A film feed device for a form, fill and seal packaging machine includes front and rear rolls of film which are individually unwound and fed to the packaging machine via a drive assembly which contacts the rolls and rotates the same independent of other film feed mechanisms on the packaging machine. The drive assemblies contain motors which can be further controlled with sensing devices capable of sensing both when the film has been exhausted from the film roll and when the rate of output of the film from the film rolls by the drive assemblies is greater than the rate of further processing of the film in subsequent steps on the form, fill and seal packaging machine.

This invention is directed to a film feed control device and control circuits thereof which are utilized to dispense film independent from other film moving mechanisms on a form, fill and seal packaging machine.
Many commodities are packaged on form, fill and seal packaging machines. Packaging pouches are formed on these machines from rolls of polymeric or metallized film or combinations of the same. The pouches are formed, filled and sealed and then disconnected from one another from an advancing stream of pouches on the machine.
To form, fill and seal the package several individual steps or stages are utilized on the machine. First front and back films, dispensed from film rolls, are sealed together along side seams utilizing side seal bars. Next a cross seam is formed between the side seams. Normally the cross seam serves both to form the top seam of a bottom most pouch and the bottom seam of the pouch immediately above it.
After the cross seam is made between the side seams the pouch can then be filled with a product. A further cross seam is made to form the top seal on the filled pouch and concurrently as noted above the bottom seal on the next descending pouch. The completely filled and sealed pouch is then severed from the ascending stream of pouches.
The individual hardware components needed by the above described pouch machines for forming, filling and sealing the pouches include side seal bars for forming the side seals, cross seal bars for forming the cross seal, a cut off knife for separating the individual pouches from one another and a fill tube and product reservoir connected thereto for adding product to the pouches as they are formed. Additionally, some means must be provided for advancing the film through the individual component apparatuses of the machine. This is typically done utilizing "pull" wheels or rollers.
Normally, sets of opposing pull wheels are displaced below the side seal bars. After the side seams are formed by the the side seal bars these pull wheels engage the film and advance it on the machine an increment amount corresponding to the dimension of a pouch being formed on the machine. The cross seals are then formed, product is added, the side seal bars again contact the film and the film is now ready to once again be advanced or indexed by the pull wheels.
For smooth trouble free operation and for the formation of consistent pouches on a form, fill and seal pouch packaging machine, it is important that the films be pulled the correct increment amount on the machine by the pull wheels and that the orientation of the film with respect to the individual components of the machine be properly maintained. Side to side movement or other misalignment of the film can result in improperly formed and thus unusable pouches.
The pull wheels or pull rollers in engaging the film to index or move the film on the pouch packaging machine rely upon friction between the wheels and the film. Normally the pull wheels are maintained at a constant speed of rotation and moved in and out toward and away from the film via appropriate mechanical or hydraulic mechanisms. The speed of the wheels is maintained constant and the length of film moved through the machine at each index or step is governed by the time of engagement of the pull wheels with the film.
Film for the above described form, fill and seal pouch packaging machine is available from various manufacturers on rolls. These rolls are loaded on arbors on the form, fill and seal packaging machine. The film is unwound from the rolls suspended on the arbors and then feed through the individual components of the machine.
Several interrelated factors govern how much force is necessary to unroll the film from the rolls of film. A new roll of film will have a large mass of film located thereon. To unroll the film sufficient force must be applied to the film to rotate the mass of the film about the arbor. Since the film is unrolling from the roll of film at a tangent to the circumference of the roll of film, the lever arm applied to the film to induce angular acceleration to unroll the film varies as the diameter of the roll of film changes from a large diameter for a full roll of film to a small diameter for a nearly empty roll of film. Thus as film is unrolled off the roll concurrently the mass of the roll of film decreases and so does the lever arm tending to unroll the film; however, these concurrent decreases may or may not be proportional.
Additionally, some films tends to adhere more tightly to themselves in a roll compared to other films. Also uneven force may have been applied in rolling the film in the first place creating a roll of film having one edge of the film more tightly bound and/or stretched compared to the opposite edge of the film.
All of these factors influence and continually change the force necessary to unwind a roll of film. In order to insure constant and perfectly formed pouches on the pouch packaging machine, an even tension should be kept on the roll of film at all times. In order to provide such an even tension, tension devices have been incorporated on form, fill and seal packaging machines. These tension devices attempt to apply an even tension to the film such that the film can be smoothly and consistently pulled by the pull rollers.
In one prior method of applying even tension to the film being unrolled from a roll, a "dancer bar" is utilized to maintain an even constant weight on the film and thus a constant tension on the film. For the dancer bar to work properly the film must be tense not only between the pull rollers and the dancer bar, but also between the dancer bar and the roll of film. This thus required the incorporation of mechanical linkages between the dancer bar and the film roll to allow unrolling of the roll of film only at such time as insufficient film is located between the dancer bar and the film roll and to inhibit unrolling of the film when sufficient film is located between the roll of film and the dancer bar. In one such device when excess film was present the dancer bar would descend tensing a leather strap against the arbor on which the film was loaded acting as a break against rolling of further film from the roll on the arbor. In such a system the size of the roll of film which could be located on the arbor was limited to an amount of film whose mass could be inhibited from rolling by the limited friction available by the weight of the dancer bar pulling on the leather strap.
Further, prior film feed systems had no provision for identifying when a roll of film was depleted. If an operator was not monitoring the machine when the roll of film was exhausted the machine would still operate; however, instead of incorporating product in pouches since there was no film and thus no pouches the product would be dispensed onto the machine components. Aside from wasting product this required clean up of the machine and possibly the work area prior to re-supplying the machine with new rolls of film and restart up of the operation.
Additionally, since start up of the machine requires operator attention to thread the film through the machine and insure that the side seals and cross seals are being properly formed prior to the start of product introduction, each time film must be loaded on the machine production must be halted. This naturally decreases the efficiency of operation.
In view of the above it is evident that these exists a need for new and improved film feed control devices for form, fill and seal packaging machines to insure (a) proper tension control of film being fed onto the packaging machine, (b) automatic sensing and shut down of the machine upon depletion of its supply of film and (c) longer run time intervals between re-supplying film.


A managing computer (manager) manages replication of data areas inside a storage or among storages. A storage volume management module of the manager manages policy of the volume and its properties. When replication of a volume is set, a volume of a replication destination appropriate for a volume of a replication source is generated using the policy and the properties to form a replication pair. A route management module of the manager and its volume management module bring the policy and the properties of the volumes, and the policies and conditions of lines into conformity with one another. When any fault occurs in a line route used for data transfer during replication of the volume, a separate line route is utilized, and a fault countermeasure is taken for replication of the volumes in accordance with the policy and properties of the volumes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a storage operation management program, a storage operation management method and a storage managing computer. More particularly, the invention relates to a storage operation management program, a storage operation management method and a storage managing computer each capable of operating and managing replication of data area inside the same storage or among storages in accordance with information of the data areas of the storages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technologies such as a snapshot function for doubling data inside a storage (e.g. JP-A-2001-306407) and a remote copy function for doubling data among storages in consideration of backup to cope with disasters are known as prior art technologies for improving versatility of computer systems and for achieving storages capable of backing up data for a non-stop operation of the computer systems.
The snapshot function is the one that makes it possible to conduct data backup on the on-line basis while continuing the business operations in a computer system that is to continuously operate for 24 hours and for 365 days without interruption.
According to the remote copy function, a storage of a computer system operating normally transfers updating data to a storage of a computer system installed and operating at a different remote place so that the data stored in the storage of the remote place can be brought substantially equivalent to the data stored in the storage of the computer system normally operating, and the loss of data can be minimized even when any accident occurs in the computer system normally operating.
To efficiently process a plurality of remote copy requests in the remote copy function, a technology is known that decides a remote copy schedule and a route of a line in consideration of access frequency of data areas and a condition of replication line.
All the prior art technologies described above are directed to reduce a processing load of a replication processing from the data area of a replication source to the data area of a replication destination and to improve transfer efficiency. In other words, these technologies are based on the premise that the data area of the replication source and the data area of the replication destination coexist.
On the other hand, the number of computer systems that use a plurality of storages connected with one another through SAN (Storage Area Network) or IP (Internet Protocol) by use of a dedicated storage network (mainly, Fibre Channel) and share data of a large capacity distributively stored in these storages has increased with the increase of the data capacity. Among the storages connected by SAN, etc, some of them are sometimes products of different manufacturers or have different performance such as an access speed. It has thus become more difficult to select, generate and designate the data area having reliability and the access speed corresponding to those of policy of users and applications such as the policy for a financial system, a policy for various management businesses for companies, a policy for databases, and so forth. A prior-art technology that makes it possible to generate a data area coincident with the policy of the user is also known.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Storage operation management program and method and a storage management computer


Device made from foldable planar material for forming compartments for receiving containers comprising at least two parallel longitudinal strips and at least two transverse ribs joined via first fold lines to the longitudinal strips, transverse ribs joined to adjacent longitudinal strips being joined together in overlapping regions.

