A deployment device, system, and method for deploying a prosthesis. The deployment device includes a housing, a rod disposed within the housing and adapted to rotate relative to the housing, and one or more support members (e.g., bushings, bearings, etc.) rotatably supporting the rod within the housing. An elongate slit is disposed in and entirely through the housing and is positioned in a way that enables the prosthesis to pass therethrough from a loaded, rolled configuration on the rod. The deployment device is generally flexible, e.g., has a bending stiffness of at most about 0.87 N/mm (e.g., about 0.05 N/mm to about 0.87 N/mm). Furthermore, the deployment device enables a user to deploy (e.g., unroll) a prosthesis therefrom at a rate determined manually by the user and in a piece-by-piece fashion.

In open and laparoscopic hernia repair, mesh prostheses are utilized to provide reinforcement and support at the defect. Such mesh prostheses or other prostheses (e.g., films, surgical fabrics, and the like) are inserted through a small incision cut into the skin and abdomen wall. Generally, such mesh prostheses are flat sheets (e.g., of woven or stitched surgical fabric) that are trimmed to fit the anatomy of the defect site as needed prior to being rolled up and inserted through the incision. Once inserted, the mesh prosthesis is unfolded and affixed to the defect site using sutures or tissue in-growth.
However, manipulating sheet-like prostheses during these procedures presents numerous challenges to a surgeon. For example, trocars, when used, only provide a limited range of motion and require the user to utilize small instruments and graspers to manipulate, unroll, and position the mesh or prosthesis. Moreover, in many instances, the mechanical and physical properties of the sheet-like prostheses change once exposed to bodily conditions and environments (e.g., bodily temperatures, body fluids, etc.). In particular, when exposed to moisture, such sheet-like prostheses can hydrate and become less stiff, making them more prone to rupture or tearing during handling. Furthermore, some of the materials may have a layer of self-adhering material designed to adhere to moist tissue surfaces, which can further complicate a user's ability to handle and place the mesh prosthesis during surgery and implantation.


A method of assembling a planetary gearset includes die-forming a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart teeth on a sun gear, a planet gear and a ring gear. Each tooth includes a pair of tooth flanks in a final net form for engagement with mating gear teeth. The sun gear teeth have a conical shape to allow a first die to linearly move relative to a second die after the gear teeth are die-formed. The planet gears are mounted on a carrier. The sun gear and the planet gear are oriented such that the conical shapes of the respective gear teeth taper in opposite directions from one another and the planet gear teeth meshingly engage with both the ring gear teeth and the sun gear teeth.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Planetary gearsets have been widely used in various power transmission devices to provide a torque multiplying or gear reduction function. Planetary gearsets typically include a sun gear, a ring gear and one or more planet gears continuously meshed with the sun and ring gears. The shape of each of these gears is typically based on a cylinder having circumferentially spaced apart teeth formed on an external or internal surface of the cylinder. The gear teeth may have a spur or helical shape.
Known processes used to manufacture the gears of a planetary gearset include hobbing, shaping, rolling, shaving, grinding and planing. Some gears, such as a ring gear having spur teeth, may be formed using a broaching process. Each of the previously described known processes require very expensive machines to form an involute shape on the gear tooth flanks. These processes are relatively time consuming and expensive. Accordingly, it may be beneficial to develop a different gear forming process to reduce the time and cost required to form the gear teeth.

Beveloid planetary gear drive for transfer case or transmission


The present invention includes an improved apparatus for discharging liquids in a spray, including a separable housing, a recyclable liquid module containing liquid to be sprayed and a weight activated air compressor or pump which supplies compressed air to the liquid module upon agitation of the entire apparatus. The liquid module including the liquid within forms part of the driving weight utilized by the pump. The liquid module is inserted into the separable housing and can reciprocate within the housing; it is connected to the pump with a conduit and coupling for the transfer of compressed air to the liquid module. A second conduit conducts liquid to be sprayed from the liquid module to the outlet valve for discharge.

The present invention relates to an aerosol dispenser which uses compressed air as the propellant. The adoption of this dispenser as a substitute for ordinary household aerosols eliminates the use of chemical propellants such as chlorofluorocarbons or hydrocarbons and reduces solid waste. The nondisposable dispenser, with recycable insertable product modules, uses air as the propellant. This is generated by the natural act of shaking the dispenser a few times before using which compresses air via a small pump located inside the unit.


A piston-cylinder combination for internal combustion engines made from a varying bonded combination of two or more alloys having dissimilar coefficients of thermal expansion. By regulating the volumetric percentages of the alloys vis-a-vis their location within the piston and cylinder wall, the degree of thermal expansion experienced during operation may be controlled. The concept is especially useful for low heat rejection engines.

Throughout their history, attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines. Although alternative and improved designs have been proposed, it is generally conceded that the spark ignition and diesel designs will still be the engines of choice for most ground and marine based systems.
Mass produced engines have relatively mediocre efficiency ratings--about 35-40%. The great bulk of these inefficiencies may be traced to wasted heat. Accordingly, some engine research has been directed toward harnessing heat otherwise lost to the block, coolant, radiator, exhaust system and ultimately to the environment.
One line of research has been the attempt to formalize low heat rejection engines (commonly but imprecisely called adiabatic engines). Although simple in theory--the "waste" heat is captured and converted to additional work--the practice has proven difficult. The major stumbling block has been the temperature limits of the engine component materials. Common materials such as cast iron, aluminum alloys, and many stainless steels cannot withstand the rigors of the higher engine temperatures contemplated with the newer designs. Ceramics and composites are brittle and are difficult to fashion into the appropriate shapes.
A novel compounded overcharged engine has been proposed in Canadian patent application filed on Sept. 12, 1989. A low heat rejection embodiment is discussed in this application.

Polymetallic piston-cylinder configuration for internal combustion engines


A filter silencer with quick disconnect lid has a cylindrical hollow casing, an inlet, a filter within the casing, a spring loaded seal plate beneath the filter, a flange opposite the inlet, and a lid turning to connect to the flange. The inlet admits blower air into the casing generally beneath the spring loaded seal and the air enters the sides of the filter. The air travels upwards through the filter and exits through the lid. Wear pads beneath a locking ring engage the tapered ears upon the lid. The lid has an outlet through which filtered air discharges. The lid has ports for monitoring differential pressure and air temperature while the casing has a port for a pressure relief valve.

