The present invention relates to novel coloring phthalide compounds and recording materials using any of the phthalide compounds as coloring component capable of yielding images which absorb the light in the near infrared region by thermosensitive recording, pressure-sensitive recording or by use of laser beams.
A conventional pressure-sensitive recording material utilizes a chemical reaction between a colorless or light-colored leuco dye and a color developer capable of inducing color formation in the leuco dye to form colored images. More specifically, the pressure-sensitive recording material comprises (i) a coloring leuco dye sheet coated with a leuco dye which is dissolved in an organic solution and microcapsuled and (ii) a color developer sheet coated with a color developer for the leuco dye and a binder agent. The coloring leuco dye sheet is superimposed on the color developer sheet and pressure is applied thereto in such a manner that the microcapsules containing the leuco dye are ruptured so as to react with the color developer.
A conventional thermosensitive recording material generally comprises a support such as paper, synthetic paper or plastic film, and a thermosensitive coloring layer comprising as the main components a leuco dye and a color developer cable of inducing color formation in the leuco dye upon application of heat thereto to form colored images. The application of heat for such image formation is carried out, for instance, by a thermal head, a thermal pen, laser beams or a stroboscope.
These pressure-sensitive and thermosensitive recording materials are widely used because recording can be carried out more speedily by using a relatively simple device, without the complicated steps such as development and fixing of images, as compared with the recording materials for electrophotography and electrostatic recording.
Conventionally employed representative leuco dyes for use in such recording materials are Crystal Violet Lactone and Leuco Crystal Violet which are for blue-coloring, and fluorane compounds having an anilino substituent at its 7 position which are for black coloring. Further, in the conventional thermosensitive recording material, colorless or light-colored leuco dyes having, for example, lactone, lactam, or spiropyran rings, are employed, and organic acids and phenolic acid materials are employed as the color developers for the leuco dyes.
Recently optical character-reading apparatus have been developed, for example, for reading bar codes in bar code labels, and are used in a variety of fields. In these apparatus, light sources emitting light having a light wavelength of 700 nm or more, such as a light emit diode and a semi-conductor laser, are in general use. However, the above-mentioned leuco dyes, when colored, scarcely absorb the light in the near infrared region having a wavelength of 700 nm or more, so that a light source emitting light in the near infrared region cannot be effectively used when the above-mentioned leuco dyes are employed in the recording materials.
In order to improve this shortcoming of the conventional leuco dyes, leuco dyes capable of absorbing not only light in the visible region, but also the light in the near infrared region, have been proposed, for instance, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 51-121035, 51-121037 and 57-167979. The leuco dyes proposed in these Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications, however, are insufficient in the power of absorbing the light in the rear infrared region for use in practice.


When an optical storage device such as a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) drive or a Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drive is instructed by the host computer to retrieve data from a disk, the device will in most cases need to move an optical pickup or head to a different radial position. A servo algorithm implemented in firmware is used to command radial movement to an actuator to which the head is attached. To complete the servo loop, the current radial position of the head must be known. Information is stored on an optical disk in concentric or spiral tracks and position information is found by counting track crossings with a track count block 100 as shown in the block diagram of a typical optical storage system 10 in FIG. 1 while various waveforms are illustrated in FIG. 2.
The conventional optical storage device 10 includes an optical pickup and associated circuitry 12 for receiving optical signals from a disk and generating corresponding RF signals 200, a read channel 14, a decoder 16 and an interface 18 for transmitting/receiving data and command signals to/from a host device (not shown). Additionally, the device 10 includes an envelope detector 20 coupled to receive the RF signals 200 and generate a signal T-B.sub.-- ENV 202 representing the difference between the amplitude of the top of the RF signal envelope 200 and the amplitude of the bottom of the RF signal envelope 200.
If the optical device 10 reads DVD disks, a differential phase detector 22 generates a DVD.sub.-- PES (position error signal) 210 from phase detection signals A, B, C and D received from the pickup 12. If the optical device 10 reads CD-ROM disks (either exclusively or in addition to reading DVD disks), a differential amplifier 24 and an analog-to-digital converter 26 generate a CD-ROM.sub.-- PES 206 from phase detection signals E and F received from the pickup 12.
Exemplary waveforms of the RF signal 200, the T-B.sub.-- ENV signal 202, CD-ROM.sub.-- PES 206 and the DVD.sub.-- PES 210 are illustrated in FIG. 2. Each of these signals is input into the track count block 100. The conventional optical storage device 10 typically employs a dual-phase track counting method and requires that the T-B.sub.-- ENV signal 202 be filtered by an RF filter 101 and "sliced" by a slicer 102 relative to a threshold 204, resulting in an RF.sub.-- SLICE signal 212. Additionally, the appropriate PES (depending upon the type of disk in the storage device 10) must be selected by a multiplexer (MUX) 108, filtered by a PES filter 110 and sliced by a slicer 112 relative to a threshold 205 to generate a PES.sub.-- SLICE signal 214.
Count logic 104 causes a counter 106 to increment or decrement depending on the phase relationship of RF and PES slice signals 212 and 214. When the optical pickup 12 moves in one direction relative to the tracks, the PES.sub.-- SLICE signal 214 leads the RF.sub.-- SLICE signal 212 by 90 degrees; if the pickup 12 moves in the opposite direction, the PES.sub.-- SLICE signal 214 lags the RF.sub.-- SLICE 212 by 90 degrees. (Although only the phase of the PES signal 206 changes when the track crossing direction changes, because of physical imperfections in the disk, a sinusoidal component called runout may be superimposed on the seek profile. The effect will be that the observed track count appears as if it is opposite to the intended direction. For a track counting system to be accurate, changes in direction must be accurately accounted for; consequently, both the RF and PES signals must be used.)
When a seek is to be performed, servo firmware loads the counter 106 with a tracks-to-go number representing the number of tracks between the current track and the target track. The firmware also asserts a seek-in-progress signal to the counter 106 allowing the counter 106 to count down in response to a signal from the count logic module 104 and output a track count signal 216 having a resolution of 1/4 track. Additional counter input signals are seek-direction and quadrature-direction which are used to change the track count direction for a given RF to PES phase relationship. The spiral-compensation signal, also an input to the counter 106, increments or decrements the track count each time an index occurs during a seek, determined by the disk's spiral direction.
The dual-phase track count method has worked well in CD-ROM applications but has numerous drawbacks when applied to DVD. Maximum seek velocities in DVD devices are much higher than typical CD-ROM seek velocities and can cause unreliable detection of the RF modulation. For example, at 500,000 tracks per second in a 1.times. continuous linear velocity (CLV) DVD device, the actual velocity of the media under the head can be as slow as 80% of nominal. Assuming that there are 26,175,000 bits per second and that one-fourth of the expected RF modulation period is needed to define a peak, then ##EQU1## channel bits are available to define the peak. Because the average wavelength is 4.7 channel bits, an average of only one peak will be available to be peak detected by the envelope detector. Taking resolution effects into account, the peak detected signal is likely to be smaller than when the modulation is slower. Therefore, at high velocities, many of the track crossings will be missed by the RF.sub.-- SLICE signal 212.
Another drawback is that DVD signals are noisy and incompatible with dual-phase. The depth of modulation in the DVD RF signal 200 is specified to be smaller than the corresponding signal in a CD-ROM device. The signal to noise ratio is thereby reduced at the input to the RF slicer 103 and the track count error rate is increased. The purpose of the filter 10 is to reject some of the noise. Because the signal of interest is a sine wave with a widely varying frequency, an optimum filter would be a tracking bandpass filter. However, conventional technology does not currently allow a practical implementation of such a filter; rather, a low pass filter is typically used but at high seek rates, the bandwidth is greater than necessary, thereby permitting low frequency noise to pass. While the bandwidth can be changed, intervention by firmware is required.
Another measure of the error rate margin is the relative spacing of the edges of the slice signals 212 and 214. The rising edge of the signal 214 should be in the center of the positive pulse of the signal 212 and every edge should be in the center of an opposing signal pulse. Thus, the duty cycle of the signal should be 50% for constant seek velocities. To meet this constraint, the slicer threshold should be halfway between the maximum excursions of the signals at the input to the slicers 102 and 112. Because the depth of modulation can vary from disk to disk, the RF slicer threshold must be calibrated for each. However, even when calibrated, the threshold will be non-ideal in certain regions of the disk and the slice signals 212 and 214 will have poor duty cycles. The problem is exacerbated by the sawtooth-wave form of the DVD.sub.-- PES 210.
To compensate, a firmware Kalman filter can be used to estimate the track count and correct errors. However, a firmware Kalman filter can generally only detect large, defect-caused errors and can fail to detect small, noise-induced track slips. The filter also is heavily dependent on the track counts being received at regular intervals. If the T-B.sub.-- ENV or PES thresholds are incorrect, the RF or PES slice duty cycle will not be 50% and the count steps will be irregular, necessitating a larger error detection threshold. It is especially difficult for the firmware filter to detect errors as the filter instruction rate is 88,000-176,000 instruction cycles per second while the maximum track crossing rate is greater than 500,000 tracks per second.
Moreover, current systems use no information about any previous state of the system. Consequently, errors in the track count can resemble instantaneous changes in velocity even though such changes are physically impossible.


