1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a camera for close-up photography using a photo-ranging system to insure that the subject to be photographed is properly focused. The ranging system is used in combination with a selected one of a plurality of fixed focus lenses mounted at the front of the camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cameras having the capacity to take close-up photographs are not new. An example of a camera used for close-up photography is the Acmel Macro Auto V6 camera manufactured by Acmel Corporation of Tokyo, Japan which involves a highly complicated system involving focal beams and a plurality of detachable lenses for different focal lengths. Each detachable lens is designed for a single subject distance. The resulting camera serves its purpose but is altogether too complicated for easy use by a camera operator. It is both bulky and heavy, weighing about 41/2 pounds.
The use of converging light beams from a camera to determine a proper subject to camera distance is old art as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,426 which is specifically incorporated herein by reference. The theory disclosed therein and in other literature provides a light source reflected from spaced apart mirrors through a lens board to converge at the subject of the photograph. This technique is useful where several parameters remain constant, in particular, one of the constants is flash photography. With flash photography the duration of exposure is set and the only other variables are the exposure aperture and the focus of the lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,501 discloses a single pair of laser ranging lights of different wavelengths mounted to project converging light beams at the focal point of a single fixed focus exposure lens of the associated camera.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,460 discloses a single pair of light sources each of which projects a plurality of light beams in a particular pattern. The pattern is displayed on a surface which allows an observer to determine the topography of the surface and its distance from an associated camera. The camera is mounted equidistant between the two light sources.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,299 discloses an underwater camera mounted between a pair of light sources. The light sources project light beams to converge at the focal point of a single fixed focus lens system of the associated camera.
What is missing from the prior art is a camera for close-up photography having more that one focal length available to a user combined with a plurality of ranging systems to insure proper focus of the subject.


Within the past four years, the genetic cause of the Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer Syndrome (HNPCC), also known as Lynch syndrome II, has been ascertained for the majority of kindreds affected with the disease (13). The molecular basis of HNPCC involves genetic instability resulting from defective mismatch repair (MMR). To date, six genes have been identified in humans that encode for proteins and appear to participate in the MMR process, including the mutS homologs GTBP, hMSH2, and hMSH3 and the mutL homologs hMLH1, hPMS1, and hPMS2 (2, 7, 11, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24). Germline mutations in four of these genes (hMSH2, hMLH1, hPMS1, and hPMS2) have been identified in HNPCC kindreds (2, 11, 13, 17, 24). Though the mutator defect that arises from the MMR deficiency can affect any DNA sequence, microsatellite sequences are particularly sensitive to MMR abnormalities (14). Microsatellite instability is therefore a useful indicator of defective MMR. In addition to its occurrence in virtually all tumors arising in HNPCC patients, Microsatellite instability is found in a small fraction of sporadic tumors with distinctive molecular and phenotypic properties (27).
HNPCC is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion, so that the normal cells of affected family members contain one mutant allele of the relevant MMR gene (inherited from an affected parent) and one wild-type allele (inherited from the unaffected parent). During the early stages of tumor development, however, the wild-type allele is inactivated through a somatic mutation, leaving the cell with no functional MMR gene and resulting in a profound defect in MMR activity. Because a somatic mutation in addition to a germ-line mutation is required to generate defective MMR in the tumor cells, this mechanism is generally referred to as one involving “two hits,” analogous to the biallelic inactivation of tumor suppressor genes that initiate other hereditary cancers (11, 13, 25). In line with this two-hit mechanism, the non-neoplastic cells of HNPCC patients generally retain near normal levels of MMR activity due to the presence of the wild-type allele.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) display is a display expected to replace a liquid crystal display (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-197668). This display differs from a liquid crystal shutter type display utilizing polarization, and displays an image by opening and closing a light transmissive window using a mechanical shutter system. A shutter is formed of a thin film. Vertical and horizontal sizes of one shutter forming one pixel are in the order of several hundred micrometers, and a thickness thereof is in the order of several micrometers. One shutter is opened/closed to enable ON/OFF operation for one pixel. The shutter is operated by an electrostatic attractive force.
The shutter is arranged in a space surrounded by a sealing member between a pair of light transmissive substrates, and the space is filled with oil. The oil is used to prevent a spring for driving the shutter from sticking, and to reduce a difference in optical refraction index with respect to the light transmissive substrates.
The oil is injected from an injection port corresponding to an opening of the sealing member, and the injection port is encapsulated by a resin after the oil injection. For high-speed open/close operation of the shutter, oil having low viscosity is desired, but in this case, the speed of oil when passing through the injection port increases to cause a problem of damaging the shutter.


One or more aspects relate, in general, to processing within a processing environment, and in particular, to optimizing the processing.
Processors execute instructions that direct the processors to perform specific operations. The instructions may be part of user applications that perform user-defined tasks, or part of operating system applications that perform system level services, as examples.
One processing technique used by the processors to process the instructions is referred to as pipelined processing, in which processing is performed in stages. Example stages include a fetch stage in which the processor fetches an instruction from memory; a decode stage in which the fetched instruction is decoded; an execute stage in which the decoded instruction is executed; and a complete stage in which execution of the instruction is completed, including updating architectural state relating to the processing. Other and/or different stages are possible.
To facilitate processing within a pipelined processor, various optimization techniques are employed. One such technique includes decode time instruction optimization, which offers an opportunity to improve code execution by combining multiple instructions into a single internal instruction; recombining multiple instructions into multiple/fewer internal instructions; and/or recombining multiple instructions into multiple internal instructions with fewer data dependencies.


The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method for signing a message by a user device of a public key infrastructure (PKI) system. The present invention further relates to a corresponding attestation server and a corresponding computer program product.
The de-facto technique for authenticating messages are digital signatures. Digital signatures allow the holder of a private key to generate a signature which can be verified using the corresponding public key. Such digital signatures are based on the property that no one except the holder of the private key can generate signatures that are valid under the public key. Digital signatures may be used e.g. during TLS client authentication and server authentication, for signing contracts and for e-mails.
To verify that a given public key belongs to a given entity, public key certificates may be used. Such certificates effectively bind a public key to a given entity. A certificate may be generated by a trusted authority of a PKI-system. The trusted authority, which is often denoted as certificate authority, issues a signature on the public key of the respective entity and on additional attributes corresponding to this entity, e.g., the name, the address and/or its affiliation. This signature, together with the information to verify it, then acts as the certificate.
In order for the digital certificate system to be secure, the private key of the signer must be kept secret. If the private key gets compromised, e.g., if a computer has been infected by malware, or a smart phone is lost, the certificate on the corresponding public key has to be revoked. This means that the certificate issued beforehand is not valid anymore and a verifier will reject a signature signed under the corresponding public key. The revocation may be done by informing the issuer of the certificate (certificate authority) and requesting a revocation of the certificate. The certificate authority may publish certificate revocation lists.
To verify a signature, a verifier must determine the validity of both the certificate and the signature itself. Hence usually a public key certificate is sent along with the corresponding digital signature. The verifier may determine whether a certificate is still valid by asking the certificate authority whether the certificate has been revoked and/or by checking revocation lists that have been published by the certificate authority. The validity of the certificate should be verified at each verification of the given signature.
Accordingly, there is a need for alternative methods for verifying signatures in a PKI-system.