The filter and silencer with a quick disconnect lid relates to pneumatic conveying systems in general and more specifically to a filter silencer for blower air that can be inspected readily. The filter silencer is often installed upon a tractor for a pneumatic tank trailer. Unique aspects of the present filter and silencer are a lid rotating opposite its connecting threads, wear pads, and a biased plate that retains the filter element.
Pipe or hopper tees on railway tank cars, tank trailers, pipelines and other means for conveyance distribute product from the storage carrier to a delivery point. The product exits the storage compartments of a transport carrier, like a trailer, then flows through piping upon the trailer for delivery by hose or further piping. In dry bulk hauling, such as pellets, powders, and grains, seal integrity at the pipe connection is essential to prevent contamination of the materials later hauled in a tank car. The pellets or powders unload from gravity gate valves or hoppers located on the bottom of a tank car. Tees attached to the bottom of a hopper connect with collection pipes. A vacuum or air stream from a pneumatic conveyor system created in the pipe accelerates the unloading of dry bulk products from a hopper.
A hopper must be completely empty of a dry bulk product to prevent contamination with later loads. As an example, if a tank car carries black plastic resin beads, no trace of the black plastic resin beads can remain in the car, the hopper, and the piping to prevent contamination with a subsequent load of white resin beads. A second example shows the need for complete emptying of a product from the entire car: edible white flour. If the tank car or piping system traps the flour and mold develops, later loads of flour will acquire mold. A third example, bulk liquids contaminating bulk dry loads, can render a load useless at great cost in disposal and other losses.
Presently, the bulk transporting industry favors downloading dry product from tank trailers by pneumatic systems. A pneumatic system begins with a blower mounted to a tractor, often a truck. When turning at high revolutions per minute, the blower forces air into a discharge pipe that pressurizes the collection pipes below a trailer. The pressurized air then delivers the dry bulk product from the collection pipes to the delivery point, commonly a hose. Alas, a typical blower generates much noise and permits traces of oil, grease, and dirt to enter the discharge pipe. As mentioned above, contamination remains of high concern to dry bulk haulers, particularly in foodstuffs and ingredients. During downloading of dry bulk products, contamination must be lowered to meet food safety standards and noise levels must be lowered to conform with local noise ordinances.
The present art overcomes the limitations of the prior art. That is, in the art of the present invention, a filter silencer with a quick disconnect lid has a filter for removing air impurities and deadening blower noise and a removable lid to inspect the filter readily.

Filter and silencer with a quick disconnect lid


A segmented pipe coupling provides a housing for a butterfly valve, and preferably is provided with oppositely angled end faces of saw tooth configuration at the respective ends of the coupling segments, thus allowing the inclined end faces to emerge at the axial end faces of the coupling at or closely adjacent to the X-Z plane of an axially long coupling. A slow motion rotary drive for the butterfly valve also is provided.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,839, issued Sept. 16, 1986, teaches a rigid pipe coupling in which the respective coupling segments each are provided with an end face at the respective opposite ends of the coupling segments, the respective end faces being oppositely inclined with respect to an X, Z plane of that coupling segment.
The provision of those oppositely inclined end faces permits rotation of the respective coupling segments about a Y--Y axis during tightening down of the coupling to bring keys of the respective coupling segments into clamping engagement either with side walls of a groove formed in the end of the associated pipe, or, the axial wall of that groove, or both, and in turn permits the internal circumferential length of a coupling assembled from those coupling segments to decrease during tightening down of the coupling.
The extent of rotational movement of the respective coupling segments is determined by engagement of the keys with the side walls of the pipe grooves, or, by the slope of the end faces in the X, Z plane, and, the extent to which the coupling segments move radially of the pipe axis before reaching clamping engagement with the pipe end.
This, in turn, can result in the X,Y plane of the respective coupling segments being oriented at an angle to the X,Y plane of the pipe i.e. in a staggered and axially non-aligned orientation of the coupling segments as related to the longitudinal axis of the pipe.
While this poses no problems in conventional uses of such segmented pipe couplings, and in fact constitutes a substantial advantage of such segmented pipe couplings, it poses a particular problem in situations in which the respective coupling segments are required to remain with their respective X,Y planes within a determined angle of divergence from the X,Y plane of the pipe.

Pipe coupling with in-coupling flow controller


In one embodiment of the present application, a liquid crystal panel drive device includes a signal processing section for determining an output gray scale in accordance with a gray scale transition from the gray scale which is forecasted to reach by a previous response to an input gray scale and can carry out overdrive with the output gray scale. At a temperature at which a rise gray scale transition may occur in absence of a response condition does not exist for single overdrive, the signal processing section determines, as an output gray scale, a gray scale lower than a maximum gray scale with respect to a particular gray scale transition out of a rise type gray scale transition. In such a way, a display quality (especially a moving image display quality) at a low temperature can be improved.

A liquid crystal display device for use in an in-vehicle display device has recently attracted an attention. Such an in-vehicle liquid crystal display device is demanded that a moving image display performance be secured even at a low temperature (an ultracold temperature) in a range of approximately −30° C. to −20° C. However, a liquid crystal responds slowly at such an ultracold temperature, thereby causing a problem that a moving image display quality, in particular, is deteriorated.
Overdrive (a gray scale transition emphasis process) is known as a technique for quickening a response time of the liquid crystal. According to the overdrive, (i) a gray scale of higher than a current input gray scale is outputted in a case where the current input gray scale is higher than a previous input gray scale or (ii) a gray scale of lower than a current input gray scale is outputted in a case where the current input gray scale is lower than a previous input gray scale, so that the response time of liquid crystal is quickened. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for carrying out overdrive (forecasting type overdrive) in accordance with (i) a gray scale that is forecasted to reach by a previous response and (ii) a current input gray scale.
Note however that, in a VA mode, (e.g., in an MVA liquid crystal panel), a pixel includes regions in which response times of the liquid crystal are different from each other (see Patent Document 2). This can cause an abnormal response (hereinafter, referred to as an angular response) when overdrive (e.g., the forecasting overdrive) is carried out, in which abnormal response a response waveform rises first and then falls rapidly. Specifically, in a case where a first gray scale (a low gray scale) and a second gray scale (a middle or high gray scale) are inputted, and the second gray scale is subsequently kept to be inputted, then a waveform rises once to the second gray scale from the first gray scale, due to a region in the pixel where the liquid crystal quickly responds, in response to overdrive which is carried out based on a gray scale transition from the first gray scale to the second gray scale. However, after the overdrive is finished, the response waveform remarkably falls from the second gray scale, due to a region in the pixel where the liquid crystal slowly responds. This causes an angular response.
The angular response becomes noticeable particularly at a low temperature at which a viscosity of the liquid crystal is increased. Thus, a liquid crystal display device (e.g., an in-vehicle liquid crystal display device), in which it is required to carry out a moving image display even at a low temperature, causes the following problem. That is, even if the gray scale transition emphasis process is carried out so as to quicken a response time of the liquid crystal at the low temperature, improvement in the display quality cannot be obtained due to the generation of the angular response.
(Patent Document 1)    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2004-246312 (published on Sep. 2, 2004)
(Patent Document 2)    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication, Tokukai, No. 2004-302460 (published on Oct. 28, 2004)

Liquid crystal panel driving device, method for driving liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal display device, and in-vehicle display device


A seat system for a cabin of a transportation system includes a first seat unit, a second seat unit, and a rail system attachable to a floor of the cabin, having two rails that run parallel to each other, for receiving the seat units on selective positions. A line-up of a plurality of first seat units and at least one second seat unit on the rail system constitutes a seat arrangement. The first seat unit includes a seat frame having a seat cushion and a back cushion. The second seat unit includes a seat frame having a foldable seat cushion and a back cushion. The second seat frame includes two forward seat legs supported on two auxiliary rail segments that are arranged between the rails in a region. The forward seat legs are guidable underneath the seat cushion of a first seat unit arranged in front of it.