The race is on among today's employers to identify, acquire, and benefit from the many advantages offered by electronic computers and computer systems. Grocery stores use computers to track and manage inventories; banks use computers for near-instantaneous transactions with businesses, other lenders, and their customers; manufacturing plants use computers to provide automated control over assembly lines; and countless others are using computers to simplify, streamline, and otherwise improve their lives and/or businesses. More and more of these uses will certainly be identified as computer technology improves.
It has become clear that today's children, or tomorrow's workforce, will absolutely have to possess at least some computer skills if they are to be successful. This is a growing concern of parents and educators alike, and there is already talk of a “digital divide” that will unfairly separate children into two classes: 1) those who were fortunate enough to learn computer skills in their primary or secondary education, and who are prepared for the emerging workforce; and 2) those who were not so fortunate, and who will face an uphill battle in the workforce. The divide is usually not the fault of the children, the parents, or the educators, and as such, is unfair. Instead, the reason for the divide usually stems from the costs associated with providing computers for children to study.
Primary and secondary schools (e.g., K-12) typically face tight budget restrictions, and computers are not cheap. Furthermore, many schools cannot afford the additional costs involved in setting up a computer laboratory or network, such as routing additional wiring through the building, or installing power and environmental control equipment.
Cost, however, is not the only factor limiting the number of computers currently in our schools. Another problem is the limited availability of teaching materials that may be used with such computers. Without an extensive supply of lessons and teaching materials for the computers, it is difficult for an educator to justify the cost of acquiring them. There is a need for computer-based lesson plans for students, and teaching materials that allows teachers to effectively monitor, control, and guide the students through their computer lesson plans.
There are also additional problems faced by an educator or teacher who is considering implementing computers in the classroom. One such problem is theft and/or vandalism. For those schools that have undertaken the high cost of implementing a computer system or laboratory, there is a need for measures that can protect the school's equipment from being stolen or vandalized. Another problem is the space available in the classroom. The typical computer (desktop and laptop) is large enough to occupy most of the workspace (e.g., a student's desk) that is available to the student, making the individual computer less desirable. There is a need for an educational computer system that will allow one or more students to have individual computers to work with, but which will also minimize the space occupied by such computers.
Another problem is expandability. A school's enrollment typically varies from year to year, which makes expandability a serious concern for any school wishing to install a computer network or system. There is a need for an educator's computer network to be expandable. This desired expandability is not limited to hardware. An educator's lesson plan may also need to be both up-to-date with current events, and flexible to accommodate various teaching styles.
Another problem arises due to the fact that typical computers, such as laptop computers, must be deactivated in order to change power sources and/or exchange batteries. Such a deactivation would be disruptive to an educator's lesson plan, particularly if a number of students need to undergo such a process at different times throughout a lesson. Accordingly, there is a need for a teaching system that satisfies the needs identified above, but may also minimize the disruption to the lesson plans caused by changing power sources of computers.
These concerns, along with numerous others, may be alleviated using one or more embodiments of the present invention.


The invention relates to a method of deriving a dimension of a detail of an object from a data set of data values assigned to a multidimensional space and relating to the object. The invention also relates to a data processor for deriving a dimension of a detail of an object from a data set of data values assigned to a multidimensional space and relating to the object.
A method and a data processor of this kind are known from the international patent application WO 97/13457.
The data set assigns data values to positions in the multidimensional space. The data set notably comprises density values which represent the spatial density distribution of the object. The known method enables the dimensions of a detail, particularly of a blood vessel, to be derived from the data set, notably density values of a patient to be examined. Determination of stenosis of a blood vessel, necessitates accurate determination of the width of the relevant blood vessel. To this end, the known method includes the acquisition of a density profile and a maximum density value of the detail is derived from the density profile. Subsequently, according to the known method there are determined edge points where the density values in the density profile amount to half the maximum density value. The width of the blood vessel is subsequently calculated from the distance between edge points. Even though the known method for the calculation of the width of the blood vessel takes into account the fact that blurring may be involved in the measured data set, it has been found that inaccuracies occur in the measurement of the width of the blood vessel nevertheless.
Inaccuracies in the determination of the width of blood vessels from data acquired by means of computed tomography are also discussed in the article xe2x80x9cEvaluating the potential and problems of three-dimensional computed tomography measurements of arterial stenosisxe2x80x9d by David S. Ebert et al in Journal of Digital Imaging 11 (1998), pp. 151-157.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of deriving the dimension of a detail of an object from the data set with an accuracy which is superior to that of the known method. It is notably an object of the invention to avoid inaccuracies due to differences in the spatial resolution in different directions during the determination of the dimension.
This object is achieved by a method according to the invention which is characterized in that a preferential direction is chosen in the multidimensional space, the spatial resolution of the data set of data values in the preferential direction being higher than the spatial resolution of the data values in at least one direction other than the preferential direction, the dimension of the detail being derived from data values in the preferential direction.
The data set of data values essentially has the highest spatial resolution in the preferential direction. The resolution represents the smallest dimension of details in the object which can still be faithfully reproduced by the data set. The smaller the smallest faithfully reproduced detail, the higher the spatial resolution will be. Specifically, in comparison with other directions the least blurring has occurred in the preferential direction during the measurement of the data set. It has been found that notably inaccuracies are avoided which, if no further steps were taken, would occur when the spatial resolution of the data set differs in different directions in the object. For example, when the data set is acquired by means of an X-ray computed tomography method, the preferential direction is situated in the scanning plane. This is because it appears that in the case of X-ray computed tomography the highest spatial resolution by far occurs in the scanning plane. In X-ray computed tomography an X-ray source and an X-ray detector are rotated together about the patient in the scanning plane. During the rotation of the X-ray source and the X-ray detector, the patient on the one side and the X-ray source with the X-ray detector on the other side can be displaced relative to one another, notably in the longitudinal direction of the patient, so that the X-ray source and the X-ray detector travel along a helical path relative to the patient. In that case the scanning plane is shifted relative to the patient during the rotation; the scanning plane is notably shifted along the longitudinal axis of the patient. In various orientations of the X-ray source and the X-ray detector, relative to the patient to be examined, the patient is irradiated by means of X-rays and density profiles of the patient to be examined are acquired by measuring the X-ray absorption in different directions in the body of the patient to be examined. Density values in different positions in the body of the patient are reconstructed from the values of the X-ray absorption measured in different directions. When the data values in the preferential direction is utilized to derive the dimension of the detail, the dimension is particularly accurately derived from the data set. The effects of blurring during the determination of the dimension of the detail can thus be avoided to a significant extent. The method according to the invention is particularly suitable for the determination of the dimensions of details whose dimensions hardly differ in various directions. For example, the method according to the invention is particularly suitable for determining the dimensions of the cross-section of arteries of a patient to be examined, because arteries practically always have a substantially round cross-section. The invention notably offers the advantage that an accurate result is obtained for the dimension of the detail of the object, such as the width of the artery, when the resolution of the data set is high in one direction, being the preferential direction, and is low relative to the dimension of the detail in another direction.
While the invention was described herein with an employment of an X-ray computed tomography imaging technique to acquire the data values, the invention may be employed with other techniques to acquire the data values, such as, for example, a magnetic resonance imaging technique or a 3D ultrasound imaging technique.
The data values are preferably acquired in one or more scanning planes. It has been found that the spatial resolution of the data values in such a scanning plane is substantially higher than that in directions outside the scanning plane. This means that the preferential direction is situated in the scanning plane or extends parallel to the scanning plane. The invention is particularly suitable for determining the dimensions of a cross-section of an elongate detail of the object. An artery in the body of the patient to be examined constitutes an example of such an elongate detail. The transverse plane of such an elongate detail is determined substantially perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis. According to the invention the dimension of a detail can be accurately determined by deriving the dimension from data values in the preferential direction. It has been found that the preferential direction is usually situated in the scanning plane in which the data values are acquired. This is the case notably when the data values are acquired by means of an X-ray computed tomography method. In case the transverse plane is situated parallel to the scanning plane, the dimension of the detail can be simply derived from data values in an arbitrary direction in the transverse plane, because the data values are blurred only slightly in essentially all directions in the transverse plane. The invention offers the advantage of accurate results concerning the dimension of the detail also in the case of data sets acquired by means of a magnetic resonance imaging system or a 3D ultrasound method.
Furthermore, the dimension of the detail is preferably derived from data values relating to a perpendicular cross-section of the detail, thus avoiding, the involvement of an oblique projection, relative to the longitudinal axis of the detail, in the determination of the cross-section of the detail. To this end, the (local) longitudinal axis of the detail is derived from the data values in the data set; it is to be noted, however, that the longitudinal axis of the detail can also be derived from anatomical information. The transverse plane is situated substantially perpendicularly to the local longitudinal axis of the detail. The data values which are blurred the least and relate to the cross-section of the detail lie along the line of intersection of the transverse plane and the scanning plane. The width of the detail can thus be accurately determined by deriving the dimension from the data values along the line of intersection. The occurrence of inaccuracies in the determination of the dimension which are due to oblique cross-sections or blurring of the data values is thus avoided as well as possible.
The dimensions of the detail, such as the width of the artery, are accurately determined, for example by determining the locations where strong gradients occur in the data values in the preferential direction. Such gradients represent the edges of the artery; it is notably when the artery is filled with an X-ray-absorbing contrast medium during the acquisition of the data values by means of X-ray computed tomography that the density values in the artery are substantially higher than the data values of the surrounding tissue. Another approach for accurately determining the width of the artery is to determine the locations where the data values amount to a predetermined fraction, for example half, of the maximum density value in the detail, for example the artery. It has been found that the positions in which the density value amounts to half the maximum density value offer an accurate indication of the edges of the artery.
The method according to the invention yields an accurate dimension of the detail, for example the width of the artery. This result is a technical aid that can be used by a physician in making a diagnosis in respect of arterial stenosis in the patient to be examined.
These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated, by way of example, with reference to the embodiment described hereinafter and the accompanying drawing; therein:


Two classes of analysis systems are known in the field of medical analysis: wet analysis systems, and dry-chemical analysis systems. Wet analysis systems, which essentially operate using “wet reagents” (liquid reagents), perform an analysis via a number of required step such as, for example, providing a sample and a reagent into a reagent vessel, mixing the sample and reagent together in the reagent vessel, and measuring and analyzing the mixture for a measurement variable characteristic to provide a desired analytical result (analysis result). Such steps are often performed using technically complex, large, line-operated analysis instruments, which allow manifold movements of participating elements. This class of analysis system is typically used in large medical-analytic laboratories.
On the other hand, dry-chemical analysis systems operate using “dry reagents” which are typically integrated in a test element and implemented as a “test strip”, for example. When these dry-chemical analysis systems are used, the liquid sample dissolves the reagents in the test element, and the reaction of sample and dissolved reagent results in a change of a measurement variable, which can be measured on the test element itself. Above all, optically analyzable (in particular colorimetric) analysis systems are typical in this class, in which the measurement variable is a color change or other optically measurable variable. Electrochemical systems are also typical in this class, in which an electrical measurement variable characteristic for the analysis, in particular an electrical current upon application of a defined voltage, can be measured in a measuring zone of the test element using electrodes provided in the measuring zone.
The analysis instruments of the dry-chemical analysis systems are usually compact, and some of them are portable and battery-operated. The systems are used for decentralized analysis, for example, at resident physicians, on the wards of the hospitals, and in so-called “home monitoring” during the monitoring of medical-analytic parameters by the patient himself (in particular blood glucose analysis by diabetics or coagulation status by warfarin patients).
In wet analysis systems, the high-performance analysis instruments allow the performance of more complex multistep reaction sequences (“test protocols”). For example, immunochemical analyses often require a multistep reaction sequence, in which a “bound/free separation” (hereafter “b/f separation”), i.e., a separation of a bound phase and a free phase, is necessary. According to one test protocol, for example, the probe can first be transported through a porous solid matrix, which contains a specific binding reagent for the analyte. A marking reagent can subsequently be caused to flow through the porous matrix, to mark the bound analyte and allow its detection. To achieve precise analysis, a washing step must be performed, in which unbound marking reagent is completely removed. Numerous test protocols are known for determining manifold analytes, which differ in manifold ways, but which share the feature that they require complex handling having multiple reaction steps, in particular also a b/f separation possibly being necessary.
Test strips and similar analysis elements normally do not allow controlled multistep reaction sequences. Test elements similar to test strips are known, which allow further functions, such as the separation of red blood cells from whole blood, in addition to supplying reagents in dried form. However, they normally do not allow precise control of the time sequence of individual reaction steps. Wet-chemical laboratory systems offer these capabilities, but are too large, too costly, and too complex to handle for many applications.
To close these gaps, analysis systems have been suggested which operate using test elements which are implemented in such a manner that at least one externally controlled (i.e., using an element outside the test element itself) liquid transport step occurs therein (“controllable test elements”). The external control can be based on the application of pressure differences (overpressure or low-pressure) or on the change of force actions (e.g., change of the action direction of gravity by attitude change of the test element or by acceleration forces). The external control is especially frequently performed by centrifugal forces, which act on a rotating test element as a function of the velocity of the rotation.
Analysis systems having controllable test elements are known and typically have a housing, which comprises a dimensionally-stable plastic material, and a sample analysis channel enclosed by the housing, which often comprises a sequence of multiple channel sections and chambers expanded in comparison to the channel sections lying between them. The structure of the sample analysis channel having its channel sections and chambers is defined by profiling of the plastic parts. This profiling is able to be generated by injection molding techniques or hot stamping. Microstructures, which are generated by lithography methods, are increasingly being used more recently, however.
Analysis systems having controllable test elements allow the miniaturization of tests which have only been able to be performed using large laboratory systems. In addition, they allow the parallelization of procedures by repeated application of identical structures for the parallel processing of similar analyses from one sample and/or identical analyses from different samples. It is a further advantage that the test elements can typically be produced using established production methods and that they can also be measured and analyzed using known analysis methods. Known methods and products can also be employed in the chemical and biochemical components of such test elements.
In spite of these advantages, there is a further need for improvement. In particular, analysis systems which operate using controllable test elements are still too large. The most compact dimensions possible are of great practical significance for many intended applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,114,351 B2 discloses an analysis system for the analysis of a body fluid sample for an analyte. The analysis system provides a test element and an analysis instrument having a dosing station and a measurement station. The test element has a housing an (at least) one sample analysis channel enclosed by the housing. The test element is rotatable around an axis of rotation which extends through the test element.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,470,588 B2 discloses a test element and a method for detecting an analyte. The test element is essentially disk shaped and flat, and can be rotated about a preferably central axis which is perpendicular to the plane of the disk shaped test element.
Kim, Tae-Hyeong, et al. “Flow-enhanced electrochemical immunosensors on centrifugal microfluidic platforms.” Lab on a Chip 13.18 (2013): 3747-3754, doi:10.1039/c3lc50374g, (hereafter “Kim et. al.”) discloses a fully integrated centrifugal microfluidic device with features for target antigen capture from biological samples, via a bead-based enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay, and flow-enhanced electrochemical detection. This is integrated into a Centrifugal microfluidic discs, also known as “lab-on-a-disc” or microfluidic CDs.
Martinez-Duarte, Rodrigo, et al. “The integration of 3D carbon-electrode dielectrophoresis on a CD-like centrifugal microfluidic platform.” Lab on a Chip 10.8 (2010): 1030-1043, doi:10.1039/B925456K, (hereafter “Martinez-Duarte et. al.”) discloses a dielectrophoresis (DEP)-assisted filter with a compact disk (CD)-based centrifugal platform. 3D carbon electrodes are fabricated using the C-MEMS technique and are used to implement a DEP-enabled active filter to trap particles of interest.
European patent application publication EP 2 302 396 A1 discloses an analyzing device includes: an operation cavity that is adjacent to a first reserving cavity retaining a sample liquid, in a circumferential direction of rotational driving; a connecting section provided on a side wall of the first reserving cavity to suck the sample liquid by a capillary force and transfer the sample liquid to the operation cavity; and second reserving cavities that are disposed outside the operation cavity in the circumferential direction of the rotational driving and communicate with the outermost position of the operation cavity through a connecting passage. The connecting section is circumferentially extended farther than the liquid level of the sample liquid retained in the first reserving cavity.
United States patent application publication US 2009/0246082 discloses an analysis device comprising a separation chamber for separating a sample solution into a solution component and a solid component, a holding channel for holding a predetermined amount of the separated solid component, a mixing chamber connected to the holding channel, an overflow channel connected between the holding channel and the separation chamber, a sample overflow chamber into which the sample solution remaining in the separation chamber is discharged, and a joint channel connecting the separation chamber and the sample overflow chamber. After the separated solution component fills the overflow channel with priority by a capillary force, the separated solid component is transferred to the holding channel via the overflow channel, and a predetermined amount of the solid component is measured. The solid component in the holding channel is transferred to the mixing chamber by a centrifugal force, and simultaneously, the sample solution remaining in the separation chamber is discharged to the sample overflow chamber by the siphon effect of the joint channel.