The invention relates to a device made from foldable planar material for forming compartments for receiving containers, to a template for forming such a device and to packaging formed by such a device.
Bottles are frequently transported and stored in packaging sleeves made of cardboard. To avoid glass contact and glass breakages, the bottles are frequently arranged in the packaging sleeves in compartments and thus separated from one another. The compartments are conventionally formed by two groups of cardboard strips. The cardboard strips of the one group have slots extending from the underside which extend approximately over half the height. The cardboard strips of the other group have slots extending from the upper face which also extend approximately over half the height. The cardboard strips are fitted inside one another at the slots, so that they form a type of grid which defines the compartments.
The manufacture and assembly of the known device for forming compartments are relatively costly. The material consumption is high. More specifically, it is possible to fold up the device. Due to the different number of superimposed layers, however, it may result in uneven stacks when storing a plurality of folded-up devices on top of one another, which tend to slip and thus make usage difficult. Also the unfolding and inserting of the devices in packaging sleeves is complicated. The cardboard strips of the loosely fitted-together structure may easily fall apart from one another. As a result, fast machine speeds are prevented when inserting the device in a packaging sleeve.
Proceeding therefrom, the object of the invention is to provide a device made from foldable planar material for forming compartments for receiving containers, which has a lower material consumption and is more user-friendly. The object of the invention is further to provide a template for forming such a device. Finally, the invention relates to packaging comprising a device of the aforementioned type.

Device made from foldable planar material for forming compartments for receiving containers, template for forming the device and packaging formed by the device

Graphic Packaging International Europe Germany GmbH


A method in a node is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a signal, and obtaining a first oversampled received signal by sampling the received signal according to a symbol rate. The method further comprises estimating a first frequency offset based on the first oversampled received signal, the first frequency offset estimated using an estimation range limited to one of a bandwidth of the received signal or the symbol rate of the received signal, and obtaining a second oversampled received signal by sampling the received signal according to N times the symbol rate, wherein N is greater than 1. The method further comprises estimating a true frequency offset based on the first frequency offset estimate and the second oversampled received signal.

Cellular communication systems are being developed and improved for machine type communication (MTC), communication characterized by lower demands on data rates than for example mobile broadband, but with higher requirements on, for example, low cost device design, better coverage, and an ability to operate for years on batteries without charging or replacing the batteries. In the 3GPP GERAN specification group, cellular communication systems are being improved and developed in the feasibility study named "Cellular System Support for Ultra Low Complexity and Low Throughput Internet of Things." GSM is being evolved, and new "clean slate" systems (systems not based on current cellular systems) are being developed.
One "clean slate" solution, called narrowband machine-to-machine (NB M2M), is a narrowband system with a carrier bandwidth of 200 kHz that targets improved coverage compared to GSM systems, long battery life, and low complexity communication design. One intention with this solution is to deploy it in spectrum that is currently used for GSM, by reducing the bandwidth used by GSM and deploying NB M2M in the spectrum that becomes available. Another intention is to reuse existing GSM sites for the deployment of NB M2M.
In cellular communication systems, devices use a cell search procedure (or synchronization procedure) to understand which cell(s) to connect to. Some of the functions of a cell search procedure include detecting a suitable cell to camp on, and for that cell, obtaining the symbol and frame timing and synchronizing to the carrier frequency. When synchronizing to the carrier frequency, the mobile station needs to correct any erroneous frequency offsets that are present, and perform symbol timing alignment with the frame structure from the base station.
When the device wakes up from deep sleep, for example from being in a power saving state, the frequency offset is to a large extent due to device clock inaccuracy (often assumed to be up to 20 ppm). The clock inaccuracy appears mainly as a frequency offset of the received signal, a continuous rotation of the received samples. For a system operating with a carrier frequency of 900 MHz, the maximum frequency offset is 18 kHz (corresponding to 20 ppm inaccuracy). This offset needs to be estimated and corrected for.
The cell search procedure for NB M2M is described in GP-140864, "NB M2M—Cell Search Mechanism," and GP-140861, "NB M2M—Frame Index Indication Design." A physical channel named Physical Broadcast Synchronization Channel (PBSCH) is dedicated to carrying the synchronization signals, along with the broadcast system information. A separate downlink physical channel per base station is reserved for PBSCH, while the data channels are multiplexed by frequency division multiplexing (FDM). In addition, the PBSCH operates with a reuse factor of 1, implying that the PBSCH of neighboring cells are completely overlapped in the frequency domain. This has the advantage of a reduction in search complexity, but also results in interference from all the other cells using the PBSCH. As described in GP-140864, frame timing estimation and frequency offset correction is performed using two different sequences:                (a) Primary Synchronization Sequence (PSS): The PSS is used to determine the frame timing alignment, along with a coarse estimation of the frequency offset.        (b) Secondary Synchronization Sequence (SSS): The SSS is used to obtain a finer estimate of the frequency offset.
FIG. 1 illustrates a frame structure for PBSCH. More particularly, FIG. 1 illustrates a number of frames 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d (corresponding to the 0th Frame, 1st Frame, 2nd Frame, and 63rd Frame, respectively). Every frame, such as 2nd Frame 5c, consists of 960 symbols. In the example frame structure shown in FIG. 1, 2nd Frame 5c includes PSS 10, SSS 15, and Frame Index Indication Sequence (FIIS)+Broadcast Information Block (BIB) 20. In 2nd Frame 5c, 256 symbols are dedicated to PSS 10, 257 symbols are dedicated for SSS 15, and 447 symbols are dedicated to FIIS+BIB 20 (of the 447 symbols, 127 symbols are dedicated for FIIS, and the remaining 320 symbols are for carrying the broadcast information in a BIB.
After switching on, an MTC device first needs to search for a signal in a viable frequency band. Signal detection is performed on the basis of comparing the amplitude of the peak from a correlation based detector with a pre-determined threshold. This is achieved by correlating the received signal with a known sequence, or a set of known sequences. Timing offset estimation and frequency offset estimation can then be performed as described in GP-140864.
A problem with this approach arises from the fact that the maximum frequency offset can be +/−18 kHz, whereas the signal bandwidth is only 12 kHz. Since the maximum frequency offset is larger than the signal bandwidth, using the existing approach for detecting the frequency offset described in GP-140864 leads to aliasing. With existing frequency offset detectors that have a sampling rate corresponding to the signal bandwidth of 12 kHz, or those that perform linear operations such as correlation of the transmitted signal with the received signal in time or frequency domain, one can only detect frequency offsets in the range [−6,6] kHz, and any frequency offset outside this range will be aliased and incorrectly detected as being in the range [−6,6] kHz.

Frequency offset correction in narrowband machine-to-machine


Systems and methods for transacting ticket vouchers and other suitable cashless instruments at gaming tables are disclosed. A network interface to a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse can facilitate communications across disparate units and gaming properties to enable the automated validation, acceptance and tracking of cashless instruments at both a given site and across a WAN. Cashless instrument transactions at gaming tables can include ticket to gaming chip and gaming chip to ticket conversions, and can be made involving automated validation, acceptance, storage and tracking of cashless instruments having associated monetary and/or promotional values. Softcount procedures are adjusted to include more readily traceable cashless instruments. Cashless instrument promotional values can include courtesy “roundups” of monetary amounts, as well as general and specific gaming table promotions to encourage play across many different casino gaming venues.

Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry that has experienced many changes and innovations in recent years. While gaming machines have become a staple for many casinos and gaming establishments, table games remain an immensely popular form of gaming and a substantial source of revenue for gaming operators as well. Such table games can include poker, blackjack, craps, roulette and other traditional standbys, as well as other more recently introduced games such as pai-gow, Carribean Stud, Spanish 21, and Let It Ride, among others. Under a typical gaming event at a gaming table, a player places a wager on a game, whereupon a winning may be paid to the player depending on the outcome of the game. As is generally known, a wager may involve the use of cash or one or more chips, markers or the like, as well as various forms of gestures or oral claims. The game itself may involve the use of, for example, one or more cards, dice, wheels, balls, tokens or the like, with the rules of the game and any payouts or pay tables being established prior to game play. As is also known, possible winnings may be paid in cash, credit, one or more chips, markers, or prizes, or by other forms of payouts.
Various systems and methods for operating the floor of a casino or gaming establishment with its table game regions or "pits" have evolved gradually over the years, with innovations such as card shufflers, multi-deck shoes, and improved security cameras and systems all being introduced at times to better the manageability and efficiency of the gaming and floor operations processes. As technology in the gaming industry progresses in general, improvements have also been made with respect to gaming machines and related systems. For instance, traditional methods of dispensing coins or tokens as awards for winning game outcomes at gaming machines are being supplemented by ticket dispensers that print ticket vouchers that may be exchanged for cash or accepted as credit of indicia in other gaming machines for additional game play. An award ticket system, which allows award ticket vouchers to be dispensed and utilized by gaming machines, increases the operational efficiency of maintaining a gaming machine and simplifies the player pay out process. An example of an award ticket system is the EZ Pay® ticket system by IGT of Reno, Nev. Award ticket systems and systems using other cashless mediums are referred to as cashless systems.
Cashless systems, such as the EZ Pay® ticket system, provide advantages to both game players and casino operators. For example, many players find it more convenient to carry an award ticket than a large number of coins. For gaming machine operators, cashless systems tend to reduce gaming machine operating costs. For example, the infrastructure needed to remove and count indicia of credit (e.g., coins, tokens, bills) from the gaming machine may be eliminated or minimized when it is replaced with a cashless system, which reduces the gaming machine operating costs. Further, coin dust, which is potentially damaging to the components of the gaming machine (e.g., electronic components), may be eliminated or minimized when coin acceptors are replaced with the cashless system. Other advantages that can be obtained through the use of such cashless systems have also been devised, such as, for example, those disclosed in the priority application incorporated above. Unfortunately, such cashless systems are typically designed for and implemented with gaming machine systems, such that their benefits have not really been recognized at gaming tables.
In addition, there are numerous gaming promotions, and in particular table game promotions, that are used in the casino industry today. Included in such table game promotions are various forms of giveaway or bet matching coupons, such as, for example, a $5 match coupon for a $5 bet at a single table game play, whereby a player can win $10 for a $5 bet, or simply lose the $5 bet depending upon the outcome of the game. In either event, the coupon or promotional item is then taken away by the table dealer or other casino personnel after the single game play. These promotional items tend to be in the form of newspaper cutouts, coupons, mailers, other mass produced paper items and the like, and there is typically no form of validation and no form of automated tracking for such promotional items. Although such coupons and other paper items might be tracked manually by casino personnel, such endeavors can be inconvenient and time consuming. Furthermore, there are typically few or no measures used to authenticate or validate such table based promotional offers.
With respect to gaming machines and table games, it is generally known within the industry that many gaming patrons prefer one form of gaming over the other, and that a significant number of patrons tend to play only one or the other. For example, some gaming players prefer the anonymity and isolation of gaming machines, and also tend to be intimidated by the generally open and social nature of table games. Further, because such players tend to play little to no table games, such table games can be even more intimidating in that many have rules, procedures and payouts that may be unknown or unfamiliar to such players. Because many gaming patrons can be especially disinclined to play games that are unfamiliar to them, there might generally be little incentive for a player who mostly plays gaming machines to play table games or to try new table games.
Accordingly, not only do needs exist to enable broader abilities with respect to cashless transactions at gaming tables and the tracking of such cashless transactions and table game promotions in a more reliable and efficient manner, but there is also a need to motivate some players to try new table games or to try table games in general. Although existing systems and methods for providing cashless transactions and for providing and tracking table game promotions may have been adequate in the past, improvements to such existing systems and methods are usually encouraged. It is thus desirable to provide such improvements, and in particular for such systems and methods to involve the expanded use of cashless instruments with respect to gaming tables, along with the use of more automated features and functions, such as those found with respect to the EZ Pay® ticket system or other cashless instrument systems.

Cashless instrument based table game promotional system and methodology


An adjustable depth traction device for an athletic shoe which allows the shoe to be easily adapted to various terrains and course requirements. The present invention provides a traction device for an athletic shoe, typically a golf shoe, comprised of a base portion having a first length protrusion, and a second insert portion adapted to be attached to the first portion wherein the second insert portion has a length substantially greater than the first portion. Therefore, if the terrain warrants use of a long traction device and the course being played allows for use of such a device, the insert can be attached to the base portion. However, if the course does not allow use of such a long traction device, the insert can be easily and quickly removed from the base.

Athletic shoes currently employ a number of different soles to provide various degrees of traction depending upon the surface being used. With outdoor activities, for example golf, a plurality of spikes have traditionally been provided on the base or sole of the shoe to allow for the shoe to puncture the surface of the ground and thereby provide traction in the relatively soft turf. The spikes have typically been manufactured from metal which serve well to provide the traction, but do become worn especially when used to traverse harder surfaces such as pavement and sidewalks which thereby requires the user to change the spikes periodically. As a result, the spikes are often threadably attached to the sole of the shoe.
One recent development in the golfing community has been the banning of such elongated metal spikes on many courses. It has been found that the metal spikes damage the turf of the course to a degree which is unsatisfactory to the proprietors of such golf courses. As a result, many courses now require that a smaller depth spike, typically manufactured from plastic or rubber, be used on the sole of the shoe. Rather than provide a single elongated metal spike, the newer plastic or rubberized traction devices typically include a number of different protrusions each of which is shorter in length than the typical elongated metal spike. While the shorter depth of such a plastic or rubberized traction device does alleviate many of the turf damage problems associated with elongated metal spikes, many players still wish to use the elongated metal spike. This is especially true with courses which are especially wet or which have terrain wherein the elongated metal spikes would be most advantageous.
In addition, while many courses have banned the use of such elongated metal spikes, many courses still allow their usage and since it is a preference of many players to still use the elongated metal spikes, both traction devices continue to be used today. The fact that two different types of traction devices are currently allowable on many courses has placed additional burdens on the players. For example, many players maintain two separate pairs of shoes, depending on the course being played. Alternatively, the process of changing one type of traction device for another results in a relatively time-consuming and frustrating process. It would therefore be advantageous if an athletic shoe were to be provided which would allow various types and depths of traction devices to be used and to be interchanged efficiently and quickly.

Adjustable depth traction device for an athletic shoe


The invention relates to a display, for using liquids to display information and a corresponding method. According to the invention, said display comprises a number of display elements with cavities, at least one display liquid for displaying information and at least one liquid reservoir for providing the at least one display liquid, characterized in that each display element further comprises a dosing device, by means of which display liquid from the liquid reservoir may be dosed into and out of the display element. The dosing device thus permits a precise dosing of defined display liquid volumes into or out of the display element. The method in which said dosing device finds use is used for precisely repeated dosing of defined volumes of display liquid.

The invention relates to the field of display devices for reproducing optical information. In particular, the invention relates to a display device which serves to visualize information by use of liquids as well as a corresponding method.
From the prior art there is known an almost overwhelming variety of display devices serving the reproduction of optical information, such as e.g. text, still images or even moving images (videos). While a large proportion of these display devices serves in particular to reproduce multi-colored and quickly varying information, solutions exist which focus on the reproduction of more static and optionally monochrome information.
As an example for such display devices, reference is made to the technology of "electronic paper" developed by the company E Ink (Cambridge, Mass./USA; www.eink.com). The document U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,588 ("Electronically addressable microencapsulated ink and display thereof") is mentioned in this respect. Herein, a plurality of tiny globules is used which can be oriented in an electric field and which are, for example, colored in white and black in equal share. By specific application of a corresponding electric field to certain display areas, the areas appear to be colored, whereas other areas appear uncolored. To enhance contrast, an opposed electric field can be applied to the remaining areas. In particular advantageous is the fact that such devices can be operated with low power, however, they offer slow reaction times and moreover the disadvantage that only a few colors can be displayed.
The problem of high energy consumption is encountered, for example, by document U.S. Pat. No. 7,304,786 owned by the company Liquavista (NL). The display principle described herein is based on the use of colored liquids, more specific of a two phase mixture made up of colored liquid (oil) and a carrier liquid (water). Switching of a single image dot occurs by means of the effect of electrowetting. By means of this effect, the shape of the oil droplet incurring the color impression can be changed. However, the amount of colored liquid present in a respective image dot is constant and can only be modified with respect to its shape. By utilizing the effect of electrowetting, energy input can be dramatically lowered, since power needed therefore is comparatively low. However, the power must be provided always if an image deviating from a rest position is to be displayed. Such a rest position results from the fact that the colored liquid without power feeding is homogeneously spread over the area of an image dot resulting to a correspondingly fully colored image dot. Furthermore, such display devices are suitable only for operation at normal ambient temperature. Moreover, these pixels include merely one color, so that display of plural different colors can only be achieved by means of a close arrangement of differently colored "subpixels" and use of optical fusion thereof to perceive one pixel. Aging finally leads to undesired degradation after a while which cannot be remedied, since due to the fixed volume of colored liquid of an image dot no exchange of degraded liquid is possible.
A first disadvantage of the solutions proposed by the prior art is based on the fact that for displaying information an (electric) power must be present, even if the content of the display does not change. Another disadvantage of known display devices based on the use of colored liquid is seen in the fact that these display devices often include display elements ("pixel") consisting of two chambers, one of them serving actually to display information, whereas the other one is used as a reservoir in case that the corresponding pixel is not to be displayed at the moment. These constructions are complex as well as error-prone. As further disadvantage is seen in the fact that such two chamber solutions comprise a correspondingly larger footprint, unless the chambers are arranged respectively below the corresponding image dot which in turn leads to fluidically complicated constructions. Solutions, which utilize pumps for moving the liquid(s) can barely be realized, since either a plurality of pumps were necessary or corresponding complex switching valves had to enable a selection of the pixel to be driven, resulting to in particular extremely long switching times for an image often comprised of many thousand of pixels.
US 2005/0072946 A1 discloses a fluidic display device having display elements comprising a cavity and wherein at least one liquid reservoir for providing at least one display liquid is provided. Moreover, each display element includes a dosing mechanism, consisting of valves, by means of which the display liquid can be dosed from said at least one liquid reservoir into said display element and vice versa.
DE 697 11 750 T2 discloses an electro capillary display sheet wherein by means of electrodes a liquid transport between a reservoir and a display pixel is induced and the display liquid is provided via a capillary tube.

