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The present invention relates to an electronic device equipped with a card interface, and more particularly to an electronic device suitable to set an operation mode for a card-shaped device connected thereto via the card interface.
Various types of electronic devices represented by personal computers generally have a function of using an IC card (PC card) based on the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association). The PC card is used not only as a data storing medium but also for expanding its peripheral function. For example, there are some PC cards that function as a modem card, a network card, a hard disk drive, and a transmitter, etc.
Further, in recent years, IC cards smaller than the PC cards are being used as well as the PC cards. One of these small IC cards is a small memory card that has a flash memory for storing various types of digital data represented by image data or music data. As is well known, the flash memory is a non-volatile memory, which is electrically programmable and has its stored contents kept as they are even when power supply is interrupted. In such small memory cards having a flash memory, in general, only one of a plurality of pins is used as a data pin (data line). Accordingly, the small memory cards execute 1-bit data transfer.
Furthermore, a small memory card called an “SD (Secure Digital) memory card” is also available. The SD memory card has been developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., SanDisk Corporation and Toshiba Corporation. The SD memory card has nine signal pins, four of which can be used as data lines. Thus, the SD memory card realizes 4-bit data transfer, which means that it has a higher data transfer capacity than the previous small memory card that executes 1-bit data transfer.
As another small card, there is an I/O card having an I/O (Input/Output) interface function. After the appearance of the SD memory card, it is requested that such a small I/O card and the SD memory card can be used through a common card slot formed in an electronic device (a host) such as a personal computer, as in the case of the PC cards. To enable a small memory card, such as the SD memory card, and various types of small I/O cards to be commonly used in an electronic device, it is necessary to give those cards, for example, the same pin arrangement and the same shape. Even in this case, however, the following problem will occur.
In small memory cards, many of the pins provided therein are used as data lines to enhance their data transfer capacity. For example, in the SD memory card, four of the nine pins are used as data lines as aforementioned. Accordingly, if the same pin arrangement and the same shape are imparted to the small memory cards and the small I/O cards, many pins are used for data transfer between an electronic device and each small I/O card. Using a lot of pins as data lines to enhance the data transfer capacity is effective in the case of a card-shaped device such as a memory card, which does not execute data transfer so often but transfers a large amount of data at one time. On the other hand, it is not so important to enhance the data transfer capacity in the case of a card-shaped device such as an I/O card, which executes data transfer (i.e. transaction) many times although it does not transfer a large amount of data at one time. It is more important to start data transfer quickly, i.e. to increase the speed of a response. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoconductor containing a new specifically structured azo compound, electrophotography, an electrophotographic apparatus, a process cartridge for the electrophotographic apparatus, a new azo compound, a method for manufacturing the azo compound and a photoconductive layer material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Largely classified, various inorganic and organic photoconductors are conventionally known as the photoconductors of photoconductors used in electrophotography. “Electrophotography” referred to herein is an image formation process, which is the so-called Carlson process that generally, a photoconductor having a photoconductive property is first electrically charged, for example, by performing corona discharge in a dark place, then an image is exposed, the electric charge of only an exposed section is selectively dispersed to obtain a latent electrostatic image, which is visualized to form an image. Then this latent electrostatic image was developed by a toner which is formed of coloring agents such as dyes and pigments, high-molecular materials or the like, namely, was visualized to form an image. Since a photoconductor which, uses an organic electrophotographic photoconductor has more advantageous aspects such as degree of freedom in photoconductive wavelength area, layer deposition property, flexibility, transparency of layer, productivity, toxicity and cost than those of an inorganic photoconductor, an organic electrophotographic photoconductor is now used for almost all photoconductors. The photoconductor repeatedly used in the electrophtography and similar processes requires excellency in electrostatic properties representing sensitivity, receptible potential, potential retainability, potential stability, residual electric potential, spectral-response property and the like.
In light of the foregoing, there are known an azo compound (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-22834 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 61-151659), a phthalocyanine compounds (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 48-34189 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 57-14874), perylene compounds (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 53-98825 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 63-266457), polycyclic quinone compounds (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 61-48861), squarylium compounds (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 49-105536 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 58-21416) and the like as the organic photoconductors that have been so far proposed and actually used in the industry.
Above all, the azo compounds can be easily synthesized, since the electrophotographic properties and spectral sensitivity area are largely different due to the facts that the degree of freedom of for molecular design is big and the molecular structures such as azo components, coupler components and bonding types are different, they have been eagerly studied as not only an analogue recording photoconductor but also a digital recording photoconductor. Azo compounds that have been known up to now as the azo compounds showing a good sensitivity include an azo compound having a carbazole skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 53-95033), an azo compound having a distyryl benzene skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 53-133445), an azo compound having a triphenylamine skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 53-132347), an azo compound having a dibenzothiophene (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-21728), an azo compound having an oxadiazole skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-12742), an azo compound having a fluorenone skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-22834), an azo compound having a bisstilbene skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-17733), an azo compound having a distyrloxadiazole skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-2129), and an azo compound having a distyrylcarbazole skeleton (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-14967).
Also known are a benzidine bisazo compound (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 47-37543 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 52-55643), a stylbenzene bisazo compound (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 52-8832), a diphenylhexatriene bisazo compound (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 58-222152), a diphenylbutadiene bisazo compound (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 58-222153) and the like.
In addition, already known as the coupler compounds used for the afore-mentioned compounds are a naphthol coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 47-37543), a benzcarbazole coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 58-122967), a naphthalimide coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 54-79632), a perinone coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 57-176055), an azulene coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 60-10256), an anthracene coupler (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 61-257953) or the like.
However, when a conventional azo compound is used for a laminated stacked type photoconductor, which is one embodiment of an electrophotographic photoconductor, it is not enough in practical use since sensitivity and durability are generally low, and it is desirable that sensitivity and durability should be further improved to satisfy various needs, which are required for an electrophotographic process.
In addition, from the viewpoint of the simplification of a manufacturing process and the like, a single laminar constitution is also advantageous as a photoconductor, which uses an organic material.
Conventionally, known as single laminar photoconductors are (i) a charge transport complexes type photoconductor comprising polyvinyl carbazole (PVK) and trinitrofluorene (see Specification of the United States Patent (US-B) No. 3489237), (ii) since a eutectic mixture comprising a thiapyrrylium dye and polycarbonate (see J. Appl. Phys., 49, 5555 (1978)), and (iii) a photoconductor where a perylene pigment and a hydrazone compound are dispersed in a resin (see Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (JP-A) No. 02-37354). Of these, for items (i) and (ii), since the sensitivities of the photoconductors are low, and the electrostatic and mechanical durability is low, they have a problem in the repeated use. For item (iii), since the sensitivity of the photoconductor is low, a high-speed copying process caused inappropriate defects. Further, electrification potentional and sensitivity were low in a system where the components of the laminated type photoconductor that was industrially used were merely dispersed, particularly, since weatherability and electrostatic and mechanical durability were low, there was a defect that electrostatic property largely varied with the repeated use of the photoconductor.
Thus, for the single laminar photoconductor, a difficult task lies in the development of a high-sensitivity and high-durability organic material, particularly, for a charge-generating material, since a charge-generating point is located on the surface side of the photoconductive layer, which is different from the laminated type photoconductor, more weatherability and durability used for the laminated type photoconductor are required. | {
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In 2001, over 1.2 million new cases of human cancer will be diagnosed and over 0.5 million people will die from cancer (American Cancer Society estimate). Despite this, more people than ever are living with and surviving cancer. In 1997, for example, approximately 8.9 million living Americans had a history of cancer (National Cancer Institute estimate). People are more likely to survive cancer if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage of development, since treatment at that time is more likely to be successful. Early detection depends upon availability of high-quality methods. Such methods are also useful for determining patient prognosis, selecting therapy, monitoring response to therapy and selecting patients for additional therapy. Consequently, there is a need for cancer diagnostic methods that are specific, accurate, minimally invasive, technically simple and inexpensive.
Colorectal cancer (i.e., cancer of the colon or rectum) is one particularly important type of human cancer. Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer mortality in adult Americans (Landis, et al., 1999, CA Cancer J Clin, 49:8-31). Approximately 40% of individuals with colorectal cancer die. In 2001, it is estimated that there will be 135,400 new cases of colorectal cancer (98,200 cases of colon and 37,200 cases of rectal cancer) and 56,700 deaths (48,000 colon cancer and 8,800 rectal cancer deaths) from the disease (American Cancer Society). As with other cancers, these rates can be decreased by improved methods for diagnosis.
Although methods for detecting colon cancer exist, the methods are not ideal. Digital rectal exams (i.e., manual probing of rectum by a physician), for example, although relatively inexpensive, are unpleasant and can be inaccurate. Fecal occult blood testing (i.e., detection of blood in stool) is nonspecific because blood in the stool has multiple causes. Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy (i.e., direct examination of the colon with a flexible viewing instrument) are both uncomfortable for the patient and expensive. Double-contrast barium enema (i.e., taking X-rays of barium-filled colon) is also an expensive procedure, usually performed by a radiologist.
Because of the disadvantages of existing methods for detecting colon cancer, new methods are needed. | {
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The present embodiments relate to a lifting drive for a radiation filter in a mammography device. The present embodiments also relate to a mammography device with a lifting drive.
Mammography devices may be used for fluoroscopy of an object to be examined, for example, a female breast. Mammography devices may feature a radiographic source and a radiation detector. The object to be examined is positioned between the radiographic source and the detector. Scattered radiation is predominantly caused by deflection of the examination rays in the x-rayed object under examination. Scattered radiation is especially problematic when x-raying thicker objects. To reduce the radiation scattering at the detector, an anti-scatter grid is usually arranged behind the object under examination and in front of the detector.
Anti-scatter grids may cause stripes or grids of noise on the examination image recorded in the detector. To reduce or eliminate these disturbance stripes, the anti-scatter grid is agitated slightly during the examination.
DE 3316003 A1 discloses a device for rectifying radiation scatter with an anti-scatter grid. The anti-scatter grid is moved back and forth once by a drive element as an image is recorded. A drive movement is created in a drive motor and converted via a fixed gear into an oscillating lifting movement of the anti-scatter grid. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the making of decorative art works. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved method for creating and exhibiting a painted design.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The method of creating works of art by applying one or more layers of decorative materials on a substrate, such as canvas, paper, wood or the like is well known. A painting is generally defined by layers and mixtures of different colored paints which collectively serve to present a desired design. Such known designs are essentially two-dimensional or flat in appearance and do not suggest a depth of field or three-dimensional configuration, regardless of the direction of viewing or source of illumination. Moreover, paintings made on traditional substrates, such as canvas or paper, generally experience physical deterioration upon aging due primarily to excessive drying of the paints and thermal differential stresses which cause cracking and crazing of the painted design.
It has been proposed to create painted designs on rigid light transparent substrates through physical alteration of such substrates in order to suggest a sense of depth for such designs. Similarly, art works have been created by overlying several layers of rigid colored material on transparent bases to produce design configurations suggesting three-dimensional shapes. However, such prior art efforts have not been altogether successful in both creating a durable painted work of art having a decided three-dimensional depth of field and providing a system of illumination for optimally exhibiting this highly desirable visual effect. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the transmission of data over optical fibers and, more particularly, to reducing the amount of pulse narrowing in the electrical signal that drives a limiting E/O converter in the transmitter in order to improve the performance of the transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical fiber is widely used as a communications medium in high speed digital networks, including local area networks (LANs), storage area networks (SANs), and wide area networks (WANs). There has been a trend in optical networking towards ever-increasing data rates. While 100 Mbps was once considered extremely fast for enterprise networking, attention has recently shifted to 10 Gbps, 100 times faster. As used in this disclosure, 10 Gigabit (abbreviated as 10G or 10 Gbps) systems are understood to include optical fiber communication systems that have data rates or line rates (i.e., bit rates including overhead) of approximately 10 Gigabits per second.
Regardless of the specific data rate, application or architecture, communications links (including optical fiber communications links) invariably include a transmitter, a channel and a receiver. In an optical fiber communications link, the transmitter typically converts the digital data to be sent to an optical form suitable for transmission over the channel (i.e., the optical fiber). The optical signal is transported from the transmitter to the receiver over the channel, possibly suffering channel impairments along the way, and the receiver then recovers the digital data from the received optical signal.
In an optical fiber communications system, the optical power output by a laser is commonly modulated in a binary fashion to send data over an optical fiber. Nominally, the optical power is high for the duration of a bit period to send a logical “1,” and low to send a logical “0.” This is commonly referred to as on-off-keying (OOK) and, more specifically, as non-return-to-zero (NRZ) on-off-keying, where “on” means high laser power and “off” means low laser power. When on-off keying is used, the transmitter usually includes a laser driver that acts as a limiter, clipping (i.e., limiting) the electrical signal driving the laser, in accordance with the on-off mode of operation of the laser. The transmitter may also include circuitry that conditions the signal entering the limiter. Conventional wisdom is that this circuitry should be optimized to minimize the data-dependent jitter DDJ (i.e., maximize the horizontal eye opening or horizontal eye width) of the optical signal output by the laser. Furthermore, conventional wisdom suggests that in many cases this is best achieved by minimizing DDJ of the electrical signal entering the limiter.
However, as shown below, metrics other than DDJ may be just as important, or even more important, in designing transmitters. | {
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3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) work item on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) is sometimes also referred to as Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). In E-UTRAN Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology is used in the downlink and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) in the uplink.
In the present context, the expression uplink denotes the communication from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, while the expression downlink denotes communication in the opposite direction, i.e. from the base station to the user equipment.
In both uplink and downlink the data transmission is split into several sub-streams, where each sub-stream is modulated on a separate sub-carrier. Hence in OFDMA based systems, the available bandwidth is sub-divided into several resource blocks. A resource block is defined in both time and frequency. According to the current assumptions, a resource block size is 180 KHz and 0.5 ms in frequency and time domains, respectively. The transmission bandwidth in uplink and downlink can be as large as 20 MHz in E-UTRAN release 8. The ongoing enhancements in E-UTRAN would extend transmission bandwidths up to 100 MHz and 40 MHz in the downlink and uplink respectively.
E-UTRA system may be deployed over a wide range of bandwidths, e.g. 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 MHz, etc. As an example a 10 MHz bandwidth would contain 50 resource blocks. For data transmission the network can allocate variable number of resource blocks to the user equipment, both in the uplink and downlink. This allows more flexible use of channel bandwidth since it is allocated according to the amount of data to be transmitted, radio conditions, user equipment capability, scheduling scheme etc.
Another important consideration is that even in the same eNodeB, or base station, multiple cells may comprise different bandwidths. In addition, different eNodeBs may have different bandwidths, e.g. 10 MHz cells in one set of eNodeB and 15 MHz cells in another set of NodeB. Thus, adjacent eNodeBs in the border areas may support cells with different bandwidths.
Out of band emission requirements: The user equipment as well as the base station have to fulfil certain number of Out Of Band (OOB) emission requirements. Some of these are set by regulatory bodies such as e.g. ITU-R, FCC, ARIB and ETSI. These out of band emission requirements are also referred to as regulatory radio requirements. The objective of out of band emission requirements is to limit the interference caused by the transmitter from user equipment and/or base station, outside its operating bandwidth to the adjacent carriers. Eventually the out of band emission requirements may be specified in 3GPP specifications.
The OOB requirements typically comprise of: Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR), Spectrum Emission Mask (SEM) and spurious emissions, whose specific definition can vary from one system to another. Furthermore, the OOB emission requirements have to be fulfilled on slot basis in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), and sub-frame basis in E-UTRA.
Both user equipment and base station have to fulfil the OOB emission requirements irrespective of their transmission power level. In case of user equipment to conserve its battery power the efficiency of the power amplifier is very critical. Therefore an efficient power amplifier will be typically designed for certain typical operating points or configurations e.g. modulation type, number of active resource block, in case of E-UTRA, number of physical channel/channelization codes/spreading factor, in case of UTRA, which is based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology. However, the user equipment may have to transmit using any combination of modulation, resource blocks etc. Therefore, in some uplink transmission scenarios the user equipment power amplifier may not be able to operate in the linear zone, thereby causing OOB band emissions due to harmonics or inter-modulation products. To ensure that user equipment fulfils OOB requirements for all allowed uplink transmission configurations the user equipment is allowed to reduce its maximum uplink transmission power in some scenarios when it reaches its maximum power. This is called maximum power reduction (MPR) or user equipment power back-off in some literature. For instance a user equipment with nominal maximum output/transmit power of 24 dBm power class may reduce its maximum power from 24 dBm to 23 or 22 dBm depending upon the configuration. The base station may also have to perform maximum power reduction but this is not standardized. Secondly the base station can afford to have a power amplifier with larger operating range since its efficiency is less critical compared to that of user equipment.
The maximum power reduction values for different configurations are generally well specified in the standard. The user equipment uses these values to apply maximum power reduction when the conditions for the corresponding configurations are fulfilled. These maximum power reduction values are regarded as static in a sense that they are independent of resource block allocation and other deployment aspects.
In UTRA the maximum power reduction requirements for the user equipment are specified in release 5 of the 3GPP specifications for some configurations that contain HS-DPCCH transmission. Similarly, maximum power reduction is also specified for configurations using Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) for Quadrature Phase Sift Keying (QPSK) and 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). In UTRA the maximum power reduction can be as large as up to 3 dB or even more. But the actual value depends upon a particular uplink transmission configuration such as e.g. codes, spreading factor, modulations, physical channels and their gain factors etc. Further evolution of UTRA, for instance to downlink and/or uplink multicarrier transmission, may require increased level of maximum power reduction. In Table 1 quoted below is illustrated how maximum power reduction requirements are currently defined for UTRA user equipment. Note that Cubic Metric (CM) is the measure of the power contained in the third order harmonic.
TABLE 1UE transmit channel configurationCM (dB)MPR (dB)For all combinations of; DPDCH,0 ≦ CM ≦ 3.5MAX (CM-1, 0)DPCCH, HS-DPCCH, E-DPDCHand E-DPCCHNote 1:CM = 1 for βc/βd = 12/15, βhs/βc = 24/15. For all other combinations of DPDCH, DPCCH, HS-DPCCH, E-DPDCH and E-DPCCH the MPR is based on the relative CM difference.
In E-UTRA the maximum power reduction requirements for the user equipment are also being specified. There the maximum power reduction will depend upon factors such as transmission bandwidth, modulation and number of allocated resource blocks. In Table 2 below is illustrated how maximum power reduction requirements are currently defined for E-UTRA user equipment. The illustrated user equipment power class 3 in E-UTRA corresponds to user equipment nominal maximum output power of 23 dBm without maximum power reduction.
TABLE 2Channel bandwidth/Transmission bandwidthconfiguration (RB)1.43.0MPRModulationMHzMHz5 MHz10 MHz15 MHz20 MHz(dB)QPSK>5>4>8>12>16>18≦116 QAM≦5≦4≦8≦12≦16≦18≦116 QAM>5>4>8>12>16>18≦2
In E-UTRA an Additional Maximum Power Reduction (A-MPR) is also being specified on top of the normal maximum power reduction. The difference is that the former is not fully static. Instead it can vary between different cells, operating frequency bands and between cells belonging to different location areas. Additional spectrum emission requirement and additional maximum power reduction requirement are interchangeably used in literature.
The additional maximum power reduction includes all the remaining power reduction, on top of the normal maximum power reduction needed to account for factors such as: bandwidth, frequency band, resource block allocation to satisfy additional such as requirements set by regional regulatory bodies (FCC, ARIB etc). In Table 3 below is illustrated how additional maximum power reduction requirements are currently defined for E-UTRA user equipment in 3GPP TS 36.101: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception
TABLE 3NetworkChannelSignallingRequirementsE-UTRAbandwidthResourcesA-MPRvalue(sub-clause)Band(MHz)Blocks(dB)NS_01NANANANANANS_036.6.2.2.12, 4, 10, 3>5≦135, 366.6.2.2.12, 4, 10, 5>6≦135, 366.6.2.2.12, 4, 10,10>6≦135, 366.6.2.2.12, 4, 10,15>8≦135, 366.6.2.2.12, 4, 10,20>10 ≦135, 36NS_046.6.2.2.2TBDTBDTBDNS_056.6.3.3.1 110, 15,≧50 for≦120QPSKNS_066.6.2.2.312, 13,1.4, 3,n/an/a14, 175, 10NS_076.6.2.2.31310TableTable6.6.3.3.26.2.4-26.2.4-2. . .NS_32—————
It is important to consider band 13 with respect to additional maximum power reduction requirements. Band 13 is one of the E-UTRAN FDD bands in the range of 700 MHz exclusively allocated in the USA. More specifically it operates for the uplink in the band from 777 MHz to 787 MHz and for the downlink in the band from 746 MHz to 756 MHz and entirely owned by one network operator.
One peculiar aspect of this band is its proximity to the Public Safety (PS) band. The public safety band is located on the left the of uplink part of band 13. According to FCC regulation the operation adjacent to the public safety band requires very tight emission requirements. This means the additional maximum power reduction requirements for band 13 are much tighter than those for the other bands. The E-UTRAN Physical Uplink Control Channels (PUCCH) are located at the edge of the bandwidth. Therefore the outer resource blocks of the bandwidth of cell operating in band 13 are required to maintain even tighter requirements, i.e. larger additional maximum power reduction requirements, compared to those located in the centre of the bandwidth.
Due to this reason the additional maximum power reduction requirements for band 13 are agreed to be split into 3 regions comprising of different set of contiguous resource blocks. The Table 4 below containing the split of bandwidth in 3 regions is reproduced. The Table 4 illustrates that the uplink cell bandwidth may be divided into 3 regions as described above. Each region is likely to have different additional maximum power reduction requirements.
RB start indicates the lowest resource block index of transmitted resource blocks and L_CRB is the length of a contiguous resource block allocation.
The Table 4 below is one proposal to attempt to specify the additional maximum power reduction figures. As can be seen from the Table 4, the additional maximum power reduction in 3GPP for band 13 in 3GPP TS 36.101: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception can be very large, i.e. 6-14 dB. Furthermore the additional maximum power reduction value is dependent upon the part of the cell bandwidth. Hence prudent uplink resource allocation is required to avoid unnecessary additional maximum power reduction.
TABLE 4Region ARegion BRegion CRB_start10-1213-1819-4243-49L_CRB2 [RBs]6-81 to 5≧8≧18≦2and 9-50A-MPR [dB]8121263Note1RB_start indicates the lowest RB index of transmitted resource blocks2L_CRB is the length of a contiguous resource block allocation3 For intra-subframe frequency hopping between two regions, notes 1 and 2 apply on a per slot basis.4 For intra-subframe frequency hopping between two regions, the larger A-MPR value of the two regions may be applied for both slots in the subframe.
Due to variable bandwidth, varying number of resource block allocation, different bands in different parts of the networks etc, that the additional maximum power reduction need to fulfil, the regulatory requirements can vary from one eNodeB to another. Even if the deployment scenario, in terms of bands used, bandwidth size etc, is homogeneous in a large coverage area, there will always be border regions between these coverage areas. Indeed additional maximum power reduction is a cell specific value. Therefore, additional maximum power reduction is signalled to the user equipment via system information and via an user equipment specific channel. This will allow the user equipment to acquire this information when it camps on to a cell. The values will be used when it starts transmitting in the uplink.
In E-UTRAN system handover access takes place via Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). The PRACH resources, i.e. resource blocks and sub-frames used for PRACH transmission are signalled to the user equipment via broadcast and/or user equipment specific channel.
The resource assignment for uplink and downlink transmission is done by the network in UTRAN and E-UTRAN. It is up to the network to use one or more available measurements for allocating the resources. For instance for generating the uplink scheduling grant or uplink resource allocation, the network can use one or more of the following state of the art reports: user equipment transmit power, user equipment power headroom, i.e. the difference between user equipment max power and user equipment estimated/measured power, user equipment buffer size, Happy bit, path loss and/or signal strength.
One or more of these measurements enable the network to decide the amount of resources the user equipment needs for uplink transmission.
Drawbacks of prior art solutions regarding maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction comprise inter alia:
The resource allocation node does not take into account the impact of maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction when issuing uplink grant or resource assignment. The desired uplink grant may not be fully used by user equipment in power limiting situation due to applied maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction. This will lead to the wastage of grant, which could otherwise be allocated to another prospective user equipment. Another implication is that the coverage loss may occur due to maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction depending upon the uplink grant.
The additional maximum power reduction can be as large as 15 dB in some portion of the bandwidth in certain bands e.g. band 13. Hence LTE user equipment of power class 23 dBm would transmit at maximum 8 dBm of output power. This means if resources are allocated without any regard to the expected maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction then there will be severe consequence of coverage less.
In case of PRACH transmission which is also used for the handover access if the resources, i.e. resource blocks in LTE are allocated in the part of bandwidth with larger maximum power reduction and/or additional maximum power reduction then there is high risk of call blocking, i.e. poor initial access, and call dropping, i.e. poor handover access. In LTE different PRACH formats are defined: formats 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. This can be even more critical for format #4 since it is very short in time. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to compositions and methods for dominant gene suppression. Certain embodiments provide methods for preventing transmission of transgenes in gametes. Certain embodiments comprise pairs of plants in which the phenotype of the parents is suppressed in the progeny. Certain embodiments provide constructs and methods useful for generating fertile parental plants that, when crossed, generate sterile progeny plants and methods of making and using such transgenes and plants, as well as products of such plants.
2. Background Information
Plant breeding provides a means to combine desirable traits in a single plant variety or hybrid, including for example, disease resistance, insect resistance, drought tolerance, improved yield and better agronomic quality. Field crops generally are bred by pollination, including by self-pollination (selfing; selfed), in which pollen from one flower is transferred to the same or another flower of the same plant, or to a genetically identical plant, and cross-pollination (crossing; crossed), in which pollen from one plant is transferred to a flower of a genetically different plant.
Plants that are selfed and selected for type over many generations become homozygous at almost all gene loci and produce a uniform population of true breeding progeny. A cross between two different homozygous lines produces a uniform population of hybrid plants that can be heterozygous at many gene loci. A cross of two plants, each of which is heterozygous at a number of gene loci, generates hybrid plants, which differ genetically and are not uniform.
Many crop plants, including, for example, maize (corn), can be bred using self-pollination or cross-pollination techniques. Maize has separate male and female flowers on the same plant, located on the tassel and the ear, respectively. Natural pollination occurs in maize when wind blows pollen from the tassels to the silks that protrude from the tops of the ears. Many crop plants, including maize, are grown as hybrids, which generally exhibit greater vigor than the parental plants from which they are derived. As such, it is desirable to prevent random pollination when generating hybrid plants.
Hybrid plants (F1) are generated by crossing two different inbred male (P1) and female (P2) parental plants. Hybrid plants are valued because they can display improved yield and vigor as compared to the parental plants from which the hybrids are derived. In addition, hybrid (F1) plants generally have more desirable properties than progeny (F2) plants derived from the hybrid plants. As such, hybrid plants are commercially important, and include many agricultural crops, including, for example, wheat, corn, rice, tomatoes and melons. Hybridization of maize has received particular focus since the 1930s. The production of hybrid maize involves the development of homozygous inbred male and female lines, the crossing of these lines and the evaluation of the crosses for improved agronomic performance. Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection are two of the breeding methods used to develop inbred lines from populations. Breeding programs combine desirable traits from two or more inbred lines, or various broad-based sources, into breeding pools from which new inbred lines are developed by selfing and selecting for desired phenotypes. These new inbreds are crossed with other inbred lines and the resultant new hybrids are evaluated to determine which have improved performance or other desirable traits, thus increasing commercial value. The first generation hybrid progeny, designated F1, is more vigorous than its inbred parents. This hybrid vigor, or heterosis, can be manifested in many ways, including increased vegetative growth and increased seed yield.
Production of hybrid seed requires maintenance of the parental seed stocks because self-crossing of hybrid plants produces progeny (F2) that, like P1 and P2, generally exhibit less desirable characteristics than the F1 hybrid plant. Because the parental plants generally have less commercial value than the hybrids (F1), efforts have been made to prevent parental plants in a field from self-crossing (“selfing”), since such crosses would reduce the yield of hybrid seed. Accordingly, methods have been developed to selfing of a parental plant.
One method for controlling pollination is to use a parental population of plants that are male sterile, thus providing the female parent. Several methods have been used for controlling male fertility, including, for example, manual or mechanical emasculation (detasseling), cytoplasmic male sterility, genetic male sterility and the use of gametocides. For example, parental selfing in a field can be prevented by removing the anthers or detasseling plants of the female parental (P2) population, thus removing the source of P2 pollen from the field. P2 female plants then can be pollinated with P1 pollen by hand or using mechanical means. Hybrid maize seed generally is produced by a male sterility system incorporating manual or mechanical detasseling. Alternate strips of two maize inbreds are planted in a field and the pollen-bearing tassels are removed from one of the inbreds (P2 female). Provided that the field is sufficiently isolated from sources of foreign maize pollen, the ears of the detasseled inbred are fertilized only by pollen from the other inbred (P1 male); resulting seed is hybrid and forms hybrid plants. Unfortunately, this method is time- and labor-intensive. In addition, environmental variation in plant development can result in plants producing tassels after manual detasseling of the female parent is completed. Therefore detasseling might not ensure complete male sterility of a female inbred plant. In this case, the resultant fertile female plants will successfully shed pollen and some female plants will be self-pollinated. This will result in seed of the female inbred being harvested along with the desired hybrid seed. Female inbred seed is not as productive as F1 seed. In addition, the presence of female inbred seed can represent a germplasm security risk for the company producing the hybrid. The female inbred can also be mechanically detasseled. Mechanical detasseling is approximately as reliable as hand detasseling, but is faster and less costly. However, most detasseling machines produce more damage to the plants than hand detasseling, which reduces F1 seed yields. Thus neither form of detasseling is presently entirely satisfactory, and a need continues to exist for alternative hybrid production methods that reduce production costs, increase production safety and eliminate self-pollination of the female parent during the production of hybrid seed.
Another method of preventing parental plant selfing is to utilize parental plants that are male sterile or female sterile. Male fertility genes have been identified in a number of plants and include dominant and recessive male fertility genes. Plants that are homozygous for a recessive male fertility gene do not produce viable pollen and are useful as female parental plants. However, a result of the female plants being homozygous recessive for a male fertility gene is that they are not capable of selfing and, therefore, a means must be provided for obtaining pollen in order to maintain the parental P2 plant line. Generally, a maintainer cell line, which is heterozygous for the male fertility gene, is generated by crossing a homozygous dominant male fertile plant with the homozygous recessive female sterile plant. The heterozygous maintainer plants then are crossed with the homozygous recessive male sterile plants to produce a population in which 50% of the progeny are male sterile. The male sterile plants are then selected for use in generating hybrids. As such, the method requires additional breeding and selection steps to obtain the male sterile plants, thus adding to the time and cost required to produce the hybrid plants.
To overcome the requirement of having to select male sterile from male fertile plants generated by crossing a maintainer plant line with a female (male sterile) plant line, methods have been developed to obtain male sterile plants by expressing a cytotoxic molecule in cells of the male reproductive organs of a plant. For example, a nucleic acid encoding the cytotoxic molecule can be linked to a tapetum-specific promoter and introduced into plant cells, such that, upon expression, the toxic molecule kills anther cells, rendering the plant male sterile. As above, however, such female parental plants cannot be selfed and, therefore, require the preparation and use of a maintainer plant line, which, when crossed with the male sterile female parent restores fertility, for example, by providing a dominant male fertility gene, or by providing a means to inactivate or otherwise inhibit the activity of the cytotoxic gene product (see, U.S. Pat. No. 5,977,433).
Additional methods of conferring genetic male sterility have been described including, for example, generating plants with multiple mutant genes at separate locations within the genome that confer male sterility (see, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,654,465 and 4,727,219) or with chromosomal translocations (see, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,861,709 and 3,710,511). Another method of conferring genetic male sterility includes identifying a gene that is required for male fertility; silencing the endogenous gene, generating a transgene comprising an inducible promoter operably linked to the coding sequence of the male fertility gene and inserting the transgene back into the plant, thus generating a plant that is male sterile in the absence of the inducing agent, and can be restored to male fertile by exposing the plant to the inducing agent (see, U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,068).
While the previously described methods of obtaining and maintaining hybrid plant lines have been useful for plant breeding and agricultural purposes, they require numerous steps and/or additional lines for maintaining male sterile or female sterile plant populations in order to obtain the hybrid plants. Such requirements contribute to increased costs for growing the hybrid plants and, consequently, increased costs to consumers. Thus, a need exists for convenient and effective methods of producing hybrid plants and particularly for generating parental lines that can be crossed to obtain hybrid plants.
A reliable system of genetic male sterility would provide a number of advantages over other systems. The laborious detasseling process can be avoided in some genotypes by using cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) inbreds. In the absence of a fertility restorer gene, plants of a CMS inbred are male sterile as a result of cytoplasmic (non-nuclear) genome factors. Thus, this CMS characteristic is inherited exclusively through the female parent in maize plants, since only the female provides cytoplasm to the fertilized seed. CMS plants are fertilized with pollen from another inbred that is not male-sterile. Pollen from the second inbred may or may not contribute genes that make the hybrid plants male-fertile. Usually seed from detasseled normal maize and CMS-produced seed of the same hybrid must be blended to insure that adequate pollen loads are available for fertilization when the hybrid plants are grown and to insure cytoplasmic diversity.
Another type of genetic sterility is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,654,465 and 4,727,219 to Brar, et al. However, this form of genetic male sterility requires maintenance of multiple mutant genes at separate locations within the genome and requires a complex marker system to track the genes, making this system inconvenient. Patterson described a genetic system of chromosomal translocations, which can be effective, but is also very complex. (See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,861,709 and 3,710,511).
Many other attempts have been made to address the drawbacks of existing sterility systems. For example, Fabijanski et al., developed several methods of causing male sterility in plants (see, EPO 89/3010153.8 Publication Number 329,308 and PCT Application Number PCT/CA90/00037 published as WO 90/08828). One method includes delivering into the plant a gene encoding a cytotoxic substance that is expressed using a male tissue specific promoter. Another involves an antisense system in which a gene critical to fertility is identified and an antisense construct to the gene inserted in the plant. Mariani, et al. also shows several cytotoxic antisense systems. See, EP 89/401,194. Still other systems use “repressor” genes that inhibit the expression of other genes critical to male fertility. See, WO 90/08829.
A still further improvement of this system is one described at U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,369 in which a method of imparting controllable male sterility is achieved by silencing a gene native to the plant that is critical for male fertility and further introducing a functional copy of the male fertility gene under the control of an inducible promoter which controls expression of the gene. The plant is thus constitutively sterile, becoming fertile only when the promoter is induced, allowing for expression of the male fertility gene.
In a number of circumstances, a particular plant trait is expressed by maintenance of a homozygous recessive condition. Difficulties arise in maintaining the homozygous condition when a transgenic restoration gene must be used for maintenance. For example, the MS45 gene in maize (U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,369) has been shown to be critical to male fertility. Plants heterozygous or hemizygous for the dominant MS45 allele are fully fertile due to the sporophytic nature of the MS45 fertility trait. A natural mutation in the MS45 gene, designated ms45, imparts a male sterility phenotype to plants when this mutant allele is in the homozygous state. This sterility can be reversed (i.e., fertility restored) when the non-mutant form of the gene is introduced into the plant, either through normal crossing or transgenic complementation methods. However, restoration of fertility by crossing removes the desired homozygous recessive condition, and both methods restore full male fertility and prevent maintenance of pure male sterile maternal lines. The same concerns arise when controlling female fertility of the plant, where a homozygous recessive female must be maintained by crossing with a plant containing a restoration gene. Therefore there is considerable value not only in controlling the expression of restoration genes in a genetic recessive line, but also in controlling the transmission of the restoring genes to progeny during the hybrid production process. | {
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Influenza virus is one of the most ubiquitous viruses present in the world, affecting both humans and livestock. The economic impact of influenza is significant. | {
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The disclosure generally relates to compounds, compositions, and methods for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The disclosure provides novel inhibitors of HIV, pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds, and methods for using these compounds in the treatment of HIV infection.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been identified as the etiological agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a fatal disease characterized by destruction of the immune system and the inability to fight off life threatening opportunistic infections. Recent statistics indicate that an estimated 35.3 million people worldwide are infected with the virus (UNAIDS: Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, 2013). In addition to the large number of individuals already infected, the virus continues to spread. Estimates from 2013 point to close to 3.4 million new infections in that year alone. In the same year there were approximately 1.6 million deaths associated with HIV and AIDS.
There are currently a number of antiviral drugs available to combat the infection. These drugs can be divided into classes based on the viral protein they target or their mode of action. In particular, saquinavir, indinavir, ritonavir, nelfinavir atazanavir darunavir, amprenavir, fosamprenavir, lopinavir and tipranavir are competitive inhibitors of the aspartyl protease expressed by HIV. Zidovudine, didanosine, stavudine, lamivudine, zalcitabine, emtricitibine, tenofovir and abacavir are nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors that behave as substrate mimics to halt viral cDNA synthesis. The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors nevirapine, delavirdine, efavirenz and etravirine inhibit the synthesis of viral cDNA via a non-competitive (or uncompetitive) mechanism. Enfuvirtide and maraviroc inhibit the entry of the virus into the host cell. An HIV integrase inhibitor, raltegravir (MK-0518, Isentress®), has also been approved for use in treatment experienced patients, and it is clear that this class of inhibitors is very effective as part of a combination regimen containing HIV inhibitors of different classes.
Used alone, these drugs are effective in reducing viral replication: however, the effect is only temporary as the virus readily develops resistance to all known agents used as monotherapy. However, combination therapy has proven very effective at both reducing virus and suppressing the emergence of resistance in a number of patients. In the US, where combination therapy is widely available, the number of HIV-related deaths has dramatically declined (Palella, F. J.; Delany, K. M.; Moorman, A. C.; Loveless, M. O.; Furher, J.; Satten, G. A.; Aschman, D. J.; Holmberg, S. D. N. Engl. J. Med. 1998, 338, 853-860).
Unfortunately, not all patients are responsive and a large number fail this therapy. In fact, initial studies suggest that approximately 30-50% of patients ultimately fail at least one drug in the suppressive combination. Treatment failure in most cases is caused by the emergence of viral resistance. Viral resistance in turn is caused by the replication rate of HIV-1 during the course of infection combined with the relatively high viral mutation rate associated with the viral polymerase and the lack of adherence of HIV-infected individuals in taking their prescribed medications. Clearly, there is a need for new antiviral agents, preferably with activity against viruses already resistant to currently approved drugs. Other important factors include improved safety and a more convenient dosing regimen than many of the currently approved drugs.
Compounds which inhibit HIV replication have been disclosed. See WO2007131350, WO2009062285, WO2009062288, WO2009062289, WO2009062308, WO2010130034, WO2010130842, WO2011015641, WO2011076765, WO2012033735, WO2013123148, WO2013134113, WO2014164467, and WO2014159959.
The invention provides technical advantages, for example, the compounds are novel and are useful in the treatment of HIV. Additionally, the compounds provide advantages for pharmaceutical uses, for example, with regard to one or more of their mechanism of action, binding, inhibition efficacy, target selectivity, solubility, safety profiles, or bioavailability. | {
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The present invention relates to a conditioned ocular enhancement training system and method for training a player of a game in which an object is projected towards the player at a velocity within a normal velocity range.
Various training programs and methods have been proposed to enhance the performance of athletes, including dietary programs, muscular development programs, aerobic conditioning programs, as well as programs and methods for sharpening the mental skills necessary to successfully compete at various competition levels. Programs which simulate competitive conditions have also been used to train athletes.
In addition, conditioning programs have been devised which subject an athlete to exaggerated conditions, i.e., conditions which the athlete would never encounter during normal competitive situations. The theory behind such exaggerated training programs is that after being continually subjected to extreme conditions, an athlete will be better prepared physically and mentally to perform under normal (i.e., less extreme) competitive conditions.
An exaggerated condition training program is commonly used in baseball where bat speed is crucial to successfully hitting a baseball. Before stepping into a batter""s box to face live pitching, a batter will swing two or three baseball bats, or swing a single bat having a weight or xe2x80x9cdonutxe2x80x9d slid down around the barrel of the bat. When the batter steps into the batter""s box to face a pitcher, the batter""s muscles are conditioned to swing a heavier bat. Accordingly, when the batter swings a lighter bat (i.e., a single bat or a bat without the a donut) the conditioned muscles will propel the bat at a greater speed.
Recently cross-training programs have been developed which combine training of various muscular groups, or muscular and aerobic development, and even programs which combine dietary conditioning with muscular, aerobic and mental training. However, ocular conditioning has been relatively unexplored as it relates to the performance of athletes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ocular enhancement conditioning program which can be used alone or in combination with a variety of other conditioning programs to enhance the performance of an athlete.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a multimedia interface system and training method which employs exaggerated ocular conditioning to enhance a user""s ability to view a moving object under different operating conditions.
It is yet another object of the present invention to combine ocular conditioning and physical training to provide a multimedia interface system and training method to improve an athlete""s performance. Accordingly, the present invention can be used to train baseball players to focus on and follow a baseball propelled at velocities greater than the normal range of velocities the player will encounter during a game. The present invention can also be employed for training hockey goalies to focus on, follow and catch/block hockey pucks propelled at high velocities, or train tennis players to return high speed serves and other shots. Certain aspects of the present invention can also be used to train downhill skiers and race car drivers.
In a first aspect of the present invention a training method and system comprising a computer program for generating and displaying a moving object according to a variable set of operating parameters is provided. An operator can improve his ability to pick-up and follow moving objects by viewing the computer generated object at various speeds, angles of trajectory and the rate at which the display of the moving object is repeated.
In a second aspect of the training method and system of the present invention, the first step is repeated simulating a realistic competitive environment. For example, when the present training method and system is used to train a hockey goalie, a life size, three dimensional computer-generated display of a hockey player shooting a hockey puck at variable speeds, variable angles and under variable conditions (i.e., a break-away or with several players blocking the goalies view) is generated.
A third aspect of the present invention provides a virtual reality computer program, including the necessary hardware and software. The virtual reality program is capable of simulating all aspects of the competitive environment (e.g., lighting conditions, crowd conditions, noise conditions, etc.). The computer program generates a moving object according to a set of programmable operating parameters. The program can simulate and exaggerate velocities and trajectories of the moving object that a player might typically encounter during competition. The operating parameters can be programmed to display an entire game or just a consecutive sequence of opportunities (e.g., a single at bat in baseball or a single offensive set in hockey).
In a final aspect of the present invention, an apparatus is provided for projecting an object at an operator. The apparatus is capable of projecting the object at variable speeds, angles and intervals. The operator can attempt to hit, catch, or knock down the moving object as it is propelled towards him.
In each aspect of the invention, the operator begins viewing the object at a speed which the operator can comfortably follow and view. The speed of the object is slowly increased until the operator can no longer follow and view the moving object. At this point, the speed of the object is slowly decreased to a point where the operator can comfortably view the moving object once again. The cycle is repeated, gradually increasing the top speed at which the moving object is displayed. | {
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A group of biological agents termed superantigens has been described based on their ability to stimulate monocytes and unprimed CD4+ (MHC Class II restricted) and CD8+ (MHC Class I restricted) T-cells. Included with the designation of superantigens are the enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus.
The enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus form a group of serologically distinct proteins, originally designated A, B, C1, C2, C3, D, E, G, and H. Subsequently, a number of variants have been described. These proteins and toxic shock syndrome proteins were originally recognized as the causative agents of staphylococcal food poisoning. Ingestion of preformed enterotoxin in contaminated food leads to the rapid development (within two to six hours) of symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea that are characteristic of staphylococcal food poisoning. Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1, TSST-1, a distantly related protein also produced by S. aureus, is classically responsible for the toxic shock syndrome, although other staphylococcal enterotoxins may result in the syndrome due to the induction of cytokines.
Other agents which have been identified as superantigens include for example, the staphylococcal exfoliative toxins, A and B; the mammary tumor virus supefantigen; rabies virus nucleocapsid protein; pyrogenic exotoxins A, B, C from S. pyrogens; and the Mycoplasma arthritides mitogen. Additional biological agents which have been demonstrated to have superantigen properties include the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), gp120 and peptides from HIV, mouse mammary tumor virus and feline immunodeficiency virus. A Leishmania peptide antigen has also been disclosed as a superantigen.