Information is easily dispersed through the Internet, television and many other outlets. One major problem is that the information dispersed is often not correct. Although there are fact checking websites available online, these websites check facts in a slow manner; typically not truly providing a fact check response for several hours or even days.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rocker-type electrical switch suitable for commercial and home use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known is a rocker-type electrical wall switch which comprises a rocker pivotally supported in a housing at a first pivot point, a movable contact brush pivotally supported at a second pivot point in the housing, a spring compressed between a downwardly extending boss on the rocker and a lower end of the contact brush, the spring being movable under compression to inclined positions relative to the brush in response to pivotal movement of the rocker between rest positions, the movement of the spring transmitting pivotal movement of the rocker to the brush, and a pair of spaced cams engaging, respectively, with the upper end of the brush at a point above the second pivot point, and the rocker and cams being movable into engagement with the brush under pressure exerted by the spring on the rocker.
Other known devices of some relevance to the present invention are one which discloses a safety snap switch; one which teaches a snap switch based on the engagement between a rigid member, able to oscillate, and a resilient prestressed contact in such a manner that rebound is substantially prevented; one which teaches a number of toggle type switches having various contact structures; one which teaches a switch including a contact-carrying rocker, the movement of which is produced by a compression spring, the axis of which coincides with that of a control knob or a lever, the spring transmitting its action to the rocker through a link or stirrup engaging through its end on the one hand, the rocker, and on the other hand, the spring; one which teaches a snap-action electrical switch with contact dampening means to quiet the action of lever-operated electric switches; one which teaches an electrical toggle switch having a mounting that can oscillate for the contact in the inner position and association of the mounting with a simple form of an essentially leaf-type spring; one which teaches a noiseless electric switch having a pivoted operating lever biased into two switch positions by a leaf spring and the lever; and one which teaches a compact electrical contact and electrical switch structure having a combination of a screw terminal, a push-in wire terminal, and a make or break electrical contact terminal, with the three terminals being formed in a single compact electrical structure from a small piece of metal strip bent at right angles between the screw terminal and the push-in terminal.
Also known is a device which comprises a mounting strap for supporting a wiring device in a metal wall box and establishing an electrical connection between the metal mounting screw and the strap. The mounting screw is inserted through the strap and threaded into a metal box or gem box.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to means for transferring an ignition impetus through the wall of a firearm to a confined propellant, and more particularly to a nipple for use in conjunction with firearms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since the early use of firearms, it has been necessary to transfer an ignition impetus from the exterior of the barrel or cylinder of a firearm to a propellant charge, such as black powder, disposed therein. Early in the 19th century, flintlocks, which touched off a small black powder charge were employed and this was later largely replaced by the use of percussion caps which, upon impact, produce a desired quantity of burning gas or "flash" which is employed to ignite the propellant charge. These percussion caps are customarily fitted to what is known as a nipple which is treated through an aperture disposed into the barrel of a rifle or hand gun, adjacent to the breech portion thereof, or in the rearward wall of a cylinder in a revolver. When the percussion cap is snugly in place on the nipple, the force of striking the percussion cap not only produces a flash but also forces this gas under considerable pressure through the nipple into the ignition chamber of the firearm.
Typically, the interior portion of the nipple terminates in an aperture. Unfortunately, a frequently incurred problem is the blockage of this aperture for various reasons. The result is the placing of a percussion cap on the nipple and the striking thereof with the end result of no ignition of the propellant charge.
Various methods of clearing such a blockage have developed over the years and there is keen interest in this problem today as the use of antique or reproduction of antique black powder firearms has become a large hobby. Solutions include the removal of the nipple and the clearing of the aperture in which the nipple was disposed, the forcing of a fine wire through the nipple and the somewhat, dangerous practice of removing the nipple, placing a small amount of fresh black powder adjacent to the location of the interior opening of the nipple, in the propellant, and replacing of the nipple. Unfortunately, none of these methods is totally satisfactory and, if a powder charge is in place covered by a lead ball or bullet it has been known to be necessary to employ a screw-type extractor or the like to remove the ball and permit removal of the powder charge so that a barrel or cylinder can be totally cleared for reuse with fresh powder.
In an attempt to solve other problems associated with these early firearms, various configurations were proposed for extending the flashhole in the nipple through the powder charge. U.S. Pat. No. 36,464 issued to Hopkins on Sept. 16, 1862; U.S. Pat. No. 21,802 issued to Schenkl on Oct. 12, 1858; and U.S. Pat. No. 15,292 to Halsey on July 8, 1856 teach the employment of a tige or tube disposed in the barrel of a rifle so that the point at which the flash from a percussion cap or the like touches off the powder is extended to a point somewhere remote from the point of entry of the flash into the barrel. These configurations are provided so that the powder can be ignited entirely before it is blown out of the rifle barrel. Further, in Halsey it is suggested that the tige principle can be used in conjunction with a nipple wherein the tige is a mere continuation of the nipple what is deemed a proper distance into the interior of the barrel to form a tube. Although these references teach methods of enhancing combustion, the basic problem of an orifice which can be clogged by a powder charge still exists.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art by providing a nipple which provides an extended opening from which an ignition impetus such as that generated by a percussion cap can contact the powder thereby limiting the possibility of the extended orifice becoming clogged.
Other percussion nipples are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,335 to Ives and U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,506 to Pawlak. In addition, a percussion nipple is also shown in German Auslegeschrift No. 1,216,018 to Hintze. However, none of the references cited show or suggest the configuration of the present invention which has solved an extremely long standing problem.


For the purpose of prenatal genetic diagnosis, amniotic diagnosis has heretofore been conducted primarily by sampling amniotic fluid via amniocentesis and inspecting chromosomes of the fetal cells in the amniotic fluid. Conventional prenatal genetic diagnostic techniques suffered from the serious problems of a risk of miscarriage in addition to physical and mental stresses on mothers. Under such circumstances, fetal cells (fetal nucleated red blood cells) were found to migrate in the blood circulating in the mother's body. If fetal nucleated red blood cells contained in the maternal blood are selectively collected and the genes of the fetus are analyzed, prenatal diagnosis can be safely carried out without a risk of miscarriage. Such technique enables fetal gene diagnosis at an early stage of pregnancy, which can lead to early treatment. Approximately 5,000,000 cases of prenatal genetic diagnosis are conducted every year on a global scale. If such safe genetic diagnostic technique can be put to practical use, safe techniques can occupy a high share of the global market. However, it is not easy to collect fetal nucleated red blood cells because such cells are said to exist in amounts as small as about 1 cell in 1 ml of the maternal blood. A collection method involving the use of an antibody that recognizes a special structure of the nucleated red blood cell surface (i.e., an antigen-antibody reaction), a method comprising allowing fluorescence-labeled nucleated red blood cells to flow in a liquid, allowing such blood cells to pass through the laser beam focal point, and assaying fluorescence emitted by blood cells to collect cells (i.e., fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS)), and other techniques have been implemented in research institutes all over the world. However, all such techniques have been insufficient. As a method for collecting nucleated red blood cells with high assuredness, a method comprising analyzing an image observed under an optical microscope and collecting the nucleated red blood cells detected can be employed. According to the FDD-MB® (Fetal DNA diagnosis from maternal blood) project of Takabayashi (Kanazawa Medical University), at present, fetal nucleated red blood cells are separated from the maternal blood via density-gradient centrifugation using Percoll to prepare samples and automatically processed to collect NRBC (Haruo Takabayashi, Idenshi Igaku (Gene & Medicine), Vol. 5, No. 3, 2001, pp. 10-11; Haruo Takabayashi, Idenshi Igaku (Gene & Medicine), Vol. 5, No. 3, 2001, pp. 28-34 2). Detection of the nucleated red blood cells via imaging disadvantageously necessitates a long period of time.
Rare cells have heretofore been separated by density-gradient centrifugation using Ficoll, Percoll, Polymorphprep, or the like (US Patent Publication No. 2003/0134416; US Patent Publication No. 2004/0142463; U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,325; U.S. Pat. No. 6,949,355; U.S. Pat. No. 7,166,443; WO International Publication No. 2008/048931). When such separation reagent is used alone, disadvantageously, nucleated red blood cells cannot be completely separated because their density (specific gravity) is similar to that of white blood cells and some other red blood cells (i.e., 1.07-1.08).


Design of semiconductor devices such as power semiconductor devices requires trade-offs between electric characteristics such as area-specific on-state resistance Ron×A, breakdown voltage Vbr between load terminals such as source and drain, switching behaviour and device ruggedness.
By way of example, increasing a specific resistance of a bulk material allows to achieve lower electric field strengths at a device front side. Although lower electric field strengths at the device front side may improve device ruggedness, a softness of the switching behaviour may be adversely affected.
It is desirable to improve the trade-off between electric characteristics in semiconductor devices.


Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for power management.
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of eNodeBs that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with an eNodeB via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the eNodeB to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the eNodeB.
In some wireless communication networks, a user equipment (UE) selects and maintains a connection with a base station providing communication capabilities for the UE. Further, small cells may be deployed to improve wireless network communications when experiencing poor macro base station connections. In such wireless communication networks, inefficient utilization of available communication resources, particularly power resources, may lead to degradations in wireless communication. Even more, the foregoing inefficient resource utilization inhibits network devices from achieving higher wireless communication quality. In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there may be significant problems and shortcomings associated with current power management technology. Thus, improvements in wireless network power management are desired.