Device for fluidic display and corresponding method


In an in-cylinder injection spark-ignition internal combustion engine including a plurality of cylinders and a catalyst device disposed in an exhaust system of the engine, a fuel is injected to at least one selected cylinder selected from the plurality of cylinders to be operated, and subsequently the fuel is injected to all cylinders to be operated. At this time, a warm-up controlled variable for the at least one selected cylinder is smaller than the warm-up controlled variable used when all cylinders are operated. In the in-cylinder injection spark-ignition internal combustion engine, the all cylinder operation is started and the warm-up control is started for all cylinders to warm up the catalyst device disposed in the exhaust system of the engine preferably when a fuel injection pressure exceeds a target value.

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-200116 filed on Jun. 28, 2000 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine and method of operating same.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a known in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine, in which a fuel is injected directly into each cylinder of the engine during a latter half of a compression stroke. This may provide a fine combustible air-fuel mixture concentrated around a spark plug, which allows a stratified charge combustion that assures combustion of the air-fuel mixture within the cylinder while keeping an overall air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture lean. In such an in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine, each of the cylinders is provided with a fuel injection valve for injecting a highly pressurized fuel stored in an accumulator into the cylinder. This arrangement makes it possible to inject the fuel into the cylinder at the air pressure increased in the latter half of the compression stroke.
The fuel stored in the accumulator is pressurized by a high-pressure pump driven by the engine. However, the high-pressure pump does not operate sufficiently at the engine start-up, resulting in insufficient pressurization of the fuel in the accumulator. Generally, the in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine is arranged to inject the fuel into each cylinder during an intake stroke so as to conduct a uniform combustion at the engine start-up. Since the air pressure in the cylinder during the intake stroke is lower than that during the latter half of the compression stroke, this arrangement is favorable for the fuel injection. However, the fuel pressure in the accumulator at the engine start-up is too low to successively inject an increased amount of the fuel required at the engine start-up into the cylinders. As a result, the required amount of the fuel cannot be injected to each of the cylinders, causing misfire and failing to realize the desired engine start-up.
JP-A-11-229926 discloses an in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine in which the fuel injection is performed only to at least a selected cylinder at the engine start-up so as to be operated until the engine start-up is completed. According to this type of the combustion engine, the required amount of the fuel may be injected into the selected cylinder for complete combustion, resulting in good engine start-up.
Upon starting the engine, it is generally required to warm up and activate a catalyst device disposed in the engine exhaust system as early and quickly as possible. To cope with the aforementioned requirement, an exhaust gas temperature is increased by retarding the ignition timing. However, the foregoing warm-up control may deteriorate the combustion condition. When operating the selected cylinder to start the engine, the resultant output generated by the cylinder may be decreased. The small increase in the engine speed may deteriorate the engine start-up performance.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an in-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine and method of operating same which makes it possible to perform favorable engine start-up, and to warm up the catalyst device in the engine exhaust system without decreasing the engine output.
To accomplish the above and/or other objects, a first aspect of the invention provides an in-cylinder injection spark-ignition internal combustion engine including a plurality of cylinders and a catalyst device disposed in an exhaust system of the engine, in which a fuel is injected to at least one selected cylinder selected from the plurality of cylinders to be operated, and subsequently the fuel is injected to all cylinders to be operated. A variable of warm-up control to the catalyst device for the selected cylinder is smaller than that used when all cylinders are operated. In the engine according to the first aspect of the invention, the warm-up control of the catalyst device in the engine exhaust system is conducted at the engine start-up at a relatively earlier stage. Further, the warm-up controlled variable is kept to a small value during operation of the selected cylinder. This is effective to restrict the decrease in the engine output, thus providing favorable start-up of the engine.
In an in-cylinder injection spark-ignition internal combustion engine including a plurality of cylinders and a catalyst device disposed in an exhaust system of the engine, a fuel is injected to at least one selected cylinder selected from the plurality of cylinders to be operated, and subsequently the fuel is injected to all cylinders to be operated. According to a second aspect of the invention, the all cylinder operation is started and the warm-up control is started for all cylinders to warm up the catalyst device disposed in the exhaust system of the engine when a fuel injection pressure exceeds a target value. In the engine according to the second aspect of the invention, the warm-up control of the catalyst device in the engine exhaust system is not conducted during operation of the selected cylinder. This is effective to restrict the decrease in the engine output, thus providing favorable start-up of the engine. Additionally, this may realize reliable fuel injection at a high pressure while operating all cylinders with a reduced discharge amount of harmful materials.

In-cylinder injection type spark-ignition internal combustion engine and method


A method and apparatus for storing and accessing a preferred roaming list formed of variable size system records each of which includes a system identification field, a network identification included field, a preferred_negative field, a geographical region indicator field, and an acquisition parameter information field. Each of the system records optionally includes a network identification field, a priority field, and a roaming indicator field. The network identification, priority and roaming indicator fields from the records are stored in a first array; the system identification and geographical region indicator fields are stored in a second array; the first bit of the network identification included and the preferred_negative fields are stored in a third array; the second bit of the network identification included fields from the records are stored in a fourth array; and the acquisition parameter information fields are stored in a fifth array. A first index value corresponding to a selected record to be accessed is received, and entries in the third array are evaluated in response to the first index value in order to access the first bit of the network identification included field and the preferred_negative field associated with the selected record and to determine a second index value for locating any network identification, priority or roaming indicator field associated with the selected record in the first array. Any network identification, priority or roaming indicator field associated with the selected record is then accessed in the first array using the second index value, and the system identification field and the geographical region indicator field associated with the selected record are accessed from the second array using the first index value.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to mobile telephone systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods that permit a mobile telephone user to roam outside of the user""s home service area. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for storing and quickly accessing records in a Preferred Roaming List (PRL) from memory in a mobile telephone.
II. Description of the Related Art
In typical mobile telephone systems, when a mobile telephone user moves outside the user""s home area (also known as roaming), the user""s telephone is often switched from the home system to an alternate system provider so that service can continue for the user. In order to switch the user to an alternate system provider, the mobile telephone will typically access system records in the PRL stored in the memory of the mobile phone. Based on the system records stored in the PRL, the mobile phone will typically select an alternative system service provider that will be used to continue service for the user and, based on this selection and the associated information stored in the PRL system records, the mobile phone will automatically access the selected service provider on behalf of the user.
The Telephone Industry Association/Electronics Industry Association (also known as TIA/EIA) has recently published a new standard that describes a data format to be used for system table records in a PRL. See Interim Standard entitled xe2x80x9cOver-The-Air Service Programming Of Mobile Stations in Spread Spectrum Systemsxe2x80x9d, (hereinafter xe2x80x9cthe IS-683-A Standardxe2x80x9d), the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The IS-683-A Standard provides that each system record in the PRL will have the following eight fields:
1. SID field: a 15 bit field that includes a numerical value that is the System Identification number of the system associated with the system record;
2. NID_INCL field: a 2 bit field, the least significant bit of this field indicates whether there is a Network Identification (NID) number associated with the system record and stored in the NID field described below; the most significant bit of this record is used to specify an assumed value for the NID if no value is stored in the NID field described below; the value 11 is a reserved value;
3. NID field a 16 bit field that contains a numerical value that is the Network Identification number of the system associated with the system record;
4. PREF_NEG field: a 1 bit field indicating whether the system associated with the system record is a preferred system or a negative system.
5. GEO field: a 1 bit field that indicates whether the system associated with the system record is within the geographic region of the previous system record in the PRL (if GEO=1) or, alternatively, whether the system is in a new geographic region (if GEO=0);
6. PRI field: a 1 bit field that indicates whether the current system record has a higher priority than that of the next system record in the PRL. This field is omitted from the system record if the PREF_NEG field indicates that the system associated with system record is a negative system;
7. ACQ_INDEX field: a 9 bit field that contains an index to the acquisition parameters required for the mobile phone to access the system associated with the system record;
8. ROAM_IND field: an 8 bit field that indicates the roaming status of the associated system record; this field is omitted from the system record if the PREF_NEG field indicates that the system associated with system record is a negative system.
In current mobile telephones, the PRL is stored in the mobile phone""s non-volatile memory and, during system initialization, the entire PRL is moved and stored in the unit""s RAM in a single bit-packed array for later access during a System Selection and Preferred Roaming operation. One purpose of using the bit-packed form is to save memory space. Unfortunately, since each record in the PRL is variably-sized (this occurs because, as described above, some or all of the NID, PRI and ROAM_IND fields can be omitted from a given system record), the starting position in RAM of each system record in the PRL is uncertain. This uncertainty makes accessing a given system record difficult and time-consuming in current systems. More particularly, as a result of the uncertainty of the starting position in RAM of each system record in the PRL, current record accessing software must sequentially step through each system record in the System Table stored in RAM starting with the first record in the table in order to access a record that is located somewhere within the table. One other deficiency of current record accessing systems is that they do not permit the xe2x80x9cbacktrackingxe2x80x9d of records within the PRL stored in RAM. For example, if the system previously accessed the 164th record in the PRL stored in RAM and, thereafter, the system wished to access the 161st record, the accessing software would be unable to simply go back three records in the table and would instead be forced to again sequentially step through each system record in the System Table stored in RAM starting with the first record in the table in order to access the 161st record.
These problems and deficiencies are recognized and solved by the present invention in the manner described below.
The present invention uses a novel partitioned memory format for storing the PRL in RAM which facilitates that rapid storing and accessing of system records from the PRL. The partitioned memory format uses five separate arrays to store the various fields of the system records in the PRL. By applying an index value to these arrays, accessing software can rapidly access one or more fields of a particular system record in the PRL without having to sequentially step through all fields in each system record starting with the first record until the desired record is reached. This aspect of the invention not only allows the mobile phone to access all fields of a given system record rapidly but, in situations where the mobile phone wishes to access only a single field in a system record (e.g., the SID field), the present invention permits for the rapid accessing of this information in a manner which does not require the sequential accessing of other information in the PRL. In addition, the accessing system of the present invention allows for the backtracking of records in the PRL, which is not possible with the current systems as described above.
The invention also uses a novel system for reading the PRL from non-volatile memory and storing the PRL in RAM during system initialization. This novel system substantially requires no additional accesses to the non-volatile memory that are necessary to move the PRL from the non-volatile memory to RAM by organizing the system records xe2x80x9cin placexe2x80x9d in RAM after they have initially been moved from the non-volatile memory to RAM. Since accesses to non-volatile memory are slow, this aspect of the invention functions to minimize the time required during system initialization to re-arrange the PRL in the RAM and store the data in the partitioned format.
In accordance with one particular aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for storing and accessing a preferred roaming list formed of variable size system records each of which includes a system identification field, a network identification included field, a preferred_negative field, a geographical region indicator field, and an acquisition parameter information field. Each of the system records optionally includes a network identification field, a priority field, and a roaming indicator field. The network identification, priority and roaming indicator fields from the records are stored in a first array; the system identification and geographical region indicator fields are stored in a second array; the first bit of the network identification included and the preferred_negative fields are stored in a third array; the second bit of the network identification included fields from the records are stored in a fourth array; and the acquisition parameter information fields are stored in a fifth array. A first index value corresponding to a selected record to be accessed is received, and entries in the third array are evaluated in response to the first index value in order to access the first bit of the network identification included field and the preferred_negative field associated with the selected record and to determine a second index value for locating any network identification, priority or roaming indicator field associated with the selected record in the first array. Any network identification, priority or roaming indicator fields associated with the selected record are then accessed in the first array using the second index value, and the system identification field and the geographical region indicator field associated with the selected record are accessed from the second array using the first index value. Other fields associated with the selected record are also accessed from the remaining arrays using the first index value.
In accordance with a further aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for quickly retrieving system identification field information from a preferred roaming list. In this embodiment, the variable sized system records are stored in memory using the five arrays described in the paragraph above. However, in this further embodiment, a first index value corresponding to a selected one of the plurality of system records to be accessed is received and, in response to the first index value, the system identification field associated with the selected system record and stored in the second array is quickly accessed.

