Datasets:

suolyer

/

pile_uspto

like 0

Galactooligosaccharides find widespread use in the industry as prebiotic compounds. A number of processes have been developed for the production of galactooligosaccharides. Some processes involve the use of μ-galactosidase enzyme obtained from different microbial sources, example Aspergillus oryzae, Bullera singularis, Candida, Kluveromyces sp., Bacillus circulans, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium sp., (Akiyama et. al., 2001, Rabiu et. al., 2001, Tzortiz et. al., 2005, Jorgensen et al., 2001, Shin et. al., 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,509, EP 0 272 095 A2). Use β-galactosidase enzyme or whole cells in immobilized matrices in place of free whole cells or enzymes has also been reported (Akiyama et. al., 2001, Rabiu et. al., 2001, Tzortiz et. al., 2005, Jorgensen et al., 2001, Shin et. al., 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,509, EP 0 272 095 A2). A combination of β-galactosidase enzyme and Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells has been co-immobilized in calcium alginate beads to produce ethanol from whey (Axelsson et al., 1991, Lewandoska et al., 2003 and Tanaka et al., 1986). The objective was to cleave lactose to glucose and galactose and thereby yeast can produce more ethanol. The processes involving immobilized whole cells or enzyme over the free enzyme has certain advantages (1) catalytic power is stabilized (2) the immobilized matrices can be recycled which reduces cost and (3) products can be isolated in a simple manner. However, the use of immobilized enzymes depends upon the cost benefit and technical feasibility factors. In some processes, the extraction and purification of enzyme is costly and in some cases the enzyme denatures after extraction. Under such conditions, the use of immobilized or coimmobilized whole cells has added advantages over the immobilized enzymes (Yuan et al., 1992, Kiss et al., 1999). The most prevalent method of whole cell immobilization is cell entrapment in hydrocolloids like alginate, carrageenan, polyacrylamide, agarose, gelatin, gellan gum (U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,093, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,632, U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,253, U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,897, U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,019, U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,578, U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,294 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,324, Birnbaum et al., 1981). JP2005042037, JP5815243, and JP56113289 describe the use of polyvinyl alcohol with polyethylene glycol and boric acid as a successfully alternative to other hydrocolloids. U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,907 mixed microbial cells in calcium chloride solution containing small amount of xanthan gum and then dropped into sodium alginate. The capsule membrane formed by ionic bond between calcium and alginate prevented swelling of the membrane and resulted in a high concentration of microbes within the capsule. U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,324 discloses that polyvinyl alcohol has a high affinity for microorganisms and provides mechanical strength and durability sufficiently high for use in any reactor, and high resistance to water and chemicals. Jianlong et al., (1995) used acryl amide as polymerizing agent in the polyvinyl alcohol matrix with boric acid as cross-linking agent to overcome the swelling of polyvinyl alcohol gels in aqueous solution. However use of immobilized cells has following disadvantages; a. The matrix and Cross linking agents must comply regulatory approval for the use in food grade conditions. b. Mechanical stability of immobilized beads with cells is poor c. Constraints in the diffusion of substrate and products and hence the efficiency of bioconversion is less than in free cells. d. Because of low conversion efficiency, the product separation form unreacted substrate and impurities is a challenging task U.S. Pat. No. 716,451 describe mixing of the saccharide solution, obtained after hydrolysis, with ethanol and passing through activated carbon column to remove the mono and disaccharide components. The galactooligosaccharide component is eluted using pure ethanol. This downstream processing results in substantially pure galactooligosaccharide solution However, this process is not efficient due to the loss in the yield of galactooligosaccharides. Also, it is not economical due to the use of ethanol. To overcome the limitation of activated carbon column treatment, EP 0 272 095 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,509 describe loading of the saccharide solution on a strong cation exchange resin followed by elution of galactooligosaccharides with water at 60 to 80° C. This process can improve the yield of galalctooligosaccharide. However, it is not cost effective because of the use of costly strong cation exchange resin. Therefore, the need for a cost effective process that results in the production galactooligosaccharides of high purity and yield galactooligosaccharides continues to prevail.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to computing devices and, more particularly, to power sources for personal computers. 2. Related Art There is an increasing need for computer systems that are powerful, mobile, and inexpensive. Although mobile computing devices (such as laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs)) and other mobile electronic devices (such as cellular telephones) are typically capable of receiving power either from an electrical outlet or from one or more batteries coupled to and contained within the housing of the device, the advantage of using outlet power is that it provides power for an essentially unlimited period of time. The primary disadvantage of using outlet power is that it ties the computing device to being used within the vicinity of an available outlet and thereby limits the mobility of the device. The advantage of using battery power is that it enables the device to be fully mobile while being used. One disadvantage of using battery power is that an individual battery can only provide power for a limited period of time (such as a few hours). Once a battery runs out of power, the battery must be recharged by connecting the device (or a separate charging station) to an outlet power source, often for several hours, to fully recharge the battery. One strategy that users often adopt in response to the limited power capabilities of batteries is to travel with several fully-charged batteries, thereby enabling a discharged battery to be immediately replaced with a fully-charged battery without the need to engage in battery charging. Disadvantages of this strategy include the increased cost of additional batteries and the increased burden of traveling with several batteries, thereby effectively decreasing the overall ease of mobility of the mobile computing device. Larger computing devices, particular those (such as laptop computers) that include power-hungry components such as hard disk drives, optical media drives, and color display monitors, typically have significantly higher power requirements than smaller computing devices such as PDAs and tablet computers. Larger computing devices therefore typically require relatively large and heavy batteries, thereby increasing the overall size and weight of the computing device and increasing the burden of traveling with such a device. Although this problem may be mitigated by decreasing the size of the battery, doing so would result in a battery that discharges more quickly, possibly to an extent that users would find unacceptable. For these and other reasons, the tradeoff between battery size and battery power storage capacity is a persistent feature of mobile computing device design. What is needed, therefore, are techniques for enabling the implementation of powerful mobile computing devices that are capable of running on battery power for substantial periods of time.

The advent of the DNA microarray technology makes it possible to build an array of hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences, or probes, in a very small area, typically a few square centimeters on the surface of a microscopic slide. See, e.g., PCT patent publication Nos. WO 99/42813, 92/10092 and 90/15070, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,854, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A DNA microarray-based assay usually involves hybridizing a DNA or RNA sample to a microarray and scanning the microarray to detect hybridization. The probes in the microarray are organized into areas of similar probes, these areas being referred to as features. By hybridizing experimental DNA or RNA to the probes on the microarray, and detecting in which features the experimental DNA or RNA has hybridized, it becomes possible to obtain much information about the experimental DNA or RNA in a single step relatively simple process. Using this ability, DNA microarray technology has been applied to areas such as gene expression and discovery, mutation detection, allelic and evolutionary sequence comparison, genome mapping, and more. A state of the art DNA microarray can accommodate hundreds of thousands of features, each containing unique probes. In fact this capacity can exceed the needs of many common useful experiment, many of which involve hybridization assays involving far less probes than a microarray's full capacity. Therefore, some microarrays are constructed in which a set of features are repeated multiple times over the area of the microarray, with each set of features ultimately being exposed to a separate experimental sample, to conduct multiple data collection experiments in parallel. This concept can be thought of as an array of arrays. To do this, it is desirable to make DNA microarrays that can be simultaneously used for multiple samples. To make this work, there must be measures taken to prevent cross-contamination between samples intended for differing areas of the microarray. Currently, the microarrays built for this purpose (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,219) use physical wells to separate probe sets for different samples and well walls have to align with corresponding probe sets so that each well contains the correct probes. However, alignment of well walls with corresponding probe sets is not always easy to achieve and a misalignment can lead to inaccurate result.

The invention relates to a latch structure and, more particularly, to an improved inertia operated latch structure for preventing pivotal movement of a vehicle seat back upon impact or sudden deceleration. It is well recognized that the likelihood of injury to occupants is reduced if the pivoted seat back commonly used in two-door motor vehicles is held against pivotal movement upon impact. While it has been common to provide manually operated latch structures for holding the seat back against movement, such manually operated latches are inconvenient in that they must be released prior to entry to the rear seat of the vehicle. To overcome this defect, it has been proposed to employ inertia operated latches that will hold the seat back against its pivotal movement only upon sudden vehicle deceleration. Such latches must be fool-proof in operation to insure complete safety, and consistent with this requirement, the latch should be of simple construction. It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved latch structure particularly adapted for preventing forward movement of a seat back during sudden deceleration. It is another object of this invention to provide an improved, simplified inertia operated latch. It is a further object of this invention to provide an inertia operated latch that will be maintained in the latched position for a substantial time after the deceleration force has ceased.

Flat plate solar collectors are the most common form of solar heating devices. In their most basic form, such collectors comprise a plurality of heat collection tubes on a black heat absorbing surface. Such a basic flat plate device is relatively inefficient and thereby requires an excessively large surface area to produce substantial quantities of heat. Various techniques for increasing the efficiency of flat plate collectors have been proposed. Accordingly, in one such approach, a glass panel overlies the heat absorbing surface. Such a glass panel passes the ultra violet rays from the sun which are converted into heat energy. Most of the infrared radiation from the heat absorbing surface is reflected back to the surface by the glass panel, thereby increasing the precentage of the sun's energy converted into useful heat. Another known technique is to make the heat collection tubes integral with the heat absorbing surface to increase the heat transfer to water flowing in the heat collection tubes. Techniques such as those outlined above and similar techniques may increase the efficiency of a flat plate solar collector to a level where sufficient heat is generated to accomplish various household heating and air conditioning requirements. However, the increase in the cost of materials for such complex flat plate solar collectors together with the incremental cost of installation renders the final product so expensive that such devices are frequently not cost effective as compared with conventional fuel heaters. A further deficiency of prior art flat plate solar collectors is their inability to effectively respond over a wide range of incident sun angles. Such devices must be mounted and actuated so that they can follow the sun or must accept extremely low efficiencies during the extremes of sun travel. Additionally, in those flat plate solar collectors utilizing a glass panel to reduce radiation losses, there has been no effective mechanism for reducing convective and conductive heat losses from the solar panel. Therefore, it is desirable to have a solar collector panel that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and assemble and which provides for a highly efficient conversion of sun energy into heat and which transfers the converted heat efficiently to water flowing through the panel. Such a solar collector panel is particularly desirable where convective and conductive heat losses from the panel are minimized.

The present invention relates to 17-halogenated 19-nor steroid compounds, their preparation process and intermediates, their use as a medicament and the pharmaceutical compositions containing them. Osteoporosis is a pathology which is characterized by a quantitative and qualitative reduction in bone matter, sufficient to lead to vertebral or peripheral fractures, in a spontaneous fashion or on occasions due to minimal traumas. Although this illness has many factors at its origin, it is the menopause which in women constitutes the dominating factor in bone loss or osteopenia. This osteopenia manifests itself by a rarefaction and modification of the architecture of the spongy bone, the consequence of which is to increase the fragility of the skeleton and the risk of fractures. Bone loss increases strongly after the menopause due to the suppression of ovarian function and reaches 3 to 5% per year before slowing down after 65 years old. For a therapeutic purpose, the post-menopause hormonal deficiency can be compensated for by a hormone replacement therapy where oestrogen plays a major role in preserving the bone mass. But long-term oestrogenotherapy is sometimes accompanied by undesirable effects on the genital apparatus (endometrial hyperplasia, breast tumors . . . ), which constitutes a major drawback and limits its use. It is therefore convenient to find compounds other than oestradiol having a dissociated oestrogen activity, namely an oestrogen activity at the bone level, while having no or little endometrial hyperplasia activity, nor breast tumor proliferation activity. Therefore, a subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I): in which: R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a (CH2)mxe2x80x94Ar, (CO)xe2x80x94Ar, (CH2)mxe2x80x94Alk or (CO)xe2x80x94Alk radical, R2 represents a radical derived from a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms X represents a halogen atom, Y represents a single bond, O, NH, S, SO or SO2, Z represents a hydrogen atom or a halogen atom, n is equal to 2, 3, 4 or 5, either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom, a (CH2)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94Ar, (CH2)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94Het or (CH2)mxe2x80x2Alk group, or R3 and R4 form together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked an aromatic or non-aromatic, saturated or unsaturated mono- or polycyclic heterocycle with 3 to 15 members optionally containing 1 to 3 additional heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen, non-substituted or substituted, Ar representing a carbocyclic aryl group containing 6 to 18 carbon atoms, Het representing a saturated or unsaturated aromatic or non-aromatic heterocycle containing 1 to 9 carbon atoms and 1 to 5 heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, nitrogen or sulphur atoms, Alk representing a radical derived from a saturated or unsaturated, linear, branched or cyclic, non-aromatic hydrocarbon and containing 1 to 12 carbon atoms, the Ar, Het or Alk radicals being able to be substituted or non-substituted, m and mxe2x80x2 representing 0, 1, 2 or 3, the dotted lines representing an optional second bond, as well as their addition salts with bases or acids. By halogen is meant: iodine, bromine, chlorine or fluorine. In position 4, it is preferably chlorine or bromine. In position 17, it is preferably fluorine. By (CH2)m or (CH2)mxe2x80x2 is meant the following values: single bond in the case where m is equal to 0, CH2, (CH2)2 and (CH2)3. By the term Ar representing the carbocyclic aryl group containing 6 to 18 carbon atoms is meant a derivative of an aromatic cyclic hydrocarbon such as the phenyl, naphthyl, phenanthrenyl radical or a derivative of a condensed, bicyclic or tricyclic hydrocarbon containing a benzene ring such as indanyl, indenyl, dihydronaphthyl, tetrahydronaphthyl or fluorenyl. The junction is carried out at the level of the benzene ring. Preferably it is phenyl. By the term (Het) representing a saturated or unsaturated, aromatic or non aromatic heterocycle containing 1 to 9 carbon atoms and 1 to 5 heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur atoms, the following are designated in particular: heterocyclic monocyclic radicals, for example thienyl, furyl, pyrannyl, pyrrolyl, imidazolyl, pyrazolyl, pyridyl, pyrazinyl, pyrimidinyl, pyridazinyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, furazannyl, pyrrolinyl, imidazolinyl, pyrazolinyl, thiazolinyl, triazolyl, tetrazolyl radicals, condensed heterocyclic rings, for example benzofuranyl, benzothienyl, benzimidazolyl, benzothiazolyl, naphtho[2,3-b] thienyl, thianthrenyl, isobenzofuranyl, chromenyl, xanthenyl, phenoxathiinyl, indolizinyl, isoindolyl, 3H-indolyl, indolyl, indazolyl, purinyl, quinolizinyl, isoquinolyl, quinolyl, phthalazinyl, naphthyridinyl, quinoxalinyl, quinazolinyl, cinnolinyl, pteridinyl, carbazolyl, beta-carbolinyl, acridinyl, phenazinyl, phenothiazinyl, phenoxazinyl, indolinyl, isoindolinyl, imidazopyridyl, imidazopyrimidinyl or also condensed polycyclic systems constituted by heterocyclic moncyclics as defined above such as for example furo[2,3-b]pyrrole or thieno[2,3-b] furan, or saturated heterocycles such as pyrrolidine, piperidine, morpholine. By the term (Alk) representing a radical derived from a saturated or unsaturated, linear, branched or cyclic non-aromatic hydrocarbon, is designated in the case of acyclic hydrocarbons the alkyl radicals such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, tert-butyl, n-pentyl, n-hexyl, 2-methyl pentyl, 2,3-dimethyl butyl, n-heptyl, 2-methylhexyl, 2,2-dimethylpentyl, 3,3-dimethyl pentyl, 3-ethylpentyl, n-octyl, 2,2-dimethylhexyl, 3,3-dimethylhexyl, 3-methyl-3-ethylpentyl, nonyl, 2,4-dimethylheptyl or n-decyl, the alkenyl radicals such as vinyl, propenyl, isopropenyl, allyl, 2-methylallyl, butenyl or isobutenyl, or the alkynyl radicals such as ethynyl, propynyl, propargyl, butynyl or isobutynyl, and in the case of cyclic radicals, the cycloalkyl radicals, such as cyclopropyl, cyclobutyl, cyclopentyl, cyclohexyl or adamantyl. It will preferably be methyl and ethyl radicals. By CO-Alk is preferably meant COCH3 and COEt, by COxe2x80x94Ar is preferably meant the benzoyl radical, when m is different from zero, (CH2)mxe2x80x94Ar will preferably be the benzyl group. When R3 and R4 form together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked a heterocycle, it is in particular mono- or bicyclic heterocycles optionally containing another heteroatom chosen from oxygen and nitrogen such as the following unsaturated heterocycles: pyrrolyl, imidazolyl, indolyl, pyridyl, pyrazinyl, pyrimidinyl, pyridazinyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, furazolinyl, pyrazolinyl, thiazolinyl, or, more particularly, the following saturated heterocycles: When the different Alk, Ar, Het groups, as well as the heterocycle formed by R3 and R4 with the nitrogen which carries them, are substituted, they can in particular be substituted by the following radicals: halogen, namely fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine, alkoxy such as methoxy, ethoxy, propyloxy, isopropyloxy, butyloxy, alkylthio such as methylthio, ethylthio, propylthio, isopropylthio, butylthio, amino, alkylamino such as methylamino or ethylamino, dialkylamino such as dimethylamino, diethylamino, methylethylamino, each of these dialkylamino radicals being optionally in oxidized form, aminoalkyl such as aminomethyl or aminoethyl, dialkylaminoalkyl such as dimethylamino methyl or ethyl, dialkylaminoalkyloxy such as dimethylamino ethyloxy, hydroxyl optionally acylated, acyl such as acetyl, propionyl, butyryl, benzoyl, free, esterified carboxy such as alkoxy carbonyl for example methoxy carbonyl or ethoxy carbonyl, cyano, trifluoromethyl, aryl such as phenyl, aralkyl such as benzyl, alkyl, alkenyl or alkynyl these radicals being themselves optionally substituted by the halogen, alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, amino, alkylamino or dialkylamino radicals indicated above. Of course, the expression xe2x80x9csubstitutedxe2x80x9d indicates that one or more identical or different substituents can be present. By way of example, when the alkyl group is a methyl radical substituted by one or more halogen atoms, it can in particular be CH2Cl, CH2F, CHF2 and CF3. In the case of (Het), the substituents can be at the level of NH or a carbon atom. Of course the values of R1, R2, R3 and R4, as well as n, m and mxe2x80x2 are independent of each other. The invention naturally extends to the salts of the compounds of formula (I), such as for example the salts formed with mineral or organic acids on the amine. It can then be one of the following acids: hydrochloric, hydrobromic, nitric, sulphuric, phosphoric, acetic, formic, propionic, benzoic, maleic, fumaric, succinic, tartaric, citric, oxalic, glyoxylic, aspartic, alkane sulphonics such as methane or ethane sulphonic acids, arylsulphonics, such as benzene or paratoluene sulphonic acids and arylcarboxylics. When the compounds of formula (I) contain an acid function, the invention extends to the salts of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals or ammonium, optionally substituted. A more particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined above as well as their addition salts, in which X is a fluorine atom in the alpha position, and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond (ring D of the saturated steroid). Also a more particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which R1 is a hydrogen atom, R2 is a methyl radical and Z is either a hydrogen atom or a chlorine atom, Y represents an oxygen atom and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond. A quite particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which: either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms, or R3 and R4 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked, form one of the following saturated heterocycles: Also a quite particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which X is a fluorine atom in alpha position, R1 is a hydrogen atom, R2 is a methyl radical, Y is an oxygen atom, Z is a hydrogen atom or chlorine atom, n is equal to 2 or 3, either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms, or R3 and R4 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked, form one of the following saturated heterocycles: and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond. Finally a subject of the invention is the compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with acids the names of which follow: 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol hydrochloride 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-diethylamino)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol 4-chloro-17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl) ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol 17-iodo-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxyl phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol, 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(4-methyl-1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol, 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(4-methyl-1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol hydrochloride, 17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene, 17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene, 17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(diethylamino)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene, (11-beta)-17-chloro-11-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol, 17-alpha-chloro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol, 17-iodo-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra -1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol hydrochloride, 17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol lactate. A subject of the invention is also a preparation process for the compounds of formula (I) as defined previously, in which a compound of formula (II) in which R2 and Z are as defined previously, RA represents one of the following groups: in which Y, n, R3 and R4 are as defined previously and Hal represents a halogen atom, is subjected to the action, if appropriate after protection and/or activation of the OH functions, either a) of a reducing agent of the keto in position 17 in order to obtain a compound of formula (IIIa): b) then of a halogenation agent in order to obtain a compound of formula (Ixe2x80x2a): corresponding to certain compounds of formula (I), when RA represents xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4, or a) of a hydrazine in order to obtain a compound of formula (IIIb) b) then of a halogenation agent in order to obtain a compound of formula (Ixe2x80x2b): corresponding to certain compounds of formula (I), when RA represents xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4, the compounds of formula (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a) or (Ixe2x80x2b), in protected or unprotected form, being subjected, if desired or if necessary, to one or more of the following reactions: deprotection of the protected OH group or groups, acylation/alkylation of the OH group or groups, the action of HNR3R4, optionally in the form of a salt, when RA represents the xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94Hal or activated xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH group, salification. The reduction of 17-keto into the alcohol is carried out according to standard methods, in particular by the action of an alkaline borohydride such as sodium borohydride in methanol or ethanol or by the action of aluminium and lithium tetrahydride. This reduction allows in particular the alcohol in position 17-beta to be obtained. The halogenation reaction which follows is preferably carried out with reagents such as XSO2C4F9 in the presence of a hindered base such as DBU (diazabicycloundecene), X is preferably fluorine. Other halogenation methods known to a person skilled in the art can also be used. When the hydroxy group of the starting product is in the beta position, an inversion of the configuration is observed during the nucleophilic substitution and by this process (halogenation reagent: perfluoro-1-butane sulphonyl fluoride (FSO2C4F9)) quite particularly the compounds of formula (I) or (Ixe2x80x2a) are obtained with the fluorine in the 17-alpha position. The action of hydrazine is preferably carried out in the presence of a base such as triethylamine and the halogenation which follows is carried out in particular with X2 in a basic medium and in particular with I2. By activation of the alcohol is meant the introduction in particular of a mesylate, tosylate or triflate which encourages the nucleophilic substitution of the amine HNR3R4 on the compounds of formulae (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a), (Ixe2x80x2b) in which R3 represents a xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH group. The formation of the mesylate, tosylate or triflate from the corresponding alcohol is carried out in the presence of a base such as triethylamine. The substitution of the alcohol by a halogen atom according to the usual methods can also be envisaged beforehand. The protection and deprotection reactions are standard methods known to a person skilled in the art. A fairly complete review is contained in the following publication: Protective groups in organic synthesis, T. W. Greene, John Wiley and sons (1981). The protective group P (OHxe2x86x92OP) can represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a benzyl group, a tetrahydropyrannyl group, an RCRDRESi group in which RC, RD and RE identical or different, independent of one another, each represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a phenyl group. This is quite particularly the Si(Me)2CMe3 or xe2x80x94Si(Ph)2CMe3 or xe2x80x94SiMe3 groups. As an example, the deprotection reactions (OPxe2x86x92OH in position 3), when P is a tertbutyldiphenylsilyl group can be carried out by the action of tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride in solution in tetrahydrofuran. It is the same when P represents SO2C4F9 following the fluoridation reaction. When P is a tetrahydropyrannyl group, the deprotection is carried out in the presence of an aqueous acid in an alcoholic solvent and preferably by the action of hydrochloric acid in methanol. The action of a compound of formula R3R4NH on the compounds of formulae (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a), (Ixe2x80x2b) in which R2 represents a xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH or xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94Hal group is carried out under standard conditions for nucleophilic substitutions, in particular in the presence of an aprotic solvent such as tetrahydrofuran. When OH is activated it is in particular OSO2CH3, OSO2xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94pMe, OSO2CPh3. The alkylation or acylation reactions of the OH group in position 3 as well as the salification reactions are carried out by the standard methods known to a person skilled in the art. The compounds of general formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids have in particular oestrogen, anti-oestrogen and anti-proliferative activities. Therefore the compounds of formula (I) can be used in the treatment of disorders linked to hypofolliculinia, for example, amenorrheas, dysmenorrheas, repeated abortions, premenstrual disorders, in the treatment of certain oestrogen-dependent pathologies such as prostatic adenomas or carcinomas, mammary carcinomas and their metastases or in the treatment of benign breast tumors, as an anti-uterotrophic as well as in the replacement treatment for the menopause or the perimenopause. Among the symptoms and consequences linked to the menopause are more specifically meant hot flushes, sweats, vaginal atrophy and dryness, urinary symptoms and in the long term a reduction in bone mass and an increased risk of fractures, and the loss of-the cardiovascular protection provided by oestrogens. In particular, the compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases can be used in the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis. The compounds of formula (I) and their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases can also be used for the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis in man. They can also be used for the prevention or the treatment of secondary osteoporoses (for example cortisonal or linked with immobilization). The compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases in particular have a dissociated oestrogenic activity. By dissociated oestrogenic activity is meant an oestrogenic activity at bone level while demonstrating only minimal activity at uterine level, thus not entailing an endometrial proliferation (much lower activity than that of oestradiol). Furthermore, the compounds according to the invention have the following advantages: They have an anti-oestrogenic and/or anti-proliferative activity at the level of the breast. Unlike oestradiol, they do not stimulate the growth of human mammary tumor cells and can even inhibit their growth. The compounds according to the invention are therefore particularly advantageous for the treatment of the menopause in women at risk from breast cancer (family antecedents) who are therefore excluded from a replacement treatment using oestradiol. They can also be used in the treatment of breast cancers. They lead to a lowering of the seric cholesterol level to a level equivalent to that induced by oestradiol. Therefore, they strengthen cardiovascular protection. Finally, as the compounds according to the invention have no oestrogen activity at the uterine level, they do not require to be administered in combination with a progestomimetic compound. A subject of the invention is thus compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases, as medicaments. A more particular subject of the invention is compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases as medicaments intended for the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis. The invention extends to the pharmaceutical compositions containing at least one of the medicaments defined above as active ingredient. The compounds of formula (I) are used by digestive, parenteral or local route, for example by percutaneous route. They may be prescribed in the form of plain or coated tablets, gelatin capsules, granules, suppositories, pessaries, injectable preparations, ointments, creams, gels, microspheres, implants, intravaginal rings, patches, which are prepared according to the usual methods. The active ingredient or ingredients can be incorporated with excipients usually employed in these pharmaceutical compositions, such as talc, gum arabic, lactose, starch, magnesium stearate, cocoa butter, aqueous or non-aqueous vehicles, fatty substances of animal or vegetable origin, paraffin derivatives, glycols, various wetting, dispersing or emulsifying agents, preservatives. The useful dose varies as a function of the illness to be treated and the administration route; it can vary for example from 1 to 1000 mg per day for an adult by oral route. A subject of the invention is also the use of compounds of formula (I) as defined above, for the preparation of a medicament intended for hormone replacement treatment for the menopause or the perimenopause, having little or no activity at the uterine level, and quite particularly the use, characterized in that the medicament is intended for the prevention or treatment of osteoporosis. The compounds of formula (II) or (IIIa) are compounds which are known or are easily accessible to a person skilled in the art. In particular, the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RA=xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)n-Hal are described in the International Application WO 93/13123 (compounds of formula II); the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RAxe2x95x90xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH are described in the European Patent 0305242 B1 (compounds of formula (III)), the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RAxe2x95x90xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4 are described in European Patent 0097572, the French Addition Certificate 2640977 or the European Patent 0305242. The compounds of formula (II) in which Z represents a halogen atom are described in the International Application WO 9845316 and are prepared from the compound of formula (IV): by the action of a halogenation reagent in order to obtain the compound of formula (V): which compound (V) is subjected to the action of an aromatization reagent of ring A, then to the action of a base in order to obtain the compound of formula (II) in which Z represents a halogen atom. The action of a halogenation reagent such as N-bromosuccinimide or N-chloromosuccinimide on the compounds of formula (IV) is carried out in particular in the presence of a dipolar aprotic solvent such as dimethylformamide. The aromatization reaction followed by the saponification reaction (action of the base) is carried out according to standard methods as described in the European Patent 0097572. Preferably an acetic anhydride and acetyl bromide mixture is used as aromatization agent then a base such as soda in methanol is used as saponification agent. A subject of the invention is also, as intermediate products, the compounds of formulae (Ixe2x80x2a), (IIIb) and (Ixe2x80x2b). The examples below illustrate the invention without however limiting it. Solvents described in the examples: AcOEt (ethyl acetate), TEA (triethylamine), CH2Cl2 (dichloromethane), CHCl3 (chloroform), MeOH (methanol), NH4OH (ammonium hydroxide), iPrOH (isopropyl alcohol).

The present invention is directed to a hand held tool for cleaning and applying an antiseptic to a pierced body part, and may be particularly valuable to a freshly pierced body part where infection may result in a painful situation. Though earlobes may be the most common body part to be pierced, current lifestyles reveal that various and different body parts are being pierced to receive an earring or other ornamentation. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited to ear piercing, but rather body piercing, and the treatment thereof, in general. It is now a common practice to pierce body parts, such as one's earlobes, so that earrings can be worn. This practice spans all ages, from infants to adults, male and female. Currently, it is popular to place multiple holes in an earlobe, and even continuing up to the top of the ear, so that many earrings may be worn at the same time. The holes in the earlobes may be subject to infection at the initial piercing, or over time may be subject to buildup of residue including dried soap and shampoo, body oils and skin shed by the scar tissue formed around the hole. These residues can collect in the hole and on the earrings facilitating the growth of bacteria which can lead to further infection. As a result frequent cleansing and treatment is critical to a wearer of body piercing ornamentation. The prior art describes a number of devices or systems for cleaning or applying medication to a pierced body part, most commonly an earlobe. Such devices or systems are reflected in the following U.S. patents: a.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,461, to Hobbs, relates to a strand device for pierced earlobe cleansing, and comprises a flexible monofilament nylon or nylon-like material which is folded in half so that the two ends meet and are parallel. The ends are bonded by heating and melting the strands to form a single stem from the two strands, the stem having a greater stiffness than the single strand alone. The melting simultaneously creates a rounded tip at the end of the stem. The ends of the strand are joined so that a loop remains open at the fold. The stem is sufficiently stiff so that it can be fed through a pierced ear hole with the rounded end of the stem facilitating feeding the stem through the hole. The loop, which normally is open is compressed as the stem is pulled out the opposite side of the ear. The resilience of the loop is sufficient to permit it to remain slightly expanded so that its greater diameter "scrapes" the ear hole as it passes through. The loop resiles to its original shape as it exits the ear hole. PA1 b.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,216, to McCarty et al., also discloses a threaded member for cleansing a pierced earlobe. The thread is impregnated with a hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial astringent for cleansing and conditioning pierced ear lobes. PA1 c.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,402, to Karos, teaches an apparatus for cleaning and sterilizing ear lobe holes for pierced earrings which utilizes a string of absorbent material having attached thereto a firm tip. Both the string and the tip are maintained in a sealed envelope adjacent a pad of absorbent material saturated with an antiseptic fluid in contact with the string to saturate the string with the fluid. When it is desired to clean and sterilize the ear lobe hole, the package and the string and tip are run through the ear lobe hole. The string both cleans the ear lobe hole and imparts the sterilizing fluid to the hole. PA1 d.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,370, to Evans, is directed to a device for cleaning the pierced ear hole of the earlobe. A grooved or ruffled rod member containing an absorbent material loaded with a cleaning agent is adapted to be passed into and out of the earlobe hole and then disposed of. In another embodiment, the ear rod is constructed as part of a permanent earring which can be worn to provide a constant supply of cleaning solution to the earlobe to prevent infection of the ear hole. PA1 e.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,946, to Barton, relates to a medicated member that is adapted to be passed through the ear lobe of a pierced ear and to be retained therein thereby speeding the healing of the process. PA1 f.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,829, to Abramowitz, teaches an apparatus for piercing the lobe of a human ear with a minimum of pain and with means for substantially eliminating the possibility of infection thereafter and while wearing the earring. PA1 g.) U.S. Pat. No. Des. 346,443, to Franklin, is directed to a pierced ear cleaner device. While the prior art offers some assistance to provide cleansing and applying medication to pierced earlobes, none appear to give the simplicity and effectiveness of the present invention. The manner by which this simplicity and effectiveness is achieved will become more apparent from the following description, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Orthopaedic prostheses are commonly utilized to repair and/or replace damaged bone and tissue in the human body. For a damaged knee, a knee prosthesis may be implanted using a proximal tibial baseplate component, a tibial bearing component, and a distal femoral component. The tibial baseplate component is affixed to a proximal end of the patient's tibia, which is typically resected to accept the baseplate component. The femoral component is implanted on a distal end of the patient's femur, which is also typically resected to accept the femoral component. The tibial bearing component is placed between the tibial baseplate component and the femoral component, and may be fixed or slidably coupled to the tibial baseplate component. The tibial baseplate component provides support for the tibial bearing component. Forces generated by use of the knee prosthesis are transferred through the tibial bearing component to the tibial baseplate component, and ultimately to the tibia. In order to ensure long term performance of the knee prosthesis, stable and firm securement of the tibial baseplate component to the proximal end of the patient's tibia is desired.

Construction barriers for personnel and equipment have historically been made of building materials available at a construction site, such as sheets of plywood and two-by-fours, hard-mounted to the floor of construction sites by way of nails or bolts. This type of barrier is constructed primarily for safety, as they are typically employed near the edge of a working area on the second floor (or higher) of a construction site for purposes of preventing personnel and equipment from falling off the edge of a work area to the floor or ground below. The barriers provide a measure of safety as people work near the edge of the construction site. Traditionally, these safety barriers have been mounted to the floor of the second or third story of a home construction site, where a single story floor can be as high as 20 feet from the ground. Equipment falling from that height would certainly be damaged, but may also cause serious injury or death if it were to impact someone standing below. In an effort to reduce the likelihood of equipment damage and personnel injury, wooden barriers are typically erected to keep equipment, personnel, and debris from falling off a construction site. Typically mounted to the vertical members (studs) of a home construction site or other larger commercial buildings, these barriers usually employ a handrail three to four feet tall for personnel safety, in addition to a further barrier on or near the floor, preventing equipment and debris from sliding or rolling off the second (or higher) story of the construction site. Ordinarily, two-by-fours are used and simply nailed together in vertical and horizontal supports to create a fence, of sorts. Often plywood is nailed to the outside creating a more secure, yet resource-intensive wall. The amount of wood used is heavy, making even a small barrier cumbersome, time consuming, difficult to erect, even harder to remove, and uses an inordinate amount of building material to construct. In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a bracket and support system that utilizes fewer building resources, increases safety and productivity, while significantly reducing the time for setup and removal of these safety barriers.

Diaper changing pads as well as diaper changing stations are widely used to change a child's diaper on the go. However, conventional diaper changing pads are rectangular in shape and are cumbersome for the parent. The conventional changing pads are disadvantageous, because the rectangular shape of the pad requires the child to be aligned on the pad properly to ensure complete coverage from the supporting surface. This may be quite difficult if the child does not lay still or likes to roll over while being changed. What is needed is a diaper-changing article which is convenient for the parent to change the child's diaper.

1. Field of the Invention Embodiments of the invention generally pertain to the field of microfluidics and, more particularly, to a laminated polymeric microfluidic structure and to a method for making a laminated polymeric microfluidic structure. 2. Description of Related Art The technology of manipulating minute volumes of biological and chemical fluids is widely referred to as microfluidics. The realized and potential applications of microfluidics include disease diagnosis, life science research, biological and/or chemical sensor development, and others appreciated by those skilled in the art. A microfluidic structure including a substrate having one or more microfluidic channels or pathways and a cover plate or a second or more substrates with fluid pathways that may or may not be interconnected, may commonly be referred to as a microfluidic chip. Highly integrated microfluidic chips are sometimes called ‘labs on a chip’. Inorganic microfluidic chips having substrates made of glass, quartz or silicon have advantageous organic solvent compatibilities, high thermal and dimensional stability and excellent feature accuracy. These chips are typically fabricated using well-established microfabrication technologies developed for the semiconductor industry. However, the material and production costs of the inorganic chips may become prohibitively high especially when the fluidic pathway(s) requires significant area or the chip has to be disposable. In addition, many established biological assays were developed utilizing the surface properties of polymeric substrates. The research effort required to redevelop these assays on inorganic surfaces would require significant time and resource investments. As an alternative to inorganic microfluidic structures such as those referred to immediately above, microfluidic structures or devices can also be made from polymeric materials. Polymeric microfluidic structures have advantageous low material costs and the potential for mass production. However, the fabrication of polymeric microfluidic chips presents a variety of challenges. For example, microfluidic chips may contain sealed microstructures. They can be formed by enclosing a substrate having a pre-fabricated fluid pathway or other microfeatures with a thin cover plate, or with one or more additional substrates to form a three-dimensional fluid network. The pathways or other microstructures have typical dimensions in the range of micrometers to millimeters. This multilayer microfluidic structure is integrated, or joined together, by various conventional techniques. These techniques include thermal, ultrasonic and solvent bonding. Unfortunately, these techniques often significantly alter the mated surfaces and yield distorted or completely blocked microfluidic pathways due, for example, to the low dimensional rigidity of polymeric materials under the aforementioned bonding conditions. The use of adhesive lamination may circumvent some of these potential difficulties by avoiding the use of excessive thermal energy or a strong organic solvent. However, the introduction of an adhesive layer to a wall surface of an enclosed fluid pathway can cause other fabrication and/or application problems. Commercially available adhesives tend to be conforming materials with typical applied thicknesses of 12-100 micrometers. The compressive force required to produce a uniform seal between component layers will often extrude the adhesive into the fluid pathways resulting in microchannel dimensional alteration or obstruction. An additional potential problem with using adhesives is the formation of an adhesive wall within the enclosed microstructure. The presence of this dissimilar material makes uniform surface modification of the microstructure difficult. Furthermore, the manipulation or patterning of an adhesive layer is difficult, limiting the use of the adhesives to uniform continuous sheets or layers between two opposing planer surfaces. This restricts fluidic communication through a network to one planer surface, as the fluid cannot flow through the adhesive layer, preventing the use of a more versatile three-dimensional space. The use of a strong organic solvent to join two or more discrete plastic parts is a well known practice in the art. In solvent welding, as this process is referred to, lamination solvents work by aggressively penetrating the macromolecular matrix of the polymeric component. This loosens the macromolecule-to-macromolecule bonds, uncoiling or releasing them from their polymer network to generate a softened surface. When two opposing softened surfaces are brought into close proximity, new macromolecular interactions are established. After the solvent evaporates there is a newly formed macromolecular network at the bonded interface with mechanical strength defined by the force of the macromolecular interaction. Exemplary strong organic solvents used for plastic lamination include ketones (acetone, methylethyl ketone or MEK), halogenated hydrocarbons (dichloromethane, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane), ether (tetrahydrofurane or THF) or aromatic molecules (xylene, toluene) and others known by those skilled in the art. The use of the aforementioned strong solvents for bonding microfluidic chips with substrates composed of polystyrene, polycarbonate or acrylic is problematic. All of the solvents known to be used in the field of solvent bonding are “strong” (as defined by their ability to dissolve the polymeric substrate ) organic solvents. That is, these solvents tend to over-soften or dissolve the surface of the substrates during the bonding process. This may damage the microfluidic structure by completely erasing, blocking or destroying the fluid pathways when the substrates are laminated. Acetone, dichloromethane or xylene, for example, begin to dissolve a polystyrene sheet within seconds of application at room temperature. Although it is possible to weaken the solvent strength by mixing the solvent with “inert” solvents such as methanol or ethanol, the resulting bond often does not provide a satisfactory result. The contemporary patent literature discloses using thermal bonding, thermal-melting adhesive, liquid curable adhesive, and elastomeric adhesive approaches to enclose two opposing microfluidic structure surfaces of the same or different materials. It is suggested that these methods are applicable to the fabrication of microchannels of various shapes and dimensions. It is apparent, however, that these approaches rely on stringent control of the fabrication and process conditions, which may result in unacceptable fabrication throughput and production yield. Another reported technique suggests that the quality of a thermally laminated polymeric microchannel can be drastically improved if the opposing substrates have different glass transition temperatures. While this approach may provide a way to retain microstructural integrity during thermal bonding, the success rate will rely on precise process control. Consequently, its application to microfluidic chip manufacturing is restricted. A recent publication describes a method of creating a plurality of relief structures along the length of a microfluidic channel wall, projecting from the opposing surface in the non-functional area of the substrate. Subsequent deposition of a bonding material fills this relief structure, completing the bond. This method allegedly can increase the manufacturing yield of adhesive bonded microfluidic devices. The significant challenge of dispensing the correct volume of bonding material into the relief structures is not addressed. The necessary control of the small volume of bonding material does not lend itself to high production yields. In view of the foregoing, the inventors have recognized that a simple, reproducible, high yield method for enclosing polymeric microstructures is needed. Such a method would be particularly valuable for the fabrication of microfluidic chips from polystyrene, which is the most widely used material for biochemical, cellular and biological assays, acrylics and polymeric materials. It would also be desirable to have a method for microfluidic chip fabrication that is amenable to both laboratory use and manufacturing environments. Such a method would further be useful if it were applicable to the production of prototype devices, as well as being substantially directly transferable to large-scale production. Microfluidic structures made according to the envisioned methods would also be desirable for their economy and ease of production. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention are directed to microfluidic structures and fabrication methods that address the recognized shortcomings of the current state of technology, and which provide further benefits and advantages as those persons skilled in the art will appreciate.

