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Plants exhibit remarkable developmental plasticity in response to changing environments. This post-embryonic reorganization requires transcriptional reprogramming at the cell-specific level to initiate new organs to explore the soil for nutrients (see, e.g., Himanen et al., 2004, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101, 5146-51). Previous studies have shown distinct differences in the transcriptomes of Arabidopsis thaliana root cells in steady state culture conditions (Birnbaum et al., 2003, Science 302, 1956-60). However, little is known about the extent to which plants modulate gene expression at the cell specific level in response to changing nutrient conditions.
Nitrate is a key required nutrient for the synthesis of amino acids, nucleotides and vitamins and is commonly considered to be the most limiting for normal plant growth (Vitousek et al., 1991, Biogeochemistry 13:87-115). Nitrogenous fertilizer is usually supplied as ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, or urea. Plants are keenly sensitive to nitrogen levels in the soil and, atypically of animal development, adopt their body plan to cope with their environment (Lopez-Bucio et al., 2003, Curr Opin Plant Biol 6, 280-7); Malamy et al., 2005, Plant Cell Environ 28, 67-77); Walch-Liu et al., 2006, Ann Bot (Lond) 97, 875-81). For example, mutants in several general nitrogen (N)-assimilation genes affect root architecture (Little et al., 2005, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102, 13693-8; Remans et al., 2006, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103, 19206-11). Transduction of this nitrogen signal is linked to a massive and concerted gene expression response in the root (Gutierrez et al., 2007, Genome Biol 8, R7; Wang et al., 2003, Plant Physiol 132, 556-67).
Plant development is partially dependent on the plant's response to a variety of environmental signals. For example, the development of root systems is, in part, a response to the availability and distribution of moisture and nutrients within the soil.
In particular, lateral root development in Arabidopsis in response to nitrate is characterized by two distinct pathways. First, an increased rate of lateral root elongation is a localized, direct response to the presence of nitrate in the root zone. (Zhang et al., 1999, Proc Natl Acad Sci 96:6529-6534; Zhang and Forde, 2000, J of Exp. Bot. 51 (342):51-59). In this aspect the nitrate ion appears to function as a signal rather than as a nutrient. (Zhang and Forde, 1998, Science 279:407-409). Second, accumulation of high concentrations of nitrate and other nitrogen compounds in the shoot is correlated with a inhibition of root growth through a systemic effect on lateral root meristem activation. (Zhang et al., 1999, supra).
Lateral root primordia formed on roots are the sites for lateral root emergence. Nitrogen treatments of wild-type plants affects (e.g., represses) the emergence of lateral roots. In wild-type plants, a large proportion of root primordia emerge into lateral roots only in nitrogen-poor conditions.
However, it would be advantageous to produce plants that would continue to increase lateral root growth, even in conditions of high nitrogen content in the environment. By increasing lateral root growth or emergence, as well as, for example, enhanced surface area of roots, and/or increased root mass, such plants would be able to assimilate more nitrogen and uptake other essential growth nutrients from the environment (e.g., soil or water) that would otherwise be taken up at much lower rate. Thus, a need remains for plants whose lateral root growth is insensitive to nitrogen content in its environment. | {
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Most motor vehicles have a tie rod or drag link having a flexible joint at each end thereof. During the normal life of these motor vehicles, one of these joints will become worn and need to be replaced. This is necessary since a worn joint will cause substantial play in the steering mechanism and could result in an accident and injury. In some prior art practices, even if only one joint was worn, it is necessary to insert a new tie rod or drag link with two new joints. | {
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As an arrangement of color filters mounted in a solid-state imaging device, various arrangements have been proposed and used. For example, an imaging apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 below uses a color filter arrangement which is called the Bayer arrangement. In the Bayer arrangement, color filters of any one of the three primary colors of R (red), G (green), and B (blue) are arranged in a mosaic pattern in respective pixels on the basis of a predetermined rule. In a red pixel in which a red filter is mounted, for example, green and blue signals therefore cannot be detected. Consequently, an interpolation calculation is performed on signals of pixels which are in the periphery of the red pixel, and in which green and blue filters are respectively mounted, thereby obtaining the green and blue signals at the position of the red pixel.
In an imaging device disclosed in Patent Document 2 below, each two pixels which are adjacent to each other in an oblique direction are paired, and color filters of one of the three primary colors of RGB are arranged in a mosaic pattern in the unit of paired pixels in accordance with a predetermined rule. For example, a G1 color filter and a G2 color filter are mounted on a pair of pixels on each of which a green filter is mounted, respectively.
The relationship between G1 and G2 is set so that the color of G is attained by, for example, adding them to each other. The color filter of G is produced so that the wavelength of 540 nm is set as the center wavelength, and bell-shaped spectral characteristics having a width of about 100 nm in each of the back and front sides are obtained. By contrast, for example, G1 and G2 are separated in two filters so that the G1 filter detects a color having a wavelength of 440 nm to 540 nm, and the G2 filter detects a wavelength of 540 nm to 640 nm. With respect to the colors of R and B, similarly, R1 and R2 filters are mounted on paired pixels, and B1 and B2 filters are mounted on paired pixels.
When, as described above, colors to be separated by color filters are separated more finely than the case of the three colors of R, G, and B, the color reproducibility of an object image can be improved. However, a captured image taken out from pixels on which the R1, G1, and B1 color filters are mounted, and that taken out from pixels on which the R2, G2, and B2 color filters are mounted are different in color tone from each other. When the images are singly viewed, the images are color images having an unnatural color tone. Therefore, adequate image combination processing must be performed so that an object image having high color reproducibility is obtained by image processing.
In an imaging apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 3 below, each pixel is divided into a small-area portion and a large-area portion. In each of pixels on which, for example, a green (G) filter is mounted, moreover, the thickness of a filter mounted on the small-area portion is made larger than that on the large-area portion, or that of an n-region constituting a photodiode is reduced.
As a result, the small-area portion cannot substantially detect incident light of a certain wavelength region, and the large-area portion can detect light of the wavelength region. By using this, the imaging apparatus detects whether light of the wavelength region exists or not, and determines the kind of the light source. | {
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Multiplexed amplifiers commonly have several input stages that can be selected to be active one at a time. Such circuits behave as analog multiplexers with different signal sources connected to each input stage. One convenient configuration of an analog multiplexer is illustrated in FIG. 1 in which a common current source 9 is selectively connected to an activated input stage 11, 12, 13 of the main amplifier 15. The nonactivated input stages are capable of "floating" to some undetermined bias condition. One disadvantage of such circuit configuration is that the base-collector capacitance of the transistors in each input stage that is not active is capable of transferring high-frequency signal appearing on the input base to the main amplifier 15, thus resulting in poor signal isolation through the inactive input stages. Another disadvantage of such circuit configuration is that, when a previously inactive input stage is activated, its previous emitter voltage is unknown. Thus, undetermined time is required for the current source 9 to transfer charge and bias the emitters of the activated input stage to conduction. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a track assembly of the endless track type wherein an endless track passes over a plurality of rollers and an idler and is driven by a sprocket. More specifically, the invention relates to a provision of segmented guide means supported by a track roller frame to allow for individual replacement thereof.
2. Prior Art
Track assemblies which comprise an endless track passing over a plurality of rollers and an idler and driven by a sprocket are well known in the art. Further, it is well known to make use of track roller frames having a generally U-shaped-cross-section defined by a pair of parallel rails and a joining bridge. It is also known to make use of guide bars or the like to retain the endless track so that it does not slip off of the sprocket, the idler or the rollers. However, in the prior art structures, when the guide bar has become worn it has been necessary to replace the entire guide bar. Further, removal of track rollers has generally required complete removal of the track roller frame. Still further, relatively complex structure has been needed to mount the guide bar. All of these are disadvantageous in requiring added time of assembly, repair, replacement and the like. | {
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Electromagnetic machines such as electric motors, generators, and traction motors are useful for converting energy from one form to another. Such electromagnetic machines often include an element rotatable about an axis of rotation. The rotatable element or rotor may be coaxial with a static element or stator, and energy may be converted via relative rotation between the rotor and stator.
One type of electromagnetic machine, an alternating current induction motor, uses induced current flow to magnetize portions of the rotor during motor operation. More specifically, the rotor may be composed of a stack of steel laminations including teeth shaped to form poles and define slots therebetween. The poles may be separated by conductor bars disposed in the slots and electrically connected to shorting rings located at opposing ends of the lamination stack. Induced current may flow through the conductor bars which are disposed parallel to the axis of rotation along a periphery of the rotor. Each conductor bar may be electrically connected to every other conductor bar by the two shorting rings disposed at opposite ends of the rotor. The interaction of currents flowing in the conductor bars of the rotor winding and the stator's rotating magnetic field generates torque. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing an optical waveguide to be widely used for optical communications, optical information processing, a position sensor and other general optics.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical waveguide is typically produced by forming a core (light passage) in a predetermined pattern on a surface of an under-cladding layer, and forming an over-cladding layer to cover the core. Particularly, where the over-cladding layer is formed as having a desired shape (e.g., as having a lens portion at its end), the formation of the over-cladding layer is achieved with the use of a mold which includes a cavity having a mold surface conformable to the desired shape (see, for example, JP-A-2008-281654).
Where a photosensitive resin is used as a material for the over-cladding layer, the mold should transmit illumination radiation such as ultraviolet radiation and, therefore, a light-transmissive quartz mold is used as the mold. The cavity is provided in a lower surface of the quartz mold as having the mold surface conformable to the shape of the over-cladding layer. After the core is formed on the surface of the under-cladding layer, the lower surface of the mold is brought into intimate contact with the surface of the under-cladding layer with the core being properly positioned in the cavity of the mold. Subsequently, the photosensitive resin as the material for the over-cladding layer is injected into a molding space defined by the mold surface of the cavity, the surface of the under-cladding layer and a surface of the core, and then is exposed to the illumination radiation (e.g., the ultraviolet radiation) through the mold, whereby the photosensitive resin is cured. Then, the resulting product is demolded. Thus, the optical waveguide is produced, which includes the under-cladding layer, the core and the over-cladding layer.
When the quartz mold is produced as having the desired shape, a plurality of mold pieces for the mold are prepared, and then are bonded together with a bonding resin. This is based on the following ground. If cutting of a quartz block material is started or stopped at a middle portion of the block material, the block material is liable to crack. Therefore, the quartz block material should be cut from one side to the other side. For this reason, the quartz mold pieces are each produced by cutting the quartz block material from one side to the other side, and then are bonded together with the bonding resin, whereby the quartz mold is produced as having the desired shape.
However, the mold produced by bonding the mold pieces together has lower dimensional accuracy because of bonding offset. If the over-cladding layer is formed by using the mold having lower dimensional accuracy, it is impossible to position the core and the over-cladding layer in proper positional relation. As a result, light outputted from a distal end of the core, for example, cannot be properly converged by the lens portion provided at the end of the over-cladding layer, so that the light is outputted from the lens portion in a diverged state. Therefore, the intensity of the light received from the lens portion is reduced, resulting in poorer optical transmission characteristics. | {
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Both commercial and residential facilities attract rodents, pests and other types of animals (collectively referred to herein as animals). For example, food storage facilities oftentimes attract various animals foraging for food. As an additional example, warehouses oftentimes attract animals seeking shelters. The animals get inside the facilities through openings, such as doors, windows, gates and other types of pathways.
Various solutions have been proposed to keep animals from facilities. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,131 proposes an electric cattle guard that produces periodic pulses at about one second intervals. Each pulse lasts about 150 microseconds. U.S. Pat. No. 9,192,153 discloses an electric deterrent device that generates an electric shock to prevent animals from entering a facility. U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,452 teaches an electric animal deterrent device that includes a high voltage pulse generator. The high voltage is approximately 1000 to 3000 Volts AC. U.S. Pat. No. 8,430,063 proposes a particular structure of an animal deterrent device with insulated fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 8,733,014 teaches an electric deterrent device having knitted conductors in a specialized structure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,216 suggests an apparatus for discouraging animals from a selected area. The apparatus includes a mat and a control generating a series of electrical pulses to a conductive surface of the mat. The pulses are spaced by about one second.
Each of the conventional animal deterrent devices has certain drawbacks. To protect establishments, warehouses, food banks and other types of facilities from animals, an extensible electric animal deterrent device is desired for fitting to different sizes of facilities. In addition, a long-lasting, easy to install and low maintenance animal deterrent device is desired. Furthermore, an animal deterrent device utilizing low voltage of electrical shock for protecting animals is more desired. Moreover, an animal deterrent device in a loop shape is desired for certain applications, such as an installation of the device around a window.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new type of animal fencing system incorporating an extensible base. The new fencing system operates in active and halted modes based on load resistance and duration of time. | {
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The invention relates to a misfire detection system for an internal combustion engine, particularly of the type equipped with a catalytic converter for cleaning the exhaust gas.
Generally, when the engine misfire occurs in a vehicle equipped with a catalytic converter, the resultant large quantity of unburned combustion components which are discharged through the exhaust greatly increases the reaction heat of the catalyst. Such excessive heat, if unchecked, leads to deterioration or breakdown of the catalyst and in some cases to a fire accident of the vehicle.
Such effects can be partially avoided by employing known techniques based on the principle that engine misfires of this type cause an increase in the catalyst bed temperature or the exhaust gas temperature. In such techniques, an electrical indication triggered upon the overheating of one of these parameters is employed either to interrupt the fuel and secondary air supplies to the engine or to effect a bypass of the exhaust gas from its normal route through the converter.
One disadvantage of prior art schemes of this type is that the excess temperature sensing facilities operate too late to effect efficient correction of the defect, since overheating of a large portion of the catalyst has already occurred. Moreover, even if the overheating of the bed or gas is detected in time, the inertial time lags of the correcting system may cause the latter to respond too late to prevent destruction of the catalyst by heat. | {
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The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and a method of performing wireless communication using beamforming thereof.
In recent years, with the rapid development of wireless communication technology, users of wireless communication terminals have demanded various services. Applications of wireless communication terminals demand transmission and reception of a large amount of data. Users also want high speed transmission and reception of a large amount of data at high speed. To comply with these demands, various schemes have been proposed to efficiently use radio frequency resources. From among the schemes, beamforming is a technique which has recently attracted attention.
When a terminal connects to an access point (AP) or another terminal for the first time or when the terminal has maintained the connection, if the environment or the location of the terminal changes, the terminal cannot detect which one of the beams transmitted from the AP and the other terminal is optimal. The terminal cannot also detect which one of the beams it receives is optimal. In addition, with respect to a beam transmitted by the terminal and a beam received by an AP or another terminal, the terminal cannot detect which transmitting beam/receiving beam is optimal. Therefore, the terminal and the AP or other terminals need to efficiently search for the optimal transmitting beam/receiving beam.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ad describes an optimum beam searching scheme for wireless local area network (LAN)/personal area network (PAN). Referring to IEEE 802.11ad standard specification, beamforming is disclosed as it is performed in a wireless LAN/PAN environment at a band of 60 GHz which is higher than that of conventional mobile communication. Electric signals can be transmitted in a corresponding direction via beamforming. When a terminal needs to communicate with a plurality of nodes via beamforming, proper beams are set for nodes respectively and communications are made with corresponding nodes by the set beams. Different beams may be used according to correspondent nodes. | {
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Conventionally, there is a vehicle travel control device including a function of following a preceding vehicle that travels in front of a host vehicle using a sensor, such as an in-vehicle radar or an in-vehicle camera.
As a vehicle travel control device mentioned above, there is a vehicle traveling state detection device for predicting, for example, sudden acceleration and deceleration of a preceding vehicle by accurately detecting an unstable travel state of the preceding vehicle. In the vehicle traveling state detection device, a preceding vehicle unstable situation determination means determines that the preceding vehicle is in an unstable situation when at least one of a degree of unsteadiness in a lateral direction of the preceding vehicle, a degree of bias in the traveling lane of the preceding vehicle, and an amount of lateral displacement per unit time of the preceding vehicle is a predetermined specified value or more, and the means can prompt the driver of the vehicle to drive accurately (for example, refer to PTL 1). | {
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Magnets, magnetizable materials and magnetic paints are all well-known items useful in many fields. To my knowledge, however, none of them has been used in the making of two- and three-dimensional designs that can be used in schools, both pre-schools and schools for older children, art classes, window decorations, other public displays of a temporary nature, in the theater, as games at social parties, and otherwise where expressions of individuality are to be encouraged. Magnetic paints of various types have been used in magnetic recording media, including magnetic tapes and disks. Examples include the inventions of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,836,395, 4,046,932, 4,100,326, 4,332,840, 4,358,388, 4,454,202, 4,594,174, 4,632,866, 4,761,243, and 5,320,769. None of these, however, envisions use of magnetic materials in the making of designs for the purposes above set forth.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide methods of making two- and three-dimensional designs using magnetic materials, including magnets, magnetizable materials, and magnetic paints.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such methods wherein the magnetic materials above set forth can be used to make temporary designs for broad applications in education, displays, for social gatherings, and otherwise. | {
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Exemplary solar heat collectors are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,875--Bruno et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,083--Heyen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,225--Ortabasi; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,793--Herman et al. However, as far as is known, the prior art does not disclose utilization of a solar energy collector structure as disclosed by the present inventors providing improved thermal efficiency at all angles of incidence and particularly at angles of incidence greater than 60.degree. as defined herein either alone or in the combinations claimed herein. | {
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Glucoamylase (1,4-α-D-glucan glucohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.3) is an enzyme which catalyzes the release of D-glucose from the non-reducing ends of starch or related oligo- and polysaccharide molecules. Glucoamylases are produced by several filamentous fungi and yeasts, with those from Aspergillus being commercially most important.
Commercially, the glucoamylase enzyme is used to convert corn starch which is already partially hydrolyzed by an α-amylase to glucose. The glucose is further converted by glucose isomerase to a mixture composed almost equally of glucose and fructose. This mixture, or the mixture further enriched with fructose, is the commonly used high fructose corn syrup commercialized throughout the world. This syrup is the world's largest tonnage product produced by an enzymatic process. The three enzymes involved in the conversion of starch to fructose are among the most important industrial enzymes produced.
One of the main problems that exist with regard to the commercial use of glucoamylase in the production of high fructose corn syrup is the relatively low thermal stability of glucoamylase. Glucoamylase is not as thermally stable as α-amylase or glucose isomerase and it is most active and stable at lower pH's than either α-amylase or glucose isomerase. Accordingly, it must be used in a separate vessel at a lower temperature and pH.
Glucoamylase from Aspergillus niger has a catalytic (aa 1-440) and a starch binding domain (aa 509-616) separated by a long and highly O-glycosylated linker (Svensson et al. (1983), Cardsberg Res. Commun. 48, 529-544, 1983 and (1986), Eur. J. Biochem. 154, 497-502). The catalytic domain (aa 1471) of glucoamylase from A. awamori var. X100 adopt an (α/α)6-fold in which six conserved α→α loop segments connect the outer and inner barrels (Aleshin et al. (1992), J. Biol. Chem. 267, 19291-19298). Crystal structures of glucoamylase in complex with 1-deoxynojirimycin (Harris et al. (1993), Biochemistry, 32, 1618-1626) and the pseudotetrasaccharide inhibitors acarbose and D-gluco-dihydroacarbose (Aleshin et al. (1996), Biochemistry 35, 8319-8328) furthermore are compatible with glutamic acids 179 and 400 acting as general acid and base, respectively. The crucial role of these residues during catalysis have also been studied using protein engineering (Sierks et al. (1990), Protein Engng. 3, 193-198; Frandsen et al. (1994), Biochemistry, 33, 13808-13816). Glucoamylase-carbohydrate interactions at four glycosyl residue binding subsites, −1, +1, +2, and +3 are highlighted in glucoamylase-complex structures (Aleshin et al. (1996), Biochemistry 35, 8319-8328) and residues important for binding and catalysis have been extensively investigated using site-directed mutants coupled with kinetic analysis (Sierks et al. (1989), Protein Engng. 2, 621-625; Sierks et al. (1990), Protein Engng. 3, 193-198; Berland et al. (1995), Biochemistry, 34, 10153-10161; Frandsen et al. (1995), Biochemistry, 34, 10162-10169.
Different substitutions in A. niger glucoamylase to enhance the thermal stability have been described: i) substitution of α-helical glycines: G137A and G139A (Chen et al. (1996), Prot. Engng. 9, 499-505); ii) elimination of the fragile Asp-X peptide bonds, D257E and D293E/Q (Chen et al. (1995), Prot Engng. 8, 575-582); prevention of deamidation in N182 (Chen et al. (1994), Biochem. J. 301, 275-281); iv) engineering of additional disulphide bond, A246C (Fierobe et al. (1996), Biochemistry, 35, 8698-8704; and v) introduction of Pro residues in position A435 and S436 (Li et al. (1997), Protein Engng. 10, 1199-1204. Furthermore Clark Ford presented a paper on Oct. 17, 1997, ENZYME ENGINEERING 14, Beijing/China Oct. 12-17, 97, Abstract number: Abstract book p. 0-61. The abstract suggests mutations in positions G137A, N20C/A27C, and S30P in a (not disclosed) Aspergillus awamori glucoamylase to improve the thermal stability.
Additional information concerning glucoamylase can be found on an Internet homepage, see for example, the webpage located at www.public.jastate.edu/˜pedro/glase/glase.html or the “Glucoamylase WWW page” (Last changed 1998, Oct. 8) by Pedro M. Coutinho discloses information concerning glucoamylases, including glucoamylases derivable from Aspergillus strains. Chemical and site-directed modifications in the Aspergillus niger glucoamylase are listed. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to cavity filters including resonator tubes.
2. Description of Related Art
Cavity filters are the basic circuitry behind a duplexer and are in a sharply tuned resonant circuit that allows only certain frequencies to pass. A typical cavity filter has one or more resonator tubes each in corporation with one tuning adjustment screw. Traditionally, the resonator tubes are fixed in the cavity filter by fixing members, such that the more resonator tubes and tuning adjustment screws, the longer it takes to assemble the cavity filter.
What is needed, therefore, is a cavity filter capable of being assembled quickly. | {
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Computers and other electronic devices have become ubiquitous and often indispensable to our work and personal life as people increasingly interact with these devices in new and interesting ways. One convenience of such devices is that they are often small and light, and are easy to hold in a hand or carry in a purse or pocket, or are otherwise easily transportable. While the size and weight of these devices make them convenient to carry around, these characteristics often make the devices more susceptible to damage. For example, such devices can be damaged due to impact with a surface such as when the device is dropped, where the impact due to the drop may have dislodged or otherwise damaged one or more components of the device. In some situations, the device may be powered off when such a drop occurs, and the user may, upon powering the device on, continue to use the device unaware of the damage caused due to the impact when drop. In some situations, the continued use of the device after impact may cause additional damage to the device as the user attempts to use components damaged by the impact. | {
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A typical biometric matching system includes a database of biometric information (e.g., fingerprints, retina scans, facial images, etc.) about individuals. To identify or authenticate a sample of biometric information, the typical biometric matching system compares the sample with entries in the database one by one until a match is found. As a result, the time to find a matching entry grows linearly and may be time consuming when the database includes many entries. | {
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A servo-valve of this type and known from DE 41 35 822 A1 contains up to four individual piezo-valves in a first stage, all four piezo-valves, or in the case of a lower number together with fixed resistances, being arranged in a bridge circuit. Each piezo-valve contains its own actuatable piezo-element, which, together with a deflector, forms a controllable flow resistance. The bridge circuit serves to generate a differential pressure of variable size and sign, with which, in a further stage of the servo-valve, a control piston can be adjusted and a three-way valve can be adjusted by way of said control piston, said three-way valve serving to adjust a hydraulic cylinder.
Alternative designs of piezo-valves are known from EP 0 943 812 A1 or the subject matter of the former German patent application with the official file reference 10 2004 035 844.3.
Instead of piezo-valves, electromagnetic or any other electrically actuatable valves can also be used in the bridge circuit.
DE 42 01 442 A1 shows an alternative embodiment of the three-way valve, which, in a known manner, can also be configured as a slide valve, rotary valve or can consist of individual valves such as for instance check valves.
Servo-valves are used in many areas of technology, thus also with electro-pneumatic positioners, which serve to control the drive of process valves. In the event of a power failure, a request is often made for the drive actuated by the positioner to automatically bring the process valve into a secure position, generally “open” or “close”. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to modular furniture assemblies and more particularly to a modular furniture accessory useful for storing office paraphernalia in a readily accessible manner, as well as transporting the stored office paraphernalia between locations such as spaced apart work stations and the like typically found in modular office furniture environments and. optionally, providing additional transportable electrical outlets and communication ports at selected workstations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modular wall panels, shelving and desks or other workspaces are commonplace in modular office furniture environments. Also common is the need for storage space for work related items including dictionaries and other books or notebooks, pencils, paper, tape, computer storage media and accessories, and the like as well as items such as purses, umbrellas, and other personal items frequently carried to and from a workstation, all herein termed office paraphernalia.
Office desks frequently have a variety of drawers for use by an office worker and almost as frequently, that drawer space is filled to capacity. A similar overcrowding problem applies to electrical receptacles provided near the desk which are frequently all or nearly all in use. It is highly desirable to provide additional storage space with optional additional electrical receptacles, and to be able to use the additional storage space as an instrumentality for moving stored items from one workstation to another.
The present invention provides portable office storage space, and, optionally, electrical outlets and communication ports without unnecessarily cluttering desktop areas or otherwise interfering with an efficient office environment.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a portable storage unit having a body with a cavity therein for receiving and storing office paraphernalia. The cavity has an access opening providing access to the cavity and a door is hingedly fixed to the body for selectively opening and closing the cavity access opening. The storage unit may be secured in position intermediate a pair of spaced apart surfaces such as the floor and underside of a desk, or an upper desk or shelf surface and a higher shelf under-surface by one or more extensible members which are slidably received in the body and movable between a retracted position and a range of extended positions.
An advantage of the present invention is that the storage unit may be positioned to provide additional storage space while not interfering with full utilization of the workspace.
Another advantage is the additional storage space may be secured in place yet easily moved to another location.
A further advantage is that easily transportable additional electrical and communication connections may be incorporated into the storage unit. | {
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Magnetic head-based systems have been widely accepted in the computer industry as a cost-effective form of data storage. In a magnetic tape drive system, a magnetic tape containing a multiplicity of laterally positioned data tracks that extend along the length of the tape is drawn across a magnetic read/write transducer, referred to as a magnetic tape head. The magnetic tape heads can record and read data along the length of the magnetic tape surface as relative movement occurs between the heads and the tape. Because magnetic tape is a flexible media, its lateral position fluctuates as the tape is pulled at high speeds across the tape head. In order to maintain alignment of the read sensors or writing transducers along the tracks, the tape head is moved (actuated) laterally to follow the tape fluctuations as the high speed lateral response, termed actuation, is better achieved with lighter tape heads.
In a magnetic disk drive system, a magnetic recording medium in the form of a disk rotates at high speed while a magnetic head “flies” slightly above the surface of the rotating disk. The magnetic disk is rotated by means of a spindle drive motor. The magnetic head is attached to or formed integrally with a “slider” which is suspended over the disk on a spring-loaded support arm known as the actuator arm. As the magnetic disk rotates at operating speed, the moving air generated by the rotating disk in conjunction with the physical design of the slider lifts the magnetic head, allowing it to glide or “fly” slightly above and over the disk surface on a cushion of air, referred to as an air bearing. The flying height of the magnetic head over the disk surface is typically only a few tens of nanometers or less and is primarily a function of disk rotation, the aerodynamic properties of the slider assembly and the force exerted by the spring-loaded actuator arm.
Magnetoresistive (MR) sensors are particularly useful as read elements in magnetic heads, used in the data storage industry for high data recording densities. Two examples of MR materials used in the storage industry are anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) and giant magnetoresistive (GMR). MR and GMR sensors are deposited as small and thin multi-layered sheet resistors on a structural substrate. The sheet resistors can be coupled to external devices by contact to metal pads which are electrically connected to the sheet resistors. MR sensors provide a high output signal which is not directly related to the head velocity as in the case of inductive read heads.
To achieve the high areal densities required by the data storage industry, the sensors are made with commensurately small dimensions. The smaller the dimensions, the more sensitive the thin sheet resistors become to damage from spurious current or voltage spike.
A major problem that is encountered during manufacturing, handling and use of MR sheet resistors as magnetic recording transducers is the buildup of electrostatic charges on the various elements of a head or other objects which come into contact with the sensors, particularly sensors of the thin film type, and the accompanying spurious discharge of the static electricity thus generated. Static charges may be externally produced and accumulate on instruments used by persons performing head manufacturing or testing function. These static charges may be discharged through the head causing excessive heating of the sensitive sensors which result in physical or magnetic damage to the sensors.
As described above, when a head is exposed to voltage or current inputs which are larger than that intended under normal operating conditions, the sensor and other parts of the head may be damaged. This sensitivity to electrical damage is particularly severe for MR read sensors because of their relatively small physical size. For example, an MR sensor used for high recording densities for magnetic tape media (order of 25 Mbytes/cm2) are patterned as resistive sheets of MR and accompanying materials, and will have a combined thickness for the sensor sheets on the order of 500 Angstroms (A) with a width of 1 to 10 microns (μm) and a height on the order of 1 μm. Sensors used in extant disk drives are even smaller. Discharge currents of tens of milliamps through such a small resistor can cause severe damage or complete destruction of the MR sensor. The nature of the damage which may be experienced by an MR sensor varies significantly, including complete destruction of the sensor via melting and evaporation, oxidation of materials at the air bearing surface (ABS), generation of shorts via electrical breakdown, and milder forms of magnetic or physical damage in which the head performance may be degraded. Short time current or voltage pulses which cause extensive physical damage to a sensor are termed electrostatic discharge (ESD) pulses. Short time pulses which do not result in noticeable physical damage (resistance changes), but which alter the magnetic response or stability of the sensors due to excessive heating are termed electrical overstress (EOS) pulses.
While a disk head is comprised of a single MR element, modern tape heads have multiple MR elements, on the order of 8 to 32, or even more, all of which must be fully functional. The large number of MR sensors in a tape drive and the requirement that all are functional, makes ESD loss due to a single element very expensive as the entire head must then be scrapped. Testing during manufacturing is important in order to eliminate damaged components early in the process to minimize cost by avoiding processing of damaged parts.
Prior solutions to ESD and EOS protection can be summarized into two types of approaches: (1) one time permanent shorting devices, and (2) multi-use removable shorting devices.
The one time permanent shorting devices include: (1a) fabricating diodes on the wafer to short out high currents across the sensor; (1b) depositing a shorting element (e.g., metal) across the sensor which can be later removed at final assembly; and (1c) diodes connecting the two sensor leads together which are permanently mounted in the cable.
The Multi-use removable shorting devices include: (2a) a removable shorting element which can short out the two leads of the sensor; and (2b) removable diodes which can short out the two leads of the sensor when subjected to high currents.
The problem with (1a)-(1c) is the cost of the permanent solution. (1b) prohibits measuring the properties of the MR sensor until it is in the final device and a large amount of cost has gone into fabrication and assembly. The problem with (2a) is that the device can not be tested during assembly without removing the short and subjecting the sensors to the potential of EOS/ESD damage. The problem with (2b) is the substantial cost of the diodes.
A need therefore exists for providing ESD and EOS protection for a multiplicity of read and/or write head assemblies which has a low cost, is small enough not to affect the dynamics of the head during operation, which fits into the tight spaces within a tape or disk drive, and which allows for the higher voltages used in normal tape drive operation. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the preparation of organic phosphine chlorides.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,418, issued Oct. 5, 1965, to John A. Pianfetti, discloses the preparation of phenylphosphine dichloride by reacting benzene at a temperature of 725.degree. C. with phosphorus trichloride in the presence of oxygen as a catalyst.
An article in Biul. Wojskowej Akad. Tech. 13 (7/143), 109- 15 (1964) (Pol) discloses the preparation of phenylphosphine dichloride and diphenylphosphine chloride by reacting benzene and phosphorus trichloride in the presence of aluminum chloride as a catalyst.
In an article in Organic Synthesis, 31, 88-90 (1951), there is disclosed the preparation of phenylphosphine dichloride comprising reacting phosphorus trichloride, benzene, aluminum chloride, and phosphorus oxychloride.
In an article in Zh. Obshch. Khim. 1968, 38(7), 1551- 2 (Russ), there is disclosed the preparation of phenylphosphine dichloride by reacting phosphorus trichloride and benzene. The article discloses that in alternative experiments the reactor was filled with granulated alumina but results were not described.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,932 issued to Uhing discloses the reaction of lower alkenes and benzene at a temperature in excess of 350.degree.C. with phosphorous trichloride in the presence of phosgene to produce a phosphonous dichloride. This patent issued Jan. 9, 1973.
In an article in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 77, 3526-9 (1955) there is described the preparation of diphenylphosphine chloride based on the reduction of diphenylphosphine trichloride with elemental phosphorous.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,886, issued Nov. 14, 1972, to Argauer et al., disclosed ZSM-5 catalyst.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,979, issued Jan. 9, 1973 to Chu, disclosed ZSM-11 catalyst.
West German Auslegeschrift No. 2,213,109 issued Sept. 21, 1972, discloses ZSM-12 catalyst.
Copending application Ser. No. 358,192, filed May 7, 1973, discloses ZSM-21 catalyst.
Copending application Ser. No. 130,442, filed Apr. 11, 1971, discloses TEA mordenite. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
This disclosure is related, generally, to waterjet cutting systems, and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for controlling a standoff distance between a waterjet cutting head and a surface of a workpiece to be processed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluid jet or abrasive-fluid jet cutting systems are used for cutting a wide variety of materials, including stone, glass, ceramics and metals. In a typical fluid jet cutting system, a high-pressure fluid (e.g., water) flows through a cutting head having a cutting nozzle that directs a cutting jet onto a workpiece. The system may draw an abrasive into the high-pressure fluid jet to form an abrasive-fluid jet. The cutting nozzle may then be controllably moved across the workpiece to cut the workpiece as desired. After the fluid jet, or abrasive-fluid jet, generically referred to throughout as a “waterjet,” passes through the workpiece, the energy of the cutting jet is dissipated by a volume of water in a catcher tank. Systems for generating high-pressure waterjets are currently available, such as, for example, the Mach 4™ five-axis waterjet system manufactured by Flow International Corporation, the assignee of the present application. Other examples of waterjet cutting systems are shown and described in Flow's U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,058, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Manipulating a waterjet in five or more axes may be useful for a variety of reasons, including, for example, cutting a three-dimensional shape. Such manipulation may also be desired to correct for cutting characteristics of the jet or for the characteristics of the cutting result. More particularly, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the relevant art, a cut produced by a waterjet has characteristics that differ from cuts produced by more traditional machining processes. These cut characteristics may include “taper” and “trailback,” as explained in more detail in Flow's U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,842, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These cut characteristics, namely taper and trailback, may or may not be acceptable, given the desired end product. Taper and trailback vary, depending upon the thickness and hardness of the workpiece and the speed of the cut. Thus, one known way to control excessive taper and/or trailback is to slow down the cutting speed of the system. Alternatively, in situations where it is desirable to minimize or eliminate taper and trailback while operating at higher cutting speeds, five-axis systems may be used to apply taper and lead angle corrections to the waterjet as it moves along a cutting path. A method and system for automated control of waterjet orientation parameters to adjust or compensate for taper angle and lead angle corrections is described in Flow's U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,216, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
To maximize the efficiency and quality of the cutting process, a standoff distance between where the waterjet exits the nozzle and a surface of the workpiece is preferably controlled. If the standoff distance is too small, the nozzle can plug during piercing, causing system shutdown and possibly damage to the workpiece. If the distance is too great, the quality and accuracy of the cut suffers. Systems for detecting and controlling such a standoff distance are known, and include, for example, direct contact type sensing systems and non-contact inductance type sensing systems. Examples of waterjet cutting systems including a sensing system for controlling a standoff distance are shown and described in Flow's U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,331,842 and 7,464,630, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Known standoff detection systems, however, typically require direct contact sensing of the workpiece surface from which the desired standoff distance is to be maintained or positioning of a non-contact inductance type sensor proximate the surface. These types of systems therefore often include features which may limit, for example, the mobility and/or flexibility of the waterjet cutting system to traverse a workpiece in a particularly advantageous cutting path. In addition, components of these systems may be unavoidably exposed to spray-back which occurs when the waterjet first impinges on a surface of a workpiece or as the waterjet interacts with a structure beneath the workpiece during operation, thereby leading to potential wear and damage of the components. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a heterocyclic compound and an organic light-emitting diode including the same, and more particularly, to a heterocyclic compound as an emitting material of an organic light-emitting diode, and a flat panel display device including the organic light-emitting diode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are self-emitting devices that have wide viewing angles, good contrast, quick response times, high brightness, and good driving voltage characteristics. Also, OLEDs can provide multicolored images. Thus, organic light-emitting diodes have drawn attention.