Usually, in vehicles, which serve the transport of passengers, passenger seats and other installations are fastened on floor rails, which have fastening means arranged in a certain raster. Different fastening positions on the floor rails may be realized through the raster. A fastening of the respective object at a desired position is usually conducted through an arresting device, which conducts a form and/or force-fitting arresting with fastening means of the floor rail.
In particular in aircraft it is also known to set a distance between seats that follow on each other in a longitudinal direction depending on a desire or a temporary request and to change it occasionally or frequently. For this, the arresting devices of the respective seats are released, afterwards the seats are moved along the floor rail and the arresting devices are arrested again. Changing the distance particularly between two passenger seats arranged behind each other, the seating class of the respective section in the passenger cabin may be changed.
German patent document DE 10 2009 004 987 B4 shows a movable seat for a transportation system, having a seat frame for displaceably mounting on a support structure of the transportation system, wherein the seat is designed in such a manner that two seats arranged behind each other in the transportation system in a storage state, in which the seats are pushed together and at least partially into each other, comprise a smaller common based surface than in a pushed apart use state.
German patent document DE 10 2013 103 662 A1 shows a holding device for passenger seats in a transportation system, which device comprises a seat leg fixation element, a gliding element and a rail element.

Seat system for a cabin of a transportation means with a compactable seat row


The present invention is directed to an improved solar powered distillation system and method. The solar powered still may have a waterproof membrane that is extruded, molded, or sprayed-on. The membrane may be installed in a lightweight basin as a liner resulting in improved ease of still manufacturing and assembly as well as improved sealing. Further, the membrane may include silicone. In a preferred embodiment, the membrane material may be an opaque food grade non-toxic odorless, tasteless silicon, for example, Dow Corning 40. In one variation, the solar still basin may be formed from an aluminum sided insulation material. In another variation the solar still may include a carbon filter attached to either the input or output of the solar still for filtering out VOCs. The solar still may further include adjustable legs that facilitate leveling the still to ensure the most efficient operation possible. The still may be provided to users in a kit and assembled on site to improve shipping. As constructed and used, the solar still of the present invention may be used as a portable cost effective means of providing distilled water in any location throughout the world.

The invention relates generally to solar energy methods and systems, and particularly with systems and methods for solar energy distillation.
Solar energy is a free renewable energy source that is readily available in many parts of the world. Given that solar energy is readily available to all for merely the cost of equipment to convert it to an intended purpose, solar energy may be particularly attractive for use in areas with populations that have limited financial resources. Technological developments have resulted in the use of solar energy for many applications, for example, thermal heating systems, electricity production systems, and solar distillation systems.
Solar distillation systems (also referred to herein as xe2x80x9csolar distillers,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9csolar stills,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9csingle basin or multiple effect stills,xe2x80x9d or simply xe2x80x9cstillsxe2x80x9d) have been in use since 1872. Some examples may be found with reference to various patents including: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,628,879; 4,135,985; 4,141,798; 4,487,659; and 4,267,021. Unfortunately, many of these prior art still designs suffer from various deficiencies so that they do not provide a practical solution for providing clean and safe drinking water to the masses of people throughout the world who have limited knowledge about solar energy distillation systems and finances. For example, many of the known stills are difficult and/or expensive to construct or purchase. In fact, in some areas of the world proper and safe building materials for building stills are not available. Some stills are often difficult to construct, difficult to move, not durable, and/or difficult to maintain.
One particular application of solar distillation systems is water distillation. In many geographical locations of the world clean and safe potable drinking water is expensive and/or in scarce supply. Often the available water supply is salty, brackish, and/or contaminated with various undesirable and possibly toxic substances which results in water that may not be suitable for human and/or animal consumption. These geographical locations are often remote and might not have common utilities such as electricity and/or effective public water purification systems. Further, the people who inhabit these locations may not have enough money to be able to afford public water or continuous electric utility cost. As a result they often resort to purchasing bottle water for drinking and cooking purposes. However, a properly designed and operated solar still as provided by the present invention may be a preferred alternative to purchasing bottled water by providing many years of clean safe good tasting water production to these people. Such a solar still may be extremely effective in providing clean drinking water from a high dissolved salt and other mineral content water, effective at eliminating dangerous bacteria such as cholera, E. coli, etc, cost effective, easy to install, and easy to maintain. Although many solar still designs are not always capable of effectively removing volatile organic compounds (VOC) such as pesticides, or petroleum distillates.
In one type of solar still the still basin may be sealed with a variety of materials, including silicone, so as to retain the liquid solution to be distilled. The basin sealing materials are applied to a rigid basin structural material or insulation material as a coating of material in liquid form that dries and adheres to a rigid basin structural material so as to seal the basin for retaining, for example, water. For example, the solar still basin structural material may be a cement, concrete or wood material and one or more layers of silicon may be manually spread over the surface of the basin or an insulation lined basin to seal the basin structural material from the liquid (e.g., water) to be distilled. This sealing layer(s) may be referred to as the xe2x80x9cmembranexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdiaphragmxe2x80x9d of the still. However, manual application of the silicon is a cumbersome process and it is difficult to ensure an adequate seal in all locations of the basin due to the inaccuracy of the manual spreading process. Fumes from the silicon application can be toxic and cause people to become faint or nauseated. Further, some types of silicon used may break down and contaminate the water, resulting in contaminated distillate.
The present invention is directed to an improved solar powered distillation system and method that can be provided, cost effectively, to the masses of people worldwide. The improved solar powered distillation system may be made of lightweight, cost effective, and durable materials (e.g., aluminum) and construction to ensure a low cost still that is easily transportable (moveable), affordable and durable so as to provide years of safe clean water production for people at any location throughout the world. The solar powered still may have a waterproof membrane that is extruded, molded, and/or spray-on and installed in a lightweight basin as a liner for improved ease of still manufacturing and assembly as well as improved sealing. Further, the membrane may include silicone. In a preferred embodiment, the membrane material may be an opaque food grade non-toxic odorless, tasteless silicon, for example, Dow Corning 40/Silicone FDA Ingredients per CFR 177.2600. In one variation, the solar still basin may be formed from an aluminum sided insulation material, for example, Thermax made by Celotex. In another variation the solar still may also include a carbon filter attached to either the input or output of the solar still for filtering out VOCs. In a further variation the solar still may include adjustable legs to facilitate leveling the still to ensure the most efficient operation possible. In one preferred application, the solar still may be used as a solar water purification system and method. The still may be provided to users in kit form and assembled on location where it is to be used. In any case, the still is a portable cost effective system that may be used to provide distilled water in any location throughout the world.