Extensive research has been performed on the visibility of objects in visual scenes and in infrared scenes of interest wherein the intent is to determine the probability that the object will be detected or to determine the amount of search time needed to do so. A 1995 doctoral thesis by one of the inventors herein discusses much of the research work known at that time. This thesis is xe2x80x9cModem Approaches to Computation of the Probability of Target Detection in Cluttered Environmentsxe2x80x9d by Thomas J. Meitzler. The thesis proposed that a fuzzy logic approach could be employed in a method of calculating the probability of detecting targets using various field parameters and target metrics that included clutter metrics as input variables. Subsequent to the thesis, a patent application was filed which has resulted in a continuation application now before the US Patent Office. The continuation application is entitled xe2x80x9cMethod of Determining Probability of Target Detection in a Visually Cluttered Scene,xe2x80x9d has Ser. No. 09/006,529, was filed on Jan. 13, 1998, and has two of the same inventors as the instant application. The parent application has the same title, lists Thomas J. Meitzler as the sole inventor, is now abandoned, had Ser. No. 08/614,087 and was filed Mar. 13, 1996. These prior applications related to predicting target detection but did not relate to the use of fuzzy logic approaches in doing so. Meanwhile the inventors continued their work in fuzzy logic approaches to the study of target detection. As this work began, there was no certainty that a fuzzy logic approach could successfully be reduced to practice, but by September or October of 1998, a fuzzy logic approach had been sufficiently refined to be practical. Even further refinement was subsequently accomplished by the addition of a new input variable, which is the number of wavelet edge points in the scenes. As the work evolved papers were published which were co-authored by one or more of the inventors. These papers related to the use of fuzzy logic to predict either the probability of target detection or the amount of search time required to detect a target in a visual or infrared scene. These papers included the following publications. 1. xe2x80x9cFuzzy Logic Approach for Computing the Probability of Target Detection in Cluttered Scenesxe2x80x9d by Thomas J. Meitzler, Labib Arefeh, Harpreet Singh and Grant R. Gerhart; Optical Engineering. 35(12) 3623-3636 (December 1996). 2. xe2x80x9cPredicting the Probability of Target Detection in Static Infrared and Visual Scenes using the Fuzzy Logic Approachxe2x80x9d by Thomas J. Meitzler, Harpreet Singh, Labib Arefeh, Euijung Sohn and Grant R. Gerhart: Optical Engineering. 37(1) 10-17 (January 1998). 3. xe2x80x9cA Perception Test of Infrared Images of Soldiers in Camouflaged Uniformsxe2x80x9d by Thomas J. Meitzler, Darin Ellis, Euijung Sohn, Darryl Bryk, Kathy Rock and Harpreet Singh; Proceedings of the SPIE""s 12th Annual International Symposium on Aerospace Defense Sensing Simulation and Controls, Targets and Backgrounds Characterization and Representation IV, Vol. 3375, April 1998. 4. xe2x80x9cComputing the Probability of Target Detection in Dynamic Visual Scenes Containing Clutter Using the Fuzzy Logic Approachxe2x80x9d by Thomas J. Meitzler, Euijung Sohn, Daryl Bryk, R. Kistner and D. Bednarz; Optical Engineering, Vol. 37(7) 1998. Our invention is a method of determining the visibility of a target in a visual or infrared background scene where the target""s visibility is a key design issue. Search time is the output variable used to gauge target detectability, and search time is an indicator of the probability of detecting the target in the background. We use a set of images of the target in the background scene and measure selected input variables in each image. The input variables relate to target size, target juxtaposition relative to the viewer""s location, luminance of the target, and luminance of the background scene. Each input variable, as well as the output variable, is associated with its own set of empirically developed membership functions. These membership functions assign membership values to the variables. The choice of membership function for each variable is controlled by specially tailored fuzzy rules which always apply. Applying the fuzzy rules and membership functions results in a collection of values for the output variable which are subjected to a defuzzification, typically by centroid averaging. Defuzzification obtains a crisp value usable, among other things, to disqualify proposed target designs or to select among several qualified target designs.

Current packet-based communication networks may be generally divided into peer-to-peer networks and client/server networks. Traditional peer-to-peer networks support direct communication between various endpoints without the use of an intermediary device (e.g., a host or server). Each endpoint may initiate requests directly to other endpoints and respond to requests from other endpoints using credential and address information stored on each endpoint. However, because traditional peer-to-peer networks include the distribution and storage of endpoint information (e.g., addresses and credentials) throughout the network on the various insecure endpoints, such networks inherently have an increased security risk. While a client/server model addresses the security problem inherent in the peer-to-peer model by localizing the storage of credentials and address information on a server, a disadvantage of client/server networks is that the server may be unable to adequately support the number of clients that are attempting to communicate with it. As all communications (even between two clients) must pass through the server, the server can rapidly become a bottleneck in the system. Accordingly, what is needed are a system and method that addresses these issues.

A wireless radio network may consist of many mobile subscriber units (“MSUs”) all competing for bandwidth resources that are offered in their service area. In addition, fixed network equipment (“FNE”) that serves the MSUs may offer different levels of service in the form of channels of differing bandwidth capabilities. Due to the different levels of service, radio resource management is necessary. Several techniques have been used to perform radio resource management. One is for the FNE to advertise to the MSUs information about each channel. The MSUs can then choose to move to a new channel if the channel that they are using is no longer satisfactory due to the signal quality or channel loading. This technique may be referred to as “autonomous movement” because the MSUs move to a new channel without informing the FNE prior to registration. There are several disadvantages with the autonomous movement technique. One disadvantage is that the MSUs move without the knowledge of what the other MSUs are doing, so it is possible for many MSUs to move all at once; if they all make their decision to move based on the same advertised data, they could all move to the same channel, causing that channel to become overloaded. Another disadvantage to the autonomous movement technique is that the MSUs move based on advertised data, which may be out of date when they decide to move. Yet another disadvantage to the autonomous movement technique is that the MSUs move without first informing the FNE, so there is a short period of time when the FNE has outdated information about what channel the particular MSU is on. Yet still another disadvantage to the autonomous movement technique is that the amount of data that must be advertised for an MSU to make a “good” decision to move to another channel can be excessive, thus using up too much of the available bandwidth. Another technique to perform radio resource management is that the FNE always controls what channel the MSU is on. If a MSU wants to use a channel, it requests a channel from the FNE. The MSU may request a channel before every transmission, or only when it is unable to transfer data on the current channel. In addition, the FNE may attempt to move the MSUs in order to keep an even load on the channels. There are also several disadvantages to this technique. One disadvantage is that the FNE does not know the signal quality of each bandwidth group, or each individual channel, so it may move the MSU to a channel having a poor signal quality. Another disadvantage is that the FNE does not know when a MSU is going to need bandwidth resources, so it may move a MSU unnecessarily. Yet another disadvantage is that overhead signaling is required, which can slow down access to the network by the MSU. Moreover, the autonomous movement technique and the radio resource management technique require certain signal quality measurements to be made by the MSUs on a plurality of channels. An issue with these measurements is that they can be intrusive to the normal operation of the MSU. Thus, there exists a need for efficiently assigning the MSUs to channels such that the bandwidth resources of the FNE are used effectively, and a need for effective channel quality measurements so that they are not as intrusive to the normal operation of the MSU.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to a self-sealing coupling for use in connection and disconnection of a hydraulic sub-circuit to a midway portion of a main circuit of a hydraulic device in tandem, and more specifically to a self-sealing coupling with a bypass for a hydraulic circuit in which a flow of pressurized oil is detoured to the sub-circuit by closing of the bypass for blocking off of the midway portion of the main circuit under the connected condition or, optionally, the flow being directly supplied to the main circuit by opening of the bypass in a disconnected condition. 2. Background of the Prior Art For example, when an operator mounts or dismounts an agricultural loader onto an agricultural tractor, a hydraulic sub-circuit provided on the side of the loader is adapted to be connected in tandem to a midway portion of a main circuit of a hydraulic device provided on the side of the tractor. Thereupon, a self-sealing coupling with a bypass for a hydraulic circuit is interposed in the tandem connection portion between the main circuit and the sub-circuit. When the agricultural tractor is used for the cultivation of land, usually the agricultural loader is removed from the tractor. For removing the loader, the bypass within the self-sealing coupling is opened by the operator so that a link hitch of a three-point support type can be hydraulically actuated. When the operator uses the tractor equipped with external hydraulic implement and machinery such as the agricultural loader and the like, the bypass is blocked off so that the oil to be supplied to the main circuit is detoured to the sub-circuit. Generally, a conventional self-sealing coupling with a bypass for a hydraulic circuit having relation to the present invention is constituted as follows. A coupling body is provided with an input passage and an output passage separately from each other. In the outlet portion of the input passage and in the inlet portion of the output passage, there are provided respective valves on the main circuit. Each self-closing valve is adapted to close a valve port thereof with a self-closing valve element urged outward by a valve closing force exerting means, and each valve element is adapted to be pushed back inwardly by an external force so as to open the valve port. The input passage and the output passage are adapted to be interconnected through a bypass opened and closed by means of a bypass valve. A first example of prior art is the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Japanese Laid Open Utility Model Publication No. 1987-163688. In the accompanying drawings of FIGS. 8 and 9 showing the first conventional embodiment, a block-like coupling body 101 is provided on its upper side with a pair of self-closing valves 106, 106 secured to body 101 side by side. Within each self-closing valve 106, there is provided a self-closing valve element 107 which is urged toward the valve closing position by means of a valve closing spring 108. The coupling body 101 is further provided with an input passage 102 opened in one side and with an output passages 103 opened in the other side thereof. These input passage 102 and output passage 103 are disposed horizontally and are spaced apart vertically, and are interconnected by a vertical bypass 110 formed in the middle portion of the coupling body 101. A cylindrical bypass valve 111 is disposed through the vertical middle portion of the coupling body 101 and is passed vertically and slidably through the bypass 110. The bypass valve 111 is adapted to be urged upward by means of a valve opening spring 113 provided in the lower portion of the coupling body 101 so as to open the bypass 110. However, there are the following problems associated with the first example: (a) Since the coupling body 101 is provided separately with the self-closing valves 106 and the bypass valve 111 and further provided separately with the valve closing spring 108 as the urging means for the self-closing valve 107 and the valve opening spring 113 as the urging means for the bypass valve 111, the general constitution has to be larger and more complicated. (b) Since the coupling connection portion on the main circuit side is provided with the similar self-closing valves 106, 106 for the input side as well as for the output side, operator tends to make the connection mistakes for the input sides and the output sides respectively on the side of the sub-circuit as well as on the side of the main circuit when connecting the self-closing valves on the side of the sub-circuit to the self-closing valves 106, 106 on the side of the main circuit. It is therefore possible that a loader and the like provided in the output portion of the sub-circuit could be driven in a reverse direction, which might cause an accident, due to such connection mistakes. A second example of known art is obtained by simplifying the constitution provided in the first conventional embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 of the above-mentioned Publication. In the related accompanying drawings of FIGS. 10 and 11, a coupling body 201 is provided with an input passage 202 and an output passage 203 which are disposed vertically therethroughout 201. A pair of self-closing valves 206, 206 are fitted side by side into the input passage 202 and into the output passage 203 from above respectively. One of them is fitted vertically and slidably into the input passage 202 with its cylindrical lower portion 200 facing a holizontal bypass 210. The other one, for the output passage 203, is threadably secured to the coupling body 201. In such structure, under the "disconnected" and "self-closed" condition of the coupling for using only the main condition of the coupling for using only the main circuit of the hydraulic device, the self-closing valve 206 is adapted to be pushed up by means of an oil pressure within the "input passage 202 so as to open the bypass 210. Under the "connected" and "self-open" condition of the coupling for using the sub-circuit, a duplex coupling provided in the leading end of the sub-circuit is adapted to be pushed into the paired self-closing valves 206, 206 provided in the coupling body 201 and the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side is lowered so as to close the bypass 210. In this second example, the cylindrical lower portion 200 of the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side serves as a bypass valve element 212 also, and an oil pressure within the input passage 202 acts as a valve opening force exerting means. Accordingly, the self-closing valve 206 serves as the bypass valve 211 also so that a valve for the exclusive use of the bypass can be omitted and the general constitution of the hydraulic device can be simplified. However there are the following associated with the second example: (a) Since the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side is adapted to be raised and lowered vertically, a duplex connection coupling 280 on the sub-circuit side is secured only to the self-closing valve 206 on the output passage side of the coupling body 201 in an unstable cantilevered state when the sub-circuit is used. Accordingly, when the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side is extended or retracted by means of an external force such as a tension force or a pushing force transmitted through an oil supply hose, the force exerted to the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side acts so as to bend the self-closing valve 206 on the output passage side. As a result, it is possible that the self-closing valve 206 on the output passage side could be deformed by a stress concentration, so that an oil leak is caused or the valve 206 is damaged during a long term use. (b) The input side and the output side may be distinguished readily because the self-closing valve 206 on the input passage side is projected outward farther than that on the output passage side before being connected. However, since similar self-closing valves 206, 206 are used for both the input passage side and the output passage side, one of the self-closing valves 206, 206 provided on the main circuit side is connectable to either of self-closing valves on the input side and on the output side provided on the sub-circuit side. Therefore, it is still possible that an operator could make a connection mistake similar to that possible in the above-mentioned first example.

Disposition of medical waste such as, for example, contaminated hypodermic needles and syringes has become a serious problem in recent years. Frequently, such materials are disposed of in the sea and wash ashore, causing health and sanitation authorities to close shore-line areas to access by the public. Thus, there exists a need for a process of disposing of medical waste in a safe and permanent manner which does not result in contamination of the environment into which such waste is disposed. The present invention fulfills such a need. While it is true that various processes and apparatus have been developed to dispose of various types of waste materials such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,901; 4,459,211; 4,459,212; and 4,518,507 which disclose encapsulation of different types of waste materials in various types of resins and solidification of waste materials which are liquid or semiliquid. The prior art disclosures all relate to the chemical bonding or physical bonding of the toxic or contaminated waste with a detoxifying molecular encapsulator. The thus treated materials are then loaded into an encapsulating membrane of water-impermeable polymeric material, they do not solve the problem of the safe disposition of medical wastes, as does the present invention. On the other hand, the present invention, although it is disclosed herein as it applies to medical waste for purposes of simplicity, can also be employed in the disposition of other types of waste material since it does not depend upon molecular, atomic or similar bonding reactions of the toxic particles with the encapsulator.

This invention relates to a refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus which facilitates the opening and closing of a refrigerator door without effort and by which the door can be closed automatically and tightly. There are disclosed various refrigerator door opening/closing apparatuses which can close the door tightly to prevent the outflow of cooled air. A typical type, for example, is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Laid Open No. 89-5292. As shown in FIG. 1, the prior art comprises a hinge member 1 which is fixed to the cabinet 1 of a refrigerator and has a hinge shaft 3 at one end thereof, a fixed member 8 attached to the top of the refrigerator door 4, and an elastic member 5 arranged under the fixed member 8. A round-shaped projection 7 is attached to the cabinet at a distance from the hinge member 2 and an aperture 6 is formed on the elastic member 5 in order to elastically receive or release the projection 7. By such a structure, when the door 4 is opened, the aperture 6 is expanded to release the projection 7 from the elastic member 5, and on the contrary when the door 4 is closed, the aperture 6 is again expanded to receive the projection 7 into the elastic member 5, thereby closing the door 4 tightly. However, the door opening/closing apparatus according to the prior art has a disadvantage that the user must pull or push with an effort to open or close the door 4. Especially, the above disadvantage becomes more serious when such a door opening/closing apparatus is mounted on a large-sized refrigerator in which the door is relatively weighty. As a more improved type, a refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus utilizing the elasticity of a spring is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Laid Open No 91-11734. FIG. 2A illustrates a door opening/closing apparatus according to such prior art in which the refrigerator door 17 is opened less than 90.degree.. A fixed member 11 on which a movable member 12 and a spring 13 are placed is mounted on a hinge member 10. The fixed member 11 of a cylindrical shape has a projection 14 of a trapezoid shape. There is a cut portion 15 on the movable member 12, which is cut in a shape corresponding to the trapezoid-shaped projection 14. The movable member 12 is rotatably inserted onto the fixed member 11 by a rod 16 which is installed inside the movable member 12. The members 11, 12, 13 are located in the interior of the door 17 which is shown in a dotted line. In the closed state of the door 17 (not shown), the cut portion 15 in the member 12 is engaged with the projection 14 on the fixed member 11 and the spring 13 is kept in the stretched state. When the door 17 is opening (FIG. 2A), the cut portion 15 in the member 12 is moved upwardly along the side surface of the projection 14 on the fixed member 11, the spring 13 being compressed. As shown in FIG. 2B, when the bottom of the member 12 reaches the top of the projection 14, the door 17 is completely opened with the spring 13 fully compressed. If in this state the user pushes the door 17 slightly to close it, whereupon the member 12 is slid downward along the side surface of the projection 14 on the fixed member 11 so that the cut portion 15 of the member 12 is fitted over the projection 14 of the fixed member 11. As a result, the door 17 is automatically closed. However, the above refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus has some disadvantages. That is, the user must apply a relatively great pulling force to the door 17 because the side surfaces of both the projection 14 and the cut portion 15 which guide upward the member 12 on the fixed member 11 form a steep incline. Further, collision noise between the door 17 and the body of the refrigerator, which will result in damage to the refrigerator, is generated by the apparatus because if the user slightly pushes the opened door 17, the door 17 is rapidly closed by the elasticity of the spring 13. In addition, the movement of the member 12 on the fixed member 11 is not smooth and noise may be generated from the contact surfaces of both the members 11, 12 because the member 12 slides on the fixed member 11. An object of this invention is to solve the above problems by providing a refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus by which a refrigerator door can be opened/closed automatically and smoothly. Another object of this invention is to provide a refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus by which a refrigerator door can be closed tightly to prevent cooled air in the interior of the refrigerator from being discharged. Still another object of this invention is to provide a refrigerator door opening/closing apparatus by which a refrigerator door can be opened and closed without effort.

1. Field of the Invention The invention in general relates to electrical test probes, and more particularly to an improved probe tip structure which reduces the input capacitance of the probe. 2. Statement of the Problem Electrical test probes are often used to connect electrical circuits to test instruments, such as oscilloscopes or voltmeters, while minimizing the loading of the circuit under test. Two desirable electrical characteristics of an electrical test probe are; first, the probe should not influence or "load" the response of the circuit under test; and secondly, that the signal response at the test instrument should be an accurate, though possibly attenuated, representation of the probed signal over the range of frequencies of interest; that is, the signal on the output of the test probe follows the signal at its input. Generally, the first characteristic is accomplished by making the impedance at the probe input as high as possible to prevent the test probe and instrument to which it is connected from drawing significant current or otherwise significantly altering the electrical parameters on the node to be tested. The impedance at the output is generally a value that meets the impedance needs of typical test instruments. Thus test probes may be thought of as essentially impedance buffers. Some probes, generally called divider probes, may also attenuate the voltage of the circuit under test and decrease the capacitance and increase the resistance presented to the circuit by an attenuation factor. For example, a probe with an attenuation factor of 10 will reduce the voltage of the input signal, reduce the input capacitance of the probe, and increase the resistance of the probe by a factor of 10. This invention will be implemented in terms of a passive divider probe; however, it is applicable to active divider probes and other probes in general. The accomplishment of the second characteristic, the accurate reproduction of the signal, is usually more complicated. Frequencies of electrical signals that a test probe are called on to transmit to a test instrument can vary from zero, in the case of DC signals, to the gigahertz range, in the case of extremely fast digital circuits. Thus it is essential that test probes have a response that is flat to a high degree of accuracy across a wide range of frequencies or band width. However, the capacitance of the probe connecting cable and the probe amplifier circuit interacts with the voltage divider resistors in the probe, limiting the possible bandwidth. Thus most test probes include a frequency compensation circuit near the probe tip which compensates for the capacitance of the probe cable and amplifier and thus broadens the band width. This compensation circuit usually includes a compensation capacitor, which is difficult to miniaturize. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,051 issued Dec. 15, 1992, on an invention of Thomas J. Zamborelli. It is not physically possible to locate the compensation circuit at the very end of the probe tip that contacts the circuit to be tested. Thus, there is always a portion of the probe tip and attached probe tip lead that exhibits stray capacitance to grounded portions of the probe tip, especially the shield that is often present. The stray capacitance of this portion of the circuit will be seen entirely by the circuit under test. This capacitance will not be reduced by the attenuation factor. Thus it is critical to minimize the stray portion of a test probe circuit. Current trends toward miniaturization in integrated circuit packaging, multiplication of leads on integrated circuits, and increased signal speeds tend to aggravate the problem of stray capacitance. As the number of chip leads increases, it becomes necessary to utilize probes with multiple probe tips, so as to provide the possibility of multiplexing test signals and/or simultaneous testing of several leads at once. As lead spacings in integrated circuits shrink, the tips of multiple tip test probes are forced closer together, and it becomes increasingly difficult to locate the compensation circuits, particularly the compensation capacitors, near the probe tips. Though not to the same extent as for multiple tip probes, this phenomenon also affects single tip probes since large diameter probes can cause shorts and mechanical difficulties in placing the probe tip on an integrated circuit lead. Thus the trend is toward long probe tips and tip leads that exhibit high stray capacitance. If left unshielded, these longer probe tips and tip leads result in high self inductance and both inductive and capacitive coupling to adjacent probe leads. These factors, combined with the increasingly high frequencies of electronic circuits, result in increased crosstalk and decreased signal fidelity. To combat crosstalk and allow faithful transmission of signals, shielding these long tips and tip leads is necessary. However, shielding increases stray capacitance between the tip lead and the shield. Thus there is a need for a electrical probe in which the stray capacitance, and therefore the input capacitance is reduced. 3. Solution to the Problem The invention solves the above problem by incorporating the stray capacitance into the frequency compensation circuit. The invention provides an intermediate or middle conductor between the probe input conductor and the shield conductor. The middle conductor is very thin, preferably formed by a thin-film process. It has been found that the thinner the middle conductor the better, so long as the middle conductor is not so thin that its resistivity becomes a factor in the compensation circuit. The thinness of the middle conductor permits the probe tip according to the invention to be the same size as or only slightly larger than the conventional probe tip. Thus it can easily be adapted to miniaturization. The capacitance between the middle conductor and the probe input conductor takes the place of the compensation capacitor, thus a compensation capacitor separate from the tip structure itself is no longer necessary, further contributing to miniaturization. When implemented in the standard coaxial probe tip structure, the invention provides a triaxial probe tip. The invention may also be implemented in almost any other probe tip structure, such as in the flat probe tip structure used in multiple tip, flex circuit type probe leads. The total input (or loading) capacitance of a probe having the probe tip according to the invention may be reduced by as much as 50% in comparison to the conventional probe. The possible reduction in capacitance is found to vary with the attenuation factor of the probe. For a probe with an attenuation factor of 10, the possible reduction is 34% and reaches 50% for an infinite attenuation factor.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device for video/audio apparatuses; it primarily concerns TV sets so that only this particular application will be referred to, namely both for commercial purposes, for example the so-called "Pay TV Systems", i.e. for the reception of paid programs, in hotels, and for private purposes, i.e. the TV reception of all privately accessible broadcasting stations, for example in private and holiday apartments, hospitals etc. Especially in the closed circuit systems of hotels, hospitals, holiday apartments etc. which are equipped with a centralised antenna device supplying a large number of TV receivers, this network also provides services. Such services comprise information, additional programs, video text information etc. It has proven profitable to broadcast cinema movies such as drama movies, adventure movies, cartoons or erotic movies via one or several programs of the local antenna networks of hotels. Since hotel guests are not used to having additional programs provided at home, the relevant information opportunities must be presented in a way which is easy to recognise. 2. Description of the prior art So far, it was customary to place so-called program display cards for Pay TV or hotel video in the hotel rooms. Since these displays must be sufficiently large in size to attract the attention of the guest on the one hand, but must not take up valuable space in the hotel room on the other, they are usually placed on top of the TV set as the reference point, i.e. 3 to 4 meters from the top of the bed. As a result, the guest cannot read the display or does not notice it among other advertising displays of the hotel. In addition, the information cards were often misplaced by the cleaning staff, knocked over by drafts or made unreadable in another way. In the private sector, a number of stations accessible to everybody can be received without the additional Pay TV programs. When a TV set is sold to a private household or installed in hospitals or holiday apartments all the stations must be programmed locally. The number can amount to 30 stations or more which are received via cable. For the average viewer it is very difficult or even impossible to remember the channel allocations of the individual stations. In the past, this problem was solved, for example, by sticking a list of stations to the back of the remote control device. Since this device was fully exposed, it became quickly soiled and easily damaged. In hospitals or holiday apartments it is often illegible or is not even noticed, because sufficient space is only provided on the bottom part. Even though remote controls, telephones etc. are already provided with tiltable or slidable lids to cover operational controls which, not being intended for daily use, are to be kept out of sight of the user, such lids are not suitable to accommodate exchangeable information or lists of stations. They are intentionally placed out of sight, are not meant to be discovered by the occasional user and need not be opened for switching on and using the TV set for its regular purpose. Furthermore, it is often necessary in hotels, hospitals etc. to draw the attention of the guests to special features, for example breakfast times, animation programs, cosmetic treatments, opening hours of hospital shops and such like. The use of remote control devices is also a good choice here, because these, in connection not only with the TV set, but also with video recorders, CD players and cassette tape decks, are often at the center of interest. It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a device for the remote control of video/audio apparatuses, especially TV sets, which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and uses said device as an information or advertising vehicle. This object is solved by a remote control device for video/audio apparatuses comprising a casing, operational controls for actuating functions of the video/audio apparatuses, electrical or electronic, respectively, circuits for giving operational signals to the video/audio apparatuses, a tilted lid mounted movably to the casing, which lid covers at least some essential operational controls in one end position and exposes the covered operational controls in the other end position, and at least one assembly formed at the lid to accommodate an exchangeable information carrier. Suitable embodiments of the device according to the invention are defined by the features set forth in the sub-claims. The advantages provided by the invention are based on the design of the remote control device as a carrier of information which the TV viewer cannot but notice when switching on the corresponding TV set. This is because, in its normal position, the tiltable lid covers not only insignificant operational controls but also, at least in part, essential operational controls, namely those necessary for switching on and/or adjusting the set (selection of stations, volume), so that, primarily, only the outer face of the lid is visible together with the information provided thereupon, e.g. a direct reference to a Pay TV program or a certain station. Thus, if the user picks up the remote control device to switch on the TV set, he cannot fail to notice the advertising message. When he tilts the lid in order to expose the essential operational controls, additional information, e.g. a sample photograph, a Pay TV program, a list of stations or a weekly program schedule, will appear on the previously invisible inside of the lid, exactly in the visual angle above the operational control keys of the device. Tests have shown that this double exposure to information, particularly in the case of new stations and Pay TV programs, surprisingly results when the TV set is switched on in the regular manner in much higher viewer or switch-on ratings than could be achieved with the pointers used so far, e.g. display boards. At the same time, the operational controls of the remote control device, generally keys, are protected against dirt, for example dust, by the tiltable lid. In addition to information on Pay TV programs, additional information could be provided on the inner or outer surface of the lid, for example advertising for beverages, tobacco products, food and luxury items and such like. Even though it is possible in principle to attach the relevant information surfaces firmly to the lid, in a preferred embodiment the lid is equipped with a holding device for information cards that can be exchanged easily. This provides an opportunity to refer to new Pay TV programs in continuous, e.g. weekly, succession. The holding device for the information card may be arranged on the inner and/or the outer surface of the lid. Thus a maximum of two information cards can be accommodated if both the inner and the outer surface of the lid are to be used as information carriers. A particularly simple and therefore advantageous embodiment is provided if the tiltable lid is made, at least in part, of a transparent material, preferably a transparent synthetic material; in this case, the information card can be mounted on the inside of the lid and provided with information on both sides; the information on the one side will then be visible from the outside through the transparent lid, whereas the information on the other side only becomes visible when the lid is tilted. That way a variety of information can be provided in a simple manner, namely by using only one information card, and easily exchanged whenever necessary. The easy exchange of the information card becomes especially advantageous if it is guided along slits or rails provided along the edges of the lid. At the same time, both information surfaces of the information card are largely protected against damage, but also against soiling, namely one of the surfaces at all times by the transparent lid and the other at least when the lid is closed, if the information card is positioned between the lid and the operational panel of the remote control device and is thus covered. Even though the information card can basically be inserted into the lid or the rails of the lid from every direction, it is preferred to insert the information card into the lid from the side averted from the surface of the remote control while the lid is in the tilted position. It has turned out to be useful if the lid remains in the opened position, i.e. if it can be moved from this open position only if a certain force is used or if the remote control device is brought into an oblique position. In this locked position, the lid and thus also the information surface on its inside should be at a 60.degree.-200.degree. angle to the operational panel of the casing; this angle ensures good legibility of the information after the lid has been opened and at the same time operability of the operational controls. An angle between 90.degree. C. and 150.degree. between the operational panel of the casing and the lid is especially useful. By means of a simple mounting mechanism, such a lid can also be mounted onto existing remote control devices at a later point in time, so that they can be "upgraded". Advantageously, the information carrier is comprised of a sheet element, especially of cardboard, carton, plastic or paper; the material should take print well so that, for example, new information carriers can be printed weekly. According to a preferred embodiment, the hinged lid can be arranged tiltably on the casing of the remote control device by means of a hinge-like holding device. For this purpose, holes or projecting parts can be provided on opposite sides of the casing which find their counterparts in the hinged lid and interlock under bias or formfittingly, thus providing a firm yet tiltable hold of the hinged lid on the casing of the remote control device. The sheet-like information carrier is advantageously held by at least two holding devices, preferably at least two projecting parts on the side of the hinged lid facing the casing, sufficient space being provided between the lid and the projecting parts so that the information card can be inserted between the lid and the projecting parts with light pressure. In order to provide the projecting parts with guiding characteristics, the projecting parts can extend in the longitudinal direction of the lid so that a kind of slit guidance for the card is provided on both sides. An additional projecting support can be positioned at the end of the insert canal. In order to prevent the card from slipping out accidentally, a stop element can be positioned at that end of the lid from which the card is slipped, and helps prevent the card from slipping out accidentally. In order to prevent the hinged lid from accidentally being lifted off the casing of the remote control device, thus presenting, for example, a surface which can be broken off if a large force is applied, at least one clamp or stop element or such like may be positioned on the lid and/or the casing which holds the lid with slight holding force so that the user does not encounter any significant resistance when wishing to use the remote control device according to the invention, whereas any unintentional tilting of the lid of the remote control device is prevented.

Some environments generate a tough combination of dirt, grime, soil, and debris that is very difficult to clean effectively with only one cleaner. One example of such an extreme environment is the vehicle race track, e.g., auto speedway, truck speedway, or the like. In the course of a race, windshields are splattered both with oils (e.g., motor oils and gear oils) and with rubber bits thrown from race tires that erode during racing. Dirty windshields obscure the driver's visibility, impairing the safety of all race participants. Accordingly, it is common practice to try and clean race vehicle windshields during pit stops. Cleaning a race vehicle windshield at a pit stop is not a simple matter, because this use imposes many stringent demands on a cleaner. In addition to being able to remove oils and rubber and other soil on the windshield, the cleaning agent must act to remove this grime very fast, i.e., within the time constraints of the pit stop. The cleaner also must be easy to remove quickly from the surface. Desirably, therefore, the cleaner must not only act fast, but also evaporate at a quick enough rate so that the time spent wiping the windshield with a clean cloth, squeegee, or the like, will be at a minimum. While quick cleaning action is important, this must also be balanced against residence time. The cleaner components must evaporate at a slow enough rate so that the cleaner has a long enough contact time with the soiled surface to remove the soils. Ideally, the cleaner also should go on and come off without requiring any rinsing with water or any other rinse agent. Besides being fast and simple to use, the cleaner must be compatible with the race vehicle itself. Importantly, the cleaner must leave no residue behind that might obscure visibility through the windshield. The cleaner also must not damage the LEXAN polycarbonate material that forms the windshield or the silicone sealant around the edge of the windshield. The cleaner must also be compatible with MYLAR polyester, because a clear plastic sheet, often made of MYLAR polyester and called a “tear-away”, often is used to cover the windshield. The “tear-away” is used to dampen impacts from particulate matter during the race and can be removed quickly during a pit stop when the sheet becomes so damaged that it obscures the race vehicle driver's view. Cleaners splashed across a windshield inevitably will contact the race vehicle body, too. Therefore, the cleaner must not damage the race vehicle's body paint. The cleaner also should provide good cleaning performance over a wide temperature range. For example, it would be very desirable to have a cleaner that provides good cleaning performance at temperatures ranging from 25° F. (−4° C.) to 140° F. (60° C.). Race vehicle bodies and the walls at racetracks need to be cleaned, too. These surfaces also are splattered with the same soils as the windshield, including oils and rubber. Also, race vehicle bodies and/or racetrack walls may be smeared with rubber from the tires of other race vehicles that sideswipe such surfaces during races. For these surfaces, in addition to being able to remove oils and rubber under the stringent conditions described above, the cleaning agent must not unduly damage the inks or the backings of the promotional decals or other graphics that are affixed to the vehicle's body or the racetrack walls. The racetrack, of course, is just one example of an environment in which oils and rubber collectively challenge a cleaner. There are many others, too. For example, automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, and the like also get splattered with oils, tar, rubber, bugs, and the like during the course of ordinary street driving. Industrial equipment, industrial floors which have been traversed and marked by tires, engines, motors, railways, railway cars, and the like may also suffer from such grime. With the growth of industry, a significant amount of hazardous waste products and products formerly regarded as useful but now recognized as hazardous have entered the environment. These hazardous materials are frequently present as contaminants on surfaces of equipment, installations of all kinds, civil works, soil, and the like. For example, a significant amount of radioactive waste, in the form of radionuclides, is present in nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons production plants, mining and milling equipment used for uranium mining, and in apparatus in the medical area where radioactive isotopes are used. The presence of these radionuclides, which contaminate equipment including pumps, pipelines, valves, concrete foundations, and all other equipment and structures with which the radionuclides have come into contact, now pose a serious health problem since their radioactivity is known to be carcinogenic. To qualify as a decontaminated facility, depending upon the type of radioactivity, the NRC requires that the level of radioactivity from radionuclides be reduced to less than 5,000 disintegrations per minute (DPM) in some cases and other lower levels in other cases. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were once widely used industrial chemicals, especially as insulating or hydraulic fluids in electrical capacitors, transformers, vacuum pumps, gas-transmission turbines, machinery, and various other devices and products. Their chemical stability and non-flammability contributed to their commercial usefulness. However, it has since been found that PCBs are carcinogens and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently lists PCBs and any surfaces or equipment containing PCBs as hazardous. Consequently, these chemicals are no longer recommended or used in new applications. However, a large amount of existing capital equipment, installed before the listing of PCBs as hazardous, contains PCBs. These installations pose a hazard whenever a spillage of PCBs occurs thereby contaminating the surrounding area or whenever routine repairs expose workers or the environment to PCBs. While it is desirable to remove PCBs and dispose of these in a suitable hazardous waste facility, PCBs are not easily removed from apparatus or spilled areas because of their capability to enter into the tiniest of pores and microscopic voids and spaces in surfaces with which they come into contact. For example, in transformers which frequently contain wood, paper, metal joints, and electrical components with minute crevices, the PCBs soak into pores and microscopic voids in the steel and concrete and fill the tiniest of microscopic spaces such as pores and microscopic voids, and the like, in metals. When PCBs have spilled onto a surface, such as a concrete surface, the PCBs over time will soak into pores and microscopic voids in the concrete and contaminate the concrete to well below the exposed surface and into the underlying substrate. Current techniques that merely clean the surface of concrete that has been exposed to the PCBs for a long period of time are not able to adequately clean the surface and do not reach PCBs held in the substrate below the surface in the pores and microscopic voids. Moreover, once surface cleaning has been completed, PCBs leach from the pores and microscopic voids to the surface over time due to the effect of a concentration gradient. Thus, the surface becomes recontaminated and further cleaning is necessitated. Likewise, while the bulk of the PCBs can be readily drained from some PCB-containing equipment, the residual PCB contaminant in pores, microscopic voids, crevices, and joints is not easily removed. It is found that upon refilling the drained apparatus with a replacement fluid for PCBs, PCBs will continue to leach from surfaces of the apparatus into the replacement fluid thereby contaminating it and rendering it hazardous. Likewise, heavy metals have been identified as hazardous to human health and the EPA requires their removal from environments where they pose a health hazard. Like PCBs and radionuclides, heavy metals have the capability to migrate into pores, joints, crevices, and microscopic voids in interior and exterior surfaces and thereby cause contamination in the substrate to well below the apparent surface of any apparatus, device, or ground surface with which they come into contact. Mere surface cleaning is therefore ineffective to remove heavy metals contamination from substrates. Certain pesticides and herbicides are also now known to be hazardous to human health. These compositions contaminate surfaces and substrates, such as concrete, but more especially particulate surfaces, such as soil, clay, gravel, and the like. There is a need for methods and cleaning compositions for the removal of contaminants including radionuclides, PCBs, herbicides, pesticides, and heavy metals from porous and non-porous interior and exterior surfaces, particulate surfaces, and surfaces having minute spaces, crevices, pores, or microscopic voids into which these contaminants migrate and from which they are not readily extractable. Further, the method and cleaning compositions should desirably not only extract these contaminants from well below the surface to be cleaned, but should extract these to such a level that any remaining contaminants do not pose a hazard, i.e., a surface and its underlying substrate cleaned of PCBs would meet EPA regulations for reclassification from a hazardous to a non-hazardous material; a surface and its substrate cleaned of heavy metals, herbicides, or pesticides, would meet the EPA's TCLP standard setting the upper limit for their concentration; and a surface and its substrate cleaned of radionuclides would test at less than 5,000 DPM. The method and cleaning compositions should also desirably extract these contaminants without significant surface damage or scarring. Further, the method and cleaning compositions should desirably extract these contaminants with a minimum amount of hazardous waste byproduct which must be disposed of and, in the case of radionuclides, the byproduct waste should preferably be water soluble to assist in ease of disposal. Finally, cleaning compositions should desirably not be flammable. What is needed is a cleaner that has the power to clean oil, tar, rubber, bug residue, and other soils over a wide temperature range, yet will not damage metal, many paints, many inks, ceramic, wood, concrete, many plastics and/or the like.