Superantigens, unlike conventional antigens, do not require processing in-vivo. In general, superantigens have two binding regions, one of which interacts with the Class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on the antigen presenting cell and the other which interacts with the Vβ variable region of the T-cell receptor on CD4 and/or CD8 cells. Various enterotoxins bind to one or more of the different Vβ receptor epitopes. In contrast to conventional antigens, superantigens do not occupy the T-cells receptor cleft but are felt to bind to an external region thus explaining the ability to activate a broad population of T-cells.
Enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus include a group of related proteins of about 20 to 30 Kd. The complete amino acid composition of a number of staphylococcal enterotoxins and streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin has been reported (see e.g., PCT Patent Appl. No. WO 93/24136.)
Staphylococcal enterotoxins (“SEs”) were initially classified on the basis of their antigenic properties into groups A, B, C1, C2, C3, D, and E. Subsequent relatedness was based on peptide and DNA sequence data. Among the staphylococcal enterotoxins, groups B and C are closely related and groups A, D, and E are closely related in amino acid sequence. SEC1, SEC2, and SEC3 and related isolates share approximately 95% sequence similarity. Table 1 shows the alignment of the predicted sequences of the eight known SEC variants following cleavage of the signal peptide. The N-terminus of each of the mature proteins was verified by amino acid sequencing. Amino acid positions that contain residues that are not conserved among all SEC are indicated by asterisks. SEB and SEC are approximately 45–50% homologous. In contrast, non-enterotoxin superantigens, TSST-1 and Streptococcal Pyrogenic Enterotoxin C(SPEC) share only approximately 20% primary sequence homology to SEC. Despite these differences, the tertiary structure of the various enterotoxins show nearly identical folds.
The staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B, C1, C2, C3, D, E, G and H share a common structural feature of a disulfide bond not present in other enterotoxins. Table 2 shows the position of the disulfide bond in a number of enterotoxins. Data in reference to the active sites of the enterotoxin molecule in relationship to biological activity, MHC binding, and TCR binding has been obtained. Sequence data demonstrate a high degree of similarity in four regions of the enterotoxins (See Table 3). The peptides implicated in potential receptor binding correspond to regions 1 and 3 which form a groove in the molecule. Amino acid residues within and adjacent to the α3 cavity of SEC3 have been shown to relate to T-cell activation.
TABLE 2LOCATION OF DISULFIDE LOOP IN STAPHYLOCOCCUSENTEROTOXINSAMINO ACIDAMINO ACID SEQUENCE OFENTEROTOXINRESIDUESDISULFIDE LOOPSEA96–10696→CAGGTPNKTAC SEB93–11493→CYFSKKTNDINSHQTPKRKTC SEC193–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC SEC293–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC SEC3 FRI 91393–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC SEC3 FRI 90993–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTSGKTC SEC 444693–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC SEC-Bovine93–11093→CYFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC SEC-Ovine93–11093→CCFSSKDNVGKVTGGKTC
The staphylococcal enterotoxins are potent activators of T-cells, resulting in proliferation and the generation of cytotoxic T-cells. SEA is a potent T-cell mitogen eliciting strong polyclonal activation at concentrations of 10−13 to 10−10 molar in human systems.
The staphylococcal enterotoxins, aside from the acute gastroenteritis and toxic shock syndrome associated with them, have been shown to have a variety of other beneficial biological effects. The biological effects of these agents and the toxic shock syndrome are due in part to the ability of staphylococcal enterotoxins to induce cytokines. Various cytokines described include IL-1, IL-2, and tumor necrosis factor (“TNF”). More recently SEB and toxic shock syndrome toxin (“TSST-1”) have been shown to induce interleukin-12, an inducer of cell mediated immunity, in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. (See Leung et al., J Exp Med, 181:747 (1995)). The antitumor activity of treating cancer in rabbits utilizing 40 to 60 μg/kg of a staphylococcal enterotoxin has been disclosed in PCT Patent Appl. Nos. WO 91/10680 and WO 93/24136.
Exposure to enterotoxin either in-vitro or in-vivo leads to depletion of T-cells having the appropriate Vβ receptor through programmed cell death in some strains of mice, specifically Balb/c and CBA/2. Cell death can be prevented by high doses of retinol or RU-38486. Programmed cell death has not been observed upon exposure of human cells to enterotoxins.
Although the systemic lethal toxicity of enterotoxins has been related to their ability to induce cytokines, particularly IL-1, IL-2 and gamma interferon, lethal toxicity also appears to be related to a synergistic activity with endogenous endotoxins and the ability of the liver to detoxify endotoxins. Although a number of animals have been utilized to evaluate lethality, the accepted model is the continous infusion over a period of time, usually 4 days, in rabbits. The direct toxic dose varies among various species. The 50% lethal dose of TSST-1 is approximately 50 μg/kg for Balb/c mice. Piglets, although showing clinical manifestations of toxic shock syndrome, tolerate doses of 100 μg/kg of TSST-1. TSST-ovine is known to be non-toxic at doses of 200 μg in rabbits.
In Dutch belted rabbits, intramuscular injection of 50 mg/kg of staphylococcal enterotoxin B caused death. Intravenous injection at 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg of enterotoxin A or B in rhesus macaques results in hypotension and death (Liu C. T., et al Amer J Vet Res 39:279 and 1213, 1978).
In contrast to other species, man is extremely sensitive to enterotoxins. One (1) mg of TSST-1, approximately 15 nanogram/kg, can be lethal for man. Therefore, the recommended doses currently proposed in the art for treating man are unacceptable. There is a need, therefore, for mutant staphylococcal enterotoxins which are non-toxic at anticipated doses for man while still retaining desirable biological activity.
Several studies of staphylococcal enterotoxin have identified a number of biologically active modified or mutant enterotoxins with reduced toxicity. Carboxymethylation of SEB results in a loss of gastrointestinal toxicity but not mitogenic activity. Studies with the TSST-1 have demonstrated the active site to be between amino acids residue 115 and 141. Point mutation of site 135 from histidine to alanine results in a loss of mitogenic activity and toxicity (See Bonventre P. F., et al. Infect Immun 63:509 (1995)). Studies with the staphylococcal enterotoxin SEC1 demonstrated that the disulfide bond between residue 93 and 110 is not required for activity (See Hovde et al., Mol Microbiol 13:897 (1994)). Studies of the molecular binding region of staphylococcal enterotoxin B using overlapping peptides demonstrated peptide 124 to 154 inhibited SEB induced mitogenic activity.
Based on the known biological activities of the toxic native enterotoxins, it is desirable to create mutants which are at least 1000-fold or more less toxic compared to native enterotoxins and retain biological activity. Recent studies have demonstrated that mutant enterotoxins can be produced which retain certain biological activities and which may be significantly less lethal as determined in rabbits. A mutant of the TSST-1 enterotoxin which differs in amino acid 136 and is non-lethal at ten times the lethal dose of the native toxin (in rabbits), but retains biological activity has been disclosed. A number of mutants of SEC1, unable to form a disulfide bond, have been reported to be ten times less toxic than the native toxin while retaining biological activity. (See e.g., Hovde et al., Molec Microbiol 13:897 (1994)). | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to liquid spray devices for use in a gas and liquid contact apparatus, and especially to such devices which are adapted for use in water cooling towers wherein water is distributed over the top of fill elements to be cooled by a cross- or countercurrent flow of gas, such as air.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In a gas and liquid contact apparatus, such as a cooling tower used for reducing the temperature of cooling water from processing plants, for example, fill elements are disposed within a housing in which there is developed a crosscurrent or countercurrent flow of air. The water to be cooled is sprayed onto the fill elements from above. In order to provide maximum contact time between the water and air and thus maximum efficiency and cooling effect, it is essential that the water be dispersed evenly over the fill elements and flow smoothly down the fill elements.
Many nozzle constructions have been suggested for distributing water evenly over fill elements. One example of a highly effective construction is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 262,990, filed May 12, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,478, of which is incorporated herein by reference. As clearly shown in this application, the spray assemblies are mounted in a pan disposed over the fill elements. A conventional mounting construction comprises a hole formed in the pan in which the spray assemblies are mounted. However, with time, these holes become wallowed out allowing water to be cooled to flow past the spray assemblies thereby decreasing the cooling effect of the assemblies. Eventually, the opening becomes so large that the spray assemblies are lifted out of the holes leaving the holes open whereby the water to be cooled flows directly through the open holes thus even further reducing the cooling effect of the system.
In the past, repairs have been made by installing oversized nozzles in the wallowed out holes. However, such repairs are difficult since the holes must be reamed to oversized dimensions to accommodate the larger nozzles.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for a device which enables spray nozzles to be repaired and replaced in cooling towers without requiring an undue amount of effort. | {
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Plate heat exchangers provided with heat transfer plates are utilized for exchange of heat between two or more heat exchange fluids. The heat transfer plates may be welded together. The heat transfer plates form plate interspaces adapted to be flowed through by the heat exchange fluids. In some types of plate heat exchangers the plates are provided with port holes which form port channels extending at least partially through the plate heat exchanger. The heat exchange fluids may be e.g. gases, liquids, liquids containing solid matter, etc.
At least one of the heat exchange fluids flows through one of the port channels into selected plate interspaces, over heat exchange surfaces of the plates, to a second port channel. The heat transfer plates are commonly mounted between two thick plates, such as two frame plates. The frame plates ensure that the heat exchanger withstands the pressure of the heat exchange fluids and at least one of the frame plates comprises connections for leading at least one of the heat exchange fluids into and/or out from the port channels.
A fluid-tight seal must be provided between a frame plate and an outer heat transfer plate around its port hole/s. One factor in achieving such a seal is to provide a firm connection with the port hole/s of the outer heat transfer plate, which connection will withstand the pressure required to achieve the fluid tight seal. Otherwise, the outer heat transfer plate may fail in an area of the port hole/s.
GB 2275996 discloses a heat exchanger comprising modules of plates being welded together in pairs. The modules are clamped together between two covers. Sealing and/or spacing rings are arranged between the modules and form part of feed pipes for heat exchange fluid. By forming part of the feed pipes and thus, being arranged in line with holes in plates, the sealing and/or spacing rings support the plates around the holes. The plates may thus be made from relatively thin sheet material, approximately <0.5 mm. | {
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Aqueous dispersions of a thermoplastic resin of various types are known in the art. Aqueous dispersions have been used in a wide variety of fields since an aqueous dispersion prepared by using water as its dispersion medium is far more advantageous than the dispersions prepared by using an organic solvent for the dispersion medium in view of flammability, working environment, handling convenience, and the like. For example, when an aqueous dispersion is coated and dried on a surface of a substrate such as paper, fiber, wood, metal, or plastic molded article, the resin coating formed will provide the substrate with water resistance, oil resistance, chemical resistance, corrosion resistance and heat sealability.
Conventional aqueous dispersions of a thermoplastic resin have been produced either by a process wherein a polymerizable monomer which is the resin raw material is polymerized by emulsion polymerization in an aqueous medium in the presence of a dispersing agent, or by a process wherein a molten thermoplastic resin and an aqueous medium, and optionally, a dispersing agent are mixed by applying shearing force. The former process is associated with the disadvantage of the limited number of the polymerizable monomers that can be used, and hence, the variety of the aqueous dispersions of the thermoplastic resin that can be produced, is limited. The former process also suffers from complicated control of the polymerization reaction as well as intricate equipment. On the other hand, the latter process is applicable to a wide variety of resins in relatively simple equipment. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Since a hot melt adhesive (hereinafter referred to as "HMA") is a non-solvent type adhesive and fast setting, it is widely employed in various fields. For example, in the field of the production of an optical disc, HMA is expected to be used in place of the conventional epoxy adhesive and solvent type adhesive due to its advantage such as easiness in handling.
There has hitherto been known, for example, HMA comprising a block thermoplastic elastomer, a tackifier and a softening agent wherein a softening point or a melt viscosity is regulated (see Japanese Patent First Publication "Kokai" No. 108044/1983). In application to a disc, it is desired to apply at as low temperature and low viscosity as possible so that the disc is not impaired. Under these conditions, however, a heat resistant property is limited. The HMA having a disadvantage of insufficient heat resistance as mentioned above, it is particularly difficult to keep a balance between an application property and a heat resistance property and the HMA is thus limited in an applicable range as an adhesive.
Under the above-mentioned circumstances, it has been attempted to improve a heat resistance of the HMA by blending it with a compound curable by irradiation of radiation (e.g. acrylate monomer, etc.), followed by irradiation of radiation to cure (see Japanese Patent First Publication "Kokai" No. 1086/1972, West Germany Offenlegungsschrift No.2350030). However, since the acrylate monomer easily provokes thermal polymerization with heating during blending or application, increased viscosity or gellation of the HMA frequently occurs. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a series of blending and application procedures in a short period of time (see "Setchaku (adhesion)" Vol. 29, No. 6 (1985), pages 36-37).
An optical disc comprising a pair of substrates, which is provided with an optically readable information recording layer in at least one of the substrates, has been used as a video disc, a digital audio disc, or a disc for documents and data.
The optical disc is usually prepared by adhering a pair of substrates. For the adhesion of the pair of substrates, there have been used an epoxy adhesive, an urethane adhesive, an ultraviolet curable adhesive, a hot melt adhesive and the like. However, these adhesives have disadvantages, i.e. the epoxy adhesive has a low curing rate and the disadvantage of lower productivity. In case of the ultraviolet curable adhesive, the monomer component contained in the adhesive may corrode the substrate and the hot melt adhesive has low heat stability. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for moving cargo using aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for handling cargo in a sling beneath an aircraft.
2. Background
In addition to carrying passengers, aircraft may also be used to move cargo from one location to another location. Some aircraft may carry cargo within the fuselage of the aircraft. These types of aircraft may have a nose or tail section that may open to allow cargo to be moved in and out of the aircraft. Other types of aircraft may have a door on the side of the fuselage that allows cargo to be moved in and out of the aircraft.
In other cases, the cargo may not be easily placed within the fuselage of an aircraft. With this type of cargo, one or more slings may be used to move the cargo. For example, containers, pallets, vehicles, and/or other types of cargo may be carried on a sling from one location to another location. With this type of cargo, the aircraft may take the form of a helicopter.
Attaching cargo to a sling of an aircraft may require manpower and time. For example, with a sling, the sling may be attached to a helicopter and the cargo. This process may require the sling to be placed and secured to the cargo. Two or three persons on the ground may provide the operations needed to move the sling and cargo in place relative to each other. This type of loading of cargo on a sling also may require an operator in the aircraft to position the aircraft in response to guidance from personnel on the ground to attach the sling to the cargo.
This type of process may require more personnel and/or time than desired. When the cargo is moved to the destination location, a similar number of steps may be performed to place the cargo on the ground at the destination and to detach the cargo from the sling.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing electrically conductive anisotropic heat sealing connector members, particularly which can cope with fine pitches of circuits patterns.
Such connector members or connector member will be referred to as "connector members" or "connector member", hereinafter.
The connector members are used for connecting the electrodes of liquid crystal display tubes, electrochromic display (ECD) panels or solar cells to the substrates of printed circuits and for connecting the terminals of the printed circuits to each other.
Such connector members are used in broad fields of use, such as, electric or electronic devices, chronometers, cameras, word processors, and computers, and the like.
2. Related Art Statement
Conventional electrically conductive anisotropic heat sealing connector members have electrically conductive anisotropic fillers 11 in the electrically conductive circuit patterns on a substrate film 1 and the remaining portion of the substrate film 1, as shown in FIG. 6. Because the anisotropic fillers 11 are existing on the remaining portion of the substrate film 1, as regards the electrical conductivity of the substrate film 11 in y direction, the weight proportion of the anisotropic fillers 11 can not be increased without damaging the electrical insulative property of the substrate film 1 in x direction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating bipolar semiconductor integrated circuit device which is adopted for high integration and high density, and is capable of operating at high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to increase the operational speed of a bipolar semiconductor integrated circuit device, it is necessary to decrease the base resistance and the parasitic, especially base-collector junction capacitance of the transistor element formed therein. The base resistance can be reduced by forming a small sized emitter region to decrease an active base resistance and by placing an inactive base region as close as possible to an emitter region. Also, in order to decrease the base-collector junction capacitance, it is desired to reduce the areas of active and inactive base regions, thus reducing the junction area between the base and collector regions.
To achieve this requirements, some bipolar IC manufacturing methods which employ various self-alignment techniques allowing a high accuracy photoengraving processing have been proposed. For example, one of the prior art methods is disclosed in a paper entitled "High Speed Bipolar ICs Using Super Self-Aligned Process Technology" authorized by Tetsushi Sakai, et al., in the "Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 20 (1981) Supplement 20-1, pp. 155-159.
The prior art bipolar semiconductor IC device manufacturing process is described herewith with reference to FIGS. 1(a) to 1(h).
In FIG. 1(a), a P-type silicon substrate is prepared which has an N-type buried diffusion layer 2, an N-type epitaxial layer 3 acting a collector region, a P-type element isolation region 4 and an N-type collector contact region 5. Then, multilayers of thermal oxide (SiO.sub.2) film 6, CVD Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film 7, CVDSiO2 film 8, boron-doped polysilicon and CVD Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film 10 are in turn formed on the surface of the silicon substrate. Then, the CVD nitride film 10 is partially removed by a photoengraving process to expose the surface of the polysilicon layer 10.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1(b), unnecessary parts of the polysilicon layer 9 are converted into SiO.sub.2 film 11 by a thermal oxidation process. Then, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film 10 is partially preserved at the areas corresponding to the base contact window and resistor window.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1(c), the windows for the emitter and the collector are opened by using a photoengraving process. Then a CVD oxide film 8 is side etched.
In FIG. 1(d), an aluminum layer 12 is formed on the entire surface of the structure but under the overhung portion of the polysilicon layer 9 by vacuum evaporation process.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1(e), the nitride film 7 under the overhung portion is completely removed by using the aluminum layer 12 as an etching mask and then boron ions are implanted into the exposed surface of the layer 3 to form an active base region 13 after the removal of the remaining aluminum layer. After the remaining oxide layer 6 is removed to expose the surface of the layer 3, an boron-doped polysilicon layer 9a is deposited over the entire surface of the structure.
In FIG. 1(f), the polysilicon layer 9a is selectively removed by ion milling so as to leave the polysilicon layer 9a under the overhung portion of the polysilicon layer 9.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1(g), the structure is subjected to an oxidation process to form a relatively thick oxide film 14 on the surface of polysilicon layer 9a, while an inactive base region 15 is formed by boron diffusion from the polysilicon 9b. In this step, the nitride films 9 and 10 prevent the oxidation of the polysilicon film 9 thereunder.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1(h), the remaining nitride films 7 and 10 and the thin oxide film 6 are etched off to form the windows for electrodes. Then, both boron-doped polysilicon emitter and collector electrodes 16a and 16b are formed in the windows. An emitter region 17 is formed by impurity diffusion from the polysilicon electrode 16a. Finally, metal electrodes 18 are formed on the surfaces of the polysilicon films 9.
However, the prior art bipolar IC manufacturing process is very complicated. In addition, since it is difficult to reduce the emitter area, there is a limit to further decrease the active base resistance content. The polysilicon base electrode according to the prior art makes it difficult to obtain a further lowered base resistance. Furthermore, it is difficult to further reduce the inactive area, and a side-etching process is employed on the nitride film. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-access online game system and a method for controlling a game for use in the multi-access online game system, and more particularly to a system and method for effectively processing real-time messages generated during an online game with many messages to be processed in real time.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the increasing development of network technologies, data can be transmitted to a desired destination at high speed. As user terminals capable of accessing the network have rapidly come into widespread use throughout the world, content providers (CPs) capable of providing the user terminals with a variety of contents are rapidly increasing every year.
The content provider (CP) provides users with a variety of content services, for example, a searching service, a shopping service, a game service, and a chatting service, etc. Particularly, if the game service acting as the paying service is provided to the users, the content provider (CP) can guarantee a large number of consumers, so that the game service is generally considered to be the most important content service profitable to the content provider (CP).
Particularly, a multi-access online role-playing game from among many online games enables a plurality of gamers to use or modify environments provided from game developers, so that the gamers can create stories and structures of games. In this way, it should be noted that the above-mentioned multi-access online role-playing games are considered to be a representative specified game.
There are a variety of multi-access online role-playing games, for example, “Diablo” and “World of Warcraft” from Blizzard, “Lineage” from NCsoft, and “Ultima Online” from ORIGIN, etc.
Generally, the above-mentioned multi-access online role-playing game has provided users with a fantasy-based world (i.e., simulated environments). However, in recent times, the world of the multi-access online role-playing game has become more diverse in the real world, for example, general cities or schools.
The multi-access online role-playing game has been conducted by interaction between one player and other players, so that a game command message of any one of the users must be transmitted to other users. The transmission of the game command message greatly affects a load of the multi-access online role-playing game server.
With the extension of the multi-access online role-playing game area, a racing game is modified into the multi-access online role-playing game, and is then provided to users or players. Player characters (e.g., cars) for use in the above-mentioned racing role-playing game move very fast or frequently collide with each other. Therefore, if the fast-moving information or collision information of the player characters is transmitted to users other than a playing user, an amount of load of the game server may be rapidly increased, resulting in the occurrence of fatal errors. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an agent management system, and more particularly to a system for monitoring and controlling an agent from its external environment, in a distributed processing system comprising a single computer or a plurality of computers inter-connected through a workstation and agents being application objects for autonomously operating thereon, and also to a system for constituting the agents to operate in such a manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings shows a composition of an application coordinating operation system described in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 4-192112 filed by the present applicant. In FIG. 1, the numerals designate respectively: 65, a process-request input means; 66, a process-request accept means for accepting a process request from the process request input means 65; 71, an application coordinating operation environment which is composed of an environmental information monitoring means 67 for monitoring environmental information based on the process request from the processing request receiving means 66, coordinating operation environmental state information 68, and an environmental state information access means operating based on the application program 70; 72, a processed results output means for outputting a processed result of the environmental information monitoring means 67 in the application coordinating operation environment 71.
In the aforementioned composition, the application coordinating operation environment 71 monitors the environmental information using the environmental state information access means 69, the coordinating operation environmental state information 68 and the environmental information monitoring means 67 in accordance with the plurality of application programs 70 on the basis of the process request having been input from the process request input means 65 to the process request accept means 66, and outputs the processed results to the processed results output means 72.
In this application coordinating operation system, since a plurality of application programs 70 can actively function, it is possible to obtain desired processed results just by issuing process requests from the process-request input means 65 without requiring the system user to clearly indicate the names and positions of a plurality of applications to be used, the starting order of the applications, or data transference relationship among the applications.
FIG. 2 is a conceptual view of a conventional method for encapsulating applications shown in FIG. [2.1] of "Tools-Unifying Method in Software Developing Environment "Soft Beech/Encapsulator in UNIX"" (published by Yokogawa Hewlett Packard Co., Ltd. in July 1992).
As shown in FIG. 2, a window-based interface is accommodated at a portion where a standard input "stdin" and a standard output "stdout" are mutually communicated like in a pipeline, and are encapsulated.
This conventional encapsulating method is based on a so-called pipeline model in which an existing application program in the UNIX operating system reads out data from the standard input "stdin" and writes through the standard output "stdout" and a not shown standard error "stderr". In such a state, according to this method, the user can input and output instructions to the application (command of the UNIX) through the window-based interface i.e. a graphical user interface (GUI) without needing to change the source code of the application. This process is called encapsulation.
On the other hand, FIG. 3 shows a system diagram showing a conventional method for encapsulating applications described in "A Framework "SoftBench" Having Realized Inter-tools Unification" (published by Yokogawa Hewlett Packard Co., Ltd. in September 1992). This is a specific example of the concept shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 3, the numerals designate respectively: 73, an operating system including signal processing 74; 75, a system call; 76, a BMS (Broadcast Message Server); 77, an event handler; 78, a system event trap; 79, a message event trap; 80, a program capable of being executed by an existing application; 81, an application event trap; 82, a user event trap; 83, an X server; 84, a human interface including a display terminal 85; 86, a standard input (Stdin); 87, a standard output (Stdout) and a standard error output (stderr); and 88, an EDL (Enclosing-type encapsulating program: Encapsulator describing language).
In the aforementioned composition, when the existing application 80 follows a pipeline model, a GUI object suitable for the input/output form of the data to/from the application is set. The EDL 88 is used to describe the event handler 77 in order to connect the input/output data patterns to the GUI object. The event handler 77 newly provides a GUI object being displayed on the X server 83 of the display terminal 85 presenting the human interface 84, and the user event trap 82 in the event handler 77 receives the event generated by the GUI object. The corresponding data defined in the event handler 77 are then input to the existing application 80 through the standard input 86.
The output from the existing application 80 is transferred to the application event trap 81 via the standard output and standard error output 87, and is also displayed on the screen of the display terminal 85 through the X server 83 to be viewed by the user.
It is also possible to describe: the issuance of the system call 75; processing of the signal from the operating system 73; or the communicating operation with the BMS 76; in the event handler 77.
The signal processing 74 is accepted by the system event trap 78 and is then processed in the event handler 77. The BMS 76 controls the broadcasting of the message between other applications. The message event trap 79 receives the message from the BMS 76, and cooperation with other applications can thus be indirectly realized. These series of processes are described as an encapsulated program in the form of the event handler 77 by use of the EDL 88.
This encapsulating program is processed in accordance with the operation shown by way of a flow diagram in FIG. 15.
FIG. 4 is equivalent to FIG. [2.3] shown in the aforementioned "Tools-Unifying Method in a Software Developing Environment "Soft Becch/Encapsulator" in UNIX" (published by Yokogawa Hewlett Packard Co., Ltd. in July 1992).
When the system starts operating, an action function is set in step S1.
In the next step S2, the event to be dealt with in the system is defined by use of a function make--event.
In step S3, the construction of the GUI i.e. the object, is defined by use of a function make--manager and make--object.
In step S4, the system enters an event processing loop with display and start functions, and thereafter, processes 1, 2 and n of steps S5, S6 and Sn respectively corresponding to each event are continued by an event-driven method.
Since the conventional autonomous coordinating environment is constructed as the aforementioned application coordinating operation system, it is possible to readily monitor and control the autonomous coordinating environment from the outside. It is quite hard, however, to finely monitor and control the applications and agents actually operating and functioning in that environment directly from the outside in accordance with the external environment.
Further, if there is any information becoming newly necessary and which has not been previously provided in the agents or applications, it is impossible to add and monitor/control such information in order to monitor and control the agents and the applications in such a system.
Meanwhile, even when monitoring/controlling operations being common to a plurality of agents or applications in a system are to be executed, it is necessary to previously build in each agent application the common method necessary for the monitoring/controlling operations. This is quite inefficient and is not able to perform new monitoring/controlling operations.
Moreover, it is not possible either to join any existing application not being made to operate in an autonomous coordinating operation system to the coordinating operation likewise other agents, or to monitor and control such applications in the same manner.
In addition, for making any application already having a window-based GUI operate in an autonomous coordinating operation environment and for monitoring and controlling it, the source codes of the application must be directly changed for incorporation of a monitoring/controlling method therein. It is therefore quite inefficient to reuse the existing application in the autonomous coordinating operation system.
Further, even when a common monitoring/controlling operations must be made for a group of a plurality of agents having similar functions, similar monitoring/controlling operations must be applied to each of the agents one by one, which significantly lowers the efficiency.
Moreover, when a plurality of autonomous coordinating operation environments are mutually communicated, it is quite difficult to flexibly perform the mutual operations of the whole system without changing the policy of the monitoring/controlling operations existing in every autonomous coordinating operation environment.
As mentioned above, since the conventional system has a number of disadvantages, it has been expected to realize an agent management system which is capable of monitoring and controlling the data and action of agents operating in an autonomous coordinating operation system from an external environment. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Mobile computing devices are typically battery operated. Some mobile computing devices can wirelessly access network resources over cellular data and/or Wi-Fi network connections. These mobile devices are often constrained by battery capacity and/or limits on cellular data usage.
Some mobile computing devices allow a user to run applications that access data from network resources. The user typically invokes an application and then must wait for the application to retrieve data from the network resources so that the application can present current updated content. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of dental tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The traditional method of creating a replica tooth is to apply a pliable molding material around the tooth to be replaced with a replica then being created by the cavity formed in the molding material. More recent dental restoration technology utilizes an infrared camera. A white reflective powder comprised of titanium dioxide and talc is applied to the whole tooth creating a uniform color on the tooth and providing a means whereby the infrared camera can photograph and digitize the old tooth. Prior to the powder being sprayed onto the tooth, the dentist prepares the tooth for the porcelain restoration by removing the silver fillings and any lingering decay. A hand held infrared camera is then used to provide an image of the tooth onto a video screen. The replica tooth is then designed through the use of a computer. Once the design of the replica tooth is completed, the dentist utilizes a milling machine for cutting the actual replica tooth from a ceramic block. Such a system is manufactured by Siemens Dental Products Division and distributed in the U.S. by the Patterson Dental Supply Company under the name CEREC 2.
The current technique of applying the reflective powder involves two containers connected together. One container is an aerosol of pressurized butane gas having an outlet directed through a second container of reflective powder which, in turn, has a flexible tube extending therefrom through which the powder is sprayed. Such an applicator is distributed by Vita Zahnfabrik H. Rauter Graph and Co., KG of Bad Sackingen, Germany.
Difficulties are encountered when applying the powder in remote locations of the mouth. The powder needs to be applied evenly. If the powder is too thick on one portion of the tooth then an inaccurate reading by the camera results since the camera reads the top surface of the powder. In many cases, the patient's cheek is in the proximity of the side of the tooth and thus must be forced outwardly therefrom in order for the powder to be sprayed evenly on the side of the tooth. The prior applicator includes an outlet stem which will bend when contacted against the cheek. I have therefore provided a rigid outlet tube to simultaneously force the cheek away from the tooth while powder is being sprayed by the tube onto the tooth. Thus, the dentist may with a single hand move the cheek away from the tooth while spraying the powder. Further, since the tooth has both vertical and horizontal surfaces and surfaces therebetween, the powder must be sprayed at various angles. As a result, the prior art powder applicator requires the dentist to tilt the container of powder in order to properly point the powder outlet towards the tooth surface. Once the powder container is tilted then it is possible for the powder to clump within the container and even clog the outlet. I have therefore designed a powder outlet tube rotatable about its longitudinal axis while allowing the powder container to remain in an upright position. The dentist's hand holding the powder applicator may also be used to rotate the powder outlet tube without necessitating use of the remaining hand of the dentist. The one hand adjustment of the nozzle makes application of powder more precise and more predictable. The powder spray can be directed with complete precision at no risk of clumping or uneven flow.
The powder outlet tube disclosed herein has a right angle bend on the distal end outlet allowing for more easy application of powder in remote areas of the mouth as compared to the prior device having a distal end extending at an angle from the longitudinal axis less than 90.degree.. In an alternate embodiment, I have provided a valve on the powder container allowing the dentist to control the flow with the same hand holding the container allowing for accurate powder application.
I have disclosed my applicator in Disclosure Document No. 423313, filed Aug. 27, 1997 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A vehicle brake testing dynamometer which is portable presents a problem at the location of use as to positioning the dynamometer on the road surface such that vehicles can be driven onto it for brake testing. The length of the dynamometer corresponds generally to the width of the vehicle which will be driven onto it. The dynamometer when transported must be turned such that its longitudinal axis is parallel to the direction of travel to minimize its width and allow it to be hauled on a trailer. The dynamometer normally does not carry its own transport wheels as it needs to sit solidly on the ground when being used to test truck brakes.
Thus, among the problems to which this invention is directed is that of loading and unloading the dynamometer on a trailer and when at a brake testing location the positioning of the dynamometer so that trucks may be driven onto it for brake testing.
The patent to Vaughn, et al. 5,148,703, Sep. 22, 1992, discloses a vehicle inspection trailer wherein the trailer wheel system is pivotable between a transport trailer position to a brake testing position where the dynamometer is on the ground and the trailer wheels are pivoted out of the way. This system combines the dynamometer and trailer into a single unit but has no means of turning the dynamometer once placed on the ground so that it is transverse to the roadway and is in a position for trucks to drive onto it. My invention provides a system which meets these needs. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving device, a display apparatus having the display device and a method of driving the display apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a driving device which prevents a damage of a data driver thereof, a display apparatus having the driving device, and a method of driving the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel which displays an image and a driving device which drives the liquid crystal display panel. The driving device includes a gate driver supplying a gate signal to the liquid crystal display panel and a data driver supplying a data signal to the liquid crystal display panel. Also, the driving device further includes a voltage generator which applies a driving voltage to the gate driver and the data driver and a gamma voltage generator which generates a gamma voltage.
When a size of the liquid crystal display panel becomes larger, an output voltage of the driving voltage is insufficient to drive the large-scaled liquid crystal display panel. Therefore, the driving device employs a plurality of voltage generators. When the driving device includes two voltage generators, the data driver is divided into two groups of left-driving chips arranged at left side of the liquid crystal display panel and right-driving chips arranged at right side of the liquid crystal display panel. The-left driving chips and the right-driving chips receive different driving voltages from the two voltage generators, respectively.
However, a time interval is generated between the driving voltages output from the two voltage generators. That is, when the driving voltages having the time interval are applied to the left-driving chips and the right-driving chips, respectively, the left-driving chips and the right-driving chips are operated at different timings. Consequently, a time interval is generated between left and right images displayed on the liquid crystal display panel, therefore causing a deterioration of display quality thereof.
Meanwhile, the gamma voltage generator receives the driving voltage from one of the two voltage generators and generates the gamma voltages to provide the gamma voltages to the left-driving chips and the right-driving chips.
When the time interval is generated between the driving voltages output from the two voltage generators, either the left-driving chips or the right-driving chips receive the gamma voltages before the driving voltage is applied thereto. However, since the driving voltage is designed to have a higher electric potential than those of the gamma voltages in the driving chips, the gamma voltages have a higher electric potential than that of the driving voltage and the driving chip is damaged due to a reverse electric potential. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Fluid energy mills are used to reduce the particle size of a variety of materials such as pigments, agricultural chemicals, carbon black, ceramics, minerals and metals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, precious metals, propellants, resins, toner and titanium dioxide. The particle size reduction typically occurs as a result of particle-to-particle collisions because generally, a fluid energy mill contains no moving parts.
The fluid energy mill typically comprises a hollow interior that acts as a grinding chamber where the particle collisions occur. Within the grinding chamber, a vortex is formed via the introduction of a compressed gas or grinding fluid through fluid nozzles fluid energy mill positioned in an annular configuration around the periphery of the grinding chamber. The compressed gas (e.g., air, steam, nitrogen, etc.), when introduced into the grinding chamber, forms a high-speed vortex as it travels within the grinding chamber. The gas circles within the grinding chamber at a decreased radii until released from the grinding chamber through a gas outlet. The particles to be ground are deposited within the grinding chamber and swept up into the high-speed vortex, thereby resulting in high speed particle-to-particle collisions as well as collisions with the interior portion of the grinding chamber walls.
Typically, heavier particles have longer residence time within the vortex. Lighter particles (i.e., those sufficiently reduced particles) move with the vortex of gas until the outlet is reached. Typically, fluid energy mills are capable of producing fine (less than 10 microns) and ultra fine (less than 5 microns) particles.
Typical nozzles that have been used include DeLaval nozzles (converging-diverging nozzles) through which the grinding fluid (also known as compression gas) is injected into the grinding chamber. In such nozzles, the grinding occurs at the boundary between the particles and the high-velocity grinding fluid, also referred to as the shear zone. However, such nozzles are disadvantageous because the pattern of the gas exiting the nozzle results in a substantial core of the gas-stream flow that is unavailable for grinding as the particles cannot penetrate the core of the fluid flow. Therefore, a greater amount of energy is necessary and a greater volume of compression gas is required to grind the particulate matter to the desired particle size.
Another disadvantage, with respect to fluid energy mills typically found within the art, is that they consume a significant amount of resources including energy and grinding gas due to the particular nozzles used therein.
Thus, there is a need within the industry for a mechanism for reducing energy and compression gas consumption as well as increasing the surface area of the fluid boundary useable for grinding particulate matter.
The present invention proposes placing ring jets in an annular configuration around the fluid energy mill. These ring jets have a spiked nozzle with a ‘C’ shaped compression orifice and opening. The spiked nozzle is shaped such that its surface is flush with the inside wall of the fluid energy mill. Grinding fluid emanating from the ring jets attrites the larger particles that are found closer to the wall of the fluid energy mill. Once the larger particles are ground to finer particles of desired size, such smaller particles leave the chamber through an outlet. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Oncogenic transcription factors are important mediators of process involved in cell growth, differentiation, and de-differentiation, and they play important roles in oncogenesis, cancer progression, and metastasis.
For instance, the forkhead box (Fox) family of transcription factors plays important roles in regulating cellular proliferation, differentiation, longevity, and cellular transformation. Wang et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:11468-11473 (2001). The mammalian transcription factor Forkhead Box M1 (FoxM1; previously known as HFH-11B, Trident, WIN, or MPP2) is induced during the G1 phase of the cell cycle, and its expression continues through the S phase and mitosis (1). FoxM1 is especially important for the execution of the mitotic program as seen by the failure of FoxM1-depleted cells to progress beyond the prophase stage of mitosis (2). This is consistent with the demonstration that FoxM1 transcriptionally upregulates a number of target genes including Cyclin B, Survivin, Aurora B kinase, Cdc25b phosphatase, and Plk1, all of which are implicated in mitosis (2, 3). Also, FoxM1 transcriptionally induces Skp2 and Cks1 (specificity subunits of Skp1-Cullin1-F-box ubiquitin ligase complex) leading to the degradation of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p21WAF1 and p27KIP1, thereby resulting in cell cycle progression (2). In line with its pro-proliferative nature, while FoxM1 is expressed in all dividing mammalian cells and tumor-derived cells, its expression is turned off in terminally differentiated cells (4-7).
FoxM1 is overexpressed significantly in primary breast tumors (8), basal cell carcinomas (9), hepatocellular carcinomas (10, 11), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (12), non-small cell lung cancers (13), anaplastic astrocytomas, and glioblastomas (14). Also, increased levels of FoxM1 has been seen to accelerate prostate cancer development and progression in mouse models (15). Furthermore, a large-scale analysis of microarray results revealed that FoxM1 is one of the most common genes overexpressed in a majority of solid tumors (16). Together, these studies indicate that FoxM1 could be an attractive target for anti-cancer therapy. This notion is supported by a recent finding that depletion of FoxM1 by RNA interference (RNAi) in breast cancer cells leads to mitotic catastrophe (8). In a similar manner, knock-down of FoxM1 by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in several prostate and lung cancer cell lines was shown to lead to a significant reduction in cell proliferation and anchorage-independent cell growth on soft agar (13, 15). Consistent with these observations, inhibition of FoxM1 transcriptional activity by a peptide containing amino acids 24-46 of p19ARF also reduced anchorage independent cell growth (17).
The central role of oncogenic transcription factors, such as FoxM1, in regulating cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation, and in pathologies associated with changes in their functioning, such as cancers, makes them attractive targets for drug development. Accordingly, there has been a great deal of research and development work not only on characterizing these factors and their roles in cellular and disease processes, but also on therapeutic agents that modulate their activity. Although these efforts have resulted in some success, the agents that have been developed thus far are far from ideal. There is a need therefore for improved methods of identifying agents that modulate the activity of oncogenic transcription factors, and for the agents themselves, as well as for formulations comprising the agents and for methods of using the agents and composition to treat diseases, such as malignancies and cancers. | {
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The present invention relates to methods for hydrogenation of carbohydrates and hydrogenolysis of higher polyhydric alcohols, and to a new hydrogenation catalyst which is useful for producing lower polyhydric alcohols from renewable materials, such as in particular carbohydrates and higher polyhydric alcohols.
In the present description, the term "higher polyhydric alcohols" means products such as sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol derived from catalytic hydrogenation of carbohydrates (and in particular of glucose, fructose and their mixtures).
The term "lower polyhydric alcohols" means polyalcohols having a maximum of 6 carbon atoms and a maximum of 3 hydroxyl groups, in particular ethanediol, propylene glycol, butanediol and glycerol.
The invention also relates to a method for preparing the new catalyst. | {
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1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a bundle of fasteners for use in a fastener applicator apparatus.
2. PRIOR ART
In prior known fastener bundles, one or more of the following problems, presented in random order, have been encountered: (1) excessive complexity of structure and hence cost; (2) susceptibility to weakening of bundle due to humidity and other moisture; (3) fastener heads and shanks have left bundle debris on the workpiece and on the work areas, such debris frequently constituting dry glue, paper fibers, and brittle plastic material; (4) bundle debris has rendered an applicator gun susceptible to malfunctions; (5) some fastener bundles are relatively rigid and used in clip form, thus requiring frequent reloading of the applicator gun; (6) some prior fasteners require a coating for reliable use; and/or (7) unwanted reclose of the subsequent fastener. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed below relates to the identification of target cell antigens that can be used to generate immunologically active compositions. These compositions, when administered, will stimulate the immune system of a subject to mount an immune response against a target cell displaying the target antigen. The invention is contemplated to have utility in the treatment and prevention of neoplastic and viral disease.
2. Description of the Related Art
Neoplasia and the Immune System
The neoplastic disease state commonly known as cancer is thought to generally result from a single cell growing out of control. The uncontrolled growth state typically results from a multi-step process in which a series of cellular systems fail, resulting in the genesis of a neoplastic cell. The resulting neoplastic cell rapidly reproduces itself, forms one or more tumors, and eventually may cause the death of the host.
Because the progenitor of the neoplastic cell shares the host's genetic material, neoplastic cells are largely exempt from the host's immune system. During immune surveillance, the process in which the host's immune system surveys and localizes foreign materials, a neoplastic cell will appear to the host's immune surveillance machinery as a “self” cell.
Viruses and the Immune System
In contrast to cancer cells, virus infection involves the expression of clearly non-self antigens. As a result, many virus infections are successfully dealt with by the immune system with minimal clinical sequela. Moreover, it has been possible to develop effective vaccines for many of those infections that do cause serious disease. A variety of vaccine approaches have been successfully used to combat various diseases. These approaches include subunit vaccines consisting of individual proteins produced through recombinant DNA technology. Notwithstanding these advances, the selection and effective administration of minimal epitopes for use as viral vaccines has remained problematic.
In addition to the difficulties involved in epitope selection stands the problem of viruses that have evolved the capability of evading a host's immune system. Many viruses, especially viruses that establish persistent infections, such as members of the herpes and pox virus families, produce immunomodulatory molecules that permit the virus to evade the host's immune system. The effects of these immunomodulatory molecules on antigen presentation may be overcome by the targeting of select epitopes for administration as immunogenic compositions. To better understand the interaction of neoplastic cells and virally infected cells with the host's immune system, a discussion of the system's components follows below.
The immune system functions to discriminate molecules endogenous to an organism (“self” molecules) from material exogenous or foreign to the organism (“non-self” molecules). The immune system has two types of adaptive responses to foreign bodies based on the components that mediate the response: a humoral response and a cell-mediated response. The humoral response is mediated by antibodies, while the cell-mediated response involves cells classified as lymphocytes. Recent anticancer and antiviral strategies have focused on mobilizing the host immune system as a means of anticancer or antiviral treatment or therapy.
The immune system functions in three phases to protect the host from foreign bodies: the cognitive phase, the activation phase, and the effector phase. In the cognitive phase, the immune system recognizes and signals the presence of a foreign antigen or invader in the body. The foreign antigen can be, for example, a cell surface marker from a neoplastic cell or a viral protein. Once the system is aware of an invading body, antigen specific cells of the immune system proliferate and differentiate in response to the invader-triggered signals. The last stage is the effector stage in which the effector cells of the immune system respond to and neutralize the detected invader.
An array of effector cells implement an immune response to an invader. One type of effector cell, the B cell, generates antibodies targeted against foreign antigens encountered by the host. In combination with the complement system, antibodies direct the destruction of cells or organisms bearing the targeted antigen. Another type of effector cell is the natural killer cell (NK cell), a type of lymphocyte having the capacity to spontaneously recognize and destroy a variety of virus infected cells as well as malignant cell types. The method used by NK cells to recognize target cells is poorly understood.