Transportation systems such as railways can be complex systems, with several components being interdependent on other components within the system. Attempts have been made in the past to optimize the operation of a particular component or groups of components of the railway system, such as for the locomotive, for a particular operating characteristic such as fuel consumption, which can be a significant component of the cost of operating a railway system. Some estimates indicate that fuel consumption is the second largest railway system operating cost, second only to labor costs.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,901 proposes optimizing the operation of a train for a number of operating parameters, including fuel consumption. Optimizing the performance of a particular train (which may be only one component of a much larger system that includes the railway network of track, other trains, crews, rail yards, departure points, and destination points), however, may not yield an overall system-wide optimization or improvement of one or more of the operating parameters.
One system and method of planning at the railway track network system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,172. Movement planners such as this are primarily focused on movement of the trains through the network based on business objective functions (BOF) defined by the railroad company, and not necessarily on the basis of improving performance or a particular performance parameter such as fuel consumption. Further, the movement planner may not extend the improvement down to the train (much less the consist or locomotive), nor to the railroad service and maintenance operations that plan for the servicing of the trains or locomotives.
Thus, there does not appear to be recognition that improvement of operations for a transportation system may require a multi-level approach, with the gathering of key data at several levels and communicating data with other levels in the system.
Powered systems that operate within transportation systems or other systems can include off-highway vehicles, marine diesel powered propulsion plants, stationary diesel powered systems, and rail vehicle systems, e.g., trains. Some of these powered systems may be powered by a power unit, such as a diesel or other fuel-powered unit. With respect to rail vehicle systems, a power unit may be part of at least one locomotive and the rail vehicle system may further include a plurality of rail cars, such as freight cars. More than one locomotive can be provided with the locomotives coupled as a locomotive consist. The locomotives may be complex systems with numerous subsystems, with one or more subsystems being interdependent on other subsystems.
An operator may be onboard the powered system (such as a rail vehicle) to ensure proper operation of the powered system. In addition to ensuring proper operation of the rail vehicle, the operator also may be responsible for determining operating speeds of the rail vehicle and in-vehicle forces within the rail vehicle (e.g., forces between coupled powered units such as locomotives and/or non-powered units such as cargo cars or other railcars). To perform this function, the operator may have extensive experience with operating the rail vehicle over a specified terrain. The experience and knowledge of the operator may be needed to comply with prescribed operating speeds that may vary based on the location of the rail vehicle along a route, such as along a track. Moreover, the operator also may be responsible for ensuring in-vehicle forces remain within acceptable limits.
Even with knowledge to ensure safe operation, the operator may not operate the vehicle so that the fuel consumption, emissions, and/or travel time is reduced or minimized for each trip. For example, other factors such as emission output, environmental conditions like noise or vibration, a weighted combination of fuel consumption and emissions output, and the like may prove difficult for the operator to both safely operate the vehicle while reducing the amount of fuel consumed by the vehicle, reducing the amount of emissions generated by the vehicle, and/or reducing the travel time of the vehicle. The varying sizes, loading, fuel characteristics, emission characteristic, and the like can be different for various vehicles, and external factors such as weather and traffic conditions can frequently vary.
Owners and/or operators of off-highway vehicles, marine diesel powered propulsion plants, and/or stationary diesel powered systems may realize financial benefits when the powered systems produce increased fuel efficiency, decreased emission output, and/or decreased transit time so as to save on operating costs while reducing emission output and meeting operating constraints, such as but not limited to mission time constraints.


It is known that arthroprostheses used to reconstruct the shoulder joint can be the anatomical or inverse type. Anatomical humeral prostheses are provided with a hemispherical head that artificially reconstructs the human anatomy and are suitable to articulate in the glenoid cavity of the shoulder blade or possibly in a mating artificial seating attached to the glenoid cavity. On the contrary, inverse prostheses provide a concave articular insert able to allow the rotation of an artificial spherical body attached to the glenoid seating, commonly called glenosphere.
It is known that humeral prostheses, whether anatomical or inverse, generally include a distal joint element, also called rod or pin, inserted inside the humerus along the diaphyseal axis, to support the humeral head in anatomical humeral prostheses or the concave articular insert in inverse prostheses.
Distal joint elements of various types are known, for example with an elongated tubular shape, to define an elongated rod, or a small-sized pin, typically used for mini-invasive humeral prostheses. The shape and size of the distal joint element can also depend on the type and size of the humeral prosthesis, for example inverse humeral prostheses can need a distal joint element that is bigger than anatomical ones.
It is possible, for example due to degeneration of the tissues of the shoulder, that operations may have to be carried out to revise the prosthesis, for example to replace the prosthesis, or operations to convert an anatomical prosthesis into a inverse prosthesis or vice versa.
It is known, for example from the patent application EP-A-1.472.999, to make a modular humeral prosthesis, comprising an adapter body, which functions as a metaphyseal module, to be positioned in a seating made under the head of the humerus and connectable on one side to a rod inserted in the humerus and on the other side to the semi-spherical humeral head, in the case of anatomical prostheses, or to the concave articular insert in the case of inverse prostheses. Indeed, by varying the adapter body, the known modular humeral prosthesis can be made as anatomical or inverse. Moreover, in the field of the same type of prosthesis, anatomical or inverse, it may be possible to change the shape or size of the adapter body, releasing it from the rod and keeping the latter inserted in the humerus, whenever its sizes or characteristics are suitable for the humeral prosthesis to be grafted.
However, one possible disadvantage of this known modular humeral prosthesis is that it cannot be converted from anatomical to inverse without having to replace the adapter body. This latter operation, which entails extracting the adapter body from the bone seating, can be invasive and destructive.
Another possible disadvantage of the known humeral prosthesis is that it does not allow to completely replace the rod with another element inserted in the humerus, such as a rod with a different conformation or size, or a nail for osteosynthesis, preserving the adapter body already inserted, that is, without extracting the adapter body from the humerus which, as we said above, can be difficult and invasive.
It is known for example that, in the event of fractures of the humerus, for the purposes of osteosynthesis, it may be necessary to introduce inside the humerus a humeral nail that reproduces the correct alignment of the bone fragments to allow reciprocal welding thereof. The humeral nail can be introduced in antegrade fashion, with a passage through the proximal part of the humerus (antegrade nail), or retrograde, through an aperture in the olecranon fossa (retrograde nail). The antegrade solution is generally preferable, since it is less invasive and less complex.
However, in the state of the art and with the humeral prostheses available, if there is a fracture of the humerus and there is a humeral prosthesis present, it may be necessary to completely remove the prosthetic implant, or alternatively to use external synthesis means, such as osteosynthesis plates which in any case do not always guarantee a successful synthesis.
One disadvantage of known solutions is therefore that it it is not possible to act in an antegrade manner to remove the rod or pin and insert the nail without removing the adapter body, in the event of fractures of the humerus where there is a humeral prosthesis present.
Document US-A-2005/0125067 describes a modular prosthesis of the known type, provided with a head and a rod coupled to the head. The rod has a proximal portion coupled with the head and a distal portion configured to extend in a long bone of the patient. The distal portion can be removed from the rod after the prosthesis has been implanted, without removing the proximal portion.
Document WO-A-99/47081 also describes a modular orthopedic prosthesis having a body that has a through hole that receives a connection bushing that in turn receives a rod having a proximal neck and a distal shaft. The connection bushing can be expanded radially in order to clamp the rod and the body together.
Purpose of the present invention is to obtain a modular humeral prosthesis that allows revisions or conversions of the prosthesis, keeping the adapter body of the humeral prosthesis in the humeral seating and allowing to replace the distal joint element, either rod or pin.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hot water supply system of connecting a plurality of water heaters, setting a priority device from the water heaters, and performing hot water supply operation while the priority device links with some of the other water heaters, a water heater therefor and a hot water supply control method therefor.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is an art of connecting a plurality of water heaters and performing the hot water supply operation.
An example of performing hot water supply using connected water heaters like the above is that a connecting unit is connected to a hot-water supplier capable of being operated by one set individually; when a control unit of the hot-water supplier detects the connection of the connecting unit, the control unit switches the operation mode of the hot-water suppliers from an individual operation mode into a connecting operation mode automatically (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-357361).
Another example thereof is that two hot water supply equipments are connected via a communication cable, and an anomaly in one hot water supply equipment is notified at the other hot water supply equipment (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-078327).
When many, for example, at least three water heaters are connected and the hot water supply operation is performed, a connecting unit for controlling the hot water supply operation is separately provided in order that the operation of each water heater is linked with each other. In a hot water supply system like the above, it is possible to obtain so much hot water that a single water heater cannot obtain. However, newly disposing the connecting unit causes an increase in cost. Further, a place for the connecting unit is needed.
Also, the number of connectable water heaters is limited when the connecting unit is not provided, water heaters are connected to each other directly, one is treated as a master and the others are treated as slaves for example, and the hot water supply operation using the linked water heaters is controlled.
Concerning such problems, there is no disclosure or suggestion thereof in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications Nos. 2002-357361 and 2007-078327, and no disclosure or suggestion about structure etc. for solving them is presented.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite material having a reinforcing texture in refractory fibers and ceramic matrix with multiple interphases between the fibers of the texture and the matrix.
By refractory fibers is meant here fibers in carbon or in ceramic such as, for example the fibers constituted essentially of silicon carbide.
2. Prior Art
In the composite materials with refractory fibers and ceramic matrix, the fiber-matrix bond conditions the transfer of load and, as a result, the characteristics as well as the mechanical behavior of the materials.
One advantageous way of controlling the load transfer between fiber and matrix consists in interposing a fine layer of a material having a lamellar structure oriented in parallel to the axis of the fiber, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,503. The layer having the lamellar structure is in a material selected from rough laminar pyrolytic carbon (RL) PyC and boron nitride (BN). As shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1, the layer having a laminar structure constitutes an interphase LI defining two interfaces: one interface between fiber F and the lamellar interphase LI and one interface between said latter and the matrix M.
Without the lamellar interphase, a crack starting in the matrix M spreads directly through the fiber F, as shown in FIG. 2, this leading to a premature breaking of the fiber. The material has a fragile behavior.
When, on the contrary, there is a lamellar interphase, this prevents any cracks starting in the matrix from spreading directly through the fiber. Due to its resiliency under shear stress, the lamellar interphase permits a relaxing of the stresses exerted on the bottom of cracks. The material has a non-fragile behavior and improved mechanical properties, as shown by curve II in FIG. 3 which shows the relation between elongation and tensile strength. By way of comparison, curve I in FIG. 3 shows this relation in the case of a material without lamellar interphase.
The crack remains stopped in the lamellar interphase as long as the level of stress exerted on the bottom of the crack does not exceed the breaking strength of the weakest of the elements found in the immediate vicinity of the crack. Three elements have to be taken into account: the material constituting the lamellar interphase, the matrix-lamellar interphase interface and the fiber-lamellar interphase interface. Depending on which one of said elements has the lowest breaking strength, the progression of the crack will follow path a, b, or c, respectively, when the stress on the bottom of the crack increases, as illustrated in FIG. 4.
The most dangerous progression is that following path c, namely on the fiber-lamellar interphase interface. Indeed, the crack then can reach into the fiber and break it, if it meets with any surface defect of said fiber, which will cause a reduction of the mechanical properties of the composite material.