In general, an organic light-emitting diode has a structure including a substrate, and an anode, a hole transport layer (HTL), an emission layer (EML), an electron transport layer (ETL), and a cathode (in sequential order) stacked on the substrate. In this regard, the HTL, the EML, and the ETL are mainly formed of organic compounds. When a voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode, holes injected from the anode move to the EML via the HTL, and electrons injected from the cathode move to the EML via the ETL. Carriers, i.e., holes and electrons, recombine in the EML to generate excitons. When the excitons drop from an excited state to a ground state, light is emitted.
The emitting material is the main factor in the light emission efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes. Although fluorescent materials have widely been used as the emitting material, phosphorescent materials are known to theoretically improve light emission efficiency up to 4 times as high as general emitting materials.
4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) is widely known as a phosphorescent host material, and an organic light-emitting diode having high efficiency and good performance may be manufactured using a hole blocking material such as BCP and BAIq or using a BAIq derivative as a host.
In order to reduce the power consumption of an organic light-emitting diode, power efficiency should be improved. Since power efficiency satisfies the equation “power efficiency=(π/voltage)×current efficiency,” voltage should be reduced in order to improve power efficiency. Organic light-emitting diodes manufactured using phosphorescent materials have higher current efficiency than those manufactured using fluorescent materials. However, driving voltage increases when a conventional material, such as BAIq or CBP, is used as a host of the phosphorescent material instead of using a fluorescent material. Accordingly, the power efficiency cannot sufficiently be increased.
In addition, the lifespan of the organic light-emitting diodes manufactured using these host materials is not satisfactory. Thus, there is a need to develop a host material that is stable and has high performance. | {
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This invention relates to apparatus and method for the quick freezing of food products and the like and in particular to a new and improved apparatus and method which provides for freezing in shorter time and with greater efficiency. The specific embodiment of the invention described herein is particularly suited for use with packaged vegetables, packaged meat and whole fowl, but is equally suited for quick freezing of other items.
Liquid nitrogen is widely used for quick freezing of various products and two basic systems presently are in use. One system is called the "freezing tunnel" which utilizes an insulated enclosure with a conveyor belt or the like for moving product therethrough. Usually about three quarters of the way along the conveyor path, spray nozzles are installed for spraying liquid nitrogen onto the product. A substantial portion of the liquid nitrogen is transformed into nitrogen vapor at the spray nozzle. The remaining liquid nitrogen is quickly vaporized on contact with the product, producing cooling of the product. The vapor is circulated through the enclosure by fans for increasing the efficiency of heat transfer between the vapor and the product. Normally a thermostat provides a control of the amount of liquid sprayed into the enclosure for maintaining the temperature within predetermined limits. The product is frozen during its passage through the tunnel and emerges ready for storage and/or shipment in refrigerated equipment.
The freezing tunnel method under favorable conditions transfer approximately 120 BTU of cooling to the product, from a theoretically possible 160 BTU, thus operating at approximately 75% efficiency. A typical tunnel is in the order of 60 feet long and requires several minutes for the product to move through the tunnel. This relatively slow freezing, the large size of the tunnel and the relatively high cost of the system are disadvantages.
The other system for quick freezing currently in use is the so-called "liquid immersion system" utilizing a liquid bath in an insulated tank with some form of conveyor for moving the product through the bath. Freezing is accomplished by moving the product on the conveyor belt through the liquid nitrogen with the fully frozen product emerging at the downstream end. One such liquid immersion system is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,864, and other liquid immersion systems are shown in the references cited in said patent. The liquid immersion system has several advantages over the freezing tunnel system including size, typically being about 9 feet long, faster freezing, taking several seconds rather than several minutes, and lower cost, costing about 1/3 that of a freezing tunnel for the same capacity. However the efficiency of the liquid immersion system is about the same as that of the freezing tunnel system.
A combination liquid immersion and freezing tunnel system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,376,710. In the system shown in this patent, product is introduced for freezing by sliding it over an entrance ramp until it drops into a liquid nitrogen bath. The product is suppose to drop to the bottom of the bath and is moved along the bottom by fingers attached to a drive belt positioned above the surface of the liquid nitrogen. The nitrogen bath provides the first stage of cooling. The fingers of the belt push the product up a slope out of the bath for discharge onto a conveyor belt for the second, vapor cooling stage.
The second stage uses nitrogen vapor from the liquid bath. Six recirculating fans are located in the second stage housing above the conveyor belt. Rounded directional top and bottom baffles are provided for each fan for controlling gas flow. Nozzles are provided for introducing nitrogen vapor adjacent each of the fans. The purposes of the fans and baffles is to provide relatively high vapor velocity, in the order of 1500 to 3000 feet per minute.
The aforesaid system suffers from a number of disadvantages. Because of the extremely low temperature at the entrance of the first stage, there tends to be substantial frost build-up so that the product sticks and does not freely fall into the liquid bath. The high gas velocity in the tunnel section tends to make products airborne. Also, the amount of energy required to produce this high velocity produces heat within the tunnel, reducing the efficiency of the system. The liquid bath and the subsequent cooling conveyor are positioned in a single insulated chamber, with additional nitrogen being sprayed into the conveyor system. This means that the overall system operates at substantially the same temperature, which must be the lower temperature at the liquid bath, necessarily at -320.degree. F. in order to prevent boiling of the nitrogen. Maintaining such a large piece of equipment at such a low temperature would result in low efficiency and also damage to a number of food products which have a tendency to crack when exposed to such a low temperature for such a long period of time. Also, each of the fans produces a doughnut shaped or annulus high velocity zone, with very low velocities in the areas between the fans. This non-uniform flow pattern tends to produce inequalities in freezing of product at different locations along the conveyor belt.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,055, discloses product precooling with cold liquid nitrogen vapor on one horizontal conveyor belt, immersion in liquid nitrogen on another vertical belt, additional cooling by liquid nitrogen spray, and final postcooling on another horizontal belt. An additional belt is used to wrap around the vertical belt for the purpose of preventing the product from falling off the vertical conveyor. Major portions of the belts are out of the liquid bath. A total of four conveyors are used. The entire system is in a single chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,818 discloses a system similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,055, but it is even more complicated. Product precooling is done on a horizontal regular conveyor. Immersion freezing is accomplished by another conveyor with baskets or buckets. For postcooling, another conveyor with buckets is utilized. Vapor circulation is accomplished by means of blower, duct, air locks and dampers. This patent proposes to push the vapor through several buckets full of product. The vapor pressure required to do so would have be to so high that the product would become airborne. Also the postcooling bucket conveyor could not run substantially slower and with heavier loading than the immersion conveyor. The cold vapor used for postcooling would pass around the buckets rather than contact all the product.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved quick freezing method and apparatus which can be operated with improved efficiency while at the same time holding down size and cost.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for preventing frost build-up at the inlet of the system, and in particular, to provide for withdrawal of a small quantity of nitrogen vapor at the inlet and mixing with outside air.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method and apparatus which eliminates any need for recirculating fans and/or nitrogen spray in the second stage cooling tunnel. A particular object is to provide such a system incorporating an external exhaust for drawing nitrogen through the cooling tunnel and for providing control of the rate of flow of nitrogen vapor in the cooling tunnel for maintaining a desired temperature. An additional object is to provide a system wherein a relatively low uniform gas velocity is maintained in the cooling tunnel, and incorporating baffles for producing gas flow across the product as the product moves through the tunnel.
It is a particular object to provide a new and improved quick freezing method and apparatus with the liquid immersion system thermally insulated separate from the cooling tunnel so that the two components of the overall system can be maintained at different temperatures and also so that the conveyor speed of product through the liquid bath and through the cooling or freezing tunnel can be different. More particularly, it is an object to provide a system wherein there is a relatively low but substantially uniform vapor velocity through the freezing tunnel, with the product speed through the tunnel being reduced in order to extend the product exposure time, thereby increasing operating efficiency and improving product freezing.
An additional object of the invention is to provide such a method and apparatus wherein the exhaust magnitude is automatically varied to provide the desired temperature operation with variations in loading, such as the number, size and/or inlet temperature of product being frozen.
A further object of this invention is to provide method and apparatus wherein the exhaust nitrogen vapor may be utilized for reducing the temperature of the room in which the freezing system is operated and for creating a slight positive pressure in the room thereby reducing the likelihood of contamination by dust, insects and the like.
Other objects, advantages, features and results will more fully appear in the course of the following description. | {
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I have an extensive background in working with children, physical education teachers, and coaches of various sports (have authored 11 books). Through my research and experience I have found two balls with varying degrees of unpredictable bounces.
The first one (U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,053xe2x80x94Leopold, Jul. 2, 1991) is not suitable for sports training as the bounce is not challenging enough for young athletes. It is more of a toy for young children, rather than a skill building training tool. It consists of 22 small knobs that are evenly spaced on the outside of a small ball. The owners of the patent describe it as xe2x80x9cA ball capable of providing an erratic, as well as a normal, bounce comprised of a hollow spherical member and, preferably, twenty-two integral hemispheric projections.xe2x80x9d They go on to state that xe2x80x9cBased on the geometric design, approximately twenty-five percent of the bounces will be erratic.xe2x80x9d In other words, 75% of the bounces are normal and predictable. The result; not enough challenge.
On the other extreme, there is a ball with six equally sized and spaced knobs (Design U.S. Pat. No. D317,805xe2x80x94Swan, Jun. 25, 1991). It offers a consistently irregular bounce. However, when tested in use with a broad range of children in many sport environments, we have found it to be too challenging and therefore frustrating for all but the most elite athletes. Our observations with this ball show that approximately 25% of the bounces were impossible to catch, as the bounce was not too extreme, due to the size and placement of the knobs.
Although these two balls were not ideal in a broad range of activities for developing young athletes, we were still convinced that the idea of an unpredictable bouncing rubber ball would be very useful in sports training and lead-up reaction building games for children. The design of the ball for which this patent is being applied has the following unique characteristics.
1. It is of a larger size (35% larger than the ball in use under U.S. Pat. No. D317,805). One result of this larger size is that the ball contains more rubber mass and bounces noticeably higher, allowing the young athletes more time to react and catch it. This increase in reaction time is significant in helping children develop their skills and self-confidence in sports and physical activities.
2. It has seven knobs of two different sizes which create much more irregularity than U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,053, but significantly less irregularity than U.S. Pat. No. D317,805, since two of the knobs are approximately 50% larger in size than the other five knobs. The result is an unpredictable bounce that is still controlled enough to be encouraging to young athletes while they develop visual tracking skills, reaction skills, and catching skills.
Statistically speaking, a recent USA Today poll stated that 40% of all adults in the United States have negative memories of their experiences in physical education classes in schools and in team sporting activities in general when they were growing up. Studies also repeatedly show that confidence and self-esteem are directly linked to fun and enjoyment. And, we all know that confidence and self-esteem develop most quickly in children when they are successful. At the same time, activities must be slightly challenging to keep children interested. Therefore, the subject of this patent is relevant and practical for skill development standpoint as well as to help children enhance the enjoyment of their experiences in physical education and sports in general.
The invention is a skill building reaction ball used for sports training including, but not limited to, baseball and general reaction-building activities. Its unique 7-knob design ensures a different bounce every time it bounces against a flat surface. The 7-knob design includes two identical knobs of a larger size and five identical knobs of a smaller size. The result of this combination of knobs is a bounce that challenges young athletes but allows the ball to be caught, even by younger children. The manufacturing process is injection molding and the primary ingredient is rubber. Additionally, it is approximately the size of a tennis ball and a baseball, resulting in an easy transfer of acquired skills to those specific activities. | {
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The present invention will be described in connection with a helmet shell provided with a reflective material. There are a number of situations where the application of reflective material to the exterior surface of helmet shells can be of significant life saving value. Reflective covering currently being applied to head gear by reflective tape, usually containing glass beads as reflective media. The tapes are applied along the sides and top of the helmet shell. These taped helmet shells are covered by overlapping 1" or 2" strips of tape. The tape patterns, as presently being applied, are being overlapped as they are placed on the exterior surface of the helmet shell, overlapping being necessary due to the varied contours of the helmet surface. This method of application can avoid gaps and wrinkles but creates and excessive number of exposed seams. Thus, overlapping by as much as 1/2" to 3/4" is sometimes required with these multiple tape patterns. The exposed seams are subject to fraying and/or peeling due to normal handling and various atmospheric weathering conditions. In the case of flight helmets, the reflective covering must withstand exposure to sunlight, temperatures of -20.degree. to 140.degree. F., cleaning solutions, and immersion in rough seas (that can occur during an emergency situation) without loss of reflective properties or a degradation in appearance. The problems associated with multiple patterns result in wide wearer unacceptance which in turn reduces the number of reflectorized head gear now in service.
The multiple seam prior art approach using only adhesive tapes in addition to providing poor user acceptance, have the additional drawbacks of high labor costs in applying the tapes, low performance characteristics, increased weight, poor appearance, short life span and incomplete covering when compared to the invention of this application.
The advantage of having reflective material on a flight helmet can be appreciated when one considers that it may be necessary to search for a downed pilot in open seas at night. Tests indicate that objects provide with reflective material can be seen from search heights of 31/2 to 4 times greater than objects not provided with reflective material. Thus, search planes can cover a much greater area in the same amount of time with a reasonable likelihood of seeing the downed aviator. | {
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By their very nature, tablet devices such as iPads, Kindle Fires, Nooks, Galaxies, and the like, are portable. Users therefore often carry the tablet devices from place to place. It is important, however, that the users not drop the tablet devices as they are somewhat fragile. The smooth outer casings and interface screens of the tablet devices make them hard to carry without first placing them into a carrying bag or the like.
Users desire to interface with the portable tablet devices from place to place and often times during travel between destinations. It is important, therefore, to be able to quickly deploy the electronic device from its carrying environment and place it into an operable condition such as onto a desktop, work surface, or the like. | {
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Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) is able to achieve very high scan speeds and is less susceptible to spectral interferogram fringe washout than spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) [1, 2]. Therefore, it has advantages for both structural and Doppler OCT imaging. However, in some SS-OCT systems, there is uncertainty in trigger timing so that the starting point of the spectral interferogram acquisition changes from cycle to cycle in wavenumber (k) space. For phase-sensitive OCT measurements such as Doppler OCT, this jitter will reduce the precision of phase measurements. In addition, trigger jitter reduces the effectiveness of subtractive removal of fixed-pattern noise artifacts (lines at fixed depths in OCT B-scans) arising from unintended internal reflections from fiber tips and sample/reference arm optics [3].
A few numerical methods have been proposed to improve the phase stability of SS-OCT systems [3-7]. However, these methods typically cannot remove the residual fixed-pattern noise. In one example approach, a method to eliminate residual fixed-pattern noise and improve the phase stability may be performed by resampling the wavenumber using a simultaneously recorded calibration signal from an interferometer [8]. However, such an approach requires another reference calibration signal as well as another digitizer channel. Thus, the system complexity and cost will be greatly increased. In another example approach, a narrow band fiber Bragg grating (FBG) may be used to produce a reference dip in acquired spectral interferograms so that the spectral interferograms can be shifted accordingly [9]. However, introduction of a FBG in such an approach may induce additional power loss and increase system cost. | {
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The present invention relates in general to interconnect or metallization structures for integrated circuits on a semiconductor chip wherein blocked segments of good electrical conductors are formed in the interconnects to minimize void or hillock growth produced by stress migration and electromigration damage.
The metallization systems used in integrated circuits on a semiconductor chip often include several levels of narrow and thin metal interconnects which are separated by insulator or passivation layers and are connected by vias through the same. More particularly, narrow and thin metal interconnects are deposited on an insulator layer that covers the semiconductor chip and are connected to the underlying devices in the chip through holes or vias drilled through the insulator layer. The interconnects are covered by a passivation layer for corrosion and electromigration resistance.
Stress migration and electromigration damage can both occur in the form of voids and hillocks. The former increase the resistance of the metal lines that make up an interconnect and may eventually sever the interconnect. In severe cases, the latter fracture the passivation layers and produce shorts between neighboring interconnects. The fracture of passivation layers will also expose the metal interconnects to the external environment which is corrosive.
Stress migration is caused by thermal stresses produced by the mismatch between the coefficients of thermal expansion of the metal interconnect and its surrounding passivation and insulator layers. Depending on prior thermal history, the thermal stresses can either be tensile or compressive. Void formation is associated with tensile stresses while hillock growth is associated with compressive stresses.
Thermal stress induced voids participate in the electromigration damage processes in ways depending on their sizes. When the sizes of these voids are large, they migrate under electrical currents without being trapped by barriers such as grain boundaries. When the size of these voids are small, they are first trapped at grain boundaries and other barriers and grow through electrical current induced atomic transport until they are sufficiently large to free themselves from the barriers. Migrating voids coalesce with other voids and thus provide an effective way for void growth. Independently of the mechanism of void growth, continued void growth will eventually sever an interconnect.
Another consequence of electrical current induced atomic transport is hillock growth. Under the influence of a high electrical current, atoms will move preferentially in one direction while vacancies (empty atomic sites) will move in the opposite direction. The excess vacancies are collected by voids. Correspondingly the excess atoms are collected by hillocks which are protrusions made of migrated atoms.
In the case when thermal stress induced voids are absent in a metal interconnect, the electrical current induced atomic transport discussed above will produce high tensile stresses at locations where excess vacancies are accumulated. Such high tensile stresses are believed to cause the nucleation of voids that participate in the electromigration damage processes in the same way as small and trapped thermal stress induced voids.
To improve electromigration damage resistance, a variety of approaches are being practiced. Notable among these are those relying on alloying additions and those relying on backup refractory metal or alloy layers.
An example of such an approach is the addition of a few percent of copper to aluminum interconnects. It is believed that the benefits of copper addition are derived from the decreased rate of atomic transport, which slows down void and hillock growth, and from the formation of second phase precipitates that trap moving voids. However, although copper and similar alloying additions have been shown to be beneficial, electromigration induced damage will ultimately cause failures in metal interconnects.
The use of backup layers of tungsten, titanium or their alloys under and/or on top of an aluminum based layer are examples of the second approach mentioned above. These backup layers provide electrical continuity when the aluminum based layer fails because of stress migration and/or electromigration damage. The high melting temperatures of the refractory metals or alloys are the reason for their immunity to stress migration and electromigration damage. However, their high resistances prevent the use of them for the primary conducting layer as well. For the same reason the resistance of the interconnect increases when the primary, aluminum based conductor fails.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,382 to Li discloses the use of patterned interfaces between the metal interconnect and its surrounding passivation and insulation layers as a method of minimizing or eliminating stress migration damage. The stress state in a passivated metal interconnect is here altered by the presence of patterned interfaces which contain regions of good adhesion and regions of poor adhesion. Thus the nucleation and growth of voids and hillocks are suppressed. It is believed that patterned interfaces will also improve electromigration resistance by limiting the current induced stress build-up. | {
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The present invention relates to a separating-and support element for a tool holder for a surface milling machine.
Surface milling machines are used for the removal of rubber on runways and of road markings, and for the removal of surface coverings. The Swiss patent no. CH 687 445, by way of example, presents a surface milling machine of a small type. The actual tool holder is mostly constructed as a thread spool, to the flanges of which from two to eight shafts proceeding peripherally and in parallel to the core are generally attached, to which tools, such as small milling wheels, for example, can be mounted in a loose and rotatable manner. If the tool holder rotates, then the tools are externally held to the shafts by means of centrifugal force. If this tool holder is, during the rotary movement, brought near to a surface, the plane of which is positioned in parallel to the axis of the tool holder, then these tools strike on the surface to be processed or, first of all, onto elevations which are possibly present. This impact brings them into a rotating movement. The surface is processed with the force that is to be applied in order to overcome the inertia of the stationary tools. Irregularities are evened out and/or a thin layer of the surface is abraded away.
This impact-like stressing acts on the tools, shafts, tool holder, and drive unit of the surface milling machine. The more that this stressing is absorbed by suitable means, such as tools, shafts, and flanges of the tool holder, the less is the wear on the supports of the drive elements of the milling machine.
In order to additionally cushion the wear on the shafts, the shafts are supported on both of the flanges in a loosely rotatable manner. Frontal covers or other attachment means hold the shafts inside the flanges in which they are supported. The patent no. CH 1998 0067/98 proposes a tool holder of this type. Wear appears on both the tools and the shafts, as well as on the borings in the flanges in which the shafts are held.
In order, in the case of very hard applications, to support the shafts on the periphery of the flanges on which the tools are held, additional intermediate flanges are applied to the central tube, for example, as separating- and support elements. The shafts are thereby reinforced, and their service life is extended. The disadvantage that the positions of the tools on the shafts are predetermined by the flanges acting as separating- and support elements has to be accepted in return, however. If such a surface milling device is, during the milling, guided directly up to a surface, it leaves unprocessed corrugations behind at that point where the intermediate flanges are located. These intermediate flanges, by means of which better wear characteristics can be achieved, have the disadvantage that they act as separating- and support elements and no longer uniformly process the surface over the entire width of the tool holder. Such intermediate flanges are depicted, for example, in patent no. CH 687 445.
This fact is taken into account in other constructions through the fact that separating and support elements are, as so-called flange segments which each support one or more shafts, but not all shafts, however, are welded onto the central tube. These are positioned displaced along the length of the tool holder. By means of these flange segments, the disadvantage of the formation of corrugations is, to be sure, eliminated and the surface processed can be processed uniformly over the entire length of the tool holder, but dynamic disadvantages have to be accepted in return. Such types of tool holders provided with flange segments as separating- and support element must be balanced, since dynamic imbalances otherwise act on the support in a manner that promotes wear.
One additional disadvantage of these separating- and support elements (flange segments) welded solidly to the central tube is the predetermined fixed arrangement in which the tools must be mounted to the shafts. That is to say, it would be desirable for the user if, for individual applications, one pair, or three or more tools, could be mounted in succession one after another.
For applications with special tools, it is worthwhile to use few tools. This is also possible, in the tool holders with separating- and support elements described above, by means of intermediate disks between the tools and between the tools and flanges. In any event, possibilities are geometrically present. If neither intermediate flanges nor flange segments are present, then only a few tools can still be mounted by means of intermediate disks. In that casexe2x80x94because of the large unsupported lengths that arise on the shafts, and the imbalances that always arisexe2x80x94very great force peaks act on individual points of the shafts, and the wear is enormous. Even if separating- and support elements are present in the form of intermediate flanges and/or flange segments, the forces of the dynamic imbalances act on the shafts and support in a highly destructive manner.
The present invention now sets the task of improving the separating- and support elements for a tool holder of the type mentioned above in such a manner that, even if only individual tools are used, the dynamic imbalance of the tool holder still remains within acceptable limits, and the arrangement of the tools can be freely determined at the construction site each time in accordance with the requirements of the specific application.
Separating-and support elements for a tool holder with the characteristics of the present invention solve this task. | {
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I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cloned tyrosine phenol-lyase gene, recombinant plasmids containing the tyrosine phenol-lyase gene, and to E. coli transformed with the recombinant plasmid, which are useful for the production of tyrosine phenol-lyase.
II. Description of the Related Art
Tyrosine phenol-lyase is a so called multifunctional enzyme, which catalyzes various reactions such as synthesis reactions of L-tyrosine and L-DOPA (Yamada, H. and Kumagai, H. (1975) Adv. Appl. Microbiol., vol. 19, pp. 249-288) and which is industrially important.
Various bacteria are known to produce tyrosine phenol-lyase. Among these, those belonging to genera Escherichia, Citrobacter, Aerobacter, Proteus and Erwinia which genera belong to Family Enterobacteriaceae have high tyrosine phenol-lyase activities (Yamada et al, supra).
Further, DNA fragments containing tyrosine phenol-lyase gene originating from Erwinia herbicola ATCC-21434 or Escherichia freundii AJ-2608 have been isolated and E. coli transformants containing these genes have tyrosine phenol-lyase activity (Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (Kokai) Nos. 259589/87 and 222682/88, respectively).
However, the tyrosine phenol-lyase activities of these microorganisms are low so that the microorganisms cannot be employed industrially. Further, when culturing these microorganisms, it is necessary to add to the culture medium tyrosine (Yamada et al, supra, or Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 259589/87) or isopropyl-.beta.-thiogalactoside (Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 222682/88). Further, if tyrosine is added to the culture medium in, for example, the production of DOPA, the product is likely to be contaminated with tyrosine On the other hand, isopropyl-.beta.-thiogalactoside is extremely expensive, so that it cannot be used in an industrial scale. | {
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Unwanted voltage surges have long been a critical problem to circuit designers of industrial and home electrical systems. Surges generated by load switching are often repetitive and range as high as 2,500 V. Lightning generated surges can range up to or over 6,000 V.
Surge protective devices have been made from SiC. It is also known that ZnO when mixed with certain oxide additives and sintered into pellets, can exhibit non-linear V-I characteristics superior to SiC. These additive modified ZnO composition are, therefore, candidate materials for non-linear lightning arrester and similar type components.
In the sintered body, the sintered ZnO grains will be coated and bound with the oxide additives. These oxide additives are effective to produce electrical non-linearity completely within the bulk of the body. The voltage limiting characteristic of these surge protective materials is believed to be due to the character of the oxide additive within the grain boundary of the body of the material, which is near-insulating at low voltage and conducting at a high voltage.
ZnO non-linear devices have been made by mixing additive oxides, as individual powders, with ZnO powder, and then pressing and sintering, as taught by Matsuoka et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,663,458, In that patent, ZnO powder is mixed in a wet mill for 5 hours with additive materials such as Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3, Sb.sub.2 O.sub.3, CoO and MnO, as individual powders, to produce a homogeneous mixture. A binder such as water or polyvinyl alcohol can be added. The mixture was then pressed at about 340 kg./sq. cm (4,800 psi) and sintered at 1000.degree. to 1450.degree. C. for 1 to 3 hours, providing 1.3 cm diameter by 0.05 to 0.25 cm. thick discs. Matsuoka et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,878, more thoroughly mixed ZnO powder in a wet mill for 24 hours with individual additive oxide powders and CeF.sub.3 powder, to produce a mixture to which a binder could be added. The mixture was then pressed at 250 kg./sq. cm. (3,500 psi) and sintered at 1000.degree. to 1450.degree. C. for 1 to 10 hours, to provide bulk voltage non-linear bodies for lightning arresters, with dimensions as large as 3.5 to 4 cm diameter and 2 cm thickness.
We have found that mixing the materials is one of the most important operations in making non-linear lightning arrester components and non-linear resistors, because the physical homogeneity of the product, and the reproducibility of the electrical characteristics, will depend on thoroughly mixing of the component powders. By merely milling or blend-mixing the ingredients, even for 24 hours, only a marginally acceptable product is produced, resulting in a large percentage of lightning arrester components and resistors being rejected due to varying electrical properties caused by lack of homogeneity.
The grain boundary phase has been formed, in the prior art, by chemical reaction between the individual oxide additives in the sintering step of the process to form the resistor bodies. We have found that it is essential that the grain boundary phase be completely chemically homogeneous, and represent the equilibrium condition of the oxide additive reactant products. This means that the chemical reactions of the oxide additives must go to completion during the time that a single phase glass is being formed. Conventional fabrication methods of mixing component ZnO powder with 7 or 8 individual oxide additives, and then sintering in an attempt to reduce the mixture to a 2 component system, does not achieve the desired completely homogeneous grain boundary layer.
In our cross-referenced co-pending application, the aforementioned problems are disclosed to be solved by forming an additive glass composition from a mixture of oxides containing at least Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 prior to mixing with ZnO particles. Glasses made from these oxides are disclosed to be effective to cause electrical non-linearity with a ZnO ceramic body. The additive oxides are mill-mixed and melted to form a single phase homogeneous glass melt which is quenched. Thereafter, the glass is milled and mixed with ZnO and the mixture is pressed to form a consolidated body. Thereafter, the pressed body is heated to sintering temperatures. The process provides pellets having a microstructure with a bulk phase of ZnO particles and a boundary phase containing an oxide insulating layer binding the ZnO grains together. | {
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Compressed air systems require great amounts of energy, and to help reduce energy consumption, flow controllers have been developed. The typical flow controller is installed in the piping of a compressed air system between the compressors (which supply the pressurized air) and the point of use. The purpose of the flow controller is to maintain a desired or set point pressure downstream from the flow controller.
Without a flow controller, pressure in the piping varies with the loading and unloading of the compressor. Because of this variation, the compressor must work at higher levels in order to maintain minimum pressure levels throughout the system. With a flow controller, the downstream pressure is maintained at a constant level, thereby allowing the compressor to work less hard and consume less energy.
Flow controllers work by measuring downstream pressure using a transducer, and then adjusting the position of a valve to increase or decrease the pressure flow through the flow controller. In the past, flow controllers have used the air pressure in the system itself to actuate a positioner, which in turn drives the valve.
However, there are certain problems with such pneumatically actuated flow controllers. First, pneumatically-actuated positioners tend to fail because the pressurized air often carries with it moisture and contaminants, which interfere with the operation of the actuator. In certain cases, the moisture can even travel from the actuator through an electrical conduit down to the control panel, causing a short or other malfunction. Indeed, for compressed air systems that do not otherwise require a dryer, pneumatically-actuated positioners are unworkable, since the excess moisture will cause routine failure.
Second, these systems are prone to “hunting” or oscillation of the valve as its searches for the proper position to maintain set point pressure. “Hunting” results from a disparity between the relatively fast response time of the electronic means that are used to sample downstream pressure, and the relatively slow response time of the pneumatically-actuated positioner and valve.
Thus, there is a need for a flow controller that is not subject to failure resulting from contaminants in the pressurized air, and that is able to find and maintain the proper valve position without undue valve oscillation. | {
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PIT, PDT and other light activated therapies have been used to treat various maladies and diseases. PIT and PDT and other light activated therapies often involve the use of an exogenous or endogenous photosensitizing agent or substance that is activated by electromagnetic radiation (e.g., light such as laser light, LED light, etc.). PIT is based on a new drug system that consists of a cancer targeting monoclonal antibody conjugated to a photoactivatable molecule. The targeting agent can include other moieties such as ligands, viral capsid, peptides, liposomes, nanoparticles, etc. This drug conjugate is not pharmacologically active until the conjugate is bound to the cancer cells and gains anticancer activity upon light-mediated activation at the tumor site. Tumor targeting and context precision activation of the drug provides exquisite cancer specificity and permits rapid cancer cell killing without damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. Anticancer activity of PIT is highly effective and it works with multiple types of monoclonal antibodies and other targeting moieties, thus the platform enables the targeting of a broad range of cancer antigens and tumor types. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to targeting tumor sites. Instead, the present invention can also be used to target other cellular and acellular organisms including bacteria, fungi, viruses, prions, etc. in order to treat or prevent disease(s).
The basic requirements for PIT and/or PDT light sources are to match the activation spectrum of the exogenous or endogenous photosensitizer (usually the wavelength of peak absorbance) and to generate adequate power at this wavelength, deliverable to the target tissue ergonomically and with high efficiency. Typically, 1-5 W of usable power are required in the 630-850 nm range at irradiances of up to several hundred mW cm−2 in order to deliver treatments in tens of minutes. In addition, the sources must be reliable in the clinical environment and be cost-effective.
For illumination of the area to be treated (“treatment area”), usually cylindrical and frontal (superficial) diffusers, sometimes also called “micro lens diffusers”, are generally used. The fiber optic cylindrical (side firing) and superficial (front firing) diffusers consist of multimode fiber assemblies with a round core/cladding structure from 50-1000 um core diameter with attached diffusing section that can be connected directly to a light source, for instance by means of an optical connector.
I. Conventional Cylindrical Light Diffusers
FIG. 1 shows an example of a typical commercially available cylindrical light diffusing device 100 comprising an optical connector 10 connecting to a light source (not shown) on one end, an optical fiber 12 and a cylindrical diffuser 16 on the other end. During operation, the optical fiber 12 is in light communication with the cylindrical diffuser 16 causing the cylindrical diffuser 16 to out-couple light in a longitudinally radial-symmetric irradiance distribution 18 across the longitudinal length 19 of the cylindrical diffuser 16.
A map of the irradiance at a vertical (i.e., latitudinal) cross-section (shown as “11” in FIG. 1) through the core of the optical fiber 12 taken just before the optical fiber 12 enters the cylindrical diffuser 16 is shown in FIG. 2. In this exemplary embodiment, the light source used is a 690 nm laser with 1 Watt launch power and this power was adjusted until the irradiance 18 measured at the center 17 of the longitudinal length of the diffuser 16 was 150 mW/cm2. This measurement is taken 0.75 mm from the central axis of the stated location of the diffuser 16. The optical fiber 12 from the light source leading up to the cylindrical diffuser 16 (“lead fiber”) is 2 meters long. The optical fiber 12 has a 700 μm outer diameter (“OD”) glass core and a 740 μm OD cladding. During operation, the optical fiber 12 is filled with laser light having an angular distribution of a numerical aperture (“NA”) of 0.22. The cross-section 11 was taken after 2 meter lead fiber (12). The associated irradiance distribution graphs of FIG. 2 taken from vertical and horizontal cross sections through the center of the map of the irradiance show that there is poor spatial uniformity of the irradiance distribution in the core of the optical fiber 12 (“core irradiance distribution”). The large values in the center of the graphs show that there is significantly higher irradiance in the center of the fiber core than near its edges. The graph on the top of FIG. 2 shows the irradiance distribution of the horizontal cross section while the graph on the right side of FIG. 2 shows the irradiance distribution of the vertical cross section. As shown in FIG. 2, both graphs have two axes: one axis shows width (e.g., diameter) in mm and the other axis shows irradiance in Watt/cm2.