Method and apparatus for fast and random access of variable sized records stored in a partitioned format


Bias current is supplied to a first differential pair and a second differential pair from a first transistor being a single current source. Bias current is supplied to a third differential pair and a fourth differential pair from a second transistor being a single current source. An input voltage is at a power supply potential, and an input voltage is at a ground potential. When the second differential pair and the third differential pair are turned OFF, the bias current supplied from the first transistor flows to an output stage via the first differential pair, and the bias current supplied from the second transistor flows to the output stage via the fourth differential pair. Therefore, when the second differential pair and the third differential pair are turned OFF, a circuit current is kept constant, and a fluctuation in a frequency characteristic can be restrained.

Conventionally, in order to amplify analog voltage precisely, an amplifier circuit using an operational amplifier has been used. However, due to a decrease in power supply voltage accompanying with recent miniaturization of a CMOS process, a problem has emerged that voltage amplitude is reduced and S/N (Signal-to-Noise ratio) is deteriorated.
As a countermeasure, a so-called fully differential amplifier circuit has come in use. In the fully differential amplifier circuit, differentiating a signal improves the S/N by obtaining signal amplitude being up to twice as large as the power supply voltage. Further, output impedance of a sensor device that takes information of nature such as light, acceleration, and sound as an analog signal into the circuit is generally high (more than several MΩ). Thus, in order to connect to such a sensor device, it is necessary to connect a non-inverting amplifier circuit that can obtain high input impedance which is more than several GΩ.
FIG. 15 illustrates a conventional circuit of a single end operational amplifier. As the non-inverting amplifier circuit, a configuration of an instrumentation amplifier (an instrumentation amplifier, Non-Patent Literature 1) of FIG. 14 configured using two single end operational amplifiers of FIG. 15 and configurations illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11 as a symbol of the operational amplifier are exemplified.
Here, an operation of a conventional differential amplifier circuit (e.g., FIG. 14) will be concisely described. Hereinafter, regarding equations (1) to (22), for example, in the case of equations (1) to (4) corresponding to FIG. 14, although electric potentials of an inverting input terminal and an inverting input terminal are expressed as the same description as VINP, it is clear that these are different and the distinction will not be particularly explained. Hereinafter, a differential input voltage is expressed as:VIN=VINP−VINM  (1)
A differential output voltage with respect to VIN is expressed as:VOUT=G·VIN=VOUTP−VOUTM  (2)
Where G is a voltage gain of the amplifier circuit. Note that, for simplicity, the gain of the operation amplifier is assumed to be infinity.
Firstly, the instrumentation amplifier will be described. The instrumentation amplifier includes, as in FIG. 14, two single end operational amplifiers illustrated in FIG. 15 and a resistor network configured with resistors R100, R200, and R201.
IfR200=R201  (3)the gain G is expressed as:G=(R100+2·R200)/R100  (4)Hence, the differential output voltage can be obtained from the equation (2).
Further, a configuration using a double differential operational amplifier shows the same operation.
FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate a symbol of the double differential operational amplifier.
For FIG. 10,G=1  (5)and for FIG. 11, ifR100=R101  (6)R200=R201  (7)
G is expressed as:G=(R100+R200)/R100  (8)
According to a configuration of the instrumentation amplifier illustrated in FIG. 10, in a non-inverting amplifier circuit, a signal is input to an input terminal of the operational amplifier, and thereby voltage does not remain constant, in contrast to an inverting amplifier circuit in which an input terminal of the operational amplifier is virtually grounded, and thereby voltage remains constant. In particular, when the non-inverting amplifier circuit is connected to a sensor device, a problem arises that its signal amplitude may possibly spread over a wide range. When the signal amplitude spreads over the wide range, as described below, a differential pair may possibly turn off.
To solve the problem, in a circuit of a double differential operational amplifier of FIG. 13, PMOS differential pairs D30 and D40 are respectively connected to two NMOS differential pairs D10 and D20 in parallel. According to this configuration, for the input voltage of the wide range within a range from ground potential to power supply potential, at least either one of NMOS differential pairs or PMOS differential pairs is operated. Therefore, according to this configuration (rail-to-rail), a differential amplification operation is enabled within all of the range from the ground potential to the power supply potential.
Similarly with respect to the single end operational amplifier of FIG. 15, the PMOS differential pair D30 is connected to the NMOS differential pair D10 in parallel. This configuration is also the rail-to-rail configuration, and an amplification operation of a differential signal is enabled within all of the range from the ground potential to the power supply potential.
On the one hand, in a configuration mentioned above in which an NMOS differential pair and a PMOS differential pair are connected in parallel, if mutual conductance of the NMOS differential pair is gmn, and mutual conductance of the PMOS differential pair is gmp, the actual mutual conductance obtained by adding both of the mutual conductances, gmdiff can be expressed as:gmdiff=gmn+gmp  (9)However, for example, when voltage close to the ground potential is input, the NMOS differential pair is turned OFF and becomes unable to operate. Hence, gmn 0, and gmdiff is reduced to as follows:gmdiff≈gmp  (10)
On the other hand, according to similar consideration, when voltage close to the power supply potential is input, the PMOS differential pair is turned OFF and becomes unable to operate. Hence, gmp≈0, and gmdiff goes as follows:gmdiff≈gmn  (11)
In this manner, the mutual conductance of the differential pair of the operational amplifier is widely fluctuated depending on the input voltage. Further, by turning OFF either one of the differential pairs, current flowing through active loads AL101 (FIG. 15) and AL100 (FIG. 13) is changed, and a deterioration in a slew rate and a deterioration in a bandwidth of the operational amplifier are caused.
In Patent Literature 1, in order to restrain an influence on a circuit characteristic given by a fluctuation in an operation state of a differential pair caused by input voltage, a transistor is connected to a single end operational amplifier in parallel to ensure a current path in the case of turning OFF the differential pair. A configuration is proposed in which the transistor prevents current flowing through an active load from fluctuating against the input voltage which turns OFF the differential pair.
Further, in Patent Literature 2, a configuration is proposed in which a fluctuation in mutual conductance of all of differential pairs is restrained. In this configuration, a transistor in which extra current is flown is connected to differential pairs in parallel, and when either one of an NMOS differential pair and a PMOS differential pair is turned OFF, current of the differential pair which is turned ON is increased.

