transcripts, thus preventing viral synthesis. Since the siRNAs are double-stranded, either strand has the potential to associate with RISC and direct silencing of transcripts with sequence similarity.
Specific gene silencing promises the potential to harness human genome data to elucidate gene function, identify drug targets, and develop more specific therapeutics. Many of these applications assume a high degree of specificity of siRNAs for their intended targets. Cross-hybridization with transcripts containing partial identity to the siRNA sequence may elicit phenotypes reflecting silencing of unintended transcripts in addition to the target gene. This could confound the identification of the gene implicated in the phenotype. Numerous reports in the literature purport the exquisite specificity of siRNAs, suggesting a requirement for near-perfect identity with the siRNA sequence (Elbashir et al., 2001. EMBO J. 20:6877-6888; Tuschl et al., 1999, Genes Dev. 13:3191-3197; Hutvagner et al., Sciencexpress 297:2056-2060). One recent report suggests that perfect sequence complementarity is required for siRNA-targeted transcript cleavage, while partial complementarity will lead to translational repression without transcript degradation, in the manner of microRNAs (Hutvagner et al., Sciencexpress 297:2056-2060).
The biological function of small regulatory RNAs, including siRNAs and miRNAs is not well understood. One prevailing question regards the mechanism by which the distinct silencing pathways of these two classes of regulatory RNA are determined. miRNAs are regulatory RNAs expressed from the genome, and are processed from precursor stem-loop structures to produce single-stranded nucleic acids that bind to sequences in the 3′ UTR of the target mRNA (Lee et al., 1993, Cell 75:843-854; Reinhart et al., 2000, Nature 403:901-906; Lee et al., 2001, Science 294:862-864; Lau et al., 2001, Science 294:858-862; Hutvagner et al., 2001, Science 293:834-838). miRNAs bind to transcript sequences with only partial complementarity (Zeng et al., 2002, Molec. Cell 9:1327-1333) and repress translation without affecting steady-state RNA levels (Lee et al., 1993, Cell 75:843-854; Wightman et al., 1993, Cell 75:855-862). Both miRNAs and siRNAs are processed by Dicer and associate with components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (Hutvagner et al., 2001, Science 293:834-838; Grishok et al., 2001, Cell 106: 23-34; Ketting et al., 2001, Genes Dev. 15:2654-2659; Williams et al., 2002, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:6889-6894; Hammond et al., 2001, Science 293:1146-1150; Mourlatos et al., 2002, Genes Dev. 16:720-728). A recent report (Hutvagner et al., 2002, Sciencexpress 297:2056-2060) hypothesizes that gene regulation through the miRNA pathway versus the siRNA pathway is determined solely by the degree of complementarity to the target transcript. It is speculated that siRNAs with only partial identity to the mRNA target will function in translational repression, similar to an miRNA, rather than triggering RNA degradation.
It has also been shown that siRNA and shRNA can be used to silence genes in vivo. The ability to utilize siRNA and shRNA for gene silencing in vivo has the potential to enable selection and development of siRNAs for therapeutic use. A recent report highlights the potential therapeutic application of siRNAs. Fas-mediated apoptosis is implicated in a broad spectrum of liver diseases, where lives could be saved by inhibiting apoptotic death of hepatocytes. Song (Song et al. 2003, Nat. Medicine 9, 347-351) injected mice intravenously with siRNA targeted to the Fas receptor. The Fas gene was silenced in mouse hepatocytes at the mRNA and protein levels, prevented apoptosis, and protected the mice from hepatitis-induced liver damage. Thus, silencing Fas expression holds therapeutic promise to prevent liver injury by protecting hepatocytes from cytotoxicity. As another example, injected mice intraperitoneally with siRNA targeting TNF-a. Lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-a gene expression was inhibited, and these mice were protected from sepsis. Collectively, these results suggest that siRNAs can function in vivo, and may hold potential as therapeutic drugs (Sorensen et al., 2003, J. Mol. Biol. 327, 761-766).
Martinez et al. reported that RNA interference can be used to selectively target oncogenic mutations (Martinez et al., 2002, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:14849-14854). In this report, an siRNA that targets the region of the R248W mutant of p53 containing the point mutation was shown to silence the expression of the mutant p53 but not the wild-type p53.
Wilda et al. reported that an siRNA targeting the M-BCR/ABL fusion mRNA can be used to deplete the M-BCR/ABL mRNA and the M-BRC/ABL oncoprotein in leukemic cells (Wilda et al., 2002, Oncogene 21:5716-5724). However, the report also showed that applying the siRNA in combination with Imatinib, a small-molecule ABL kinase tyrosine inhibitor, to leukemic cells did not further increase in the induction of apoptosis.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,559 discloses a RNA interference process for inhibiting expression of a target gene in a cell. The process comprises introducing partially or fully doubled-stranded RNA having a sequence in the duplex region that is identical to a sequence in the target gene into the cell or into the extracellular environment. RNA sequences with insertions, deletions, and single point mutations relative to the target sequence are also found as effective for expression inhibition.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0086356 discloses RNA interference in a Drosophila in vitro system using RNA segments 21-23 nucleotides (nt) in length. The patent application publication teaches that when these 21-23 nt fragments are purified and added back to Drosophila extracts, they mediate sequence-specific RNA interference in the absence of long dsRNA. The patent application publication also teaches that chemically synthesized oligonucleotides of the same or similar nature can also be used to target specific mRNAs for degradation in mammalian cells.
PCT publication WO 02/44321 discloses that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) 19-23 nt in length induces sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing in a Drosophila in vitro system. The PCT publication teaches that short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) generated by an RNase III-like processing reaction from long dsRNA or chemically synthesized siRNA duplexes with overhanging 3′ ends mediate efficient target RNA cleavage in the lysate, and the cleavage site is located near the center of the region spanned by the guiding siRNA. The PCT publication also provides evidence that the direction of dsRNA processing determines whether sense or antisense-identical target RNA can be cleaved by the produced siRNP complex.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0162126 discloses a method for attenuating expression of a target gene in cultured cells by introducing double stranded RNA (dsRNA) that comprises a nucleotide sequence that hybridizes under stringent conditions to a nucleotide sequence of the target gene into the cells in an amount sufficient to attenuate expression of the target gene.
PCT publication WO 03/006477 discloses engineered RNA precursors that when expressed in a cell are processed by the cell to produce targeted small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that selectively silence targeted genes (by cleaving specific mRNAs) using the cell's own RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. The PCT publication teaches that by introducing nucleic acid molecules that encode these engineered RNA precursors into cells in vivo with appropriate regulatory sequences, expression of the engineered RNA precursors can be selectively controlled both temporally and spatially, i.e., at particular times and/or in particular tissues, organs, or cells.
Elbashir et al. disclosed a systematic analysis of the length, secondary structure, sugar backbone and sequence specificity of siRNA for RNAi (Elbashir et al., 2001. EMBO J. 20:6877-6888). Based on the analysis, Elbashir proposed rules for designing siRNAs.
Aza-Blanc et al. reported correlations between silencing efficacy and GC content of the 5′ and 3′ regions of the 19 bp target sequence (Aza-Blanc et al., 2003, Mol. Cell. 12:627-637). It was found that siRNAs targeting sequences with a GC rich 5′ and GC poor 3′ perform the best.
Discussion or citation of a reference herein shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is prior art to the present invention.
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The present invention relates to a temporary memory means adapted to couple an electronic calculator means and a recording means. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transmission means adapted to couple an electronic calculator means and a tape punch recorder means, receive information in decimal form from the calculator, convert the same to another form and transmit information to the recorder; and more particularly including a lock-up means to prevent information from being transmitted from a calculator producing output data at a speed greater than it can be received by the recorder.
In the art of performing mathematical operations on data and ultimately recording the results of the mathematical operations, the means for performing the mathematical operations often can be operated to produce results faster than the means for recording the results can receive and record the same. This is particularly true where an electronic calculator means, such as a decimal-type calculator, is to be used in conjunction with a recorder means, such as a tape punch recorder. While it is desirable, in this specific arrangement, to convert information to binary form and back to decimal form, in the process of transmittal, such conversion can also be performed at a speed greater than that at which the information can be received and recorded when using slower mechanical type recorders.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved transmission means for coupling a calculator means and a recorder means.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling a calculator means to a recorder means, which includes means for preventing the transmission of information from the calculator to the recorder at such times as the recorder is unable to receive and record such information.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling a calculator means to a recorder means, which includes means for preventing entry of information into the calculator at such times as the recorder is unable to receive and record such information.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling a calculator means to a recorder means, which includes means for converting information from binary form to decimal form and vice versa.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling an electronic calculator means to a tape punch recorder means.
Another and further object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling an electronic calculator, which produces information in decimal form, to a tape punch recorder means, which receives information in decimal form.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling an electronic calculator, which produces information in decimal form, to a tape punch recorder means, which receives information in decimal form, which includes means for preventing the transmission of information from the calculator to the recorder at such times as the recorder is unable to receive and record such information.
Another and further object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling an electronic calculator, which produces information in decimal form, to a tape punch recorder means, which includes means for preventing entry of information into the calculator at such times as the recorder is unable to receive and record such information.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling an electronic calculator, which produces information in decimal form, to a tape punch recorder means, which includes means for converting information in binary form to decimal form and vice versa.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved transmission means for coupling a calculator means, which produces information in decimal form, to a recorder means, which includes memory means.
A further object of the present invention is to provide transmission means for coupling a calculator means, which produces information in decimal form, to a recorder means, which includes memory means and means for converting information in binary form to digital form and vice versa.
Another object of the present invention is to provide transmission means for coupling a calculator means, which produces information in decimal form, to a recorder means, which includes memory means, means for converting information in binary form to digital form and vice versa and means for preventing the transmission of information from the calculator to the recorder at such times as the recorder is unable to receive and record such information.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the drawings.
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A variety of elongate implantable medical devices, for example, drug delivery catheters and medical electrical leads, are known in the art, for example, to couple a therapy delivery generator and/or diagnostic devices to a target site within a body of a patient, for example, in the spinal column or in any of a number of internal organs. Those skilled in the art are familiar with apparatus and methods for anchoring these implanted devices. FIG. 1A is a schematic depicting a surgical incision site 12 through which an exemplary elongate medical device 110 has been implanted. FIG. 1A illustrates a length of device 110 extending proximally out from site 12 and an anchor sleeve 10 surrounding a body of device 110, for example, with a relatively tight, interference fit, to facilitate anchoring of device 110 to subcutaneous fascia 14, for example, via sutures tied thereabout and sewn into the fascia 14. Anchor sleeve 10 may be any of a variety of types known in the art such as types 10A, 10B and 10C shown in FIG. 1B. In order to properly position such a snug fitting anchor sleeve 10 around the body of implanted device 110, an anchor deployment tool may be employed. Examples of such a tool are described in a co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application having the pre-grant publication no. 2011/0040257, and the Ser. No. 12/896,147.
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This invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording and detecting indicating signals, commonly referred to as "cue" signals on a record medium in recording and/or reproducing apparatus and, more particularly, wherein such cue signals are used to indicate the relative locations of particular information, such as ends of messages, instructions, and the like, recorded on a record medium.
In many recording/reproducing devices, such as dictation/transcription machines, it is desirable to provide indications of different types of information which is recorded on the record medium used with such machines. Typically, these indications have been categorized broadly as "letter" and "instruction" indications, referring to the relative location of the end of a letter and of a dictated instruction, respectively. Such indications generally are helpful to a transcriptionist in transcribing the information which a dictator has recorded. In earlier machines, such indications are provided by suitable marks which are scribed on an index scale as the dictator is recording his message. Of course, when the record medium is loaded into a transcribing machine for transcription of the dictated messages, the prepared index scale also must be loaded into that machine so as to apprise the operator of the relative locations of the "letters" and "instructions" which have been recorded.
A marked improvement to the use of such scribed index scales for indicating the locations of ends of letters and instructions has been developed, whereby "letter" and "instruction" signals are electronically recorded on the very same record medium upon which the dictated messages are recorded. These signals, commonly referred to as "cue" signals, are of a predetermined frequency and can be detected electronically by suitable devices in the dictation/transcription machine prior to the transcription of the dictated information. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,540, wherein visual indicators, such as light emitting diodes (LED's) are selectively energized to provide appropriate indications of the locations of such recorded cue signals. An improvement to this system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,893, wherein the visual indicators are controlled by a microprocessor.
In the electronic indicator systems disclosed in the aforenoted patents, particular electronic circuits are utilized to record and detect the cue signals. Typically, a recorded cue signal is formed of a burst of an oscillating tone of predetermined frequency. The burst is of a predetermined duration. When the record medium is driven at relatively high speeds in either the forward or reverse direction, the recorded bursts of cue signals are detected and indicated.
In some dictation/transcription machines in which cue signals are recorded, the very same burst of cue signal is used to indicate the location of an end of letter and of an instruction. If a so-called "letter cue" cannot be distinguished from a so-called "instruction cue", the transcriptionist may not easily discern the whereabouts of such information, thus complicating the transcription of the recorded information. Accordingly, it has been proposed that separate letter and instruction cue signals be recorded. In one such proposal, these different types of cue signals are recorded with different frequencies. However, this adds to the complexity of the cue signal recording and detecting circuitry, thus adding to the overall cost of the dictation/transcription machine. In accordance with another proposal, it has been suggested that separate tracks be dedicated for the recording of the letter and instruction cue signals, respectively. This, however, reduces the amount of record medium which is available for recording useful information, such as the dictator's messages.
It is one advantageous feature of the present invention to record separately distinguishable letter and instruction cue signals which overcome the aforenoted disadvantages.
With the advent of the microprocessor, various switching and control functions which heretofore have been carried out by discrete circuitry, electro-mechanical switching devices, and the like, now can be carried out under microprocessor control. By substituting a single microprocessor for multiple circuits and switching devices, the overall cost of the equipment which contains that microprocessor has been reduced and, moreover, reliability is improved. In accordance with yet another advantageous feature of the present invention, a microprocessor is used in a dictation/transcription machine to control the operation thereof as selected by the dictator or transcriptionist in accordance with his actuation of various control switches. The capacity of this microprocessor is sufficiently adequate such that it also is used to control the recording and detection of the aforementioned letter and instruction cue signals.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing integrated circuits and other electronic devices. More particularly, the invention relats to an improved process for photoresist patterning in the manufacturing of integrated circuits and other electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The manufacture of integrated circutis requires an accurate and precise method to form patterns on wafers to delineate the areas for subsequent doping, isolation, and/or internal interconnection. The technology involved in the generation of these patterns is known as microlithography and it involves the following steps: (a) a mask or reticle is made with the required information, (b) a thin layer of a photosensitive polymer known as photoresist is coated onto the wafer, (c) the photoresist is exposed through the mask using the appropriate ultraviolet radiation, and (d) a relief image is formed using a suitable solvent called the developer.
The subsequent steps: etching, doping or deposition are carried out under vacuum. If as many as possible of the lithography steps could also be carried under vacuum, the level of particle contamination could be reduced. In the past the development of photoresist patterns in a dry environment has required the deposition of several film layers, such as: a top imaging layer, an intermediate layer to be used as a mask, and a bottom planarizing layer. This scheme, however, increases process complexity and is one of the main reasons why dry-development of photoresists has found no use in volume production of semiconductor devices. In addition of that, dry development of photoresists offers several advantages over conventional photoresist processing, among others less sensitivity to the rflectivity and topography of the underlying substrate.
Surface-sensitive processes,where only the surface of the resist needs to be exposed offer the performance advantages of multilayer schemes with the simplicity of single layer processing. The best known such processes is the so-called "DESIRE" process. This process consists in selectively incorporating silicon-containing species in the exposed areas of the photoresist from the gas phase using a silylating agent such as hexamethyldisilazane amine, HMDS. In an oxygen plasma, the regions that have incorporated silicon turn into silicon dioxide. This protects the underlying photoresist from the oxygen plasma whereas the unexposed regions are etched away in the plasma, with the end result that a relieve image is formed.
If the silylation, the dry-develop, the subsequent substrate etch and resist removal could be performed sequentially in the same chamber, in separate chambers with of the same piece of equipment, in separate chambers with vacuum wafer transfer, lower particle contamination could be achieved. This in turn would improve the yield,and increase throughput. Furthermore, in low volume production of application specific devices, higher equipment utilization can be achieved reducing initial capital requirements.
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Klebsiella pneumoniae is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium colonizing mostly of the respiratory and urinary tracts and causing K. pneumoniae infections (KPIs). KPI is the main cause of nosocomial infections, primarily affecting immunocompromised patients. In the last ten years, infections caused by K. pneumoniae are becoming an important challenge in health-care settings due to the emergence of strains resistant to almost all available antimicrobial agents and their worldwide dissemination. Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) are responsible of high rates of morbidity and mortality. Thus, prevention of infections caused by CRKP is highly desirable, and vaccination of risk groups is the most cost-efficient and the most powerful means for avoiding future outbreaks of CRKP. Although, during the last 40 years, many attempts aiming at developing effective vaccines against K. pneumoniae were reported, up to present, there is no vaccine available for prophylactic or therapeutic use against carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections.
Like most bacteria, K. pneumoniae usually develop capsules composed of complex polysaccharides on the bacterial surface, which are highly immunogenic and nontoxic. In comparison with proteins, carbohydrates are evolutionarily more stable and have been exploited in a series of commonly employed vaccines. When covalently connected to a carrier protein, oligosaccharide antigens can elicit long lasting, T-cell-dependent protection.
The repeating unit of the capsular polysaccharide of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae strains responsible of the outbreaks occurring in 2011 was elucidated (Carbohydr. Res. 2013, 369, 6-9) and consists of α-L-Rha-(1→4)-[β-D-Gal-(1→3)]-α-D-GalA-(1→2)-α-L-Rha-(1→2)-α-L-Rha-(1→2)-α-L-Rha (see FIG. 1).
The structure of the capsular repeating of Klebsiella K19 was also elucidated (Carbohydr. Res. 1986, 157, 13) and consists of a hexasaccharide repeating unit, which structurally differs from the saccharides claimed herein.
Repeating unit of capsular polysaccharide from Klebsiella pneumoniae K19
The capsular polysaccharide from Klebsiella pneumoniae K19, the capsular polysaccharide from Klebsiella pneumoniae K19 without the branching α-L-Rhap and the disaccharide αGlc1→3Gal-OH obtained via partial hydrolysis of said capsular polysaccharide were isolated. However, the isolated structures differ significantly from the saccharides claimed in the present patent application.
WO 9830224 A1 provides a composition for inhibiting IgE antibody production and response in vivo comprising a capsule component of a Klebsiella oxytoca and
Klebsiella pneumoniae, or a fragment thereof produced by treatment of said capsule with an acid, a base or a reducing agent. Besides the fact that Klebsiella oxytoca and Klebsiella pneumoniae strain 19 have a capsular polysaccharide repeating unit which structurally differs from the saccharides provided in the present patent application, the isolated polysaccharides of WO 9830224 A1 are in fact mixtures of several polysaccharides having an average molecular weight superior to 1×105 i.e. significantly higher than the saccharides of the present invention.
EP 0735049 A2 provides a process for producing a polysaccharide having the following repeating unit:
from polysaccharide-productive Klebsiella oxytoca TNM-3. The disclosed heteropolysaccharide having a molecular weight of 1000 to 10000000 is used as humectant, antistatic agent, film-forming agent or dispersant. The repeating unit of the polysaccharide disclosed by EP 0735049 A2 differs from the saccharidic structure of the compounds claimed in the present invention by the presence of an α-D-Glc residue instead of an α-L-Rha residue. Additionally, the isolated polysaccharides of EP 0735049 A2 are in fact mixtures of several polysaccharides having an average molecular weight of about 106.
It is the objective of the present invention to provide a well-defined synthetic saccharide of general formula (I) that is related to carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae capsular polysaccharide and contains a protective immunogenic glycan epitope i.e. a glycan epitope that elicits antibodies which protect against diseases caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Said saccharide can be conjugated to an immunogenic carrier to provide a conjugate and pharmaceutical composition thereof that are useful for prevention and/or treatment of diseases associated with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Furthermore, the synthetic saccharide of general formula (I) is useful as marker in immunological assays for detection of antibodies against carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria.
The objective of the present invention is solved by the teaching of the independent claims. Further advantageous features, aspects and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims, the description, the figures, and the examples of the present application.
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In a thermal printer for displaying a digital image, a thermal print head having a plurality of heaters is activated to transfer dye from a dye carrier medium to an image receiver such as paper. To achieve a continuous tone, the heaters in the thermal print head are modulated to transfer desired amounts of dye for each pixel in the image. The digital image is typically stored as a number of lines of multi-bit pixels, where the value of each pixel represents the gradation value of the pixel. The task of modulating the print head involves converting the lines of multi-bit pixel values into a number of lines of single bit serial data which are sent to a shift register in the print head as shown in FIG. 3.
A typical serial print head as illustrated in FIG. 3 has a number of heating resistors 50 arranged in a linear array. The head also has a solid state serial input shift register 52. The print head shown (as an example) has 512 resistors, and a single serial shift register that has 512 elements. Each shift register element acts as a digital switch, a 0 bit in the element will not close the switch, a 1 bit will. When the digital switch is closed, current flows from the DC head voltage supply to the DC head ground when a printing pulse is applied. A resistor that is energized will heat up, and cause thermal dye to be deposited on the print.
To energize the print head, a stream of 512 modulation bits must be clocked into the shift register 52. One bit must be put into each shift register element regardless whether that resistor will be turned on or not. Every time the print head is to be energized, a stream of 512 modulation bits must be clocked into the shift register.
Known modulation methods include “Modulation by Comparison” and “Decrement Until Zero”, which will be described below.
Modulation by Comparison
One known method of producing serial modulation bits involves repeatedly comparing a pixel to an incrementally changing threshold value. This method has for example been discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,427 issued Jun. 14, 1994 to Agar et al. The result of that comparison is used to produce an “on” or “off” modulation bit, normally represented by a one or a zero, respectively. In the example shown in Table I below, a 3-bit pixel with a gradation value of 5 is successively compared to the threshold values of 1 through 7, to produce 7 modulation bits (note that a 3-bit pixel can have any one of 23=8 values between 0 and 7). If the pixel value is greater than or equal to the threshold, then the modulation bit is a “1”, otherwise the modulation bit is a “0”. The multi-bit pixel value of 5 produces five “1” bits and two “0” bits in this example.
TABLE IModulation By ComparisonPixel Value5555555Threshold Value1234567Modulation Bit1111100Decrement Until Zero
Another method of producing a stream of serial modulation bits from multi-bit pixel values is to successively test each pixel value in a line to determine if it is non-zero. If a pixel's value is non-zero, its value is decremented by one and a “1” modulation bit is produced. The process is then repeated with the decremented pixel values. When a decremented pixel value reaches zero, it is no longer decremented, and the modulation bit produced is a “0”. As shown in Table II below, a pixel value of 5 is first determined to be non-zero, it is then decremented to 4, and a “1” modulation bit is produced. This is repeated 4 more times, until the pixel value has been decremented to 0. For the last 2 bits in the example, the pixel value is already 0, so “0” modulation bits are produced, and the pixel value is no longer decremented. The multi-bit pixel value of 5 produces five “1” bits, and two “0” bits.
TABLE IIModulation by Decrement Until ZeroPixel Value (5)5432100Modulation Bit1111100
Low cost digital signal processors (DSP's) are widely available for controlling consumer equipment. DSP's are easily custom programmable to perform operations such as print head modulation. Unfortunately, the Decrement until Zero and Comparison modulation methods both involve conditional operations which are very inefficient when implemented in software, thereby hindering their use with DSP's. A compare operation must always be followed by a conditional operation based on the result of the comparison. A conditional operation typically requires multiple processor cycles to execute, which is inefficient and wastes processor cycles.
There is a need therefore for an improved modulation method for thermal printers that can be more efficiently implemented in software for use in a programmable DSP.
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The accumulation of leaves and debris in roof gutters prevents the flow of runoff water from the roof and the weight of the debris can damage and break the gutters. Cleaning leaves and debris from roof gutters is a routine activity particularly in the autumn months. Typically, cleaning a roof gutter requires a person to climb onto the roof of a building or climb a ladder to the height of the gutter and then manually remove the leaves and debris from the gutter by hand or with some hand held scraper. The height at which gutters are positioned even in single story buildings makes manually cleaning gutters inherently dangerous. A person can easily fall when stooping over from the roof or leaning from a ladder to reach the gutter. Using a ladder to reach the gutters requires the ladder to be constantly repositioned to clean the entire length of the gutter.
Various gutter cleaning tools and apparatus have been developed to assist a user in the removal of leaves and debris from roof gutters from a ground position. Some of these apparatus simply employ a rake or blade mounted to an elongate pole with a mechanism for adjusting the angle of inclination between the head part and the pole. Other apparatus incorporate means for selectively extending the pole to different lengths. Many of the conventional gutter cleaning apparatus include a head unit that employs an articulated gripping mechanism to grasp and remove, as well as, rake and gather the debris within the gutter. With a gripping mechanism, the apparatus can be used to deposit debris directly into a collection container without scraping the debris onto the ground thereby lessening the work involved in gutter cleaning.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,938 (Strader) shows a gutter cleaning device that includes an elongated pole and a pair of selectively retractable gripping arms pivotally attached to the upper end of the pole. Two U-shaped bails are rotatably attached in a juxtaposed relation to the upper end of the pole. Each gripping arm is mounted to one end segment of the U-shaped bails. The other ends of the bails are connected by a length of cord so that the user can pull the cord to rotate the bails and move the gripping arms between an open and closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,276 (Currie) shows a similar gutter cleaning apparatus that uses a pair of scoops pivotally mounted at the upper end of a pole, and a cord for selectively pivoting the scoops together to collect debris therein. In Currie '276, the cord is connected to each scoop so that when pulled the scoops are drawn together. U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,209 (McDermott) shows another improvement to a basic articulated rake or blade design for a gutter cleaning apparatus. McDermott '209 includes two clamping jaws mounted atop a telescoping tubular pole, but adds a mounting plate connecting the clamping jaws and the pole, which allows adjustment to the angle of inclination between the jaws and the pole. Again in McDermott '209, the jaws are drawn together by a cord.
Heretofore, none of the conventional gutter cleaning apparatus has adequately addressed the need for a simple and effective tool, which can be easily manipulated and adjusted while employing an articulated gripping mechanism. Typically, the cord and pulley systems of the conventional gripping mechanism have been too complicated, cumbersome and difficult to use to be practical and commercially successful. They also require that the user hold the pole in one hand while operating the cord with the other hand. In operation, collected debris can interfere with the cord and pull systems and prevent the actuation of the gripping mechanism. The need for adjusting the angle of inclination between the head unit and the pole further complicates and encumbers the gripping mechanisms. The cord and pulley systems of the conventional apparatus are not only mechanically complicated and cumbersome, but heavy. As the length of the pole increases to reach gutters at greater heights, the additional weight of the gripping mechanism makes the apparatus even more difficult to manipulate. Consequently, there remains a need for a simple and effective gutter cleaning apparatus, which includes an articulated gripping mechanism and angular adjustment while also addressing the short comings of the prior art.
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Bearings are used in a variety of machines and structures. A bearing is generally configured to enable relative movement of two different components or structures between which the bearing is positioned. In one example, one or more bearings may be configured to enable substantially continual displacement of such components, such as rotors and stators in a motor or pump design. In another example, bearings are used, as “expansion” or “isolation” type bearings in association with a large structure such as a road, a bridge or a building.
Considering expansion and isolation type bearings, such bearings are used to accommodate the inherent expansion and contractions that occur in structures such as roads and bridges. There are various difficulties in designing such bearings. For example, the expansion and contraction of roads and bridges (and other structures) often occur due to continually changing temperature conditions. Additionally, cycling loads (e.g., from vehicles passing over a bridge) or occasional forces of nature (e.g., earthquakes and winds) cause movements in large, man made structures. Thus, considering bridges as example, engineers must be able to design bridge joints with bearings that can both accommodate extreme loads (e.g., the bridge structure as well as the vehicles that use the bridge) while also enabling relative displacement of mating components without significant forces and stresses being generated within the structure since excessive forces can easily damage the structure requiring significant costs to repair if not catastrophic failure. Another issue associated with heavy load bearings is the ability to provide a bearing that resists corrosion from the elements such as moisture and salt. Additionally, a heavy load bearing desirably exhibits a long service life and requires relatively little maintenance.
Most conventional bridge bearings are currently made of a polymer material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or an elastomer material. Often, such as in the case of an elastomer bearing, the polymer materials are produced in sheets and designed to move in shear. In other words, the sheet of polymer material becomes strained upon relative displacement of associated bridge components such that the upper surface of the sheet of polymer material is displaced some distance relative to the lower surface of the sheet. For example, referring briefly to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a prior art elastomer bearing 20 is shown including a lower plate 22, an upper plate 24 and an elastomer sheet 26 disposed between the two plates 22 and 24. The lower plate 22 is coupled to a foundational structure 28 and the upper plate is coupled to a structural component 30 of, for example, a bridge or a building. FIG. 1A shows the bearing 20 in a stable or “at rest” condition. FIG. 1B shows the bearing after the structural component 30 has been displaced relative to the foundational structure 28 as indicated by directional arrow 32. This displacement causes the elastomer sheet 26 to distort (as indicated by the angled end surfaces of the elastomer sheet 26 shown in FIG. 1B).
In some bearings, the polymer material may be laminated such that multiple sheets of polymer material are used, sometimes with a structural reinforcing member (e.g., a metal sheet) disposed between each adjacent pair of polymer sheets. However, there are various limitations associated with such bearings that employ polymer sheets.
For example, when used in heavy load applications, elastomers can be limited in the lateral movement that they can accommodate for the loads they must bear. In many applications, horizontal movement can easily be many inches in multiple directions which is not easily tolerated by a thicker elastomer bearing (as may be required due to expected loadings), even when laminated in construction. Additionally, elastomers are conventionally susceptible to material property changes over time. Elastomer bearings may also be prone to “walk” out of their position between adjacent bearing plates over time. Environmental conditions are also a concern for elastomer bearings. For example, elastomer materials often experience deterioration due to exposure to ozone. Material creep can also be an issue when using elastomer bearings.
Referring briefly to FIGS. 2A and 2B, another prior bearing 40 is shown. The bearing 40 is configured as a PTFE sliding bearing and includes a lower plate 42, a layer of PTFE 44 bonded to the lower plate, and an upper plate 46 configured to slide across the layer of PTFE 44. The lower plate 42 is coupled to a foundational structure 48 and the upper plate is coupled to a structural component 50 of, for example, a bridge or a building. FIG. 2A shows the bearing 20 in a first position and FIG. 1B shows the bearing after the structural component 50 has been displaced relative to the foundational structure 48 as indicated by directional arrow 52. Ideally, the PTFE layer 44 is not distorted (as with the elastomer bearing), but rather accommodates mutual displacement of the two plates 42 and 46 due to the low coefficient of friction of the PTFE material. As with elastomer type bearings, there are drawbacks in using PTFE sliding bearings.
In bearing applications, PTFE has a limited service life, even under ideal conditions. However, ideal conditions are not the norm with respect to bridges and other heavy load applications. Rather, such applications often provide harsh and dirty environments for the bearing, elevating the risk of failure in PTFE. As such, added care is required in designing and maintaining PTFE bearings in an effort to keep them clean.
Some reports indicate that some PTFE failures are due to uneven or excessive loading in localized areas of the bearing surface. Additionally, PTFE is not a preferred material when the bearing is anticipated to experience relatively fast movements. Further, PTFE is susceptible to creep or cold flow under higher compressive loads and is generally prone to wear as movement occurs and it will require replacement over time. All of these issues make PTFE a material that is susceptible to failure in conditions experienced by slide bearings that may be used, for example, in a bridge or other heavy load application.
Other bearings are used in heavy load applications such as bronze sliding plate bearings, metal plate bearings having a graphite-impregnated asbestos sheet between the metal bearing plates, rocker bearings, roller bearings and pin-and-link bearings. However, all of these bearings exhibit shortcomings and are prone to wear, corrosion and deterioration due to the service demands placed on the bearings in relatively harsh environments. For example, in many of these bearings, including sliding plate bearings where a metal plate is used to provide the bearing surface, such bearings may freeze such that the bearing no longer slides or rotates as originally designed. The freezing of a bearing may occur due to a variety of reasons including corrosion, mechanical binding, dirt buildup or wear of one bearing component by the mating bearing component (e.g., due to localizing application of forces).
It is a continual desire in the industry to develop bearings that provide benefits in one or more categories such as mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, extended service life, and low coefficient of friction.
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This invention relates generally to a tone hole covering assembly for wind instruments and to a novel pad cup and retainer which allows adjustment of the pad without causing damaging stress on the pad or pad cup-retainer combination. Although generally applicable to all wood-wind instruments, one embodiment of the tone hole covering assembly or pad assembly is especially suited for use in clarinets and the novel pad cup and retainer are especially suited for use in flutes.
During this century, instrument pads have typically comprised a cardboard backed wool felt disk covered with Goldbeater's skin, wrapped around the cardboard and glued to its backside. The pad is fixed in a pad cup, sealing side exposed, and the combination mounted over an instrument tone hole on a hinged mechanism so that the tone hole is sealed when the pad is in its closed position. Typically, the back or hinged side of the pad remains closer to the tone hole in the pad's open position. The inability of the tone hole to close tightly with minimal pressure affects the instrument's tone and the player's technique. An instrument pad only 0.001 of an inch out of adjustment produces an air leak detectable by the player.
Although this pad can initially be made to seal well, it needs frequent adjustments or replacement when subjected to changes in humidity, temperature, and altitude. Under humid conditions, the felt, composed of wool fibers, adsorbs moisture from the atmosphere causing the entire pad to expand. When the player depresses such a pad, its back touches the tone hole first leaving a gap in front where air leaks. Under conditions of low humidity, the felt pad releases moisture causing the entire pad to shrink. As a result, the pad, when depressed normally, will touch the front of the tone hole first, leaving a gap at the back where air leaks. Changes in temperature or altitude similarly cause changes in the felt backing. To further complicate matters, the skin similarly expands and contracts depending on its environment. This lack of dimensional stability of the felt and skin causes the pad surface to loose its integrity and is the primary cause of air leaks at the pad-tone hole interface.
Finally, the felt backing typically exhibits a variable density or distribution of fibers. In the areas having fewer fibers, soft spots occur where the felt cannot adequately support the skin. Shrinkage of the skin and usage compress these areas more than surrounding areas. As a result, the skin is no longer held to the tone hole and air leaks develop at the pad-tone hole interface.
Regardless of the source of small air leaks, the player can usually compensate by applying more pressure against the pad at the expense of his technique. As the leaks become more severe, the player can no longer compensate and his tone and response suffer.
In 1987, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,939, a new pad was disclosed that can maintain a flat sealing surface regardless of variations in temperature, moisture, or altitude. As a result of this design, pad life is extended and closure of the tone hole consistently requires only a light touch by the musician. To accomplish these advantages, the new pad has a semi-rigid supporting unit for the felt. The pad's design allows its surface to be tilted to fit a tone hole with a perfectly planar surface through the leveling process of triangulation or, by a wedging action, to distort the planar surface to perfectly match a damaged or imperfect tone hole. Both leveling techniques may be used on the same pad.
The new pads are constructed by stretching a skin across a cushion ring fitted within a recess on the lower radial face of a rigid backing disk having a bendable lower margin. The skin is folded around the edge of the backing disk and secured to the disk's back side. The pad is secured to its cup with a retainer comprising a flat washer and screw combination attached to a pad nut which is in turn attached to the bottom of the pad cup and centrally located within the cup's cavity. Alternatively, the backing disk having a threaded hole centrally located to secure the flat washer and screw combination can be secured to the cup with an adhesive. As before, the flat washer and screw combination secures the pad within its cup. One embodiment of the improved pad allows for further adjustment by bending or flexing the pad or a portion of the pad with a specially designed tool. A second embodiment of the new pad allows for further adjustment by placing complete or partial shims between the rigid and bendable portions of the backing disk. When partial shims are used and the screw holding the flat washer against the sealing surface is tightened, a wedging action occurs that exerts pressure against the bendable margin of the backing disk. The pressure exerted causes the backing disk to bend or flex and conform to the surface of the tone hole. Additional information regarding the design and methods for adjusting the sealing surface of these pads is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,939, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Inherent in the bending or flexing operation utilized to adjust the pad is the creation of stress on the pad's surface, its retainer, and components of the pad cup. During pad adjustment, more pressure is typically exerted on the more wedged side of the pad surface. As a result, three deleterious effects occur. First, in the region of most wedging, the rigid metal washer presses into the skin making it more taut and increasing its chances of tearing at that point. Second, compression of the pad's surface results as the rigid metal washer opposes the wedging force in the region of maximum adjustment. Finally, as the result of this compression, the pad becomes less resilient in this same region. Each of these effects limit the pad's ability to seal the tone hole with maximum efficiency. The forces created during pad adjustment can also damage components of the pad cup or the pad's retainer. Depending on the amount of wedging required, stress can cause the pad nut to break away from the cup or cause the head of the retainer's screw to break. As will be apparent from the following discussion, this invention provides for a pad cup and retainer capable of withstanding the stress caused by adjustment of the pad because of its greater ability to absorb and dissipate the resulting stress.
Although the pad assemblies of all woodwind instruments suffer from the design limitations or shortcomings described, the design of individual instruments can place additional demands on the pad assemblies. For example, the flute's tone hole with its perpendicular wall is located substantially above the instrument's body and can accommodate a pad having a more exposed outer rim. In contrast, the tone holes for woodwinds with wooden bodies are not perpendicular to the instrument's body, but taper gradually away from the pad's surface. As a result, upon closure of the tone hole, contact between the outer rim of the pad and the wall of the tone hole is more likely to occur, damaging the skin covering the outer rim of the pad and causing a clicking sound. Although a soft pad surface can better conform to the tone hole providing for a better and quieter seal, pads with a soft non-firm felt backing becomes non-planar when the skin covering is stretched over the backing and glued to the back side of the backing disk causing a poor seal.
A preferred pad for a clarinet, a saxophone, or other woodwind instrument would have a felt cushion comprising a soft but firm outer region, a softer region over the tone hole, and a firm central region centered over the tone hole. Such a backing would minimize deformation of the pad's surface because of its improved dimensional stability; allow the pad to remain flat during its lifetime by providing maximum support for the skin covering at the pad's outer circumference; and minimize wear and abrasive damage produced by contact of the pad's outer circumference with cleaning cloths, sharp objects, or the tone hole. In addition, this backing would provide for optimum seal at the tone hole's sealing surface and minimum noise resulting from closure of the tone hole. Finally, the pad's firm central region would optimize tone produced by the instrument.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system suitable for a video camera and an electronic still camera using a solid-state imaging device and the like.
2. Related Background Art
A lot of zoom lens systems suitable for a video camera and an electronic still camera using a solid-state imaging device and the like as an imaging medium have been proposed. Among them, it has been known that those having a high zoom ratio of five or more are constructed by five lens groups or more and have such lens type that the most object side lens group has positive refractive power as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-98893.
On the other hand, a high zoom ratio zoom lens system has a problem that a camera shake caused by a photographer tends to occur on the telephoto side. In order to avoid degradation in the shot image caused by the camera shake, various methods for canceling the image blur caused by the camera shake by shifting an image by means of shifting a portion of the optical system substantially perpendicularly to the optical axis have been proposed. Moreover, a lot of optical systems equipped with such vibration reduction mechanism have been proposed as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-207715.
In a video camera or an electronic still camera using a solid-state imaging device and the like, recent trend of increasing the number of pixels is continuing, so that higher optical performance is strongly required for a shooting lens. In view of convenience for shooting, a high-zoom-ratio zoom lens is strongly required and in view of portability, compactness is also strongly required. Although both of these requirements have to be satisfied simultaneously, in the zoom lens systems disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-98893, optical performance is not sufficiently high over entire focal length range from the wide-angle end state to the telephoto end state and although a high zoom ratio is secured, compactness is not sufficient.
On the other hand, while the request for the function of canceling a camera shake recently becomes high, in the zoom lens systems disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-207715, optical performance is not sufficiently high over entire focal length range from the wide-angle end state to the telephoto end state and optical performance upon shifting a portion of the optical system substantially perpendicularly to the optical axis is not sufficiently high. In addition, the zoom ratio is not sufficient since it is less than five.