In telecommunication, teleconferencing is the live exchange and mass articulation of information among persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system, for example, a telephone system. Computers have given new meaning to the term because they allow groups to do much more than just talk. Once a teleconference is established, the group can share applications and mark up a common whiteboard.
Broadly speak, teleconferencing comprises various ways by which people communicate with one another over some distance. In a narrow sense, a teleconference is a two-way, interactive meeting, between relatively small groups of people (approximately 1 to 10 at each end), who may use permanent teleconferencing facilities. A teleconference involves audio communication between the locations, but may also involve video or graphics. One problem with conventional teleconferencing systems is that as more participants are added to the teleconference, the conventional teleconferencing systems' quality and performance degrades. In other words, as more participants are added to conventional teleconferencing systems, the conventional system's overall latency increases and long delays are created between when participants can speak.


The present invention relates to a process for regulating to desired values the dimensions of bubbles of magnetic bubble elements during their production by liquid phase epitaxy.
It is pointed out that a magnetic bubble element is constituted by a magnetic layer with small magnetic domains having an opposite magnetic induction to that of the material surrounding them in the layer.
In a monocrystalline magnetic layer, such as a magnetic garnet film having a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to the plane of the layer, it is possible to create generally cylindrical magnetic domains in which the magnetic induction is of the opposite direction to that in the remainder of the layer.
These domains, which are normally "bubbles" are stabilized at their operating size under the action of a continuous magnetic field, called the polarization field. The latter must be perpendicular to the layer and the domains can be displaced in the plane of the layer under the action of propagation means magnetized by a rotary magnetic field applied in the plane of the layer. In this way, it is possible to produce circuits, comparators, memories, etc.
More specifically, the present invention relates to the preparation of magnetic bubble elements constituted by ferrimagnetic garnet films deposited by liquid phase epitaxy on a non-magnetic garnet substrate, said films preferably being magnetized perpendicular to the plane of the film. In such films, the magnetic domains appear in the form of cylinders with a circular cross-section, for example, positive on the upper face of the layer and negative on the lower face from the magnetic standpoint and in this way they form magnetic dipoles having an axis perpendicular to the displacement plane.
In connection with the construction of magnetic bubble memories, it is known that their capacity is directly linked with the diameter of the magnetic bubbles. Thus, to obtain a capacity of 256 kbits, elements are used, whose bubbles have a diameter of 2.7 .mu.m, whilst to obtain capacities up to 0.5 and 1 megabit it is necessary to use elements whose magnetic bubbles have a diameter of 3 to 1.5 .mu.m, preferably 2.5 and 1.8 .mu.m.
Thus, in connection with the construction of magnetic bubble memories, considerable importance is attached to processors making it possible to adjust the diameter of the magnetic bubbles of such elements to the desired values.
Hitherto, in the processes for the production of magnetic bubble elements by liquid phase epitaxial deposit, the diameter of the element bubbles has been controlled by acting on the composition of the epitaxy bath comprising oxides or carbonates of the elements used in the composition of the film.
Thus, in the case of garnet films of formula: EQU T.sub.a.sup.1 T.sub.b.sup.2 T.sub.c.sup.3 Ca.sub.d) (Fe.sub.e Ge.sub.f)O.sub.12
in which T.sup.1, T.sup.2 and T.sup.3, which differ from one another, represent an element in the series of rare earths including yttrium and a, b, c and d are numbers such that their sum is substantially equal to 3, whilst e and f are numbers such that their sum is substantially equal to 5, the diameter of the bubbles has been controlled by modifying the composition of the epitaxy bath with respect to the quantities of the different rare earths oxides for influencing the anisotropy and on the quantity of germanium oxide for modifying the magnetization. (Materials Research Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1975 and Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 12, No. 1, December 1977).
Thus, in processes for the production of bubble memories as desired in the Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 12, No. 1, December 1977, certain conditions must be respected in order to obtain films with a satisfactory quality.
Thus, for reducing the diameter d of bubbles of the element, it is necessary to reduce the characteristic length l of the film on wishing to respect the condition according to which said diameter d is similar to the thickness h of the film in order to obtain a good stability of the bubbles. This can be achieved by increasing the magnetization of the film because the characteristic length l is defined by the formula: ##EQU1## in which A represents the exchange constant, Ku the uniaxial anisotropy constand and M.sub.s the saturation magnetization.
However, on increasing the saturation magnetization M.sub.s of the film, the anisotropy field H.sub.k is generally reduced making it difficult to respect the condition: EQU H.sub.k -4.pi.M.sub.s .gtoreq.700 oersteds
necessary for preventing spontaneous nucleation of the bubbles. In addition, in order to respect this condition, it is necessary to influence the respective quantities of the rare earths to increase the anisotropy field H.sub.k.
However, this control method involving on the one hand the respective quantities of the different rare earths and on the other the germanium quantity in the epitaxy bath has the disadvantage of requiring a relatively large change in the epitaxy bath composition to change from one bubble diameter to another.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resonator, to a vibrating sensor including such a resonator, and to a method of fabricating the resonator. Such a resonator is used for example in vibrating sensors of the gyro type.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
The general principle of a vibrating sensor is to subject a resonator to vibration and to detect a physical magnitude that is representative of the influence of an acceleration on the vibration.
Vibrating sensors exist that include an electrode-carrying plate with a resonator mounted thereon. The resonator comprises a body having a substantially hemispherical resonant part with a pole that is connected to the electrode-carrying plate by a sensor stem. The resonant part comprises a hemispherical web defined by an outside surface and an inside surface, which surfaces have free edges that are connected to each other by a plane annular surface that extends facing the electrodes secured to the electrode-carrying plate. The resonant part and the stem are covered in an electrical conduction layer. The electrical conduction layer and the electrodes are connected to different potentials so as to subject the web to periodic elliptical deformation and so as to detect the orientation of the ellipse, e.g. as a function of capacitances of values that depend on the gap formed between the electrodes and the plane annular surface.
The body is made of silica because of its isotropic properties and its very low mechanical damping.
In an embodiment that used to be widespread, the resonant part and the stem were completely covered in a layer of chromium forming the conduction layer (see for example document US-A-2003/0019296).
Nevertheless, it was subsequently found that the layer of chromium contributed non-negligible mechanical damping.
Resonators were thus considered in which the layer of chromium did not extend over all of the resonant part: the layer of chromium then covered the stem and the annular surface, and was provided with branches extending over the inside surface from the stem to the annular surface. That enabled damping to be reduced significantly, thereby giving rise to a large increase in the performance of vibrating sensors incorporating such resonators.
Subsequently, replacing the chromium in those resonators with platinum has enabled the performance of vibrating sensors to be further improved.
The document EP-A-1445580 discloses a resonator having an inside surface fully covered by a conductive metal coating and an outside surface left uncovered.
Nevertheless, silica is a material with a very active surface that tends to establish bonds with its surroundings. Silica becomes covered on its surface in groups of silanol Si—OH or silane Si—H that are strongly polar and that can combine with examples in the surroundings. In vibrating sensors, the resonator is in a vacuum so that such contamination of the silica does not occur. Nevertheless, the research that has led to the invention has shown that such contamination of the silica that is left uncovered by the conduction layer gives rise to unstable and anisotropic modification of the geometrical properties and of the mechanical damping of the resonator, even when the level of contamination is low: such modification is likely to lead to drift that cannot be compensated electronically because it is unstable.