System and method for solar distillation


A heat sink and component support assembly that includes a core structure (110). The core structure (110) includes: a central member (112) having first (114, 116) and second opposing sides; at least one heat dissipating surface (124, 126, 128) extending from at least one of the first opposing sides (114, 116); and first and second extension members (118, 120) positioned adjacent to each of the second opposing sides. The assembly may also include an airflow facilitating arrangement, such as a fan (184), positioned adjacent to the core structure (110) for further enhanced heat dissipating capabilities.

Thermal management of electronic devices on printed circuit boards/printed wiring boards is usually accomplished in one or more of three ways: (1) by providing enhanced conduction paths to heat transfer surfaces which are at lower temperatures than the device; (2) by increasing convection (natural or forced) from the surface of the device to a lower temperature surrounding ambient fluid, usually air; or (3) radiation. All three ways provide for the dissipation of heat generated in the electronic devices. Heat dissipation is usually carried out by providing a heat sink assembly comprising individual heat sinks for the various devices. The design and fabrication of the heat sink assembly is therefore dependent upon the size and geometry of the devices. Resultingly, there are often numerous individual parts that make up a heat sink assembly, and many of those numerous parts require individual installation. Moreover, such installation often requires soldering of parts together. Soldering is often done by hand and, therefore, the labor required to produce the heat sink assembly is formidable. In addition to the foregoing, the designs that require significant soldering of individual components also increase the difficulty of and increase required time for repair activity.
Thus, what is needed is a more efficient apparatus for thermal management of electronic devices mounted on circuit boards.

Heat sink and component support assembly


There is provided allocating cloud computing resources to process a user session by a gateway in a mobile communications network, and allocating the cloud computing resources in pairs to user sessions. Rules for the pair of allocated resources are determined such that incoming control plane traffic associated with the session is forwarded to the both cloud computing resources forming the pair.

The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together with disclosures not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but provided by the invention. Some such contributions of the invention may be specifically pointed out below, whereas other such contributions of the invention will be apparent from their context.
In a mobile network, the user sessions are established as tunnels between the Mobile Terminals (MT) and Gateways (GW). Due to cellular network architecture, Gateways are the aggregation points for the user sessions, providing the anchor towards the services in the Internet or operator service network. In 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communications networks the gateway is the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) element, and in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks the System Architecture Evolution-Gateway (SAE-GW) element.
The number of Gateway elements in an operator network ranges from the minimum two (2) to up to twenty (20), depending on the size of the operator's subscriber base, redundancy requirements, site strategy, element capacity, and so forth. However, with the increasing number of gateway elements the user sessions are distributed across the gateway elements and visibility of the traffic through the gateway elements is decreased or at least becomes more difficult to establish.
Telecom products such as the gateway elements have a very strict requirement of redundancy. The operators expect almost zero downtime from the products, which is usually met by the vendors using hot standby nodes that are always in sync with active nodes serving the network. This active-standby architecture means that there is a stringent requirement for active-standby synchronization of states to make sure that in case of active node failure, the standby node can immediately start serving from the same state as the failed active node. Gateway elements usually have a session database which contains most of the necessary session/bearer specific states and controls the subscriber sessions in the system. The session database is one of the most important databases of the system as it determines the connectivity of the subscriber to the network.
The process responsible for maintaining the session bearers (PDP contexts in 3G terminology) usually does so with the help of an in-memory database to keep the state of each bearer. In said database, various important state indicating fields of the bearer is stored, such as, the identifying Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID), possibly the mobile Internet Protocol (IP) address, activity timers, current status of the bearer, etc. To align with the stringent requirement of fault tolerance for telecom products, the packet gateway products usually resort to a hot active-standby mode where the standby node is always kept in sync with the active node so that it can take over immediately in case of any fault in the active node.
Preferably, the state of the active node and the standby node are at least almost identical to make sure that the switchover is as smooth as possible without any disruption of services. This may be achieved by a synchronisation operation between the active node and the standby node whenever any state of a particular bearer changes. For example, if a product supports 3 million active bearers and at a point of time approximately half of them changes state, it will mean 1.5 million synchronization messages between the active and standby instances.
Typically the current LTE SAE-GWs are built as stand-alone network elements using dedicated hardware. However, dedicated hardware has poor scalability and interoperability between hardware from different proprietors may be poor.

Allocating virtual machines in a gateway coupled to a software-defined switch


When a network host (110H.1) requests an IP address (via DHCP for example), and a candidate IP address is generated, the candidate IP address and the host's MAC address are installed in the ARP table(s) of at least one router present in the host's LAN. If installation is unsuccessful, e.g. due to the ARP table being full or due to a hash collision, the candidate IP address is declined, and another IP address is generated. Other features are also provided.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to computer networks and network nodes such as routers, switches, and end stations.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An IHS may include a router that forwards data packets between other nodes or hosts (in this disclosure, "host" and "node" are synonymous, to indicate any node of a computer network). A packet may include an IP (Internet Protocol) destination address, and the router maps the IP address to a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the next hop in the packet's path. The next hop may be the destination node or another router.
It is desirable to improve address handling in computer networks.

Address assignment and data forwarding in computer networks


Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described for inter-RAT mobility from a first radio access technology (RAT) to a second RAT, including cases in which different RATs correspond to different generations of networks. Approaches described herein include providing a preemptive indication of inter-RAT mobility for one or more geographic areas such to a user equipment (UE). The UE can thus use a mobility procedure to transition from the first RAT to the second RAT that is supported in the UE's location without first attempting an unsupported mobility procedure, reducing transition latency.

The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to a preemptive indication of inter-RAT mobility.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) systems or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations or network access nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
In some wireless communications systems, a UE may sometimes transition from one radio access technology to another, which may include a transition from one generation of network to another. Further, a system may support a handover procedure for transitioning from one radio access technology to another in some locations but not in other locations. Methods and systems for efficient migration from one radio access technology to another to another are desired.

Preemptive indication of inter-rat mobility


A semiconductor memory device includes a stack structure comprising a plurality of layers vertically stacked on a substrate, each layer including a semiconductor pattern, a gate electrode extending in a first direction on the semiconductor pattern, and a data storage element electrically connected to the semiconductor pattern, a plurality of vertical insulators penetrating the stack structure, the vertical insulators arranged in the first direction, and a bit line provided at a side of the stack structure and extending vertically. The bit line electrically connects the semiconductor patterns which are stacked. Each of the vertical insulators includes first and second vertical insulators adjacent to each other. The gate electrode includes a connection portion disposed between the first and second vertical insulators.