Although various zoom lens systems of this kind have been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2004-252196, 10-260356, 11-23969, 2000-298235, and 2003-177318, any one of them has satisfied not all requirements such as a sufficient zoom ratio, an enough angle of view in the wide-angle end state, compactness, and good optical performance.
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{
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The present invention relates to a process for lithium exchange reactions in a microreactor.
Lithium exchange reactions are very important reactions in preparative chemistry.
EP-A-1500649 discloses in-situ-quench reactions wherein in a microreactor a lithiumorganic compound (“RG”) is mixed with a starting compound (“VP”) and a reaction partner (“RP”), the starting material is converted into a reactive intermediate (“ZP”), which reacts in-situ within the microreactor with already present reaction partner (“RP”) to the final product.
A persistent aim of the chemical industry is to constantly improve and control chemical reactions. Greater control over reactions may lead to, for example, improvements in safety, increase in reaction product yield and/or purity or in other words improvements of selectivity. This applies to final products or valuable highly reactive intermediates. In particular, greater control over reagent mixing, fluid flow, heat sinking/sourcing and catalytic efficiency is desirable.
A general method which provides such improved control over reactions would therefore be advantageous. Particularly, methods for performing exothermic reactions in large scale in an effective manner are sought-for.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to methods of localizing lesions. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods of localizing lesions using radioactive seeds.
2. Background Art
Localization of non-palpable lesions for biopsy or excision during surgery is a necessary procedure. Several techniques are currently available. As described herein, these techniques have several disadvantages and improved methods are needed.
Mammography is credited with the detection of clinically occult cancer of the breast at greater than 80% sensitivity. Since breast biopsies increase the overall cost of screening for breast cancer and 70% of the detected lesions are benign, there is controversy regarding the cost effectiveness of such biopsies. Therefore, the development of more effective biopsy techniques are a significant goal.
There are three different ways to biopsy occult breast lesions. These include “core-needle” biopsy, “ABBI” (Advanced Breast Biopsy Instrumentation), and open surgical excision biopsy. Open surgical excision biopsy, using needle localization, has been the standard for diagnosis of non-palpable lesions in the breast for the past 20 years.
Although needle localized breast biopsy (NLBB) has some advantages, it has several disadvantages. It requires highest-level skill in placement by radiologists. The method requires flexible wires which are difficult for surgeons to palpate. Currently used wires may be dislodged during transfer of the patient, or displaced from the site of the radiographically located suspicious lesion. When cut inadvertently with scissors, the wires may leave metal fragments in the patient's breast, which has resulted in litigation. A potential for thermal injury to the breast exists when electrocautery is used near the wire. If the insertion site of the wire is too far from the lesion, there is a dilemma in planning the incision to include both the wire and the lesion. This situation can lead to removing more breast tissue than necessary. There are increased costs related to additional x-rays which are used to confirm that the lesion has been excised, longer operating room time fees, specimens require transfer to radiology by operating room personnel, taking a film of the specimen by a radiology technician and finally interpretation and notification by a radiologist.
Recently, several patents have issued pertaining to devices and methods for the removal of lesions from soft tissue. However, these patients do little to overcome the problems detailed above. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,276 to Russin, issued September 1998, discloses a device and method for using a K-wire which is positioned through the lesion to be removed. This device requires that selectable wires be used which can be difficult to maneuver and may cause infection if not properly sterilized.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,627 to Shmulewitz et al., issued November 1998, also discloses a needle or cannula of a biopsy device for insertion into the tissue. This is accomplished by correlating, in real-time, the actual needle or cannula position with its probable trajectory once inserted. There is a large amount of speculation involved in the insertion of the needle into the breast or other soft tissue, thus increasing the possibility of removing more soft tissue than is necessary.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,554 to Schneider et al., issued January 1999, discloses support plates which contain the breast. The plates include grids with reference markers for localization and windows for allowing the physician access to the breast. A thick biopsy plate containing a plurality of holes fits into the grid opening through which the biopsy needle is inserted. Again, the same problems pertaining to the insertion of wires or needles can occur which can lead to the removal of excess breast tissue.
Although the above discussed biopsies are done for the diagnosis of cancer, it is imperative that physicians treat the lesions as if they are malignant until it is histologically proven otherwise. Lesions should be removed by the most direct approach, as opposed to tracking the lesion and needle through breast tissue. The surgeon also needs to be aware of the placement of the incision so that if a mastectomy is necessary in the future, the biopsy scar can be cleanly excised.
It is therefore desirable to develop a method whereby mammographically detected lesions can be localized and excised in a safe, expeditious, and cost effective manner with the application of current technologies.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and system for multiple computer or process coordinating. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for network management.
2. Description of Related Art
Technology expenditures have become a significant portion of operating costs for most enterprises, and businesses are constantly seeking ways to reduce information technology (IT) costs. This has given rise to an increasing number of outsourcing service providers, each promising, often contractually, to deliver reliable service while offloading the costly burdens of staffing, procuring, and maintaining an IT organization. While most service providers started as network pipe providers, they are moving into server outsourcing, application hosting, and desktop management. For those enterprises that do not outsource, they are demanding more accountability from their IT organizations as well as demanding that IT is integrated into their business goals. In both cases, “service level agreements” have been employed to contractually guarantee service delivery between an IT organization and its customers. As a result, IT teams now require management solutions that focus on and support “business processes” and “service delivery” rather than just disk space monitoring and network pings.
IT solutions now require end-to-end management that includes network connectivity, server maintenance, and application management in order to succeed. The focus of IT organizations has turned to ensuring overall service delivery and not just the “towers” of network, server, desktop, and application. Management systems must fulfill two broad goals: a flexible approach that allows rapid deployment and configuration of new services for the customer; and an ability to support rapid delivery of the management tools themselves. A successful management solution fits into a heterogeneous environment, provides openness with which it can knit together management tools and other types of applications, and a consistent approach to managing all of the IT assets.
With all of these requirements, a successful management approach will also require attention to the needs of the staff within the IT organization to accomplish these goals: the ability of an IT team to deploy an appropriate set of management tasks to match the delegated responsibilities of the IT staff; the ability of an IT team to navigate the relationships and effects of all of their technology assets, including networks, middleware, and applications; the ability of an IT team to define their roles and responsibilities consistently and securely across the various management tasks; the ability of an IT team to define groups of customers and their services consistently across the various management tasks; and the ability of an IT team to address, partition, and reach consistently the managed devices.
Many service providers have stated the need to be able to scale their capabilities to manage millions of devices. When one considers the number of customers in a home consumer network as well as pervasive devices, such as smart mobile phones, these numbers are quickly realized. Significant bottlenecks appear when typical IT solutions attempt to support more than several thousand devices.
Given such network spaces, a management system must be very resistant to failure so that service attributes, such as response time, uptime, and throughput, are delivered in accordance with guarantees in a service level agreement. In addition, a service provider may attempt to support as many customers as possible within a single network management system. The service provider's profit margins may materialize from the ability to bill the usage of a common network management system to multiple customers.
On the other hand, the service provider must be able to support contractual agreements on an individual basis. Service attributes, such as response time, uptime, and throughput, must be determinable for each customer. In order to do so, a network management system must provide a suite of network management tools that is able to perform device monitoring and discovery for each customer's network while integrating these abilities across a shared network backbone to gather the network management information into the service provider's distributed data processing system. By providing network management for each customer within an integrated system, a robust management system can enable a service provider to enter into quality-of-service (QOS) agreements with customers.
Hence, there is a direct relationship between the ability of a management system to provide network monitoring and discovery functionality and the ability of a service provider using the management system to serve multiple customers using a single management system. Preferably, the management system can replicate services, detect faults within a service, restart services, and reassign work to a replicated service. By implementing a common set of interfaces across all of their services, each service developer gains the benefits of system robustness. A well-designed, component-oriented, highly distributed system can easily accept a variety of services on a common infrastructure with built-in fault-tolerance and levels of service.
Distributed data processing systems with thousands of nodes are known in the prior art. The nodes can be geographically dispersed, and the overall computing environment can be managed in a distributed manner. The managed environment can be logically separated into a series of loosely connected managed regions, each with its management server for managing local resources. The management servers coordinate activities across the enterprise and permit remote site management and operation. Local resources within one region can be exported for the use of other regions.
A service provider's management system should have an infrastructure that can accurately measure and report the level of consumption of resources at any given resource throughout the system, which can be quite difficult to accomplish in a large, highly distributed computing environment. In order to fulfill quality-of-service guarantees within a network management system consisting of a million devices or more, performance measurements may be required along various network routes throughout the system. Computational resources throughout the system should be controllable so that the management system can obtain accurate resource consumption measurements along particular routes.
Moreover, if a service provider were able to restrict the consumption of resources from a technical perspective, then the service provider could restrict resource consumption of resources for broader business purposes. The service provider could contract with customers to provide a high level of service, thereby requiring the service provider to limit consumption of resources by customers who have not purchased a high level of service.
In order to either restrict or allocate bandwidth intelligently, a service provider must accumulate metrics relating a consumer of bandwidth and a description of the operations performed by the consumer that led to the bandwidth consumption. In some cases, an enterprise leases an entire communication link for a period of time, such as an entire fiber optic channel at specific time period; with a dedicated network, an enterprise can determine for itself how it has consumed network-related resources. In most other cases, though, a communication link is shared, and the service provider needs to know not only which customer has consumed bandwidth but must have an accurate report of the actual bandwidth consumed so as to determine whether it is meeting quality-of-service guarantees for its customers.
In prior art metrics for determining consumption of bandwidth resources, the focus has generally been at a hardware or firmware level in which bandwidth can be measured at a specific time at a specific node or device either at a specific data rate, such as bits per second, or at a specific packet size, such as bits per packet. The type of metrics that a service provider is able to acquire generally leads the service provider to base its sales model on those metrics. Hence, a service provider might charge consumers for a guaranteed data rate or a flat fee for a certain amount of data. In the prior art, though, the service provider's accumulated metrics are tied to the underlying physical structure. The service provider might be able to report that a certain amount of data passed through a specific network node, device, or port over a specific period, but the service provider cannot tell what application originated or consumed the bandwidth. The service provider might report such statistics to its customers, but the customers would be responsible for cross-referencing the report with its own records to determine why the bandwidth was consumed in the manner that was reported. In other words, the service provider cannot determine and control bandwidth at the application level.
In addition, the prior art does not allow service providers to determine and control bandwidth above the application level at the user level. Currently, some service providers, such as Internet service providers, provide service directly to users. In general, though, these types of service providers are closer to the previously mentioned network-pipe providers; there is a one-to-one correspondence between a user that is receiving service and a network connection to the service provider's facilities. When a single user is connected, the service provider can monitor and control the network connection to determine the amount and characteristics of the data flow to the user. However, if the user configures a private local area network with multiple devices and users using the single network connection to the service provider, such as a home owner with multiple devices connected to a home hub/router, the service provider only observes an increase in data traffic but cannot distinguish data traffic to or from the different devices, cannot control other application-related operations on the devices, and cannot distinguish actions related to various users of those devices.
In order to maintain quality-of-service guarantees, the service provider requires detailed bandwidth data. Moreover, if the service provider desires to be able to offer and charge for services at much finer granularities than raw bandwidth over certain periods of time, then the service provider must be able to control user-level and application-level operations.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that measures consumption of bandwidth at the application-level and user-level. It would be particularly advantageous if the management system within a service provider's network could identify bandwidth consumption at fine granularities, thereby requiring finer bandwidth usage statistics, such as bits-per-user, packets-per-user, bits-per-application, or packets per application.
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Unless otherwise indicated herein, the discussion presented in this section is not admitted prior art to the claims in this application.
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that calculates an image of a scene by simulating the way rays of light travel in the real world. The process includes casting rays of light from a viewer (e.g., eye, camera, etc.) backwards through a viewing plane and into a scene. The user specifies the location of the viewer, light sources, and a database of objects including surface texture properties of objects, their interiors (if transparent) and any atmospheric media such as fog, haze, fire, and the like.
For every pixel in the final image, one or more viewing rays are shot from the camera into the scene to see if it intersects with any of the objects in the scene. These “viewing rays” originate from the viewer, represented by the camera, and pass through the viewing window, which represents the final image. When the ray hits an object, the material properties of that object are computed, and further rays can be launched for specular reflectivity, shadow effects, illumination effects, and so on.
Before a ray can be evaluated against an intersecting object, the object and its point of intersection with the ray must first be identified. At the core of any ray tracing system, are the acceleration structures that facilitate ray traversal through a scene in order to identify such intersections. Since ray traversal is a computationally intense activity, it is not surprising that numerous ray tracing acceleration structures and techniques have been developed over the years.
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Stereo depth cameras are well-known and are often used to measure a distance from an object. As part of the process, images of scenes are captured and measurements are taken to determine depth information. One method of determining the depth of objects in a scene from a captured image is made using triangulation.
In order to perform triangulation accurately, some calibration of the stereo depth camera is typically performed at assembly time. Calibration sets some intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the stereo camera. Subsequent calibrations may be needed due to the system's deviation from initial calibration due to various external factors, such as temperature, humidity or barometric pressure changes, or displacement of sensing and/or projecting devices included in the system.
Stereo depth cameras are very sensitive to tiny changes in the optic elements intrinsic (e.g., Field of View or focal length) and extrinsic parameters. As a result of these changes, key depth image characteristics are biased such as absolute depth value, world coordinate y-axis yaw, scaling effects and more. Temperature variations may cause changes in the parameters, thereby causing errors in the determined depth generated by the triangulation process. Current solutions to these problems caused by temperature either ignore this source of distortion, or apply active thermal control to maintain the temperature at which the system was initially calibrated. The former approach is very weak for a real product since it implies a narrow working temperature range and the system being at the “working point” where the temperature is stable. The active thermal control allows correct operation in a wider range of temperatures, yet it consumes power, area and cost, which are all undesirable.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the transfer of microfluidic quantities of fluids and, in particular, to a tip design and random access tip array for genomic applications and high throughput screening.
2. Background of the Related Art
There is an ongoing effort, both public and private, to spell out the entire human genetic code by determining the structure of all 100,000 or so human genes. Also, simultaneously, there is a venture to use this genetic information for a wide variety of genomic applications. These include, for example, the creation of microarrays of DNA material on targets or substrates to create an array of spots on microscope slides or biochip devices. These arrays can be used to read a particular human's genetic blueprint. The arrays decode the genetic differences that make one person chubbier, happier or more likely to get heart disease than another. Such arrays could detect mutations, or changes in an individual's chemical or genetic make-up, that might reveal something about a disease or a treatment strategy.
It can be a difficult task to efficiently and accurately create DNA microarrays. The desired density of the microarrays can be as high as several thousand dots/cm2. Moreover, the desired volume transfer can be low enough to be in the picoliter range.
One typical way of forming DNA microarrays utilizes pins that can be dipped into solutions of the sample fluid(s) and then touched to a surface to create a small spot or dot. The pins are typically thin rods of stainless steel which have a sharpened fine point to provide a small spot size. Undesirably, the sharp point makes the pins fragile and repeated contact with the surface can lead to damaged pins. This can affect the accuracy of the volume transferred, and hence result in unrepeatable and inconsistent performance. Also, these pins generally allow only a single spot to be formed from a single dip.
More recently, pins have been made with a small slot to permit multiple spotting from a single dip of the sample fluid. Undesirably, the slot can render the pins even more fragile. Another disadvantage of the slotted pin technology is that there is a large variation in the spot size and volume transfer between the first transfer and subsequent transfers—this variation can be as much as 50%. Also, the fluid sample in the slot is undesirably exposed to the atmosphere during the transfer step. This can lead to contamination and evaporation of valuable fluid. Moreover, the pins can have limited reproducibility due to surface tension changes within the slot as solution is dispensed and as solution evaporates from the exposed pin. Additionally, thorough cleaning of the slotted pins can be difficult and time-consuming.
In many cases, the spotting pins are held in a pin holder which allows multiple pins to be dipped into the sample solution and spotted onto the target, typically a glass slide. The spacing between the pins typically corresponds to the spacing between the wells of the source plate. To create high density microarrays, the pins are simultaneously dipped and then spotted. Subsequent spotting is accomplished by offsetting the spotting position by a small distance. One of the disadvantages of this spotting technique is that the location of the samples (spots) on the slide does not correspond to the location of the samples (wells) in the source plate. Another disadvantage is that samples cannot be randomly accessed from the source plate and randomly printed on the slide. These disadvantages diminish the versatility and utility of such conventional microarraying technology.
Conventional pin transfer technology is also used in other applications such as high throughput screening (HTS). High throughput screening involves compound or reagent reformatting from a source plate to an assay plate. For example, test compounds, dissolved in DMSO are transferred from a 96 well plate to a 96, 384 or 1536 well microtiter plate. Typically, the desired transfer volume is higher than that for genomic arraying and is in the range from about 1 to 200 nanoliters (nL) or more. Undesirably, conventional pin transfer technology when utilized for compound reformatting can also suffer from some or all of the above disadvantages.
Microfluidic transfer of liquids can also be performed using an aspirate-dispense methodology. State-of-the-art aspirate-dispense methods and technologies are well documented in the art, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,554, incorporated herein by reference. These typically use pick-and-place (“suck-and-spit”) fluid handling systems, whereby a quantity of fluid is aspirated from a source and dispensed onto a target for testing or further processing. But to efficiently and accurately perform aspirate and dispense operations when dealing with microfluidic quantities, less than 1 microliter (μL), of fluid can be a very difficult task. The complexity of this task is further exacerbated when frequent transitions between aspirate and dispense functions are required. Many applications, such as DNA microarraying and HTS, can involve a large number of such transitions. In these and other applications it is desirable, and sometimes crucial, that the aspirate-dispense system operate efficiently, accurately and with minimal wastage of valuable reagents.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved technology and methodology that provides efficient, repeatable and accurate transfer of microfluidic quantities of fluid while reducing wastage of such fluids.
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Zinc-based coated steel sheets are widely used in a wide range of fields, especially for automotive body applications. In such applications, the zinc-based coated steel sheets are press-formed for use. However, the zinc-based coated steel sheets have a disadvantage that the zinc-based coated steel sheets are inferior in press formability to cold-rolled steel sheets. This is because the sliding resistance of the zinc-based coated steel sheets to press molds is higher than that of the cold-rolled steel sheets. A zinc-based coated steel sheet is hard to be fed into a press mold at a portion which has high sliding resistance to a mold or a bead; hence, the steel sheet is likely to be fractured.
In particular, in a galvanized steel sheet (hereinafter referred to as GI in some cases), a phenomenon in which sliding resistance further rises due to the adhesion of a coating to a mold (mold galling) occurs to cause cracking halfway through continuous press forming, thereby negatively affecting the productivity of automobiles.
Furthermore, from the viewpoint of tightening regulations on CO2 emissions in recent years, the usage rate of high-strength steel sheets tends to increase for the purpose of reducing automobile weight. The use of a high-strength steel sheet increases the surface pressure during press forming and therefore the adhesion of a coating to a mold is a more serious problem.
As a method for solving the above problem, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 disclose a technique for enhancing press formability in such a manner that a galvannealed steel sheet (hereinafter referred to as GA in some cases) which is alloyed is temper-rolled, is brought into contact with an acidic solution with a pH buffering action, is left for 1 second to 30 seconds after the end of contact, is water-washed, and is then dried such that zinc-based oxides are formed on a surface layer of the GA.
As for the GI, the GI has particularly low surface activity. This is because a small amount of Al is added to a galvanizing bath for the purpose of adjusting the alloying reaction of base iron with zinc, Al oxides derived from Al in the bath are present on a surface of the galvanized steel sheet, and the galvanized steel sheet has a higher concentration of Al oxide on the surface as compared to the GA.
As a method for forming the zinc-based oxides described in Patent Literatures 1 and 2, Patent Literature 3 discloses a method in which such a GI with low surface activity is brought into contact with an alkali solution before being brought in contact with an acidic solution such that surface Al oxides are removed, a surface is activated, and the formation of oxides is promoted.
As a method for forming an oxide layer containing a crystalline structure substance represented by Zn4(SO4)1-x(CO3)x(OH)6.nH2O, Patent Literature 4 discloses a method in which a similar GI with low activity is brought into contact with an alkali solution before contact with an acidic solution such that surface Al oxides are removed, a surface is activated, and the formation of oxides is promoted.
Patent Literature 5 discloses a method in which a steel sheet coated with a Zn—Al-based coating containing 20% to 95% by mass Al is brought into contact with an alkali solution and then HF is added to an acidic treatment solution such that the formation of an oxide layer is promoted.
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Oil shale is a sedimentary geologic formation generally found in the western states of the United States. The oil shale contains a hydrocarbonaceous component called kerogen. By mining the oil shale and heating it in a retort, the kerogen component is liquified and can be recovered for refining into an oil product similar to petroleum oil products. The retorting of oil shale can be conducted in a surface retort vessel which is fed with traditionally mined, particulate oil shale, or in in-situ retorts wherein the oil shale is blasted into a concise rubble pattern within its geologic formation, in which the formation forms the retort itself. The particulate or rubble oil shale is then ignited by the combustion of a gas forced through the retort. A portion of the oil shale is burned during the heating operation in which that amount of the kerogen is also lost. However, as the unsteady state, batch retorting process progresses, the hot combustion product gases pass down through the shale, heating it and retorting it to drive out gas and oil vapor products that are carried out with the combustion products and cooled. The retorted shale contains residual carbon that sustains the burn as retorting progresses downward. This heat and combustion process requires a sustained flow of oxygen gas but only an initial flow of fuel gas. With air as the typical oxidant, a diluent is required to moderate the peak combustion temperatures to avoid melting the shale to a slag and to avoid producing excessive energy consuming carbonate decomposition. Steam and carbon dioxide are known retort diluent gases. As a retort operation proceeds, substantial quantities of liquid hydrocarbon oil and off-gases are produced. The off-gases consisting of combustion products, oil shale volatiles and diluent gas are separated from the liquid phase and cleaned and vented or can be recycled. Various sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and carbonyl sulfide are found in the off-gases and are a problem to the proper disposal or use of the off-gases. It has been found that the sulfides can be absorbed onto the spent oil shale if the off-gas is recycled. Additionally, the recycled off-gas, when depleted of any BTU fuel components, can serve as an excellent moderator or diluent gas for combining with the oxidant feed, such as oxygen, to the retort as the combustion and heat inducing media.
In surface and in-situ combustion type coal gasification processes, moderators are typically added to the input air or oxygen. In surface gasifier retorts, steam has typically been used to hold peak temperature to levels where the ash will not slag. In in-situ coal gasification processes, steam has been added to avoid excessive temperatures with high heat losses into surrounding strata and to avoid burnout of the oxidant injection lance. Steam has the advantage that it is easily separated as condensate by cooling the gasifier effluent. It has the disadvantage that the condensate requires expensive treatment to remove contaminants and that energy requirements for steam generation are high. In the established Lurgi dry ash moving bed gasifier retort using steam and oxygen, the energy required for the steam is 3 to 4 times greater than required to supply the oxygen. Carbon dioxide has been proposed as a combustion moderator for coal gasification, but has not been widely used even though it has been potentially available for recycle from the gasifier effluent. High energy requirements of existing processes for separating the CO.sub.2 for recycle have presumably discouraged its use.
In both methods, coal gasification and oil shale retorting, it is environmentally as well as economicaly beneficial to recycle the carbon dioxide off-gases as a diluent gas for the retort operation and to absorb any sulfur containing components from the off-gases onto the remaining combusted media, i.e. spent oil shale or coal ash by way of the separated and recycled diluent gas stream. This method avoids the costly preparation of steam diluent and provides greater selectivity than air mixture diluent, while at the same time taking advantage of the use of the remaining media to rid the process and the atmospheric environment of noxious sulfur contaminants such as sulfides in various forms.
Various prior art processes have been developed for the refinement and the recycling of the off-gas products of coal gasification and oil shale retorting, as generally described above, especially in-situ oil shale retorting. These prior art processes generally suffer from high energy consumption and a complexity of process apparatus which requires a high capital expenditure.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,405, a process is disclosed for the separation of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from gas mixtures utilizing a chemical absorbent solvent, such as hot potassium carbonate. As is typical in chemical solvents, the enriched solvent is regenerated by a boiling and steam stripping operation. Such a regeneration is an energy intensive operation.
The prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,575 teaches that off-gases from oil shale retorting can be recycled through spent oil shale beds for the deposition of sulfur compounds from the off-gas onto the particles of the oil shale bed. This can be done in conjunction with the water scrubbing of the off-gases in a Venturi scrubber.
Another method has been utilized to scrub the off-gases from oil shale retorting wherein water containing basic components from an oil shale retort bed is contacted with the acid gas containing off-gas stream of an operating oil shale retort. The basic pH water neutralizes the acid off-gases and the latter can be recycled for retorting or burned if sufficient BTU energy can be derived. This process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,886.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,467, a process for the recycling of oil shale retort off-gases is disclosed wherein the hot potassium carbonate solvent of U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,405 mentioned above, is utilized. As stated before, the utilization of chemical absorbent solvents in such an operation is energy intensive due to the complexity of regenerating such solvents for reuse. Additionally, the chemical absorption process is essentially non-selective, i.e. complete absorption of acidic sulfur compounds would be accompanied by complete absorption of contained CO.sub.2.
The removal of acid gas components from gas streams is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,133 wherein the carbon dioxide acid gas component is frozen out of the main gas stream. A process wherein a solid product is produced from a gas clean-up operation is not conducive to the recycling of such a component, such as in the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,506, the scrubbing of off-gases from in-situ retorting of oil shale is set forth. The scrubbing utilizes caustic soda in conjunction with a deoiling process. In this instance, the scrubbed sulfur components are passed to a Claus plant for refinement to elemental sulfur.
In South African Published Application Ser. No. 77/7157 of Dec. 1, 1977 a process is disclosed for the separate removal of sulfides and carbon dioxide from a coal gasification gas stream. Externally supplied refrigeration is necessary to operate a complex solid/liquid absorbent stream in a process which operates on carbon dioxide containing streams in the 55% carbon dioxide range. Corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,937 of June 2, 1981 discloses similar subject matter.
The attempts by the prior art to solve the problems of economical provision of a diluent gas for the injected oxidant and handling of significant quantities of off-gas generated in oil shale retorting and coal gasification, whether these operations are undertaken in-situ or in external surface retorts are deficient for a number of reasons, including: the energy intensive nature of their scrubbing recovery operations, the necessity for regeneration of chemical solvents by steam stripping operations and the need for large quantities of water for scrubbing operations in retorting locations which may be deficient in adequate water resources to make such recovery systems operational.
The present invention overcomes these obstacles by providing a low energy, low temperature or cryogenic system for the recovery of recyclable gases from the off-gases of carbonaceous combustion retorting, such as oil shale and coal gasification retorting. The present invention achieves this recovery of recyclable gases such as carbon dioxide and acidic sulfide gases, either by cryogenics (low temperature) individually, or cryogenics and physical absorbent solvents used in conjunction with one another. The physical absorbent solvents are regenerated in a low energy process as compared to the chemical absorbent solvents of the prior art. Furthermore, the present invention process does not require the utilization of potentially scarce and valuable water resources at the site of the retorting operation.
The carbon dioxide separation and recycle of this invention is also useful in carbon dioxide miscible flood enhanced oil recovery operations. In this type of operation, carbon dioxide under high pressure is injected into an injection well to pressurize and lower the viscosity of oil formations which require pressure maintenance or secondary recovery in order to achieve economic production. High pressure carbon dioxide brings oil into solution and pushes oil toward the production well. As pressure is reduced at the surface of the production well, oil is separated as a liquid phase from carbon dioxide and oil derived contaminants in a gas phase. This gas phase can be introduced into the process of the present invention.
In oxygen fireflooding, a tertiary form of enhanced oil recovery, an oxidant such as air or preferably oxygen is injected into an oil formation and combusted either spontaneously or by an ignition media. The combustion heats the subterranean oil to volatilize a portion thereof and coke the remaining portion. The coked portion sustains the burn in conjunction with the oxidant necessary to heat the oil formation for successful tertiary production. This subterranean combustion produces significant levels of carbon dioxide which can be processed by the process of the present invention and sent to other carbon dioxide utilizing processes, such as the former systems mentioned above.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clutch apparatus provided with a diaphragm spring for use in an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior clutch apparatus is known from Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 58-17227. As shown in FIG. 9, a plurality of equally pitched tabs 2 are provided on an internal circumference 1a of a clutch cover 1. A plurality of pivot rings 4, each of which acts as a fulcrum point for a diaphragm spring 3 are supported on the clutch cover 1 by bending a top end portion 2a of each tab 2 toward a pressure plate 5 which is arranged in the clutch cover 1. Each tab 2 is, as shown in FIG. 10, snugly fitted in an opening portion 3b formed at an outer end of a slit 3a of the diaphragm spring 3. As shown in FIG. 11, each tab 2 has a width which is only slightly shorter than the width of the opening portion 3b so as to provide the snug fit and prevent the clutch cover 1 and the diaphragm spring 3 from rattling therebetween.
However, the foregoing clutch apparatus, is not easy to assemble due to a requirement for a strong plural pivot rings 4 and the diaphragm spring 3 into the plural tabs 2, and there is a fear that the diaphragm spring 3 will not work smoothly because of the need for the strong connection force between the tabs, rings and spring.
In light of the above-mentioned drawbacks, recently, a clutch apparatus has been proposed which is equipped with a tab 2', 2" as shown in FIG. 12 or FIG. 13. The tab 2' (shown in FIG. 12) is provided with a central slit 6 at a top end portion 2a' thereof as well as the tab 2" (shown in FIG. 13) is provided with cutout portions 7 at both sides of a top end portion 2a" thereof.
However, the clutch apparatus provided with either of the tabs 2', 2" has the same problem as the clutch apparatus of FIGS. 9-12.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to server clustering. More specifically, it relates to asymmetric data-quality based dynamic server clustering with a workload management technique to balance inter-cluster workloads of servers.
2. Background Information
Many enterprise information systems use data centers that include a large number of data servers located in multiple geographical locations to maintain their data. These information systems typically assume that these data servers are stateless servers, which treat each request as an independent transaction unrelated to any previous request, or static servers connected to the same back-end databases. Under these assumptions, all data servers have exactly the same functions with identical qualities, which makes it hard for an information system to provide data with required data quality, and also makes it hard to scale.
Data in an enterprise information system may be stored in many copies in different places. For a system that works for millions of clients, and effectively responds to data accesses from different geographical locations, multiple active copies of the same data must be maintained to be current and consistent, and the time window in which the data are not current should be minimized. Since it usually takes time for a transaction data to be replicated from a master server to all replicated servers across geographical locations, different replicated servers in the enterprise system may have different lags. Moreover, transactions are committed every second in an enterprise system. Hence, lags on replicated servers change dynamically, depending on transaction rate, network traffic, geographic distance, or replication server capacities, etc. On the other hand, different clients may have different data quality requirements. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates five servers and three clients in an exemplar enterprise information system. At the moment as shown in FIG. 1, server 1 (101) is a server with a transaction lag of 0, server 120 (102) has a transaction lag of 50, server 260 (103) has a transaction lag of 19, server 800 (104) has a transaction lag of 1200, and server 960 (105) has a transaction lag of 1. At the same time, client 1 (106) has a data quality requirement of a lag of no more than 100 transactions. The data quality requirement of client 2 (107) is a lag of no more than 30 transactions, and the data quality requirement of client 3 (108) is a lag of no more than 1 transaction. Stateless or static severs cannot provide good performance if used in this system. For example, server 800 (104) should not be selected to service client 1 (106) because it cannot provide required data quality. Similarly, server 120 (102) cannot service client 2 (107).
The data quality problem can be further complicated by the ever-changing workloads of the servers in an enterprise information system. Typically, all clients want to access the server with best data quality, which may cause an overload of the server. And all clients attempt to avoid the server with the worst data quality, which may bring an underload to the server.
Data in an enterprise information system cannot be simply cloned to different data servers if the system must guarantee data quality, which makes the system difficult to scale. It is common that, in an enterprise system that stores multiple copies of the same data on different servers, some copies of the data are not current. Therefore, although a conventional enterprise system uses multiple data centers to keep the active copies of the same data, it seldom uses these copies to service clients because of the lack of confidence in the data quality. Most replicated data centers are only for failover or for disaster recovery purposes. However, since a failover or a disaster happens rarely, 99% of the time these replicated data centers are idle, thus resulting in a huge waste of resources.
Many enterprise information systems use clusters to enhance availability, scalability, and performance of their information systems. Most clusters assume that their constituent servers are stateless or static servers, and the clusters thus become symmetric. Symmetric clusters cannot guarantee to service different clients timely, without overloading or underloading the servers in the clusters.
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The present invention relates to a pressure regulating solenoid operated hydraulic valve.
In certain applications, for example for actuation of a clutch in an agricultural or industrial tractor, a hydraulic valve is required that can deliver a regulated pressure in response to an applied electrical control signal. For this purpose, hydraulic valves are known that have a valve spool slidably mounted within a housing. The spool has lands that cooperate with ports in the housing to vary the flow between a pressure supply line, a line leading to the load to be supplied and a return line to a reservoir or tank. One end of the spool is acted upon by the pressure in a control chamber and the other is acted upon in the opposite direction by a spring. The position of the spool in the housing can therefore be set by varying the pressure in the control chamber and this in return regulates the pressure supplied to the load.
The control chamber of the spool valve is permanently connected to a pressure source and is also connected to the return line by way of a solenoid operated valve. The latter valve comprises a ball urged against a valve seat by the armature of a control solenoid of the spool valve. The greater the current flowing through the solenoid, the greater is the force applied by the armature to urge the ball against its seat and therefore the greater is the pressure in the control chamber. Thus force exerted by the solenoid determines the pressure in the control chamber, this in turn determines the position of the valve spool in the housing and therefore the pressure of the hydraulic fluid supplied to the load.
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In the past few years, BGA semiconductor packages have enjoyed widespread use and success in the industry thanks to the many advantages they offer compared to the more traditional leadframe packages. The most obvious advantage they confer is their ability to host an increased number of interconnections within small dimensions whilst maintaining satisfactory ease of use and safety levels. This feature enables them to be used successfully in many high performance applications such as microprocessors, controllers, memories and chip sets, which require high density interconnection semiconductors.
With reference to FIG. 1, the basic architecture of a typical BGA package 1 is as follows: a solder ball base 17, providing external electrical interconnection with the rest of the system, underlies a substrate 2, usually made of an organic material, e.g., silicon, resin or glass, which in turn underlies a die 5.
The solder balls 20, which functionally replace the leads used in leadframe or Pin Grid Array (PGA) packages, are attached to a bottom 4 of the substrate 2 and their composition may include, for example, copper, tin, silver, lead, or bismuth. Typically, a 10×10 mm BGA package will contain up to 300 solder balls.
Solder balls are mechanically tougher than leads, thus enabling the device to better tolerate rough handling. Also, ball arrays allow for slightly imperfect placement during mounting as they are, to a certain extent, capable of self alignment to their attachment sites.
With reference now to FIG. 2, the substrate 2 is the key element of the package 1 and practically includes a small printed circuit board (PCB). As well as constituting the mechanical support of the silicon, the substrate 2 also has a fundamental role from the electrical point of view. Usually, a standard substrate is made of an organic core 13 covered by two copper foils 11, one on an upper surface 3 and one on a lower surface 4 of the substrate 2. By a dedicated mask etching process, these two copper foils create a connection between bond pads 14 situated on the upper surface 3, and ball pads 15 on the lower surface 4, and to which the solder balls 20 adhere. Plated through holes 12 (usually metal plated), also called vias, are drilled in the organic core 13 to provide electrical connections between the two copper foils. In order to do so, capture pads usually surround each via 12.
The upper surface 3 is surmounted by the die 5, which can be connected to the ball grid array either by wire-bonding 9 or flip-chip attachment, and which will typically require a large number of connections. Normally, the die 5 is attached to the substrate 2 (and/or to another die) with the aid of an adhesive material 16 that can be a glue or bi-adhesive tape.
With reference to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 when more than one die 5, 6, 7, is required in a same package, it is quite common to stack them on top of one another. Stacked dice can either be of the same (or similar) size, in which case an “interposer” 10 is used between dice (as shown in FIG. 3) to allow a sufficient clearance (at least 250 μm, or example) for wire bonding, or can be of substantially different sizes, in which case they are piled up on top of each other in order of decreasing size, according to a pyramidal scheme, which takes the name of “pyramidal stack” (such as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5). This latter scheme, as opposed to the former “twin stack” scheme, does not require the use of an interposer.
The die, comprising a semiconductor device, is normally encapsulated with a protecting material (normally epoxy resin) 21 to confer protection from dust and other external agents including mechanical abuse.
Die stacking achieves the purpose of reducing the overall dimensions of the BGA package for a given number of required interconnections.
However, as the demand for further and improved miniaturization continuously increases, so does the interconnection density to be handled in a given BGA package. The challenge thus lies in being able to handle the required high (e.g., greater than 50) interconnection density with a minimum of footprint area (e.g., surface area at a base of the package).
Various approaches have been attempted in this respect, the most noteworthy being the ones briefly discussed below.
Application WO03061006, filed on Jan. 9, 2003 in the name of Micron Technology Inc, discloses semiconductor devices and stacked die assemblies and methods of manufacturing the devices and assemblies for increasing semiconductor device density. In one embodiment of the invention, it discloses a stacked die assembly comprising a first bottom die disposed on a substrate, a bonding element connecting bond pads on an active surface of the bottom die to terminal pads on the substrate, and a second die mounted on the bottom die. The second die has a bottom surface with a recessed edge along the perimeter of the die that provides an opening for the bonding element extending from the bond pads of the bottom die, thus eliminating the need for a spacer between the two dice for clearance. A second bonding element connects the bond pads on the active surface of the second die to terminal pads on the substrate.
Other BGA multi-chip packages are also known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,700 issued on Jun. 6, 2000 to Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2004251529 published on Dec. 16, 2004 in the name of Lee and Lee, Japanese Patent Application No. 2004006990 published on Jan. 8, 2004 in the name of Nippon Electric Co., and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003011062 published on Jan. 16, 2003 in the name of Watanabe.
However, the solutions devised in the prior art do not always achieve a full optimization of the space used, resulting in packages that are bulkier than desired. Also wire routing problems are quite common, especially when the smallest die requires a high density of interconnections, thus resulting in strong routing limitations or the need for unduly long wires, which in turn pose safety risks as they are susceptible to short circuiting. Also, long wires are detrimental to the electrical performance of the respective die especially in case of high working frequency.
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Expression of heterologous DNA sequences in a plant host is dependent upon the presence of an operably-linked promoter that is functional within the plant host. Choice of the promoter sequence will determine when and where within the plant the heterologous DNA sequence is expressed. Where continuous expression is desired throughout the cells of a plant, constitutive promoters are utilized. In contrast, where gene expression in response to a stimulus is desired, inducible promoters are the regulatory elements of choice. Where expression in specific tissues or organs is desired, tissue-preferred promoters are used. That is, these promoters can drive expression in specific tissues or organs. Additional regulatory sequences upstream and/or downstream from the core promoter sequence can be included in expression cassettes of transformation vectors to bring about varying levels of expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences in a transgenic plant. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,018.
Regulatory sequences may also be useful in controlling temporal and/or spatial expression of endogenous DNA. For example, specialized tissues are involved in fertilization and seed development. Identification of promoters which are active in these seed tissues is of interest.
In grain crops of agronomic importance, seed formation is the ultimate goal of plant development. Seeds are harvested for use in food, feed, and industrial products. The quantities and proportions of protein, oil, and starch components in those seeds determine their utility and value.
The timing of seed development is critical. Environmental conditions at any point prior to fertilization through seed maturation may affect the quality and quantity of seed produced. In particular, the first 10 to 12 days after pollination (the lag phase) are critical in maize seed development. Several developmental events during the lag phase are important determinants of the fate of subsequent seed growth and development. (Cheikh, N. et al., Plant Physiology 106:45-51 (1994)) Therefore, a means to influence plant development, particularly in response to stress during this phase of growth, is of interest. Identification of a promoter sequence active in tissues of developing seeds exposed to abiotic stresses would be useful.