Patent literature 1 discloses a cloud-key-management-type decryption technology that stores, in a key device, registered permission information corresponding to a terminal device to which a decryption authority is given, allows the key device to receive ciphertext and terminal information, and outputs response information corresponding to the decrypted result of the ciphertext when the terminal information corresponds to any of the registered permission information.


The present invention is directed to a method of optimizing the steering assistance of a motorized vehicle, using angle sensors instead of a torque detector. The method of the present invention also provides an improved steering power in case of failure. The present invention also encompasses a vehicle comprising two angle sensors used to optimize the steering assistance.
For utility vehicles, a steering assistance is necessary. It is usually provided through a torsion bar, which opens a hydraulic valve, according to the torque applied by the driver to the steering wheel. In case of failure of the hydraulic pump, or another part of the steering system, the effort to steer the steered axle considerably increases. In case such a failure occurs on an heavy truck, the driver becomes unable to steer the steerable wheels. It is therefore necessary to provide a backup steering system, which allows at least partial steering power. A back up steering system usually requires a second torsion bar, which is costly, heavy and space consuming. It is sometime not possible to implement such a second torsion bar on the steering column. DE102004049038 describes the use of two angle sensors to record the data resulting from the torsion of the torsion bar. However, DE102004049038 is not directed to backup steering systems.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method of optimizing the steering assistance with a costly efficient and space saving solution.
The steering system of an aspect of the present invention comprises one torsion bar and two angle sensors. The first angle sensor is positioned upstream the torsion bar and the second angle sensor is positioned downstream the torsion bar, in such a way that the torsion angle of the torsion bar can be monitored by the means of the two angle sensors. The portion of the steering column which is upstream the torsion bar comprises all the mechanical elements between the steering wheel and the part just above the torsion bar. It encompasses for example the upper shaft, the lower shaft, with inner shaft and outer shaft, a steering wheel adjustment device. The portion of the steering column which is downstream the torsion bar encompasses all the elements between the torsion bar and the steered wheels. This part comprises for example the drop arm, ball joints, drag link, the upper steering arm, the track rod. In case of twin steered axles, the portion which is downstream the torsion bar also encompasses the elements involved in the steering of the second steered axle. In particular, the second steering pump, the steering actuator of the second steered axle, and the secondary steering rod are downstream the torsion bar.
In a first embodiment, the angle sensors are used to detect an abnormal increase of angle between the first and the second angle sensor.
The method of the present invention comprises the steps of
a) Monitoring the steering angle of the steering wheel, by the means of a first angle sensor;
b) Monitoring the steering angle of the steered wheels, by the means of a second angle sensor;
c) Comparing the difference between the steering angle of the steering wheel, monitored is step a), and the steering angle of the steered wheels, monitored in step b), with a first reference value and/or comparing the steering angle of the steered wheels, monitored in step b), with a second reference value;
d) Detecting whether the difference between the steering angle of the steering wheel monitored in step a) and the steering angle of the steered wheels monitored in step b) reaches the first reference value of step c) and/or whether;
e) If the difference between the steering angle of the steeling wheel monitored in step a) and the steering angle of the steered wheels monitored in step b) reaches the first reference value of step c) and/or the steering angle of the steered wheels, monitored in step b) differs from the second reference value of step c), then activating a failure mode.
In step a), the angle to which the driver steers the steering wheel is determined by the means of the first angle sensor, positioned upstream the torsion bar. Each angle of rotation of the steering wheel may be associated or not associated to a theoretical angle of rotation of the steered wheels. The theoretical angle of rotation of the steered wheel is the angle expected for a given steering angle of the steering wheel. It may be for example a linear function of the steering angle of the steering wheel. Alternatively, the theoretical angle of the steered wheels may be a non-linear function of the angle of rotation of the steering wheel. The first angle sensor is preferably an angle sensor already present on the vehicle and involved in other functions. For example, the first angle sensor may be the angle sensor already used for the ESP functions.
In step b), the effective steering angle of the steerable wheels is determined by the means of a second angle sensor, positioned downstream the torsion bar. This second angle sensor is preferably positioned close to the torsion bar, on the output shaft of the steering gear, in order to provide a direct measurement. However, the second angle sensor may be positioned anywhere else downstream the torsion bar. In case of twin steered axles, the second angle sensor is preferably positioned on the first steered axle. The second angle sensor is preferably an angle sensor already present in the vehicle and involved in other functions. Indeed, an angle sensor may already be present for the steering management of the second steered axle. In this case, there is no need for additional specific sensors.
Step a) is concomitant with step b). This means that the steering angle of the steering wheel, is determined in step a) at the same time the steering angle of the steered wheels is determined in step b). Monitoring the steering angles in steps a) and b), or the difference of angles, has to be understood as repeating the operation of determining the steering angles, either permanently or as soon as one of the steering angles is modified. Permanently determining the steering angles means that a regular measurement is performed, for example at a predetermined frequency. Preferably, the steering angle is determined each few milliseconds, most preferably between 1 and 10 milliseconds.
In step c), the difference between the steering angle of the steering wheel and the steering angle of the steered wheels is monitored and compared to a predetermined value, which is a first reference value, or a warning threshold value, under which should remain the difference of steering angles. If a theoretical value is associated to the steering angle of the steering wheel in step a), the effective steering angle of the steered wheels, measured in step b), may also be monitored and compared to this theoretical value, which is a second reference value. Under normal conditions, the effective steering angle of the steered wheels should correspond to the second reference value. Also, under normal conditions, the difference of the steering angles determined in steps a and b) should remain under the first reference value. Under these circumstances, it is considered that the suitable steering assistance is delivered, allowing effective steering of the steered wheels. No additional steering power is triggered.
In step d), it is identified that the difference of the steering angles, reaches the first reference value or the effective steering angle of the steering wheels departs from the second reference value. Under these conditions, it is considered that the steering system is in fault and step e) is initiated. Alternatively, step e) may be initiated if the two conditions of step b) are reached. In this case, step e) is initiated only when the difference of the steering angles reaches the first reference value and the effective steering angle of the steering wheels departs from the second reference value.
Step e) triggers a failure mode, wherein additional power steering is delivered to compensate the efforts of the driver. The failure mode may be the activation of an auxiliary steering power. In case of more than one steered axle, the failure mode may be a special mode of the steering system of the second steered axle. For example, under failure mode, the steering system of the second steered axle may be activated in a way to provide an oversteering of the second steered axle. The failure mode may encompass any other action which aims at improving the steering assistance.


The present invention relates generally to the manufacture of book covers and particularly to the controlled and gradual establishment of contact between the adhesively coated cover cloth and cover boards during assembly of a book cover. More specifically, this invention relates to improved methods of and apparatus for fabricating book covers.
Book covers consist of a covering material, front and back cover boards and a spine board positioned between the two cover boards. The boards are glued to the covering material over their entire area. The covering material that projects beyond the cover profile defined by the boards is turned in on all four sides to define flaps. In the industrial manufacture of book covers, these manufacturing operations are accomplished by book cover assembly apparatus.
In a known cover fabrication apparatus, the cut-to-size covering material, or cover cloth, is separated from a magazine and fed to a glue roller via a cloth cylinder. A gripper bar acquires the glue-coated cloth and deposits it on a cover table. Feeder elements push the cut-to-size front and back cover boards from magazines to a ready-use supply station simultaneously with the infeeding of a spine board that has been cut to length from a reel.
Two cover boards and a spine board are simultaneously picked up at the supply station by a suction head mounted on an arm. The arm is rotated through 180.degree. to bring the boards into registration with a glue-coated cloth which is lying on the cover table. Due to the materials being brought into contact while substantially parallely oriented, i.e., the board and cloth are pressed flat against one another, attempts to increase production rate result in air being entrapped between the cloth and boards. Such entrapped air, in turn, results in blisters which give the book cover an unsightly appearance and, if they are comparatively large, will result in the cover being rejected by quality control.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intravascular catheter having a stiff proximal end portion and gradually softer and more flexible portions progressively toward a distal end of the catheter which is used for diagnostic, interventional and or drug infusion procedures such as blood clot dissolving drugs, chemotherapeutic agents, and injection of contrast media to visualize vasculature and or anatomy using a fluoroscope to assist visualization of the catheter inside the human body. The present intravascular catheter can also be used to deliver coils to aneurisms, and embolic agents to arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in the brain and other parts of the human vasculature such as uterine fibroids. The latter procedure is usually referred to as uterine fibroid embolization (U FE). The present invention more specifically relates to micro catheters for use in interventional neuro radiological procedures where access to brain vasculature is required. Further, the present invention relates to a microcatheter to deploy coils and embolic agents to treat certain brain vasculature syndromes to include but not limited to aneurisms and AVM indications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Intravascular catheters are used to diagnose and treat a number of medical conditions of the vascular system using a technique called angiography. A number of intravascular catheters are used to diagnose coronary artery disease related to stenosis and to determine hemodynamic factors such as cardiac output. In addition, smaller catheters, “micro-catheters”, are used to infuse certain blood clot dissolving drugs to the coronaries or to brain blood vessels in stroke related cases. Further, in addition, intravascular catheters are also used to deploy stents in the coronary arteries as well as in the peripheral vasculature; other indications may include but not limited to deployment of embolic agents and coils to target vasculature within the brain and elsewhere in the human body.
In order to properly navigate or manipulate a catheter after introduction in the human vasculature, it is imperative that the intravascular catheter be designed and constructed in such a manner as to facilitate introduction into a blood vessel and to support further manipulations to reach the target blood vessel. Manipulation of the catheter is done by the physician using the proximal segment of the catheter, after catheter introduction and external to the blood vessel; that is, the catheter needs to be rotated (torque) outside the body in the proximal segment of the catheter and a corresponding rotational reaction must be achieved in the distal tip segment inside the body. Therefore, a vascular catheter, to sustain torsional continuity from the proximal end to the distal end of the, while inside the vasculature, must transmit torque from the proximal end to the distal end inside the body. The typical distance between proximal and distal end for vascular catheters ranges between 80-120 centimeters and shorter for renal applications that require a length of approximately 45-55 centimeters; thus, a vascular catheter is required to advance forward when pushed, be able to be retrieved when pulled and to rotate when torque is applied as part of the maneuvering process to reach the target vessel. Another critical characteristic is that the catheter's wall must not collapse (kink) and retain its lumen integrity, cylindrical shape or ovality during the medical procedure.
Heretofore, a number of analogous and non-analogous intravascular catheter constructions have been proposed, as disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
Pat. No.Patentee3,485,234Stevens4,044,765Kline4,402,684Jessup4,430,083Ganz et al.4,516,972Samson4,581,390Flynn4,636,346Gold et al4,737,153Shimamura et al.4,842,590Tanabe et al.4,955,862Septka5,156,155King5,234,416Macauley et al5,279,596Castaneda et al.5,308,342Sepetka et al5,382,234Cornelius et al5,445,624Jimenez5,454,795Samson5,458,605Klemm5,554,139Okajima5,695,483Samson5,702,373Samson5,569,200Umeno et al5,782,809Umeno et al5,816,927Milo et al.5,879,342Kelly5,947,940Beisel5,951,539Nita et al.6,152,912Jansen et al.6,824,553Samson et al.