Another type of effector cell, the T cell, has members classified into three subcategories, each playing a different role in the immune response. Helper T cells secrete cytokines which stimulate the proliferation of other cells necessary for mounting an effective immune response, while suppressor T cells down-regulate the immune response. A third category of T cell, the cytotoxic T cell (CTL), is capable of directly lysing a targeted cell presenting a foreign antigen on its surface.
The Major Histocompatibility Complex and T Cell Target Recognition
T cells are antigen specific immune cells that function in response to specific antigen signals. B lymphocytes and the antibodies they produce are also antigen specific entities. However, unlike B lymphocytes, T cells do not respond to antigens in a free or soluble form. For a T cell to respond to an antigen, it requires the antigen to be bound to a presenting complex known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC).
MHC complex proteins provide the means by which T cells differentiate native or “self” cells from foreign cells. There are two types of MHC, class I MHC and class II MHC. T Helper cells (CD4+) predominately interact with class II MHC proteins while cytolytic T cells (CD8+) predominately interact with class I MHC proteins. Both MHC complexes are transmembrane proteins with a majority of their structure on the external surface of the cell. Additionally, both classes of MHC have a peptide binding cleft on their external portions. It is in this cleft that small fragments of proteins, native or foreign, are bound and presented to the extracellular environment.
Cells called antigen presenting cells (APCs) display antigens to T cells using the MHC complexes. For T cells to recognize an antigen, it must be presented on the MHC complex for recognition. This requirement is called MHC restriction and it is the mechanism by which T cells differentiate “self” from “non-self” cells. If an antigen is not displayed by a recognizable MHC complex, the T cell will not recognize and act on the antigen signal. T cells specific for the peptide bound to a recognizable MHC complex bind to these MHC-peptide complexes and proceed to the next stages of the immune response.
As discussed above, neoplastic cells are largely ignored by the immune system. A great deal of effort is now being expended in an attempt to harness a host's immune system to aid in combating the presence of neoplastic cells in a host. One such area of research involves the formulation of anticancer vaccines.
Anticancer Vaccines
Among the various weapons available to an oncologist in the battle against cancer is the immune system of the patient. Work has been done in various attempts to cause the immune system to combat cancer or neoplastic diseases. Unfortunately, the results to date have been largely disappointing. One area of particular interest involves the generation and use of anticancer vaccines.
To generate a vaccine or other immunogenic composition, it is necessary to introduce to a subject an antigen or epitope against which an immune response may be mounted. Although neoplastic cells are derived from and therefore are substantially identical to normal cells on a genetic level, many neoplastic cells are known to present tumor-associated antigens (TuAAs). In theory, these antigens could be used by a subject's immune system to recognize these antigens and attack the neoplastic cells. Unfortunately, neoplastic cells appear to be ignored by the host's immune system.
A number of different strategies have been developed in an attempt to generate vaccines with activity against neoplastic cells. These strategies include the use of tumor associated antigens as immunogens. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,828, describes a method for producing an immune response against a particular subunit of the Urinary Tumor Associated Antigen by administering to a subject an effective dose of a composition comprising inactivated tumor cells having the Urinary Tumor Associated Antigen on the cell surface and at least one tumor associated antigen selected from the group consisting of GM-2, GD-2, Fetal Antigen and Melanoma Associated Antigen. Accordingly, this patent describes using whole, inactivated tumor cells as the immunogen in an anticancer vaccine.
Another strategy used with anticancer vaccines involves administering a composition containing isolated tumor antigens. In one approach, MAGE-A1 antigenic peptides were used as an immunogen. (See Chaux, P., et al., “Identification of Five MAGE-A1 Epitopes Recognized by Cytolytic T Lymphocytes Obtained by In Vitro Stimulation with Dendritic Cells Transduced with MAGE-A1,” J. Immunol., 163(5):2928-2936 (1999)). There have been several therapeutic trials using MAGE-A1 peptides for vaccination, although the effectiveness of the vaccination regimes was limited. The results of some of these trials are discussed in Vose, J. M., “Tumor Antigens Recognized by T Lymphocytes,” 10th European Cancer Conference, Day 2, Sep. 14, 1999.
In another example of tumor associated antigens used as vaccines, Scheinberg, et al. treated 12 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients already receiving interferon (IFN) or hydroxyurea with 5 injections of class I-associated bcr-abl peptides with a helper peptide plus the adjuvant QS-21. Scheinberg, D. A., et al, “BCR-ABL Breakpoint Derived Oncogene Fusion Peptide Vaccines Generate Specific Immune Responses in Patients with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) [Abstract 1665], American Society of Clinical Oncology 35th Annual Meeting, Atlanta (1999). Proliferative and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) T cell responses indicative of T-helper activity were elicited, but no cytolytic killer T cell activity was observed within the fresh blood samples.
Additional examples of attempts to identify TAAs for use as vaccines are seen in the recent work of Cebon, et al. and Scheibenbogen, et al. Cebon et al. Immunized patients with metastatic melanoma using intradermallly administered MART-126-35 peptide with IL-12 in increasing doses given either subcutaneously or intravenously. Of the first 15 patients, 1 complete remission, 1 partial remission, and 1 mixed response were noted. Immune assays for T cell generation included DTH, which was seen in patients with or without IL-12. Positive CTL assays were seen in patients with evidence of clinical benefit, but not in patients without tumor regression. Cebon, et al., “Phase I Studies of Immunization with Melan-A and IL-12 in HLA A2+Positive Patients with Stage III and IV Malignant Melanoma,” [Abstract 1671], American Society of Clinical Oncology 35th Annual Meeting, Atlanta (1999).
Scheibenbogen, et al. immunized 18 patients with 4 HLA class I restricted tyrosinase peptides, 16 with metastatic melanoma and 2 adjuvant patients. Scheibenbogen, et al., “Vaccination with Tyrosinase peptides and GM-CSF in Metastatic Melanoma: a Phase II Trial,” [Abstract 1680], American Society of Clinical Oncology 35th, Annual Meeting, Atlanta (1999). Increased CTL activity was observed in 4/15 patients, 2 adjuvant patients, and 2 patients with evidence of tumor regression. As in the trial by Cebon et al., patients with progressive disease did not show boosted immunity. In spite of the various, efforts expended to date to generate efficacious anticancer vaccines, no such composition has yet been developed.
Vaccine strategies to protect against viral diseases have had many successes. Perhaps the most notable of these is the progress that has been made against the disease small pox, which has been driven to extinction. The success of the polio vaccine is of a similar magnitude.
Viral vaccines can be grouped into three classifications: live attenuated virus vaccines, such as vaccinia for small pox, the Sabin poliovirus vaccine, and measles mumps and rubella; whole killed or inactivated virus vaccines, such as the Salk poliovirus vaccine, hepatitis A virus vaccine and the typical influenza virus vaccines; and subunit vaccines, such as hepatitis B. Due to their lack of a complete viral genome, subunit vaccines offer a greater degree of safety than those based on whole viruses.
The paradigm of a successful subunit vaccine is the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine based on the viruses envelope protein. Despite much academic interest in pushing the subunit concept beyond single proteins to individual epitopes the efforts have yet to bear much fruit. Viral vaccine research has also concentrated on the induction of an antibody response although cellular responses also occur. However, many of the subunit formulations are particularly poor at generating a CTL response. | {
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Use of available wall space for storage of items is often desirable, for example, where easy access to or visibility of these items is required, and/or where floor space is limited, such as for example, in a retail setting or in a residential garage. While some items may be stored or retained on a wall by a conventional peg board and hook arrangement, slatwall panels may also be used for more versatile storage options. A conventional slatwall panel includes one or more horizontal slots configured to receive hooks, fasteners, or other such components, for example, for direct retention of an item (e.g., a handtool or article for retail sale). Additionally or alternatively, hooks or fasteners may be affixed to storage accessories, such as, for example, bins, cabinets, boxes, hangers, or shelves, for storage of one or more items. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless cellular communication system with at least one enhanced Node B (eNB) and at least one User Equipment (UE). More particularly, the present invention relates to a wireless communication system in which multiple physical antennas are represented by logical antenna ports in reference signals.
Throughout the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 8-10 is regarded as a legacy system whereas the in-development Release 11 and future releases are considered to be systems in which exemplary embodiments of the present invention can be implemented. However, this is not intended to be a limitation of the invention or its application and it is to be understood that the current invention can also be applied to other cellular systems where appropriate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, mobile communication systems have been developed to provide a voice communication service to users on the move. As time has progressed, mobile communication systems have evolved to support data communication services as well as standard voice communication services, and can now also support high speed data communication services. However, there is a need for more sophisticated mobile communication systems to mitigate resource shortages and to meet the high-speed service requirements of users.
The LTE system is a next generation broadband communication technology developed by the 3GPP in order to meet such requirements. The LTE system is a technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communication at up to 100 Mbps. To achieve these requirements, discussions are being held on various aspects. For example, discussions are being held regarding one scheme for reducing the number of nodes located in a communication path by simplifying a configuration of the network, and another scheme for maximally approximating wireless protocols to wireless channels.
In the aforementioned LTE wireless communication system, at least two kinds of reference signals are defined.
The first kind of reference signal is referred to as a Common Reference Signal (CRS). CRS is cell specific, and all the UEs connecting to the eNB can use CRS for demodulation when CRS-based transmission is configured.
The second kind of reference signal is referred to as a DeModulation Reference Signal (DMRS). DMRS is UE specific. That is, the UE will use the DMRS within its allocated resources for demodulation of the said allocation resources, where the DMRS and the data are precoded with the same weights among antenna ports.
The control channel is usually transmitted in the beginning of a sub-frame in order that the UE can efficiently acquire the scheduling information as quickly as possible. Considering the 3GPP LTE as an example, the Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH) is configured to be transmitted in the first one to four Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a sub-frame.
FIG. 1 illustrates a subframe structure with 2-OFDM-symbol PDCCH and DMRS with ports 7˜14 configured according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the ports 7˜10 use a spreading factor of 2 to multiplex two DMRS ports on two consecutive Resource Elements (REs) in the time domain. Ports 11˜14 use the same resource as ports 7˜10 but use a spreading factor of 4 for to multiplex 4 DMRS ports on the four consecutive REs in a subcarrier.
To increase the capacity of the legacy PDCCH, the Enhanced Control CHannel (E-CCH) is proposed to be allocated in the legacy Physical Downlink Scheduling CHannel (PDSCH) region. DMRS based transmission should be supported for E-CCH since E-CCH should work for those special Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) subframes where CRS is absent. The E-CCH corresponds to Enhanced Physical Downlink Control CHannel (E-PDCCH) described in LTE standard specification.
In the legacy system, DMRS is used for decoding of PDSCH. The characteristics of the DMRS configurations, including the number of DMRS ports and scrambling sequence ID, are indicated to the UE using Downlink Control Information (DCI) in the PDCCH. However, if DMRS is used for E-CCH transmission, the DMRS configuration cannot be previously indicated by the control channel itself. Thus, a predefined configuration or implicit indication should be enabled for the UE to obtain DMRS configurations.
There are basically two kinds of E-CCH structures. Interleaved mode: an Enhanced Control Channel Element (E-CCE) contains REs distributed in multiple Resource Blocks (RBs); Localized mode: an E-CCE contains REs within one RB
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention focus on the case of E-CCH with localized E-CCE distribution.
FIG. 2 illustrates an E-CCE localized structure in an RB, where 4 E-CCEs are allocated in one Physical Resource Block (PRB) in a subframe, according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, a logical E-CCE can contain a set of either consecutive or distributed physical REs in the RB. FIG. 2 also illustrates a physical structure, where an E-CCE consists of REs in three distributed subcarriers, according to the related art. The allocated REs for E-CCH exclude those REs allocated for legacy PDCCH, and any type of reference signals when configured.
Therefore, a need exists for methods of allocation of DMRS resources and implicit indication of DMRS configuration for E-CCH transmission.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention. | {
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There is a trend nowadays for portable radio telephone units to be increasingly lightweight and compact. This in conjunction with the fact that such units are cordless offers not only enhanced mobility but also true portability, so that the user can readily carry a portable radio telephone unit, for example in a pocket or briefcase, wherever he or she goes. Particularly in the case of cellular radio, this gives the user a very flexible and powerful means of communication, which can always be to hand.
When an incoming call is received by the telephone a call indicator is activated to alert the user to the fact that there is an incoming call. The call indicator may include an audible signal, e.g. a ring tone, and/or a visual signal, e.g. a message such as "CALL" may be flashed on a visual display panel. The call can be answered by the user depressing one of the keys on the telephone keypad which produces the so-called "off-hook" condition in the telephone.
A drawback with cellular telephone systems is that the system allows only a relatively short window of time before an incoming call is timed out, i.e. the incoming call is terminated by the system if the call is not answered within the pre-set time period. In practice this window of time may be as short as only 3-5 rings. This can be very frustrating for a user who intends to take an incoming call, but finds that he is unable to do so only because the telephone may be in a slightly inaccessible place. For example, when driving, the driver may have placed the telephone in an inside pocket of his jacket which he has hung up in the rear of the car. Alternatively for example, the driver may have put the telephone in a briefcase on the rear seat of the car. In either case, if the telephone rings while the subscriber is driving it may be very difficult to stop the car in a safe location, retrieve the telephone, and press a key to answer the call, within the short time allowed. Consequently the call will often be terminated by the system before the subscriber has had sufficient opportunity to take the call, although the intention was to answer it. Clearly this can be frustrating for both the caller and for the subscriber.
EP-A-0381214 discloses a telephone in which a touch sensitive portion is provided, for example, on an external surface of the telephone itself or at some other remote, but accessible, location. The user can answer the call simply by touching the sensor. However, it is necessary not only for the telephone to be accessible, but also for the user to be able to touch the exact location of the sensor, which would not be possible if the telephone were to be in a pocket or briefcase. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to light bulbs, and more specifically, to light bulbs that utilize high-output light emitting diodes (LEDs).
2. Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Given the energy concerns faced by consumers today, the trend has been to shift away from energy wasting lighting fixtures containing incandescent bulbs to those incorporating solid state devices such as light emitting diodes (LED). However, to achieve the same luminosity as the incandescent light being replaced requires use of multiple high-brightness LEDs. Further, to achieve the high-brightness associated with solid state LEDs requires relatively high electrical currents. As a consequence, lighting fixtures containing multiple high-brightness LEDs often experience thermal extremes that can lead to physical burns and hardware degradation. | {
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Samples may be processed for various purposes, such as identification of a type of sample of moiety within the sample. The sample may be a biological sample. The biological samples may be processed for various purposes, such as detection of a disease (e.g., cancer) or identification of a particular species. There are various approaches for processing samples, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing.
Biological samples may be processed within various reaction environments, such as partitions. Partitions may be wells or droplets. Droplets or wells may be employed to process biological samples in a manner that enables the biological samples to be partitioned and processed separately. For example, such droplets may be fluidically isolated from other droplets, enabling accurate control of respective environments in the droplets.
Biological samples in partitions may be subjected to various processes, such as chemical processes or physical processes. Samples in partitions may be subjected to heating or cooling, or chemical reactions, such as to yield species that may be qualitatively or quantitatively processed.
Certain applications may benefit from the amplification or sequencing of species obtained from single cells obtained from a much larger population. In some cases, the single cells of interest may be quite rare. Thus, there is a need for sample preparation techniques that allow sequencing of nucleic acids from single cells of interest. | {
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The present invention relates to an optical switch and, more particularly, to an optical switch used in optical fiber communications, optical information processing, and other applications.
It is considered that constructing an all-optical system (i.e., using neither optoelectrical conversion nor electro-optical conversion in transmission paths, in multiplexing/demultiplexing circuits, or in logic circuits) is necessary to increase the speeds of optical transmission systems and of optical information-processing systems. To enable this, optical switches capable of operating at high speeds are required. Conventionally, a method of switching light by an electrical signal (electrooptical control) has been adopted in optical switches. In recent years, however, a method of switching light by means of light (all-optical control) has attracted attention as a method expected to provide higher speeds. Especially, in an optical transmission system, if an ultrafast all-optical switch can be employed in an optical demultiplexer, then a great breakthrough will be made in realizing a large-capacity time-division multiplexing system.
The performance required in making all-optical switches practical is not limited to the aforementioned high speeds. Rather, various other kinds of performance such as low switching energy, high-repetition operations, and compactness are needed. Especially, with respect to switching energy, this energy must be within the range of optical pulse energies achieved by a semiconductor laser, fiber amplifier, or semiconductor laser amplifier.
A first problem produced in realizing these kinds of performance is that the figure of merits of nonlinear optical effects on which all-optical switches are based, given by .chi..sup.(3) /.tau..alpha., are generally almost constant. In this formula, the .chi..sup.(3) is the magnitude of a nonlinearity, .tau. is the response time, and the .alpha. is a signal loss. That is, it is considered that a nonlinear optical effect satisfying a large nonlinearity and a high speed simultaneously is difficult to obtain. Nonlinear optical effects can be roughly classified into the nonresonantly excited type and the resonantly excited type. The nonresonantly excited type is expected to provide high speeds but it produces small nonlinearities. That is, it is considered that nonlinear optical effects relying on non-resonant excitation with a practical level of switching energy are difficult. In contrast, in the resonantly excited type, carriers excited in a nonlinear optical medium relax slowly and present problems in realizing high-speed operation. However, the nonlinearity is large, which is a large advantage in practical applications. Accordingly, various methods for solving slow relaxations and achieving high-speed operation have been proposed. A conventional all-optical switch utilizing a highly efficient, resonantly excited nonlinear optical effect is next given as an example.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 20510/1995 discloses an all-optical switch having a nonlinear optical waveguide using a semiconductor medium whose nonlinear refractive index is varied by absorption of controlling light. The construction of this optical switch is shown in FIG. 1, where a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed, using 3-dB couplers 23, 24 comprising fibers. An optical signal is entered through an optical signal input port 27 and divided into parts by the 3-dB coupler 23 and interfered by the 3-dB coupler 24. The phase difference between two interfering light waves determines which of optical signal output ports 30 and 31 delivers an optical output signal. Controlling light pulses are entered into controlling light input ports 28 and 29 with a given time difference T, pass through wavelength-selecting couplers 25 and 26, respectively, and then enter nonlinear optical waveguides 21 and 22, respectively. First, a controlling light pulse enters the nonlinear optical waveguide 21, varying its refractive index. An optical signal passing through this waveguide undergoes a nonlinear phase shift. It is assumed that an optical signal is delivered from the optical signal output port 30 under the initial condition. The nonlinear phase shift in the nonlinear optical waveguide 21 causes the optical signal to exit from the optical signal output port 31. The refractive index change in the nonlinear optical waveguide 21 is produced by excitation of carriers by resonant controlling light. Therefore, the refractive index change rises very quickly while following the controlling light pulse, but the relaxation time is long. Consequently, under this condition, it takes a long time to return to the initial state. However, after a lapse of the time T, a controlling light pulse is entered into the nonlinear optical waveguide 22, thus inducing a change in the nonlinear refractive index. An optical signal passed through this waveguide undergoes a nonlinear phase shift. This cancels out the effect of the refractive index change remaining in the nonlinear optical waveguide 21. Therefore, the enabled port is switched back to the optical signal output port 30. In this way, ultrahigh speed switching of optical signals is possible.
The problem with the above-described prior art technique lies in the fact that the optical circuitry is made complex and bulky. At branching portions and bending portions of waveguides, optical signal losses take place. Concomitantly, the branch angle is suppressed or the radius of curvature is increased, which in turn makes the optical circuitry larger. | {
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This invention relates to apparatus and method for indexing sheets and, more particularly, to the indexing of multi-page reports where separator sheets protrude outwardly between adjacent copies of the stacked reports.
It is known to index zig-zag folded forms as, for example, seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,992. There, the trailing panel of one set and the leading panel of an adjacent set were of different lengths so that the longer of the two would protrude to serve as a visual separator. The zig-zag forms were less preferable than individual sheets because they required special binders and also if separated into individual sheets subsequently required a bursting step which very often left ragged edges where the perforation bonds had occurred.
It is also known to indicate the presence of a flawed sheet by having the same protrude as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,744. Still further, it is known to index or tab sheets via a guillotine cutter so as to provide different lengths as stack separators. In such a case, the sheet advance is intermittent which is speed limiting. Also the stationary knife operation creates problems in subsequent sheet handling.
According to the instant invention, sheets are provided in set or report form, i.e., a predetermined number of sheets or pages per set or report and which are separated by longer and shorter sheets than those in the set or report. This is all done continuously by means of cyclically varying the speed relationship between the web and the rotary cutter associated with the printer which sets down the report information. | {
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In movie production, image (picture) and audio are recorded by different devices. When combining image and audio later in the process, the two types of information have to be synchronized. Usually, this is performed manually, by an operator assigning time codes to an audible “clap” for a slate with the visible closing of the slate. However, due to the nature of movie capture, this can be done only with a limited accuracy since the image or film is recorded at frame rates usually between 24 and 60 frames per second. Hence, the problem of 1/24 seconds or 1/60 seconds uncertainty between the visual clap and the audio may occur.
Although there have been a number of prior systems that are able to synchronize audio and image streams in a manual or automatic manner using slates, these techniques generally face the problem of subframe misalignment due to the sampling rate (frame rate) of the audio stream. The sampling rate of the audio stream is often much larger than that of the image stream, and the correct alignment point is almost always in-between two consecutive image frames. | {
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Several 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives substituted in the 4- or 5-position by a carbonyl-containing group (ketone, carboxyl or amide group) have been found to have antioxidant activity (see R. C. SMITH et al., Biochem. Pharmacol., (1987), 36, 9, pages 1457-1460) and anti-inflammatory activity (see S. MAEDA et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., (1984), 32, pages 2536-2543).
The antioxidant properties of the novel 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives forming the subject of the present invention are similar to that of L-(+)-ergothioneine, which forms part thereof.
L-(+)-Ergothioneine, a natural molecule with a 2-mercaptoimidazole structure, is biosynthesized by certain rye ergot fungi such as Claviceps purpurea (see C. TANRET, C.R. Acad. Sci., (1909), 149, pages 222-224). The chemical structure of L-(+)-ergothioneine is rare in the living world insofar as it is made up of a 2-mercaptoimidazole ring and a betaine (see G. G. SKELLERN in "Sulfur-containing drugs and related organic compounds: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Toxicology", L. A. DAMANI eds., Ellis Horwood Lim., (1989), vol. 1, part B, chap. 3, pages 49-89). Man is auxotrophic for ergothioneine, which he obtains exclusively through food. The physiological concentrations of ergothioneine vary between 0.1 and 2.0 mmolar in the erythrocytes, liver, kidney, seminal fluid and cataract-free lens. Although the biological role of ergothioneine is still uncertain, its antioxidant properties are well documented (see P. E. Hartman, Meth. Enzymol., (1990),186, pages 310-318, and D. AKANMU et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1991), 288, pages 10-16). Under physiological conditions (concentrations and pH), it reacts neither with hydrogen peroxide, H.sub.2 O.sub.2, nor with the superoxide anion, O.sub.2.sup.- (see D. AKANMU et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1991), 288, pages 10-16). By contrast, it reacts with the OH radicals produced by pulsed radiolysis (see M. ROUGEE et al., Photochem. Photobiol., (1988), 47, pages 485-489) or via the Fenton reaction (see D. AKANMU et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1991), 288, pages 10-16) with kinetics close to the maximum rate of diffusion; it reacts with hypochlorous acid, HOCl, thus preventing the inactivation of .alpha..sub.1 -antitrypsin (see D. AKANMU et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1991), 288, pages 10-16), and inhibits the photoproduction of singlet oxygen by quenching the excited states of photosensitizers such as rose bengal (see S. S. SPICER et al., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., (1951), 77, page 418). Furthermore, like the majority of 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives, ergothioneine forms very stable complexes with divalent metals such as Cu.sup.++, Hg.sup.++, Zn.sup.++, CO.sup.++ and Ni.sup.++ (see D. P. HANLON, J. Med. Chem., (1971), 14, page 1084, and N. MOTOHASHI et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., (1974), 22, pages 654-657). In contrast to numerous alkylmercaptans, RSH, such as glutathione or cysteine for example, ergothioneine does not stimulate the peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the presence of metal salts (Fe.sup.++) (see D. AKANMU et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1991), 288, pages 10-16), which is consistent with its properties as an inactivating chelating agent and with its predominantly thione structure. Another advantage of using antioxidants with a 2-mercaptoimidazole structure is their very high stability in aerated aqueous solution. In fact, since the tautomeric equilibrium of 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives is totally displaced towards the thione form in solution (see E. BOJARSKA-OLEJNIK et al., Mag. Res. Chem., (1985), 23, pages 166-169), the sulfur atom of the 2-mercaptoimidazole ring does not react with the dissolved oxygen in practice. Yet another advantage of using antioxidants with a 2-mercaptoimidazole structure is that their disulfides are unstable in the presence of another mercaptan such as, for example, cysteine, cysteamine, glutathione or lipoic acid.
At micromolar concentrations, ergothioneine and some 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives effectively inhibit the formation of methemoglobin from oxyhemoglobin incubated in the presence of sodium nitrite in vitro (see R. C. SMITH et al., Biochem. Pharmacol., (1987), 36, 9, pages 1457-1460, and R. A. MORTENSEN, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1953), 46, pages 241-243). It reduces the ferryl forms of the hemoproteins which are produced in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, H.sub.2 O.sub.2, at physiological pH (see A. ARDUINI et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1990), 281, pages 41-43). The rapid reduction of ferrylmyoglobin (Mb.sup.IV) could be an essential mechanism by which ergothioneine protects the muscular tissue in general, and the cardiac tissue in particular, during oxidative stress and in particular during postischemic reperfusion. In a postischemic reperfusion model of isolated rat heart, it has been shown that, after 15 min of ischemia, ergothioneine (100 .mu.molar) limits the extent of cell necrosis evaluated by measurement of the lactate dehydrogenase activity of the effluent (see A. ARDUINI et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., (1990), 281, pages 41-43).
From the chemical point of view, 2-mercaptoimidazole derivatives have been obtained by two main routes, namely:
generation of the 2-mercaptoimidazole ring either by reaction of an .alpha.-amino ketone derivative with potassium thiocyanate (see S. MAEDA et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., (1984), 32, pages 2536-2543, Y. ISOMURA et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., (1984), 32, pages 152-165, and J. FERNANDEZ-BOLANOS et al., Anales de Quimica, (1974), 70, pages 94-95) or by reaction of an .alpha.-halo ketone derivative with thiourea or a derivative thereof; and PA1 introduction of sulfur into the 2-position of an imidazole ring either by nucleophilic addition of a sulfur-containing derivative onto an electrophilic imidazole ring (see S. ITO, J. Org. Chem., (1985), 50, pages 3636-3638) or by electrophilic addition of sulfur onto a nucleophilic imidazole ring (see B. L. BENAC et al., Org. Synthesis, coll. vol. VII, pages 195-196). PA1 alkyl lower alkyl, alkoxy, lower alkoxy, acyl, amino acyl or carboxyl group is understood as meaning preferably linear or branched groups containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms; PA1 the term substituted as applied to the aryl or aralkyl groups denotes that they are substituted on the aromatic moiety by one or more identical or different groups selected from lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, hydroxyl, amino and carboxyl, or by one or more hydrogen atoms; PA1 when R.sub.8 is a hydrogen atom, the invention also covers the addition salts of the abovementioned compounds of formula (I) with a base acceptable in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or foodstuffs; and PA1 when R.sub.5, R.sub.6 or R.sub.7 is a hydrogen atom, the invention also covers the addition salts of the abovementioned compounds of formula (I) with an acid acceptable in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or foodstuffs. PA1 a) preparing or using an optionally protected imidazole derivative substituted in the 4(or 5)-position, and optically active if necessary; PA1 b) treating this imidazole derivative with an alkyl, alkenyl or aryl halothioxoformate in a basic medium in a polar solvent; and then PA1 c) depending on the particular case: PA1 a) if R.sub.4 =--OR.sub.8, then R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 cannot simultaneously be hydrogen; PA1 b) if R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are: simultaneously hydrogen and if R.sub.4 =--OR.sub.8, then R.sub.5, R.sub.6 and R.sub.7 cannot simultaneously be hydrogen; PA1 c) if R.sub.3 =--CH.sub.2 CH(COR.sub.4)N.sup.+ (R.sub.5 R.sub.6 R.sub.7).X.sup.- and R.sub.4 =OH or OMe, then R.sub.5, R.sub.6 and R.sub.7 cannot simultaneously be a methyl group, and PA1 d) if R.sub.3 =--(CH.sub.2).sub.2 N.sup.+ (R.sub.5 R.sub.6 R.sub.7).X.sup.-, then R.sub.5, R.sub.6 and R.sub.7 cannot simultaneously be hydrogen. PA1 the prevention of the tissue degeneration induced by ischemia and/or postischemic reperfusion, and in particular the prevention of myocardial infarction, and the prevention of the postischemic cardiac arrhythmia which is the source of ventricular fibrillation; PA1 the prevention of the tissue degeneration, such as edema, necrosis and fibrosis, associated with an overproduction of free radicals: this application includes especially the treatment of intoxication by xenobiotics such as, for example, paraquat, diquat, anthracyclines or nitrofurans; PA1 the pathological conditions associated with oxidative stress in erythrocytes, in particular sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency diseases and malaria; PA1 protection against irradiation by ionizing X-rays or gamma rays as well as UV rays; and PA1 the protection, in preserving media, of grafts such as, for example, the heart, liver, kidney or lung, in organ transplants. PA1 a) the ferrylmyoglobin reduction test; PA1 b) the test for preventing the inactivation of glutathione peroxidase by hypochlorous acid; PA1 c) the test for preventing the inactivation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase by the system Cu(II)/ascorbate/O.sub.2 ; PA1 d) the test for preventing the degradation of DNA by the system Fe(II)-citrate/H.sub.2 O.sub.2 /ascorbate; and PA1 e) the test for inhibiting the cardiac necrosis induced by a period of ischemia-reperfusion. PA1 f) the test for protecting the mechanical (ventricular) function of a heart subjected to a period of ischemia. PA1 the prevention of the tissue degeneration induced by ischemia and/or postischemic reperfusion, and in particular the prevention of myocardial infarction, and the prevention of the postischemic cardiac arrhythmia which is the source of ventricular fibrillation; PA1 the prevention of the tissue degeneration, such as edema, necrosis and fibrosis, associated with an overproduction of free radicals: this application includes especially the treatment of intoxication by xenobiotics such as, for example, paraquat, diquat, anthracyclines or nitrofurans; PA1 the pathological conditions associated with oxidative stress in erythrocytes, in particular sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency diseases and malaria; PA1 the protection against irradiation by ionizing X-rays or gamma rays as well as UV rays; and PA1 the protection, in preserving media, of grafts such as, for example, the heart, liver, kidney or lung, in organ transplants. | {
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The present invention relates to a biaxially oriented heat-shrinkable laminated film which has good heat shrinkability, excellent melt hole resistance and heat sealing resistance (the heat resistance of a sealed portion), which remains transparent after being shrunk and serves as a packaging material suitable for packaging foods, which exhibits a shrinkage percentage of 15% or more at 90.degree. C. and excellent gas barrier properties, and which comprises a laminate having a layer composed of a vinylidene chloride copolymer composition containing 0.5 to 9.1 % by weight of polyfunctional (metha)crylate, in which the vinylidene chloride copolymer is crosslinked by applying electron beams at a dosage of 1 to 10 megarads. The present invention also relates to a method of producing such a heat-shrinkable laminated film.
Shrink packaging is generally the most convenient form of packaging for food products such as fatty foods like raw meat, processed meat, cheese and the like, all of which are irregular in form. Since such foods are required to be stored for a long period, the packaging of such foods must have such characteristics as excellent gas barrier properties (below 200 cc/m.sup.2.day.atm at 30.degree. C. and 100% RH), excellent heat sealing properties, cold resistance, melt hole resistance, heat sealing resistance (the heat resistance of a sealed portion) and the like, as well as having transparency after being shrunk which is one important factor that affects the appearance of products. The packaging and sterilization of fatty foods often involves problems in that a film softened by oil and heat may be stretched to become thin and thus break (melt hole) and in that a sealed part or parts in the vicinity thereof may be broken owing to heat shrinkage stress during sterilization. The industry has therefore required for heat-shrinkable films having gas barrier properties, melt hole resistance, heat sealing resistance and excellent transparency after being shrunk.
Simple films of vinylidene chloride copolymer (referred to as PVDC hereinafter) not only have shrinkability but also display excellent characteristics with respect to gas barrier properties, oil resistance, ligating properties and the like, and these films are thus widely used.
However, since ordinary simple PVDC films contain 6 to 10% by weight of such additives as plasticizers and stabilizers and so on which are added for the purpose of providing these films with cold resistance, flexibility for improving their ligating properties and good film-forming properties, certain problems occur because the additives migrate to foods and are thus sanitarily undesirable according to the kind of foods packaged, and also because the strength, particularly the cold resistance, of the films may in some cases be insufficient under severe conditions such as the packaging of heavy foods. There is therefore a demand for excellent packaging materials having none of these problems.
In order to remove such problems, a proposal has been made (see Canadian Patent Application No. 982923) regarding a three-layer film formed by co-extrusion and comprising an intermediate PVDC layer containing very small amounts of additives such as plasticizers and stabilizers, or substantially no additives, and two outer layers of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) which have excellent low-temperature resistance and good adhesion to the PVDC layer, these outer layers being provided on both sides of the PVDC layer. This three-layer film involves no hygienic problems as with the simple PVDC film and also display an improved cold resistance.
The films described below have also been proposed.
A flexible laminate was disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 43024/1983 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,253) which has (1) a first layer containing an organic polymer; (2) a PVDC-based gas barrier layer with oxygen permeability that is sufficiently low to ensure that the oxygen permeation coefficient thereof is below 70 cc/m.sup.2 /24 hours/atm (measured at 22.8.degree. C. and relative humidity 0% in accordance with ASTM Standard D 1434); and (3) a layer containing an organic polymer having resistance to cruel use, and which is suitable for use in heat-shrinkage packaging, the laminate being characterized in that the first layer (1) is composed of an oriented copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate containing 5 to 20% by weight of the unit derived from vinyl acetate, the copolymer being crosslinked by irradiation, in that the gas barrier layer (2) contains 70 to 85% by weight of the unit derived from vinylidene chloride and 30 to 15% by weight of the unit derived from vinyl chloride, and in that the layer (3) contains (i) a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate having 5 to 20% by weight of the unit derived from vinyl acetate, or (ii) a blend of isotactic polypropylene, atactic polypropylene and polybutene-1.
A heat resistant laminate was disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11342/1985 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,846) which has three or more layers comprising a resin layer having gas barrier properties, a layer of thermoplastic resin that differs from the gas barrier resin and an adhesive layer interposed therebetween, the laminate being characterized in that the adhesive layer is composed of 100 parts by weight of adhesive resin which can be melt-extruded and 0.1 to 50 parts by weight of radiation sensitive compound and is crosslinked by radiation.
An oriented film laminate was disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 47859/1986 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,187 which is formed by irradiating the whole of a film laminate composing a film layer (1) which serves as a base layer and contains an .alpha.-monoolefin polymer crosslinked by irradiation, and a film layer (2) containing a polymer crosslinkable by irradiation so that the polymer in the film layer (2) is crosslinked and the polymer in the film layer (1) is further crosslinked.
A heat-shrinkable biaxially oriented multi-layer film is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3948/1987 which contains a gas barrier layer composed of a vinylidene chloride-methyl acrylate copolymer, which is irradiated at a dosage of about 1 to 5 megarads and which is suitable for packaging primal and subprimal slices of meat and processed meat.
A molecule oriented multi-layer polymer film is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 23752/1987 which comprises first and second layers each composed of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer as a principal component and a third layer disposed between the first and second layers and composed of PVDC, each of the first, second and third layers being crosslinked by irradiation at a dosage equal to that of electron beams of 1.5 megarads or more.
In addition, laminated films having as an outer layer a polyolefin layer or EVA layer crosslinked by irradiation have been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3456/1972, Japanese Patent Publication No. 20549/1979, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,187, 4,064,296, 4,352,844 and 4,501,780, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 5553/1968, 20599/1971, 44019/1976 and 44020/1976, British Patent No. 2,040,804, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,391,862, 4,448,792, 4,514,465 and 4,551,380, etc.
However, although conventional laminated films such as EVA/PVDC/EVA films are laminated films which can be heat-sealed and exhibit good cold resistance and excellent gas barrier properties and which compensate for the deficiency of simple PVDC films, they lack melt hole resistance and heat sealing resistance. Furthermore, since a laminate composed of a PVDC layer and two polyolefin layers provided on both sides thereof is generally oriented at a temperature up to 40.degree. C. below the melting point of the polyolefin crystal in order to provide the laminate with heat shrinkability, the effect of stretch orientation cannot be sufficiently imparted to the PVDC layer. The PVDC layer thus exhibits a poor heat shrinkage percentage and, when the laminate is heat-shrunk, the PVDC layer has the tendency to bend limply because the behavior of the shrinkage is slower than those of the other layers and this consequently obstructs the laminate's transparency after shrinkage.
For this reason, there is a strong demand in the field of food packaging for a heat-shrinkable film that not only display good gas barrier properties and cold resistance, excellent melt hole resistance and heat sealing resistance, but also exhibits excellent transparency after being shrunk.
As a result of the energetic research performed by the inventors with a view to solving the above-described problems of the prior art, the inventors found that heat shrinkability can be given to a PVDC layer by adding a crosslinking agent to the PVDC intermediate layer and then crosslinking it by irradiation with electron beams at a low dosage and by the following stretching process. This invention could be attained based on this finding. | {
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Hole conducting- and/or hole transport materials are useful in a wide range of electronic devices and applications, such as in organic electroluminescent (EL) devices, organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) and in solar cells.
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC, also sometimes referred to as DSSC or DYSC) is a particular type of solar cell in which a hole transport material (HTM) may prove useful. DSCs have gained a great interest as cost-effective alternatives to silicon-based photovoltaic devices. In the DSC, light is absorbed by a dye molecule anchored to a mesoporous wide band-gap semiconductor, normally TiO2. Upon light absorption the photoexcited dye injects an electron into the conduction band of the semiconductor and its resulting oxidized state is regenerated by a redox mediator in a surrounding electrolyte. So far the best cell performances in DSCs obtained with ruthenium based dyes and the iodide/triiodide redox couple have been about 11% conversion efficiency.
Copper Based HTMs
Fukuzumi and coworkers (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2005, 127(26):9648-9654) have constructed the first dye-sensitized solar cells using copper complexes as redox couples to compare the photoelectrochemical responses with those using the conventional I3−/I− couple. The maximum η value attained was 2.2% for DSC using [Cu(dmp)2]2+/+ under the weak solar light irradiation of 20 mW/cm2 intensity.
In addition, Peng Wang and coworkers (Chemical Communications, 2011, 47(15):4376-4378) have employed a bis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline) copper(I/II) redox shuttle demonstrating a 7.0% efficiency. DSCs free of a corrosive iodine electrolyte were demonstrated by Wang et al by virtue of a mesoporous titania thin-film, coated with a high-absorption-coefficient organic photosensitizer. However, the utilized copper redox shuttle was also found to display very low electron transfer rates on several noble metals, carbon black and conducting oxides, resulting in a poor fill factor.
Cul and CuSCN can be used as a solution-processable, inorganic hole conductor in solid state DSCs (ssDSCs) and methylammonium lead iodide perovskite solar cells. These solar cells can provide power conversion efficiencies as high as 6.0% for DSCs and show to be very stable, providing a better phorcurrent stability and fill factors in comparison with spiroOMeTAD based solar cells upon continuous 2 h illumination. However, despite these advantages, the efficiency obtained with Cul is still lower because of the exceptionally high voltages (Voc) obtained in spiro-OMeTAD solar cells. Future studies are aimed toward determining whether the high recombination seen in Cul-based solar cells can be reduced and higher Voc obtained. Despite these potential difficulties, Cul represents a promising low-cost hole conductor for perovskite solar cells.
US 2006/008580 discloses organic hybrid solar cells in which copper based organometallic complexes may be used as HTMs. The organic hybrid solar cells further comprises a substrate material, an electrode material, a dye material, and a semiconductive oxide layer, and the semiconductive oxide layer of the organic hybrid cell has been vapor deposited.
The high efficiency obtained with hybrid solar cells based on dye and/or perovskite sensitizers demonstrate their potential for implementation as commercial solar cells. However, the use of organic hole conductors may represent a potential hurdle to the future commercialization of this type of solar cell because of their relatively high cost. For example, the current commercial price of high purity spiro-OMeTAD is over ten times that of gold and platinum. While increased demand would undoubtedly lower this cost dramatically in any large scale commercial endeavor, it is likely to remain expensive due to the synthetic methods and high purity needed for photovoltaic applications. Thus, development of alternative hole conductors and/or HTMs is a promising avenue to further improve the performance of solar cells, as spiro-OMeTAD likely does not represent the ideal hole-conducting material for this system. Thus, in order to increase the efficiency of ssDSSC and to decrease their cost, a new kind of hole conducting material and/or HTM is required. | {
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A regular floor fan, as shown in FIG. 1, generally comprises a fan head x1, a support shank x2 used for adjusting the upright height of the fan head, and a base x3, which sequentially connected with each other. However, the adjustable range of height of the fan head x1 is restricted, because the retractable length of the support shank x2 is limited, such an electric fan can be arranged into a floor fan only, and cannot be arranged in to a desk fan. Moreover, the fan head x1, the support shank x2 and the base x3 need to be detached during package and transportation, and the user has to reassemble them together before using. The process of detachment is time-consuming, and the operation is complicated. A risk of losing some tiny parts may also exist. Further, influenced by the size of the base which is usually a regular disc-like base and the length of the support shank, the electric fan after detachment also occupies a large space even if it can be detached into several parts and packed up separately, which greatly increase the cost of package and transportation. Besides, the user has to reassemble the floor fan every time when using it, which requires using extra tools. This is inconvenient for immediate usage of the fan while increasing the operation burden of the users.
Aiming at overcoming the shortcomings in the above-mentioned floor fan, the invention with U.S. Pat. No. 8,734,109 disclosed a foldable electric fan, which enables the folding and storage of the fan by adding a turnover mechanism in it and enables the folding of the fan base by a transforming the structure of the base. This invention has overcome the shortcomings mentioned above by enabling the folding and storage of the floor fan.
Specifically, referring to FIGS. 2-10, the said foldable electric fan comprises a fan head X1, a turnover mechanism X4 that is used to turn the fan head up and down, a support tube X2 and a base X3. The support tube X2 comprises two erect tubes X21 and two height adjusting tubes X22 which engaging with the two elect tubes X21 respectively. The turnover mechanism X4 comprises a connecting block X41 connected on the top of the two height-adjusting tubes X22, an automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 for limiting and locking the connecting block X41 on the support tube X2, and a fan head joining tube X43 connected on the middle part of the top of the connecting block. The both sides of the connecting block X41 are movably hanged to the two height-adjusting tubes X22 through axes (X411 and X412); the said automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 is arranged in the hanging position of the connecting block X41 and one of the height-adjusting tubes X22. Referring to FIG. 5, the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 is able to tightly lock the connecting block X41 by a spring bolt X421 arranged on the top of one side of the connecting block X41 and a locating hole 42 on the top of one of the height-adjusting tube. Or, referring to FIG. 6, the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 is able to lock the connecting block X41 by a pawl ratchet assembly X′421 installed between the end of the connecting block X41 and one of the height-adjusting tube. The said fan head joining tube X43 is connected to the said fan head X1 on the top.
Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 7, the structures enabling the folding of the base X3 include a stationary base X31, a vertical moveable base X32 and a horizontal moveable base X33. The vertical moveable base X32 is articulated with the stationary base 31 by a first door hinge and thus can be turned upward to be folded and restored. The horizontal moveable base X33 is articulated with the middle part of the stationary base X31 by a vertical second door hinge and can be horizontally folded toward one side of the stationary base X31. Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 8, in order to ensure the supporting stability of the base X3 in normal use, by the locking bolts (X7 & X8) arranged on the stationary base X31 respectively working with the locking hole X9, the vertical moveable base X32 and the horizontal moveable base X33 can be locked tightly on the stationary base X31. Or referring to FIG. 9 or FIG. 10, the base X′3 can be folded in another way: the base X′3 comprises a stationary base X′31 and a rotatable base X′32. The rotatable base X′32 is in detachable joint with the stationary base X31 by a lock nut X′7, a fastening bolt X′8 and a lock screw X′9 (as referred in FIG. 9) or just by the screw X″7 (as referred in FIG. 10).
Although the structure of the above foldable electric fan has overcome the shortcomings of the floor fan, however, certain defects remain in the said foldable electric fan: 1) The upward and downward turnover of the fan head X1 is enabled by the turnover mechanism X4 through the vertical rotation of connecting block X41, the two sides of which are movably articulated with the top of two height-adjusting tubes X22, around the axis between the top of two height-adjusting tubes X22, and the said connecting block X41 is in flat bar shape, and tend to be influenced by the weight of the fan head X1 which will lead to deformation when the force is too strong. Beside, the turnover flexibility of the turnover mechanism X4 will be decreased because the two sides of the connecting block X41 tend to be influenced by the force exerted by the fan head X1, and thus reduces the working life of the turnover mechanism X4; 2) The locking and locating to the turnover mechanism X4 depends on the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 arranged at the articulating position of the one side of the connecting block X41 and the corresponding height-adjusting tubes, therefore, either the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 of the spring bolt X421 structure or the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42 of pawl ratchet assembly X′421 structure, is enabling the locking and locating the turnover mechanism X4 through one direction, which may lead to the instability of the turnover mechanism X4 and increase the burden of the automatic position-limit and locking mechanism X42. 3) It can be known from the structure of the base that it has two embodiments: dividing into two part (stationary base X′31 and rotatable base X′32) or dividing into three parts (a stationary base X31, a vertical moveable base X32 and a horizontal moveable base X33) to enable the folding of the base. When the structure of the base is divided into stationary base X′31 and rotatable base X′32, the separation of the stationary base X′31 and rotatable base X′32 requires disassembling a lock nut, a fastening bolt and a lock screw when packing or folding, thus increase the complexity of the operation and the time for folding and produce many scattered components that is easily lost. Meanwhile, when the structure of the base is divided into a stationary base X31, a vertical moveable base X32 and a horizontal moveable base X33, because it requires locking the three locking bolts by hands to enable the locking when the vertical moveable base X32 and horizontal moveable base X33 is in normal use, and because the fulcrum is on the locking bolts, deformation of the moveable base and movement of position of the locking hole may occur during long-term usage, which may provide difficulty of installation in repeated folding and reduce the utility of the fan. | {
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Gutters are commonly used along eaves at a lower end of a sloping roof to catch water running off of the roof and channel that water into particular areas rather than allowing the water to merely fall from the lower edges of the roof. Such gutters often become clogged, especially when trees are located nearby and shed leaves which can end up in the gutters. Accordingly, leaf preclusion systems, often called “gutter guards,” are known in the prior art for attachment over the gutters. Such gutter guards serve the basic purpose of allowing water to pass into the gutter but precluding leaves and other debris from passing into the gutter.
One type of gutter guard utilizes a filter layer which has small openings therein which allow water to pass through but which preclude leaves and other debris from passing therethrough. One example of such a prior art mesh based leaf preclusion system is in U.S. Pat. No. 7,310,912, incorporated herein by reference.
The phenomena of water tension and molecular adhesion forces tend to cause water to not want to pass through such mesh layers, but rather to cling to the mesh. These forces thus frustrate the ability of mesh based gutter guards to allow water to pass through the mesh while precluding debris from passing into the gutter. With known prior art mesh based gutter guards, commonly an underlying support is provided beneath the mesh. This underlying support serves two purposes. First, it keeps the mesh generally planar overlying the gutter. Second, it contacts an underside of the mesh providing a path along which water can flow while adhering to the underlying support. Holes in the underlying support then allow water to drop through in larger drops where the weight of the drops is sufficient that the surface tension and adhesion forces cannot resist such dropping. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and in particular to an image forming apparatus that executes image forming jobs that have priority levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a system where a color image forming apparatus (color copy apparatus) and a black-and-white image forming apparatus (black and white copy apparatus) are connected to a network, when the images of a plurality of originals that contain both color originals and black-and-white originals are copied and printed out, users have been able to obtain a print result in which both color image pages and black-and-white image pages are mixed by having the images of all of the plurality of originals printed out by the color copy apparatus.
On the other hand, image formation processing by a color copy apparatus takes longer and is more costly than image formation processing by a black-and-white copy apparatus, so that there are demands for having the black-and-white originals in a plurality of originals in which both color originals and black-and-white originals are mixed printed out by a black-and-white copy apparatus. To meet such demands, when the images of a plurality of originals in which both color originals and black-and-white originals are mixed are copied and printed out, it is conceivable to have the black-and-white originals printed out by the black-and-white copy apparatus and the color originals printed out by the color copy apparatus.
In this case, in order to combine the recording sheets that have been printed by the black-and-white copy apparatus and the recording sheets that have been printed by the color copy apparatus into a single bundle like the original plurality of originals, the user has had to insert the recording sheets outputted by one of the copy apparatuses into the recording sheets outputted by the other copy apparatus by hand in order to arrange the originals in the page order.
This means that when the user wishes to collect a plurality of printed sheets together into a single document, part of the task cannot be performed by computer and the user has had to spread out the printed sheets on a desk and perform the task by hand, which has been very inefficient.
To improve this, the following conventional method has been proposed. A stacker tray (storage means) for temporarily storing color output sheets that have been outputted from a color MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) and an insert tray (refeeding means) for inserting color output sheets into black-and-white output sheets outputted from a black-and-white MFP when performing a color/black-and-white mixing are formed of a single common construction (hereinafter such common construction will be referred to as “the stacker tray”). Color output sheets that have been printed by the color MFP, whose output speed is lower than that of the black-and-white MFP, are stacked and stored in the stacker tray, and the stacker tray is attached to an insert apparatus (inserter) of the black-and-white MFP, so that the color output sheets are refed to perform color/black-and-white mixing control.
According to this color/black-and-white mixing control method, a variety of information for mixing color and black-and-white sheets, that is, information such as job numbers related to the color/black-and-white mixing job, designation of a printer for mixing, sheet size, the number of copies, stacking method, and material (a sheet type such as plain paper or thick paper) is set via a server that is connected to the network. Based on the set information, information on color originals is downloaded from the server and/or is read out from a storage means inside the image forming apparatus to form color images, and a color/black-and-white mixing operation is performed for color image sheets and black-and-white image sheets. By doing so, the occurrence of miscopied originals due to input errors by the user when making the settings has been suppressed.
However, with the above-described related art, when miscopies occur due to the erroneous insertion of one of a plurality of stacker trays or due to setting errors when a stacker tray is attached to an inserter, a large burden is placed on the user. In particular, setting errors for an inserter in the case where a plurality of black-and-white and color image forming apparatuses are connected via the network cause a large number of miscopies to be made and result in significant downtime. Also, in recent years there has been increasing demand for color/black-and-white mixing jobs of small lot sizes, so that it is desirable to stack output sheets for a plurality of jobs in a stacker tray.
According to one proposed solution of the above problem, the stacker tray is internally equipped with a memory that can be read and written and a variety of information on a plurality of jobs for performing color/black-and-white mixing is stored in advance in the memory. When the stacker tray is attached to an inserter, such information is automatically read. By performing color/black-and-white mixing control for one job or a plurality of jobs using such information, the erroneous attachment of the stacker tray and setting errors can be avoided.
FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram showing an image forming system comprised of a color MFP 2001 and a black-and-white MFP 2003, according to the proposed solution. It should be noted that in the illustrated example, output sheets related to a job that originally has a lower priority level are stacked on top of output sheets related to a job that originally has a higher priority level. A stacker 2002 is attached to the color MFP 2001 and is comprised of a stacker tray 2011 that is detachably attached and stores color output sheets, a storage device 2012 that stores a variety of information on a plurality of jobs, a lifter unit 2013 that can be raised and lowered and stacks color output sheets thereon, a discharge opening through which color output sheets are discharged from the color MFP 2001 to the stacker tray 2011, a sensor 2015 that detects a sheet surface inside the stacker tray 2011, a sensor 2016 that detects a position of the lifter unit 2013, a sensor 2017 that detects the attachment of the stacker tray 2011, gears 2018, 2019 that constitute a lifting mechanism for the lifter unit 2013, and so forth.
An inserter 2004 is attached to the black-and-white MFP 2003, and is comprised of a sensor 2021 that detects the attachment of the stacker tray 2011, sheet feeding rollers 2022 that feed black-and-white output sheets to an inside of the stacker tray, a multiple feeding prevention roller 2023 that prevents a plurality of black-and-white output sheets from being fed together, and so forth. After being detached from the stacker 2002 which is attached to the above-described color MFP 2001, the stacker tray 2011 can be attached to the inserter 2004. A large-capacity stacker 2005 is attached to the inserter 2004 and is comprised of a sensor 2031 that detects the attachment of the stacker tray 2011, a discharge opening 2032 through which output sheets are discharged from the inserter 2004, and so forth. Also, the above-described stacker tray 2011 can be detachably attached to the large-capacity stacker 2005 in the same way as with the inserter 2004.
However, there has been the following problem with the proposed solution described above. When a large number of output sheets that relate to a plurality of jobs have been stacked in the stacker tray 2011, if, as shown in FIG. 27 referred to, the stacker tray 2011 is attached to the inserter 2004 in a state where output sheets relating to a job with a lower priority level have been stacked on top of output sheets relating to a job with a higher priority level, output will be performed starting with the job with the lower priority level. This means that it is difficult to output the job with the higher priority level in a timely manner. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Disclosed are fuser apparatus having a fuser cleaner web and corresponding methods.
In a typical electrophotographic or electrostatographic printing process, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to selectively dissipate the charges thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules either to a donor roller or to a latent image on the photoconductive member. The toner attracted to a donor roller is then deposited as latent electrostatic images on a charge retentive surface which is usually a photoreceptor. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive member to a copy substrate. The toner particles are heated to permanently affix the powder image to the copy substrate.
In order to fix or fuse the toner material onto a support member permanently by heat and pressure, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky. This action causes the toner to flow to some extent onto the fibers or pores of the support members or otherwise upon the surfaces thereof. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material occurs causing the toner material to be bonded firmly to the support member.
One approach to thermal fusing of toner material images onto the supporting substrate has been to pass the substrate with the unfused toner images thereon between a pair of opposed rolls at least one of which is internally heated. During operation of a fusing system of this type, the support member to which the toner images are electrostatically adhered is moved through the nip formed between the rolls with the toner image contacting the heated fuser roll to thereby effect heating of the toner images within the nip. In a conventional two roll fuser, one of the rolls is typically provided with a layer or layers that are deformable by a harder opposing roller when the two rollers are pressure engaged.
In typical fusing systems, the fuser roll can be cleaned by a web. The web provides a textured surface for removing particles of toner that remain on the fuser roll after the substrate, e.g., paper with the toner image has passed through the fuser. The web may be drawn from a replaceable supply roll and be moved at a relatively slow rate relative to the movement of the fuser roll. The motion of the fuser roll relative to the web causes the fuser roll to rub against a small area of the web. Because the web is moving slower than the fuser roll friction of the web to the fuser roll surface causes a supply of clean web at a reasonable rate to clean toner from the fuser roll. The web is typically run at a constant speed high enough to clean the fuser roll. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Conditions resulting from thrombotic or thromboembolic events are the leading causes of illness and death in adults in western civilization. Intravascular thrombosis and embolism are common clinical manifestations of many diseases. Unregulated activation of the hemostatic system has the potential to cause thrombosis and embolism, which can reduce blood flow to critical organs like the brain and myocardium. Certain patient groups have been identified that are particularly prone to thrombosis and embolism. These include patients (1) immobilized after surgery, (2) with chronic congestive heart failure, (3) with atherosclerotic vascular disease, (4) with malignancy, or (5) who are pregnant. The majority of “thrombosis prone” individuals have no identifiable hemostatic disorder, although there are certain groups of individuals having inherited or acquired “hypercoaguable” or “prethrombotic” conditions predisposing them to recurrent thrombosis (Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 12th ed. McGraw Hill).
Effective primary hemostasis requires three critical events: platelet adhesion, granule release, and platelet aggregation. Within a few seconds of injury, platelets adhere to collagen fibrils in vascular subendothelium. This interaction is facilitated by von Willebrands factor, an adhesive glycoprotein which allows platelets to remain attached to the vessel wall despite the high shear forces generated within the vascular lumen. Von Willebrand's factor accomplishes this task by forming a link between platelet receptor sites and subendothelial collagen fibrils.
As the primary hemostatic plug is being formed, plasma coagulation proteins are activated to initiate secondary hemostasis. There is little difference between hemostatic plugs, which are a physiological response to injury, and pathologic thrombi. Thrombosis is often described as coagulation which has occurred in the wrong place or at the wrong time. Hemostatic plugs or thrombi that form in veins where blood flow is slow are richly endowed with fibrin and trapped red blood cells and contain relatively few platelets. These thrombi often form in leg veins and can break off and embolize to the pulmonary circulation. Conversely, clots that form in arteries under conditions of high flow are predominantly composed of platelets and have little fibrin. These arterial thrombi may readily dislodge from the arterial wall and embolize to distant sites to cause temporary or permanent ischemia. This is particularly common in the cerebral and retinal circulation and may lead to transient neurologic dysfunction (transient ischemic attacks) including temporary monocular blindness (amaurosis fugax) or strokes. In addition, there is increasing evidence that most myocardial infarctions are due to thrombi which form within atherosclerotic coronary arteries. (The preceding discussion is taken primarily from Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 12th ed., McGraw Hill.)
Extracellular nucleotides and their receptors of platelets are important components of the cardiovascular system and are involved in functions like platelet activation and the control of vascular tone. Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), are playing crucial roles in the physiological process of haemostasis and in the development and extension of arterial thrombosis (2). By itself ADP is a weak agonist of platelet aggregation inducing only reversible responses as compared to strong agonists such as thrombin or collagen. However, due to its presence in large amounts in the platelet dense granules and its release upon activation at sites of vascular injury, ADP is an important so-called secondary agonist which amplifies most of the platelet responses and contributes to the stabilization of the thrombus. The receptors for extracellular nucleotides belong to the P2 family which consists of two classes of membrane receptors: P2X ligand-gated cation channels (P2 X 1-7) and Glycoprotein-coupled P2Y receptors (P2Y1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14). Each of these receptors has a specific function during platelet activation and aggregation, which naturally has implications for their involvement in thrombosis.
Since ADP and ATP play a crucial role in platelet activation, their receptors are potential targets for antithrombotic drugs. The ATP-gated cation channel P2X1 and the two G protein-coupled ADP receptors, P2Y1 and P2Y12, selectively contribute to platelet aggregation and formation of a thrombus. Owing to its central role in the growth and stabilization of a thrombus, the P2Y12 receptor is an established target of antithrombotic drugs mainly the thienopyridine class of compounds like ticlopidine, clopidogrel, prasugrel etc. . . .
The mainstay of antiplatelet therapy for patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), including those undergoing early percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stents implantation is administration of a combination of Aspirin and clopidogrel. Aspirin inhibits platelet thomboxane A2 production and platelet activation, and reduces the risk of recurrent ischemic events in patients at high risk of vascular events by 22% (absolute risk reduction (ARR) about 2%) at the expense of an increase in the odds of major bleeding events by about 60% (Absolute risk increase (ARI) about 0.5%. Clopidogrel inhibits ADP induced platelet activation by blocking the platelet receptor P2Y12, which when combined with Aspirin therapy in patients with ACS, reduces the risk of recurrent ischemic events by a further 20% (ARR about 2.1%), in which the major bleeding events are not increased statistically from aspirin monotherapy.
Clopidogrel (Formula I), chemically named as “(+)-(S)-methyl 2-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-(6,7-dihydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridin-5(4H)-yl)acetate”, is currently considered to be the gold standard in the inhibition of blood platelet aggregation. Clopidogrel is marketed as its hydrogen sulphate, hydrochloride, and benzene sulphonate salts. It is widely used for controlling the ischemic events and other cardiovascular disorders efficiently for last 12 years or more.
However, clopidogrel has several potential limitations. First, the onset of action is delayed and a time lag between administration and therapeutic activity is observed. A therapeutically significant level of 50% inhibition of ADP induced platelet aggregation, as measured by light transmission aggregometry (LTA) (5 μM ADP ex vivo) is not reached until 4-6 hours after administration of a loading dose of 300 mg clopidogrel or until 2 hours by doubling the dose to 600 mg. Secondly, there is a dose ceiling effect, as tripling the dosing from regular dose of 300 mg to 900 mg produces only 60% inhibition of ADP induced platelet aggregation (at 5 μM ADP), and less than 50% inhibition of platelet aggregation (induced by 20 μ·M of ADP (ex vivo)). Third, almost all clinical trials involving clopidogrel reveal that therapeutic levels of platelet inhibition are not achieved in a majority of patients because of large inter-individual variability in response to clopidogrel treatment. This patient population is referred as ‘non-responders’ or ‘poor responders’ to clopidogrel. Non-responders make up about 14% of the ethnic Chinese population and 3-4% among Caucasians. Overall, poor responders are close to 23% of the total patient population, and variation of inhibitory activity is reported in about 45% of the total patient population. The ultrarapid metabolism of clopidogrel has been reported in patients having a specific phenotype of CYP isoform (about 4%-18% patients) which leads to more severe bleeding episodes, with higher platelet aggregation. Considering these facts and data from clinical trials, the FDA requires that a boxed warning be included in the label of clopidogrel highlighting the ineffectiveness of clopidogrel in certain classes of patients and suggesting screening of patients for genotyping to identify poor responders to clopidogrel before treatment.
It has been found that the variations in the inhibitory activity of clopidogrel originates from the difference in the activity of liver enzymes that metabolize clopidogrel. Upon ingestion of clopidogrel, it undergoes a series of metabolic reactions to produce metabolites. These reactions are mediated by CYP 450 as well as by action of hepatic human carboxyl esterase (hCE). The metabolic pathway of clopidogrel is set out below. The use of the specific metabolites as therapeutic agents for administration to patients in place of clopidogrel has not been suggested previously.
As an alternative to clopidogrel, prasugrel can also be used. However, treatment of patients with prasugrel rendered them susceptible to bleeding episodes, which may be life threatening, restricting its application in patients having a body weight of less than 60 kg body weight and greater than 75 years of age. Prasugrel has also been found to increase liver disease/toxicity in patients who are at risk of cirrhosis and thus pharmacovigilance is suggested by the FDA. As far as these severe side effects are concerned, clopidogrel is comparatively safer, resulting generally in lesser bleeding and liver toxicity. Further, the incidence of cardiovascular deaths is greatly reduced following treatment with clopidogrel in comparison to prasugrel and thus improvements in the efficacy of clopidogrel are likely to reduce the risk of thrombosis and/or embolism in patient groups much better than other structurally modified drugs.
Due to the serious side effects, including the risk of bleeding, associated with the use of prasugrel, it is recommended that prasugrel only be used to achieve an initial thrust of greater inhibition of platelet aggregation. Clopidogrel is then used for subsequent platelet inhibition, after the initial use of prasugrel.
Therefore, there is a need to ameliorate the side effects of clopidogrel or prasugrel. Compounds exhibiting higher onset of action, lower inter-individual variability, better metabolizers status, improved dose ceiling effect, and improved efficacy by increasing inhibitory capacity on ADP induced platelet aggregation are desired. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Recorded audio and motion picture media has been an aspect of society since the days of Thomas Edison. At the start of the 20th century there was wide distribution of recorded audio media (cylinders and records) and motion picture media (nickelodeons and movies), but both technologies were still in their infancy. In the late 1920s motion pictures were combined with audio on a mass-market basis, followed by color motion pictures with audio. Radio broadcasting gradually evolved into a largely advertising-supported form of broadcast mass-market audio media. When a television (TV) broadcast standard was established in the mid-1940s, television joined radio as a form of broadcast mass-market media bringing previously recorded or live motion pictures into the home.
By the middle of the 20th century, a large percentage of US homes had phonograph record players for playing recorded audio media, a radio to receive live broadcast audio, and a television set to play live broadcast audio/video (A/V) media. Very often these 3 “media players” (record player, radio and TV) were combined into one cabinet sharing common speakers that became the “media center” for the home. Although the media choices were limited to the consumer, the media “ecosystem” was quite stable. Most consumers knew how to use the “media players” and were able to enjoy the full extent of their capabilities. At the same time, the publishers of the media (largely the motion picture and televisions studios, and the music companies) were able to distribute their media both to theaters and to the home without suffering from widespread piracy or “second sales”, i.e., the resale of used media. Typically publishers do not derive revenue from second sales, and as such, it reduces revenue that publishers might otherwise derive from the buyer of used media for new sales. Although there certainly were used records sold during the middle of the 20th century, such sales did not have a large impact on record publishers because, unlike a motion picture or video program—which is typically watched once or only a few times by an adult—a music track may be listened to hundreds or even thousands of times. So, music media is far less “perishable” (i.e., it has lasting value to an adult consumer) than motion picture/video media. Once a record was purchased, if the consumer liked the music, the consumer was likely to keep it a long time.
From the middle of the 20th century through the present day, the media ecosystem has undergone a series of radical changes, both to the benefit and the detriment of consumers and publishers. With the widespread introduction of audio recorders, especially cassette tapes with high-quality stereo sound, there certainly was a higher degree of consumer convenience. But it also marked the beginning of what is now a widespread practice with consumer media: piracy. Certainly, many consumers used the cassette tapes for taping their own records purely for convenience, but increasingly consumers (e.g., students in a dormitory with ready access to each others' record collections) would make pirated copies. Also, consumers would tape music played over the radio rather than buying a record or tape from the publisher.
The advent of the consumer VCR led to even more consumer convenience, since now a VCR could be set to record a TV show which could be watched at a later time, and it also led to the creation of the video rental business, where movies as well as TV programming could be accessed on an “on demand” basis. The rapid development of mass-market home media devices since the mid-1980s has led to an unprecedented level of choice and convenience for the consumer, and also has led to a rapid expansion of the media publishing market.
Today, consumers are faced with a plethora of media choices as well as a plethora of media devices, many of which are tied to particular forms of media or particular publishers. An avid consumer of media may have a stack of devices connected to TVs and computers in various rooms of the house, resulting in a “rat's nest” of cables to one or more TV sets and/or personal computers (PCs) as well as a group of remote controls. (In the context of the present application, the term “personal computer” or “PC” refers to any sort of computer suitable for us in the home or office, including a desktop, a Macintosh® or other non-Windows computers, Windows-compatible devices, Unix variations, laptops, etc.) These devices may include a video game console, VCR, DVD player, audio surround-sound processor/amplifier, satellite set-top box, cable TV set-top box, etc. And, for an avid consumer, there may be multiple similar-function devices because of compatibility issues. For example, a consumer may own both a HD-DVD and a Blu-ray DVD player, or both a Microsoft Xbox® and a Sony Playstation® video game system. Indeed, because of incompatibility of some games across versions of game consoles, the consumer may own both an XBox and a later version, such as an Xbox 360®. Frequently, consumers are befuddled as to which video input and which remote to use. Even after a disc is placed into the correct player (e.g., DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, Xbox or Playstation), the video and audio input is selected for that the device, and the correct remote control is found, the consumer is still faced with technical challenges. For example, in the case of a wide-screen DVD, the user may need to first determine and then set the correct aspect ratio on his TV or monitor screen (e.g., 4:3, Full, Zoom, Wide Zoom, Cinema Wide, etc.). Similarly, the user may need to first determine and then set the correct audio surround sound system format (e.g., AC-3, Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.). Often times, the consumer is unaware that they may not be enjoying the media content to the full capability of their television or audio system (e.g., watching a movie squashed at the wrong aspect ratio, or listening to audio in stereo rather than in surround sound).
Increasingly, Internet-based media devices have been added to the stack of devices. Audio devices like the Sonos® Digital Music system stream audio directly from the Internet. Likewise, devices like the Slingbox™ entertainment player record video and stream it through a home network or out through the Internet where it can be watched remotely on a PC. And Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services offer cable TV-like services through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or other home Internet connections. There have also been recent efforts to integrate multiple media functions into a single device, such as the Moxi® Media Center and PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition. While each of these devices offers an element of convenience for the functions that it performs, each lacks ubiquitous and simple access to most media. Further, such devices frequently cost hundreds of dollars to manufacture, often because of the need for expensive processing and/or local storage. Additionally, these modern consumer electronic devices typically consume a great deal of power, even while idle, which means they are expensive over time and wasteful of energy resources. For example, a device may continue to operate if the consumer neglects to turn it off or switches to a different video input. And, because none of the devices is a complete solution, it must be integrated with the other stack of devices in the home, which still leaves the user with a rat's nest of wires and a sea of remote controls.
Furthermore, when many newer Internet-based devices do work properly, they typically offer media in a more generic form than it might otherwise be available. For example, devices that stream video through the Internet often stream just the video material, not the interactive “extras” that often accompany DVDs, like the “making of” videos, games, or director's commentary. This is due to the fact that frequently the interactive material is produced in a particular format intended for a particular device that handles interactivity locally. For example, each of DVD, HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs have their own particular interactive format. Any home media device or local computer that might be developed to support all of the popular formats would require a level of sophistication and flexibility that would likely make it prohibitively expensive and complex for the consumer to operate.
Adding to the problem, if a new format were introduced later in the future the local device may not have the hardware capability to support the new format, which would mean that the consumer would have to purchase an upgraded local media device. For example, if higher-resolution video or stereoscopic video (e.g., one video stream for each eye) were introduced at a later date, the local device may not have the computational capability to decode the video, or it may not have the hardware to output the video in the new format (e.g., assuming stereoscopy is achieved through 120 fps video synchronized with shuttered glasses, with 60 fps delivered to each eye, if the consumer's video hardware can only support 60 fps video, this option would be unavailable absent an upgraded hardware purchase).
The issue of media device obsolescence and complexity is a serious problem when it comes to sophisticated interactive media, especially video games.
Modern video game applications are largely divided into four major non-portable hardware platforms: Sony PlayStation® 1, 2 and 3 (PS1, PS2, and PS3); Microsoft Xbox® and Xbox 360®; and Nintendo Gamecube® and Wii™; and PC-based games. Each of these platforms is different than the others so that games written to run on one platform usually do not run on another platform. There may also be compatibility problems from one generation of device to the next. Even though the majority of software game developers create software games that are designed independent of a particular platform, in order to run a particular game on a specific platform a proprietary layer of software (frequently called a “game development engine”) is needed to adapt the game for use on a specific platform. Each platform is sold to the consumer as a “console” (i.e., a standalone box attached to a TV or monitor/speakers) or it is a PC itself. Typically, the video games are sold on optical media such as a Blu-ray DVD, DVD-ROM or CD-ROM, which contains the video game embodied as a sophisticated real-time software application. As home broadband speeds have increased, video games are becoming increasingly available for download.
The specificity requirements to achieve platform-compatibility with video game software is extremely exacting due to the real-time nature and high computational requirements of advanced video games. For example, one might expect full game compatibility from one generation to the next of video games (e.g., from XBox to XBox 360, or from Playstation 2 (“PS2”) to Playstation 3 (“PS3”), just as there is general compatibility of productivity applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) from one PC to another with a faster processing unit or core. However, this is not the case with video games. Because the video game manufacturers typically are seeking the highest possible performance for a given price point when a video game generation is released, dramatic architectural changes to the system are frequently made such that many games written for the prior generation system do not work on the later generation system. For example, XBox was based upon the x86-family of processors, whereas XBox 360 was based upon a PowerPC-family.
Techniques can be utilized to emulate a prior architecture, but given that video games are real-time applications, it is often unfeasible to achieve the exact same behavior in an emulation. This is a detriment to the consumer, the video game console manufacturer and the video game software publisher. For the consumer, it means the necessity of keeping both an old and new generation of video game consoles hooked up to the TV to be able to play all games. For the console manufacturer it means cost associated with emulation and slower adoption of new consoles. And for the publisher it means that multiple versions of new games may have to be released in order to reach all potential consumers—not only releasing a version for each brand of video game (e.g., XBox, Playstation), but often a version for each version of a given brand (e.g., PS2 and PS3). For example, a separate version of Electronic Arts' “Madden NFL 08” was developed for XBox, XBox 360, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Wii, and PC, among other platforms.
Portable devices, such as cellular (“cell”) phones and portable media players also present challenges to game developers. Increasingly such devices are connected to wireless data networks and are able to download video games. But, there are a wide variety of cell phones and media devices in the market, with a wide range of different display resolutions and computing capabilities. Also, because such devices typically have power consumption, cost and weight constraints, they typically lack advanced graphics acceleration hardware like a Graphics Processing Unit (“GPU”), such as devices made by NVIDIA of Santa Clara, Calif. Consequently, game software developers typically develop a given game title simultaneously for many different types of portable devices. A user may find that a given game title is not available for his particular cell phone or portable media player.
In the case of home game consoles, hardware platform manufacturers typically charge a royalty to the software game developers for the ability to publish a game on their platform. Cell phone wireless carriers also typically charge a royalty to the game publisher to download a game into the cell phone. In the case of PC games, there is no royalty paid to publish games, but game developers typically face high costs due to the higher customer service burden to support the wide range of PC configurations and installation issues that may arise. Also, PCs typically present less barriers to the piracy of game software since they are readily reprogrammable by a technically-knowledgeable user and games can be more easily pirated and more easily distributed (e.g., through the Internet). Thus, for a software game developer, there are costs and disadvantages in publishing on game consoles, cell phones and PCs.
For game publishers of console and PC software, costs do not end there. To distribute games through retail channels, publishers charge a wholesale price below the selling price for the retailer to have a profit margin. The publisher also typically has to pay the cost of manufacturing and distributing the physical media holding the game. The publisher is also frequently charged a “price protection fee” by the retailer to cover possible contingencies such as where the game does not sell, or if the game's price is reduced, or if the retailer must refund part or all of the wholesale price and/or take the game back from a buyer. Additionally, retailers also typically charge fees to publishers to help market the games in advertising flyers. Furthermore, retailers are increasingly buying back games from users who have finished playing them, and then sell them as used games, typically sharing none of the used game revenue with the game publisher. Adding to the cost burden placed upon game publishers is the fact that games are often pirated and distributed through the Internet for users to download and make free copies.
As Internet broadband speeds have been increasing and broadband connectivity has become more widespread in the US and worldwide, particularly to the home and to Internet “cafes” where Internet-connected PCs are rented, games are increasingly being distributed via downloads to PCs or consoles. Also, broadband connections are increasingly used for playing multiplayer and massively multiplayer online games (both of which are referred to in the present disclosure by the acronym “MMOG”). These changes mitigate some of the costs and issues associated with retail distribution. Downloading online games addresses some of the disadvantages to game publishers in that distribution costs typically are less and there are little or no costs from unsold media. But downloaded games are still subject to piracy, and because of their size (often many gigabytes in size) they can take a very long time to download. In addition, multiple games can fill up small disk drives, such as those sold with portable computers or with video game consoles. However, to the extent games or MMOGs require an online connection for the game to be playable, the piracy problem is mitigated since the user is usually required to have a valid user account. Unlike linear media (e.g., video and music) which can be copied by a camera shooting video of the display screen or a microphone recording audio from the speakers, each video game experience is unique, and can not be copied using simple video/audio recording. Thus, even in regions where copyright laws are not strongly enforced and piracy is rampant, MMOGs can be shielded from piracy and therefore a business can be supported. For example, Vivendi SA's “World of Warcraft” MMOG has been successfully deployed without suffering from piracy throughout the world. And many online or MMOG games, such as Linden Lab's “Second Life” MMOG generate revenue for the games' operators through economic models built into the games where assets can be bought, sold, and even created using online tools. Thus, mechanisms in addition to conventional game software purchases or subscriptions can be used to pay for the use of online games.
While piracy can be often mitigated due to the nature of online or MMOGs, online game operator still face remaining challenges. Many games require substantial local (i.e., in-home) processing resources for online or MMOGs to work properly. If a user has a low performance local computer (e.g., one without a GPU, such as a low-end laptop), he may not be able to play the game. Additionally, as game consoles age, they fall further behind the state-of-the-art and may not be able to handle more advanced games. Even assuming the user's local PC is able to handle the computational requirements of a game, there are often installation complexities. There may be driver incompatibilities (e.g., if a new game is downloaded, it may install a new version of a graphics driver that renders a previously-installed game, reliant upon an old version of the graphics driver, inoperable). A console may run out of local disk space as more games are downloaded. Complex games typically receive downloaded patches over time from the game developer as bugs are found and fixed, or if modifications are made to the game (e.g., if the game developer finds that a level of the game is too hard or too easy to play). These patches require new downloads. But sometimes not all users complete downloading of all the patches. Other times, the downloaded patches introduce other compatibility or disk space consumption issues.
Also, during game play, large data downloads may be required to provide graphics or behavioral information to the local PC or console. For example, if the user enters a room in a MMOG and encounters a scene or a character made up of graphics data or with behaviors that are not available on the user's local machine, then that scene or character's data must be downloaded. This may result in a substantial delay during game play if the Internet connection is not fast enough. And, if the encountered scene or character requires storage space or computational capability beyond that of the local PC or console, it can create a situation where the user can not proceed in the game, or must continue with reduced-quality graphics. Thus, online or MMOG games often limit their storage and/or computational complexity requirements. Additionally, they often limit the amount of data transfers during the game. Online or MMOG games may also narrow the market of users that can play the games.
Furthermore, technically-knowledgeable users are increasingly reverse-engineering local copies of games and modifying the games so that they can cheat. The cheats maybe as simple as making a button press repeat faster than is humanly possible (e.g., so as to shoot a gun very rapidly). In games that support in-game asset transactions the cheating can reach a level of sophistication that results in fraudulent transactions involving assets of actual economic value. When an online or MMOGs economic model is based on such asset transactions, this can result in substantial detrimental consequences to the game operators.
The cost of developing a new game has grown as PCs and consoles are able to produce increasingly sophisticated games (e.g., with more realistic graphics, such as real-time ray-tracing, and more realistic behaviors, such as real-time physics simulation). In the early days of the video game industry, video game development was a very similar process to application software development; that is, most of the development cost was in the development of the software, as opposed to the development of the graphical, audio, and behavioral elements or “assets”, such as those that may be developed for a motion picture with extensive special effects. Today, many sophisticated video game development efforts more closely resemble special effects-rich motion picture development than software development. For instance, many video games provide simulations of 3-D worlds, and generate increasingly photorealistic (i.e., computer graphics that seem as realistic as live action imagery shot photographically) characters, props, and environments. One of the most challenging aspects of photorealistic game development is creating a computer-generated human face that is indistinguishable from a live action human face. Facial capture technologies such Contour™ Reality Capture developed by Mova of San Francisco, Calif. captures and tracks the precise geometry of a performer's face at high resolution while it is in motion. This technology allows a 3D face to be rendered on a PC or game console that is virtually indistinguishable from a captured live action face. Capturing and rendering a “photoreal” human face precisely is useful in several respects. First, highly recognizable celebrities or athletes are often used in video games (often hired at a high cost), and imperfections may be apparent to the user, making the viewing experience distracting or unpleasant. Frequently, a high degree of detail is required to achieve a high degree of photorealism—requiring the rendering of a large number of polygons and high-resolution textures, potentially with the polygons and/or textures changing on a frame-by-frame basis as the face moves.
When high polygon-count scenes with detailed textures change rapidly, the PC or game console supporting the game may not have sufficient RAM to store enough polygon and texture data for the required number of animation frames generated in the game segment. Further, the single optical drive or single disk drive typically available on a PC or game console is usually much slower than the RAM, and typically can not keep up with the maximum data rate that the GPU can accept in rendering polygons and textures. Current games typically load most of the polygons and textures into RAM, which means that a given scene is largely limited in complexity and duration by the capacity of the RAM. In the case of facial animation, for example, this may limit a PC or a game console to either a low resolution face that is not photoreal, or to a photoreal face that can only be animated for a limited number of frames, before the game pauses, and loads polygons and textures (and other data) for more frames.
Watching a progress bar move slowly across the screen as a PC or console displays a message similar to “Loading . . . ” is accepted as an inherent drawback by today's users of complex video games. The delay while the next scene loads from the disk (“disk” herein, unless otherwise qualified, refers to non-volatile optical or magnetic media, as well non-disk media such as semiconductor “Flash” memory) can take several seconds or even several minutes. This is a waste of time and can be quite frustrating to a game player. As previously discussed, much or all of the delay may be due to the load time for polygon, textures or other data from a disk, but it also may be the case that part of the load time is spent while the processor and/or GPU in the PC or console prepares data for the scene. For example, a soccer video game may allow the players to choose among a large number of players, teams, stadiums and weather conditions. So, depending on what particular combination is chosen, different polygons, textures and other data (collectively “objects”) may be required for the scene (e.g., different teams have different colors and patterns on their uniforms). It may be possible to enumerate many or all of the various permutations and pre-compute many or all of the objects in advance and store the objects on the disk used to store the game. But, if the number of permutations is large, the amount of storage required for all of the objects may be too large to fit on the disk (or too impractical to download). Thus, existing PC and console systems are typically constrained in both the complexity and play duration of given scenes and suffer from long load times for complex scenes.
Another significant limitation with prior art video game systems and application software systems is that they are increasingly using large databases, e.g., of 3D objects such as polygons and textures, that need to be loaded into the PC or game console for processing. As discussed above, such databases can take a long time to load when stored locally on a disk. Load time, however, is usually far more severe if the database is stored a remote location and is accessed through the Internet. In such a situation it may take minutes, hours, or even days to download a large database. Further, such databases are often created a great expense (e.g., a 3D model of a detailed tall-masted sailing ship for use in a game, movie, or historical documentary) and are intended for sale to the local end-user. However, the database is at risk of being pirated once it has been downloaded to the local user. In many cases, a user wants to download a database simply for the sake of evaluating it to see if it suits the user's needs (e.g., if a 3D costume for a game character has a satisfactory appearance or look when the user performs a particular move). A long load time can be a deterrent for the user evaluating the 3D database before deciding to make a purchase.
Similar issues occur in MMOGs, particularly as games that allow users to utilize increasingly customized characters. For a PC or game console to display a character it needs to have access to the database of 3D geometry (polygons, textures, etc.) as well as behaviors (e.g., if the character has a shield, whether the shield is strong enough to deflect a spear or not) for that character. Typically, when a MMOG is first played by a user, a large number of databases for characters are already available with the initial copy of the game, which is available locally on the game's optical disk or downloaded to a disk. But, as the game progresses, if the user encounters a character or object whose database is not available locally (e.g., if another user has created a customized character), before that character or object can be displayed, its database must be downloaded. This can result in a substantial delay of the game.
Given the sophistication and complexity of video games, another challenge for video game developers and publishers with prior art video game consoles, is that it frequently takes 2 to 3 years to develop a video game at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Given that new video game console platforms are introduced at a rate of roughly once every five years, game developers need to start development work on those games years in advance of the release of the new game console in order to have video games available concurrently when the new platform is released. Several consoles from competing manufactures are sometimes released around the same time (e.g., within a year or two of each other), but what remains to be seen is the popularity of each console, e.g., which console will produce the largest video game software sales. For example, in a recent console cycle, the Microsoft XBox 360, the Sony Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii were scheduled to be introduced around the same general timeframe. But years before the introductions the game developers essentially had to “place their bets” on which console platforms would be more successful than others, and devote their development resources accordingly. Motion picture production companies also have to apportion their limited production resources based on what they estimate to be the likely success of a movie well in advance of the release of the movie. Given the growing level of investment required for video games, game production is increasingly becoming like motion picture production, and game production companies routinely devote their production resources based on their estimate of the future success of a particular video game. But, unlike they motion picture companies, this bet is not simply based on the success of the production itself; rather, it is predicated on the success of the game console the game is intended to run on. Releasing the game on multiple consoles at once may mitigate the risk, but this additional effort increases cost, and frequently delays the actual release of the game.
Application software and user environments on PCs are becoming more computationally intensive, dynamic and interactive, not only to make them more visually appealing to users, but also to make them more useful and intuitive. For example, both the new Windows Vista™ operating system and successive versions of the Macintosh® operating system incorporate visual animation effects. Advanced graphics tools such as Maya™ from Autodesk, Inc., provide very sophisticated 3D rendering and animation capability which push the limits of state-of-the-art CPUs and GPUs. However, the computational requirements of these new tools create a number of practical issues for users and software developers of such products.
Since the visual display of an operating system (OS) must work on a wide range of classes of computers—including prior-generation computers no longer sold, but still upgradeable with the new OS—the OS graphical requirements are limited to a large degree by a least common denominator of computers that the OS is targeted for, which typically includes computers that do not include a GPU. This severely limits the graphics capability of the OS. Furthermore, battery-powered portable computers (e.g., laptops) limit the visual display capability since high computational activity in a CPU or GPU typically results in higher power consumption and shorter battery life. Portable computers typically include software that automatically lowers processor activity to reduce power consumption when the processor is not utilized. In some computer models the user may lower processor activity manually. For example, Sony's VGN-SZ280P laptop contains a switch labeled “Stamina” on one side (for low performance, more battery life) and “Speed” on the other (for high performance, less battery life). An OS running on a portable computer must be able to function usably even in the event the computer is running at a fraction of its peak performance capability. Thus, OS graphics performance often remains far below the state-of-the-art available computational capability.
High-end computationally-intense applications like Maya are frequently sold with the expectation that they will be used on high-performance PCs. This typically establishes a much higher performance, and more expensive and less portable, least common denominator requirement. As a consequence, such applications have a much more limited target audience than a general purpose OS (or general purpose productivity application, like Microsoft Office) and typically sell in much lower volume than general purpose OS software or general purpose application software. The potential audience is further limited because often times it is difficult for a prospective user to try out such computationally-intense applications in advance. For example, suppose a student wants to learn how to use Maya or a potential buyer already knowledgeable about such applications wants to try out Maya before making the investment in the purchase (which may well involve also buying a high-end computer capable of running Maya). While either the student or the potential buyer could download, or get a physical media copy of, a demo version of Maya, if they lack a computer capable of running Maya to its full potential (e.g., handling a complex 3D scene), then they will be unable to make an fully-informed assessment of the product. This substantially limits the audience for such high-end applications. It also contributes to a high selling price since the development cost is usually amortized across a much smaller number of purchases than those of a general-purpose application.
High-priced applications also create more incentive for individuals and businesses to use pirated copies of the application software. As a result, high-end application software suffers from rampant piracy, despite significant efforts by publishers of such software to mitigate such piracy through various techniques. Still, even when using pirated high-end applications, users cannot obviate the need to invest in expensive state-of-the-art PCs to run the pirated copies. So, while they may obtain use of a software application for a fraction of its actual retail price, users of pirated software are still required to purchase or obtain an expensive PC in order to fully utilize the application.
The same is true for users of high-performance pirated video games. Although pirates may get the games at fraction of their actual price, they are still required to purchase expensive computing hardware (e.g., a GPU-enhanced PC, or a high-end video game console like the XBox 360) needed to properly play the game. Given that video games are typically a pastime for consumers, the additional cost for a high-end video game system can be prohibitive. This situation is worse in countries (e.g., China) where the average annual income of workers currently is quite low relative to that of the United States. As a result, a much smaller percentage of the population owns a high-end video game system or a high-end PC. In such countries, “Internet cafes”, in which users pay a fee to use a computer connected to the Internet, are quite common. Frequently, such Internet cafes have older model or low-end PCs without high performance features, such as a GPU, which might otherwise enable players to play computationally-intensive video games. This is a key factor in the success of games that run on low-end PCs, such as Vivendi's “World of Warcraft” which is highly successful in China, and is commonly played in Internet cafes there. In contrast, a computationally-intensive game, like “Second Life” is much less likely to be playable on a PC installed in a Chinese Internet café. Such games are virtually inaccessible to users who only have access to low-performance PCs in Internet cafes.