Specialized plant tissues are central to seed development. Following fertilization, developing seeds become sinks for carbon translocated via the phloem from sites of photosynthesis. However, developing cereal seeds have no direct vascular connections with the plant; instead, a short-distance transport mechanism operates to move the assimilates from the vascular tissues to the endosperm and embryo. For example, in maize, photosynthate enters the seed via the pedicel; in wheat, via the nucellar projection and the aleurone layer. It is possible that this short-distance assimilate pathway between the phloem and the endosperm can operate to regulate the rate of sucrose transport into the grain. (Bewley, J. D., and M. Black. Seeds: Physiology of Development and Germination. N.Y., Plenum Press, 1985. pp. 38-39) Therefore, a promoter active in gene expression within these specialized tissues, such as the pedicel, may have significant effects on grain development.
During rapid seed growth, sucrose is unloaded passively from the phloem into the apoplast of the pedicel parenchyma and inverted to hexose sugars by a cell-wall-bound acid invertase. The hydrolysis of sucrose in the apoplast maintains a favorable gradient for continued unloading from the phloem and provides hexoses that are taken up by the basal endosperm cells. It has been shown that seeds induced to abort, in vitro, have only low levels of invertase activity in the pedicel. (Hanft, J. M. et al. (1986) Plant Physiol. 81:503-510)
Water stress to the plant around anthesis often results in seed abortion or restricted development. Studies suggest that sucrose continues to unload from the phloem at low ovary water potential, but it accumulates in the symplasm and apoplasm of the pedicel because of low invertase activity. (Zinselmeier, C., et al., (1995) Plant Physiol. 107:385-391) This conclusion is supported by the findings of Miller and Chourey (Plant Cell 4: 297-305 (1992)), who showed that developmental failure of miniature-1 seeds of maize was linked to lack of invertase activity in the pedicel tissue during the early stages of seed development.
Other specialized plant tissues are also closely involved in the critical processes of fertilization and seed development. For example, in maize, the carpels, which make up the ovary wall, become the pericarp, a tough, protective outer seed covering. The scutellum, along with the endosperm, is involved in translocation of assimilates to the developing embryo. The aleurone, the surface layer of endosperm cells, develops to serve as a source of enzymes necessary in germination. (Kiesselbach, T. A. The Structure and Reproduction of Corn. N.Y., Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1999)
To achieve yield stability in high-density plantings, under drought conditions, or in other adverse environments, modification of carbohydrate metabolism during early ear and kernel development may be desirable. Effective control of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism is dependent on identification and use of a promoter with high levels of tissue and temporal specificity. Specifically desired expression targets include pedicel, pericarp, and nucellus tissue during a period 14 days before pollination to 14 days after pollination.
In light of the important contributions of these specialized seed tissues to proper grain development, identification of a promoter sequence affecting gene expression in these tissues would be useful. Further, it would be desirable to identify a promoter sequence active in these specific tissues at appropriate, critical times. Even more desirable would be the identification of a promoter sequence active in these specific tissues at appropriate, critical times, which is not negatively affected by environmental stress to the plant.
The maize Glb1 gene encodes globulin-1, a major embryo storage protein. (Kriz, A. L., et al. (1986) Plant Physiol. 82:1069-1075) Glb1 is expressed in the developing maize seed during embryo development. (Belanger, F. C., et al. (1989) Plant Physiol. 91:636-643) The promoter region of Glb1 has been identified, cloned, and introduced into tobacco plants by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. (Liu, S., et al. (1996) Plant Cell Reports 16:158-162) The transformed plants demonstrate that the Glb1 promoter has desirable temporal and tissue specificity. However, the Glb1 promoter is positively regulated by abscisic acid (ABA). (Kriz, A. L., et al. (1990) Plant Physiol. 92:538-542; Paiva, R., et al., (1994) Planta 192:332-339) Levels of the plant hormone ABA are known to fluctuate under conditions of cold or desiccation. (Himmelbach, A., et al. (1998) Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 353:1439-1444) Thus, the activity of the Glb1 promoter can be differentially affected by environmental stress.
A maize cytokinin oxidase gene has been isolated and sequenced (GenBank entry AF044603). Cytokinin oxidase inactivates cytokinins, members of a class of plant hormones important in the control of cell division and in regulation of plant growth and structure. Elevated cytokinin levels are associated with the development of seeds in higher plants; exogenous cytokinin application has been shown to directly correlate with increased kernel yield in maize. Thus, control of the level of cytokinin oxidase has been suggested as a tool in improving grain yield. Manipulation of cytokinin oxidase activity has also been proposed as a means to achieve greater disease resistance or other improved plant characteristics. (See WO 99/06571, herein incorporated by reference.)
However, a novel and heretofore undescribed utility of the isolated cytokinin oxidase gene is as a source of a promoter sequence with spatial and temporal specificity and which may be induced by cytokinins. A full-length promoter sequence of the isolated maize cytokinin oxidase gene, and functional fragments and variants thereof, and the use of such sequences with heterologous nucleotide sequences of interest, are described in the present invention. Unless otherwise specified, the notation “ckx1-2” in reference to the subject promoter includes SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 4, and any functional fragments or variants thereof.
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Long considered strictly genetic material, DNA was shown in 1994 to be able to act as an enzyme (Breaker and Joyce 1994). Like RNAzymes, DNAzymes can catalyze nucleic acid and phosphoramidate bond cleavage, ligation, phopshorylation, and porphyrin metallation (Lu 2002). Because of their stability and catalytic capabilities, DNAzymes promise to be important in a large array of applications (Lu 2002).
Aptamers are nucleic acids (such as DNA or RNA) that recognize targets with high affinity and specificity (Ellington and Szostak 1990, Jayasena 1999). Aptazymes (also called allosteric DNA/RNAzymes or allosteric (deoxy)ribozymes) are DNA/RNAzymes regulated by an effector (the target molecule). They typically contain an aptamer domain that recognizes an effector and a catalytic domain (Hesselberth et al. 2000, Soukup and Breaker 2000, Tang and Breaker 1997). The effector can either decrease or increase the catalytic activity of the aptazyme through specific interactions between the aptamer domain and the catalytic domain. Therefore, the activity of the aptazyme can be used to monitor the presence and quantity of the effector. This strategy has been used to select and design aptazyme sensors for diagnostic and sensing purposes (Breaker 2002, Robertson and Ellington 1999, Seetharaman et al. 2001). DNA aptazymes are the most attractive candidate for sensor development because DNA is much less expensive to synthesize and more stable than RNA. In addition, general strategies to design DNA aptazymes, by introducing aptamer motifs close to the catalytic core of DNAzymes, are available (Wang et al. 2002). High cleavage activity requires the presence of effector molecules that upon binding to the aptamer motif, can allosterically modulate the activity of the catalytic core part of the aptazyme.
In vitro selection methods can be used to obtain aptamers for a wide range of target molecules with exceptionally high affinity, having dissociation constants as high as in the picomolar range (Brody and Gold 2000, Jayasena 1999, Wilson and Szostak 1999). For example, aptamers have been developed to recognize metal ions such as Zn(II) (Ciesiolka et al. 1995) and Ni(II) (Hofmann et al. 1997); nucleotides such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (Huizenga and Szostak 1995); and guanine(Kiga et al. 1998); co-factors such as NAD (Kiga et al. 1998) and flavin (Lauhon and Szostak 1995); antibiotics such as viomycin (Wallis et al. 1997) and streptomycin (Wallace and Schroeder 1998); proteins such as HIV reverse transcriptase (Chaloin et al. 2002) and hepatitis C virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (Biroccio et al. 2002); toxins such as cholera whole toxin and staphylococcal enterotoxin B (Bruno and Kiel 2002) and bacterial spores such as the anthrax (Bruno and Kiel 1999). Compared to antibodies, DNA/RNA based aptamers are easier to obtain and less expensive to produce because they are obtained in vitro in short time periods (days vs. months) and with limited cost. In addition, DNA/RNA aptamers can be denatured and renatured many times without losing their biorecognition ability. These unique properties make aptamers an idea platform for designing highly sensitive and selective biosensors (Hesselberth et al. 2000).
Radioisotope and fluorescence signals are often used to detect aptamer and aptazyme activity. Radioisotope-labeling has the advantage of minimal perturbation for the binding ability of aptamers and aptazymes (Rusconi et al. 2002, Seetharaman et al. 2001); however, safety and disposal concerns prevent this method from broad use. Fluorescence provides significant signal amplification and enables real-time monitoring of concentration fluctuations. However, determining effective parameters for using fluorophores is inefficient, requiring trial and error. If too close to the binding site, fluorophores may prevent the effector from binding; if too remote, no signal will be detected. To overcome this difficulty when using aptamers, fluorophores are incorporated into nucleotides during aptamer selection (Jhaveri et al. 2000). Many fluorophores are easily photo-bleached.
A powerful alternative to fluorophore and radio-isotope detection is colorimetry (Cao et al. 2001, Rakow and Suslick 2000, Smith et al. 1999). Colorimetric detection minimizes detection costs and safety concerns, and is well suited for on-site and real-time detection. In a colorimetric cocaine sensor based on aptamers, cocaine displaces a dye in the binding site of a cocaine aptamer (Stojanovic and Landry 2002). Because the dye has different absorption properties when bound to the aptamer, the presence of cocaine is indicated by a color change. However, finding an appropriate dye for a particular aptamer requires screening a large number of dyes. Moreover, the extinction coefficient for organic dyes seldom exceeds 106 L·mole−1·cm−1, necessitating high dye concentration for simple visual observation.
Metallic particles have extinction coefficients three orders of magnitude higher than those of organic dyes (Link et al. 1999). For effective detection, they may be used in low concentrations (nanomolar) for use as detection agents with aptamers.
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A diabetes mellitus epidemic is unfolding across the globe with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting a worldwide prevalence of 177 million patients with diabetes. It is estimated that the incidence of all forms of diabetes totals approximately 2.8% of the world population. The number of newly diagnosed diabetic patients is increasing by 4-5% per year. The total number of people with diabetes worldwide is projected to rise to 366 million (4.4% prevalence) in 2030. Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 95% of all diabetes cases. Long-term complications of Type 2 diabetes include atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, end-stage renal disease, retinopathy leading to blindness, nerve damage, sexual dysfunction, frequent infections, and difficult-to-treat foot ulcers, sometimes resulting in lower limb amputation. Diabetics are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease or have a stroke, 2 to 6 times more likely to have transient ischemic attacks, and 15 to 40 times more likely to require lower-limb amputation compared with the general population. The total estimated cost of diabetes in 2007 in the United States was $174 billion, including $116 billion in medical expenditures. The largest components of medical expenditures attributed to diabetes are hospital inpatient care (50% of total cost), diabetes medication and supplies (12%), retail prescriptions to treat complications of diabetes (11%), and physician office visits (9%). This may be related to the lack of durable efficacy of current drug therapies for Type 2 diabetes (>50% Type 2 patients are not reaching the targeted blood glucose control with current oral medications after 5 years of treatment). There is a general consensus that a considerable need exists for improved awareness, diagnosis and new, more effective, drug therapies for diabetes.
GLP-1 is secreted from specific cells in the colon following a meal and is a key regulator of glucose homeostasis, linking the gut, brain and pancreas. GLP-1 potentiates insulin secretion, reduces glucagon secretion and preserves 3-cell function whilst also improving satiety. Levels of post-prandial GLP-1 are reduced in Type 2 diabetics and dramatically elevated following gastric by-pass surgery, contributing to the amelioration of Type 2 diabetes in these patients. Approaches that prolong the half-life of GLP-1 (JANUVIA (Merck), GALVUS (Novartis)) or activate the GLP-1 receptor (BYETTA (Amylin)) have been recently approved for use in Type 2 diabetes.
Hyperinsulinemia in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus results from peripheral insulin resistance, coupled with inadequate pancreatic insulin secretion and elevated glucagon levels. There is a strong correlation between obesity and peripheral insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Accumulation of free fatty acids in insulin responsive tissues other than fat (i.e. muscle and liver) results in tissue insulin resistance. Additionally, free fatty acids have a direct effect on the pancreas and in the colon and further stimulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion and GLP-1 release with acute exposure whereas chronic exposure of free fatty acids impairs insulin secretion and becomes toxic to the 3-cell. In the liver, hyperinsulinemia per se has been linked to exacerbating insulin resistance by increasing liver fatty acid accumulation and hepatic glucose output creating a vicious cycle of disease progression. Current therapeutic strategies only partially address the complex pathology of free fatty acids in the exacerbation of diabetes. Agents that target both liver and pancreas function, directly or indirectly via GLP-1 release, either individually or in combination with current treatment, could significantly improve blood glucose control while maintaining β-cell function. Agents that potentiate GLP-1 release also have the ability to reduce weight, providing additional benefits.
GPR120 is a seven transmembrane g-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) that is predominantly expressed in the intestine and adipose. GPR120 functions as a receptor for long chain free fatty acids (FFAs). Acute FFA stimulation of GPR120 in GLP-1 expressing cell-lines amplifies GLP-1 release. Administration of α-linolenic acid into the colon of mice increases GLP-1 and potentiates insulin release following a glucose challenge. In contrast to agonists of GPR40, the existing literature suggests that a GPR120 agonist would potentiate insulin secretion and reduce glucagon indirectly via GLP-1 release. GPR120 is also expressed in adipose, with expression induced during differentiation Inhibition of GPR120 expression in 3T3-L1 adipocytes has been shown to reduce adipocyte differentiation. The role of the receptor in the adipose or in the taste cells of the tongue, where it has also been found, remains unclear.
GPR120 is a Gq coupled GPCR that acts a receptor for long chain fatty acids. It belongs to a family of lipid binding GPCRs that include GPR 40, 41, 43. Functionally, GPR120s closest homolog is GPR40. The cloned rat and mouse GPR120 receptors have been cloned and have >85% homology with the human receptor. GPR120 signals through Gq to elevate intracellular Ca2+ levels as well as activate MAP kinase signal transduction cascades. GPR120's activation of calcium flux and PKC activation is most likely how FFAs contribute to the release GLP-1 in the L-cell.
Although relatively little is known about GPR120 due to a lack of potent, selective pharmacological tools or a documented metabolic phenotype of GPR120 knockout mice, the potential to elevate GLP-1 from a small-molecule perspective is attractive as a novel approach to an unmet medical need in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes mellitus and related disorders. The beneficial effects of elevating GLP-1 are already well validated in the clinic and in addition to improved glucose homeostasis, offer the potential of weight loss. Thus GPR120 agonists may be complementary to existing diabetes therapies that affect liver insulin sensitivity and those that preserve β-cell function.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ignition control device for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly, to an electronic ignition control device for controlling the ignition timing of each cylinder with a computing prediction of the ignition timing based upon a ratio in timing cycles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is already known to control the ignition timing of an internal combustion engine of a vehicle such as an automobile by an electronic ignition control device so as to determine the timing of starting and stopping supply of electric current to an ignition coil according to an electronic computing based upon a sawtooth shaped crank position signal available from am electromagnetic pickup type rotation sensor. The sawtooth shaped signal available by such rotation sensor is generally converted into an on/off pulse signal by a comparator according to a comparison with a threshold signal level. Such a sawtooth shaped signal generally has a wave characteristic that it falls relatively steeply and rises relatively moderately in each cycle, and the time point at which the on/off pulse signal produced from such a sawtooth shaped signal turns off is highly definite but the time point at which the on/off pulse signal turns on is relatively indefinite. When the engine is operating at a relatively constant speed, it may be enough to use only the turn off information in the on/off pulse signal for controlling the ignition timing. However, when the engine is changing its rotational speed, the time span between two adjacent such turn off time points is not short enough to obtain high quality control of the ignition timing to catch up with a change of the engine speed. Therefore, it is conventional in the electronic ignition control systems to use both the turn on and the turn off information in such an on/off pulse signal for controlling the ignition timing, as in the systems disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying Open Publication Sho 57-195867 (1982), Japanese Patent Laying Open Publication Sho 60-104771 (1985), and Japanese Patent Laying Open Publication Sho 60-108565 (1985).
On the other hand, since the timings for ignition, i.e. the time points at which the supply of electric current to the ignition coil is started and stopped occur before each corresponding compression stroke of the cylinder is completed, there things need to be predicted for each ignition cycle based upon the preceding cycle times of the cylinder strokes so as to catch up with a variation of the engine rotational speed. In the conventional electronic ignition control devices a modification for each next ignition timing to catch up with a variation of the engine rotational speed is made by addition or subtraction of a certain small time difference obtained from the changes in the cycle times in the preceding engine cycles.
However, since a shifting of the turn on time point with respect to the turn off time point in the on/off pulse signal is different in each cylinder, and since the time difference to be added or subtracted changes according to the degree of acceleration or deceleration of the engine, it is difficult to predict the ignition timing to be always optimum for all cylinders.
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Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and reagents for a fluorescence polarization immunoassay procedure for determining the presence or amount of alkaloids of the opiate class or their metabolites in fluids, especially biological fluids such as urine, serum or plasma, and to methods for making the reagents. More specifically, the invention relates to (1) reagents (tracers and antibodies) for determining the presence or amount of opiate alkaloids and/or their metabolites in a sample; (2) immunogen compounds used to raise the antibodies; (3) synthetic methods used to prepare the tracer and immunogen compounds; and (4) analytical methods for conducting the assay.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic induced accelerator and, more particularly, to an electromagnetic induced accelerator using one single strand of coil to accomplish the purposes of generating plasma, inducing a magnetic field and secondary current and accelerating movement of plasma, respectively, or using a strand of coil to accomplish all of the purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electromagnetic induced accelerator, or a plasma accelerator, operates to accelerate movement of plasma existing or generated in a spatial portion by electric and magnetic energy.
In the early stage, a plasma accelerator was developed for an ion engine of a rocket for long-distance space travel and nuclear fusion, but it has been used for a wafer etching technique in a semiconductor manufacturing process.
Plasma is the gaseous state of hot ionized material consisting of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions with approximately equal concentrations of both, so that the total gas is in approximately charge neutral. Therefore, it is called the fourth state of matter besides the three states of matter-solid, liquid and gas.
As the temperature rises, most of all matter changes from a solid state, to a liquid state and then to gas state in turns. At several ten thousands of degrees (° C.), a gas splits into electrons and atomic nucleuses, resulting in a plasma state.
FIG. 1 is a cut-away perspective view of an electromagnetic induced accelerator in accordance with the related art.
With reference to FIG. 1, an electromagnetic induced accelerator comprises inner and outer circular loop coils 10, 20, a channel 40 contacting the inner circular loop coils 10 on its internal portion and outer circular loop coils 20 on its external portion, an outer cylinder 30, an inner cylinder 60 and a discharging coil 50 disposed underneath the channel 40.
The inner and outer loop coils 10, 20 are arranged coaxially in parallel to each other, and a current is applied to the coils 10, 20 circumferentially around the channel 40. A current is applied to the coils 10, 20 in the same direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise and this induces a magnetic field across the channel 40. In electromagnetic induced accelerators in accordance with the related art, inner and outer loop coils comprise a plurality of coils, respectively, and the coils 10, 20 are provided to gradually diminish the magnetic field induced in the channel 40 in the axial direction by reducing current flowing through each coil winding around in the axis direction. The magnetic field is induced across the channel 40 to be perpendicular to the axial direction and gradually decreases along the axial direction.
The magnetic field induced in the channel induces a secondary current in accordance with Maxwell's equation. Plasma generated in the channel 40 by the discharging coil 50 accelerates in the axial direction toward an exit 70 by the magnetic field induced across the channel 40 and the secondary current.
Such an electromagnetic induced accelerator in accordance with the related art is based on a B-field modulation method which accelerates plasma by causing a difference in magnetic pressure between the entrance side 80 and the exit 70 of the channel by applying large current and small current to the loop coils winding around the entrance side 80 and the exit side 70, respectively.
Accordingly, such B-field modulation requires a plurality of inner loop coils 10 installed in the inner cylinder 60 to independently apply different driving currents to each inner loop coil 10. It means that a plurality of pull-in wires for the inner loop coils 10 should be externally pulled in the inner cylinder 60. Accordingly, the number of the inner loop coils 10 to wind around the internal surface of the inner cylinder 60 is limited in case that the inner cylinder 60 is small in diameter. Further, influence of the pull-in wires to the magnetic field induced by the coils is so high. As a result, it is hard to induce the magnetic field as designed due to the coupling noises of the coils.
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{
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A collectible miniature figurine is a figure that is collected, or that is designed or suitable to be collected, for purposes of hobby, gaming, display or investment.
Typically, the better condition a collectible miniature figurine is in the more valuable it may be. Further, collectible miniature figurines that are less adorned with extraneous features that are not necessary to the collectible miniature figurine itself, e.g., markings, letterings, or other physical additions to a base which supports the collectible miniature figurine, may also make a collectible miniature figurine more valuable.
It is also common today that collectible miniature figurines may be used as part of a game piece to be used with a particular game. In such situations, the collectible miniature figurine is typically rotatably and fixedly secured to a game base.
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Cell membranes consist of a double layer of lipid molecules in which various proteins are embedded. Because of its hydrophobic interior, the lipid bilayer of cell membranes serves as a barrier to the passage of most polar molecules and therefore is crucial to cell viability. To facilitate the transport of small water-soluble molecules into or out of cells or intracellular compartments, such membranes possess carrier and channel proteins. Ion channels are essential for many cellular functions, including the electrical excitability of muscle cells and electrical signaling in the nervous system (reviewed by Alberts et al., 1994). They are present not only in all animal and plant cells, as well as microorganisms, but also have been identified in viruses (Ewart et al., 1996; Piller et al., 1996; Pinto et al., 1992; Schubert et al., 1996; Sugrue et al., 1990; Sunstrom et al., 1996), where they are thought to play an important role in the viral life cycle.
The influenza A virus is an enveloped negative-strand virus with eight RNA segments encapsidated with nucleoprotein (NP) (reviewed by Lamb and Krug, 1996). Spanning the viral membrane are three proteins: hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and M2. The extracellular domains (ectodomains) of HA and NA are quite variable, while the ectodomain domain of M2 is essentially invariant among influenza A viruses. The life cycle of viruses generally involves attachment to cell surface receptors, entry into the cell and uncoating of the viral nucleic acid, followed by replication of the viral genes inside the cell. After the synthesis of new copies of viral proteins and genes, these components assemble into progeny virus particles, which then exit the cell (reviewed by Roizman and Palese, 1996). Different viral proteins play a role in each of these steps. In influenza A viruses, the M2 protein which possesses ion channel activity (Pinto et al., 1992), is thought to function at an early state in the viral life cycle between host cell penetration and uncoating of viral RNA (Martin and Helenius, 1991; reviewed by Helenius, 1992; Sugrue et al., 1990). Once virions have undergone endocytosis, the virion-associated M2 ion channel, a homotetrameric helix bundle, is believed to permit protons to flow from the endosome into the virion interior to disrupt acid-labile M1 protein-ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP) interactions, thereby promoting RNP release into the cytoplasm (reviewed by Helenius, 1992). In addition, among some influenza strains whose HAs are cleaved intracellularly (e.g., A/fowl plagues/Rostock/34), the M2 ion channel is thought to raise the pH of the trans-Golgi network, preventing conformational changes in the HA due to conditions of low pH in this compartment (Hay et al., 1985; Ohuchi et al., 1994; Takeuchi and Lamb, 1994).
Evidence that the M2 protein has ion channel activity was obtained by expressing the protein in oocytes of Xenopus laevis and measuring membrane currents (Pinto et al., 1992; Wang et al., 1993; Holsinger et al., 1994). Specific changes in the M2 protein transmembrane (TM) domain altered the kinetics and ion selectivity of the channel, providing strong evidence that the M2 TM domain constitutes the pore of the ion channel (Holsinger et al., 1994). In fact, the M2 TM domain itself can function as an ion channel (Duff and Ashley, 1992). M2 protein ion channel activity is thought to be essential in the life cycle of influenza viruses, because amantadine hydrochloride, which blocks M2 ion channel activity (Hay et al., 1993), inhibits viral replication (Kato and Eggers, 1969; Skehel et al., 1978). However, a requirement for this activity in the replication of influenza A viruses has not been directly demonstrated.
Generally, influenza vaccines have been prepared from live, attenuated virus or killed virus which can grow to high titers. Live virus vaccines activate all phases of the immune system and stimulate an immune response to each of the protective antigens, which obviates difficulties in the selective destruction of protective antigens that may occur during preparation of inactivated vaccines. In addition, the immunity produced by live virus vaccines is generally more durable, more effective, and more cross-reactive than that induced by inactivated vaccines. Further, live virus vaccines are less costly to produce than inactivated virus vaccines. However, the mutations in attenuated virus are often ill-defined.
Thus, what is needed is a method to prepare recombinant attenuated influenza virus for vaccines e.g., attenuated viruses having defined mutation(s).
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides an important imaging modality for numerous applications and is widely utilized in clinical and research settings to produce images of the inside of the human body. As a generality, MRI is based on detecting magnetic resonance (MR) signals, which are electromagnetic waves emitted by atoms in response to state changes resulting from applied electromagnetic fields. For example, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques involve detecting MR signals emitted from the nuclei of excited atoms upon the re-alignment or relaxation of the nuclear spin of atoms in an object being imaged (e.g., atoms in the tissue of the human body). Detected MR signals may be processed to produce images, which in the context of medical applications, allows for the investigation of internal structures and/or biological processes within the body for diagnostic, therapeutic and/or research purposes.
MRI provides an attractive imaging modality for biological imaging due to the ability to produce non-invasive images having relatively high resolution and contrast without the safety concerns of other modalities (e.g., without needing to expose the subject to ionizing radiation, e.g., x-rays, or introducing radioactive material to the body). Additionally, MRI is particularly well suited to provide soft tissue contrast, which can be exploited to image subject matter that other imaging modalities are incapable of satisfactorily imaging. Moreover, MR techniques are capable of capturing information about structures and/or biological processes that other modalities are incapable of acquiring. However, there are a number of drawbacks to MRI that, for a given imaging application, may involve the relatively high cost of the equipment, limited availability (e.g., difficulty in gaining access to clinical MRI scanners) and/or the length of the image acquisition process.
The trend in clinical MRI has been to increase the field strength of MRI scanners to improve one or more of scan time, image resolution, and image contrast, which, in turn, continues to drive up costs. The vast majority of installed MRI scanners operate at 1.5 or 3 tesla (T), which refers to the field strength of the main magnetic field B0. A rough cost estimate for a clinical MRI scanner is approximately one million dollars per tesla, which does not factor in the substantial operation, service, and maintenance costs involved in operating such MRI scanners.
These high-field MRI systems typically require large superconducting magnets and associated electronics to generate a strong uniform static magnetic field (B0) in which an object (e.g., a patient) is imaged. The size of such systems is considerable with a typical high-field MRI installment including multiple rooms for the magnet, electronics, thermal management system, and control console areas. The size and expense of high-field MRI systems generally limits their usage to facilities, such as hospitals and academic research centers, which have sufficient space and resources to purchase and maintain them. The high cost and substantial space requirements of high-field MRI systems results in limited availability of MRI scanners. As such, there are frequently clinical situations in which an MRI scan would be beneficial, but due to one or more of the limitations discussed above, is not practical or is impossible, as discussed in further detail below.
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FIG. 1 illustrates a network architecture of an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) as a mobile communication system having the related art and the present invention applied thereto. The E-UMTS system has evolved from the existent UMTS system and its basic standardization is undergoing in 3GPP. Such E-UMTS system may also be referred to as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system.
E-UMTS network may be divided into E-UTRAN and Core Network (CN). The E-UTRAN includes a terminal (User Equipment, referred to as ‘UE’ hereinafter), a base station (referred to as ‘eNode B’ hereinafter), a Serving Gateway (S-GW) located at the end of the network to be connected to an external network, and a Mobility Management Entity (MME) for managing the mobility of the UE. One or more cells may exist in one eNode B.
FIG. 2 illustrates a radio interface protocol architecture between UE and base station based on the 3GPP radio access network standard. The radio interface protocol has horizontal layers comprising a physical layer, a data link layer and a network layer, and has vertical planes comprising a user plane for transmitting data information and a control plane for transmitting a control signaling. The protocol layers can be divided into a first layer (L1), a second layer (L2) and a third layer (L3) based on three lower layers of an Open System Interconnection (OSI) standard model widely known in communications systems.
Hereinafter, each layer in the radio protocol control plane in FIG. 2 and a radio protocol user plane in FIG. 3 will be described.
A first layer, as a physical layer, provides an information transfer service to an upper layer using a physical channel. The physical layer is connected to its upper layer, called a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, via a transport channel. The MAC layer and the physical layer exchange data via the transport channel. Data is transferred via a physical channel between different physical layers, namely, between the physical layer of a transmitting side and the physical layer of a receiving side.
The MAC layer located at the second layer provides a service to an upper layer, called a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, via a logical channel. The RLC layer of the second layer supports reliable data transmissions. A Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the second layer is used to efficiently transmit IP packets, such as IPv4 or IPv6, on a radio interface with a relatively small bandwidth. For this purpose, the PDCP layer reduces the size of an IP packet header which is relatively great in size and includes unnecessary control information, namely, performs a function called header compression. Also, the PDCP layer is used to encode C-plane data, for example, an RRC message. The PDCP layer 3 may also be used to encode U-Plane data.
A Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer located at the lowermost portion of the third layer is only defined in the control plane. The RRC layer controls logical channels, transport channels and physical channels in relation to configuration, re-configuration and release of Radio Bearers (RBs). Here, the RB signifies a service provided by the second layer of the radio protocols for data transmissions between the terminal and the E-UTRAN.
Hereinafter, a random access channel (RACH) will be described. The RACH channel may be used to transmit uplink data with a short length, particularly, used when a terminal without being allocated with a dedicated radio resource has to transmit a signaling message or user data on uplink. Alternatively, the RACH channel may be used by a base station to indicate the performance of an RACH procedure to a terminal.
Hereinafter, a random access channel (RACH) procedure provided in an LTE system will be described. The RACH procedure provided in the LTE system may be divided into a contention based (RACH) procedure and a non-contention based RACH procedure. The division may depend on whether a random access preamble used in the RACH procedure is selected directly by a terminal or by selected a base station.
In the non-contention based RACH procedure, a terminal may use a specific random access preamble directly allocated thereto by a base station. Therefore, when the base station allocates the specific random access preamble only to the terminal, the random access preamble may be used only by the terminal, and thus other terminals may not use it. Hence, an one-to-one (1:1) relation between the random access preamble and the terminal using the random access preamble may exist, whereby it can be said that there is no contention. In this case, the base station can identify a terminal having transmitted a random access preamble as soon as receiving the random access preamble. So, the non-contention based RACH procedure may be efficient from this perspective.
On the other hand, in the contention based RACH procedure, a terminal may randomly select a random access preamble for transmission, among random access preambles. Accordingly, a plurality of terminals may have a chance of always using the same random access preamble. Therefore, even if a base station receives a specific random access preamble, it cannot identify which terminal has transmitted the random access preamble.
In general, a terminal may carry out a random access channel (RACH) procedure in the following cases, namely, 1) when the terminal initially accesses a base station because it has no RRC connection established with the base station, 2) when the terminal initially accesses a target cell during a handover procedure, 3) upon being requested by a command from the base station, 4) when uplink data is generated under the condition that an uplink (time) synchronization is not matched or a designated radio resource which is used to request for a radio resource has not been allocated, and 5) during a restoration procedure at the time of radio link failure or handover failure.
Based upon the above description, FIG. 4 illustrates operations between a terminal and a base station during a contention based random access channel (RACH) procedure.
First, in a contention based random access, a terminal randomly selects one random access preamble from a group of random access preambles indicated by system information or handover command. The terminal then selects a physical random access channel (PRACH) resource capable of transmitting the random access preamble so as to transmit the random access preamble (Step 1). Such preamble is referred to as ‘RACH MSG 1’.
After transmitting the random access preamble, the terminal attempts to receive a response message in response to the random access preamble within a random access response reception window indicated by the system information or handover command (Step 2). In more detail, the random access response information may be transmitted in the format of MAC protocol data unit (PDU). The MAC PDU may be transmitted via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may also be transmitted in order for the terminal to appropriately receive information transmitted over the PDSCH. That is, the PDCCH may include information related to a terminal to receive the PDSCH, information related to frequency and time of PDSCH radio resources, a transmission format of the PDSCH, and the like. Here, if the terminal has successfully received the PDCCH coming to the terminal itself, then the terminal properly receives a random access response transmitted over the PDSCH according to the information included in the PDCCH. The random access response may include a random access preamble identifier (ID), a UL grant (uplink radio resource), a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and a timing advance command (or time alignment command, or time sync compensation value). Since one random access response may include random access response information for one or more terminals, the random access preamble identifier is required to indicate to which terminal the UL grant, the temporary C-RNTI and the timing advance command information are available. The random access preamble identifier matches with the random access preamble selected by the terminal in Step 1.
Here, when the terminal receives a random access response available thereto, then the terminal processes (handles) each of the information included in the random access response. That is, the terminal may apply the timing advance command and stores the temporary C-RNTI. Also, the terminal uses the UL grant to send data stored in its buffer or newly generated data to the base station (Step 3). Here, the base station cannot determine which terminals perform the RACH procedure during the contention based RACH procedure, but should identify such terminals for resolving the contention layer. Hence, the UL grant should essentially include a terminal identifier among other data (hereinafter, referred to as ‘message 3). Here, there are two methods for including the terminal identifier. A first method is configured such that if a terminal has an available cell identifier already allocated in the corresponding cell before the RACH procedure, the terminal transmits its cell identifier via the UL grant, while the terminal transmits its specific identifier (e.g., S-TMSI or random ID) if the terminal has not been allocated with an available cell identifier before the RACH procedure. In general, the specific identifier is longer than the cell identifier. In Step 3, if the terminal has sent data via the UL grant, the terminal initiates a contention resolution timer.
After transmitting data including its identifier via the UL grant included in the random access response, the terminal waits for an instruction from a base station for contention resolution. That is, the terminal attempts to receive the PDCCH for receiving a specific message (Step 4). Here, the PDCCH reception may be performed by two methods. As aforementioned, if the terminal identifier transmitted via the UL grant is the cell identifier, the terminal may attempt the PDCCH reception using its cell identifier. On the other hand, if the identifier is the specific identifier, the terminal may attempt the PDCCH reception using the temporary C-RNTI included in the random access response. Afterwards, for the former, if the terminal has received the PDCCH via its cell identifier before the expiration of the contention resolution timer, then the terminal may determine that the RACH procedure has normally been performed so as to terminate the RACH procedure. For the latter, if the terminal has received the PDCCH via the temporary C-RNTI before the expiration of the contention resolution timer, the terminal may check data (hereinafter, referred to as message 4) sent over the PDSCH instructed by the PDCCH. If its specific identifier is included in contents of the data, then the terminal may determine that the RACH procedure has normally been performed, so as to terminate the RACH procedure. Here, a message or MAC PDU received in Step 4 is usually referred to as an RACH MSG 4.
Hereinafter, description will be given of a method in which a terminal receives downlink data in an LTE system. FIG. 5 is an exemplary view illustrating a radio resource allocation according to the related art.
Physical channels may roughly be divided into two channels in downlink, namely, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). The PDCCH has no direct relation to the transmission of user data. The PDCCH is rather used to transmit control information required for the application of other physical channels. Briefly explaining, the PDCCH can be used for the control of other physical channels. In particular, the PDCCH is used by a terminal for the transmission of information required to receive the PDSCH. For example, those Information indicating at which transmission time interval data is sent, which frequency band is used to send data, to which terminal data is sent, what size data has, and the like, may be sent over the PDCCH. Thus, each terminal receives the PDCCH at a specific TTI and determines whether data to be received by the terminal itself is sent. If it is informed that the data to be received by the terminal is sent, the terminal further receives the PDSCH using information related to a frequency or the like indicated in the PDCCH. Information on to which terminal (one or plural terminals) PDSCH data is transmitted, how the terminal(s) should receive and decode the PDSCH data and the like, may be included in the PDCCH for transmission.
For example, it is assumed that radio resource information A (e.g., a frequency location) and transmission format information B (e.g., transmission block size information, modulation and coding information and the like) are CRC-masked to a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) called C to be transmitted over the PDCCH in a specific sub frame. One terminal or two or more terminals staying in a corresponding cell monitor(s) the PDCCH using the RNTI information belonging to the terminal(s). Under the assumption, a CRC error may not occur in a terminal having the RNTI called C when decoding the PDCCH. Therefore, the terminal may decode the PDSCH for data reception by using the transmission format information B and the radio resource information A. On the other hand, under the assumption, the CRC error may occur in a terminal without the RNTI called C when decoding the PDCCH. Therefore, the terminal may not receive the PDSCH.
During the procedure, in order to inform to which terminals radio resources are allocated, the RNTI is transmitted over each PDCCH. Such RNTIs may include a dedicated RNTI and a common RNTI. The dedicated RNTI may be allocated to one terminal, and used for transmission and reception of data of the corresponding terminal. The dedicated RNTI may be allocated to terminals having information registered in a base station. On the other hand, the common RNTI may be used when terminals, of which information have not been registered in the base station so as not to have the dedicated RNTI allocated thereto, transmit and receive data to/from a base station, or used for the transmission of information, such as system information, commonly applied to a plurality of terminals.
As mentioned above, a base station and a terminal construct the E-UTRAN. Radio resources within one cell may be composed of uplink radio resource and downlink radio resource. The base station manages allocation and control of the uplink and downlink radio resources of the cell. That is, the base station determines which radio resource is to be used for which terminal with time information. For example, the base station may determine to allocate a frequency in the range of 100 MHz to 101 MHz to a user 1 after 3.2 seconds, for a downlink data transmission for 0.2 seconds. After the determination, the base station informs the corresponding terminal of such information, such that the terminal can receive the downlink data. Similarly, the base station may determine when and which terminal is allowed to transmit uplink data using how many and which radio resources. The base station may then inform the corresponding terminal of the determination such that the terminal can transmit the uplink data using the radio resources for the corresponding time.
Unlike the related art, the dynamic management of radio resources by the data station allows the efficient use of radio resources. The related art technique is configured such that one terminal keeps using one radio resource during a call connection. This technique is irrational, considering that many services are recently provided based upon an internet protocol (IP) packet. It is because most packet services do not continuously generate packets during a call connection but contain non-transmission intervals during the call connection. In spite of this, the continuous allocation of radio resources to one terminal is inefficient. To solve the problem, the E-UTRAN system employs the aforesaid method for allocating a radio resource to a terminal, while service data exists, only when the terminal needs the radio resource.
In more detail, in order to efficiently use radio resources in the LTE system, the base station should know what kind of data and how many data each user wants to send. For downlink data, it is transferred from an access gateway to the base station. The base station thus knows how many downlink data should be transferred to each user. On the other hand, for uplink data, if a terminal does not inform the base station of information related to uplink data that it wants to send, the base station cannot know how many uplink data each terminal needs. Hence, in order for the base station to appropriately allocate uplink radio resources to terminals, each terminal should provide the base station with information required for scheduling radio resources.
To this end, a terminal informs to the base station if it has data to send, and the base station sends a radio resource allocation message to the terminal based upon the information.
At the process, namely, when the terminal informs the base station that it has data to send, the terminal informs the base station of the amount of data stored in its buffer, which is called as a buffer status report (BSR).
However, the BSR is generated in the format of a MAC control element (MAC CE) and included in a MAC PDU to be transmitted from the terminal to the base station. That is, an uplink radio resource is required for the BSR transmission, which means that uplink radio resource allocation request information for the BSR transmission should be sent. When the BSR is generated, if there is an uplink radio resource allocated, the terminal immediately sends the BSR using the uplink radio resource. However, when the BSR is generated, if there is no uplink radio resource allocated, the terminal performs a scheduling request (SR) procedure (i.e., resource allocation request procedure).
The SR procedure may be divided into two ways, namely, a method using a dedicated scheduling request (D-SR) channel set for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a method using a RACH procedure. That is, once the SR procedure is triggered, if the terminal has an allocated D-SR channel, then the terminal uses the D-SR channel to send a radio resource allocation request. If the terminal does not have the D-SR channel allocated thereto, then the terminal starts the RACH procedure. In case of using the D-SR channel, the terminal sends a radio resource request allocation signal on uplink via the D-SR channel.