Operational amplifier circuit and bias current supply method


A rubber composition comprises a rubber component, sulfur and a sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerator represented by the following Formula (I), and has an excellent adhesive property with metal such as a steel cord without bringing about problems such as deteriorating in the physical properties and blooming of rubber after vulcanization.

Composite materials prepared by coating metal reinforcing materials such as steel cords with rubber compositions for the purpose of reinforcing rubbers to enhance strength and durability thereof have so far been used for tires for cars, conveyor belts, hoses and the like, particularly rubber products to which strength is required.
The above rubber-metal composite materials require an adhesive property which is stable and less changed with the passage of time between rubber and a metal reinforcing material in order to exhibit a high reinforcing effect and obtain reliability.
Further, when rubber is adhered with metal, a method in which rubber and metal are bonded at the same time, that is, a direct vulcanization bonding method is known, and in this case, it is considered to be effective that a sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerator which provides vulcanization reaction with a delayed action is used when vulcanization of rubber and bonding of rubber and metal are carried out at the same time.
At present, N,N-dicyclohexyl-2-benzothiazolylsulfeneamide (hereinafter abbreviated as "DCBS") represented by the following formula is known as a vulcanization accelerator which provides vulcanization reaction with the largest delayed action among commercially available sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerators:

Further, when a larger delayed action than that in vulcanization reaction by DCBS is required, a vulcanization retardant other than a sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerator is used in combination. N-(cyclohxylthio)phthalimide (hereinafter abbreviated as "CTP") is known as a representative vulcanization retardant which is commercially available, but it has already been known if this CTP is blended with rubber in a large amount, that it exerts an adverse effect on the physical properties of the vulcanized rubber and that it causes blooming which deteriorates the appearance of the vulcanized rubber and exerts an adverse effect on an adhesive property thereof.
Further, bissulfeneamide represented by a specific formula (refer to patent document 1) and benzothiazolylsulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerators (refer to patent document 2) obtained by using amine originating in natural fats and oils as a raw material are known as sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerators other than DCBS described above.
However, with respect to the sulfeneamide base vulcanization accelerators described in patent documents 1 and 2, only rubber physical properties are disclosed, and the adhesion performances are neither described nor suggested therein. In addition thereto, it is neither described nor suggested at all that the sulfeneamide compound of the present invention can be used as a novel vulcanization accelerator for rubbers.
Further, several production processes for the sulfeneamide compounds used in the present invention are known, for example, in patent documents 3, 4 and 5, but it is neither described nor suggested at all that the above compounds can newly be used as a vulcanization accelerator for rubbers, and an adhesion performance with a steel cord which the above vulcanization accelerators provide is neither described nor suggested as well.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-139082    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-139239    Patent document 3: EP0314663A1    Patent document 4: British Patent No. 1177790    Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Publication No. 1973-11214

Abstract: (wherein R1 represents a branched alkyl group having 3 to 12 carbon atoms; R2 represents a linear alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms or a branched alkyl group having 3 to 10 carbon atoms; x represents an integer of 1 or 2, and n represents an integer of 0 or 1).


Disclosed herein is a process for the production of hydrogen by autothermal reforming of natural gas, with simultaneous recovery of carbon dioxide using carbon dioxide-selective membrane separation. Residual gas from the hydrogen and carbon dioxide recovery is recycled back to the autothermal reformer.

Methane reforming is a chemical process that results in the production of pure hydrogen from natural gas. There are two basic types of natural gas reforming technologies: steam methane reforming (SMR) and autothermal reforming (ATR). Both methods work by exposing natural gas and steam to a catalyst (typically nickel) at high temperature.
Conventional steam methane reforming (SMR) uses an external source of hot gas to heated tubes in which a catalytic reaction takes place that converts steam and lighter hydrocarbons—such as natural gas or refinery feedstock—into hydrogen and carbon oxides (i.e., syngas).
During a conventional SMR process, the following two reactions take place concurrently:CH4+2H2O→CO2+4H2 CH4+H2O→CO+3H2 A water-gas shift reaction is then performed using steam to convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and generate additional hydrogen. This is typically followed by a pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) step to purify the hydrogen.
Because the above two reactions are both endothermic, residual, unreacted tail gas from the PSA process is not wasted, but finds a ready use to heat the reformer to drive the reaction.
In autothermal reforming (ATR), oxygen is added to the process, resulting in the additional reactions:CH4+O2→CO2+2H2 CH4+½O2→CO+2H2 The above reactions are exothermic and—provided that enough oxygen is added to balance the two endothermic reactions out—can result in an overall adiabatic process. Therefore, no additional heat source is needed. Although requiring oxygen feed, the ATR has the advantage that it is more compact and less expensive to build than the SMR, because the heat transfer surface required is considerably less with an adiabatic process.
A basic process schematic for a conventional ATR process is shown in FIG. 1. According to this process, natural gas, 101, steam, 102, and oxygen, 103, are introduced into an autothermal reformer, 104. The resulting gas, 105, comprising carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, unreacted natural gas and excess steam, is cooled and sent to a shift reactor, 107. The shift reaction is performed through the addition of steam, 106, to convert the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. The resulting gas mixture, 108, is cooled in step, 109, to condense out water, 110. The resultant gas mixture, 111, is passed to a hydrogen separation unit, 112 (typically, a pressure swing adsorption unit) to separate hydrogen, 113. Tail gas, 114, contains mostly carbon dioxide, together with some carbon monoxide, hydrogen, inerts, and unreacted methane.
Tail gas from the ATR process described above is not pure carbon dioxide, so if it is desirable to recover and/or capture carbon dioxide for sequestration or some other purpose, the tail gas stream needs to be purified. Not only does the carbon dioxide have to be purified, but the impurities should be recovered in fairly concentrated form to minimize carbon dioxide loss, i.e., maximize carbon dioxide recovery.
The process of the subject invention achieves this objective in a different, more efficient way. By using the process of the invention, substantially all of the carbon dioxide is recovered; losses of methane and carbon monoxide are minimized; and steam consumption in the reformer is drastically reduced.

Gas separation process for production of hydrogen by autothermal reforming of natural gas, with carbon dioxide recovery


A method is provided for setting combustion parameters of an internal combustion engine operated with liquefied natural gas, the combustion parameters being sensed during operation of the internal combustion engine and being stored upon shutoff of the internal combustion engine. Also provided is a controller for carrying out the method. Provision is made that during a stoppage of the internal combustion engine, the duration of the stoppage, the ambient temperature and/or tank temperature, and the pressure in a liquefied gas tank are sensed; the influence thereof on a required adaptation of the combustion parameters that are to be set is identified from a characteristics diagram; and from the stored combustion parameters and the adaptation, initial combustion parameters are identified and are used upon startup of the internal combustion engine in order to control it.

The composition of liquefied natural gas (LNG) changes in the context of storage in a tank, depending on the storage duration and the storage temperature. It is furthermore known that the composition of liquefied natural gas differs in country-specific fashion, and for example that the proportion of methane and also of residual constituents is different. The power generated by an internal combustion engine operated with liquefied natural gas, as well as the composition of the exhaust gases emitted by it, depend on the composition of the liquefied natural gas. It is therefore necessary to adapt the combustion parameters of an internal combustion engine operated with liquefied natural gas to the currently available composition.
It is known from the existing art to store the combustion parameters of an internal combustion engine operated with liquefied natural gas upon shutoff of the internal combustion engine, and to use them at the next startup as initial parameters for controlling combustion. In this context, data regarding the composition of the gas/air mixture are sensed from lambda probes and stored, and data regarding mixture adaptation and natural gas quality are also stored.
German Patent No. 60001644 T2 describes a method for identifying the proportion of one of the components, or the ratio of two of the components, of a fluid mixture of liquid natural gas, having the method steps of measuring the thermal conductivity of the liquid natural gas at a first temperature, measuring the thermal conductivity of the liquid natural gas at a second temperature, and deducing the proportion of the one of the components, or the ratio of two of the components, of the liquid natural gas from the two thermal conductivity measurements.
The document furthermore describes an engine management system for an engine operated with LNG, having an apparatus as recited in one of the claims of German Patent No. 60001644 T2 for identifying the proportion of one of the components, or the ratio of two of the components, of LNG fuel, and having means for modifying one or more parameters in accordance with the ascertained proportion of one of the components, or the ratio of two of the components, of the LNG fuel. This existing art is disadvantageous in that upon startup of the internal combustion engine, the current composition of the liquefied natural gas must first be identified.