One common style of prior art poultry house is the so called post-style poultry house. These post-style poultry houses are quite prevalent and typically were built using posts prior to the wide spread use of structural trusses. A typical post-style poultry house is between about 34 and 40 feet wide and about 300 to 500 feet long. The posts in such a house are usually spaced from one another and are used to support the roof of the poultry house.
While a post-style house as just described is sturdy and long-lasting, in recent years changes in poultry harvesting technology have made this less than an ideal design for continued use. For example, traditionally once the poultry are ready to be harvested from the poultry house and to be taken to a processing plant, they are gathered up and placed in cages for transport. Currently, this often is being done manually by picking up poultry and putting them in the cages. More recently, automatic harvesting equipment is being developed which constitutes a self-propelled vehicle with equipment at the front end thereof for gathering the poultry and placing them in cages. Such machinery can be obstructed in its operation by the posts. As a result, there exists a strong economic incentive for replacing the post-style houses with a clear span-style poultry house.
Unfortunately, to simply knock down existing post-style poultry houses and replace them with new, clear span poultry houses is prohibitively expensive for many poultry farmers. Moreover, it is economically wasteful inasmuch as much of the structure of the post-style poultry house might still be in good shape and should not be demolished and discarded. Accordingly, it can be seen that a need yet remains for a method and apparatus for economically converting post-style poultry houses to clear span poultry houses. It is to the provision of such a method and apparatus that the present invention is primarily directed.


This invention relates to a process for producing hydrocarbons useful as diesel fuel or a diesel fuel blending component from renewable feedstocks such as the triglycerides and free fatty acids found in materials such as plant oils, fish oils, animal fats, and greases. The process involves hydrogenation, decarboxylation and/or hydrodeoxygenation and isomerization in one or more reactors. A selective hot high pressure hydrogen stripper is used to remove at least the carbon oxides from the hydrogenation, decarboxylation and/or hydrodeoxygenation zone effluent before entering the isomerization zone. A diesel range stream or a naphtha range stream, or a mixture of the two streams is used as an additional rectification agent in the selective hot high pressure hydrogen stripper to decrease the amount of product carried in the overhead thereby reducing the amount of n-paraffins in the diesel fuel.
As the demand for diesel fuel increases worldwide there is increasing interest in sources other than petroleum crude oil for producing diesel fuel. One such non-petroleum source is what has been termed renewable sources. These renewable sources include, but are not limited to, plant oils such as corn, rapeseed, canola, soybean and algal oils, animal fats such as inedible tallow, fish oils and various waste streams such as yellow and brown greases and sewage sludge. The common feature of these sources is that they are composed of triglycerides and Free Fatty Acids (FFA). Both of these compounds contain n-paraffin chains having from about 8 to about 24 carbon atoms. The n-paraffin chains in the tri-glycerides or FFAs can also be mono-, di- or poly-unsaturated. Some of the glycerides from the renewable sources may be monoglycerides or diglycerides instead of or in addition to the trigylcerides. Another class of components considered a renewable feedstock is fatty acid alkyl esters.
There are reports in the art disclosing the production of hydrocarbons from oils. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,009 discloses the use of crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites to convert plant oils such as corn oil to hydrocarbons such as gasoline and chemicals such as para-xylene. U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,605 discloses the production of hydrocarbon products in the diesel boiling range by hydroprocessing vegetable oils such as canola or sunflower oil. Finally, US 2004/0230085 A1 discloses a process for treating a hydrocarbon component of biological origin by hydrodeoxygenation followed by isomerization.
Applicants have developed a process which comprises one or more steps to hydrogenate, decarboxylate (and/or hydrodeoxygenate) and isomerize the feedstock. The performance of the isomerization catalyst is improved by removing at least carbon dioxide from the feed to the isomerization zone. The presence of oxygen containing molecules including water, carbon dioxide, and other carbon oxides may result in the deactivation of the isomerization catalyst. The oxygen containing molecules such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water are removed using a selective hot high pressure hydrogen stripper which additionally contains a rectification zone.


Fibrous structures, particularly sanitary tissue products comprising fibrous structures, are known to exhibit different values for particular properties. These differences may translate into one fibrous structure being softer or stronger or more absorbent or more flexible or less flexible or exhibit greater stretch or exhibit less stretch, for example, as compared to another fibrous structure.
One property of fibrous structures that is desirable to consumers is the Geometric Mean Elongation of the fibrous structure. It has been found that at least some consumers desire fibrous structures that exhibit a Geometric Mean Elongation of greater than 17.4% as measured according to the Elongation Test Method and/or greater than 15% as measured according to the Elongation Test Method if the fibrous structure exhibits certain absorbency properties and greater than 15.8% as measured according to the Elongation Test Method if the fibrous structure is a multi-ply fibrous structures. However, such fibrous structures are not known in the art. Accordingly, there exists a need for fibrous structures that exhibit a Geometric Mean Elongation of greater than 15.8% as measured according to the Elongation Test Method.


The present subject matter relates generally to a chest wound seal for first responders. More specifically, the present invention relates to a chest wound seal that stores compactly, includes: four-sided sealing; a one-way venting valve with no rigid components; and a one-way valve and vent channel resistant to blockage from clotting; and, additionally, a chest wound seal that may be thin; flexible; conformal to body contours; aggressively adhesive to contaminated surfaces (stick and stay); highly resistant to externally-originated particulate contamination; functional when covered with patient's clothing; and configurable as venting or non-venting.
When an individual suffers a puncture wound to the chest, such as from being shot or stabbed, the wound often penetrates into the chest cavity so as to puncture the parietal pleura, visceral pleura, and sometimes even the lungs. Such a wound allows air to flow freely through the open chest wound into the chest cavity and pleural space each time the patient breathes.
The condition wherein air penetrates into the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall through a wound hole in the chest wall is an open pneumothorax. When an open pneumothorax occurs, the normal mechanism by which the lung expands is lost; i.e., the fluid adhesion of the pleural surface of the lung to the pleural surface of the chest wall. Thus, the affected lung does not expand normally when the patient inhales.
A tension pneumothorax can occur when a one-way valve is formed by the wound that allows airflow into the pleural space while preventing airflow out. In a tension pneumothorax, each inhalation traps air in the chest, increasing pressure on the lungs and ultimately causing them to collapse. Additionally, the increasing pressure pushes important organs, such as the heart, major blood vessels, and airways, toward the center of the chest. This shifting can cause further compression of the lungs and may affect the flow of blood returning to the heart. These additional complications in a tension pneumothorax make it a life threatening condition that requires immediate treatment.
For patients with an open wound to the chest, the severity of the open pneumothorax that develops can be minimized by sealing the open wound via an occlusive bandage. For proper sealing, the bandage must be air- and liquid-tight, must be flexible enough to conform to all body contours, and must have an adhesive strong and persistent enough to keep the seal in place while subject to patient movement and various body fluids. The occlusive bandage may be used to eliminate air penetrating into the pleural space through the wound hole when the patient inhales.
In addition to developing a tension pneumothorax by air leakage through the chest wound, a patient with an open chest wound that is covered by an occlusive chest bandage may also develop a tension pneumothorax in a different manner. For instance, the bandage may have eliminated air from entering the pleural space through the wound hole, yet if lacerated, the lung will continue to leak air into the pleural space. Consequently, every time the patient inhales, more air becomes trapped in the pleural space, causing more pressure to be exerted on the lacerated lung. Again, this increased pressure on the lacerated lung forces the lung to collapse.
To successfully prevent a tension pneumothorax from developing, the air flow into the pleural space via the wound hole must be eliminated, but the air coming from the lacerated lung must be allowed to escape the pleural space via the wound hole.
Therefore, a need exists for a compact, low profile, adhesive chest wound seal for use by first responders that includes a one-way valve that ensures effective venting of air and/or other fluids from the pleural cavity during exhalation while sealing a chest wound against air entry during inhalation, without risk of being dislodged during treatment of the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,333 to Asherman (“Asherman”) discloses a one-way valve apparatus installed in a chest wound seal to be used for treating a tension pneumothorax, as well as treat hemothorax (blood accumulation in the pleural cavity). The adhesive used on Asherman fails when exposed to bodily fluids such as blood or sweat. If the adhesive fails, then Asherman will not exhibit a 4-sided seal, rendering its air-ingress-during-inhalation-prevention function useless.
In addition, the design of Asherman will only allow air egress during exhalation if the valve apparatus is free of encumbrances, such as clothing, impinging on the valve exit end. Such interference will kink the valve shut, rendering it inoperative, and thereby turning Asherman into a simple occlusive chest wound seal. Further, Asherman will also not vent if the patient is lying upon the chest wound/vent, which will also kink the vent exit. Such a condition will prevent air ingress during inhalation, but will also prevent air/fluid egress during exhalation, a situation that can lead to formation of a life-threatening tension pneumothorax.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,504,549 to Castellani et al. (“Hyfin”) discloses a one-way valve fabricated as an integral part of a thin, flexible chest wound seal that claims to prevent tension pneumothorax. Hyfin discloses that its drainage channel terminates at the peripheral edge of the chest wound seal. The lack of a full perimeter of adhesive (hydrogel) in combination with a thin and flexible backing sheet can allow the Hyfin to fold along its drainage channel and allow the two sides of that channel to contact each other during Hyfin application, causing the channel to close upon itself. The hydrogel is aggressively sticky, and once stuck to itself, cannot easily be separated to reopen the occlusion in the channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,834,231 to Biddle et al. (“Biddle”) discloses a plurality of one-way valve apparati installed in a thin, flexible chest wound seal that claims to prevent tension pneumothorax. Biddle contains a one-way valve with a fibrous filter in line with the air flow path. The limited clear egress fluid path will be prone to blockage if the blood from the chest wound clots. Clotting will render Biddle a simple occlusive chest wound seal.
In addition, the one-way valve mechanism is subject to interference by externally originated particulate contamination, which can prevent valve closure during inhalation. If a valve fails to seal during inhalation, air can enter the pleural space through the chest wound and cause the formation of a life-threatening tension pneumothorax.
U.S. Pat. Appl. No. US 2012/0046582 to Hopman et al. (“Hopman”)—discloses a one-way valve apparatus installed in a chest wound seal that claims to prevent tension pneumothorax. The Hopman valve is a rigid, bulky one-way valve apparatus. The Hopman valve is susceptible to externally originated particulate contamination, which can prevent valve closure during inhalation. If the valve fails to seal during inhalation, air can enter the pleural space through the chest wound and cause the formation of a life-threatening tension pneumothorax.
The one-way valve can be protected from external contaminants by replacing its removable cover, but with the cover in place, the vent is rendered inoperative, thereby turning Hopman into a simple occlusive chest wound seal. Such a condition will prevent air ingress during inhalation, but will also prevent air/fluid egress during exhalation, a situation that can lead to formation of a life-threatening tension pneumothorax.
In addition, the rigid, bulky one-way valve apparatus of Hopman protrudes approximately ⅝ of an inch above the top surface of the chest wound seal. This bulkiness ensures that fewer of the units can be carried in first responder kits than other thinner, more flexible chest wound seals.
Accordingly, there is a need for a chest wound seal for first responders that stores compactly, includes: four-sided sealing; a one-way venting valve with no rigid components; and a one-way valve and vent channel resistant to blockage from clotting; and, additionally, is thin; flexible; conformal to body contours; aggressively adhesive to contaminated surfaces (stick and stay); highly resistant to externally-originated particulate contamination; functional when covered with patient's clothing; and configurable as venting or non-venting, as described herein.