Example embodiments of inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device and/or a method for manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor memory device with improved electrical characteristics and/or a method for manufacturing the same.
Semiconductor devices have been highly integrated to provide improved/excellent performance and/or low manufacturing costs. The integration density of semiconductor devices affects, e.g. directly affects the costs of the semiconductor devices, thereby resulting in a demand of highly integrated semiconductor devices. The integration density of typical two-dimensional (2D) or planar semiconductor devices may be mainly determined by an area where a unit memory cell occupies. Therefore, the integration density of the typical 2D semiconductor devices may be greatly affected by a technique of forming fine patterns. However, since extremely high-priced apparatuses are used/needed to form fine patterns, the integration density of 2D semiconductor devices continues to increase but is still limited. Thus, three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor memory devices have been developed to overcome the above limitations. 3D semiconductor memory devices may include memory cells three-dimensionally arranged.

Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing the same


A voltage level conversion circuit for converting a voltage level of a low voltage system input signal into a voltage level of a high voltage system signal comprises a latch circuit comprising plural high-breakdown-voltage MOS transistors having a high power supply voltage as a breakdown voltage, a first high-breakdown-voltage N channel MOS transistor which discharges one of the latch nodes of the latch circuit, and a second high-breakdown-voltage N channel MOS transistor which discharges the other latch node, and a pulse signal obtained by boosting a low voltage system pulse signal is applied to a gate of the first or second high-breakdown voltage N channel MOS transistor when the input signal transits.

In recent years, with miniaturization of semiconductor processes, two kinds of voltages, i.e., an external voltage and an internal voltage, are employed in semiconductor devices, and the internal voltage is set lower than the external voltage. Therefore, there is a necessity for a circuit for converting the logical voltage level of a signal between a circuit driven by the external voltage and a circuit driven by the internal voltage.
Hereinafter, a description will be given of a prior art relating to a circuit for converting a logical voltage corresponding to a low power supply voltage to a logical voltage corresponding to a high power supply voltage (hereinafter referred to as "voltage level conversion circuit").
As an example of a conventional circuit of this kind, Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei. 7-321638 (pages 10-11 and 15-16, FIGS. 1-3 and 12-13) discloses a voltage level conversion circuit which is driven by a high power supply voltage.
FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the voltage level conversion circuit disclosed in this gazette.
This voltage level conversion circuit 101 includes a first N channel MOS transistor Qn101 which is connected between a first input node Iin and an internal node N101, a first P channel MOS transistor Qp101 which is connected between a high power supply voltage VPP and the internal node N101, and a power supply side second P channel MOS transistor Qp102 and a ground side second N channel MOS transistor Qn102 which are connected in series between the high power supply voltage VPP and a ground voltage VSS.
A first input signal I1 having a logical voltage corresponding to a low power supply voltage VCC is applied to the first input node Iin, and a second input signal S1 having a logical voltage higher than that of the first input signal I1, which is generated on the basis of the first input signal I1, is applied to a second input node Sin. Further, a gate of the first N channel MOS transistor Qn101 is connected to the second input node Sin, and a gate of the first P channel MOS transistor Pn101 is connected to an output node Nout which is a connection point of the second P channel MOS transistor Qp102 and the second N channel MOS transistor Qn102. A gate of the second P channel MOS transistor Qp102 is connected to the internal node N101, and a gate of the second N channel MOS transistor Qn102 is connected to the first input node Iin. A latch circuit for latching the input signal I1 applied to the first input node Iin to output an inversion signal O1 thereof from an output node Nout is constituted by the first and second P channel MOS transistors Qp101 and Qp102.
Next, the operation will be described.
When the first and second input signals I1 and S1 are applied to the first and second input nodes Iin and Sin of the voltage level conversion circuit 101, respectively, the internal node N101 of the voltage level conversion circuit 101 comes to have a voltage level according to the logical level of the first input signal I1.
To be specific, when the logical level of the first input signal I1 is L level, the internal node N101 of the voltage level conversion circuit 101 comes to have L level. At this time, in the voltage level conversion circuit 101, the N channel MOS transistor Qn102 is turned off and the P channel MOS transistor Qp102 is turned on, and an H-level output signal O1 is output from the output node NOUT. Further, at this time, the P channel MOS transistor Qp101 is completely turned off.
In this state, when the logical level of the first input signal I1 transits from L level to H level, the N channel MOS transistor Qn102 is completely turned on. At this time, since the voltage level of the second input signal S1 applied to the gate of the N channel MOS transistor Qn101 is boosted to a voltage level that is higher than the H level voltage VCC of the first input signal I1, the voltage at the node N101 of the voltage level conversion circuit 101 becomes not a voltage that is lower than the power supply voltage (VCC) by the threshold voltage Vth of the transistor (VCC-Vth) but the power supply voltage (VCC), and the P channel MOS transistor Qp102 is approximately turned off.
When the output signal O1 becomes L level, the P channel MOS transistor Qp101 is completely turned on, and the voltage at the node N101 becomes the second power supply voltage VPP, whereby the P channel MOS transistor Qp102 is completely turned off.
In the conventional voltage level conversion circuit 101 as described above, since the N channel MOS transistors are high-breakdown-voltage transistors each having a breakdown voltage corresponding to the high power supply voltage VPP, the threshold values thereof are usually high. Therefore, when the logical voltage of the input signal is lowered, the on-state of the N channel MOS transistor Qn102 becomes imperfect, and it takes time to fix the voltage level of the output signal at L level.
As a countermeasure against the problem that occurs when making the voltage level conversion circuit perform low-voltage operation, the above-mentioned gazette proposes as follows. That is, in the voltage level conversion circuit 101 shown in FIG. 13 wherein the gate voltage of the N channel MOS transistor Qn101 is the power supply voltage VCC, a P channel MOS transistor with a gate being connected to the input node Iin is inserted between the power supply voltage VPP and the P channel MOS transistor Qp102 and, when the input signal changes from H level to L level, the current that flows from the power supply voltage VPP into the output terminal Nout is promptly cutoff.
In this circuit construction, when the input signal changes from H level to L level, the voltage level of the output signal O1 can be quickly fixed to L level. However, it is impossible to solve the essential problem in the low voltage operation of the voltage level conversion circuit, that is, it is still difficult to operate the VPP power supply system N channel MOS transistor having the high power supply voltage VPP as a breakdown voltage, at a voltage lower than the threshold voltage.
As described above, since the conventional voltage level conversion circuit shown in FIG. 13 controls the high-breakdown-voltage transistor having, as a power supply voltage, the external voltage that is a high voltage, with a signal corresponding to the internal voltage that is a low voltage, it is difficult to operate the high-breakdown-voltage transistor when the threshold value of the high-breakdown-voltage transistor is high and the internal voltage is lower than the threshold value. Therefore, such voltage level conversion circuit becomes a disincentive to low power consumption and miniaturization of transistors due to low voltage operation in semiconductor devices.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The process and apparatus are for removing a solute from a solute-bearing solid product by means of a solvent which remains in liquid state throughout the entire oil extraction process. In one embodiment, the solvent is normally in gaseous state at ambient temperature and pressure values, but is used mainly in liquid state within the method and apparatus of the present invention by maintaining such pressure and temperature values within the apparatus so that the solvent will remain in this liquid state.