A need exists for a device that can prevent the uncontrolled discharge of melt, such as plastic melt, from nozzle apertures. A further need exists for a device that can be used to ensure that melt does not enter a process chamber of an underwater granulator until the desired molten conditions, such as the necessary degree of plastication or melting of melt, are reached. A further need exists for a device that controls the uncontrolled discharge of melt, is compact in design, and reduces thermal problems associated with the control of melt out of a nozzle. The present embodiments meet these needs. The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

The following is offered as background information only and is not admitted to be prior art to the present invention. PKs are enzymes that catalyze the phosphorylation of hydroxy groups on tyrosine, serine and threonine residues of proteins. The consequences of this seemingly simple activity are staggering; cell growth, differentiation and proliferation; i.e., virtually all aspects of cell life in one way or another depend on PK activity. Furthermore, abnormal PK activity has been related to a host of disorders, ranging from relatively non-life threatening diseases such as psorisasis to extremely virulent diseases such as glioblastoma (brain cancer). The PKs can conveniently be broken down into two classes, the protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and the serine-threonine kinases (STKs). One of the prime aspects of PTK activity is its involvement with growth factor receptors. Growth factor receptors are cell-surface proteins. When bound by a growth factor ligand, growth factor receptors are converted to an active form which interacts with proteins on the inner surface of a cell membrane. This leads to phosphorylation on tyrosine residues of the receptor and other proteins and to the formation inside the cell of complexes with a variety of cytoplasmic signaling molecules that, in turn, affect numerous cellular responses such as cell division (proliferation), cell differentiation, cell growth, expression of metabolic effects to the extracellular microenvironment, etc. For a more complete discussion, see Schlessinger and Ullrich, Neuron, 9:303-391 (1992) which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein. Growth factor receptors with PK activity are known as Can receptor tyrosine kinases ("RTKs"). They comprise a large family of transmembrane receptors with diverse biological activity. At present, at least nineteen (19) distinct subfamilies of RTKs have been identified. An example of these is the subfamily designated the "HER" RTKs, which include EGFR (epithelial growth factor receptor), HER2, HER3 and HER4. These RTKs consist of an extracellular glycosylated ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain and an intracellular cytoplasmic catalytic domain that can phosphorylate tyrosine residues on proteins. Another RTK subfamily consists of insulin receptor (IR), insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-1R) and the insulin receptor related receptor (IRR). IR and IGF-1R interact with insulin, IGF-I and IGF-II to form a heterotetramer of two entirely extracellular glycosylated a subunits and two .beta. subunits which cross the cell membrane and which contain the tyrosine kinase domain. A third RTK subfamily is referred to as the platelet derived growth factor receptor ("PDGFR") group, which includes PDGFR.alpha., PDGFR.beta., CSFIR, c-kit and c-fms. These receptors consist of glycosylated extracellular domains composed of variable numbers of immunoglobin-like loops and an intracellular domain wherein the tyrosine kinase domains is interrupted by unrelated amino acid sequences. Another group which, because of its similarity to the PDGFR subfamily, is sometimes subsumed in the later group is the fetus liver kinase ("flk") receptor subfamily. This group is believed to be made of up of kinase insert domain-receptor fetal liver kinase-1 (KDR/FLK-1), flk-1R, flk-4 and fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (flt-1). One further member of the tyrosine kinase growth factor receptor family is the fibroblast growth factor ("FGF")receptor group. This groups consists of four receptors, FGFR1-4, and seven ligands, FGF1-7. While not yet well defined, it appears that the receptors consist of a glycosylated extracellular domain containing a variable number of immunoglobin-like loops and an intracellular domain in which the PTK sequence is interrupted by regions of unrelated amino acid sequences. A more complete listing of the known RTK subfamilies is described in Plowman et al., DN&P, 7(6):334-339 (1994) which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein. In addition to the RTKs, there also exists a family of entirely intracellular PTKs called "non-receptor tyrosine kinases" or "cellular tyrosine kinases". This latter designation, abbreviated "CTK", will be used herein. CTKs do not contain extracellular and transmembrane domains. At present, over 24 CTKs in 11 subfamilies (Src, Frk, Btk, Csk, Abl, Zap70, Fes/Fps, Fak, Jak and Ack) have been identified. The Src subfamily appear so far to be the largest group of CTKs and includes Src, Yes, Fyn, Lyn, Lck, Blk, Hck, Fgr and Yrk. For a more detailed discussion of CTKs, see Bolen, Oncogene, 8:2025-2031 (1993), which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein. The serine-threonine kinases or STKs, like the CTKs, are predominantly intracellular although there are a few receptor kinases of the STK type. STKs are the most common of the cytosolic kinases; i.e., kinases which perform their function in that part of the cytoplasm other than the cytoplasmic organelles and cytoskelton. The cytosol is the region within the cell where much of the cell's intermediary metabolic and biosynthetic activity occurs; e.g., it is in the cytosol that proteins are synthesized on ribosomes. RTKs, CTKs and STKs have all been implicated in a host of pathogenic conditions including, significantly, large number of diverse cancers. Others pathogenic conditions which have been associated with PTKs include, without limitation, psoriasis, hepatic cirrhosis, diabetes, atherosclerosis, angiogenesis, restinosis, ocular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disorders, autoimmune disease and a variety of renal disorders. With regard to cancer, two of the major hypotheses advanced to explain the excessive cellular proliferation that drives tumor development relate to functions known to be PK regulated. That is, it has been suggested that malignant cell growth results from a breakdown in the mechanisms that control cell division and/or HY differentiation. It has been shown that the protein products of a number of proto-oncogenes are involved in the signal transduction pathways that regulate cell growth and differentiation. These protein products of proto-oncogenes include the extracellular growth factors, transmembrane growth factor PTK receptors (RTKs), cytoplasmic PTKs (CTKs) and cytosolic STKs, discussed above. In view of the apparent link between PK-related cellular activities and a number of human disorders, it is no surprise that a great deal of effort is being expended in an attempt to identify ways to modulate PK activity. Some of these have involved biomimetic approaches using large molecules patterned on those involved in the actual cellular processes (e.g., mutant ligands (U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,849); soluble receptors and antibodies (App. No. WO 94/10202, Kendall and Thomas, Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci., 90:10705-09 (1994), Kim, et al., Nature, 362:841-844 (1993)); RNA ligands (Jelinek, et al., Biochemistry, 33:10450-56); Takano, et al., Mol. Bio. Cell 4:358A (1993); Kinsella, et al., Exp. Cell Res. 199:56-62 (1992); Wright, et al., J. Cellular Phys., 152:448-57) and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (WO 94/03427; WO 92/21660; WO 91/15495; WO 94/14808; U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,992; Mariani, et al., Proc. Am. Assoc. Cancer Res., 35:2268 (1994)). More recently, attempts have been made to identify small molecules which act as PK inhibitors. For example, bismonocylic, bicyclic and heterocyclic aryl compounds (PCT WO 92/20642), vinylene-azaindole derivatives (PCT WO 94/14808) and 1-cyclopropyl-4-pyridylquinolones (U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,992) have been described as PTK inhibitors. Styryl compounds (U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,999), styryl-substituted pyridyl compounds (U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,606), quinazoline derivatives (EP App. No. 0 566 266 A1), selenaindoles and selenides (PCT WO 94/03427), tricyclic polyhydroxylic compounds (PCT WO 92/21660) and benzylphosphonic acid compounds (PCT WO 91/15495) have all been described as PTK inhibitors useful in the treatment of cancer. Our own efforts to identify small organic molecules which modulate PK activity and which, therefore, should be useful in the treatment and prevention of disorders driven by abnormal PK activity, has led us to the discovery of a family of novel 3-idene-2-indolinone derivatives which exhibit excellent PK modulating ability and which are the subject of this invention.

In recent years, research and development have been extensively conducted on light-emitting elements using electroluminescence (EL). In a basic structure of such a light-emitting element, a layer containing a light-emitting substance (an EL layer) is interposed between a pair of electrodes. By applying a voltage between the pair of electrodes of this element, light emission from the light-emitting substance can be obtained. Since the above light-emitting element is of a self-luminous type, a display device using this light-emitting element has advantages such as high visibility, no necessity of a backlight, low power consumption, and the like. Furthermore, the display device also has advantages that it can be formed to be thin and lightweight, and has high response speed. In a light-emitting element (e.g., an organic EL element) whose EL layer contains an organic compound as a light-emitting substance and is provided between a pair of electrodes, application of a voltage between the pair of electrodes causes injection of electrons from a cathode and holes from an anode into the EL layer having a light-emitting property and thus a current flows. By recombination of the injected electrons and holes, the organic compound having a light-emitting property is brought into an excited state to provide light emission. Note that an excited state formed by an organic compound can be a singlet excited state (S*) or a triplet excited state (T*). Light emission from the singlet excited state is referred to as fluorescence, and light emission from the triplet excited state is referred to as phosphorescence. The formation ratio of S* to T* in the light-emitting element is 1:3. Thus, a light-emitting element containing a compound emitting phosphorescence (phosphorescent compound) has higher light emission efficiency than a light-emitting element containing a compound emitting fluorescence (fluorescent compound). Therefore, light-emitting elements containing phosphorescent compounds capable of converting energy of a triplet excited state into light emission has been actively developed in recent years (e.g., see Patent Document 1). Energy for exciting an organic compound depends on an energy difference between the LUMO level and the HOMO level of the organic compound. The energy difference approximately corresponds to singlet excitation energy. In a light-emitting element including a phosphorescent compound, triplet excitation energy is converted into light emission energy. Accordingly, when the organic compound has a large difference between the singlet excitation energy and the triplet excitation energy, the energy for exciting the organic compound is higher than the light emission energy by the energy difference. The difference between the energy for exciting the organic compound and the light emission energy affects element characteristics of a light-emitting element: the driving voltage of the light-emitting element increases. For this reason, a method for reducing driving voltage has been searched (see Patent Document 2). Among light-emitting elements including phosphorescent compounds, a light-emitting element that emits blue light has not been put into practical use yet because it is difficult to develop a stable compound having a high triplet excitation energy level. Accordingly, development of a highly reliable light-emitting element that is formed using a phosphorescent compound and has high emission efficiency is required.

The invention is directed to a book which incorporates a puzzle therein. U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,507 to Ozrovitz discloses a child's story and picture book having a front cover, a back cover, and a plurality of pages pivotally disposed between the front and back covers. At least one of the pages includes text on one or more sides and a puzzle on the other side. The puzzle has a plurality of interlocking puzzle pieces. The Ozrovitz puzzle pieces may be provided with a transparent material, such as plastic, disposed over and attached to an overlay material. The transparent material on the puzzle pieces allows an erasable material, such as paraffin wax, to be used by a child to color the puzzle pieces. Ozrovitz indicates that the erasable material should preferably cover only the puzzle pieces.

Conventionally, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, for example, the surface of a photosensitive drum as an image carrier is uniformly and evenly charged by a charging roller as a charging member. The charged surface of the photosensitive drum is exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image. The formed electrostatic latent image is developed by having a toner adhere as a developer to form a toner image as a developer image. The formed toner image is transferred to a recording medium such as a print sheet and afterwards is fused by applying pressure and heat. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum without being transferred to the recording medium is removed by a cleaning member. In recent years, reducing the particle size and lowering the melting point of toners having external additives have been planned, aiming at improving the image quality and speed. As to such toners, because the amount of the external additives increases, cleaning is difficult. Therefore, the external additives adhere onto the charging roller, which generates longitudinal white streaks, and dirt in worse cases due to a charging failure. Then, proposed in Patent Document 1 is a method to remove the external additives by applying to the charging roller a charging voltage of the opposite polarity to that at the image forming time (or in the image forming mode).

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to a pin cushion distortion correction circuit for a television receiver, and more particularly is directed to a pin cushion distortion correction circuit for a television receiver for preventing the formation of a distortion from being produced at the center portion of a video screen. 2. Description of the Prior Art There has been proposed in the art a pin cushion distortion correction circuit for a television receiver, as shown in FIG. 1. In the prior art shown in FIG. 1, an input terminal 1, which is supplied with a horizontal driving signal, is connected to the gate electrode of a gate-controlled switch GCS 2, which forms a horizontal output circuit. The cathode electrode of the gate-controlled switch GCS 2 is grounded, and the anode electrode thereof is connected through a horizontal output transformer 3 to a voltage terminal 4, which is supplied with a positive DC voltage. The anode is also and grounded through a parallel circuit consisting of a damper diode 5 and a tuning capacitor 6. The anode electrode of the gate-controlled switch GCS 2 is further grounded through a series connection of a horizontal deflection coil 7, a secondary winding 8b of a saturable reactor 8 for the correction of left and right pin cushion distortions, and a capacitor 9 for S-letter correction. A vertical output signal input terminal 10 is connected to one end of a series connection of a vertical deflection coil 11 and a capacitor 12 the other end of which is grounded. At the connection point between the vertical deflection coil 11 and the capacitor 12, there is obtained a parabolic wave signal in synchronism with the vertical synchronizing signal. This connection point is connected through a series connection of a capacitor 13 and a resistor 14 to the base electrode of an NPN-type transistor 15. The base electrode of the transistor 15 is grounded through a resistor 16 and also connected through a resistor 16a to the voltage terminal 4 which is supplied with a positive DC voltage to be supplied with a predetermined bias voltage. The emitter electrode of the transistor 15 is grounded through a resistor 17 and its collector electrode is connected through a primary winding 8a of the saturable reactor 8 to the voltage terminal 4. The inductance-current characteristic of the saturable reactor 8 used in the prior art pin cushion distortion correction circuit of FIG. 1 is shown by a curve a in FIG. 2 in which the abscissa represents the current I.sub.V and the ordinate the inductance L.sub.H, respectively. From FIG. 2, it will be apparent that as the current I.sub.V increases, the slope of curve a gradually flattens. The voltage V applied to the base electrode of the transistor 15 is shown in FIG. 4A in which the abscissa represents the time T and the ordinate the voltage V, respectively. Accordingly, the parabolic current applied to the primary winding 8a of the saturable reactor 8 becomes as shown in FIG. 2 by a curve b. Thus, it often occurs that the correction for the left and right pin cushion distortions by the parabolic current can not be achieved sufficiently and correctly at the center of the video screen.

The present invention relates generally to ink jet printers and, more particularly, to a deflection electrode arrangement for an ink jet printer which provides for correction of any misalignment between the deflection electrode and the drop catchers. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,998, issued Oct. 31, 1972, to Mathis, ink jet printers of the type to which the present invention is directed include a print head which generates a plurality of jet drop streams which are directed at a print receiving medium. The jet drop streams are arranged in one or more rows. Deflection electrodes are positioned adjacent each of the jet drop streams for selectively charging drops in the streams. The drop streams thereafter pass through an electrical deflection field which separates the drops into two or more sets of drop trajectories. As shown in the Mathis patent, the deflection fields for a two-row printer may be produced by positioning a deflection electrode between the rows of jet drop streams and supplying a deflection potential to the electrode, which potential tends to deflect charged drops in the streams outward, away from the electrode. Electrically grounded drop catchers are positioned outwardly from the drop streams such that charged drops are deflected to the catchers and are thereby prevented from striking the print receiving medium. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,409, issued Apr. 18, 1978, to Suresh C. Paranjpe, by selectively applying a plurality of charge levels to the drops in the jet drop streams, the drops may be deflected in each stream sufficiently such that they strike the catcher, or deflected to a lesser degree, such that they strike the print receiving medium at various ones of a number of print positions. Prior art deflection electrodes, such as shown in the Mathis patent, typically comprise a thin strip or ribbon of electrically conductive material, such as stainless steel. With such deflection electrodes, the deflection potential presented by the electrode is substantially constant along the length of the electrode. The deflection field experienced by each of the drops in the jet drop streams is a function of the voltage differential between the deflection electrode and a catcher and also of the spacing between the electrode and the catcher, since E=V/d, where E is electrical field strength, V is potential differential, and d is the spacing between the deflection electrode and the catcher. In order for charged drops in the jet drop streams to be deflected outwardly by a uniform deflection distance, the electric deflection field must be uniform along the row of jet drop streams. As a consequence, great care has been taken to assure that the deflection electrode and each of the catchers are properly aligned and that the spacing between the deflection electrode and each catcher is accurate and uniform along the entire row of jet drop streams. Thus extreme care has been necessitated in positioning and aligning the catchers with respect to the deflection electrode after servicing of a printer. It is seen, therefore, that there is a need for an ink jet printer in which alignment between the deflection electrode and the catchers is not critical to proper deflection of charged drops in the jet drop streams.

The invention relates to a hydraulic temperature compensator. The invention further relates to a hydraulic stroke transmitter having such a hydraulic temperature compensator, in particular an injector. In order to introduce a desired volume of fuel into arbitrary combustion processes it is generally necessary to use injectors by which it is possible to meter a fuel quantity. Since very many combustion processes execute by the direct injection of fuel that is maintained under high pressure, particularly fast operating actuators are frequently used which drive injectors. This means that an actuator generates a stroke which for example actuates an injector needle which in turn opens a valve and releases a fuel at predetermined time intervals and in adjustable volumetric flow rates for a combustion process. Combustion air is supplied separately in this case. Injectors for high-pressure direct injection frequently employ high-speed actuators for this purpose, such as “piezoelectric multilayer actuators” (PMA) for example. These are solid-state actuators, the central element of which is composed of a plurality of piezoelectric layers. Also known are so-called magnetostrictive solid-state actuators, which exploit a magnetic-mechanical effect in order to generate a stroke. For generating a stroke it is important that solid-state actuators of the type have a stroke that is too small for opening an injector needle to such an extent that the desired fuel quantity is introduced. This develops into a major problem, particularly in the case of gas injectors, which require a longer stroke than injectors that meter liquid fuel. The consequence is that only designs including a stroke transmitter are given consideration. An additional aggravating factor when hydrogen is used as the fuel is that the small and lightweight hydrogen molecule easily diffuses through nonmetallic elements such as rubber diaphragms. The choice of a suitable stroke transmitter therefore becomes a central problem in the building of injectors. This also results from the fact that a transmitter determines many characteristics of an injector and in contrast to an actuator can be redesigned in terms of its structure. In related art solutions to the problem an increase in stroke is achieved by mechanical transmission or by partially nonmetallically sealed hydraulic transmission. Mechanical transmitters, which for example use a mechanical lever, are generally susceptible to wear and tear and to undesirable vibrations. This applies in particular when an idle stroke is required between actuator and transmitter, for example in order to prevent a leakage which could occur in the event of a thermal change in length due to heating. As a result thereof the actuator will for example strike a nozzle needle, thereby unfavorably affecting the injector. Uneven injection and unreliable opening and closing characteristics are the consequence. An idle stroke between actuator and transmitter is also undesirable because the actuator deflection up to the point of contact with the nozzle needle remains unused. An increase in the stroke of an actuator having a transmission ratio of less than 1:2 is often realized by mechanical levers. With injectors for diesel engines, for example, the mechanical transmission ratio can amount to 1:1.6. Gas injectors typically require greater transmission ratios. Hydraulic transmitters, also referred to as hydraulic levers, are used in gas injectors in most cases. A stroke transmission ratio of 1:6 is used for example in the case of direct injection of CNG (compressed natural gas). Using a hydraulic transmitter enables the idle stroke to be avoided, with the result that the functional chain between actuator and nozzle needle is permanently present. This is reflected directly in the mechanical engineering design. Considered from a different angle, the deflection of the actuator is utilized and converted to a greater extent by the injector. A disadvantage in the related art, in the automotive engineering sector for example, is the wide temperature range to be considered, which can range from −40 C.° to +150 C.°. In the consideration of fluid volumes, this can be associated with significant changes in volume. Peak values can lie significantly in excess of a 30% increase in volume. For this reason hydraulic stroke transmitters require a connection to a reservoir in most cases. The unexamined German patent application publication DE 10 2005 042 786 A1 discloses for example a fuel injector which is equipped with a hermetically sealed hydraulic system. In this publication the use of so-called “guided pistons” is described. Guided pistons of this kind necessitate a high degree of mechanical precision in manufacture and are very susceptible to wear and tear.

As a method for implementing color display in a liquid crystal display, there has been widely used a color filter method in which white light is adapted to travel through color filters of three primary colors (red, green, and blue) provided for respective pixels, thereby conducting color display. In this color filter method, however, when light emitted from the light source travels through the color filter, only light having a specific wavelength is selected and transmitted, and light having the other wavelengths is absorbed. For this reason, light availability is low and power consumption is increased. Accordingly, there has been proposed a field sequential color method for conducting color display by lighting a plurality of light sources adapted to emit different color lights by time division. In this field sequential color method, lights emitted from the respective light sources are directly used for image display without traveling through the color filters. This results in high light availability and reduced power consumption. In addition, cost is reduced because of absence of the color filters. Since the liquid crystal display using the above color filter method implements color display using the color filters of three primary colors, it is necessary to conduct display for each set of three pixels, i.e., red, green, and blue pixels. On the other hand, since the liquid crystal display using the field sequential color method implements color display by lighting the respective color lights by time division, display is conducted for each pixel. So, to achieve an equal resolution on an equally-sized display panel, the size of pixels in the liquid crystal display using the field sequential color method is three times as large as the size of the pixels in the liquid crystal display using the color filter method. However, if the pixels are thus large-sized, it is highly probable that substances mixed in a liquid crystal layer causes dot defects. The dot defects makes the image noticeably degraded because of the large-sized pixels. In the liquid crystal display using the field sequential color method, one frame period of a video signal is comprised of a plurality of sub-frame periods, and it is necessary for liquid crystal to complete a response within each of the sub-frame periods. If the liquid crystal responds slowly, satisfactory image display is impossible to achieve. It is therefore desirable to use an OCB (Optically Self-Compensated Birefringence) mode liquid crystal capable of high-speed response. In the liquid crystal display having the OCB-mode liquid crystal, by applying a relatively high voltage across a pixel electrode and a counter electrode, an alignment state of the liquid crystal is caused to transition from so-called splay alignment to bend alignment, and in this bend alignment state, an image is displayed. Hereinbelow, the transition from the splay alignment to the bend alignment is called splay to bend transition. With regard to the liquid crystal display having the OCB-mode liquid crystal, see “Syadanhojin Denki Tsushin Gattsukai Shingakugihou, EDI98–144, 199P.” In the liquid crystal display having the OCB-mode liquid crystal, due to incomplete splay to bend transition, the liquid crystal partially remains in the splay alignment. In this case, the image is not normally displayed in pixels corresponding to the splay alignment liquid crystal, this would be observed as dot defects by an observer. As described above, since degradation of the image due to the dot defects is noticeable in the case of the large-sized pixels, it is required that the splay to bend transition take place more reliably.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to motion vector search apparatus and method that favorably search for motion vectors between frames of digital moving pictures. 2. Related Background Art Conventionally, a block matching method has been frequently used as a motion vector search method in a motion compensation inter-frame prediction coding method. The block matching method is a method in which a block in a reference frame in the same position as a motion search target block (N×N pixel area) is used as a center to calculate matching evaluation functions with blocks that shifted in units of pixels within a search range of ±M×±M pixels, the best matching block is searched, and the amount and direction of the shift to the matching block is used as the motion vector. As the matching evaluation function, a sum of absolute values of differences between pixel values calculated on a pixel to pixel basis for all pixels within the block (i.e., a difference evaluation value) may be used, for example. The block matching method, however, has a problem in that searches must be conducted a great number of times, which requires an enormous amount of calculation when this system is realized. For this reason, various simplification techniques such as a method of searching with multiple steps, such as, for example, a 3-step search method have been suggested. In the 3-step search method, a search is made at rough search-point intervals as the first step, and then the second search is made at search-point intervals each of which is a half of the interval for the first step around the best matching position as a center, instead of the all-pixel position search. In this manner, in the 3-step search method, the same process is repeated in a plurality of steps to narrow the coarse search-point intervals to close ones, thereby searching for a motion vector. Accordingly, the amount of calculation can be significantly reduced with the 3-step search method than with the block matching method that performs the all-pixel position search described above. However, the 3-step search method entails a possibility of finding a motion vector completely different from the search direction sought if an erroneous search is made in the first step.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for reducing a starting time of the discharge lamp for high beam. 2. Background of the Invention A known lighting circuit of a discharge lamp(e.g. a metal halide lamp)for a vehicle comprises a DC power circuit, a DC-to-AC converter, and a starting circuit (a starter circuit). If a plurality of discharge lamps is used as a light source for a vehicle, a means for controlling the lamps is required. For example, when a discharge lamp is used as a front light of an automobile, and a high beam and a low beam are separately provided by an individual discharge lamp(so-called, four-lamp lighting), a pair of discharge lamps is required on the right and the left sides of the vehicle. Each pair of the discharge lamps requires a lighting circuit for controlling the lamp. However, if a discharge lamp for high beam and a discharge lamp for low beam in a conventional device have the same power rating, meaning both discharge lamps are lighted with the same electrical power, the discharge lamp for high beam may not be able to attain a luminosity required for a condition that momentarily requires a certain amount of brightness. For example, the condition may be signaling to pass by turning the headlights on and off (on/off). An object of the invention is to secure a quantity of illuminating light necessary for a vehicle by momentarily raising the luminous flux of the discharge lamp for high beam. A discharge lamp device for a vehicle according to an implementation of the invention comprises a discharge lamp for high beam, a discharge lamp for low beam, both having the same power rating, and a lighting circuit for controlling those lamps. The lighting circuit controls the lamps in such a way that in lighting the lamps, the electrical power supplied for lighting the discharge lamp for high beam is made greater than the electrical power supplied for lighting the discharge lamp for low beam. Therefore, according to an implementation of the invention, by controlling the electrical power for lighting the discharge lamp for high beam to be greater than the electrical power for lighting the discharge lamp for low beam, the implementation achieves to raise momentarily the luminous flux of the discharge lamp for high beam.

1. Technical Field The present invention relates in general to terminating choke, kill, and auxiliary lines for riser strings on an offshore drilling rig and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for a line termination system that is radially-movable relative to the riser string. 2. Description of the Related Art Offshore drilling rigs must compensate for many environmental hazards including tidal conditions, ocean swells, and weather conditions such as wind and severe weather. The forces generated by these hazards cause significant motion of the rig that must be compensated to maintain the continuity of the riser string that extends down from the rig and is fixed to the ocean floor. A slip joint is typically used near an upper end of the riser string to compensate for vertical motion of the rig. The slip joint compensates for motion with inner and outer barrels that move axially relative to each other. The various choke, kill, and auxiliary lines associated with riser strings also must be configured to compensate for motion. These lines are typically terminated adjacent the slip joint with a device such as a Karrot Top or KT ring assembly. A conventional KT ring assembly 11 is shown in FIG. 1 and comprises a ring adapter 13 that is mounted to the outer barrel 15 of the slip joint 17. The ring adapter 13 lands on a shoulder 19 inside a large, solid ring body 21, which completely circumscribes the ring adapter 13 and slip joint 17. The ring body 21 includes numerous terminal blocks 23 for terminating the choke, kill, and auxiliary lines. The ring body 21 also typically incorporates a fluid bearing 25 and a tension ring 27 for supporting the overall assembly. Although conventional KT rings provide numerous advantages they also have a few limitations. For example, because the ring body is solid, the entire riser string must be run through the KT ring assembly during construction of the riser string. The large size of the ring body makes it somewhat cumbersome to manipulate, and it consumes significant space between the floors of drilling rig. In addition, the ring body must first be secured to the bottom of the diverter housing. Thus, although conventional KT rings are workable, an improved design would be desirable.

Current assemblies including a silicon-based part are generally secured by bonding. This type of operation requires extremely delicate application which makes it expensive.

1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a parking brake and shift mechanism, and more particularly to a parking brake and shift mechanism for vehicles. 2. Description of the Related Art The two design parking break and shift mechanism designs for four wheeled vehicles comprise transmission-mounted and frame-mounted. Both serve as a parking brake and shift mechanism by preventing movement of the transmission shaft. Regardless of design all parking brake mechanisms are placed outside of the engine. The design and fabrication of outside the engine parking brake and shift mechanisms is not only more complex but occupies a larger volume. Motorcycle engines are popularly employed in a great variety of four wheeled vehicles, such as all terrain vehicles (ATVs) due to their low weight and small size. Various ATV parking brake and shift mechanisms employ a latching mechanism (such as a rocker arm or cam) to latch the parking shift gear wheel to the transmission shaft. This type of mechanism, however, is rather complex. Moreover, if the existing design of the engine and related equipment is modified by the addition of a parking brake and shift mechanism, the level of complexity persists, resulting in difficulty in layout, excessive design modification, and increased development costs.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a quantum gate method and apparatus for executing a quantum gate operation using a resonator mode. 2. Description of the Related Art The state of the nuclear spin of each rare-earth ion in crystal has a coherence time specifically long as a solid (it is approx. 500 μs at 4 K, 80 ms when a magnetic field is applied, and 30 s when an rf pulse sequence is applied), can be controlled and read by applying light thereto, and is therefore extremely suitable for realizing a solid quantum information processing device. A frequency-domain quantum computer has been proposed, in which a resonator mode is used to couple quantum bits formed of states of nuclear spins in crystal, thereby increasing the number of usable quantum bits (see, for example, Opt. Commun. 196, 119 (2001)). In the conventional technique, however, it is difficult to set a coupling constant g to a value sufficient for a 2-qubit gate (or multi-qubit gate) between quantum bits, since use of an f-f transition having a very small oscillator strength is presupposed for coupling with the resonator mode. The reason why the use of the f-f transition is considered is that it satisfies the following two conditions, presupposing that a quantum bit is represented by the state of the nuclear spin of an ion in the electron ground state, which state has a long coherence time: (1) To discriminate the states of a single ion (such as |0> and |1> representing the basis states of the quantum bit) using optical transition energy, the employed homogenous broadening for an optical transition must be not more than the split width (10 to 100 MHz) due to the nuclear spin of the ion; and (2) since quantum bits are discriminated using optical transition energy, the employed homogenous broadening for the optical transition must be not more than the difference between energy levels used for discriminating the quantum bits (when quantum bits are discriminated using an inhomogenous distribution of a hyperfine structure, the homogenous broadening must be not more than approx. several kHz, and when the discrimination is executed using an inhomogenous broadening for an optical transition, the homogenous broadening must be not more than approx. several GHz). If an f-d transition inherently allowable can be used instead of an f-f transition only a little allowable in the field of crystal, this is much more advantageous in view of the coupling constant (approx. 1000 times advantageous). However, the f-d transition has a great homogenous broadening (approx. 30 THz or less), and any method for satisfying the above-mentioned conditions (1) and (2) while using the f-d transition is not yet known.

In a digital communication network that includes multiple communication nodes, data from a source node to a destination node can typically be routed along many, or even multiple, different possible paths. Path assignment is typically performed to meet a performance criterion such as end-to-end latency experienced by data packets. Simplistic path assignments, however, tend to overlook underlying failure scenarios that may cause disruption in multiple flows due to failure of a single component or path in the communication network. Path failures may occur, e.g., due to failure in a common shared resource such as a common optical fiber over which communication is carrier, or a common equipment, such as a power source or a modulator, that is used to transmit data for multiple flows.

Since in a filling device the return gas pipe with its relative height position in the filling valve serves not only to precisely adjust the filling level in the container, but also plays an important role in flushing operations and/or in cleaning processes, and since bottlers often want to set different height positions of the return gas pipe, if possible without any external intervention, when changing between different container types, the well-known solution, i.e. to exchange return gas pipe end sections of different lengths, is too complicated and time-consuming, and a process has therefore been adopted in which the return gas pipe is adjusted by means of a positioning drive in a selective way and as required. In the filling device known from DE 10 2005 031 319 A, the return gas pipe that is supported against rotation comprises an external thread meshing with an internal thread of a ring rotatably supported in the valve housing. A permanent magnet ring which electromagnetically cooperates through the wall of the valve housing with a stator that is stationarily arranged on the outside is positioned on the ring. Magnetic alternating fields that are rotating the ring and screw the return gas pipe in place are generated via the stator. Although this solution avoids any passages with seals (great constructional efforts, difficult cleaning operations, risk of leakage), noticeable electromagnetic losses and relatively great mechanical losses caused by the thread connection and the anti-rotation of the return gas pipe must certainly be accepted. The components for a precise mechanical conversion of rotational movements into linear movements lead not only to great mechanical losses, but, since they are exposed to the media in the filling device, they are objectionable in terms of hygiene and complicate the cleaning cycles. In the filling device known from DE 198 55 975 C a permanent magnet ring is fixed to the return gas pipe, the ring electromagnetically cooperating through a chamber wall with a permanent magnet positioned outside the chamber. The outer permanent magnet is linearly adjusted in a mechanical way, dragging along the return gas pipe via the inner permanent magnet ring. However, this necessitates a mechanical passage that poses the known sealing and assembling problems. As an alternative, the return gas pipe can be directly coupled by mechanical actuation, but this requires a passage between zones of different pressures and different media. A further solution suggests an extended chamber leading to the outside for the return gas pipe, and a linearly adjustable permanent magnet that is positioned outside the extension and cooperates with the permanent magnet ring on the return gas pipe through the chamber wall. The precision that is achievable in adjusting operations is not always satisfactory because due to the transmission of the magnetic forces through a wall and because of the large gap the inner permanent magnet ring cannot follow the outer one in a very reliable way.

1. Technical Field The present specification relates to a mobile device and a control method thereof. 2. Discussion of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a view showing various use examples of a mobile device. As shown in FIG. 1, utilization of a mobile device has increased as the mobile device has larger number of functions. For example, as shown in the left side of FIG. 1, the mobile device may be used for telephone conversation. Reception/transmission of a call and reception/transmission of a message performed by the mobile device are general functions of the mobile device. In addition, for example, as shown in the right side of FIG. 1, the mobile device may be used to control various external devices. In particular, various external devices may be accessible to the Internet based on technology of the Internet of Things (IoT). Consequently, the mobile device may access the Internet to control various external devices. In addition, the mobile device may control external devices using near field communication (NFC), WiFi, WiDi, or infrared communication based on technology of Ubiquitous Computing in addition to the Internet. As previously described, utilization of the mobile device has further increased. In addition, many people own at least one mobile device as the result of miniaturization of the mobile device. The mobile device may store an address book and received messages. For this reason, it is necessary to protect privacy. That is, the mobile device corresponds to a personal possession of one individual. As shown in the right side of FIG. 1, on the other hand, the external devices, which may be controlled using the mobile device, may not be personal possessions of one individual. For example, in a case in which a television is installed in a home, all members of a family may have right to access the television. Consequently, the other members of the family as well as the owner of the mobile device may wish to control the television using the mobile device. However, the use of the mobile device by the other members of the family may intrude on a privacy of the owner of the mobile device. Since demand for protection of privacy and demand for sharing the mobile device conflict with each other, it is difficult to promote control of external devices using the mobile device.

Several systems are used to facilitate oil and gas exploration and production operations. One example is a hydraulic fracturing (or “frac”) system, which pumps fluid to a wellhead for the purpose of propagating factures in a formation through which a wellbore extends, the wellhead being the surface termination of the wellbore. In some cases, components of the hydraulic fracturing system unexpectedly need to be replaced, raising safety issues and increasing cost and downtime. In other cases, the overall configuration of a proposed system is deficient because one or more of the components that have been selected to be part of the system have relatively short useful remaining operational lives. These relatively short operational lives may be due, at least in part, to the operational parameters at the locations in the system where the components are expected to be positioned. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus or method that addresses the foregoing issues, among others.

The production of 1-amino-propanediol-2,3 by the addition of ammonia to glycidol (glycidol) was first described by L. Knorr and E. Knorr (Ber. deutsch. Chem. Ges. vol. 32, pages 750-757 (1899)). The authors employed thereby one part by weight of glycidol with 100 parts by weight of 25% aqueous ammonia and then obtained after working up by distillation 1-amino-propanediol-2,3 in a yield of 44% based on the glycidol employed. The weight ratio of glycidol to aqueous ammonia (25%)=1:100 means a mole ratio of glycidol to ammonia=1:109. This method of production of 1-amino-propanediol-2,3 was examined by K. Baum and W. T. Maurice (J. Org. Chem. Vol. 27, pages 2231-2233 (1962), in which case under the same conditions they obtained a yield of 68% of theory. This better yield is based on the fact that the first mentioned authors distilled the reaction product at 235.degree.-250.degree. C./320 mmHg, while the last mentioned authors carefully distilled, namely at 80.degree.-106.degree. C./0.1-0.15 mmHg and therewith did not cause loss through thermal decomposition. While the last named process also brings about better yields compared to the process of Knorr (loc. cit.), the amounts of aqueous ammonia supplied to the cycle represents a considerable load in the industrial carrying out of the process. Besides, it requires a very large reaction space because of the above-mentioned molar ratio of glycidol to ammonia, as well as a distillation plant for the concentration of the diluted aqueous ammonia solution supplied to the cycle. The object of the invention, therefore, is the development of a process for the production of 1-amino-propanediol-2,3 in good yields and in an industrially simple manner.