An electronic device includes a connector into which a cable for wired communication is inserted and a slot into which a removable storage medium is inserted in order to exchange information with another device. Therefore, the housing of an electronic device includes a hole for exposing an electronic device terminal such as a connector or slot to the outside of the housing. Hereinafter, in the present specification, a hole for exposing an electronic device terminal to the outside of the housing is referred to as a “socket”. Generally, the socket of an electronic device is covered and protected with a cover.
Recent electronic devices are required to be waterproof and need to prevent water from entering through the sockets. Therefore, packings are provided on covers that cover the sockets to protect the electronic device terminals. Structures for preventing water from entering through the sockets are classified into a structure called a longitudinal compression type in which a packing is placed on the front side of the opening of the socket and a structure called a transverse compression type in which a packing is put in the socket and brought into contact with the wall. The longitudinal compression type needs to secure a packing margin around the opening of the socket, and thus hinders miniaturization of the electronic device, so the adoption of the transverse compression type is progressing.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a transverse compression type waterproof structure.


Traditionally, contact information has been exchanged between parties through the use of business cards. Business cards often include contact information such as, for example, street addresses, telephone number(s), fax number, e-mail addresses and website addresses.
Traditional business cards suffer from numerous disadvantages. In particular, traditional business cards may be lost and easily destroyed or damaged.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for exchanging contact information.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.


The invention is generally related to image processing systems and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for performing geo-spatial registration within an image processing system.
The ability to locate scenes and/or objects visible in a video/image frame with respect to their corresponding locations and coordinates in a reference coordinate system is important in visually-guided navigation, surveillance and monitoring systems. Aerial video is rapidly emerging as a low cost, widely used source of imagery for mapping, surveillance and monitoring applications. The individual images from an aerial video can be aligned with one another and merged to form an image mosaic that can form a video map or provide the basis for estimating motion of objects within a scene. One technique for forming a mosaic from a plurality of images is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,032, issued Jul. 15, 1992, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
To form a xe2x80x9cvideo mapxe2x80x9d, a mosaic (or mosaics) of images may be used as a database of reference imagery and associated xe2x80x9cgeo-coordinatesxe2x80x9d (e.g., latitude/longitude within a reference coordinate system) are assigned to positions within the imagery. The geo-coordinates (or other image or scene attributes) can be used to recall a mosaic or portion of a mosaic from the database and display the recalled imagery to a user. Such a searchable image database, e.g., a video map, is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/970,889, filed Nov. 14, 1997, and hereby incorporated herein by reference.
A system that images a scene that has been previously stored in the reference database and recalls the reference information in response to the current images to provide a user with information concerning the scene would have applicability in many applications. For example, a camera on a moving platform imaging a previously imaged scene contained in a database may access the database using the coordinates of the platform. The system provides scene information to a user. However, a key technical problem of locating objects and scenes in a reference mosaic with respect to their geo-coordinates needs to be solved in order to ascertain the geo-location of objects seen from the camera platform""s current location. Current systems for geo-location, the mapping of camera coordinates to the geo-coordinates, use position and attitude information for a moving camera platform within some fixed world coordinates to locate the video frames in the reference mosaic database. However, the accuracy achieved is only on the order of tens to hundreds of pixels. This inaccuracy is not acceptable for high resolution mapping.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that identifies a location within an imaged scene with a sub-pixel accuracy directly from the imagery within the scene itself.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention of a system and method for accurately mapping between camera coordinates and geo-coordinates, called geo-spatial registration. The present invention utilizes the imagery and terrain information contained in the geo-spatial database to precisely align the reference imagery with input imagery, such as dynamically generated video images or video mosaics, and thus achieve a high accuracy identification of locations within the scene. The geo-spatial reference database generally contains a substantial amount of reference imagery as well as scene annotation information and object identification information. When a sensor, such as a video camera, images a scene contained in the geo-spatial database, the system recalls a reference image pertaining to the imaged scene. This reference image is aligned very accurately with the sensor""s images using a parametric transformation. Thereafter, other information (annotation, sound, and the like) that is associated with the reference image can easily be overlaid upon or otherwise associated with the sensor imagery. Applications of geo-spatial registration include text/graphical/audio annotations of objects of interest in the current video using the stored annotations in the reference database to augment and add meaning to the current video. These applications extend beyond the use of aerial videos into the challenging domain of video/image-based map and database indexing of arbitrary locales, like cities and urban areas.