The present invention relates to switch devices which each are turned on against a user's intention and electronic devices which each include such switch device.
Wristwatches are known which each illuminate its face or liquid crystal time display unit with a luminescence element such as a lamp or electronic luminescence element so as to allow for us to recognize the time even in a dark place.
Wristwatches of this kind include some which is provided with a lamp which is lighted up in response to the user turning on a specific switch, and some which are lighted up for a predetermined interval of time in response to the user's turning on a switch.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,931, wristwatches are known which include a posture detection switch which detects one motion of a user's gestures made when the user looks at the wristwatch to thereby light on a lamp.
Whenever the user desires to illuminate the face of the wristwatch, however, the user must manipulate the switch. Thus, for example, when the user' hands are occupied with some baggage, the manipulation of the wristwatch is troublesome.
For instance, in a wristwatch which uses a posture detection switch which detects that the face of the wristwatch is inclined up at 12 o'clock for the user to look at the face to thereby light up the lamp, it is unnecessary to manipulate the switch to light up the lamp. However, even in that case, when the wristwatch takes such posture, the lamp would directly be lighted up, thereby inviting useless electric power consumption, and shortening the battery longevity.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a switch device whose operation is never performed without the user's intended motion, and an electronic device (wristwatch) which uses such switch device.


This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Conventional programmable devices, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are capable of communicating with external devices using different signaling schemes having various voltage levels, e.g., 1.2V, 1.5V, 1.8V, 2.5, and 3.3V. To handle incoming signals at these different voltage levels, conventional FPGAs are implemented with programmable input buffers that can be selectively programmed to operate at different voltage levels. In addition to a core power supply VCC and an input/output (I/O) power supply VCCIO, some FPGAs include an auxiliary power supply VCCAUX of 3.3V or 2.5V. For a programmable device having VCC, VCCIO, and VCCAUX power supplies, an input buffer might have three different buffer stages: a VCC-powered buffer stage designed to be programmably selected to handle low-voltage signaling (e.g., 1.2V), a VCCIO-powered buffer stage designed to be programmably selected to handle mid-voltage signaling (e.g., 1.5V and 1.8V), and a VCCAUX-powered buffer stage designed to be programmably selected to handle high-voltage signaling (e.g., 2.5V and 3.3V).


The use of the internet as a location for discussions has influenced the desire to analyze such communications for useful information. Example internet communication mediums include discussion forums, instant messaging services, email, etc. In particular, businesses want to know what people are saying in these forums about their business(es) and/or product(s). One way for businesses to learn this information is to assign classifications to messages. For example, messages may be classified based on the sentiment expressed in the message. Summaries of the sentiment classifications can be reviewed to better understand the overall content of the messages.


The invention is concerned with a petroleum product and a process fop obtaining said petroleum product which may be used fop the formulation of a fuel fop an internal combustion engine, and the invention is also concerned with the product obtained by way of the process. The gas oils currently on the market which ape either in the form of motor fuels fop internal combustion engines with compression ignition (diesel type) of in the form of fuels ape most frequently products which have been refined and which contain about 0.3% sulphur (expressed by weight of sulphur). They ape usually obtained following a hydpodesulphuration treatment from a charge which can come from direct distillation of a crude petroleum of from a specific treatment of a crude petroleum (pyrolysis of distillation followed by pyrolysis of the fraction recovered during distillation, for example, of thermal cracking of catalytic cracking) usually containing at least 0.8% by weight of sulphur.
In some industrial countries, standards fop the content of sulphur have been set, or ape due to be set in the very neap future. These standards ape becoming increasingly strict, particularly in the case of gas oils which ape intended to be used as motor fuels. Thus, in France, particularly from 1995, the sulphur content of these gas oils will have to be at the most equal to 0.05% by weight (500 ppm) whilst the gas oils according to the standards in force have a sulphur content which can be as much as 0.3%.
Similarly, the gas oils used in France as fuels fop internal combustion engines must currently have a cetane index which is at least equal to 48, and gas oils used as fuels must have a cetane index which is at least equal to 40. Stricter standards ape to be expected in the neap future, particularly those concerning gas oils which ape used as engine fuels.
Moreover, given the diversity of charges to be treated (crudes of various origin, and viscoreduction-, coking-, hydpoconversion-, distillation- or catalytic cracking crudes) to produce the gas oil it is desirable to be able to offer the refiner a process which is flexible and which is capable of adapting the products formed to demand and to satisfy future requirements as far as sulphur and nitrogen levels, cetane index, colour and content of aromatics are concerned.
Finally, all existing processes such as hydrodesaromatisation or hydrocracking which enable petroleum products to be obtained which have a low sulphur content and which have a relatively high cetane index expend considerable amounts of hydrogen. By way of example, the process for hydrodesaromatisation of a direct distillation charge whose distillation intervals (ASTM D86) are 180.degree. C.<T 5% <300.degree. C., 260.degree. C.<T 50%<350, 350.degree. C.<T 95%<460.degree. C., expends 0.6 to 1.1% of hydrogen in relation to the charge, whilst the hydrocracking process requires more than 2% hydrogen in relation to its charge. Now, the hydrogen charge of the refinery which usually comes from the catalytic gas reforming unit tends to be inadequate in the light of the fact that gas oil standards are becoming increasingly strict, resulting in an increase in hydrotreatments.
Moreover, these existing processes result in a petroleum product being obtained whose cetane index does not exceed 63, this latter only being attained at the cost of hydrogenation of the aromatic hydrocarbons of the charge, which reaction uses up hydrogen. (see table).
It is therefore desirable to offer the refiner a process which will enable him to produce a petroleum product which satisfies the various standards which will be applicable in the very near future, and after 1995, as far as sulphur content is concerned.
The technological plan is illustrated by the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,139, EP-A-0 215 496, GB-A-1 006 949 and GB-A-943 239.