The SR procedure may be continuously performed until the terminal is allocated with a UL-SCH resource.
During the procedure, the BSR sent by the terminal is used to inform the amount of buffer for each logical channel group (LCG), other than sending information related to the amount of buffer for each logical channel. That is, the base station calculates the amount of buffer for each designated group. Maximum four LCGs are defined for one terminal. During the procedure, there are two types of BSR, including long buffer status report (long BSR) and a short buffer status report (short BSR). The long BSR includes information related to the amount of buffer for all of the four LCGs, while the short BSR includes information related to the amount of buffer for one LCG.
The related art radio resource allocation request has the following problem. In general, a plurality of terminals exists in one cell and a base station firstly allocates radio resources to a terminal with a high priority and a channel with a high priority. Therefore, depending on cases, in spite of receiving a radio resource allocation request message or BSR from a specific terminal, the base station may not allocate a radio resource to the terminal. In this case, if the terminal keeps sending the radio resource allocation request, it may cause the consumption of uplink radio resources, which results in an interference with radio resources. In addition, in the above case, while a terminal performs the RACH procedure, the base station may directly allocate a radio resource to the terminal. For example, the terminal may be allocated with a radio resource from the base station using its dedicated identifier after completing Step 2 of the RACH procedure. However, the second message of the RACH procedure includes information related to the allocation of radio resource to a terminal having performed the RACH procedure. In this case, if the terminal continues to perform the RACH procedure, the radio resource allocated using the dedicated identifier is consumed. Also, the D-SR channel is effective only when the terminal has an uplink synchronization. That is, if the terminal does not have the uplink synchronization, even if the terminal uses the D-SR channel, the base station cannot appropriately receive the radio resource allocation request from the terminal. In this case, if the terminal keeps sending the radio resource allocation request without considering such situation, it may only cause the interference with radio resources.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sealing structure of an accessory module in which a casing, containing an accessory (e.g. an on-vehicle CCD camera) and a board, and wires, which are to be connected thereto, can be releasably connected together by the use of a ; connector, and besides a sealing performance is enhanced.
2. Related Art
Conventional camera modules Y and Z will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 10. FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a portion of a wire harness 4 on which a clamp 50 with on O-ring 51 is mounted. A wire harness will be described briefly. Generally, a bundle of wires, used for connection to those electrical circuits of an automobile or the like except high-voltage circuits and an ignition circuit, is called a wire harness. Here, however, it means a wiring bundle comprising wiring elements (including wires) which are bundled together so that the mounting of wires or the like can be easily effected in an assembly line for automobiles. The wire harness is also called a wiring harness.
The O-ring 51, shown in FIG. 7, is provided on the clamp 50 so as to keep the interior of a camera casing 3 in an air-tight condition when the clamp 50 is attached to the camera casing 3. A clamp is a part used for mounting cables, such as a wire harness, on a mating structural object such as an automobile, and here it means a fastening member for fixedly mounting the relevant part.
The clamp 50 includes a threaded portion 50a for positively fixing this clamp to the camera casing 3, a hexagonal head 50b used when fixing the clamp 50 to the camera casing 3 by a thread-tightening operation, and a flange portion 50c which produces a force to fasten the clamp 50 and the camera casing 3 together, and also plays an important role in a sealing function of the O-ring 51.
A passage hole 50d for passing wires, such as cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, therethrough is formed in the clamp 50. As shown in FIG. 7, the wires 4a and 4axe2x80x2, such as cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 (including the drain wire 4axe2x80x2), are passed through the passage hole 50d in the clamp 50 with the O-ring 51, and terminals TL1, that is, terminal members TL1, are secured to distal ends of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, respectively. The terminals TL1 are received in a connector housing, and in this manner a connector CR1 is formed at the distal end of the wire harness 4 as shown in FIG. 8. The terminal designates a terminal member, and means an electrode.
The connector housing will be described briefly, and the connector housing is an electrically-insulating part which holds the terminals, that is, the terminal members, in a suitable arrangement pattern, and has the function of insulating the terminals from one another or from other conductors. Generally, the connector housing has receiving chambers in which the terminals or the like are mounted. The connector means apart for the purpose of achieving an electrical connection, and is provided with electrical connection parts, such as terminals and wires.
After the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 are passed through the passage hole 50d in the clamp 50 shown in FIG. 7, a potting processing PG is applied to this clamp. Here, the potting processing PG will be described briefly, and it means a process of pouring soft rubber, such as an epoxy polymer, or a soft resin into a predetermined portion to seal it.
By thus applying the potting processing PG, even each of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 can be completely sealed so that the intrusion of moisture, dust, dirt and so on into the interior of the camera casing 3 and the interior of a camera 1 can be prevented. The confirmation of the sealing performance of the thus potting-applied portion is made by an operation for confirming the air-tightness and liquid-tightness by water leakage.
FIGS. 8 and 9 are a perspective view showing the manner of assembling the camera modules Y, Z provided with the conventional on-vehicle CCD camera 1. The camera module Y, provided with the conventional on-vehicle CCD camera, will be described briefly, and the camera module Y mainly comprises the camera 1, such as an on-vehicle CCD camera, and a board 2 on which this camera 1 is mounted. The camera module Z comprises the camera module Y, having the camera 1 mounted on the board 2, the camera casing 3 on which this camera module Y is mounted, and the wire harness 4 comprising the wires 4a and 4axe2x80x2 bundled together.
FIGS. 8 and 9 show the process of assembling the conventional on-vehicle CCD, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view specifically showing troubles encountered when mounting the camera module Y, comprising the camera 1 and the board 2, on the camera casing 3. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line Rxe2x80x94R of FIGS. 8 and 9, and also is a conceptual view showing an object to which the wire harness 4 is connected, and more specifically this figure is an enlarged, cross-sectional view showing a condition in which the wire harness 4 is mounted on the camera casing 3 through the clamp 50.
Here, a CCD will be described briefly, and the CCD mainly designates a charged-coupled device, and more specifically means a device which converts an optical signal, representing an image or the like, into an electrical signal by the use of a semiconductor device responsive to light. The CCD is an abbreviation of xe2x80x9cCharge Coupled Devicexe2x80x9d, and is a semiconductor made public in 1977 by Bell Laboratory of U.S.A. Generally, the picture quality of the CCD is mostly determined by the number of pixels, and the number of pixels of CCDs is set to the wide range of from several hundreds of thousands to several millions. It is surmised that the number of pixels is further increasing so as to meet the requirements made from now on.
CCDs have been extensively used in cameras, such as a digital camera and a video camera, and a facsimile machine, a scanner and a duplicating machine or a copying machine such as a laser beam printer. In the case of a digital camera, a CCD is provided at a focus portion instead of a silver salt film. Recently, CCDs, having a large number of pixels, have become inexpensive, and have much Contributed to the low-cost and high picture quality of digital cameras.
The parts of the conventional camera module Z, shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, will be described in detail, and first, the camera 1 mainly comprises a lens 1c, and a lens periphery portion 1d for fixing the lens 1c, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. Next, the board 2, on which the camera 1 is mounted, mainly comprises a board body 2xe2x80x2, and electrical parts (such as connectors) for electrical connection are mounted on this board body 2xe2x80x2.
A connector CR2 is provided at the board 2 of the camera module Y provided with the CCD camera 1. A connector housing of the connector CR2, which is a kind of electrical associated part, is secured to the board body 2xe2x80x2 by fastening elements such as screws. A total of four mounting holes 2b, used for fixedly securing the board 2 to the camera casing 3 by screws SC1 or the like, are formed respectively in those portions of the board body 2xe2x80x2 disposed adjacent respectively to four corners thereof.
The camera casing 3 is formed by a bottom wall 3c and side walls 3d and 3dxe2x80x2 provided respectively at four sides of this bottom wall in surrounding relation thereto, so that a receiving chamber 3e is formed. A cylindrical projected portion 3h, which performs the function of fixing the clamp 50 and also the function of sealing the interior of the camera casing 3, is formed on the side wall 3dxe2x80x2. Screw-fixing bodies 3a, to which the board 2, provided with the camera 1, is adapted to be fixedly secured, are provided respectively at four corners of the receiving chamber 3e of the camera casing 3, and an internally-threaded screw hole 3b is formed in each of the screw-fixing bodies 3a.
The condition of mounting of the clamp 50 on the camera casing 3, shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 10, and a through hole 3f for passing the wire harness 4, comprising the bundle of cables 4 and 4xe2x80x2, therethrough is formed through the side wall 3dxe2x80x2 of the camera casing 3. An internally-threaded groove for threaded engagement with the threaded portion 50a of the clamp 50 to positively fix this clamp is formed in an inner peripheral surface of the through hole 3f.
The clamp 50 (shown in FIG. 7), having the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 passed therethrough, is mounted in the through hole 3f formed through the side wall 3dxe2x80x2 of the camera casing 3. The threaded portion 50a of the clamp 50 is threadedly engaged in the through hole 3f of the camera casing 3, which is processed to have the threads, so that the clamp 50, having the wire harness 4 passed therethrough, is fixed to the camera casing 3 as shown in FIG. 10.
The cylindrical projected portion 3h is formed around the periphery of the through hole 3f in the camera casing 3 so that the clamp 50, provided with the above-mentioned O-ring 51, can be properly guided into the through hole 3f through this projected portion, and can be mounted therein. The cylindrical projected portion 3h maintains the air-tight condition, formed by the O-ring 51 mounted on the clamp 50, thus performing the function of a screen plate for preventing the intrusion of moisture, dust, dirt and so on from the exterior.
As shown in FIG. 10, the camera casing 3 is electrically connected by the wire harness 4 to a non-waterproof connector CR3 provided within a vehicle room V. A terminal TL2 is secured to one end of the drain wire 4a branching off from an intermediate portion of the wire harness 4, and the terminal TL2 is secured to a frame of a vehicle body B by a screw SC2. Thus, the drain wire 4axe2x80x2 performs the function of an earth.
As shown also in FIGS. 8 and 9, the connector CR1, comprising the connector housing in which the terminals, connected respectively to the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, are inserted, is connected to the connector CR2, provided at the board 2, in a male-female manner to form the male and female connectors, so that the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 are electrically connected to the camera 1 such as an on-vehicle CCD camera. In this manner, the board 2, provided with the camera 1, is electrically connected to the wire harness 4 and the non-waterproof connector CR3 within the vehicle room V, and the electrical connection of the drain wire 4axe2x80x2 is also made.
Grommets (not shown) are mounted on the wire harness 4 intermediate the opposite ends thereof. A grommet is an annular part made of rubber which protects a wire harness, a tube, a hose, a cable or the like from an edge portion of a through hole portion, formed in a vehicle body, a casing of a part or others, and is also used for the purpose of insulating dust, sound and so on. Because of its waterproof and dust-insulating nature, the grommet also functions as a sealing member. Grommets are used when passing a wire harness from a vehicle room to the exterior of the vehicle or when passing a wire harness from the vehicle room into an engine room or a trunk room.
One example of a method of assembling the on-vehicle CCD camera, shown in the prior art, will be described below in detail. First, the clamp 50, provided with the O-ring 51, is mounted on the wire harness 4 shown in FIG. 10. Then, the wire harness 4, comprising the bundle of cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, is passed through the passage hole 50d in the clamp 50, thereby provisionally fixing the wire harness 4 and the clamp 50 to each other.
That portion of a tube 4d (which protects the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, and bundles them together), which is to extend beyond the clamp 50 into the camera casing 3, is cut by a knife or the like, so that the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 are taken out of the tube 4d. The terminals TL1 are already secured to the distal ends of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, and these terminals TL1 are received in the connector housing to form the connector CR1 shown in FIG. 8.
In order to enhance the sealing between the wire harness 4 and the clamp 50 in this condition, the potting processing PG is applied by pouring a resin or rubber into the passage hole 50d in the clamp 50, thereby fixing the two together as shown in FIG. 7. The air-tightness within the camera casing 3 can be enhanced by the potting processing PG shown in FIGS. 7 and 10.
The above-mentioned operation for assembling the wires 4 and the peripheral parts of the wires 4 together will be called the assembly of the wire harness 4 and the connector, or may be merely called the connector assembly (assembly will be called xe2x80x9cASSYxe2x80x9d in an abbreviated manner). In this case, the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 have a somewhat extra length as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 so that these cables can connected the camera casing 3 to the board 2. Thus, the clamp 50 is fixed to the predetermined portion of the wire harness 4.
Next, the clamp 50, through which the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 have been passed as described above, is mounted in the through hole 3f in the camera casing 3. The threaded portion 50a of the clamp 50 with the O-ring 51 is threaded into the through hole 3f, that is, the internally-threaded hole, in the camera casing 3, thereby fixing the clamp 50 to the camera casing 3 as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10. At this time, the air-tightness and sealing performance within the camera casing 3 are maintained by the O-ring 51 and the potting processing PG as shown in FIG. 10.
After the preparations are thus made, the board 2, having the camera 1 mounted thereon, that is, the camera module Y, is mounted on the camera casing 3. With respect to the procedure of this assembly, first, the connector CR1, provided at the wire harness 4, is connected to the connector CR2, provided at the board body 2xe2x80x2, to form the male and female connectors, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.
After the above-mentioned connectors are connected, the camera module Y is mounted on the camera casing 3. In this mounting method, first, the camera module Y, including the camera 1 and the board 2, is attached to the camera casing 3 in such a manner that the mounting holes 2b, formed in the board 2, are aligned respectively with the internally-threaded screw holes 3b provided respectively at the four corners of the camera casing 3.
Then, each screw SC1 is passed through the corresponding mounting hole 2b formed in the board body 2xe2x80x2, and is screwed and tightened by screw fastening means. As a result, the screw SC1 is screwed into the internally-threaded screw hole 3b provided at the camera casing 3. In this manner, the board 2, provided with the camera 1, that is, the camera module Y, is fixedly secured to the camera casing 3, thus assembling the camera module Z.
With respect to peripheral techniques, there are disclosed JP-A-9-245880, JP-A-10-144385, JP-A-10-172643, JP-A-10-172644, JP-A-10-172645, JP-A-7-42075U and so on.
JP-A-9-245880 describes a relay connector for positively preventing a leakage of an oil liquid at a terminal insertion portion. JP-A-10-144385 describes improvements in drip-proof performance, moisture-proof performance and attaching/detaching operability of a wiring connector for a shelf illumination lamp incorporated in a showcase.
JP-A-10-172643 describes a waterproof connector for an electronic control unit in which the alignment of terminals can be easily secured, and the reflow soldering can be effected easily, and the good waterproof performance can be obtained. JP-A-10-172644 describes a waterproof connector for an electronic control unit in which the height of a male connector can be reduced, and the number of component parts can be reduced. JP-A-10-172645 describes a waterproof connector for an electronic control unit in which a male connector can be formed into a compact size, and a good appearance can be obtained.
JP-A-7-42075U describes a connector connecting apparatus. JP-A-7-42075U describes the connector connecting apparatus, in which conductors of a plurality of pair wires of a cable are automatically arranged on a provisionally-retaining cover of a connector, and an arrangement holding mechanism for automatically arranging the pair wires in a row without changing the order of combination of the pair wires.
However, in the above conventional camera module Z shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, when assembling this camera module Z, there was needed the operation in which the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 were passed from the exterior of the camera casing 3 into the receiving chamber 3e of the camera casing 3 through the through hole 3f (see FIG. 10) in the camera casing 3.
And besides, in order to enhance the sealing performance of the through hole 3f in the camera casing 3, there was needed the operation in which the clamp 50, mounted on the wire harness 4, was screwed into the threaded portion of the through hole in the camera casing 3, and was fastened to the camera casing 3.
Furthermore, there was needed the operation in which the connector CR1, secured to the distal ends of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, was connected to the connector CR2, mounted on the board 2, in a male-female manner to make the electrical connection. Therefore, the assembling operation of the camera module Z must depend on manual operations, and therefore the workers were required to perform the complicated assembling operations. Thus, many complicated operations were needed for assembling the conventional camera module Z, and much production tact and production time were required, and this was not efficient from the viewpoint of productivity.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing troubles encountered when mounting the camera module Y on the camera casing 3. There was a fear that when mounting the conventional camera module Y on the camera casing 3, the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 were caught between the camera module Y and the camera casing 3 as shown in FIG. 9.
There was a fear that the conductors in the cable 4a or the drain wire 4axe2x80x2, caught between the camera module Y and the camera casing 3 in the assembling process, were cut, and therefore the camera module Z, having such cable 4a or drain wire 4axe2x80x2, must be treated as a defective product.
However, it is not desirable to discard such semi-finished products from the viewpoint of the global environment, and besides this is wasteful from the viewpoint of production, and therefore it was necessary to re-assemble the camera module Z while changing the wire harness 4 (including the cables 4a, the drain wire 4axe2x80x2 and the tube 4d) and those parts relevant to the wires 4, such as the clamp 50.
Besides the above catching problem that the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 were caught, the conventional camera module Z was not complete with respect to the waterproof measures. In the conventional camera module Z, the interior of the camera casing 3 was formed into the sealing structure, using the clamp 50, mounted on the wire harness 4, and so on, and the connector CR1, provided at the distal end of the wire harness 4 spaced from this clamp 50, was connected to the connector CR2, mounted on the board 2, in a male-female manner, thereby electrically connecting the wire harness 4 to the various electrical circuits on the board 2.
The camera module Z is thus formed into the sealing structure so as to prevent moisture from intruding into the camera 1. However, in the camera module Z shown in FIG. 8, any sealing measures are not provided at the connector CR2, mounted on the board 2, and the connector CR1 secured to the distal ends of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2.
For example, if a cut W is accidentally formed in that portion of the tube 4d of the wire harness 4 extending outwardly from the camera module Z as shown in FIG. 10, and this cut reaches the conductors in the cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2 through an insulating sheath thereof, then rain water or the like intrudes into the camera module Z through the interior of the cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2. Therefore, there was a fear that various troubles could develop in the camera module Z.
FIG. 6 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2 bundled together in the wire harness 4. The cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2 comprises a plurality of conductors 4b and the insulating sheath 4c, and provides the conductor cable, and very small gaps 4bxe2x80x2 are seen between the conductors 4b.
When rain water or the like intrudes into the cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2 through the above-mentioned cut W, the rain water advances forward along the cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2 because of a capillary action of the very small gaps 4bxe2x80x2, existing between the plurality of conductors 4b bundled together in the cable 4a, 4axe2x80x2, and finally reaches the connectors CR1 and CR2 of the camera module Z shown in FIG. 9, and therefore there was a fear that the moisture intruded into the camera module Z.
A CCD camera is composed of precise electronic parts and mechanical parts, and therefore unless the camera module Z, having such a CCD camera mounted thereon, was completely maintained in a sealed condition relative to the exterior, there was a fear that there occurred various troubles such as an electrical trouble and the development of a cloud on the lens 1c of the camera 1.
More specifically, the troubles, which would be caused by the intrusion of the moisture into the camera module Z, are various problems such as the development of rust on the metallic parts, the incomplete electrical contact and the short-circuiting caused by the moisture, and the development of a cloud on the lens 1c by the condensation of the moisture, which prevents the satisfactory photographing.
It has been thought that these problems can be solved by applying waterproof measures to both of the connector CR2, provided at the board 2 of the camera module Z, and the connector CR1, secured to the distal ends of the cables 4a and 4axe2x80x2, thus forming these connectors into a waterproof connector. However, even if merely the waterproof connector is adopted in the camera module Z, the above catching problem still remains unsolved, and besides the following problems still remain unsolved.
When carrying out a maintenance operation for the camera 1, it has heretofore been necessary to recover the whole of the camera module Z including the wire harness 4, and much time and labor have been required for this recovering operation. Even if it is intended to effect the recovering operation for the camera module Z, including the wire harness 4, or to recycle and re-use the camera module Z in view of the global environment when a failure of the camera module Z occurs, many difficulties are involved in the above recovering operation when considering the contents of various operations required for recovering the camera module Z having the wire harness 4 connected thereto, and actually it has been thought impossible to carry out the recovering operation for the camera module Z.
In view of the above points, it is an object of this invention to provide a sealing structure of an accessory module in which a casing, containing an accessory, such as a camera, and a board, and wires, which are to be connected to this casing, can be easily connected together and disconnected from each other by the use of connectors, thereby solving the problem that the wires, such as cables, are caught between the camera casing and the board when assembling the conventional accessory module, and besides foreign matters, such as moisture, dust and dirt, are prevented from intruding into the interior of the accessory module, thereby enhancing a sealing performance.
Another object is to provide a sealing structure of an accessory module in which a casing, containing an accessory, and wires can be easily separated from each other so that the disassembly, inspection, repair and etc., of an accessory and its neighboring portions can be easily effected, thus providing an excellent maintenance performance.
The above objects have been achieved by a sealing structure of an accessory module of the present invention characterized in that an accessory is mounted on a board; and a connector main portion is formed by terminals and a connector board; one end portions of the terminals are soldered to the board; a first sealing member is provided at the connector main portion; an inner housing, corresponding to the connector main portion, is formed within a receiving chamber of a casing; a connector frontage portion is formed at the casing; and by mounting the board on the casing, the first sealing member is held in intimate contact with the inner housing to seal the connector frontage portion, and also a connector is formed.
Effectively, the other end portions of the terminals project toward an opening of the connector frontage portion, and insertion holes, corresponding respectively to the terminals, are formed through the first sealing member, and the terminals are press-fitted into the insertion holes, respectively, and the first sealing member is held in intimate contact with the connector board.
Effectively, a second sealing member is provided at a front portion of a mating connector secured to a cable, and when the mating connector and the connector are coupled together, the two are electrically connected together, and also a front surface portion of the mating connector is held in intimate contact with the first sealing member provided at the connector, and also the second sealing member, provided at the mating connector, is held in intimate contact with the inner housing of the casing to seal the connector.
Effectively, at least one lip, comprising at least one ridge, is formed on at least one surface of the first sealing member, the lip enhancing a sealing performance of the surface.
Effectively, by attaching a cover to the casing, a mating surface of the casing and a mating surface of the cover are abutted against each other, so that the accessory is sealed within the receiving chamber of the casing or a receiving chamber of the cover.
Effectively, a camera module is formed by using a camera, adapted to be mounted on an automobile, as the accessory.
FIG. 1 is an exploded, perspective view of one preferred embodiment of an accessory module of the invention.
FIG. 2 is an exploded, perspective view of the accessory module.
FIG. 3 is a view of the accessory module in its assembled condition.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged, perspective view showing a condition in which a connector frontage portion is sealed by a first sealing member.
FIG. 5 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the accessory module.
FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a cable.
FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a portion of a wire harness having a clamp mounted thereon.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional camera module which is in the process of being assembled.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view specifically showing troubles encountered when mounting the camera module on a camera casing.
FIG. 10 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view taken along the line Rxe2x80x94R of FIGS. 8 and 9, and also is a conceptual view showing an object to which a wire harness is connected.
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{
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As a cross-point memory, a NAND flash memory, and the like, a laminated memory attracts attention to attain an increase in a degree of integration without being restricted by a limit in resolution of a lithography technology. In such a laminated memory, in some case, a sense amplifier and a decoder are arranged below a memory cell array to reduce a chip size.
However, in the laminated memory in the past, a driver that drives memory cells is arranged in a peripheral section of the memory cell array. Therefore, when a load on the driver is large, an area of the driver increases to cause an increase in the chip size.
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Various classes of graphical models describe computations that can be performed on computational hardware, such as a computer, microcontroller, FPGA, and custom hardware. Classes of such graphical models include time-based block diagrams such as those found within Simulink® from The MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass., state-based and flow diagrams, such as those found within Stateflow® from The MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass., entity flow network diagrams such as those found within SimEvents from The MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass., data-flow diagrams, circuit diagrams, and software diagrams, such as those found in the Unified Modeling Language. A common characteristic among these various forms of graphical models is that they define semantics on how to execute the diagram.
Historically, engineers and scientists have utilized graphical models in numerous scientific areas such as Feedback Control Theory and Signal Processing to study, design, debug, and refine dynamic systems. Dynamic systems, which are characterized by the fact that their behaviors change over time, or the fact that their states change or the fact that their behaviors change due to a system environment, are representative of many real-world systems. Graphical modeling has become particularly attractive over the last few years with the advent of software packages such as Simulink® from The MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass. Such packages provide sophisticated software platforms with a rich suite of support tools that makes the analysis and design of dynamic systems efficient, methodical, and cost-effective.
A dynamic system, either natural or man-made, is a system whose response at any given time is a function of its input stimuli, its current state, the current time, and other input parameters. Such systems range from simple to highly complex systems. Physical dynamic systems include a falling body, the rotation of the earth, bio-mechanical systems (muscles, joints, etc.), bio-chemical systems (gene expression, protein pathways), weather and climate pattern systems, etc. Examples of man-made or engineered dynamic systems include: a bouncing ball, a spring with a mass tied on an end, automobiles, airplanes, control systems in major appliances, communication networks, audio signal processing, nuclear reactors, a stock market, etc.
Professionals from diverse areas such as engineering, science, education, and economics build graphical models of dynamic systems in order to better understand system behavior as it changes with the progression of time. The graphical models aid in building “better” systems, where “better” may be defined in terms of a variety of performance measures such as quality, time-to-market, cost, speed, size, power consumption, robustness, etc. The graphical models also aid in analyzing, debugging and repairing existing systems (be it the human body or the anti-lock braking system in a car). The models may also serve an educational purpose of educating others on the basic principles governing physical systems. The models and results are often used as a scientific communication medium between humans. The term “model-based design” is used to refer to the use of graphical models in the development, analysis, and validation of dynamic systems.
Graphical modeling environments such as Simulink®, assist in simplifying the process of designing, simulating, and implementing dynamic systems. A graphical model is a representation of a real-world system through a graph containing nodes (i.e. blocks) interconnected by arcs (i.e. lines). Blocks are functional entities that perform mathematical operations, transformations or both on the data and information being processed by the system. The lines, often referred to as signals in the art, represent streams of information, such as data, data types, timing information, and control information, flowing into, out of, and between various blocks. Signals in current graphical model environments have a number of properties, such as data dimensions (i.e., signal dimensionality), data type, range of signed and unsigned values, scaling, and precision, amongst other properties. Signal data can be organized into a one-dimensional data structure for example, a vector or can be organized into a two-dimensional data structure, for example, a matrix, or can be organized into a three-dimensional or higher-dimensional data structure.
Graphical modeling environments, such as the technical computing environment of MATLAB® from the MathWorks, Inc. of Natick, Mass., can provide a “model-based design” approach to designing an implementation. The term “model-based design” is used to refer to a model acting as a design. A model-based design may be used as a design specification for an implementation, such as an implementation of an algorithm in hardware circuitry or the implementation of code to run on a computer. A graphical block diagram modeling environment can produce designs in graphical block diagram form to specify computations that can be performed on computational hardware such as a general purpose processor, microcontroller, DSP, FPGA, PLD, or ASIC. That is, a model-based design is well suited for use as a design specification, for the model-based design can drive the building process of an implementation of the design. For instance, the model-based design can act as a specification from which to automatically generate code from a graphical model in a graphical modeling environment.
There are some limitations associated with conventional model-based design tools. For example, the user cannot specify externally known limitations regarding the precision of a signal. For instance, a user cannot specify that a signal represents a temperature reading that is accurate to +/−0.125 degrees Celsius. In addition, a user cannot specify externally known requirements regarding the precision of a signal. For example, suppose that a signal controls the aiming of a laser in a laser printer and there is a design goal to have 600 dots per inch accuracy. Conventional model-based design tools do not provide a mechanism for a user to specify this externally known precision requirement.
An additional limitation of conventional model-based design tools is that they do not allow a user to enter externally known limitations regarding rates of change for a signal and for the derivatives of the signal. For instance, suppose that a user knows that a signal representing the temperature of an engine block never changes faster than degrees per second. With conventional model-based design tools, there is no way of specifying this limitation regarding the rate of change of the signal a priori.
As another example, consider a DC motor that is used to move a power window of an automobile up and down. In its operation, the current that the motor draws may range from −15 Ampere to 15 Ampere. If the measurement instrumentation has a 2% accuracy, the value of the current is known in a range of +/−300 milli-Ampere. The measurement may be coded into a 16 bit representation which, for a range of 30 Ampere would result in a precision of 0.4 milli-Ampere. This measurement may be used in the control of the DC motor voltage so that the window never exerts a force larger than 100 Newton. Again the 16 bit representation may correspond to a higher precision than what the actuator instrumentation is rated for, which may be in the order of +/−2 Newton.
In this DC motor example, the 300 milli-Ampere range as well as the +/−2 Newton range are properties of system behavior that have an external origin, i.e., they are not inherent in the model. Depending on whether they represent design goals or implementation constraints, they can be considered requirements or limitations, respectively. These two different aspects of the design are related to disjoint activities in the overall design process and are part of the opposite ends of the overall design flow. That is, the manner in which limitations arise and are defined is treated different from the manner in which requirements arise and are defined. It is often unclear as to how design practices transfer from limitation to requirement handling and vice versa. With conventional model-based design tools such external requirements and limitations related to precision, range, rate-of-change, etc., cannot be specified.
Model-based design tools provide a limited ability to derive signal properties from other known values. There are a number of derived signal properties that are not available with current model-based design tools. For example, conventional model-based design tools do not allow derived precision limitations to be automatically obtained. Similarly, they do not allow derived precision requirements to be obtained.
Model-based design tools provide certain varieties of instrumentation, such as logging of signal values, logging of simulation maximums and minimums and logging overflow events. Conventional model-based design tools, however, do not provide instrumentation that collects a simulation Nth discrete derivative maximum and/or minimum for signals. That is, conventional model-based design tools cannot collect derived maximum and/or minimum values based on one or more temporal derivative limits of the values. Likewise, conventional model-based design tools cannot capture an Nth temporal derivative. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that as used herein N can be any integer larger than zero(0).
Conventional model-based design tools have limited diagnostic capability. For instance, these conventional model-based design tools do not provide the ability to diagnose failure to meet a design precision requirement or exceeding a design limitation.
Conventional model-based design tools are also limited in automatic scaling techniques that are applied to fixed point signal values to set binary points for the values. These conventional model-based design techniques are also limited in the variety of techniques that are available for the selection of data types for signals.
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A fundus camera is a camera particularly used for capturing images of inner eye and retina. Compared to other objects in photographing, the fundus does not give light itself. Light of different types projected onto an eye in a natural condition can illuminate the fundus but is not intense enough for observing the fundus or taking a picture thereof. Besides, light tends to reflect from the cornea to interfere with the observation of the fundus.
Therefore, the fundus camera must include an illuminating system capable of illuminating the fundus with a considerably intense light as well as an observing and imaging system that is free from any influence of the intense reflected light from the cornea on a film. Further, to distinguish the position of the macular or the optic disc from other areas in the captured eye image, fixation points are provided in the fundus camera, so that an examinee can turn his or her eye to a particular angle by gazing on some specific fixation point.
Please refer to FIG. 1. The gaze fixation system adopted by the conventional fundus camera mainly includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) 101, on which lightened spots 102 are provided at different positions. In using the LCD gaze fixation system, an examinee is caused to turn his or her eye and gaze on the lightened spots 102 on the LCD 101. Please refer to FIG. 2. The fundus camera using the conventional LCD gaze fixation system has an optical path design generally divided into an LCD display system 10, a light source projecting system 11, an optical camera system 12, an image displaying and monitoring system 13, and a positioning optical path system 14.
The LCD display system 10 includes an LCD display 101, a condenser lens 103 and a beam splitter 104. The light source projecting system 11 includes a photographing light source 111, a condenser lens 112, a ring-shaped slit plate 113, a relay lens 114 and a perforated mirror 115. The optical camera system 12 includes an ocular lens 121, a focusing lens 122, a magnifier 123 and a film 124. The image displaying and monitoring system 13 includes a beam-bending lens 131, a field lens 132, a mirror 133, a relay lens 134, a converter tube 135 and a monitor 136. The positioning optical path system 14 includes a semi-lens 141, a relay lens 142, a mirror 143, a light guide 144 and a light source 145.
Since the above optical path systems are independent from one another, they respectively require an independent optical path space. As a result, the fundus camera requires increased manufacturing cost. Further, the LCD for aiding gaze fixation does not include any optical path design related to a split image focusing screen. Therefore, an examiner could not quickly and precisely focus the image in the process of image focusing adjustment for individual eye diopter. However, the addition of a split image focusing system to the LCD display system would inevitably involve in the complicated problem of coordination with other optical path systems.
In view that there are still many improvements that must be made to the conventional fundus camera adopting the LCD for aiding in gaze fixation, it is tried by the inventor to develop an improved fundus examination device capable of aiding in gaze-fixation and image focusing.
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Achieving low defect densities throughout a semiconductor active device layer is important for the fabrication of a commercially practical nitride-based semiconductor device. As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/503,660 (“the '660 application”), the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, it is possible to form large-diameter, low-defect-density AlN substrates. However, many desirable device applications preferably incorporate device layers based on alloys of AlN, GaN, and InN to be grown on the AlN substrate. As the concentration of GaN and InN is increased, the lattice mismatch with respect to the AlN substrate also increases. For instance, the lattice parameter in the c-plane of GaN is approximately 2.4% larger than that of AlN. When a lattice-mismatched layer is epitaxially grown on a substrate, the initial layer typically grows pseudomorphically—that is, the epitaxial layer will be compressed (experience compressive strain) in the plane of the substrate surface if the intrinsic lattice parameter of the substrate is smaller than that of the epitaxial layer. The epitaxial layer will be stretched or put under tensile strain when the intrinsic lattice parameter of the epitaxial layer is smaller than that of the substrate. However, as the thickness of the epitaxial layer is increased, the strain energy in the epitaxial layer will grow and, typically, the layer will find some way to reduce the strain energy. This may occur by plastic flow through the motion of dislocations, through the creation of surface morphological features which allow strain relaxation, or, particularly when the strain is tensile, through cracking of the film.
Pseudomorphic layers are attractive for at least two reasons. The first is that when an epitaxial layer is grown on a low-dislocation substrate, the pseudomorphic epitaxial layer may also be grown with very low dislocation densities, often with the same dislocation density as the substrate. The second advantage accrues from the ability to tailor the band structure through the large resulting biaxial strains. For example, the strain can be used to break the degeneracy between heavy and light carrier bands and, as a result, obtain higher carrier mobilities.
However, even thick pseudomorphic layers may be insufficient for the fabrication of high-output-power light-emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers. Such devices are generally sensitive to strain-relieving defects, placing constraints on not only the light-emitting active layer(s) (which are generally one or more strained quantum wells), but also adjoining layers, as defects in adjoining layers may propagate through the active layer(s) even if the active layer(s) remain pseudomorphically strained. Because adjoining layers generally require particular thicknesses and/or compositions to enable, e.g., adequate electrical contact to the device, if these layers are maintained in a pseudomorphic state, the allowable thickness for the active layer(s) (in order to maintain the entire “stack” of layers in a pseudomorphic state) may be diminished, thus decreasing the potential output power of the finished device. Moreover, such layers may require high doping levels to enable low-resistance contacts to the device, and compositions closely lattice-matched with device active layers and/or the underlying substrate may be difficult to dope at high levels. Thus, there is a need for devices having pseudomorphic active layer(s) the thickness of which is not constrained by the strain state of adjoining layers but that remain substantially defect-free (e.g., having a density of defects such as threading dislocations that is approximately equal to the defect level of the underlying substrate), and that are capable of being doped at high levels.
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The present invention relates to novel heterocyclic carboxamides to intermediates for their preparation, to pharmaceutical compositions containing them and to their medicinal use. The compounds of the present invention include selective agonists and antagonists of serotonin 1 (5-HT1) receptors, specifically, of one or both of the 5-HT1A and 5-HT1D receptors. They are useful in treating or preventing migraine, depression and other disorders for which a 5-HT1 agonist or antagonist is indicated.
European Patent Publication 434,561, published on Jun. 26, 1991, refers to 7-alkyl, alkoxy, and hydroxy substituted-1-(4-substituted-1-piperazinyl)-naphthalenes. The compounds are referred to as 5-HT1 agonists and antagonists useful for the treatment of migraine, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, stress and pain.
European Patent Publication 343,050, published on Nov. 23, 1989, refers to 7-unsubstituted, halogenated, and methoxy substituted-1-(4-substituted-1-piperazinyl)-naphthalenes as useful 5-HT1A ligand therapeutics.
PCT publication WO 94/21619, published Sep. 29, 1994, refers to naphthalene derivatives as 5-HT1 agonists and antagonists.
PCT publication WO 96/00720, published Jan. 11, 1996, refers to naphthyl ethers as useful 5-HT1 agonists and antagonists.
European Patent Publication 701,819, published Mar. 20, 1996, refers to the use of 5-HT1 agonists and antagonists in combination with a 5-HT re-uptake inhibitor.
Glennon et al., refers to 7-methoxy-1-(1-piperazinyl)-naphthalene as a useful 5-HT1 ligand in their article xe2x80x9c5-HT1D Serotonin Receptorsxe2x80x9d, Drug Dev. Res., 22, 25-36 (1991).
Glennon""s article xe2x80x9cSerotonin Receptors: Clinical Implicationsxe2x80x9d, Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 14, 35-47 (1990), refers to the pharmacological effects associated with serotonin receptors including appetite suppression, thermoregulation, cardiovascular/hypotensive effects, sleep, psychosis, anxiety, depression, nausea, emesis, Alzheimer""s disease, Parkinson""s disease and Huntington""s disease.
World Patent Application WO 95/31988, published Nov. 30, 1995, refers to the use of a 5-HT1D antagonist in combination with a 5-HT1A antagonist to treat CNS disorders such as depression, generalized anxiety, panic disorder. agoraphobia, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, memory disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, Parkinson""s disease, tardive dyskinesias, endocrine disorders such as hyperprolactinaemia, vasospasm (particularly in the cerebral vasculature) and hypertension, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract where changes in motility and secretion are involved, as well as sexual dysfunction.
G. Maura et al., J. Neurochem, 66 (1), 203-209 (1996), have stated that administration of agonists selective for 5-HT1A receptors or for both 5-HT1A and 5-HT1D receptors might represent a great improvement in the treatment of human cerebellar ataxias, a multifaceted syndrome for which no established therapy is available
The present invention relates to compounds of the formula
or the pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; wherein
Z is oxygen, S(O)m wherein m is 0, 1 or 2, or NQ wherein Q is hydrogen, (C1-C6)alkyl or phenyl;
X is hydrogen, chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, hydroxy, nitro, cyano, (C1-C6)alkyl, trifluoromethyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C1-C6)alkyl S(O)a wherein a is 0, 1 or 2; or phenyl wherein the phenyl group is optionally substituted by hydrogen, halo, hydroxy, nitro, cyano, (C1-C6)alkyl, trifluoromethyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, or (C1-C6)alkyl S(O)b wherein b is 0, 1 or 2;
Y is
wherein M is oxygen or sulfur;
X2 is hydrogen, fluoro, chloro, trifluoromethyl, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy or (C1-C6)alkyl S(O)c wherein c is 0, 1 or 2;
R1 is a group of the formulas
wherein the broken line represents an optional double bond;
p is 1, 2 or 3,
E is oxygen or S(O)d wherein d is 0, 1 or 2;
R6 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, (C1-C6)alkyl optionally substituted with (C1-C6)alkoxy or one to three fluorine atoms, or [(C1-C4)alkyl]aryl wherein the aryl moiety is phenyl, naphthyl, or heteroaryl-(CH2)qxe2x80x94, wherein the heteroaryl moiety is selected from the group consisting of pyridyl, pyrimidyl, benzoxazolyl, benzothiazolyl, benzisoxazolyl and benzisothiazolyl and q is zero, one, two, three or four, and wherein said aryl and heteroaryl moieties may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from the group consisting of chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, trifluoromethyl, cyano and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)e, wherein e is 0, 1 or 2;
R7 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, (C1-C6)alkyl, [(C1-C4)alkyl]aryl wherein the aryl moiety is phenyl, naphthyl, or heteroaryl-(CH2)rxe2x80x94, wherein the heteroaryl moiety is selected from the group consisting of pyridyl, pyrimidyl, benzoxazolyl, benzothiazolyl, benzisoxazolyl and benzisothiazolyl and r is zero, one, two, three or four, and wherein said aryl and heteroaryl moieties may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from the group consisting of chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, trifluoromethyl, xe2x80x94C(xe2x95x90O)xe2x80x94(C1-C6)alkyl, cyano and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)f, wherein f is 0, 1 or 2;
or R6 and R7 taken together form a 2 to 4 carbon chain,
R8 is hydrogen or (C1-C3)alkyl;
R9 is hydrogen or (C1-C6)alkyl;
or R6 and R9, together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form a 5 to 7 membered heteroalkyl ring that may contain from zero to four heteroatoms selected from nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen;
R10 is hydrogen or (C1-C6)alkyl:
R2 is hydrogen, (C1-C4)alkyl, phenyl or naphthyl, wherein said phenyl or naphthyl may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, trifluoromethyl, cyano and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)g wherein g is 0, 1 or 2; and
R3 is xe2x80x94(CH2)tB, wherein t is zero, one, two or three and B is hydrogen, phenyl, naphthyl or a 5 or 6 membered heteroaryl group containing from one to four heteroatoms in the ring, and wherein each of the foregoing phenyl, naphthyl and heteroaryl groups may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C1-C6) alkoxy-(C1-C6)alkyl-, trifluoromethyl, trifluoromethoxy, cyano, hydroxy, COOH and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)h wherein h is 0, 1 or 2.