Barriers also exist for users who are considering purchasing a video game and would first like to try out a demonstration version of the game by downloading the demo through the Internet to their home. A video game demo is often a full-fledged version of the game with some features disabled, or with limits placed on the amount of game play. This may involve a long process (perhaps hours) of downloading gigabytes of data before the game can be installed and executed on either a PC or a console. In the case of a PC, it may also involve figuring out what special drivers are needed (e.g., DirectX or OpenGL drivers) for the game, downloading the correct version, installing them, and then determining whether the PC is capable of playing the game. This latter step may involve determining whether the PC has enough processing (CPU and GPU) capability, sufficient RAM, and a compatible OS (e.g., some games run on Windows XP, but not Vista). Thus, after a long process of attempting to run a video game demo, the user may well find out that the video game demo can't be possibly played, given the user's PC configuration. Worse, once the user has downloaded new drivers in order to try the demo, these driver versions may be incompatible with other games or applications the user uses regularly on the PC, thus the installation of a demo may render previously operable games or applications inoperable. Not only are these barriers frustrating for the user, but they create barriers for video game software publishers and video game developers to market their games.
Another problem that results in economic inefficiency has to do with the fact that given PC or game console is usually designed to accommodate a certain level of performance requirement for applications and/or games. For example, some PCs have more or less RAM, slower or faster CPUs, and slower or faster GPUs, if they have a GPUs at all. Some games or applications make take advantage of the full computing power of a given PC or console, while many games or applications do not. If a user's choice of game or application falls short of the peak performance capabilities of the local PC or console, then the user may have wasted money on the PC or console for unutilized features. In the case of a console, the console manufacturer may have paid more than was necessary to subsidize the console cost.
Another problem that exists in the marketing and enjoyment of video games involves allowing a user to watch others playing games before the user commits to the purchase of that game. Several prior art approaches exist for the recording of video games for replay at a later time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,339 teaches recording game state information, including game controller actions, during “gameplay” in the video game client computer (owned by the same or different user). This state information can be used at a later time to replay some or all of the game action on a video game client computer (e.g., PC or console). A significant drawback to this approach is that for a user to view the recorded game, the user must possess a video game client computer capable of playing the game and must have the video game application running on that computer, such that the gameplay is identical when the recorded game state is replayed. Beyond that, the video game application has to be written in such a way that there is no possible execution difference between the recorded game and the played back game.
For example, game graphics are generally computed on a frame-by-frame basis. For many games, the game logic sometimes may take shorter or longer than one frame time to compute the graphics displayed for the next frame, depending on whether the scene is particularly complex, or if there are other delays that slow down execution (e.g., on a PC, another process may be running that takes away CPU cycles from the game applications). In such a game, a “threshold” frame that is computed in slightly less than one frame time (say a few CPU clock cycles less) can eventually occur. When that same scene is computed again using the exact same game state information, it could easily take a few CPU clock cycles more than one frame time (e.g., if an internal CPU bus is slightly out of phase with the an external DRAM bus and it introduces a few CPU cycle times of delay, even if there is no large delay from another process taking away milliseconds of CPU time from game processing). Therefore, when the game is played back the frame gets calculated in two frame times rather than a single frame time. Some behaviors are based on how often the game calculates a new frame (e.g., when the game samples the input from the game controllers). While the game is played, this discrepancy in the time reference for different behaviors does not impact game play, but it can result in the played-back game producing a different result. For example, if a basketball's ballistics are calculated at a steady 60 fps rate, but the game controller input is sampled based on rate of computed frames, the rate of computed frames may be 53 fps when the game was recorded, but 52 fps when the game is replayed, which can make the difference between whether the basketball is blocked from going into the basket or not, resulting in a different outcome. Thus, using game state to record video games requires very careful game software design to ensure that the replay, using the same game state information, produces the exact same outcome.
Another prior art approach for recording video game is to simply record the video output of a PC or video game system (e.g., to a VCR, DVD recorder, or to a video capture board on a PC). The video then can be rewound and replayed, or alternatively, the recorded video uploaded to the Internet, typically after being compressed. A disadvantage to this approach is that when a 3D game sequence is played back, the user is limited to viewing the sequence from only the point of view from which the sequence was recorded. In other words, the user cannot change the point of view of the scene.
Further, when compressed video of a recorded game sequence played on a home PC or game console is made available to other users through the Internet, even if the video is compressed in real-time, it may be impossible to upload the compressed video in real-time to the Internet. The reason why is because many homes in the world that are connected to the Internet have highly asymmetric broadband connections (e.g., DSL and cable modems typically have far higher downstream bandwidth than upstream bandwidth). Compressed high resolution video sequences often have higher bandwidths than the upstream bandwidth capacity of the network, making them impossible to upload in real-time. Thus, there would be a significant delay after the game sequence is played (perhaps minutes or even hours) before another user on the Internet would be able to view the game. Although this delay is tolerable in certain situations (e.g., to watch a game player's accomplishments that occurred at a prior time), it eliminates the ability to watch a game live (e.g., a basketball tournament, played by champion players) or with “instant replay” capability as the game is played live.
Another prior art approach allows a viewer with a television receiver to watch video games live, but only under the control of the television production crew. Some television channels, in both the US and in other countries provide video game viewing channels, where the television viewing audience is able to watch certain video game users (e.g., top-rated players playing in tournaments) on video game channels. This is accomplished by having the video output of the video game systems (PCs and/or consoles) fed into the video distribution and processing equipment for the television channel. This is not unlike when the television channel is broadcasting a live basketball game in which several cameras provide live feeds from different angles around the basketball court. The television channel then is able to make use of their video/audio processing and effects equipment to manipulate the output from the various video game systems. For example, the television channel can overlay text on top of the video from a video game that indicates the status of different players (just as they might overlay text during a live basketball game), and the television channel can overdub audio from a commentator who can discuss the action occurring during the games. Additionally, the video game output can be combined with cameras recording video of the actual players of the games (e.g., showing their emotional response to the game).
One problem with this approach is that such live video feeds must be available to the television channel's video distribution and processing equipment in real-time in order for it to have the excitement of a live broadcast. As previously discussed, however, this is often impossible when the video game system is running from the home, especially if part of the broadcast includes live video from a camera that is capturing real-world video of the game player. Further, in a tournament situation, there is a concern that an in-home gamer may modify the game and cheat, as previously described. For these reasons, such video game broadcasts on television channels are often arranged with players and video game systems aggregated at a common location (e.g., at a television studio or in an arena) where the television production equipment can accept video feeds from multiple video game systems and potentially live cameras.
Although such prior art video game television channels can provide a very exciting presentation to the television viewing audience that is an experience akin to a live sporting event, e.g., with the video game players presented as “athletes”, both in terms of their actions in the video game world, and in terms of their actions in the real world, these video game systems are often limited to situations where players are in close physical proximity to one another. And, since television channels are broadcasted, each broadcasted channel can only show one video stream, which is selected by the television channel's production crew. Because of these limitations and the high cost of broadcast time, production equipment and production crews, such television channels typically only show top-rated players playing in top tournaments.
Additionally, a given television channel broadcasting a full-screen image of a video game to the entire television viewing audience shows only one video game at a time. This severely limits a television viewer's choices. For example, a television viewer may not be interested in the game(s) shown at a given time. Another viewer may only be interested in watching the game play of a particular player that is not featured by the television channel at a given time. In other cases, a viewer may only be interested in watching a how an expert player handles a particular level in a game. Still other viewers may wish to control the viewpoint that a video game is seen from, which is different from that chosen by the production team, etc. In short, a television viewer may have a myriad of preferences in watching video games that are not accommodated by the particular broadcast of a television network, even if several different television channels are available. For all of the aforementioned reasons, prior art video game television channels have significant limitations in presenting video games to television viewers.
Another drawback of prior art video games systems and application software systems is that they are complex, and commonly suffer from errors, crashes and/or unintended and undesired behaviors (collectively, “bugs”). Although games and applications typically go through a debugging and tuning process (frequently called “Software Quality Assurance” or SQA) before release, almost invariably once the game or application is released to a wide audience in the field bugs crop up. Unfortunately, it is difficult for the software developer to identify and track down many of the bugs after release. It can be difficult for software developers to become aware of bugs. Even when they learn about a bug, there may only be a limited amount of information available to them to identify what caused the bug. For example, a user may call up a game developer's customer service line and leave a message stating that when playing the game, the screen started to flash, then changed to a solid blue color and the PC froze. That provides the SQA team with very little information useful in tracking down a bug. Some games or applications that are connected online can sometimes provide more information in certain cases. For example, a “watchdog” process can sometimes be used to monitor the game or application for “crashes”. The watchdog process can gather statistics about the status of the game or applications process (e.g., the status of the stack, of the memory usage, how far the game or applications has progressed, etc.) when it crashes and then upload that information to the SQA team via the Internet. But in a complex game or application, such information can take a very long time to decipher in order to accurately determine what the user was doing at the time of the crash. Even then, it may be impossible to determine what sequence of events led to the crash.
Yet another problem associated with PCs and game consoles is that they are subject to service issues which greatly inconvenience the consumer. Service issues also impact the manufacturer of the PC or game console since they typically are required to send a special box to safely ship the broken PC or console, and then incur the cost of repair if the PC or console is in warranty. The game or application software publisher can also be impacted by the loss of sales (or online service use) by PCs and/or consoles being in a state of repair.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art video gaming system such as a Sony Playstation® 3, Microsoft Xbox 360®, Nintendo Wii™, Windows-based personal computer or Apple Macintosh. Each of these systems includes a central processing unit (CPU) for executing program code, typically a graphical processing unit (GPU) for performing advanced graphical operations, and multiple forms of input/output (I/O) for communicating with external devices and users. For simplicity, these components are shown combined together as a single unit 100. The prior art video gaming system of FIG. 1 also is shown including an optical media drive 104 (e.g., a DVD-ROM drive); a hard drive 103 for storing video game program code and data; a network connection 105 for playing multi-player games, for downloading games, patches, demos or other media; a random access memory (RAM) 101 for storing program code currently being executed by the CPU/GPU 100; a game controller 106 for receiving input commands from the user during gameplay; and a display device 102 (e.g., a SDTV/HDTV or a computer monitor).
The prior art system shown in FIG. 1 suffers from several limitations. First, optical drives 104 and hard drives 103 tend to have much slower access speeds as compared to that of RAM 101. When working directly through RAM 101, the CPU/GPU 100 can, in practice, process far more polygons per second than is possible when the program code and data is read directly off of hard drive 103 or optical drive 104 due to the fact that RAM 101 generally has much higher bandwidth and does not suffer from the relatively long seek delays of disc mechanisms. But only a limited amount of RAM is provided in these prior art systems (e.g., 256-512 Mbytes). Therefore, a “Loading . . . ” sequence in which RAM 101 is periodically filled up with the data for the next scene of the video game is often required.
Some systems attempt to overlap the loading of the program code concurrently with the gameplay, but this can only be done when there is a known sequence of events (e.g., if a car is driving down a road, the geometry for the approaching buildings on the roadside can be loaded while the car is driving). For complex and/or rapid scene changes, this type of overlapping usually does not work. For example, in the case where the user is in the midst of a battle and RAM 101 is completely filled with data representing the objects within view at that moment, if the user moves the view rapidly to the left to view objects that are not presently loaded in RAM 101, a discontinuity in the action will result since there not be enough time to load the new objects from Hard Drive 103 or Optical Media 104 into RAM 101.
Another problem with the system of FIG. 1 arises due to limitations in the storage capacity of hard drives 103 and optical media 104. Although disk storage devices can be manufactured with a relatively large storage capacity (e.g., 50 gigabytes or more), they still do not provide enough storage capacity for certain scenarios encountered in current video games. For example, as previously mentioned, a soccer video game might allow the user to choose among dozens of teams, players and stadiums throughout the world. For each team, each player and each stadium a large number of texture maps and environment maps are needed to characterize the 3D surfaces in the world (e.g., each team has a unique jersey, with each requiring a unique texture map).
One technique used to address this latter problem is for the game to pre-compute texture and environment maps once they are selected by the user. This may involve a number of computationally-intensive processes, including decompressing images, 3D mapping, shading, organizing data structures, etc. As a result, there may be a delay for the user while the video game is performing these calculations. On way to reduce this delay, in principle, is to perform all of these computations—including every permutation of team, player roster, and stadium—when the game was originally developed. The released version of the game would then include all of this pre-processed data stored on optical media 104, or on one or more servers on the Internet with just the selected pre-processed data for a given team, player roster, stadium selection downloaded through the Internet to hard drive 103 when the user makes a selection. As a practical matter, however, such pre-loaded data of every permutation possible in game play could easily be terabytes of data, which is far in excess of the capacity of today's optical media devices. Furthermore, the data for a given team, player roster, stadium selection could easily be hundreds of megabytes of data or more. With a home network connection of, say, 10 Mbps, it would take longer to download this data through network connection 105 than it would to compute the data locally.
Thus, the prior art game architecture shown in FIG. 1 subjects the user to significant delays between major scene transitions of complex games.
Another problem with prior art approaches such as that shown in FIG. 1 is that over the years video games tend to become more advanced and require more CPU/GPU processing power. Thus, even assuming an unlimited amount of RAM, video games hardware requirements go beyond the peak level of processing power available in these systems. As a result, users are required to upgrade gaming hardware every few years to keep pace (or play newer games at lower quality levels). One consequence of the trend to ever more advanced video games is that video game playing machines for home use are typically economically inefficient because their cost is usually determined by the requirements of the highest performance game they can support. For example, an XBox 360 might be used to play a game like “Gears of War”, which demands a high performance CPU, GPU, and hundreds of megabytes of RAM, or the XBox 360 might be used to play Pac Man, a game from the 1970s that requires only kilobytes of RAM and a very low performance CPU. Indeed, an XBox 360 has enough computing power to host many simultaneous Pac Man games at once.
Video games machines are typically turned off for most of the hours of a week. According to a July 2006 Nielsen Entertainment study of active gamers 13 years and older, on average, active gamers spend fourteen hours/week playing console video games, or just 12% of the total hours in a week. This means that the average video game console is idle 88% of the time, which is an inefficient use of an expensive resource. This is particularly significant given that video game consoles are often subsidized by the manufacturer to bring down the purchase price (with the expectation that the subsidy will be earned back by royalties from future video game software purchases).
Video game consoles also incur costs associated with almost any consumer electronic device. For instance, the electronics and mechanisms of the systems need to be housed in an enclosure. The manufacturer needs to offer a service warranty. The retailer who sells the system needs to collect a margin on either the sale of the system and/or on the sale of video game software. All of these factors add to the cost of the video game console, which must either be subsidized by the manufacturer, passed along to the consumer, or both.
In addition, piracy is a major problem for the video game industry. The security mechanisms utilized on virtually every major video gaming system have been “cracked” over the years, resulting in unauthorized copying of video games. For example, the Xbox 360 security system was cracked in July 2006 and users are now able to download illegal copies online. Games that are downloadable (e.g., games for the PC or the Mac) are particularly vulnerable to piracy. In certain regions of the world where piracy is weakly policed there is essentially no viable market for standalone video game software because users can buy pirated copies as readily as legal copies for a tiny fraction of the cost. Also, in many parts of the world the cost of a game console is such a high percentage of income that even if piracy were controlled, few people could afford a state-of-the-art gaming system.
In addition, the used game market reduces revenue for the video game industry. When a user has become tired of a game, they can sell the game to a store which will resell the game to other users. This unauthorized but common practice significantly reduces revenues of game publishers. Similarly, a reduction in sales on the order of 50% commonly occurs when there is a platform transition every few years. This is because users stop buying games for the older platforms when they know that the newer version platform is about to be released (e.g., when Playstation 3 is about to be released, users stop buying Playstation 2 games). Combined, the loss of sales and increased development costs associated with the new platforms can have a very significant adverse impact on the profitability of game developers.
New game consoles are also very expensive. The Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the Sony Playstation 3 all retail for hundreds of dollars. High powered personal computer gaming systems can cost up to $8000. This represents a significant investment for users, particularly considering that the hardware becomes obsolete after a few years and the fact that many systems are purchased for children.
One approach to the foregoing problems is online gaming in which the gaming program code and data are hosted on a server and delivered to client machines on-demand as compressed video and audio streamed over a digital broadband network. Some companies such as G-Cluster in Finland (now a subsidiary of Japan's SOFTBANK Broadmedia) currently provide these services online. Similar gaming services have become available in local networks, such as those within hotels and offered by DSL and cable television providers. A major drawback of these systems is the problem of latency, i.e., the time it takes for a signal to travel to and from the game server, which is typically located in an operator's “head-end”. Fast action video games (also known as “twitch” video games) require very low latency between the time the user performs an action with the game controller and the time the display screen is updated showing the result of the user action. Low latency is needed so that the user has the perception that the game is responding “instantly”. Users may be satisfied with different latency intervals depending on the type of game and the skill level of the user. For example, 100 ms of latency may be tolerable for a slow casual game (like backgammon) or a slow-action role playing game, but in a fast action game a latency in excess of 70 or 80 ms may cause the user to perform more poorly in the game, and thus is unacceptable. For instance, in a game that requires fast reaction time there is a sharp decline in accuracy as latency increases from 50 to 100 ms.
When a game or application server is installed in a nearby, controlled network environment, or one where the network path to the user is predictable and/or can tolerate bandwidth peaks, it is far easier to control latency, both in terms of maximum latency and in terms of the consistency of the latency (e.g., so the user observes steady motion from digital video streaming through the network). Such level of control can be achieved between a cable TV network head-end to a cable TV subscriber's home, or from a DSL central office to DSL subscriber's home, or in a commercial office Local Area Network (LAN) environment from a server or a user. Also, it is possible to obtain specially-graded point-to-point private connections between businesses which have guaranteed bandwidth and latency. But in a game or application system that hosts games in a server center connected to the general Internet and then streams compressed video to the user through a broadband connection, latency is incurred from many factors, resulting in severe limitations in the deployment of prior art systems.
In a typical broadband-connected home, a user may have a DSL or cable modem for broadband service. Such broadband services commonly incur as much as a 25 ms round-trip latency (and at times more) between the user's home and the general Internet. In addition, there are round-trip latencies incurred from routing data through the Internet to a server center. The latency through the Internet varies based on the route that the data is given and the delays it incurs as it is routed. In addition to routing delays, round-trip latency is also incurred due to the speed of light traveling through the optical fiber that interconnects most of the Internet. For example, for each 1000 miles, approximately 22 ms is incurred in round-trip latency due to the speed of light through the optical fiber and other overhead.
Additional latency can occur due to the data rate of the data streamed through the Internet. For example, if a user has DSL service that is sold as “6 Mbps DSL service”, in practice, the user will probably get less than 5 Mbps of downstream throughput at best, and will likely see the connection degrade periodically due to various factors such as congestion during peak load times at the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM). A similar issue can occur reducing a the data rate of a cable modem is used for a connection sold as “6 Mbps cable modem service” to far less than that, if there is congestion in the local shared coaxial cable looped through the neighborhood, or elsewhere in the cable modem system network. If data packets at a steady rate of 4 Mbps are streamed as one-way in User Datagram Protocol (UDP) format from a server center through such connections, if everything is working well, the data packets will pass through without incurring additional latency, but if there is congestion (or other impediments) and only 3.5 Mbps is available to stream data to the user, then in a typical situation either packets will be dropped, resulting in lost data, or packets will queue up at the point of congestion, until they can be sent, thereby introducing additional latency. Different points of congestion have different queuing capacity to hold delayed packets, so in some cases packets that can't make it through the congestion are dropped immediately. In other cases, several megabits of data are queued up and eventually be sent. But, in almost all cases, queues at points of congestion have capacity limits, and once those limits are exceeded, the queues will overflow and packets will be dropped. Thus, to avoid incurring additional latency (or worse, loss of packets), it is necessary to avoid exceeding the data rate capacity from the game or application server to the user.
Latency is also incurred by the time required to compress video in the server and decompress video in the client device. Latency is further incurred while a video game running on a server is calculating the next frame to be displayed. Currently available video compression algorithms suffer from either high data rates or high latency. For example, motion JPEG is an intraframe-only lossy compression algorithm that is characterized by low-latency. Each frame of video is compressed independently of each other frame of video. When a client device receives a frame of compressed motion JPEG video, it can immediately decompress the frame and display it, resulting in very low latency. But because each frame is compressed separately, the algorithm is unable to exploit similarities between successive frames, and as a result intraframe-only video compression algorithms suffer from very high data rates. For example, 60 fps (frames per second) 640×480 motion JPEG video may require 40 Mbps (megabits per second) or more of data. Such high data rates for such low resolution video windows would be prohibitively expensive in many broadband applications (and certainly for most consumer Internet-based applications). Further, because each frame is compressed independently, artifacts in the frames that may result from the lossy compression are likely to appear in different places in successive frames. This can results in what appears to the viewer as a moving visual artifacts when the video is decompressed.
Other compression algorithms, such as MPEG2, H.264 or VC9 from Microsoft Corporation as they are used in prior art configurations, can achieve high compression ratios, but at the cost of high latency. Such algorithms utilize interframe as well as intraframe compression. Periodically, such algorithms perform an intraframe-only compression of a frame. Such a frame is known as a key frame (typically referred to as an “I” frame). Then, these algorithms typically compare the I frame with both prior frames and successive frames. Rather than compressing the prior frames and successive frames independently, the algorithm determines what has changed in the image from the I frame to the prior and successive frames, and then stores those changes as what are called “B” frames for the changes preceding the I frame and “P” frames for the changes following the I frame. This results in much lower data rates than intraframe-only compression. But, it typically comes at the cost of higher latency. An I frame is typically much larger than a B or P frame (often 10 times larger), and as a result, it takes proportionately longer to transmit at a given data rate.
Consider, for example, a situation where the I frames are 10× the size of B and P frames, and there are 29 B frames+30 P frames=59 interframes for every single I intraframe, or 60 frames total for each “Group of Frames” (GOP). So, at 60 fps, there is 1 60-frame GOP each second. Suppose the transmission channel has a maximum data rate of 2 Mbps. To achieve the highest quality video in the channel, the compression algorithm would produce a 2 Mbps data stream, and given the above ratios, this would result in 2 Megabits (Mb)/(59+10)=30,394 bits per intraframe and 303,935 bits per I frame. When the compressed video stream is received by the decompression algorithm, in order for the video to play steadily, each frame needs to decompressed and displayed at a regular interval (e.g., 60 fps). To achieve this result, if any frame is subject to transmission latency, all of the frames need to be delayed by at least that latency, so the worst-case frame latency will define the latency for every video frame. The I frames introduce the longest transmission latencies since they are largest, and an entire I frame would have to be received before the I frame could be decompressed and displayed (or any interframe dependent on the I frame). Given that the channel data rate is 2 Mbps, it will take 303,935/2 Mb=145 ms to transmit an I frame.
An interframe video compression system as described above using a large percentage of the bandwidth of the transmission channel will be subject to long latencies due to the large size of an I frame relative to the average size of a frame. Or, to put it another way, while prior art interframe compression algorithms achieve a lower average per-frame data rate than intraframe-only compression algorithms (e.g., 2 Mbps vs. 40 Mbps), they still suffer from a high peak per-frame data rate (e.g., 303,935*60=18.2 Mbps) because of the large I frames. Bear in mind, though that the above analysis assumes that the P and B frames are all much smaller than the I frames. While this is generally true, it is not true for frames with high image complexity uncorrelated with the prior frame, high motion, or scene changes. In such situations, the P or B frames can become as large as I frames (if a P or B frame gets larger than an I frame, a sophisticated compression algorithm will typically “force” an I frame and replace the P or B frame with an I frame). So, I frame-sized data rate peaks can occur at any moment in a digital video stream. Thus, with compressed video, when the average video data rate approaches data rate capacity of the transmission channels (as is frequently the case, given the high data rate demands for video) the high peak data rates from I frames or large P or B frames result in a high frame latency.
Of course, the above discussion only characterizes the compression algorithm latency created by large B, P or I frames in a GOP. If B frames are used, the latency will be even higher. The reason why is because before a B frame can be displayed, all of the B frames after the B frame and the I frame must be received. Thus, in a group of picture (GOP) sequence such as BBBBBIPPPPPBBBBBIPPPPP, where there are 5 B frames before each I frame, the first B frame can not be displayed by the video decompressor until the subsequent B frames and I frame are received. So, if video is being streamed at 60 fps (i.e., 16.67 ms/frame), before the first B frame can be decompressed, five B frames and the I frame will take 16.67*6=100 ms to receive, no matter how fast the channel bandwidth is, and this is with just 5 B frames. Compressed video sequences with 30 B frames are quite common. And, at a low channel bandwidth like 2 Mbps, the latency impact caused by the size of the I frame is largely additive to the latency impact due to waiting for B frames to arrive. Thus, on a 2 Mbps channel, with a large number of B frames it is quite easy to exceed 500 ms of latency or more using prior art video compression technology. If B frames are not used (at the cost of a lower compression ratio for given quality level), the B frame latency is not incurred, but the latency caused by the peak frame sizes, described above, is still incurred.
The problem is exacerbated by very the nature of many video games. Video compression algorithms utilizing the GOP structure described above have been largely optimized for use with live video or motion picture material intended for passive viewing. Typically, the camera (whether a real camera, or a virtual camera in the case of a computer-generated animation) and scene is relatively steady, simply because if the camera or scene moves around too jerkily, the video or movie material is (a) typically unpleasant to watch and (b) if it is being watched, usually the viewer is not closely following the action when the camera jerks around suddenly (e.g., if the camera is bumped when shooting a child blowing out the candles on a birthday cake and suddenly jerks away from the cake and back again, the viewers are typically focused on the child and the cake, and disregard the brief interruption when the camera suddenly moves). In the case of a video interview, or a video teleconference, the camera may be held in a fixed position and not move at all, resulting in very few data peaks at all. But 3D high action video games are characterized by constant motion (e.g., consider a 3D racing, where the entire frame is in rapid motion for the duration of the race, or consider first-person shooters, where the virtual camera is constantly moving around jerkily). Such video games can result in frame sequences with large and frequent peaks where the user may need to clearly see what is happening during those sudden motions. As such, compression artifacts are far less tolerable in 3D high action video games. Thus, the video output of many video games, by their nature, produces a compressed video stream with very high and frequent peaks.
Given that users of fast-action video games have little tolerance for high latency, and given all of the above causes of latency, to date there have been limitations to server-hosted video games that stream video on the Internet. Further, users of applications that require a high degree of interactivity suffer from similar limitations if the applications are hosted on the general Internet and stream video. Such services require a network configuration in which the hosting servers are set up directly in a head end (in the case of cable broadband) or the central office (in the case of Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL)), or within a LAN (or on a specially-graded private connection) in a commercial setting, so that the route and distance from the client device to the server is controlled to minimize latency and peaks can be accommodated without incurring latency. LANs (typically rated at 100 Mbps-1 Gbps) and leased lines with adequate bandwidth typically can support peak bandwidth requirements (e.g., 18 Mbps peak bandwidth is a small fraction of a 100 Mbps LAN capacity).
Peak bandwidth requirements can also be accommodated by residential broadband infrastructure if special accommodations are made. For example, on a cable TV system, digital video traffic can be given dedicated bandwidth which can handle peaks, such as large I frames. And, on a DSL system, a higher speed DSL modem can be provisioned, allowing for high peaks, or a specially-graded connection can provisioned which can handle a higher data rates. But, conventional cable modem and DSL infrastructure attached to the general Internet have far less tolerance for peak bandwidth requirements for compressed video. So, online services that host video games or applications in server centers a long distance from the client devices, and then stream the compressed video output over the Internet through conventional residential broadband connections suffer from significant latency and peak bandwidth limitations—particularly with respect to games and applications which require very low latency (e.g., first person shooters and other multi-user, interactive action games, or applications requiring a fast response time). | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus to prevent trouble caused by static electricity.
2. Description of Related Art
In some kinds of image forming apparatuses such as what uses an electrophotographic method, an electrostatic method, or a magnetoelectric method; toner images are formed on surfaces of photosensitive drums etc. based on image information received from host devices. These toner images are transcribed onto recording media supplied from media supplying units. And, these toner images are fixed with heat in fixing units, so as to form images. In the media supplying units, media contained in media cassettes are pressed to media supplying rollers, so as to be supplied. Inside of the media cassettes, loading plates to be pushed to the media supplying rollers are provided. And, the recording media are loaded on these loading plates. In these states, the loading plates with media are pushed or moved toward the media supplying rollers. Then, the recording media are pressed to the media supplying rollers. And, each medium is separated and supplied one by one by a conveying force of media supplying rollers with friction between the rolls and separating rubbers.
In the media supplying apparatus, static electricity is generated by friction such as friction between the recording medium and the media supplying roller, friction between the recording medium and the separating rubber, or friction between the recording media themselves, when the recording media are conveyed. Moreover, in some cases, static electricity is already charged on the recording medium, before the media supplying unit is attached to the image forming apparatus. Such static electricity can flow in unexpected routes. Especially, in an image forming apparatus of recent years, many component parts are made of resin. Therefore, much static electricity is likely to be generated on the recording medium loaded on a media cassette made of resin. The static electricity flowing in unexpected routes becomes a noise of electric current that causes inconvenience such as drop of graphical quality, malfunction of the apparatus, or electric shocks to operators (c.f. JP 7-237783).
Therefore, the present invention is made to remove inconvenience such as drop of graphical quality, malfunction of the apparatus, or electric shocks to operators caused by static electricity flowing in unexpected routes becoming a noise of electric current. | {
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The type of fuel cell that the present invention concerns is disclosed in International patent applications PCT SE2007/050222 and in PCT SE2005/001514.
Fuel cells of this type typically consist of the following design features/functionalities:
1) A sealing functionality creating the anode gas chamber. This is accomplished by using an adhesive which thereby seals the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) to an anode current collector foil.
2) A gas distribution functionality to distribute the hydrogen gas to different cells in a fuel cell device. This is accomplished by forming a support plate with gas channels for the hydrogen gas. The fuel cells are attached to the support plate by adhesive and/or clamping means. From the support plate there are holes leading to the anode gas chamber of each cell.
3) An electrical interconnect functionality which collects the current from one cell and distributes it to the adjacent cell, preferably with minimal resistance and in such a manner that uniform current density is obtained over the active area of the cells.
4) A clamping feature. By subjecting the fuel cell to a clamping force the internal resistance within the cell is decreased, i.e. contact resistances between different materials and specific resistances inside materials (e.g. by compressing the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) its fiber-fiber connections improves). Analogous to the electrical contact also the heat conductivity is improved by the clamping and thereby more heat can be dissipated from the reaction layers (i.e. the electrodes). The clamping feature is closely linked to the electrical interconnect functionality.
All these design features/functionalities applied together form a fuel cell device.
In the prior art devices according to the patent application cited above, the interconnect functionality of a multiple cell fuel cell device is obtained by an electrically conductive current collector foil which is leading from the anode GDL of one cell to the cathode GDL of an adjacent cell. At the GDL of the adjacent cell there is an electrical interface (a contact area) to the clamping means (e.g. a gold plated metal net) which distributes the current over the cathode GDL. The GDL is thus working as a compressible element, pushing the foil against the net, when the cell is being clamped together.
One disadvantage with this design is that the current collector foil must partially cover the cathode GDL of the adjacent cell (i.e. beneath the interconnect area between the foil and the net), thereby hindering the air access to that part of the GDL and the MEA lying under it.
Another disadvantage of this design is that the current collector foil can come in electrochemical contact with the cathode of the MEA of the adjacent cell. This can happen when the water produced in the electrochemical cathode reaction (2H++2e−+½O2→H2O) are forming an electrochemical electrolyte between the current collector foil and the cathode GDL and MEA. The electrochemical potential of the cathode causes ions (e.g. Cu-ions) to dissolve from the conductive foil and perhaps also from its adhesives. The ions are then transported into the MEA where they will poison both the catalysts and the proton conducting ionomer. The water produced in this way can also form a galvanic cell between the gold plated net and the conductive foil, thereby dissolving ions from the foil.
Life time experiments on prior art fuel cell devices designed according to FIG. 1 in the present application have shown that the performance is decreasing with more than 45% after 500 working hours. Post-test analysis on such cell membranes (with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy) has shown that the membrane contains Cu-ions which probably come from the conducting tape at the cathode side. | {
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Outbound contact centers originate communications to individuals for various purposes, ranging from telemarketing to dept collection. For maximum effectiveness, the contacted party frequently interacts with an agent, as opposed to, e.g., an interactive voice response unit. Regardless of what criteria are used to define a successful or optimal outcome for the contact, it is not surprising that the skills of the agent greatly impact the outcome of the contact. Further, other factors may be involved in contributing to an optimized contact between the agent and the contacted party. These factors may involve matching various characteristics, such as personality and demographic characteristics, between the agent and the contacted party.
Matching the contacted party's characteristics with the agent's characteristics can result in an affinity between the two that further optimizes the contact. Such matching may be based on personality, demographics, native language or dialects, ethnic background, age, or other criteria. However, these relationship affinity matchings rely on the conventional call center techniques of matching a contacted party of an outbound initiated call with an available agent. For example, several outgoing calls may be initiated by the contact center wherein the first answered call is then connected to the most appropriate, available agent. However, the most appropriate and available agent may not necessarily be the most appropriate agent, as the most appropriate agent may not be available. Thus, an optimized matching between the contacted party and the agent is not likely to occur.
Further, calls are typically originated during a call center shift which may not necessarily reflect the best time to call that party. Thus, there is no assurance that when the communication using the contact record is originated, the desired contact person will be contacted, nor that the best agent to handle the communication will be available.
Thus, a mechanism is required that ensures parties to be contacted are matched with the most appropriate agent. It is with these and other considerations that the technologies and techniques disclosed here are presented. | {
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Memory or storage devices continue to be of great importance in a variety of electrical and computer systems, as well as a variety of other applications. Memory devices can take a variety of forms including, for example, non-volatile memory devices (e.g., flash memory devices, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.) and volatile memory devices (e.g., random access memory or RAM, DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.).
Although many useful memory/storage devices already exist, the evolution of a variety of technologies (including, for example, computer technologies) continues to drive a need for improved memory/storage devices that are improved on a number of counts. First, there continues to be a need for memory/storage devices capable of storing ever-greater amounts of data and information. At the same time, there also continues to be a need for memory or storage devices that are of increasingly small size, and so there continues to be a need for memory/storage devices with higher packing densities.
In addition to the needs for ever smaller memory/storage devices having ever greater data storage capabilities, there also continues to be a need for memory/storage devices that are capable of storing (and allowing for the retrieval) of stored data at increasingly rapid rates. Further, there continues to be a need for memory/storage devices that are capable of operating using reduced amounts of power, and that are capable of operating with less heat dissipation.
Existing state of the art non-volatile memory technology (for example, flash memory devices employing field effect transistor technologies) faces enormous obstacles in further scaling down. For example, planar flash memory technology based on silicon field effect transistors faces obstacles to further miniaturization. Scaling of the tunneling oxide used in these memory cells is complicated by the incompatible requirements of high programming current and minimal leakage current—that is, miniaturization results in incompatible requirements of high programming current and low leakage currents. As devices are scaled down/made smaller, increased current density or increased programming currents/unit area are necessary to write information onto the devices. However, increased current results in an increased possibility for the current to leak (leakage currents), which means higher static power dissipation which is undesirable, again. Further, the increased voltage needed for hot electron injection is an additional problem. This is a problem particularly during the programming part of the flash memory operation
Indeed, while the basic tunneling mechanism used in flash memory is useful and attractive, it is widely recognized that alternative materials and new device architectures are needed in order to achieve further advances in non-volatile memory (see, for example, the discussion provided in “Flash Memory Scaling”, Emerging Solid State Memory Technologies, MRS Bulletin, Volume 29, November, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein).
It would therefore be advantageous if improved memory devices and or methods of operating memory devices were developed, and/or new technologies were developed for fabricating such improved memory devices. It would further be advantageous if, in at least some embodiments, such improved memory devices had greater memory capacity, took on a smaller size, and/or had greater packing densities than conventional memory devices. It would additionally be advantageous if, in at least some embodiments, such improved memory devices could operate at greater speeds, with less power and heat dissipation, than conventional memory devices. Such advantages would be desirable in a variety of different types of memory devices including, for example, flash memory devices. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rolling bearing or a rolling bearing apparatus suitably used to rotatably support a cam shaft in a cylinder head of an engine. More specifically, the present invention relates to a two-split outer ring that is split in two parts in the circumferential direction and to a rolling bearing having the same.
2. Related Art
A large end part of a connecting rod, which is a bar for connecting a piston and a crankshaft in an engine, is coupled to the crankshaft with a rolling bearing disposed therebetween. As the rolling bearing, a split bearing ring (outer ring) that is split in two parts, for example, is used because of the features of the crankshaft.
A technology related to the rolling bearing apparatus is described in JP-A-2005-180459, for example.
As shown in FIG. 20, a rolling bearing 110 of Patent Document 1 is a shell bearing that is configured to be attached to a journal portion 101 of a cam shaft 100 from outside in the radial direction.
The rolling bearing 110 includes a plurality of rolling elements 111, a two-split cage 112 that retains the rolling elements 111, and a two-split shell-type outer ring 113 having a raceway surface of the rolling elements 111. The two-split cage 112 is attached to the journal portion 101 of the cam shaft 100 from outside in the radial direction. The two-split shell-type outer ring 113 is attached to the outer side of the cage 112. The cam shaft 100 is attached to a cylinder head 200 of an engine. At this time, the rolling bearing 110 is fitted to a semicircular concave portion 201h of the cylinder head 200. In such a state, the rolling bearing 110 is pressed by a semi-ring shaped cap 205, and both ends of the cap 205 are fixed with bolts to both sides of the semicircular concave portion 201h of the cylinder head 200. With this, the shell-type outer ring 113 of the rolling bearing 110 is fastened by the cap 205 and the semicircular concave portion 201h of the cylinder head 200. Thus, the rolling bearing 110 can have a favorable degree of roundness.
However, in recent years, the cylinder head 200 is mostly formed of aluminum alloy and the shell-type outer ring 113 of the rolling bearing 110 is usually formed of steel sheet. For this reason, as the engine temperature rises by the differing thermal expansion coefficient between the aluminum alloy and the steel sheet, a gap is generated between the shell-type outer ring 113 and the semicircular concave portion 201h and cap 205 of the cylinder head 200. With this, the degree of roundness of the shell-type outer ring 113 of the rolling bearing 110 is lowered. Moreover, the gap in the radial direction within the rolling bearing 110 increases and thereby to generate noise.
On the other hand, when the split bearing ring is split such that the splitting surfaces are linear, the splitting surfaces are likely to be misaligned with each other at the time of attachment and thus the handling properties are poor. For this reason, it is desired to form the splitting surfaces in a curved or inflected shape such as an S character with respect to the axial direction. According to a technology regarding a splitting method disclosed in JP-A-S54-163247, notches for inducing the splitting are formed in the outer peripheral surface of the bearing ring, and the bearing ring is pressurized by a pressure jig with the pressure focusing on the notches, thereby splitting the bearing ring along the notches into two parts. According to a technology regarding a splitting method disclosed in JP-A-2005-337352, a strip-shaped metal plate of which the end portions have a concave-and-convex shape is bent to form semicircular split parts.
With the advance of the technology, it has become possible to form the splitting surfaces to be greatly bent or inflected with respect to the axial direction when splitting the bearing ring. Thus, misalignment in the axial direction is efficiently prevented. However, a new attachment problem attributable to such a splitting method is generated.
For example, since the splitting surfaces of the split parts are connected with each other in the circumferential direction, they form a circular arc of which the central angle is larger than 180 degrees as viewed in side view. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 21A, a split part 150 has a semicircular arc (central angle: 180 degrees) on the right side of a straight line Y perpendicular to an axial line Z. A splitting surface 151 portion extends to the left side of the straight line Y. At this time, as shown in FIG. 21B, an opening width d between front end portions 151a of the splitting surface 151 is smaller than the inner diameter D of the inner peripheral surface 150a of the split part 150. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 22, for example, when the split part 150 (outer ring) received in a connecting rod (not shown) is fitted to a roller-attached cage CR wound around a crankshaft, the front end portions 151a serve as an obstacle, thereby deteriorating the attachment properties. This is because the outer diameter of the roller-attached cage CR is the same as the inner diameter D of the inner peripheral surface 150a of the split part 150, in which the inner peripheral surface 150a is used as a raceway surface of the roller, and because the opening width d is smaller than the outer diameter D as viewed in the X direction (see FIG. 21A).
As described forgoing, the splitting process is not stable and it is difficult to form the same splitting surfaces in a controlled manner. For example, when only one of the splitting surfaces is defective, it cannot be substituted by another one, thereby increasing the cost. Meanwhile, by cutting an end portion into a strip-shaped metal plate, the splitting surface can be formed in a shape in which the misalignment in the axial direction is not likely to occur. However, curving the metal plate in a semicircular shape is troublesome.
In JP-A-2005-337352, an end portion is cut into a strip-shaped metal plate and the metal plate is bent into a semicircular shape. Straight portions are provided at both ends of the metal plate, and the metal plate is fitted to a housing by elastically deforming the straight portions toward an inner side. However, such process steps are troublesome.
A method can be conceived in which the split bearing ring is formed by a cutting process rather than the splitting process. However, as shown in FIG. 23A, for example, when a circular bearing ring 160 is cut along a straight line U by a wire-cut discharge process, the bearing ring 160 is split into two split parts 161 and 161 (see FIG. 23B). At that time, a cut portion 161a is also removed by a wire. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 23C, when the two split parts 161 and 161 are assembled with each other, the assembled bearing ring 160 cannot form a perfect circle but forming an elliptical shape deformed from the original shape before the splitting since the cut portion 161a is removed. Since the two split parts 161 and 161 cannot be maintained in the assembled state, it is difficult to polish the outer peripheral surface into a circular shape. Therefore, in such a state, it cannot be used as the outer ring of a rolling bearing. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Many electronic devices, such as organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), charged coupled devices (CCDs), and thinfilm transistors (TFTs), organic Thin-Film Transistors (TFT), solar cells, comprise active components which are susceptible to degradation from exposure to moisture, oxygen and other gases found in the atmosphere. In order to ensure the longevity of these devices, some form of hermetic packaging is typically used to protect these devices from exposure to degradative substances.
As hermeticity is important for the operation of such devices, hermetic seal testing has become a vital part of the manufacture of these devices. For example, in the semiconductor industry, standard reliability qualification testing includes one or more humidity evaluations in which a sample quantity of devices are subjected to a humid environment and other conditions of elevated temperature, bias, and/or pressure.
A variety of hermeticity tests have been developed to evaluate the hermeticity of encapsulation packages. For example, for detecting fine leaks in integrated circuit (IC) packages, a mixture of helium gas with dry nitrogen, is sealed into the package, and a mass spectrometer is used to detect helium leaking from the package.
While the helium leak test method has been used on many types of semiconductor packages, it suffers from certain problems. Firstly, the helium leak test is generally only applicable for testing packages with cavities, and are not suitable for devices which do not comprise cavities, such as optoelectronic devices, MEMS or any other thin film microelectronic devices. Secondly, helium tends to separate from atmospheric nitrogen present in the device, due to differences in atomic weight, thus migrating to the top of the encapsulation cavity, affecting the thermal conductivity of components in the device as well as the index of refraction of the encapsulation, thereby yielding inaccurate results.
Another method that is currently employed to assess the condition of an electronic component within an encapsulation is direct observation of the optical properties of the electronic component. In OLEDs for example, observation of degradation patterns under the microscope can be carried out to assess the aging of the OLED. However, visual inspection methods are simplistic in nature and can provide only qualitative information about the encapsulated device, but is of limited use for accurate quantitative studies. In a factory line where tests are carried out on large numbers of newly fabricated OLEDs, visual inspection would be highly time consuming as well. Visual inspection is furthermore also not feasible once the OLED is integrated into a display panel.