Processes for removing oil from solid oil-bearing products are known in the art. Some such processes occur in an extraction chamber where a solvent is sprayed or otherwise injected on the oil-bearing product, to leach the oil out of the solid product. There results a miscella comprising a mixture of oil and solvent, which is conveyed to an oil-solvent separation chamber.
Some processes make use of a liquid solvent which is liquid at given extraction temperature and pressure values, but which is normally gaseous at ambient temperature and pressure values. After having leached the oil out of the solid product with the liquid-state solvent in the extraction chamber, the miscella is separated into its distinct oil and solvent components in the separation chamber which is heated to such a temperature that the solvent becomes gaseous while the oil remains liquid, thus allowing the oil and solvent to be easily distinctly collected.
One problem associated to such prior art processes is that the oil and the solids will often be denatured by the application of heat to the solids and/or oil, which is undesirable. Denaturing is defined as any physical, chemical or molecular change in the solute or solid product. This is especially true, in prior art processes, during the separation phase of the miscella, where relatively high oil-denaturing temperatures are often reached.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for removing solute from a solid solute-bearing product


A control system is provided for a fabric washing machine including a controller for controlling the machine through a predetermined cycle of operations and having a first state at which the cycle may be initiated and a second state at the end of the cycle. A lid actuated switch is in circuit with a power supply and the controller and is operable between first and second conductive postures by movement of the lid. First circuitry is connected to the first conductive posture of the switch for energizing the controller in the first state to control the machine through the cycle and terminate operation at the second controller state at the end of the cycle. Second circuitry is connected to the second conductive posture of the switch and is operable with the controller in the second state for initiating modification of the controller to the first state to condition the controller for initiation of a new cycle of operations. Operability of the switch to the second conductive posture is a prerequisite to initiating a new cycle of operations.

This invention relates generally to a control system for use with a fabric washing machine and in particular to a control system for checking the operability of a control switch in a fabric washing machine where the timer is not manually advanced through any part of its cycle of operations.
In the operation of both domestic and commercial fabric washing machines and fabric drying machines, it has been generally common practice for those machines with electromechanical timers to provide a timer knob extending forwardly through the control panel. The timer knob can be manually operated by the machine user to position the timer at a cycle start posture or to advance the timer through a particular portion of a cycle of operations.
Some commercial machines such as Low, U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,830, show a clothes washing machine without a protruding timer knob wherein the entire machine is shut down when the lid is opened at the start of or during wash spin and only the drive motor is shut down as the lid is opened during rinse spin allowing the timer motor to run through the cycle. Subsequent operation of the coin slide initiates a new timing cycle by indexing the timer cams to the start position. Further, Jarvis, U.S. Pat. No. 3,122,009, provides a safety interlock control system which assures that when the access door to the wash basket is opened before the end of a cycle, the basket will be stopped but the timer device will time out to the end of a normal cycle. The timing out will occur without causing any of the remaining cycle operations to occur. The machine is then conditioned for a new cycle of operation by the insertion of a predetermined number of coins. While these prior art machines provide for timing out to the end of a cycle if the lid is prematurely opened, there is no provision for checking the operability of a lid actuated switch and automatically conditioning the timer for initiating a new cycle of operations after confirming the operability of the lid actuated switch and preventing the conditioning if the lid actuated switch is failed.
Ellingson et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,777, disclose a washing machine having a microcontroller based program means. The washing machine has a door latching mechanism that must be actuated to lock the access door to the closed posture prior to a cycle of operations. Before initiating a cycle a normally opened low voltage lock switch is checked by the microcontroller to insure that its contacts are open. Once the contacts of the low voltage switch are verified open, a solenoid is energized for pivoting the access door latch lever to close the contacts of the low voltage lock switch and complete a circuit path to ground. This circuit path to ground indicates to the microcontroller that the lock switch is operable and that the access door has been closed and locked. If the access door is not closed, operation of the latching mechanism will be blocked preventing closure of the contacts of the lock switch. This will prevent completion of the circuit path to ground and indicate to the microcontroller that the access door is not in a lockable position. Also, Blair et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,955, disclose monitoring of a high voltage line switch by a microcontroller and preventing operation of the appliance if the switch has not cycled between open and closed posture at the completion of a cycle.
There has been no provision of a control and switch checking system for a fabric washing machine, where the electromechanical timer cannot be manually advanced, which provides for the automatic conditioning of the timer for initiating a new cycle of operations and for confirming the operability of a lid actuated switch.


A method, apparatus and system are provided for diagnosing a processor executing a stream of instructions by causing the processor to execute the stream of instructions in a sequence of stages with a diagnostic exception being taken between each stage. The method involves controlling the processor in a current stage, when a point is reached where the diagnostic exception is to be taken, to store in a storage location type indicator information comprising a type indicator for a current instruction in the stream and a type indicator for a next instruction in the stream. The diagnostic exception is then taken, causing a diagnostic operation to be performed which includes accessing the type indicator information from the storage location and, dependent on the type indicator for the current instruction and the type indicator for the next instruction, determining control information to identify at least one trigger condition for a next diagnostic exception. Thereafter, return from the diagnostic exception causes the processor to operate in a next stage in accordance with the determined control information. By capturing information not only about the current instruction being processed at the point that the diagnostic exception is to be taken, but also information about the next instruction, this can provide a significant improvement in the efficiency of the handling of the diagnostic process.

The present technique relates to a method, apparatus and system for diagnosing a processor executing a stream of instructions.
It is known to provide data processing systems with diagnostic mechanisms which can be used to perform diagnostic operations (e.g. software and hardware fault identification and analysis (debug)) upon the data processing systems so as to assist in the development of hardware, operating systems, application programs, overall system designs and the like.
One useful diagnostic approach is the ability to control a processor to single step through a program. In accordance with such an approach, the processor will execute a single instruction and then a diagnostic exception will be taken to allow the state of the system to be analysed.
One problem that can arise when single stepping through code is if code is encountered that has a different execution path when an exception is taken between instructions. This can be particularly problematic if the different execution path creates an infinite loop, as can happen when performing single stepping in respect of a section of code including a load exclusive instruction and an associated store exclusive instruction. This issue is discussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,839,038, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, that patent describing an improved mechanism for dealing with such instructions, by identifying when an instruction such as a load exclusive instruction has been single stepped, and then temporarily exiting single stepping in order to allow an alternative mechanism to be implemented.
It would be desirable to further improve the efficiency of the process of diagnosing a processor executing a stream of instructions in situations where the execution path of the code may change by virtue of an exception being taken between instructions.