Not only does the core irradiance distribution of the optical fiber 12 have poor spatial uniformity, the out-coupled longitudinally radially-symmetric irradiance distribution along the outer surface of irradiance emitting section of the cylindrical diffuser 16 (“diffusing irradiance distribution”) also demonstrates poor spatial uniformity leading to a non-ideal irradiance distribution as shown in FIG. 3. This uneven irradiance distribution is undesirable because the irradiance uniformity would not satisfy the needs of a proper “dosimetry”, meaning the correct irradiance in light power/surface area for an optimal medical treatment efficacy. In FIG. 3, the horizontal axis shows the longitudinal length (in mm) used to measure the length 19 of the cylindrical diffuser 16 and the vertical axis shows the out-coupled irradiance at the surface of the cylindrical diffuser 16 measured in Watts/cm2 at a distance 0.75 mm from the central axis.
FIG. 4 is an example for a typical commercially available cylindrical light diffusing device 200 comprising an optical connector 20 connecting to a light source (not shown) on one end, an optical fiber 22 and a cylindrical diffuser 26 on the other end. During operation, the optical fiber 22 is in light communication with a mode mixer 24 and the cylindrical diffuser 26 causing the cylindrical diffuser 26 to out-couple light in a longitudinally radial-symmetric irradiance distribution 28 across the longitudinal length 29 of the cylindrical diffuser 26.
FIG. 5 shows a map of the irradiance at a vertical cross-section (shown as “21” in FIG. 4) through the core of the optical fiber 22 taken just before the optical fiber 22 enters the cylindrical diffuser 26. In this exemplary embodiment, the light source used is a 690 nm laser with 1 Watt launch power and this power was adjusted until the irradiance 28 measured at the center 27 of the longitudinal length of the diffuser 26 was 150 mW/cm2. This measurement is taken 0.75 mm from the central axis of the stated location of the diffuser 26. The optical fiber 22 from the light source leading up to the cylindrical diffuser 26 (“lead fiber”) is 2 meters long. The optical fiber 22 has a 700 μm OD glass core and a 740 μm OD cladding. During operation, the optical fiber 22 is filled with laser light having an angular distribution of a numerical aperture (“NA”) of 0.22. The cross-section 21 was taken after 2 meter lead fiber (22). Unlike FIG. 2, the associated irradiance distribution graphs shown in FIG. 5 taken from vertical and horizontal cross sections through the center of the map of the irradiance show that when a mode mixer (24) is used with the optical fiber 22, a “top hat” irradiance distribution profile is achieved (i.e., variation of the irradiance distribution of the entire cross-section is less than +/−20% of the average irradiance), indicating a high degree of uniformity of the irradiance distribution in the core of the fiber 22 (e.g. optimal core irradiance distribution). Similar to FIG. 2, the graph on the top of FIG. 5 shows the irradiance distribution of the horizontal cross section while the graph on the right side of FIG. 5 shows the irradiance distribution of the vertical cross section. As shown in FIG. 5, both graphs have two axes: one axis shows width (e.g., diameter) in mm and the other axis shows irradiance in Watt/cm2.
In contrast to the graph shown in FIG. 3, the out-coupled longitudinally radially-symmetric irradiance distribution along the outer surface of irradiance emitting section of the cylindrical diffuser 26 (e.g., the diffusing irradiance distribution) shows spatial uniformity leading to an optimal “top hat” diffusing irradiance distribution as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows that the variation of the out-coupled irradiance distribution should be a “top hat” with less than +/−20% of the average (“I0”) optical irradiance for a cylindrical diffuser in terms of the radially emitted irradiance distribution (e.g., optimal diffusing irradiance distribution). The horizontal axis of FIG. 6 shows longitudinal length in mm and the horizontal arrow indicates the length 29 of the cylindrical diffuser 26. The vertical axis of FIG. 6 shows the out-coupled irradiance at the surface of the cylindrical diffuser 26 measured in Watts/cm2 at a distance 0.75 mm from the central axis.
As shown above, in order to achieve the “top hat” diffusing irradiance distribution for a conventional cylindrical diffuser, optimal mode mixing (e.g., with an effective mode mixer) in the optical fiber is required. The mode mixer 24 shown in FIG. 4 is created in the optical fiber 22 by a series of five consecutive alternating tight radius bends. Another conventional mode mixing method (not shown) is to wrap the optical fiber 22 tightly multiple times around an object (e.g. a mandrel). These popular forms of mode mixing create spatial uniformity at the expense of increased transmission losses, often resulting in the losses of 50% or more. Additionally, these techniques also create stress points within the optical fiber 22. Applying stress to an optical fiber is problematic because it can lead to irreversible damage to such optical fiber, as the micro-bending pushes the optical fiber bending force to the maximum fatigue limit of the glass fiber. Furthermore, these cylindrical diffuser fiber assemblies are sometimes used with optical power that can exceed 1 Watt, which lowers the maximum fatigue limits even more due to thermal heating from the light lost from the fiber core. This thermal heating issue can adversely impact both glass and polymer materials. Thermally destroyed mode mixers have occurred in practice, which represents one major driver to substitute these conventional mode mixers with an alternative according to the described invention.
Please note that an effective mode mixer by itself is insufficient to achieve the “top hat” diffusing irradiance distribution. An effective light diffuser or diffusing section is also required. For cylindrical diffusers, the diffuser section commonly uses additional elements and/or processing of the diffuser section in order to achieve the “top hat” diffusing irradiance distribution. As shown in FIG. 7, one conventional method is removing the cladding of the fiber tip 30 (the diffusing section) and etching the exposed fiber core with hydrofluoric acid or grinding it on a polishing apparatus. The resulting conical tip with its frosted appearance is then covered with a protective transparent envelope 32. Referring to FIG. 8, another conventional method is manufacturing a separate diffuser 34 containing scattering medium 36 that is composed of micron-sized titanium oxide (TiO2) particles embedded in clear epoxy or silicone elastomer, which is encased in a protective Teflon sheath 38. A reflector 40 attached to a plastic plug 42 is then inserted into the open distal end of the sheath 38. The purpose of the coated plug 42 is to reflect any light that survives forward propagation back through the scattering medium 36 where it can be re-distributed, thus improving the uniformity of the emission profile. Yet another method of construction can be described as a hybrid of the two previous methods wherein the cladding of an optical fiber is removed mechanically leaving the surface of the core roughened. This surface is then coated with a silicone elastomer on to which a second layer of elastomer impregnated with titanium oxide particles is deposited. Finally, the entire diffusing tip is encased in an outer PTFE tube which in turn is terminated with a reflective end cap in a manner similar to the above-described method and shown in FIG. 8. These described techniques are costly, labor intensive and time consuming. Hence, these light diffusers are very expensive.
It should be noted there exist other conventional techniques to provide a light diffuser that can produce the “top hat” diffusing irradiance distribution such as having light scattering features on the outside of the optical fiber surface (e.g., divots, threads, notches, general roughening, or the like). These techniques are labor intensive and the resulting homogeneity of the light output pattern relies strongly on a constant fiber diameter, which can vary by up to +/−5%, making it cumbersome to achieve constant and repeatable results in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, light scattering features on the smooth outside surface of the fiber often affect the mechanical strength of the fiber so that for instance the tensile strength drops substantially.
II. Conventional Frontal Light Diffusers
Referring to FIG. 37A, an exemplary embodiment of a typical frontal (superficial) diffuser 500 is provided with 690 nm light introduced onto an optical fiber 506 (e.g., a cylindrical optical fiber) with a 550 um diameter core via a fiber optic connector 503. A ¼ pitch, 1 mm diameter graded index (“GRIN”) lens component 504 located at the distal end output face 510 of the optical fiber 506 generates the outcoupled light 502. Since the desired treatment area (i.e., target) 508 has a much larger diameter (e.g. 42 mm) than the diameter of the optical fiber 506 (e.g. 550 um), the effect of the lens component 504, to a first approximation, is to form an image of the output face 510 of the optical fiber 506 onto the target 508 where the target 508 is located at some standoff distance 512 (e.g., 64 mm) away from the lens component 504. In this fashion, the spatial irradiance distribution of a cross section along the target 508, as shown in FIG. 37C, is closely related to the spatial irradiance distribution along a cross section of 510, as shown in FIG. 37B. Note that this exemplary embodiment exhibits low loss (e.g., −0.25 dB), where 1.0 Watt input power is enough to generate the irradiance distribution in FIG. 37C. The fiber spatial irradiance distribution at 510 of a cylindrical fiber 506 is typically non-uniform, resulting on a non-uniform target spatial irradiance distribution at the target 508. This is not ideal for PIT and PDT application where a constant, uniform spatial irradiance distribution is required over the whole treatment area target 508.
Referring to FIG. 38A, the typical prior art addresses the issue of the non-uniform target spatial irradiance distribution at the target 508 as shown in FIG. 37C by including a mode mixing section 520 in the fiber 506 at a predetermined distanced location prior to the lens component 504. The effect of the mode mixing section 520 is to convert the non-uniform cross sectional spatial irradiance distribution at 510, as shown in FIG. 38B, to the significantly more uniform cross sectional spatial irradiance distribution at 514, as shown in FIG. 38C. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 38D, the target spatial irradiance distribution created by the lens component 504 at the target 508 will have a spatial irradiance distribution that is also more uniform.
The typical prior art mode mixing section 520 not only produces a more uniform fiber spatial irradiance distribution but it also creates a more uniform angular intensity distribution at the output of the fiber 506. However, when using a projection lens 504 to illuminate a target 508 as shown in FIG. 38A, the angular intensity distribution is not as important as the spatial irradiance distribution. This because the image formed by the projection lens 504 is essentially mapping all the light from one location in the fiber 506 to a location on the target 508, regardless of emission angle.
As discussed above, the mode mixing section 520 found in the prior art can be constructed of a serpentine section of one or more tight radius bends as shown in FIGS. 39A-39B, a coiled section of tight radius loops as shown in FIG. 39C, or a section with multiple turns of a tight radius helix as shown in FIG. 39D. Other art-disclosed embodiments of the mode mixing section 520 may also be used (e.g., alternating sections of graded and step index fibers, etc.). However, all these techniques suffer from a significant drawback, they create good mode mixing at the expense of creating high losses in the mode mixing section 520. In one exemplary prior art embodiment, the configuration in FIG. 38A is identical to the configuration in FIG. 37A with the addition of a mode mixing section 520 formed as shown in FIG. 39A with 7.5 mm radius bends. This embodiment exhibits a loss of −2.32 dB, requiring 3.25 Watts of input power to generate the irradiance distribution at the target shown in FIG. 38D.
At worst, these losses mean enough power leaks out of the fiber 506 to heat up the mode mixing section 520, resulting in catastrophic failure of the diffuser 500 and even presenting a safety concern to the operator and the patient. More subtle drawbacks are that the losses incurred by these types of mode mixer sections 520 tend to vary from device to device, making it hard to produce a consistent product and making it hard to calibrate the output from the pairing of a single device with a different light source.
Note that the lens component 504 may be comprised of a combination of one or more of optical elements including spherical, aspherical, graded index and diffractive elements. In the typical prior art, the fiber 506 and lens 504 are often part of a disposable assembly and the lens component 504 tends to have a small diameter.
Referring to FIG. 40A, this creates a condition where the beam of light 502 emerging from the lens component 504 is diverging. The diverging nature of the typical projection lens 504 results in different beam sizes at target position locations 516, 508 and 518 located at stand-off distance 520, 512 and 522 respectively in FIG. 40A. As the target is moved from position 516, past 508, ending at 518, the total power in the resulting beam is the same. However, as shown in the target spatial irradiance distributions in FIG. 40B, the size of the irradiance distribution on the target locations gets larger with distance while the value of the irradiance drops. This is not ideal, as the magnitude of irradiance of the beam (power/area) drops as a function of distance from the output face of the lens component 504 while the area illuminated increases, resulting in only a narrow range of standoff values where the irradiance meets the desired treatment values. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal having a password notification function and a method for notifying a user of a password in the mobile communication terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal having a password notification function and a method for notifying a user of a password in the mobile communication terminal that allows transmission of a stored password or newly generated random password to a previously selected medium when an input password does not coincide with the stored password and a secondary password is entered by the user.
2. Discussion of the Background
With the recent expansion in information utilization and computerization in all aspects of everyday life, passwords are needed to access computer media, to perform credit transactions such as purchasing a product through an Internet shopping mall, and to withdraw cash from a bank. Thus, users may have many different passwords, which are very often difficult for them to remember.
Currently, mobile communication terminal users are required to enter passwords for international telephone services and Internet services in order to prevent excessive or inappropriate billing due to the unauthorized use of these services. Further, users are required to set passwords to prevent disclosure of personal information stored in their mobile communication terminals.
However, if a user has not accessed the service that requires the input of a password for a long period of time, the user may confuse the password with another password or forget the password entirely. Additionally, if a user frequently changes passwords, the user may confuse current passwords with previous passwords. In these cases, the user must gather the necessary identification documents and visit a service center in order to recover the forgotten password. | {
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Plasma processing is widely used in the semiconductor industry for the fabrication of semiconductor devices. Both deposition and etching processes and have been extensively developed that utilize a plasma to create activated atoms and molecules. Plasma processing offers several advantages to more conventional deposition and etching techniques. For example, plasma deposition or growth processes are typically carried out at lower process temperatures than corresponding thermal reaction deposition or growth processes. The relatively low process temperatures allow the high reliability fabrication of semiconductor devices that are sensitive to excess thermal processing, such as shallow junction devices and the like. In particular, conventional thermal oxidation processes are typically carried out at temperatures that are high enough to establish a high reaction rate between oxygen and the substrate being oxidized. Often, the thermal oxidation temperature is high enough to cause unwanted diffusion of dopants in the substrate.
To avoid the high temperatures associated with thermal oxidation, plasma oxidation processes have been developed. Plasma oxidation processes are typically carried out at temperatures below about 600° C. In comparison, a convention thermal oxidation process used to form, for example, silicon dioxide is typically carried out at temperatures in excess of 900° C. By using a plasma oxidation process, diffusion of dopants in the substrate is greatly reduced, which enables the formation of the shallow junctions necessary for high-speed devices.
As the need to fabricate smaller memory devices grows, vertically structured memory cells have been developed to enable higher packing densities. The vertically structured memory devices incorporate memory cells disposed at numerous levels above a substrate. In one such device, each level includes a plurality of spaced-apart first conductors extending in one direction, which are vertically separated from a plurality of parallel spaced-apart second conductors in a second direction, for example, extending perpendicular to the first conductors. Memory cells are disposed between the first conductors and the second conductors.
The memory cells of a vertically structured array are programmed by rupturing an antifuse located in each cell. One particular kind of antifuse is fabricated by forming an oxide layer between two semiconductor layers. For proper functioning of the memory array, the antifuses need to be precisely fabricated to insure that they respond alike to an applied rupture current. Because p/n diodes are typically used in close proximity to the antifuses, excessive oxidation temperatures are undesirable.
In addition to antifuses, thermal oxidation is commonly used to form a gate oxide layer in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The gate oxide layer must be of high quality and of precise thickness to insure proper operation of the transistor.
One particular problem of plasma oxidation relates to the difficulty of controlling the oxidation process to the exacting requirements needed for critical oxide formation. The fabrication of critical oxide layers, such as antifuses, gate oxide layers and the like requires precise thickness control and precise thickness uniformity. Accordingly, improved plasma processing techniques are necessary to enable the fabrication of critical oxide layers using plasma oxidation. | {
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In distributed stream processing, many stream operators associated with streaming applications may make external connections (e.g., TCP, HTTP, etc.) to databases, messaging servers, etc. These external connections may bring data into a streaming application. These stream operators may have operator code (e.g., custom stream operators that may be written from scratch in Java or C++ which may configure one or more external connections) that may not be directly controlled by a stream computing management application. As such, there may not be visibility into the connections being made by a stream operator. For example, a source operator may appear healthy from a stream computing management application perspective, but may not be receiving any data or messages. This may be because the stream operator hasn't successfully set up the external connection or may be because there are no data and/or messages to be consumed. Unless a developer creates and manages a custom metric for each custom source operator, there may be no way to tell without digging into trace logs. From a more malicious perspective, vulnerabilities or problems may arise if a stream operator that shouldn't be making external connections, suddenly starts doing so. | {
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The present invention relates to a method for monitoring a signal having a multi-band frequency, and more particularly, to a method for monitoring a signal having a multi-band frequency capable of effectively and precisely monitoring signals having various frequency bands from a low frequency band generated in a facility such as building up to a high frequency band.
Generally, a state monitoring system of a machine system or a health monitoring system of a building has used several signal interpreting methods in order to diagnose the machine system and the building.
For example, a fast-Fourier transform (FFT) interpreting method or an application interpreting method based on the FFT analyzing method has been universally used in the state monitoring system of the machine system or the health monitoring system of the building.
In order to use the FFT interpreting method, it is an important factor to determine an entire frequency band of interest and a frequency resolution.
Since a maximum ratio between revolutions per minute (RPMs) of input and output terminals of a gear transmission and an accelerator/decelerator included in the machine system may be 100 or more, it is inevitable to select a wide frequency band.
Meanwhile, since behavior of a low speed region is very important, a high resolution of a low speed frequency band is simultaneously required. For example, in the case of the building, a natural frequency is mainly within 1 Hz and disturbance of wind and earthquake becomes about up to 100 Hz, and thus, interpretation in a wide frequency band is required in the building.
In order to perform a wide band high resolution frequency analysis, data sampled at a high speed over a long period of time should be acquired, and integrated FFT should be performed on the acquired data.
That is, since an entire interpretation frequency band corresponds a half of a sampling rate, when the entire frequency band is large, the sampling rate cannot but be large. In addition, since the high resolution corresponds to an inverse number of an entire measurement time, measurement for a long period of time is required in order to obtain the high resolution, and a capacity of a storage for storing related data therein cannot but become large.
Therefore, an amount of data sampled for a long period of time is vast, such that a huge amount of calculation is required in the case in which the FFT is performed on the vast amount of data at the same time, which is very disadvantageous in terms of real-time monitoring.
For example, in an actual structural health monitoring system (SHM), the FFT may be performed on numerous data (about 260,000 data) measured at a sampling rate of about 200 Hz for about 20 minutes.
Therefore, in the case in which an amount of data frequency-sampled for a long period of time is vast, an amount of calculation is very large and a size of one set of data is vast, such that it is difficult to manage a database, and a time interval between records for managing the data is very large, such that it is difficult to analyze a tendency.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combined vehicle immobilizing and steering column control system.
2. Background Art
A vehicle engine is typically started by inserting an ignition key into an ignition lock cylinder and then turning the ignition key. In order to prevent unauthorized use of a vehicle, an electronic immobilizing system is employed with the vehicle's ignition system. The immobilizing system uses an inductive link between a transmitter contained in the ignition key and a coil placed around the ignition lock cylinder. The transmitter contained in the key transmits an immobilizing identification code. When the identification code transmitted from the transmitter of the key matches an identification code preset in the vehicle's engine control unit, the engine is electronically controlled and started. Therefore, the starting of the engine is permitted only by a key incorporating a transmitter which transmits the proper identification code.
A vehicle steering column includes a steering wheel rotatably connected to a steering wheel shaft. The steering wheel typically includes control buttons and switches which are actuated by an operator to control certain vehicle functions. Such steering wheel control buttons and switches are hard wired to respective control modules via the steering wheel shaft. A problem with such an arrangement is that it would be more desirable if the steering wheel control buttons and switches communicated wirelessly with the respective modules. | {
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Microwave ovens provide a convenient means for heating a variety of food items, including dough-based products such as pizzas and pies. However, microwave ovens tend to cook such items unevenly and are unable to achieve the desired balance of thorough heating and a browned, crisp crust. Many commercially available packages attempt to brown and/or crisp the bottom surface of the food item without addressing the need to brown and/or crisp the crust or dough on the top or edges of the food item. Thus, there is a need for a system that provides the desired degree of heating, browning, and/or crisping of both the bottom and top surfaces of the crust or dough of a food item. | {
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A hydrogenated ring-opening polymer of a norbornene-based monomer such as dicyclopentadiene is a type of so-called cycloolefin polymer that exhibits excellent transparency, low birefringence, forming processability and the like, and thus is used as a material that can be applied to various applications such as optical applications.
A hydrogenated ring-opening polymer of dicyclopentadiene is normally obtained in the form of an amorphous polymer that has an atactic structure. However, the amorphous hydrogenated ring-opening polymer of dicyclopentadiene having the atactic structure may exhibit insufficient heat resistance, mechanical strength, solvent resistance and the like depending on the application. Hence, as a measure for improving the performance of such a hydrogenated ring-opening polymer, a hydrogenated ring-opening polymer of dicyclopentadiene that has crystallinity by producing a hydrogenated ring-opening polymer of dicyclopentadiene having a tactic structure on its main chain has been proposed.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses that a dicyclopentadiene ring-opening polymer having cis-syndio regularity that is soluble in a hydrocarbon solvent such as a cyclohexane at room temperature is obtained by subjecting dicyclopentadiene to ring-opening polymerization through the use of a polymerization catalyst that mainly includes a group 6 transition metal compound having a specific substituent such as a phenylimidotungsten tetrachloride diethyl ether complex, and furthermore a hydrogenated syndiotactic crystalline dicyclopentadiene ring-opening polymer having crystallinity is obtained by hydrogenating the carbon-carbon double bonds included in the ring-opening polymer through the use of a mixture of a bis(tricyclohexylphosphine)benzylideneruthenium(IV) dichloride and ethyl vinyl ether or the like, as a hydrogenation catalyst. In addition, Patent Literature 2 discloses that a crystalline dicyclopentadiene ring-opening polymer having cis-iso regularity that is insoluble in a hydrocarbon solvent such as cyclohexane at room temperature is obtained by subjecting dicyclopentadiene to ring-opening polymerization through the use of a polymerization catalyst that mainly includes a group 4 to 6 transition metal compounds that include a specific aromatic dioxy group as a ligand such as a phenylimidotungsten bisphenolate complex, and a hydrogenated isotactic crystalline dicyclopentadiene ring-opening polymer having crystallinity is obtained by hydrogenating the carbon-carbon double bonds included in the ring-opening polymer through the use of RuHCl(CO)(PPh3)2 or the like as a hydrogenation catalyst. | {
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In the operation of a computer system, a variety of manipulations are executed for servers in the computer system. Examples of such manipulations may include backup of data in a server and update of programs installed in a server, etc. For a large-scaled computer system, it is difficult for an administrator to manually execute all manipulations (hereinafter referred to as operation manipulations) occurring during the system operation.
For example, an operation scenario is generated for automatically executing the operation manipulations. The operation scenario is, for example, information defining an order of execution of the operation manipulations. When the operation scenario is generated in advance, it is possible to automatically execute the operation manipulations in accordance with the generated operation scenario. For example, an incident management system for automatically coping with known incidents is being under consideration.
When a server to be manipulated has a trouble, there are some cases where manipulations are unable to be executed in accordance with the operation scenario. As measures against such cases, for example, a technique for generating an interruption scenario for interrupting execution of the operation scenario is being under consideration.
Related techniques are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-008178 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-332025.
As for the methods for generating an operation scenario applied to a plurality of servers, for example, a method for individually generating operation scenarios related to operation manipulations for individual servers is considered. In this method, the operation scenarios are generated individually every time the number of servers is changed, which may result in an imposition of excessive burden for generating operation scenarios on an administrator under current situations where the number of servers may be easily changed by using a virtual machine.
In order to reduce the burden for generating operation scenarios, an operation scenario for collectively executing operation manipulations for a plurality of servers may be generated. Accordingly, it may be possible to decrease the number of operation scenarios to be generated and thus alleviate the burden for generating operation scenarios imposed on the administrator.
However, conventionally, when an abnormality occurs in some servers in the collective execution of the operation manipulations according to the operation scenario for the plurality of servers, it is not possible to determine the range of influence by the abnormality. Therefore, the execution of the entire operation scenario is stopped even by an abnormality in some servers, which makes it impossible to execute operation manipulations for the servers that are not directly related to the abnormality. Such use of the operation scenario for collectively executing operation manipulations for the plurality of servers may result in stoppage of all operation manipulations in the operation scenario due to the abnormality of some servers and reduction of efficiency of execution of operation manipulations. | {
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The present invention is generally directed to methods and compositions that enhance growth hormone production and release, and which have been found to suppresses appetite, in human subjects.
Growth hormone plays an important role in the physiology of warm-blooded animals, including humans. To date, there have been several methods developed to increase growth hormone levels within the body to influence a disease state such as, for example, pituitary dwarfism, or to facilitate healing after trauma associated with burns, surgery, etc. Relatedly, it has been noted that growth hormone levels within the body markedly decrease after puberty, and gradually decline thereafter throughout life. It has also been noted that growth hormone supplementation in elderly individuals cause physiological changes consistent with rejuvenation. Accordingly, growth hormone supplementation is considered by many to be highly advantageous.
Additionally, there are several known compounds which are considered to be growth hormone secretogogues, but these compounds do not necessarily promote growth hormone synthesis. There are also several known compounds which promote growth hormone synthesis, but these compounds do not necessarily induce the release or secretion of the growth hormone. Moreover, due to the large size and fragility associated with growth hormone molecules (191 peptide residues), growth hormone (and similar agents) is generally administered into the body via an injection. There are, however, several shortcomings associated with systemic delivery by injection, shortcomings such as increased risk of infection at the site of delivery.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a composition that enhances growth hormone production and release within a subject, as well as to methods relating thereto. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides for further related advantages.
In brief, the present invention is generally directed to compositions and methods for enhancing growth hormone production and release, in a subject so as to effectuate rejuvenation. In the practice of this invention, it has also been found that such compositions simultaneously serve to suppress appetite.
In one embodiment, a method for enhancing growth hormone production and release in a subject so as to effectuate rejuvenation and appetite suppression is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of a first composition, wherein the first composition increases cholinergic tone above a baseline level; and administering to the subject an effective amount of a second composition, wherein the second composition decreases somatostatin below a baseline level. The first composition may be a combination of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and Vitamin E xcex1-D-succinate, whereas the second composition may be a combination of a salt of cysteamine (e.g., cysteamine hydrochloride salt) and an alkali buffer. Alternatively, the second composition may be a combination of pantothenic acid and an alkali metal salt, as well as a reducing agent as an optional component. It is to be understood that other forms of cysteamine, including the base, may also be used.
In another embodiment, a kit useful for enhancing growth hormone production and release so as to effectuate rejuvenation and appetite suppression is disclosed. The kit comprises a first composition and a second composition, wherein first composition comprises an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and Vitamin E xcex1-D-succinate, whereas the second composition is a salt of cysteamine (e.g., cysteamine hydrochloride salt) and an alkali buffer, or pantothenic acid and an alkali metal salt. In a more specific embodiment, the first composition comprises choline bitartrate in an amount ranging from 0.01 to 95% by weight; dimethylaminoethanol in an amount ranging from 0.01 to 85% by weight; Vitamin E xcex1-D-succinate in an amount ranging from 0.01 o 85% by weight; gingko biloba 24% gingosides in an amount ranging from 0.001 to 30% by weight; Huperzine A in an amount ranging from 0.000000001 to 5% by weight; and 5-Hydroxytryptophan in an amount ranging from 0.001 to 30% by weight; and wherein the second composition comprises cysteamine HCL in an amount ranging from 0.001 to 90% by weight. In an alternative embodiment, the second composition comprises calcium pantothenate in an amount ranging from 0.01 to 99% by weight; magnesium phosphate tribasic in an amount ranging from 0.01 to 99% by weight; magnesium phosphate tribasic in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 85% by weight; magnesium sulfite in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 85% by weight; and citric acid in an amount ranging from 0.01 to 95% by weight of the second composition.
The present invention is also directed to a method for suppressing appetite within a subject, comprising the steps of orally administering an effective amount of the kit of this invention.
These and other aspects of this invention will be evident upon reference to the following detailed description.
The present invention is generally directed to compositions and methods for enhancing growth hormone production and release in a subject so as to effectuate rejuvenation and appetite suppression. Although many specific details associated with certain aspects of the present invention are set forth below, those skilled in the art of pharmacology, and especially neuropharmacology, will recognize that the present invention may have additional embodiments, or that the invention may be practiced without several of the details disclosed herein.
As noted above, it is known that growth hormone plays a vital role in human physiology, and numerous methods have been developed to increase growth hormone levels within a human body so as to influence a variety of disease states. It is also known that growth hormone levels decrease after puberty, and continue to gradually decline throughout life, and that growth hormone supplementation in elderly individuals causes changes consistent with rejuvenation. However, because of the size and fragility of the growth hormone molecule, it must be administered by injection. Accordingly, an orally available composition capable of enhancing growth hormone production and release is needed.
The present invention provides an orally administered composition for enhancing growth hormone production and release, and methods related thereto. In addition, it has been surprisingly found that the composition of this invention also serves to suppress appetite in human subjects, which is a desirable attribute in and of itself.
The composition of this invention is a kit formulation, wherein the first part of the composition enhances (1) cholinergic tone and (2) growth hormone synthesis, and wherein the second part of the composition inhibits (3) somatostatin production. Because of the importance associated with the above, each is more fully discussed below.
Increasing Cholinergic Tone
Substances that will increase acetylcholine production and release tend to result in an increase in cholinergic tone above baseline. These substances include, but are not limited to various choline-containing compounds, such as choline bitartrate or phosphatidyl choline; acetylcholine precursors, such as dimethylaminoethanol and congeners related thereto. Substances that increase blood flow in the cerebral cortex are known to increase acetylcholine levels. These substances include, but are not limited to: ginkgo biloba with gincosides assayed at 24% of total weight, niacin, papaverine, hydergine and other ergot alkaloids, etc. Other substances known to increase acetylcholine release include a variety of cholinergic agents, such as pyridostigmine, etc. However, for the purpose of the present invention, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor is preferred. The Chinese moss derivative huperzine A, which is known to enhance cognition, also affects cholinergic tone. This substance, in conjunction with substances that increase the overall levels of acetylcholine, results in a substantial increase of acetylcholine levels above baseline. Other substances that increase acetylcholine levels include hypericum (St. John""s Wort) and S-adenosulmethionine. Seemingly, the antidepressant effects of these two compositions are partially related to their ability to increase acetylchie levels. As is appreciated by those skilled in the art, irreversible acetylcholine esterase inhibitors, such as malathion will increase acetylcholine levels. Unfortunately, these agents are difficult to administer therapeutically because of their narrow margin of safety.
Increasing Growth Hormone Synthesis
Several compounds will enhance growth hormone synthesis. It was recently discovered that Vitamin E xcex1-D-succinate increases growth hormone synthesis in vitro. Similarly, melatonin will also increase growth hormone synthesis. Unfortunately, there may be a negative feedback on melatonin synthesis in vivo when melatonin is exogenously administered. However, there are amino acids, such as tryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan which will increase melatonin synthesis in vivo with chronic administration.
In view of the foregoing, it has been discovered that the first part of the kit of this inventionxe2x80x94that is, the part for enhancing cholinergic tone and growth hormone synthesisxe2x80x94may include (as a representative embodiment of this invention) those substances identified in Table 1 below.
Inhibiting Somatostatin Synthesis
There are a limited number of substances that will inhibit somatostatin production. The most potent of these is cysteamine. Unfortunately, this molecule is unstable in air and therefore the salt is used for oral administration in the context of this invention. This substance has been used extensively in agriculture to decrease the time it takes to bring livestock and chickens to market. Unfortunately, this substance is from the chemical class known as mercaptans, which are among the worst smelling and tasting chemicals known to man. As such, and to avoid acid hydrolysis in the gut, cysteamine may be formulated as a readily absorbable liquid preparation.
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, it has been discovered that the second part of the kit of this inventionxe2x80x94that is, the part for inhibiting somatostatin synthesisxe2x80x94may include (as representative embodiments of this invention) those substances identified in Table 2a (liquid form) or Table 2B (capsule form).
It should be noted that Table 2B denotes a formulation of a capsule embodiment having cysteamine in the delivery system, wherein the cysteamine will buffer acid hydrolysis in the gut. In the noted embodiment of Table 2A, an alkaline earth salt-magnesium phosphate tribasic is used. However, and as is appreciated by those skilled in the art, other alkali buffers may be used.
A further pathway to increase levels of cysteamine, and thereby inhibit somatostatin, involves pantothenic acid. Pantothenic acid is a naturally occurring vitamin that is converted in mammals to coenzyme A, a substance vital to many physiological reactions. Cysteamine is a component of coenzyme A, and increasing coenzyme A levels results in increased levels of circulating cysteamine. Alkali metal salts, such as magnesium phosphate tribasic and magnesium sulphite (Epsom salts), enhance formation of coenzyme A. Furthermore, breakdown of coenzyme A to cysteamine is enhanced by the presence of a reducing agent, such as citric acid. Thus, the combination of pantothenic acid and alkali metal salts results in increased coenzyme A production and, concomitantly, cysteamine, thereby resulting in a decrease in somatostatin production. This occurs rapidly (e.g., less than 14 days) with continued administration. This, in conjunction with an increase in cholinergic tone, results in increased levels of growth hormone and cholecystokinin, with a resultant increase in lean body mass and a decrease in appetite. A representative formula containing such components and concentration ranges for the same is disclosed in Table 2C, which may be administered at a dosage of, for example, two capsules three times daily, or three capsules twice daily.
Administration of both parts of the kit of this invention to a warm-blooded animal achieves a number of beneficial results. First, the above kit is an orally administered formulation, which represents a significant improvement over existing, non-oral administration routs. As noted above, the kit of this invention serves to enhance growth hormone production, and enhance release of growth hormone by increasing cholinergic tone. In addition, by inhibiting somatostatin, both production and release of growth hormone are enhanced. Thus, an important aspect of this invention is the ability to both increase growth hormone production and release, and simultaneously antagonize an inhibitor of the same (i.e., somatostatin), and to achieve these results by an orally available route.
In the practice of this invention, it has also been found that administration of the disclosed composition results in appetite suppression. Although not intending to be limited by the following theory, it is believed that cysteamine and its various salts induces the release of cholecystokinin (CCK). This peptide is among the most powerful of all appetite suppressants (at least in humans). Therefore, it is believed that because cysteamine promotes the secretion of CCK, administration of cysteamine results in appetite suppression.
With regard to the administration of the kit, each part of the kit is, in one embodiment, administered simultaneously. For example, when both parts are in the form of a pill, capsule, tablet, liquid or the like, both parts may be taken successivelyxe2x80x94that is, at the same time or one after the other. Alternatively, administration of each part may be performed at different times. such as minutes or even hours apart. However, for convenience of administration, both parts are typically administered successively. | {
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It has been known to utilize mechanical handling apparatus to supply labels to a container. Such apparatus has included a plastic label sheet feed supply, a drum upon which the label is secured and which moves the label into engagement with the outer surface of a container. The label adheres to the container and is subsequently wrapped around the container by rolling it along a fixed surface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,416, for instance, shows such an apparatus, the label being glued to the container and its overlapped ends glued together by the use of a glue applicator assembly. Hot melt adhesives have been used to secure the labels to the container and to form a glued side seam when applied to the overlapped label ends.
Other adhesives, with accompanying drawbacks, have been used such as dextrines and other water-based adhesives, and pressure sensitive adhesives. For containers such as oriented plastic carbonated beverage bottles, pressure sensitive adhesives have not been commonly used.
The use of the hot melt adhesive (glue) has been messy and expensive, heat being required to heat the adhesive. There is a hazard of being exposed to possible burning from heaters used to heat the glue. In addition, such as in the case of an oriented plastic container, the label cannot be easily removed from the container and hence the body portion of the container is contaminated and cannot be readily recycled. | {
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1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates generally to air conditioners adapted to be installed in automotive vehicles, and more particularly to an automobile air conditioner for conditioning the temperature of the air in the driver's seat side and the temperature of the air in the assistant driver's seat side of the vehicle, independently of each other.