In the past, some attempts have been made to integrate gas permeation sensors into encapsulation packages. U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,557 describes a semiconductor package with a hermeticity detector integrated into the semiconductor package. The hermeticity detector comprises a set of interdigitated electrodes that are spaced apart by a layer of cobalt oxide. In the absence of moisture, no current passes between the interdigitated electrodes. In the presence of moisture, however, the resistivity of the cobalt oxide reduces significantly, thereby shorting the interdigitated electrodes to trigger an alarm to indicate the ingression of moisture.
German Patent Application Publication No. DE 102 08 767 describes a measuring device for determining the permeability of a material that is used to form an encapsulation. The measuring device comprises a layer of corrosion sensitive material present in the encapsulation for electrical resistance measurements. As the corrosion-sensitive metal is degraded by oxygen/moisture entering the encapsulation, its electrical resistance increases. Moisture within the encapsulation is detected by monitoring the changes in electrical resistance in the corrosion sensitive element.
Despite these developments, limitations in integrated sensors in encapsulated packages still exist. In particular, the problem of sensors not having sufficient sensitivity to detect gas permeation at low levels of 10−4 g/m2/day or better still remains. Continuing efforts are therefore needed to improve their reliability and accuracy.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an encapsulated device having at least one gas permeation sensor enclosed within the encapsulation for measuring the permeation of gas into the encapsulation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As commonly known, TCP is the most popular transport layer protocol for data transfer. It provides connection-oriented reliable transfer of data between two communicating hosts, wherein a host refers to a network-connected computer, or to any system which can be connected to a network for offering services to another host connected to the same network. TCP uses several techniques to maximize the performance of the connection by monitoring different variables relating to the connection. For example, TCP includes an internal algorithm for avoiding congestion.
ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), in turn, is a connection-oriented packet-switching technique which the internal telecommunication standardization organization ITU-T has chosen as the target solution of a broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). The problems of conventional packet networks have been eliminated in the ATM network by using short packets of a standard length (53 bytes), known as cells. ATM networks are quickly being adopted as backbones for the various parts of TCP/IP networks such as the Internet.
Although ATM has been designed to provide an end-to-end transport level service, it is very likely that, also in the future, networks will be implemented in such a way that TCP/IP remains the de-facto standard of the networks and only a part of the end-to-end path of a connection is implemented using ATM. Thus, even though ATM will continue to be utilized, TCP will still be needed to provide the end-to-end transport functions.
The introduction of ATM also means that implementations must be able to support the huge legacy of existing data applications, in which TCP is widely used as transport layer protocol. To migrate the existing upper layer protocols to ATM networks, several approaches to congestion control in ATM networks have been considered in the past.
Congestion control relates to the general problem of traffic management for packet-switched networks. Congestion means a situation in which the number of transmission requests at a specific time exceeds the transmission capacity at a certain network point (called a bottle-neck resource). Congestion usually results in overload conditions. As a result, the buffers overflow, for instance, so that packets are retransmitted either by the network or by the subscriber. In general, congestion arises when the incoming traffic to a specific link is more than the outgoing link capacity. The primary function of congestion control is to ensure good throughput and delay performance while maintaining a fair allocation of network resources to users. For the TCP traffic, whose traffic patterns are often highly bursty, congestion control poses a challenging problem. It is known that packet losses result in a significant degradation in TCP throughput. Thus, for the best possible throughput, a minimum number of packet losses should occur.
For the above mentioned reasons, most of such networks are TCP networks or TCP over ATM networks, i.e. networks in which TCP provides the end-to-end transport function and the ATM network provides the underlying “bit pipes”.
In the article “Improving TCP performance over ATM by the fast TCP flow control” by Jing Wu, Peng Zhang and Jian Ma, ICCT'98, Beijing, China, October 1998, fast-TCP (FTCP) is described, which is readily to be used in intermediate nodes aiming to improve the TCP throughput by quickly relieving congestion. The mechanisms of FTCP can be divided into three parts: congestion detection, identification of acknowledgments (ACKs) and delay of ACKs. The basic idea is to delay the acknowledgments being transferred from a destination to a source of a data packet. This can be done at the same network point where congestion has been detected, or, alternatively, a network point detecting overload or congestion can direct another network point to delay the acknowledgments. Thus, congestion control is performed on the return path of the connection. Instead of discarding packets or cells on the forward path, the network delays acknowledgments on the return path and thus causes the TCP source to reduce its output rate. A congestion detection is used to notify congestion before a buffer overflow occurs. Furthermore, an identification of data packets including ACKs is required to extract the ACK flow from the normal data traffic. The rate of ACKs is adjusted by delaying the ACKs.
In particular, a fixed threshold for the forward buffer occupancy is said, so that congestion is notified once the buffer occupancy exceeds the threshold. ACKs flows are delayed according to the congestion state, i.e. congestion or no congestion. That is, when no congestion occurs, ACKs leak by a normal rate, otherwise, by a fraction of the normal rate. The normal rate is set equal to the rate of the data packets in the forward path. If the rate is to be halved when a congestion is detected, the fraction is set to a half.
Thus, the transport protocol TCP itself does not have to be amended in any way.
However, it is difficult to set a reasonable threshold in order to meet the desired efficiency of the network resource without degrading validity of FTCP. To avoid congestion, a small threshold might be preferred so as to notify the congestion in an early state. However, in this case, the forward buffer capacity might be largely underutilized. On the contrary, if a large threshold is chosen, buffer overflow is likely to happen.
Furthermore, the termination of the delay rate of the ACKs also leads to a problem. For FTCP, the ACKs should be delayed according to the network traffic conditions. However, in real networks, traffic changes so quickly and frequently that it is difficult to provide a well-adapted delay rate. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The data lanes that make up a data interface between two devices, or chips, are called a data link. The different lanes in the data link are typically synchronized to the slowest lane. The different lanes on a receiving device receive data segments of a data frame at different times. However, a complete data frame is only transmitted from one layer to another after the last data word has arrived at the receiving device and the receiving device is then able to accept the data. This delay in transmission can cause latency in high-speed communications between devices. Depending upon the delay of individual data segments and the time at which the data frame was transmitted, the data frame might not be available for immediate use by the receiving device, and therefore would have to be stored until it can be used by the receiving device. This incurs additional undesirable latency.
For example, and with reference to FIG. 1, data is transferred over an interface link 104a or 104b from at least one first device 102 to a second device 106, such as a device that has some kind of internal resource 108. Timing offsets are determined between each lane of the link 104 and the lane of the link 104 containing the slowest arriving data, which determines when the frame is ready to be forwarded to the next layer. A serializer/deserializer 110 (SerDes) contains a buffer to hold data from the various lanes during this synchronization or deskewing process.
If, after the data is link-synchronized in the manner described above, the resource 108 is not accessible, then a resource buffer 109 is used to store the frame data until the resource 108 is able to accommodate the frame of data. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a combined container and dispenser for particles such as tablets used medically for numerous therapeutic and prophylactic purposes.
In modern medicine many types of tablets must be taken at regular intervals over a considerable period. The storage, transportation and dispensing of these tablets presents the patient with a considerable problem if he receives the tablets merely in a conventional container (such as a box or bottle) from his pharmacist. Among the drawbacks of these conventional containers are the facts that the tablets are exposed on opening the container, and that they tend to receive more handling than is desirable. It is also sometimes difficult for the patient to extract the tablets one at a time, particularly if they are small or if the patient is a child or a person who suffers from a disability impairing his mechanical dexterity.
Some forms of modern packaging, such as blister wrapping and the packing of tablets in rolls, go some way to improve the position, but not all tablets, and particularly small tablets to be taken regularly over a lengthy period, are suitable for this type of approach. Blister and roll packages also suffer from certain inherent defects, among them a relatively low resistance to handling and, at least in the case of blister wrapping, a lack of compactness. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a device for massaging the sole of foot including the arch of foot.
A conventional massage device for such a purpose is provided with projection rollers. The rollers are rotatable about axes parallel to each other and positioned in one and the same flat plane, and the projections are of the same length, so that the general configuration of the projections as a whole is not in conformity with the configuration of the sole of foot, particularly the arch of foot. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a facsimile relaying method for transmitting common picture information to a plurality of facsimile receivers for a facsimile transmitter.
A facsimile communication system is available today which is of the type using a facsimile relay station to allow a facsimile transmitter to send same picture information to a plurality of remote facsimile receivers. In such a system, picture information sent out from the transmitter is once stored in a picture memory of the relay station and, then, sequentially transmitted therefrom to the receivers which the transmitter has designated.
In a communication system of the type described, the transmitter designates receivers relying on the operator's manipulation of a dial, that is, manual entry of telephone numbers assigned to the receivers. A problem encountered with this communication system is that due to carelessness the operator sometimes dial a wrong toll number or does not dial a toll number at all, failing to deliver picture information to the desired receivers. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to crosslinked collagen scaffolds. More particularly, it relates to the method of crosslinking and producing collagen-based scaffolds with improved properties using light and photosensitizing reagent, and to the products produced by the method.
(2) Description of Related Art
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the extracellular matrix of human tissue and plays important roles in providing structural support as well as performing other functions in tissue growth and regeneration. Apart from collagen, other types of extracellular matrix components such as proteoglycans, elastin, etc. also play important roles in maintaining tissue structure and function. Producing scaffolds simulating natural tissue is an essential enabling technology in the tissue engineering industry.
Collagen is the best natural biomaterial for tissue engineering because of its close resemblance to nature, and its negligible immunogenecity and excellent biocompatibility. However, unprocessed collagen usually has insufficient mechanical properties for it to be useful in engineering tissues in particular the weight-bearing tissues such as tendons, ligaments, intervertebral discs, etc. Unprocessed collagen is also difficult to manipulate and put sutures through during the implantation process. Further, unprocessed collagen is highly water swellable and is vulnerable to enzymatic digestion and thermal denaturation.
Crosslinking has been used to improve the properties of collagen and therefore is crucial in the tissue engineering industry. Tissue engineering companies have disclosed various methods for crosslinking collagen constructs and scaffolds using chemical methods such as treatment with glutaraldehyde (Cavallaro, U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,012 for “Method of Strength Enhancement of Collagen Constructs”) and physical methods such as lyophilization (Kemp et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,418 for “Collagen Constructs”) to enhance the strength and stability of the structures. Other physical crosslinking methods such as ultraviolet (UV) and gamma irradiation and dehydrothermal treatment have also been reported.
However, both chemical and physical crosslinking methods have encountered problems. Chemical crosslinking of collagen using a reagent such as glutaraldehyde, although efficient, compromises the biocompatibility of scaffolds because the toxic residual chemicals and degradation products induce cytotoxicity and calcification (Simmons D. M. et al., “Evaluation of Collagen Cross-Linking Techniques for the Stabilization of Tissue Matrices”, Biotechnol Appl Biochem. 17 (Pt 1):23-9 (1993)). Physical crosslinking methods are time-consuming (Weadock K. S. et al., “Crosslinking of Collagen Fibers: Comparison of Ultraviolet Irradiation and Dehydrothermal Treatment”, J Biomed Mater Res. 29(11):1373-9 (1995); and Billiar K. et al., “Effects of Carbodiimide Crosslinking Conditions on the Physical Properties of Laminated Intestinal Submucosa”, J. Biomed Mater Res. 56(1):101-8 (2001)), and compromise the stability of scaffolds because UV and gamma irradiation, and the harsh processing conditions in the dehydrothermal treatment method denature the protein (Weadock et al., supra; Billiar et al., supra). As a result, a long-felt need has existed for alternative methods of enhancing the physico-chemical properties of collagen coupled with features such as rapid and efficient processing, nil toxic substances, non-thermal processing and absence of denaturation of collagen.
Previous studies involving light-activated processes to stabilize xenografts (heterografts) such as pericardial tissues, and heart values for transplantation have been reported (Adams A. K. et al., “Crosslink Formation in Procine Valves Stabilized by Dye-Oxidated Photooxidation”, J. Biomed Mater Res, (57):582-587 (2001); Moore M. A. et al., “Stablization of pericardial tissue by dye-mediated photooxidation”, J. Biomed Mater Res, 28(5):611-618 (1994)). These studies were aimed at further stabilizing intact tissues having extracellular matrix protein networks and the intrinsic mechanical properties thereof. The xenograft repair approach differs greatly from that used in tissue engineering, in which tissue-like scaffold structures are built from basic units such as extracellular matrix components, cells and growth-stimulating bioactive factors.
Studies on the crosslinking of collagen proteins in solution using light-activated processes have been reported (Pitts J. D. et al., “New Photoactivators for Multiphoton Excited Three-Dimensional Submicron Cross-Linking of Proteins: Bovine Serum Albumin and Type I Collagen”, Photochem., Photobiol 76(2): 135-144). The average laser power used to create submicron structures ranged up to 1010 W/cm2. Although there was no evidence as to whether the collagen was denatured and whether the processed collagen structures have improved strength and stability, at such high power, collagen protein is very likely to coagulate and become denatured. Therefore, the crosslinking is based on thermal mechanism.
Mechanic, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,514 for “Process for Crosslinking Collagenous Material and Resulting Products” describes a photooxidative process for crosslinking proteins using photocatalysts in the presence of oxygen. This patent discloses the oxygen dependence of the crosslinking process in that bubbling of air or oxygen, or stirring the reaction mixture vigorously was used to increase the concentration of oxygen. Further, a photocatalyst was used so that the compound did not change before and after the process. This is not the case for the photochemical crosslinking process of the present invention in that the photosensitive reagent participates in the crosslinking process. Moreover, the prior art crosslinking process does not strengthen or stiffen the crosslinked products and therefore cannot solve the major problem, namely, the inadequate mechanical properties of unprocessed collagen used as scaffolds for tissue engineering. Further, the patent does not reveal any intention to produce larger and thicker scaffolds. The thickness of collagen scaffolds to be crosslinked by irradiation is limited because of the depth of penetration of the light source. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a cleaning member for an image forming apparatus, a charging device, a unit for an image forming apparatus, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
According to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a surface of an image carrying member formed of a photoconductor or the like is charged by a charging device to form charges, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by, for example, a laser beam obtained by modulating an image signal. After that, the electrostatic latent image is developed with charged toner to form a visible toner image. The toner image is electrostatically transferred onto a member to be transferred such as a recording sheet either directly or via an intermediate transfer member and fixed onto the member to be transferred to obtain an image. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to processing of semiconductor wafers using a multi-chambered wafer processing device to form layers on a silicon wafer. Multi-chambered wafer processing devices do multiple sputtering and etching steps in the same device. One such multi-chambered wafer processing device is the MRC machine produced by Materials Research Corporation in Orangeburg, N.Y. The typical processing steps done on a multi-chambered wafer processing device can include sputter etching, forming titanium layers, forming titanium nitride layers, and forming aluminum layers. A problem noticed in the forming of aluminum layers using multi-chambered wafer processing devices is staining and voids in the aluminum layer. The aluminum layer formed on the silicon wafer can have discolorations or stains which in a later annealing step form voids or holes.
The suggested reasons for the aluminum layer voiding problem included incomplete nucleation of the aluminum layer. The nucleation sites are the points at which the grains in the metal film including the aluminum start to crystallize. It is desired that these nucleation sites be closely packed. It was thought that the voiding may have been caused by the incomplete nucleation of the aluminum layer, and that in later annealing steps, the voids were formed.
Another suggested reason for the voiding was that an aluminum layer formed on the silicon wafer was too thin, and was thus unstable during the annealing step. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In the construction industry, post frame metal building materials are attached to the wooden frame structure with various types of wood fasteners. However, current wood fastener thread designs have a tendency to back-out over time, thus weakening the connection and the building's structural integrity. Additionally, known fasteners can have a tendency to break during installation due to high drive torques in certain high density materials, as well as having a tendency to strip-out in certain low density materials. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to wheeled roller skate structure, and more particularly pertains to new and improved pneumatic pump roller blades wherein the same is directed to the use of roller blade skate members having pneumatic side wall chambers within the shoe construction for support and comfort of a wearer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wheeled roller blades are available in the prior art and exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,823,952; 4,699,390; 4,132,425; and 5,028,058.
The instant invention attempts to overcome deficiencies of the prior art by providing for pneumatically filled side wall chambers within the shoe structure of the invention to afford stability and comfort to a wearer of the roller blade organizations and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a blood oxygenator of the outside perfusion type using a hollow-fiber membrane.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of blood oxygenators using hollow fibers as the gas exchange membrane have already been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,972,349, 3,794,468, 4,239,729 and 4,374,802.
In these blood oxygenators, hollow fibers made of a homogeneous membrane of gas-permeable material such as silicone or hollow fibers made of a microporous membrane of hydrophobic polymeric material such as polyolefins are used to bring blood into contact with gas through the medium of the hollow-fiber membrane and effect gas exchange therebetween. There are two types of blood oxygenators: the inside perfusion type in which blood is passed through the bores of the hollow fibers while gas is passed on the outside of the hollow fibers and the outside perfusion type in which, conversely, gas is passed through the bores of the hollow fibers while blood is passed on the outside of the hollow fibers.
In blood oxygenators of the inside perfusion type, no channeling of the blood occurs if the blood is uniformly distributed and fed to the large number of hollow fibers. However, since the blood flowing through the bores of the hollow fibers moves in a perfect laminar flow, the internal diameter of the hollow fibers needs to be reduced in order to increase the oxygenation rate (i.e., the oxygen transfer rate per unit area of membrane). For this purpose, hollow fibers having an internal diameter of 150 to 300 .mu.m have actually been developed for use in blood oxygenators.
Nevertheless, even if the internal diameter is reduced, the laminar flow phenomenon of the blood passing through the hollow fibers is not mitigated and the oxygenation rate of a blood oxygenator of this type is not greatly enhanced. Moreover, as the internal diameter becomes smaller, clotting (i.e., blockade of the bore due to the coagulation of blood) may occur more frequently, thus posing a serious problem for a practical point of view. Furthermore, a blood oxygenator generally uses ten thousand to forty thousand hollow fibers made into a bundle or bundles and it is very difficult to distribute and feed the gas uniformly to the external surfaces of such a large number of hollow fibers, so that special consideration must be given to achieve the desired end. If the gas is not distributed uniformly, the carbon dioxide desorption rate (i.e., the carbon dioxide transfer rate per unit area of membrane) will be reduced. On the other hand, in blood oxygenators of the outside perfusion type, the gas can be distributed uniformly and the blood can be expected to move in a turbulent flow. However, they have the disadvantage of being subject to insufficient oxygenation due to channeling of the blood or blood coagulation at the sites of stagnation. Thus, no blood oxygenator having satisfactory performance has been realized as yet.
In most of the conventionally known blood oxygenators, a cylindrical housing is simply packed with a large number of hollow fibers for gas exchange use in such a way that the hollow fibers are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical housing. However, blood oxygenators of this construction have low gas exchange rate per unit area of the hollow-fiber membrane. As an improved form of the outside perfusion type, U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,468 has proposed a blood oxygenator in which hollow tubular conduits of semipermeable membrane are wound about a hollow, cylindrical core having a large number of pores in the wall and then contained in a housing, and blood is allowed to flow out of the cavity of the core through its pores while gas is passed through the bores of the hollow tubular conduits. However, this blood oxygenator is disadvantageous in that the priming blood volume is unduly large and the manufacture thereof requires a complicated procedure because of its intricate structure. Thus, it has not yet been put to practical use.
The conventionally known blood oxygenators in which the hollow fibers are disposed so as to be substantially perpendicular to the direction of blood flow can produce more marked turbulences of the blood flow and hence an improvement in oxygenation rate, as compared with those in which the hollow fibers are disposed so as to be parallel to the direction of blood flow. However, if the size of such a blood oxygenator is magnified or the flow rate of blood is increased in order to treat large volumes of blood, there arise such problems as an increase in pressure loss, channeling of the blood and blood coagulation at the sites of stagnation. The prior art has been unable to solve these problems. | {
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The present invention generally relates to an automatic implantable atrial defibrillator for delivering cardioverting or defibrillating electrical energy to the atria of a human heart. The present invention is more particularly directed to such an atrial defibrillator which has an intermittently activated pacing modality for assisting the heart in returning to normal sinus rhythm immediately following each attempted cardioversion of the atria. Because the pacing function is only activated for a finite period of time following each attempted cardioversion, the pacing function is provided without undue power consumption of a depletable power source, such as a battery, within the atrial defibrillator.
Atrial fibrillation is probably the most common cardiac arrhythmia. Although it is not usually a life threatening arrhythmia, it is associated with strokes thought to be caused by blood clots forming in areas of stagnant blood flow as a result of prolonged atrial fibrillation. In addition, patients afflicted with atrial fibrillation generally experience palpitations of the heart and may even experience dizziness or even loss of consciousness.
Atrial fibrillation occurs suddenly and many times can only be corrected by a discharge of electrical energy to the heart through the skin of the patient by way of an external defibrillator of the type well known in the art. This treatment is commonly referred to as synchronized cardioversion and, as its name implies, involves applying electrical defibrillating energy to the heart in synchronism with a detected electrical activation (R wave) of the heart. The treatment is very painful and, unfortunately, most often only results in temporary relief for patients, lasting but a few weeks.
Drugs are available for reducing the incidence of atrial fibrillation. However, these drugs have many side effects and many patients are resistant to them which greatly reduces their therapeutic effect.
Implantable atrial defibrillators have been proposed to provide patients suffering from occurrences of atrial fibrillation with relief. Unfortunately, to the detriment of such patients, none of these atrial defibrillators have become a commercial reality.
Implantable atrial defibrillators proposed in the past have exhibited a number of disadvantages which probably has been the cause of these defibrillators from becoming a commercial reality. Two such defibrillators, although represented as being implantable, were not fully automatic, requiring human interaction for cardioverting or defibrillating the heart. Both of these defibrillators require the patient to recognize the symptoms of atrial fibrillation with one defibrillator requiring a visit to a physician to activate the defibrillator and the other defibrillator requiring the patient to activate the defibrillator from external to the patient's skin with a magnet.
Implantable ventricular defibrillators for applying defibrillating electrical energy to the ventricles of the heart are well known and have been commercially available for a number of years. Because ventricular fibrillation is life threatening, resulting in unconsciousness in just a few seconds and leading to death in just a few minutes, implantable ventricular defibrillators are fully automatic for detecting ventricular fibrillation and quickly applying the defibrillating electrical energy to the ventricles. Such defibrillators are quite large in physical size as compared to the size of a pacemaker, for example, because of the rather large battery and storage capacitors required for providing defibrillating energies of ten joules of more. Due to their rather large size, these devices must be implanted in an abdominal region of the human body.
Any form of implantable device must be powered by a portable, depletable power source, such as a battery. When the battery is depleted of its energy, it is necessary to explant the device and implant a replacement. As a result, for an implantable device to be considered commercially viable, it is generally believed that the device should have a predicted lifetime of a number of years, such as five years, for example.
Predicted lifetimes of less than five years for ventricular defibrillators have not diminished the commercial nature of these devices because ventricular fibrillation is life threatening. However, since atrial fibrillation is not generally considered to be life threatening, it is generally believed that atrial defibrillators should have lifetimes on the order of five years to render such devices commercial in nature. To further enhance the commercial nature of these devices, it is desirable to limit the physical size of an atrial defibrillator to the size of a large pacemaker, for example, to permit the atrial defibrillator to be implanted, like a pacemaker, within the chest of the human body. While predicted lifetime and physical size have not adversely affected the commercial nature of ventricular defibrillators, such constraints have probably been the cause of an atrial defibrillator not being commercially available to date.
It has long been believed that as much electrical energy is required to cardiovert or defibrillate the atria of the heart as is required to cardiovert or defibrillate the ventricles of the heart, on the order of ten joules or more. Furthermore, episodes of atrial fibrillation occur much more frequently than do episodes of ventricular fibrillation. As a result, due to the contemplated required cardioverting or defibrillating energy levels for cardioverting or defibrillating the atria of the heart and the predicted required frequency of delivering such energies, it has long been believed that an implantable atrial defibrillator would either have an unreasonably short and commercially unacceptable predicted lifetime or a battery and storage capacitor of such a large size that the atrial defibrillator would be too large in physical size. Fortunately, a lead system has been discovered for an atrial defibrillator which greatly reduces the amount of energy required to defibrillate or cardiovert the atria. This lead system is fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,291 which issued on Jan. 18, 1994 for "Method for Atrial Defibrillation" which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and which is incorporated herein by reference. The lead system described in that patent includes a first electrode in the coronary sinus or great cardiac vein of the heart and a second electrode in the right atrium or superior vena cava of the heart. With such electrode placement, cardioverting energy applied to these electrodes is substantially confined to the atria, reducing the amount of energy required to cardiovert the atria to on the order of one joule or less.
It has also long been believed that an atrial defibrillator, like a ventricular defibrillator, should charge its storage capacitor quickly to permit essentially immediate cardioversion. Such quick storage capacitor charging places an extreme drain on the battery thereby further limiting the predicted lifetime of an implantable atrial defibrillator and further adding to the heretofore perceived non-commercial nature of these devices.
Recently, it has been recognized that, since atrial fibrillation is not life threatening, the storage capacitor of an atrial defibrillator need not be charged as quickly as the storage capacitor of a ventricular defibrillator. That recognition has led to another improvement in an atrial defibrillator fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,624 for "Pulse Generator for Use in an Implantable Atrial Defibrillator" which issued on Oct. 12, 1993, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which is also incorporated herein by reference. The pulse generator described in that patent conserves battery power while still providing adequate electrical energy to cardiovert or defibrillate the atria of the heart to arrest atrial fibrillation. This is achieved by charging the storage capacitor comparatively slowly to minimize drain on the defibrillator battery but in sufficient time to arrest the atrial fibrillation. In accordance with the described preferred embodiment, this is accomplished by converting the rather low voltage of the battery to a pulsating high voltage of 300 to 400 volts, for example, with a flyback transformer having a primary winding coupled to an oscillator which provides the primary winding with a high frequency, low duty cycle input. By virtue of this arrangement, sufficient electrical energy for cardioverting or defibrillating the heart is stored in the storage capacitor without imposing a high drain on the defibrillator battery. Even though a minute may be required to fully charge the storage capacitor, this is sufficient to arrest the atrial fibrillation and bring comfort to the patient.
Further, as is well known in the art, the sinus node of the heart is the normal pacemaker of the heart and may be rendered dysfunctional by the application of cardioverting electrical energy to the atria. When such sinus node dysfunction occurs following an attempted cardioversion, the heart is caused to pause for a few seconds. It is also known that patients who suffer from atrial fibrillation may have an increased risk of sinus node dysfunction due to disease and/or drug therapy. Hence, it has been proposed in the past to provide an implantable atrial defibrillator with a demand ventricular pacing modality for pacing the ventricles when required.
Unfortunately, demand pacing requires the maintenance of a pacing output in readiness for pacing and the sensing of heart activity, and more particularly, R waves of the heart. This sensing is generally provided by one or more sense amplifiers and at least one R wave detector.
While sense amplifiers and R wave detectors used to sense heart activity and pacer output circuits are generally perceived as consuming little power when held in a fully biased readiness condition, the power consumed by these circuits under such conditions in a continuous manner over periods of months and years as is contemplated by the prior art, is considerable. Hence, the power consumed by continuously maintaining a demand pacing modality of an implantable atrial defibrillator in readiness is still another factor which limits the predicted lifetimes of these devices.
The present invention overcomes the power consumption problem of maintaining continuous demand pacing readiness in a fully automatic atrial defibrillator. This is accomplished by effectively providing power to the pacing circuitry for only a short finite time period following each attempted cardioversion. As a result, demand pacing is provided during those times when sinus node dysfunction may be present while conserving precious battery power. In fact, by practicing the present invention as described hereinafter, a twenty percent (20%) savings in battery power may be realized. | {
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Anti-roll bars are used in sprung vehicle suspensions in order to reduce body roll during cornering by adding to the roll resistance of the suspension components such as springs and torsion bars. Springs and torsion bars (referred to hereinafter collectively as “torsion bars”) in a vehicle suspension are provided to allow the wheels to maintain maximum contact with the road surface when the vehicle travels over imperfections in the roadway. The presence of the torsion bars in the suspension, however, also allow the vehicle to roll from side to side under cornering, which has many undesirable consequences for vehicle handling, such as reduced cornering traction caused by the changing suspension geometry no longer keeping the bottom of the tire parallel with the road surface. This lifts the edges of the tire, reducing the contact patch size. The use of stiffer torsion bars will reduce the amount of body roll, but at the expense of maintaining maximum road surface tire contact. Therefore, anti-roll bars have been developed in order to increase roll resistance without resorting to overly stiff torsion bars.
Anti-roll bars couple the left and right wheels at one end of the car together while allowing for semi-independent movement of each wheel. When cornering, the bar will twist and form a torsion spring, with the outside end being pushed down and the inside end being lifted. These forces counteract the roll of the vehicle, pushing down on the outside tire and lifting up on the inside tire. On the outside tire, this downward force helps to increase traction. On the inside tire, the bar is lifting up against the suspension torsion bar that is trying to keep the tire on the ground. Therefore, too stiff of an anti-roll bar can actually cause the inside tire to lift off of the ground, which is obviously an undesirable result. It is therefore important to have the appropriate torsion bar rate in the anti-roll bar in order to ensure the appropriate amount of traction for each wheel.
Anti-roll bars are also used to tune the roll coupling of the chassis. Roll coupling is the relationship of the roll resistance of the front of the car and the roll resistance of the rear of the car. The balance of the roll coupling, because of its effect on traction, influences whether the car has a tendency to understeer or oversteer. Increasing the traction of the outside wheel on one end of the car may leave the other end of the car with too little traction to match the performance of the first end. With such an imbalance of traction, one end of the car will lose traction before the other end. If the front end loses traction before the rear end, the car is said to understeer or “push” (i.e. the front of the car moves to the outside of the turning direction as the front tires lose grip). If the rear end loses traction before the front end, the car is said to oversteer or “pull” (i.e. the front of the car moves to the inside of the turning direction as the rear tires lose grip and the rear of the car begins to swing around). Because an adjustable anti-roll bar can adjust the traction of the tires during a turn, it can therefore be used to adjust not only the amount of roll resistance, but also the amount of understeer and oversteer exhibited by the vehicle.
Adjustable anti-roll bars are used in many race cars to adjust the handling of the car for different track conditions, for changing track conditions, and for changing (wearing) tire conditions. A common prior art adjustable anti-roll bar blade component 10 used in race cars is shown in FIGS. 1A-C. The blade 10 is used as a coupling member between the vehicle suspension 12 (only partially illustrated) and the torsion bar 14. The blade 10 and the torsion bar 14 act as two springs in series. When a load is applied to one, the same load is applied simultaneously to the other and both will have some deflection at the same time. By varying the spring rate of the blade 10, the effective spring rate of the series combination will therefore be varied.
In the position shown in FIG. 1A, the suspension 12 may move with respect to the vehicle chassis (not shown), and the suspension 12 acts upon the end of the flexible blade 10 in a direction 16 perpendicular to the wide flat surface of the blade 10. In this position, the blade 10 has maximum flexibility, therefore it produces the lowest spring rate of the blade 10/torsion bar 14 combination. In FIG. 1B, the blade 10 has been rotated 45 degrees from the position shown in FIG. 1A by movement of a member 18 operating on a tab 20 coupled to the blade 10. Rotation of the blade 10 is facilitated by rotary couplings 22 and 24. In this position, the blade 10 is considerably stiffer than in the position of FIG. 1A (i.e. it resists movement in the direction 16 to a greater extent), therefore it produces a higher spring rate of the blade 10/torsion bar 14 combination than the position shown in FIG. 1A. Finally in FIG. 1C, the blade 10 has been rotated a full 90 degrees from the position in FIG. 1A (again, by movement of the member 18) such that the suspension 12 acts upon the end of the flexible blade 10 in a direction parallel to the wide flat surface of the blade 10. In this position, the blade 10 has maximum stiffness, and therefore it produces the highest spring rate of the blade 10/torsion bar 14 combination.
Although the anti-roll bar of FIGS. 1A-C is adjustable, the range of adjustability is fairly limited. Therefore, there remains a need in the art for an improved adjustable anti-roll bar. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to deformable mirrors which have replaceable, electrically operated actuators for deforming the mirror's reflecting surface. The disclosed invention is a method and apparatus for installing and adjusting the actuators to control the surface shape of the mirror's reflecting surface.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
It is well known in the prior art to use deformable mirrors to correct optical signals for aberrations introduced into a wavefront due to the transmission of an optical signal through a distorting medium, e.g. the earth's atmosphere. Such deformable mirrors may be used, for example, to correct aberrations introduced into laser signals or optical images imaged by a telescope as they pass through the earth's atmosphere, or to introduce known aberrations into a laser signal prior to its transmission through the earth's atmosphere. Examples of deformable mirrors which may be used to perform the foregoing function appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,904,274 and 4,657,358 which are owned by the assignee of the present invention and the teaching's of which are incorporated herein by reference. Mirrors of the foregoing type employ a plurality of actuators, for example piezoelectric actuators, which are independently operable to selectively deform areas of a deformable reflecting surface to correct known anomalies contained in an impinging optical signal's wavefront. Signals for driving the actuators to correct the aberrated wavefront may be provided by a wavefront sensing and correction system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,400, the teachings of which are also incorporated herein by reference.
The use of wavefront control systems, for example deformable mirrors, in large aperture optical systems mandates the use of a large diameter mirror to achieve effective wavefront control. Additionally, such a system should ideally also contain a large number of closely spaced actuators to permit adjustments to be made at locations closely spaced together across the deformable mirror's reflecting surface. To accommodate the foregoing requirements, a deformable mirror will frequently require the use of a large number of actuators to achieve effective control of the mirror's reflecting surface.
As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,358, actuators for use in controlling a deformable mirror may be manufactured from stacks of electrodistortive material, for example lead magnesium niobate (PMN) or lead zirconate titanate (PZT). The electrodistortive material is interleaved in the stack with alternating layers of electrical conductors to permit the application of an electrical signal to the material.
Prior known deformable mirrors which utilize stacked electrodistortive material to provide control of the mirror's reflecting surface have been constructed with the actuators rigidly fastened to the structure supporting the mirror's reflecting surface, for example by cement or a frit bond. Such construction has not provided for the ease of repair of a deformable mirror in the event of a failure of one or more actuators. In the event of the failure of an actuator due, for example, to the mechanical failure of an actuator or to the failure of electrical contacts between one or more layers of electrodistortive material, the components of the mirror had to be carefully disassembled to effect the removal and replacement or repair of the failed actuator. Such a disassembly procedure is time consuming, frequently difficult and often impossible to effect due to the spacing between adjacent actuators and the need to prevent damaging good actuators during the repair procedure. Consequently, there is a need for a deformable mirror which utilizes electrically operated actuators which may be easily replaced without damaging other actuators during the replacement procedure. A related requirement is for a deformable mirror having replaceable actuators which may be easily adjusted during the replacement procedure to control their influence on the deformation of a deformable mirror's reflecting surface.
In a related patent application owned by the owner of the present patent application and the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, a construction for a deformable mirror is disclosed in which the mirror's electrodistortive actuators may be easily removed from the mirror's base or support structure for purposes of calibrating and/or replacing one or more of the mirror's actuators. Each actuator may include a threaded portion which may be received in a threaded aperture in the base. The position of each actuator with respect to the mirror's deformable reflecting surface may be adjusted by screwing the actuator into its threaded aperture until the top of the actuator just contacts the structure supporting the reflecting surface without deflecting the surface. Further adjustment of the position of each actuator with respect to the mirror's reflecting surface may be used to control the initial (or rest) shape of the mirror's reflecting surface.
While a mirror constructed utilizing replaceable actuators as described above has the advantage of permitting the replacement and/or alignment of one or more of the mirror's actuators, it suffers from the requirement that each actuator must be precisely adjusted within its respective aperture to insure that the mirror's reflecting surface does not contain any deformations caused by improperly positioned actuators. Consequently, the actuator adjustment procedure is tedious, and must be carried out when the mirror is initially assembled and each time that an actuator is replaced. The actuator alignment procedure is both time consuming and requires careful measurement of the mirror's reflecting surface to insure a uniform reflecting surface so that there is preferably less than 1/10 wave difference at the frequency of the light to be reflected from the reflecting surface across the mirror's reflecting surface. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electron beam lithography tools and, more particularly, to limiting temperature-dependent changes in performance and operation of electron beam lithography tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous lithography techniques are known and are in widespread use for manufacture of integrated circuit devices, in particular. Essentially, such lithography processes define potentially very minute areas and shapes on a surface through selective exposure and removal of portions of a layer of resist to expose areas of the surface for further processing by, for example, etching, implantation and/or deposition. Exposure has generally been accomplished in the past by use of radiant energy such as visible wavelength light.
There is a strong incentive in the manufacture of integrated circuits to increase integration density to the greatest possible degree consistent with acceptable manufacturing yields. Device arrays of increased density provide increased performance since signal propagation time is reduced with reduced connection length and capacitance. Further, increased device density on a chip allows greater chip functionality as well as greater numbers of devices which can be manufactured on a chip of a given area. Accordingly, increased integration density reduces manufacturing costs by maximizing the number of devices (or the number of chips of a particular functionality) which can be formed in the course of processing a single wafer of a given size since, for a given processing schedule, the cost of processing each wafer (including amortization and maintenance of the tools and processing reactor vessels) is substantially constant regardless of the number of devices or chips simultaneously formed.
Unfortunately, device size and density is a function of the minimum feature size which can be reliably produced in the course of patterning the resist. Minimum feature size is limited by the resolution of the exposure which is, in turn, limited by the wavelength of the exposure radiation. Accordingly, while deep ultraviolet (DUV) steppers now use 248 nm or 193 nm radiation, it is common to print features at sub-wavelength resolution. For example, 180 nm and 150 nm features can be exposed using 248 nm and 193 nm sources, respectively, by using a combination of small numerical aperture, off-axis illumination and optical proximity correction schemes. At shorter wavelengths of light, however, transmission becomes a problem requiring an entirely new class of optics to extend the present capabilities of optical lithography.
Similar severe difficulties exist for extending x-ray lithography to feature dimensions less than 130 nm. Although the wavelength of x-rays is sufficiently short (on the order of nanometers) to resolve feature sizes below 100 nm, x-ray lithography relies on using defect-free masks of the same size (1.times.) as the features to be exposed and thus relies on the perfecting of mask-making technology and shrinking the mask-wafer gap to reduce error due to diffraction. Such masks have been made utilizing electron beam lithography machines.
To form feature sizes in accordance with design rules incorporating sub-one-tenth micron region and below, it has been necessary to perform resist exposures with charged particle beams. Electron beams (e-beams) are favored since particles of the low mass of an electron can be more readily manipulated (e.g. accelerated, focused, guided and the like) at lower power levels preferably using magnetic lenses, correctors, deflectors and the like. Accordingly, while the invention will be discussed below in connection with an electron beam tool, it is to be understood that all such references are intended to be inclusive of tools using any charged particle species (e.g. ions as well as electrons). By the same token, the principles discussed herein are also applicable to other charged particle beam devices including control of a charged particle beam such as electron microscopy devices and references to an e-beam tool should be understood as inclusive of such other charged particle devices.
When charged particles are in close proximity to one another, such as at a cross-over in the optical system, the resolution of the beam can be degraded by the Stochastic Coulomb interaction. The interaction is dependent on the numerical aperture, beam current and drift space of the charged particles. The numerical aperture is a trade-off between the geometric aberrations (which increase with increase of numerical aperture) and the Coulomb interaction (which decreases with increase of numerical aperture). The beam current is determined by both the throughput requirement of the tool for a given resist sensitivity and the resolution loss through the Coulomb interaction (which increases with increasing current). Finally, Coulomb interactions are reduced for short drift spaces, particularly in the region where the size of the beam is small such as near the focal plane.
Practical implementation of shortening of the electron beam column is often difficult to achieve. There are often mechanical constraints in the location of magnetic lenses, correction elements, deflection and alignment yokes and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,719, which is hereby fully incorporated by reference, discusses the difficulties presented by a shortened electron-optical column on deflection fields when lens fields overlap in an electron beam projection lithography tool. Additional complications arise due to heat transfer between magnetic lenses, deflection yokes and correction elements which are in close proximity.
Practical implementation of electron beam lithography tools generally include magnetic lenses comprised of windings of several thousand ampere turns with a steel enclosure and pole pieces made of steel, permador, ferrite or other suitable ferromagnetic material used to concentrate the field of the lens. The lens windings can be significant sources of heat and are often liquid-cooled to reduce radiant heat exchange to other column elements. Depending on the pole piece material and its temperature/permeability characteristics, the strength of a magnetic lens, for a given excitation current, can be dependent on pole piece temperature resulting in variations in beam focus and/or position. Non-axially-symmetric thermal expansion may lead to large astigmatism.
In the past, cooling the lens windings removed enough heat to keep the pole piece temperature nearly constant. However, in modern, high-performance e-beam tools, it is often the case that significant sources of heat can occur near a lens pole piece by, for example, the windings of a deflection or compensation yoke of the type described in the above-incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,719. The pole pieces are relatively more remote from the cooling arrangement of the lens than the windings and the standard cooling arrangement is thus somewhat less efficient in regulating the temperature of the lens pole piece. Further, depending on the pole piece mounting geometry, the effective position of the lens or other element can shift with temperature, causing variations in beam position below the element, astigmatism and/or focus changes of the beam.
It should be appreciated that focus, astigmatism and beam position become more critical with the reduction of the minimum feature size written because the overlay and critical dimension variation specifications are all typically more stringent with reduction of feature size. Electron beam projection systems which are to be capable of writing minimum feature sizes of less than 0.13 microns will have specifications similar to the next generation of tools for fabricating x-ray masks. While it is known to liquid-cool deflection yokes and thus limit heat radiated to pole pieces of other elements such as lenses, the criticality of focus, astigmatism and beam position at smaller feature size regimes has been found to require a degree of temperature control which is not possible with known liquid cooling arrangements, particularly if temperature dependence is strong. The expense of developing a liquid cooling system providing greater temperature control than is available from known systems is considered to be prohibitive and, in any event, would only provide a marginal improvement which would rapidly become obsolete as further reductions in minimum feature sizes are made in integrated circuit designs.
Electrical correction for temperature-dependent performance variations has not been feasible since the inductance and hysteresis in the lens is sufficiently large to prevent real-time adjustments in lens excitation in response to changes in pole piece temperature. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that temperature-dependent changes of e-beam tool performance are a major impediment to the increase of integration density and for which no solution currently exists.
Conversely, it the absence of a capability of correction for temperature-dependent performance variations severe design constraints are placed on the design of magnetic optical elements such as material choice and liquid cooling arrangements in order to minimize temperature dependent effects. These constraints severely complicate e-beam tool design and limit the reduction of charged particle column length which, in turn, limits performance of charged particle beam tools. | {
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In a number of scenarios, it is possible to safely infuse subjects with pharmaceutically active agents or fluids. In other scenarios, for example where a subject is to be infused with an opioid, there remains substantial danger to the subject, unless they are closely monitored, and, even then, in the absence of the safety features provided by the present device, system and method, substantial risk remains. The present invention, therefore, provides a solution to this long-felt need.
Conventional monitoring for respiratory depression in the hospital setting involves monitoring end tidal carbon-dioxide (ETCO2). However, ETCO2 is impractical in many scenarios. For example, it is difficult to measure in ambulatory patients (non-intubated patients). It is also costly, and the relevant equipment is cumbersome. The ability to directly monitor the pharmacodynamic (PD) effects of all of the factors that may contribute to hypopnea and/or apnea is far more valuable, for example, than knowing a single physiologic measurement, such as the ETCO2. Knowing the combined effects of CO2, hypoxemia, opioids, other drugs, and physiologic state of a patient would provide much more valuable information for the patient's safety. Trending of various parameters would also be highly valuable, not only for closed-loop systems, but also for improved monitoring of patients in a hospital setting.
The present inventors have identified a number of existing technologies which may be adapted, as disclosed herein below in the detailed disclosure of the invention, for the particular purposes to be achieved by practice of the present invention. Thus, references to such technologies herein, and the documents in which those technologies are described, are to be considered as having been fully set forth.
