Abstract: A touchscreen liquid crystal display that includes a liquid crystal display including a viewing surface, a liquid crystal area containing liquid crystal located behind the viewing surface, a plurality of spaced apart elongate first electrodes located on a viewing surface side of the liquid crystal area and a plurality of spaced apart elongate second electrodes located on an opposite side of the liquid crystal area, the first and second electrodes overlapping to form an array of liquid crystal pixel elements, at least some of the first electrodes being displaceable towards the second electrodes in response to external pressure applied to the viewing surface. A control circuit is connected to the first and second electrodes for controlling the operation of the liquid crystal display.

Abstract: An electronic mobile device having a first body, a second body mounted to the first body for movement relative to the first body between first and second positions, at least one of the first body and second body housing electronic circuitry. An electronic drive motor is linked to first body and the second body for moving the bodies relative to each other, the drive motor being operable in a first mode for effecting movement of the second body from the first position to the second position and operable in a second mode for effecting repetitive movement of the second body relative to the first body for generating a vibration alert.

Abstract: A cooler and dispenser for use with upright water bottles operates to (1) pump chilled water from a vertical bottle through a top opening, (2) filter the air that is drawn in to replace the water, (3) and provide the user with an indication of the level in the bottle. The dispenser cap is designed to fit snugly over the top of standard 3.0 and 5.0 gallon refillable water bottles in the vertical orientation. A small pump in the dispenser cap draws water from the bottom of the bottle and dispenses it through a tube that extends past the side of the bottle. The vacuum created within the bottle during the pumping process draws air in through a filter that keeps foreign particles from entering the bottle. Further, the airflow through the filter is constricted so as to ensure that a partial vacuum exists even after the pump has been turned off, and this draws residual water back through the delivery tube thereby preventing drips.

Abstract: A structure suitable for use by an animal having paws, said container comprising a housing including a base, substantially contiguous outer walls, and a top and defining an interior and an exit located above the base; a divider separating the interior into a litter region and an exit region, the exit region being located above and substantially beside the litter region and immediately below the exit; a foot cleaner surface within the exit region extending substantially from said litter region to the exit, the foot cleaner surface including a ramp portion, adapted to encourage the animal to extend and flex its paws when ascending the ramp; such that in operation, litter may be placed in the litter region for use by the animal, and the animal must walk along the foot cleaner surface ramp portion to exit the container, causing litter to fall from the paws, thereby reducing the amount of litter remaining on the animal's paws upon exiting the container.

Abstract: A surgical cast venting device comprises an elongate strip of porous fabric material and a number of relatively short, elongate plastic tubing members distributed over and attached to the elongate strip on one side thereof. The tubing members each extend substantially parallel to this one side and are open ended. The elongate strip can be wound around part of a human's body or an animal's body prior to application of a surgical cast. Preferably the tubing members each have ventilation holes distributed along their respective lengths. The fabric material can be gauze and the tubes can be attached thereto by adhesive. A multiple hook array fastener arrangement can extend along and be secured to a first longitudinal edge section and is adapted to detachably secure its edge section to a second, opposite longitudinal edge section when the fabric strip is wound around the body part. A number of different types of aerating devices that can be used instead of plastic tubing are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method of detecting actual or incipient submersion of an electroacoustic transducer (2) facing downwardly toward a surface of fluent material to be sensed in a pulse-echo acoustic ranging system, the transducer having a skirt (6) surrounding a downwardly facing radiating surface (4) to maintain an air space (10) beneath the radiating surface even under submergence conditions, and the transducer being electrically energized to emit pulses of acoustic energy from the radiating surface, the system processing an electrical output received from the transducer following a pulse by repeatedly sampling it to obtain a response profile. Samples from an initial portion of the response of the transducer during a ring-down period following the transmit pulse are summed (FIG.

Abstract: A pulse-echo ranging system is described employing a microwave transducer head (100) providing an echo profile output signal which is largely compatible with receivers (204) and echo processing systems (206) designed for acoustic transducers. The transducer head employs novel microwave pulse generators (20a, 20b) each utilizing a microwave cavity (20a, 20b) excited by an avalanche discharge through a small signal diode (D2a, D2b) initiated by avalanche of a driver transistor (TR1a, TR1b) by a trigger pulse. Repeated pulse from one generator (2a) are transmitted by an antenna (12) towards a target, and return are mixed with pulses from the second generator (26) which are subject to a progressively swept delay relative to the transmitter pulses. The mixer output is applied to a tuned amplified (110) to extract components at an alias frequency related to the sweep rate of the delay relative to the transmitter frequency. The aliased signal is passed to a receiver (204) and echo processing system (206).