2. Description of the Related Art:
One example of an automobile air conditioner of the type described above is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 61-185873 filed by the present assignee. The disclosed air conditioner, as illustrated here in FIGS. 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings, includes two juxtaposed air flow passages 3a, 3b connected at their downstream ends to an air distribution chamber 17 and containing a pair of independently controllable blowers 10a, 10b disposed, respectively, adjacent the upstream ends of the air flow passages 3a, 3b, and further containing a heat exchanger 12 for cooling and heat exchangers 13a, 13b for heating sequentially disposed, adjacent the downstream ends of the air flow passages 3a, 3b. The cooling heat exchanger 12 extends transversely across the two air flow passages 3a, 3b. The heating heat exchangers 13a, 13b are disposed in the respective air flow passages 3a, 3b and each receive a controlled quantity of hot water. The rotation of the individual blowers 10a, 10b and the flow quantity of the individual heating heat exchangers 13a, 13b are controlled such that the air in the left side and the right side of a vehicle passenger compartment are air-conditioned independently of each other.
In the automobile air conditioner described above, a pair of independently controllable blowers and a pair of heating heat exchangers must be provided. This arrangement requires complicated wiring and piping, thus making it difficult to construct the air conditioner at a reduced manufacturing cost. Another problem is that since the full reheat-type air conditioner is incapable of controlling the temperature distribution in a vertical direction of the air flow passage, air-conditioning to keep the occupant's head cool and his feet warm is difficult to obtain, particularly when the air conditioner is operating in the bi-level mode. | {
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Conventionally, a sealing device, like the one depicted in FIG. 3, that is formed with a ridge to attain a screw-seal action at a seal lip is known.
This sealing device is equipped with a seal lip 100 formed by a rubber-like elastic material (a synthetic resin material that includes rubber material and rubber-like elasticity); at an inner peripheral surface of this seal lip 100, a sealing-space-side-conical surface 102 whose large diameter increases to a degree of a sealing space (in-machine) A side, and a sealing-space-opposite-side conical surface 103 whose large diameter increases to a degree of a sealing space (out-of-machine) B side are formed, using a smallest-diameter lip-edge portion 101 as a boundary; and a plurality of first thread ridges 104 and second thread ridges 105 are formed at the sealing-space-opposite-side conical surface 103. Widths and heights of the first thread ridges 104 and the second thread ridges 105 are constant across an entire length, the ridges being disposed alternately to face opposite directions in a circumferential direction using a plurality of ridges as one set.
In other words, the sealing device constituted as described above attains shaft-sealing functionality with the lip-edge portion 101 of an inner diameter of the seal lip 100, fitted into the inner circumference surface of a housing, not shown in the drawing, closely fitted to be able to slide on an outer circumference surface of a rotating shaft 200 to inhibit oil in a sealing space A from leaking from around the shaft into an opposite sealing space B. Also, both of the first thread ridges 104 and the second thread ridges 105 attain screw-pump action in a forward direction to the rotation of the rotating shaft 200, in a rotation in either a forward or a reverse direction rotation of the rotating shaft 200. For that reason, oil that is trying to leak from the seal lip 100 at the sliding portion of the rotating shaft 200 of the sealing space A to the sealing space B opposite side is returned to the sliding portion side by forward direction screw-pump action, attaining a good sealing functionality.
Also, the sealing device depicted in FIG. 4 to suppress a drop in the screw-pump action caused by friction of the first thread ridges 104 and the second thread ridges 105, the first thread ridges 104 and the second thread ridges 105 are formed into boat-bottom-shaped projections whose widths and heights become largest at an intermediate portion in a length direction. (For example, see the Patent Document reference listed below.) | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In many instances, individuals who have retired or who have recently moved to rural areas or individuals in urban areas are interested in constructing buildings as do-it-yourself projects. While the present invention is extremely useful and adapted to individuals who wish to construct buildings themselves, it is also well adapted to the construction of building by professionals who may use the method of the present invention to economically and efficiently construct structures. The structures may be buildings, walls, fences and the like.
In the past, the construction of buildings has required the use of welding, complicated bracket and bolt assemblies and the like.
According to the present invention, a simple method is provided for constructing a structure using tools such as a saw, a screw driver, a power screw driver, self-tapping screws and the like. | {
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Nowadays, there is an increasing trend in automobiles that a mechanical drive system is replaced with an electrical drive system using a motor in order to satisfy needs such as reducing size, increasing ease of assembly, and improving controllability. In an example of such an electrical drive system, a range change mechanism in an automatic transmission of a vehicle is driven using a motor. In this system, an encoder outputs a pulse signal synchronously with rotation of the motor at a predetermined angle, and a gear range is changed to a target range by rotating the motor to a target position corresponding to the target range based on a count value (hereinafter referred to as the “encoder count value”) of the pulse signals outputted from the encoder.
In this type of system, when power is turned ON, an energization phase learning process is performed by executing an initial drive of the motor. In the energization phase learning process, a relationship between an energization phase of the motor and the encoder count value is learned. Then, a strike control process is performed to learn a reference position (i.e., limit position) of the motor. In the strike control process, the motor is rotated until the range change mechanism strikes a limit (i.e., wall) of its movable area. The rotation amount (i.e., rotation angle) of the motor is controlled with respect to the encoder count value obtained when the motor is at the reference position. The energization phase learning process and the strike control process are hereinafter sometimes collectively referred to as the “reference position learning process”. The reference position learning process is performed each time a microcomputer which controls the motor returns to a wakeup mode (i.e., active mode) from a sleep mode.
JP-A-2012-170213 discloses a technique to reduce the number of times the reference position learning process is performed. According to the technique, the reference position learning process is not performed when the output signal of the encoder does not change during a period of time where the microcomputer is in a sleep mode. In contrast, when the output signal of the encoder changes during a period of time where the microcomputer is in a sleep mode, the microcomputer switches to the wakeup mode from the sleep mode at that time. In this case, if it is determined that only one of A-phase and B-phase signals changes, a correction process is performed so that the encoder count value can be corrected by one. In contrast, if it is determined that both the A-phase and B-phase signals change, the reference position learning process is performed.
It is noted that even after the microcomputer finishes rotating the motor, the rotation position of the motor may be displaced a little by a detent mechanism, which keeps the range change mechanism at a position corresponding to each gear range, so that the output signal of the encoder may be changed accordingly. In the technique disclosed in JP-A-2012-170213, the microcomputer switches to the sleep mode after finishing rotating the motor. Therefore, if the microcomputer switches to the sleep mode just after finishing rotating the motor, it is likely that the output signal of the encoder will be changed by the detent mechanism after the microcomputer switches to the sleep mode. In this case, if both the A-phase and B-phase signals are changed by the detent mechanism, the reference position learning process is performed. Therefore, the number of times the reference position learning process is performed cannot be reduced effectively. In addition, in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2012-170213, the microcomputer switches to the wakeup mode from the sleep mode each time the output signal of the encoder changes. Accordingly, power consumption may be increased. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Epoxy resins and their utility are well known and have been described in numerous publications. Just as well known is the propensity of these resins to burn. To improve their flame retardant characteristics, epoxy resins have been compounded with phosphate and phosphonate esters including those containing haloalkyl groups as described in British Patent No. 1,487,609; U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,242 and South African Patent No. 18201/77. The use of triphenylphosphine as a flame retardant additive for epoxy resins was described by Martin and Price, J. Applied Polymer Science, 12, 143-158 (1968).
Tetrakishydroxymethylphosphonium chloride and trishydroxymethylphosphine oxide have also been used in epoxy resins as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,473. Aminoalkylphosphonic acid esters are suggested as fire retardant hardeners for epoxy resins in U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,229.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,666,543 and 3,716,580 disclose 2-hydroxyalkylphosphine oxides and halogenated derivatives thereof that are said to have utility as flame proofing agents.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,345,059; 4,380,571 and 4,440,944 all disclose fire retardant epoxy resin compositions which contain 3-hydroxyalkylphosphine oxides to impart said fire retardant characteristics.
Addition of halogenated organic compounds alone to epoxy resins for imparting flame retardancy is well known and widely practiced. The most widely used method is to add a brominated bis-phenol acetone or a bis-epoxide adduct thereof to the resin. However, these brominated resins, when used alone, require bromine contents of up to 20% or even higher to be effective. These large organobromine levels increase the density of the resin, generate large amounts of smoke containing corrosive materials such as hydrogen bromide gas, and may lead to generation of highly toxic materials such as polybrominated dibenzodioxins. Formulations which reduce the bromine content required for flame retardancy would thus have significant value.
However, phosphorus based known flame retardant additives for use in epoxy resin compositions generally suffer from one or more deficiencies including low compatibility with the resin, low thermal stability or poor fire retardant behavior. Some fire retardant additives also negatively impact the glass transition temperature of the resin to an unacceptable extent. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to magnetic recording media used in hard disk devices and similar and to a method of manufacture of such media, as well as to a magnetic recording/reproduction device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years there has been a remarkable expansion of the range of application of magnetic disk devices, flexible disk devices, magnetic tape devices, and other magnetic recording devices, and the increasing importance of such devices has been accompanied by progress to markedly increase the recording densities of the magnetic recording media used in such magnetic recording devices. In particular, since the introduction of MR heads and PRML technology, areal recording densities have surged upward, and with the further appearance of GMR heads, TMR heads and other technologies in recent years, areal recording densities have continued to shoot upward at a rate of roughly 100% per year.
Hence the attainment of still higher recording densities for magnetic recording media is being sought, and to this end magnetic recording layers with higher coercive forces, higher signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and higher resolution are demanded. Also, in recent years continuing efforts have been made to further increase areal recording densities through increases in track densities together with improvements in linear recording densities.
In the most recent magnetic recording devices, track densities of 110 kTPI have been achieved. However, if track densities are increased, mutual interference of magnetic recorded information in adjacent tracks occurs, and magnetization transition regions in these boundary areas become a source of noise, so that the problem that the SNR is degraded tends to occur. This leads directly to a reduced bit error rate, and so impedes increases in recording density.
In order to further increase areal recording densities, the size of each recorded bit on the magnetic recording media must be made still more minute, and as large a saturation magnetization and magnetic film thickness as possible must be secured for each recorded bit. However, if recorded bits are further reduced in size, the minimum magnetized volume per bit is decreased, and so there is the problem that magnetization inversion due to thermal fluctuation causes loss of recorded data.
Moreover, because the distance between tracks is decreased, extremely high-precision track servo technology is required in magnetic recording devices, and at the same time, a method is generally employed in which recording is executed with a wide width, and reproduction is executed over a width narrower than during recording in order to eliminate insofar as possible the effect of adjacent tracks. In this method, the effects of other tracks can be suppressed to a minimum, but on the other hand it is difficult to obtain an adequate reproduction output, and consequently there is the problem that an adequate SNR cannot easily be secured.
As one method of addressing such problems with thermal fluctuations, and of securing an adequate SNR and sufficient output, attempts have been made to raise the track density by forming depressions and protrusions along tracks on the recording media surface, to physically separate recording tracks from each other. (Below, such technology is called the discrete track method, and magnetic recording media manufactured using this method is called discrete track media.)
As one example of discrete track media, magnetic recording media is known in which the magnetic recording media is formed on a nonmagnetic substrate on the surface of which a pattern of depressions and protrusions has been formed, so that physically separated magnetic recording tracks and servo signal patterns are formed (see Patent Reference 1).
In this magnetic recording media, a ferromagnetic layer is formed on top of the nonmagnetic substrate having a plurality of depressions and protrusions on the surface, with a soft magnetic layer intervening. In this magnetic recording media, magnetic recording areas, physically separated from the surrounding areas, are formed in protrusion areas.
By means of this magnetic recording media, the occurrence of domain walls in the soft magnetic layer can be suppressed, so that the effects of thermal fluctuations tend not to appear, nor is there interference between adjacent signals, and high-density magnetic recording media with low noise can be fabricated.
Discrete track methods include a method in which tracks are formed after magnetic recording media comprising a number of thin film layers is fabricated, and a method in which, after forming a depression/protrusion pattern either directly on the substrate surface in advance or else in a thin film layer for track formation, magnetic recording media thin film layers are formed (see for example Patent Reference 2 and Patent Reference 3).
Of these, the former method, often called the magnetic layer machining method, entails physical machining of the surface after media fabrication, and so has the drawback that contamination tends to occur during media manufacturing processes, and moreover manufacturing processes are extremely complicated. On the other hand, the latter method is often called the embossing method; contamination does not readily occur during manufacturing processes, but because the depression/protrusion shape formed on the substrate is transferred to film deposited thereupon, there are the problems that the flying attitude and flying height of a recording/reproduction head which performs recording or reproduction while flying over the media are unstable.
In addition, a method has also been disclosed in which areas between magnetic tracks in discrete track media are formed by implantation of nitrogen ions and oxygen ions into the magnetic layer in advance, and then performing laser irradiation (see Patent Reference 4). However, the areas between magnetic tracks formed using this method, while having a low saturation magnetization, have a high coercive force, so that a state of insufficient magnetization occurs, and when writing information in the magnetic track portions, write bleeding occurs.
Further, methods have been disclosed in which, in so-called patterned media manufacturing in which a magnetic recording pattern is positioned with a constant regularity at each bit, the magnetic recording pattern is etched by ion irradiation, or the magnetic layer is formed by amorphization (see Non-patent Reference 1 and Patent Reference 5). However, in this method also, there are problems such as the occurrence of contamination of the magnetic recording media in manufacturing processes and reduced smoothness of the surface, as well as such problems as inadequate elimination of magnetization in the magnetic layer by the ion irradiation. Patent Reference 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2004-164692 Patent Reference 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2004-178793 Patent Reference 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2004-178794 Patent Reference 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 5-205257 Patent Reference 5: U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,364 Non-patent Reference 1: IEICE Technical Report, MR2005-55 (2006-02), pp. 21-26 (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers)
In the embossing method of manufacturing, depression/protrusion shapes are formed in the substrate, and magnetic layers and a protective layer are formed thereupon, so that the depression/protrusion shapes are transferred without modification to the surface, and it is not easy to realize a flat surface.
On the other hand, in the case of discrete track magnetic recording media prepared using the magnetic layer machining method, a magnetic layer for recording is formed on the substrate surface, and thereafter magnetic patterns are formed. Consequently after magnetic patterns have been formed by an imprint method, used in semiconductors and other fields, the portion which is to serve as a nonmagnetic portion, is subjected to for example dry etching and burying with SiO2 and carbon nonmagnetic material or similar are performed to flatten the surface, and the surface is then covered with a protective film layer, after which a lubricating layer is formed. Such magnetic etched-type discrete track media entails complicated manufacturing processes, and not only may be the source of contamination, but cannot attain a flat surface.
In general in magnetic recording media with such a structure, the thinner the protective film layer, the shorter is the distance between head and magnetic layer, so that signal entry into and exit from the head is greater, and higher recording densities are possible. Also, the pit density within tracks is determined by the flying height of the head traveling over the protective film layer surface, with a depression/protrusion shape. Hence preservation of stable head flight while achieving high recording densities is a vital problem. To this end, a depression/protrusion pattern is sought which brings the head into as close proximity to the magnetic layer as possible while maintaining stable head flight, and yet which prevents mutual interference between signals of adjacent tracks.
However, there have been no proposals of manufacturing technology for discrete track media with a flat surface, and which poses no risk of contamination in manufacturing processes, nor have there been proposals of technology for the manufacture of magnetic recording media in which write bleeding does not occur when writing information to the magnetic track portions.
In the manufacture of so-called patterned media, it has been proposed that the magnetic layer be amorphized by ion irradiation to form the magnetic recording patterns; however, there have been the problems that elimination of magnetic properties in the magnetic layer is inadequate, and that write bleeding occurs. This is thought to occur because, although magnetic layer crystals are temporarily amorphized by ions implanted into the magnetic layer, in subsequent processes, and due to the heat at the time of ion irradiation, a portion of the amorphous structure is recrystallized, and as a result there is recovery of the magnetic characteristics of the magnetic layer subjected to ion irradiation.
This invention was devised in light of the above circumstances of the prior art, and has, as an object, the provision, for magnetic recording devices, engineering difficulties in respect to which are being faced as recording densities rise, of magnetic recording media in which, while maintaining recording/reproduction characteristics comparable or superior to those of the prior art, enables higher recording densities, and reduces to the utmost the coercive force and remanent magnetization of the nonmagnetic portions which magnetically separate magnetic patterns, to eliminate write bleeding in the event of magnetic recording, and to thereby enable increases in the areal recording density, as well as the provision of a manufacturing method for such media, and a magnetic recording/reproduction device.
In particular, this invention has as an object the provision, for discrete track magnetic recording devices in which depressions and protrusions are formed after depositing a magnetic layer on a nonmagnetic substrate, of magnetic recording media with simplified manufacturing processes, and with low risk of contamination, and with excellent head flying characteristics, compared with magnetic layer machining methods of the prior art, through the elimination of processes for removal of the magnetic layer, as well as a method of manufacture of such media, and a magnetic recording/reproduction device. | {
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Millions of small electrical appliances are in use in industrialized society, not only in industry but in offices, schools, and households, as well. There is proliferation of hair dryers, razors, hair clippers, curling irons, nail polishers, electric toothbrushes, irons, drills, glue guns, sprayers, mixers, electric knifes, slicers, and the like. Each appliance requires its own loose powercord. There is also proliferation of a new generation of very small electronic appliances such as cassette players, CD-ROM drives, cellular telephones, desktop and laptop computers, computer games, game controls, recharging devices, converters, adapters, and interface modules, each requiring a powercord. Many very small appliances require a converter, adapter or recharger which is most often affixed not to the appliance but to the powercord, to eliminate bulk from the appliance. Portable computers comprise separate portable modules, disc drives, modems, and interface terminals, which require cords and adapters of various configurations.
Often within a household, each person has his and her own personal assortment of electric and electronic appliances, including personal hair dryer, razor, electric toothbrush, calculator, cassette player, CD drive, game cartridges, game controls, and headsets. Young persons especially are more and more equipped with myriads of small appliances, electronic toys, games, game consoles, game controls, music devices, and gadgets requiring powercords, adapters, converters, and recharging devices. This results in household drawers and boxes of appliances, electronic devices, powercords and adapters.
Each appliance requires its own loose powercord. None has been found to disclose a storage system comprising interfaced, detachable storage tool with storage bin shelf for retention and storage of appliances, cords, and storage modules in an orderly manner.
As the pace of life accelerates, there is increasing necessity to minimize the clutter of small appliances with loose cords and adapters. Yet, prior to this disclosure, nothing had been disclosed to solve the problem. Drawers of powercords, adapters and appliances continue to grow. An executive in one company that manufactures small appliances has commented that one problem in the industry is the nightmare of what to do with the maze of assorted powercords. A need exists for system, apparatus and methods for efficient handling of small appliances, powercords and adapters. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With the explosive popularity of wireless devices, such as laptops, netbooks, cell phones, and other mobile and hand-held communications devices capable of accessing the Internet, wireless data communications is becoming an integral, indispensible feature in portable consumer electronics. The trend towards ever increasing wireless usage has been aided in large part by the availability of highly efficient wireless local area networks (WLAN). Wireless networks create numerous opportunities for connectivity by allowing portable devices to connect to access points linked to the wired Internet, and by eliminating the need for costly wiring systems that would be required to link a multitude of devices to a single point.
The dominant standards for WLAN are those of the IEEE 802.11 family, also known as Wi-Fi. The latest Wi-Fi standard is called IEEE 802.11n. The standard is a significant improvement over earlier standards because it allows for the use of multiple channels. The maximum data rate depends on how much bandwidth each channel is allowed, how many channels are used, and how the data is coded. However, in applications using only one channel to send and receive—1×1 applications—the standard can achieve a maximum data rate of 150 megabits per second (Mbps). If enough resources are dedicated, and the right coding is used, the standard can achieve up to 600 Mbps. However, most applications will have data rates below 400 Mbps.
The ability to connect to a WLAN is generally provided to a host device through the addition of a wireless communication circuit. The wireless communication circuit is set to transfer data between a wireless network and the host device in accordance with a particular standard such as IEEE 802.11n. A host device could be a handset, laptop, personal data assistant, computer, portable gamming system, camera, or any other electronic device. The main element of a wireless communication circuit is the circuit's radio.
In most modern applications, the wireless communication circuit will have an integrated radio wherein each of a radio frequency processing (RF) component, a base band processing component (BB), and a media access control component (MAC) are all contained on a single integrated circuit (IC). The MAC is tasked with assuring that packets sent across a network by different stations on a wireless network do not conflict, that such packets are delivered as desired, and that the data within the packets is properly packaged in accordance with the relevant standard. The BB and the RF prepare the packaged communication data for transfer through the air. The RF modulates the signal in accordance with the relevant standard. Example modulation techniques include quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), amplitude modulation (AM), and frequency modulation (FM).
Communication data generally needs to be transferred from the host device to the wireless communication circuit across an interface. The term interface can refer to the entire system that links the host device to the wireless communication circuit, but it can also be used to refer to the portion of either that allows the system to communicate. As such, the portion of the host device that allows it to communicate externally would be called the host interface. Interfaces need to operate according to certain generally accepted standards because they are often used to link devices that are built by separate entities. Two common examples of interface standards used for wireless communication circuits are the peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) standard, and the secure digital input/output (SDIO) standard. As such, an interface following the SDIO standard would be called an SDIO interface. PCIe is generally used when the host device has a large power supply, while SDIO is used when the host device is portable and is constrained by a tight power budget.
The operation of a wireless communication circuit that uses a PCIe interface with its host device can best be understood with reference to FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, host device 100 contains system memory 101, and is connected to wireless communication circuit 110 through a PCIe interface comprised of host PCIe interface 102, and endpoint PCIe interface 111. Wireless communication circuit 110 additionally comprises MAC 112, BB 113, RF 114, and antenna 115.
The system displayed in FIG. 1 uses a feed-through data transfer scheme. The term feed-through is meant to refer to the fact that there is no requirement that communication data be temporarily stored on wireless communication circuit 110 before it is sent out by antenna 115. The PCIe interface is capable of running at 2.5 GHz. Therefore, data is transferred fast enough across the interface for data to be sent directly through from host device 100 to antenna 115.
PCIe is a standard that allows for bidirectional bus mastering. This means that either host device 100, or wireless communication circuit 110 can take control of bus 120, and data can flow just as easily in one direction or the other. As described above, this allows wireless communication circuit 110 to take control of the bus and easily transfer communication data between the system memory in host device 100 and through antenna 115. In addition, this allows host device 100 to take control of bus 120 and configure MAC 112, BB 113, and RF 114. Finally, bidirectional bus mastering allows MAC 112 to write data directly into system memory 101 at an internally specified address without the need for additional intelligence or storage on memory circuit 110.
Although the system using a PCIe interface has high throughput, this high speed comes at the cost of high power consumption. This may be highly undesirable for most hand-held mobile devices since they run off small lithium batteries. The PCIe standard is more suitable for mobile computers which run off large battery packs and can therefore afford the power-hungry PCIe solution. Incorporating a PCIe interface would unduly shorten the amount of time between charges for a hand-held mobile device. Therefore, the PCIe approach gives good throughput performance, but it is so power hungry, that it is not a practical solution for hand-held portable devices. Moreover, the PCIe interface requires a relatively large amount of silicon area to implement. The resulting increase in manufacturing cost and increased chip size makes the PCIe interface a very unattractive candidate for use in hand-held portable, mobile applications.
The operation of a wireless communication circuit that uses an SDIO interface to communicate with its host device can best be understood with reference to FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, host device 200 contains system memory 201, and is connected to wireless communication circuit 210 through an SDIO interface comprised of master SDIO interface 202, and slave SDIO interface 211. Wireless communication circuit 210 additionally comprises MAC 212, BB 213, RF 214, and antenna 215. Also, wireless communication circuit 210 comprises internal bus 216, memory 217, and CPU 218.
The system displayed in FIG. 2 uses a store-and-forward data transfer scheme. The term store-and-forward refers to the fact that communication data that transfers between host device 200 and antenna 215 is temporarily stored in memory 217. The SDIO interface does not allow bus mastering by the client chip, so data has to be buffered on wireless communication circuit 210. The memory required for such buffering can run into the range of hundreds of kilo-bytes (kb). This memory will usually be comprised of area consuming random access memory for the communication data, as well as read only memory for CPU 218.
SDIO is a master-slave interface standard, and therefore allows only single directional bus mastering. The physical connections that connect master SDIO interface 202 and slave SDIO interface 211 comprise bus 220, and interrupt line 221. When data is transmitted by host device 200, it will use SDIO master interface 202 to write the communication data into memory 217. Then, host device 200 will inform CPU 218 that the data is ready to be transmitted. Next, CPU 218 will configure MAC 212, BB 213, and RF 214. Finally, MAC 212 will act as master of internal bus 216, will request data from memory 217, and then will send it out. When data is received, this process happens in reverse, except that CPU 218 informs host device 200 that the data is ready to be written into memory 201 by using interrupt line 221. Unfortunately, the downside to using an SDIO interface is that it does not allow bus mastering by the client wireless chip. Consequently, all wireless chips that use this interface typically require a large amount of buffer memory as well as a central processing unit (CPU) to manage this memory. The disadvantages to using an SDIO interface is that the buffer and CPU increase manufacturing costs as well as increase the overall size of the wireless chip. Therefore, neither the SDIO approach nor the PCIe approach is optimal for hand-held portable device applications.
As wireless demands continue expanding, the pressure for electronic devices to provide wireless connectivity at a faster rate, with longer battery life, and less cost will continue to grow. Inventions that contribute to improvements in the power conservation, miniaturization, and speed of wireless communication circuits are of extreme importance as they will all facilitate the potential explosion of new applications for all of society's electronic devices. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Metathesis is a catalytic reaction generally known in the art that involves the interchange of alkylidene units among compounds containing one or more double bonds (e.g., olefinic compounds) via the formation and cleavage of the carbon-carbon double bonds. Metathesis may occur between two like molecules (often referred to as self-metathesis) and/or it may occur between two different molecules (often referred to as cross-metathesis). Self-metathesis may be represented schematically as shown in Equation I.R1—CH═CH—R2+R1—CH═CH—R2R1—CH═CH—R1+R2—CH═CH—R2 (I)
wherein R1 and R2 are organic groups.
Cross-metathesis may be represented schematically as shown in Equation II.R1—CH═CH—R2+R3—CH═CH—R4R1—CH═CH—R3+R1—CH═CH—R4+R2—CH═CH—R3+R2—CH═CH—R4+R1—CH═CH—R1+R2—CH═CH—R2+R3—CH═CH—R3+R4—CH═CH—R4 (II)
wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 are organic groups.
In recent years, there has been an increased demand for environmentally friendly techniques for manufacturing materials typically derived from petroleum sources. For example, researchers have been studying the feasibility of manufacturing biofuels, waxes, plastics, and the like, using natural oil feedstocks, such as vegetable and seed-based oils. In one non-limiting example, metathesis catalysts are used to manufacture candle wax, as described in PCT/US2006/000822, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Metathesis reactions involving natural oil feedstocks offer promising solutions for today and for the future.
Natural oil feedstocks of interest include non-limiting examples such as natural oils (e.g., vegetable oils, fish oil, animal fats) and derivatives of natural oils, such as fatty acids and fatty acid alkyl (e.g., methyl) esters. These feedstocks may be converted into industrially useful chemicals (e.g., waxes, plastics, cosmetics, biofuels, etc.) by any number of different metathesis reactions. Significant reaction classes include, as non-limiting examples, self-metathesis, cross-metathesis with olefins, and ring-opening metathesis reactions. Representative non-limiting examples of useful metathesis catalysts are provided below. Metathesis catalysts can be expensive and, therefore, it is desirable to improve the efficiency of the metathesis catalyst.
In recent years, there has been an increased demand for petroleum-based transportation fuels. Concerns exist that the world's petroleum production may not be able to keep up with demand. Additionally, the increased demand for petroleum-based fuels has resulted in a higher production of greenhouse gases. In particular, the airline industry accounts for greater than 10% of the greenhouse gases within the United States. Due to the increased demand for fuel and increased production of greenhouse gases, there is a need to explore methods of producing environmentally-friendly, alternative fuel sources. In particular, there is a need to explore methods of producing environmentally friendly fuel compositions and specialty chemicals from a natural feedstock. | {
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This invention generally pertains to heterocyclic compounds having drug and bio-affecting properties and to their preparation and use. In particular, the invention is concerned with oxygenated derivatives of 1-[[1-[2-(trifluoromethyl)-4-pyrimidinyl]-4-piperidinyl]methyl]-2-pyrrolid inone, or more commonly known as BMY-21502. The compounds of this invention are cerebral function enhancers useful in treating various dementias due to degenerative processes as well as in enhancing memory and learning.
Clinical aspects of various degenerative dementias, as well as the socioeconomic problems they cause in affected populations, are well known to those skilled in the art. One will also appreciate that various drug treatments of these disorders are currently under study. Among such drugs are a class of drugs known as nootropic agents or, more commonly, cognition enhancers; some of are currently undergoing clinical evaluation in patients diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease, a serious and fairly common CNS disorder of the elderly. Chemically, these drugs under clinical study are members of a class of N-substituted 2-pyrrolidinone derivatives of structure 1. ##STR2## a: X.dbd.H; R.dbd.--CH.sub.2 CONH.sub.2 (piracetam) b: X.dbd.OH; R.dbd.--CH.sub.2 CONH.sub.2 (oxiracetam)
c: X.dbd.H; R.dbd.--CH.sub.2 CONH[CH.sub.2 ].sub.2 N[CH(CH.sub.3).sub.2 ].sub.2 PA1 d: X.dbd.H; ##STR3## (aniracetam) PA1 R.sup.3 is selected from hydrogen, hydroxy, or oxo, with the proviso that R.sup.3 can only be oxo when R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are hydrogen, and further that R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3 cannot all be hydrogen or hydroxy at the same time; and PA1 the solid and dotted lines refer to either a double covalent bond or a single covalent bond with another hydrogen atom covalently bonded to the carbon terminus end.
For a representative reference describing the testing and properties of a member of this series, see: Butler, et al., J. Med. Chem., 27, pp. 684-691 (1984). Preliminary clinical results of this class of agents indicate that the drugs may have some beneficial effects in treating senile dementias in the elderly.
A series of patents disclose a number of compounds with structures corresponding to formula 2. ##STR4## wherein X is usually C.sub.2-4 substituted or unsubstituted alkylene; Y is carbonyl or methylene; A is a bridging moiety such as alkylene, alkanoyl, alkyleneamidoalkylene, and the like; W is nitrogen; and B is a pyrimidinyl, pyridinyl, or benzisothiazolyl ring system. Members of this series are reported to have psychotropic, anxiolytic, antiemetic, tranquilizing, cognitive enhancing, as well as other nootropic activities. For more detailed disclosure of these compounds, see: Yevich and Mattson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,687 issued May 26, 1987; Wu, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,634 issued Feb. 20, 1973; Temple, U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,049 issued Dec. 27, 1983; and New and Yevich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,206 issued June 18, 1985.
Other subject matter related to formula 2 compounds was disclosed by Malawska, et al., in "Synthesis and Pharmacological Properties of Some 2-Pyrrolidinone Mannich Bases" in the Polish Journal of Pharmacology, 34, pp. 373-382 (1982). They described a series of compounds, of which one subclass is represented by structural formula 3, which reportedly display analgesic properties as well as weak anti-inflammatory action, ##STR5## wherein X is hydrogen or chlorine.
The most relevant art is believed to be in the patent to Mattson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,843 issued May 2, 1989, wherein compounds of general formula 4 were disclosed as having cognition and memory enhancing activities. ##STR6##
For formula 4, X is an ethylene chain or 1,2-benzo ring; Y is carbonyl or methylene; R.sup.1 is hydrogen or lower alkyl; and Z is an R.sup.2, R.sup.3 -disubstituted diazinyl ring selected from pyridazine, pyrimidine, and pyrazine ring systems. A preferred compound of the series was 1-[[1-[2-(trifluoromethyl)-4-pyrimidinyl]-4-piperidinyl]methyl]-2-pyrrolid inone (4a), hereinafter referred as BMY-21502. ##STR7##
BMY-21502 is currently under clinical evaluation for the treatment of memory and cognitive disorders. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Not Applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bedside book holding apparatus. The invention includes a support frame for a book, magazine or the like, a lamp, angle adjusting means, a swivel arm, an upright support and clamping means for connecting the apparatus to a bed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically individuals simply hold a book or magazine on their chest when reading in bed. Light is provided by a bedside lamp or an overhead light in the room where the bed is located. There are, however, several devices which provide book support or lighting for use in bed or chairs, obviating the need to hold a book or magazine and easing provision of light for reading.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,365 to Howard teaches an adjustable book support for use in conjunction with the backboard of a bed. The Howard device includes lamps located on the bottom of the book supporting platform and is connected to the backboard of the bed by twin arm assemblies, one on each side of the book supporting platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,013 to Wiersma teaches a book holding device which also is used in conjunction with the backboard of a bed. Like the Howard device, the Wiersma device includes a lamp, though it is located at the top of the plate-like support member for the book, and is connected to the backboard of the bed by mounting means shown as two arms, one on each side of the plate-like support member for the book.
The problem with using one""s hands to hold a book is that the hands can become tired by such action. The problem with using a bedside lamp or overhead light is that it may be necessary to leave the bed or to reach a great distance to turn such lamp or light off.
These problems are eliminated by both Howard and Wiersma. Unfortunately such devices present other problems. Both Howard and Wiersma disclose devices which must be attached to a backboard of a bed. Not all beds have a backboard. Thus these devices are not usable by all potential users of a bedside book holding apparatus. Secondly the Howard and Wiersma devices as disclosed both require twin arms for support by the backboard. As a result the user is surrounded by the devices when the devices are being used, having the arms on either side of the user""s head and the book support in front of the user. This configuration increases the likelihood that the user might accidentally hit the device as the user moves about which at a minimum would be disconcerting and could cause dislodgment of the book from the device or even injury to the user. Additionally the resulting encapsuling of the user within the device might create a claustrophobic discomfort. Finally the Howard and Wiersma devices cannot be swiveled over to either side of the bed, but instead can only be adjusted vertically. As a result they disturb the aesthetic appearance of the bed backboard and create, even when not in use, a structure which might be in the way of the user""s non-reading use of the bed. Since the devices cannot be removed from the bed backboard when not in use, the potential exists for the user to hit the devices when not in use, leading to dislodgment of the devices from the bed backboard, possible damage to the bed backboard itself and possible injury to the user.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a bedside book holding apparatus which eliminates the problems outlined above regarding the existing art. The manner in which each of the shortcomings of the existing art is overcome is set forth hereinafter.
The present invention overcomes the problem presented of requiring the use of a bed backboard by being designed to be attached to the bed frame instead. While not all beds have a backboard, all beds have a frame. Thus the present invention may be used by a wider number of potential users than existing art.
The problem of potential user contact with a device which in effect encircles the user is eliminated by designing the present invention to have only one swivel arm. As a result the user has one side open at all times reducing by at least one-half the potential for accidental user contact with the apparatus. Obviously by leaving at least one side open, the user no longer must face the potential claustrophobic effect of the encircling configuration of the existing art.