For example, pending published US patent application, US2006/0241506 (METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIAGNOSING RESPIRATORY DISORDERS AND DETERMINING THE DEGREE OF EXACERBATIONS), hereafter “the '506 publication”, involves the identification of peaks and troughs in plethysmograph signals, preferably acquired from a central site location of a subject, such as the nasal ala(e), identifying midpoints or minima between peaks and troughs, and using an interpolated line to represent venous impedance, permits extracting venous impedance and capacitance to thereby obtain an arterial component signal, thereby facilitating detection of an air obstruction event (such as apnea). As disclosed further herein below, such a system may be integrated into the present system, method, and device for enhanced safety in providing certain types of treatment or therapy in particular contexts. In particular, for example, in providing opioid therapy via a closed loop system, integration of such technology into an infusion device of this invention provides enhanced safety controls.
Likewise, with respect to published US patent application US2010/0192952, herein incorporated by reference, the present invention disclosure provides significant new applications and enhancements to the devices and methods disclosed therein. US2010/0192952 discloses certain pulse oximeter/plethysmography probes designed for securement to the nose, in a stand-alone form or incorporated into a mask of an air pilot or fire-fighter, pulse oximeter/plethysmography probes designed for securement to the pre-auricular portion of the a subject's ear, to the ear canal of a subject's ear, to the post-auricular portion of the subject's ear, or to the cheek of a subject's face. All of these designs are incorporated by reference into this disclosure, with the key modifications of these probes as described herein below, and the key modifications to the methods and systems disclosed herein which facilitate the safe, effective and efficient open- or closed-loop delivery of appropriate medications to the subject, dependent on the analysis of PD and/or PK signals obtained from the subject in either civilian or military contexts. The modifications and enhancement disclosed herein are likewise applicable to the context's disclosed in the US2010/0192952 publication, i.e. to prevent Gravity-induced Loss of Consciousness (GLOC) or Almost Loss of Consciousness (ALOC), as well as, for example, in the context of the fire-fighter. The key enhancements disclosed herein for this purpose include either an integrated or separately housed infusion system as well as enhancements achieved by coupling PPG signal acquisition and processing to nasal pressure signal acquisition and processing. In the contexts of GLOC and ALOC, for example, the present invention provides the option not only of altering the G-force induced loss or almost loss of consciousness, by setting off an alarm or interfacing with an aircraft's onboard computer, but to also, or instead, provide the option pharmacologic intervention, e.g. by detection of GLOC or ALOC and infusing the subject with an appropriate dose, for example, of glucose, epinephrine, oxygen or the like, or combinations thereof, calculated to avert the potentially catastrophic sequelae of a loss of consciousness in these circumstances.
Similarly, the technology described in Diab U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,850 (hereafter the '850 patent) provides, in particular with respect to blood oximetry measurements, methods, systems, algorithms and apparatuses to extract meaningful physiological information. Such a system may be integrated into the present method, device, system, to enhance safety by providing relevant pharmacodynamic (PD), pharmacokinetic (PK), or both PD and PK guided infusion in particular therapeutic contexts.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,569,030 and related Medtronic MiniMed patents (see, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,827,702, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,972) describes a system for delivery of insulin for control of physiological glucose concentration. In these patents, however, there is very little disclosure about the “sensing device for sensing a biological state” element even for a closed loop system for delivery of insulin. The only sensing device identified is one for measuring glucose concentration. The main thrust of these patents is a system for setting safety limits for the amount of insulin provided by an infusion pump, and the ability for the user to over-ride certain limits to simulate, for example, the body's “leading insulin secretion reflex”. Other over-rides, to address medications or activity states (sleep, stress, etc), forms a central part of the disclosure. Methods for calculating delivery rates of an infusion formulation of insulin in response to a sensed glucose concentration are disclosed.
The need for dynamic modelling to control opioid administration has been recognized. See, for example, Mitsis et al., J Appl Physiol. 2009 April; 106(4):1038-49, “The effect of remifentanil on respiratory variability, evaluated with dynamic modelling”, (hereafter, “Mitsis et al.) which noted that opioid drugs disrupt signalling in the brain stem respiratory network affecting respiratory rhythm. Mitsis et al., evaluated the influence of a steady-state infusion of a model opioid, remifentanil, on respiratory variability during spontaneous respiration using dynamic linear and nonlinear models to examine the effects of remifentanil on both directions of the ventilatory loop, i.e., on the influence of natural variations in end-tidal carbon dioxide PETCO2 on ventilatory variability, (which was assessed by tidal volume (VT) and breath-to-breath ventilation i.e., the ratio of tidal volume over total breath time VT/Ttot), and vice versa. Breath-by-breath recordings of expired CO2 and respiration were made during a target-controlled infusion of remifentanil for 15 min at estimated effect site (i.e., brain tissue) concentrations of 0, 0.7, 1.1, and 1.5 ng/ml, respectively. They found that Remifentanil caused a profound increase in the duration of expiration. The obtained models revealed a decrease in the strength of the dynamic effect of PETCO2 variability on VT (the “controller” part of the ventilatory loop) and a more pronounced increase in the effect of VT variability on PETCO2 (the “plant” part of the loop). Nonlinear models explained these dynamic interrelationships better than linear models. The described approach allows detailed investigation of drug effects in the resting state at the systems level using noninvasive and minimally perturbing experimental protocols, which can closely represent real-life clinical situations.
By contrast, the present invention involves using physiological signals, software algorithms and infusion devices (e.g. with a subcutaneous catheter, implanted device and, in preferred embodiments, intranasal delivery, e.g. delivery to the mucosa of the nasal septum, particularly at Kiesselbach's plexus [also known as “Little's area”] and/or the nasal mucosa of the turbinates for the safe delivery of drugs which could potentially cause hypopnea, apnea and death if given in excess quantities. Since no single dose is appropriate for all individuals, and due to other medications and/or underlying clinical conditions, dosing without physiologic monitoring as disclosed herein, is unsafe. Furthermore, in the particular context of military operations, the present invention provides a system, method and apparatus, herein referred to by the acronym “WARCARE™”, (Warfighter Autonomous or Remotely Controlled Advanced Resuscitation Ensemble), in which operatives in combat situations are able to receive appropriate pharmacologic intervention at a much earlier stage than has previously been possible. By coupling the PD, PK or PD+PK measurement sensors and signals of the present invention with the processor of this invention, and which then controls delivery of appropriate fluids and/or drugs to the combatant, morbidity and mortality and potentially Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is substantially reduced.
In addition, by incorporating WARCARE into the existing global positioning system, GPS) carried by the warfighter, the present invention will allow the military to locate, triage, monitor, and optimally treat injured warfighters with drugs and/or fluids, either locally (e.g., Level 1 military care) or remotely (e.g., rescue helicopters, and/or Levels 2 through 5 military care, etc.). | {
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The present invention relates to a servo-press machine that includes a drive power supply capacitor, drives a servomotor based on slide motion information, and performs a press-forming operation while converting the rotational motion of the servomotor into a vertical movement of a slide through a slide drive mechanism.
A press machine that utilizes a servomotor allows the user to easily set or select slide motion (e.g., JP-A-2003-205395). Specifically, the slide speed can be arbitrarily changed. Moreover, the slide can be stopped temporarily, and the slide motion can be reversed by reversing the rotation of the servomotor. Therefore, adaptability to press-formed products can be increased, and high-quality products can be produced.
In such a servo-press machine, a motor rotation control section controls the rotation of the servomotor based on slide motion information (motion instruction signal) set in advance. A slide drive mechanism receives rotation power generated by rotating the motor to drive the slide. As the slide drive mechanism, an eccentric drive mechanism, a link drive mechanism, and a screw drive mechanism have been known. Among these, the eccentric drive mechanism (crank mechanism or eccentric shaft structure) has been generally employed from the viewpoint of the structure or the function. The slide motion information is created as a slide position corresponding to each stroke (time or angle).
FIG. 6 shows the case of using a crank mechanism. The slide position moves downward from the top dead center (position Pu) toward the bottom dead center (position PI) along a path Rsp (i.e., slide motion information), and then moves upward toward the top dead center. The slide speed is indicated by a path Rsv.
Specifically, the slide starts to move downward at a time t0 (0.0 sec) on the horizontal axis. The slide speed is reduced immediately before a time t1 in order to achieve a soft touch. The motor torque (path Rmt) thus decreases. A forming area (time t1 to t2) then occurs. The bottom dead center is reached at a time t2, and the top dead center is reached at a time t3 (about 3.6 sec). Specifically, one stroke (production cycle) is 3.6 sec.
The motor rotational speed corresponding to the slide motion (path Rsp) shown in FIG. 6 is indicated by a path Rmr. For example, when performing a deep-drawing operation, the motor is driven at low speed in order to improve the quality. The motor is accelerated immediately after completion of forming (after the time t2) along an acceleration path Rmrin to reach a high speed (allowable maximum rotational speed Mrh).
As a measure to improve speed controllability, a device that accurately estimates the load inertia that changes during operation by calculations or the like and automatically corrects a speed control constant has been proposed (JP-A-2001-352773).
The motor torque (path Rmt) rapidly increases from the minimum value up to the time t1 at which a forming load (load) occurs to reach the forming maximum motor torque Tmh. The motor torque is reduced after completion of forming (time t2). The motor torque is then increased by a torque necessary for accelerating the rotational speed. The allowable maximum motor torque Tms indicated by a bold dotted line indicates the allowable maximum motor torque of the servomotor during forming. The capacity of the servomotor and the capacity of the motor rotation control section including a position/speed control section, a current control section, and the like are selected corresponding to the allowable maximum motor torque.
A motor drive power supply device that generates a drive power supply voltage (direct-current) based on a power supply voltage (alternating-current) has been known (e.g., JP-A-2007-282367). This type of power supply device is generally used as a power supply device of a servo-press machine. In FIG. 7, a power supply device 110 includes a rectifier circuit, a switching circuit, and the like, and generates a drive power supply voltage (direct-current) based on a power supply voltage (alternating-current) input from a power supply system 100. The power supply device 110 and a current control section 33 (that forms part of a motor rotation control section) are connected through positive and negative power supply paths 120. A capacitor 130 is connected between the positive power supply path P and the negative power supply path N. The drive current is supplied from the current control section 33 to a servomotor 7.
The load (torque Rmt) of the servo-press machine increases in the forming area (time t1 to t2), and decreases in the vertical movement areas before and after the forming area, as described above. A change in load of the servo-press machine is very large as compared with other industrial machines. Specifically, a change in load within one production cycle (one slide stroke) is large. Therefore, the capacitance of capacitor 130 is relatively large in order to achieve a drive power supply voltage (voltage Vpn) smoothing function and a buffer (capacitor) function. The capacitance of the capacitor is carefully studied and appropriately selected from the viewpoint of reducing the capacities of the power supply device 110 and the power supply system 100 and reducing cost. Specifically, the capacitor 130 discharges a large amount of power (drive power supply voltage) during forming and supplies the drive power supply voltage to the current control section 33. The induced voltage of the servomotor 7 is indicated by Vm.
When performing a high-quality forming operation, the slide speed Rsv is relatively reduced in the forming area. The slide speed is increased as much as possible over the entire area from the viewpoint of improving the productivity. Specifically, the operator performs a press-forming operation while selecting various types of slide motion (path Rsp) in a production site. However, the slide motion is not selected taking into consideration the relationship among the capacities and the characteristics of the motor rotation control section 33, the servomotor 7, the power supply system 100, the power supply device 110, the capacitor 130, and the like.
Specifically, a mismatch between the selected or set slide motion and the device functions and characteristics results in an unstable operation. Moreover, such an unstable operation may or may not occur depending the experience and the skill of the operator. Specifically, the causes of unstable operation may not be determined.
Therefore, a situation in which the operation must be stopped or the device malfunctions or breaks may occur. This results in a decrease in productivity and an increase in production cost. | {
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The invention relates in general to an air-conditioning device for motor vehicles.
It relates more specifically to a device for air-conditioning a cabin of a motor vehicle, comprising an air-conditioning unit installed in front of the dashboard, able to be supplied with external air and/or with recycled air taken from the cabin and passing through a recycling pipe arranged in said dashboard, and able to deliver to the rear region and the cabin a flow of conditioned air through a delivery pipe connecting said unit to a vent.
Certain air-conditioning devices actually comprise a supply shutter which, in a particular position known as the recycling position, allows the vehicle cabin to be supplied in an closed or an almost closed circuit. This mode of operation is particularly used when the vehicle passes through polluted areas. This mode of operation is also useful in cold weather, when starting the vehicle, so as to allow the vehicle to warm up more quickly, and also when the external air is very hot, to allow energy savings. In almost all vehicles equipped with recycling means, the recycled air intake is arranged in the dashboard.
EP 0 645 267 describes an air-conditioning device for motor vehicles in which the recycled air intake is in the rear region of the cabin and the recycling pipe is arranged in part in the floor of the cabin. However, this device described in this document has no pipe for delivering conditioned air to the rear region of the cabin.
In vehicles which have an air vent in the rear region of the cabin, the corresponding air delivery pipe is generally arranged in the floor of the cabin and the air delivered flows from the conditioning unit to the vent.
The purpose of the invention is to propose a conditioning device such as mentioned in the introduction which makes it possible, on demand, to take recycled air from the rear region of the cabin.
According to the invention, the device is one wherein there is provided, in the dashboard, a branch pipe connecting said recycling pipe to said delivery pipe, said branch pipe dividing the delivery pipe into an upstream portion situated between the unit and the junction with the branch pipe, and into a downstream portion situated between said junction and the vent and, in said junction, a rear recycling shutter able to adopt at least two positions, a first position in which it closes off the entrance to the branch pipe, and a second position in which it closes off the exit from the upstream portion of the delivery pipe so as to allow air to be taken from the rear region of the cabin for recycling.
Thus, conditioned air from the unit flows into the downstream portion of the delivery pipe when the rear recycling shutter is in the first position, and air taken from the rear region of the cabin flows in the opposite direction in this downstream portion when the rear recycling shutter is in the second position.
Advantageously, the rear recycling shutter can adopt a third position in which it places the upstream portion in communication with the branch pipe.
This arrangement makes it possible, under extreme conditions, to inject colder or hotter air back into the recycling pipe in order to more quickly reduce or increase the temperature of the air leaving the vents provided in the dashboard. | {
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This disclosure relates generally to execution of instructions by a computer, and more specifically to execution of instructions in a transactional execution environment.
The number of central processing unit (CPU) cores on a chip and the number of CPU cores connected to a shared memory continues to grow significantly to support growing workload capacity demand. The increasing number of CPUs cooperating to process the same workloads puts a significant burden on software scalability; for example, shared queues or data-structures protected by traditional semaphores become hot spots and lead to sub-linear n-way scaling curves. Traditionally this has been countered by implementing finer-grained locking in software, and with lower latency/higher bandwidth interconnects in hardware. Implementing fine-grained locking to improve software scalability can be very complicated and error-prone, and at today's CPU frequencies, the latencies of hardware interconnects are limited by the physical dimension of the chips and systems, and by the speed of light.
Implementations of hardware Transactional Memory (HTM, or in this discussion, simply TM) have been introduced, wherein a group of instructions—called a transaction—operate in an atomic manner on a data structure in memory, as viewed by other central processing units (CPUs) and the I/O subsystem (atomic operation is also known as “block concurrent” or “serialized” in other literature). The transaction executes optimistically without obtaining a lock, but may need to abort and retry the transaction execution if an operation, of the executing transaction, on a memory location conflicts with another operation on the same memory location. Previously, software transactional memory implementations have been proposed to support software Transactional Memory (TM). However, hardware TM can provide improved performance aspects and ease of use over software TM.
According to U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2008/0109565 A1, titled “PCI Express Enhancements And Extensions”, filed Nov. 2, 2006, by Ajanovic et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, a method and apparatus for enhancing/extending a serial point-to-point interconnect architecture, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is described. Temporal and locality caching hints and prefetching hints are provided to improve system wide caching and prefetching. Message codes for atomic operations to arbitrate ownership between system devices/resources are included to allow efficient access/ownership of shared data. Loose transaction ordering provided for while maintaining corresponding transaction priority to memory locations to ensure data integrity and efficient memory access. Active power sub-states and setting thereof is included to allow for more efficient power management. And, caching of device local memory in a host address space, as well as caching of system memory in a device local memory address space is provided for to improve bandwidth and latency for memory accesses.
According to U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2011/0173367 A1, titled “PCI Express Enhancements And Extensions”, filed Mar. 28, 2011, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. A method and apparatus for enhancing/extending a serial point-to-point interconnect architecture, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is herein described. Temporal and locality caching hints and prefetching hints are provided to improve system wide caching and prefetching. Message codes for atomic operations to arbitrate ownership between system devices/resources are included to allow efficient access/ownership of shared data. Loose transaction ordering provided for while maintaining corresponding transaction priority to memory locations to ensure data integrity and efficient memory access. Active power sub-states and setting thereof is included to allow for more efficient power management. And, caching of device local memory in a host address space, as well as caching of system memory in a device local memory address space is provided for to improve bandwidth and latency for memory accesses. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The most common use of the Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) mobile communication system is to transmit voice. It is well known that during a normal conversation, the participants alternate so that, on the average, each direction of transmission is occupied only about 50% of the time. Discontinuous transmission (DTX) is a mode of operation in the GSM system where the base station and mobile transmitters are switched on only for those frames which contain useful information. This is done in order to prolong battery life at the mobile station and to reduce the average interference level over the “air”, leading to better spectrum efficiency.
When DTX mode is enabled in communication, the received frames (one frame contains eight bursts and only one burst is allocated to one user in most conditions for GSM system) can be classified by the mobile station as either useful or silent. The useful frames carry data bits and the silent frames contain only noise and interference.
It is important to determine which frames are useful frames and which frames are silent frames. If the type of the received frame is not known, certain measurement processes in the mobile station will be erroneously based on the noise and interference of a silent frame. For example, if silent frames are not discarded, processes such as the measurement of received signal strength information (RSSI) will be nonsensical. This error will cascade into other processes such as the automatic gain control (AGC). Therefore, it is important to determine whether a received frame is a useful frame or a silent frame at the mobile station. | {
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Absorption spectroscopy is often used to analyze a content of various substances. The content analysis may involve identifying components of the substances and/or identifying an amount of a particular component of the substance.
In general, absorption spectroscopy includes spectroscopic techniques that measure an amount of absorption of electromagnetic radiation as a result of the interaction of the electromagnetic radiation with one or more components of the substance. The absorption of the electromagnetic radiation is measured as a function of frequency or wavelength. The component(s) in the substance absorbs a certain amount of energy from the electromagnetic radiation. The intensity of the absorption varies with the component(s) that are present in the substance and as a function of the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation. | {
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This application relates to the preparation of grafts, implants, prostheses or other tissue constructs, typically for use as replacements for damaged or diseased bodily tissue. More particularly, this application relates to apparatus and methods for maturing or conditioning biopolymer tissue constructs prior to implantation of the construct in the body.
Tissue constructs are often used as grafts, implants or prostheses to replace diseased or damaged bodily tissue. Tissue needing replacement can include, for example, cartilage, tendon and ligament tissue. A fully functional replacement tissue should withstand at least the stresses and strains imposed by normal bodily activity on the type of tissue the construct is to replace. Furthermore, the construct should be biocompatible and integrable, in vivo, i.e., the construct should resemble a natural tissue so as to attract and interact with specific cells present in the body. The attracted cells further organize the construct and secrete specific biosynthetic products, such as extracellular matrix proteins and/or growth factors, that bind to the replacement construct, enabling it to degrade, remodel and regenerate as a fully functional replacement tissue. Such integration strengthens and conditions the construct to better perform as a replacement tissue.
Synthetic materials such as polyester fibers (Dacron.TM.) or polytetrafluorlethylene (PTFE) (Teflon.TM.) have been used extensively as replacements for bodily tissue, with some success. However, due to the poor biocompatibility of such synthetic materials, they often initiate persistent inflammatory reactions. Additionally, they do not readily breakdown and are not readily integrated with the body via remodeling by tissue cells.
It is also known to fabricate replacement constructs from structural biopolymer matrix components, such as collagen, that are extracted, purified and combined with specialized cells. The cells can organize, condense, and otherwise interact with the matrix proteins to create a tissue-like construct that can more closely resemble a natural tissue, and hence more readily integrate with the body than implants, grafts or prostheses based on synthetic materials. However, available biopolymer implants do not always have, or develop in vivo, the matrix complexity characteristic of the tissue they are to replace so as to become fully-functional replacements.
Therefore, there is a need for improved replacement tissue constructs that are stronger and more readily integrable with the bodily environment. Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide methods and apparatus for producing improved replacement tissue constructs.
Another object of the invention is to provide replacement tissue constructs that are stronger and more capable of withstanding the stresses and strains imposed thereon by the rigors of bodily activity.
A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus for maturing and conditioning prostheses, grafts and implants to be more readily accepted by and integrable with the natural bodily environment.
Another object of the invention is to provide prostheses, grafts and implants that more readily resemble the tissues they are intended to replace.
Other general and more specific objects of the present invention will in part by obvious and will in part appear from the drawings and description which follow. | {
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The transmission of large data files (typically those in the megabyte and greater size range) or large quantities of smaller data blocks between two remote locations has traditionally been accomplished in one of three ways: (1) physically transporting the data on a tangible media such a magnetic tape, floppy or floptical disks, or optical discs (referred to as a "sneaker net"), (2) electronic transmission via modem and public telecommunications lines, or (3) transmission in the electronic domain via a dedicated transmission pathway consisting of one or more hard wire, fiber optic, microwave, or satellite linkages.
The need to send huge data files between remote locations has continued to expand in many industries, such as photographic and pre-press operations, magazine and catalog printing, medical imaging, CAD/CAM fabrication and manufacturing, financial and accounting services, and many scientific and technical research operations.
Physical transportation of data is restricted by the size of large data files and the capacity of transportable media. Floppy and floptical disk media is currently a preferred avenue due to the relatively small cost of the media per megabyte of storage capacity. Conventional high-density floppy disks having approximately 1.44 megabytes of formatted uncompressed capacity have been replaced by various high-capacity options such as the 100 megabyte Iomega.RTM. ZIP.TM. or Syquest.RTM. drives, and the recently introduced 120 megabyte LS-120.TM. floppy disk from 3M Company that is backwards compatible with the prevailing 1.44 megabyte formats. Even greater capacity may be obtained using magneto-optical disks such as the 230 megabyte DynaMO.RTM. format from Fujitsu, WORM and rewritable optical discs such as the industry-standard 650 megabyte CD-ROMs, and various removable hard drives.
However, even with increasing storage capacity and lowered equipment prices, physical transportation of data has many inherent drawbacks. Besides the cost of media, there are additional monetary costs for the actual physical transportation, including packaging, postal, messenger, or courier charges, and the time and expense involved with having personnel download, address, deliver, receive, and subsequently load the data. If the data is processed at the remote location and returned, the costs are doubled.
Utilizing overnight or same-day couriers, a round-trip shipment between two geographically remote locations (i.e., beyond the boundary of a single metropolitan region) will still require one or two days in transit.
Finally, there are the inherent risks of data loss or corruption due to defective media, mishandling, environmental conditions, and routing errors. Attempting to prevent such problems requires protective packaging, redundant shipments, and other safeguards that are expensive, time consuming, and yet unreliable. Even with safeguards in place, lost media or corrupted data can result in days of lost time in transit, as well as consuming valuable personnel time and creating uncertainty regarding the status of a given project or operation.
A variety of electronic data transmission systems exist for transmitting data files between two spatially-distinct locations. Local-area networks (LANs) are generally regarded as optimal for connecting a plurality of personal computers together within a single facility or campus using a file server or mainframe system as the backbone, and some LANs use dedicated transmission pathways to extend beyond a defined facility's or campus' geographical boundaries. Wide-area networks (WANs) are generally utilized for connections between more distant locations, and may be used to interconnect separate LANs. In the case of both LANs and WANs, there is usually a network connection between local computers using low speed hard wired or infrared pathways, and dedicated high speed connections between distant locations or with shared peripherals and systems maintenance devices.
While dedicated LANs or WANs will serve the needs for data transmission within a homogeneous autonomous enterprise--such as a single company having several plants or a university with more than one campus--they have proven unsuitable for conveying data between heterogeneous enterprises such as service providers and their customers.
Data transmission via conventional multiplexed telecommunications pathways is too slow to be useful for large data files even when compressed. Data errors, verification schemes, and encryption protocols all complicate such systems. Shared public networks are similarly too slow and unwieldy for sustained use in most industries requiring rapid shipping of large and complex data files, particularly where security and data integrity are primary concerns.
Private WANs are one feasible solution, but are frequently too expensive given the moderate transmission volumes that many companies require. In addition, one company may require frequent transmission connections to a plurality of unrelated senders or recipients at remote sites each having a different LAN structure and protocol, as well as infrequent or "one time" nonrecurring transmission connections to many other unrelated sites.
The use of commercial WANs can sometimes overcome these problems for companies having high volume or recurring transmission needs with unrelated sites, but these can be quite complex and expensive, requiring on-premises equipment, leased transmission pathways, technical support, maintenance, and custom-developed software applications. | {
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The present embodiments relate to phase change ink compositions characterized by being solid at room temperature and molten at an elevated temperature at which the molten ink is applied to a substrate. These phase change ink compositions can be used for ink jet printing. The present embodiments are directed to a novel phase change ink composition comprising an amorphous compound or component, a crystalline compound or component, and optionally a colorant, and methods of making the same. The specific formulations described herein, including a combination of an amorphous compound and crystalline compound which have low compatibility and are derived from bio-renewable materials, provide fast crystallizing ink compositions that forming high quality images or printing on coated paper substrates.
Ink jet printing processes may employ inks that are solid at room temperature and liquid at elevated temperatures. Such inks may be referred to as phase change inks, hot melt inks, phase change inks and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,731, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, discloses an apparatus for dispensing phase change ink for printing on a recording medium such as paper. In piezo ink jet printing processes employing hot melt inks, the phase change ink is melted by the heater in the printing apparatus and utilized (jetted) as a liquid in a manner similar to that of conventional piezo ink jet printing. Upon contact with the printing recording medium, the molten ink solidifies rapidly, enabling the colorant to substantially remain on the surface of the recording medium instead of being carried into the recording medium (for example, paper) by capillary action, thereby enabling higher print density than is generally obtained with liquid inks. Advantages of a phase change ink in ink jet printing are thus elimination of potential spillage of the ink during handling, a wide range of print density and quality, minimal paper cockle or distortion, and enablement of indefinite periods of nonprinting without the danger of nozzle clogging, even without capping the nozzles.
In general, phase change inks (sometimes referred to as “hot melt inks” or “solid inks”) are in the solid phase at ambient temperature, but exist in the liquid phase at the elevated operating temperature of an ink jet printing device. At the jetting temperature, droplets of liquid ink are ejected from the printing device and, when the ink droplets contact the surface of the recording medium, either directly or via an intermediate heated transfer belt or drum, they quickly solidify to form a predetermined pattern of solidified ink drops.
Phase change inks for color printing typically comprise a phase change ink carrier composition which is combined with a phase change ink compatible colorant. In a specific embodiment, a series of colored phase change inks can be formed by combining ink carrier compositions with compatible subtractive primary colorants. The subtractive primary colored phase change inks can comprise four component dyes or pigments, namely, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, although the inks are not limited to these four colors. These subtractive primary colored inks can be formed by using a single dye or pigment or a mixture of dyes or pigments.
Phase change inks are desirable for ink jet printers because they remain in a solid phase at room temperature during shipping, long term storage, and the like. In addition, the problems associated with nozzle clogging as a result of ink evaporation with liquid ink jet inks are largely eliminated, thereby improving the reliability of the ink jet printing. Further, in phase change ink jet printers wherein the ink droplets are applied directly onto the final recording medium (for example, paper, transparency material, and the like), the droplets solidify immediately upon contact with the recording medium, so that migration of ink along the printing medium is prevented and dot quality is improved.
While the above conventional phase change ink technology is generally successful in producing vivid images and providing economy of jet use and substrate latitude on porous papers, such technology has not been satisfactory for coated substrates. Thus, while known compositions and processes are suitable for their intended purposes, a need remains for additional means for forming images or printing on coated paper substrates. As such, there is a need to find alternative compositions, preferably those derived from bio-renewable sources, for phase change ink compositions and future printing technologies to provide customers with excellent image quality on all substrates. There is further a need to provide such phase change ink compositions which are suitable for fast printing environments like production printing.
Each of the foregoing U.S. patents and patent publications are incorporated by reference herein. Further, the appropriate components and process aspects of the each of the foregoing U.S. patents and patent publications may be selected for the present disclosure in embodiments thereof. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Manufacturing of integrated circuits and other microdevices involves a variety of process steps that are performed in various machines. A thin slice of semiconductor material (a wafer) is typically moved or handed off between the different machines using a robotic wafer handler. Components of the robotic wafer handler may become misaligned due to component wear or accidental human interference. For example, a 0.1 degree tilt on a component of the wafer handler may result in a robotic arm scratching the wafer during handling.
Scratched wafers are typically discarded, resulting in lost tool time and materials. Furthermore, a typical wafer processing sequence may not detect the scratch until several process steps later when the wafer is examined. During the several process steps hundreds of wafers may have already been scratched by the misaligned tool.
Additional steps may be added to check whether a tool is scratching. The additional steps are typically performed on a weekly basis using wafers and a defect tool. These steps cost cycle time and wafers, and may still result in undetected scratches for a period of time. During the period of scratching, thousands of wafers may be scratched. Increasing the frequency of the additional steps causes even more tool time to be lost.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for monitoring wafer handling for potential wafer scratches. In addition, it is desirable to provide an improved wafer handling machine. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, brief summary, and this background. | {
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The present invention relates generally to a surgical retractor apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a clamp for use with a retractor support apparatus having a plurality of retractor support arms.
While performing certain surgical techniques, it is desirable to retract tissue adjacent an incision to enhance a surgeon's ability to perform the desired surgical technique. This is typically accomplished by mounting a retractor apparatus to an operating table. One such prior art retractor apparatus is disclosed in LeVahn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,707, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application.
The LeVahn et al. retractor apparatus includes an extension rod that is attached to a first support rod with a first clamp. The LeVahn et al. retractor apparatus also includes a second support rod that is attached to the first support rod with a second clamp. The first and second support rods are configured to extend over the surgical table on opposite sides of the incision.
When using the LeVahn et al. retractor apparatus, the extension rod is mounted with respect to the operating table using a mounting bracket such as is disclosed in LeVahn et al. The first support rod is oriented in a desired position and the first clamp is moved to a closed position. Next, the second support rod is oriented in a desired position and the second clamp is moved to a closed position. At this point, it is possible to attach retractors to the retractor support.
The clamps used in conjunction with the prior art retractor apparatuses take a variety of configurations. Two such clamps that have been used with prior art retractor apparatus are disclosed in LeVahn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,195, and Gorham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,240, both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application. The LeVahn and Gorham clamps each contain a first clamp member and a second clamp member, which is pivotally mounted to the first clamp member. The first and second clamp members are each adapted to receive a retractor support arm.
The LeVahn and Gorham clamps also include a handle for moving the clamp from an open position to a clamping position. When the clamp is in the open position, the first clamp member may be pivoted with respect to the second clamp member. When the clamp is in the clamping position, the first clamp member is maintained in a fixed relationship with respect to the second clamp member. | {
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The present invention relates to a shoe storage box and, more particularly, to a multi-functional shoe storage box realizing see-through transparency to meet esthetic demand, wall-mount capacity to enhance product reliability, and deodorant application to maximize users' satisfaction.
Conventional shoe storage boxes come with paper containers. One of the disadvantages of the conventional paper shoe storage boxes is that each cover has to be opened for display on shoe racks and thus shoe pairs displaced to a different shoe storage box and tainted, thereby causing annoyances to the seller. Further, considering the shopper usually sees the label on the shoe storage box first, the inconveniences generated by the open paper shoe storage boxes, like unmatched design or shoe size by the frequent displacements, would probably disappoint the shoppers and affect the business itself.
A demand on the market is to provide a shoe storage box that allows shoppers to shop shoes in clean and convenient manners while shop owners enjoy a variety of display options to attract shoppers and satisfy shoppers needs.
Another demand is to introduce a shoe box that allows a user to see the shoes through the box container without opening the box. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Dock weather barriers (weather barrier apparatus), such as dock seals and dock shelters, address the need to prevent the ingress of outdoor environmental conditions or contaminants (e.g., rain, snow, wind, hot/cold temperatures, insects, animals, etc.) into the interior of a building and cargo area of a vehicle during the loading or unloading of the vehicle. Dock shelters and seals also address the need to prevent the egress of conditioned air from within a building and/or a vehicle cargo area to the outdoor environment. Examples of dock seals and/or shelters with various header structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,205,721; 6,233,885 and 7,185,463.
Some known dock seals use side members having a compressible foam core or body surrounded by a coated fabric or vinyl outer layer. The foam core provides sufficient structural rigidity to enable the side members to be extended a short distance from the building wall surrounding the loading dock. The coated fabric outer layer protects the foam core from outdoor environmental conditions (e.g., moisture), provides wear resistance to repeated impacts from the rear portions of vehicles, and may provide desirable aesthetic qualities. Additionally, a header structure may span between and/or above the side members and is installed along a top portion of the loading dock opening. The header structure may be another compressible member similar in construction to the side members and, in some cases, may include a weighted fabric curtain that hangs downwardly to contact the top of a truck trailer to form an environmental barrier along the top of the trailer.
Another type of dock seal uses inflatable side members and a header structure having internal compressible resilient pads, which provide some degree of side member compressibility when the side members are in a deflated condition. In either case, when the rear portion of a vehicle (e.g., a truck trailer) is backed into either foam or inflatable dock seal side and header members, the side and header members are compressed toward the building wall to form a seal along the lateral and top back edges of the vehicle. If present, the head curtain sweeps along the top of the trailer to form a seal at the top of the trailer between the side members. Dock seals typically consume a relatively small amount of wall space and can provide a relatively high quality seal between the rear edges of a vehicle and the outside building wall surrounding the dock. However, when the dock seal side members are compressed, they may be displaced into or otherwise encroach on the opening to the rear of the docked vehicle. As a result, the compressed side member may interfere with operation of a fork lift and/or an operator during loading and unloading activities. In addition, inflatable dock seals are susceptible to power losses and tears that compromise the ability of the side members to inflate to provide an acceptable seal.
In contrast to dock seals, some known dock shelters use side members that are mounted to the outside building wall surrounding the loading dock. The side members are spaced well to the outside of the sides of a docked vehicle. The side members are configured to extend (i.e., to be cantilevered) an appreciable distance from the outside building wall, particularly in cases where a dock leveler protrudes from the dock opening. The side members may also support flexible seal members or side curtains extending inwardly from the side members across at least a portion of the opening defined by the side members. When a vehicle such as, for example, a truck trailer, is backed into the opening of the dock shelter, the inwardly facing edges of the seal members or side curtains resiliently deflect and sweep against the lateral sides of the trailer to form an environmental barrier therebetween. As with dock seals, dock shelters also typically include a header structure, which may include a head curtain, to form an environmental barrier along the top edge of the rear of the vehicle.
In contrast to dock seals, dock shelters typically provide unobstructed access to a vehicle cargo area opening (i.e., there are no foam pads or the like to be compressed and displaced into the opening). However, most known dock shelter side members are constructed using rigid wood, fiberglass or metal frames capable of supporting the significant weight of the seal members or side curtains, which are usually held at an appreciable distance (e.g., several feet) from the building wall. Such side members may be permanently deformed if they are impacted by a vehicle. Accordingly, bumpers or stops may be mounted to the lower edge of the dock shelter to prevent a vehicle (e.g., a truck trailer) from impacting and damaging the rigid shelter.
The rigid side members used to implement these known dock shelters are also typically mechanically coupled via the header and/or another rigid member to provide increased lateral rigidity to the dock shelter to minimize the ability of the side members to move from side-to-side. Because of this, the side members typically have to be mounted relatively far apart to accommodate a wide range of possible off-center vehicle positions. This relatively large distance between the rigid side members consumes a significant and, thus, expensive amount of building wall space for each loading dock opening.
More recently, dock shelters having impactable side members have been developed. The impactable side members are similar to those used with dock seals and typically use a foam core or body surrounded by a coated fabric outer layer. Seal members or side curtains, which may be constructed using a fabric and flexible fiberglass stays combination or a foam core and fabric combination, are typically mounted to the side members to extend at least partially across the shelter opening. When a vehicle is backed into the shelter, the inwardly facing edges of the seal members or side curtains deflect and sweep against the sides of the vehicle to form an environmental barrier or seal against the sides of the vehicle. In the event the off-center position of a vehicle results in the rear of the vehicle impacting a side member, the foam core or body of the side member is resiliently compressed. When the vehicle is pulled away from an impacted side member, the foam core of the side member causes the side member to substantially recover to its original condition or shape. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laundry machine and, more particularly, to a laundry machine which communicates with external devices to perform not only original functions of the laundry machine but also additional functions of the laundry machine. The additional functions include functions extended from the original functions of the laundry machine and new functions having no relation to the original functions of the laundry machine. In addition, the laundry machine includes functions to operate the laundry machine without directly approaching the laundry machine from outside. Such a laundry machine may be referred to as a smart laundry machine.
The present invention also relates to an online system including the smart laundry machine and, more particularly, to an online system that is capable of easily and inexpensively using the smart laundry machine.
The present invention also relates to a further extended type of a smart home appliance, an online system including the same, and a method of using the online system.
Discussion of the Related Art
A washing machine that washes clothes is a typical laundry machine. A drying machine that dries clothes may also be referred to as a laundry machine. Of course, a combo washer dryer that washes and dries clothes may also be referred to as a laundry machine.
In recent years, a refresher that refreshes clothes using hot air or steam instead of washing using water has entered the market. The refresher may also be referred to as a laundry machine.
In addition, a dishwasher that washes dishes may also be referred to as a laundry machine in a broad sense although the dishwasher does not wash clothes. In this specification, therefore, the laundry machine includes all kinds of equipment as described above.
In this specification, a washing machine as a typical example of a laundry machine will hereinafter be described. The present invention is applicable to other kinds of laundry machines as long as the laundry machines are neither exclusive nor incompatible.
FIG. 1 shows a control panel applicable to a conventional washing machine or a washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The control panel is provided to interface with a user. Therefore, the control panel is generally provided at the front of the washing machine for easy access and operation. The control panel may have various buttons for user manipulation and various display units to provide information to the user.
A main function of the washing machine is washing. Accordingly, the washing machine is provided with a course selection unit 110 or a main function selection unit to select various washing courses. The user may select a course using the course selection unit 110 or the main function selection unit. For example, the course selection unit 110 may be formed in the shape of a rotary knob. A course indication unit 111 may be provided at the control panel 100 in order for user to easily select a course. The user may manipulate the course selection unit 110 based on the course indication unit 111 to select a desired washing course.
As shown in FIG. 1, the course indication unit 111 has various washing courses, which are arranged around the rotary knob 110. The user may turn the rotary knob 110 to select a corresponding washing course. A display unit 121 may be provided to indicate the selected washing course. Consequently, the user may easily confirm the selected washing course through the display unit 121. The display unit 121 may be implemented as a blinking light emitting diode (LED) or the like.
An option selection unit 120 may be provided to select optional functions added to or modified from the main functions. The option selection unit 120 may be provided in a variety of forms. For example, FIG. 1 shows an option selection unit 120 which enables selection of options related to washing 120a, rinsing 120b, spin-drying 120c, water temperature 120d, drying 120e, steam 120f, and a scheduled operation 120g. An option display unit 122 to display the selected option may also be provided. The option display unit 122 may also be implemented as an LED or the like.
In addition, the control panel 100 may be provided with an auxiliary selection unit 123 to select an auxiliary function. The auxiliary selection unit 123 may be provided to dry (122) and refresh (121) shoes in a space, such as a pedestal, separated from the washing machine. The auxiliary selection unit 123 may be configured to have the same form as the option selection unit 120. In addition, the auxiliary selection unit 123 may be provided to select items different from the abovementioned washing courses and options.
The control panel 100 may be provided with a state display unit 130 to display a state of the washing machine. The state display unit 130 may display the current operation state of the washing machine or information regarding a course, an option, and time selected by the user.
For example, in a case in which the washing machine is performing a rinsing step, the state display unit 130 may display “rinsing in progress.” In a case in which the washing machine is waiting for course input, the state display unit 130 may display “please input a washing course.” In addition, the state display unit 130 may indicate a current time or a time (remaining time) remaining until the washing machine carries out an entire washing course to complete operation.
Meanwhile, the control panel 100 may be provided with a power selection unit 140 to power the washing machine on and off and a run/pause selection unit 150 to put the washing machine into operation or pause.
The control panel 100 as described above and the washing machine including the same have the following problems.
It is difficult to implement an additional user interface at the control panel 100 in addition to a basic user interface of the control panel 100 due to spatial limitations of the control panel 100. Of course, a user interface may be implemented at the control panel 100 in complex and various fashions, which however requires excessive concentration and prior knowledge on the part of the user. Furthermore, it is difficult to manufacture the control panel 100 and a high capacity memory is needed with the result that cost of the washing machine is excessively increased.
In addition, the selection units 110 and 120 and the indication and display units 111, 121, and 122 have preset functions with the result that it is not easy to extend the functions of the respective units.
Meanwhile, the washing machine is generally installed in a laundry room, which the user does not frequently access. For this reason, the user may have much trouble in entering the laundry room and directly accessing the washing machine only for using the washing machine.
In addition, even though various kinds of information are indicated and displayed through the indication and display units 111, 121, 122, and 130, such indication or display of information may be meaningless if the user does not directly access the washing machine.
Consequently, it is necessary to provide a laundry machine that is capable of carrying out not only original functions of the laundry machine but also functions extended from the original functions of the laundry machine or new functions having no relation to the original functions of the laundry machine.
In addition, it is necessary to provide a laundry machine that is capable of implementing extended functions or new functions without replacement or modification of an existing control panel, i.e. without change in hardware of the laundry machine.
In particular, an operation time of the laundry machine from start to end of the operation procedure may be one hour or more. In addition, it is not desirable to leave laundry in the laundry machine after washing is completed. Consequently, it is necessary to remotely control the laundry machine when away from home. This is because, when the user remotely controls the laundry machine, it is possible to preset an operation completion time of the laundry machine and to remove washed laundry from the laundry machine at a set time.
Of course, a conventional laundry machine has a scheduled operation option. In this case, however, it is not possible to remotely control the laundry machine outdoors. For this reason, even when a scheduled operation condition cannot be satisfied (for example, a user returns home later than expected), it is not possible to change a scheduled operation time.
Meanwhile, it may be necessary to remotely control many home appliances, such as an oven, a cleaner, a refrigerator, a water purifier, and an air conditioner, in addition to a laundry machine, such as a drying machine, a washing machine, a refresher, and a dishwasher.
The above problems are not merely limited to the laundry machine. The problems may be equally caused even in home appliances, such as a refrigerator, an oven, an air conditioner, and a robot cleaner. This is because each of the home appliances has a configuration corresponding to the control panel of the laundry machine, i.e. a configuration for a user interface. In addition, this is because each of the home appliances has selection units to carry out original functions of each home appliance and indication and display units corresponding to the selection units and the need to extend the functions to implement new functions are the same as in the laundry machine. That is, extension of the user interface is difficult for many home appliances due to spatial or cost limitations thereof.
Several persons commonly use home appliances in a house due to characteristics of the home appliances. As a result, confusion between one user who directly manipulates the laundry machine and another user who remotely controls the laundry machine may occur. For this reason, it is necessary to provide a home appliance that can be remotely controlled in a state in which such confusion is prevented.
In this specification, a washing machine as a typical example of the laundry machine will hereinafter be described. The present invention is applicable to other kinds of laundry machines as long as the laundry machines are neither exclusive nor incompatible. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the creation of a bi-directional color transform between a color specification in a CIE-derived color space and device control values for extra-quaternary inking processes so that (i) colors can be predicted from a set of ink control values; and (ii) given a desired color, the device control values of a subset of inks derived from the original set of inks can be specified which achieve that desired color.
2. Background Art
As Desktop Color Publishing Systems become more ubiquitous, 4-color CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) printing has become a commodity item. Consequently the technical community is being driven by the high-end color market to develop new printing technologies to differentiate and add value to their product. The intent is to produce images of superior color, tone and detail than is obtainable with traditional processes. One approach to obtaining more colorful images is by employing more than 4 inks as process inks; in short, extra-quaternary printing processes.