The present disclosure relates to solar energy, and more specifically, to dissipating heat from photovoltaic cells illuminated by concentrated solar rays. Solar power concentrators are often used in photovoltaic systems to increase an output of the photovoltaic cells. New solar concentrators are able to increase a concentration of incident solar energy by up to and beyond 2000 times. A consequence of this concentration is the production of high levels of heat which raises the temperatures of solar cells. However, solar cells must be operated at temperatures that are typically less than about 110° C. in order to prevent heat damage. Another consequence of the solar concentration is a large current density. It is desired to couple this current to a load in a manner that offers as little electrical resistance as possible to avoid dissipating electrical energy as heat.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor devices and, more particularly to a very wide, very fast distributed memory and a method of constructing the same. 2. Description of the Related Art In certain processor-based applications there is a need for a very wide memory having relatively few memory locations that are distribute throughout a single chip. For example, in a single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) massively parallel processor (MPP) array, a very large number of processing elements(PEs) each typically contain a register file. The register file typically contains only a few memory words (e.g., sixty-four) organized as a single column of one word rows. Because all of the PEs execute the same instruction at a time, they all use the same address to access its respective register file. In addition, each register file is read from or written to at essentially the same time. In effect, the distributed register files act as a single, very wide memory device. It is impractical to implement this very wide memory as a single random access memory (RAM) array core. Such a large memory would be very slow and the routing difficulties associated with connecting thousands of data lines through the chip would be formidable. Therefore, several smaller memory cores are needed, with each core serving a small group of PEs. The use of several smaller memory cores, however, is not without its shortcomings. For instance, the address decoding logic responsible for decoding an address and selecting the appropriate word to be accessed from the memory array has to be repeated for every core, which takes up precious space on the chip. A normal memory core 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1. A decode circuit 12 is positioned to one side of the memory bit array 20 and sense amplifiers and other select logic 30 are positioned beneath the array 20. Note that the address lines 14 are driven in vertically, along the length of the decoder circuit 12, to the decode logic 16 within the decode circuit 12. The address lines 14 are decoded by the decode circuit 12 and converted into a word line number/address corresponding to one of the word lines 18 in the core 10. A word select signal is then driven across the word line 18 and through the memory array 20 to activate the appropriate word or row of memory within the array 20. For a read operation, the activated row couples all of the memory cells corresponding to the word line 18 to respective bit lines 22, which typically define the columns of the array 20. It should be noted that a register file typically consists of a single column and that column address decoding is typically not required. For a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), when a particular row is activated, the sense amplifiers 30 connected to the bit lines 22 detect and amplify the data bits transferred from the array 20 by measuring the potential difference between the activated bit lines 22 and a reference line (which may be an inactive bit line). As is known in the art, for a static random access memory (SRAM), the sense amplifier circuitry 30 would not be required. The read operation is completed by outputting the accessed data bits over input/output (I/O) lines 32. Since the typical memory core 10 contains the decode circuit 12 and performs the address decode operation as part of the memory access operation (e.g., data read or write), the core 10 has a relatively long access time. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a timing diagram for the conventional memory core 10 illustrated in FIG. 1. For this example it is presumed that the memory core 10 is a SRAM device. The core 10 is driven by a clock signal CLOCK, and the read operation begins at time t0 and ends at time t1. The typical access time taccess for the conventional memory core 10 includes the time required for the memory core circuitry to properly latch the address signals thold (often referred to as the xe2x80x9chold timexe2x80x9d), the time required to decode the address lines tadec, the time required to drive the corresponding word line(s) twrd, the time required to drive the bit lines tbit, and the time required by the output logic to output the accessed information top. Thus, for the conventional memory core 10 (FIG. 1), the access time taccess is calculated as follows: taccess=thold+tadec+twrd+tbit+top.xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1) It is desirable to reduce the access time taccess of the memory core so that the core could be used in a very wide, very fast, distributed memory device. It is also desirable to reduce the access time taccess of the memory core so that the core could be used as a very wide, very fast, distributed register file in a SIMD MPP device. Accordingly, there is a desire and need for a memory core having a substantially reduced access time so that the core can be implemented in a very wide, very fast, distributed memory device. The present invention provides a memory core having a substantially reduced access time. The present invention also provides a very wide, very fast, distributed memory device. The present invention also provides a very wide, very fast, distributed register file in a SIMD MPP device. The above and other features and advantages of the invention are achieved by providing a memory core with an access time that does not include a delay associated with decoding address information. Address decode logic is removed from the memory core and the address decode operation is performed in an addressing pipeline stage that occurs during a clock cycle prior to a clock cycle associated with a memory access operation for the decoded address. After decoding the address in a first pipeline stage, the external decode logic drives word lines connected to the memory core in a subsequent pipeline stage. Since the core is being driven by word lines, the appropriate memory locations are accessed without decoding the address information within the core. Thus, the delay associated with decoding the address information is removed from the access time of the memory core.

The invention relates to a device for measuring the movement of a subsea deformable pipeline in relation to a sea bed. One envisaged application field is that of on-bottom pipelines, or “flowline” pipes, that extend over the sea bed. They are intended to connect a wellhead, which projects from the sea bed, to a riser, which, from the sea bed, extends as a catenary to join a surface installation. The on-bottom pipeline, which is supported on and extends over the sea bed from the wellhead, has a connecting end for connecting the on-bottom pipeline to the riser, or to another on-bottom pipeline. Therefore, a hydrocarbon which flows from the wellhead is brought up to the surface installation via the on-bottom pipeline and the riser. Other technical fields are envisaged where a flexible pipeline is liable to deform under the effect of the thermal and/or mechanical variations of a liquid passing through it. The hydrocarbons flow from the wellhead at a pressure and a temperature that vary over time. Moreover, when the flow has stopped, for any reason due to the operation, the pressure and temperature conditions of the on-bottom pipeline change dramatically. As a result, the on-bottom pipeline then expands or contracts when, for example, flow restarts. An on-bottom pipeline that is a thousand meters, for example, can be subject to meter-scale longitudinal dimension variations. Thus, during the life of an oil field, which can be some years, the on-bottom pipeline is subjected to numerous expansion and retraction cycles with consequential amplitudes that bring about large stresses on the pipeline and the connecting parts. It is known to minimise the stresses placed on the structure by designing structures that are capable of absorbing these stresses. To this end, the connecting ends are mounted on metal structures that can slide on a foundation anchored in the sea bed. In this manner, the connecting end can accommodate longitudinal movements. However, residual friction remains at the connecting ends and it is important then to assess these excursions to ensure that these stresses are compatible with the structure of the on-bottom pipeline. It can also be envisaged to continuously monitor the behavior of the structure by recording data in real time. Thus, the lengthening of the structure can be monitored in real time and it can be determined if it is compatible with the maximum lengthening values that the connecting parts in particular can tolerate. However, this requires an expensive fragile device and a connection to the surface for processing the data. Therefore, a problem that arises and which the present invention aims to solve is that of providing a device which enables the movements of a subsea deformable on-bottom pipeline to be measured and inspected, and at a favorable cost.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to antennas, and more specifically to a boot for spring mount in a mobile antenna. 2. Description of the Related Art The physical size of an antenna largely depends upon the purpose for which it is to be employed. For example, an antenna for receiving a particular frequency range must have an electrical length capable of resonating within that range to achieve optimum reception. Generally, lower frequencies require longer lengths because the wavelengths at lower frequencies are longer, but limitations in use often demand design modifications to achieve appropriate electrical length in a smaller space. It is known for antennas in some applications on mobile vehicles to be 10 feet or more in length. Such antennas sometimes have a thin, dielectric, flexible core that carries the electrical radiator and they are mounted to a vehicle by way of a spring. These types of antennas are known as “whip” antennas because the flexible core and spring together absorb energy from forces acting on the antenna, such as impacts. If a whip antenna were to impact an object while the vehicle is in motion, the flexible dielectric core and/or the spring can absorb the force of the impact, preventing damage to the antenna or its mounting. Some antenna applications, however, are complex, requiring multiple frequency bands, electrical lengths, and other devices that make the use of whip antennas impractical. Such antennas may require diameters of 1 in. or more at a length of 10 feet. The less flexible an antenna is, the more the spring must absorb the energy of an impact against the antenna. It has been observed that an antenna having a molded or extruded fiberglass piece 1¼ in. in diameter and 10 feet long will fail when the antenna is impacted at its midpoint on a vehicle traveling 25 miles per hour. Failures occur either in the spring or in the dielectric piece, or both. These failures can occur both at initial impact and upon the antenna's recoil from the impact where the antenna's mass causes excessive extension of the spring and unnatural forces acting on the spring mounting. A spring which is too limp will allow over rotation when the antenna hits an obstruction. A spring with larger wire has less elasticity and absorbs less energy when the antenna hits an obstruction, causing the antenna to absorb more of load. Simply changing the spring does not offer a satisfactory solution.

The present invention relates to apparatus and method for separating particle constituents of a mixture. In particular, the invention relates to triboelectrically charging the particles and separating them under the influence of a field. There is a need for separating various constituents of a mixture in many technological and scientific fields. For example, sulfur-bearing constituents of coal reduce its burning efficiency, and also contribute to the pollution of the environment. Thus, it is desirable to remove such sulfur-containing constituents from pulverized coal. There is a similar need for separation processes to recover phosphate rock from phosphate ores which are mined in a matrix that includes a mixture of phosphate rock and silica in a clay-like material known as xe2x80x9cslimes.xe2x80x9d Separation processes can also be profitably utilized in separating various constituents of a frozen aqueous solution. Such separation processes for liquids find applications in preparation of concentrate foods. For example, removal of ice crystals from a frozen fruit juice concentrates the fruit juice. A number of electrostatic separators are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,947 describes a separator that includes an elongated enclosure in which a mixture of particles are triboelectrically charged by mechanical agitation and the motions induced by air flow in a fluidized bed. An electrical potential applied to a horizontal electrode above the mixture and the grounded base of the enclosure establish an electric field within the enclosure, which by differential attraction of the charged particles, induces vertical migration and stratification of the charged particles. Paddles attached to endless chains move the charged particles in the lowest stratum toward one end of the enclosure, and buoyant forces cause the charged particles in the upper stratum to move toward the opposed end of the enclosure. The oppositely charged particles are removed from the opposite ends of the enclosure. The stratification of the particles in this type of separator is partially determined by the sizes of the particles and their degree of buoyancy in the fluidized bed, thus restricting the types of mixtures that can be separated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,971 also employs paddles and drive chains, substantially submerged in the particle stream, for moving inputted particles that have been triboelectrically charged. The paddles drive charged particles of one polarity in a lower stratum in one direction, and drive the oppositely charged particles in an upper stratum in an opposite direction, thereby producing two current flows. An intermediate shear zone separates these two current flows. In this separator, the mechanical properties of the particles, such as size, mass, and buoyancy, rather than their triboelectrically charging properties, solely determine the stratification of the charged particles, and hence their separation. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,032 describes an electrostatic separator that employs two electrodes having opposite voltages to create an electric field between the electrodes. A perforated dielectric sheet, placed in the space between the electrodes, provides areas that exhibit electric fields and areas that do not exhibit electric fields. Particle charging due to contact occurs in the former, and particle separation occurs in the latter. This patent asserts that an endless belt moves the particles of the mixture continuously in a direction transverse to the field to allow triboelectrically charging of the particles and separation of the particles in field-free areas. One disadvantage of this type of separator is that the belt tends to wear out quickly due to the abrasive environments in which it operates. Thus, periodic monitoring and repairing of the belt is needed. Such maintenance is time-consuming, and also adds to the operating costs. In addition, many of such separators do not provide any structures for the introduction of the mixture into the space between the electrodes at a number of different positions. Although some conventional separators include multiple input ports, the locations of the input ports of such separators are fixed, and can not be spatially varied in order to optimize the separation process. A number of beltless electrostatic separators are also known in the art. A class of such prior art beltless electrostatic separators employ rubbing contact of the particles of a mixture with a surface, while the particles are moving at high velocities, to triboelectrically charge the particles. Such contact imparts either positive or negative charge to particular particles of the mixture depending on the charge-bearing properties of the particles. One such separator blows the particles of a mixture at high velocity through a sinuous path. The impact of the particles with the inner walls of the path results in charging of the particles. Upon leaving the sinuous path, the passage of the charged particles through a space between two charged electrodes separates the particles. The impact of the particles with the walls of the sinuous path can result in disintegration of some of the particles into smaller components. Such disintegration may not be desirable, thus limiting the number of applications of such a system for separating the particles of a mixture. Further, the impact of the particles having high velocities with various parts of such separators typically results in a rapid wear of the parts. In addition, such separators typically have a low throughput, and hence are not suitable for industrial-scale separation processes. Further, similar to the separators having belts, the beltless separators typically do not allow adjusting the locations of the input and output ports. Further, many prior art separators for bulk processing applications employ uninsulated metallic or uninsulated conductive ceramic electrodes mainly because of difficulties in insulating high voltage electrodes, susceptibility of insulating surfaces to wear, and reduction in electric field strength in the separation region as a result of voltage drop across the insulating material. The use of uninsulated electrodes can result in a sparkover voltage between the electrodes, which can cause an electrical arc if the electrodes are not current limited, and if the high voltage power supply can sustain the required power. Such an electrical arc causes the voltage between the positive and the negative electrodes to drop below a voltage required for particle separation. Further, such an electrical arc can cause damage to the electrodes. Many prior art separators employ current-limiting resistors, in the megaohm range or higher, connected in series with the electrodes to guard against formation of electrical arcs. Such resistors, however, do not eliminate the occurrence of a sparkover voltage. Sparkover voltages can result in formation of streamers, i.e., sustained electrical discharges in the microampere to milliampere range. The passage of currents of such magnitudes through the current limiting resistors cause power dissipation in the range of tens to hundreds of watts, rendering safe design and construction of the resistors difficult. Further, the streamers can erode metallic portions of the separator, and can cause fires in the separation region. Further, sparkover voltages can cause material erosion, such as erosion of conductive ceramic tiles of the electrodes employed in many electrostatic separators. Further, electrical arcs between the electrodes can potentially cause explosions when the particle mixture includes combustible or flammable materials. This leads to difficult and costly design and construction methods to guard against such explosion hazards. Uninsulated or conductive electrodes can also lead to formation of precipitated layers of material on the electrodes when the removal mechanism fails to completely remove the material accumulated on the electrodes. Precipitated layers, formed of non-conductive materials, can disadvantageously lead to local microsparking and ion production even at applied electrode voltages that are much less than the nominal sparkover voltage. Further, the particles of precipitated layers formed of conductive materials tend to discharge into the electrode to become uncharged. These uncharged particles return to the separation stream, thus placing an upper limit on the purity of the separation process. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a separator that provides improved particle separation while concomitantly providing increased durability and wear resistance. It is another object of the invention to provide a separator that allows adjustment of the locations of the input ports. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a separator that allows the electrostatic field to be varied as a function of time and spatial position. These and other objects of the invention are attained by a separator for separating the particles of a mixture according to the teachings of the invention that employs at least two spaced-apart field element arrays to establish a field between the element arrays. The separator also includes an input for introducing the particles of the mixture into the space between the field elements. Further, two oppositely-rotating agitators, operably disposed in the space between the field elements, agitate the particles to charge them to one of two charge polarities. The charged particles move under the influence of the field such that particles of one charge polarity substantially accumulate in a region close to one field element array, and particles of opposite charge polarity substantially accumulate in a region in the proximity of the other field element array. The rotation of the agitators sweep the charged particles of opposite polarities in two different directions, and also agitate the uncharged particles to triboelectrically charge them. According to one aspect of the invention, the separator can include output ports for collecting the separated particles. The invention configures the field element arrays and the output ports such that there is a region in the vicinity of the output ports that is substantially field free. As the agitators bring the particles into this field free region, some of the particles under the influence of external forces, such as gravity and/or centrifugal forces, leave the agitators and enter one of the output ports. Because the agitators can rotate in opposite directions, the charged particles accumulated near one agitator first encounter one output port as they enter the field-free region whereas the oppositely charged particles, accumulated near the counter-rotating agitator, first encounter another output port as they enter the field-free region. Accordingly, each output port substantially collects particles of one of two charge polarities, thus separating the particles. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, at least one of the field element arrays includes a plurality of field generating electrodes arranged to form an annular disk. For example, one or both field element arrays can include a plurality of electrodes having narrow strips of a conductive material, such as copper, that are insulated from each other and from the opposed field element array by strips of an insulating material having a high breakdown voltage, such as a Kapton film. One practice of the invention employs a ceramic, such as alumina, to encapsulate the strips. An alternative practice of the invention encapsulates the strips by polyurethane and employs a layer of a ceramic, such as alumina, disposed on the polyurethane to provide a hard surface for the encapsulated strips. Such construction of one or both field element arrays provides some flexibility in configuring the spatial distribution of the electric field between the field element arrays. In particular, different voltages can be applied to different electrodes to effectuate a desired configuration of the electric field in the space between the field element arrays. Further, the invention can apply time-varying voltages to any number of the electrodes to produce a time-varying electric field in the space between the field element arrays. According to one aspect of the invention, each electrode includes a mechanical substrate, to which a metallic conductor is bonded. The electrode further includes a high-voltage connector in electrical contact with the metallic conductor for application of an electrical potential to the conductor. An insulating layer covers the metallic conductor to electrically insulate the electrode, and a wear strip covers the insulating layer to provide mechanical protection. One preferred practice of the invention encloses the electrode partially with a conductor to provide a ground plate, and optionally employs non-conducting inserts to provide tie points for attaching selected mechanical structures to the electrode. According to another aspect of the present invention, the separator can employ agitators in the form of two annular disks of non-conducting material that are operably disposed in the space between the electrodes, preferably co-axially with the two electrodes. A variety of non-conducting materials, such as plastic, ceramic, industrial glasses, or plastic-ceramic composites, can be employed to construct the agitators. In particular, ceramic materials having sufficient surface hardness, breakdown voltage, and temperature resistance are suitable for construction of the agitators. The annular disks preferably possess a common axis of rotation and have a number of openings therein to allow the passage of the particles of the mixture therethrough. According to a further aspect of the present invention, the separator can include an input that is formed in one of the field element arrays to introduce the particles of the mixture into the space between the field element arrays. For example, an opening in the solid portion of one of the annular field elements can provide the input port for introducing the particles of a mixture into the separator. The input port is preferably adjustable so that the particles can be introduced into the space between the field element arrays at a number of different locations. In particular, it is preferable that the position of the input port can be varied continuously and in real-time while the separator is operating. During operation of the separator, the inputted particles collide with the agitators and with each other and become triboelectrically charged to one of two polarities. The electrostatic field between the field element arrays exerts a force in the direction of the field on the positively charged particles, and exerts a force in the opposite direction on the negatively charged particles. Thus, the positively charged and negatively charged particles drift in opposite directions, and accumulate substantially in regions close to the field element arrays. For example, the positively charged particles substantially accumulate in the proximity of the negative field element array, and the negatively charged particles substantially accumulate in the proximity of the positively charged field element array. In accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention, the separator employs two spaced-apart cylindrical field element arrays, one disposed within the other, to establish a field in the space between the two cylinders. The cylindrical field element arrays are preferably co-axial, and can be constructed in a number of different ways. For example, one or both field element arrays can be formed of a plurality of field generating electrodes, having strips of conductive material such as copper, arranged to create a cylindrical or semi-cylindrical surface, and are electrically insulated from each other and the outside environment by an insulating material having a high breakdown voltage, such as Kapton film. Alternatively, the field element arrays can be constructed by utilizing a conductive material that is shaped into a cylindrical or a semi-cylindrical surface. In one practice of the invention, time-varying electrical potentials are applied to the field element arrays to produce a time-varying electric field in the space between the field element arrays. For example, a temporary reversal of the polarity of the electric field between the field element arrays can reduce accumulation of material on the surfaces of one or both of the field element arrays. Further, a change in the magnitude and/or polarity of the electric field at selected locations in the space between the field element arrays can stimulate additional mixing of the particles which in turn can enhance the purity and/or the yield of the separation process. Such enhancements can allow construction of a separator with shorter separation zones having a performance comparable with a larger separator. One aspect of the invention relates to providing easy access to various components of a separator for their replacement and/or repair. For example, one embodiment of a cylindrical separator according to the invention constructs the outer cylindrical field element array by connecting two semi-cylindrical segments together. One such connection can be a hinge that allows rotation of one semi-cylindrical segment with respect to the other to provide access to the agitators and the inner field element array disposed within the outer field element array. In addition, the invention can construct the agitators in a similar manner to provide easy access to various components of the separator. In another aspect, the present invention provides a separator that includes two spaced-apart annular field element arrays for establishing an electric field in the space between the arrays. Further, the separator includes an input port for introducing the particles of the mixture into the space between the arrays. Two spaced-apart annular agitators, configured to rotate in the same direction, agitate the particles of the mixture, to triboelectrically charge them to one of two charge polarities. The agitators include openings therein to allow passage of the particles of the mixture. The separator further includes two output ports, and includes a plate disposed in the space between the agitators extending substantially over one of the input ports. The plate prevents entry of charge particles having one polarity into the output port over which it extends. Hence, the charged particles of one polarity enter one of the output ports, and those having an opposite polarity enter the other output port. Another aspect of the invention relates to providing a separator that includes two annular spaced-apart field element arrays for establishing a field in the space between the arrays. The separator further includes an input port for introducing the particle mixture into the space between the arrays. Two agitators are disposed in the space between the field element arrays and are configured for rotation. Each agitator includes a ring from which a plurality of impellers are cantilevered. The impellers triboelectrically charge the particles into two charge polarities, where particles having one charge polarity substantially accumulate in the vicinity of one of the field element arrays, and the particles having the opposite charge polarity substantially accumulate in the vicinity of the other field element array.

A major challenge of cancer treatment is the selection of chemotherapies that maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity for a given patient. Assays for cell surface markers, e.g., using immunohistochemistry (IHC), have provided means for dividing certain cancers into subclasses. For example, one factor considered in prognosis and treatment decisions for breast cancer is the presence or absence of the estrogen receptor (ER). ER-positive breast cancers typically respond much more readily to hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen, which acts as an anti-estrogen in breast tissue, than ER-negative cancers. Though useful, these analyses only in part predict the clinical behavior of breast cancers. There is phenotypic diversity present in cancers that current diagnostic tools fail to detect. As a consequence, there is still much controversy over how to stratify patients amongst potential treatments in order to optimize outcome (e.g., for breast cancer see “NIH Consensus Development Conference Statement: Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer, Nov. 1-3, 2000”, J. Nat. Cancer Inst. Monographs, 30:5-15, 2001 and Di Leo et al., Int. J. Clin. Oncol. 7:245-253, 2002). In particular, there is currently no tool for predicting a patient's likely response to treatment with paclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic with particularly adverse side-effects. There clearly exists a need for improved methods and reagents for classifying cancers and thereby selecting therapeutic regimens that maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity for a given patient.

The present disclosure relates generally to oil field exploration and, more particularly, to a system and method for analysis of oil rig activity. The measurement of various types of data during oil rig activities is well known in the subterranean well drilling and completion art. Real-time data is generated from, for example, wellsite sensors, measurement-while-drilling/logging-while-drilling tools, and software application logs. Additionally, macroscopic reports may be generated that record wellsite metadata (e.g., type of drillbit, casing information, etc.) and data reflecting wellsite operations during flat time (i.e., time during which real-time sensors are not changing). Macroscopic reports may also include the wellsite operators' manual logs of operations. The analysis of the various data is well known in the art. However, such data analysis and reporting may be difficult and time consuming when data may be fragmented across different data sources, unstandardized, and/or contain errors. Data analysis must usually be performed either entirely manually or with substantial manual oversight. Further, it may be difficult to combine or compare data from multiple wellsites, or between wellsites overseen by different operating companies, due to the different methods and formats for data gathering and recording. While embodiments of this disclosure have been depicted and described and are defined by reference to exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, such references do not imply a limitation on the disclosure, and no such limitation is to be inferred. The subject matter disclosed is capable of considerable modification, alteration, and equivalents in form and function, as will occur to those skilled in the pertinent art and having the benefit of this disclosure. The depicted and described embodiments of this disclosure are examples only, and not exhaustive of the scope of the disclosure.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile terminal and a method of controlling the operation of the mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile terminal capable of making an efficient use of geo-tagged information and a method of controlling the operation of the mobile terminal. 2. Description of the Related Art Mobile terminals are portable devices, which can provide users with various services such as a voice calling service, a video calling service, an information input/output service, and a data storage service. As the types of services provided by mobile terminals diversify, an increasing number of mobile terminals have been equipped with various complicated functions such as capturing photos or moving pictures, playing music files or moving image files, providing game programs, receiving broadcast programs and providing wireless internet services and have thus evolved into multimedia players. Various attempts have been made to realize such complicated functions as hardware devices or software programs. For example, various user interface (UI) environments, in which users are allowed to easily search for and choose desired functions, have been developed. In addition, double-sided liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or full touch screens have been employed in the manufacture of mobile terminals. Most mobile terminals equipped with global positioning system (GPS) and camera features can add geographical identification information (such as latitude and longitude coordinates) to each image captured by a camera, and this process is referred to as geo-tagging. In the meantime, there is a restriction in allocating sufficient space for a UI without compromising the mobility and the portability of a mobile terminal even when the mobile terminal is equipped with a full touch screen. Therefore, when a plurality of geo-tagged images are marked on a map, the geo-tagged images may overlap each other due to the limited display size of mobile terminals, and thus, it may be difficult to selectively choose and use one of the geo-tagged images.

Various types of tires, including solid tires, are well known in the art. A method for preparing solid tires which consists in making a continuous strip of tire stock, severing the strip and then placing the severed section around a rim to splice the cut edges to form a tire body is well known in the art, as described in prior U.S. Pat. No. 1,622,546 granted to G. W. Seiberling on Mar. 29, 1927. The method of U.S. Pat. No. 1,622,546 comprises the use of uncured tire stock. The uncured tire thus formed is then delivered to a mold and then vulcanized to form it into a finished tire. This may be done either off the wheel or on the wheel. It is an object of this invention to provide a flat-less tire, made from a length cut from an indeterminate strip of tire body material, to be complete and ready for application to a wheel or rim. It is a further object of this invention to provide such a tire provided with an inner space for a conventional tire inner tube. A further object is to make such a tire in tubeless form as well as in solid and semi-solid form, and in a form comprising an inner core of soft foam material. It is a further object to manufacture such a tire body strip of indeterminate length by means of an extrusion or molding process for extruding or molding the tire body strip out of plastic in finished form (including the threads). It is a further object of this invention to provide such an extruded plastic tire body which can be stored in reels and kept in a service station or bicycle shop or other retail outlet so that a vehicle such as a bicycle, motorcycle, automobile or the like, can be provided with a new or replacement tire from the continuous strip of material on the retail premises without the necessity of obtaining a completed tire from a factory or other distributor source. Another object of the invention is to provide a tire body for a retail premises from which a number of wheel and rim sizes can be accommodated. Further objects and advantages will appear in the specification hereinbelow .

Antisigma Factors In eubacteria, the core RNA polymerase is composed of .alpha., .beta., and .beta.' subunits in the ratio 2:1:1. To direct RNA polymerase to promoters of specific genes to be transcribed, bacteria produce a variety of proteins, known as sigma (.sigma.) factors, which interact with RNA polymerase to form an active holoenzyme. The resulting complexes are able to recognize and attach to selected nucleotide sequences in promoters. Antisigma (Asi) proteins, i.e. proteins which inhibit the sigma subunit of RNA polymerase, are known in the art. A gene called asiA, coding for the 10 kDa anti-sigma.sup.70 factor of bacteriophage T4 (hereinafter referred to as AsiA), has been identified by Orsini et al. (1993) J. Bacteriol. 175, 85-93. The open reading frame encoded a 90 amino acid protein having the deduced sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 1. The asiA-encoded protein was overproduced in a phage T7 expression system and partially purified. It showed a strong inhibitory activity towards sigma.sup.70 -directed transcription by RNA polymerase holoenzyme. The nucleotide sequence of gene asiA has been deposited in the GenBank data base under accession no. M99441. Examples of proteins regulating the sigma subunit of RNA polymerase are known from other systems such as Salmonella typhimurium (Ohnishi et al. (1992) Mol. Microbiol. 6, 3149-3157) and Bacillus subtilis (Duncan & Losick (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sd. U.S.A. 90, 2325-2329; Benson & Haldenwang (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 2330-2334). The nucleotide sequences of these antisigma factors do not show any gross similarity with the asiA sequence disclosed by Orsini et al. Therefore, although the different antisigma factors are functionally similar, it is not possible to anticipate that an antisigma factor from E. coli will neutralize a RNA polymerase sigma subunit from another bacterial species. Selection Vectors Recombinant DNA technology has led to the development of a variety of vectors that enable cloning and expression of heterologous genes. Generally, the heterologous genes are engineered in such a way that a known marker gene is either interrupted or replaced by the gene. Correct recombinants are selected by screening transformants for the loss of the said marker. This requires screening several hundreds of colonies for the loss of the marker gene. In addition, several of the selected clones generally turn out to be false positives for a variety of reasons. In order to overcome these disadvantages, researchers have developed vectors that enable a direct positive selection of correct recombinants. Generally, such vectors harbor a gene wherein the encoded product on expression is toxic to the host. This toxicity could be lethal to the host thereby killing the organism or render the host cells to be sick. When a heterologous gene interrupts or replaces the toxic gene, the resulting recombinant grows normally in solid media. Positive selection vectors, useful for direct selection of colonies harboring recombinant plasmids, are thus known in the art, e.g. from: U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,431; PA0 Burns and Beacham, Gene 27 (1984) 323-325; PA0 Kuhn et al., Gene 42 (1986) 253-263; PA0 Heinrich and Plapp, Gene 42 (1986) 345-349; PA0 Gay et al., J. Bacteriol. (1985) 918-921; PA0 Cheng and Modrich, J. Bacteriol. (1983) 1005-1008; PA0 Dean, Gene 15 (1981) 99-102; PA0 Hagan and Warren, Gene 19 (1982) 147-151; PA0 Hennecke et al., Gene 19 (1982) 231-234; PA0 Honigman & Oppenheim, Gene 13 (1981) 289-298; PA0 Ozaki et al., Gene 8 (1980) 801-314; PA0 Roberts et al., Gene 12 (1980) 123-127; PA0 Schumann, Molec. gen. Genet 174 (1979) 221-224 However, the use of an antisigma gene in a positive selection vector has not previously been described.

This application claims priority from Federal Republic of Germany application 200 20 655.9, and the entire contents of same are incorporated herein by reference. The invention relates to a two-stroke motor with a fresh-gas supply, preferably with oil-in-gasoline lubrication. The invention relates to a two-stroke motor with a fresh-gas supply (preferably with oil-in-gasoline lubrication), with a motor housing in which a crank chamber with an inlet opening and a cylinder chamber with an outlet opening are formed, with a crank drive in the crank chamber and with a piston in the cylinder chamber that are connected to one another by a connecting rod, with at least one overflow conduit, with a carburetor comprising a carburetor chamber with a fresh-air entrance opening, a fuel entrance opening and a mixture exit opening as well as comprising a throttle flap that can move in a regulatable manner, with an inlet conduit in order to connect the mixed outlet opening of the carburetor chamber to the inlet opening of the crank chamber, and with a fresh-gas conduit that empties through an opening into the overflow conduit in order to supply fresh gas to the overflow conduit. The invention also entails a flange for a two-stroke motor with fresh-gas supply, especially for a two-stroke motor with oil-in-gasoline lubrication. Two-stroke motors are known. The operating principle of a two-stroke motor with a fresh-air supply is described in the MTZ Motortechnischen Zeitschrift 74 (1972) 12, p. 475. The fresh-air supply causes the loss of the noxious air-fuel mixture through the outlet opening of the cylinder chamber, which in turn causes the hydrocarbon emissions of the two-stroke motor to be low. Since only a small part of the air-fuel mixture is expelled unburned out of the cylinder chamber, the two-stroke motor with the fresh-air supply is not only environmentally friendly but saves fuel at the same time. However, the realization of the fresh-air supply has the disadvantage that the design of the two-stroke motor with a fresh-air supply is expensive. Furthermore, the fresh air supplied adversely affects the synchronization property of the two-stroke motor, especially at low speeds. EP 0 997 623 A1 discloses a two-stroke motor with mixed scavenging and with a suction device that comprises a carburetor and by means of which suction device cold fresh gas from the carburetor is placed at a slight interval from a mouth of an overflow conduit into a cylinder chamber. The fresh gas serves to cool the inner cylinder wall and the piston bottom. The disclosed two-stroke motor has the significant disadvantage that the placed fresh gas comprises an air-fuel mixture. The two-stroke motor therefore puts hydrocarbon compounds into the environment. EP 0 997 621 A1 discloses a two-stroke motor with mixed scavenging in which a carburetor is arranged between an air filter and an inlet conduit to a crank chamber. A mixture conduit and a fresh-air conduit are formed in the carburetor that is connected to the inlet conduit and to an overflow conduit. A first throttle flap for controlling the mixture volume flowing through is fixed in the mixture conduit; a second throttle flap for controlling the volume of fresh air flowing through is fixed in the fresh-air conduit. The mixture volume flowing through and the fresh-air volume flowing through are controlled independently of one another in the disclosed two-stroke motor. However, the design of the carburetor of the two-stroke motor requires many components and is very expensive; furthermore, the control of the mixture volume flowing through and the control of the fresh-air volume flowing through must be coordinated with one another, which necessitates an additional operating expense. U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,991 discloses a two-stroke motor with mixed scavenging and with a cylinder chamber and a crankcase. The two-stroke motor comprises an inlet conduit in order to supply an air-fuel mixture to the crankcase. A throttle flap is provided in order to throttle the air flow through the inlet conduit and a carburetor is provided for delivering fuel into the inlet conduit. The interior of the crankcase is subdivided into at least two crankcase volumes separate from one another: A rich volume and a lean volume. Each crankcase volume communicates with the cylinder chamber through an associated opening in the cylinder wall. Furthermore, a lateral opening between an outlet opening and a rear overflow opening is formed in the cylinder wall in such a manner that it is freed before the outlet opening is closed. This lateral opening communicates with the lean volume by means of a lateral overflow conduit. The rear opening communicates with the rich volume. A section of the inlet conduit is subdivided into two inlet lines: A rich line and a lean line that communicate with the rich volume and the lean volume. The carburetor and the throttle flap are designed and arranged in such a manner that upon a high load substantially the entire fuel delivered from the carburetor passes into the rich line. Upon a small load the fuel delivered by from the carburetor passes into both lines, into the rich line as well as into the lean line. This known two-stroke motor has the disadvantage that in the crankcase the separation of the rich volume from the lean volume can only be achieved in an expensive and incomplete manner if, e.g., only a disk-shaped flywheel functions as a separating wall. The flywheel increases the weight of the two-stroke motor and as a result of the device into which the two-stroke motor is installed. Furthermore, the flywheel causes an especially large angular momentum whose change of adjustment requires an especially large amount of force upon a corresponding movement of the two-stroke motor. If a hand-held device is involved, the operating of the hand-held device therefore becomes particularly difficult. EP 1 006 267 A1 discloses a two-stroke motor with mixed scavenging that comprises overflow conduits, each of which communicates with a fresh-air conduit. The mouths of the overflow conduits into the cylinder chamber are arranged in such a manner that the reduction of pressure in the crank chamber after an upward movement of a piston makes it possible to draw air out of the lateral fresh-air conduits into the overflow conduit. If the piston is at top dead center the mouths are located below the piston in free communication with the crank chamber. This construction prevents mixture from being located in the mouth area of the overflow conduits at the start of a scavenging process which mixture is expelled through the outlet opening. However, this construction also has the disadvantage that the fresh air is not supplied in a manner independent of the speed. The invention has the task of creating a two-stroke motor of the initially described type that avoids the cited disadvantages, in particular has the simplest possible design and emits as few pollutants as possible during operation. The invention solves this problem with a two-stroke motor with a fresh-gas supply, especially with a two-stroke motor with oil-in-gasoline lubrication, with a motor housing in which a crank chamber with an inlet opening and a cylinder chamber with an outlet opening are formed, with a crank drive in the crank chamber and with a piston in the cylinder chamber that are connected to one another by a connecting rod, with at least one overflow conduit, with a carburetor comprising a carburetor chamber with a fresh-air entrance opening, a fuel entrance opening and a mixture exit opening as well as comprising a throttle flap that can move in a regulatable manner, with an inlet conduit in order to connect the mixed outlet opening of the carburetor chamber to the inlet opening of the crank chamber, and with a fresh-gas conduit that empties through an opening into the overflow conduit in order to supply fresh gas directly to the overflow conduit, characterized in that the fresh-gas conduit and the carburetor chamber communicate with one another in such a manner that the throttle flap acts in a regulatable manner on the direct supply of fresh gas to the overflow conduit. The invention creates a two-stroke motor with a regulatable fresh-gas supply with an especially simple design. In particular, a fuel component of the fresh-gas supply can be regulated. In the two-stroke motor of the invention the regulating of the fresh-gas supply takes place in a speed-dependent manner. In this way the performance of the two-stroke motor can be optimized as a function of the speed. The fuel consumption and the emitting of pollutants of the two-stroke motor with optimized performance are particularly low. The two-stroke motor of the invention can be operated in an especially environmentally friendly manner.

1. Technical Field Embodiments generally relate to media systems. More particularly, embodiments relate to power management of audio accelerators. 2. Discussion In conventional mobile computing platforms, audio accelerators may be used to reduce the computing load on a CPU (central processing unit) by conducting certain audio-specific functions such as decoding audio formats and post-processing audio streams. During periods of inactivity (e.g., in response to the user halting audio playback), a device driver running on the CPU may place the audio accelerator into a suspend mode in order to conserve power. The process of suspending the audio accelerator and resuming the audio accelerator to the active mode, however, may involve time intensive state restoration operations. In particular, these operations may be considered “heavyweight” in that they could lead to audio response latencies that are noticeable to the user and additional processing overhead that increases power consumption and reduces battery life.

Obscurants are materials disseminated into the air to block or obscure the view of objects in an area by scattering, absorbing, or reflecting electromagnetic radiation. Obscurants may be designed to block or obstruct visible light, or other frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., infrared radiation). Traditionally, obscurant-emitting compositions, such as those comprising pyrotechnic compositions, exhibit undesirable properties such as high toxicity, high burn temperature which may cause undesired fire, inorganic residue build-up inhibiting emission of the obscurant, limited functional temperature range, low obscurant yield, humidity dependence, or a number of other shortcomings, making their use inefficient, or potentially hazardous to users.