The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector in which an upper cover is closed to an open rear opening of a plastic housing to press a plurality of wires against piercing sections of terminals located in passages provided on the plastic housing, so that insulating skins of the wires are cut to allow electrical connection of conductors in the wires with the terminals without the need of soldering, and time and cost for assembling the connector are reduced.
With the highly developed technologies, computers have been designed to execute more and more advanced functions. In other words, the central processing unit (CPU) inside each computer has incredibly high digital operating capability. Moreover, with the popularization of Internet, users demand for even faster upload and download speeds via the use of, for example, optical fibers, broad bands, asymmetric/asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL), etc. Under this condition, all other peripherals of the computer system, including various kinds of driving and driven elements, must also have a high operating speed corresponding to the high-speed CPU. For this purpose, it is very important for signal transmission cables, particularly connectors provided at two ends of the cables, to transmit signals between the CPU and the various driving and driven elements at a very high speed. It is also known that there are many devices, such as the universal serial bus (USB), the cable connectors, etc., being provided with an externally connected bus that supports a transmission rate as high as 12 Mbps with each port thereof capable of connecting up to 127 devices at the same time, as well as the functions of plug-and-play and hot-plugging.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective and sectioned side views, respectively, of a conventional connector to show the assembling thereof. As shown, the conventional connector includes a plastic core 1, a plurality of terminals 2, and a plurality of wires 3.
The plastic core 1 is internally provided with a plurality of equally spaced terminal holes that extend from a front to a rear end of the plastic core 1. A flat plate 11 is rearward extended from the rear end of the plastic core 1, and a plurality of terminal slots are formed on the flat plate 11 corresponding to the terminal holes. Each of the terminals 2 is in the form of a flat strip divided into a bent front conductive section 21 and a rear soldering section 22. The terminals 2 are provided on a main body thereof with barbs. Each of the wires 3 has a bare front end 31.
To assemble the terminal 2 to the plastic core 1, the conductive section 21 of the terminal 2 is inserted into one terminal hole from a rear end of the plastic core 1, so that the soldering section 22 of the terminal 2 is positioned in a corresponding terminal slot on the flat plate 11. When the terminal 2 is inserted into the plastic core 1, the barbs on the body of the terminal 2 are forced into the terminal hole to hook to inner wall surfaces of the terminal hole, making the terminal 2 fixedly located in the terminal hole. The soldering section 22 of the terminal 2 is exposed from the rear end of the plastic core 1 for the bare front end 31 of the wire 3 to overlap thereat. Thereafter, the bare front end 31 of the wire 3 is manually soldered to the soldering section 22 of the terminal 2 using soldering iron and soldering stick. Finally, a molding machine (not shown) is used to integrally mold a plastic case 4 around the wires 3 and the plastic core 1 to complete the connector.
During the process of soldering the terminals 2 to the wires 3, since the terminals 2 have been previously inserted into the plastic core 1, the high temperature of the soldering iron tends to deform the plastic core 1 to therefore adversely affect the quality of the produced connector. Moreover, in the conventional connector, the terminals 2 are forced into and hooked to the plastic core 1 to thereby locate in the connector. To enable the terminals 2 to firmly hook to the plastic core 1, it is necessary to provide barbs on two sides of the terminals 2. In forming the terminals 2 with barbs, increased amount of scrap is produced when punching the material strips to form the terminals 2. In assembling the conventional connector, the terminals 2 must be accurately inserted into the terminal holes in the plastic core 1 with a properly controlled insertion force to avoid biased or deformed terminals 2. Moreover, an additional mold must be made to produce the plastic case 4 for integrally and tightly enclosing and fixing the wires 3, the terminals 2, and the plastic core 1 together. The mold would inevitably increase the manufacturing cost of the conventional connector to adversely reduce the competition ability of the connector in the international markets.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a connector to eliminate drawbacks existed in the conventional connector, so that the connector may be quickly assembled to reduce the manufacturing cost thereof.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a connector in which an upper cover is closed to an open rear opening of a plastic housing to press a plurality of wires against piercing sections of terminals located in passages provided on the plastic housing, so that insulating skins of the wires are cut to allow electrical connection of conductors in the wires with the terminals without the need of soldering, and time and cost for assembling the connector are reduced.
To achieve the above and other objects, the connector of the present invention mainly includes a plurality of terminals, each of which includes a front conductive section and a rear piercing section; a plastic housing being provided at a front part with internal terminal slots for receiving the conductive sections of the terminals therein and at an open rear part with passages for receiving the piercing sections of the terminals; and an upper cover for closing the open rear part of the plastic housing. The upper cover is closed to the open rear opening of the plastic housing to press a plurality of wires against the piercing sections located in the passages on the plastic housing, so that insulating skins of the wires are cut to allow electrical connection of conductors in the wires with the terminals without the need of soldering.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of helmet mountable displays (HMDs).
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,719 describes a helmet mountable display (HMD) in which left and right channels share a common optical path that includes first and second relay lenses having respective optical axes, and horizontal and vertical deflecting mirrors. The lenses are arranged so that their axes form a V, with the deflecting mirrors disposed at the apex. For the left (right) eye, an 8.times.1 array of fibers is modulated to project the intensity pattern of a 1k.times.1k image through the first (second) relay lens. A pair of motors oscillate the horizontal and vertical mirrors to deflect light through the second (first) lens, and raster scan the image onto a back projection screen which projects the image onto the helmet's visor.
One of the primary concerns in HMD design is the optical system's overall weight, which is dominated by the weight of the motors used to oscillate the mirrors. Although the described HMD uses a common optical path to reduce the number of lenses, it requires two motors to drive the respective mirrors. Another design consideration is that people who wear the helmet have different interpupillary distances (IPDs). The IPD of male pilots in the 5-95 percentile varies from about 55 mm to about 75 mm. In the `V` design, variations in IPD are compensated for by rotating the first and second lenses with respect to the apex point to achieve the correct spacing. However, this induces `parallelogram` distortion in the output image, i.e., a square input appears as a parallelogram, and requires electronic precompensation of the digital imagery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,778 discloses a single lens HMD that employs a single 8.times.1 array of fibers to modulate both left and right images through a single lens. Horizontal and vertical mirrors are oscillated by respective motors to reflect the intensity patterns back through the lens and onto respective back projection screens. The single lens design reduces the number of lenses, but the single lens must be very large to simultaneously provide images for the left and right eyes, and the system still requires two motors to scan the image. Variations in IPD are compensated by adjusting optical relays between the respective back projection screens and the visor.
A single-eye head mounted projection display called "The Private Eye" is produced by Reflection Technology Corporation of Waltham, Mass. The system includes a column of LEDs which project successive columns of an image through a magnifying lens onto a mirror. The mirror is oscillated to horizontally sweep the projected patterns onto the pupil of the person wearing The Private Eye. The mirror must be relatively large and located near the eye to provide a reasonably large field of view. Additionally, for a two-eyed display, the system would require two drive motors. Since this system is one-eyed, IPD adjustment is not an issue.


Human speeches may be captured as signals representing speech or speech signals using transducers, e.g., microphones, and be further processed for a wide range of applications, e.g., noise reduction or denoising, speech recognition, speaker recognition, speech synthesis, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and speech compression. The speech signals may be captured in the form of analog signals or digital signals and may be stored in electronic media, e.g., memory or disks. The speech signals may be processed using analog or digital processors.
One commonly used scheme in speech signal processing may include transforming speech signals from a time domain representation, e.g., signal waveforms as a function of time, into a frequency domain representation, e.g., spectrums or spectrograms, using the Fourier transformation. However, the Fourier transform may have a fixed time-frequency resolution. Thus, frequency distribution is limited to a linear scale. This limitation may require additional processing, e.g., converting a linear frequency distribution to a non-linear frequency distribution, e.g., as in the basilar membrane. Additionally, the fixed window size of the Fourier transform may cause undesirable harmonics in spectrograms.
This problem may be illustrated by the following example. In most speech processing systems, speech signals are first converted into digital signals on which, for example, short-time Fourier transform via Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) may be applied for computing spectrograms of the speech signals. The intensity of a spectrogram represents the amplitude of the signal at a particular time and at a particular frequency. FIG. 1 shows speech signals of a male voice recorded under two different scenarios. FIG. 1(A) shows the speech signal recorded using a close-talking microphone, and FIG. 1(B) shows the same speech signal simultaneously recorded using a hands-free microphone in a moving vehicle. The close-talking microphone is placed near the speaker's mouth, while the hands-free microphone is placed, e.g., on a sun visor of the vehicle. Due to the distance between the mouth and the microphone in the hands-free scenario, the recorded speech signal in FIG. 1(B) may include substantial background noise compared to the speech signal as shown in FIG. 1(A). Both speech signals in this example are recorded at a sampling rate of 8 KHz.
FIG. 2 shows the spectrograms of speech signals shown in FIG. 1. Specifically, FIG. 2(A) shows a spectrogram of the clean speech signal recorded using a close-talking microphone as shown in FIG. 1(A), and FIG. 2(B) shows a spectrogram of the noisy speech signal recorded using a hand-free microphone as shown in FIG. 1(B). The spectrograms are computed in the standard way, as in traditional feature extraction for speaker or speech recognition. It may include using a window of, e.g., the length of 30 ms shifted every 10 ms with an overlap of 20 ms, of a type of Hamming window before applying FFT to the speech signals. To facilitate further analysis and feature extraction, the frequency distribution is mapped from linear scales to the Bark scale after the FFT computation.
The spectrograms of FIG. 2 shows two types of distortions: (1) the pitch harmonics as periodical waves along the frequency axis; and (2) the background noise in the frequency domain in the form of “snow” noise (which is different from environmental noise). Both types of distortions are caused by FFT computation.
Additional processing steps may be needed to remove effects of these undesirable distortions. FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagrams of such a Fourier transform based system 300 for extracting features from speech signals. A speech signal may first undergo pre-processing steps of frame blocking 302 and windowing 304. Then at 306 FFT may be applied to the pre-processed speech signal for computing a spectrum. As discussed above, the spectrum may include unwanted harmonics and noise. In this method, triangular filters 308, a non-linear filter 310, and discrete cosine transform (DCT) 312 may be applied to reduce the effects of harmonics and noises caused by FFT. However, while these steps may reduce the harmonic distortions, they may also remove useful and real pitch information. It is commonly known that humans identify peoples' voices by the voice characteristics, represented mainly by pitch information.
Speech signal processing based on wavelet transforms may provide flexible time-frequency resolution. However, it may have other noticeable problems. First, the existing wavelet does not have the capabilities of mimicking the impulse responses of the basilar membrane. Thereby, it may not be used directly for modeling the human hearing system, e.g., cochlea. Second, there is no discrete formula to approximate inverse continuous wavelet transforms even though forward and inverse transforms for continuous wavelet based are well defined.