Augmenting a set of CMYK inks with additional inks increases the gamut of printable colors. In any printing process, colors tend to become darker as more ink is laid down on paper because of the subtractive interaction of ink and incident light. The lighter hues of red, green and blue are consequently difficult to achieve with the traditional set of CMYK primary inks since they are produced from 2-ink overprints of the primaries. These lighter hues can be obtained by single inks properly formulated to the desired hue. Additional inks tend to increase the color gamut in the darker tonal regions as well. Their presence chromatically expands the entire gamut up and down the tonal range. The quarter tones and 3 quarter tones are especially augmented.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,899, which issued to Harold Kueppers on Mar. 14, 1989, discloses a scheme for creating 7-ink color separations based on an empirical algorithm which converts an additive interpretation of an RGB encoding of the source color to a set of specially formulated CMYKRGB colorants. Each color is inked with a maximum of 3 inks: all colors contain black; another ink is selected from the negative set of CMY primaries, cyan, magenta, and yellow; and the final chromatic ink is selected from the positive set of primaries RGB, red, green, and blue. In this context the terms `positive` and `negative` are being used as labels and are not meant to suggest that the subtractive colorimetry of the 2 inksets differ in any fundamental way. This approach has significant advantages for conventional halftoning technology: with just 3 inks per color, there are no moire concerns in printing. However, being empirical in nature implies that it is not colorimetrically based. There is no mechanism present to ensure that colors specified in the units of a CIE derived colorspace can be achieved with this inking scheme. | {
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This invention relates to a cabinet or housing which holds a number of modules or printed circuit boards in a manner that permits easy insertion and removal of the modules.
With the change of the market from telephone equipment purchased or rented from a telephone company to telephone equipment purchased from a manufacturer of telephone equipment and installed by the customer, there has been an increased demand for modular expandable equipment and systems. The cabinet and related equipment of this invention are particularly suited for such a system because they can provide a small or medium size switching unit that may be readily expanded or changed. The equipment of this invention may, of course, be easily adapted for use in computer systems or in any other system where it is desirable to expand or change the system to meet new requirements.
Hereinafter the term modules will be used and it is intended to include printed circuit boards with components mounted thereon, and printed circuit boards with components mounted thereon and sealed in plastic to form a block or mounted in a casing (with, of course, connecting contacts exposed).
It is known to have a cabinet with contacts on the inner side of the rear wall for engagement with contact members on any module. The modules may be disengaged or removed from the cabinet by gripping finger grips on an outer edge of the module and pulling outwards. A module is inserted by placing the contact members on the rear edge against the contacts on the rear wall and then pressing the module inwards towards the rear wall. Guide members or guide walls may be used to ensure the module is positioned with its contacts against appropriate contact members. It usually requires two hands to conveniently insert or withdraw a module, with one hand at the top and one hand at the bottom of the exposed side of the module.
The contact members or connectors on the module which engage and grip the contacts in the cabinet normally have a considerable spring bias to ensure good and reliable contact is made.
Good contact is, of course, essential. However a large spring bias frequently makes it difficult to engage manually the contact members of a module and the corresponding contacts of a cabinet. A number of means have been devised to provide some form of force to assist in the insertion and removal of a module. One such arrangement is described, for example, in Canadian Patent No. 1,124,346-- Jordan, issued May 25, 1982, where a pivoted lever on a faceplate or cover plate engages a slot in the cabinet to press the printed circuit board inwardly or outwardly. This arrangement adds considerable structure to the cabinet and board.
Another arrangement is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,150-- Chu, issued Jan. 26, 1982. This arrangement comprises printed circuit boards with a pivoted lever at both the top and bottom of the exposed edge of the board. The structure may be less complex than that described in the aforementioned Jordan patent, but insertion and withdrawal requires two hands. | {
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Male hypogonadism is a serious condition affecting mostly aging men. The common reasons for hypogonadism in men could be physiological abnormality involving among other factors, improper functioning or growth of the gonads and/or the pituitary-hypothalamus regulatory systems, and aging. Many of the abnormalities that are identified to be commonly associated with the low or decreased testosterone levels include impaired sexual function and/or libido, metabolic syndrome which may be a combination of abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, lipid disorders; high risk of cardiovascular diseases; reduced bone mass/mineral density and muscle weakness and or degeneration affecting the musculoskeletal system. Other effects of low testosterone levels include negative changes in body composition, depression and other psychological disorders. The average human male produces 4-7 mg of testosterone per day in a circadian pattern, with maximal plasma levels attained in early morning and minimal levels in the evening. It is generally recognized that in a normal adult man of age 17 to 54 years, the serum total testosterone (T) is between about 300 ng/dL to about 1100 ng/dL and this range is referred to as the eugonadal range. Restoration of testosterone levels to the eugonadal range typically corrects many of the cited clinical abnormalities associated with hypogonadism or low testosterone levels.
While oral administration is the most preferred and patient friendly route for administration, the effective oral delivery of testosterone as testosterone and its esters remains a challenge. This is due to extremely poor bioavailability of testosterone, which requires very high dosing as well as frequent dosing due to the short serum half-life. These problems with orally administered testosterone products are primarily due to first pass metabolism. Further, direct oral delivery of testosterone has also been known to cause enzyme induction resulting in potential drug-drug interactions.
Currently, modified testosterones, in form of a methyl analogue of testosterone, and as an undecanoate ester, testosterone undecanoate (TU) are available for oral administration for patients in need of testosterone therapy. However, liver damage including cholestasis, peliosis hepatitis, nodular regenerative hyperplasia, and primary hepatic tumors has been reported with use of methyl testosterone. Testosterone undecanoate is a prodrug which gets converted to testosterone in vivo. Testosterone undecanoate containing products are available in some countries as liquid filled soft-gelatin capsule containing 40 mg of fully solubilized testosterone undecanoate. Testosterone undecanoate is extremely lipophilic (calculated log P of ˜6.5) with a water solubility of <0.3 ng/ml and a melting point around 62° C. It is generally believed that in order to promote lymphatic absorption for better safety profile and to facilitate effective oral delivery of testosterone undecanoate, the testosterone undecanoate must be presented in a bioacceptable solubilizer. Accordingly, research continues into the development of testosterone oral delivery products that can have high drug load and provide for practical unit oral dosage forms. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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“Bandwidth” refers to a measure of the bit rate of data communication resources, expressed in a number bits communicated per unit time. “Bandwidth throttling” may be used to reduce the speed at which data is communicated, for example to limit network congestion or to help prevent a web server from crashing.
A server administrator may set a bandwidth throttling parameter to limit the number of requests that the server responds to within a specified period of time. For example, the server may be configured to implement bandwidth throttling during periods of peak server use, to prevent the server from crashing while attempting to respond to a large number of data requests. When the bandwidth throttling parameter is exceeded, the server may queue additional data requests, or may delay processing the additional requests until bandwidth use reaches an acceptable level. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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All of the protein kinases that have been identified to date in the human genome share a highly conserved catalytic domain of around 300 aa. This domain folds into a bi-lobed structure in which reside ATP-binding and catalytic sites. The complexity of protein kinase regulation allows many potential mechanisms of inhibition including competition with activating ligands, modulation of positive and negative regulators, interference with protein dimerization, and allosteric or competitive inhibition at the substrate or ATP binding sites.
Axl (also known as UFO, ARK, and Tyro7; nucleotide accession numbers NM—021913 and NM—001699; protein accession numbers NP—068713 and NP—001690) is a receptor protein tyrosine kinase (RTK) that comprises a C-terminal extracellular ligand-binding domain and N-terminal cytoplasmic region containing the catalytic domain. The extracellular domain of Axl has a unique structure that juxtaposes immunoglobulin and fibronectin Type III repeats and is reminiscent of the structure of neural cell adhesion molecules. Axl and its two close relatives, Mer/Nyk and Sky (Tyro3/Rse/Dtk), collectively known as the Tyro3 family of RTKs, all bind and are stimulated to varying degrees by the same ligand, Gas6 (growth arrest specific-6), a ˜76 kDa secreted protein with significant homology to the coagulation cascade regulator, Protein S. In addition to binding to ligands, the Axl extracellular domain has been shown to undergo homophilic interactions that mediate cell aggregation, suggesting that one important function of Axl may be to mediate cell-cell adhesion.
Axl is predominantly expressed in the vasculature in both endothelial cells (EC's) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC's) and in cells of the myeloid lineage and is also detected in breast epithelial cells, chondrocytes, Sertoli cells and neurons. Several functions including protection from apoptosis induced by serum starvation, TNF-α or the viral protein E1A, as well as migration and cell differentiation have been ascribed to Axl signaling in cell culture. However, Axl−/− mice exhibit no overt developmental phenotype and the physiological function of Axl in vivo is not clearly established in the literature.
Angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) is limited to functions such as wound healing and the female reproductive cycle in healthy adults. This physiological process has been co-opted by tumors, thus securing an adequate blood supply that feeds tumor growth and facilitates metastasis. Deregulated angiogenesis is also a feature of many other diseases (for example, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, endometriosis and blindness due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinopathy of prematurity and diabetes) and often contributes to the progression or pathology of the condition.
The overexpression of Axl and/or its ligand has also been reported in a wide variety of solid tumor types including, but not limited to, breast, renal, endometrial, ovarian, thyroid, non-small cell lung carcinoma, and uveal melanoma as well as in myeloid leukemias. Furthermore, it possesses transforming activity in NIH3T3 and 32D cells. It has been demonstrated that loss of Axl expression in tumor cells blocks the growth of solid human neoplasms in an in vivo MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma xenograft model. Taken together, these data suggest Axl signaling can independently regulate EC angiogenesis and tumor growth and thus represents a novel target class for tumor therapeutic development.
The expression of Axl and Gas6 proteins is upregulated in a variety of other disease states including endometriosis, vascular injury and kidney disease and Axl signaling is functionally implicated in the latter two indications. Axl-Gas6 signaling amplifies platelet responses and is implicated in thrombus formation. Axl may thus potentially represent a therapeutic target for a number of diverse pathological conditions including solid tumors, including, but not limited to, breast, renal, endometrial, ovarian, thyroid, non-small cell lung carcinoma and uveal melanoma; liquid tumors, including but not limited to, leukemias (particularly myeloid leukemias) and lymphomas; endometriosis, vascular disease/injury (including but not limited to restenosis, atherosclerosis and thrombosis), psoriasis; visual impairment due to macular degeneration; diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity; kidney disease (including but not limited to glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy and renal transplant rejection), rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and cataracts.
There exists, therefore, a need for small molecule inhibitors of Axl activity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to an information handling system and in particular to power management for cooling systems within an information handling system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
New generations of information handling systems have required increases in power capabilities over prior generations. Seemingly without exception, new designs have increased components such as central processing units (CPU), hard disk drives (HDD), memory, various adapters and controllers, all of which generate heat. As each generation has an increased thermal load, effective management of cooling systems is of increasing importance.
The “thermal design power (TDP)” for a given component represents a maximum amount of heat a cooling system is required to dissipate. That is, if a cooling system is capable of dissipating the TDP rated heat for a given component, the component will operate as intended. In short, the TDP is the power budget under which the various components must operate. However, the TDP is not the maximum power a component can consume. For example, it is possible for a processor to consume more than the TDP power for a short period of time without it being “thermally significant.” Using basic physics, heat will take some time to propagate, so a short burst may not jeopardize the goal of staying within the TDP.
Various techniques have been employed to manage thermal control in view of system performance. Exemplary techniques have included use of oversized cooling systems, controlling processor speed as a function of temperature, and implementing power capping (i.e., limiting the power to heat generating components). Unfortunately, the various techniques for thermal control can impact system performance. In some instances, the impact is merely nominal. However, this is not always the case.
Unfortunately, power within an information handling system is not limitless and use of system power is not without thermal and performance consequence. Clearly, as a motorized component, the fan can consume a substantial amount of power. In systems that increasingly demand power for computing resources, having power dedicated to the cooling system can substantially impact performance.
That is, while thermal control techniques may limit power to multiple subsystems, such techniques do not account for limiting power to a system fan for controlling power consumption by the fan. Accordingly, design of information handling systems must take into account balance of system performance with thermal control.
What is needed is a solution to provide dynamic run-time bi-directional communication that serves the needs of both power control and thermal control where priority there between may fluctuate. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates generally to spray nozzles, and more particularly to air atomizing spray nozzles of the type that generate a spray pattern in which liquid droplets are distributed uniformly throughout the spray pattern, and which finds particular, but not exclusive, utility in apparatus for the continuous casting of steel slabs, ingots, billets or the like. Such nozzles are often called "full cone spray nozzles" and are distinct from nozzles which generate hollow cone shaped patterns in which the liquid droplets discharge in an annular pattern with a central air core.
In both full cone and hollow cone spray nozzles, it is known to assist liquid atomization by directing pressurized air streams to engage the discharging liquid spray. This can be accomplished by converging the pressurized liquid and air streams within the body of the nozzle prior to discharge of the liquid stream. In hollow cone spray nozzles, it is also known to direct a pressurized air stream into impingement with the discharge liquid at a point external to the discharge orifice of the nozzle. Such external atomization is less frequently employed with full cone spray nozzles, because of an inability to effectively atomize the full cone spray pattern. The present invention addresses this difficulty and provides a full cone spray nozzle assembly that directs pressurized air to coact with a centrally located jet of liquid downstream of, and thus external to, the liquid orifice.
The present invention also provides a full cone spray nozzle that will discharge a substantially uniform pattern of fine droplets even if there is a dislocation or interruption in the supply of pressurized air. Such a disruption could result from a compressor failure, a valve blockage, a break in the supply line, or an electrical power outage. Because the distribution of coolant emanating from the nozzle assembly will remain substantially uniform under these circumstances, problems that might occur in a casting when coolant is applied in excessive amounts on some areas, and sparse amounts or none on adjacent areas, are essentially eliminated.
The following patents disclose various nozzle arrangements in which a liquid stream is atomized by pressurized air: U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,127 to Emory et al., and assigned to Spraying Systems Co. of Wheaton, Ill.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,739 to Kwok; U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,674 to Dixon; and West German patent 27 02 191. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Most battery-powered speakers in the market are relatively small in size and light in weight. To adapt to the needs of the market, the power of these battery-powered speakers is designed to be larger and larger, and sometimes it becomes even larger than the speaker body's own weight. This causes vibrations and movements of the speaker when the speaker is in use, thereby significantly deteriorating the speaker performance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus that includes a sheet stacking portion, which stacks sheets disposed in a sheet feeding apparatus body, and a heated air blowing portion, which blows heated air to the sheets stacked to the sheet stacking portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine or a printer, continuously feedable sheets are generally limited to high quality paper or plain paper designated by a copying machine maker. In these sheets, since smoothness of a surface is low and air permeability is high (air can easily pass through the sheets), the air easily flows between the sheets. Accordingly, when each sheet is extracted from the stacked sheets, absorption between the sheets is rarely generated. As a result, overlapping sheet feeding is rarely generated.
Meanwhile, in recent years, with diversification of a recording medium, an image may be formed on thick paper, an OHP sheet, and tracing paper. Further, in order to give a white degree or luster in accordance with a market request for coloring, even in sheets having a smooth surface, such as coat paper and art paper where a surface of a sheet is subjected to coating processing, an image formation request has been increased. In addition, in the OHP sheet, the tracing paper, the art paper, and the coat paper, since smoothness is high and air permeability is low (air rarely passes through them), the air is not easily flown between the sheets. Accordingly, when the sheets are stacked in a high-humidity environment in particular, the sheets can be easily absorbed there between. In a friction separation system that is generally used in a copying machine or a printer according to the related art, separation is not sufficiently made. As a result, overlapping sheet feeding or erroneous feeding is frequently generated.
In regards to the sheets that have the high smoothness and the low air permeability, techniques for suppressing absorption between the sheets and reducing overlapping sheet feeding or erroneous feeding are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-32473 and 2001-048366.
Specifically, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-32473 discloses a sheet feeding apparatus including an air exhaust portion that blows air heated by a dehumidifying heater provided at the lower side of a housing frame to a top surface or a side surface of a sheet stacked on a stack tray. According to this apparatus, it is possible to resolve a problem of absorption between the sheets by blowing the heated air to the sheets and removing humidity.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-048366 discloses a sheet feeding apparatus including an air blowing portion that blows air heated by an air heating portion to sheets stored in a sheet storage portion. According to this apparatus, it is possible to resolve a problem of absorption between the sheets by controlling the air heating portion and blowing air having proper humidity.
Meanwhile, according to the techniques that are related to sheet feeding disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-32473 and 2001-048366, if a sheet bundle is additionally stacked in a state where the sheets are stored in the sheet feeding apparatus, the sheets that are stored in the sheet feeding apparatus are located below the added sheet bundle. The sheets that are located at the bottom portion continuously are stored in the sheet feeding apparatus until there is no sheet that is stored in the sheet feeding apparatus. As such, if a long period of time passes in a state where the sheets are not used, moisture that is contained in the sheets may be continuously evaporated by the heated air blown to the sheets. In addition, if proper moisture is not contained in the sheets, warping is generated in the sheets. As a result, a sheet conveyance defect may be easily generated, or a surface property of the sheet or an electrostatic resistance value varies to cause a defective image to be easily formed. Accordingly, between the sheets that are stored in the sheet feeding apparatus for a long period of time and sheets that are newly stacked, image qualities may be different from each other, even though the same printed material is formed. In order to avoid this problem, a method is considered in which the amount of moisture contained in sheets having various surface properties is measured at the time of feeding the sheets and an image formation condition is changed. However, it is difficult to carry out the method, because the amount of contained moisture should be instantaneously measured at the time of feeding the sheets. Further, a method is also considered in which provided is a measuring apparatus that measures the amount of moisture of the sheets stored in the sheet feeding apparatus. However, if the measuring apparatus is provided, this causes enormous costs.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a sheet feeding apparatus that can properly maintain the amount of moisture contained in a sheet even though a storing period of time of the sheet is increased, prevent a sheet conveyance defect and an image formation defect on the sheet from being generated due to a decrease in the amount of moisture contained in the sheet, and stably output a high-quality printed material. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the technical field of wireless communications, and particularly relates to a wireless communications apparatus and method for use in a wireless communications system for performing frequency scheduling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Error-correction coding and interleaving techniques are often performed in order to increase the reliability of wireless transmission in this type of technical field. The error-correction coding corrects an error based on a correct bit near an erroneously received bit, so that the error-correction capability could decrease when a series of a large number of bits are erroneously received (when a burst error occurs). The interleaving rearranges a bit sequence to be transmitted at both the transmitter and receiver according to some known pattern so as to transmit the bit sequence, with the transmitted bit sequence being rearranged at the receiver so as to reconstruct data. In this way, even when the burst error occurs, the error-correction capability no lower than a certain level may be expected. Such techniques as described above are performed in existing wireless communications systems. HSDPA is disclosed in Non-patent document 1.
Non-patent document 1
3GPP, TR25.848 | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to air conditioning apparatus and to a method for operating that apparatus. The apparatus is admirably suited for a building which has a sprinkler system, an electrical grid, or both.
2. The Prior Art
Air conditioning apparatus for a building which has a sprinkler system, and which comprises an air handler, a plurality of induction mixing units, air circulating means, means for dehumidifying air circulated through the air handler, heat transfer means for carrying a part of the air conditioning load, cooling means for transferring heat from a heat transfer fluid, and a circulating system which includes a part of the sprinkler system of the building for transferring heat from the heat transfer means to the cooling means is suggested in "Westenhofer and Meckler", U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,667, 1981 (see, also, "Meckler", U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,740, 1977 and "Meckler (2)", U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,525, 1975). Such apparatus has been installed by The Social Security Administration in its Metro West Facility, Baltimore, Maryland, and in the Monroe County Court House, Stroudsburg, Pa. (see Specifying Engineer, Jan., 1986).
A variable air volume induction mixing unit in which a flow of primary, conditioned air through venturi nozzles induces a flow of room air to temper, or plenum air to reheat, the primary, conditioned air is suggested in "Meckler (3)", U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,071, 1975.
The use of a cogenerator to produce both shaft work and heat has been suggested, for example by "McGrath", U.S. Pat. No. 2,242,588, 1941; "Miller", U.S. Pat. No. 2,284,914, 1942; "Meckler (4)", U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,679, 1966; "Meckler (5)", U.S. Pat. No. 3,401,530, 1968; and "Meckler (6)", U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,955, 1981.
Both Meckler (4) and Meckler (5) disclose apparatus which includes an internal combustion engine operatively connected to drive the compressor of compression refrigeration apparatus and means for conducting heat from the engine to regenerate a chemical desiccant.
McGrath discloses a "heating system" which includes two compressors, both driven by an internal combustion engine for pumping heat in two stages from ambient air to a building. The internal combustion engine also drives an electric generator and furnishes heat to the refrigerant of the heat pump. Heat is transferred to the refrigerant both from the exhaust gases of the internal combustion engine and from the cooling jacket thereof.
Miller discloses apparatus wherein the shaft of an internal combustion engine drives both an electric generator and the compressor of compression refrigeration apparatus. The apparatus also includes means for transferring exhaust heat from the internal combustion engine to the desiccant of a regenerator of a chemical dehumidifier to provide heat necessary for regeneration of the desiccant.
Meckler (6) discloses apparatus including an electric generator driven by an internal combustion engine and operation of the engine to supplement a solar collector, as required, to provide heat for the regeneration of a chemical desiccant; the electricity generated when the engine is operated provides energy for pumps, blowers and the like of an air conditioning system.
Apparatus which heats a house by pumping heat from low temperature water and produces ice for subsequent cooling is disclosed by "Schutt", U.S. Pat. No. 1,969,187, 1934.
Air conditioning apparatus in which a humidistat controls a humidified air valve is disclosed in British patent No. 1,077,372, 1967, "Ozonair". | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
HVAC systems can be used to regulate the environment within an enclosure. Typically, an air blower is used to pull air from the enclosure into the HVAC system through ducts and push the air back into the enclosure through additional ducts after conditioning the air (e.g., heating or cooling the air). For example, a furnace, such as a gas furnace may be used to heat the air.
High efficiency residential gas-fired appliances typically rely on a mechanical means, such as a combustion air inducer, to create controlled mass flow thru the flue side of the appliance heat exchanger. For flow to occur, a pressure differential must exist across the heat train of the furnace. To verify that the proper pressure drop and flow are achieved and maintained to support the combustion process of the furnace within safe limits, pressure sensing devices are typically employed. These pressure sensing devices might include mechanical differential pressure sensing devices (such as pressure switches) or electronic sensors which provide feedback to an integrated electronic control.
This type of furnace design is similar among industry manufacturers, and typically employs a flue gas/condensate collector box attached to the end of the condenser coil (referred to herein as a Cold End Header Box (CEHB)), a combustion air inducer fan assembly (CAI), a fixed orifice located in the CAI or CEHB to regulate flow through the heat train, and a pressure sensing device to monitor flow. The pressure sensing device could be used to monitor pressure across the fixed orifice, or other points in the heat train to provide the most advantageous signal for the application. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a novel inositol glycoside or, more particularly, to an inositol glycoside extractable from tea leaves designated 2-O-beta-L-arabinopyranosylmyo-myo-inositol, referred to hereinbelow as the novel inositol glycoside.
As an important product in the agriculture and food industry, tea leaves have been extensively analyzed and various kinds of chemical compounds have been reported as the characteristic constituents thereof. The present invention resulted from studies to determine constituents of tea leaves. The novel inositol glycoside which is the present invention was first discovered as a result of these studies and was determined to have certain unique properties making it particularly valuble in the beverage industry.
The novel inositol glycoside of the present invention is a crystal white substance without noticeable taste. It is neither sweet nor bitter. However, an aqueous solution at beverage concentrations imparts the same "mouthing" or "mouthfeel" to the palate as does sugar and when sugar is used at usual beverage or "soft drink" concentrations. This allows one to formulate a "soft drink" beverage to give the "feel" o "mouth" of sugar without sweetness: that is, it gives a certain anticipated mouthfeel such as one expects from sugar (without sweetness) and it is not sticky or glutinous as is usual with other sugar substituting saccharides. Moreover this new glycoside is believed to be essentially indigestible in humans since it is unassimilable by many microorganisms.
The properties of this new glycoside give it wide applicability in the food beverage and pharmaceutical industries. For example, sugar decays the teeth and increases cholesterol. To avoid these disadvantages, sugarless beverage formulation are usual, for example sugarless cola. But consumers are not happy without sweetness and expected "mouthfeel". Adding a sugarless artificial sweeter would solve the problem of sweetness; however artificial sweetness does not give the right "mouthfeel". This deficiency can be solved with the inositol glycoside of the invention. The result is healthy teeth and moderate cholesterol level with satisfactory drinks. Many confectioneries have the same problem. The same is true for pharmaceutical formulations. The invention is therefore useful in many fields.
Commercially, syrups of various fruit flavors, teas, and coffees are prepared for vending and catering trade. Their sugar or inverted sugar content is at least about 60% by weight to avoid yeast or bacterial growth. They are then diluted 6-7 times at the consuming end to give products with acceptable mouthfeel. The problem is that even with 7 times dilution with water modern consumers feel that the flavor is too sweet. Again there is no suitable saccharides. In this case sweetness is reduced by substituting the inositol glycoside for sugar, keeping both the "mouthfeel" and yeast preventive level of water activity as it was.
Because it does not promote tooth decay, the novel inositol glycosides of the invention also have applicability in oral care products such as "mouthwashes" or "rinses". Pleasant "mouthfeel" can be imparted to these products without the ill effects of sugar. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Phenol is an important product in the chemical industry and is useful in, for example, the production of phenolic resins, bisphenol A, ε-caprolactam, adipic acid, and plasticizers.
Currently, the most common route for the production of phenol is the Hock process via cumene. This is a three-step process involving alkylation of benzene with propylene to produce cumene, followed by oxidation of the cumene to the corresponding hydroperoxide and then cleavage of the hydroperoxide to produce equimolar amounts of phenol and acetone. However, the world demand for phenol is growing more rapidly than that for acetone. In addition, the cost of propylene is likely to increase, due to a developing shortage of propylene. Thus, a process that does not require propylene as a feed and coproduces higher ketones, rather than acetone, may be an attractive alternative route to the production of phenol.
One such process involves the catalytic hydroalkylation of benzene to produce cyclohexylbenzene, followed by the oxidation of the cyclohexylbenzene (analogous to cumene oxidation) to cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide, which is then cleaved to produce phenol and cyclohexanone in substantially equimolar amounts. Such a process is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,513, in which the hydroalkylation catalyst is a bifunctional catalyst comprising at least one hydrogenation metal and a molecular sieve of the MCM-22 family.
However, one problem in producing phenol via cyclohexylbenzene is that the oxidation of cyclohexylbenzene is considerably more difficult than that of cumene. Thus, whereas cumene oxidation is normally conducted in the absence of a catalyst, cyclohexylbenzene oxidation typically requires the presence of a catalyst containing a nitroxyl radical, such as N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI), to provide commercially acceptable levels of conversion. However, even using NHPI as a catalyst, the selectivity to cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide decreases with increasing conversion. Thus the product of the cyclohexylbenzene oxidation step typically contains large amounts (of the order of 80 wt %) of unreacted cyclohexylbenzene as well as significant quantities of impurities. If these materials are allowed to pass to the ensuing cleavage step, not only can they generate expensive separation problems but also some of the impurities may be converted in the cleavage process to produce tars and thereby reduce the yield of phenol and cyclohexanone.
There is therefore significant incentive to concentrate/isolate the cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide after the oxidation step. Thus, using pure or high concentrated of cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide in the cleavage step may reduce tar/by-product formation during cleavage and will also reduce the volume of cyclohexylbenzene that needs to be treated and handled after the cleavage step. However, whereas cumene hydroperoxide can readily be concentrated by distillation, the high boiling point of cyclohexylbenzene (240° C.) means that concentration of cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide by distillation requires high temperatures and/or high vacuum, which can lead to thermal decomposition of the hydroperoxide. Thus alternative methods of concentrating and/or purifying cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide would be desirable.
According to the present invention, it has now been found that high purity cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide can be recovered from the reaction product of cyclohexylbenzene oxidation by selective crystallization. After separation from the mother liquor, the resultant cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide crystals can be redissolved in a solvent, such as acetone, and then fed to the cleavage step.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,314 discloses a process for the separation of cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide from a mixture of cyclohexylbenzene and its oxidation products by adsorption of the oxidation products with a polyurethane foam. The oxidation products can then be separated selectively from the foam by elution with a non-polar hydrocarbon solvent, such as pentane.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,381 discloses a two-stage process for purifying cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide produced by the oxidation of cyclohexylbenzene, in which the oxidation effluent is initially subjected to vacuum distillation at a temperature between ambient and 90° C. and a pressure between about 0.1 and 0.5 mm Hg to remove at least part of the unreacted cyclohexylbenzene. The distillation residue is then treated with a lower (C5 to C10) liquid alkane to separate the cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide as extract from the oxidation by-products.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,285,684 discloses a process for separating a reaction product and an imide compound having an imide unit represented by the following formula:
wherein X represents an oxygen atom, a hydroxyl group, or an acyloxy group, which process comprises separating the imide compound from the reaction mixture by solvent-crystallizing the imide compound with water or a mixture of water and at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of a hydrocarbon and a chain ether, or, when the reaction mixture is obtained by an oxidation reaction of a monocyclic C4-C16 cycloalkane substrate, with at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of a hydrocarbon and a chain ether. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to motor control systems and more particularly to control systems for motor brake retarders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous prior art approaches have been conceived to brake or retard a motor other than through use of wheel brakes. A brief discussion of such prior art approaches follows. Systems for varying valve timing are disclosed in Pelizzoni et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,792. In Pelizzoni appears an excellent discussion of various prior art engine brakes and that discussion is repeated below:
Other devices for relieving compression to enhance starting are disclosed in the Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 1,172,362 and the Rounds U.S. Pat. No. 1,175,820. Here the exhaust cams are provided with an auxiliary relief or lobe which is circumferentially spaced from the main lobe which opens the exhaust valve during the exhaust stroke. During normal operation the exhaust valve is not raised by the auxiliary lobe, but during starting the exhaust valve gear train is manually expanded so that the auxiliary lobe raises the exhaust valve during a portion of the compression stroke. In addition, the Rounds patent shows apparatus for manually adjusting the timing of the inlet and exhaust valves.
The Saurer U.S. Pat. No. 934,762 discloses an engine brake in which the exhaust cam is shifted circumferentially from its normal position to open during the "expansion" stroke, ignition being discontinued, so that air is compressed during the compression and "exhaust" strokes, and necessarily dumped at the beginning of the inlet and "expansion" strokes, so that the energy of the compressed air is not returned to the drive train during the expansion stroke.
The Kirchensteiner U.S. Pat. No. 1,637,118 and the Loeffler U.S. Pat. No. 1,947,996 disclose engine brakes in which the cam shaft is axially shifted for braking to de-activate the inlet valve and to drive the exhaust valve by a special double lobe cam, one lobe opening the exhaust valve during the intake stroke, while the other lobe dumps the compressed air near the end of the compression stroke. A graduated degree of braking is available in the Kirchensteiner engine brake by selctively inserting wedge elements beneath predetermined ones of the exhaust rocker arms to prevent the corresponding exhaust valves from closing, thereby eliminating the braking effect in the corresponding cylinders.
The engine brake according to the Ucko U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,196 obtains the results of the Loeffler brake without axially shifting the cam shaft. Rather, the rocker arm shaft is shifted eccentrically to render the push rods (and the inlet and exhaust cams) ineffective. An auxiliary double lobe exhaust cam is hydraulically coupled to the exhaust valve through a master piston, which is driven by the double lobe cam, and a slave piston which drives the exhaust valve rocker arm to open the exhaust valve during the intake and expansion strokes. A graduated braking effect is obtained by sequentially converting groups of one or more cylinders to air compressors.
The Cummins U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,392 discloses another engine braking system employing hydraulically coupled master and slave pistons, the slave piston driving the exhaust valve rocker arm, and the master piston being driven by an auxiliary exhaust cam, the injector rocker arm of the corresponding cylinder, or by the inlet or exhaust rocker arm of another cylinder, so as to dump compressed air at or near the end of the compression stroke. Unlike Ucko, however, the Cummins mechanism for opening an exhaust valve at or near top dead center does not interfere with the actuation of the exhaust valve by the normal exhaust valve actuating mechanism. Nevertheless, the independent mechanism for actuating the exhaust valve for braking requires considerable additional structure, thus increasing the complexity and cost of that engine brake. Furthermore, hydraulic coupling between the exhaust rocker arm of one cylinder and the inlet or exhaust rocker arm of the appropriate other cylinder would be difficult to arrange with a V-8 engine.
In the engine brake according to the Jones et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,662 a single auxiliary cam sequentially drives the master pistons, which in turn actuate the corresponding slave pistons to open the exhaust valves at the end of the compression stroke. Apparatus is included to change the timing of the opening of the exhaust valves in accordance with the engine speed in order to increase the braking effect with increasing engine speed.
The Siegler U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,087 discloses another engine brake employing a mechanism external to the intake and exhaust valve gear train, but in this system a solenoid operated hydraulic valve remote from the engine brake mechanism is actuated to pump up a piston so as to block the return movement of the rocker arm, thereby holding the intake or exhaust valve partially open throughout the braking period.
The Haviland U.S. Pat. No. 3,332,405 shows an engine brake in which the exhaust valve is opened at the end of the compression stroke by a separate engine braking cam when a plunger mounted in the rocker arm is hydraulically pumped up to engage the braking cam in response to a remote solenoid valve. In an effort to improve the response time of the system, a separate low pressure oil supply is required to keep the lines filled with oil.
The Jonsson U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,312 discloses an engine braking system in which the normal base circle of the exhaust cam is relieved to form an auxiliary base circle, the transition between the two base circles constituting an auxiliary ramp displaced circumferentially from the normal opening ramp, so that when the lash is removed from the exhaust valve train, the exhaust valve is opened by the auxiliary ramp at the end of the compression stroke. The lash is removed by a plunger mounted in the rocker arm which may be hydraulically extended when a remote valve is manually actuated to communicate the plunger with the lubrication pump. Inasmuch as there is no mechanism for hydraulically locking the plunger in the extended position, the rotating exhaust cam will reciprocate the plunger in its cylinder despite the hydraulic force supplied by the lubrication pump, thereby substantially impairing the performance of the engine brake. Furthermore, a very large force is applied to the exhaust valve and the plunger when the piston travels through its compression stroke, such force being a function of speed, exhaust valve opening, exhaust valve diameter and compression ratio. In a diesel engine such force would greatly exceed the opposite force on the plunger developed by the engine lubricating pump, so that the plunger would be collapsed and the desired braking effect minimized.
The Muir U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,317 discloses an engine brake providing a graduated braking effect by arranging a multiple-position switch for operation as the throttle pedal is retracted beyond the idling position. At the first position the fuel is cut off to create "motoring" friction, at the second position the exhaust valves are held continuously in a partially open position, and at the third position a butterfly valve in the exhaust mainfold is actuated to provide back pressure therein.
The Sweat U.S. Pat. No. 2,806,459 discloses an intricate device for changing the timing of motor valves in accordance with the speed of the motor by adjusting the position of the rocker arm fulcrum and thereby adjusting the clearance in the valve train and the amount of valve opening. The rocker arm fulcrum is driven by a motor, the electrical contacts for which are operated by a piston displaced by air pressure generated by a fan driven by the motor. The cam shaft is arranged to provide advanced timing when the clearance in the valve train is small, at high speeds, while at lower speeds the clearance is larger and the valve timing is thus retarded.
The Lieberherr U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,575 discloses apparatus for varying the valve timing of a supercharged gas engine in accordance with the pressure of the intake manifold or the governor fuel control shaft in an effort to obtain an approximately constant air-fuel ratio at all loads. The timing is varied by lateral displacement of the cam follower in response to the intake manifold pressure or the fuel control shaft.
The Ostborg U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,423 shows a valve timing system in which the timing of the inlet and exhaust valves is varied in accordance with the intake manifold pressure, the phase of the inlet and exhaust camshafts being shifted in opposite directions with respect to that of the crankshaft by means of planetary gear systems.
While all of the above prior art approaches provide for a plurality of different mechanical devices for retarding a motor, none of the above prior art approaches provide a system having a control for sequentially applying retardation to selected cylinders of the motor, for fully activating the brake retarder when the motor exceeds a predetermined high RPM, for deactivating the activated brake retarders when the motor drops below a predetermined low RPM, for automatically activating brake lights when retardation of the motor occurs, or for providing the operator of the motor with flexibility in controlling the degree of retardation.
The above features of the brake control system of the present invention substantially minimize the following problems which plague operators of large vehicles such as trucks. The problem of motor runaway and the ensuing mechanical damage to the motor is substantially prevented by the present invention in that whenever the speed of the motor exceeds a high predetermined RPM value, all cylinders of the motor are fully retarded. Should the present invention fail to detect the high RPM limit, the mechanical governor could function in the conventional fashion. Unfortunately, in the typical motor runaway situation, the mechanical governor flies apart and the motor then proceeds to destroy itself. The system of the present invention activates retardation prior to the activation of the mechanical governor and fully applies retardation to all cylinders. In addition, the present invention signals a warning to the operator or, if no operator is present, the system can optionally shut the motor down.
Another problem inherent to operators of large vehicles is that generally encountered while traveling down a steep incline such as those found in the mountains. In such situations, all cylinders are generally retarded to counteract the force of momentum of the truck down the hill. In the event that a wet, icy or sandy spot is encountered on the road, the motor, due to the retardation sometimes stalls. Such a stall is fatal to the operation of the vehicle because power is lost to all functions and the wheels skid. The following weight of the load, the retarding effect of the motor brake and the steering, shifting and/or wheel braking effort of the operator all contribute to a jack-knife condition causing destruction to the truck. The system of the present invention substantially prevents jack-knifing since if the speed of the motor drops below a low predetermined RPM value, the retarders are automatically and instantaneously released. Stalling therefore is prevented. When the speed of the motor regains it's normal operating speed, the retarders are sequentially activated to apply retardation. Another problem for operators of vehicles carrying large loads occurs when those loads are what is commonly termed "live". Live loads include loads containing live animals, liquids, or hanging and swinging loads. When carrying live loads, it is highly desirable to apply retardation in a sequential fashion after predetermined intervals have elapsed. The system of the present invention prevents damage to live loads by providing for the sequential application of retardation to the various cylinders of the motor.
Furthermore, since the present invention, provides for sequential application of retardation to the various cylinders, up and down shifting by the driver through the transmission is substantially eliminated since effective control of the power of the motor can be accomplished through the manual selection of the degree of retardation. For example, the operator of the present invention may selectively release retardation from six cylinders to four cylinders and then to two thereby increasing the power from the motor to the vehicle with each such selection. This is comparable to controlling the power delivery from the motor to the vehicle by controlling the shifting through the transmission. The system of the present invention is highly adaptable to situations involving "green" or inexperienced drivers who for the first time encounter situations, as in the mountains, of increased manual shifting of the transmission. Such provisions for inexperienced drivers are highly desirable since the accident rate of inexperienced drivers is much greater than that of experienced drivers. In addition, through the reduction of manual shifting (upshifting and downshifting), greater fuel economy is achieved and a great time savings is experienced in traveling from point to point through rugged and hilly terrain. These time and fuel savings continue in high population and traffic density areas.
Substantial reduction in maintenance costs is obtained with the motor brake control system of the present invention. In a typical application, as mentioned above, due to the fact that manual shifting is greatly reduced, decreased fuel consumption is obtained as well as increased savings in road and turn-around time. Due primarily to the fact that manual shifting is greatly reduced, there is less wear and tear on the drive train and motor resulting in a reduced number of expensive oil changes, less overhaul time in the repair shop, and considerable savings in relining the brakes and in replacing the tires since greater reliance and flexibility can be provided through engine retardation rather than wheel braking. Other advantages and features of the present invention include increased public safety due to the fact that jack-knifing, skidding, and engine stall are greatly reduced through use of the motor control system of the present invention. Such reduction of accident occurrences is especially valuable in loads including explosives, and chemicals wherein a single accident can affect numerous members of the public. Furthermore, since upshifting and downshifting is minimized through the teachings of this invention, less fuel is consumed and the various pollutants generated into the atmosphere from such excessive fuel consumption is minimized. This is especially true when the motor control system of the present invention is used to speed up and slow down vehicles while moving in heavy traffic conditions in a metropolitan area. And the public benefits from a reduction in the noise pollution that occurs when upshifting and downshifting to reach certain RPM's and when conventional brake retarders generate considerable "popping" noise due to the fuel lag problem wherein retardation occurs before the fuel within the fuel line system is fully combusted. Finally, the provision of a motor speed sensor and accompanying display provides a more accurate readout than currently obtainable with mechanical tachometers. However, the present invention contemplates the use of both the electronic display and the mechanical tachometer to operate in parallel thereby to provide a further safety feature for the operator of the vehicle in that he can visually compare the accuracy of the two readouts. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile roof vents and sliding roof structures, and in particular to vents or sliding roof panel structures in which the rear edge of the vent panel or sliding roof panel is pivotable upwardly out of the roof opening.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vent panels and sliding roof panels which are openable by pivoting their rear edges upwardly out of the roof opening are known from various prior art teachings. Also known are sliding roof structures in which the sliding roof panel is openable in two modes, either by pivoting the rear edge of the panel upwardly or by pivoting it downwardly and retracting the panel under the stationary roof portion to create an opening at the front edge of the panel.
In connection with upwardly pivoting panels, especially in cases in which a large pivoting angle is possible, it was found to be necessary to reduce the pivoting angle, whenever the vehicle travelled at higher speeds, because wind and/or water spray would enter through the lateral gap under the raised side portions of the roof panel. This necessity of lowering the roof panel to a very small pivoting angle represents a disadvantage of presently known vents and sliding roof structures. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus, a method for controlling the sheet processing apparatus, a storage medium, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, known sheet processing apparatuses include a sheet processing apparatus which performs a saddle-stitching binding process (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-013275). In the saddle-stitching binding process, after center portions of a plurality of sheets are bound, the bound sheets are folded into two so as to form a book shape and output.
When such a sheet processing apparatus performs the saddle-stitching binding process, a plurality of sheets are folded, and the plurality of folded sheets are conveyed by conveying rollers so as to be output. Note that since the plurality of sheets which are to be conveyed have been bound, the sheets are not considerably shifted from one another while the sheets are conveyed.
Furthermore, a center-folding binding process may be executed using a system the same as that used in the saddle-stitching binding process. In the center-folding binding process, a plurality of sheets which are not bound but folded can be conveyed.
However, when the center-folding binding process is performed, since the plurality of sheets to be conveyed are not bound, only a smaller number of sheets can be conveyed in a stable state when compared with a case of the saddle-stitching binding process. This is because a large number of sheets are not stably conveyed in a state in which the sheets are folded since the conveying rollers does not have sufficient force to sandwich and hold the sheets.
Therefore, when a number of sheets which can be reliably subjected to the saddle-stitching binding process are subjected to the center-folding binding process, the sheets to be output may be shifted from one another while the sheets are conveyed after the center-folding binding process is performed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
A dispensing nozzle is essentially a manually or semi-automatically operated shut-off device intended to be fitted to the end of a delivery hose connected to the delivery orifice of a fuel pump used for filling a tank, such as the tank of a vehicle.
In French Pat. No. 7,213,419, filed Apr. 17, 1972, for an "automatic shut-off device for fuel dispensing nozzles", it has been suggested to make the various constituent parts of the body of the nozzle of rigid plastic, which has numerous advantages, such as light weight, cleanliness, easy manufacture, low cost price, etc.
However, the property of electrical insulation inherent in the plastic used poses the problem of earthing i.e. grounding the electrical potential of the vehicle. The vehicle can actually have a potential very different from that of the delivery pump, which is itself generally earthed. Such a difference in potential can result in a discharge and a spark at the nozzle outlet spout during fuel delivery, which obviously is particularly dangerous.
The invention aims at overcoming this drawback by connecting the potential of the pump to the vehicle whose tank is to be filled. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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