Finally the problem of existing art being stored when not in use on the bed backboard is addressed in the present invention by designing the invention to swivel to the side and by designing the invention to attach, not to the bed backboard, but to the bed frame on the side. Attaching the present invention to the bed frame means that there can be no damage to the bed backboard even if there is accidental contact with the apparatus when it is not in use. Obviously the placement of the present invention to the side of the bed means that, unlike with existing art, there is no unsightly contraption attached to the bed backboard when not in use disturbing the aesthetics of the bed backboard and other furniture in the room. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data switching apparatus used in transmission or broadcasting apparatuses for selecting and transmitting the data from a plurality of received data without changing coding unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 16 shows a conventional data switching apparatus provided in a TV studio for example. In FIG. 16, received data 110A and 110B are TV signals (NTSC signals and so on) input to the present apparatus. The received data 110A and 110B include information such as a vertical drive pulse which shows a frame (synchronization). The conventional data switching apparatus also include frame detectors 101A, 101B, and switches 102A, 102B. The switches 102A and 102B respectively turn ON/OFF the received data 110A and 110B at the timing from the frame detectors 101A and 101B under the control of a control unit 103. The control unit 103 controls either of switches 102A and 102B to turn ON/OFF by an external switching request (not shown).
The operation is explained below. A plurality of received data 110A and 110B input into the present apparatus are TV signals including synchronization signals. The timing of the synchronization signals is controlled so that respective timings of the received data 110A and 110B are the same.
The frame detectors 101A and 101B detect frames (synchronization signal) such as a vertical driving pulse of the received data and provides them to the switches 102A and 102B. This frame represents the head of the data defining the TV image. The control unit 103 instructs either of the switches 102A and 102B to be ON and the other to be OFF.
The switches 102A and 102B are switched by the instruction of the control unit 103 according to the frame timing of the frame detectors 101A and 101B. Since the frames of a plurality of received data 110A and 110B are all synchronized, the timing provided from the frame detectors 101A and 101B to the switches 102A and 102B are all synchronized. Therefore, the respective switches 102A and 102B are switched at the same time. At this time, only one switch turns ON and the other turns OFF.
In this way, the present apparatus always selects one data stream from a plurality of received data. In FIG. 16, only two pairs of frame detector 101A and switch 102A, and frame detector 101B and switch 102B are shown for simplicity of explanation. But, the data switching apparatus of FIG. 16 may have plural pairs of the frame detectors and switches. Since the switches 102A and 102B are switched at the head of the frame upon selecting the data, the frame of the data at the vicinity of switching point can be held in a constant period.
Therefore, the data switched by this apparatus does not have bad influence to the image due to switching such as a image turbulence (noise) and a step-out of the frame synchronization, and therefore, the image can be kept in the same as a state without switching the data.
As explained above, the conventional switching apparatus has been necessary to meet frames of all data for each frame according to an externally applied clock. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the conventional switching apparatus cannot process the data whose respective frame timings are not synchronized.
Moreover, since the frame periods of all received data must be the same, the conventional apparatus cannot process the data if the received data is encoded with a variable length code.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which links any data at any point when it switches data.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which links the data without breaking the data.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which operates normally even if the data unit detector delays in detecting the data unit.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which discards the undesired data by replacing undesired data with invalid data.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which decreases the video buffer remaining quantity in the decoder to prevent the buffer from overflowing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which increases the video buffer remaining quantity in the decoder to prevent the buffer from underflowing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which holds the video buffer remaining quantity in the decoder to prevent the buffer from overflowing and underflowing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a data switching apparatus which increases the switching points for switching the data normally.
According to one aspect of the invention, a data switching apparatus includes plural data unit detectors each for detecting a coding unit of a data from a received data; plural data storages each for storing a received data in a buffer and transmitting the received data at a given time from a point specified by the data unit detector; and a data selecting unit for selecting and transmitting only one data stream from a plurality of data streams which are transmitted respectively from the plural data storages.
According to another aspect of the invention, in the data switching apparatus, the data storage starts and terminates the data transmission at the end of the coding unit in the data detected by the data unit detector; and the data selecting unit switches the data streams from the data storage so that each of the data stream from respective data storage is linked together in a continuous data stream.
According to other aspect of the invention, in the data switching apparatus, each respective storage include a delay unit which delays the received data for more than a predetermined time.
According to further aspect of the invention, the data switching apparatus further includes a pattern generator for transmitting a predetermined data pattern to the data selecting unit upon request from the data selecting unit.
According to further aspect of the invention, in the data switching apparatus, the pattern generator generates and transmits invalid data, that is, data quantity requested by the data selecting unit.
According to further aspect of the invention, in the data switching apparatus, the pattern generator generates and transmits data quantity requested by the data selecting unit and stuff data for video data.
According to further aspect of the invention, in the data switching apparatus, the pattern generator generates and transmits data quantity requested by the data selecting unit and unit coding video data with small information quantity.
According to further aspect of the invention, the data switching apparatus further includes a comparator for comparing each value of respective decoding start delay time included in two received data to be switched, wherein the data selecting unit inserts stuff data in the video data when the decoding start delay time before switching is larger than that after switching, and inserts unit coding video data with a small information quantity in the video data when the decoding start delay time before switching is smaller than that after switching, so that the respective decoding start delay times included in the two received data to be switched become the same.
According to further aspect of the invention, a data switching apparatus includes plural data unit detectors each for detecting a coding unit of received data; plural data storages each for storing a received data in a buffer and transmitting the received data specified from the data unit detector at a given time from a point specified by the data unit detector; and a multiplexer for multiplexing and transmitting any numbers of data streams from a plurality of data streams which are transmitted respectively from the plural data storages.
According to further aspect of the invention, the data switching apparatus further includes a pattern generator for transmitting a predetermined data pattern to the multiplexer upon request from the multiplexer.
According to further aspect of the invention, the data switching apparatus further includes a pattern generator for transmitting a predetermined data pattern to the multiplexer upon request from the multiplexer.
According to further aspect of the invention, the data switching apparatus further includes plural switching notifiers each for notifying originators for receiving data to be switched of an advance and completion notices for switching the data in response to the request from the data selecting unit upon switching.
According to further aspect of the invention, the switching notifier requests the transmission data source to generate breaking points for the data coding unit frequently. | {
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A variety of devices in a wide range of industries include one or more component parts prepared from a material that undergoes a phase change at a temperature of interest. As the material undergoes the phase change, the component part typically expands or contracts, inducing a reaction, such as movement of an adjacent component part. For example, mechanical actuators are known where a material, typically a metal alloy, a polymer, or a wax, in the actuator expands or contracts to effect movement of a part in the actuator (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,025,627; 5,177,969). Temperature relief valves having a thermal trigger composed of a eutectic material are known (U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,865). Fire sprinklers and fire extinguishes having a component part that responds to temperature increases are known (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,896,728; 4,006,780). Temperature indicating devices for use in the medical industry and in the food industry are also known, where a component in the temperature-indicating device is composed of a material that undergoes a phase change at a selected temperature (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,289,088; 4,170,956; 5,537,950; 5,988,102; 6,403,131). In these devices, a spring loaded indicator is held in place by a small quantity of meltable material, generally a eutectic metal alloy or an organic compound.
These and other devices require materials, preferably organic compounds, that exhibit very sharp melting points in the range of 50 to 100° C. There are few eutectic metal alloys that have a melting temperature in this temperature range of interest. Of the eutectic metal alloys available, for example lead/cadmium mixtures, toxicity of the material can be an issue for actuators used the medical or food industries. Moreover, low melting eutectic alloys are costly. Similarly, there are few organic compounds that have melting points in this temperature range of interest, and of those that do have the requisite melting point, often a physical or chemical property renders the compound undesirable for use in an actuator device.
Another problem with existing metallic and organic compounds is that it is not possible to vary the melting point and maintain abrupt melting behavior. For example, if the composition of an eutectic alloy is changed slightly, the melting point will either not change, broaden unacceptably, or give multiple melting points. Likewise, if a pure organic compound having a melting point at for example 85° C. is mixed with another compound the melting point of the mixture will invariably be lower and occur over a broader range. Moreover, while melting is a thermodynamic property, the behavior of a mechanical device, such as a food temperature indicator or a fire sprinkler, will be sensitive to the mechanical properties of the materials used. Many organic compounds having what appear to be sharp melting points, in fact do not provide the necessary mechanical properties for use in a thermo-mechanical device.
It would be very desirable to have a series of organic materials where the melting properties could be smoothly varied up or down while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties for use in a thermo-mechanical device. There remains a need in the art for such materials, and more specifically materials that have the following general properties: (i) a melting point between about 50 and about 100° C.; (ii) non toxic to humans; (iii) a low vapor pressure at 120° C.; (iv) stability at elevated temperature and moisture; (v) no odor; (vi) rapid rate of crystallization; (vii) low cost; (viii) readily produced in high purity; and (ix) sharp melting point and abrupt change in viscosity with temperature change. | {
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Existing fuel delivery systems which use an in-tank fuel pressure regulator usually employ an energy absorbing device mounted on or near the fuel rail. The energy absorbing device serves to compensate for fuel pressure pulsations created in the fuel rail that occur as a result of sequential firing of fuel injectors operatively connected to the fuel rail. A known energy absorbing device is a damper mounted on the fuel rail. A damper of this type is disclosed in commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/086,084, entitled "Fuel Rail Damper", filed May 28, 1998, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. This known damper has an upper chamber and a lower chamber separated by a solid, flexible diaphragm. The upper chamber contains a spring that biases the diaphragm toward the lower chamber. The spring is retained in a spring seat, which engages the diaphragm. The lower chamber has an opening which allows fuel to enter from the fuel rail and contact the diaphragm. Changes in fuel pressure cause the diaphragm to adjust the volumetric capacity of the lower chamber to damp the fuel pressure changes.
Applicants have discover that over prolonged periods of operation, the known damper can exhibit reduced operative capacity. As the diaphragm adjusts the volume of the lower chamber, the spring seat reciprocates within the upper chamber. While reciprocating in the upper chamber, the spring seat can become galled from contacting the upper chamber, even though the spring seat is sized to minimize contact with the upper chamber. It is believed that a spring seat with galled surfaces can reduce operability of the damper. Thus, a damper arrangement is needed which can, under prolonged operative conditions, maintain a stable damping coefficient. | {
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The present invention relates to a ceramic composite particle and a production method thereof, in particular, to a ceramic composite particle having a homogeneous microstructure of fine ceramic particle phases and a binder phase which is formed by a reaction between a ceramic particle and a sintering aid and a method for producing such a ceramic composite particle. The ceramic composite particle has good moldability and is very suitable for producing a densified sintered body having a fine and homogenous crystal structure.
Ceramic sintered bodies of silicon nitride, etc., have been expected to be satisfactory for structural applications under severe conditions due to their high mechanical strength, high heat resistance, high thermal shock resistance and high abrasion resistance. Generally, a densified sintered body in which the fine ceramic particle phase of silicon nitride, etc., is uniformly dispersed may be considered to be obtainable from a starting ceramic powder finely pulverized. However, a ceramic powder having a particle size nano-meter order has an excessively large specific surface area and is bulky to result in a poor moldability.
For example, when a fine ceramic powder having an average particle size of nano meter order is injection molded under a low pressure, a large amount of binder for wetting the surface of individual ceramic particles is required to prepare a compound having an optimum viscosity. In the case of a slip casting method, a large amount of solvent is required to prepare a slurry having a suitable viscosity. For these reasons, a preform (green body) obtained from the fine ceramic powder having an average particle size of nanometer order has only a small density and is difficult to be densified. Therefore, to obtain a densified sintered body, the preform must be sintered while directly compressing the preform as in a hot press method, etc. However, such a direct compressing method limits the choice of the shapes of the sintered body.
Since the ceramic powder of silicon nitride, etc., is a difficult-to sinter material, the ceramic powder is sintered usually in the presence of a sintering aid such as Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, etc., to densify the sintered body. However, it is difficult to uniformly disperse the components by merely mixing the sintering aid with the ceramic powder. The nonuniform powder mixture will result in segregation of the components in the sintered body, in particular, the segregation of the sintering aid makes the microstructure of the sintered body nonuniform.
To improve the physical properties of the ceramic sintered body, it has been proposed to obtain a composite sintered body by sintering a preform formed from a composite powder prepared by mixing a plurality of different ceramic components and heat-treating the resultant mixture. For example, to improve the properties of the silicon nitride ceramic body, various ceramic components have been used. Of these ceramic components, silicon carbide has been preferably used because of its ability of exhibiting a good oxidation resistance, a high-temperature strength and a high mechanical strength. However, a sintered body obtained from a mere mixture of silicon nitride and silicon carbide hardly has a microstructure in which the components are uniformly dispersed, and includes segregation of the components. Therefore, various methods have been proposed to produce a sintered body having a microstructure in which a silicon carbide particle is finely dispersed in the silicon nitride phase.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-160669 discloses a silicon nitride-silicon carbide composite sintered body having a microstructure in which silicon carbide having an average particle size of 1 .mu.m or less is dispersed in a grain boundary of silicon nitride and fine silicon carbide particles having a particle size from several nano- meters to several hundred nanometers are dispersed in silicon nitride particles. The composite sintered body is produced by a liquid phase sintering of an amorphous silicon nitride-silicon carbide composite powder or a silicon nitride-silicon carbide powder mixture, each being capable of forming fine silicon carbide having an average particle size of 0.5 .mu.m or less during the liquid phase sintering, at 1500-2300.degree. C. in the presence of a sintering aid which forms a liquid phase during the liquid phase sintering process. However, the starting powders are bulky and have a poor moldability due to their small particle sizes. Also, it is required for obtaining a densified sintered body to directly compress a preform during the sintering process as in the hot press method, etc. This limits the choice of the shapes of the sintered body.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-261611 discloses a method of producing a silicon nitride composite powder for producing a silicon nitride-silicon carbide composite sintered body. The method is characterized by simultaneous carbonizing and nitriding reactions of a metallic Si powder. The simultaneous carbonizing and nitriding reactions are caused by heating a powder mixture of the metallic Si powder and a carbonaceous powder at 1400.degree. C. or below in an inert gas atmosphere containing nitrogen. It is taught that the composite powder produced by the disclosed method has a nano composite structure having a disperse phase of nanometer order. However, since the composite powder is very fine in its particle size, the preform of the composite powder has a low density. In addition, since the composite powder contains no sintering aid, the composite powder is mixed with a sintering aid prior to the sintering process. Therefore, the microstructure of the resultant sintered body is not satisfactorily homogeneous due to the nonuniform dispersion in the starting powder mixture of the sintering aid and the composite powder. Further, since the metallic Si powder is nitrided in the absence of a sintering aid, the silicon nitride formed in the composite powder is likely to be in the form of the .beta.-phase, which deteriorates the sinterability of the composite powder. | {
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1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention may relate to a portable terminal having an external module detachable to a terminal body and a display device to display an indicator that represents information of the charging of a battery in the external module.
2. Background
Portable terminals may be easily carried and have functions such as supporting voice calls and video calls, inputting and/or outputting information, storing data, etc.
Portable terminals may capture still images or moving pictures, play music or video files, play games, receive broadcast and the like, so as to be implemented as an integrated multimedia player.
Complicated functions have been provided for the multimedia player by hardware or software. For example, a user interface environment may be provided for users to easily and conveniently retrieve or select functions.
A bluetooth is a device for wirelessly connecting movable devices (such as a portable terminal) to each other within a short range. A bluetooth device may be provided with a portable terminal. The bluetooth device may be provided with a rechargeable battery to maintain its functions and have mobility. The rechargeable battery may be configured to be charged by a charging device that is separate from the portable terminal.
However, even though the bluetooth device is configured to be adjacent to the portable terminal, a method for charging the bluetooth device and for informing of a charged status thereof is not implemented by the portable terminal. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface emitting semiconductor laser typically used for optical interconnections, optical switch and optical information processing, and a process for producing such a laser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been considerable activity in the development of optical interconnections directed toward dramatically improved transmission rates as means for transmitting information between logic circuit elements. Attention is attracted to a surface emitting semiconductor laser that enables light-emitting elements to be densely arranged in two dimensions as a parallel source. Such a laser is frequently called vertical cavity surface emitting laser diode (which will be hereinafter referred to as VCSEL simply). Pioneer researches in the VCSEL have been conducted by Iga et al. and are summarized in IEEE Photon, Tech. Lett. Vol. 11, No. 12, December 1999, ppp. 1539.
Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, a recent structure of the VCSEL has a resonator 702 that vertically extends from the horizontal surface of a semiconductor substrate 701. The resonator 702 has a mesa structure, and includes an active layer 703, a lower reflection mirror 704, an upper reflection mirror 705, and a spacer layer 706. The active layer 703 confines a carrier and results in light. Each of the mirrors 704 and 705 is made up of a plurality of semiconductor layers. The spacer layer 706 makes phase matching of the light emitted by the active layer 703 at the ends of the reflection mirrors 704 and 705. On the upper reflection mirror 705, provided are an upper contact layer 707, an upper electrode 708, an interlayer insulating film 710 and a lower electrode 709 in this order. The upper electrode 708 defines an aperture via which the laser beam is emitted. The interlayer insulating film 710 covers the sidewall and upper edge portions of the mesa structure.
Laser oscillation is conducted by confining the carrier and light in the horizontal direction in addition to the vertical direction. A confinement structure in the horizontal direction with respect to the substrate may be constructed by any of the following methods. The first method employs dry etching by which a boss (post or mesa) structure as thin as about ten and a few microns is formed. The second method is of oxidization type. A post structure having a diameter as large as tens of microns by dry etching and the property of an AlAs layer called control layer is partially changed into insulation by moisture vapor oxidation so that a restricted current path can be defined. The third method is of implantation type. The third method forms an insulating region by proton implantation and results in the restricted current path. At present, it is acknowledged that the oxide-confined VCSEL has a comparatively low threshold current and exhibits an excellent optical characteristic as a function of current. This is described in, for example, Journal of Solid State Physics and Applications Division, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1999, pp. 11. In FIGS. 5A and 5B, an oxide region in the AlAs layer 712 is indicated by a reference numeral 712A, and a non-oxide region therein is indicated by a reference numeral 712B. An aperture 713 is formed in the upper electrode 708 and the laser beam is emitted via the aperture 713. FIG. 5A and 5B differ from each other in that the semiconductor layer on which the interlayer film located on the bottom of the mesa structure is formed is a surface-oxidized layer 714 of a GaAs layer of the semiconductor substrate 701 or a surface-oxidized layer 715 of an AlGaAs layer that is part of the lower reflection mirror 704. The above difference results in a difference in the post height.
A description will now be given, with reference to FIGS. 6A through 6F, of steps of the process for producing the oxide type VCSEL until the interlayer insulating film is provided.
Referring to FIG. 6A, on an n-type GaAs semiconductor substrate 801, provided are an n-type GaAs buffer layer 802, a distributed Bragg reflector layer (DBR layer) 803, a λ (one wavelength) Al0.6Ga0.4As spacer layer 804, an AlAs layer 807, a DBR layer 808 and a p-type GaAs cap layer 809 in this order by MOCVD (Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition). The DBR layer 803 is composed of 35 n-type Al0.3Ga0.7As/Al0.9Ga0.1As layers. The spacer layer 804 has two Al0.10Ga0.90As quantum well active layers 805, and three Al0.30Ga0.70As barrier layers 806. One of the two layers 805 is sandwiched between two of the barrier layers 806, and the other layer 805 is sandwiched between two of the layers 806. It is to be noted that FIG. 6A shows only one barrier layer 806, and the two remaining barrier layers 806 provided on the upper surface of the upper active layer 805 and the lower surface of the lower active layer 805 are omitted for the sake of simplicity. It may be said that the barrier layers 806 that are omitted from illustration are interposed between the active layers and the spacer layers. The DBR layer 808 is composed of 28 p-type Al0.3Ga0.7As/Al0.9Ga0.1As pairs. The cap layer 809 functions as a contact layer. The layers thus laminated form a VCSEL substrate.
Next, as shown in FIG. 6B, a resist pattern for forming a contact electrode on the p-type GaAs cap layer of the VCSEL substrate is formed by the conventional photolithograph process (PLP). Then, an electrode metal such as Cr/Au or Ti/Au is deposited. Subsequent liftoff of the resist results in contract electrodes 810.
Then, as shown in FIG. 6C, an insulating film such as a SiON or SiO2 film acting as a mask in dry etching is deposited in order to define the post or mesa structure. Then, the insulating film is etched by buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) wherein resist formed by the conventional PLP is used as the mask. Thereby, an insulating mask 811 is defined.
As shown in FIG. 6D, the wafer is dry-etched in a mixture gas of BCl3 and Cl2 with the mask pattern 811 of the insulating film. This results in a post structure 812 on the VCSEL substrate. The height of the post structure may be defined by the any of two ways of etching described below. The first way of etching progresses beyond the DBR layer 803 composed of 35 n-type Al0.3Ga0.7As/Al0.9Ga0.1As layers and reaches the GaAs substrate 701, as shown in FIG. 5A. The second way stops etching in the course of etching the DBR layer 803. As shown in FIG. 5A, when the GaAs substrate 801 as well as the DBR layer 803 are etched, the resultant post structure is too high to maintain the satisfactory accuracy in the post process. Particularly, there may be difficulty in production of a dense element array. With the above in mind, it is preferable that the height of the post structure is restricted so that etching is stopped in the course of etching the DBR layer 803.
Then, as shown in FIG. 6E, the VCSEL substrate on which the post structure 812 has been formed is oxidized in moisture vapor ambience at an anneal temperature of 350° C.-450° C. The AlAs layer 807 exposed to the sidewall of the post structure 812 is oxidized toward the center of the post structure 812 from the end thereof, so that an oxide region 813 dependent on the oxidizing time can be formed. The oxide region 813 is a porous insulating film, which serves as a current blocking layer for current confinement. A remaining AlAs region 814 that has not been oxidized (non-oxide region) defines a current path. The non-oxide region 814 has a refractive index different from that of the oxide region 813, and therefore acts as an aperture for controlling the horizontal mode of laser light.
Thereafter, as sown in FIG. 6F, the entire post structure is coated with a SiNx, SiO2 or SiOxNy film by CVD, so that an interlayer insulating film 815 can be formed. This is intended to reinforce the post structure because the oxidized region of the AlAs layer 807 is a porous thin film and is structurally weakened. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-340565, the applicant of which is the same as the assignee of the present application, discloses the use of an AlAs control layer (current confinement layer) that has an Al composition of 100%. The above publication proposes to reinforce the mesa structure by coating it with an interlayer insulating film in order to solve a problem such that the mesa structure after the oxidization process may be removed due to a post process of rapid annealing. Next, an electrode material is deposited, and is then annealed at about 400° C. in order to make the electrode ohmic.
However, the interlayer insulating film 815 may be released from the coated surface on the bottom of the mesa structure in annealing at about 400° C. for making the electrode ohmic. In some VCSEL substrates, the interlayer insulating film 815 may float above the coated surface or may be totally separated from the mesa structure. If the degree of separation is too bad, the interlayer insulating film 815 may go into pieces and may be scattered. The above reduces the number of normal VCSEL elements and degrades the reliability thereof. As a result, the yield of VCSEL elements may be degraded to tens to 50%. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for separating undesirable oblong and/or curved pieces of scrap from a scrap flow or scrap pile having a higher density by means of an oscillating or shaking screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
DE 33 19 032 C2 describes a device for screen separation of a pile of metal chips containing undesirable oversized material by using an oscillating or shaking screen provided with transverse slits, wherein the screen base includes longitudinal channels extending in the transport direction. The longitudinal channels have a trough-shaped cross-section with a defined flank angle. Alternatively, the channel cross-section can also correspond to a isosceles triangle standing on its apex and having a defined apex angle.
This prior art invention makes possible a highly selective sorting of the oversized material and an essentially uniform bulk density of the screen through-fraction. The material to be screened and/or the oversized material is hereby initially oriented transverse to the direction of the screening slits so as to ensure a length-dependent through-fraction that can subsequent be pressed into dimensionally stable chip briquettes.
It may therefore seem obvious to utilize such device also for separating so-called fishes, i.e., undesirable oblong and/or curved scrap pieces of chill scrap, which represents a scrap metal flow with a higher density. However, the association in the latter scrap metal flow is different from that in a pile of metal chips containing undesirable oversized material.
Oblong or curved scrap metal pieces are undesirable in chill scrap because they negatively impact the flow characteristic of the material. Moreover, clusters with a smaller density can disadvantageously form in the feeder devices of steel plants where chill scrap is used. If this unsorted pile of chill scrap were fed to the aforedescribed screen separation device for the purpose of separation, then the desired effect would not occur, because the existing geometric form of the screen cover would make it impossible to separate the so-called fishes.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a suitable screen cover in a conventional oscillating or shaking screen to enable sorting of the so-called fishes from chill scrap, wherein the separation elements are formed and arranged so that, on one hand, the so-called fishes, i.e., the undesirable oblong and/or curved scrap metal pieces, are oriented and, on the other hand, are separated from the desired more rounded and more compact scrap metal pieces.
This object of the invention is accomplished by providing a device for separating undesirable oblong and/or curved pieces of scrap material from a scrap metal flow or scrap metal pile which has a higher density. Scrap metal with higher density are, for example, chill scrap. The separation is accomplished with a screen cover in an oscillating or shaking screen. The screen cover is made of a plurality of parallel guide bars running in a longitudinal direction and a plurality of parallel separating bars running in transverse direction, and, thus, forming a lattice-like frame with openings through which the material passes. The device provides a) guide bars which rest on separating bars and project over the separating bars, b) the guide bars are formed of angle stock include longitudinal rails that are formed on or continue from free legs of the angle stock, with their mutual separation on the free longitudinal sides being smaller than their separation at the free legs of the angle stock, so thatxe2x80x94as seen in cross-section of the longitudinal railsxe2x80x94openings are formed which have a width that increases from top to bottom, and an essentially trapezoidal cross section, c) the transverse separating bars have flank strips which project into the openings and rise in the transport direction of the undesirable scrap metal pieces, so thatxe2x80x94as seen in cross section of the separating barsxe2x80x94the openings have a cross section in the shape of a parallelogram, and d) the openings are thereby delineated both by the opposing longitudinal rails as well as by the opposing flank strips. Further, at least one rear wall is provided for each opening on the flank strip.
The invention will now be described in detail with reference to an embodiment illustrated in the drawing. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to bookcase and bookcase accessories in general. In particular it relates to a book retrieval or ejection system. A novelty search was conducted in the following cases and subcases; Class 108, Sub 136; Class 211, Sub 42 Class 221, Sub 23 and 134; Class 248, Sub 441 and Class 312, Sub 233 and 319.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, bookcases are designed to hold a multiplicity of books in a vertical position with their edges or back facing the front. Access to a book is obtained by using the fingers to clasp the edge or end of the book and exerting a pulling force to remove the book from the shelf.
In those instances, (such as the shelves of an institutional library) where the books are closely packed into the shelf and of a uniform size, it is sometimes difficult to grasp a particular book by its back. Attempts to do so have resulted in countless broken finger nails.
Hooks, clamps and other similar devices are generally unsatisfactory because of their propensity for damaging the binding of the book.
Applicant knows of no prior art which attemps to solve the problem as defined above. The closest art in principal is that of U.S. Pat. No. 2,677,399 by A. T. Swimmer disclosing an extension leaf for furniture. The teachings of this art are inapplicable to applicants, invention which allows one to remove a single book at random from a multiplicity of books | {
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Moving Picture Experts Group 7 (MPEG-7) is an international standardization on the architectures of metadata representing multimedia information, such as image, audio and moving picture. An MPEG-7 query format is used to retrieve multimedia contents represented based on the MPEG-7. An MPEG-7 multimedia contents retrieving system retrieves multimedia contents related to a query inputted in an MPEG-7 query format.
The MPEG-7 query format defines syntaxes for retrieving MPEG-7 documents. The syntaxes can represent diverse types of queries that can be used for the retrieval of MPEG-7 documents. For example, they can represent not only natural sentence-type query such as “an image with mountain” but also example-based query using a multimedia file as a query and MPEG-7 textual description-based query.
While representing such diverse queries, referring to the same or different portions of an MPEG-7 document occurs frequently. To be specific, there is a case where more than one retrieval condition should be all satisfied in the same structure. For example, to retrieve moving picture segments with “mountain” and “sea”, the presence of “mountain” and “sea” could be represented for one region. As for joint operation, two different MPEG-7 documents should be referred to. For this, it should be clearly represented that two different documents are referred to.
Conventional MPEG-7 query formats may satisfy more than two retrieval conditions within the same architecture, but they have a shortcoming that they cannot clearly represent reference to two different MPEG-7 documents. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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One of the parameters characterizing the performance of every Direction Finding (DF) system is the ambiguity threshold. The ambiguity threshold is the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) below which, for a given number of samples, the probability of an ambiguous Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) result rises and thereby sets a limit on the performance of the DF system.
The value of the ambiguity threshold depends critically on the array geometry. In certain arrays, such as uniform linear arrays with half a wavelength spacing, the threshold occurs at relatively low SNR and low number of samples, while in other arrays, such as sparse arrays, the threshold occurs at relatively high SNR and high number of samples.
To illustrate the performance of a DF system below the ambiguity threshold, reference is now made to FIG. 1 which is a histogram illustration of maximum likelihood estimation for 400 DOA results for a source having SNR of -4 dB. The source impinges from 100.degree. on a sparse three-element linear array with inter-element spacing ration of 3:4 and aperture 3.lambda., where .lambda. is the wavelength. The DOA was estimated by the deterministic maximum likelihood (DML) estimator from 100 samples of the array output. The highest peak, referenced 12, occurs at the true DOA of 100 degrees. In addition, there are high ambiguous peaks at 150.degree. and at 60.degree., referenced 14 and 16, respectively. The ambiguous peaks 14 and 16 correspond to the secondary peaks of the multi-modal likelihood function which, as a result of the noise, occasionally exceed the main peak corresponding to the true DOA.
There are several approaches to the tracking of multiple targets. Various techniques for tracking the angles of arrival of moving targets have been proposed, for example, "An Efficient Algorithm for Tracking the Angles of Arrival of Moving Targets" by C. R. Sastry, E. W. Kamen and M. Simian, published by IEEE Trans on Signal processing, Vol.39:242-246 No. 1 January 1991. Further examples include: "Tracking the Direction of Arrival of Multiple Moving Targets" by C. R. Zao, C. R. Sastry and B. Zhou, published by IEEE Trans on Signal processing, Vol.42:1133-1144 No. 5 May 1994, and "Multiple Target Tracking Using Maximum Likelihood Principle" by A. SAtish and R. L. Kashyap, published by IEEE Trans on Signal processing, Vol.43:1677-1695 No.7 July 1995.
Reference is now made to FIGS. 2A-2F which are graphical illustrations of the likelihood function {L(.theta.)} of a typical source moving along the azimuth axis, .theta..
FIGS. 2A-2F are graphical illustrations of the likelihood function {L(.theta.)} of a typical source having a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of -4 dB moving from 85.degree. (FIG. 2A) through 90.degree. (FIG. 2B), 95.degree. (FIG. 2C), 100.degree. (FIG. 2D), 105.degree. (FIG. 2E) and 110.degree. (FIG. 2F) along the azimuth axis (.theta.). The source is received by a three-element linear array with inter-element ratio of 3:4 and aperture of 3.lambda.. Each graph illustrates the directions-of arrival (DOA) likelihood function {L(.theta.)} for a plurality of samples (approximately 100) below the ambiguity threshold.
The peaks of L(.theta.) represent the most likely directions-of-arrival for the given batch. Generally, above the ambiguity threshold, the peak corresponding to the correct DOA is the highest. However, below the ambiguity threshold, the height of the ambiguous peaks rise and may exceed the peak corresponding to the correct DOA.
As shown in FIG. 2A, there are two peaks, referenced 302, having a DOA of approximately 85.degree., and 304 (having a DOA of approximately 125.degree.). Peak 302 is lower than peak 304, having a likelihood value of just below 50. (The highest peak 304 occurs for a DOA of 125.degree. instead of the correct one of 85.degree..
FIG. 2B for an angle of 90.degree., has three peaks, 306, 308 and 310 indicating DOAs of approximately 50.degree., 90.degree. and 130.degree., respectively, having likelihood values of approximately 60, 65 and 60, respectively. FIG. 2C for an angle of 95.degree., has three peaks, 312, 314 and 316 indicating DOAs of approximately 55.degree., 95.degree. and 135.degree., respectively, having likelihood values of approximately 55, 55 and 50, respectively.
FIG. 2D for an angle of 100.degree., has three peaks, referenced 318, 320 and 322 having a likelihood value above 50, indicating DOAs of approximately 55.degree., 100.degree. and 120.degree., respectively. In addition, there are three other peaks, referenced 324, 325 and 326, having likelihood values slightly above and slightly below 50 and 60, respectively. In this case, the highest peak 318 occurs for a DOA of 55.degree. instead of the correct one of 100.degree. (peak 320).
FIG. 2E for an angle of 105.degree., has three peaks, referenced 128, 130 and 132, indicating approximate DOAs of approximately 65.degree., 105.degree. and 160.degree., respectively, having likelihood values of approximately 70, 75 and 65, respectively.
FIG. 2F for an angle of 110.degree., has a peak 334 (likelihood value 55) indicating a DOA of 110.degree.. In addition, there is a second peak, referenced 336, having a likelihood value of approximately 50 indicating a DOA of approximately 75.degree. and a potential third peak 338 indicating a DOA above 170.degree..
Thus, as illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2F, hereinabove, prior art systems which are based on using the most likely DOA at each measurement point are likely to be confused by similar peaks and even incorrectly calculate the DOA (FIG. 2A and 2D). For the angles of 85.degree., 95.degree. and 105.degree., a second peak occurs close to but slightly higher in likelihood value than the correct peak, thus making a correct assessment difficult.
A disadvantage of these prior art techniques is that the direction-of-arrival tracking algorithms cannot handle the frequent, large and non-random errors resulting from operation below the ambiguity threshold. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secret information protection system in an information processing system, more particularly, it relates to a secret information protection system to prevent access to, and utilization of, secret information stored in a storage means from an unauthorized person.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, portable information processing systems, such as a personal computer, a word processor, an electronic pocket notebook (denshi-tetyo in Japanese) and the like, have become wide spread in various fields for use in business and for personal use.
In general, a portable information processing system stores the secret information to be protected, for example, by a business. Accordingly, the secret information must be protected from being accessed by an unauthorized person.
As one example, in a communication system formed by a plurality of members (subscribers) each having a personal computer, each member has an identification code (ID code) or a password to utilize the secret information. In this case, the ID code or the password is usually stored in a storage unit of the personal computer. If the personal computer is stolen and the ID code or the password therein is decoded by an unauthorized person, the system may be illegally used by that person so that fee for use of the system is charged to an authorized member.
As another example, in general, a file or data base is coded by a key-code to protect the secret information stored therein. If the key code is stolen, the secret information can be easily accessed and utilized by an unauthorized person. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
“Sequencing-by-synthesis” of the type known as “sequencing using cycle reversible termination” (SuCRT) is a strategy that extends a primer by template-directed addition of one nucleotide at a time, using a nucleoside triphosphate or thiotriphosphate as a source of the added building block. Polymerization is stopped for a time after each nucleotide incorporated. In that time, the extended primer is examined to determine what nucleotide is incorporated, and to infer the nucleotide in the template that directed the incorporation.