Method, apparatus and system for diagnosing a processor executing a stream of instructions


Aerial vehicles may be configured to control their attitudes by changing one or more physical attributes. For example, an aerial vehicle may be outfitted with propulsion motors having repositionable mounts by which the motors may be rotated about one or more axes, in order to redirect forces generated by the motors during operation. An aerial vehicle may also be outfitted with one or more other movable objects such as landing gear, antenna and/or engaged payloads, and one or more of such objects may be translated in one or more directions in order to adjust a center of gravity of the aerial vehicle. By varying angles by which forces are supplied to the aerial vehicle, or locations of the center of gravity of the aerial vehicle, a desired attitude of the aerial vehicle may be maintained irrespective of velocity, altitude and/or forces of thrust, lift, weight or drag acting upon the aerial vehicle.

The operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (or "UAV") is dependent upon a combination of four forces, namely, thrust, drag, weight and lift, the net effects of which may determine an extent and a direction of a velocity of the aerial vehicle. Thrust is a force that is typically generated by one or more aerial propulsors or propulsion units such as rotating bladed propellers or jet engines. Thrust may have a magnitude defined by one or more operating characteristics of the propulsor, e.g., a rotating speed, a number of blades, or sizes of blades of a propeller, or an amount or speed of exhaust expelled from a jet engine, as well as a direction defined by an orientation of the propulsor with respect to an airframe of an aerial vehicle. Thrust is necessary in order to overcome drag, which is a resistive aerodynamic force that is directed in an opposite direction to a direction of travel of the aerial vehicle, due to air that opposes the forward motion of the aerial vehicle. Weight is a force resulting from the Earth's gravitational pull acting on a center of mass (or center of gravity) of the aerial vehicle, in a vertical direction toward the Earth's center. Lift is another aerodynamic force that is generated by propellers, or from flows of air over wings or other control surfaces. Lift counteracts the effects of weight on an aerial vehicle, at least in part. Thrust, drag, weight and lift acting on an aerial vehicle must be placed in balance in order to ensure that the aerial vehicle operates at a desired and safe velocity.
With the exception of weight, each of the forces acting on an operating unmanned aerial vehicle may be affected by wind passing above, below or around the aerial vehicle. Wind may include a number of components that impact an amount of lift generated by a fixed or rotating wing on an aerial vehicle, as well as an extent of thrust or drag applied to the aerial vehicle. For example, a headwind is wind blowing on a front of an aerial vehicle, opposite to its direction of travel, while a tailwind is wind that blows from behind an aerial vehicle, in its direction of travel. Meanwhile, a crosswind is wind that blows laterally into an aerial vehicle, parallel to ground below the aerial vehicle and perpendicular to its direction of travel. Updrafts and downdrafts are winds that blow perpendicular to the ground and originate above or below an aerial vehicle, respectively. Wind that contacts an aerial vehicle typically includes one or more components (e.g., headwinds, tailwinds, crosswinds, updrafts or downdrafts) that impart forces on the aerial vehicle from a number of different directions.
Today, unmanned aerial vehicles are being utilized in an ever-increasing number of missions, including but not limited to surveillance, monitoring or delivery operations. The use of an unmanned aerial vehicle, as opposed to a manned aerial vehicle, carries a number of advantages deriving from the fact that such vehicles are not required to carry humans. For example, unmanned aerial vehicles are typically rigid structures that are lighter, smaller and less expensive than their manned counterparts, and may be used in missions for which human safety or the costs or risks of human operation may be prohibitive. Unfortunately, however, the rigid construction of unmanned aerial vehicles, and their inherent lack of human onboard control, requires unmanned aerial vehicles to adapt to changing circumstances, including planned or unplanned variations in environmental conditions or operational requirements, or material or component failures.
The capacity to rapidly adapt to changing circumstances is particularly acute when aerial vehicles are operating in or transitioning to a hovering flight mode, as a balance between thrust, drag, weight and lift forces acting on an aerial vehicle that is traveling at low speeds or is hovering may be easily upset.

Maintaining attitude control of unmanned aerial vehicles by varying centers of gravity


A heat exchange system for realizing an adequate heat exchange among a plural type of fluids uses a refrigerant radiator and a radiator which are combined to have one unit for enabling heat exchange between a refrigerant and a coolant, and decreases an inflow amount of the coolant flowing into the radiator when coolant temperature of the coolant flowing into the radiator is equal to or higher than a second standard temperature, which is set to be lower than a temperature of the refrigerant flowing into the refrigerant radiator, and is equal to or lower than a predetermined first standard temperature. In such manner, heat from the refrigerant is effectively transferred to an outside air by reducing an unwanted heat exchange between the refrigerant and the outside air.

Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese patent documents 1 and 2, a vehicular air conditioner heats air, i.e., a blowing air to be sent into a vehicle compartment, by exchanging heat between the air (i.e., a third fluid) and a discharged refrigerant (i.e., a first fluid) discharged from a compressor. Further, the above documents 1, 2 further disclose a configuration that the vehicular air conditioner heats the blowing air by heat exchange between the blowing air and a heat medium that is different from the discharged refrigerant (i.e., a second fluid).
In other words, the vehicular air conditioner in the above documents 1, 2 uses a heat exchange system for exchanging heat between a plurality of fluids (i.e., a discharged refrigerant, a heat medium, and a blowing air). More practically, the heat exchange system is used as the one in which heat from two types of fluids (i.e., the first/second fluids) is transferred to the other fluid (i.e., the third fluid).
More practically, in the patent document 1, a heat exchange system for radiating heat from the discharged refrigerant and from a brine to the blowing air can be realized as a combined-type heat exchanger by combining two heat exchangers in one unit, that is, by combining a heating heat exchanger that heats the blowing air by the heat exchange between the blowing air and the discharged refrigerant and a heater core that heats the blowing air by the heat exchange between the blowing air and the brine that is a heat medium heated by a combustion-type heater.
Further, in the combined-type heat exchanger in the patent document 1, a temperature difference between the discharged refrigerant and the blowing air as well as a temperature difference between the brine and the blowing air are secured by positioning, on a downstream side of the heating heat exchanger in terms of the blowing air flowing therethrough, the heater core through which the brine having higher temperature than the discharged refrigerant is circulated.
Further, in the patent document 2, just like the disclosure in the patent document 1, a heat exchange system for radiating heat from the discharged refrigerant and from a coolant to the blowing air can be realized as a combined-type heat exchanger by combining two heat exchangers in one unit, that is, by combining a heating heat exchanger similar to the one in the patent document 1 and a heater core that heats the blowing air by the heat exchange between the blowing air and a coolant (i.e., a second fluid) for cooling an engine.
Further, in the combined-type heat exchanger in the patent document 2, a volume reduction for preventing a volume increase of an entire body of the heat exchanger is planned by combining a refrigerant tube and a coolant tube on their flat surfaces, i.e., by combining the refrigerant tube having a flat cross-section for passing the coolant through the heating heat exchanger and the coolant tube having a flat cross-section for passing the coolant through the heater core.