The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus, and more particularly to an exposure apparatus that exposes an object, such as a single crystal substrate and a glass plate for a liquid crystal display (“LCD”). The present invention is suitable, for example, for an exposure apparatus that uses extreme ultraviolet (“EUV”) light, such as soft X-ray, for an exposure light source. In manufacturing such fine semiconductor devices as semiconductor memories and logic circuits in photolithography technology, reduction projection exposure apparatus have been conventionally employed which use a projection optical system to project a circuit pattern formed on a mask or a reticle onto a wafer, etc. to transfer the circuit pattern. Proximity exposure apparatuses have also conventionally been employed which directly transfer a circuit pattern on a reticle onto a wafer. The minimum critical dimension (“CD”) to be transferred by the projection exposure apparatus or resolution is proportionate to a wavelength of light used for exposure, and inversely proportionate to the numerical aperture (“NA”) of the projection optical system. The shorter the wavelength is, the better the resolution is. Recent demands for finer semiconductor devices have promoted a shorter wavelength of ultraviolet light from an ultra-high pressure mercury lamp (i-line with a wavelength of about 365 nm) to KrF excimer laser (with a wavelength of about 248 nm) and ArF excimer laser (with a wavelength of about 193 nm). The lithography using the ultraviolet light, however, has the limit to satisfy the rapidly progressing fine processing of semiconductor devices. Accordingly, there has been developed a reduction projection optical system using EUV light with a wavelength less than about 100 nm (referred to as an “EUV exposure apparatus” hereinafter) for clear transfers of very fine circuit patterns. The EUV light's wavelength is shorter than that of F2 laser (with a wavelength of about 157 nm) as the UV light. Absorptive materials, such as oxygen molecules, water molecules and carbon dioxide included in the air greatly absorb the optical energy of light in a wave range between 100 nm and 200 nm in the vacuum UV range, and thus such light has a difficulty in transmitting through the air. Accordingly, an exposure apparatus that uses ArF excimer laser and F2 laser as a light source needs to purge an optical path for the exposure light with inert gas, such as nitrogen and helium. In particular, the EUV exposure apparatus needs to maintain the optical path for the exposure light vacuum, because gas in the optical path absorbs and scatters the exposure light and prevents its transmissions. Since materials greatly absorb the light of a wave range of the EUV light, a refractive optical system (that utilizes lenses or refractions of light) for use with visual light and UV light is not viable because of the low transmittance of the EUV light to an optical element, such as a lens. Therefore, a catoptric optical system is used which utilizes reflections of light. An optical element for use with the catoptric optical element includes an oblique incidence total reflection mirror and a multilayer mirror. The wave range of the EUV light has a refractive index's real part of slightly smaller than 1, and is totally reflected by increasing an incident angle to introduce the light almost parallel to the reflective surface. The oblique incidence total reflection mirror utilizes this feature. Usually, the reflectance of 80% or greater is available to an oblique incidence with an angle between several degrees to 10° from the reflective surface (or an incident angle between a little larger than 70 and 90°). However, the oblique incidence total reflection mirror disadvantageously makes an optical system large due to little degree of freedom of the optical design cause by the limited incident angle. On the other hand, the multilayer mirror alternately layers two different types of thin films having different optical constants or refractive indexes, and can use an incident angle close to perpendicular incidence. Proper selections of materials for these thin films and the number of layers would increase the reflectance up to about 70%. The EUV exposure apparatus thus uses for a projection optical system a multilayer mirror that has larger degree of freedom than that of an oblique incidence total reflection mirror. An exposure apparatus needs an alignment between a reticle and a wafer in exposure, and includes plural alignment optical systems. FIG. 15 is a schematic structure of a conventional exposure apparatus 1000 that uses KrF excimer laser and ArF excimer laser etc. for an exposure light source. The alignment optical system can be roughly classified into two types, i.e., an off-axis optical detection system 1400 that detects an alignment mark on a wafer 1300 for use with a wafer alignment, and a Through The Reticle (“TTR”) alignment optical system 1500 that detects a position of an alignment mark on a reticle 1100 relative to the alignment mark on the wafer 1300 through a projection optical system. The TTR alignment optical system is sometimes referred to as a Through The Lens (“TTL”) alignment optical system. The off-axis alignment optical system 1400 serves to detect a position of the wafer 1300 for alignments of the wafer 1300 at a position different from an exposure position. Therefore, a precise alignment needs to maintain a baseline between the exposure position and the alignment position. Accordingly, the TTR alignment optical system 1500 needs to measure the baseline for alignments with higher precision than the baseline stability. The TTR alignment optical system 1500 introduces light from an exposure light source (not shown) into an illumination part 1520 through an optical fiber 1510, etc., illuminates an alignment mark on the reticle 1100, and forms an image of the alignment mark on the illuminated reticle 1100 onto an image pickup device 1550 while enlarging the image through an objective lens 1530 and a relay lens 1540. The TTR alignment optical system 1500 preferably uses a light source that has the same wavelength as an exposure wavelength, and usually employs an exposure light source. A light source can use non-exposure light, but this configuration undesirably needs to correct the chromatic aberration in the projection optical system 1200. The light that has transmitted through the reticle 1100 and the projection optical system 1200 illuminates an alignment mark on a wafer-side reference plate 1352. An image of the illuminated alignment mark is formed on the reticle 1100 via the projection optical system 1200, and an enlarged image is formed on the image pickup device 1550 through the objective lens 1530, the relay lens 1540, etc. Use of the exposure light would maintain the same imaging relationship between the alignment marks on the reticle 1100 and the wafer-side reference plate 1352, as that for the exposure-time, and enable the same optical system to simultaneously detect these marks. An exposure position of a pattern or a mark on the reticle 1100 can be measured with precision without being affected by the optical system's errors, etc. In addition, the baseline or an arrangement between the exposure position (or reticle mark) and a position of the off-axis alignment optical system 1400 can be assured by driving the wafer stage 1530 and detecting the alignment mark on the wafer-side reference plate 1352 through the off-axis alignment optical system 1400. Some TTR alignment optical systems illuminate an alignment mark on a wafer-side reference plate from a backside of the wafer-side reference plate (or an opposite side to the projection optical system) to form an image of the alignment mark on a reticle-side reference plate through a projection optical system, and illuminate the alignment mark on the reticle-side reference plate to image the transmitted light on an image pickup device. An alternative type makes alignment marks on a reticle and a wafer-side reference plate of repetitive patterns of a light-shielding part and a light-transmitting part. These patterns are different in size by a magnification of the projection optical system. This type illuminates the repetitive pattern on the reticle from a backside of the reticle (or backside of the projection optical system) to project the pattern onto the repetitive pattern on the wafer-side reference plate via the projection optical system, and detects the light that has transmitted through the wafer-side reference plate while moving the wafer stage. The TTR alignment optical system thus can detect a position of the wafer-side alignment mark relative to the reticle-side alignment mark, or a position of the reticle-side alignment mark relative to the wafer-side alignment mark. When the EUV exposure apparatus applies exposure light to the alignment optical system, the TTR alignment optical system cannot use a conventionally available refractive element, such as a lens, but use only mirrors to form an image of an alignment mark on an image pickup device. Therefore, a conventionally available compact optical system is inapplicable. In general, the alignment optical system forms an image of the alignment mark of twenty magnifications or greater on the image pickup device, and the enlarged magnification lowers the light intensity. For example, the alignment optical system of twenty optical magnifications lowers the light intensity on the reticle surface down to 1/400 on the image pickup device. Moreover, the multilayer mirror has reflectance of about 70% to the EUV light, posing a problem of efficiency or reflectance of the optical system: If the alignment optical system of twenty optical magnifications uses about ten multilayer mirrors, although the number of mirrors depends upon the permissible size of the alignment optical system, the reflectance becomes about 2.8%. On the other hand, the efficiency (or transmittance) of a lens-using alignment optical system in a conventional exposure apparatus is 90.5% when the alignment optical system uses ten lenses and each lens has reflectance of 0.5%. Therefore, the efficiency is 30 times as large as that for the EUV light. Therefore, the TTR alignment optical system that uses the EUV light cannot configure a detection system as high-magnification and precise as the prior art. Even without the enlargement optical system, a light-receiving sensor for detecting the EUV light would raises a durability problem. In addition, since the EUV exposure apparatus is stricter in overlay precision than the prior art, frequent calibrations with the TTR alignment optical system are required for baseline corrections, etc. However, an EUV light source requires a high running cost, and frequent calibrations would increase the cost.

“They said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.” The work was soon fairly under way; “and they had brick instead of stones, and slime (asphalt) instead of mortar.” But God confounded their tongue, so that they did not understand one another's speech, and thus scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. Genesis 11:1-9. Since the fall of the Tower of Babel, finding methods of communicating with different languages and their associated writing systems has been a challenge. With the onset of worldwide globalization, overcoming this challenge has become paramount. However, there are complex cultural differences between nations that have prevented a fully integrated global society. In the computer industry, these differences cause problems with international cooperation due to the tethers of multi-language display and interchange. One step toward meeting the challenge of a multi-national computing industry was the Unicode Consortium formed in 1988, which developed a global character identification standard. The goal of the consortium was to develop a standard that allows a unique identification of characters for every language. The consortium developed the Unicode Standard, now in version 2.1, available from Addison-Wesley Developers Press 1997, (available at http://www.unicode.org). Unfortunately, being able to print and display a character from a choice of many languages is only a small step toward meeting the international challenge. An issue of equal and oft times more importance is the layout of script, the characteristics of fonts, and the general requirements of text that make text readable. However, typefaces and script forms of current languages are different, eclectic and do not follow the same rules. For example, a typical English font, Times New Roman, follows a typographical formula that is uniquely Roman based wherein line height is typically set to be 120% of the size of the font in points. Terminology is based on Roman characters. The concepts of Roman type include a base line, a cap height, an ascender height, a descender height and line height. Written languages do not follow the same rules for font characteristics such as a default line length or typeface. Rather, each language and script is culturally derived from a different basis. For example, some Asian scripts use glyphs that are pictorially derived and other Asian scripts read from right to left and are symbolically derived. Even within the same language, scripts and fonts do not follow a predetermined characteristic formula. Finding a formula for determining default font characteristics seems an impossible task. Rather than finding a formula appropriate for all languages, graphic designers have relied on visually altering line length, typeface and line heights, altering each script such that a rendering is pleasing to the eye and meets readability requirements known to the graphic designer. Currently, there is no solution for determining font characteristics that applies to all known scripts. Every script is culturally derived and has a different basis and completely different concepts. Even if a formula worked for a particular script in a particular language within each script, there is not a linear relationship to many characteristics of the script. For example, any changes to font size or line length in the same script require changes in line height that take into account readability. Graphic designers typically visually alter line length, typeface, and line height. Longer lines of type require more line height for readability. Also, the size of a font is relevant to line height, but a larger font does not require the same line height as a smaller font. Because there is no linear or obvious relationship between line height, line length and changing font sizes, many computer applications require manual changes. Further complicating the layout issues, graphic designers do not know the rendering device of type due to the plethora of rendering computing machines. A typed page designed for a web page, for example, can be rendered on any size screen, leaving the optimum reading sizes for line length, line height and font size as an unknown. What is needed is a method for automatically determining those characteristics that currently require a graphics designer. An automatic method and system that can compute readability parameters, such as line height, font size and line length is needed so that text can be rendered on any display, in any language and in any size without manual adjustment.

In recent years, there has been known a technique which makes it possible to mutually share not only a video of a counterparty, but also a desktop screen of a terminal or a screen of an application in a remote communications system such as a teleconferencing system, a web conferencing system, etc., which use a network. Moreover, when a part of an image is specified in a server which shares a screen, an image whose position/size is the same as that of the specified part is displayed on a screen of a client terminal (Patent document 1). On the other hand, with respect to a terminal which uses the remote communications system, diversification is in progress, such as a PC which is reduced in size and weight (for example, a Netbook), a tablet terminal, a smartphone, etc. In the web conferencing system, which is one of the remote communications systems, it is a common usage form that, while sharing a screen of presentation material, a presenter makes an explanation along the material to conference participants. In the web conferencing, from a display capability of a screen sharing server which shares a screen with other client terminals, that of a client terminal in which a shared screen is displayed may differ. Therefore, when an image size of original image data which is shared from the server side exceeds the number of pixels displayable on the client terminal side, for example, in a screen of the client terminal, a part of an image is chipped off, so that it cannot be displayed. Moreover, when the screen of the client terminal is small, for example, a letter displayed on the screen becomes too small, so that it is difficult to see contents of shared material. In Patent document 1, with an operation of a user of a server (a presenter), a screen whose position and size is the same as a screen on which the part of the image specified on the server side is displayed on the client side. However, it is common for the web conferencing to be conducted remotely, so that it is not realistic for the presenter to check display capabilities of screens of multiple client terminals and perform screen displaying for each terminal in accordance with a display capability of a screen on the counterparty side, causing material to be shared difficult to see depending on the display capability of the screen on the counterparty side. Patent document 1: JP2006-172193A

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for the determination of the degree of deterioration of oils or fats used for frying foods. 2. Description of Related Art For determining the degree of deterioration of oils and fats for frying foods, it is known to measure the dielectric constants of the heated oils or fats or, after addition of reagents, the color change thereof in the course of time. The measured values to be determined by these methods have frequently proven to be unreliable, usually require a comparison oil or a comparison fat, and are complex in terms of apparatus used and amount of time-consumed. The German journal "Deutsche Lebensmittel-Rundschau", volume 69, part 12, 1973, pages 461 to 466 discloses a method for determining the degree of deterioration of oils and fats for frying, in which the content of oxidized fats is used as a criterion. The German journal "Deutsche Lebensmittel-Rundschau", volume 70, part 2, 1974, pages 57 to 65 and EP 0,501,682 A2 disclose determining the keeping quality or stability to oxidation of oils or fats by means of conductometric measurement cells.

Generation of “white light” is currently achieved by so called “white light emitting diodes (white LEDs)” that are constituted by employing a near-ultraviolet (UV) or blue emitting LED in conjunction with an inorganic phosphor or a blend of inorganic phosphors. Red-emitting phosphors based on complex fluoride materials activated by Mn4+, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,358,542, 7,497,973, and 7,648,649, absorb blue light strongly, and efficiently emit between about 610 nanometers and 635 nanometers with little deep red/NIR emission. Thus, the luminous efficacy and the quantum efficiency of white LEDs maximizes under blue excitation (440 nanometers-460 nanometers) as compared to other available red phosphors. These complex fluorides can be utilized in combination with yellow-green emitting phosphors such as cerium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG) or other garnet compositions to achieve warm white light (CCTs<5000 K on the blackbody locus, color rendering index (CRI)>80) from a blue LED, equivalent to that produced by current fluorescent, incandescent and halogen lamps. The benefits from using these complex fluoride phosphors are evident in LEDs used in LCD backlighting, where the complex fluoride phosphor is combined with an inorganic green phosphor. The emission position and full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of these complex fluoride phosphors enable a combination of high color gamut with high brightness. However, further improvements in color gamut and brightness are desirable.

Many fluoropolymer materials, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), are thermoplastic polymers. That is, they have the property of softening when heated and of hardening again when cooled. PTFE is generally produced in the form of white powder referred to as resin. It has a higher crystalline melting point (327.degree. C.) and higher viscosity than other thermoplastic polymers, which makes it difficult to fabricate in the same manner as other plastics. PTFE is a long chain polymer composed of CF.sub.2 groups. The chain length determines molecular weight, while chain orientation dictates crystallinity. The molecular weight and crystallinity of a given resin prior to sintering are controlled by the polymerization process. Currently, three different types of PTFE resins are available which are formed from two different polymerization processes. The three resins are granular polymer, aqueous dispersions, and coagulated dispersion products. In the coagulated dispersion of PTFE resin, small diameter (0.1-0.2 micrometer) particles are coagulated under controlled conditions to yield agglomerates ranging in size from 400 to 500 micrometers in diameter. The morphological structure of these agglomerates can be considered as long chains of PTFE that are intermingled in a tangled network. A known method of forming articles from fluoropolymer resins, such as PTFE, is to blend a resin with an organic lubricant and compress it under relatively low pressure into a preformed billet. Using a ram type extruder, the billet is then extruded through a die in a desired cross-section. Next, the lubricant is removed from the extruded billet by drying or other extraction method. The dried extruded material (extrudate), is then rapidly stretched and/or expanded at elevated temperatures. In the case of PTFE, this results in the material taking on a microstructure characterized by elongated nodes interconnected by fibrils. Typically, the nodes are oriented with their elongated axis perpendicular to the direction of stretch. After stretching, the porous extrudate is sintered by heating it to a temperature above its crystalline melting point while it is maintained in its stretched condition. This can be considered as an amorphous locking process for permanently "locking-in" the microstructure in its expanded or stretched configuration. It has been found that the effect caused by stretching PTFE is dependent on extrudate strength, stretch temperature, and stretch rate. According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,566 of W.L. Gore, products expanded at high rates of stretch have a more homogenous structure and possess much greater strength. Extrudate strength is more generally a function of the molecular weight and degree of crystallinity of the starting resin and extrusion conditions such as extrusion pressure, lubricant level, and reduction ratio. These parameters also control the degree of alignment that results from extrusion. The degree of alignment, in turn, affects one's ability to homogeneously stretch the extrudate. Molecular weight and crystallinity affect the stretch characteristics, sinter profile and ultimately the final properties of the processed material. For the initial stages of fabrication, most PTFE fine powders used for ram extrusion and expansion processing are highly crystalline (&gt;90%). as determined by IR spectroscopy, but their molecular weights may differ. Low molecular weight materials tend to crystallize quickly and become highly crystalline and very brittle. In addition, the intermolecular forces between difluoromethylene groups are very low. Thus, in order to achieve adequate strength, one needs either very high molecular weight, highly crystalline material or one needs some way to disrupt the crystalline order. With a homopolymer, the best way to inhibit crystallization is to increase the viscosity of the molten material to very high values by selecting a polymer with very high molecular weight. In fact, PTFE coagulated dispersion resins that have very high molecular weights with molecular weight distributions have been developed for expanded PTFE processes. In line with these considerations, the primary function of the "sintering" step is to heat the polymer above its crystalline melt point so that it can be reformed upon cooling to a low enough crystalline content to achieve the sort of mechanical properties required for the current application. To maintain a low crystalline content in the final product, the melt viscosity, corresponding to the molecular weight of the polymer, must be very high. Most known methods for processing PTFE describe unilateral stretching techniques and stress the importance of stretching the fluoropolymer at rapid rates. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,953,566 and 4,187,390 issued to Gore state that while there is a maximum rate of expansion beyond which fracture of the material occurs, the minimum rate of expansion is of much more practical significance. Indeed, the patents state that at high temperatures within the preferred range for stretching (35.degree. C.-327.degree. C.) only the lower limit of expansion rate has been detected. The patents estimate this rate to be ten percent of the initial length of the starting material per second. The patents go on to note that the lower limit of expansion rates interact with temperature in a roughly logarithmic fashion so that at higher temperatures within the preferred stretching range, higher minimum expansion rates are required. U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,609 to Browne describes another method for producing porous PTFE products by stretching at a rate of 10% per second. The patent also states that a differential structure is obtained by using an alloy of two different fluoropolymer resins which are characterized by significantly different stretch characteristics. The resins have different molecular weights and/or crystallinities. Accordingly, the final physical properties, such as strength, of PTFE articles formed in such a way are affected by the different molecular weights and/or crystallinities of the starting resins. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,208,745 and 4,713,070 also describe methods for producing porous PTFE products having a variable structure. The processes utilize a sintering step having a differential sintering profile. That is, one surface of an expanded PTFE article is sintered at a temperature which is higher than the sintering temperature of another surface. This results in fibrils being broken and provides an inherently weak material.

The present invention generally relates to core holders used in testing core samples, and more particularly to a core holder utilizing a modular sleeve. In geological exploration, the physical characteristics of an underground formation are of paramount importance. Permeability, a measure of resistance to fluid flow, is a particularly important factor that affects the method of oil recovery to be used for a particular well. To determine permeability, a core sample is removed from the underground formation. The core sample is placed in a core holder, where it is subjected to heat and pressure conditions comparable to those underground. Fluid is then forced through the core sample at high pressure. The permeability of the core is indicated by the change in pressure at various points along the length of the core. During testing, the core is encased in a rubber sleeve. Because pressure measurements must be taken at various points along the core's length, pressure taps must be provided. In at least one type of sleeve, the taps are molded directly into the rubber sleeve. Such a sleeve with integral pressure taps is relatively expensive. The conditions involved in core testing cause the rubber sleeve to deteriorate rapidly. A core, and its encasing sleeve, may be subjected to pressures greater than 10,000 pounds per square inch, and temperatures near 400.degree. F., for example. When testing under these conditions, the rubber sleeve may have to be replaced after every test. Conventional core holders accommodate sleeves of a certain length. If a core to be tested is too long for the sleeve, a core holder with a longer sleeve must be used. As a result, core holders of various sizes are frequently maintained in the same laboratory. Because each core holder demands its own supply of sleeves, a great variety of sleeves of different lengths must be manufactured and kept in stock. Therefore, there is a need for a core holder using a sleeve that does not require pressure taps molded into the material so that each sleeve is relatively less expensive, and that can be used with different lengths of cores so that an inventory of different length sleeves is not required.

Encrypted file systems allow applications to store encrypted files in non-volatile storage, such as hard drives. Encrypted file systems are typically implemented as a stack of layers with an encryption layer on top of a mounted file system. eCrtypfs, for example, is a kernel-native stacked cryptographic file system included with many Linux distributions that layers on top of lower level file systems including Linux ext 2/3/4, NFS, CIFS, XFS, ReiserFS, JFS, FAT 32, and can be extended to other file systems. eCryptfs provides a virtual file system seen by applications so that file operations go through eCryptfs. eCryptfs uses keys stored in a kernel layer key ring to encrypt and decrypt files. Many encrypted file systems were designed on the assumption that they would operate on a single machine and therefore files would be available to all processes on a machine (assuming the user logged in had the appropriate credentials). In a networked environment, such file systems do not provide adequate security for data because any process can access the encrypted files so long as the encrypted file system key ring contains the correct key. This problem becomes more pronounced in a cloud environment. In a cloud, processes running on the same hardware may be controlled by different entities that should not access each other's data. Furthermore, the cloud environment hardware may be administered by a different set of administrators than the virtual environment provided in the cloud. Consequently, it may be undesirable for some process or administrators who have physical access to the servers and credentials to access the operating system to access the encrypted data on the servers. In addition to the inability to properly protect data from network users and administrators, another problem faced in cloud computing and other networked computer environments is properly managing encryption keys between distributed computers. In particular, it is undesirable to store keys in non-volatile memory on a cloud server, so the keys must be stored at another location and accessed over a network. For public networks, the keys must be kept safe during transmission between the key storage and cloud server. The key management system must ensure it is not distributing keys improperly.

A buck power converter is circuitry to operate a buck power stage 10 as shown in FIG. 1 to step down an input voltage Vin to an output voltage Vo for a load Rload, and a boost power converter is circuitry to operate a boost power stage 12 as shown in FIG. 2 to step up an input voltage Vin to an output voltage Vo for a load Rload. Unfortunately, a conventional buck power converter or boost power converter is inadequate to provide a stable voltage for a system, for example a portable device, that uses a battery as its power source Vin because a battery is unable to provide a stable voltage all the time during its lifetime. Since the voltage of a battery descends with exhaustion of its power, a system using a battery as its power source requires a power converter switchable between a buck mode and a boost mode. A buck-boost power converter is circuitry to operate a buck-boost power stage 14 as shown in FIG. 3 to step down or step up an input voltage Vin to an output voltage Vo for a load Rload. However, such a buck-boost power converter produces a negative output voltage Vo and is thus unsuitable for some applications. Therefore, a buck-boost power stage 16 as shown in FIG. 4 was proposed, by which a positive output voltage Vo is generated from an input voltage Vin. For operating the buck-boost power stage 16 shown in FIG. 4, there have been proposed many control circuits and methods, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,166,527 and 7,518,346. Nevertheless, these arts are still not sufficient for users' demands. Therefore, it is desired a novel control circuit and method for a buck-boost power converter.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for creating a shower stall and more particularly to an apparatus which can be mounted in a room and reversibly collapsed and expanded into space-compact and shower-ready use positions.

The present invention relates to an electron microscope for observing or detecting a surface or inside of a semiconductor wafer or a mask for exposing a semiconductor pattern for faults and/or foreign objects, particularly to an electron microscope for observing or detecting a surface or inside using coordinates of faults and/or faults which were measured by another wafer/mask inspecting apparatus. Faults or objects on a semiconductor wafer or a mask for exposing a semiconductor pattern may give fatal problems to the semiconductor performances and reduce the efficiency of production of semiconductors. Therefore, to increase the production efficiency of semiconductors, it is required to remove unwanted objects from wafers and masks and faults from semiconductor patterns or mask patterns on the wafers as much as possible. Therefore, it is thought to be very important to detect and observe wafers and masks for faults and/or objects (hereinafter generically described as faults) in the production of semiconductors and analyze the causes of the faults. Recently, semiconductors have become smaller and smaller and their performance may be seriously damaged by even a fault of about 0.1 micron on a wafer. Conventionally an optical fault inspector or an optical object inspector (hereinafter generically described as an inspector) is used to locate faults on a wafer, move the field of view of the electron microscope to the location where the faults exist according to information on fault coordinates or the like obtained by said inspector, observe and identify the fault. However, a wafer/mask area to be observed at a time at a magnification is limited although it is dependent upon the size of a display screen of the electron microscope. Therefore, if fault coordinates measured by another inspector contain errors, the fault cannot be caught in the field of view of the electron microscope. Although various techniques have been supported to eliminate coordinate errors between the electron microscope and another inspector, such techniques cannot assure coordinate accuracies high enough to capture all faults in the field of view of the electron microscope. To search faults, the operator gradually moves the field of view of the electron microscope using a pointing device (such as a mouse or a trackball) according to fault coordinates measured by another inspector and the location of the field of view of the electron microscope in reference to a wafer map, a die/chip diagram or an optical microscope image which is displayed separately. The conditions of observation of the electron microscope (such as a magnification) is calculated and set from data obtained by another inspector. However, at a high magnification, for example, ×10,000 of the electron microscope, said conventional techniques do not have any means to show where the observation is made now and it is very difficult to move the field of view of the electron microscope to a position for observation. Further, to detect target faults in the field of view of the electron microscope or to set conditions of observation for the field, the conventional technique must calculate observation conditions such as a magnification for each fault from numeric data obtained by another inspector. Further, the conventional technique cannot use coordinate errors obtained in search of a fault easily for search of other faults, searching of the conventional technique is not efficient. Furthermore, in case both an area which was already observed by an electron microscope and an area which has not been observed are separately displayed on-screen, it sometimes happened that the conventional technique could not change conditions of observation of the electron microscope or involuntarily initialized displays.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to computer-implemented representations of processes and more specifically to a system and method for conversion from graphical business process representations having certain types of node-connection configurations to structural text-based business process representations. 2. Description of the Related Art A business process includes a defined set of actions taken in the course of conducting business. Through the use of computer systems, business processes can be automated. An automated business process typically requires input and generates output. A business process may be a single task or a complicated procedure such as a procedure for building a product. An example of a more complicated business process is a computer-implemented business transaction (carried out against a database) for the purchase of goods on the Internet. The term “business process” also includes other processes that are related to a business context in a broad sense. For example, a process used to manage donor lists for a charity is referred to as a “business” process although it relates to a charitable activity and not a business activity as narrowly defined. For all business processes, but in particular for automated business processes, it is potentially advantageous to document the processes using a computer-implemented representation. Often business processes are graphically represented in a computer-implemented system using a visual representation. Computer software such as the WebSphere™ Studio Application Developer Integration Edition (WSADIE) process tool distributed by IBM Corporation allows users to visually represent a business process as a graph having node, terminal and connection elements. Connection elements connect nodes as in a directed graph and provide a flow that is apparent in the visual representation and which is intended to represent the relationships between activities in business processes. In a graphical representation that is used to control a business process, control over the process is transferred from node to node as the connection elements are followed. Alternatively, business processes may be represented in a computer system textually using a structural computer language, such as Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). BPEL4WS is used to describe business processes and is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications. BPEL4WS allows for text-based business process representations having a structure of hierarchical nested elements. It is desirable to convert between graphical and text-based representations of business processes. However, the complex structure of many business processes renders such conversion difficult. In a business process represented in a graphical system, control dependency of one node or activity on another is defined by the flow of the control connections between the nodes. In a simple process, the control dependency follows a single path; when a first activity finishes, control is passed from that node to the next node following the control connection, and the next activity represented by the next node is executed. However, for a complex process, there is typically no single path defining control dependency. Certain configurations of control connections and nodes in graphical representations present difficulties in the conversion to a structural text-based representation. One such configuration is the graphical representation of a “cross-over” process, in which a first node is connected to more than one subsequent node, and the execution of one of those subsequent nodes depends on receipt of output from that first node as well as output from another node which may be executed concurrently with the first. Another configuration presenting conversion difficulties is a conditional process that depends on an event or a fault: control is passed to one of many potentially nodes via one of many control connections, depending on the output from a previous node. For such configurations, there may be a number of solutions by which the business process represented in the graphical representation may be converted to a structural text-based representation. Each of these text-based representations may be valid, in that the process represented provides the same result as the business process represented graphically. However, these possible solutions may not be consistent or easily derived. Further, they may not all necessarily reflect the correct semantics and relationships among the elements of the process. The cross-over and conditional processes create difficulties in the graph-to-text conversion because there is no directly translatable structure provided in the available text languages which provide hierarchies of nested elements. To determine a correct conversion, graphical analysis may be undertaken to obtain a better semantic understanding of the process represented by the original graph. Because there are no direct equivalents in the structural text-based representations for these types of node-connection configurations, there are a number of possible solutions that may be chosen in converting a graph-based representation of a business process to a structural text-based representation. This potential set of conversion possibilities creates problems with consistency of conversion as well as potential documentation problems, since some solutions are more difficult to document than others. It is known, for example, to transform data published during the execution of a business process into a standard format such as XML, as mentioned in U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0116362 (Li et al.). The business process representation may be constructed using a graphical process tool. However, Li et al. does not disclose a method or system for transforming the graphical representation of the business process itself to another format. It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method for converting graphical representations of business processes containing cross-over and/or conditional processes to structural, text-based representations in a consistent manner that can be implemented automatically without requiring extensive semantic graphical analysis.

The present invention relates to a weather strip to be attached to a door panel of an automobile by an attaching means except for a retainer. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, related arts are explained below. A full door type door panel 20 of an automobile usually comprising an outer panel 22 and inner panel 21. On the inner panel 21, there is provided a retainer 53 for attaching a weather strip 50 to the inner panel 21. At a connecting portion of both panels, and also at a connecting portion of the inner panel 21 with the retainer 53, a sealant 54 is coated for prevention of rust as shown in FIG. 1. However, according to the above-described technique, the following problems may be encountered. Since the rust prevention sealant 54 is coated as described above, the weather strip 50 attached to the door panel 20 interferes with this rust prevention sealant 54. Therefore, it is impossible to obtain a stable sealability between the weather strip 50 and the door panel 20. In order to ensure a stable sealability of the entire weather strip, it is necessary to strongly fasten the weather strip 50 with the retainer 53 so that the weather strip 50 can be fixed. However, since the weather strip 50 is incorporated into the retainer in a state of simple insertion, the weather strip 50 slips when the door is opened and closed, which possibly deteriorates the sealability. Further, at an end portion of the retainer 53, a step portion, the height of which corresponds to the wall thickness of the retainer 53, is created between the retainer 53 and the inner panel 21. Accordingly, the sealability is damaged at this step portion. For the above reasons, when consideration is given to ensuring the sealability between the weather strip 50 and the door panel 20, it is preferable not to provide the retainer 53. As shown in FIG. 3, in the case of a weather strip 50 having no retainers 53, it is proposed a means for ensuring the sealability of the door panel 20 by providing a small lip 52 which protrudes from an upper end portion of the base portion 51 and comes into elastic contact with the inner panel 21. However, the thus composed small lip 52 gets on a small arc portion 25 formed on the inner panel 21, so that the stable sealability can not be ensured. The reason why the stable sealability can not be ensured is described as follows. When the small lip 52 gets on the small arc portion 25, the sealability in this portion is lowered, and further the small lip 52 which has gotten on the small arc portion 25 does not sufficiently give a elastically contacting force by which a lower face of the base portion 51 of the weather strip 50 comes into elastic contact with the inner panel 21. For the above reasons, even when a highly expanded sponge member 17 or an adhesive double coated tape is provided on the lower face of the base portion 51, it is difficult to obtain a stable sealability. In this case, specific gravity of the highly expanded sponge member is usually in a range from 0.1 to 0.3. Furthermore, when an adhesive tape is used, it needs an additional step of peeling off a mold releasing paper of the adhesive tape, taking undesirable time and a labor. Thus, concerning the weather strip 50 attached to the retainer 53 provided on a conventional full door type door panel 20 of an automobile, it is difficult to stably ensure the sealability between the weather strip and the door panel 20. Further, since the small strip 52 provided at an upper end portion of the base portion 51 gets on the small arc portion 25 on the door panel 20, the sealability between the weather strip and the door panel 20 is deteriorated. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and to provide a retainerless weather strip capable of providing stable sealability thorough the entire length thereof. Another object of the present invention is to provide an attaching structure of a door weather strip by which the weight and cost of the weather strip can be reduced and further the time and labor to attach the weather strip can be reduced. Other objects and effects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description. The above-described objects of the present invention have been achieved by providing the following weather strips and weather strip assemblies. (1) A retainerless weather strip attached to a full door type door panel of an automobile by an attaching means except for a retainer, which comprises: a base portion to be fixed to an attaching portion of the door panel by at least one of a clip and an adhesive double coated tape; a hollow seal portion provided on an automobile interior side of the base portion so as to come into elastic contact with an automobile body; a seal lip portion provided on an automobile exterior side of the base portion, the seal lip portion comprising an upper end portion and an intermediate portion, so that the upper end portion of the seal lip portion comes into elastic contact with an automobile body and that the intermediate portion of the seal lip portion comes into elastic contact with a door panel; an end edge portion protruded from a lower end portion of the base portion on the automobile exterior side; and a neck portion formed in a connecting portion of the base portion with the seal lip portion on the automobile exterior side. (2) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (1), wherein the end edge portion is a small lip which obliquely and upwardly comes into elastic contact with a flat portion of the door panel. (3) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (2), further comprising a highly expanded sponge member provided on a lower face of the base portion on the automobile exterior side. (4) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (1), wherein the end edge portion comprises a portion made of a highly expanded sponge material. (5) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (4), wherein the end edge portion is made of a highly expanded sponge material. (6) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (4), wherein an upper half of the end edge portion is made of the same material as that of the main body of the weather strip and has a lip or protrusion provided thereon, and a lower half thereof is made of a highly expanded sponge material. (7) The retainerless weather strip according to the above item (4), wherein an upper half of the end edge portion is made of a highly expanded sponge material, and a lower half thereof is made of the same material as that of the main body of the weather strip. (8) A retainerless weather strip assembly comprising: a retainerless weather strip according to the above item (4); and an inner panel having an engaging recess for holding the end edge portion of the retainerless weather strip, wherein the size of the end edge portion of the retainerless weather strip is larger than that of the engaging recess of the inner panel, and the end edge portion is press-fitted into the engaging recess. (9) The retainerless weather strip assembly according to the above item (8), wherein the inner panel has a small drain groove on a bottom face of the engaging recess. (10) The retainerless weather strip assembly according to the above item (8), wherein the end edge portion is made of a highly expanded sponge material. (11) The retainerless weather strip assembly according to the above item (8), wherein an upper half of the end edge portion is made of the same material as that of the main body of the weather strip and has a lip or protrusion provided thereon, and a lower half thereof is made of a highly expanded sponge material. (12) The retainerless weather strip assembly according to the above item (8), wherein an upper half of the end edge portion is made of a highly expanded sponge material, and a lower half thereof is made of the same material as that of the main body of the weather strip.