One mechanism to cause polymerization to stop is to have its 3′-hydroxyl group blocked by a removable protecting (or blocking) group. This blocking group prevents the polymerase from adding additional nucleotides until the blocking group is removed. In practice, this provides an arbitrarily long time to determine the nature of the added nucleotide.
One strategy to determine the identity of the nucleotide added is to have each nucleotide carry a fluorescent tag, where the color of the fluorescence emission is distinctive for the type of nucleotide. After extension, but before removing the blocking group, the nature of the nucleotide incorporated is determined by reading the fluorescence from the tag. After this is done, the tag and the 3′-protecting group are removed, and the next cycle of sequencing is initiated. In this architecture, template-directed polymerization is done using a DNA polymerase or, a reverse transcriptase.
When the output is fluorescence, this implementation of the strategy requires: (a) Four analogues of dATP, dTTP, dGTP, and dCTP, each carrying a fluorescent dye with a′ different color, with the 3′-end blocked so that immediate elongation is not possible. (b) The four analogues must be incorporated to allow the elongation reaction to be completed before undesired reactions occur and avoid ragged ends from incomplete incorporation. (c) The incorporation must be substantially faithful. Mismatched incorporation, if not corrected by proofreading, will lead to the loss of strands if the polymerase does not extend efficiently a terminal mismatch. This will gradually erode the intensity of the signal, and may generate “out of phase” signals that confuse the reading of the output downstream. (d) The dye and the group blocking the 3′-OH group must be cleaved with high yield to allow the incorporation of the next nucleotide of the next nucleotide to proceed. Incomplete cleavage will erode the intensity of the signal or generate “out of phase” signals that confuse downstream reading. For single molecule sequencing, failure to cleave the 3′-OH blocking group may lose a cycle of sequence data collection. (e) The growing strand of DNA should survive the washing, detecting and cleaving processes. While reannealing is possible, conditions that allow the DNA primer and template to remain annealed are preferable.
In their most ambitious forms, sequencing-by-synthesis architectures would use the same nucleoside modification to block the 3′-end of the DNA and to introduce the fluorescent tag [We199]. For example, if a fluorescent tag is attached to the 3′-position via an ester linkage, replacing the hydrogen atom of the 3′-OH group of the nucleoside triphosphate, extension following incorporation would not be possible (there is no free 3′-OH group). This would give time to read the color of the fluorescent label, determining the nature of the nucleotide added. Then, the 3′-O acyl group could be removed by treatment with a mild nucleophile (such as hydroxylamine) under mild conditions (pH<10) to regenerate a free 3′-hydroxyl group, preparing the DNA for the next cycle.
The difficulty in implementing this elegant approach is the polymerases themselves. Any tag that fluoresces in a useful region of the electromagnetic spectrum must be large, on the order of 1 nm. Crystal structures of polymerases show that the 3′-position in the deoxyribose unit is close to amino acid residues in the active site of the polymerase, and do not offer the incoming triphosphate the space to accommodate a tag of that size. The polymerase, therefore, is not likely to be able to handle substituents having a tag of this size at the 3′-position. Indeed, polymerases do not work well with any modification of the 3′-OH group of the incoming triphosphate. For example, to accept even 2′,3′-dideoxynucleoside analogues (where the 3′-moiety is smaller than in the natural nucleoside), mutated polymerases are often beneficial.
Ju et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079, noted these problems as they outlined a proposal for SuCRT based on various 3′-OH blocking groups. They suggested that a fluorescent or mass tag could be attached via a cleavable linker to a point on the nucleoside triphosphate other than on the 3′-OH unit (FIG. 1). This linker could be attached (without limitation) to the 5-position of the pyrimidines (T and C) and the 7-position of the purines (G and A). According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079, tags at this position should, in principle, allow the 3′-OH group to be blocked by a cleavable moiety that is small enough to be accepted by DNA polymerases. In this architecture, multiple cleavage steps might be required to remove both the tag (to make the system clean for the addition of the next tag) and the 3′-blocking group, to permit the next cycle of extension to occur [Mit03][Seo04].
U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 struggled to find a small chemical group that might be accepted by polymerases, and could be removed under conditions that were not so harsh as to destroy the DNA being sequences. U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 cited a literature report that 3′-O-methoxy-deoxynucleotides are good substrates for several polymerases [Axe78]. It noted, correctly, that the conditions for removing a 3′-O methyl group were too stringent to permit this blocking group from being removed under any conditions that were likely to leave the DNA being sequenced, or the primer that was being used, largely intact.
An ester group was also discussed as a way to cap the 3′-OH group of the nucleotide. U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 discarded this blocking group based on a report that esters are cleaved in the active site in DNA polymerase [Can95]. It should be noted that this report is questionable, and considers only a single polymerase. Nevertheless, ester linkages are susceptible to spontaneous hydrolysis in water, especially if they are small (such as the formyl group).
Chemical groups with electrophiles such as ketone groups were also considered and discarded by U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 as not being suitable for protecting the 3′-OH of the nucleotide in enzymatic reactions. Polymerases have nucleophilic centers (such as amino groups) in the polymerase that were proposed to react with the amino groups of proteins. In fact, this is unlikely (cyclopentanone, for example, does not form appreciable amounts of imine with protein side chains). However, a 3′-keto 2′-deoxyribose unit in a nucleoside is not stable to decomposition via beta elimination reactions, as is well known in the literature studying the mechanism of ribonucleotide reductases.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 then cited a literature report that 3′-O-allyl-dATP is incorporated by Vent (exo-) DNA polymerase in the growing strand of DNA [Met94]. U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079 noted that this group, and the methoxymethyl MOM group, having a similar size, might be used to cap the 3′-OH group in a sequencing-by-synthesis format. This patent noted that these groups can be cleaved chemically using transition metal reagents [Ire86][Kam99], or through acidic reagents (for the MOM group).
These suggestions therefore define the invention proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079. Briefly, the essence of this invention is an architecture where the triphosphates of four nucleotide analogues, each labeled with a distinctive cleavable tag attached to the nucleobase, and each having the hydrogen of the 3′-OH group capped replaced by an ally! group or a MOM group, are used as the triphosphates in the sequencing by synthesis architecture, and the products are oligonucleotides prepared by polymerase incorporation that have this replacement.
Unfortunately, various other aspects of a practical tool for sequencing using cyclic reversible termination were not anticipated by U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,079, and are not enabled in the prior art. In particular, the cleavage reaction that removes the fluorescent tag may not restore the nucleobase to its natural structure, leaving behind what is known in the literature as a “scar”. It is a question open to experimentation as to whether a primer whose 3′-nucleotide carries a scar will be extended in a template-directed polymerization reaction by an incoming triphosphate that carries both a 3′-O blocking group and a fluorescently tagged nucleobase. While architectures are easily conceived that use mixtures of fluorescently tagged and untagged triphosphates to implement a sequencing using cyclic reversible termination strategy, it would be preferable to identify polymerases that will add a 3′-blocked fluorescently tagged nucleotide to a scarred primer. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Disclosed Embodiments
The disclosure relates to incorporating an optical homodyne into a self-diffraction densitometer.
2. Introduction
A self-diffraction densitometer may require the detection of a laser-like signal beam of very low power. When the self-diffraction process is implemented in the mid-infra-red part of the spectrum, it will be limited by the thermal noise out of the silicon infra-red detector. Even with optimized detectors that are thermo-electrically cooled, this thermal noise determines the upper limit of the signal to noise ratios that can be achieved by previous laser self-diffraction processes.
Thus, a need exists for a means by which the signal to noise ratio imposed by the available infra-red detectors can be overcome. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention is directed to anti-atherosclerotic agents and more specifically, to compounds, compositions and methods for treating atherosclerotic conditions, such as dyslipoproteinemias and coronary heart disease. This invention specifically relates to compounds which elevate HDL cholesterol concentration and which may be useful for the treatment of atherosclerotic conditions and coronary heart disease.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that both the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in humans and the severity of experimental atherosclerosis in animals are inversely correlated with serum HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations (Ross et al, Am. J. Med., 11 (1951) 480-493; Gofman et al, Circulation, 34 (1966) 679-697; Miller and Miller, Lancet, 1 (1975) 16-19; Gordon et al, Circulation, 79 (1989) 8-15; Stampfer et al, N. Engl. J. Med., 325 (1991) 373-381; Badimon et al, Lab. Invest., 60 (1989) 455-461). Atherosclerosis is the process of accumulation of cholesterol within the arterial wall which results in the occlusion, or stenosis, of coronary and cerebral arterial vessels and subsequent myocardial infarction and stroke. Angiographical studies have shown that elevated level of some HDL particles in humans appears to be correlated to a decreased number of sites of stenosis in the coronary arteries of humans (Miller et al, Br. Med. J., 282 (1981) 1741-1744).
There are several mechanisms by which HDL may protect against the progression of atherosclerosis. Studies in vitro have shown that HDL is capable of removing cholesterol from cells (Picardo et al, Arteriosclerosis, 6 (1986) 434-441). Data of this nature suggest that one antiatherogenic property of HDL may lie in its ability to deplete tissues of excess free cholesterol and eventually lead to the delivery of this cholesterol to the liver (Glomset, J. Lipid Res., 9 (1968) 155-167). This has been supported by experiments showing efficient transfer of cholesterol from HDL to the liver (Glass et al, J. Biol. Chem., 258 (1983) 7161-7167; MacKinnon et al, J. Biol. Chem., 261 (1986) 2548-2552). In addition, HDL may serve as a reservoir in the circulation for apoproteins necessary for the rapid metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (Grow and Fried, J. Biol. Chem., 253 (1978) 1834-1841; Lagocki and Scanu, J. Biol. Chem., 255 (1980) 3701-3706; Schaefer et al, J. Lipid Res., 23 (1982) 1259-1273). Accordingly, agents which increase HDL cholesterol concentrations are useful as anti-atherosclerotic agents, particularly in the treatment of dyslipoproteinemias and coronary heart disease.
In accordance with this invention there is provided compounds of formula I:
wherein:
R is hydrogen, lower alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heteroaryl, or aryl or heteroaryl substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of alkyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono- or di-alkylamino, and halogen;
D is Cxe2x80x94H, carbon bound to R5 or nitrogen;
R1, R2, R3, and R4 are each independently hydrogen, alkyl, or taken together form a ring;
R5 is one or more groups selected from hydrogen, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono- or di-alkylamino, or halogen;
n is an integer of 0-3;
or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.
The present invention is further directed to a method of treating atherosclerosis in a mammal in need thereof which comprises administering to the mammal an anti-atherosclerotic effective amount of compound of Formula I:
wherein:
R is hydrogen, lower alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heteroaryl, or aryl or heteroaryl substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of alkyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono or di-alkylamino, and halogen;
D is Cxe2x80x94H, carbon bound to R5 or nitrogen;
R1, R2, R3, and R4 are independently hydrogen, alkyl, or taken together form a ring.
R5 is one or more groups optionally selected from hydrogen, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono or di-alkylamino, or halogen;
n is an integer of 0-3;
or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.
Preferably, the present invention is directed to compounds of Formula I, wherein R is aryl; D is Cxe2x80x94H; R1, R2, R3, and R4 are each independently hydrogen, alkyl, or taken together form a ring; R5 is halogen; n is 0-1; or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9clower alkylxe2x80x9d refers to both straight and branched chain moieties of 1-6 carbon atoms. The term xe2x80x9carylxe2x80x9d includes aromatic radicals of 6-12 carbon atoms. The term xe2x80x9chalogenxe2x80x9d includes fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine.
The pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the present compounds include those derived from organic and inorganic acids such as, but not limited to: acetic, lactic, citric, tartaric, succinic, fumaric, maleic, malonic, mandelic, malic, hydrochloric, hydrobromic, phosphoric, nitric, sulfuric, methanesulfonic, toluene sulfonic, and similarly known, acceptable acids.
The most preferred compounds of this invention are:
10-Hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl-10-phenyl-2,10-dihydroimidazo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-5(3H)-one;
11-(4-Fluorophenyl)-11-hydroxy-2,3,4,11-tetrahydro-6H-pyrimido[1,2-b]isoquinolin-6-one;
10-(4-Fluorophenyl)-10-hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl-2,10-dihydroimidazo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-5(3H)-one;
6-(4-Fluorophenyl)-6-hydroxy-1,3,4,4a,6,12a-hexahydrobenzimidazo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-11 (2H)-one;
(2R,10S)-10-(4-Fluorophenyl)-10-hydroxy-2-methyl-2,10-dihydroimidazo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-5(3H)-one;
(2S, 10S)-10-(4-Fluorophenyl)-10-hydroxy-2-methyl-2,10-dihydroimidazo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-5(3H)-one; and
10-(4-Chlorophenyl)-10-hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl-2,10-dihydroimidazo[2,1-g][1,7]naphthyridin-5(3H)-one.
The compounds of the present invention can be readily prepared according to the following reaction scheme or modification thereof using readily available starting materials, reagents and conventional synthetic procedures. It is also possible to make use of variants of these process steps, which in themselves are known to and well within the preparatory skill of the medicinal chemist. In the following reaction schemes, R is a group selected from hydrogen, lower alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heteroaryl, aryl/heteroaryl optionally substituted with one or more groups selected from alkyl of 1-6 carbon atom, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono or di-alkylamino, or halogen; D is Cxe2x80x94H, Carbon bound to R5 or Nitrogen; R1, R2, R3, and R4 are independently hydrogen, lower alkyl, or taken together as a ring; R5 is one or more groups optionally selected from hydrogen, lower alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, hydroxy, alkoxy, perfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkoxy, alkylthio, nitro, amino, mono or di-alkylamino, or halogen, and n is an integer of 0-3.
Preparation of 3-carboxamido phthalides (VII) from o-acyl benzoic acids (II) in a 5-step process has been described in the literature (Hauser, C. R., Tetenbaum, M. T. and Hoffenberg, D. S.; J. Org. Chem., 23, 861 (1958)). The procedure, as outlined in scheme I, involves reduction of the o-acyl benzoic acid (II) to the lactone (III). Metalation of the 3-position of III and subsequent quenching with carbon dioxide afforded the lactone acid (V). Conversion of V to the corresponding acid chloride (VI) followed by treatment with ammonia afforded the 3-carboxamido phthalides (VII).
In the present invention, o-acyl benzoic acids (II) are converted to the corresponding 3-carboxamido phthalides (VII) in a one step process. The process is novel and widely applicable. Reaction of o-acyl benzoic acids with potassium cyanide (Scheme II) was carried out in acetic acid by heating in a steam bath for 17 to 70 hours either in a round bottom flask or in a stoppered pressure bottle to yield 3-carboxamido phthalides (VII). Reaction of VII with diamines in toluene was carried out by refluxing for 18 to 72 hours in a flask equipped with a water separator affording the tricyclic derivatives (I).
This invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprised of tricyclic derivatives (I) either alone or in combination with excipients (i.e. pharmaceutically acceptable materials with no pharmacological effects). Such compositions are useful in the treatment of atherosclerotic conditions such as dyslipoproteinemias and coronary heart disease, in that they increase the blood serum high density lipoprotein concentration of mammals treated with the compounds.
The precise dosage to be employed depends upon several factors including the host, whether in veterinary medicine or human medicine, the nature and severity of the condition being treated, the mode of administration and the particular active substance employed. The compounds may be administered by any conventional route, in particular enterally, preferably orally in the form of tablets or capsules. Administered compounds can be in the free form or pharmaceutically acceptable salt form as appropriate, for use as a pharmaceutical, particularly for use in the prophylactic or curative treatment of atherosclerosis and sequelae (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, heart failure, kidney failure stroke, peripheral arterial occlusion, and related disease states). These measures will slow the rate of progress of the disease state and assist the body in reversing the process direction in a natural manner.
Any suitable carrier known to the art can be used to prepare the pharmaceutical compositions. In such a composition, the carrier may be a solid, liquid or mixture of a solid and a liquid. Solid compositions include powders, tablets and capsules. A solid carrier can be one or more substances which may also act as a flavoring agent, lubricant, solubilizer, suspending agent, binder, or tablet disintegrant. In powders, the carrier is a finely divided solid, which is in admixture with the finely divided active ingredient. In tablets, the active ingredient is mixed with a carrier having the necessary binding properties in suitable proportions and compacted in the shape and size desired. Suitable solid carriers are magnesium carbonate, magnesium stearate, talc, sugar, lactose, pectin, dextrin, starch, gelatin, tragacanth, methyl cellulose, hydroxymethyl cellulose, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, a low melting wax, cocoa butter, and the like. Encapsulating materials may also be employed with the compounds of this invention, and the term xe2x80x9ccompositionxe2x80x9d is intended to include the active ingredient in combination with an encapsulating material as a formulation, with or without other carriers. Cachets may also be used in the delivery of the anti-atherosclerotic medicament of this invention.
Sterile liquid compositions include solutions, suspensions, emulsions, syrups and elixirs. The compounds of this invention may be dissolved or suspended in the pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, such as sterile water, sterile organic solvent or a mixture of both. Preferably the liquid carrier is one suitable for parental injection. Where the compounds are sufficiently soluble they can be dissolved directly in normal saline with or without the use of suitable organic solvents, such as propylene glycol or polyethylene glycol. If desired, dispersions of the finely divided compounds can be made-up in aqueous starch or sodium carboxymethyl cellulose solution, or in a suitable oil, such as arachis oil. Liquid pharmaceutical compositions, which are sterile solutions or suspensions, can be utilized by intramuscular, intraperitoneal or subcutaneous injection. In many instances a liquid composition form may be used instead of the preferred solid oral method of administration.
It is preferred to prepare unit dosage forms of the compounds for standard administration regimens. In this way, the composition can be subdivided readily into smaller doses at the physician""s direction. For example, unit dosages may be made up in packeted powders, vials or ampoules and preferably in capsule or tablet form. The active compound present in these unit dosage forms of the composition may be present in an amount of from about one gram to about fifteen grams or more, for single or multiple daily administration, according to the particular need of the patient. The daily dose of active compound will vary depending upon the route of administration, the size, age and sex of the patient, the severity of the disease state, and the response to the therapy as traced by blood analysis and the patients recovery rate. By initiating the treatment regimen with a minimal daily dose of about one gram, the blood levels of HDL and the patients symptomatic relief analysis may be used to determine whether a larger dose is indicated. Based upon the data presented below, the projected daily dose for both human and veterinary use will be from about 25 to about 200 milligrams/kilogram per day, and more usually, from about 50 to about 100 milligrams/kilogram per day.
The ability of the compounds of this invention to increase blood serum HDL levels was established by the following standard experimental procedure for determination of HDL cholesterol:
Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200-225 g were housed two per cage and fed Purina Rodent Chow Special Mix 5001-S supplemented with 0.25% cholic acid and 1.0% cholesterol and water ad libitum for 8 days. Each test substance was administered to a group of six rats fed the same diet with the test diet mixed in as 0.005-0.1% of the total diet. Body weight and food consumption were recorded prior to diet administration and at termination. Typical doses of the test substances were 5-100 mg/kg/day.
At termination, blood was collected from anesthetized rats and the serum was separated by centrifugation. Total serum cholesterol was assayed using the Sigma Diagnostics enzymatic kit for the determination of cholesterol, Procedure No. 352, modified for use with ninety-six well microtiter plates. After reconstitution with water the reagent contains 300 U/I cholesterol oxidase, 100 U/I cholesterol esterase, 1000 U/I horse radish peroxidase, 0.3 mmoles/l 4-aminoantipyrine and 30.0 mmoles/l p-hydroxybenzenesulfonate in a pH 6.5 buffer. In the reaction cholesterol was oxidized to produce hydrogen peroxide which was used to form a quinoneimine dye. The concentration of dye formed was measured spectrophotometrically by absorbency at 490 nm after incubation at 25xc2x0 C. for 30 minutes. The concentration of cholesterol was determined for each serum sample relative to a commercial standard from Sigma.
HDL cholesterol concentrations in serum were determined by separation of lipoprotein classes by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) by a modification of the method of Kieft et al., J. Lipid Res., 32 (1991) 859-866. 25 ul of serum was injected onto Superose 12 and Superose 6 (Pharmacia), in series, with a column buffer of 0.05 M Tris (2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol) and 0.15 M sodium chloride at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. The eluted sample was mixed on line with Boehringer-Mannheim cholesterol reagent pumped at 0.2 m/min. The combined eluents were mixed and incubated on line through a knitted coil (Applied Biosciences) maintained at a temperature of 45 C. The eluent was monitored by measuring absorbence at 490 nm and gave a continuous absorbence signal proportional to the cholesterol concentration. The relative concentration of each lipoprotein class was calculated as the percent of total absorbence. HDL cholesterol concentration, in serum, was calculated as the percent of total cholesterol as determined by FPLC multiplied by the total serum cholesterol concentration.
The compounds of the present invention increase HDL cholesterol concentrations as summarized in Table I:
The following non-limiting examples illustrate the preparation of representative compounds of the invention: | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention pertains to a device for forming the spine region and/or the adjacent joint areas of book cases.
Known book production machines for the mechanized production of books comprise devices for transporting and devices for processing the supplied book blocks, devices for transporting and devices for processing the supplied book cases, as well as devices for joining one respective book block with an assigned book case, which is also referred to as the so-called casing-in process. Book production machines of this type are designed in such a way that the book blocks, the book cases, as well as the books, are always aligned symmetrically to the center plane of the book blocks that divides the book block at half the block thickness. Prior to the casing-in process, the book cases are performed with respect to the desired shape of the spine and the adjacent joint areas. Known devices used for this purpose lift out the spine region of the extended book case relative to a pair of rails that hold down the joint areas of the book case. These rails are realized in the form of flat hold-down rails or in the form of wedge-shaped joint forming rails with rounded forming areas and positioned in dependence on the width of the spine by means of automatic adjusting drives provided for this purpose. With respect to its width and contour, the forming component that lifts out the spine region of the book case corresponds to the spine.
Conventional forming components used for preforming book cases for books with a straight spine essentially consist of a base plate and a pair of parallel rails that are spaced apart from one another in accordance with the spine width. The rails are screwed to the base plate in oblong holes such that the forming component can be adapted to the width of the spine. This is realized by removing the forming component from the device for reasons of accessibility, manually fixing the rails in the desired position and subsequently reinserting the forming component into the device. This means that a significant effort is required for adjusting the device to the desired spine width and that a machine down-time and therefore an interruption of production are required for correcting the adjustment.
In order to simplify this adjustment of the forming component for books with a straight spine, EP 2 325 020 A1 proposes an adjusting mechanism that couples the two rails lifting out the spine region by means of pushers such that they are inevitably adjusted parallel, as well as symmetrical, to the aforementioned center plane of the book blocks. If the book block should not be cased into the book case symmetrically in order to subsequently arrange additional elements such as, e.g., a plastic packaging for compact discs or a so-called jewel case within the book, the book case needs to be displaced transverse to the transport direction between the preforming process and the casing-in process. Due to the joint areas and the preforming process, however, the book case is weakened, in particular, in the direction of the spine width such that the displacement transverse to the transport direction and therefore in the direction of the spine width requires a reduced production speed and represents a source for malfunctions and diminished production quality.
The production of books with a rounded spine requires forming components that not only correspond to the shape of the book to be produced with respect to their width, but also with respect to the curvature of their surface that faces the book case. The large number of different spine widths and curvatures results in a plurality of required forming components and a corresponding set-up effort. In order to reduce the variety of forming components, slight deviations from the ideal shape, particularly with respect to the width, and quality losses caused thereby are frequently accepted.
EP 1 350 634 B1 proposes a forming component for the production of books with a rounded spine, wherein said forming component comprises a closed frame and a plurality of discs that are adjacently arranged in this frame in a height-adjustable fashion. The discs feature individually formed, arc-shaped oblong holes, wherein the entire disc assembly is threaded onto bolts with these oblong holes such that the discs are adjusted to different heights in accordance with the arc shape of the oblong holes by moving these bolts in the longitudinal direction of the forming component and the contour of the forming component can reproduce different radii that are approximated with step profiles. In this case, the quality of the forming surface is decisively influenced by the material thickness of the discs. The disadvantages of this forming component can be seen in the required space for the frame that encloses the disc assembly, as well as the required fixing of the discs with additional means after the adjustment process. Due to the coupled adjustment of the discs, such a forming component also can respectively produce only one contour in dependence on the spine width. Several forming components of this type are required if spines with different curvature radii should be produced for book blocks with the same thickness, wherein these forming components differ with respect to the progression of the grooves in the discs. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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From time to time, there have been well-publicized incidents in which a laptop computer is stolen from an individual, or otherwise lost by the individual, and the computer is discovered to have contained highly sensitive data. Such highly sensitive data can include, for example, personal information for a large number of individuals (e.g., telephone, Social Security or credit card numbers), company trade-secret or other confidential information, or even information pertaining to national security.
Thus, for several years chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs) and others have been asking for products/solutions that allow them to identify such vulnerabilities. However, as yet, there has not been a solution that is fully acceptable. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic relay, and particularly relates to an electromagnetic relay for a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Numbers of electromagnetic relays have been used in a vehicle and various systems, and they are also increasing. When the number of electromagnetic relays used in a vehicle increases, electric power consumption thereof becomes an important factor to be considered. Further, highly sensitive and less-power consuming electromagnetic relays have been wanted in order to equip them with integrated-circuit controllers.
Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication 60-155153 discloses such an electromagnetic relay. In this conventional relay, an armature is retracted by a magnet although driven by an electromagnetic coil to operate a switch, and a spring member biases the armature to stay at a middle portion between a position of the armature being retracted by the magnet and a position of the same being driven by the electromagnetic coil. As a result, electric energy required to drive the spring is small so that energy consumption of the relay can be reduced. However, the above relay is composed of many parts and the structure thereof, and is rather complicated, thereby resulting in problems of accuracy and high production cost. In addition, since the permanent magnet is disposed remote from where the armature is driven, leakage of the magnetic flux is considerable and comparatively large sized permanent magnet has to be installed. | {
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The present invention relates to a water-color ink which provides high print quality on ordinary paper, recycled paper and coated paper, and which has excellent storage stability.
Inkjet recording is a method of recording letters and graphics on the surface of a recording medium by discharging ink as droplets from a fine nozzle. Inkjet recording systems which are in practical use include a method of converting an electrical signal into a mechanical signal using an electrostrictive element to intermittently discharge ink stored in a nozzle head part and record letters and symbols on the surface of a recording medium, and a method of rapidly heating that part of the ink stored in a nozzle head part which is closest to the ejection part to produce bubbles, and intermittently discharging the ink by means of the volume expansion caused by the bubbles to record letters and symbols on the surface of a recording medium.
Properties required of the inks used in such inkjet recording include absence of bleeding and good drying of the print on the paper which is the recording medium, the ability to print uniformly on a variety of recording medium surfaces, and absence of mixing of adjacent colors in multicolor printing including color printing.
In conventional inks and most inks which use pigments in particular, means of have been studied and put into practice of controlling wetting of the paper surface by the ink primarily by controlling permeability, and of ensuring print quality by confining the ink drops to near the paper surface.
However, with inks which are designed to control wetting of the paper there is a large difference in bleeding depending on the kind of paper, and in the case of recycled paper consisting of a mixture of various paper components in particular bleeding occurs due to differences in the wetting properties of the ink with respect to those different components. Moreover, with such inks it takes time for the print to dry, raising the issue of mixing of adjacent colors in the case of color printing and other multicolor printing, and in the case of inks which use pigments as coloring materials the pigments remain on the surface of the paper or the like, detracting from abrasion resistance.
To resolve such issues, efforts are being made to improve permeability of the ink into the paper, and research is being done into adding diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,675, Specifications), adding Surfynol 465 (Nisshin Chemical), adding an acetylene glycol surfactant (U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,502, Specifications), or adding both diethylene glycol monobutyl ether and Surfynol 465 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,056, Specifications). The use of diethylene glycol ethers in inks is also being studied (U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,372, Specifications).
In the case of inks which use pigments, because it is generally difficult to improve the permeability of the ink while maintaining the dispersion stability of the pigment the selection of penetrating agents is small, and examples of a glycol ether combined with a pigment have heretofore included triethylene glycol monomethyl ether (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S56-147861) and ethers of ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol or triethylene glycol (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H9-111165) used with pigments.
However, conventional water-color inks have unsatisfactory print quality, with frequent bleeding when printed on ordinary paper such as PPC paper, and color density and color development have also been inadequate. Conventional dispersions have also been unstable, and adsorption-desorption is likely to occur in the presence of surfactants, glycol ethers and other substances with hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts, detracting from the storage stability of such water-color inks. In order to reduce bleeding in the paper ordinary water-color inks have required substances with hydrophilic parts and hydrophobic parts, such as surfactants and glycol ethers. Inks which lack these substances have inadequate permeability in paper, so for purposes of uniform printing the type of paper is limited, and the printed image is often adversely affected.
Moreover, when the sort of additives (acetylene glycol, acetylene alcohol or silicon surfactants, di(tri)ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, (di)propylene glycol monobutyl ether or 1,2-alkylene glycol or mixtures of these) used in the present invention are used in conventional dispersions long-term storage stability is not obtained, and because the ink has poor re-solubility the ink has been likely to dry and clog the nozzle of the ink jet head or the pen tip or the like of the writing instrument.
Moreover, in the case of pigments dispersed by such dispersants a dispersant residue remains in the ink, with the problem that the dispersant is released from the pigment without contributing sufficiently to dispersion and viscosity is increased. This high viscosity means that there are limits on the amount added to pigments and other coloring materials, and adequate image quality is not obtained particularly on ordinary paper. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of optical lithography. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for producing an interference pattern having a variable periodicity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical lithography is used extensively in industry for translating variations in the intensity of a beam of light into chemical or mechanical features on the surface of a material object, such as for fabricating microscopic electronic circuits. The optical patterns used for fabricating the microscopic circuits are most commonly generated by lenses that produce a magnified image of an object bearing a pattern that is desired to be reproduced lithographically. This conventional approach, however, becomes increasingly difficult to implement as the desired features become finer.
An alternative approach for generating patterns is by using interferometric lithography, in which optical patterns are generated by constructive and destructive interference of optical fields of uniform beams of light. FIG. 1 shows the basic geometry for generating an interferometric pattern. Two light beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 having the same wavelength .lambda. and propagating in respectively different directions intersect at a surface S of a material object so that the normal n to surface S is coplanar with the respective directions of light beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 and makes an angle .theta. with each of light beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2. Under these conditions, the optical intensity along surface S varies, or is modulated, sinusoidally with period .LAMBDA. as EQU .LAMBDA.=.lambda./2 sin .theta.. (1)
For a fixed optical wavelength .lambda., .LAMBDA. can be adjusted to have any value greater than .lambda./2 by varying .theta. between 90.degree. to 0.degree..
The periodic modulation of the optical intensity .LAMBDA. can be used for producing a periodic structure on surface S through well-known techniques of optical lithography. The ability to produce features as small as .lambda./2 is one of the principal attractions for interferometric lithography because patterns having small periodicity, i.e., small feature size, have significant technical importance, such as in the fabrication of electronic circuits. Patterns more complicated than a simple periodic structure can be generated, in principle, through multiple lithographic steps, such as disclosed by S. Zaidi et al., J. Vac. Sci. Tech. B11, p. 658, 1993, and by U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,835 to Brueck et al. Accordingly, each step of a multiple lithographic technique relies on the interference phenomenon shown in FIG. 1.
At the heart of any apparatus for interferometric lithography is an interferometer, that is, the device that generates two optical beams in the configuration shown by FIG. 1. A clear interference pattern can only arise when the interfering beams have a stable, well-defined phase. To achieve this, light beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 are derived from a single incoming beam by either a reflecting surface or a refracting surface of limited extent, or by a partially reflecting surface. A useful interferometer must satisfy the following requirements:
(1) The interferometer must be mechanically stable because fluctuations on the order of a fraction of an optical wavelength in the beam paths will degrade the interference pattern; PA1 (2) The angle .theta. is desirably adjustable so that the period .LAMBDA. can be varied; and PA1 (3) The lengths of the optical paths traversed by beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 are desired to be equal so that a light source of limited coherence length can be used.
When the paths of beams k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 are related by reflection in a plane of symmetry, then condition (3) is met and, moreover, the phase difference of the interfering beams vanishes in the plane of symmetry. Thus, the plane of symmetry serves as a reference plane that allows the registration of multiple exposures, as is required to generate complex patterns using multiple lithographic techniques.
Interferometers can be classified into one of two types according to how the single incident beam is split into two interfering beams. The first type, referred to as "amplitude division" splits the incident beam by a partially reflecting surface. The second type, referred to as "wavefront division" splits the incident beam by two distinct surfaces that intercept different parts of the incident beam.
Variations of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, in which adjustable mirrors are used to direct the resulting beams onto the surface S with the correct angles, belong to the first class of interferometers. Nevertheless, the mirrors introduce the potential for misalignment and instability, which is contrary to the first requirement listed above. A more recent variation, the achromatic grating interferometer disclosed by A. Yeh et al., Appl. Opt. 31, 4540, (1992), is stable and symmetric, but has no possibility for adjusting .theta..
In the second class of interferometers, that is, interferometers that rely on wavefront divisions, the incident beam is required to have a relatively large spatial extent, even though only a small region of the substrate is desired to be illuminated. Expanding the incident beam reduces the optical intensity, which is undesirable for lithography. The simple one-mirror Lloyd interferometer disclosed by S. Tolansky, An Introduction to Interferometry, Longmans, Green and Co., 1955, is adjustable and mechanically stable, but is highly asymmetric and requires that the incident beam have approximately the same dimension as the entire substrate, which may be much larger than the area that is to be illuminated. Lastly, the Fresnel biprism disclosed by S. Tolansky, supra, is symmetric, simple and mechanically stable, but in practice the biprism is not well-suited for generation of variable periodicity patterns, even though adjustment of .theta. is possible in principle.
What is needed is a mechanically stable, symmetric monolithic device that splits a beam of light into two beams that intersect at an adjustable angle .theta., thereby producing an interference pattern having a variable periodicity, while also providing equal length optical paths for the split beams so that a light source of short coherence length can be used. | {
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Whether in the context of a sport practice or of a daily use, people tend to tighten the shoelaces of their shoes too much in particular in order to feel an accentuate holding of the foot. Furthermore, during a physical effort, such as running or walking, the foot swells naturally inside the shoe, by blood inflow, and the foot therefore becomes tightened too much by the shoelace.
Still, shoelaces tightened too much on a foot, whether because of a too strong initial tightening or because of a subsequent swelling of the foot, result in numerous annoyances.
The compression of the foot by a shoelace tightened too much may result in a compression of the blood and nerve vessels, with several negative consequences: heavy legs sensations, pins and needles sensations, tingling, pains at the calves, cramps, tears, sprains or contractures.
Furthermore, a shoelace tightened too much also prevents the foot arches from moving freely and results in hindering the movement of the foot during an activity.
In addition, a too tightened shoelace tends to rigidify the shoe, with as a potential consequence a Morton neuroma. This neuroma, also called the «Morton's disease», is a very painful affection which touches the interdigital nerve of the foot because of a too tightened foot.
In the shoelaces field are known the fabric-made shoelaces, for example made of polyester, nylon, cotton or linen, as known from the document U.S. Pat. No. 696,440, and the rubber-made shoelaces.
The first example of a fabric-made shoelace barely offers comfort for the foot. Indeed, throughout the day, or during a sport activity, the pressure of the foot increases, and the rigidity of the shoelace will make its support unpleasant and above all generating compression marks on the top-side of the foot, called the «instep».