Method and controller for setting the combustion parameters for an internal combustion engine operated with liquefied natural gas


A continuously operating conching machine (1) according to the invention is divided into a plurality of compartments (10-12) divided by at least one partition wall (8), transfer of the material from one compartment (10-12) to the next being effected via at least one opening (e.g. 16) in the particular partition wall. However, with a conching machine continuously processing the chocolate paste, it is possible expediently to carry out a method according to the invention, in which additives are added only batchwise to the essentially continuously processed chocolate paste, in order to permit more accurate metering.

The invention relates to a conching machine.
A conching machine is disclosed in DE-A-39 18 813. However, such an arrangement occupies a relatively large amount of space, quite apart from the fact that the conveying properties of a screw of the known conching machine, which screw is arranged on an overflow opening, depend to a very great extent on the consistency of the chocolate paste. However, this in turn influences the reproducibility of a chocolate formulation in a disadvantageous manner since certain additives are added in a relatively small amount in an exact ratio to the relatively large amount of chocolate paste, only in the course of the conching process or subsequently.


An example embodiment disclosed is a system for automated model extraction of documents containing flow diagrams. An extractor is configured to extract from the flow diagrams flow graphs. The extractor further extracts nodes and edges, and relational, geometric and textual features for the extracted nodes and edges. A classifier is configured to recognize process semantics based on the extracted nodes and edges, and the relational, geometric and textual features of the extracted nodes and edges. A process modeling language code is generated based on the recognized process semantics. Rules to recognize patterns in process diagrams may be determined using supervised learning and/or unsupervised learning. During supervised learning, an expert labels example flow diagrams so that a classifier can derive the classification rules. During unsupervised learning flow diagrams are clustered based on relational, geometric and textual features of nodes and edges.

The present invention is directed toward an automated approach for extracting formal process models from informal process-flow diagrams.
Business Process Models are key artifacts that are created during the early stages of a business-transformation project. A business process model depicts how various tasks are coordinated to achieve specific organizational goals. Such models are used to build a consensus among the stakeholders during the requirements-elicitation phase and then drive the subsequent transformation phases.
Free-form diagramming tools, such as IBM's Freelance Graphics and Microsoft's Powerpoint and Visio products, are widely used for creating informal sketches of process models. Such tools are easy-to-use, ubiquitous, offer creative expression, and have a low barrier to adoption. However, the designs created using such tools are informal sketches, which are not amenable to automated analysis. Diagrams created using such tools have no formal underpinnings; therefore, they are not amenable to automated analysis. That is, they are not easily adapted for model checking, process improvements, process reuse, bootstrapping process realization, and the like.
Formal models, although desirable, are rarely created (during early design) because of the usability problems associated with formal-modeling tools. Unlike the free-form diagramming tools, formal process-modeling software offer many such benefits, but typically suffer from a high barrier to adoption. This can occur for different reasons, such as complexity, costs, and the requirement of some level of formal training.

Automated recognition of process modeling semantics in flow diagrams

International Business Machines Corporation


A concrete dowel slip tube assembly is provided for use in maintaining a planner consistency of a cured concrete slab formed on a support surface. The assembly comprises a plurality of elongate slip tubes, each having a length dimension and a tubular hollow interior compartment. Dowels are slidingly engageable to the hollow interior compartment to allow for translation along the interior compartment. A support frame defines a plurality of integral slip tube retaining members, disposed at evenly spaced locations along the support frame, the retaining members being configured to receive and engage associated slip tubes to the support frame in a common defined orientation. The support frame and the retaining members are formed as a unitary construction.

The present invention generally relates to the art of concrete construction, and more particularly to a device for facilitating the placement of slip dowel rods within a concrete slab.
In the art of concrete construction, it is commonplace to form "cold joints" between two or more poured concrete slabs. Such cold joints frequently become uneven or buckled due to normal thermal expansion and contraction of the concrete and/or compaction of the underlying soil caused by inadequate substrate preparation prior to pouring of the concrete. As a means of preventing buckling or angular displacement of such cold joints, it is common practice to insert smooth steel dowel rods, generally known as slip tubes or slip dowels, within the edge portions of adjoining concrete slabs in such a manner that the concrete slabs may slide freely along one or more of the slip dowels, thereby permitting linear expansion and contraction of the slabs while at the same time maintaining the slabs in a common plane and thus preventing undesirable buckling or unevenness of the cold joint and in adjacent slabs.
In order to function effectively, slip dowels must be accurately positioned parallel within the adjoining concrete slabs. The non-parallel positioning of the dowels will prevent the desired slippage of the dowels and will defeat the purpose of the "slip dowel" application. Additionally, the individual dowels must be placed within one or both of the slabs in such a manner as permit continual slippage or movement of the dowels within the cured concrete slab(s).
In commonplace to form large concrete slabs using monolithic or continuous concrete pour methods. Such slabs are formed by continuously pouring large quantities of concrete without the use of forms or cold joints in order to reduce costs. Therefore, fracturing of the slab is prevented by including tooled joints or sawcuts in the slab where cold joints would otherwise be needed. Additionally, concrete reinforcement material such as wire mesh or segments of rebar are initially placed into the area in which the continuous pour is to be made, and in particular those areas where it is contemplated that sawcuts will be included in the resultant slab for purposes of preventing fracturing thereof. The wire mesh or other reinforcement material is preferably elevated above ground level by the placement thereof upon a support foot or seat.
In addition to having concrete reinforcement material disposed within those portions of the slab in which a sawcut is to be made, it is also desirable to incorporate slip dowels into such portions to allow the separate sections of the slab which are defined by the sawcuts to move relative to each other while preventing any buckling or angular displacement thereof. One prior art method of incorporating slip dowels into those areas of a continuous pour where sawcuts are contemplated involves manually "stabbing" the slip dowels into predetermined locations of the uncured concrete pour. This method, however, is deficient in that there is no way to insure that the slip dowels will be manually positioned within the uncured concrete in parallel relation to each other, or will be maintained in parallel alignment to the top surface of the concrete pour during curing. As previously explained, if the dowel rods are not in parallel alignment, the separate sections of slab as defined by the sawcuts will be prevented from moving relative to each other.
Another prior art method of incorporating slip tubes into a monolithic pour involves manually tieing the slip dowels, or slip tubes to the reinforcement material in parallel relation to each other prior to the concrete pour being made. Manual tieing, however, is extremely time consuming and presents significant difficulties in securing the slip tubes to the reinforcement material in true parallel relation to each other. Additionally, the tied slip tubes are susceptible to displacement or shifting when impacted by the concrete during the pour thus moving the same out of parallel alignment with each other.
In another prior art configuration of the support structure may be fabricated from concrete reinforcing wire. Each top segment, side segment, and bottom portion may be formed from a single section of concrete reinforcing wire by bending such material into the desired generally U-shaped configuration. Then the top, side and base stringers may be welded at their respective locations in order to from the support structure slip tubes are then attached to the top side stringer.
The present invention addresses and overcomes the above-described deficiencies associated with the labor intensive formation of the support structure and slip tube placement in continuous concrete pours by providing prefabricated support structure that readily receives and inherently aligns the slip tubes accurately during the pouring of such concrete slabs. In this respect, the present invention provides an accurate and easy to use assembly for slip tube and dowel placement in a monolithic pour.


A new and distinct Guzmania cultivar named ‘BUNDEWH’ is disclosed, characterized by unique white inflorescence color and compact plant habit. The new variety is a Guzmania, typically produced as an indoor ornamental plant.

This application relates to a new cultivar of Guzmania. The new variety is the product of chance discovery, by the inventor, Bjorn Bunnik. The new variety originated as a naturally occurring whole plant mutation from the unpatented commercial variety Guzmania 'Voila'.
The new variety was first selected by the inventor, in at a commercial greenhouse in Kudelstaart, the Netherlands. After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, the inventor continued confidential testing and propagation of 'BUNDEWH', assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'BUNDEWH' was first performed at a commercial laboratory in Kudelstaart, Netherlands by tissue culture in 2008. Access to all plants was restricted, as plants were kept in a greenhouse not open to the public. Through subsequent propagation, multiple generations have been reproduced, which have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.


A class of switching power supplies that use a resonant isolation stage (typically LLC) fed directly or via a diode bridge from the line. Extension of the range of available gain values over frequency without material loss of efficiency is facilitated by usage of additional resonant elements. This capability allows the devices to provide narrow-range inputs to secondary-processing circuits, with the ability to achieve power factor correction if required. The conversion architecture is also compatible with optimal usage of energy storage elements suitable for use with switching power supplies.