The term xe2x80x9calkylxe2x80x9d, as used herein, unless otherwise indicated, includes saturated monovalent hydrocarbon radicals having straight, branched or cyclic moieties or combinations thereof.
The term xe2x80x9calkoxyxe2x80x9d, as used herein, includes O-alkyl groups wherein xe2x80x9calkylxe2x80x9d is defined above.
Preferred compounds of formula I include those wherein Z is oxygen, S(O)m wherein m is zero; or NH.
Other preferred compounds of formula I include those wherein Y is a group of the formula
wherein R1 is 4-methylpiperazin-1-yl and X2 is hydrogen, fluoro or chloro.
Other preferred compounds of formula I include those wherein R2 is hydrogen, fluoro or chloro.
Other preferred compounds of formula I include those wherein R3 is xe2x80x94(CH2)tB wherein t is zero or one and B is phenyl or naphthyl wherein the phenyl and naphthyl groups may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C1-C6) alkoxy-(C1-C6)alkyl-, trifluoromethyl, trifluoromethoxy, cyano, hydroxy, COOH and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)h wherein h is 0, 1 or 2.
More preferred compounds of formula I include those wherein Z is oxygen, S(O)m wherein m is zero; or NH; Y is a group of the formula
wherein R1 is 4-methylpiperazin-1-yl and X2 is hydrogen, fluoro or chloro; R2 is hydrogen, fluoro or chloro; and R3 is xe2x80x94(CH2)tB wherein t is zero or one and B is phenyl or naphthyl wherein the phenyl and naphthyl groups may optionally be substituted with one or more substituents independently selected from chloro, fluoro, bromo, iodo, (C1-C6)alkyl, (C1-C6)alkoxy, (C1-C6) alkoxy-(C1-C6)alkyl-, trifluoromethyl, trifluoromethoxy, cyano, hydroxy, COOH and (C1-C6)alkylS(O)h wherein h, is 0, 1 or 2.
Specific preferred compounds of formula I include the following:
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-furan-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorobenzylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-furan-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorophenylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorophenylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-furan-2-carboxylic acid [2-(4-chlorophenyl)ethyl]-amide;
4-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-furan-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorobenzylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid benzylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid 4-fluorobenzylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid 4-methoxybenzylamide;
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid [2-(4-chlorophenyl)ethyl]-amide;
3-methyl-5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorobenzylamide,
5-[5-fluoro-2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorobenzylamide;
and
5-[2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-phenyl]-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid 4-chlorobenzylamide.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a disorder or condition selected from hypertension, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias (e.g., agoraphobia, social phobia and simple phobias), posttraumatic stress syndrome, avoidant personality disorder, premature ejaculation, eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), obesity, chemical dependencies (e.g., addictions to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, phenolbarbitol, nicotine and benzodiazepines), cluster headache, migraine, pain, Alzheimer""s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, memory disorders (e.g., dementia, amnestic disorders, and age-related cognitive decline (ARCD)), Parkinson""s diseases (e.g., dementia in Parkinson""s disease, neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesias), endocrine disorders (e.g., hyperprolactinaemia), vasospasm (particularly in the cerebral vasculature), cerebellar ataxia, gastrointestinal tract disorders (involving changes in motility and secretion), negative symptoms of schizophrenia, premenstrual syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, stress incontinence, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania, kleptomania, male impotence, cancer (e.g., small cell lung carcinoma), chronic paroxysmal hemicrania and headache (associated with vascular disorders) in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising an amount of a compound of the formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising an amount of a compound of the formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Examples of such disorders and conditions are those enumerated in the preceding paragraph.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition selected from hypertension, depression (e g, depression in cancer patients, depression in Parkinson""s patients, postmyocardial infarction depression, subsyndromal symptomatic depression, depression in infertile women, pediatric depression, major depression, single episode depression, recurrent depression, child abuse induced depression, and post partum depression), generalized anxiety disorder, phobias (e.g., agoraphobia, social phobia and simple phobias), posttraumatic stress syndrome, avoidant personality disorder, premature ejaculation, eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), obesity, chemical dependencies (e.g., addictions to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, phenolbarbitol, nicotine and benzodiazepines), cluster headache, migraine, pain, Alzheimer""s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, memory disorders (e.g., dementia, amnestic disorders, and age-related cognitive decline (ARCD)), Parkinson""s diseases (e.g., dementia in Parkinson""s disease, neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesias), endocrine disorders (e.g., hyperprolactinaemia), vasospasm (particularly in the cerebral vasculature), cerebellar ataxia, gastrointestinal tract disorders (involving changes in motility and secretion), negative symptoms of schizophrenia, premenstrual syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, stress incontinence, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania, kleptomania, male impotence, cancer, (e.g., small cell lung carcinoma), chronic paroxysmal hemicrania and headache (associated with vascular disorders) in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to a mammal in need of such treatment or prevention an amount of a compound of the formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, that is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to a mammal in need of such treatment or prevention an amount of a compound of the formula i, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, that is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a disorder or condition selected from hypertension, depression (e.g., depression in cancer patients, depression in Parkinson""s patients, postmyocardial infarction depression, subsyndromal symptomatic depression, depression in infertile women, pediatric depression, major depression, single episode depression, recurrent depression, child abuse induced depression, and post partum depression), generalized anxiety disorder, phobias (e.g., agoraphobia, social phobia and simple phobias), posttraumatic stress syndrome, avoidant personality disorder, premature ejaculation, eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), obesity, chemical dependencies (e.g., addictions to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, phenolbarbitol, nicotine and benzodiazepines), cluster headache, migraine, pain, Alzheimer""s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, memory disorders (e.g., dementia, amnestic disorders, and age-related cognitive decline (ARCD)), Parkinson""s diseases (e.g., dementia in Parkinson""s disease, neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesias), endocrine disorders (e.g., hyperprolactinaemia), vasospasm (particularly in the cerebral vasculature), cerebellar ataxia, gastrointestinal tract disorders (involving changes in motility and secretion), negative symptoms of schizophrenia, premenstrual syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, stress incontinence, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania, kleptomania, male impotence, cancer (e.g., small cell lung carcinoma), chronic paroxysmal hemicrania and headache (associated with vascular disorders) in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising a serotonin receptor antagonizing or agonizing effective amount of a compound of the formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising a serotonin receptor antagonizing or agonizing effective amount of a compound of the formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition selected from hypertension, depression (e.g., depression in cancer patients, depression in Parkinson""s patients, postmyocardial infarction depression, subsyndromal symptomatic depression, depression in infertile women, pediatric depression, major depression, single episode depression, recurrent depression, child abuse induced depression, and post partum depression), generalized anxiety disorder, phobias (e g, agoraphobia, social phobia and simple phobias), posttraumatic stress syndrome, avoidant personality disorder, sexual dysfunction (e.g., premature ejaculation), eating disorders (e g, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), obesity, chemical dependencies (e.g., addictions to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, phenolbarbitol, nicotine and benzodiazepines), cluster headache, migraine, pain, Alzheimer""s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, memory disorders (e.g., dementia, amnestic disorders, and age-related cognitive decline (ARCD)), Parkinson""s diseases (e.g., dementia in Parkinson""s disease, neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesias), endocrine disorders (e g, hyperprolactinaemia), vasospasm (particularly in the cerebral vasculature), cerebellar ataxia, gastrointestinal tract disorders (involving changes in motility and secretion), negative symptoms of schizophrenia, premenstrual syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, stress incontinence, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania, kleptomania, male impotence, cancer (e.g., small cell lung carcinoma), chronic paroxysmal hemicrania and headache (associated with vascular disorders) in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to a mammal requiring such treatment or prevention a serotonin receptor antagonizing or agonizing effective amount of a compound of the formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to a mammal requiring such treatment or prevention a serotonin receptor antagonizing or agonizing effective amount of a compound of the formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a condition or disorder that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising:
a) a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier;
b) a compound of the formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; and
c) a 5-HT re-uptake inhibitor, preferably sertraline, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof;
wherein the amount of the active compounds (i.e., the compound of formula I and the 5-HT re-uptake inhibitor) are such that the combination is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to a mammal requiring such treatment or prevention:
a) a compound of the formula I, defined above, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; and
b) a 5-HT re-uptake inhibitor, preferably sertraline, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof;
wherein the amounts of the active compounds (i.e., the compound of formula I and the 5-HT re-uptake inhibitor) are such that the combination is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
The present invention also relates to a method for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising administering to said mammal requiring such treatment or prevention:
a) a 5-HT1A antagonist or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; and
b) a 5-HT1D antagonist of formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof;
wherein the amounts of each active compound (i.e., the 5-HT1A antagonist and the 5-HT1D antagonist) are such that the combination is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing a disorder or condition that can be treated or prevented by enhancing serotonergic neurotransmission in a mammal, preferably a human, comprising:
a) a 5-HT1A antagonist or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; and
b) a 5-HT1D antagonist of formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof;
wherein the amounts of each active compound (i.e., the 5-HT1A antagonist and the 5-HT1D antagonist) are such that the combination is effective in treating or preventing such disorder or condition.
xe2x80x9cEnhanced serotonergic neurotransmission,xe2x80x9d as used herein, refers to increasing or improving the neuronal process whereby serotonin is released by a pre-synaptic cell upon excitation and crosses the synapse to stimulate or inhibit the post-synaptic cell.
xe2x80x9cChemical dependency,xe2x80x9d as used herein, means an abnormal craving or desire for, or an addiction to a drug. Such drugs are generally administered to the affected individual by any of a variety of means of administration, including oral, parenteral, nasal or by inhalation. Examples of chemical dependencies treatable by the methods of the present invention are dependencies on alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, heroin, phenolbarbitol, and benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium (trademark)). xe2x80x9cTreating a chemical dependency,xe2x80x9d as used herein, means reducing or alleviating such dependency.
Sertraline, (1S-cis)-4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-N-methyl-1-naphthalenamine, as used herein has the chemical formula C17H17NCl2 and the following structural formula
Its synthesis is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,518, assigned to Pfizer Inc. Sertraline hydrochloride is useful as an antidepressant and anorectic agent, and is also useful in the treatment of depression, chemical dependencies, anxiety obsessive compulsive disorders, phobias, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and premature ejaculation.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technical field of an electro-optical device, such as a liquid crystal device, and an electronic apparatus, such as a liquid crystal projector, provided with the electro-optical device.
2. Related Art
A liquid crystal device, which is an example of the above electro-optical device, is also used widely, for example, as a light modulating device (light valve) of a projection-type display device. Particularly, in a projection-type display device, because intensive light emitted from a light source enters a liquid crystal light valve, a light shielding film, which serves as a light shielding device that blocks incident light, is installed in the liquid crystal light valve so that a thin film transistor (TFT) in the liquid crystal light valve does not cause an increase in leakage current and/or a malfunction, or the like, because of the intensive light. More specifically, in order to drive a pixel electrode in each pixel, such a light shielding film is at least partially formed of a vertical data line and a horizontal scanning line, which are arranged in a display area so as to intersect with each other, and a conductive film that constitutes various electronic elements, or the like, including a TFT, which are electrically connected to the scanning line and/or the data line in each pixel. Alternatively, in addition to or in place of this configuration, to merely serve as a light shielding device that blocks incident light, a light shielding film is formed into a grid-like or stripe pattern that corresponds to the planar pattern shape of the data lines and the scanning lines.
In a region on a substrate, in which the light shielding film is formed, that is, a non-aperture region that does not transmit light, contact holes that electrically connect the TFT to the pixel electrode are formed in an interlayer insulating film that electrically insulates the pixel electrode from an electronic element, such as various wirings and the TFT, formed on the lower layer side below the pixel electrode (which is, for example, described in JP-A-2004-198849).
However, there is a technical problem that in order to implement a high-definition electro-optical device or miniaturized pixel pitch in consistent with a general request that a high-quality display image, and in order to attain a high aperture ratio of each pixel to display a bright image, if the width of a light shielding film provided between mutually adjacent pixels is merely reduced, light may be more likely to enter TFTs, that is, light shielding ability for TFTs may decrease. Furthermore, there is another technical problem that if the width of such a light shielding film is merely reduced, it will be difficult to ensure space for providing contact holes in the non-aperture region in terms of manufacturing process or design.
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Importance of Skincare
Human skin acting as protective barrier for human body is continuously under exposure of internal and external causes that affect its condition and functioning. The external causes are primarily environmental factors, such as ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, free radicals, pollution and dirt in the air, toxic and allergic compounds, and mechanical damage. Endogenous factors might be some genetic predisposition, immune and hormone disorder, stress and lack of sleep and internal aging process. Consequently, skin exposed to these conditions could undergo slow deterioration over time as the daily damaging effects could gradually accumulate and eventually lead to a series of skin disorders such as skin irritation, allergy, pigmentation, wrinkling and dryness.
Dietary complementation with the essential skin care products could improve skin conditions. These skin care products could be in the form of toner, lotion, cream, paste, peeling-off, powder, gel or sheet with active ingredients loaded that directly altered skin appearance. The active ingredients include but not limited to vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, peptides, polymers, antioxidants, organic acid, and plant extracts which possess the function of skin moisturization and hydration, anti-acne, anti-irritation whitening, and prevention of aging. The active ingredients could be single component or mixture of components. For example, active ingredients for hydration function such as hyaluronic acid, petroleum could form a protective layer on skin surface to preventing water loss as, while as some chemical compounds such as glycerol, natural moisturizing factors (NMF) is able to absorb water within the air and maintain the moisturization level of the skin. Some active ingredients such as vitamin C could stimulate the formation of collagen to prevent wrinkle formation, and inhibit the tyrosinase activity and melanine pigmentation formation to whitening the skin. Some active ingredients such as antioxidants could directly decrease the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin cells thus thwart oxidative stress, thereby preventing aging phenomenon.
Skincare is also critical for sanitary products such as diapers and sanitary napkins. Minimal rewet is desirable for these products such that complications such as diaper rash can be minimized.
Skincare Using Membranes for Delivery of Active Ingredients to Skin
Generally speaking the skincare mask or skin care membrane or transdermal patch could be defined as a subject which can be applied on the surface of skin for benefiting skin appearance and improve the condition of skin. Depending on the location applied, the skincare mask could be but not limited to facial mask, eye mask, hand mask, lip mask and neck mask. The form of skincare masks could be but not limited to paste, powder, gel, membrane and sheet. Based on its moisturizing condition, skincare masks could be mainly divided into two types: (1) dry type that does not contain any water; and (2) pre-moistened type that is fully loaded with nutrient solutions and functional ingredients. The latter is the most common type which occupies the most shares of current market, whereas the former is not very popular probably because of the inconvenience for usage.
Typical pre-moistened skin masks are generally composed of sheet materials carrying the following components: water, active ingredients, preservatives, water-thickening agents, plant extracts, soothing components, pH balancers, stabilizers, and fragrance ingredients. Among all these components, only the active ingredients are the contents that directly interact with skin for enhancing skin appearance and improving skin conditions. The functions of all the other components are to maintain the quality and stability of the skin masks. For example, the function of preservatives is to inhibit the bacteria growth as the moistened condition is prone to the formation of bacteria colony. The water-thickening agent is to increase the viscosity of the solution within the skin mask so that the solution will not flow elsewhere and stay within the skin mask applied area. Plant extracts and fragrance ingredients were usually used to attract consumers with pleasant smell and the usage of natural ingredients. Soothing component is to reduce the feeling of irritation caused by the filtration of active ingredients into skin. PH balancer is to adjust the pH of pre-moistened skin mask for optimal skin use whereas stabilizer is to maintain the chemical stability of the components within skin masks.
Dry skin masks are usually in the form of powder or dry membranes or dry sheets. Dry skin masks do not contain any water. The usage of dry skin masks requires pre moisturization procedure. Dry skin masks do not contain preservatives, water-thickening agents, pH balancers, and stabilizers. Consequently dry skin masks significantly reduce the risk of skin allergic reaction, skin sensitive issues and some side effects caused by preservatives and other chemicals.
Delivery of active ingredients via transdermal path is primarily limited by skin's outermost layer called stratum corneum (SC), which is 10 to 20 μm thick. The SC layer is composed of non-living corneocyte cells with cross-lined keratin and a mixture of intercellular lipids forming a brick and mortar structure. Only small molecules and lipids can diffuse through the skin barrier and transport across the stratum corneum. The size of the molecule which is tied to its molecular weight is an important factor that determined its penetration efficiency. Most molecules are too large to make its way through the skin. According to the 500 Dalton rule for skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs, anything smaller than 500 Daltons can penetrate skin whereas anything larger than 500 Daltons cannot. (Bos, Jan D., and Marcus MHM Meinardi. “The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs.” Experimental dermatology 9.3 (2000): 165-169.)
Different Types of Membranes for Delivery of Active Ingredients to Skin
Typical sheet-materials for pre-moistened masks on the market are generally made of non-woven sheets. The materials of the non-woven sheets include but not limited to polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), cotton, plant pulp, lyocell fiber, tencel fiber, biocellulose, rayon/viscose, and natural silk. The cost of non-woven sheet is low and its mechanical strength is high, though its limitations include poor skin contact and low absorbency. Furthermore, the polymers could cause sensitive skin. Therefore, this type of materials gradually diminished from the market. Cotton still occupies a certain share of skin mask market probably because of its low possibility of causing skin allergic reactions. But their disadvantage is its poor skin contact. Lyocell (Tencel) fiber was produced from pulp fibers. Therefore, it shares the same cellulosic properties with cotton but it is more soft and absorbent than cotton probably because of its special manufacturing technique.
The concept of nanofiber as skin mask materials has been proposed for over 30 years. The nanostructure rendered its excellent skin contact property. Active ingredients could be easily co-electrospun into the fiber and no preservative is needed for the final dry product. Furthermore, the excellent skin contact further leads to superior penetration of active ingredients of the mask. Various patents based on nanofibers for cosmetic purpose have been filed in recent years. (Tojo, Takehiko, and Masataka Ishikawa. “Method for attaching nanofiber sheet.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2011/0256397. Tojo, Takehiko, Masataka Ishikawa, and Yoshimi Yamashita. “Nanofiber sheet.” U.S. Pat. No. 8,642,172. 4 Feb. 2014. Tojo, Takehiko, and Masataka Ishikawa. “Nanofiber laminate sheet.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2013/0122069. Golubovic-Liakopoulos, Nevenka, Bhavdeep Shah, and Erik Andersen. “Compositions and methods for the delivery of agents.” U.S. Pat. No. 9,233,080. 12 Jan. 2016. Kim, Chan. “Cosmetic sheet formed from nanofiber with controlled dissolution velocity and method of manufacturing the same.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2015/0272855. Smith, D., et al. “Electrospun skin masks and uses thereof.” PCT Int. Appl Publication No. WO 2001026610 A1 (2001): 14. Kusukame, Haruka, Tomoki Masuda, and Masayo Shinoda. “Method of producing an adhesive sheet for skin, cosmetic method and adhesive sheet for skin.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2015/0265030. Nishio, Toshihiko, et al. “Water-soluble electrospun sheet.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2010/0254961. Glenn VILE, Iain Cameron HOSIE, Simon Vaughan FEASEY. Bioactive nanofibres WO 2013035072 A1. Bo-Kyung Choi, Ji-Hwa Lee. Mask pack WO 2013078094 A1. Tom Sekiguchi, Aiko Watanabe, Yu Watanabe. A cosmetic sheet WO 2014125407 A1. Chen, Fung-Jou, Lei Huang, and Jeffrey Lindsay. “Gradient nanofiber materials and methods for making same.” U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2006/0094320.) The disclosure of any patent and non-patent literatures cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The above patents disclosed active ingredient-loaded nanofibers or nanofiber composites consisting of both nanofibers and other types of membranes or sheets. The disclosed nanofibers could be water dissolvable or non-dissolvable or semi-dissolvable by combining different type of nanofibers. The details are described as follows:
(1) Water-Soluble Sheet
Nishio et al. disclosed a water-soluble electrospun sheet consisting of high-molecular base materials and functional ingredients. Kim et al. disclosed a cosmetic sheet comprising water-soluble nanofibers with controlled dissolution velocity. Glenn et al. disclosed a dissolvable web structure article comprising active ingredients. Choi et al. disclosed a mask pack including a non-woven fabric layer and a nanofiber layer comprising a hydrophilic polymer.
(2) Laminated Sheet
In this category, the skin mask is composed of several different laminated layers. For example, Tojo et al. disclosed a nanofiber sheet containing a water-soluble adhesive component, a water-insoluble nanofiber layer and a base layer.
(3) Water-Insoluble Composite
Golubovic-liakopoulos et al. disclosed a composite formed by different type of nanofibers containing hydrophobic nanofiber and hydrophilic nanofibers, which intertwined together to form one single layer for delivery of cosmetic active ingredients. Chen et al. disclosed gradient nanofiber composites comprising several different types of nanofibers. Kusukame et al. disclosed an adhesive sheet by attaching a water-absorptive support to a water-permeable film delivering functional ingredients.
Shortcomings of the Prior Art
However, none of these nanofiber patents disclosed the distinctive physical properties of nanofibers such as the structure of nanofibers, the mechanical strength and the release property. These properties strongly affect the performance of nanofibers for skincare application. Furthermore, the water dissolvable nanofiber skin mask does not solve the poor skin contact problem. Poor skin contact will further lead to poor penetration of ingredients due to limited contact points between the mask and skin. The handling property is another concern of water-insoluble nanofiber skin mask. The electrospun membrane is very thin. When applied to the pre-moistened skin, it is easy to be ruptured when stretched during the using procedure. Moreover, it is very hard for them to move along the skin surface for best position adjustment due to large friction force between skin and the mask. As a result, there exists a need for nanofiber skin mask with good handling property as well as excellent skin contact.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system of the active range finder type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An automatic focusing camera, including a light source and a light receiving element for scanning an object with light beams from the light source, and for receiving the light beams reflected from the object in order to focus, has been proposed in a variety of forms. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,502 discloses a method of projecting a modulated light beam for scanning, the scanning movement and a focus adjusting device being associated with each other, and stopping the focus adjusting device at a point where the light beam crosses a photo-electric light receiving element. Also disclosed is a method of flickering a plurality of light sources for carrying out scanning, and a method of selectively receiving modulated light beams from a fixed light source by a plurality of photo-electric light receiving elements.
A so-called field of view for range finding, in an active range finder of the above type, is determined by the size of the image of the light source projected onto an object by a beam projection lens.
Along with the recent technical development of light emitting diodes, and infrared light emitting diodes, such diodes have been used as a light source. While this type of element is of small size and has high efficiency, any image projected by it appears as a relatively small spot. Therefore, such an element can only provide spot range finding with a narrow field of view. It has the advantage of enabling precise focusing of an object being viewed, but when it is desired to focus on a particular part of the object, it is necessary to find a range, project the beam onto the part of the object and then to determine the composition of the picture frame before releasing the shutter, which constitutes added handling.
In order to widen the field of view for range finding, a beam projection lens may be made having a short focal length to provide a wide angle beam projection, but to obtain good range finding accuracy it is desirable to have a long focal length for the beam projection lens.
That is, referring to FIG. 1, when the amount of shifting of a light beam is expressed by "x"; a length of a base line between a beam projection lens and a beam receiving lens is represented by "a"; the focal length of the beam projection lens is expressed by "f.sub.1 "; while the length to an object is represented by "R", there is a relationship among these factors as shown below: EQU R=a.multidot.f.sub.1 /x, EQU dR/dx=-R.sub.2 /a.multidot.f.sub.1
When the length of base line a, and the accuracy of positional control for the amount of shifting of light source dx are constant, the accuracy of object distance dR is in an inverse proportion with f.sub.1.
That is, the longer the focal length, the higher the focusing accuracy becomes. Therefore, the field of view for range finding and the accuracy in range finding are two elements in an inverse relationship with each other.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a support structure for torque transmission elements of an automotive transmission including planetary gear arrangments shift units, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automotive transmission structure is known comprising a shift unit having a planetary gear arrangement situated around an shaft receiving input torque from a driving source, such as a vehicle engine, or the like. According to this structure a first output gear and a first shaft have the same rotational axis. In such a structure for a shift unit of an automotive transmission, a first torque input side and a first output gear are disposed on opposite sides of a first shaft. The reverse arrangement is also possible.
One example of such a conventional structure is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application first publication No. 2-48649. This application discloses a transmission gear support arrangement such as shown in FIG. 4. Referring to FIG. 4, a first input shaft 01 receives input torque from a torque converter (not shown) at one end thereof and a planetary gear arrangement (shift unit) 02 is disposed at the opposite end of the shaft 01. An output projection 03 connected to a carrier of the shift unit 02 is disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the first input shaft 01 to engage a first output (counterdrive) gear 04 which engages a first gear 06 having a rotational axis on a second shaft 05 parallel to the first input shaft 01. The first output gear is mounted via bearings 07, 09 for free rotation thereof. The first bearing 07 is mounted at an inner side of a wall portion 08 of the transmission casing disposed around the first input shaft 01, output projection 03 and the first output gear 04 etc., and the second bearing 09 is supported by a wall portion 011 projected from a pump body 010.
According to the above disclosed structure, the first output gear 04 is disposed close to the torque input end of the first input shaft 01, this arrangement is favorable for a vehicle with a laterally mounted engine since the distance of the output gear and the differential is close and the length of the second shaft 05 may be made shorter. Thus high efficiency is obtained.
However, according to such arrangement, mounting of the first output gear 04 requires a plurality of bearing portions 07, 09 to be installed which must have the same rotational axis while supported by different internal wall structures 08, 011 associated with the transmission casing and the pump body 010. Thus, complexity of assembly and a number of parts necessary is increased. Also a required accuracy of assembly is raised and costs are increased correspondingly.
Thus, it has been required to provide a simplified structure for a transmission gear support in which compactness and efficiency are maintained at lower cost with less complexity and fewer parts and which may be installed relatively easily.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to push-button tuners for radio receivers and more particularly to a push-button tuner in which two preset broadcasting frequencies can be desiredly selectively tuned in by each push-button.
2. Description of Prior Art
Widely known is a push-button tuner comprising a plurality of push-buttons each of which is set to tune in to a preset broadcasting frequency so that a desired broadcasting frequency is tuned in by depressing a selected one of the push-buttons into its actuated position. In such a push-button tuner, usually, only one broadcasting station could be selected by one push-button so that in order to tune in to several broadcasting stations by push-buttons it has been necessary to provide several push-buttons corresponding to the number of broadcasting stations. To increase the number of push-buttons, however, it is necessary to enlarge, in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction of a tuning shaft, the length of an actuator plate which moves as the tuning shaft moves to thereby define the position of a variable tuning element. In the case where the length of the actuator plate is elongated, however, there is a tendency for the actuator plate incline in the direction of movement when a tuning shaft near each of opposite ends of a tuner is retracted. If the actuator plate inclines, there are disadvantages that not only the smooth movement of the actuator plate is made difficult but there is a possibility of causing an erroneous tuning operation. In a push-botton tuner which is intended to be reduced in size, it is necessary to reduce the depth of the actuator plate and there is a strong possibility that the actuator plates will incline.
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Networking and communication can have a significant impact on the overall performance of a computer system. As computers have become increasingly interconnected to other computers, e.g., over private networks as well as public networks such as the Internet, often the costs associated with accessing remote resources over a network have a greater impact on overall system performance than those associated with processing and accessing local memory.
Many networks, e.g., Ethernet-based networks such as local-area networks (LAN's), wide-area networks (WAN's), wireless local-area networks (WLAN's), etc., have traditionally been used primarily to allow computers to communicate with other computers, such as web servers, file servers, database servers, and peer or client computers, as well as to access remote resources such as printers, increasingly these types of networks are also being used to access other types of resources, such as external storage devices. For example, some Ethernet-based networks can be configured to operate as storage-area networks (SAN's) to permit computers to access storage devices in much the same manner as local storage devices. Unlike file servers or network attached storage (NAS) devices, which access data at the file level, SAN devices are typically accessed at the block level, e.g., in the same manner as a local hard drive. Various types of SAN-based protocols have been developed, including, for example, Fibre Channel, iSCSI (which maps the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP), HyperSCSI (which maps the SCSI protocol over Ethernet) and ATA over Ethernet.
Computers typically communicate with a network over a physical network interface. A physical network interface provides a physical port to which a single network cable can be connected to connect the interface to the network, or in the case of a wireless interface, over which a single wireless connection can be maintained. In many instances, a physical network interface is implemented within a physical network adapter, provided either on the motherboard of the computer, or more typically, provided on a card or a USB device. In some instances, a physical network adapter can include multiple physical network interfaces, and furthermore, in some computers, multiple physical network adapters and/or multiple physical network interfaces may be provided, either to couple to the same network or to couple to different networks. By doing so, communication performance is often improved due to the ability to concurrently communicate data over multiple interfaces. In addition, reliability is often improved due to the ability to switch over to another physical network interface should one physical network interface fail or otherwise lose connectivity to the network.
With the addition of SAN's and other types of data traffic to networks, a physical network interface may be called upon to communicate a wide variety of data for different purposes. For example, data streams from LAN applications may be required to coexist with iSCSI data streams. When LAN application and iSCSI data streams coexist over the same physical network interface, however, there is the possibility of bandwidth contention between LAN traffic and iSCSI traffic. While bandwidth contention may simply slow the performance of some computers, in other computers, bandwidth contention can lead to unreliability and even system failures.
For example, some computers are implemented as “diskless” computers where no hard drive is resident within the computer itself. Instead, the data that is more traditionally stored locally on a hard drive is instead stored on a SAN-accessible device, and accessed using a SAN-compatible protocol such as iSCSI. The iSCSI data traffic therefore includes traffic to maintain critical storage such as the system volume, i.e., the disk volume where the operating system is located and typically where disk paging operations occur.
This type of data traffic, which is referred to herein as “operating system critical storage operations,” can have a significant impact not only on the performance of the computer, but can also raise reliability concerns for the operating system. When operating system critical storage operations, however, are communicated over the same physical network interface as other data traffic such as LAN traffic, bandwidth contention can result. A risk exists that if there is too much LAN traffic at a given point in time, it may starve out some storage operations and cause poor performance, or in the worst case, may cause an operating system crash.
Therefore, a significant need exists in the art for a manner of minimizing bandwidth contention issues arising between operating system critical storage operations and other types of data traffic being communicated over a common physical network interface.
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Today, a decreasing number of people are willing to eat or drink foodstuffs and use cosmetic products which are colored synthetically, resulting in a steady growth of the market for natural colorants. Thus, a natural color, especially a natural blue colorant that is stable at low pH and to temperatures used in processing, would be of significant worldwide commercial interest. The only natural blue colors commercially feasible today are those derived from gardenia fruits (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis). However gardenia blue is not currently available in US and Europe markets, it is only available in some Asian markets as a safe color product for food/drug applications.
Gardenia fruit contains a large amount of iridoids such as geniposide, gardenoside, genipin-1-b-gentiobioside, geniposidic acid and genipin (Endo, T. and Taguchi, H. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 1973). Among them genipin is a key compound contributing to the gardenia blue whenever it reacts with amino acids (U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,921). Currently gardenia blue is made as a chemical reaction product using geniposide extracted from Gardenia juice, purified genipin, or genipin derivatives, with isolated amino acids. In contrast, the process of the present invention utilizes whole fruit, puree or juice of genipin-containing plants to provide a natural color juice or concentrate.
Genipin and other iridoid compounds, such as genipic acid, genipin gentiobioside, geniposide and geniposidic acid are found also in the fruits of Genipa americana, also known as Genipap, or Huito, a wild plant of tropical Latin American. The mature fruits of Genipa americana have been commonly used by local people to make cooling drinks, jellies, sherbet, ice cream, sweet preserves, syrup, a soft drink genipapada, wine, a potent liqueur, and tanning extract. Green or unripe fruits are used as a color source to paint faces and bodies for adornment, to repel insects, and to dye clothing, pottery, hammocks, utensils and basket materials a bluish-purple. The fruit and juices also have medicinal properties and syrups are used as cold and cough medicine. Flowers and bark of Genipa americana also have medicinal properties.
Genipa americana is also a natural source of iron, riboflavin and anti-bacterial substances, apart from the carbohydrates, sugar, proteins, ash and malic acid in its fruits. The principal biochemical compounds of Genipa americana include: calcium, phosphorous, vitamin C, and caffeine, caterine, genipic acid, genipin, genipin gentiobioside, genipinic acid, geniposide, geniposidic acid, gardenoside, genamesides A-D, gardendiol, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, shanzhiside, glycerides, hydantoin, mannitol, methyl esters, tannic and tartaric acid, and tannins.
The present disclosure relates to the preparation of stable colorants by mixing and co-processing fruit juice, particularly from Genipa americana, with other edible juices or extracts from fruit, vegetable, plant materials, grain, legume, nuts, seeds, animal materials including milk and egg, microbial, and algal materials, which contain amino acids, or polypeptides, or proteins. The product colors are not those expected from simple pigment blending, and the color products have great stability to acidity and heating. The co-processing of Genipa americana fruit with other selected fruit(s) (defined broadly as above to include also grains and animal materials) to obtain the composite juice is simple and effective. The products can be used in a broad range of applications, such as foodstuffs, drugs, nutritional supplements, personal care stuffs, cosmetics, and animal feed.
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The present invention relates to a tracked vehicle drive/steering system.
On most known production tracked vehicles, the turning rate of the vehicle is related to the angular position of a spring centered steering wheel or similar operator control. In such systems, the position of the steering wheel provides an indication to the operator of the steering status of the vehicle. However, such systems do not compensate for changes in vehicle operating characteristics consequential to ground conditions, engine speed variations, changes in vehicle mass, changes in vehicle weight distribution, changes in implements attached to the vehicle or changes in the components of the vehicle steering system, such as fluid leakage. It would be desirable to have a steering control system which compensates for such changes.
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Cancer remains one of the most deadly threats to human health. In the U.S., cancer affects nearly 1.3 million new patients each year, and is the second leading cause of death after heart disease, accounting for approximately 1 in 4 deaths. It is also predicted that cancer may surpass cardiovascular diseases as the number one cause of death within 5 years. Solid tumors are responsible for most of those deaths. Although there have been significant advances in the medical treatment of certain cancers, the overall 5-year survival rate for all cancers has improved only by about 10% in the past 20 years. Cancers, or malignant tumors, metastasize and grow rapidly in an uncontrolled manner, making timely detection and treatment extremely difficult. Furthermore, cancers can arise from almost any tissue in the body through malignant transformation of one or a few normal cells within the tissue, and each type of cancer with particular tissue origin differs from the others.
Current methods of cancer treatment are relatively non-selective. Surgery removes the diseased tissue; radiotherapy shrinks solid tumors; and chemotherapy kills rapidly dividing cells. Chemotherapy, in particular, results in numerous side effects, in some cases so severe as to limit the dosage that can be given and thus preclude the use of potentially effective drugs. Moreover, cancers often develop resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs.
Thus, there is an urgent need for more specific and more effective cancer therapies.
EGFR was cloned as 55 kD of I type membrane protein that belong to an immunoglobulin family (The EMBO Journal (1992), vol. 11, issue 11, p. 3887-3895, JP5336973, JP7291996). Human EGFR cDNA is composed of the base sequence shown in EMBL/GenBank Acc. No. NM005018 and mouse EGFR cDNA is composed of the base sequence shown in Acc. No. X67914, and those expressions are observed when thymus cells differentiate from CD4−CD8− cell into CD4+CD8+ cell (International Immunology (1996), vol. 18, issue 5, p. 773-780., J. Experimental Med. (2000), vol. 191, issue 5, p. 891-898.). It is reported that EGFR expression in periphery is observed in myeloid cells including T cells or B lymphocytes activated by stimulation from antigen receptors, or activated macrophages (International Immunology (1996), vol. 18, issue 5, p. 765-772.).
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for forming a capacitor of a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method for forming a capacitor of a semiconductor device, which can prevent defect occurrence due to infiltration of an etching solution into a TiN layer applied as material of a cylinder-type storage electrode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the rapid increase in demand for semiconductor memory devices, a variety of technologies have been proposed to obtain a high-capacity capacitor. In general, a capacitor has a structure in which a dielectric layer is interposed between a storage electrode and a plate electrode, and its capacity is proportional to an electrode surface area and a dielectric constant of a dielectric layer while being inversely proportional to an inter-electrode distance, that is, a thickness of a dielectric layer. For obtaining a high-capacity capacitor, therefore, it is necessary to use a dielectric layer having a high dielectric constant, to enlarge the electrode surface area and to reduce the inter-electrode distance.
However, since there is a limit to the reduction of the inter-electrode distance, that is, the thickness of a dielectric layer, current researches for ensuring sufficient charging capacity are progressing toward the enlargement of the electrode surface area and the development of a new dielectric layer having a higher dielectric constant.
For example, whereas the existing storage electrodes have employed a concave-type structure in which only inner surfaces of the electrode are used, the latest highlighted storage electrodes employ a cylinder-type structure in which outer surfaces as well as inner surfaces of the electrode are used together and thus its electrode surface area is enlarged. Also, ONO has been used as the existing dielectric layer material, but a single layer or a laminate layer of high dielectric constant material(s) such as Al2O3, Ta2O5, HfO2 and the like is in the spotlight.
Moreover, research for ensuring sufficient charging capacity aims at the development of not only the dielectric layer itself, but also the electrode material used. To be specific, polysilicon has been mainly used as storage electrode material, but vigorous research is currently being pursued to apply metal, such as TiN, as the storage electrode material. This is because TiN is easy to remove a native surface oxide and can sufficiently reduce an effective oxide thickness whereas polysilicon is limited in reducing the effective oxide thickness due to the native surface oxide.
However, when a TiN layer is applied as the storage electrode material to form a cylinder-type structure, the following problem occurs:
In general, in order to form a cylinder-type capacitor, a wet etching process called ‘dip-out’ is needed to remove a mold insulating layer used for obtaining a cylinder structure after a cylinder-type storage electrode has been formed. However, when a TiN layer is applied as the storage electrode material, defect sources such as pin holes or micro cracks which may exist within the TiN layer cause a defect that a lower oxide layer (that is, insulating interlayer) or a lower storage node plug material that is, polysilicon) is lost in the course of the dip-out process.
Here, the defect occurring in the dip-out process can be divided into two types. One type is that the lower oxide layer is lost directly due to an etching solution infiltrating through local defect sources which exist within the TiN layer, and the other type is that composition of BOE which is used as chemicals in a bottom portion inside of a narrow contact hole for the storage electrode changes to increase a concentration of NH4F relative to HF, so that the lower storage node plug material, that is, polysilicon coming in contact with the local defect sources of the TiN layer, is lost first and then the oxide layer around the lower storage node plug material is lost.