The second example of a rubber-made shoelace has the drawback of compressing the foot too strongly because of a too high elastic return. Indeed, because of its elasticity, the carrier will tend to tighten too much his rubber-made shoelaces which will strongly compress the foot in the shoe.
The state of the art is also illustrated by the teaching of document U.S. 2006/0168785 which discloses a shoelace comprising an elastic core, in particular made of silicone, wrapped inside with a sheath made of a plastic material, paper, a fabric or elastic, and a friction element associated to the sheath. Particularly because of the presence of the sheath and the friction element, this shoelace has the same defects as the two aforementioned shoelaces, and thus does not offers comfort and holding adapted to avoid the problems of over-compression of the foot. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rod-shaped gas igniter whose ignition nozzle is elongated from the igniter body to make it easy to have access to an object to be ignited.
2. Related Art
A conventional rod-shaped gas igniter has an ignition nozzle encircled by an apertured metal hollow cylinder, permitting the invasion by air through the longitudinal holes of the protecting hollow cylinder. In igniting with such rod-shaped gas igniter air flows directly to the ignition nozzle through the longitudinal holes of the protecting hollow cylinder. Then, the gas ejection apertures of the ignition nozzle are easy to be clogged with dust and impurities carried by the air, and they will be closed and the igniter will be useless in a relatively short time. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As an increasing number of applications and services are being made available over networks such as the Internet, customer entities and associated data are increasingly exposed to security threats such as unsolicited e-mail (“spam”), distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, trojans, worms, viruses, and the like. In order to alleviate such problems, customer entities, enterprise and otherwise, have turned to dedicated hardware that, in networking terms, is positioned topographically near to network ingress/egress points, to implement services such as spam control, firewalling, DDoS protection, and other services for protecting networks to enable the networks to function effectively. Such hardware is often expensive and difficult to properly configure, maintain and support. As such, the addition or maintenance of such hardware can often have a significant impact on an organization, possibly being disruptive and/or decreasing productivity. Additionally, hardware-based threat management solutions typically do not automatically scale their capabilities up and down based on demand, perceived threat level, and/or the like. | {
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Atmospheric discharge cold plasma technology has been employed by the medical community for several years. Examples of high power uses include tissue ablation, suture sealing and sterilization of a tissue area. Low power uses may include dermatologic, hemostasis and other health-field related applications.
The term “cold plasma” is used to indicate that only a small fraction of the inert carrier gas is ionized, although this fraction can be adjusted to suit the particular use or application. Typically, the ionized portion of the carrier gas can range between approximately 10−6 (a very weak plasma beam) to approximately 10−3 (a strong beam). A plasma can be formed where a gas is exposed to a specific amount of energy, and that energy exposure separates the gas component molecules into a collection of ions, electrons, charge-neutral gas molecules, and other species in varying degrees of excitation. Effectiveness has been demonstrated in rapid sterilization, decontamination and industrial processing. Unlike semiconductor industry applications, the cold plasma technology does not require a vacuum chamber. The plasma discharge is conducted in the open air.
The mean electron energy (or temperature) of a cold plasma is considerably higher than that of the bulk-gas molecules. Energy is primarily added to the electrons rather than the ions and background gas molecules, and the electrons can attain energies of approximately 10−1 eV or higher, while background gas remains at ambient temperature. A significant energy savings can be realized since electrons are preferentially excited and larger ions are left in a lower energy state in a cold plasma.
A plasma may also be formed when a modulated electric field is applied to a pair of electrodes and exposed to the gas. The plasma formation can cause oxygen molecules of the air passing near the electrodes to break down into component molecules, including reactive oxygen species (“ROS”). Organic substrates, such as bacteria, viruses, microbes and mold spores can be exposed to ROS, and then destroyed or rendered harmless rapidly. The same reaction can convert much or all of the ROS back into oxygen.
Cold plasmas can provide rapid decontamination of clothing, equipment or gear, and sterilization of medical equipment or food. However, while present methods of decontamination and sterilization may require long periods of time, even hours or days and generate damaging heat in the process; a cold plasma of the present disclosure can often sanitize an area or object very briefly, in seconds or minutes.
It would be advantageous in a number a fields to provide a cold plasma that can decontaminate or sterile large areas rapidly. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor package, and more particularly, to a semiconductor multi-chip package that includes two semiconductor memory chips having different memory densities.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the performances and functions of electronic appliances have been improved and diversified, a need to control the electronic appliances in a software-based manner has been increased. To control an electronic appliance in the software-based manner, a large-capacity memory device can be beneficial. To increase memory density, research and development has been conducted with the ongoing goal of progressively increasing the integration densities of semiconductor memory devices.
However, the integration density of a semiconductor memory device can be easily increased to a limit, but when a desired integration density exceeds the limit, manufacturing costs are significantly if not substantially increased compared to an increase in the integration density. To solve this problem, semiconductor multi-chip packages that increase memory density without necessarily increasing integration density have been introduced.
The semiconductor multi-chip package technologies are categorized into a semiconductor multi-chip package with only a plurality of semiconductor memory chips, and a semiconductor multi-chip package with semiconductor memory chips and non-memory semiconductor chips. The categorization of semiconductor multi-chip packages with only semiconductor memory chips is divided into semiconductor multi-chip packages that include semiconductor memory chips having the same memory density, and semiconductor multi-chip package that include semiconductor memory chips having different memory densities. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Thermal spraying, also known as flame spraying, involves the heat softening of a heat fusible material such as metal or ceramic, and propelling the softened material in particulate form against a surface which is to be coated. The heated particles strike the surface where they are quenched and bonded thereto. A thermal spray gun is used for the purpose of both heating and propelling the particles. In one type of thermal spray gun, the heat fusible material is supplied to the gun in powder form. Such powders are typically comprised of small particles, e.g., between 100 mesh U. S. Standard screen size (149 microns) and about 2 microns. The carrier gas, which entrains and transports the powder, can be one of the combustion gases or an inert gas such as nitrogen, or it can be simply compressed air.
The material alternatively may be fed into a heating zone in the form of a rod or wire such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,818 (Charlop). In the wire type thermal spray gun, the rod or wire of the material to be sprayed is fed into the heating zone formed by a flame of some type, such as a combustion flame, where it is melted or at least heat-softened and atomized, usually by blast gas, and thence propelled in finely divided form onto the surface to be coated. Especially high quality coatings of thermal spray materials may be produced by spraying at very high velocity. Plasma spraying has proven successful with high velocity in many respects but in certain cases, especially with carbides, it is not as good as combustion, apparently due to overheating and/or to poor particle entrainment which must be effected by feeding powder laterally into the high velocity plasma stream.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,714,563 (Poorman et al) discloses a detonation gun for blasting powdered material in a series of detonations to produce coatings such as carbides. Since the detonation pulses are very harmful to the ears the apparatus must be operated by remote control in an isolated room, and also the process is quite complex. Therefore this method has been expensive and commercially limited in availability. Also it has not lent itself to full control of spray pattern and efficient target efficiency. However, the detonation process has demonstrated the desirability of spraying at very high velocity. High density and tenacity of coatings are achieved by high impact of the powder particles, and the short dwell time in the heating zone minimizes oxidation at the high spray temperatures.
A rocket type of powder spray gun can produce excellent coatings and is typified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,421 (Browning). This type of gun has an internal combustion chamber with a high pressure combustion effluent directed through an annular opening into the constricted throat of a long nozzle chamber. Powder is fed axially within the annular opening into the nozzle chamber to be heated and propelled by the combustion effluent. In practice the gun must be water cooled and a long nozzle is particularly susceptible to powder buildup. Also, ignition in an internal chamber requires special technique; for example a hydrogen pilot flame is used. There are safety concerns with an enclosed high pressure combustion chamber. A long nozzle is not geometrically suitable for spraying on inside diameters or other such remote areas, and is somewhat restricted with respect to varying and selecting the size of the spray stream. Best results have been effected commercially in such a rocket gun with hydrogen for the combustion gas which must be used at high flow rates, causing the process to be quite expensive.
Short-nozzle spray devices are disclosed for high velocity spraying in French Patent Nos. 1,041,056 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,317,173 (Bleakley). Powder is fed axially into a melting chamber within an annular flow of combustion gas. An annular air flow is injected coaxially outside of the combustion gas flow, along the wall of the chamber. The spray stream with the heated powder issues from the open end of the combustion chamber. There are not sufficient details taught in the Bleakley and French patents for one to attain truly high velocity powder spraying, and apparently no significant commercial use has been made of these devices, despite the references being 45 and 35 years old respectively.
The Bleakley and French short-nozzle devices superficially have a nozzle construction similar to commercial wire spray guns of the type disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,818. However, wire guns function quite differently, with the combustion flame melting the wire tip and the air atomizing the molten material from the tip and propelling the droplets. Wire guns generally have been used to spray only at moderate velocity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Annual usage of plastic bags by U.S. retailers is substantial, reaching billions of households. Many of these bags are of the t-shirt variety, with handles that project upwardly on each side from the mouth of the bag. Because a large number of plastic bags reach consumers, efforts have been made to provide advertising and coupons on bags.
Plastic bags and other types of packaging are often used for advertising. For example, grocery store retailers will print their name and logo on the front and/or back of each bag. Consumers often reuse bags and carry them back and forth to work, etc. As a result, retailers get free advertising while their bags are on display by the consumer. Thus, it is desirable by the retailer that their bags be unadulterated by coupons that block their logo and/or name.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,104 to Absher (“the '104 patent”) teaches the application of a coupon assembly to a t-shirt bag and a paper bag. The coupon assembly 2 taught in the '104 patent concerns a Technicote Magic Film construction, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The coupon assembly has a film portion 4 and a removable portion 6. The film portion is coupled to the removable portion by a fugitive adhesive 8. The film portion is secured to the bag by a permanent adhesive 10 and is not removable from the bag 12 so that it remains on the bag, even after the coupon is removed from the bag. The coupon assembly 2 in the '104 patent is shown positioned on a substrate 12, such as a bag. A paper layer 14 is positioned on top and has printing or ink I positioned on the top and bottom surfaces thereof. The bottom surface of the paper layer is coupled to a film layer 20 by a permanent adhesive 18. The bottom layer is a film 22 that is coupled to the bag by a permanent adhesive. A fugitive adhesive is positioned between the bottom of the paper layer (e.g., the film on the bottom of the paper layer) and the film that is positioned on the bag. When the paper layer 14 is removed along with the film 20, the fugitive adhesive 8 tears so that only the film and permanent adhesive remain on the bag, as shown in FIG. 2. The Technicote Magic Film label is positioned on a 40 lb. liner. Because of the type of label and liner, the Magic Film labels are not able to be fan-folded. Instead, they need to be positioned on rolls, as shown in the '104 patent.
In the recycling of plastic t-shirt bags, bags are typically ground and melted down. Typically the bags are washed of contaminants prior to recycling of the ground product. As a result, bags that have advertising media applied that is not the same material as the bag may not be recycled in the typical manner since contaminants are not permitted. For example, standard HDPE t-shirt bags that have paper coupons applied thereto would not be readily recyclable using standard means. Even where a plastic label and coupon combination is applied to an HDPE bag, a permanent plastic liner typically remains on the bag after the coupon is removed. In order to make the HDPE bag recyclable, not only would the paper coupon need to be removed, but the plastic liner would also need to be removed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lever-actuated connector, more particularly to a lever-actuated connector enabling easy forming of a connector body having a slit into which an end of a lever is inserted, and to a method for forming a connector body.
2. Related Art
A lever-actuated connector of the past is illustrated in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, and is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-26070. As shown in FIG. 7, this lever-actuated connector is generally constituted by a hood 3 integrally formed with an upper cover 2 of an electrical connection housing 1, a male connector 5 having a connector body 4 that inserts into and fits with the hood 3, and a lever 6 provided on the outside of the connector body 4 of the male connector 5, and which causes the connector body 4 to be inserted into and fitted with the hood 3
End parts of bus bars (not shown) are housed within the upper cover 2 of the electrical connection housing 1, with male contacts of the end parts protruding within the hood 3. Rib guide grooves 7 are formed so as to protrude on both sides on one end of the hood 3. A pair of cutouts 9 are formed on an outer wall 8 that defines the rib guide grooves 7. Between the rib guide grooves 7 are inserted ribs 10 of the connector body 4, and end parts 12 of lever walls 11 of the lever 6 are inserted into and engaged with the cutouts 9, respectively. The ribs 10 formed on the connector body 4 each have a vertically elongated hole 10A for guiding insertion of the end part 12 of a corresponding one of the lever walls 11.
Guide grooves 13 are formed on the other end of the hood 3, so as to protrude at both sides thereof. The grooves 13 are configured so that guide ribs 14 protruding from the connector body 4 can be inserted. A lever lock part 15 is provided further to the end part than the guide grooves 13. This lever lock part 15 is provided with a pair of guide walls 16 protruding toward the inside of the hood 3, with a locking piece insertion space 17 defined between the guide walls 16. Inside the hood 3, the connector body 4 of the male connector 5 is inserted into and fitted by operation of the lever 6, so that female contacts (not shown) housed within the connector body 4 are thereby connected to the male contacts protruding within the hood 3.
The male connector 5 has a plurality of contact, housing chambers within the connector body 4, these contact housing chambers individually housing the female contacts. A mating male contact is inserted from one end of a corresponding contact housing chamber, and an electric wire W terminated at its end on an associated female contact is lead away from the other end of the contact housing chamber.
The connector body 4 has a pair of bosses 18 protruding from central regions of both side surfaces thereof. The bosses 18 are each inserted into a pivot hole 11A that is formed at the center of a corresponding one of the lever walls 11 of the lever 6. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the condition in which the lever 6 is pivotally supported by the connector body 4.
In the molding of the connector body 4 of the male connector 5, the elongated holes 10A to be formed in the ribs 10 are molded by using dies to be removed in a direction, which is different from the direction of removal of other dies used for molding an associated part of the lever-actuated connector. FIG. 9 is a partial cross-sectional view showing removal directions of dies used for molding the ribs 10 of the connector body 4. As shown in the figure, the conventional lever-actuated connector needs a laterally slidable die 19A to form each elongated hole 10A, while other parts of the connector body 4 are molded by vertically removable dies 19X1 and 19X2. Thus, sliding dies are necessary for the elongated holes 10A to be formed at both sides, and an entire die configuration is complicated, with increased costs in die production and molding operation.
Further, the connector body 4 to be inserted and fitted into the hood 3 readily tilts within the hood 3, causing an interference with the hood 3, as the lever 6 is operated, resulting in a failure for the connector body 4 to be smoothly inserted and fitted.
The present invention is made with such points in view. It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a lever-actuated connector and a method for forming or molding a connector body, which simplify and reduce the cost of dies to be used for forming the connector, and which enable smooth insertion and fitting together of connectors.
To achieve the object described, an aspect of the present invention provides a lever-actuated connector comprising a first connector housing formed with a guide groove, a lever member engageable at an end part thereof with the first connector housing, and a second connector housing providing a pivot for the lever member to be rotated thereabout to fit the second connector housing to the first connector housing, the second connector housing being provided with a rib to be guided by the guide groove, the rib being molded with a first hole elongated in a first direction for the lever member to be slid therealong when rotated and a second hole communicating with the first hole and extending in the first direction for removal of a die element to be removed from the first hole.
Further, to achieve the object, another aspect of the present invention provides a molding method for a lever-actuated connector including a first connector housing formed with a guide groove, a lever member engageable at an end part thereof with the first connector housing, and a second connector housing providing a pivot for the lever member to be rotated thereabout to fit the second connector housing to the first connector housing, the second connector housing being provided with a rib to be guided by the guide groove, the rib being formed with a first hole elongated in a first direction for the lever member to be slid therealong when rotated, the molding method comprising molding the rib using a die element forming the first hole and a second hole connected to the first hole and extending in the first direction, and removing the die element through the second hole.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a lever-actuated connector in which a lever pivoted on a side surface of a connector body is rotated, thereby inserting and fitting the connector body into a mating connector, wherein the side surface of the connector body has at one end part thereof an upwardly and downwardly extending rib outwardly protruding therefrom, with a lever-insertion slit formed therein for an end of the lever to be swingably inserted thereinto, the lever-insertion slit being defined between mutually opposing walls, and wherein the mutually opposing walls are interconnected by an upper rib linking part and a lower rib linking part, the upper rib linking part being larger than the lower rib linking part, and a die-removal opening is formed in an upper end surface of the upper rib linking part, communicating with the lever insertion slit.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method for forming a connector body of a lever-actuated connector in which a lever is pivoted on a side surface of the connector body, the side surface of the connector body has at one end part thereof an upwardly and downwardly extending rib outwardly protruding therefrom, with a lever-insertion slit formed therein for an end of the lever to be swingably inserted thereinto, the lever-insertion slit being defined between mutually opposing walls, and the lever is rotated to insert and fit the connector body into a mating connector, wherein the method comprises assembling upper and lower dies to be mutually aligned for an entirety of the connector body to be thereby enclosed, with a bar-shaped slit-forming die part of the upper die disposed, in a space for the lever-insertion slit to be defined therein, to extend through an upper rib linking part interconnecting the mutually opposing walls, filling a synthetic resin into a cavity defined between the dies, upwardly removing the upper die with the slit-forming die part, and downwardly removing the lower die. | {
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1. Field
Example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices. More particularly, example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices including a peripheral circuit and memory cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a vertical memory device including a plurality of memory cells stacked repeatedly with respect to a surface of a substrate has been developed in order to realize a high degree of integration. In the vertical memory device, a channel may protrude vertically from the surface of the substrate, and gate lines and insulation layers surrounding the channel may be repeatedly stacked. Further, a peripheral circuit may be formed on the substrate, and the memory cells may be stacked on the peripheral circuit.
However, as the stacked number of the memory cells becomes greater, an operation of the vertical memory device may not be easily controlled. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a method of using an impression element in a well to determine the effective connection to permeability of a fluid flow opening in a tubular member positioned under liquid in the well. More particularly this invention relates to using an inflatable impression packer having an inflatable sleeve containing an impression element to contact a liquid filled tubular member adjacent a fluid flow opening therein to determine whether or not the fluid flow opening is connected for effective fluid flow to or from the formation penetrated by the well.
In well operations and in particular oil well operations it is common practice to place a tubular member such as a well liner or casing in the well adjacent a producing formation. The tubular member is provided with relatively small fluid flow openings which are designed to permit flow of fluids from the formation into the well or from the well into the formation without permitting said or other fines to enter the well. The flow openings in the tubular member may be slots precut in the tubular member before it is positioned in the well or the flow openings may be perforations made in a tubular member after it has been run in the well. The tubular member is usually cemented into place in the well adjacent a desired formation. It is often necessary to know if the flow opening, for example, a slot or a perforation, even though actually existing in the tubular member actually permits flow of fluids to or from the formation. Stated simply, is the flow opening effectively connected to formation permeability? Thus, even though a flow opening may appear to exist in the tubular member effective connection to the formation may be prevented by cement, formation damage or ineffective gun or jet perforation. The present invention is directed to determining whether or not the flow opening is connected to permeability. Further, the present invention is directed to determining the relative permeability to liquid flow through the formation behind the flow opening. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Electrical telegraph was developed and patented in the United States in 1837 by Samuel Morse. He and his assistant, Alfred Vail, developed the Morse code signaling alphabet. The first telegram in the United States was sent by Morse on Jan. 11, 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, N.J.
In Morse code: A dot equals one unit A dash equals three units A space between characters is three units The space between words is seven units The above is illustrated as follows:
A•—B—•••C—•—•D—••1•2••3•••——
Electronic information transmission from the early days of telegraph to current networks and applications continues to use a binary (zeros/ones or short or long signal) format.
As noted in Wikipedia, around 1930, the CCITT introduced the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2) code as an international standard, which was based on the Western Union code with some minor changes. The US standardized a version of ITA2 called the American Teletypewriter code (USTTY) which was the basis for 5-bit teletypewriter codes until the debut of 7-bit ASCII in 1963.
Table 1 below is an example of a portion of the ITA2 Code:
TABLE 1International telegraphy alphabet No. 2(Baudot-Murray code)Pattern of impulses1 = mark 0 = spacemsb on leftmsb on rightLetter shiftFigure shift0000000000NullNull0010000100SpaceSpace1011111101Q11001111001W20000110000E30101001010R41000000001T51010110101Y6msb — most significant bit
ASCII could support many additional characters. ASCII was the most common character system encoding on the World Wide Web until December 2007 when it was surpassed by UTF-8, which includes ASCII as a subset, continuing to use zeros and ones binary format. An illustration of ASCII appears in Table 2 below
TABLE 2TextASCIIBinaryHchr(72)01001000Ichr(73)01001001Jchr(74)01001010Kchr(75)01001011Lchr(76)01001100Mchr(77)01001101Nchr(78)01001110
Alpha, numeric, control characters and information are converted from the original form to binary form through a digitizer in the above codes.
Digitizing is defined by Wikipedia as the representation of an object, image, sound, document or signal (usually an analog signal) by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image for the object, and digital form for the signal. In modern practice the digitized data is in the form of binary numbers, which facilitates computer processing and other operations. Strictly speaking, digitizing simply means the conversion of analog source material into a numerical format; the decimal or any other number system can be used instead.
One interesting/terrifying aspect of today's modern society is that we have filled the airwaves with a multitude of radio signals. Ever since the pioneering days of Marconi, Braun, and others we have been using more and more of the electromagnetic spectrum to send audio, visual, and data signals. Everything from FM radio to 4G LTE, from digital satellite TV to military communication is all sent via one form of radio or another. The result is that the radio spectrum is full, it is bursting at the seams.
In light of this, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has launched its latest Grand Challenge, this time to bring advanced machine-learning capabilities to the way the radio frequencies are used. DARPA has named the new competition the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). The object is to use AI to squeeze more bandwidth out the airwaves.
Considerable prior art exists showing the transmission of binary numbers such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,185 to Danielsen. Also many patents pertain to wireless communication and data transmission showing use of binary numbers such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,252,823; 8,819,517; and, 5,771,238. The problem is that the expansion of wireless service is taxing the limits of the binary format potentially requiring the costly expansion of the system. The use of a phased information pulse described herein greatly improves the network, as well as device and equipment capacity utilization while increasing throughput speed and reducing power consumption. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to expression plasmids stabilized by a Plasmid Maintenance System (as defined herein) capable of expressing a protein or peptide, such as an antigen for use in a live vector vaccine, and methods for making and using the stabilized plasmids. The invention optimizes the maintenance of expression plasmids at two independent levels by: (1) removing sole dependence on catalytic balanced lethal maintenance systems; and (2) incorporating a plasmid partition system to prevent random segregation of expression plasmids, thereby enhancing inheritance and stability.
1.2 Description of Related Art
Set forth below is a discussion of art relevant to the present invention.
1.2.1 Bacterial Live Vector Vaccines
Bacterial live vector vaccines deliver antigens to a host immune system by expressing the antigens from genetic material contained within a bacterial live vector. The genetic material is typically a replicon, such as a plasmid. The antigens may include a wide variety of proteins and/or peptides of bacterial, viral, parasitic or other origin.
Among the bacterial live vectors currently under investigation are attenuated enteric pathogens (e.g., Salmonella typhi, Shigella, Vibrio cholerae), commensals (e.g., Lactobacillus, Streptococcus gordonii) and licensed vaccine strains (e.g., BCG). S. typhi is a particularly attractive strain for human vaccination.
1.2.2 Attenuated Salmonella typhi as a Live Vector Strain
S. typhi is a well-tolerated live vector that can deliver multiple unrelated immunogenic antigens to the human immune system. S. typhi live vectors have been shown to elicit antibodies and a cellular immune response to an expressed antigen. Examples of antigens successfully delivered by S. typhi include the non-toxigenic yet highly immunogenic fragment C of tetanus toxin and the malaria circumsporozoite protein from Plasmodium falciparum.
S. typhi is characterized by enteric routes of infection, a quality which permits oral vaccine delivery. S. typhi also infects monocytes and macrophages and can therefore target antigens to professional APCs.
Expression of an antigen by S. typhi generally requires incorporation of a recombinant plasmid encoding the antigen. Consequently, plasmid stability is a key factor in the development of high quality attenuated S. typhi vaccines with the ability to consistently express foreign antigens.
Attenuated S. typhi vaccine candidates for use in humans should possess at least two well separated and well defined mutations that independently cause attenuation, since the chance of in vivo reversion of such double mutants would be negligible. The attenuated vaccine candidate S. typhi CVD908-htrA possesses such properties. CVD908-htrA contains non-reverting deletion mutations within the aroC and aroD genes. These genes encode enzymes critical in the biosynthetic pathway leading to synthesis of chorismate, the key precursor required for synthesis of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Chorismate is also required for the synthesis of p-aminobenzoic acid; after its conversion to tetrahydrofolate, p-aminobenzoic acid is converted to the purine nucleotides ATP and GTP. An additional deletion mutation has also been introduced into htrA, which encodes a periplasmic protease involved in the bacterial response to a variety of stresses.
1.2.3 Plasmid Instability
Plasmidless bacterial cells tend to accumulate more rapidly than plasmid-bearing cells. One reason for this increased rate of accumulation is that the transcription and translation of plasmid genes imposes a metabolic burden which slows cell growth and gives plasmidless cells a competitive advantage. Furthermore, foreign plasmid gene products are sometimes toxic to the host cell.
Stable inheritance of plasmids is desirable in the field of attenuated bacterial live vector vaccines to ensure successful continued antigen production, as well as in commercial bioreactor operations in order to prevent bioreactor takeover by plasmidless cells.
Stable inheritance of a plasmid generally requires that: (1) the plasmid must replicate once each generation, (2) copy number deviations must be rapidly corrected before cell division, and (3) upon cell division, the products of plasmid replication must be distributed to both daughter cells.
Although chromosomal integration of foreign genes increases the stability of such sequences, the genetic manipulations involved can be difficult, and the drop in copy number of the heterologous gene often results in production of insufficient levels of heterologous antigen to ensure an optimal immune response. Introduction of heterologous genes onto multicopy plasmids maintained within a live vector strain is a natural solution to the copy number problem; genetic manipulation of such plasmids for controlled expression of such heterologous genes is straightforward. However, resulting plasmids can become unstable in vivo, resulting in loss of these foreign genes.
1.2.4 Plasmid Stabilization Systems
In nature bacterial plasmids are often stably maintained, even though usually present at very low copy numbers. Stable inheritance of naturally occurring lower copy number plasmids can depend on the presence of certain genetic systems which actively prevent the appearance of plasmid-free progeny. A recent review of plasmid maintenance systems can be found in Jensen et al. Molecular Microbiol. 17:205-210, 1995 (incorporated herein by reference).
1.2.5 Antibiotic Resistance
One means for maintaining plasmids is to provide an antibiotic resistance gene on the plasmid and to grow the cells in antibiotic-enriched media. However, this method is subject to a number of difficulties. The antibiotic resistance approach is expensive, requiring the use of costly antibiotics and, perhaps more importantly, the use of antibiotics in conjunction with in vivo administration of vaccine vectors is currently discouraged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In large-scale production applications, the use of antibiotics may impose other limitations. With respect to commercial bioreactors, antibiotic resistance mechanisms can degrade the antibiotic and permit a substantial population of plasmidless cells to persist in the culture. Such plasmidless cells are unproductive and decrease the output of the bioreactor.
There is therefore a need in the art for a plasmid maintenance system specifically designed for use in bacterial live vector vaccines which does not rely on antibiotic resistance, and preferably which is also useful in commercial bioreactor applications.
1.2.6 Segregational Plasmid Maintenance Functions
Stable lower copy number plasmids typically employ a partitioning function that actively distributes plasmid copies between daughter cells. Exemplary partitioning functions include, without limitation, systems of pSC101, the F factor, the P1 prophage, and IncFII drug resistance plasmids. Such functions are referred to herein as “SEG” functions
1.2.7 Post-Segregational Killing (PSK) Functions
Naturally occurring PSK plasmid maintenance functions typically employ a two component toxin-antitoxin system and generally operate as follows: The plasmid encodes both a toxin and an antitoxin. The antitoxins are less stable than the toxins, which tend to be quite stable. In a plasmidless daughter cell, the toxins and anti-toxins are no longer being produced; however, the less stable antitoxins quickly degrade, thereby freeing the toxin to kill the cell.
The toxins are generally small proteins and the antitoxins are either small proteins (proteic systems such as phd-doc) or antisense RNAs which bind to the toxin-encoding mRNAs preventing their synthesis (antisense systems such as hok-sok).
Balanced lethal systems discussed below in Section 1.2.7.3 are an example of an artificial PSK function.
1.2.7.1 Proteic Maintenance System: The phd-doc System
In proteic PSK functions, both the toxin and antitoxin are synthesized from operons in which the gene encoding the antitoxin is upstream of the gene encoding the toxin. These operons autoregulate transcription levels, and synthesis of the encoded proteins is translationally coupled. The antitoxin is generally synthesized in excess to ensure that toxin action is blocked. The unstable antitoxins are constantly degraded by host-encoded proteases, requiring constant synthesis of antitoxin to protect the cell. Upon loss of the plasmid, antitoxins are no longer produced, and the existing antitoxins rapidly degrade, permitting the toxin to kill the host cell.
The phd-doc system is an example of a proteic PSK function. The phd-doc system occurs naturally within the temperate bacteriophage P1, which lysogenizes Escherichia coli, as an ˜100 kb plasmid. This maintenance locus encodes two small proteins: the toxic 126 amino acid Doc protein causes death on curing of the plasmid by an unknown mechanism, and the 73 amino acid Phd antitoxin prevents host death, presumably by binding to and blocking the action of Doc.
Phd and Doc are encoded by a single transcript in which the ATG start codon of the downstream doc gene overlaps by one base the TGA stop codon of the upstream phd gene. Expression of these two proteins is therefore translationally coupled, with Phd synthesis exceeding synthesis of the toxic Doc protein.
In addition, transcription of this operon is autoregulated at the level of transcription through the binding of a Phd-Doc protein complex to a site which blocks access of RNA polymerase to the promoter of the operon as concentrations of both proteins reach a critical level. Although Doc appears to be relatively resistant to proteolytic attack, Phd is highly susceptible to cleavage. The PSK mechanism of a plasmid-encoded phd-doc locus is therefore activated when bacteria spontaneously lose this resident plasmid, leading to degradation of the Phd antitoxin and subsequent activation of the Doc toxin which causes cell death.
1.2.7.2 Antisense Maintenance System: The hok-sok System
In antisense maintenance systems, the antitoxins are antisense RNAs that inhibit translation of toxin-encoding mRNAs. Like the antitoxin peptides, the antisense RNAs are less stable than the toxin-encoding mRNA. Loss of the plasmid permits existing antitoxins to degrade, thereby permitting synthesis of the toxin which kills the host cell.
An example of an antisense maintenance system is the hok-sok system, encoded by the parB locus of plasmid R1. The system is comprised of three genes: hok, sok and mok.
Hok is a membrane-associated protein which irreversibly damages the cell membrane, killing host cells. Expression of Hok from hok mRNA leads to a loss of cell membrane potential, arrest of respiration, changes in cell morphology, and cell death.
The sok gene encodes a trans-acting RNA which blocks translation of hok mRNA, thereby preventing Hok killing of host cells. The sok RNA is less stable than hok mRNA and is expressed from a relatively weak promoter. (Gerdes et al. Annu. Rev. Genet, 31:1-31, 1997) incorporated herein. The mechanism by which sok RNA blocks translation of Hok in plasmid-containing cells became apparent only after the identification of mok (modulation of killing), a third gene in the parB locus. The mok open reading frame overlaps with hok, and is necessary for expression and regulation of hok translation.
The sok antisense RNA forms a duplex with the 5′ end of the mok-hok message rendering the mok ribosome binding site inaccessible to ribosomes and promoting RNase III cleavage and degradation of the mRNA. In the absence of mok translation, hok is not expressed from intact message, even though its own ribosome binding site is not directly obscured by sok RNA.
When a plasmid-free cell is formed, the unstable sok RNA decays much more rapidly than the stable mok-hok message. When the protection afforded by sok is lost, Mok and Hok are translated and the cell dies.
A limitation of the hok-sok system is that a significant number of plasmidless cells can arise when the hok-sok system is inactivated by mutations within the Hok open reading frame.
1.2.7.3 Balanced Lethal Systems
In a balanced-lethal system (a PSK function), a chromosomal gene encoding an essential structural protein or enzyme is deleted from the bacterial chromosome or is mutated such that the gene can no longer operate. The removed or damaged gene is then replaced by a plasmid comprising a fully operating gene. Loss of the plasmid results in an insufficiency of the essential protein and the death of the plasmidless cell.
A balanced-lethal system has been successfully employed in S. typhimurium based on expression of the asd gene encoding aspartate β.-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (Asd). Asd is a critical enzyme involved in the synthesis of L-aspartic-β-semialdehyde, which is a precursor essential for the synthesis of the amino acids L-threonine (and L-isoleucine), L-methionine, and L-lysine, as well as diaminopimelic acid, a key structural component essential to the formation of the cell wall in Gram-negative bacteria. Loss of plasmids encoding Asd would be lethal for any bacterium incapable of synthesizing Asd from the chromosome, and would result in lysis of the bacterium due to an inability to correctly assemble the peptidoglycan layer of its cell wall.
The asd system (a PSK function) has been successfully employed in attenuated S. typhimurium-based live vector strains for immunization of mice with a variety of procaryotic and eucaryotic antigens, including such diverse antigens as detoxified tetanus toxin fragment C and the LT enterotoxin, synthetic hepatitis B viral peptides, and gamete-specific antigens such as the human sperm antigen SP10.
Murine mucosal immunization with these live vector strains has elicited significant immune responses involving serum IgG and secretory IgA responses at mucosal surfaces.
The asd system has recently been introduced into attenuated Salmonella typhi vaccine strains in an attempt to increase the stability of plasmids expressing synthetic hepatitis B viral peptides. However, when volunteers were immunized with these live vector strains, no immune response to the foreign antigen was detected.
In fact, to date, very few reports have documented an immune response to plasmid-based expression of a foreign antigen from stabilized plasmids after human vaccination with an attenuated S. typhi live vector. In one report, the vaccine strain Ty21a was made auxotrophic for thymine by selecting in the presence of trimethoprim for an undefined mutation in the thyA gene, encoding thymidylate synthetase.
Although in some cases failure of live vector strains may have resulted from over-attenuation of the strain itself, it appears probable that current killing systems for plasmids suffer from additional limitations. In those situations where the chromosomal copy of the gene has been inactivated, rather than removed, may allow for restoration of the chromosomal copy via homologous recombination with the plasmid-borne gene copy if the bacterial strain utilized is recombination-proficient.
Balanced-lethal systems based on catalytic enzyme production are subject to a number of important deficiencies. In particular, since complementation of the chromosomal gene deletion requires only a single gene copy, it is inherently difficult to maintain more than a few copies of an expression plasmid. The plasmidless host strain must be grown on special media to chemically complement the existing metabolic deficiency.
Moreover, plasmidless cells may also benefit from “cross-feeding” effects when a diffusible growth factor is growth limiting.
There is therefore a need in the art for a Plasmid Maintenance System which is not solely reliant on a balanced lethal system, particularly for use in bacterial live vector vaccines. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Optical sensing is becoming an important technology for detection of biological, chemical, and gaseous species. Optical sensing may offer advantages of speed and sensitivity. In recent years, many novel photonic structures and materials have been developed to make very sensitive optical devices.