When a person has an issue with a product, the person often calls a call center that is associated with the enterprise that sold the product. These call centers are often reached by dialing a toll-free “1-800” number. When the call center answers the call, the caller is usually presented with a menu of choices such as “Press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish.” After the caller makes his or her choice, the caller is, after some wait, connected to a call-center agent. All too often the caller is kept on hold for an extended period of time. This usually only serves to aggravate the caller and tie up bandwidth for the call-center. Often, after waiting on hold for an extended period of time, the caller is connected with a call-center agent who is unable to assist the caller with his or her problem. This only creates further frustration for the caller as the caller is then placed on hold again to wait for a call-center agent who can assist the caller with his or her problem.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for evaluating a degree of recovery of a living subject from a surgical operation. 2. Related Art Statement A living subject who has undergone a surgical operation is monitored, in, e.g., a recovery room, with respect to blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, etc. Based on the blood pressure, heart rate, and/or blood oxygen saturation being monitored, a doctor judges, from his or her experience, whether the subject has recovered from the surgical operation and, if it is judged that the subject has recovered, then the subject is moved to a general ward. The judgment made in this manner about the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation is more or less unclear, but it is not problematic so long as the subject is kept in hospital. Meanwhile, recently, a day operation has become popular. The day operation means that in a single day a patient undergoes a surgical operation and goes home. If a judgment made by a doctor about a postoperative condition of a patient who has undergone a day operation is unclear, then the condition of the patient may become worse after the patient goes home. After the patient goes home, the doctor cannot do a quick treatment on the patient. Thus, it has been needed to objectively or quantitatively evaluate a postoperative condition of a living subject. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which can objectively and accurately evaluate a degree of recovery of a living subject from a surgical operation. To this end, the Inventors have carried out an extensive study and have found that information relating to the circulatory organ of a living subject who has undergone a surgical operation largely and randomly changes from its values before the operation, because of anesthesia or physical stimuli administered or applied to the subject during the operation. However, after the operation, the circulatory-organ-relating information will change toward its values before the operation. The Inventors have found such a phenomenon that the circulatory-organ-relating information obtained after the operation will become stable around a certain saturation value, and such a fact that the change of circulatory-organ-relating information obtained after the operation is closely related to the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation. The present invention has been developed based on those findings. The above object has been achieved by the present invention. According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for evaluating a degree of recovery of a living subject from a surgical operation which the subject has undergone, the apparatus comprising a circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means for iteratively obtaining, after the operation, a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information relating to a circulatory organ of the subject; and a recovery-degree evaluating means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, based on at least one piece of circulatory-organ-relating information obtained by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means. In the present apparatus, the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means iteratively obtains, after the surgical operation, a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information relating to the circulatory organ of the living subject, and the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, based on one or more pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information obtained by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means. Thus, present apparatus can objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation which the subject has undergone. Peferably, the recovery-degree evaluating means comprises means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a change of a plurality of pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information iteratively obtained by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means is smaller than a reference value and accordingly is stable. There is a phenomenon that the pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information iteratively obtained from the postoperative subject by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means change toward a saturation value and become stable around the same. Since the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a change of the pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information is smaller than a reference value and accordingly is stable, the present apparatus can objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation. Preferably, the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means comprises means for iteratively obtaining, as a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information, one selected from the group consisting of a blood pressure Value, a heart rate value, a magnitude of a fluctuation of blood pressure values, and a magnitude of a fluctuation of heart rate values. There is a phenomenon that the blood pressure values, heart rate values, magnitudes of fluctuation of blood pressure values, or magnitudes of fluctuation of heart rate values, iteratively obtained from the postoperative subject by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means change toward a saturation value and become stable around the same. Thus, the present apparatus can evaluate, based on a change of those values, the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation. Preferably, the recovery-degree evaluating means comprises means for determining a saturation value based on a time-wise change of a plurality of pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information iteratively obtained by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means, means for determining, based on the saturation value, a reference value smaller than the saturation value, and means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information obtained by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means is greater than the reference value. The pieces of circulatory-organ-relating information iteratively obtained from the postoperative subject by the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means have a nature to change along a logarithmic curve, and accordingly can be expressed by a logarithmic function. Therefore, a saturation value of the information can be determined, for each living subject, based on a time-wise change of the information. Since the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether an actual piece of circulatory-organ-relating information is greater than the reference value lower than the saturation value, the present apparatus can accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject, independent of individual differences of living subjects. Preferably, the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means comprises means for iteratively obtaining, as a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information, one selected from the group consisting of a magnitude of a low-frequency fluctuation of blood pressure values, and a ratio of one of a magnitude of a low-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values and a magnitude of a high-frequency fluctuation of the heart rate values to the other of the magnitude of low-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values and the magnitude of high-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values, and the recovery-degree evaluating means comprises means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether the one selected from the group is greater than a reference value. It is speculated that the magnitude of low-frequency fluctuation of blood pressure values of the subject, or the ratio of one of the magnitude of low-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values and the magnitude of high-frequency fluctuation of the heart rate values to the other of the magnitude of low-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values and the magnitude of high-frequency fluctuation of heart rate values faithfully reflects the activity of the sympathetic nerve system of the subject. Since the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a blood pressure value or the ratio is greater than a reference value, the present apparatus can objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject from the operation. Preferably, the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means comprises means for iteratively obtaining, as a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information, one selected from the group consisting of a frequency distribution of fluctuations of blood pressure values, and a frequency distribution of fluctuations of heart rate values, and means for determining a degree of sharpness of the one selected from the group, and the recovery-degree evaluating means comprises means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether the determined degree of sharpness is greater than a reference value. The sharpness-degree values of the frequency distribution of fluctuations of blood pressure values or the frequency distribution of fluctuations of heart rate values, iteratively obtained from the postoperative subject change toward a value before the operation. Since the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a sharpness degree of the frequency distribution is greater than a reference value, the present apparatus can objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject. Preferably, the circulatory-organ-relating-information obtaining means comprises means for iteratively obtaining, as a piece of circulatory-organ-relating information, one selected from the group consisting of a frequency spectrum of fluctuations of blood pressure values, and a frequency spectrum of fluctuations of heart rate values, and means for determining a proportion of an interval fluctuation magnitude of the one selected from the group in a prescribed frequency interval, with respect to a whole fluctuation magnitude of the one selected from the group in a whole frequency range, and the recovery-degree evaluating means comprises means for evaluating the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether the determined proportion is greater than a reference value. The proportion of interval fluctuation magnitude of the frequency spectrum of fluctuations of blood pressure values or the frequency spectrum of fluctuations of heart rate values, iteratively obtained from the postoperative subject, change toward a value before the operation. Since the recovery-degree evaluating means evaluates the degree of recovery of the subject, by judging whether a proportion of interval fluctuation magnitude of the frequency spectrum is greater than a reference value, the present apparatus can objectively and accurately evaluate the degree of recovery of the subject.

Such unmanned aircraft, remotely controlled from the ground station, such as for example quadcopters, are used to take panoramic aerial images. For this purpose, in known aircraft usually multiple camera devices are arranged on a frame of the aircraft, wherein the camera devices, if possible, are arranged in such a way that fields of vision of the camera devices overlap one another at a distance to the aircraft, in order to allow for the imaging of the entire surroundings of the aircraft. In addition, it must be ensured that no components of the aircraft are located within the fields of vision of the camera devices, in order to not impair the panoramic image around the aircraft. In order to achieve this, the camera devices are usually, if possible, arranged as far to the outside on the aircraft as possible, so that the remaining components of the aircraft are possibly arranged behind the respective camera device. The aircraft known from the prior art having camera devices for capturing the entire surroundings of the aircraft are best suited to create panoramic images of the environment from greater distances to the aircraft. The nearer the objects to be imaged in the environment come closer to the aircraft, the more difficult the imaging with the aircraft known from the prior art, as the different fields of vision of the camera devices intersect with one another only at a considerable distance to the aircraft, due to the spaced arrangement of the camera devices to one another, and form a visual area surrounding the entire aircraft in which all of the objects can be entirely imaged. Capturing and creation of panoramic images of the environment can however exclusively occur at the distance to the aircraft, in which the surroundings are entirely imaged and in which therefore, the fields of vision of the various camera devices in each case intersect one another. For this reason, aircraft known from the prior art are not suited to capture and create panoramic images, for example in case of a closer fly-by to a building, in a fly-through among buildings or for example also through forests or the like, as in such imaging, the objects to be captured are regularly found outside the field of vision of the camera, so that these objects can each only partially be imaged, and the capture of a complete panoramic image of the entire surroundings of the aircraft at every point in time of the fly-by is not possible or only possible to a limited extent. The field of vision of a camera device refers to the area or the volume of the object space or of the surroundings of the aircraft which can be captured with the camera device. When using a camera device with a rectangular photo sensor, the field of vision of the camera device is shaped like a truncated pyramid, wherein a tip of the pyramid is located in the focal point of the camera device on the objective side. It is considered the object of the invention to further develop the aircraft known from prior art in such a way that as complete as possible depictions of the environment or panoramic images are also possible in the case of fly-bys as close to objects as possible.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a multilayer deposition multipixel image pickup device used with digital camera, television camera image pickup, etc., and in particular to a highly sensitive multilayer deposition multipixel image pickup device with a large number of pixels. 2. Description of the Related Art The competition in developing image pickup devices for still images by the manufacturers proceeds after advance notice of market introduction of electronic still cameras in 1982, especially after the advent of digital cameras in 1995. The theme of the development is to provide the device with a large number of pixels by making pixels finer, and when the 21st century is entered, an image pickup device with a pixel size of 3μ has also been realized (refer to CCD/CMOS image sensor nokisotoouyou, written by YONEMOTO Kazuya, published by CQ Shuppansha, page 16). A conceptual drawing of a color image pickup device in a relate art is provided in FIG. 21 of U.S. 2003/0209651A1. In a single plate system shown in the drawing, a part of light is absorbed in a color filter and the sensitivity is degraded. For example, light passes through a red filter, whereby blue and green are lost in color filter, and only one third of light at the maximum is used. Making finer pixels is equivalent to lessening the area of a color filter 701 in the drawing and thus there is a tradeoff between making finer pixels and the sensitivity. Thus, in the single plate system, it is difficult to provide compatibility between making finer pixels and ensuring the necessary sensitivity in theory. The technical conception of the multilayer deposition multipixel image pickup device was proposed from long ago as disclosed in JP-A-58-103165. The deposition type would eliminate the need for a color filter accompanied by a loss of light and the need for a complicated step of a microlens, etc., and would be able to also enhance the light use area percentage of each color and therefore the merit of becoming means for breaking through the tradeoff between making finer pixels and the sensitivity was recognized sufficiently, but it was not followed by development of an art for embodying it. Then, the concept of the multilayer deposition type was embodied by a method commonly called Foveon system for separating color in the depth direction by a deposition light reception section using wavelength dependency of the absorption coefficient of Si as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,875. However, in the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,875, there is a tradeoff between the sensitivity and color separation property and either becomes unsatisfactory. As a mode of the system improving the color separation property, U.S. 2003/0209651A1 discloses a system using a light reception section of an organic semiconductor and an inorganic semiconductor photosensitive layer on a Si substrate in combination. That is, FIG. 1 of the specification of U.S. 2003/0209651A1 discloses an image pickup device having a configuration wherein green color is received in a first light reception section, blue color is received in a second light reception section after passing through the first light reception section, and red color is received in a third light reception section after passing through the first and second light reception sections. Further, Japanese Patent No. 3315213 also discloses a multilayer deposition multipixel image pickup device having multilayer organic monolayer (molecular film) light reception elements for absorbing light of different colors deposited on an Si substrate. However, the deposition multipixel image pickup device having an array of pixels on the substrate, the pixels provided by depositing light reception elements each made up of an electromagnetic absorption and photoelectric conversion part, a charge transfer and read part, and a plurality of contact parts for coupling both the parts is more excellent in sensitivity than the single plate system having an array of undeposited pixels, but higher sensitivity is still required. The deposition multipixel image pickup device is inferior in color separation to the single plate system for separating color light through an optical filter, and the resolution tends to become unsatisfactory as compared with the single plate system. Because of the deposition structure, shading also easily occurs. The pixel size becomes smaller and the sensitivity becomes lower with the progress of a higher number of pixels to provide a fine image. Thus, still higher sensitivity and improvement in degradation of the image quality accompanying deposition are also required for the deposition multipixel image pickup device advantageous for higher sensitivity. The above-described related arts and knowledge relevant to the invention are described in the following documents:

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a material for recording which is suitable to ink jet recording using liquid ink such as aqueous ink or oily ink or solid ink which is a solid at ambient temperature and is subjected to printing after it is melted and liquefied, and, particularly, to a recording sheet which has excellent ink receiving ability and is reduced in bleeding with time. 2. Description of the Related Art Along with recent rapid development of information industries, a variety of information process systems have been developed. This is accompanied with the development of recording methods and equipment suitable to each information system and these methods and equipment have been put to practical use. Among these recording methods, an ink jet recording method is being widely used in home use as well as in offices because it enables recording in various recording materials and the hardware used in this method is relatively inexpensive, compact and has high soundless characteristics. Also, along with the recent progress in high-resolution ink jet printers, so-called photograph-like high quality recorded materials have come to be available. In addition, along with the development of hardware (equipment), various recording sheets for ink jet recording are being developed. The general characteristics required for such recording sheets are, for example, as follows: (1) it must have quick drying properties (the rate of absorption of ink must be high), (2) the diameter of an ink dot must be proper and uniform (any bleeding does not occur), (3) it must have good granularity, (4) the circularity of a dot must be high, (5) the color density must be high, (6) the chroma must be high (the color must not be subdued), (7) the light resistance and water resistance of an image portion must be high, (8) even if it is stored for a long time, it is resistant to the bleeding of an image, (9) it must have high whiteness, (10) it must have high preservation ability, (11) it must have high resistance to deformation and good dimensional stability (curling is sufficiently small) and (12) it has good running characteristics in a hardware. Moreover, besides the above characteristics, glossiness and surface smoothness are required and it is also required for a printed paper to have a texture similar to a silver salt photograph in applications for photo glossy paper to be used to obtain a photo-like high quality recorded material. As recording sheets to be used for ink jet recording, those obtained by applying a pigment such as silica and a water-soluble binder to a support made of paper or a plastic film as described in, for example, the respective publications of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 55-51583, JP-A No. 55-144172, JP-A No. 55-150395, JP-A No. 56-148582, JP-A No. 56-148583, JP-A No. 56-148584, JP-A No. 56-148585, JP-A No. 57-14091, JP-A No. 57-38185, JP-A No. 57-129778, JP-A No. 57-129979, JP-A No. 60-219084 and JP-A No. 60-245588 are known. However, all of these proposed recording sheets have very low glossiness and are unsatisfactory for applications such as photo glossy paper. Also, recording sheets using a pseudoboehmite sol and a water-soluble binder are proposed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 2-276670, JP-A No. 3-215082, JP-A No. 3-281383 and JP-A No. 6-199035. Although these recording sheets fulfill the requirements as to the gloss characteristics to some extent, there are, for example, the problems that the production cost of the pseudoboehmite is high and it is difficult to prepare a coating solution. Further, proposed in JP-A No. 4-223190 is ink jet recording paper provided with a recording layer comprising 5 to 20 g/m2 of synthetic silica and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on substrate paper coated with 0.1 g/m2 of borax or boric acid. The aforementioned technologies are intended only to improve the film strength of a recording layer reduced in the content of a binder. The recording paper has inferior glossiness and is hence unsatisfactory for applications such as photo glossy paper. Recording materials using various water-soluble polymers to impart glossiness are proposed. For example, those obtained by applying polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone or gelatin to a support made of paper or a plastic film as described in the respective publications of JP-A No. 58-89391, JP-A No. 58-134784, JP-A No. 58-134786, JP-A No. 60-44386, JP-A No. 60-132785, JP-A No. 60-145879, JP-A No. 60-168651 and JP-A No. 60-171143 are known. These recording sheets have superior glossiness, but are inferior in the rate of drying ink and are hence unsatisfactory for applications such as photo glossy paper. On the other hand, ink jet recording sheets which fulfill the aforementioned requirements as to the characteristics of ink jet recording sheets and as to the production cost are proposed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 7-276789, JP-A No. 8-174992, JP-A No. 11-115308 and JP-A No. 11-192777. In the above publication of JP-A No. 7-276789, a recording sheet is proposed in which a colorant receptor layer formed of an inorganic pigment fine particle and a water-soluble resin and having a three-dimensional structure having a high void ratio is disposed on a support. This structure is said to ensure that the aforementioned ink-absorbing ability is improved and color mixing bleeding in printing is sufficiently suppressed whereby a high-resolution image can be obtained. This colorant receptor layer may be formed by compounding a large amount of particles having a small size. It is necessary to decrease the amount of a binder used for the formation of a layer so that voids are formed. Therefore, this sheet has the drawback that cracks occur if the coating layer is dried quickly, thereby damaging the transparency and appearance of the colorant receptor layer. As a method used to prevent cracks of the ink receptor layer, a method in which the viscosity of a binder in a coating solution is increased is proposed in JP-A No. 9-109545. In this method, however, there is the fear of reduced workability and occurrence of uneven coating, showing that this method does not reach a practically effective level. A method of preventing cracks by using a coating solution comprising an inorganic particle, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and boric acid or borate is disclosed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 7-76161 and JP-A No. 10-119423. In this method, also, a large reduction in workability is caused by a rise in the viscosity of the coating solution. This method also poses the problem of the inferior stability of the solution with time and does not reach a practically effective level. An ink jet recording sheet provided with a colorant receptor layer, which comprises a fine inorganic pigment particle and a water-soluble resin and has a high void ratio, on a support is proposed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 10-119423 and JP-A No. 10-217601. These ink jet recording sheets have good ink-absorbing ability and high ink-receiving ability enough to form a high-resolution image and exhibits high glossiness due to its structure. However, a support coated with a resin such as polyethylene on both sides thereof is used as the support in view of glossiness and texture, and therefore a high-boiling point solvent contained in the colorant receptor layer is not vaporized and the solvent is not absorbed in the support. Consequently, the high-boiling point solvent remains unremoved in the colorant receptor layer, giving rise to the problem that when the sheet is stored under high temperature and humidity after an image is printed, the solvent is diffused together with a dye in the colorant receptor layer, causing the bleeding of the image with time (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cbleeding with timexe2x80x9d where necessary). Also, it is widely adopted to add a compound having an amino group or an ammonium salt, especially, a polymer compound containing these group and salt with the intention of fixing a dye component in ink in the ink jet recording sheet. For instance, many compounds are used, these compounds including (co)polymers of a diallylammonium salt derivative as disclosed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 60-83882, JP-A No. 64-75281 and JP-A No. 59-20696, allylamine salt copolymers as disclosed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 61-61887 and JP-A No. 61-72581, (meth)acrylates having an ammonium salt, (meth)acrylamide type polymers and vinyl (co)polymers such as a vinylbenzylammonium salt (co)polymer as disclosed in the respective publications of JP-A No. 6-340163, JP-A No. 4-288283, JP-A No. 9-300810, JP-A No. 8-318672, JP-A No. 10-272830 and JP-A No. 63-115780, modified polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as described in, for example, JP-A No. 10-44588, amine/epichlorohydrin co-adduct as described in JP-A No. 6-23468, JP-A No. 11-277888, dihalide/diamine co-adduct as described in JP-A No. 10-119418 and polyamidines as described in the respective publications of JP-A No. 11-58934 and JP-A No. 11-28860. The use of these compounds is to fix a dye and to prevent bleeding. However, because all of these compounds are water-soluble polymers basically, the water-soluble dye can be incompletely fixed and, particularly, an improvement in bleeding under high temperature and humidity has been insufficiently made yet. Also, if the sheet is stored in a clear file or the like immediately after an image is printed, bleeding with time likewise occurs because the sheet is in the condition that water in ink and a high-boiling point solvent (glycerin and a diethylene glycol derivative) contained in a small amount in ink remain unremoved. In the meantime, the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) is known as one of indexes showing the magnitude of the polarity of a compound. Also, an index which is the equivalency of an ammonium salt per unit mass of a polymer solid and expressed by meq/g is called cation density. In the aforementioned publications, the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) or the cation density (meq/g) is not prescribed in each compound added for the purpose of fixing the aforementioned dye component in ink. However, when such a value is calculated, the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) is in the vicinity of 1.5 to 7.0 and the cation density (meq/g) is in the vicinity of 3.2 to 7.0. There is the case where the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) is hereinafter simply called xe2x80x9cI/O valuexe2x80x9d. Like the ink jet recording sheets as described in the respective publications of JP-A No. 57-36692, JP-A No. 10-180034, JP-A No. 11-20302 and JP-A No. 8-244336, ink jet recording sheets which contain an amino group and an ammonium salt like the aforementioned compound and contain a water-insoluble base latex are known. These ink jet recording sheets are improved in water resistance by using the hydrophobic latex. However, in the ink jet recording sheets using such a hydrophobic latex, the hydrophobic latex must be compounded in a large amount to impart sufficient water resistance, giving rise to the problem that the light resistance of an image and miscibility with a pigment are resultantly impaired. Also, many of these sheets use a crosslinkable monomer (specifically, a monomer having two or more polymerizable functional groups in its molecule) in order to form a latex of a hydrophilic monomer unit such as an amino group or an ammonium salt. Therefore, aqueous ink has difficulty in penetrating into the monomer particle and the ink-receiving ability is not sufficient. Moreover, in the case of using a receptor layer made of a porous film, the voids of the porous film are clogged, because a granular compound is added, thus inhibiting the ink absorbing ability. Also, the latex using a crosslinkable monomer in this manner is insoluble in an organic solvent or the like and it is therefore difficult to handle it. In addition, examples of a part of latex using no crosslinkable monomer are known. Even in the case of such a latex compound, there are no descriptions concerning compounds having a low I/O value and a low cation density. Further, a recording material comprising 1 mass % or more of a monomer unit containing a quaternary ammonium salt and a copolymer which is substantially insoluble in water is disclosed in JP-A No. 1-188387. Such a compound surely exhibits an I/O value and cation density which are low to some extent. However, the I/O value of the compound used in the recording material is the order of 1.4 to 1.8 and there is no description of compounds having an I/O value lower than the above range and a low cation density. There is also no description concerning such a concept as to decrease the I/O value and the cation density. Further, there is also no description that the frequency of the occurrence of bleeding with time on an ink jet recording sheet is improved by adding such a compound. Also, an example in which the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) is prescribed in a compound is described in JP-A No. 10-217601. In this case, however, only nonionic copolymers other than ammonium salts are prescribed. Also, this method uses a unit having a high I/O value (high hydrophilic properties) as a copolymer unit, which is quite different from the concept intended to decrease the I/O value of the compound. The inventors of the present invention have noted the inorganicity/organicity ratio and cation density of compounds added to fix the aforementioned dye component in ink to solve various problems in the prior art to thereby attain the following object. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording sheet which is free from bleeding with time and can keep an image stably even if it is stored for a long period of time under high temperature and humidity after an image is printed. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording sheet which can avoid the occurrence of cracks, is strong, has high surface glossiness, possesses high ink-absorbing ability, can form an image with high-resolution and high density, has good color-developing ability and is superior in light resistance and water resistance of an image portion. The inventors of the present invention have made earnest studies to solve these problems and, as a result, found that these problems can be solved using an ink jet recording sheet having the following structures, resulting in the patent application of this case. A first aspect of the present invention is an ink jet recording sheet comprising a polymer which contains a quaternary ammonium base in its molecule, of which the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) calculated based on an organic conceptual diagram is 1.0 or less and the cation density (meq/g) is 3.0 or less and which is soluble in at least one of water and an organic solvent. A second aspect of the present invention is an ink jet recording sheet provided with a colorant receptor layer on a support, the colorant receptor layer containing a polymer which contains an inorganic pigment fine particle, a water-soluble resin and a quaternary ammonium base in its molecule, of which the ratio of inorganicity/organicity (I/O value) calculated based on an organic conceptual diagram is 1.0 or less and the cation density (meq/g) is 3.0 or less and which is soluble in at least one of water and an organic solvent. A third aspect of the present invention is an ink jet recording sheet according to the above aspect, wherein the colorant receptor layer is obtained by applying a first coating solution containing the inorganic pigment fine particle and the water-soluble resin to the support and by applying a second coating solution containing the polymer, at least at one time of (1) a time when the first coating solution is applied, (2) a time during drying the coating layer before the coating layer shows a falling drying rate and (3) a time after the coating layer has dried and formed a coating film.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to phosphohexuloisomerase and a DNA coding for it. More precisely, the present invention related to phosphohexuloisomerase derived from a thermotolerant bacterium, Bacillus brevis, and a DNA coding for it. 2. Description of the Related Art Among organisms that can utilize single carbon (C1) compounds such as methane and methanol as a carbon source (methylotrophs), there are known those having the ribulose monophosphate (RuMP) pathway as a pathway for metabolizing such compounds. Important key enzymes of this pathway are hexulose phosphate synthase (HPS, 3-hexulose-6-phosphate synthase), which catalyzes the initial reaction of the ribulose monophosphate pathway, and phosphohexuloisomerase (PHI, phospho-3-hexuloisomerase), which catalyzes the subsequent reaction. By the way, biochemical substances in which specific position of a target compound molecule is labeled with a stable isotope, carbon 13 (13C), are useful for study of biological metabolic pathway. Furthermore, it has recently become a very important technique to investigate behaviors of metabolic products in living bodies by using carbon 13-NMR techniques in diagnosis of various diseases and daily health examination. For such novel techniques, it is necessary and desired to provide compounds labeled at a certain target position with carbon 13 at a low cost. As one of systems for producing such target compounds as mentioned above, a method can be conceived, in which a series of enzymes are prepared for synthesizing labeled D-fructose 6-phosphate using labeled formaldehyde and ribulose 5-phosphate, and a target labeled compound is efficiently prepared in a reaction system utilizing the enzymes. Hexulose phosphate synthase, which is an enzyme initially acts in the reaction system, has been isolated from several kinds of microorganisms, and some of its characteristics have been elucidated. Such microorganisms include, for example, Methylomonas capsulatus (J. R. Quayle, Methods in Enzymology, 188, p.314, 1990), Methylomonas M15 strain (Methods in Enzymology, 188, p.319, 1990), Methylomonas aminofaciens 77a strain (Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 523, p.236, 1978), Mycobacterium gastri MB19 (Methods in Enzymology, 188, p.393, 1990), and Acetobacter methanolicus MB58 (Methods in Enzymology, 188, p.401, 1990). Further, as for phosphohexuloisomerase, it has been partially purified from Methylomonas aminofaciens 77a strain (Agric. Biol. Chem., 41 (7), p1133, 1977), and a purified enzyme and a gene coding for it were isolated from a gram-positive facultative methanol assimilating bacterium, Mycobacterium gastri (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication (Kokai) No. 11-127869). Enzymes and proteins produced by thermotolerant bacteria are generally stable at a high temperature, and most of them are also stable against pH variation and organic solvents. Therefore, applications thereof have been highly developed as diagnostic agents, industrial catalysts and so forth. As a C1 metabolic system enzyme of thermotolerant methanol assimilating bacteria, only hexulose phosphate synthase has been purified from Bacillus methanolicus C1 strain (Methods in Enzymology, 188, p.393, 1990), and its detailed structure and gene therefor are unknown. On the other hand, as for phosphohexuloisomerase of thermotolerant bacteria, not only the structure of enzyme protein and gene therefor, but also purification of the enzyme have not been reported. The inventors of the present invention found that, in the course of cloning of a gene coding for hexulose phosphate synthase (henceforth also referred to as xe2x80x9chpsxe2x80x9d) of Bacillus brevis S1 strain, a gene coding for PHI (henceforth also referred to as xe2x80x9cphixe2x80x9d) existed in the DNA fragment containing hps. And they isolated the phi gene, introduced this gene into an Escherichia coli cell, and examined activity of the expression product to confirm that the gene coded for PHI. Thus, they accomplished the present invention. That is, the present invention provides the followings. (1) A DNA coding for a protein defined in the following (A) or (B): (A) a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 shown in Sequence Listing, (B) a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 shown in Sequence Listing including substitution, deletion, insertion or addition of one or several amino acid residues and having phosphohexulose isomerase activity. (2) The DNA according to (1), which is a DNA defined in the following (a) or (b): (a) a DNA containing a nucleotide sequence consisting of at least the residues of nucleotide numbers 1149-1700 of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 shown in Sequence Listing, (b) a DNA which is hybridizable with a nucleotide sequence consisting of at least the residues of nucleotide numbers 1149-1700 of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 12 shown in Sequence Listing under a stringent condition, and codes for a protein having phosphohexulose isomerase activity. (3) A cell into which a DNA according to (1) or (2) is introduced in such a manner that phosphohexulose isomerase encoded by the DNA can be expressed. (4) A method for producing phosphohexulose isomerase, comprising culturing the cell according to (3) in a medium to produce and accumulate phosphohexulose isomerase in culture, and collecting the phosphohexulose isomerase from the culture. (5) A protein defined in the following (A) or (B): (A) a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 shown in Sequence Listing, (B) a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 shown in Sequence Listing including substitution, deletion, insertion or addition of one or several amino acid residues and having phosphohexulose isomerase activity. According to the present invention, a DNA coding for phosphohexuloisomerase is obtained, and this enables efficient production of that enzyme. As a result, it becomes possible to provide labeled substances that are important and required for medicine or biochemical basic research in large quantities at low cost. Hereafter, the present invention will be explained in detail. less than 1 greater than DNA of the Present Invention The DNA of the present invention was found in the DNA fragment containing hps gene of Bacillus brevis S1 strain adjacent to and downstream from the hps gene, and it can be isolated and obtained from chromosomal DNA of Bacillus brevis. Specifically, as shown in the examples described later, the DNA of the present invention was obtained from chromosomal DNA of Bacillus brevis as follows. First, HPS is purified from Bacillus brevis. As the Bacillus brevis, the Bacillus brevis S1 strain can be mentioned. This strain is subcultured at NCIMB (The National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria) with the accession number of NCIMB12524. HPS can be purified from cell free extract of the S1 strain by Q-Sepharose column chromatography, Buthyl-Toyopearl column chromatography and Superdex 200 column chromatography to such a degree that it can be detected as a single band in SDS-PAGE. In each purification step, HPS activity can be measured by the method described in Methods in Enzymology, vol. 188, 397-401 (1990). A partial amino acid sequence of the purified HPS is determined, and oligonucleotide primers for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) are synthesized based on the obtained amino acid sequence information. Then, PCR is performed by using genomic DNA prepared from the Bacillus brevis S1 strain as a template. The genomic DNA can be obtained by the method of Saito et al. (described in Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 72, 619-629 (1963)). If the oligonucleotides having the nucleotide sequences of SEQ ID NOS: 7 and 8 shown in Sequence Listing are used as primers, a DNA fragment of about 400 bp will be obtained by the above PCR. Then, based on the nucleotide sequence of the hps fragment obtained as described above, a DNA fragment containing the hps gene in its full length is obtained from Bacillus brevis S1 strain chromosomal DNA by, for example, the inverted PCR method (Genetics, vol. 120, pp.621-623, 1988) using oligonucleotides having the nucleotide sequences of SEQ ID NOS: 9 and 10 as primers. At first, the inventors of the present invention attempted to screen a genomic library of Bacillus brevis S1 strain by using the aforementioned hps fragment of about 400 bps as a probe. However, although the possible cause was unknown, probably because a problem resided in the ligation of the chromosomal DNA fragment to the vector, colonies having a number of genomic libraries sufficient for the screening could not be formed, and thus they had to give up use of the ordinary method. Therefore, they attempted the cloning by the inverted PCR technique as described above, and successfully obtained a DNA fragment containing the hps gene. The result of nucleotide sequence determination for about 1.8 kb in the clone fragment in a length of about 3 kb obtained as described above is shown in Sequence Listing as SEQ ID NO: 1. In this region, two open reading frames (orfs) were contained. The amino acid sequences encoded by each orf are shown in SEQ ID NOS: 2 and 3 from the 5xe2x80x2 end side. Since the first orf among these completely coincided to a partial amino acid sequence of HPS, it was demonstrated to be hps. On the other hand, the second orf was confirmed to be phi, i.e., the DNA of the present invention, by investigating the activity of a protein obtained by expressing this orf. When homology searching was performed for the nucleotide sequence of phi and the amino acid sequence encoded thereby by using commercially available software (GENETYX), they showed 65.6% of homology on the nucleotide level and 64.3% of homology on the amino acid level to ykcF of Bacillus subtillis. The homology was calculated as a ratio of the number of exactly the same amino acid residues in yckF and phi to the total number of amino acid residues encoded by yckF. As described above, while the DNA of the present invention was discovered by chance in connection with the purification of HPS and isolation of hps, the DNA of the present invention was obtained by expressing the second orf and confirming the activity of the expressed product based on a conception that the second orf should code for phi. The DNA of the present invention was obtained as described above. However, since its nucleotide sequence and the amino acid sequence encoded thereby were elucidated by the present invention, the DNA of the present invention can then be obtained from a genomic DNA library of a thermotolerant bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus, for example, Bacillus brevis S1 strain, by hybridization utilizing an oligonucleotide produced based on the nucleotide sequence or amino acid sequence as a probe. The DNA of the present invention can also be obtained by performing PCR utilizing the aforementioned oligonucleotide as a primer and genomic DNA of a thermotolerant bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus as a template. Methods for construction of genomic DNA library, hybridization, PCR, preparation of plasmid DNA, digestion and ligation of DNA, transformation and so forth are described in by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F., Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1.21 (1989). The Escherichia coli JM109/pKPS1 harboring a plasmid pKPS1 containing the DNA of the present invention and expressing PHI under control of tac promoter, which was obtained in the examples mentioned later and given a private number of AJ13707, was deposited on Jul. 5, 2000 at the National Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology (currently, the independent administrative corporation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, International Patent Organism Depositary)(Chuo Dai-6, 1-1 Higashi 1-Chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan, postal code: 305-5466) as the accession number of FERM P-17952, and transferred from the original deposit to international deposit based on Budapest Treaty on Jun. 25, 2001, and has been deposited as the accession number of FERM BP-7639. The DNA of the present invention may code for PHI including substitution, deletion, insertion or addition of one or several amino acid residues at one or a plurality of positions, provided that the activity of encoded PHI is not deteriorated. The number of xe2x80x9cseveralxe2x80x9d amino acid residues differs depending on positions or types of amino acid residues in the three-dimensional structure of the protein. However, the encoded PHI may be one showing homology of 65% or more, preferably 80% or more, to the total amino acid sequence constituting PHI and having the PHI activity. Specifically, the number of xe2x80x9cseveralxe2x80x9d amino acid residues is preferably 2-60, more preferably 2-30, further preferably 2-10. A DNA coding for substantially the same protein as PHI described above can be obtained by, for example, modifying the nucleotide sequence by, for example, the site-directed mutagenesis method so that the amino acid sequence should involve substitution, deletion, insertion or addition of one or more amino acid residues at a specified site. Such a DNA modified as described above may also be obtained by a conventionally known mutation treatment. The mutation treatment includes a method of treating DNA coding for PHI in vitro, for example, with hydroxylamine, and a method for treating a microorganism, for example, a bacterium belonging to the genus Escherichia, harboring a DNA coding for PHI with ultraviolet irradiation or a mutating agent usually used for mutation treatment such as N-methyl-Nxe2x80x2-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) and nitrous acid. The substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of nucleotide as described above also includes a naturally occurring mutant or variant on the basis of, for example, individual difference or difference in species or genus of microorganisms that harbor phi. A DNA coding for substantially the same protein as PHI described above can be obtained by expressing such a DNA having a mutation as described above in a suitable cell, and examining the PHI activity of the expression product. A DNA coding for substantially the same protein as PHI can also be obtained by isolating a DNA hybridizable with a DNA having, for example, the nucleotide sequence corresponding to nucleotide numbers of 1149-1700 of the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 or a probe that can be prepared from the nucleotide sequence under a stringent condition, and coding for a protein having the PHI activity from a DNA coding for PHI including a mutation or a cell harboring it. The xe2x80x9cstringent conditionxe2x80x9d referred to herein is a condition under which so-called specific hybrid is formed, and non-specific hybrid is not formed. It is difficult to clearly express this condition by using any numerical value. However, for example, the stringent condition includes a condition under which DNA""s having high homology, for example, DNA""s having homology of not less than 70% are hybridized with each other, and DNA""s having homology lower than the above level are not hybridized with each other. Alternatively, the stringent condition is exemplified by a condition under which DNA""s are hybridized with each other at a salt concentration corresponding to an ordinary condition of washing in Southern hybridization, i.e., 1xc3x97SSC, 0.1% SDS, preferably 0.1xc3x97SSC, 0.1% SDS, at 60xc2x0 C. As the probe, a partial sequence of the phi gene can also be used. Such a probe can be produced by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) using oligonucleotides produced based on the nucleotide sequence of each gene as primers and a DNA fragment containing each gene as a template. When a DNA fragment in a length of about 300 bp is used as the probe, the washing condition for the hybridization may consists of 50xc2x0 C., 2xc3x97SSC and 0.1% SDS. Genes hybridizable under such a condition as described above include those having a stop codon generated in a coding region of the genes, and those having no activity due to mutation of active center. However, such mutants can be readily removed by ligating each of the genes with a commercially available activity expression vector, and measuring the PHI activity by the method described above. less than 2 greater than Production of Hexulose Phosphate Isomerase PHI can be produced by allowing expression of the aforementioned DNA of the present invention using a suitable host-vector system. As the host for the expression of the phi gene, there can be mentioned various prokaryote cells including Escherichia coli and various eucaryote cells including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, animal cells and plant cells. Among these, prokaryote cells, especially Escherichia coil cells, are preferred. As the vector for introducing the phi gene into the aforementioned host, there can be mentioned, for example, pUC19, pUC18, pBR322, pHSG299, pHSG298, pHSG399, pHSG398, RSF1010, pMW119, pMW118, pMW219, pMW218 and so forth. Other than these, a vector of phage DNA can also be used. The phi gene can be introduced into the host by transforming the host with a recombinant vector obtained by ligating the phi gene to any one of those vectors. The phi gene may also be introduced into genome of the host by a method using transduction, transposon (Berg, D. E. and Berg C. M., Bio/Technol., 1, 417 (1983)), Mu phage (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2-109985/1990) or homologous recombination (Experiments in Molecular Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor Lab. (1972)). Further, in order to obtain efficient expression of the phi gene, a promoter functioning in the host cell such as lac, trp and PL may be ligated to the DNA sequence coding for PHI in its upstream region. If a vector containing a promoter is used as the vector, the ligation of the phi gene, vector and promoter can be performed at once. As such a vector, pKK 223-3 containing tac promoter (Pharmacia) can be mentioned. For the transformation, there can be used, for example, a method of treating recipient cells with calcium chloride so as to increase the permeability for DNA, which has been reported for Escherichia coli K-12 (Mandel, M. and Higa, A., J. Mol. Biol., 53, 159 (1970)); and a method of preparing competent cells from cells which are at the growth phase followed by introducing the DNA thereinto, which has been reported for Bacillus subtilis (Duncan, C. H., Wilson, G. A. and Young, F. E., Gene, 1, 153 (1977)). In addition to these, also employable is a method of making DNA-recipient cells into protoplasts or spheroplasts, which can easily take up recombinant DNA, followed by introducing the recombinant DNA into the cells, which method is known to be applicable to Bacillus subtilis, actinomycetes and yeasts (Chang, S. and Choen, S. N., Molec. Gen. Genet., 168, 111 (1979); Bibb, M. J., Ward, J. M. and Hopwood, O. A., Nature, 274, 398 (1978); Hinnen, A., Hicks, J. B. and Fink, G. R., Proc. Natl. Sci. USA, 75, 1929 (1978)). The method for transformation may be suitably selected from these methods depending on the cells used as the host. Although the phi gene may be any one so long as it shows the PHI activity when it is expressed, it is preferably a gene containing a DNA coding for the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 shown in Sequence Listing, or a DNA containing the nucleotide residues of the nucleotide numbers 1149-1700 in the nucleotide sequences of SEQ ID NO: 1 shown in of Sequence Listing. Further, as mentioned above, it may be one containing a DNA coding for PHI including substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one or several amino acid residues at one or a plurality of positions, so long as the activity of the encoded PHI is not deteriorated. PHI can be produced by culturing a cell introduced with the phi gene as described above in a medium to produce and accumulated PHI in culture, and collecting PHI from the culture. The medium used for the culture can be suitably selected depending on a host to be used. When Escherichia coli is used as the host and phi is expressed with the aid of tac promoter, if the host is cultured in a medium such as LB medium at 37xc2x0 C., IPTG (isopropyl-xc3xa2-D-thiogalactopyranoside), which is an inducer for the tac promoter, is added at a final concentration of 0.5 mM several hours after the start of the culture, and the culture is further continued, PHI is accumulated in the cells. When extracellular secretion of PHI is allowed by using a suitable secretion system, PHI is accumulated in the medium. PHI produced as described above can be purified from cell extract or medium by using usual purification methods for enzymes such as ion exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, adsorption chromatography and solvent precipitation as required. PHI obtained by the present invention can be used for producing [1-13C] D-glucose 6-phosphate from methanol labeled with carbon 13. The preparation of this [1-13C] D-glucose 6-phosphate can be performed as follows, for example. Methanol is oxidized into formaldehyde by using alcohol oxidase prepared from methanol assimilating yeast, Candida boidinii. The obtained formaldehyde is condensed with ribulose 5-phosphate through aldol condensation by the action of HPS to form arabino-3-hexulose 6-phosphate. In this case, since ribulose 5-phosphate is unstable, ribose 5-phosphate is isomerized into ribulose 5-phosphate by the action of phosphoriboisomerase in the same reaction system for use in the HPS reaction. The arabino-3-hexulose 6-phosphate produced in the aforementioned reaction is converted into fructose 6-phosphate by the action of PHI, which is further converted into glucose 6-phosphate by the action of glucose 6-phosphate isomerase. Because the PHI content is markedly lower than the HPS content in general, it is difficult to utilize PHI for the aforementioned reaction in most of cases. Further, it is considered that the reaction can be continued for a long period of time by using PHI of a thermotolerant bacterium. Since phi of a thermotolerant bacterium was isolated and a method for efficiently producing PHI was provided by the present invention, it became possible to stably perform the aforementioned reaction for practical use. Hereafter, the present invention will be explained more specifically with reference to the following examples. First, the method for measurement of HPS activity (Methods in Enzymology, vol. 188, 397-401 (1990)) used in the examples will be explained. [Method for Measurement of HPS Activity] To 0.15 ml of water, 0.05 ml each of the following Solutions A to E were added and mixed in a cuvette (d=1.0 cm), and preliminarily heated at 30xc2x0 C. for about 3 minutes. To the cuvette, 0.1 ml of 10 mM formaldehyde solution was added to start the reaction. The reaction was allowed at 30xc2x0 C. for 5 minutes, and then 0.1 ml of 0.5 N hydrochloric acid was added to the mixture to stop the reaction. The reaction mixture was diluted 20 times and added with 2 ml of Nash reagent (described in Biochem. J., 55, 416, 1953), and decrease of formaldehyde in the reaction mixture was measured. In a control experiment, water was used instead of the ribose 5-phosphate solution. [Reagents] A: 500 mM Potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.5 B: 50 mM Magnesium chloride aqueous solution C: 50 mM Ribose 5-phosphate aqueous solution D: 100 U/ml of phosphoriboisomerase solution E: Enzyme preparation (50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.5) containing 1 mM DTT)

Field The present invention is directed generally to devices and applications for the use of wireless control and wireless power in lighting devices. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of wireless control and wireless power in light emitting diode (LED) based devices primarily for illumination purposes. Description of the Related Art Conservation and management of electrical power are a growing concern with regard to both cost and environmental impact. In various lighting applications, the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) for illumination is beginning to emerge as a lighting source with potential for addressing these concerns. LED light sources have a long life, are energy efficient, are durable and operate over a wide temperature range. While LED lighting is becoming an attractive option for certain applications, it is not optimal for many applications. Therefore, there is a need for improved LED lighting systems.