A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. comprising part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
It has been proposed to immerse the substrate in the lithographic projection apparatus in a liquid having a relatively high refractive index, e.g. water, so as to fill a space between the final element of the projection system and the substrate. The point of this is to enable imaging of smaller features since the exposure radiation will have a shorter wavelength in the liquid. (The effect of the liquid may also be regarded as increasing the effective NA of the system and also increasing the depth of focus.) Other immersion liquids have been proposed, including water with solid particles (e.g. quartz) suspended therein.
However, submersing the substrate or substrate and substrate table in a bath of liquid (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,852, hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference) means that there is a large body of liquid that must be accelerated during a scanning exposure. This requires additional or more powerful motors and turbulence in the liquid may lead to undesirable and unpredictable effects.
One of the solutions proposed is for a liquid supply system to provide liquid on only a localized area of the substrate and in between the final element of the projection system and the substrate (the substrate generally has a larger surface area than the final element of the projection system). One way which has been proposed to arrange for this is disclosed in PCT patent application publication WO 99/49504, hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference. As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, liquid is supplied by at least one inlet IN onto the substrate, preferably along the direction of movement of the substrate relative to the final element, and is removed by at least one outlet OUT after having passed under the projection system. That is, as the substrate is scanned beneath the element in a −X direction, liquid is supplied at the +X side of the element and taken up at the −X side. FIG. 2 shows the arrangement schematically in which liquid is supplied via inlet IN and is taken up on the other side of the element by outlet OUT which is connected to a low pressure source. In the illustration of FIG. 2 the liquid is supplied along the direction of movement of the substrate relative to the final element, though this does not need to be the case. Various orientations and numbers of in- and out-lets positioned around the final element are possible, one example is illustrated in FIG. 3 in which four sets of an inlet with an outlet on either side are provided in a regular pattern around the final element.


Drilling fluid circulating systems are employed during downhole drilling operations to provide a number of functions. These functions include providing cooling to the drill bit, removing drilled cuttings to the surface and providing a hydrostatic head to the formation to prevent the escape of oil and gas from the well.
As is well known, in almost all drilling operations, drilling fluid is continuously lost to the formation during the drilling process due to seepage of the drilling fluid into the formations. Seepage will occur at varying rates depending on the relative porosity or fractures of the formation and the hydrostatic head pressure. While some seepage will always occur, generally it is necessary to control drilling fluid loss in order to ensure effective drilling fluid circulation and to reduce drilling fluid costs. Notwithstanding efforts to prevent drilling fluid losses, tens of thousands of cubic meters of these fluids are lost each year.
There are generally two classes of drilling fluids namely water-based and oil-based drilling fluids. Water-based drilling fluids are generally less expensive than oil-based drilling fluids but cannot be used effectively in all formations and may result in operational problems in certain formations such as hydratable shales, silts or clays. In these formations, there is a tendency for the hydratable materials to destabilize the wellbore as well as disperse within the drilling fluid. The dispersion effect causes substantial increases in the solids content of the drilling fluid and leads to various problems including solids separation difficulties at the surface and detrimental increases to the viscosity of the fluid.
In order to overcome these difficulties associated with water-based drilling fluids, drilling fluids comprised of oil or water-in-oil (a.k.a invert emulsions) are often used. Generally, emulsion compositions in which oil remains the predominant or continuous phase are preferred. In order to maintain effective and stable emulsions, the compositions will require the use of emulsifiers to stabilize the emulsion. Such emulsions are effective in stabilizing hydratable shale or clay formations.
It is also well known that seepage losses can be mitigated through the addition of fibrous materials into the drilling fluid such as sawdust, fabrics, nut hulls, seed hulls and minerals such as ground limestone. These materials can bridge the various loss zones where fluids are being lost by mixing with drilled cuttings, and “viscosifiers” to create a “filter-cake” that may significantly reduce fluid losses to the formation. Examples of the use of various plant derived components as drilling fluid additives include U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,158, U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,367, U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,776, U.S. Pat. No. 2,691,629, U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,179, U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,328, U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,944, U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,362, United States Patent 2004/0014609 and United States Patent Applications 2004/0063587 and 2004/00232816. In the past, any plant materials have generally been preprocessed to remove any oils and gums associated with the plant material.
Typically, these materials also have a detrimental effect on the drilling fluid and may significantly change the properties of the fluid by increasing viscosity to unmanageable levels or de-stabilizing the emulsion. These effects directly impact the efficiency of surface pumping and solids removal equipment as well as causing wellbore destabilization. In the particular case of fibrous and granular materials including but not limited to cardboard, nut shells, calcium carbonate, and sawdust, within invert emulsions, these materials will be broken down over time to smaller sizes resulting in an increase in the relative surface area of these materials within the emulsion. The net effect of this size breakdown and the hydrophilic nature of these materials will contribute to the breakdown of the emulsion. As a result, over time, additional emulsifiers and oil-wetting agents must be added to the emulsions to maintain the emulsion properties, which again contribute to the cost of the drilling fluid. In the specific case of adding limestone or other mineral based seepage control agents to the drilling fluid, the specific gravity of the drilling fluid is also increased which increases the hydrostatic pressure within the wellbore which may directly increase the seepage losses and also requires stronger pumping equipment.
Other functional requirements of drilling fluids, problems that may be encountered with the use of drilling fluids and past solutions are briefly discussed below:
Drilling fluid systems also require the use of torque reducing and drag reducing agents to relieve both rotational twist that builds up in the drilling pipe during rotation and the frictional forces required to lift the drill string from the borehole through the drilling fluid. In the past, the use of spherical media such as glass beads, Teflon beads, styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer beads, walnut hulls, and oil based additives (petroleum or vegetative) within the drilling fluid have demonstrated the ability of these additives to relieve rotational twist and reduce drag.
Drilling fluids also preferably require materials to disperse entrained drilled solids that build up in the drilling fluid system during the excavation process. In many systems, the materials used are surfactants and phenolic compounds including lignins and tannins.
Filtration control agents may be added to both water and oil-based drilling fluids to reduce the penetration of the drilling fluid into formation rock media. The addition of colloidal, polymeric and colloid dispersing chemicals like surfactants, emulsifiers, lignite and/or lignosulphonate materials may be used.
In both oil and water based drilling fluids, emulsifiers may be added to aid the emulsification of oils added to water based fluids and water added to oil-based fluids. Emulsifiers also act as surfactants in both water based and oil based drilling fluids. Typically this effect is observed as a reduction in the viscosity of the treated fluid. The effect is caused by the adsorption of the emulsifier onto the surface of an entrained particle or emulsified phase component which enhances steric hindrance to flocculation between dispersed molecules. Generally, the addition of emulsifiers is dictated by the requirements of the fluid for the level of dispersion of secondary phase and/or entrained solids in the fluid system.
In the past, emulsifiers have been prepared using crude tall oil fatty acids (CTOFA) derived from Kraft pulp-making processes. CTOFA's are often used as the source of fatty acids for creating soaps/emulsifiers in oil-based drilling fluids. CTOFAs are normally considered to be a waste product and as a result, the price of CTOFAs is relatively low (in the range of $310/metric ton). The chemical composition of CTOFAs is primarily C18 oleic and linoleic acids in addition to relatively high concentrations of resins including abietic, dehydroabietic, palustric, isopalustric, isopimaric, neoabietic and pimaric acids. CTOFAs are very viscous and must typically be diluted with solvents in order to be efficiently mixed within a drilling fluid.
Some invert emulsions are blended with purified phospholipids to assist in oil wetting and dispersion of hydrophilic materials (drilled cuttings, barite and the like) which become entrained in the fluid. Purified phospholipids are used sparingly due to the high cost (typically in the range of $1000/ton).
In comparison, oil seeds are characterized by a much wider range of fatty acids with chain lengths that typically range from C14-C24 and naturally contain phospholipids. Different oilseeds contain very different specific compositions of fatty acids and phospholipids. From a cost perspective whole or crushed oilseeds are also in the same range as CTOFAs. However, any purified oilseed fatty acid is expensive (in the range of $1000+/ton).
While many solutions to the requirements of drilling fluids have been provided, there continues to be a need for enhanced drilling fluid compositions, while maintaining functionality to effectively bridge fractures and other loss zones. In particular, there has been a need for drilling fluid compositions having lipophilic/oleophilic characteristics to assist in dispersing the drilling fluid as the drilling fluid is broken down. Still further, there has been a need for drilling fluid compositions with increased stability where the stability of the drilling fluid is enhanced through delayed release of emulsifying agents.