This invention relates to liquid dispensing apparatus and methods, and more particularly to airless liquid dispensing nozzles and methods.
Liquid dispensing systems include methods and apparatus using compressed air to atomize and shape a spray pattern for application to a substrate, and airless liquid dispensing systems in which liquid is forced through a nozzle, frequently at high fluid pressures, in an expanding fan-like sheet for atomization and application to a substrate, and also airless liquid dispensing systems in which liquid streams are directed from a nozzle for impingement and the formation of an expanding fan-like sheet in air.
Compressed air spraying and dispensing systems, while providing flexibility in operation and variability in the shape and angle of a spray pattern through the adjustment of compressed air jets from a plurality of orifices in the dispensing nozzle, suffers a serious disadvantage because of liquid spray particles and vapors which are blown away from the substrate and into the operating environment, frequently in violation of regulations for safe operation and protection of the environment.
Airless liquid dispensing systems suffer from a lack of flexibility during their operation. Airless liquid dispensing nozzles are designed to dispense liquid in a substantially constant and pre-selected angle of dispersion. Thus, if during operation it becomes desirable to change the width of liquid being dispensed from an airless operating system, it has been necessary to stop operation of the system, remove the nozzle being used, and replace it with a nozzle providing a more desirable angle of dispersion. This is inconvenient and time consuming, frequently requiring cleaning of the dispensing apparatus and nozzle.
The ability to vary the width of liquid being dispensed and applied to a substrate while continuing dispensing is of particular value in the application of plural component materials, such as polyesters in gel-coat, spray-up, and wet-out operations. In many such operations, the substrates and molds to which plural component materials, such as polyesters are being applied, present varied and complex shapes, frequently with channels and corners. The ability to apply, for example, polyester materials, in narrow widths to channels and corners, and in wide widths to larger, planar areas of a mold can assist the equipment operator in obtaining quick, complete and uniform coverage of the substrate or mold, and effective wet-out of reinforcing glass fibers or mat.
The invention provides an airless dispensing system in which liquids may be dispensed with variable included angles from substantially 0xc2x0 to as much as 50xc2x0-60xc2x0, by a simple adjustment made by a dispenser operator without ceasing operation or disassembling the dispenser apparatus.
In the invention, a variable angle liquid dispenser comprises a nozzle having a forward face with a dispensing orifice, a first passageway in the nozzle having a central axis intersecting the dispensing orifice, a plurality of angled second passageways in the nozzle, each angled second passageway having a central axis intersecting the dispensing orifice and the central axis of the first passageway, and a variable flow means adjustable to vary the flows of liquid entering the first passageway and the plurality of angled second passageways and to thereby vary the included angle of the liquid dispensed from the dispensing orifice.
Variable angle liquid dispensers of the invention can comprise two major elements, a nozzle body forming the forward face, the dispensing orifice, the first passageway and the plurality of intersecting angled second passageways, and variable flow means comprising a body forming an input passageway and carrying a variable flow splitter between the input passageway and the passageways of the nozzle body. In one preferred embodiment, the variable flow means comprises an assembly including a flow divider body forming an input passageway leading to the first passageway and the plurality of angled second passageways of the nozzle, and a valve member movably carried by the body to provide a variable flow division between the first passageways and plurality of angled second passageways of the nozzle. A preferred flow divider body can have a forward portion that is adapted for sealed engagement with the nozzle body, can provide a seal between the first passageway and the plurality of angled second passageways, and can provide a first feed passageway between the input passageway and the first passageway of the nozzle body, and a second feed passageway with an entrance opening between the input passageway and the angled second passageways of the nozzle body. The valve member can be threadably and rotatably carried by the flow splitter body and can be moved variably with respect to the entrance opening of the second feed passageway to provide a variable flow division between the first feed passageway and the second feed passageway, thereby varying the portions of the liquid flowing in the input passageway that flow through the first passageway and angled second passageways of the nozzle.
One preferred nozzle body of the invention includes a plurality of passageways converging adjacent the dispensing orifice. A first passageway lies on the central axis of the nozzle body and two angled second passageways have their central axes lying outboard in the same plane as the central axis of the first passageway, and converging with an included angle of from about 25xc2x0 to about 50xc2x0 between them. The first passageway has a diameter about 25% to about 75%, preferably about 70% of the diameters of the angled second passageways and a central axis bisects the central axes of the two outboard passageways.
In one preferred method of the invention, flows of the two components of a plural component material, such as a polyester resin and a catalyst therefor, are directed, under pressure, from their sources for mixing and dispensing from a nozzle having a plurality of passageways, at least two of the nozzle passageways being angled, with their central axes converging at an included angle, for example, from about 25xc2x0 to about 50xc2x0, and with a central nozzle passageway bisecting the converging central axes of the two angled outboard passageways. The flow rates of the two components are controlled to provide desired flow rates for proper mixing, for example, a catalyst flow rate about 0.5% to about 10% of the flow rate of a polyester resin, and the two liquid components catalyst are mixed, while flowing, and the flowing mixed liquid components are directed to the plurality of passageways of the nozzle and are dispensed from the nozzle as combined and mixing streams, forming an expanding, substantially planar stream of further mixed two-component material for application to a substrate. The flow of mixed two-component material is variably divided between the at least two angled outboard passageways and the central passageway, and the included angle of liquid dispensed from the dispensing nozzle is varied from substantially 0xc2x0 to about 50xc2x0, varying the width of mixed plural component material applied to the substrate.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and more detailed description of the currently known best mode of the invention, which follows.


This invention relates to a process for the preparation of amino-substituted penicillins and, more particularly, to an efficient process for producing .alpha.-aminobenzylpenicillin and related ring-substituted compounds in high yield and purity.
.alpha.-Aminobenzylpenicillin and .alpha.-amino-substituted-benzylpenicillins are well known in the art and numerous processes have been proposed for their production. In general these processes involve the reaction of 6-amino-penicillanic acid with an acylating agent such as the acid chloride, acid bromide, acid anhydride, and mixed anhydride of a derivative of .alpha.-aminophenylacetic acid or .alpha.-amino-substituted-phenylacetic acid in which the amino group is protected with a suitable protecting group.
These known methods for the preparation of .alpha.-aminobenzylpenicillins and .alpha.-amino-substituted benzylpenicillins by the acylation of 6-aminopenicillanic acid result in the preparation of mixtures which contain, in addition to the desired penicillin, unreacted starting materials, hydrolyzed acylating agent, and products of side reactions which are often difficult to separate from the desired penicillin reaction product.
Various ways have been proposed in the past to remove these unwanted materials such as, for example, the formation of insoluble arylsulfonic acid salts of .alpha.-aminobenzylpenicillin as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,862, or the even more complex isolation process of U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,389, but in each case the known recovery procedures have been concentrated on removing the contaminants after the desired .alpha.-amino-substituted benzyl penicillins have been formed. Consequently, these known processes are characterized by complex procedures which at the very least increase the cost of producing the desired penicillin product.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to seismic exploration in general. More specifically, it concerns an improved method of reflection-type seismic exploration that is particularly applicable to marine operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known for quite some time that in marine seismic operations, there are particular problems that are not encountered in land operations. One aspect stems from the fact that in marine operations the seismic detectors placed below the surface of the water are sensitive to seismic waves in the water regardless of their direction of travel. Furthermore, pressure-type detectors are usually used, whereas in land operations the detectors are ordinarily a displacements or inertia type.
Heretofore, in marine operations, seismic waves were often generated by detonation of an explosive charge which was usually placed at a depth of ten feet or less below the surface. This avoided interference produced by the phenomenon commonly called "bubble bounce" which interference is generated by charges fired at greater depth. The shallow depth of charge also would avoid the problem of ghost reflections which are encountered in land-type shooting where the charge is detonated in competent earth material some distance below a good reflector.
However, the additional problem remained in offshore seismic exploration which was created by the vertically travelling reflection signals that will reflect back down from the surface of the body of water and, consequently, will create an interference pattern.
Consequently, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved method of marine-type seismic surveying. Furthermore, another object is to provide a method of marine-type seismic exploration which greatly simplifies the procedure for elimination of undesirable seismic wave energies from a recording.
Another object of the invention is to provide a marine reflection-type seismic method for creating a record which is independent of depth of the detectors in the water and free of down-going signals.


1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, a thin film semiconductor device formed on an insulating substrate and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Semiconductor devices such as transistors can be formed on an insulating substrate such as a glass plate or a silicon substrate coated with a passivation layer. It is not possible to apply epitaxial growth onto the insulating substrate in a usual manner. Thus, a thin film semiconductor layer of polycrystalline or amorphous state is first formed on the insulating substrate and a semiconductor device is then formed on the thin film semiconductor layer.
For example, a matrix of cells together with active elements such as transistors are formed on a transparent substrate, thereby forming an active matrix. In the field of liquid crystal displays, a high attention is directed to an active matrix liquid crystal display panel in which a matrix of transparent electrodes for exciting a liquid crystal material and thin film transistors (TFTs) serving as switching elements are formed on a glass substrate. Such a TFT can be made in the form of either a p-channel insulated gate (IG) or an n-channel IGTFT. In the case of making the n-channel IGTFT, n.sup.+ -type source/drain regions are formed by doping a thin film of highly resistive i-type or p-type silicon (of polycrystalline or amorphous state) with an n-type impurity, and source/drain electrodes are disposed on the n.sup.+ -type source/drain regions in contact therewith. In the case of making the p-channel IGTFT, p.sup.+ -type source/drain regions are formed in a thin film of i-type or n-type silicon with a p-type impurity, and source/ drain electrodes are disposed on the p.sup.+ -type source/drain regions in contact therewith.
Lepselter and Sze have proposed an IGTFT using Schottky barrier contacts for a source and a drain (see Proceedings of the IEEE, Proceedings Letters, Aug. 1968, pp. 1400-1402). In the proposed IGFET, source and drain electrodes made of platinum silicide PtSi are brought in contact with a <100> oriented n-type silicon substrate having a resistivity of 1 .OMEGA..multidot.cm. When a negative voltage is applied to a gate electrode, a channel inverted to be of p-type is produced between the source electrode and the drain electrode. In the case where the electrodes of PtSi are disposed on the n-type silicon substrate, the barrier height of 0.85 V is established. But, in the case of electrodes of PtSi disposed on a p-type silicon substrate, the barrier height is 0.25 V so that a drain current flows.
Taking account of the fact that when the source and drain regions are formed with Schottky junctions, a short-channel effect can be improved but a restriction is imposed on an ability of current supply from the source region, Mizutani has proposed an MOSFET having a source region formed through impurity diffusion and a drain region formed with a Schottky junction (see JP-A-58-182871).
For driving the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, there are required various peripheral circuits including a shift register, a matrix circuit, an inverter circuit, etc. If it is possible to incorporate these peripheral circuits into the LCD panel, the number of parts required can be reduced, thereby allowing improved reliability and greatly lowered cost.
When it is desired to make a limitation of power consumption , complementary insulated gate thin film transistors (C-IGTFTs) must be used for a part of such peripheral circuits. Namely, it is necessary to simultaneously fabricate a p-channel IGTFT and an n-channel IGTFT. The fabrication of C-IGTFTs requires both doping with an n-type impurity and doping with a p-type impurity. This increases the number of process steps for manufacture of the device, which provides a great factor of increasing the cost. For example, in spite of the fact that switching elements necessary for ah active matrix type of LCD panel can be formed by only either p-channel IGTFTs or n-channel IGTFTs, the requirements for incorporation of the peripheral circuits into the panel necessitate the use of both p-channel IGTFTs and n-channel IGTFTs and hence the doping with both p- and n-type impurities, thereby resulting in remarkable increase of the number of photomasks to be used and of the number of process steps to be carried out.