One optical sensing method for analyte detection uses integrated optical waveguides. Such sensors have been demonstrated to be able to detect chemical and biological species adsorbed onto the waveguide surface. But integrated optical waveguide chemical analysis can require a large sensing device (typically several centimeters long) in order to obtain sufficient optical signal change for many analytical applications.
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has also been used to make optical sensors. SPR technology has been commercialized and it has become an essential tool to characterize and quantify biomolecular interactions. But such measurement systems can be bulky.
Optical microresonators are currently under intensive investigation for applications in biochemical, chemical, and gas sensing. Optical microresonators are very small devices that can have high quality factors (Q-factor) where Q-factor commonly refers to the ratio of a resonant wavelength to a resonance linewidth. For example, microresonators made of glass spheres can be used to make very sensitive optical sensors since the light trapped in the microsphere resonator circulates many times producing a device with a high Q-factor (>106) which allows effective enhancement of the optical interaction between an analyte on the surface of the microsphere and the light circulating in the resonator. In an optical microresonator sensor a bus waveguide is used to excite guided optical modes located close to the surface of the microresonator. One example of resonant optical modes is a whispering gallery mode. An analyte is then located within the evanescent field of the modes of the microsphere. The change in refractive index of the sensor is detected by a shift in the resonant frequencies. The shifted spectra can be extracted from the microresonator using a second bus waveguide that is connected to a detector.
A variety of types of optical microresonators have been investigated for the purpose of making optical sensors, but microspheres, microrings, and microdisks have received the most attention. Microdisks or microrings based on semiconductor fabrication processes are relatively easy to fabricate in a large quantity and/or high density. Their positions with respect to waveguides can be adjusted using fabrication technologies such as dry/wet etching and layer deposition. The Q-factors of these resonators, however, are typically below 104, due at least in part to the surface roughness and to material absorption.
In the conventional approach to sensing using microspheres, bonding of an analyte to the surface of the sphere results in a small change in the effective refractive index of the sphere. This results in a small shift of the wavelength position of the peaks in the resonance spectrum. These shifts are typically in the picometer range. In order to detect such small shifts expensive equipment for spectral analysis is required. Furthermore, the microresonator must be designed to give a very narrow linewidth so that the small peak shifts can be detected. This requires a high finesse (free spectral range divided by linewidth), or equivalently, high quality factor (operating wavelength divided by linewidth) microresonator. This translates to the need for low loss waveguides in the microresonator and weak coupling between the microresonator and the bus waveguide in order to detect the small frequency shift.
In order to detect the small change in wavelength due to detection of an analyte, other mechanisms that can produce wavelength shifts need to be controlled or compensated. In particular, wavelength shifts due to the temperature dependencies of the refractive indices of the materials that make up the resonator must be understood and not confused with detection signals.
There is a need for improved optical sensing systems that use microresonators. | {
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A probe suitable for probing a semiconductor wafer that includes an active circuit. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
I. Field
The present invention relates generally to the efficient operation of a device, and more particularly, to a system for dynamic registration of privileged mode hooks in a device.
II. Description of the Related Art
Advances in technology have resulted in the development of a variety of devices for home, office, and personal use. For example, computer systems, such as desktops, notebooks, and tablet computers have become powerful tools for use at home or in office environments. Personal devices, such as wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices have also become more powerful and are now widely used.
Many devices now comprise complex hardware and software that run operating systems such as UNIX, LINUX, or similar operating systems. Generally, these operating systems provide for multiple modes of operation. For example, most systems provide privileged and non-privileged modes of operation. Programs executing in the privileged mode of operation are allowed to access memory and system resources without limitation. Programs executing in the non-privileged mode are restricted from accessing certain memory regions and/or device systems. This configuration provides a level of protection to important memory or device functions. For example, by executing third-party applications in the non-privileged mode, important memory regions and device functions can be protected from unauthorized access. Also, such an arrangement allows the system to isolate faults during execution.
Over time, these systems have grown more sophisticated to meet the increasing needs of devices and device users. For example, function modules, or functions, are used to provide a variety of system services. As devices have become more complicated and feature rich, the number and complexity of the functions associated with these features has also increased.
Unfortunately, conventional systems have several limitations with regards to supporting function modules. For example, conventional systems may have a limited number of hooks used to access functions. For example, the system may have a limited number of traps that can be used to access functions. Furthermore, the trap definitions are compiled into a binary executable that runs on the device, which results in an inherent limitation on the system's flexibility.
Therefore, what is needed is a system that provides a way to dynamically register hooks to privileged functions. The system should allow functions to be registered during system initialization, thereby providing flexibility and avoiding potential versioning problems inherent in conventional systems that compile trap definitions into an executable. The system should also allow an unlimited number of functions to be registered thereby overcoming restrictions associated with conventional systems that associate a fixed number of available traps to functions. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for modifying friction clutch engagement characteristics to compensate for clutch wear.
2. Background of the Invention
In a typical powertrain system for road vehicles, such as light-duty trucks and heavy-duty trucks, torque is delivered from the vehicle engine to the torque input side of a multiple-ratio transmission through a friction clutch that is under the control of the vehicle operator. Torque is transmitted from a torque output portion of the transmission through a transmission mainshaft, a driveshaft and a differential-and-axle assembly to vehicle traction wheels. A vehicle operator may change the overall speed ratio of the powertrain by selectively engaging and disengaging clutch elements or brake elements in the transmission as the transmission drive ratio is upshifted and downshifted. To effect an upshift or a downshift, the operator typically will open the friction clutch by relieving a clutch apply spring force to separate an engine driven clutch friction disk and a torque output clutch friction disk. When torque delivery is interrupted in this fashion, ratio changes can occur in the transmission under zero torque conditions.
When the clutch is applied following a ratio upshift or downshift, a power flow path through the clutch is reestablished following a clutch slipping mode. In order to maintain optimum shift quality, a desired calibrated relationship of clutch torque and clutch engagement angle must be maintained during the clutch engagement interval. Although a correct functional relationship of clutch torque and clutch engagement angle can be precalibrated initially, clutch wear, which will inevitably take place due to numerous clutch engagements and disengagements, will result in a change in the functional relationship of clutch torque and engagement angle. Shift quality then may deteriorate and clutch control system failures may occur because of excessive wear. This deterioration of clutch performance due to wear also will affect vehicle launch from a standing start as the vehicle operator engages the clutch friction disks.
Currently, this clutch friction disk wear problem is dealt with by scheduling periodic time-consuming servicing of the vehicle, which results in an increase in overall operating costs and unproductive down-time for the vehicle. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A linear sensor measures an external perturbation by producing a system output that varies linearly with the external perturbation. A fixed scale factor can be used to describe the linear relationship between the external perturbation and the external output. The system output of the linear sensor can also include a fixed offset. However, both the scale factor and offset of the linear sensor can change over time due to many factors. These factors include changes in mechanical compliance due to temperature, long-term mechanical creep, changes in packaging pressure of sensors due to imperfect seals or internal outgassing, changes in quality factors of resonators, drift of one or more amplifier gain stages, capacitive charging effects, drift on bias voltages applied to the sensor, drift on any internal voltage reference required in a signal path, drift of input offset voltages, drift of any required demodulation phase and gain, and the like. In linear sensors, changes in the scale factor or the offset will result in changes in the system output, even if the external perturbation is not changed. This causes accuracy of linear sensors to degrade over time.
Controlling drift of sensor system output is important in many applications, especially those requiring performance at low frequencies. Low frequency, or l/f, noise reduces low frequency performance. High levels of l/f noise limit a sensor's ability to measure low frequency signals that may be masked by the l/f noise. For example, navigation systems require good low-frequency performance with low l/f noise and low drift. Because many useful navigation signals appear in the low frequency end of the spectrum, these must be accurately measured to compute position. | {
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Aspects of the present disclosure relate to light directing elements, and more specifically, to light directing elements with internal diffusers and methods of producing the light directing elements.
Internal illumination of elements may be used to create aesthetically pleasing lighting to illuminate dark areas for safety and/or to draw attention to objects. The materials used to make an internally illuminated element may distort and/or diffract light in such a way that it does not exit the element in an efficient, consistent, or more uniform manner thereby effecting the intensity or irradiance on an exterior surface of the element. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an objective for endoscopes, in particular for endoscopes having a lateral objective lens, consisting essentially of at least a prism, a diaphragm and a negative lens forming the distal delimitation of the objective, the prism being provided with reflective surfaces and the negative lens as well as the diaphragm being joined together and being situate on the same axis. The invention furthermore relates to a process for the production of objectives for endoscopes of this type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known objectives for endoscopes generally comprise a rod-shaped prism installed in a metal mounting and a diaphragm with a negative lens positioned at the distal end beyond the prism. It is necessary in this connection, in order to obtain the desired optical qualities such as direction of view, angle of view, resolution and sharpness as far as the edge of the image field, to maintain extremely close tolerances and eccentricities of the mutually aligned axes during production and assembly. To accomplish this, the diameter of such objectives could not be smaller than about 2.7 mms, although even smaller diameters are required in practice. | {
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Numerous reports of the past 25 years suggest that supplementation of dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (w-3 PUFA) with linseed, canola, or fish oils has beneficial effects in human discases and laboratory animals (1. De Caterina, R., S. Endres, S. D. Kristensen, and E. B. Schmidt, editors. 1993. n-3 Fatty Acids and Vascular Disease. Springer-Verlag, London and 2. Lands, W. E. M., editor. 1987. Proceedings of the AOCS Short Course on Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Eicosanoids. American Oil Chemists"" Society, Champaign, Ill.). These have included lively discussions of potential antithrombotic, immunoregulatory, and antiinflammatory responses relevant in arteriosclerosis, arthritis, and asthma as well as antitumor and antimetastratie effects (Ref. 1 and Iigo, M., T. Nakagawa, C. Ishikawa, Y. Iwahori, M. Asamoto, K. Yazawa, E. Araki, and H. Tsuda. 1997. Inhibitory effects of docosahexaenoic acid on colon carcinoma 26 metastasis to the lung. Br. J. Cancer 75:650-655.). Their potential for preventative actions in cardiovascular diseases was recently bolstered with the finding that major dietary xcfx89-3 PUFAs, eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5 xcfx89-3; EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6 xcfx89-3; DHA), have a dramatic effect on ischemia-induced ventricular fibrillation and can protect against sudden cardiac death in dogs (4. Billman, G. E. et al. 1999 Prevention of sudden cardiac death by dietary pure xcfx89-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in dogs. Circulation. 99:2452-2547.). Emergence of such possible preventative and/or therapeutic actions of xcfx89-3 PUFA supplementation in infant nutrition, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health has led to a call for recommended dietary intakes by an international workshop (5. Simopoulous, A. P. et al. 1999. Workshop on the Essentiality of and Recommended Dietary Intakes for Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fatty Acids. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 18:487-489.). Also, the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivense nell""Infarto Miocardio (GISSI) Prevenzione trial evaluated the effects of xcfx89-3 PUFA supplementation with greater than 11,300 patients surviving myocardial infarction taking xcx9c1 g of xcfx89-3 PUFA daily (n=2,836) along with recommended preventive treatments including aspirin, and reported a significant benefit with a decrease in cardiovascular death (6. Marchioloi, R. 1999. Dietary supplementation with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E after myocardial infarction: results of the GISSI-Prevenzione trial. Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell""Ifarto miocardioco. Lancet. 354:447-455.). However, the cellular and molecular mechanism(s) for dietary xcfx89-3 protective actions in all of the studies including those with neural tissues (Parkinson""s disease and Alzheimer""s disease and other known to involve inflammation in the brain) to date remain largely unexplained.
It is believed that the actions of the major lipid of fish oil, C20:5, are based upon (a) preventing conversion of arachidonic acid (C20:4 xcfx89-6; AA) to proinflammatory eicosanoids (i.e. prostaglandins [PGs] and leukotrienes [LTS]); (b) serving as an alternate substrate producing 5-series LTS that are less potent; and/or (c) conversion by cyclooxygenase (COX) to 3-series prostanoids (i.e., PGI3) with potencies equivalent to their 4-series PG counterparts to maintain antithrombotic actions (References 1, 3 and 4). These and other explanations offered have not been generally accepted because of the lack of molecular evidence in vivo and high concentrations of xcfx89-3 PUFA required to achieve putative xe2x80x9cbeneficial actionsxe2x80x9d in vitro (References 1-5).
Although the proinflammatory roles of LT and PG are appreciated, there is new evidence that other eicosanoids derived from arachidonate, namely lipoxins (LXs) and their endogenous analogues, the aspirin-triggered 15 epimer LXs (ATLs), are potent counterregulators of PMN-medicated injury and acute inflammation (7. Weissmann, G. 1991. Aspirin. Sci. Am. 264:84-90; 8. Marcus, A. J. 1999. Platelets: their role in hemostasis, thrombosis, and inflammation. In Inflammation: Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates. J. I. Gallin and R. Snyderman, editors. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia. 77-9; 9. Claria, J., and C. N. Serhan. 1995. Aspirin triggers previously undescribed bioactive eicosanoids by human endothelial cell-leukocyte interactions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:9475-9479; 10. Serhan, C. N., J. F. Maddox, N. A. Petasis, I. Akritopoulou-Zanze, A. Papayianni, H. R. Brady, S. P. Colgan, and J. L. Madara.1995. Design of lipoxin A4 stable analogs that block transmigration and adhesion of human neutrophils. Biochemistry 34:14609-14615; and 11. Chiang, N., K. Gronert, C. B. Clish, J. A. O""Brien, M. W. Freeman, and C. N. Serhan. 1999. Leukotriene B4 receptor transgenic mice reveal novel protective roles for lipoxins and aspirin-triggered lipoxins in reperfusion. J. Clin. Invest. 104:309-316.). At least two isoforms for COX, the classic site of action for nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), have been uncovered (COX-1 and 2) that appear to serve separate physiologic and pathophysiologic roles in humans (12. Herschman, H. R. 1998. Recent progress in the cellular and molecular biology of prostaglandin synthesis. Trends Cardiovasc. Med. 8:145-150.). Each COX isoform carries dual enzymatic activities, a bisoxygenase and a peroxidase. Inhibition of COX-2 is the current focus of several pharmaceutical companies, as selective inhibition of COX-2 without blocking COX-1 could reduce unwanted side effects associated with traditional NSAIDs (13. Needleman, P., and P. C. Isakson. 1997. The discovery and function of COX-2. J. Rheumatol. 24 (Suppl. 49):6-8.). In this regard, acetylation of COX-2 by the classic NSAID, aspirin (ASA), prevents the formation of prostanoids, but the acetylated enzyme remains active in situs to generate 15R-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15R-HETE) from C20:4 that is released and converted by activated inflammatory cells to the 15-epimeric LXs (14. Chiang, N., T. Takano, C. B. Clish, N. A. Petasis, H.-H. Tai, and C. N. Serhan. 1998. Aspirin-triggered 15-epi-lipoxin A4 (ATL) generation by human leukocytes and murine peritonitis exudates: Development of a specific 15-epi-LXA4 ELISA. J. Pharmacol Exp. Ther. 287:779-790 and 15. Xiao, G., A.-L. Tsai, G. Palmer, W. C. Boyar, P. J. Marshall, and R. J. Kulmacz. 1997. Analysis of hydroperoxide-induced tyrosyl radicals and lipoxygenase activity in aspirin-treated human prostaglandin H synthase-2. Biochemistry 36:1836-1845.). Synthetic analogues of these natural local mediators with prolonged biological half-life display potent antiinflammatory properties providing evidence that cell-cell interactions can be responsible for conversion of AA (and/or other lipids and PUFA see FIG. 1) to mediators that possess antiiflammatory properties by regulating signaling events important to host defense (Reference 11 and 16. Clish, C. B., J. A. O""Brien, K. Gronert, G. L. Stahl, N. A. Petasis, and C. N. Serhan. 1999. Local and systemic delivery of a stable aspirin-triggered lipoxin prevents neutrophil recruitment in vivo. Proc. Nad. Acad. Sci. USA 96:8247-8252.).
Aspirin therapy inhibits prostaglandin biosynthesis without directly acting on lipoxygenases, yet via acetylation of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) it leads to bioactive lipoxins (LXs) epimeric at carbon 15 (15-epi-LX, also termed aspirin-triggered LX [ATL]). The present invention provides that inflammatory exudates from mice treated with xcfx89-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid and aspirin (ASA) generate a novel array of bioactive lipid signals. Human endothelial cells with upregulated COX-2 treated with ASA converted C20:5 w-3 to 18R-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid (HEPE) AND 15R-HEPE. Each was used by polymorphonuclear leukocytes to generate separate classes of novel trihydroxy-containing mediators, including 5-series 15R-LX and 5, 12, 18R-triHEPE. These new compounds proved to be potent inhibitors of human polymorphonuclear leukocyte transendothelial migration and infiltration in vivo (ATL analogue greater than 5, 12, 18R-triHEPE greater than 18R-HEPE). Acetaminophen and indomethacin also permitted 18R-HEPE and 15R-HEPE generation with recombinant COX-2 as well as xcfx89-5 and xcfx89-9 and other novel oxygenations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (e.g., C18:3, C22:6) that act on vascular, brain, inflammatory and hematologic cells. These findings establish new transcellular routes for producing arrays of bioactive lipid mediators via COX-2-nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug-dependent oxygenations and cell-cell interactions that impact microinflammation. The generation of these and related compounds, provides a novel mechanism(s) for the therapeutic benefits of w-3 dietary supplementation, which are important in inflammation, neoplasis, and vascular diseases.
Oxidation of C20:4 via P450 in endothelial cells (ECs) also leads to 11, 12-epoxyeicosatetraenoic acid that appears to block EC activation, while nonenzymatic oxidation of EPA can down regulate EC adhesion molecules (17. Node, K., Y. Huo, X. Ruan, B. Yang, M. Spiecker, K. Ley, D. C. Zeldin, and J. K. Liao. 1999. Anti-inflammatory properties of cytochrome P450 epoxygenase- derived eicosanoids. Science 285:1276-1279 and 18. Sethi, S., A. Y. Eastman, and J. W. Eaton. 1996. Inhibition of phagocyte-endothelium interactions by oxidized fatty acids: A natural anti-inflammatory mechanism? J. Lab. Clin. Med. 128:27-38.). As PMN-vessel interactions are pivotal to recruitment and PMN-dependent tissue injury, the local signals involved in their xe2x80x9ccross talk dialoguexe2x80x9d are of interest. The present invention provides that aspirin-acetylated COX-2 remains active in vivo to generate specific ATLs that can be effector of well established antiinflammatory reactions offers a mechanism for beneficial effects of ASA that cannot be attributed to inhibition of prostanoids alone (References 8, 12, 14). New therapeutic application for ASA and related NSAIDs continue to emerge. However, they usually require molecular definition to provide a rationale. This includes the reported prophylactic benefit of ASA in colorectal cancer and the lower risk of a second myocardial infarction (Reviewed in 19. Levy, G. N. 1997. Prostaglandin H synthases, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and colon cancer. FASEB J. 11:234-247.). In view of the qualitatively overlapping beneficial profiles assigned to dietary (xcfx89)-3 PUFA in human disease (References 1-6), the present invention is directed toward novel pathways for lipid-derived signals that provide a molecular basis and also serve as markers for these beneficial actions.
The present invention is drawn to methods for treating or preventing inflammation in a mammal by administration of a combination of a polyunsaturated fatty acid(s) (PUFA(s)) and aspirin, i.e., polyunsaturated fatty acids including C18:3, C20:4 and C22:6. In one embodiment, the omega fatty acid, e.g., C18:3 or C22:6, and aspirin are administered at two different times. The present invention is also drawn to methods for treating arterial inflammation, arthritis, psoriasis, urticara, vasculitis, asthma, ocular inflammation, pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis, seborrheic dermatitis, pustular dermatosis, or cardiovascular diseases in a mammal by administration of a combination of an omega fatty acid and aspirin to the mammal.
In another embodiment, the present invention is drawn to methods for treating or preventing inflammation in a mammal by administration of an anti-inflammatory of the natural class of ASA-triggered lipid (xcfx89-3) mediators having one of the following formulae:
and their steroisomers, e.g., enantiomers, diastereomers, racemates, wherein R is a hydrogen atom or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, ester, amide or prodrug, e.g., pharmaceutically acceptable analogues thereof. Preferred analogues include methyl, ethyl and glycerol esters. P is H (hydroxyl) or a suitable protecting group or groups where there are multiple hydroxyl groups, such as those known in the art. These hydroxyl protecting group(s) include esters (acetate, ethylacetate), ethers (methyl, ethyl), ethoxylated derivatives (ethylene glycol, propylene glycol) and silylated groups (TMS or TIPPS).
In another embodiment, the present invention is drawn to compositions and methods for treating or preventing inflammation in a mammal by administration of an anti-inflammatory of the natural class of ASA-triggered lipid (xcfx89-2, xcfx89-3 or xcfx89-4) mediators that are monohydroxylated docosahexaenoic acids (DHA) (C22:6), i.e., 13-hydroxy-DHA, 14-hydroxy-DHA, 16-hydroxy-DHA, 17-hydroxy-DHA, 19-hydroxy-DHA or 20-hydroxy-DHA, wherein the carboxylic acid can be functionalized as a hydrogen atom or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, ester, amide or prodrug, e.g., pharmaceutically acceptable analogues thereof. Preferred analogues include methyl, ethyl and glycerol esters. The hydroxyl groups of the mono-hydroxylated DHA compounds can also be protected as described herein. Suitable protecting group or groups, such as those known in the art. These include esters (acetate, ethylacetate), ethers (methyl, ethyl), ethoxylated derivatives (ethylene glycol, propylene glycol) and silyl ether groups (TMS or TIPPS).
In one aspect of the invention, the compound(s) of the invention are substantially purified and isolated by techniques known in the art. The purity of the purified compounds is generally at least about 90%, preferably at least about 95%, and most preferably at least about 99% by weight.
In still another embodiment, the invention is drawn to methods for treating arterial inflammation, arthritis, or cardiovascular diseases in a mammal, comprising administering to the mammal one or more of the above-described compounds.
Surprisingly, it has been unexpectedly discovered that the interaction between aspirin, COX-II and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect upon tissue(s). Moreover, this combination produces unique compounds having the above-identified formulae. These compounds have anti-inflammatory properties and can be used as anti-inflammatory agents for treatment of disease states or conditions which have inflammation associated with these diseases or conditions.
Advantageously, the compounds and methods of the invention have minimal side effects. Targeting of neutrophils by the compounds of the invention, prevents typical side effects associated with NSAIDs. NSAIDs have a broad range of biological/physiological actions whereas the compounds of the invention are more selective for neutrophils. As these compounds are neutrophil directed therapeutics to alleviate inflammation, side effects are decreased dramatically in comparison to typical NSAIDs. The compounds of the invention have minimal unwanted side effects, if any, in terms of constipation, renal toxicity and gastro-intestinal ulcerations or bleeding. These advantages provide useful alternatives for patients seeking relief from inflammatory conditions that would otherwise needlessly suffer from one or more of the typical side effects associated with NSAIDs. | {
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The present invention relates generally to the art of electric motors. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved rotor assembly for use in an electric motor and the casting process by which the rotor assembly is made.
Typically, the rotor assembly of an AC induction motor will be constructed as a "squirrel cage" in which a plurality of conductor bars are located in respective conductor channels defined in a magnetically permeable core. The magnetically permeable core, in turn, is generally formed from a multiplicity of individual laminations arranged in a stack. The conductor bars are electrically connected together by conductive end rings located at respective ends of the magnetically permeable core.
It is often specified that an electric motor not exceed a certain current draw in the lock rotor condition. The stator windings and various other parameters of the motor's construction are adjusted to ensure that the lock rotor current will not exceed the specified maximum. Thus, while stronger stator windings may be otherwise desirable, weaker stator windings are sometimes used to comply with the lock rotor current specification.
To manufacture the rotor, end ring casting molds are typically affixed to each end of the lamination stack. The lamination stack, with the casting molds affixed thereto, is oriented vertically to receive a quantity of molten metal (typically aluminum). Generally, the molten metal is injected into the bottom mold until all voids are filled. After the molten metal has cooled to rigidity, the casting molds are removed to yield the rotor assembly. The outer diameter of the resulting rotor may be machined to achieve the desired air gap when positioned inside of the stator core.
In the past, the common practice has been to form the end rings such that they have generally flat end surfaces. In other words, the end surface of the end ring is located in a plane transverse to the axis of the rotor. One problem with such an arrangement has been the occurrence of air bubbles in the end ring formed by the upper casting mold. In particular, air forced upward when the molten metal is injected into the lower casting mold tends to collect in the upper casting mold. While air escape orifices are provided in the upper casting mold, the shape of the end ring cavity does not facilitate the flow of trapped air toward those cavities. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a surface acoustic wave apparatus using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) element and an elastic wave apparatus using a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR), and, more particularly, to a surface acoustic wave apparatus and an elastic wave apparatus incorporated into a mobile communication device such as a cellular phone and used for a filter and an antenna sharing unit or duplexer utilizing surface acoustic waves (SAW) or a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, corresponding to the demand for miniaturization of mobile devices, a surface acoustic wave apparatus is incorporated into a cellular phone and the like to act as a filter and an antenna duplexer, because of a miniaturized property thereof.
By the way, generally in cellular phones, static electricity charged in human bodies or objects is applied to internal components through antennas and others. As such an internal component, the surface acoustic wave apparatus has a surface acoustic wave element made up of interdigital (IDT) electrode fingers built up with the thin-film conductor consisting primary of aluminum on a piezoelectric crystal substrate.
Intervals between the interdigital (IDT) electrode fingers are mainly determined by the center frequency of the filter and, in the case of 1 to 2 GHz band filters, an interval between the adjacent electrode fingers are 0.1 to 0.5 μm. Therefore, an electric discharge is generated between the electrode fingers when static electricity greater than 50 to 100 V is applied to electrodes. At this point, a discharge current with a high current density instantaneously flows through the electrode fingers at the discharging portion, melts and cuts the electrode fingers and deteriorates or destroys properties of the filter.
Especially, a surface acoustic wave apparatus used as an antenna-duplexer is located at the position electrically connected immediately to an antenna and tends to be affected by such electrostatic discharges.
However, in the surface acoustic wave filter of the antenna duplexer itself, measures have not been taken for the electrostatic discharges until now, and the surface acoustic wave filter has been protected from the electrostatic discharges by inserting a discrete component between the antenna and the surface acoustic wave filter to pass electric charges due to static electricity to ground.
For example, in IEEE Ultrasonics Symp. pp. 9–12, (1998), Hukushima et al., especially in FIG. 5 and page 11, proposed inserting a n type, LC high-pass matching circuit between the antenna and the surface acoustic wave filter and passing static charges from a hot terminal to ground through inductances connected in parallel to protect the surface acoustic wave filter.
Also, a varistor has been used as a discrete component for taking measures to the electrostatic discharges. The varistor has a nonlinear resistance property exhibiting high resistance at low applied voltage and drastically reducing the resistance when the applied voltage becomes high, and thereby, when high voltages are applied, components can be protected from the electrostatic discharges by passing static charges to ground.
However, since the conventional varistor configured as a discrete component has a large capacity (capacitance) not negligible in comparison with 1 to 2 GHz in order to increase a value of the passing current and therefore has a disadvantage that the property of the surface acoustic wave filter is changed by the varistor connecting in parallel with the surface acoustic wave filter. The varistors are used for protecting components from the electrostatic discharges when relatively low frequencies of 100 MHz or lower are handled.
Further, as prior art for taking measures to the electrostatic discharges in the surface acoustic wave apparatus, propositions have been made for the technology using a thin-film resistive element (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1996-167826), the technology using a impedance matching coil (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1999-274886) or the technology using a capacitive element (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-168672).
Although the inventions described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication Nos. 1996-167826 and 1999-274886 are configured such that electrostatic currents are passed to ground through a resistor or a coil, respectively, since the resistor or the coil is inserted in parallel with a surface acoustic wave element, the property of the surface acoustic wave filter is inevitably affected as is the above case for using the large-capacity varistor.
Also, the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No.2001-168672 is configured such that leak discharges are easily generated by providing a sharp protrusion on a capacitive electrode. In such a configuration, once leak discharge occurs at the capacitive electrode, the protruding leading edge is melted and cut, and subsequent electrostatic discharges can not be induced.
Since mobile devices such as cellular phones are carried by a hand, it is difficult to block external static electricity. Moreover, even if a method is used for protecting the surface acoustic wave filter and the antenna as a circuit from static electricity with prior art described above, in the process when cellular phones are assembled by cellular phone manufacturers, the surface acoustic wave filters itself before mounted into the cellular phones does not have resistance to the electrostatic discharges. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a color conversion table creation method, a non-transitory computer readable recording medium stored with a color conversion table creation program, and a color conversion table creating apparatus, for creating a color conversion table.
2. Description of Related Art
To create a color conversion table necessary for color management, an image forming apparatus outputs a plurality of patch images corresponding to the respective combinations of C (cyan), M (magenta)), Y (yellow), and K (black), and then the CMYK values of each patch image and corresponding measured color values (L*a*b* values, XYZ values, or the like) are associated with each other. Since it is difficult to output patch images corresponding to all the respective combinations of C, M, Y, and, K and measure the colors thereof, a general way is to output approximately several hundred patch images, associate the CMYK values and the measured color values with each other, and then perform interpolation calculation, to create a color conversion table of a predetermined size.
In the electrophotographic or ink-jet image forming apparatus, printing using 100% of the amount of color material of all of C, M, Y, and K normally results in failure in toner fixation, spreading of ink, or the like. To avoid such problems, the total use amount of color material is limited in general.
Attempts have been made to improve accuracy of a color profile for image forming apparatus with limitation of total use amount of color material. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-147257 proposes a technique for reducing deterioration of accuracy attributable to a process for limiting the total use amount of color material. In this technique, output color values at the perimeter of a color gamut when the total use amount of color material is not limited are adjusted so that the output color values would also be at the perimeter of the color gamut after the limitation of the total use amount of color material is imposed. However, this technique has a problem that an interpolation error attributable to the process for limiting the total use amount of color material occurs at the time of performing interpolation calculation for a color conversion table, which makes it difficult to obtain an accurate color-conversion table.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-249182 proposes a technique for improving color accuracy in a low-lightness area (i.e., area with limitation of total use amount of color material) by increasing the number of patch images in a color chart. With this technique, it is possible to prevent an interpolation error attributable to a process for limiting the total use amount of color material. However, this technique is not preferable since long time is required for the operation of measuring color of patch images and data processing.
In the image forming apparatus with limitation of total use amount of color material, a certain amount is set as a set amount at which the total use amount of color material is started to be limited, and a process for gradually reducing the input CMYK values having the total use amount of color material exceeding the set amount is performed, in order to prevent gradation characteristics from being deteriorated by a process for limiting the total use amount of color material. Hence, it is desired to create a highly-accurate color conversion table for an image forming apparatus which selectively performs, on input CMYK values having the total use amount of color material exceeding the set amount, a process for reducing the total use amount of color material, without increasing the number of patch images in a color chart. | {
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Consumers interested in acquiring services must first identify a service provider who is capable of providing the required services. At present, this usually means perusing a telephone directory, which can become frustrating and time-consuming if the service providers telephoned are not immediately available. In addition, a simple telephone call does not enable the service provider to charge a fee according to the time spent with his/her customers.
Systems now exist that enable providers of services to charge fees for the time spent delivering the service. 1-900 phone numbers will charge the seeker of services according to the time spent receiving the service and will transfer this payment, or a portion of it, to the provider.
Each 1-900 number, however, has a very narrow scope- “Hear your Horoscope,” for instance. If a seeker would like to hear an entirely different service-“Your Local Weather,” for instance-he/she would have to dial a completely different 1-900 number. Similarly, each 1-900 number is quite rigid in the price, quality, and specificity of its service.
However, current systems now exist that enable seekers to locate service providers according to a wide range of price, quality and specificity of service (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/414,710). Such systems also make it possible for the service provider and buyer to be connected and communicate in real time.
Such systems, however, require the service seeker to have a connection to the internet. The service seeker must also have the necessary computer hardware to browse the internet. Presently, there is no system available by which a service seeker can be matched to a wide array of service providers with specific skills using only a simple audio-transmission medium such as the telephone.
Therefore, there remains a need to overcome limitations in the above described existing art which is satisfied by the inventive structure and method described hereinafter. | {
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The present invention relates to a rotor and a method for manufacturing the rotor.
Conventionally, an IPM type rotor having magnets received in accommodation holes, which are formed in a rotor core, is broadly known.
A rotor described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-184638 includes accommodation holes for receiving magnets and circular holes, each of which is formed in the vicinity of the corresponding one of the accommodation holes. A plastically deformable thin portion is formed between each accommodation hole and the corresponding circular hole. Accordingly, by passing a substantially columnar pin through each circular hole, the associated thin portion is plastically deformed to cause the magnet in the accommodation hole to be pressed against the corresponding wall of the accommodation hole. This maintains the magnet in the accommodation hole.
However, in the magnet fixing method for the rotor described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-184638, if the amount of plastic deformation of the thin portion toward the magnet is excessively increased by a dimension error in the magnet or the rotor core, the thin portion may apply excessive pressure to the magnet and damage the magnet, which is fragile. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chemically amplified positive-type photosensitive resin composition, a method of manufacturing a substrate with a template by using the above chemically amplified positive-type photosensitive resin composition, and a method of manufacturing a plated article by using the above substrate with the template.
Related Art
Photofabrication is now the mainstream precision microfabrication technique. Photofabrication is a generic term describing the technology used for manufacturing a wide variety of precision components such as semiconductor packages. The manufacturing is carried out by applying a photoresist composition to the surface of a processing target to form a photoresist layer, patterning this photoresist layer using photolithographic techniques, and then conducting chemical etching, electrolytic etching, and/or electroforming based mainly on electroplating, using the patterned photoresist layer (photoresist pattern) as a mask.
In recent years, high density packaging technologies for semiconductor packages have progressed in association with downsizing of electronics devices, and the increase in package density has been developed on the basis of mounting multi-pin thin film in packages, miniaturizing of package size, two-dimensional packaging technologies or three-dimensional packaging technologies by a flip-chip method. In these types of high density packaging technologies, connection terminals such as: protruding electrodes (mounting terminals) known as bumps protruding above the package; or metal posts connecting rewiring, which extends from peripheral terminals on a wafer, with the mounting terminals, are disposed on the surface of the substrate with high precision.
A photoresist composition is used in the photofabrication as described above. Chemically amplified photoresist compositions containing an acid generator has been known as such photoresist compositions (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). According to the chemically amplified photoresist composition, an acid is generated from the acid generator upon irradiation with radiation (exposure) and diffusion of the acid is promoted through heat treatment to cause an acid catalytic reaction with a base resin and the like in the composition, resulting in a change in the alkali-solubility thereof.
These chemically amplified positive-type photoresist compositions are used for forming, for example, plated articles such as bumps and metal posts by a plating process. Specifically, a photoresist layer having a desired film thickness is formed on a support such as a metal substrate with a chemically amplified photoresist composition, and the photoresist layer is exposed through a predetermined mask pattern and then developed to form a photoresist pattern used as a template in which portions for forming bumps and metal posts have been selectively removed (stripped). Then, bumps and metal posts can be formed by embedding a conductor such as copper into the removed portions (non-resist sections) by plating, and then removing the surrounding residual resist pattern. Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H09-176112 Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H11-52562 | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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