The present application is directed to AC-DC mains fed power supplies which convert an incoming AC line voltage (which may be nominally 100 Volts to 240 Volts having a frequency of 60 or 50 Hz) to a DC output voltage. The DC output is typically a low voltage of less than 60 volts. Certain applications however provide a higher DC voltage output but require galvanic isolation including for example lighting application. These types of supplies are used to power computers and other electronic equipment and generally provide a power output of less than 500 Watts. The present application is directed at universal power supplies where the supply is designed to work from a nominal 100 Volt to 240 Volt supply at either 50 or 60 Hz. Accordingly, the converters to which the present application is directed are wide input voltage converters intended to operate from an input RMS voltage of 90V to 264V AC at either 50 Hz or 60 Hz. This design constraint is not inconsequential. There is a general push for improved performance across a wide variety of different performance criteria. These criteria include for example efficiency, reliability, Power Factor, EMI, size and cost. Generally there is a balance to be made, for example improving efficiency may increase cost or necessitate a larger EMI filter to meet EMI performance requirements. Thus depending on the particular application and requirements, different types of converter may be employed and a variety of different approaches are known in the art.
For example, a simple form, if a high power factor is not important, comprises a rectifier bridge employed directly to feed a bulk capacitor to which a switching DC-DC converter may be connected. However, apart from a low Power Factor other problems associated with such a design include the general need to limit surge current. Accordingly, the use of such designs tends to be limited to low power arrangements.
For higher powers, there are a number of possibilities, some of which will be discussed below. However generally there are two conventional approaches used in switching AC-DC converters. The first approach uses an isolated flyback converter. The advantage of using an isolated flyback converter is that it has inherently high power factor by virtue of its manner of operation without the need for a specific Power Factor Correction (PFC) circuit. However, it suffers from a number of disadvantages including the need for high voltage switches.
The more conventional approach uses an initial (typically boost) stage as a front end converter which, provides a relatively high DC voltage which is held by a "bulk" electrolytic capacitor. A second stage is employed then to convert the DC voltage to the required lower output voltage. The second stage generally provides isolation in the form of a transformer to isolate the high voltage mains AC side from the lower DC output side.
The required capacitance value is determined by the extent to which the voltage across the bulk, usually an electrolytic, capacitor value is designed to be allowed to drop and this in turn determines the design details associated with the isolation stage. More generally, a designer might start with the design of the isolation stage and work backwards to determine the size of capacitor value required.
It is generally accepted that designing isolation stages for high conversion ratios will involve a compromise in terms of efficiency. The symmetrical LLC converter is widely used and is more immune than most converters in this context, in that it operates close to optimal operating conditions—near the series resonant frequency—under normal operation, and the boosting function (involving lower efficiency) is required only in the few milliseconds where such operation is required. However, whilst the advantage of the LLC converter in these situations is that they are extremely efficient, a disadvantage is that the efficiency is generally at the expense of gain range and their Q factors tend to be relatively low. The net result of which is that they are designed to operate over a relatively narrow input voltage range, which necessitates a reasonably high value of bulk capacitor at their input. There are some known variations on the theme of a boost converter followed by an LLC converter. For example, US20120262954 discloses an arrangement in which a boost converter output is provided to an LLC converter and in which the switching of the LLC converter is provided by the arrangement of the boost converter.
More particularly, in the LLC design, the transformer is typically implemented on a core of low effective permeability to achieve a relatively low value of magnetising inductance. However, designing an LLC converter to operate over a very wide voltage range may involve compromise in terms of requiring excess Q in normal operation, with consequent excessive circulating current and associated losses. So whilst operating over a very wide voltage range may appear to offer an advantage with respect to the reduction of the required capacitor value there are disadvantages to such an approach.
Whilst the PFC stage along with an LLC, flyback or forward-derived isolation stage are the preferred arrangements for AC-DC converters, a variety of other arrangements have been proposed. These alternatives include the isolated boost arrangement. This is basically a combination of a standard boost converter followed by a four-way switched synchronised bridge that works through a transformer to feed energy storage capacitance on the secondary side. Whilst, this configuration offers some advantages, it is generally not employed because of problems associated with start-up, component utilisation and transformer design issues.
Another proposed approach employs LCC resonant converters. Examples of such are described in Schutten et al, "Characteristics of load resonant converters operated in a high power factor mode", Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 1991. APEC '91. Conference Proceedings, 1991, Sixth Annual. In this arrangement, a LCC converter is employed as an AC-DC converter. The advantage of the converter is high efficiency. This converter is however not optimised for universal line input. Another approach, Youssef and Jain, "A Novel Single Stage AC-DC Self-Oscillating Series-Parallel Resonant Converter" IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Volume: 21, Issue: 6, Pages 1735-1744, 2006 also employs an LCC converter. This arrangement reduces the need for a high voltage electrolytic by placing this on the secondary side of the transformer. Such approaches make use of parallel resonance and can take advantage of the extra control flexibility associated with a full-bridge of switched active devices.
The present application seeks to provide an alternative to the prior art discussed.


A semiconductor device comprises: a plurality of first wiring lines formed in a first layer with a first wiring width and a first wiring space; a plurality of second wiring lines formed in a second layer different from the above-described first layer with a second wiring width and a second wiring space larger than the above-described first wiring width and first wiring space; and a contact plug connecting the first wiring line and second wiring line. The above-described contact plug is formed over a plurality of adjacent ones of the above-described first wiring lines and has a pattern connecting the plurality of adjacent ones of the above-described first wiring lines and one of the above-described second wiring lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including a contact plug connecting multilayer wiring lines formed with a fine wiring width and a fine wiring space.
2. Description of the Related Art
Requests for smaller semiconductor elements have developed the multilayered wiring lines in the semiconductor devices. A contact plug embedded in the contact hole formed in the interlayer insulating film connects the multilayered wiring lines (see, for example, Japanese application patent laid-open publication No. 2004-146812).


The present invention is directed to orthodontic adhesive formulations, both light curable in the visible wavelength range, and self-curing, for use in the adherence of orthodontic appliances to the surface of etched human teeth. These formulations exhibit a high degree of surface wetting, an available source of leachable fluoride, low polymerization shrinkage, high physical properties and adhesion, and in the light curable embodiment, a post-curing capability.

The present invention relates broadly to dental adhesives and, more specifically, to orthodontic adhesives suitable for use in adhering orthodontic appliances to human teeth.
Prior to the 1970's, orthodontic appliances were commonly attached to teeth by stainless steel bands which circumscribed the entire tooth. These appliances were painful and tedious to fit, and often painful and cumbersome to wear. Furthermore, these appliances quite often resulted in the formation of pre-carious lesions in the tooth enamel beneath the bands during the course of treatment. These lesions were caused because of microleakage of the luring cement used to fill any voids between the band and the tooth surface, due to the impossible difficulties of perfectly adapting the band to the contours of the tooth surface. At this time, orthodontic appliances were developed in the form of buccal, and later also lingual, brackets with flat or slightly contoured bases, which could be adhered to an etched tooth surface with self-curing polymeric resinous adhesives.
Later, in the early 1970's, with the development of the first photocurable dental materials, disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,629,187 and 3,709,866, it became possible to utilize photocurable orthodontic adhesives in addition to the self-curing type. The photocured material required that the orthodontic appliances or brackets were sufficiently perforated to permit the rays from the curing light to pass through the bracket, and effect adequate polymerization curing of the adhesive interlayer to ensure strong adherence to the etched tooth surface and to the base of the bracket, since such adherence is only as strong as the weakest interface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,360 sets forth an example of the state of the art at this time.
Since the early 1970's, there has been considerable technical progress in all associated areas, including the development, and in many cases, commercialization of new raw materials suitable for the formulation of orthodontic adhesives, the design of orthodontic appliances, and of dental curing lights.
Some of these developments which impact the present invention are the synthesis and commercialization of Ethoxylated Bisphenol A Dimethacrylate resin, the interest in urethane chemistry, which led to the synthesis of the urethane polymethacrylate resins described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,336, the development of fluoride leachable glasses described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,686, and the synthesis of fluorine-containing adducts such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,325.
There is a continuing need in the dental field for orthodontic adhesives, both visible light curable and self-curing, which can firmly adhere orthodontic appliances to the dentition, and which provide for a high degree of surface wetting, which contain an available source of leachable fluoride, and which have low polymerization shrinkage and high physical properties. These compositions should include either photoinitiators or self-curing catalysts, and optionally a combination of both, to provide a degree of post-curing capability, together with a polymerizable liquid matrix and a high loading of filler(s) to significantly reduce polymerization shrinkage. They should further provide a thixotropic, taffy-like consistency for optimal manipulation, prior to polymerization curing.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide superior state of the art orthodontic adhesives of both the visible light curable and self-curing types having the properties and advantages described above.