Junction gate field effect transistors (JFET) provide various useful characteristics, such as low noise, fast switching speed, high power handling capability, etc. These characteristics make JFETs a design consideration in various power applications, such as power amplifiers.

Mobile devices commonly have graphics display systems that include a host, a camera, and a display device. They also include a graphics controller for driving the display device and interfacing the host, camera, and display device to one another. The host may be a CPU or a digital signal processor. The graphics controller commonly includes an embedded memory for storing image data. A mobile device may be, for example, a mobile telephone, personal digital assistant, digital camera, or a digital music player. Mobile devices typically rely primarily on a battery for power. To maximize battery life in these devices, it is important to minimize power consumption. It is also important to minimize the size of the memory which reduces cost and also reduces power consumption. The graphics display systems in mobile devices employ a variety of techniques for minimizing power consumption and memory size. Many of these techniques are not employed in larger, stationary systems, such as personal computers which generally have more memory, faster processors, and less critical power constraints. Use of some of these power saving techniques in mobile devices may result in a modest reduction in image fidelity, which is acceptable because the reduction is not readily noticeable by the human eye. Sometimes, however, these techniques may create artifacts on the display screen that are quite noticeable and therefore undesirable. One noticeably artifact is a gray fringe that sometimes appears around the periphery of dark text that has been overlaid on a background image, such as a photograph. Accordingly, methods and apparatus for making an edge artifact associated with an overlay image less conspicuous would be desirable.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to spray devices for applying liquids to ground surfaces from a moving vehicle, and more particularly, the invention relates to an improved spray device for mounting upon a wheeled carrier for applying low volumes of agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and plant growth regulators in a manner to prevent dribble from the applicator and subsequent plant burn. 2. Discussion of the Prior Art There are a number of known types of spray devices which are available for the ground application of various types of treatment liquids, such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fertilizers, plant growth regulators and other agricultural chemicals. Most often, such applications are accomplished by the use of suitable spray nozzles which may be mounted upon vehicles through an intermediate boom or extension device. A chemical storage tank of suitable capacity is mounted upon the vehicle and is in fluid communication with the spray nozzles whereby the nozzles can be directed to apply the product upon either a generally horizontal spray target area, such as golf course turf or farm growing areas or on generally vertically extending target spray areas, for example, the shrubbery and other growth that can be present immediately adjacent to the lateral edges of vehicular highways. One suitable spray device for this purpose has been developed by the present applicant and forms the subject matter of a copending patent application entitled "Ground Spray Applicator", filed July 15, 1986, Ser. No. 885,773, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,963. The previously available agricultural spray devices, including the device described in the said copending patent application all generally exhibited a common problem in that the nozzles exhibited a tendency to drip or dribble during spraying whereby droplets or an accumulated amount of liquid chemical composition could be developed at the spray nozzles and could be dripped directly upon the ground surface, rather than be distributed as part of a uniform fine spray mist pattern. Normally speaking, when the spray target area comprised a relatively rough or unfinished area, for example the lateral edges of most highways, then the inherent dribble attendant with the spray equipment was either not noticeable or not of sufficient consequence to require any changes in the equipment. However, when the spray target area comprised an agriculturally improved and finished area, for example, the fairways and greens of a golf course, then such dribble was both noticeable and unacceptable. Prior workers in the art have become aware of the unacceptable nature of the spray dribble when the liquid chemical droplets settled to the ground. The droplets would then apply an increased concentration of liquid chemical product upon a greatly decreased agricultural surface than would normally be encountered when the material was delivered in the usual fine spray or mist configuration. Such chemical concentration could easily burn or otherwise damage the effected turf areas, thereby killing the grass in a highly visible manner that was entirely unacceptable and inexcusable. Additionally, following completion of a spraying operation, the main chemical supply valve was then normally or electrically functioned to close the valve. The valve closure usually resulted in trapping a small quantity of liquid chemical in the hose or hoses intermediate the chemical storage tank and the spray nozzles. This trapped material could often escape through the nozzles to thereby fall upon the ground in concentrated form, to additionally cause unintentional grass burn. While such dribble or dripping could be considered to be inherent in the usual spray apparatus of the type currently available for agricultural chemical delivery, and even though there must be a small amount of liquid chemical inherently remaining in the hoses after shut off of the main supply valve, the need remains to find a simple solution to the dribble problem to prevent damage to finished grass areas.

This invention relates to a method for the treatment and prevention of climacteric disorders during aging in males, such as increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases, etc., which may be associated with the continuous reduction in serum testosterone levels in men as they age, and becomes problematic in middle-age, with a nitric oxide synthase substrate (e.g., L-arginine), a nitric oxide donor or both, in combination with androgen hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and/or an aromatase inhibitor, which provides an increase in endogenous testosterone levels. It is now well known that HRT, such as estrogen treatment, improves or reverses the adverse effects of the decrease in sex steroid secretion by the ovaries during menopause in women. Estrogens have also been shown to improve mood and psychological well-being in postmenopausal women and they also prevent atrophic changes in the genital tract. Estrogens have been shown to effect arterial tone and this may help to explain the reduction in hot flushes observed in postmenopausal women with estrogen therapy. One of the most exciting recent advances in biology and medicine is the discovery that nitric oxide is produced by endothelial cells and that it is involved in the regulation of vascular tone, platelet aggregation, neurotransmission and immune activation (Furchgott and Zawadzki, 1980; Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991; Ignarro, 1991). Nitric oxide is an important mediator of relaxation of the muscular smooth muscle (Montada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991) and was formerly known as EDRF (endothelin-derived relaxing factor) (Furchgott and Zawadzki, 1980; Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991). Nitric oxide is synthesized by the oxidative deamination of a guanidino nitrogen of L-arginine by at least three different isoforms of a flavin-containing enzyme, nitric oxide synthase (Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991). Synthesis of nitric oxide has been shown to be competitively inhibited by analogues of L-arginine; NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), NG-monoethyl-L-arginine (LMMA), N-iminoethyl-L-ornithine (L-NIO), L-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NNMA) and L-NG-methylarginine (LNMA) and Nw-nitro-L-arginine (L-NA). Nitric oxide elevates levels of cGMP (1,3,5-cyclic guanosine monophosphate) within the vascular smooth muscle to produce relaxation and to reduce blood vessels tone (Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991). Nitric oxide binds to heme and thus activates soluble guanylate cyclase (Ignarro, 1991) to increase the cellular content of cGMP. It has long been recognized that nitrovasodilators, such as nitroprusside and nitroglycerin, inhibit vascular smooth muscle contractility to produce relaxation or to reduce vascular tone. These agents have been used since the late 1800's as vasodilators. However, only recently has the mechanism of action of these compounds been realized. Nitrovasodilators are now classified as nitric oxide donors because they are metabolized to release nitric oxide (Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991). The long-used nitrovasodilators may be regarded as substitution therapy for a failing physiological mechanism. Nitric oxide is also produced by macrophages and other immune cells. There is a substantial body of evidence from animal experiments that a deficiency in nitric oxide contributes to the pathogenesis of a number of diseases, including hypertension, atherosclerosis and diabetes, and erectile dysfunction in men (Moncada, Palmer and Higgs, 1991). There are many recent studies showing that the inhibition of nitric oxide synthase dramatically increases blood pressure. The inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis with L-NNMA, L-NA or L-NAME causes long-lasting elevation in blood pressure and suggests that its reduction may contribute to the pathogenesis of hypertension (Moncada and Palmer, 1992). Furthermore, L-NAME-treatment potentiates presser responses to angiotensin II, vasopressin and norepinephrine. Also, in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension, release of nitric oxide by umbilical vessels in blunted (Pinto et al, 1991) and the physiological decrease in blood pressure in pregnant spontaneous hypertensive rats was shown to depend on endothelial nitric oxide (Ahokas, Merces and Sibai, 1991). Additionally, infusion of L-NA increases blood-pressure in pregnant rats and potentiates responses to vasopressors (Molnar and Hertelendy, 1992). These studies suggest that impaired nitric oxide synthesis may be an important mechanism in the etiology of cardiovascular problems. Nitric oxide synthesis and nitric oxide effector system (cGMP-dependent relaxation mechanism) are thought to be regulated by steroid hormones. There is an increase in cardiovascular diseases in women following menopause and which may be related to the decrease in sex steroids and an alteration in nitric oxide. Female steroid hormones have been shown to modulate endothelium-dependent relaxation of vascular smooth muscle by nitric oxide. Estradiol treatment of rats causes increased nitric oxide production by vascular tissues, whereas progesterone counteracts this phenomenon (Miller and Van Houtte, 1991). It is well known that pregnancy is associated with an increase in cardiac output and a decrease in the resistance of virtually all the vascular beds in the body. Although the mechanism of this phenomenon is not known, it could be associated with changes in nitric oxide production or effects as a result of elevated steroid hormone levels. One important observation with regard to the above mechanism is that antiprogestins (RU 486) elevate blood pressure in animals (Kalimi, 1989) and they produce hot flushes in humans, both males (Grunberg et al., 1993) and females (Kettel et al., 1991). The hot flushes may be mediated by the steroid action on the release of nitric oxide. Hot flushes are a primary symptom in menopausal and postmenopausal women and they are relieved by both estrogen and progesterone (Avis et al., 1993). Another symptom of climacterium in both men and women is osteoporosis. There is also growing evidence that nitric oxide mediates steroid (estrogen and/or progestin) effects on bones (C. W. G. M. Lowik et al., J. Clin. Invest., 93:1465-1472 (1994); T. P. Kasten et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:2936-2940 (1991); M. Zaidi et al., Bone 14:97-102 (1993); A. S. M. Towhidul Alam et al., Bioscience Reports 12:369 (1992)). The studies described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 153,345, filed Nov. 16, 1993, show that nitric oxide and the subsequent relaxation of the uterus is controlled by progesterone. The relaxation effects of the nitric oxide substrate, L-arginine, are greater in late pregnancy when progesterone levels are elevated in pregnant rats. Also there is greater uterine relaxation with L-arginine when uterine strips are taken from nonpregnant, ovariectomized rats treated with progesterone. In addition, treatment with pregnant rats with the nitric oxide inhibitor produces signs and symptoms of preeclampsia (e.g., hypertension, fetal retardation and proteinuria--the classical triad of preeclampsia). These symptoms are related to the decrease in vascular resistance and placental perfusion. Preeclampsia is a well known model of atherosclerosis as the decrease in placental perfusion is accompanied by increased fibrin deposition in placental vessels and increased thrombus formation (Roberts et al., 1989). Thus, nitric oxide substrates and/or donors alone or in combination with estrogen and progesterone are particularly efficacious for hormone replacement therapy to prevent climacteric symptoms (climacterium) such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, hot flushes, etc. in women. EP 0441 119 A2 discloses the use of L-arginine in the treatment of hypertension and other vascular disorders. It suggests that the mechanism by which L-arginine is effective for this purpose is because it may be the physiological precursor of "the most powerful endothelial-derived releasing factor, nitric oxide." The use of L-arginine in combination with other pharmaceutically active agents is not discussed in this publication.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laminated transparent plastic material and a novel polymerizable monomer. The laminated transparent plastic material may be used as a transparent material for a glazing material such as outside windows of vehicles, rail way trains, airplanes or the like required to have good visibility, protecting function and safety, windows of the partition plates in the vehicles, airplanes or the like, outside windows of various buildings and edifices, and parts of roofs, ceilings and walls through which light is introduced thereinto, or as a protective cover for measuring instruments or various machines and apparatuses. The polymerizable monomer may be useful as a starting material for producing high hardness transparent resins which can be resin materials for laminated transparent plastic material. 2. Description of the Related Art Inorganic glass is excellent not only in transparency, but also in various other physicals properties, and therefore, it is widely used as a transparent material. However, inorganic glass is easily broken and the shape of the broken piece is dangerous so that it has been problematic from the standpoint of safety. Moreover, various lightweight materials have been recently demanded, and therefore there is a strong tendency that inorganic glass as a transparent material is replaced by transparent resins and composite resin. Heretofore, transparent thermoplastic resin shaped articles, in particular, those of polymethyl methacrylate resin, polycarbonate resins and the like, have been used for various purposes since these molded articles are excellent in transparency, mechanical properties, in particular, impact resistance, further, workability and productivity, and have also good appearance. Examples of applications of transparent thermoplastic resin molded articles include glazing materials, for example, windows for buildings such as educational or cultural facilities, sports facilities, railway station buildings and the like, a part of roofs, protecting walls such as shelter for superhighway and the like, and water tanks for aquariums. In addition, transparent thermoplastic resin shaped articles are used as protective covers for liquid crystal apparatuses and lighting apparatuses, and display apparatuses such as those for computers, and further, signboards and indicating boards. However, these resins are linear polymers and therefore, do not always have sufficient surface hardness, stiffness, heat resistance and chemical resistance. For purposes of improving these physical properties, silicone resins and acrylic resins are generally used for hard coating treatment, but in this case the solvents should be selected from very limited types of solvents from the standpoints of chemical resistance. Further, according to the present level of coating technique, the thickness of the coating film is at most about 0.1 mm. Therefore, the surface hardness and chemical resistance of such resins can be fairly improved, but in view of the available maximum thickness of the coating film as mentioned above, it can not be expected to improve so far as heat resistance and stiffness. And when molded products of such resins are used as various members, thick molded products are required to prevent the members from deforming due to outer pressure or wind pressure. As a transparent resin excellent in surface hardness and having an improved impact strength, diethylene glycol diallyl carbonate resins are widely known, but the volume shrinkage is as high as 14% and a long time is required until the polymerization is completed and moreover, the impact strength is still insufficient. As mentioned above, there have not yet been found resins which can be satisfactorily used as a transparent material such as glazing materials. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in prior art, there are proposed various laminated resins as shown below. (1) A laminated resin composed of a polymer or copolymer of monomer components containing a polymerizable monomer of (meth)acrylic acid esters as a substrate and a polymerizable monomer or prepolymer of (meth)acrylic acid ester capable of giving a more flexibility applied to the surface of the substrate or poured in between two sheets of the substrates to laminate the two substrates (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho 53-2576); PA1 (2) A laminated resin composed of a polyurethane layer and an acrylic polymer layer, the two layers being independent from each other and simultaneously being penetrated into each other (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho 63-252738); PA1 (3) A laminated resin composed of a polycarbonate resin molded product and a cured film of a ladder type silicone type oligomer formed on the surface of the polycarbonate resin molded product with an intervening (meth)acrylic acid ester copolymer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 3-287634); PA1 (4) As a laminated resin intending to improve weatherability which is further demanded for resins used as a transparent material, a laminated resin produced by laminating a thermoplastic resin of high weatherability with a substrate of acrylic resin (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 3-30945). PA1 (5) There are proposed laminated resins produced by laminating a polymethyl (meth)acrylate resin to a polycarbonate resin molded product excellent in impact resistance so as to impart heat resistance and weatherability (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,810,815, 3,933,964), but so far an improvement in surface hardness and stiffness can not be expected. In view of the foregoing, there have not yet been found novel materials for transparent resin molded products which possess satisfactory characteristics widely usable in industry, for example, as glazing materials. PA1 Y is selected from the group consisting of ##STR12## n is an integer of 1-4, m is an integer of 1-6, PA1 (n+m) is an integer of at least 3, PA1 when n=1, X is oxygen or sulfur, PA1 when n.gtoreq.2, X or X's are all oxygen or all sulfur, one or PA1 two X's are oxygen while the other X or X's are sulfur, or PA1 one X is sulfur while the other X or X's are oxygen. PA1 R.sub.1 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and methyl, PA1 Y is selected from the group consisting of ##STR18## n is an integer of 1-4, m is an integer of 1-6, and (n+m) is an integer of at least 3. PA1 R.sub.1 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and methyl, PA1 1 is of zero or one, PA1 i and j are integers of one or more, PA1 when 1 is zero, i=j=one, PA1 when 1 is one, (i+j) is 4 or less, PA1 when j is one, X is oxygen or sulfur, PA1 when j.gtoreq.2, X's are all oxygen or all sulfur, one X is oxygen and the other X or X's are sulfur, or one X is sulfur and the other X or X's are oxygen. PA1 and the like. PA1 (2) Compounds produced by reacting isopropenylphenol with a compound having both at least one of the above-mentioned functional groups (8) and (5) and at least one of functional groups capable of reacting with the phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenyl phenol such as --COOH, --COCl, haloalkyl, --SO.sub.3 R (R=alkyl or aryl), --NCO, --NCS, epoxy and the like. PA1 (3) Compounds produced by reacting isopropenylphenol with a compound having both at least one functional group capable of reacting with the phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenylphenol and PA1 (4) Compounds produced by reacting a compound having at least one epoxy group with isopropenylphenol to open the ring and reacting the resulting product with (meth)acrylic acid or its acid chloride. PA1 esterification reaction of the phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenyl phenol with --COOH or --COCl group of the above-mentioned compounds; PA1 etherification reaction with haloalkyl, --SO.sub.3 R (R is alkyl or aryl); urethane forming reaction with --NCO group, --NCS group; PA1 an etherification reaction product produced by reacting a compound having at least one haloalkyl and at least one --OH group in one molecule with isopropenylphenol, for example, PA1 an etherification reaction product produced by the reaction of PA1 an esterification reaction product produced by the reaction of a compound having, in one molecule, at least one of --COOH, --COCl and --COBr and at least one of haloalkyl with isopropenylphenol, for example, PA1 an esterification reaction product produced by the reaction of PA1 3-bromopropionyl chloride, PA1 (1) a compound producible by a carbamic acid esterification reaction of the phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenylphenol with the isocyanate group of isopropenyl-.alpha.,.alpha.-dimethylbenzylisocyanate; PA1 (2) a compound producible by subjecting a compound having an aliphatic residue having or not having oxygen atom, alicyclic ring, heterocyclic ring or aromatic ring, or alicyclic residue with 1-2 epoxy groups or thiirane groups to a ring-opening reaction using isopropenylphenol, and reacting the resulting --OH group or --SH group formed by the ring opening reaction with the isocyanate group of isopropenyl-.alpha.,.alpha.-dimethylbenzylisocyanate to effect a carbamic acid esterification reaction or a thiocarbamic acid esterification; PA1 (3) a compound producible by subjecting a compound having an aliphatic residue having or not having oxygen atom, alicyclic ring, heterocyclic ring or aromatic ring, or alicyclic residue with both at least one haloalkyl group capable of reacting with a phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenylphenol and at least one of --OH group and --SH group to an etherification reaction with the phenolic hydroxyl group of isopropenylphenol, and then reacting the --OH group and/or --SH group with the isocyanate group of isopropenyl-.alpha.,.alpha.-dimethylbenzylisocyanate to effect a carbamic acid esterification reaction and/or thiocarbamic acid esterification reaction. PA1 CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH--C(.dbd.O)--O--, CH.sub.2 .dbd.C(CH.sub.3)--C(.dbd.O)--O--, ##STR51## though the ratio can not be absolutly determined since it varies depending on the kinds of functional groups and structures of monomers, when the ratio of --SH group is low, the impact resistance can not be sufficiently improved. On the contrary, when the ratio of --SH group is high, the resulting polymer becomes rubbery and the surface hardness and stiffness are lowered to a great extent. These techniques have some drawbacks as to some physical properties. Technique (1) above can improve impact resistance while the surface hardness is not satisfactory. When the sheet of technique (2) above is used alone, the stiffness is not sufficiently assured and the surface hardness is not always sufficient. Technique (3) can improve the surface hardness while the stiffness is not satisfactory. Technique (4) gives a relatively excellent impact resistance and an improved weatherability while the stiffness and surface hardness are not satisfactory.

Pulse oximetry is at present the standard of care for the continuous monitoring of arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2). Pulse oximeters provide instantaneous in-vivo measurements of arterial oxygenation, and thereby provide early warning of arterial hypoxemia, for example. A pulse oximeter comprises a computerized measuring unit and a probe attached to the patient, typically to his or her finger or ear lobe. The probe includes a light source for sending an optical signal through the tissue and a photo detector for receiving the signal after transmission through the tissue. On the basis of the transmitted and received signals, light absorption by the tissue can be determined. During each cardiac cycle, light absorption by the tissue varies cyclically. During the diastolic phase, absorption is caused by venous blood, tissue, bone, and pigments, whereas during the systolic phase there is an increase in absorption, which is caused by the influx of arterial blood into the tissue. Pulse oximeters focus the measurement on this arterial blood portion by determining the difference between the peak absorption during the systolic phase and the constant absorption during the diastolic phase. Pulse oximetry is thus based on the assumption that the pulsatile component of the absorption is due to arterial blood only. Light transmission through an ideal absorbing sample is determined by the known Lambert-Beer equation as follows:Iout=Iine−εDC,  (1)where Iin is the light intensity entering the sample, Iout is the light intensity received from the sample, D is the path length through the sample, ε is the extinction coefficient of the analyte in the sample at a specific wavelength, and C is the concentration of the analyte. When Iin, D, and ε are known, and Iout is measured, the concentration C can be calculated. In pulse oximetry, in order to distinguish between the two species of hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin (HbO2), and deoxyhemoglobin (RHb), absorption must be measured at two different wavelengths, i.e. the probe includes two different light emitting diodes (LEDs). The wavelength values widely used are 660 nm (red) and 940 nm (infrared), since the said two species of hemoglobin have substantially different absorption values at these wavelengths. Each LED is illuminated in turn at a frequency which is typically several hundred Hz. The accuracy of a pulse oximeter is affected by several factors. This is discussed briefly in the following. Firstly, the dyshemoglobins which do not participate in oxygen transport, i.e. methemoglobin (MetHb) and carboxyhemoglobin (CoHb), absorb light at the wavelengths used in the measurement. Pulse oximeters are set up to measure oxygen saturation on the assumption that the patient's blood composition is the same as that of a healthy, non-smoking individual. Therefore, if these species of hemoglobin are present in higher concentrations than normal, a pulse oximeter may display erroneous data. Secondly, intravenous dyes used for diagnostic purposes may cause considerable deviation in pulse oximeter readings. However, the effect of these dyes is short-lived since the liver purifies blood efficiently. Thirdly, coatings such as nail polish may in practice impair the accuracy of a pulse oximeter, even though the absorption caused by them is constant, not pulsatile, and thus in theory it should not have an effect on the accuracy. Fourthly, the optical signal may be degraded by both noise and motion artifacts. One source of noise is the ambient light received by the photodetector. Many solutions have been devised with the aim of minimizing or eliminating the effect of the movement of the patient on the signal, and the ability of a pulse oximeter to function correctly in the presence of patient motion depends on the design of the pulse oximeter. One way of canceling out the motion artefact is to use an extra wavelength for this purpose. A further factor affecting the accuracy of a pulse oximeter is the direct electrical crosstalk between the circuitry driving the LEDs and the circuitry receiving the signal from the photodetector. Due to crosstalk of this type, non-optical signal components may superimpose on the signal received and thus cause erroneous oxygen saturation readings. This problem does not exist with conventional pulse oximeters using wide pulses, but has surfaced with the current trend towards lower power consumption, which is essential for battery operated oximeters, for example. Lower power consumption calls for narrower pulses for driving the LEDs, the narrower pulses being more vulnerable to this type of crosstalk. The problem is further aggravated if the tissue of the patient is thicker than normal, whereby the signal received from the photodetector is weaker than normal. It is an objective of the invention to bring about a solution by means of which it is possible to decide whether this type of crosstalk is present and whether it will cause erroneous results in the oxygen saturation measurements. A further objective of the present invention is to bring about a solution by means of which the measurement can be performed so that the crosstalk, even if strong, will not cause erroneous readings.

In general, the electrical device comprises a variety of different kinds of electrical components, some of which can be removed from the electronic device depending on what is actually being required. In other words, some of the electrical components are detachably disposed in the electronic device. The heat dissipation component is designed for when the electrical device has been fully loaded with electrical components, which is called a “fully-loaded state”. In general, when the electrical device is in use, there are still some spaces left in the electrical device in order to accommodate other electrical components in the future. In addition, the heat dissipation component operates to produce an airflow flowing inside the electronic device to generate a flow field. However, the flow field in the “full-loaded state” is different from the flow field when the electronic device is not fully loaded with electrical components. Accordingly, the heat dissipation which is applied to the “fully-loaded state” may not provide the same heat dissipation for the electronic device when it is not fully loaded. For example, a fan generates an airflow flowing toward a cooling fin set that is located over a central processing unit and toward the multiple memory slots that are fully loaded with multiple memories, namely, the airflow may flow through the cooling fin set and the memory slots uniformly. However, when the memory slots are not fully loaded, that is, some of the slots are not connected with the memories, a part of the airflow, which flows to the cooling fin set when the memory slots are fully loaded, flows to the memory slots instead of flowing to the cooling fin set, because the wind resistance at the memory slots is decreased. Nevertheless, the heat generated by the central processing unit is usually greater than the heat generated by the memory module, and the maximum allowable temperature (the maximum temperature at which the component can operate normally) of the central processing unit is lower than that of the memory module. When the server operates, even if the actual temperature of the central processing unit substantially approaches its allowable temperature, the actual temperature of the memory module is still much lower than its allowable temperature. Therefore, if increase airflow to the cooling fin but decrease airflow to memory slots and some of the heat generated by the central processing unit is transferred to the memory module, it not only keeps the memory module operating normally, but also decreases the temperature of the central processing unit. On the other hand, when not a lot of airflow is flowing through the cooling fin set or dissipating the heat of the central processing unit, the central processing unit may not operate normally because the actual temperature of the central processing unit is higher than the allowable temperature. People in the industry dispose the virtual memory module on the memory slot, which cannot work but has the same shape as the real one. Accordingly, the flow field inside the electrical device corresponds to the original flow field when the electronic device is fully loaded with the electronic components and the wind resistance at the memory slots keeps same as that when memory slots are fully loaded. However, it increases the cost and the virtual memory module may be removed after the additional memory module has been disposed.

Smokers report a number of difficulties with current smoking tonics and smoking substitutes on the market. Smoking tonics and substitutes refers to products that are used by smokers not looking to quit the activity, but instead have something that they can use or do which substitutes for or addresses the activity or condition in places or situations where they cannot smoke by law, regulation or common courtesy. Some of these products include gums, lozenges or smokeless devices that do not contain nicotine, which is often used in nicotine replacement therapies (“NRT”) for smoking cessation. Government regulation of nicotine products is unclear. For example, the FDA is currently studying whether or not products containing nicotine can be sold without a new drug application (“NDA”) and without going through clinical studies and a formal FDA approval process. Smoking tonics and substitutes are distinguished from FDA-approved smoking cessation products. There are a number of traditional, established dietary supplement and/or herbal remedies that offer effective tonics or substitutions for smokers in environments where they otherwise cannot smoke. One of these is the herb Lobelia, also known as Indian Tobacco. Lobelia is currently sold by herbalists and by retailers specializing in herbal remedies and dietary supplements as a “Respiratory Tonic.” Descriptions of the herb in an online pharmacopeia published by the University of Maryland states this, “Lobelia (Lobelia inflata), also called Indian tobacco, may be used as an herbal remedy for respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and cough. Native Americans historically have smoked lobelia as a treatment for asthma. In the 19th century, American physicians prescribed lobelia to induce vomiting in order remove toxins from the body. Because of this, it earned the name “puke weed.” Today, lobelia is considered effective in helping clear mucus from the respiratory tract, including the throat, lungs, and bronchial tubes. Although few studies have evaluated the safety and effectiveness of lobelia, some herbalists today incorporate lobelia into a comprehensive treatment plan for asthma. Various herbalists and naturalists have traditionally recommended that lobelia be vaporized using heat in order to avoid the by products of ignition and burning that accompany smoking and absorption of the herbal supplement. And, various retailers offer the advice to vaporize the supplement and sell heat implemented vaporizers. These vaporizers utilize heat to produce an ingestible vapor-like mist. And, these vaporizers are large, bulky and difficult to use in environments where smokers can no longer smoke, for example, social or workplace environments. As a result, lobelia vaporization is not considered a suitable or appropriate smoking tonic or substitute. Accordingly there is a need in the art for an improved lobelia vaporization product and method of use.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to animal pen slat repair methods and more particularly pertains to a new slat replacement system for removing damaged slats and inserting new slats in an animal pen. 2. Description of the Prior Art The use of animal pen slat repair methods is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,394 describes a method for repairing pen slats of an animal pen. Another type of animal pen slat repair method is U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,729 having a mold for casting a T-shaped slat useable in slotted floors. U.S. Pat. Nos. 974,372, 3,469,816 and 710,391 each have a mold for forming a T-shaped slat for use in animal pens. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,659,276 and 5,120,186 each have an apparatus for handling loads. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a system that includes certain improved features allow for damaged slats to be removed and replaced with new slats.

In general, a cutting tool for the rotary chip removing machining of a work piece, for example a work piece of titanium, steel, aluminium, castings, or of any other material, comprises a tool body provided with one or a plurality of cutting edges or cutting inserts each having at least one cutting edge. Each cutting insert is generally mounted in a seat, or a pocket, provided in the tool body. The tool body defines a center axis, or rotation axis, and is in general connectable to a holder or a rotatable spindle. When drilling, the tool body is in general rotated by rotation of the spindle or the holder, which holds the tool body, while the work piece is stationary. When milling, the tool body is in general rotated by rotation of the spindle or the holder, while the work piece is stationary or is fed in a direction of feed. When performing profile or contour milling, the tool body may, for example, be rotated in a direction of rotation about its rotation axis while the work piece is fed in relation to the tool body in a direction of feed. When turning, and also for some milling, in general, the work piece is rotated with the tool body is stationary and held by a holder. Often, a shim is provided between the cutting insert and the seat surface of the seat in order to protect the tool body if the stress on the cutting insert becomes too great. A shim is easily changed and a change of the entire tool body is thus avoided. In prior art, different monitoring systems are suggested to monitor the rotary chip removing machining of a work piece. U.S. Pat. No. 7,289,873 discloses a sensor system for a cutting machine tool comprising a sensor arrangement measuring a force and/or a torque and/or the body sound within the cutting machine tool, an energy supply unit, which inductively provides energy for the supply of the sensor arrangement of the cutting machine tool out of a magnetic alternating field, and a data transmitting unit, which wirelessly transmits data which relate to a value measured by the sensor arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,303 describes a machine tool spindle structure capable of monitoring a working state, which includes a spindle body, a rotating mandrel, a cutter base, and an internal inspecting device. The rotating mandrel has a chamber, and the internal inspecting device is disposed in the chamber. Inspecting chips in the internal inspecting device are directly disposed on the cutter base. Working parameters are transmitted to an external information device by a wireless transmission module in the internal inspecting device. US 2008/0105094 discloses a machine tool control method employing a machine tool for carrying out a work producing process having a cutting implement for machining a work piece according to the process. A sensor device is provided on the cutting implement for sensing at least one condition of the process. US 2009/0235763 describes a chuck-integrated force-measuring system for determining cutting forces at the cutting tool tip of a rotating tool, for example a drill or milling cutter having a sensor, as well as a measured-value processing station. The sensor is designed as a strain sensor which is placed on a tool holder of a machine tool. WO 2009/117396 discloses a tool holder including a body, a processor disposed with the body, and a transceiver disposed with the body and in communication with the processor. The transceiver is structured to communicate with an external receiving device. A cutting assembly has a number of sensors, and the processor is structured to communicate with the sensors. U.S. Pat. No. 7,710,287 describes a sensor system for a machine tool with a sensor with a measurement instrument, which measures a physical quantity occurring within the machine tool, with a first energy supply for supply of the measurement instrument of the sensor, wherein the first energy supply receives electric energy from a surrounding electromagnetic field in a wireless way, and with a battery for supplying the measurement instrument of the sensor. U.S. Pat. No. 8,083,446 discloses a spindle for a machine tool for machining work pieces, wherein a data acquisition element for recording operating and/or state data of the spindle is provided, and wherein the data acquisition element is in the form of a radio chip and can be read by radio. U.S. Pat. No. 8,080,918 describes an apparatus and a method for controlling the machining of work pieces using piezoceramic transducers. US 2009/0175694 discloses a system including a cutting tool, which includes a tool body, and an integrated circuit chip securely mounted within the tool body and capable of being read and written upon. U.S. Pat. No. 6,297,747 describes a tool holder having a sensor for measuring an operating parameter of the tool holder or the tool during the operation. The sensor is a surface acoustic wave sensor operating according to acoustic wave principles and its measured value signals are readable in a contactless manner by means of radio waves. DE 10 2007 036 002 discloses a monitoring device for a processing tool, comprising an oscillation device and an oscillation detector which are connected in a sensor and form a surface wave sensor. DE 10227677 describes a method for wireless monitoring of a machine part using a passive conducting cable structure. A passive sensor can be configured as a surface wave sensor.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention is generally concerned with spectacle frames of the xe2x80x9cmetal supraxe2x80x9d type, i.e. frames like those sold under the trade name xe2x80x9cNylorxe2x80x9d in which each rim or surround has a rigid part and a filament extending from one end of the rigid part to the other. 2. Description of the Prior Art A groove must be machined into the edge of the lens to be mounted in a rim or surround of the above kind to trap the filament. In practise, the groove extends continuously all around the lens and the rigid part of the rim or surround of the spectacle frame has a projecting bead, commonly referred to as a cushion, adapted to engage in the groove where it is not filled by the filament. Only the shape of the lens, i.e. the shape of the contour of the lens, which is in practise determined by a contour reader relating to a flat template of the appropriate shape, is currently taken into account in determining the trajectory of the groove on the edge of the lens for controlling the grooving machine when machining the groove. Then the groove is merely made to remain within the boundaries of the edge of the lens. To this end, the groove is usually machined at a fixed distance from one face of the lens or halfway between its two faces. The groove machined in this way therefore at best follows the inherent curvature of the lens. Although the filament can adapt to this curvature of its own accord, given its inherent flexibility, this is clearly not the case for the rigid part of the rims or surrounds of the spectacle frame. This rigid part is itself manufactured with some degree of curvature, which is not necessarily the same as that of the lens to be mounted in it. Accordingly, when it is practicable, i.e. when the spectacle frame lends itself to this, as is the case when the spectacle frame is made of metal, for example, practitioners fitting the lens must apply an estimated twist to the rigid part of the rims or surrounds of the spectacle frame to match the curvature of the rigid part as closely as they can to that of the groove on the lens to be mounted in the frame. This twisting is a delicate operation and difficult to control. If practitioners do not apply this twist, or if this is impossible because the spectacle frame does not lend itself to twisting, the lens is not securely held in the rim or surround in which it is mounted and the aesthetic result is generally not entirely satisfactory. A general object of the present invention is an arrangement intended to overcome this problem. The present invention consists in a method of determining the trajectory of a groove to be machined in an edge of a lens intended to be fitted to a spectacle frame in which each rim or surround has a rigid part and a filament which extends from one end of the rigid part to the other end thereof, wherein the curvature of an active portion of the rigid part is systematically taken into account over a portion of the trajectory of the groove corresponding to the rigid part concerned of the spectacle frame. Accordingly, over the portion of its trajectory corresponding to the rigid part of the spectacle frame, the groove follows the inherent curvature of the rigid part as well as it can, even perfectly, instead of following that of the lens, it being understood that the two curvatures must obviously be compatible for the results to be satisfactory. The cushion provided for this purpose on the rigid part can then nest exactly and throughout its length in the groove in the lens, to the benefit of the retention thereof. Over the portion of its trajectory corresponding to the filament, the groove is formed in the usual manner. However, within limits set by the curvature and thickness of the lens, the groove preferably of itself corresponds to a minimal curvature so that, following the shortest possible trajectory, the filament is itself tensioned as well as it can be, which again is to the benefit of the retention of the lens. Be this as it may, because of the arrangement in accordance with the invention, the groove formed on the edge of the lens has two separate portions of different appearance, namely a portion corresponding to the rigid part of the spectacle frame which is more or less sinuous and a portion corresponding to the filament which is substantially rectilinear. Of course, the two portions of the groove are continuous with each other, joining tangentially to each other, to prevent any distortion at the corresponding junction points. The features and advantages of the invention emerge from the following description given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing.