FIGS. 1 to 3 are photographs and a corresponding sectional view showing defect occurrence of the former type and FIG. 4 is a photograph showing defect occurrence of the latter type.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, it can be seen that an etching solution infiltrates into a lower oxide layer, that is, an insulating interlayer through defect sources such as pin holes or micro cracks existing within a TiN layer as storage electrode material, which causes a defect that the insulating interlayer is lost.
Referring to FIG. 4, in the course of a dip-out process, concentrations of NH4F and HF constituting a 20:1 BOE solution may deviate from an equilibrium state in a bottom portion inside of a narrow cylinder with the result that a concentration of NH4F becomes higher than that of HF. In such a condition, as defect sources such as pin holes or micro cracks exist within a TiN layer, a reaction according to the following reaction formula may occur in a region coming in contact with a lower storage node plug consisting of polysilicon, so that the storage node plug may be lost and subsequently an insulating interlayer may be removed to produce a circular defect.Si+4OH→Si(OH)4Si(OH)4+4HF+2NH4F→(NH4)2SiF6+4H2O
In FIGS. 1 to 4, reference numeral ‘1’ designates a semiconductor substrate, reference numeral ‘2’ designates the insulating interlayer, reference numeral ‘3’ designates the storage node plug, reference numeral ‘4’ designates an etching stopper nitride layer, reference numeral ‘5’ designates a cylinder-type TiN storage electrode, reference numeral ‘A’ designates the defect source, reference numeral ‘B’ designates a bunker defect and reference numeral ‘C’ designates the circular defect.
In a case where a Ru layer, instead of the TiN layer, is applied as storage electrode material to form a cylinder-type structure, the above-mentioned defect also occurs.
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As digital media technologies have advanced, personal digital media collections have grown in size and popularity. A typical personal digital media collection, which may include numerous photos, songs, e-books, audio books, movies, videos, and/or other forms of media content, may be stored locally on a user's device (e.g., a personal computer or portable media player device) or hosted at a remote data center.
Typically, a user utilizes a software application known as a media player to manage and play back media content included in the user's personal digital media collection (e.g., to manage and play back songs in the user's personal digital music library). Using a media player, the user is able add, delete, and/or organize media content in the user's personal digital media collection. For example, a conventional media player provides functionality that allows the user to create a playlist by selecting desired media content from the user's personal digital media collection for inclusion in the playlist. The media player is able to play back the playlist for experiencing by the user. Certain media players provide functionality for randomizing the playback of the playlist such that media content instances included in the playlist are randomly selected for playback. Such randomized playback is commonly referred to as “random” or “shuffle” playback.
There remains room to improve conventional media players and other tools for managing and playing back media content included in a personal digital media content library. For example, new and/or improved services, features, functions, and/or user interfaces related to managing personal digital media content libraries, managing media content playlists, and/or controlling playback of media content are desired. To illustrate just one example, conventional media players do not provide a user with functionality to control how media content included in a playlist is selected for playback during “random” or “shuffle” playback of the playlist. To illustrate another example, conventional media players do not provide a user with robust and/or useful media content management functionality that can be accessed and used “on the fly” in the context of media content playback.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in eyeglasses that enables the wearer to remove moisture or other detritus from the surface of lenses without removing said eyeglasses. The mechanisms employed by the present invention will accomplish this in a cost effective and efficient manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the greatest inconveniences related to the use of eyeglasses is the need for regular cleaning to maintain adequate vision. Most wearers will have to remove and clean their glasses several times a day. This is normally done with a cloth specially designed for cleaning lenses or by using one of several cleaning fluids on the market. This can be very inconvenient since the wearer has to carry one of these items with them. In addition, when weather conditions are poor, eyeglasses may need wiping so often that it would be impractical. For example, when it is raining the lenses will constantly be exposed to water and no amount of wiping by hand will afford the wearer clear vision for sustained time. This can render people with poor vision virtually helpless when exposed to such conditions. Thus a design that would incorporate a mechanism for cleaning lenses automatically while being worn would greatly improve the field of vision enhancing eyewear.
The most efficient mechanism for cleaning glass to maintain translucence is a wiper. Tins mechanism includes a malleable material such as rubber, mounted on an arm that is held so that the material is flush with the glass. The material is then swept across the surface of the glass removing any unwanted materials on the surface. While there are a variety of designs in the prior art, which attempt to make it possible for eyeglass wearers to use this mechanism, none of these designs are as efficient or convenient as the present invention. The present invention represents a novel design that will facilitate cost effective production. It will also allow the mechanism to be relatively inconspicuous.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,298 to Raymond Louis Menil is for a pair of glasses that incorporate wipers. The design for these glasses comprises a motor located at the center of the frames. This motor comprises a cam that drives a gear. As the gear rotates it shifts a top-mounting arm back and forth. There are wiper arms mounted at either end of the top-mounting arm, which sweep back and forth on a pivot as the mounting arm pushes them back and forth. The motor is wired to a battery that is stored at a location outside of the frames. This design requires a large cumbersome compartment located at the center of the glasses which would be highly unattractive. It is also awkward since the battery would have to be stored elsewhere. Furthermore the wipers mounted in the center of the lens will be highly visible. While this design may be appropriate for a novelty item, it would be highly impractical for everyday use. This design also incorporates several more moving parts then the present invention, which would increase risk of wear and tear as well as increase the cost of production.
The eyeglass wiper design in U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,128 to Thomas P. Doyle is for a wiper that is not attached to the eyeglasses at all. It is a squeegee-like wiper that is attached to a chain or thread and is worn by the user separate of the glasses. When the wearer wants to use the wiper to clean their glasses, they must grasp the wiper and manually swipe the wiper across the surface of the lenses. This is much more inconvenient then the internal wiper design of the present invention since the wearer would have to carry separate item. It also would not be practical if the wearer were involved in a task that required use of both hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,233 to Edna M. Arsenault is for a wiper mechanism that is entirely manually driven. The wearer grasps a knob located at the pivot point of the wiper so that the wearer can rotate the knob back and forth causing the wiper to sweep across the surface of the lenses. This once again would not be practical if the wearer needs to use both hands for other tasks. Furthermore this design would require noticeable knobs protruding in front of the glasses, which would be highly unattractive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,524 is for a portable cleaning device that may be carried to clean eyeglasses. The inconvenience of having to carry an extra item is not alleviated by this device. While it employs wipers for its cleaning mechanism, these wipers are not incorporated in the design of eyeglasses. Nor are these wipers automated, requiring the manual movement of the wipers in the cleaning action of the device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,071 a pair of eyeglasses is disclosed that includes a mechanism for illumination. As with the present invention, the Feldman ""071 patent comprises a battery operated device. However, in the Feldman ""071 design the battery is stored on the arm of the eyeglasses rather then the lens frame. This design requires the wiring of the device to pass through the joint of the eyeglasses and will eventually lead to wear and tear on the wire. Also, the lighting mechanism does not incorporate a motor driven system as with the present invention. Nothing in the design of the Feldman ""072 patent will address the need for a cleaning mechanism; rather its sole purpose is to provide illumination.
U.S. Des. Pat. No. 421,040 to Joseph L. Berke is for a pair of glasses that incorporates arms that pivot from the center of the glasses and mount mirrors. The mirrors may be situated so that the wearer may see behind him while looking forward. The Berke ""040 design does disclose a pair of eyeglasses that incorporate a separate mechanism. This mechanism however is not designed for cleaning. Nor is this mechanism automated; rather the wearer must mechanically operate it.
Therefore a need exists for a novel and enhanced device for cleaning eyeglasses. Making this action automated would allow the wearer to maintain use of their hands in all conditions and eliminate the need for carrying extra items. In this respect, the eyewear with attached wiping apparatus according to the present invention substantially depart from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provide an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of cleaning eyeglasses.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of devices for cleaning eyeglasses now present in the prior arts the present invention provides an improved combination of convenience and utility, and overcomes the abovementioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved design for eyewear with attached wiping apparatus which has all of the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in eyewear with attached wiping apparatus which are not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in combination thereof
In furtherance of this objective the eyewear with attached wiping apparatus comprise a power source. A connection from said power source to a motor mounted within said eyeglasses. An arm mounted at a right angle to the shaft of said motor is flush with the surface of the lens of said glasses.
The abovementioned power source may in addition be a battery, which may be stored in a compartment integral to said eyeglasses. Said compartment may in addition be located at the joint between the arms of said eyeglasses and the frame of said eyeglasses.
Said eyeglasses may in addition comprise a power switch intermediate to the connection between said motors and said battery so that the wearer may control the power access of the battery to the motor.
Another feature of the present invention is that said arms may be attached to said shaft of said motor at the outer corners of the frames of said eyeglasses.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of descriptions and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide new and improved eyewear with attached wiping apparatus that have all of the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide new and improved eyewear with attached wiping apparatus that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide new and improved eyewear with attached wiping apparatus that have a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly are then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such eyewear with attached wiping apparatus economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide new eyewear with attached wiping apparatus that provide in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
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FIG. 1 illustrates conventional workflows for acquiring images, rasterizing the acquired images into “digital contone” data, and manipulating the digital contone data into a format compatible to a printing device. In particular, FIG. 1 illustrates that various input sources 102, 104, 106 may be used to acquire an image by various image capture devices 108, 110, 112 and converted into a digital data file 114. For example, a digital camera 108 may take a digital picture of an analog contone scene 102 and convert the picture into a digital file 114. Examples of digital files 114 include a JPG file, a TIFF file, and any other digital file format known in the art. FIG. 1 also illustrates that a scanner 110 may be used to digitally scan a hardcopy print 104 and convert the digital scan into a digital file 114. Also, graphic design software 112 may be used to generate a graphic design 106 and to save such design as a digital file 114.
The digital file 114 includes a plurality of “pixels” arranged in a two-dimensional array. Each pixel includes intensity data associated with red, green, and blue color separations. However, the printing devices 116, 118, and 120 print images according to four different color separations cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, commonly denoted by CMYK, respectively. Accordingly, if a user desires to print the digital file 114 with any one of the printers 116, 118, 120, software, hardware, or both may be used as a Raster Image Processor “RIP” 122 to rasterize the digital file 114 into “digital contone” CMYK data 124. Specifically, the RIP 122 converts the digital red, green, and blue data in the digital file 114 into CMYK data 124.
In addition, the printers 116, 118, 120 typically have a much greater printing resolution than the image acquisition resolution of the devices 108, 110, 112. Accordingly, the RIP 122 typically increases the resolution of the image data it processes such that the digital contone CMYK data 124 has a greater resolution than the digital file 114. In other words, a “pixel” in the digital file 114 may correspond to several “RIPped pixels” in the digital contone CMYK data 124. A single RIPped pixel is illustrated with reference numeral 126.
In order to be printed, the digital contone CMYK data 124 is subjected to a halftone process 130 and converted to “ready-to-print” (“RTP”) data 128 that is compatible with the printing device that will print the RTP data. The RTP data 128 typically has the same or a greater resolution than the digital contone CMYK data 124. Accordingly, a RIPped pixel, such as RIPped pixel 126, typically corresponds to one or more elements of the RTP data 128, such elements being referred to herein as “exposure dots.” A single exposure dot is illustrated, for example, with reference numeral 138.
Depending upon the printer 116, 118, 120 being used and the type of image being printed, one of several halftone processes may be used, such as halftone processes 130. For example, if an operator wants to use the printer 116, the user may select the threshold halftone process 132 to convert the digital contone CMYK data 124 into the RTP data 134. In conventional threshold halftone processes, if an intensity of an input RIPped pixel 126 is greater than or equal to a threshold, then an exposure dot in the RTP data 134 corresponding to the RIPped pixel 126 is set to an ON value, indicating that an exposure dot is to be printed at that location. If the intensity value of the RIPped pixel 126 is lower than the threshold, then a corresponding exposure dot in the RTP data 134 is set to OFF, indicating that no exposure dot will be printed at that location.
If the user desires to print with printer 118, the user may select patterned dot halftoning 140 in order to generate the RTP data 142. According to patterned dot halftoning, depending upon the intensity value of the input RIPped pixel 126 and the relative resolutions of the printer 118 and the digital contone CMYK data 124, one of a plurality of patterns 144 will be used to generate a pattern of exposure dots in a halftone cell 146. In the example of FIG. 1, the halftone cell 146 corresponds to a RIPped pixel from the digital contone CMYK data 124 and comprises four exposure dots. In this case, the halftone cell 146 can represent five different intensity levels: (1) where all four exposure dots in the halftone cell 146 are “off”; (2) where one of the four exposure dots in the halftone cell 146 are “on,” and the rest are “off”; (3) where two of the four exposure dots in the halftone cell 146 are “on,” and the rest are “off”; (4) where three of the four exposure dots in the halftone cell 146 are “on,” and the other exposure dot is “off”; and (5) where all of the exposure dots in the halftone cell 146 are “on.” In this example, if the RIPped pixel being processed has an intensity value associated with little or no intensity, pattern (1) may be used for the corresponding halftone cell. If the RIPped pixel being processed has an intensity value associated with a higher level of intensity, pattern (2) may be used, and so on.
If a user desires to print the data 124 with a multilevel printer 120, the user may select the multilevel halftone process 148. A multilevel printer, as opposed to a binary printer, is able to print a single exposure dot having one of multiple intensities. For example, an 8-bit multilevel printer 120 can print any one exposure dot with one of 256 different exposure levels. In contrast, a binary printer can either print a single exposure dot with one of two intensity values: “on” or “off.” Accordingly, the multilevel halftone process 148 generates RTP data 150 with exposure dots 152 having one of a plurality of different exposure intensity levels, depending upon the capabilities of its associated multilevel printer. FIG. 2 illustrates exposure dots of a binary printer and FIG. 3 illustrates exposure dots of a multilevel printer. FIG. 4 illustrates a histogram of the digital contone CMYK data 124 and the resulting histogram of the RTP data 150 (also referred to as “multilevel halftone data”) after a multilevel halftone process 148 has been performed.
The halftone processes 130 are performed for each of the C, M, Y, and K color separations in the digital contone CMYK data 124. Accordingly, separate RTP data 128 is generated for and corresponds to each of the color separations C, M, Y, and K of the data 124. Further, the halftone processes use “screens,” which are essentially tables that are used to determine what RTP data should be output for the corresponding digital contone CMYK data 124. Typically, one screen is used for each color separation.
FIG. 5A illustrates a halftone screen 501 for a cyan color separation. The screen 501 has multiple “screen dots” 502 that represent locations where an exposure dot in the RTP data 504 will have a non-zero exposure intensity. In other words, screen dots 502 represent locations where a dot will be printed by a printing device. In order to generate the RTP data 504, the screen 501 is superposed, typically at an angle, on the digital contone data 505. Commonly, the halftone screen 501 is smaller (has a lower resolution) than the digital contone data 505 to which it is to be applied. Accordingly, the halftone screen 501 is tiled as it is superposed, typically at an angle, on the digital contone data 505, as shown at 506 in FIG. 5A. Each screen dot 502 translates the intensity value of the pixel it overlays into a corresponding exposure dot 503 having a particular exposure intensity value, as shown, for example, at 507 in FIG. 5A.
Conventionally, there have been two different types of halftone screens: AM screens and FM screens. An AM screen, shown, for example, at 510 in FIG. 5B, refers to an amplitude-modulated screen, which includes screen dots having a regular pattern. In contrast, an FM screen, shown, for example, at 511 in FIG. 5B, refers to a frequency-modulated screen, which exhibits screen dots having a random pattern. An FM screen also is referred to as a “stochastic screen.”
In order to produce pleasing images using AM screens, a set of AM screens are produced where each screen is configured for one of the CMYK color separations, and the screens are superposed on their corresponding digital contone data at particular angles. Typically, when the screens are superposed, the cyan screen is oriented at 15 degrees over its corresponding digital contone data, the magenta screen is oriented at 75 degrees, the black screen is oriented at 45 degrees, and the yellow screen is oriented at zero degrees. When each of these screens are overlayed at these specific angles, their screen dots produce a pleasing microstructure called a rosette structure that the human eye does not readily notice. However, interference patterns of screen dots called moiré patterns appear and occasionally degrade image quality when conventional AM screens are applied.
FM screens do not have the problems associated with the distracting moiré interference pattern. However, worm-like artifacts can be generated when using FM screens due to connections between screen dots in higher parts of the tone scale, i.e. parts of the tone scale where exposure intensity is high and screen dots are large and begin to join.
Further, although FM screens work well for high-resolution printing (approximately 5,000 or more dots per inch), such as that performed by high-resolution ink jet printers, they have been less effective for lower-resolution printing (approximately 2,000 or fewer dots per inch), such as electrophotographic, flexographic, direct imaging (“DI”), dye sublimation, and lower-resolution ink-jet printing devices. For example, electrophotographic (“EP”) printing and flexographic printing are not presently capable of printing at the resolutions offered by ink jet printing, because these methods of printing have a larger minimum exposure dot size than that of high-resolution ink jet printing. To elaborate, EP printing transfers toner to a printing substrate by adding spots of electric charge to an image cylinder, which attracts toner. The toner is then transferred to a substrate, such as paper. If the exposure dot size is too small, too small of a charge is added to the image cylinder to attract toner properly. Consequently, too little or no toner will be transferred to the substrate. In the case of flexographic printing, raised exposure dots are formed on a flexible printing plate. Ink is then applied to the flexible printing plate, and the raised exposure dots transfer the ink by contact to a substrate. If the raised exposure dots are too small on the printing plate, ink will not be properly transferred to the printing plate. Similar problems exist for other lower-resolution printing techniques. Because FM screens, however, offer advantages over AM screens, such as elimination of the moiré interference pattern, an FM screen that produces high quality images without artifacts for lower-resolution printing processes is desired.
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Insulating fabrics are known which comprise an impermeable, thermally efficient sheet material such as neoprene rubber. Such fabrics are, however, not wearable next to the user's skin for extended periods of time, mainly due to the interference they can cause to the natural biological functions of the skin, in particular perfusion of the skin with oxygen and removal of natural excretions such as water vapour, salt, urea and carbon dioxide.
Previous efforts to improve the wearability of impermeable materials have included perforation of the material and lamination with a more skin-compatible material such as woven cotton.
British Patent No. 1267712, for example, describes. (FIG. 4) a breathable fabric in which a perforated elastomeric sheet is bonded between stretch-fabric sheets. The diameter of the perforations reduces slightly towards the outside of the finished garment to facilitate manufacture.
Such fabrics are reasonably wearable given normal external conditions and the biological functions of the wearer. However, if for example the wearer sweats or warms up during exercise or under stress, or the external temperature or humidity rises or falls, or the fabric becomes soaked with water, or in other abnormal situations, the breathable efficiency of the fabric declines rapidly, which can make the garment extremely uncomfortable or even dangerous to wear. Such poor adaptability has limited the use of breathable elastomeric fabrics, for example for insulating and/or protective garments, for medical or veterinary garments and/or dressings (where the patient's skin may be injured or prolonged close contact with the skin may be required), or for exercise and sports garments where rapid changes of perspiration and other skin functions take place. The present invention aims to provide a breathable fabric which goes at least some way towards overcoming the above disadvantages.
According to the present invention, there is provided a fabric comprising a sheet formed of a substantially impermeable material having perforations provided therethrough, each perforation having at least one relatively wide region and at least one relatively narrow region along its length to define an internal chamber open to a first ("inner") side of the sheet and sufficiently closed to the other ("outer") side of the sheet to permit air passing from the first to the other side of the sheet to accumulate in the chamber under increased pressure prior to passing out to the other side of the sheet.
The expressions "relatively wide" and "relatively narrow" mean that the respective regions are wide and narrow relative to each other. The expression "fabric" includes a fabric portion, and the expression "sheet" includes a sheet portion.
The substantially impermeable sheet may be a unitary sheet or a laminate, and is preferably elastomeric (e.g. formed from a rubber such as neoprene rubber). In the case of a laminate, different materials may if desired be used for different lamina so as to provide overall a sheet having the desired properties.
Closure of the chamber to the outer side of the sheet by a relatively narrow region of the perforation, in the resting condition of the sheet, may be complete or partial, and the materials and/or chamber configuration are suitably chosen so that on stretching and/or bending of the sheet or one or more particular lamina thereof the relatively narrow region opens wider than its resting condition to allow exchange of air between the two sides of the sheet. Stretching/bending so as to cause the relatively narrow region of the perforation to open typically results from the desired build-up of pressure in the chamber and/or by movement of the fabric in use.
The arrangement may also suitably be capable of creating a pumping effect in the chamber(s) by the periodic stretching and/or bending of the fabric in use, to assist the exchange of air between the inner and the outer sides of the sheet.
In general, it is preferred that even at its widest stretch the relatively narrow region of the perforation is no more than about 65% of the width of the relatively wide region, and less (most preferably substantially less) in the resting condition of the sheet, e.g. less than about 50%, more preferably less than about 35%, for example less than about 15%, of the width of the relatively wide region in the resting condition of the sheet. Where the sheet is a laminate, different lamina may optionally be of different flexibility, and suitably the lamina including the relatively narrow region of the perforation may be of greater flexibility than the lamina including the relatively wide region, for example through being thinner and/or of a material of greater elasticity.
The sheet may also include perforations of different configuration to those which form a novel feature of the invention, e.g. conventional straight-sided fully open perforations, or tapered perforations such as described in the prior art mentioned above. The sheet may also include unperforated regions.
The fabric may additionally have one or more permeable layers, e.g. of woven material, suitably bonded to the perforated sheet. The fabric is suitably capable of being rolled up for storage or transport.
According to a further feature of the present invention, therefore, there is provided a wearable article, such as a garment or dressing, formed from the novel fabric as defined above, the first side of the sheet formed of the substantially impermeable material suitably being directed to the inner side of the article as worn and the other side of the sheet suitably being directed to the outer side of the article as worn.
Each novel perforation as defined above defines at least one chamber within the sheet at the relatively wide region(s) of the perforation, the chamber(s) communicating to both sides of the sheet. One chamber is typically formed by a depression in that side of the sheet which is closer to the body of the user (the "inner" side), to partially enclose a volume of air directly above the user's skin.
The walls of each relatively wide and/or relatively narrow region of the perforations may suitably be parallel over at least a part of the length of the respective region. The perforations are preferably unbranched.
The perforations and associated chambers are suitably of sufficient size and spacing apart to permit the natural biological functions of the user's skin to continue substantially unhindered over a desired period of time, while permitting a controlled (but not excessive) retention of the user's body heat.
The components of the fabric should be non-toxic, non-irritant and comfortable to wear (in the sense of lightweight, flexible and soft to the touch), as well as being resistant to attack and degradation from all natural by-products of the user's body (e.g. sweat, blood, tissue fluid, urine, pus, and gases such as carbon dioxide).
It is found that fabrics of the present invention retain to a substantial extent the advantageous thermal properties of the impermeable sheet material while permitting to a surprising degree the natural biological functions of the user's skin to continue substantially unhindered.
Without wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed that the fabric of the invention permits the natural excretions to diffuse away from the user's skin and atmospheric oxygen to access the user's skin in an unexpectedly efficient way, because the relatively warm and moist air just above the user's skin collects in the chamber(s). This accumulation enables the air in the chamber(s) to attain a higher humidity, temperature and pressure than would be the case in a more open perforation. When, therefore, the relatively narrow region of the perforation opens due to the factors described above, the expulsion and replenishment of fresh air to the chamber takes place with enhanced speed and efficiency.
In more detail, it is believed that the perforations according to the present invention may mimic to some extent the properties of pores (which in biological systems cause an active or driven diffusion of molecules through a barrier with greater efficiency, for a given open area, than larger holes). However, the diffusion properties of the fabric according to the present invention are surprisingly enhanced. Accordingly, the relatively narrow region of the perforation should ideally not be so open that the perforation begins to function more as a hole than as a pore. This, in general, the diffusion rate should be dependent on the perforation diameter (as for biological pores) and not area (as for holes), and/or edge effects such as so-called "diffusion shells" should (as for pores) play a significant part in creating a relatively sharp concentration gradient immediately outside the perforation.
Fabrics in which the perforated elastomeric sheet is a laminate, the lamina including the relatively narrow region of the perforation being of greater flexibility than the lamina including the relatively wide region, and the relatively narrow region of the perforation lying closed or substantially closed in the resting condition, are particularly preferred. Such fabrics provide substantial protection to the wearer from cold or other external hazards (e.g. water, chemicals, bacteria, air etc), while permitting an enhanced air-exchange efficiency as soon as high levels of wearer activity arise, which cause the perforations to open due to flexing of the fabric and/or the higher temperatures and pressures within the chambers of the fabric. In such fabrics, the perforations may conveniently be interspersed with smaller numbers of other types of perforation according to the present invention and/or other (e.g. conventional) perforations. In one particular form, the perforations according to the present invention open when the vapour pressure of moisture in the chamber(s) reaches saturated vapour pressure.
The fabric of the present invention is preferably arranged to regulate the wearer's skin temperature to normal body temperature (37.degree. C.). This requires that the fabric functions as an insulator below body temperature and as a cooling medium above body temperature. The capacity of the perforations to open above a threshold chamber pressure and/or temperature can be exploited to permit increased evaporative loss due to sweating from the skin surface as the body temperature exceeds 37.degree. C., resulting in a skin temperature reduction through loss of latent heat of vaporisation from the skin. Thus, the fabric acts to cool the skin surface and maintain normal body temperature.
As the body temperature drops to 37.degree. C. the production of sweat ceases and hence the cooling effect diminishes. This is seen as a continuous process resulting in the maintenance of homoiothermic biological conditions under varying enviromental temperatures. The effect is more marked when the concentration of perforations is high enough to create conditions of significantly increased evaporation from the skin surface. If the fabric is to be used solely to elevate body temperature (e.g. for the initial treatment of victims of hypothermia), the concentration of perforations should be low enough to satisfy the requirement of sufficient removal of water vapour, but for many other uses the opposing warming (below body temperature) and cooling (above body temperature) effects should be maintained in proper balance depending on the desired end use.
By selecting particular elastomeric materials, particular lamina thicknesses, particular sizes of relatively wide regions of perforations, particular sizes of relatively wide regions of perforations, different concentrations of perforations over the fabric area and/or different arrangements of perforation types over the area of the fabric, the fabric's properties can be adjusted to suit the intended use. Moreover, by careful selection of materials and configuration, the fabric can be made to respond in its "breathability" to variations in external conditions and/or in the user's biological functions, so that to some extent such fabrics can self-regulate their "breathability" and hence automatically control the environment next to the wearer's skin within a pre-set temperature range.
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Prior to the past several decades, scientists generally believed that it was impossible to restore hearing to the deaf. However, scientists have had increasing success in restoring normal hearing to the deaf through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The initial attempts to restore hearing were not very successful, as patients were unable to understand speech. However, as scientists developed different techniques for delivering electrical stimuli to the auditory nerve, the auditory sensations elicited by electrical stimulation gradually came closer to sounding more like normal speech. The electrical stimulation is implemented through a prosthetic device, called cochlear implant, that is implanted in the inner ear to restore partial hearing to profoundly deaf people.
At present, very few cochlear implant patients are able to enjoy music. This is due, in part, to the fact that the cochlear fitting programs that process delivery of certain sound frequencies through a selected electrode or electrodes do not compensate for errors in pitch allocation.
Within the cochlea, there are two main cues that convey “pitch” (frequency) information to the patient. They are (1) the place or location of stimulation along the length of a cochlear duct and (2) the temporal structure of the stimulating waveform. In the cochlea, sound frequencies are mapped to a “place” in the cochlea, generally from low to high sound frequencies mapped from the apical to the basilar direction.
Mapping an electrode array in a cochlear duct to the correct audio frequencies is complicated by differences in an individual's anatomy. In addition, the final implanted position of the electrode array tends to be variable, which lends an arbitrariness to a mapping scheme between an electrode contact and perceived sound frequency. Thus, an optimal fitting map between an electrode contact and a sound frequency can only be roughly estimated at the outset for each individual. The initial estimate typically is inaccurate for that individual.
Another complicating factor is that the position of each electrode is not very precise, i.e., there are only a limited number of electrodes, e.g., numbering about 16 to 24 electrodes, spread along the length of the electrode array, inserted into one of the spiraling ducts of the cochlea. Hence, mapping to a “place” within the cochlea is not precise and is limited by the resolution of the discretely placed electrodes.
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1. Field of the Invention
In the co-pending, commonly assigned application Ser. No. 09/244,680, an apparatus for measuring characteristics of pulsed light beams, primarily lasers, has been disclosed. The characteristics which are measured by the apparatus include phase, intensity, beam quality, M2 factor, RMS wavefront error and other beam parameters. In the field of lasers and their applications, these parameters are of particular utility and interest.
The present invention is directed to use of pulsed wavefront sensors for applications in addition to measurement of pulsed lasers. In particular, the present invention is directed to using a pulsed wavefront sensor to measure moving elements, to simplify measurements involving moving parts, and to reduce exposure, particularly for use with biological systems.
2. Description of Related Art
In the optical metrology art, a surface to be measured, e.g., lens, mirror, wafer, metal of plastic film, disk platen, etc., is used as a reflector for a light beam. This reflected beam is measured with an optical sensor that measures the wavefront or phase of the beam. The phase measurement translates to a measurement to the surface of interest through one or more simple operations. While there are other, non-optical techniques for measuring surfaces, these do not have the particular advantages of speed, accuracy, dynamic range that will become apparent in this description. However, due to the requirement that other sources of relative motion, such as vibration, be eliminated between successive measurements, it is difficult to use optical metrology to measure characteristics of either moving objects or objects requiring relative motion between a sensor and the object for measurement thereof.
One example of optical metrology is the interferometric measurement of computer hard disk platens. For proper operation, the platen is to be as flat as possible to avoid collisions of the disk head with the surface of the platen. To test the platen, the disk platen is mounted in front of an interferometer or other wavefront or phase measuring device, and the characteristics of the light reflected therefrom are determined. For the case of an interferometer, this measurement requires four to six frames of images, where a reference mirror has been moved between images to provide a known phase shift. The data can then be interpreted and analyzed to produce the surface shape. Using these techniques, accuracy down to a few nanometers can be obtained.
However, in order to make accurate measurements, the disk platen must be held absolutely still between successive images. While this is possible using a vibration isolated platform for both the measuring instrument and the surface of interest, this stability requirement complicates, increases cost, and reduces the tolerance of the instrument to environmental effects. While there are other devices that can measure the wavefront or phase with fewer frames, these devices still have a finite measurement time.
If only the static deformations of the disk are of interest, then the interferometric techniques may be adequate. However, computer hard disk platens are spun at a high revolution rate. This can induce vibrations, modes, and surface shape changes that are only present during operation. With an interferometer or other prior art, these deformations can only be measured in an average sense.
Another example of measuring a moving object is the case of measuring an object that is larger than the aperture of the sensor. More details of this application are presented in co-pending, commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/340,502 entitled xe2x80x9cApparatus and Method for Evaluating a Target Larger than a Measuring Aperture of a Sensorxe2x80x9d, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. In this application, a large diameter mirror, wafer or other object is to be measured by a series of possibly overlapping measurements of the wavefront sensor. In this application, the position of the object or sensor is moved from one location to another on some form of motor controlled stage or scanning system. To measure the whole surface, many different positions of the stage must be realized, and an accurate measurement made in each case. The sequence of measurements is then pieced back together to form an overall measurement of the whole object.
A potential problem with this technique is that an accurate measurement must be made for each position of the object relative to the sensor. Thus the object must be moved to a new position, vibrations and oscillations must be damped out to an acceptable level, and then the wavefront sensor may acquire an image for analysis. For a mechanical stage (for example Dynamic Automated Systems model DAS AMB-300), this may take 100-300 ms for each new position, even when adjacent measurements are only 10 mm apart. This limits the total throughput of the measurement process, with the settling time being the dominant component.
Another use for wavefront measurement is in ophthalmic measurement. In ophthalmic measurement, a beam of light is projected into an eye to form a small spot on the retina. This spot is observed through an optical system to provide appropriate information for the wavefront sensor. In this type of measurement, it is desirable to minimize the total optical exposure of the eye and retina in order to avoid damage or discomfort to the patient under study. Thus the total exposure time should be kept to a minimum, as well as the total amount of energy delivered. The problem is that the retina is a fairly poor reflector of light. Furthermore, when using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, the return light is divided among a large number of focal spots for the. To improve the resolution of the measurement, it is desirable to divide the light among more focal spots. This leads to the need for more and more light to be projected to and received from the retina.
One characteristic of many modern CCD cameras, of particular concern when used for biological measurements, such as ophthalmic measurement, is that these cameras often have a separate exposure and read out time. During readout, the CCD element is not sensitive to light. Hence, CCD cameras they have a duty cycle that is less than 100%. A typical progressive scan CCD camera will have 5-50% duty cycle. This means that subject, e.g., an eye, is receiving exposure that is not necessary or useful for the measurement.
The present invention is therefore directed to using a wavefront sensor which substantially overcomes one or more of the problems due to the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
It is an object of the present invention is to perform metrology using short, temporally resolved measurements in order to xe2x80x9cfreezexe2x80x9d the deformation of the object at a particular instant in time.
It is a further object of the present invention to perform metrology of even an extremely rapidly moving object.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the total exposure of an object while increasing the amount of light available for the measurement.
The above and other objects of the present invention may be realized by using a light source that may be pulsed or controlled temporally and a wavefront sensor capable of detecting such a light beam after having interacted with an object, particularly an object moving relative to the sensor. This combination can be used to optically measure a system, object or combination of elements in a temporally resolved fashion.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
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During surgical implantation of femoral condylar prostheses, it is typically necessary to utilize some type of tool to gauge whether or not the distal aspect of the femur has been properly sized to receive the condylar implant. This gauge typically resembles the actual prosthesis which will be implanted. The surgeon first "resects" the surface of the bone to match the geometry of the implant by making several cuts as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,177 to Whiteside, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein and relied upon.
Once the distal aspect of the femur has been resected, a convex patellar groove is formed in the anterior surface of the resected bone, in order to accommodate the mating concave patellar track of the condylar implant. In a total knee replacement, the external distal surface of the condylar implant, including that of the patellar track, articulates with the proximal aspect of an implanted tibial component. A previously devised cutting guide for shaping the patellar groove is the subject of allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 462,268, filed Jan. 9, 1990 and assigned to the instant assignee, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein and relied upon. Depending upon the degree of knee reconstruction indicated, a patellar prosthesis may also be implanted as shown, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 466,093, filed Jan. 12, 1990 and also assigned to the present assignee, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein and relied upon.
A challenge confronted by condylar implant systems is the need to both accurately form a patellar groove in the resected surface of the distal femur and perform a trial reduction of the knee joint to ascertain proper sizing of the condylar implant. This is conventionally a sequential procedure employing first a guide seated on the resected bone for engaging a shaping tool which forms the patellar groove in the bone. Secondly, a trial condylar implant is seated on the resected surface of the distal femur, having a size and shape resembling that of the permanent condylar prosthesis actually being implanted, after which the trial reduction of the knee is performed by articulating the femur and tibia. Following satisfactory trial reduction, the trial implant is removed and replaced by the permanent condylar implant. A disadvantage of the procedure set forth above is degradation of the bone caused by alternate insertion and removal of separate track cutting and trial implant guides, respectively. Moreover, use of separate track cutting and trial implant guides is relatively inefficient and time-consuming, further complicating the surgical procedure for reconstructing the knee joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,104 to Kaufman and Whiteside, describes a femoral shaping apparatus employing a template having a straight slot therein for cutting a relatively deep recess for an intercondylar stabilizing housing of a knee implant. The patented system also describes a trial implant module, however, it does not disclose a cutting guide having a curved track useful for forming a groove to accommodate patellar track on such a prosthesis
Allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 666,153, filed Mar. 3, 1991 and assigned to the instant assignee, shows using common surgical instrumentation to form both a groove and deep recess in the resected distal femur, respectively accommodating a patellar track and intercondylar stabilizing housing of the implant, but does not disclose a modular system also capable of performing a trial joint reduction.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 666,160, filed Mar. 7, 1991 and also assigned to the instant assignee, shows a device and method which combine the features of a femoral trial implant and patellar track cutting guide, so that the patellar groove may be shaped and a surgical trial reduction of the total knee joint accurately performed Using common instrumentation. However, this patent does not show how such modular instruments could be modified to also form a deep recess in the distal femur to accomodate the intercondylar housing of a posterior-stabilized femoral component.
Accordingly, there remains a need for modular instrumentation which can be employed to form both a patellar groove and deep recess in the resected surface of a distal femur using a common guide which also functions to perform a trial reduction of the total knee joint.
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In order to reinforce columns due to the increase of loads caused by the extension of a structure or strengthen a structure, to which no seismic design is applied, there is a method of reinforcing the outside of the column by means of steel jacketing, concrete jacketing or the like (Korean Patent No. 10-1568016 etc.).
In the steel jacketing method, an outer circumferential surface of an existing column formed of concrete is enclosed and fixed by a plurality of steel sheets by using fastening members or the like.
However, the steel jacketing method has a problem that since the steel sheet is vulnerable to fire or corrosion, the steel sheet needs to have additional fireproofing and rustproofing treatments. In addition, a separate structure is required to ensure the integrity between the steel sheet and the concrete.
Meanwhile, in the concrete jacketing method, an existing column is reinforced by increasing the cross-sectional area of the column by arranging reinforcing bars on the outside of the existing column, installing forms, and then pouring concrete.
The concrete jacketing method has advantages in that, unlike the steel jacketing method, there is no need for additional fireproofing and rustproofing treatments, it is also advantageous in ensuring the integrity with the existing concrete column, and the like.
However, it is difficult to prevent buckling of column main reinforcing bars due to the interference of the existing column or directly apply cross ties, which are installed for concrete confinement or the like. Accordingly, it is necessary to form a jacketed column in such a manner that a hole is punctured at a predetermined depth in the existing column and an anchor is installed so as to fix the cross tie, thereby decreasing constructability. In addition, there is a disadvantage in that it takes a long construction time due to a lot of field work.
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The present invention relates to a method of bonding the planar or otherwise congruent ceramic faces of abutting bodies such as plates, disks, or the like.
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Several conventional architectures exist for calculating an output of multi-argument associative operations. An associative operation is an operation that can process inputs in any order. For example, mathematical operations that are associative operations include, but are not limited to addition, subtraction and multiplication. Associative properties are maintained when performing certain combinations of operations, such as addition and subtraction, but associative properties are not maintained when performing other combinations of operations, such as addition and multiplication. The conventional architectures include components for implementing operators that perform the associative operations. An operator performs a function on two or more operands or inputs and can, for example, perform the mathematical operation of addition.
One example of a conventional architecture is a serial architecture. Using the serial architecture, only one component is necessary despite the number of inputs (N). Assuming that it takes one clock cycle to perform the operation on two operands, the number of cycles necessary to calculate the output of the multi-argument associative operations is equal to the number of inputs minus one (i.e., the number of Cycles=N−1). FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a serial architecture 100 that receives four inputs. To calculate the output 190, the serial architecture calculates a first output (not shown) using a first input 102 and a second input 104 in a first cycle. The serial architecture 100 then calculates a second output (not shown) using the first output and a third input 106 in a second cycle. Using the second output and a fourth input 108, the serial architecture calculates the output 190 in a third cycle. Thus, for a multi-argument associative operation that has four inputs, the serial architecture 100 requires three cycles to calculate the output. If the serial architecture had eight inputs, the serial architecture would require seven cycles to calculate the output. In this manner, a serial architecture calculates the output of a multi-argument associative operation in series.
Another conventional architecture is a tree or parallel architecture. For a multi-argument associative operation that has a number of inputs that is greater than two, the tree architecture uses multiple components to calculate the output of the operation. The components in the tree architecture can operate in stages such that all components in the same stage operate during the same cycle.
For a multi-argument associative operation that has N inputs, the number of cycles required to calculate the output is equal to log2(N), assuming it takes one clock cycle per operation. FIG. 2 illustrates a tree architecture 200 for a multi-argument associative operation that has eight inputs. The tree architecture has a first stage 202, a second stage 204 and a third stage 206.
The first stage 202 includes a first component 210, a second component 220, a third component 230, and a fourth component 240. The first component 210 receives a first input 212 and a second input 214 and produces a first output 216. The second component 220 receives a third input 222 and a fourth input 224 and produces a second output 226. The third component 230 receives a fifth input 232 and a sixth input 234 and produces a third output 236. The fourth component 240 receives a seventh input 242 and an eighth input 244 and produces a fourth output 246. Each of the components 210, 220, 230 and 240 calculates each output 216, 226, 236 and 246, respectively, during a first cycle.