Abstract: A surgical cast venting device including a stretchable piece of fabric material and one or more aerating devices affixed to and located on the inner surface of the material. The preferred fabric material is stretchable and porous and can have a flexible tubular configuration with two opposite ends which are open. The preferred aerating devices are elongate tubular members which are open at both ends and perforated along their length. These members can be affixed to the fabric material by means of a medical adhesive. The venting device is adapted for placement around part of a human body or animal body prior to application of a surgical cast. In a preferred version, the tubular members extend in a longitudinal direction relative to the longitudinal axis of the fabric.

Abstract: A neural network assisted multi-spectral segmentation method and system. According to the invention, three images having different optical bands are acquired for the same micrographic scene of a biological sample. The images are processed and a cellular material map is generated identifying cellular material. The cellular material map is then applied to a neural network. The neural network classifies the cellular material map into nuclear objects and cytoplasmic objects by determining a threshold surface in the 3-dimensional space separating the cytoplasmic and nuclear regions. In another aspect, the neural network comprises a hardware-encoded algorithm in the form of a look-up table.

Abstract: An explosive composition is provided which comprises a mixture of a particulate low density agent and a particulate oxidising agent. The particulate low density agent is a synthetic polymeric low density agent, e.g. foamed polystyrene, which is coated with a 5 to 30 wt % of a first wetting agent. The first wetting agent comprises a first flowable carbonaceous fuel, e.g. mineral oil, and a first tackifying agent for the first flowable carbonaceous fuel. The particulate oxidizing agent is coated with a second wetting agent. The second wetting agent comprises a second flowable carbonaceous fuel, e.g. mineral oil, and a second tackifying agent for the second flowable carbonaceous fuel. The first and second wetting agents may be the same. The explosive compositions may have densities of less than about 0.2 g/cm3.

Abstract: A method of preparing a surface of a workpiece of solid ductile material to provide a transition zone between that material and a different material to be brought into intimate contact with the first material, involves relatively moving the workpiece surface and a substrate to which are bonded adhesive particles much harder than the ductile material through a contact zone while pressing the particles of abrasive into the material surface, such that the abrasive particles score recesses extending longitudinally of the material surface while displacing said ductile material from the scores to form processes integral with the material and extending outwardly from the surface and parallel to the second recesses into spaces between the material surface and the substrate, the recesses and processes together providing at the prepared surface a transition zone between the ductile material and the different material.

Abstract: A packaging machine is shown for individually wrapping objects, such as candies. The machine has a rotary hopper for selecting the objects to be wrapped, folding them and ejecting them precisely onto a delivery conveyor. A continuous wrapping film is laid over the objects on the delivery conveyor and the sides of the film are folded downwardly to partially wrap the objects. The objects are then gripped through the wrapping film by gripping fingers mounted on a second gripping conveyor. The gripping conveyor moves the objects along while the bottom edges of the wrapper are crimped, and the wrapper between the objects is then crimped and cut off. The gripping fingers then release the wrapped object.

Abstract: A method for the selective purging ex vivo of CD77 positive cells from bone marrow or peripheral blood containing stem cells prior to autologous transplantation is described. The method involves treating the bone marrow or blood sample with shiga toxin or shiga-like toxin-1 to kill CD77+ cells or to remove them by affinity chromatography. The toxin selectively binds to CD77+ cells and not to other stem cells. The method offers a means for curing non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, myelomas and breast cancers expressing CD77.

Abstract: A process for the detection of flaws in an article comprising infra-red scanning of the article as its temperature changes and comparing the infra-red scans for regularity of cooling/heating pattern. Where the article is irregular, such as in marginal areas, thermodynamic modelling is performed to establish a hypothetic cooling/heating pattern for an unflawed article.

Abstract: A method and system for selectively rendering a two dimensional view of a three dimensional image, in order to facilitate rapid three dimensional imaging in a realtime or static context. Specifically, the system includes means for identifying display coordinates that continue to show the same image coordinates from view to view, and bypasses rasterization for the next view for such display coordinates, thereby reducing the access to memory required in order to retrieve image data, as well as data processing time, all required to generate new two dimensional views of a three dimensional image.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for discriminating electromagnetic responses of metallic objects in soil to application of an electromagnetic pulse from superposed responses due to magnetic susceptibility of the soil, comprising substantially eliminating, from at least a portion of the response, any component having a power law decay characteristic with an exponent which is characteristic of the soil.