The present invention relates to a process for spray-coating of mass-produced goods with frequent changes between at least one aqueous and at least one non-aqueous coating agent inside a spray-coating chamber.
The coating of vehicles in a production line takes place in fully automated vehicle coating lines whereby the application of the colour-determining coating layer (as finishing top coat layer or as base coat layer with a transparent top coal layer) is carried out with a number of different colour shades with frequent changes of colour. The change of colour or colour shade results from the manufacturing schedule and can take place after each coating operation of an automotive body, or the bodies are assembled in small groups of the same colour shade. Each coating agent with a different colour shade is supplied to the spray-coating devices from a coating supply reservoir via a dedicated circulation line connected thereto.
To obtain an automatic change of colour shades, it is sufficient to switch from one circulation line to another circulation line, so long as the feeding lines, the metering devices, as well as the spray-coating devices themselves, are automatically rinsed between applications of different colour shades. When changing colour in spray-coating chambers, in which non-aqueous coating agents of different colour shades are handled, this automatic rinsing is carried out with mixtures of water-immiscible organic solvents conventionally used in coating agents. However, the colour change in the spray-coating chambers, in which aqueous coating agents with different colour shades are handled, is followed by automatic rinsing with rinsing media which contain as main constituents water and water-miscible organic solvents conventionally used in aqueous coating agents, and which contain optional additional auxiliary agents in small quantities. The respective rinsing medium is also supplied from the supply reservoir to the colour changer via a dedicated circulation line and can be supplied from there to the spray-coating devices via the supply lines and the metering devices.
The time available for the actual change of colour, and therefore for the rinsing operation, is dependent upon the speed at which the vehicles are being conveyed through the spray chamber and on the distance between the automotive bodies. In practice, the conveyor speed and the distance are adjusted to the period of time required for the change of colour and the rinsing process, which totals for example 5 to 20 seconds. Quite apparently, productivity suffers with any delay, so there is a need to decrease the amount of time needed between application of different coating colours or colour shades.
There has been a focus in recent years, particularly in the vehicle manufacturing/assembly plants, to replace non-aqueous (i.e., solvent-based) coating systems with aqueous coating systems due to environmental considerations. The actual replacement of non-aqueous coatings with aqueous coatings, however, has been problematic, especially with basecoats and topcoats which provide, respectively, a particular colour or a desired property or effect to the article (e.g., an automobile) being coated. The need to apply both solvent based and aqueous based coatings adds considerable complexity to the coating process, particularly if the same spray chamber needs to be used to apply both types of coatings. In such situations, rinsing of the supply lines, metering devices and spray-coating devices themselves, can't be carried out with either the conventional rinsing agents used for solvent based coatings nor those conventionally used for aqueous based coatings alone. Instead, the two types of rinsing media need to be used in sequential rinsing steps and in the proper order. A change of colour from an aqueous to a non-aqueous coating agent, for example, would result in the following sequence:
termination of the application of an aqueous coating agent with the colour shade A; PA1 rinsing of the supply lines, the metering devices and of the spray devices with PA1 a rinsing medium which contains, as essential constituents, water and water-miscible organic solvents conventionally used in aqueous coating agents and which contains optional additional auxiliary agents in small quantities; PA1 rinsing with mixtures of water-immiscible organic solvents conventionally used in non-aqueous coating agents; and PA1 application of a non-aqueous coating agent with the colour shade B.
The same applies for a change of colour from a non-aqueous to an aqueous coating agent. This multiple step process, with an additional rinsing step, obviously results in lower productivity as it is impossible to realize such a sequence for each change of colour in the short time that is available for the rinsing operation. In addition to the decrease in efficiency and productivity, the consumption of rinsing media as well as the quantity and costs for waste disposal would increase. It is, of course, possible to utilize two separate spray apparatus in a single spray chamber, one dedicated to aqueous coatings and the other dedicated to non-aqueous coatings. However, this alternative clearly adds capital costs to the vehicle manufacturing process and is thus not a satisfactory solution.
Solvent mixtures are known in the art which are said to be suitable for cleaning surfaces contaminated with solvent coatings or water-borne coatings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,330 discloses a solvent mixture consisting of 15 to 35% by weight of one or more glycol ethers and of 65 to 85% by weight of one or more aliphatic ketones, which can be used for cleaning instruments that have been contaminated either by coating agents containing solvents or by water-dilutable coating agents. An improved solvent mixture is taught by DE A 198 23 852, which discloses a solvent mixture consisting of 20 to 65% by weight of one or more glycol ethers, 9 to 40% by weight of one or more aliphatic ketones, 10 to 35% by weight of one or more aliphatic monohydric alcohols and 5 to 20% by weight of one or more organic solvents, selected from the group of the N-substituted pyrrolidones and/or butyrolactone.
It is an object of the invention to provide a process for spray-coating mass-produced substrates, in particular automotive bodies and their parts, using aqueous as well as non-aqueous coating agents inside a spray-coating chamber. The process is intended to overcome the aforementioned problems and to be suited particularly for coating operations that require frequent changes in the coatings being applied. A solution to the problem is obtained by coating mass-produced substrates with aqueous and non-aqueous coating agents inside one and the same spraying chamber and by rinsing the installations to be rinsed of that particular coat-applying unit with a universal non-aqueous rinsing medium of a given composition each time the coating agent is changed. By "installations to be rinsed" are meant in particular the supply lines from the coat changer to the spray-coating devices, including the metering devices as well as the spray-coating devices themselves.


A vacuum cleaner is an electric cleaning apparatus which utilizes a motor to drive blades to rotate at a high speed, to generate a negative air pressure in a sealed housing, and thereby suctioning dusts into a dust bag. Vacuum cleaners can be generally divided into vertical type vacuum cleaners, horizontal type vacuum cleaners, and portable type vacuum cleaners and the like according to the structure. With vacuum cleaners become miniaturized and portable, the improvement in structure and volume of a vacuum cleaner motor, as a core component of a vacuum cleaner, also attracts lots of attentions.
A conventional vacuum cleaner motor generally includes a stator iron core and a rotor, the rotor is fixed on an output rotating shaft, and a load blade is further fixedly arranged on the rotating shaft. Bearings of the rotating shaft are placed at an outer side of each of the load blade and the rotor, that is, at two ends of the rotating shaft, such bearing arrangement is not compact. To fix the bearings, one of the bearings is fixed by a motor hood, and the other bearing needs to be fixed by an additional end cover, thus the structure is complicated and the volume is large. Also, if this structure is employed, the distance between the bearings is generally set large, which may cause a significant vibration and a high noise when the motor operates, and adversely affect the normal use of the vacuum cleaner, and thus is apt to cause premature damage and aging of parts and components in the vacuum cleaner motor, and reduces the service life of the vacuum cleaner.
For avoiding the structural limitations of the conventional vacuum cleaner motor, a motor structure is disclosed in the conventional technology. In the motor structure, one bearing is employed, and the bearing is fixed to a middle part of the rotating shaft, and a load and a rotor are arranged at two ends of the rotating shaft. In this way, to fix the bearing, the bearing can be directly fixed to a motor cover, without additionally providing a component to fix the bearing, thus simplifying the structure of the motor, allowing the entire motor to be compact, and reducing its volume. However, for ensuring the stability and balance in operation of the motor, generally, the bearing is required to be made long, which may lead to a high material cost of the bearing, and an increased production cost of the vacuum cleaner motor.
Therefore, in view of the above issues, it is necessary to provide a new rotor structure, to simplify the structure of the motor, reduce the overall volume of the motor, to enable the bearing to be close to a load as much as possible, reduce the wobble at shaft ends of the rotor, lower the noise, improve the service life of the motor, and also save the material, and reduce production costs.