Electronic content, such as web pages, search results, and other types of documents, often includes links to other documents, web pages, and the like. A link is a connection from one page to another that can be selected from a first page to cause the other page to appear in a web browser application or the like. The links on a page can be defined by the author of the page, or can be added to the page automatically, e.g., by an advertising system that adds advertisements to the page. Pages can be generated by an automated system such as a search engine, which identifies web pages that are available via a network such as the Internet, and adds links to those pages based upon the addresses that are found by the search engine. Attracting users to a web site can be desirable for a number of reasons. Illegitimate or malicious web sites can to attempt to gather private information such as email addresses and passwords from users, e.g., through phishing attacks. There are also more benign reasons to attract users to a web site, such as to increase the site's traffic, the number of times advertisements have been viewed on the site, and so on.
Web link spoofing attacks have been developed to attract users to web sites that the users do not intend to visit. These spoofing attacks deceptively present an illegitimate web link that appears legitimate. For example, suppose that a web site named Good Web Site has a legitimate web link good.com. The link good.com looks similar to the link g00d.com, in which each letter o is replaced by the number 0. The two links look particularly similar if they are displayed in uppercase, i.e., G00D.COM and GOOD.COM. As another example, the letter l in a legitimate link can be changed to a number 1 to create an illegitimate link that is visually similar to the legitimate link.
URL's can contain characters from numerous international languages. There are a number of characters in different languages that look alike. Characters that look alike are referred to as homographs. URL spoofing attacks that take advantage of the visual similarities between different characters that can be from different languages are thus referred to as Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) homograph attacks. For example, the English letter c (pronounced cee) looks similar to the Russian letter c (pronounced ess). A URL that includes an English c, such as chase.com, can be spoofed by a URL that uses a Russian c in place of the English c, and looks very similar, such as chase.com. A user can be lured to an illegitimate version of the chase.com web site that is registered to the spoofed chase.com domain name by presenting a hyperlink having a URL that refers to the spoofed chase.com. Users are unlikely to see the difference between the legitimate and spoofed domain names, and thus unlikely to be aware that they are accessing an illegitimate web site, particularly if the illegitimate web site's appearance is similar to that of the legitimate chase.com site.
Because of such visual similarity between different characters, users can be lured into clicking on or selecting the illegitimate link when they intend to access the legitimate web site. When the user follows the web link to the illegitimate g00d.com web site, the illegitimate web site is loaded and displayed, and the spoofing attack has succeeded. The illegitimate site can, for example, display information or advertisements, attempt to convince the user to perform a transaction, request information from the user, attempt to install malware or spyware on the user's computer, and perform other malicious or potentially damaging operations. Spoofed web links can lead users to phishing attacks, in which an illegitimate site is designed to mimic sites that contain important user information and convince the user to login, thereby providing an attacker with their user name and password.
A web link ordinarily has two parts: link text and a reference to a target web page, such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies the target web page. The link text is displayed on a web page to visually represent the link. The link text can be clicked on or selected to cause a web browser to load the target web page referred to by the URL. The link text can also be referred to as anchor text, a link label, or a link title.
For example, in the Good Web Site example, a link to the site can have link text such as “Good Web Site” or “www.good.com”, and a link URL such as www.good.com. In one aspect, a legitimate link URL correctly references the web site described or implied by the link's link text, such as www.good.com. An illegitimate link has a URL, such as g00d.com, that references a web site different from that described or implied by the link text. The link text is not necessarily the same as the link URL, and can be a description or name of the web page referred to by the link instead of a textual copy of the link URL. However, illegitimate links often set the link text to a URL, at least in part because users are more likely to trust and follow a link that is displayed as a legitimate-looking URL, as opposed to a link displayed as a word or phrase. Therefore, illegitimate links can set the link text to a legitimate URL and set the URL to an illegitimate link in an attempt to lure users into following the legitimate URL. Alternatively, illegitimate links can set the link text to an illegitimate URL, e.g., g00d.com, that looks similar to the legitimate URL, such as good.com, and again set the link URL to the illegitimate URL, g00d.com, so that a comparison of the characters that represent the link text to the characters that represent the link URL will indicate that both are the same, and such a comparison will not identify the link as illegitimate.
Although the link text is ordinarily displayed on web pages to represent the link, the user is able to view the link URL itself, e.g., by placing a cursor or mouse pointer over the link text, and when a user actually opens the illegitimate page. Thus, the user can then attempt to visually verify that the URL is legitimate by placing the mouse pointer over the link text prior to clicking on the link, and checking the URL that is displayed. The user can also attempt to visually verify the URL by clicking on the link, allowing the target page to begin loading, and visually verify the URL that is displayed in the browser's address bar. In either situation, if the URL appears to be illegitimate, e.g., because it references a web site or contains text that does not appear to be related to the link text, then the user can decide to ignore the link or the loaded target page. However, if the URL appears to be legitimate, then the user is likely to follow the illegitimate link or read the illegitimate loaded target page. It would be desirable, therefore, to protect users against web link spoofing, so that users do not unintentionally access illegitimate web pages.
Existing techniques for blocking web link spoofing attacks include filtering based on heuristics, and blocking sites that appear on lists of known unsafe pages. The heuristics can be used to identify suspicious messages and, and require additional effort, e.g., a confirmation input, by users. Both the filtering and the site blocking lists can fail against modern attacks. The filtering technique can fail for a number of reasons, such as a relatively high false-positive rate that leads users to disable the features or ignore warnings, even for content that is actually an attack. Further, the attacker can design messages to avoid detection, e.g., by indirectly determining the heuristics used by the filter, or by directly testing their messages against their own copy of the filtering software. For example, an attacker could send their message to themselves, and change the message until it passes through the filtering software. The site blocking lists fail because of the delay between the start of the attack and detection of the attack. A potentially large number of victims can be attacked before the attack is detected. Neither of these techniques works against attacks that are specifically targeted against a small number of victims. Targeted attacks involve tailoring messages to bypass filtering, and the small volume of attacks reduces the likelihood of the phishing site being detected at all, let alone early enough to detect all attacks.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for positioning adapted for use in an exposure apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus, in positioning a substrate provided with at least a registration mark and other patterns, for positioning by distinguishing said mark from said other patterns.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the progress toward finer patterns in semiconductor devices, particularly in large-scale integrated circuits, there are commonly employed reduced projection exposure apparatus for circuit pattern printing in order to meet the requirements of fine pattern definition and a high productivity. Such conventional apparatus projects a reticle pattern, which is larger for example 5 times than the pattern size desired on the silicon wafer, in a reduced size through a projection lens, thus exposing a square area with a diagonal length of 21 mm or shorter on the wafer in one exposure. Consequently, in order to print the circuit patterns on the entire surface of a wafer of a diameter of ca. 125 mm, there is employed a so-called step-and-repeat process in which the wafer is placed on a movable stage and is subjected to repeated exposures with stepwise movement.
In the manufacture of large-scale integrated circuits, there are formed patterns of at least several layers on a wafer in succession, and the desired function cannot be attained due to deficient conductivity or insulation unless the error in superposition or positional aberration between the patterns of different layers is maintained under a determined limit. For example, in a circuit with a minimum line width of 1 .mu.m, there is only permitted a positional aberration of 0.2 .mu.m at maximum.
In the reduced projection exposure process, the pattern registration, namely the registration of a projected reticle pattern with a pattern already formed on the wafer, is achieved either by the off-axis method or by the through-the-lens method. In any case, the wafer is subjected to a rough alignment, called pre-alignment, when placed on the stage, and, if said pre-alignment is not precise enough, the registration mark formed on the wafer is significantly displaced from the central detecting position in an alignment microscope in case of the off-axis method or in a detecting system in case of the through-the-lens method. This leads to an erroneous detection of another pattern as the registration mark and eventually gives rise to an error in registration.


By this invention, I have reduced the size, complexity, and expense of equipment for treating liquid with ozone on a demand basis; and by carefully selecting and combining components, I have been able to make smaller scale ozone treatment equipment operate conveniently and reliably for safely treating liquid rapidly for small volumes and flow rates. Equipment according to my invention can be operated under a residential countertop, for example, to treat liquid flow on a small scale.