The second stage 204 includes a component 250 and a component 260. The component 250 receives the first output 216 and the second output 226 from components 210 and 220, respectively, and produces an fifth output 256. The component 260 receives the third output 236 and the fourth output 246 from components 230 and 240, respectively, and produces a sixth output 266. Each of the components 250 and 260 calculates each output 256 and 266 during a second cycle.
The third stage 206 includes a component 270 that receives the fifth output 256 and the sixth output 266 from the components 250 and 260, respectively, and produces an output 280 during a third cycle.
In yet another conventional architecture, the tree architecture is combined with the serial architecture to form a serial/tree architecture. The serial/tree architecture attempts to take advantage of the smaller number of cycles required by the tree architecture and the smaller number of components required by the serial architecture. FIG. 3 illustrates a serial/tree architecture 300 for a multi-argument associative operation that has eight inputs. The serial/tree architecture 300 has a first stage 302 and a second stage 304.
The first stage 302 includes a component 310 and a component 350. The component 310 receives a first input 312, a second input 314, a third input 316, and a fourth input 318 and produces a first output 320. The component 350 receives a fifth input 352, a sixth input 354, a seventh input 356, and an eighth input 358, and produces a second output 360. The components 310 and 350 each calculate a first preliminary output (not shown) using the first and second inputs 312 and 314 and the fifth and sixth inputs 352 and 354, respectively. After calculating the first preliminary output the component 310 calculates a second preliminary output (not shown) using the first preliminary output and the third input 316 during a second cycle. The component 350 also calculates a second preliminary output (not shown) using the first preliminary output and the seventh input 356 during the second cycle. On a third cycle, the components 310 and 350 each calculate an output 320 and 360, respectively. The component 310 calculates the output 320 using the second preliminary output and the fourth input 318 and the component 350 calculates the output 360 using the second preliminary output and the eighth input 358. The outputs 320 and 360 are used by the second stage of the serial/tree architecture to calculate the output 380 of the multi-argument associative operations. In this manner, the second stage 304 includes a third component 370 that receives the first output 320 and the second output 360 and produces an output 380 in a fourth cycle.
Comparing the serial/tree architecture to the tree architecture it is observed that the serial tree/architecture provides a reduction in the number of components required to calculate an output of a multi-argument associative operation, but it requires more cycles.
The conventional architectures for calculating an output of multi-argument associative operations do not efficiently use the latency of the components, while minimizing the number of components required to calculate an output. For example, the tree architecture minimizes the number of cycles necessary to calculate the output, but uses a large number of components to do it and the serial architecture minimizes the number of components, but requires the number of cycles to be one less than the number of inputs. While the serial/tree architecture provides a compromise between the tree and serial architecture, the serial/tree architecture does not fully take advantage of the latency of the components. By minimizing the number of components that are used to implement multi-argument associative operations, it is possible to reduce the area required to implement the associative operations as well as the cost of implementing the multi-argument associative operations. Further, by minimizing the number of components that are used, a reduction in the complexity of implementing the associative operations can be realized. An algorithm and architecture are therefore desired that minimizes the number of components required to calculate the output of multi-argument associative operations by using the latency of the components.
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Conventional X-ray scanning is used in a number of fields to detect objects or features not visible to the human eye. For example, in the medical and dental fields, X-ray systems are used to detect features of interest in rendering a clinical diagnosis, such as a fractured bone or a cavity. In the manufacturing industry, X-ray systems are used similarly to inspect parts for defects. Fractures or voids below the surface of a weld, for example, can be detected from an X-ray image, thus avoiding possible failure of the part should it be used in its defective condition. X-ray systems are also used in airports and other public facilities to inspect containers for weapons, explosives, and other contraband.
In each of the foregoing applications, the X-ray system is an imaging device without the capability of automatic identification of targets. These systems produce a gray scale image, representation of the total X-ray energy absorbed by all objects between the X-ray source and the detector. For instance, the more energy absorbed, the lighter the corresponding spot on the image. Using this projection method, the resulting images or radiographs are often difficult to interpret because objects are superimposed. Data obtained from X-ray images are generally unsuitable for automatic detection because of the complexity involved in resolving superimposed objects. A trained operator must carefully study and interpret each image to render an opinion on whether or not a target of interest is present. When an application requires a large number of radiographs to be interpreted, operator fatigue and distraction can compromise detection capability.
X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a technique that produces an image of a cross-sectional slice of an object from a series of attenuation measurements taken at various angles around the object. The CT image does not suffer from the super-positioning problem presented with standard radiographs. Although CT data can provide precise, quantitative information about the characteristics of objects in the scan plane suitable for automatic detection of targets, it too has limitations. Conventional CT systems take considerable time to perform a scan, to capture the data and reconstruct an image. The throughput of CT systems is low. Coupled with the size and expense of conventional CT systems, this limitation has hindered CT use in applications such as baggage or parts inspection where object throughput is a major concern.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,552 to Peschmann describes a method for improved CT throughput. In the Peschmann system a conventional X-ray scanner is first used to pre-scan an object, followed by CT scanning at locations selected from analysis of the pre-scan data. Although the solution taught by Peschmann provides improved detection capability over conventional X-ray systems, it has several limitations. First, it requires pre-scanning of the object with a conventional X-ray system which takes time and provides limited results as discussed above. Second, in order to save time, a CT scan is performed only at selected locations which could result in failure to identify targets of interest, especially where the target is masked or otherwise difficult to detect with a conventional X-ray scanner. Third, because the Peschmann invention uses a conventional rotating CT device, the throughput is limited by the mechanics of the rotation. Fourth, the flow of the baggage is halted at each scan location, again limiting throughput, to allow for rotation of the X-ray source around the object to acquire the data for that slice. Finally, Peschmann teaches the use of conventional single- and dual-energy techniques for generating CT data whereas a multiple-energy or multispectral technique as described herein would result in improved target identification.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,005 to Baba et al. describes an energy separated quantum-counting "radiography". The system described in Baba et al. provides a two-dimensional superimposed image based on the average of the energy attenuation passing through a human body. This system cannot identify unknown objects being traversed by the photon beams based on tomographic reconstruction of transmission by voxels, and does not identify objects based on reconstructed spectral transmission by voxels. The spectral content of a radiographic image generated by the Baba et al. system would be based on the average absorption of all materials between the detector and the source. As a result, when the radiograph is complex, that is when images of two or more objects are superimposed or overlap in a radiograph, those objects are not well separated in their spectral content, and have little probability of being identified by the Baba et al. system.
Therefore, there is a great and still unsatisfied need for an apparatus and method to detect and identify concealed objects and features thereof, such as contraband in baggage, defects in articles of manufacture, or medical applications, using multiple energy computed tomography.
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Software applications running in a distributed application server environment may have a plurality of concurrent users accessing the servers and applications. This can result in performance and scalability problems with the servers and applications running on the servers. Performance monitoring, profiling and debugging tools can monitor software applications running on the servers to determine resource consumption information.
Software profiling is a technique for measuring where software application programs consume resources (e.g., central processing unit (CPU) computation times, memory accesses). A profiling tool or profiler can analyze the resource consumption of an application running on a server and provide profiling data based thereon. For example, a Java profiler can support a broad set of Java virtual machines (JVMs). The Java profiler can provide comprehensive profiling of a Java application running on the JVM.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge that is attached in a detachable manner to a main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a method of assembling a process cartridge, and a connecting member.
Here, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium by using an electrophotographic image forming method. Examples of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (such as a laser beam printer or an LED printer), a facsimile device and a word processor.
In addition, a process cartridge is a cartridge in which charging means, developing means or cleaning means is integrated with an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and which can be attached to or detached from the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, for an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic image forming process, a process cartridge system is adopted in which the electrophotographic photosensitive member and process means that acts on the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrated as a cartridge, which is attached in a detachable manner to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. According to this process cartridge system, maintenance of the apparatus can be performed by a user without a service person, so that usability can be improved largely.
Such a process cartridge is used for forming an image on a recording medium utilizing a developer. Therefore, as images are formed, the developer is consumed. When the developer is consumed and it becomes impossible to form an image having a quality good enough to satisfy a user who bought a process cartridge, the process cartridge looses its value.
Conventionally, it is desired to realize a simple remanufacture method of a process cartridge that can remanufacture a process cartridge that lost its value as the developer was consumed. It is also desired to realize a simple assembling method of a process cartridge.
Therefore, as the conventional remanufacturing method and the assembling method of a process cartridge, there are methods described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,519,430 and 5,966,566. In these methods, for a cartridge having a structure in which a developer frame or a developing frame and a drum frame are connected in a rotatable manner, a pin or others that connects the both members is removed so as to explode a main body of the cartridge for remanufacture.
Another conventional method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-130740. In this method, the cartridge has plural frames that can be separated from each other. A developer frame and a developing frame are separated from each other for remanufacture and assembly.
An ultrasonic welding method is used for bonding frames that constitute a process cartridge. The ultrasonic welding method is also used for bonding the developing frame and the developer frame for containing the developer. A support frame for supporting a developing roller is attached to the developing frame in a movable manner (see U.S. patent application Publication No. 02-159788).
In addition, there is another conventional remanufacturing and assembling method of a process cartridge having a frame connection portion by a resin connection, in which a resin connection portion is cut off and then the frames are connected again using a spacer at the connection portion (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-18482).
Furthermore, there are other conventional methods for remanufacturing and assembling two parts on purpose of improving remanufacture property. One is a method of using a supporting member made of a resin for attaching a casing cover of an electronic apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-55015. Another method uses a bonding member made of an elastomer having a wave-like portion as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,445.
Furthermore, there is another conventional remanufacturing method for recycling a process cartridge, in which cleaning means is removed from the process cartridge and replaced with new one. First, screws that fix the cleaning means to a frame are removed, and then the cleaning means is removed. In addition, there is a remanufacturing and assembling method in which new cleaning means is fixed to a frame using screws (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,577,829 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-177651).
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This invention relates generally to an electronic timepiece which can operate in a plurality of modes, and more particularly to an electronic timepiece wherein the plurality of modes are controlled by operation of an external member. In prior art electronic timepieces, push-buttons have been used for providing various correction and setting inputs. When the time setting of a conventional analog timepiece with mechanical hands is corrected, the hands move with the motion of the external stem so that the user can sense a cooperation between the stem which he rotates and the hands on the face of the dial. As a result, watch owners who are accustomed to correcting the time for an analog watch are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the push-button mode of correction and adjustment provided in the electronic timepieces. As a result, electronic timepieces have been designed using external stem members which operate similarly to the external stems of conventional mechanical timepieces. More particularly, the stem may be pulled out, pushed in, and rotated in either direction. The external member has been used for many purposes including change in the functional mode which is displayed by the timepiece and for correction of the displayed modes. The multi-function timepieces require that the external member be used to perform many functions by combinations of sequential operations of the member. This avoids the need for a large plurality of external members.
However, the requirement to perform specific sequences of operations of the external member, for example, pulling the member and then rotating the member, leads to difficulties primarily because the user frequently provides erroneous imputs to the circuits by inadvertent operation of the stem member in an improper sequence. For example, when intending to pull out the stem member and then rotate, the user frequently begins rotation simultaneously with the pulling. In such a case, the rotational switch may be actuated before the pull-switch is actuated and the wrong result is achieved whether in setting or adjusting a mode or changing a mode of display.
What is needed is an electronic timepiece operated by an external stem member controlling a plurality of functions, and automatically compensating for inadvertent mis-sequencing of the external member actuations.
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The field of the invention is electronic displays, and particularly, displays which employ a matrix of illuminating devices that are individually operated to produce illuminated alpha-numeric characters and graphic symbols.
Electronic displays which employ a matrix of illuminating devices are well-known in the art. Such displays may include a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) which are mounted on a printed circuit board in an array. By selectively energizing the LEDs with electronic circuitry also on the circuit board, a variety of illuminated characters and symbols can be produced. To reduce cost and improve appearance, it is also common to attach the LED chips, or dies, directly to the printed circuit board and provide a shaped reflector over the LED dies. To protect the LED dies, the reflector is either covered with a transparent sheet material, or a transparent potting compound is poured over the dies. In either case, the front surface of these prior display arrays is flat.
While electronic displays of this type are quite satisfactory for many applications, their use in retail stores has been limited. In such an environment the ambient light is very intense and the light emitted by electronic displays is not sufficient to be clearly seen or to draw attention to itself.
One electronic display which obviates some of the problems of the prior art devices is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,496 which is commonly assigned. However, this particular display has a particular configuration for a lens matrix which can cause problems with light refractions and reducing the amount of displayed light.
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The healthy heart produces regular, synchronized contractions. Rhythmic contractions of the heart are normally controlled by the sinoatrial (SA) node, which is a group of specialized cells located in the upper right atrium. The SA node is the normal pacemaker of the heart, typically initiating 60-100 heartbeats per minute. When the SA node is pacing the heart normally, the heart is said to be in normal sinus rhythm.
If the heart's electrical activity becomes uncoordinated or irregular, the heart is denoted to be arrhythmic. Cardiac arrhythmia impairs cardiac efficiency and may be a potential life-threatening event. Cardiac arrhythmias have a number of etiological sources, including tissue damage due to myocardial infarction, infection, or degradation of the heart's ability to generate or synchronize the electrical impulses that coordinate contractions.
Bradycardia occurs when the heart rhythm is too slow. This condition may be caused, for example, by impaired function of the SA node, denoted sick sinus syndrome, or by delayed propagation or blockage of the electrical impulse between the atria and ventricles. Bradycardia produces a heart rate that is too slow to maintain adequate circulation.
When the heart rate is too rapid, the condition is denoted tachycardia. Tachycardia may have its origin in either the atria or the ventricles. Tachycardias occurring in the atria of the heart, for example, include atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. Both conditions are characterized by rapid contractions of the atria. Besides being hemodynamically inefficient, the rapid contractions of the atria may also adversely affect the ventricular rate.
Ventricular tachycardia occurs, for example, when electrical activity arises in the ventricular myocardium at a rate more rapid than the normal sinus rhythm. Ventricular tachycardia may quickly degenerate into ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation is a condition denoted by extremely rapid, uncoordinated electrical activity within the ventricular tissue. The rapid and erratic excitation of the ventricular tissue prevents synchronized contractions and impairs the heart's ability to effectively pump blood to the body, which is a fatal condition unless the heart is returned to sinus rhythm within a few minutes.
Implantable cardiac rhythm management systems have been used as an effective treatment for patients with serious arrhythmias. These systems typically include one or more leads and circuitry to sense signals from one or more interior and/or exterior surfaces of the heart. Such systems also include circuitry for generating electrical pulses that are applied to cardiac tissue at one or more interior and/or exterior surfaces of the heart. For example, leads extending into the patient's heart are connected to electrodes that contact the myocardium for sensing the heart's electrical signals and for delivering pulses to the heart in accordance with various therapies for treating arrhythmias.
Typical Implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs) include one or more endocardial leads to which at least one defibrillation electrode is connected. Such ICDs are capable of delivering high-energy shocks to the heart, interrupting the ventricular tachyarrhythmia or ventricular fibrillation, and allowing the heart to resume normal sinus rhythm. ICDs may also include pacing functionality.
Although ICDs are very effective at preventing Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), most people at risk of SCD are not provided with implantable defibrillators. Primary reasons for this unfortunate reality include the limited number of physicians qualified to perform transvenous lead/electrode implantation, a limited number of surgical facilities adequately equipped to accommodate such cardiac procedures, and a limited number of the at-risk patient population that may safely undergo the required endocardial or epicardial lead/electrode implant procedure.
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The present invention is directed to an occupant restraining system in a vehicle and specifically to a method and apparatus for controlling an actuatable, occupant side restraining system having an enhanced side safing function.
Actuatable systems for restraining vehicle occupants during side impact crash events are known in the art. Such actuatable restraining devices include side air bags that are actuated in response to a detected side deployment vehicle crash condition. These side restraining devices are in addition to actuatable frontal restraining devices.
A controller typically controls actuation of an actuatable side restraining device in response to signals provided from one or more crash sensors that monitor for a sideways crash condition. U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,899 to Foo et al., assigned to TRW Inc., discloses a side actuatable restraining device that is actuated when (i) a first sideways oriented accelerometer provides a primary crash acceleration signal indicative of a deployment crash event, and (ii) a second sideways oriented accelerometer provides a safing crash signal indicative of a deployment crash event.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,902 to Foo et al., assigned to TRW Inc., discloses a side actuatable restraining device that is actuated when (i) a first sideways oriented accelerometer provides a discriminating crash acceleration signal indicative of a deployment crash event, and (ii) either (a) a second sideways oriented accelerometer provides a safing crash signal indicative of a deployment crash event, or (b) a third sideways oriented accelerometer provides a safing crash signal indicative of a deployment crash event.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus is provided for controlling an actuatable side restraining device of a vehicle. The apparatus includes actuator control means for enabling actuation of the actuatable side restraining device in response to enhanced discrimination and safing determinations.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus is provided for controlling an actuatable restraining device of a vehicle. The apparatus includes a crash sensor sensing a vehicle crash condition and providing a crash sensor signal indicative thereof. A controller compares the crash sensor signal against an immunity threshold and enables actuation of the actuatable restraining device when the crash sensor signal is greater than the immunity threshold and for a time after the crash sensor signal becomes less than the immunity threshold.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for controlling an actuatable side restraining device of a vehicle. The method includes the steps of sensing a vehicle crash condition and providing a crash acceleration signal indicative thereof, comparing the crash acceleration signal against an immunity threshold, and enabling actuation of the actuatable side restraining device when the crash acceleration signal is greater than the immunity threshold and for a time after the crash acceleration signal becomes less than the immunity threshold.
Other aspects of the present invention are set forth in the appended claims.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to flash memory and more particularly, to a flash memory device and writing method thereof.
Semiconductor memories are mostly classified into volatile and nonvolatile types. Volatile memory devices are faster in reading and writing data, but loose their data if there is loss of power supply. Nonvolatile memory devices retain their data even when there is loss of power supply. For that reason, nonvolatile memory devices are used to store data or information to be retained regardless of power supply. In many kinds of nonvolatile memory devices, flash memories or flash EEPROMs (electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories) are well suited for large-capacity storage units because of high integration density.
Flash memories may be generally differentiated into NAND and NOR types. NAND flash memories conduct writing and reading operations in the mechanism of Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling effect, while NOR flash memories conduct writing operations by hot electron injection and erasing operations by F-N tunneling effect. NOR flash memories, as code storage, are mostly employed in mobile telephone terminals desiring fast data processing because they are operable in high frequency.
NOR flash memories are divided into stacked and split gate types in accordance with a gate structure of the memory cells.
FIG. 1 is a section of a NOR flash memory cell 10 with a stacked gate structure.
Referring to FIG. 1, the memory cell 10 includes N+ source and drain regions 13 and 14 formed in a P-type substrate 19, an insulation film 15 with a thickness less than 100 Å, a floating gate (FG) 16, an intergate insulation film (e.g., ONO film) 17, and a control gate (CG) 18, which are formed on a channel region in sequence. The source region 13, the drain region 14, and the control gate 18 are connected to a source line SL, a bit line BL, and a word line WL, respectively.
During a writing operation, the source line SL and the substrate 19 are grounded in the NOR flash memory cell 10 with the stacked gate structure. The word line WL is supplied with a word line voltage of about 10V, while the bit line BL is supplied with a bit line voltage of about 5V. Under this bias condition, electrons are injected into the floating gate 16 from a channel region adjacent to the drain region 14. This mechanism is referred to as “hot electron injection.”
In general, when a voltage of about 5V is being applied to the drain region 14 of the memory cell during a writing operation, a cell current about 200μA flows through the channel region from the drain region 14 to the grounded source region 13. For instance, if data bits in the unit of a byte or a word are written at a time, the byte writing operation uses a current of 1.6 mA (200 μA×8) at maximum while the byte writing operation uses a current of 3.2 mA (200 μA×16) at maximum.
FIG. 2 is a section of a NOR flash memory cell 20 with a split gate structure.
Referring to FIG. 2, the memory cell 20 includes N+ source and drain regions 23 and 24 formed in an N-type substrate 29, and a gate oxide film 25 and a floating gate (FG) 26 which are formed on a channel region. On the floating gate 26, a tunnel oxide film 27 is formed. A control gate (CG) 28 is formed on the tunnel oxide film 27 and the gate oxide film 25 that is placed on the channel region. The source region 23, the drain region 24, and the control gate 28 are connected to a source line SL, a bit line BL, and a word line WL, respectively.
Generally, during a writing operation, the source line SL of the NOR flash memory cell 10 with the stacked gate structure is supplied with a source line voltage VSL of about 9V, while the word line WL is supplied with a word line voltage VWL of about 10V. The bit line BL is supplied with a bit line voltage VBL of about 0.5V to 2V. Under this bias condition, electrons are injected into the floating gate 26 from a channel region adjacent to the source region 24 in the mechanism of hot electron injection. In the NOR flash memory cell 20 of a split gate structure, a writing voltage of about 9V is applied to the source line SL during a writing operation.
As aforementioned, since a high voltage of about 4V through 6V is applied to the drain region of the stacked-gate NOR flash memory cell 10 during a writing operation, a writing current of a predetermined level is used. A high voltage used in the NOR flash memory during a writing operation is generated from a charge pump embedded therein. Therefore, the number of memory cells to be written at a time for reducing current consumption is confined within a restrictive number (e.g., 4, 8, 16, or 32 bits). This restriction on the number of bits to he written is more applicable to the split-gate NOR flash memory rather than the stacked-gate NOR flash memory.
In addition, the restriction of the writable bit number is also applied to a test operation conducted during production. Generally, as production quality test is carried out to check functions of products themselves, and there is generally less current consumed during testing than in normal operation. Accordingly, given the reduced current consumption, the length of time needed to complete the testing is relatively long.
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The field of the invention is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging methods and systems. More particularly, the invention relates to devices for implementing magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in conjunction with the use of insertable or interventional medical devices.
The physician has many diagnostic tools at his or her disposal which enable detection and localization of diseased tissues. These include x-ray systems that measure and produce images indicative of the x-ray attenuation of the tissues and ultrasound systems that detect and produce images indicative of tissue echogenicity and the boundaries between structures of differing acoustic properties. Nuclear medicine produces images indicative of those tissues which absorb tracers injected into the patient, as do PET scanners and SPECT scanners. And finally, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems produce images indicative of the magnetic properties of tissues. It is fortuitous that many diseased tissues are detected by the physical properties measured by these imaging modalities, but it should not be surprising that many diseases go undetected.
Historically, one of the physician's most valuable diagnostic tools is palpation. By palpating the patient, a physician can feel differences in the compliance of tissues and detect the presence of tumors and other tissue abnormalities. Unfortunately, this valuable diagnostic tool is limited to those tissues and organs that the physician can feel, and many diseased internal organs go undiagnosed unless the disease happens to be detectable by one of the above imaging modalities. Tumors that are undetected by existing imaging modalities and cannot be reached for palpation through the patient's skin and musculature, are often detected by surgeons by direct palpation of the exposed organs at the time of surgery. Palpation is a common method for detecting tumors of the prostate gland and the breast, but unfortunately, deeper portions of these structures are not accessible for such evaluation. An imaging system that extends the physician's ability to detect differences in tissue compliance throughout a patient's body would extend this valuable diagnostic tool.
It has been found that MR imaging can be enhanced when an oscillating stress is applied to the object being imaged in a method called MR elastography (MRE). The method requires that the oscillating stress produce shear waves that propagate through the organ, or tissues to be imaged. These shear waves alter the phase of the MR signals, and from this the mechanical properties of the subject can be determined. In many applications, the production of shear waves in the tissues is merely a matter of physically vibrating the surface of the subject with an electromechanical device such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,085. For example, shear waves may be produced in the breast by placing the breast in direct contact with the oscillatory device. Also, with organs like the liver that are difficult to directly palpate, shear waves can be produced indirectly within the tissue by applying the oscillatory force to the exterior surface of the body and allowing the waves to propagate into the organ.
A number of driver devices have been developed to produce the oscillatory force needed to practice MRE. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,977,770, 5,952,828, 6,037,774, and 6,486,669, these typically include a coil of wire through which an alternating current flows. This coil is oriented in the polarizing field of the MRI system such that it interacts with the polarizing field to produce an oscillating force. This force may be conveyed to the subject being imaged by any number of different mechanical arrangements. Such MRE drivers can produce large forces over large displacement, but they are constrained by the need to keep the coil properly aligned with respect to the polarizing magnetic field. In addition, the current flowing in the driver coil produces a magnetic field which can alter the magnetic fields during the magnetic resonance pulse sequence resulting in undesirable image artifacts.
Another approach is to employ piezoelectric drivers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,606,971 and 5,810,731. Such drivers do not produce troublesome disturbances in the scanner magnetic fields when operated, but they are limited in the forces they can produce, particularly at larger displacements. Piezoelectric drivers can also be oriented in any direction since they are not dependent on the polarizing magnetic field direction for proper operation.
Yet another approach is to employ an acoustic driver system as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,034,534 and 7,307,423. The acoustic driver system includes an active driver located remotely from the MRI system and acoustically coupled by a tube to one or more passive drivers positioned on the subject being imaged. The passive drivers do not disturb the magnetic fields and may be oriented in any direction.
MRE-based tissue stiffness measurements could be important for detecting prostate and rectal cancer, and evaluating the cancer cell death due to thermal ablation. However, these tissues of interest are deep in the body surrounded by normal soft tissues, which makes the conventional external MRE driver not optimal because the waves are not significantly attenuated as they propagate toward these deeper tissues.
On the other hand, some existing MRI-related applications that use insertable catheters, such as endourethral/endorectal MRI and MRI-guided percutaneous thermal ablation, have the benefit of direct access to the tissue in the vicinity of the tip of the catheter where RF coils and heat sources are located, which results in better imaging SNR and better ablation reliability respectively. To measure the MRE-based tissue stiffness in the vicinity of catheter, the above-described conventional external MRE drivers are not suitable because the driver needs to be physically positioned on the surface of the subject's body, and often must be fastened by a supporting belt or frame, which increases the potential for positioning conflicts with the catheter. Furthermore, the above-described conventional, external MRE drivers are not suitable because the wave SNR is degraded because of tissue attenuation along the distance between the external driver and the tissue of interest at the tip of the catheter.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system and method for performing MRE studies of organs, such as the prostate, and other areas of the body that are not amenable to MRE imaging using traditional MRE drivers due to particular internal locations in the body, such as near other tissue structures that impede the delivery of the requisite waves to the target tissue. Additionally, it would be desirable to have a system and method for performing MRE studies during insertable or interventional procedures without impeding the clinician's ability to seek positions desirable for the interventional procedure and without degraded wave SNR caused by the insertable or interventional device.
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The present invention relates to improvements in bagasse fiber preparation equipment, and more particularly to an improved method and apparatus for depithing bagasse fibers.
In the various fibers available for the making of paper, bagasse has been used for the fibrous content and the substantial volume of bagasse available as a residue of sugar cane, makes the relative economics desirable. A substantial impediment to the wide scale use of bagasse is the difficulty of depithing where the pith is separated from the fibers.
In the processing of sugar cane, the cane is crushed and processed to remove the sugar juice and the bagasse residue is then suitable for processing to obtain bagasse fibers for bagasse paper.
In processes heretofore available, bagasse has been depithed both by wet and dry processes. In both processes, the bagasse is generally mechanically abraded to break the clusters of pith away from the remaining tissue. Dry depithing has been accomplished by using a hammer mill followed by dry screening. The material losses of depithing are considerable and economics dictate that improved bagasse depithing processes are needed to improve the quality of the fibers and avoid loss as well as to reduce the actual costs of depithing.
In processes heretofore available, removal of pith from the fibers has not been fully thorough and traces of the pith remain in the fibers. Varieties in processing bagasse prior to preparing the bagasse fibers for paper by depithing will also vary providing challenges for the satisfactory removal of pith for the preparation of the bagasse fibers. A discussion of processes heretofore employed and the necessity of a substantial removal of nonfibrous constituents from bagasse fibers is discussed in an article entitled "Sugar Cane Bagasse As A Fibrous Papermaking Material", published by TAPPI, Vol. 40, No. 8, Aug. 1957.
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This invention relates to a dental handpiece having a turbine rotatable in reverse direction, whereby a dental tool attached to the handpiece may be driven in forward and reverse directions for dental treatment.
A dental handpiece having attached thereto a dental tool for grinding a tooth or a metal prosthetic material has been used extensively. A driving device such as an impeller driven under an air pressure, a water conduit and air supply/discharge conduits are provided within the inside of the dental handpiece. The dental tool having a grinding tip end is adapted for being rotated by the driving device. In dental treatment, dental tools having a grinding ends suited to the positions or shapes of the sites of treatment or to the objectives of treatment are selected and selectively attached to a tool head such as turbine head.
FIG. 7 is a front view showing a conventional dental handpiece. An air supply conduit 2 and an air discharge conduit 3 are separately formed within a handle part 1 of the handpiece, as shown in FIG. 8, and compressed air is supplied from an air tube 4 into the air supply conduit 2. The air supply conduit 2 and the air discharge conduit 3 are separated from each other by a partition 5 within the handle part 1. A turbine blade 7 is rotatably mounted within a turbine head 6. A central shaft 8 of the turbine blade 7 is rotatably supported by bearings, not shown. A dental tool 9 is attached to the central shaft 8 by, e.g. a chucking unit, not shown, for grinding the tooth or the metal prosthetic material.
With the above-described dental handpiece, compressed air is supplied from the air tube 4 via the air supply conduit 2 to the turbine head 6 so as to impinge via the end of the conduit 2 onto the turbine blade 7 for rotating the turbine blade 7 about the central shaft 8 as the center of rotation. By the rotation of the turbine blade 7, the air is discharged from the space between vanes 7a via the discharge conduit 3. The turbine blade 7 is rotated at an elevated speed by the compressed air to cause rotation of the dental tool 9 in a predetermined direction for grinding the tool.
Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 9, when the marginal edge of a metal prosthetic material 11 such as an inlay filled in tooth is cut by the above-described dental handpiece, it is preferred that rotation of the dental tool 9 be in a direction of from the metal prosthetic material 11 towards the tooth surface, so that a part of the metal prosthetic material 11 is not extended from the tooth surface, that is, in order to prevent irregularities from being produced on the edges of the metal prosthetic material 11 or to prevent a gap from being produced between the metal prosthetic material 11 and the tooth.
Besides, for adapting the metal prosthetic material 11 to the defect portion of the tooth 12 after removal of the site of lesion in the course of treatment of tooth caries, and for retaining the metal prosthetic material 11 against the biting force, it is necessary to cut a basically rectangular tooth cavity 13 to attach the prosthetic material 11 in the so-formed cavity 13, as shown in FIG. 10. At this time, the fundamental procedure is to rotate the dental tool 9 in a direction proceeding from the tooth towards outside, that is in a direction of flying the debris towards outside, because otherwise a smooth marginal edge cannot be obtained.
However, with the conventional dental handpiece, the direction of flow of compressed air through the air supply conduit 2 and the air discharge conduit 3 is constant, so that the dental tool 9 can be rotated only in one direction. Consequently, for cutting left and right teeth or cutting left and right sides of the same tooth, the edge portions of the tooth cannot be cut from the metal material towards the tooth surface, insofar as one of the teeth or one of the left and right sides of the same tooth are concerned. On the other hand, it becomes impossible from time to time to cut the tooth from the tooth towards outside during formation of the tooth cavity, as a result of which a gap tending to produce secondary caries may be produced between the metal prosthetic material and the tooth or a smooth edge portion cannot be produced by cutting.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of molding compounds. In particular the present invention is directed towards molding compounds of either diallyl orthophthalate or diallyl isophthalate (both hereinafter referred to as DAP) containing encapsulated water.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
It is well known to add water to molding compounds in order to obtain the proper filling of molds, in particular complicated mold configurations. The common practice is to mix water directly into the molding compound. While this addition of water allows for the proper filling of an intricate mold configuration it does present some complications. If the water and molding compound are stored as a mixture, some water will be lost due to evaporation. This reduces the shelf life of the mixture and may result in improper filling of the mold if not enough water is present.
If the water is added just prior to molding, the mixing step must be performed each time molding is performed. This increases the time required for molding. Also, the addition of the water at the time of molding in a molding factory situation can lead to inconsistencies in the amount and manner of water addition.
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There already exists a device (JP 7081858) that displays different information for elevator passengers, such as date, weather, day of the week and season, and may be used for virtual monitoring of the building's exterior.
This device contains an information generator and an internal monitoring device inside the elevator car.
The drawback of this device is its inability to display the exterior of the building where the elevator is located in real time.
There is yet another well-known device (JP 11079580) for monitoring the exterior of elevator-equipped buildings. It includes one video camera positioned outside the building, a controller, a display screen in the elevator car and an elevator position indicator. Controller output is fed directly into the monitor.
The video camera is attached to the outer wall of the building at mid-floor, so that the camera's lens could move vertically and sideways to allow for monitoring of the building's exterior from the first floor to the top floor.
The drawback of this device is that a single camera (rather than multiple cameras at different floors) installed at a fixed location (in this case, at mid-height of the building) will produce a distorted image on the display as the elevator moves up or down.
Besides, any mechanical devices on the outer wall of the building (the device for moving the lens or the entire video camera) must be maintained against the elements (lubrication, spare part replacement, etc.).
There is yet another well-known device (RU 55756 U1) for monitoring exteriors of elevator-equipped buildings. It includes a video camera positioned outside the building, a display screen in the elevator car, a controller and an elevator position indicator. Controller output is fed directly into the monitor. The device contains one or more additional video cameras positioned along the vertical span of the building and a multiplexer. Feed cables from the cameras are connected, respectively, to the 1st, 2nd, . . . nth input sockets of the multiplexer, which is in turn connected to the first input socket of the controller; the output socket of the elevator position indicator is connected to the second input socket of the controller.
This device is based on the above design.
Using this device, one can monitor the building's exterior from inside the elevator, with video signal being fed in from fixed observation points alongside the vertical span of the building.
However, this device does not allow for monitoring video feeds from observation points located at a distance from the building where the elevator is located.
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The present invention relates to a high-speed machining system for executing a machining program for a numerical control apparatus at a high speed, and more particularly to a high-speed machining system in which a hard disk drive for storing a machining program is incorporated into a numerical control apparatus with a simple structure.
Machining programs for a numerical control apparatus were formerly recorded on paper tapes or the like and stored, but with the reduction in size of the price of hard disk drives and the like, program files are now practically used for the storage of machining programs.
The interrelationship between a prior art program file and a numerical control apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, 1 denotes a numerical control CNC bus and 2 denotes a printed circuit board of a CNC processor for global control of the CNC. The numeral 30 represents a printed circuit board of a processor for remote buffer control by which data is input at a high speed from outside, and 40 is a program file unit including a hard disk control circuit 41 and a hard disk drive 42, both supplied with control power from a power supply 43.
The hard disk drive 42 for storing machining programs stores data in the form of short length blocks. This short length block data is delivered, via the hard disk control circuit 41 and an RS422 interface, to the remote buffer 30 and then to the CNC processor 2, which executes the machining control accordingly.
The system wherein short length blocks are transferred in a binary format for machining, such as that shown in FIG. 2, is suitable for high-speed machining, but the input speed to the remote buffer 30 is slow, and the program file unit housed in an external casing and containing the power supply 43 is indispensable, and thus the problem of high cost arises.
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The invention relates to in-band signaling, and in particular to optical cross-connect switches providing an in-band signaling capability. The invention finds application to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), but it is not so limited.
The optical cross-connect switch promises to become a key element of fiber-optic networks. Steering elements in the optical switch are used to direct beams of light from input fibers to the desired output fibers (or equivalently, optical waveguides). The amount of optical power coupled through a given connection is a function of a) the amount of power present in the input fiber, b) insertion losses at the fibers, lenses, and mirrors, c) coupling loss due to mode radii mismatches and longitudinal errors, and d) coupling loss due to errors in beam alignment as effected by the steering elements.
Previous optical switches have not capitalized on the loss due to errors in beam alignment as a means of intentionally modulating the power emerging from the output fibers en route to certain other elements of the optical network. A fraction of signal power can be utilized to generate a set of commands to signal other elements downstream along the optical path. This command set can be encoded as a sequence of events expressed by different optical power levels, discrete frequencies, or their combination. Such in-band signals travel along the same optical channels available for data. One representative use is to optically add a key to the data channel through the “send” optical switch allowing the “receive” optical switch to use the key to determine what optical connection should be made for the incoming data. In an all-optical network employing optical switches in conjunction with power-level-sensitive elements, such as optical amplifiers and multi-wavelength systems, the signaling function currently executed using dedicated elements can potentially be absorbed by the optical switch, thereby minimizing or eliminating the need for expensive post-switch signaling sources.
In-band signaling techniques can be implemented with a single mirror actuated with at least one actuator used as a beam-steering element; the power loss is governed by the mirror deflecting angle in at least one axis away from a set of angles that maximize coupling.
In prior art, such as found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,711,340; 6,484,114 and 6,556,285 of the assignee of the present invention Glimmerglass Networks, Inc., techniques were disclosed for optical beam alignment of cross-connect switches and similar optical devices using a constant amplitude dithering technique. The subject matter of these patents is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Although the power-loss mechanism is similar to the loss mechanism employed in the present context, the prior art is not applicable to the general case of using two or more steering elements, nor to the specific case of an in-operation optical switch utilizing prescribed motions of the steering elements that prohibit the methods of the prior patents. The need exists for a technique for optical modulation that can be effected using the steering elements of an in-operation optical switch without deleterious impact on the switching functions.
It has been shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,556,285 and 6,484,114 that four coordinate errors can be detected using synchronous detection. The four orthogonal oscillations, dithers, of the output errors are produced through associated motion of the mirrors as defined by a kinematic mapping between an actuator space and a coupling space. Each mirror in the optical path is actuated with a pair of orthogonal, in the x and y directions, angular displacement commands. These imposed angular displacement commands that effect dither are in addition to the nominal mirror steering commands that center the beams on the mirrors. The four unknown alignment errors are detected by demodulating the logarithm of the power with the four time-orthogonal dither mode variable signals and averaging over the minimum time period that the four dither cycles repeat. It has been shown that the effects of the four dithers on the logarithm of the power are separable and proportional to the alignment errors that can be individually minimized. In the prior art, the objective has been to maintain a constant power at the output fiber with minimal optical loss of a connection using dithering. In contrasts, as will be explained, an object of the present invention is to excite an in-band signal, or a modulated signal with unique frequency signatures.
The need exists for an in-band signaling technique for optical modulation that can be effected using the steering elements of an in-operation optical switch without deleterious impact on the switching functions and which is robust in the presence of noise and variations of in-line optical power.
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Fluorescent proteins are widely used in the fields of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, medical diagnostics and drug screening methodologies (Chalfie et al., 1994, Science 263: 802-805; Tsien, 1998, Ann. Rev. Biochem. 67: 509-544). One property shared by the most useful fluorescent proteins is that they require no host-encoded co-factors or substrates for fluorescence. The proteins therefore retain their fluorescent properties both in isolation from their native organism, and when expressed in the cells of other organisms. This property makes them particularly well suited for a variety of in vivo and in vitro applications. Another major advantage of fluorescent proteins for use in biological systems is that they are indeed proteins, which permits their synthesis, within cells or organisms of interest, avoiding a host of problems relating to the attachment of the label to a protein of interest and/or delivery of labeled proteins into a cell. Not only can the proteins be made within the desired cell or organism, but they also retain their fluorescent properties when expressed as fusions with other proteins of interest, which greatly enhances their utility both in vivo and in vitro.
Fluorescent proteins have been used as reporter molecules to study gene expression in culture as well as in transgenic animals by insertion of fluorescent protein coding sequences downstream of an appropriate promoter. They have also been used to study the subcellular localization of proteins by direct fusion of test proteins to fluorescent proteins, and fluorescent proteins have become the reporter of choice for monitoring the infection efficiency of viral vectors both in cell culture and in animals. Variants of fluorescent proteins exhibiting spectral shifts in response to changes in the cellular environment (e.g., changes in pH, ion flux, or the redox status of the cell) are also used to monitor such changes (see, for example, Inouye & Tsuji, 1994, FEBS Lett. 351: 211-214; Miyawaki et al., 1997, Nature 388: 882-887).