An article of apparel having an improved collar and/or lapel structure is provided, as well as the method and patterns for making same. In making prior art garments a great deal of time has often been spent in raising all the seams around collar and lapel structures, and it has been necessary to employ plastic stays or the like to prevent collar and lapel tips from curling -- or if such stays are not practically utilizable in certain garments the lapel and collar tips have been subject to curling over extended usage. This is especially true of leather and suede leather coats and the like. Typical prior art structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 539,834, 1,177,688, 3,488,775, and 3,871,028, and in prior manufactured garments as will be described more fully hereinafter. According to the present invention, an article of apparel is provided that is generally less expensive to manufacture than comparable prior art garments, requiring less time and labor to be spent in construction thereof, and eliminating the need for any accessory stays. According to the present invention, collar and lapel tips are prevented from curling and remain flat against the garment body portion by seams formed in the underside thereof, which seams do not show on the garment surface during normal usage thereof, however, effectively act to prevent curling. Such seams preferably are join seams, requiring a minimum amount of time and effort as compared to raised seams. Also, a lapel according to the present invention, being formed of a separate piece from the collar and body portion, may be join seamed to the body portion, providing a crease line for the lapel so that it lies flatter against the body portion of the garment. According to a method of the present invention, a collar is formed from a pattern having a pair of angled side surfaces coming together at a point, the collar pattern is folded to form a double layer collar having a pair of tips each defined by a pair of edges, a base, an underside, and a top surface, and by forming a seam extending from each tip toward the base intermediate the edges defining the tip. The collar may then be attached to the body portion and lapel, with or without stands. Each lapel is formed from a pattern formed of a single sheet and having four adjacent angled side edges coming together in points, by folding the lapel pattern to form a double-layerd generally triangular portion having a top surface, underside, and a tip defined by two edges, and a single-layer terminal edge on the underside, and by forming a seam extending from the tip to the terminal edge intermediate the tip forming edges. The lapel is then attached to the article body portion with a join seam along the terminal edge and a terminal edge of the article body portion. A pair of yokes may be provided as the body portion sections having terminal edges thereon for connection to each lapel, and the collar, yoke, and lapel can be connected together, and the assembly thereof then connected to the rest of the garment. Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an article of apparel having an improved collar and/or lapel construction, and improved methods and patterns for making of the apparel article. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.

In many mechatronic systems, e.g. in automotive sensorics, there is a requirement to integrate printed circuit boards into a housing. Since the electronics have to interface via connectors or other sensoric interfaces with the system periphery, the printed circuit board has to be fixated in the surrounding housing in a defined position. For accomplishing this object, a multitude of solutions is available in the state of the art. A possibility to establish disengageable connections is using threaded connections. The disadvantage of this process is that the housing then has to be provided with a thread. When using plastic housings, a threaded metal insert is therefore often integrated during the injection molding process in order to obtain a load bearing thread. Consequently, manufacturing a respective connection is very expensive. Among the non disengageable connection techniques, e.g. encasing the printed circuit board in the housing or so-called hot caulking are being used. During hot caulking, a rod shaped component, briefly also called pin, is run through a hole in the printed circuit board, so that it rests on a shoulder. Subsequently, the pin protruding beyond the thickness of the printed circuit board is deformed under thermal energy, so that the pin forms a rivet head for form locked fixation of the printed circuit board. A respective process using ultrasound energy for generating the necessary heat is described in DE 4215041 C3 (Siemens AG). A similar process is disclosed in JP 62064528 A (Toyota Motor Corp.), in which radiation energy is used to achieve the plastic state of one of the joining partners. The hot caulking processes according to the state of the art, however, have the disadvantage that forming the rivet head is being performed through a contact tool. When using such processes for hot caulking of plastic housings or printed circuit boards, this bears the risk of material sticking to the shaping tool. Besides mounting the printed circuit board in the housing, also the media tight closing of the housing is an important part of the value creation process of mechatronic systems. As a process which creates particularly high quality welded connections, laser through transmission welding is industrially established. In this process, two joining partners, which can be welded through melting, are being combined, one of which has a high degree of optical transmission for the wavelength of the welding laser that has been used, and however, the other joining partner strongly absorbs this wavelength. In an overlapping assembly of both joining partners, the welding radiation can transmit through the joining partner facing it and is subsequently absorbed at the contact surface of the two components. The absorbing joining partner is being heated until both joining partners are melted in their contact area through heat conduction. In order to facilitate heat conduction between the joining partners, these are loaded with a compressing force. Since the widely used plastic materials have low heat conductivity, the induced welding energy remains in the joining zone for a certain period of time, depending on how the process is performed, so that material, which is still soft, mostly from the absorbing joining partner can be displaced out of the joining plane under the influence of the compression force. Under continued application of a compression force, the joining partners thus can perform a relative motion towards each other, in order to compensate for possible gaps in the weld. A respective process is disclosed e.g. in DE 102004004985 A1 (Laserquipment AG). The process described therein, like other current processes for closing housings, does not provide for a possibility to mount the enclosed printed circuit board, so that separate precursory process steps are necessary, which is disadvantageous.

The present invention relates to convergence yokes which are fixed to a cathode-ray tube of projection televisions and the like and produce two-pole magnetic field for deflecting an electron beam in a horizontal direction or a vertical direction. With reference to FIG. 1, a convergence yoke comprises a ring core 1 having a horizontal coil 2 and a vertical coil 3 wound therearound. A horizontal convergence correction circuit 4 is connected to the horizontal coil 2. A vertical convergence correction circuit 5 is connected to the vertical coil 3. With the convergence yoke, producing uniform magnetic field within the electron beam passing area is required for suppressing the electron beam distortion caused by the deflection to improve focus performance. It is proposed, according to the literature xe2x80x9cSEMINAR M-4 1991 SID xe2x80x98Deflection And Convergence Technologyxe2x80x99 Basab B. Dasgupta, Sony Corporation, San Diego, Calif.xe2x80x9d, that winding density distribution of the coil wherein the winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis of the ring core is a variable is in proportion to cos xcex8, whereby the magnetic field within the ring core is made uniform. Further, Japanese Patent No. 3039988 proposes a convergence yoke wherein ratio A3/A1 of a coefficient (Ak coefficient) when winding distribution is expanded in Fourier series is 0.13 to 0.50 in order to render the magnetic field strength distribution uniform. However, with use of computer simulation, the present inventor has calculated the magnetic field strength distribution of the horizontal coil of the convergence yoke wherein the winding density distribution of the coil is in proportion to cos xcex8, revealing that contour lines of the magnetic field strength in the ring core are shaped in oblong ellipses as shown in FIG. 20, and particularly the magnetic field strength has nonuniformity on an upper and lower portions of the electron beam passing area. Thus the electron beam has a gross distortion of a circular shape in cross section as shown in FIG. 24(a). Furthermore, the present inventor, with use of computer simulation, has calculated the magnetic field strength distribution of the horizontal coil of the convergence yoke wherein ratio A3/A1 of Ak coefficient is 0.13 to 0.50, and winding is provided uniformly in the range of 15xc2x0 to 40xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis (the construction according to claim 2 of the patent stated above), with the result that the magnetic field strength is not uniform at each of four corners as shown in FIG. 21. Further, in the case where the winding range of the convergence yoke is shifted 0.5xc2x0, i.e. the winding is provided uniformly in the range of 15.5xc2x0 to 40.5xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis, the present inventor calculates the magnetic field strength distribution of the horizontal coil with use of computer simulation, to obtain the magnetic field strength distribution shown in FIG. 22. In this case whereas ratio A3/A1 of Ak coefficient is 0.1 departing from the scope of the invention of the patent stated above, the magnetic field strength distribution obtained is slightly more uniform than that shown in FIG. 21. Accordingly, it is not always true that ratio A3/A1 of Ak coefficient is most preferably in the range of 0.13 to 0.50. Further, with use of computer simulation the present inventor calculates the magnetic field strength distribution of the horizontal coil of the convergence yoke wherein the winding is provided uniformly in the range of 10xc2x0 to 30xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis (the construction according to claim 3 of the patent stated above), to obtain the magnetic field strength distribution shown in FIG. 23. As illustrated, the magnetic field strength is extremely uneven, causing the electron beam to be distorted grossly as shown in FIG. 24(b). Furthermore, even if ratio A3/A1 of Ak coefficient is in the range of 0.13 to 0.50, the magnetic field strength distribution varies greatly within this range, so that in designing the convergence yoke the coil performance cannot be determined unless the deformation caused by the deflection of the electron beam is actually measured. Presumably, the reason is that the current density distribution represented by the sum of two terms, A1 and A3 of Fourier series, is greatly shifted from the actual current density distribution, as shown in FIG. 25, so that the coil performance cannot be determined only by ratio A3/A1 of Ak coefficient. As described above, prior art has the problem that the winding distribution having the uniform magnetic field strength cannot be determined uniquely. An object of the present invention is to provide a convergence yoke having more uniform magnetic field strength than conventionally. A convergence yoke embodying the present invention is characterized in that the convergence yoke comprises a ring core having a plurality of coils wound therearound, and winding density distribution of each of the coils wherein winding angle xcex8 from a reference axis of the ring core is a variable is in proportion to cos2 xcex8. As compared with a conventional convergence yoke wherein winding density distribution of a coil is in proportion to cos xcex8, the convergence yoke of the invention is greatly reduced in density as angle xcex8 is increased as shown in FIG. 5, so that an oblong ellipse of the magnetic field strength distribution shown in FIG. 20 is extended upward and downward, rendering the magnetic field strength distribution shaped in concentric circles. As a result, the magnetic field strength distribution is uniform over electron beam passing area, and a cross section shape of the electron beams will not be grossly distorted owing to the deflection. Stated specifically, the ring core 1 has wound therearound a horizontal coil 2 and a vertical coil 3 based on a horizontal coil reference axis 20 and a vertical coil reference axis 30 which are orthogonal to each other. Each of the two coils 2, 3 has the winding density distribution described. Further stated specifically, the plurality of coils each comprises a plurality of coil portions. Each of the coil portions is wound within a predetermined angle range wherein a winding center is in the range of 25xc2x0 to 30xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis on each of quadrants of orthogonal coordinates, and has winding density distribution in proportion to cos2 xcex8 within the angle range. According to the specific construction, the magnetic field strength distribution comprising diamond-shape contour lines is obtained, whereby the uniformity of the magnetic field strength becomes higher than conventionally. Another convergence yoke of the present invention is characterized in that the yoke comprises a ring core having a plurality of coils wound therearoud, each of the coils comprises a plurality of coil portions, each coil portion is wound uniformly at a first winding density X1 within a predetermined angle range (xcex8s to xcex8e) wherein a winding center is in the range of 25xc2x0 to 30xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis on each of quadrants of orthogonal coordinates and is wound uniformly at a second winding density X2 within an angle range (0 to xcex8s) from 0xc2x0 to the predetermined angle range in winding angle xcex8, ratio of the second winding density X2 relative to the first winding density X1 is represented by an expression given below. X2/X1=((cos2 xcex8sxe2x88x92cos2 xcex8e)/2 cos2 xcex8s)xc2x10.1 The convergence yoke described above has approximately uniform magnetic field strength distribution which is equivalent to that of a convergence yoke having winding density distribution in proportion to cos2 xcex8 within the predetermined angle range (xcex8s to xcex8e) wherein a winding center is in the range of 25xc2x0 to 30xc2x0 in winding angle xcex8 from the reference axis. As described above, with the convergence yoke of the present invention, winding distribution wherein the magnetic field strength distribution is more uniform than conventionally can be determined uniquely, whereby the distortion of the electron beam caused by the deflection is suppressed, and focus performance is improved.

In a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, for example, a NAND flash memory, data transfer between a sense amplifier and a cache memory is performed while reading/writing. The data transfer is performed by, for example, the bus precharge method by which charging/discharging of a data bus commonly connected to the sense amplifier and the cache memory is used. This method is excellent in that the circuit area needed for data transfer can be reduced. However, the bus precharge method is inefficient from the viewpoint of reducing power consumption because charging/discharging of the data bus is repeated. In a multi-valued memory in which 2 bits or more are made to be stored in a memory cell, it is necessary to commonly connect data latches, in addition to the sense amplifier and the cache memory, to the data bus to perform data transfer therebetween. In this case, the data bus becomes longer, increasing the parasitic capacitance of the data bus. Moreover, all the parasitic capacitance of the data bus needs to be charged regardless of the position of the output side/input side of data.

The invention relates generally to lasers for producing very short pulses and more particularly to fiber lasers for producing subpicosecond pulses. There is great interest in generating subpicosecond laser pulses, down to pulsewidths of 100 fs or less. There is a wide range of applications that can be performed using subpicosecond laser pulses, e.g. electro-optic (EO) sampling. However, it has been quite difficult and costly to produce such short pulses. One present system for generating subpicosecond pulses uses a large expensive Argon ion laser to pump a complex dual dye jet dye laser. Commercial systems of this sort produce 500 fs pulses; specially engineered systems can reach 100 fs. In another system the output of a large water cooled Nd:YAG laser (e.g. Spectra-Physics Model 3400) is passed through a pulse compressor and the compressed pulses are used to pump a dye laser, producing 300 fs pulses of tunable wavelength. Thus, although systems are available which produce subpicosecond pulses, their main disadvantage is their high cost and complexity, which limit availability. In one type of fiber laser a rare earth such as neodymium, erbium or terbium is doped into the core of an optical fiber to provide an active gain medium. Pumping radiation input into the fiber causes lasing action in the fiber. The fiber is included in the laser resonant cavity. Another type of fiber laser is the fiber Raman laser, as described in the Handbook of Laser Science and Technology, Section 2: "Solid State Lasers", Subsection 2.4 "Fiber Raman Lasers", R. H. Stolen and C. Lin, pages 265-273. A mode locked Nd:YAG or Argon laser is used to synchronously pump a fiber, and the Raman effect in the fiber provides gain, in a fiber Raman oscillator. Pulse broadening usually occurs for short pump pulses as a result of dispersion in the fiber. However, a dispersion compensated fiber Raman oscillator, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,107 issued Aug. 4, 1987 to J. D. Kafka etal, can generate subpicosecond pulses. A fiber has also been used for pulse shaping in a complex laser system, as shown by "The soliton laser", L. F. Mollenauer and R. H. Stolen, Opt. Lett., Vol. 9, No. 1, Jan. 1984, pages 13-15.

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for lending transactions involving loan initiation. More particularly, the invention is a system and method for ensuring that loans provided by lending institutions comply with the most current federal, state and local regulations. This is accomplished by extracting data from a lending institution's loan origination system and forwarding the data over a secure communication connection to a server located at a service provider's site. The server archives the lending institution's data and processes the data to assess whether every mortgage loan originated by the institution complies with all federal, state and local regulations applicable to each loan initiation. As the standard of living for more people has increased over the last decade, many have sought to own their own home. This has brought an increase in the number of home mortgage loan applications. There are tens of millions of mortgage loan applications processed every year resulting in over a trillion dollars in new residential real estate loans. It is estimated that between five and six percent of the principal amount of these loans was paid out in fees, charges and expenses to consummate these transactions, amounting to between $60 and $72 billion. To protect consumers involved in these credit transactions, the Federal government as well as state and local municipalities have enacted laws and regulations that impose requirements on institutions and personnel involved in the business of originating and closing mortgage loans. These laws and regulations establish transactional standards and disclosure requirements that are enforced by state and Federal agencies. As new laws, regulations, licenses and rules are added over time, mortgage loan applications have become more varied, complex and prone to error, resulting in an increase in exposure to non-compliance liabilities of the institutions that process these applications. With the growing complexity of the mortgage loan industry, consumers have sometimes been subjected to compliance errors, overcharges and careless lending practices. Federal and state regulators are conducting increasingly aggressive policing campaigns to ensure compliance by the mortgage industry. These efforts have significantly increased the costs for non-compliance in terms of monetary penalties and legal expenses, as well as in terms of tarnished reputations to the lending institutions. Because of the substantial growth in Internet and multi-state lending activities, the potential for serious compliance violations is likely to increase along with a corresponding increase in compliance scrutiny and enforcement activities by Federal and state regulatory agencies. The mortgage industry, including mortgage-backed securities investors, face the prospect of significant losses if they are forced to refund fees and charges, repurchase noncompliant loans, and pay civil and criminal penalties. To counter these potential losses, the industry will incur increased expenses associated with compliance audits and compliance policies, procedures and reporting. In order to overcome these problems and to satisfy regulatory compliance requirements, institutions offering mortgage loans have attempted to audit loan compliance on a manual basis. This approach results in a tedious, time-consuming and costly process that allows only a small statistical sample of loan applications to be examined for compliance with requirements. The results of this process are also oftentimes inconsistent due to factors such as varying degrees of understanding, differences in interpretation and processing errors. With greater competition in the mortgage loan market, there is also a strong need to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance as well as to reduce penalties for failure to meet compliance requirements. Some mortgage companies have attempted to employ risk management techniques, which have proved inadequate as a solution to the compliance and related liability problems. While the home mortgage loan industry is probably more regulated than other industries, the compliance difficulties are also encountered in many other areas. Other applications where automated compliance assessment would reduce costs and speed transaction processing include automobile and other consumer loans.

Electronic commerce (“E-commerce”) service providers generate and maintain web page storefronts that provide efficient systems and processes for presenting products (goods and services) to page viewers and users for consideration for purchase. Viewers may be provided with a wide variety of information useful in deciding whether or not to purchase a good or services, including visual depictions of goods and services offered, selectable options (color, size, variable scope of services provided, etc.), performance metrics for each selectable option (speed or power or weight of goods, geographic area or dimensions of scope of service coverage, etc.), shipping options (carrier, date of delivery), and itemized and total costs for purchase of the product, including as dynamically calculated in response to option selections. Product images provided by E-commerce sites may include photos and graphic illustrations of products that are professionally created and edited to feature or maximize attributes of the product that are determined to be likely appealing to a viewer of the site as potential consumer. Models may be depicted within such visual presentations, chosen and depicted as a function of having or presenting physical attributes or notoriety deemed to be beneficial in marketing the associated product to viewing consumers. For example, models with body shapes presenting toned muscles or otherwise conveying a physically fit appearance may be selected to wear athletic apparel products such as clothing, sports headphones, fitness equipment accessories, etc., in order to display the products in a form as typically presented by consumers likely to wear the goods, or in a form that a consumer of the product hopes to convey if they were to purchase and wear the same product. A celebrity or other person famous for success in some arena of endeavor may also endorse an offered product, wherein such endorsements may impart additional perceived value to the product.

In a semiconductor manufacturing process, it is important to discover a defect occurring in the manufacturing process early and take measures, to secure a high yield. A scanning electron microscope (SEM)-type defect observation device (also called a defect review device) is a device to observe a defect occurred in the semiconductor manufacturing process, particularly. The SEM-type defect observation device is generally a device to observe an image of the defect coordinates detected by an upper defect inspection device with definition higher than definition in the upper defect inspection device. Specifically, the SEM-type defect observation device moves a sample stage to the defect coordinates output by the upper defect inspection device, executes imaging with a low magnification where a defect to be observed enters a view, detects the defect coordinates from an imaged low-magnification image, moves the sample stage such that the defect is positioned at the center of the view or moves the center of the imaging, and acquires a high-magnification image for observation with the high magnification suitable for the defect observation. As such, the defect coordinates are detected from the low-magnification image, because error is included in the defect coordinates output by the upper defect inspection device, in a range of a device specification, and processing for correcting the error is necessary when the high-definition defect image is acquired by the SEM-type defect observation device. Automatic defect review or automatic defect redetection (ADR) automates a process for acquiring the high-definition defect image. In the ADR, an acquisition condition of the low-magnification image to detect the defect or an acquisition condition of the high-magnification image to observe the defect should be optimized while a balance of the defect detection rate and the throughput of the ADR is considered, according to coordinate precision of defect detection in the upper defect inspection device, a characteristic of a sample, or a kind of the defect to be observed. Patent Literature 1 describes “acquiring an image including a defect with a first magnification using a scanning electron microscope, generating a reference image from the acquired image including the defect with the first magnification, comparing the acquired image including the defect with the first magnification and the reference image generated from the image including the defect with the first magnification to detect the defect, and imaging the detected defect with a second magnification larger than the first magnification. According to this, “because a process for imaging the reference image with the low magnification can be omitted, the defect can be reviewed more efficiently” is described.

An emerging trend in spinal surgery is to perform surgery in a minimally invasive or minimal access fashion to avoid the trauma of so-called open or “direct access” procedures. A specific area of interest is in the placement of pedicle screws, which are typically employed to effect posterior fixation in spinal fusion procedures. While great strides are being made in this area, a risk exists (as it does in open procedures) that the pedicle may become breached, cracked, or otherwise compromised during the procedure. If the pedicle (or more specifically, the cortex of the medial wall, lateral wall, superior wall and/or inferior wall) is breached, cracked, or otherwise compromised, the patient may experience pain or neurologic deficit due to unwanted contact between the pedicle screw and exiting nerve roots. This often necessitates revision surgery, which can be painful and costly, both in terms of recovery time and hospitalization. Some attempts to minimize the risk of a pedicle breach involve capitalizing on the insulating characteristics of bone and the conductivity of the exiting nerve roots themselves to perform pedicle integrity assessments. That is, if the wall of the pedicle is breached, a stimulation signal applied to the pedicle screw and/or the pilot hole (prior to screw introduction) will cause the various muscle groups coupled to the exiting nerve roots to contract. If the pedicle wall has not been breached, the insulating nature of the pedicle will prevent the stimulation signal from innervating the given nerve roots such that the associated muscle groups will not twitch. Traditional EMG monitoring systems may be employed to augment the ability to detect such innervation. One period during a pedicle screw procedure in which the risk of a pedicle breach is prevalent is during the initial access of the pedicle. Typically, initial access to a pedicle may be achieved by inserting a needle to the target site and driving the needle point into the pedicle, creating a pilot hole. Due to the size and shape of the typical needle, however, manipulation and maneuvering of the needle may be awkward or difficult, increasing the risk of complication. Additionally, the pedicle may be breached and nerve damage done during the initial drive of the needle into the pedicle, before a pedicle integrity test assessment may be performed. A problem that may arise when various medical instruments are electrified and used with traditional EMG monitoring systems is that different instruments may produce different EMG stimulation thresholds. For example, an electrified needle may exhibit a threshold stimulation of approximately 5-6 mA, while a bone screw placed in the same location may exhibit a threshold stimulation of approximately 16-20 mA. This can be problematic in that an electrified needle may tend to indicate a breach in the pedicle wall when in fact the pedicle wall is intact. The present invention is directed at eliminating, or at least improving upon, the shortcomings of the prior art.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to the field of floor and other building surface coverings. More specifically the present invention relates to a tile including a flexible and resilient backing layer having a rearward face for securing to a building surface such as a floor and a forward face covered with a flexible cement layer. The rearward face is preferably covered with a mounting adhesive and peal off paper. The flexible cement layer is preferably textured to have aesthetically appealing surface irregularities and is preferably colored and shaded with any of a wide variety of pigments. The resulting appearance, feel and durability substantially duplicate those of far more expensive poured cement surfaces. The backing layer is preferably a square of laminate, peg board, formica, wood or other suitable sheet material. The flexible cement layer is preferably formed of a fine aggregate cement mixture combined with an acrylic resin, a water-based paint, waterproof rubber material and water-based sealer. A process of manufacturing the tile includes the steps of sanding or grinding the forward face of the backing layer to develop grooves and to de-gloss the surface; mixing a fine aggregate cement with an acrylic resin and waiting until a false set is reached; mixing into the fine aggregate cement and acrylic resin mixture a waterproof rubber material and a water-based paint and water-based sealer; adding adhesive as needed to reach a suitable consistency; spreading the mixture over the forward face of the backing layer; coloring the mixture; texturing the mixture with a trowel or machine trowel while the mixture is wet or semi-wet, or with a machine trowel when the mixture is dry; permitting the mixture to dry completely; and then adding color as little or as much as desired; then sealing the dry mixture with a suitable sealer such as a xylene or water-based sealing coat. If the xylene-based sealer is used, one quart of boiled linseed oil may be added to a quantity of one to five gallons of xylene-based sealer to create a shiny top coat. 2. Description of the Prior Art There have long been building surface coverings such as URO-TILE.TM. for creating a decorative and durable surface, which may be prepared to appear in many different styles and colors. URO-TILE.TM. includes an approximately one-eighth to one-quarter inch thick layer of pigmented cement mix. The mix surface is textured with a towel and randomly grooved to simulate interfitted stones or bricks. Grout is optionally troweled into the grooves to further enhance the separate stone or brick visual effect. A problem with the URO-TILE.TM. method is that it is very expensive and requires skilled and experienced labor on site to install, so that installation by a typical homeowner is not feasible. The URO-TILE.TM. is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,588, issued on Sep. 14, 1982 to Schiffer. Several other prior patents teach forming a cement slab with a colored surface by pouring colored mortar into a form, and then optionally pouring non-colored cement on top of the colored mortar to create a unified slab. These methods present many of the problems of Schiffer. Spencer, U.S. Pat. No. 1,204,378, issued on Nov. 7, 1916, discloses a process for marbleizing cement. A coloring compound is prepared including Portland cement and mineral coloring. Then a layer of surface mixture of white Portland cement and water is produced, perhaps one quarter inch thick, and the coloring compound is stirred with paddles into the surface mixture to create streaks resembling marble. This composition is poured into a mold having a polished bottom wall to form a smooth upper slab surface. Then, while this composition is still in a fluid state, it is jarred or vibrated to fill voids and increase surface density. The form is thereafter filled to the top with non-colored backing mix, permitted to harden, removed from the form and inverted. Wohl, U.S. Pat. No. 2,305,126, issued on Dec. 15, 1942, reveals a process of molding imitation terrazzo tile. In Wohl a mix is once again poured into a form having a polished bottom wall. The bottom wall is waxed and painted, and spotted or grained with the desired arrangement of slab surface coloring. Dry Portland cement is poured into the form and spread uniformly over the polished bottom wall to about one-quarter inch thickness. A damp mix of cement and sand is added. Next the form is placed in a press, such as a hydraulic power press, and pressure is applied to cause the paint to impregnate the hydrated thin layer of cement to a depth sufficient to cause retention of the intended ornamentation on the face of the finished piece. Placement of dry cement over the paint in the form is intended to insure that the paint is attracted to the cement particles prior to hydration. Jennens, U.S. Pat. No. 1,568,070, issued Jan. 5, 1926, reveals a method of making artificial stone. Coloring matter of the consistency of thick paint is applied to a greased bottom wall of a form. A string or cord is immersed in the coloring matter and distributed over the form bottom wall in a haphazard manner. Then small particles or nodules are sprinkled into the form. A gas forming material, such as bicarbonate of soda, is sifted over the surface. Finally, cementitious material is spread over this deposited composition and a dry material is applied to take up excess moisture. The mix is permitted to cure, and the form is removed and the resulting slab is inverted to an upright position. Ewen, U.S. Pat. No. 1,596,482, issued on Aug. 17, 1926, teaches a method of producing cement tiles, slabs, and like products. Ewen is much like Spencer, except that there is an additional step of using a grid to separate a colored layer into squares or other shapes. Then alternating shapes are removed and replaced with matching shapes of another color. Denivelle, U.S. Pat. No. 1,233,265, issued on Jul. 10, 1917 is also much like Spencer. Other references teach coloring an upper surface without need of inverted molding in a form. Phillips, Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,677, issued Aug. 15, 1995, discloses a method of making high gloss, hardened concrete floors. A non-colored cement mix is poured into a form to within about one-half inch of the full level. Then a dry shake is applied, troweled or otherwise floated, and then another dry shake is applied, and again floated, until the cement in the form reaches a full level. This mix cures into a unified concrete slab having a colored upper layer. A problem with Phillips, Sr. is that the dry shake requires several applications and floatings to create a colored layer. See Phillips column 3, lines 54-66. Lowe, U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,790, issued on Jun. 14, 1994, discloses a method for producing a durable tactile warning surface. A first method is provided for forming a tactile warning surface on an existing sidewalk, which includes the steps of making a pigmented cement and spreading it over the sidewalk surface and then stamping the wet surface with a patterned tool. Lowe provides a second method for forming a complete sidewalk slab where none existed before. This second method includes the steps of preparing a cementitious mortar, pouring the cementitious mortar into a form, leveling the mortar to a substantially even thickness of about four inches, applying pigmented hardener to the surface of the mortar to a depth of about one quarter inch to become "an integral part therewith", applying a hydrophobic release agent to the resulting surface, and stamping the surface with a patterned tool. See bottom of Lowe column 4 and top of column 5. It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a building tile which presents a textured cement surface convincingly simulating brick, stone or ceramic tile, and alternatively presents a textured cement decorative surface. It is another object of the present invention to provide a building tile which is thin, light weight and flexible. It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a tile which is formed and textured at the manufacturing plant, so that an ordinary home-owner can simply fit and bond it into place. It is a further another object of the present invention to provide such a tile which is installed rapidly and with no drying time, and which may be replaced quickly and neatly in selective areas, and which can cover and fully conceal structural cracks. It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a tile which is highly durable, will withstand many years of wear and resists denting, is relatively light weight to transport, and is inexpensive to manufacture and thus affordable.

In over-the-air (OTA) and cable television distribution systems, television signals may be encoded in analog and/or digital formats. The encoded signals may then be modulated into a channel using digital or analog modulation. Different regions of the world use different transmission standards, which dictate the parameters of transmitted television signals. For example, in North America television signals may be transmitted OTA in the analog NTSC (National Television System Committee) format and/or the digital ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) format. In addition, television signals may be transmitted through cables that connect to a television or associated set-top box. For example, many cable systems use QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), which includes variants such as 64-QAM, 256-QAM, etc. In most television distribution systems, the available bandwidth is divided into channels, where each channel is allocated approximately 6-8 MHz of bandwidth. Each channel may include a digital or analog signal (or no signal). FIG. 1 is a graph of a frequency spectrum with channels 101-106. Channels 101 and 105 are analog channels, channels 103 and 106 are digital channels, and channels 102 and 104 have no signal. Television receivers may include set top boxes, integrated televisions, video capture devices, personal video recorders, and/or other devices such as general purpose computers with software and/or hardware for tuning, demodulating and/or decoding television signals. FIGS. 2 and 3 show conventional arrangements 200 and 300 for demodulating and decoding multiple television formats. In FIG. 2, digital demodulator 220 and analog demodulator 221 receive tuned signals (e.g., intermediate frequency signals and/or digital samples) from separate radio frequency processors 210 and 211, respectively. Radio frequency processors 210 and 211 both generally tune a radio frequency channel (e.g., a band of frequencies such as band 101, 102, 103, etc. in FIG. 1), and may further process the tuned signal (e.g., to produce digital samples of the tuned channel). Demodulators 220 and 221 provide a demodulated signal to signal decoder/image processor 230 for further processing. In FIG. 3, digital demodulator 320 and analog demodulator 321 receive tuned signals from a single radio frequency processor 310. Television receivers often need to scan a number of radio frequency channels when they are first set up (or when they are reconfigured) to initialize channel parameters. The setup scan may be used, for example, to set up a list of available channels, to pre-determine whether the channel is analog or digital, and/or to pre-determine other characteristics of each channel to enable faster signal acquisition when a user selects a channel to display. FIG. 4A shows a graph 400 of times to scan a channel with a digital demodulator (e.g., digital demodulator 220 or 320). Time 401 represents an exemplary length of time Tacq_dtv for acquiring a digital television signal (e.g., when the channel does contain a digital signal). Time 402 represents an exemplary length of time Tout_dtv for the digital demodulator to time out when the signal cannot be demodulated (e.g., when the channel contains an analog television signal). Time 403 represents an exemplary length of time Tout_lowpwr_dtv for the digital demodulator to time out when no signal is present. Similarly, FIG. 4B shows a graph 410 of times to scan a channel with an analog demodulator (e.g., analog demodulator 221 or 321). Time 411 represents an exemplary length of time Tacq_atv for acquiring an analog television signal (e.g., when the channel does contain an analog signal). Time 412 represents an exemplary length of time Tout_atv for the analog demodulator to time out when the signal cannot be demodulated (e.g., when the channel contains a digital television signal). Time 413 represents an exemplary length of time Tout_lowpwr_atv for the digital demodulator to time out when no signal is present. Conventional receivers generally scan a range of frequencies by attempting to scan each channel using a first mode (e.g., using a digital demodulator) and then using a second mode (e.g., using an analog demodulator) if the first mode fails. FIG. 4C shows a flowchart showing conventional television signal acquisition timing. A receiver may, for example, scan a first channel (e.g., channel 101) during time period 421, a second channel (e.g., channel 102) during time period 422, etc.). For each channel, the receiver first tries to scan the channel digitally and, if the digital scan fails, the receiver tries to scan the channel as an analog channel. Thus, the total time to scan channels 101-106 would be (2*Tacq_dtv)+(2*Tout_dtv)+(2*Tacq_atv)+(2*Tout_lowpwr_dtv)+(2*Tout_lowpwr_atv). Television receiving components are often benchmarked and compared based on channel scan time and stability. Therefore it is desirable to reduce the amount of time spent scanning channels in a mixed-format environment without sacrificing stability.

This invention relates to an illuminated system and, more specifically, to an optical dispersion system, wherein light provided through fiber optic fibers are magnified, reflected and refracted to produce a more brilliantly illuminated appearance. With the advent of fiber optic lighting, many devices which have used other forms of lighting have begun moving away from other lighting systems, such as neon lights, to provide color-specific illumination of signs. Fiber optic lighting is used for many various types of signs. Such examples include signs that advertise businesses, billboards, and channel letters. Typically, fiber optic lighting is used under two different concepts. The first is using the end, tip, or end glow, of a fiber strand, with a plurality of other fiber strands to produce the desired features of the sign. Under this concept, a greater number of strands are needed to produce the illustrated effect desired by a user. Viewing the a sign using fiber optic strands in this configuration, an observer can see the individual strands appearing as dots when viewed from certain distances from the sign. Under another concept, instead of using the end of the fiber optic cables, the longitudinal side of a strand, or a bundle of strands are used to provide the desired illumination, referred to as side glow. Applicant believes that this concept is limiting, since even though this approach may be ideal for spelling out words, the amount of lamination is limited. In view of the perceived limitations of the current state of the art, manufacturers of products, such as, but not limited, signs, including billboards, would benefit from an illumination system in which fiber optics are used to provide illumination. Such individuals would also benefit from fiber optic signage wherein the illumination emitting from a sign is uniform, even when viewed from various angles. Additionally users would benefit from an illumination system that consumes less electricity since fewer optical strands are illuminated which in turn is more environmentally beneficial since fewer strands would need to be manufactured.

Vehicle body structures provide structural support including components configured to provide protection to vehicle passengers during impact events.

As integrated circuit (IC) geometries continue to decrease, and with the advent of Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), the need for reliable, high density packaging solutions increases. A promising solution for providing reliable packaging for chips of continually decreasing size is Wafer Level Packaging (WLP). WLP is a packaging method in which packaging is formed at the wafer level in an IC foundry or other processing location, allowing testing and burn-in to be performed before the dicing of individual chips. In certain wafer level packaging (WLP) methods, small cavities or enclosures of an IC or MEMS package may be filled with fluid. In many such applications, fluid filling of a WLP may need to be performed in such a way as to prevent bubbles or gaseous pockets from forming in the fluid filled cavities. Fluid packaging may perform a number of functions essential for an IC or MEMS device. Packaging may provide electrical connection, electrical isolation or passivation from moisture and electrolytes, physical isolation from the environment to provide structural integrity of mechanical devices, thermal and optical protection to prevent undesirable performance changes, and chemical isolation to protect from harsh chemical environments. Electrical connection and isolation may include providing electrical connections from the outside of the MEMS package to electrical or mechanical components of the MEMS device inside the package, electrostatic shielding of the MEMS device, and preventing penetration of moisture and subsequent corrosion of electrical components or undesired interface adhesion. Mechanical protections may provide rigidity allowing mechanical stability throughout the MEMS product life- and may also help prevent undesirable interface stress between dissimilar materials. If the packaging protection is compromised, the MEMS device may fail, producing no output for a given input or producing invalid or inaccurate output for a given input.

The development of reliable immunologic compositions useful as reagents in immunoassays to determine the presence or absence of antigens or antibodies in a test fluid has and continues to be a sought after goal. One approach which has received a great deal of attention has been the development of reagents for hemagglutination and hemagglutination inhibition systems. These systems employ red blood cells also known as erythrocytes which, for use, are joined with antigenic or antibody substances so as to provide an indicator system which can be used to detect the homologous antibody or the antigenic substance itself. An early development in hemagglutination inhibition or passive hemagglutination tests was described by Wide and Gemzell, Acta Endocr. 35(1960) 261. They established that the red blood cells (Rbc) coated by or attached to the antigen must be stabilized to be useful hemagglutination inhibition tests, otherwise the red blood cells would need to be fresh daily. While Wide et al. stabilized the erythrocytes before attachment of the antigen, others have stabilized following attachment of the antigen. Stabilization of Rbc was originally described by Boyden using formaldehyde, J. Exp. Med., 93, 107 (1951) and the concept was extended by Wide, Acta Endocr., supp. 70, 41(1962), when following pretreatment of formaldehyde treated RBC with tannic acid, it was shown that hCG could be absorbed onto the cell surface of the Rbc. Ling, Brit. J. Haemat., 7, 229(1961), also showed the pyruvic aldehyde could beneficially replace formalin and that pretreatment with tannic acid was not necessary for antigen attachment. However for stabilization, Ling decreed that 48 hours at +4.degree. was necessary. But, the coated erythrocytes are unstable and are also time consuming to prepare. One approach to improving stability and also of obtaining erythrocytes with higher hemagglutination titers were disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,714,345; 3,715,427 and 3,925,541. There the erythrocytes were treated sequentially with pyruvic aldehyde and then formaldehyde for periods in excess of 12 hours for treatment prior to coating the thus stabilized erythrocyte with an antigen or antibody. The double aldehyde treated erythrocytes were in some cases further subjected to a lengthy freeze-thaw cycle at very low temperatures. Another approach to obtain antigen sensitized erythrocytes was through the use of bivalent reagents as coupling agents between antigens and erythrocytes, e.g., bis diazotized benzidines illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,732; various diols and quinones described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,634; toluene-2,4-diisocynates described in Immunochemistry 1:43(1964); etc. Since even the coupling coated erythrocytes are still readily susceptible to decomposition, formaldehyde treatment was usually employed prior to coating with antigen or simultaneously as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,159 where the coupling agent employed was glutaraldehyde. In still a different approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,175, glutaraldehyde was also utilized as a coupling agent but gelatin was used to stabilize the composition. The various compositions and methods already noted and numerous others suffer individually from various disadvantages such as instability, lack of reproducibility, false positive results, low hemagglutination titres, cost or time of preparation, and others. It has now been found that the compositions and methods of this invention demonstrated in part by use in hemagglutination tests, provide a superior grade of stabilized, sensitized cells. The composition of this invention have higher hemagglutination titres, are stable for long periods of time, and give reproducible patterns and results. Another advantage of the herein disclosed invention is the stability of results obtained. For example, in utilizing a commercially available reagent the hemagglutination patterns change with time. Thus, in a pregnancy test, a negative result, i.e., complete hemagglutination within 2 hours, will change over 24 hours to show a quasiinhibition pattern; results recorded from 2-24 hours at room temperature will therefore indicate a significant number of false positive results. However, utilizing the composition and methods of this invention, results are obtained within 2 hours of testing and will not change for about 11 days thereafter or more. Other advantages will become apparent as the description of the invention unfolds.

A conventional technique for controlling the intensity of an instrument cluster on a motor vehicle dashboard incorporates a mechanical rheostat in series with a voltage supply. The series resistance of the rheostat attenuates power delivered to the panel lamps and allows the automobile operator to adjust the light intensity from the dash panel. The use of a series limiting resistance in a rheostat dissipates unnecessary amounts of heat which is not only inefficient, but can alter the operating characteristics of other instrument panel components. In addition, the rheostat power adjustment technique of the prior art results in variable operation between different electronic subassemblies.