Perhaps the most promising role for fluorescent proteins as biochemical markers is their application to methods that exploit fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). FRET occurs with fluorophores for which the emission spectrum of one fluorophore overlaps with the excitation spectrum of a second fluorophore. When such fluorophores are brought into close proximity, excitation of the “donor” fluorophore results in emission from the “acceptor”. Pairs of such fluorophores are thus useful for monitoring molecular interactions. Fluorescent proteins are useful for the analysis of protein:protein molecular interactions in vivo or in vitro if their respective fluorescent emission and excitation spectra overlap to allow FRET. The donor and acceptor fluorescent proteins may be produced as fusions with the proteins one wishes to analyze for interactions. These types of applications of fluorescent proteins are particularly appealing for high throughput analyses, since the readout is direct and independent of subcellular localization.
The prototypical fluorescent protein is the Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein (GFP), which was the first green fluorescent protein cloned (Prasher et al., 1992, Gene 111: 229-233). Purified A. victoria GFP is a monomeric protein of about 27 kDa that absorbs blue light with an excitation wavelength maximum of 395 nm, with a minor peak at 470 nm, and emits green fluorescence with an emission wavelength of about 510 nm and a minor peak near 540 nm (Ward et al., 1979, Photochem. Photobiol. Rev. 4: 1-57). The polypeptide has several drawbacks, including relatively broad excitation and emission spectra, low quantum yield, and low expression in cells of higher eukaryotes. Mutants with improved spectral characteristics and higher quantum yield have been identified, and expression in higher eukaryotes has been improved by “humanizing” the nucleic acid sequences to encode codons optimized for human or mammalian expression.
Additional fluorescent proteins include, but are not limited to those expressed by Discosoma sp. and Phialidium gregarum (Ward et al., 1982, Photochem. Photobiol. 35: 803-808; Levine et al., 1982, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 72B:77-85). Also, Vibrio fischeri strain Y1 expresses a yellow fluorescent protein that requires flavins as a co-factor for its fluorescence (Baldwin et al., 1990, Biochemistry 29: 5509-5515).
Additional cloned fluorescent proteins include, for example, the green fluorescent proteins from the sea pansy, Renilla mullerei (WO/99/49019) and from Renilla reniformis (see SEQ ID NO: 1; FIG. 1). Each of these fluorescent proteins and others are useful for a variety of in vivo and in vitro uses. The R. reniformis GFP (rGFP) clone is particularly important, since rGFP is seen as the benchmark protein among known naturally-occurring fluorescent proteins. rGFP has 3 to 6-fold higher quantum yield than A. victoria GFP, and the excitation and emission spectra are narrower, making rGFP more suitable for applications involving, for example, FRET.
One major drawback shared by the GFPs from A. victoria, R. mullerei and R. reniformis, as well as by all known variants of those proteins, is that they are dimeric. Generally, the proteins exist as homodimers. However, when more than one form of a given GFP is expressed in a single cell or is mixed in vitro, heterodimers can form if the dimerization interfaces for the different fluorescent proteins are complementary. Heterodimerization interferes with the usefulness of fluorescent proteins for several reasons.
First, heterodimerization is undesirable when fluorescent proteins are used in energy transfer-based analyses because heterodimerization raises the background of acceptor fluorescence without a real interaction between the proteins or protein domains of interest. When FRET is used, for example to monitor protein:protein interactions, donor and acceptor fluorescent fusion proteins are often expressed in the same cell or otherwise mixed. In the absence of heterodimerization, the excitation of the donor fluorophore leads to emission by the acceptor fluorophore only if the two fusion proteins are in close apposition. However, if heterodimerization occurs between the differing fluorescent proteins (e.g., between a wild-type rGFP and an rGFP variant that is a fluorescence donor to the wild-type GFP), excitation of the donor will result in emission by the acceptor regardless of the interaction between the fused polypeptides being examined for interaction. This generates an unacceptably high background fluorescence from the acceptor fluorophore.
Another problem caused by the heterodimerization is that the dimerization interfaces between the proteins can serve to artifactually bring fusion polypeptides linked to the fluorescent protein monomers into close contact. The inappropriate recruitment of proteins into close apposition can have biological consequences that make data interpretation difficult. For example, some cell surface receptors gain the ability to initiate an intracellular signaling cascade following ligand-induced dimerization. If the dimerization interfaces of the fluorescent proteins inappropriately recruit the fused receptor monomers into close contact, the signaling cascade can be inappropriately initiated in the absence of ligand. There is a need in the art for fluorescent proteins that do not heterodimerize.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,200 (Tsien et al.) teaches donor and acceptor fluorescent proteins linked by a peptide linker. The linked donor and acceptor proteins, referred to as “tandem fluorescent proteins,” are taught to be useful for assaying enzymes capable of cleaving the linker peptide sequence. When linked, the tandem fluorescent proteins exhibit either no fluorescence (e.g., when one protein quenches the fluorescence of the other) or fluorescence characteristic of the acceptor. Following cleavage, the fluorescence emitted is that characteristic of the individual fluorescent proteins. Assays using this arrangement will not work unless the tandem fluorescent proteins are related as donor and acceptor.
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Due to the advancement of science and continuous development of multimedia, CD-ROM drive has become very popular. The main advantage of CD is high capacity to save data so the speed and the stabilization of CD-ROM drive are very important. When a CD-ROM drive reads data, there is a need for track seeking and track locking. Therefore, the performance of track seeking and track locking will affect the speed and stabilization of CD-ROM drive. In track seeking and locking, radio frequency ripple (RFRP) signal and RFZC signal are very important.
Referring to FIG. 1, that shows a circuit diagram of generating radio frequency zero cross signal. As shown in FIG. 1, an intermediate signal is created by the RFRP through an analog to digital converter. The intermediate signal is calculated through a low pass filter simulated by a digital signal processor (DSP) 20. Then the output of the DSP 20 is transformed through the digital to analog converter DAC 30 to obtain an analog signal. The analog signal is defined as a slice level (V_SL) of the RFRP, and then the RFZC signal is generated from the V_SL signal and the RFRP signal through a comparative amplifier.
Reference is made to FIG. 2, which shows a timing diagram of slice level of radio frequency zero cross signal. In track locking, V_SL is created by passing RFRP signal through a low pass filter. However, a digital signal processor may simulate the function of the low pass filter. When the CD-ROM drive begins, a stable V_SL will be generated after a settling time caused by the low pass filter. The settling time is about forty-six milliseconds.
Reference is made to FIG. 3, which shows a conventional circuit of generating the RFZC signal. As shown in FIG. 3, the comparative amplifier consists of a first resistor 110, a second resistor 112, a third resistor 114, a fourth resistor 116, a fifth resistor 118, a capacitor 120 and an amplifier 122. A terminal of the first resistor 110 is coupled with RFRP signal and another terminal of the first resistor 110 is coupled with a terminal of the second resistor 112. Another terminal of the second resistor 112 is coupled with the positive input of the amplifier 122. The positive input point of the amplifier 122 is further coupled with one terminal of the third resistor 114. Another terminal of the third resistor 114 is coupled with the output of the amplifier 122. A terminal of the forth resistor 116 is coupled with the output of the amplifier 122. Another terminal of the forth resistor 116 is coupled with a power supply (5 volts). One terminal of the fifth resistor 118 is coupled with V_SL and another terminal of the fifth resistor 118 is coupled with the negative input of the amplifier 122 which is coupled with one terminal of the capacitor 120. Another terminal of the capacitor 120 is grounded.
The RFZC signal is generated based on the RFRP signal and V_SL through the comparative amplifier. The main function of the comparative amplifier is to compare the RFRP signal with V_SL for generating the RFZC signal. When V_SL is not correct, the RFZC signal will be incorrect so that the CD-ROM drive will have some wrong or bad performance.
Reference is made to FIG. 4, which shows a diagram of generating the RFZC signal from the RFRF signal and the V_SL in the prior art. The RFZC signal will be different according to different V_SL. In fact, in order to prevent the RFRP signal from noise interference, a region on the timing diagram is defined around the V_SL. The V_SL is in the middle of the region and the region will be changed according to V_SL. In the region, the peak level is a threshold high voltage (V_H) of Schmitt trigger and the bottom level is the threshold low voltage (V_L) of Schmitt trigger. As shown in FIG. 4, the RFZG signal will be positive when the RFRP signal is higher than the V_H level of the Schmitt trigger. When the RFRP signal is lower than the V_L level of the Schmitt trigger, the RFZC signal will be negative. Therefore, the positive cycle and the negative cycle of the RFZC signal are relative to V_SL. In general, it is better for the positive cycle and the negative cycle of RFZC to be symmetric.
How to compensate for the slice level has been disclosed. In that prior art, the disadvantage of the prior method of compensating for the slice level does not respond to the change of the track-crossing signal dynamically. Therefore, the bias voltage will need more time to follow the change of the track-crossing signal when the change of the track-crossing signal is rather violent.
V_SL is used in the track-locking process of the servo system in the optical storage drive (for example, CD-ROM drive, CD-R/RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, DVD player, DVD-R drive, DVD-RW drive, DVD−RAM drive, DVD+RW drive and the like). In general, the DSP unit simulates the function of digital low pass filter to get the V_SL. However, there are two disadvantage of using low pass filter. The first disadvantage is that the settling time is too long and the second disadvantage is that the Schmitt trigger will induce the positive cycle and the negative cycle of the RFZC signal to be asymmetrical. The two disadvantages will affect the performance of the CD-ROM drive and induce the malfunction of CD-ROM drive. Therefore, an effective method is needed to solve this problem.
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information management and, more particularly, to annotating software objects with supplemental information.
Description of the Related Art
Within the context of information technology, annotations generally refer to the attachment or association of supplemental information to a portion of user-supplied data. In illustration, one variety of annotation system pertains to word processing applications. Modern word processing applications typically allow users to select a given portion of text from within a word processing document. The selected text then can be associated with an annotation, usually in the form of a comment. Comments include additional user supplied text which is visually distinguishable from the regular text of the electronic document. For example, comments often are distinctively highlighted and placed in the document margin proximate to the text to which the comment has been associated. Such annotation schemes frequently mimic the manner in which people manually mark-up or edit paper-based documents.
While annotations of this sort can be helpful in terms of providing additional commentary for a portion of text, limitations do exist. One limitation is that conventional annotation frameworks used within word processing applications do not provide a means for regulating which users are provided access to a given comment. Annotations also are limited to a single type, i.e. a comment which serves an explanatory function. Further, annotations used within word processing applications can only be associated with the content of an electronic document. That is, the annotations cannot be associated with other software objects such as elements of the graphical user interface (GUI) of the word processing application.
Another variety of annotation scheme provides supplementary Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for selected Web pages. Such annotation schemes attempt to associate particular URLs, or Web addresses, with one or more other related URLs. When a user accesses or downloads a given Web page, the user can be alerted that one or more other URLs are available which may provide further information in addition to that which is included in the user-requested Web page. The user then can choose whether to access that supplemental content.
Annotation systems of the variety described above typically require the user to download a program, referred to as a plug-in. The plug-in executes in concert with the user's browser and monitors the URLs requested by the user. These URLs are compared with a listing of URLs available from an online service that is accessed by the plug-in. If a user-requested URL is associated with one or more other URLs listed in the online service, the user can be notified.
This sort of Web-based annotation system also has disadvantages. One disadvantage is the need for the user to download and execute a third-party application. Additionally, as was the case with word processing-type annotation systems, conventional annotation systems for Web pages typically perform a single, limited function. In this case, that function is to associate a URL with another URL. Other limitations of Web-based annotation systems include the inability to regulate annotations based upon user identity, enforce security policies, or perform more varied programmatic functions using annotations.
It would be beneficial to provide an annotation service which overcomes the deficiencies described above, thereby providing increased flexibility in terms of the type of annotation that can be created and the type of software object with which an annotation can be associated.
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It has been conventional in this kind of apparatus to arrange a plurality of sonic nozzles in a vertically disposed relationship within an intermediate portion of a single common nozzle chamber such that these nozzles may be opened and closed individually by means of respective corresponding valves. In this conventional arrangement, however, the chamber is comparatively large in size and this results in the formation of an expanded or enlarged chamber at the intermediate portion of the measuring pipe passage whereby the volume of the interior of the pipe passage is increased and this is liable to become an unnecessary load for pressure adjustment. Additionally, fuel within an air-fuel mixture is liable to be accumulated at the bottom of the chamber, and this accumulated fuel can become the cause of measurement error. Therefore, its removal is essential, but in order to do so it is necessary to stop the testing operation during such removal resulting in inefficient operation.
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing of performing region segmentation of an image.
Description of the Related Art
A region segmentation method is used as a technique of dividing an image into regions similar in attribute such as color, texture, or brightness. By performing coding processing, image processing, and image recognition processing for each region divided from the image, the processing amount can be reduced in comparison with a case in which these processes are performed for each pixel. Recently, in a growing number of cases, image processing is performed on a high-resolution image in a built-in device. The region segmentation technique for reducing the processing amount is receiving attention.
A region segmentation method described in literature 1 is a method of performing region segmentation of an image quickly. Literature 1 discloses a region segmentation method by clustering based on the K-Means method using color information and coordinate information. The technique described in literature 1 speeds up processing by restricting the reference range of the representative point of a region serving as a cluster center in a coordinate space.
Literature 1: Radhakrishna Achanta, et al., “SLIC Superpixels Compared to State-of-the-Art Superpixel Methods”, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 34, No. 11, pp. 2274-2282, November 2012
In region segmentation by clustering described in literature 1 or the like, clustering and update processing of a representative point need to be repeated for each image. When an image present in a main memory is repetitively transferred to a region segmentation apparatus, the transfer band of the main memory increases. If a working memory capable of high-speed processing for buffering an image in the main memory is prepared, and an image is repetitively transferred from the working memory to the region segmentation apparatus, the transfer band of the main memory can be reduced. However, when such a working memory is used, the working memory needs to have a large memory capacity in order to hold all the regions of an image, raising the cost.
In order to reduce the memory capacity of the working memory for buffering an image, it is also effective to divide an image into a plurality of blocks (to be referred to as “block images” hereinafter), and perform region segmentation for each block image. However, when region segmentation is applied to each of the block images, a region boundary arising from the shape of a block appears.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-30787 (literature 2) proposes a method of performing region segmentation using a small-capacity working memory. Literature 2 discloses a method of reducing the working memory by repeating clustering and updating of a representative point for each block image. In literature 2, an overlap of pixels is provided between blocks. As for the overlap region, each of a plurality of blocks including this region is subjected to region segmentation processing. The appearance of a region boundary arising from the shape of a block is reduced by referring to even data of a block image having undergone region segmentation, in addition to data of a block image during region segmentation.
However, the region segmentation method by clustering for each block image, which is described in literature 2, requires an overlap of pixels between adjacent block images. When performing region segmentation of a given block image, even an image at a portion overlapping an adjacent block image is referred to, in addition to the given block image. For this purpose, a working memory larger in memory capacity than the block image is necessary.
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The present invention relates to flowerpots, and more particularly to such a flowerpot, which comprises a pot body, a soil carrier mounted in the pot body for growing plants, a water chamber defined within a transparent casing thereof around the pot body for keeping living fish, water animals and plants, and means to guide water from the water chamber to the inside of the pot body and to control the water level in the pot body.
When growing plants in flowerpots, the soil in the flowerpots must be regularly watered. However, the water content in the soil must be controlled within a suitable range, so as to not damage the plants. FIG. 1 shows a flowerpot according to the prior art. This structure of flowerpot comprises a casing 1, a pot body 2 mounted within the casing 1 to hold soil for growing plants, a water chamber H defined within the casing 1 around the pot body 2 for holding water, and a water absorbing member 3 embedded in the soil in the pot body 2 and extended through a bottom hole on the pot body 2 into the water chamber H for enabling the plants to absorb sufficient water from the soil. This structure of flowerpot is still not satisfactory in function. The drawbacks of this structure of flowerpot are numerous as outlined hereinafter:
1. Because the water-absorbing member 3 is embedded in the soil in the pot body 2, the soil may be excessively wetted, causing the roots of the plants to be damaged. PA0 2. The water-absorbing member 3 deteriorates with use quickly, thereby causing water unable to be delivered to the soil in the pot body sufficiently. PA0 3. The pot body has not means for guiding outside air to the roots of the plants in the soil in the pot body.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the effective flushing of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems and more particularly to cleaning of such systems which utilize hydrofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon or Freon refrigerants by the use of solvents selected from the terpene alcohol and terpene hydrocarbon group as a cleaning aid.
2. Background Art
Because of the damage that Freon (CFC) refrigerants were doing to the ozone layer, it has become necessary for the development of alternative refrigerants which are more environmentally friendly. Dupont and International Chemicals are two such companies who developed hydrofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, both of which are much safer to the environment and have an ozone depletion factor of one rather than an ozone depletion factor of 8.0, as is found for Freon refrigerants.
With the advent of such new refrigerants came new problems associated with their use. One particular problem is that of cleaning of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems employing these new refrigerants. When existing systems changed over to the new hydrofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants from the Freon type refrigerants, it was crucial and absolutely essential that all of the Freon refrigerant by complete completely removed before recharging the system with the new refrigerant. Any trace of the old refrigerant which is left beyond will cause catastrophic failure of the compressor system. Thus, it becomes extremely necessary to have proper flushing out of these materials. Previously, Freon liquids were used to clean heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems but were later determined to have unacceptable side effects in that such cleaners evaporate quickly but are very destructive to the ozone layer.
Subsequently, Allied Chemical Company developed a flushing solvent called "Genesolve" which is an hydrochlorofluorocarbon liquid that was intended as an ozone safe compressor system flushant. The hydrochlorofluorocarbon liquid is much safer to the ozone layer but has some serious drawbacks that render it unacceptable for use as a compressor system flushant. These objections include the extremely powerful solvent ability of the hydrochlorofluorocarbon liquid. As such, it will attack the gasket materials in any devices used to inject the flushant into the compressor system. It also acts as to attack the gasket materials utilized in the refrigerant compressor itself. The hydrochlorofluorocarbon liquid attacks even the most chemically resistant gasket materials such as fluoroelastomers, neoprene and butadiene.
Other solvents, which were experimented with for use as a flushant, such as isoppropyl/acetone mixtures are extremely flammable and non-biodegradable, thus making them unacceptable for use as a cleaning aid. Petroleum distillates on the other hand, such as mineral spirits, do not evaporate quickly enough and are generally very flammable and therefore also dangerous to use.
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Data storage systems are arrangements of hardware and software that may include multiple storage processors coupled to arrays of non-volatile storage devices. In typical operation, the storage processors service storage requests that arrive from users. The storage requests specify files or other data elements to be written, read, created, or deleted, for example. The storage processors run software that manages incoming storage requests and performs data processing tasks to organize and secure user data stored on the non-volatile storage devices.
Some data storage systems provide caches composed from high-speed, non-volatile storage devices, such as flash drives. These data storage systems use such caches to store frequently accessed data backed by magnetic disk or other storage media. By providing frequently accessed data on such caches, the data storage systems are able to respond more quickly to storage requests than they could if it were always necessary to access frequently used data from magnetic disk.
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Different types of cutting systems with which work can be carried out in the field of mining or of road construction by means of roller drills or roller bits according to the undercutting principle are known in the prior art. Roller drills or roller bits which work according to the undercutting principle are characterized by one-sided, conical tool bodies or disks which are mounted on drilling heads or tool arms of, for example, heading machines in such a way that the roller drills can rotate freely about their central axis. The material, such as in particular rock, hard rock or mineral rock, is removed in thin layers according to the undercutting principle. The material is broken out in mostly palm-of-the-hand-sized pieces by the cutting faces, which widen conically starting from the drilling head and detach the rock in thin layers with an undercutting action. In order to achieve a high removal rate, usually a plurality of roller bits or roller drills are mounted on a rotatable drilling head or on a drilling head which is rotationally driven at high speed with superimposed impact (cf., e.g., DE 198 38 195 A1 or WO 92/10647).
Since the roller drills or roller bits working according to the undercutting principle and having conically widening cutting faces formed only on one side are applied obliquely to the rock face to be removed, the cutting faces of the roller bits and in particular the cutting edge at the transition between the cutting face and the end face are subjected to axial forces which, due to the system used, are high. The axial forces in turn cause, in particular on the cutting edge at the free margin of the cutting face, system-related rapid wear of the individual roller bits.
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The overall crystallization-rate of polyesters can be enhanced by several nucleating additives, such as minerals, salts, pigments, etc. Such heterogeneous nucleating agents may however adversely affect mechanical properties and/or polyester stability. U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,535 to Wambach et al, describes the addition of neucleating agents polyesters in column 7, lines 37 to 52.
Diamines, copolymerized into the polyesters, have been shown to nucleate crystallization more efficiently, probably because of their homogeneous molecular distribution over the polymer mass. Their nucleation mechanism has been related to association (hydrogen-bonding) in the melt of the copolymerized diamide-units, thus creating nuclei which initiate crystallization of the polyester-segments. In PBT, replacement of 5% of (non adjacent) butanediol-units by butanediamine, in other words replacing 1 of on average 20 butanediols by butanediamine, results for an injection moldable grade consisting of 100-200 units in a diamide-density of 5-10 units per polymer chain. At this density, amide--amide association via intra- and/or inter-chain hydrogen bonding is not unlikely, and has been advanced to explain nucleation of the polyester-crystallization. At higher replacement-levels, e.g. 1 butanediamine for every 10 butanediols, melting point enhancement of PBT becomes significant, obviously due to efficient reduction of the entropy-change upon melting because of the cooperativity of the amide--amide associations. See A. van Bennekom, thesis 1995 Univ. Twent (Netherlands).
EP-A-0 315 027 describes copolymers of the general formula: ##STR3##
In this formula x, y and z are each integers from 1 to 100,000. G may be the residue of tetramethylenediamine, E may be the residue of terephthalic acid, R may be the residue of 1,4-butanediol, Ar is a divalent aromatic carboxylic group. Units A comprise from about 1 to about 99 percent by weight of said copolymer and units B comprise from about 99 to about 1 percent by weight of said copolymer. Said copolymers can be block copolymers, "alternating" copolymers, or random copolymers. EP-A-0 315 027 also indicates that the block copolymers are useful in automotive applications, electrical appliances, and food wrappings, as stand alone resins, in blends with other resins such as polyesters, polyarylates and polyamides and as tie resins to bond two different resin layers.
Polyesteramide resins wherein R and G are the residue of 1,4-butanediol and E and Ar are paraphenylene radicals have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,451 to Gaymans, et al. Polyesteramide as blends of polycarbonate resins and polyesteramide resins have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,389 to Bailly et al. Blends of polyphenylene ether resins and polyesteramide resins have been disclosed in commonly owned and pending application U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,068 to Bailly et al.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency module including a plurality of filter elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices and the like having a wireless communication function include a filter circuit to transmit only high-frequency signals having a desired frequency and to attenuate high-frequency signals having frequencies other than the desired frequency.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-109818 describes a filter circuit including a plurality of SAW filters. Specifically, the filter circuit in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-109818 has an input terminal and an output terminal between which a plurality of SAW filters are connected in series with each other. Respective SAW filters are also connected between a connection path that connects the series connected SAW filters to each other and ground.
In the filter circuit described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-109818, an inductor or a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor (referred to as a correction circuit) is connected in parallel or substantially parallel to the series circuit of SAW filters in order to improve attenuation characteristics outside a pass band. In this case, the correction circuit is adjusted so that a high-frequency signal (a signal to be suppressed) outside the pass band which propagates through a circuit unit composed of SAW filters and a signal to be suppressed which propagates through the correction circuit have the same amplitude and opposite phases. Thus, the signals to be suppressed are canceled at a connection node between the circuit unit composed of SAW filters and the correction circuit, and are not output from the output terminal.
However, the configuration described above requires a correction circuit composed of an inductor or a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor, separately from a main circuit unit composed of SAW filters having a filter function, only in order to improve attenuation characteristics.
Accordingly, the filter circuit has a large number of components, resulting in an increase in the size of the filter circuit, which is not suitable for current mobile terminals and the like where compactness is required.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Patent Document 1 describes a vehicle body structure in which one ends of left and right outer elongated members 64, 66 are respectively fastened to left and right ends of a bumper beam 14 by fasteners 124, and the other ends of the outer elongated members 64, 66 are respectively fastened to left and right upper frames 22, 24 by fasteners 126 (see FIG. 2 of Patent Document 1). When an impact is applied from the bumper beam side, the outer elongated members 64, 66 buckle to absorb the impact.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In the prior art, cartridge cases have been lubricated by rolling them across a surface having upon it a lubricant, but this does not properly uniformly lubricate the smaller diametered part of a cartridge casing. This is a very important problem because a single concentrated droplet of lubricant on an inclined part of a cartridge casing can cause the casing to become dented during the placing of the casing in a re-sizing die because of the high pressure needed to press a casing through such a die and because of the incompressibility of lubricant.
The dent formed in a casing where a droplet of lubricant is disposed can sometimes weaken the casing so that it will burst. This is a safety hazard for the shooter. It also leads to bad accuracy in the firing.
The rupturing of a casing causes explosion gases to come around the edge of the casing and come with sufficient force to pass by the bullet as well. This leads to inaccurate firing.
There is also the nuisance that a ruptured casing must be removed from the gun by a gunsmith, involving a costly trip and placing the gun out of competitive action until it is fixed.
Another problem of the prior art is that ruptured casings spoil the competition by introducing inaccuracies right when the shooter is in a highly competitive contest.
Since conceiving my invention, I have become aware from searching of a lubricator proposal in the prior art in which a casing is passed horizontally through an absorbent piece of material held between relatively flat first and second housing portions. Such a construction requires many machine screws, many holes and much threading and much costly assembly.
It is, therefore, one of the objects of this invention to eliminate this costly assembly and the many costly parts by providing a lubricator with a frame that will stand freely on its own frame right-side up on a table with its absorber horizontally arranged for the passage of a casing therethrough in a vertical direction from the upper side. With my concept the frame can be mass-produced by injection molding so as to have a hole through it extending vertically with a recess above the hole which can be expected to retain a support without any screws because all pressure comes downward from the top.
Another objective is to utilize the resiliency of the absorber and a tight fit of the absorber in its rescess to hold the absorber in assembly with the frame, the support being held in assembly by being contained between the absorber and the frame.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, a generator, a gearbox, a nacelle, and one or more rotor blades. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy of wind using known foil principles. The rotor blades transmit the kinetic energy in the form of rotational energy so as to turn a shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy that may be deployed to a utility grid.
Typically, the rotor blades are mounted on a hub and aerodynamically interact with the wind. In order to improve efficiency for capturing the wind energy, it is usually needed to adjust blade pitch to a desired blade pitch angle after the blade is assembled to the hub. Currently, the alignment between the blade and hub is carried out by manually marking the blade and hub in factory and manually aligning the marks in the field where the wind turbine is mounted. However, the manual alignment may introduce high variance and high probability of errors. Misalignment may cause annual energy output (AEP) lost. For example, 3-degree deviation may cause 5% AEP loss. Moreover, misalignment may cause high turbine vibration, and cause un-symmetrical force and worsen working load to the turbine, which may generate damage and significantly reduce the service life of wind turbine components.
Accordingly, a new blade alignment method and a wind turbine which can align its blades with the method are desirable.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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The present invention relates to an air bag module and in particular an air bag module assembly.
Most motor vehicles are provided with an air bag module that is mounted to the vehicle in order to deploy in a manner so as to protect the vehicle occupant. For example, a driver""s side air bag module includes a generally toroidal inflator positioned partially within a bag opening of an air bag for discharging inflator gas to inflate the air bag upon sensing certain predetermined vehicle conditions.
The undeployed air bag is folded atop the inflator and a module cover overlies the air bag, inflator and other module components. The cover commonly has tear lines or weakened portions that allow the cover to open during air bag inflation.
Typically, the inflator includes a main body portion which discharges gas and the inflator has an outwardly extending inflator mounting flange. The module also includes an air bag retainer. The air bag retainer is located within the bag opening of the air bag and including a central gas opening for receiving the inflator therethrough.
It is also typical to connect the air bag retainer to the air bag by a first fastening mechanism, to connect the air bag retainer to the base plate by a second fastening mechanism, and to connect the inflator to the base plate by a third fastening mechanism. The air bag retainer, air bag, inflator, and cover are each connected to the base plate to form the air bag module. Typically, the first, second, and third fastening mechanisms are each composed of one or more parts.
In addition, the module typically includes a plurality of axially elongated mounting members or female fasteners mounted to the base plate to connect the module to a hub portion of a steering wheel. In some applicaitons the module perimeter is wider than a perimeter of the steering column of a steering wheel assembly, the mounting members on the base plate are located outboard of the perimeter of the steering column such that access holes can be provided in the hub portion directly beneath the mounting members for rear release of the mounting members for disconnection of the module from the steering wheel.
In addition, and in some applications the multiplicity of fastening mechanisms required to retain the module components to each other along with the mounting members required to mount the module to the steering wheel greatly increases assembly time.
The present invention preferably provides a module having mounting members which both retain the components of the air bag module and which also mount the module to the vehicle. Advantageously, the present invention simplifies the module by reducing the number of fastening components in the module, thus reducing mass, cost and assembly steps.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the air bag cushion retaining ring is completely removed from the air bag module design. The air bag cushion is secured to the inflator flange by being sandwiched in between a retaining member and the inflator flange. In addition, mounting studs pass through apertures in the air bag cushion. The assembly is held together by a plurality of fastening members which are secured to the plurality of mounting studs causing a base plate and the inflator flange to provide surfaces for securing the air bag cover retaining members and the air bag cushion.
In an exemplary embodiment, the module preferably enables easy snap-fitted attachment of the module to the vehicle using the same mechanism that retains the components.
The above-described and other features and advantages of the present invention will be appreciated and understood by those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, drawings, and appended claims.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Papers with appropriate surface properties are printed in the heatset offset method. In this printing method the printed item is transferred from the printing plate through an offset blanket onto the paper that is fed into the heatset offset printing machine as a continuous web. The transfer of the print item with ink consisting various degrees of pigment, binder, solvent and additives in the offset method is based on ink transfer from the smooth offset blanket. The ink has been transferred to the blanket from the printing plate where the ink has adhered on the oleophilic areas after the hydrophilic areas of the printing plate have been wetted by the fountain solution. Fountain solution consists of treated tap water, puffer, wetting agents and other additives. A printing plate working with dry offset (also called waterless offset) principal can also be used. In dry offset there is a silicon layer over the printing plate that repels the ink from adhering on the non-image areas of the printing plate. After the printed item has been transferred on the paper the ink will be dried with the help of heated air in order to evaporate most of the solvent from the ink. At the same time also the fountain solution transferred from the offset blanket and most of the moisture of the paper is evaporated. After the dryer the paper web is cooled in chill rolls where after the ink film is hardened and the printed paper web can be handled further.
Certain paper properties are required for a paper used in the heatset offset printing method. A paper with appropriate properties for this printing method is known for example from the European patent 539271 and the publication GB2047568. For these papers it is characteristic that calcium carbonate CaCO3 pigment is used to optimize the porosity of the paper. The printing method itself has been described for example in the German patent publication DE 3207463.
In the earlier technique printing papers have been developed based on the fact that paper has to be porous to some degree so that it can absorb the fountain solution transferred from the offset blanket onto the paper and to make easier the removal of the moisture from the paper as the ink is dried in the dryer.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent disclosure by any person as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all rights to the copyright whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of electronics. In particular, the present invention is related to a method and apparatus for shifting the frequency spectrum of noise signals in electronic circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
The existence of noise in electronic circuits may cause the circuits to malfunction. This is especially true in electronic communication devices wherein the existence of noise has the potential to drown out or distort the desired signals. The effects of noise in electronic circuits is illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1-3. FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional communication system 10. Communication system 10 includes a transmitter 12, a receiver 14 and a communication channel 16. Communication channel 16 may be either a wired or wireless communication channel.
FIG. 2 illustrates a sequence of waveforms, for example, as may be transmitted over communication system 10. Input signal 20 is a binary signal and comprises a sequence of binary values received by transmitter 12 of FIG. 1. Transmitter 12 converts the binary input signal into a bipolar signal 22, having a positive and a negative component. The bipolar signal 22 is transmitted to receiver 14 via communication channel 16. In one embodiment, transmitter 12 may modulate bipolar signal 22 onto a carrier wave prior to transmitting the signal to receiver 14.
As bipolar signal 22 propagates through communication channel 16, the signal may become deformed and attenuated as illustrated by waveform 24 in FIG. 2. Receiver 14 receives attenuated signal 24 and transmits it to equalizer (wave shaper) 18. Equalizer 18 amplifies and processes signal 24, producing a reconstructed signal 26, which is more or less a replica of bipolar signal 22.
At the input of equalizer 18 both the desired input signal 20, and unwanted noise signals are present and, hence, amplified by the equalizer. If the noise signals are of significant amplitude, i.e., if the noise signals have an amplitude larger than the desired signal and have a substantially similar frequency as the desired input signal 20, the noise signals may distort the desired signal. In this case, the equalizer would be unable to reconstruct the desired signal.
In order to propagate a desired input signal 20 through e.g., a communication system 10, switching circuits driven by clock signals often are employed in the receiver 14 and equalizer 18. As such, the undesired signals, for example, noise signals generated by the clock signals and the associated switching circuitry are at frequencies that are multiples of the clock signal frequency. The noise signal frequencies normally fall within the bandwidth of amplifiers in the communication system 10, and subsequently both the desired input signal 20 and the noise signals are amplified. Moreover, since the amplitude of the noise signals, of a particular frequency, generated by different switching circuits in the system are additive, noise signals from the various switching circuits may be superimposed on each other to form noise signals of greater amplitude, exaggerating the problem.
FIG. 3 illustrates a waveform showing the gain versus frequency curve of various signals at the input of equalizer 18. As FIG. 3 illustrates, the desired input signal 20 has a frequency of 100 MHz, a clock signal has a frequency of 25 MHz, harmonics of the clock signal have frequencies of 50 MHz, 100 MHz, 150 MHz etc. All the frequencies illustrated are present at the input of the equalizer 18. Hence, as the desired 100 MHz input signal 20 is amplified by the equalizer, so too are the undesired noise signals.
Conventional noise reduction methods and systems attempt to increase output signal quality by reducing the induced noise signals via the use of filter circuits. Using filter circuits to eliminate noise signals is not very effective, as noise signals induced by clock transitions, and with frequencies substantially similar to the desired signal frequency cannot be easily filtered out. What is needed, therefore, is a method and apparatus to reduce noise signals in electronic devices by shifting the frequency spectrum of noise signals to frequencies outside the bandwidth of the amplifiers, or to frequencies that are outside the operating frequency of the electronic system.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a signal processing circuit for slicing binary signals in a receiver. More particularly, the present invention relates to a signal processing circuit that generates an adaptive slicer threshold by using either average amplitude data of both binary ones and binary zeros, or minimum amplitude data of a binary one and maximum amplitude data of a binary zero.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Data communication using binary signals takes place at high rates in various applications. For example, in optical data systems, data transmission rates of 10 gigabits/second (Gb/s) and higher are utilized. In such binary data communication systems, a receiver is used for receiving the binary signals from a transmitter. In many cases, the signals received are of a low level and are accompanied by noise and/or jitter (see FIG. 2). The true binary nature of a distinct rectangular pulse, usually designating a binary one, sometimes can be partly obscured by noise, and result in data errors that adversely affect signal processing equipment to which the output of the receiver is applied.
To improve the ability to accurately recapture the binary signals passing through the receiver before being supplied to other equipment, a slicing technique is employed. This technique involves slicing the received binary signal at a level about the midpoint of its amplitude, that is, between its maximum and minimum values. The portion of the received binary signal appearing above the slicing level corresponds to a binary one and the portion below the slicing level corresponds to a binary zero (see FIG. 1 and FIG. 2).
In one type of prior art slicer circuit, the slicer threshold is fixed at a certain voltage level. A variable offset voltage is combined with the voltage level of the received binary signal to maintain the midpoint of the binary signal that is applied to the slicer at the fixed slicer threshold. However, adjusting the received binary signal to maintain the midpoint of the binary signal at a fixed level adds complexity to a system.
In another type of prior art slicer circuit, the slicer threshold is varied so as to be at the midpoint of the amplitude of the binary signal, wherein the midpoint is calculated to be the average of the maximum and minimum values of the received binary signal. However, the midpoint that is calculated using the maximum and minimum values of the received binary signal is the midpoint between the outer edges of the data eye 100, 200 (see FIG. 1 and FIG. 2). The data eye 100, 200 is a plot of sampled data values for a given time period. This method is incapable of accurately determining the midpoint between either the average values of the data eye 100, 200 edges or the inner edges of the data eye 100, 200.
Thus, a slicer circuit that is capable of accurately determining the midpoint between the average values of the data eye 100, 200 or the inner edges of the data eye 100, 200 is required.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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|
The use of multiple antennas at a transmitter and/or a receiver of a node in a wireless communication system can significantly boost the capacity and coverage of the wireless communication system. Such Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems exploit the spatial dimension of the communication channel to improve performance by for example transmitting several parallel information carrying signals. By adapting the transmission to the current channel conditions, significant additional gains can be achieved. One form of adaptation is to dynamically, from one Transmission Time Interval (TTI) to another, adjust the number of simultaneously transmitted information carrying signals to what the channel can support. This is commonly referred to as (transmission) rank adaptation. Precoding is another form of adaptation where the phases and amplitudes of the aforementioned signals are adjusted to better fit the current channel properties. The signals form a vector-valued signal and the adjustment can be thought of as multiplication by a precoder matrix. A common approach is to select the precoder matrix from a finite and countable set, a so-called codebook. Such codebook based preceding is an integral part of the Long Term Evolution LTE standard and will be supported in MIMO for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) as well.
Codebook based preceding is a form of channel quantization. A typical approach (c.f. LTE and MIMO HSDPA) is to let the receiver recommend a suitable precoder matrix to the transmitter by signalling the precoder index over a feedback link. The transmitter may choose to directly use the receiver's recommendation, without modification, or to override the receiver's recommendation so signalling the precoder index actually used in the transmission to the receiver may also be needed. To limit signalling overhead, it is generally important to keep the codebook size as small as possible. This however needs to be balanced against the performance impact since with a larger codebook it is possible to better match the current channel conditions.
The design of precoding codebooks and transmission rank adaptation possibilities are a compromise in order to cover a multitude of scenarios. Thus, in certain scenarios, not all combinations of codebook element and transmission rank are beneficial to use. Still, since in practice the adaptation process is non-ideal such ill-suited combinations might be erroneously chosen and thus hurt performance in various ways. The risk for such errors may increase with codebook size and transmission rank possibilities.
The use of adaptation by means of precoding and rank adaptation typically introduces variations in the spatial properties of the transmitted signals. In cellular systems like LTE and WCDMA this can lead to bursty interference which in turn makes link adaptation as well as scheduling more challenging. This issue tends to be more problematic when the number of adaptation combinations is large than when it is small. Letting the receiver select among many different adaptation possibilities means that each possible transmission mode needs to be evaluated in order to find the optimum. This may however involve substantial computational complexity at the receiver and possibly also at the transmitter.
In LTE and WCDMA, a user equipment (UE) selects a recommended precoder and transmission rank and informs the base station, via a feedback channel, about which element in the codebook was selected. Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs) are also fed back conditioned on a certain choice of rank and precoder. The base station may choose to follow the user equipment recommendation or to override it. The problem with the latter is that it increases the CQI errors since the CQIs are computed assuming the use of the recommended precoder and rank. Thus utilizing a larger than necessary codebook and then overriding the user equipment recommendations to limit the transmission freedom, and/or correct erroneous UE selection is not an attractive approach. Using a small codebook and possibly limited rank adaptation with associated reduced signalling overhead is an obvious way of limiting the adaptation possibilities and thus alleviate the above mentioned problems. The problem is that such an approach may create a need for an unnecessarily large number of different codebooks and signalling schemes and that might be highly undesirable from a standard point of view (e.g., complicate performance testing, increase the number of options in the system).
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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