A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for maintaining policy compliance on a computer network is provided. The method provides the steps of electronically monitoring network user compliance with a network security policy stored in a database, electronically evaluating network security policy compliance based on network user compliance, and electronically undertaking a network policy compliance action in response to network security policy compliance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to networked computing systems, and more particularly, to a system for maintaining network security policy compliance.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet and computer networks allow organizations to store applications and information on central servers, waiting to be called up and manipulated from any location. Networks allow people greater access to files and other confidential information. Global networks, including the Internet, and remote access increase the vulnerability of corporate data, increase the risk of information leaks, unauthorized document access and disclosure of confidential information, fraud, and privacy.
Employees are the greatest threat to an organization""s information security. Employees with access to information resources including email, the Internet, and on-line networks significantly increase the security risks.
Employees are using email for personal purposes creating questions of appropriate use of company resources, workplace productivity and appropriateness of message content. One of the greatest sources of information leaks is employee sent email. With electronic communication and networks, an electronic paper trail is harder to determine, since no record of who accessed, altered, tampered with, reviewed, or copied a file can make it very difficult to determine a document""s authenticity, and provide an audit and paper trail. In addition, there is no automated system to centrally collect, analyze, measure, index, organize, track, determine authorized and unauthorized file access and disclosure, link hard copy information with electronic files including email, and report on how information flows in and out of an organization.
Setting proper use and security policies are a method to create order and set standards for network use. Policies are ineffective unless users understand and comply with the policies. Unfortunately, most organizations do not have tangible proof when, and if, a network-based policy violation has occurred until long after the damage has been done. Due to the technical nature of network policy violations, policy enforcement officers may not have adequate knowledge, skill, and evidence to properly execute a policy violation claim. Cases of selective policy enforcement can occur if policy violations are not consistently reported, filed, investigated, and resolved.
Employees often view e-mail as equivalent to a private conversation. This view often does not reflect the official position of the organization. These communications reflect preliminary thoughts or ideas that have not been reviewed by the organization and typically only reflect the personal opinion of the parties involved. Yet, since employees of the organization create these communications, courts and regulatory agencies have concluded that employee communications can reflect the organization""s view. There is a further need for network communications software programs that offers robust policy compliance assistance, policy effectiveness monitoring and reporting.
There is a need for an automated system to assist policy enforcement officers with proper policy enforcement procedure, and methods to measure policy effectiveness, appropriateness, user system activity and compliance.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method and apparatus for maintaining policy compliance on a computer network. A system in accordance with the principles of the invention performs the steps of electronically monitoring network user compliance with a network security policy stored in a database, electronically evaluating network security policy compliance based on network user compliance, and electronically undertaking a network policy compliance action in response to network security policy compliance. The network policy compliance actions may include electronically implementing a different network security policy selected from network security policies stored in the database, generating policy effectiveness reports, and providing a retraining module to network users.
One preferred embodiment of the present invention includes notifying a network user and a policy administrator, providing a retraining module to the network user, and restricting the network user""s network access rights in response to monitoring network user compliance.

Network policy management and effectiveness system


A support bracket for an exterior handle of a vehicle door for motor vehicles attaches inside an outer skin of a vehicle door for mounting the exterior handle in a handle recess of the outer skin. Both longitudinally extending ends of the support bracket include a first opening for passage of connecting elements of the exterior handle. A second opening supporting a closing cylinder is arranged following the first opening. A Bowden cable connection associated with the support bracket substantially in a region of the second opening supports the closing cylinder, and in a region of the first opening receives a connecting element of the exterior handle. The Bowden cable connection is releasably connected with a downwardly depending longitudinal side of the support bracket to provide safety in a crash.

It is generally known that vehicle doors for motor vehicles are typically constructed of an outer skin and an interior lining, which together form the basic structure of the vehicle door. Based on this basic structure of the vehicle door, the door is finished by placing various components in the interior space formed by the exterior skin and the interior lining. These components include, for example, in addition to loudspeakers specifically the window panes with associated operating and guide elements, as well as the vehicle locks and the door handles, which are preferably located in form for an exterior handle in a handle recess disposed in the exterior skin of the vehicle door and operatively connected in the form of a closing cylinder with the vehicle lock.
Many different approaches are known for mounting the exterior handle and hence also the closing cylinder on the exterior skin of the vehicle door, as well as for positioning the exterior handle and the closing cylinder in the handle recess of the exterior skin of the vehicle door. These approaches are essentially always based on a basic component in the form of a support bracket, which is directly or indirectly attached to the inside of the outer skin of the vehicle door and thereby also to the handle recess. For example, a configuration for the exterior handle on the vehicle door is known wherein a support bracket is pre-mounted inside the outer skin of the vehicle door. A pull rod, which is separate from the exterior handle and pretensioned by a compression spring, operates on an actuating lever for the lock. A mounting plate assembly for the cylinder lock is also installed. With this configuration, the exterior handle and the closing cylinder can be installed at a later assembly stage, after the vehicle door is already closed, from the outside by way of a clip-on connection. One support end of the exterior handle hereby engages with the journal of the support bracket, whereas a coupling system is created between the pull rod and the exterior handle which enables the pull rod to move transversely relative to the exterior handle, so that the pull rod can be tightly guided in a guide opening.
In another conventional arrangement, which is also based on a support bracket disposed on the inside of the exterior skin of the vehicle door, the support bracket includes, in addition to a torsion spring, corresponding openings disposed on its longitudinal ends, with an additional opening arranged following a corresponding one of the openings. While the openings disposed on the longitudinal ends of the support bracket are provided for passage of the connecting elements of the exterior handle, the additional opening arranged following one of the two openings is provided for mounting the closing cylinder. Depending on the respective configuration or operation of the exterior handle, the support bracket may have on the side facing the opening provided for securing the closing cylinder a support fork which allows the exterior handle to pivot.
Regardless of the configuration of the support bracket attached to the inside of the exterior skin of the vehicle door and thereby also to the handle recess, and regardless of the way in which the closing cylinder is operatively connected to the exterior handle of the vehicle door, it has been observed that the lock-handle connections provided by the support bracket do not always provide the required safety in a crash, so that even a relatively small impact force can impair the operability of the lock-handle connections. Accordingly, even these small crash impact forces can endanger the vehicle occupants by rendering the lock-handle connections inoperable.

Support bracket for an exterior handle of a vehicle door for motor vehicles


A straining device for a drainage pump, the straining device comprising a body defining an inner chamber; at least one straining element by which liquid may enter the chamber; and at least one outlet by which liquid may leave the chamber. The straining device further includes a liquid level sensor arranged to detect the level of a liquid in which said straining device is located during use and, upon determining that said liquid level exceeds a threshold, to cause an activation signal to be sent to said pump. The liquid level sensor comprises non-contact sensing means such as an electric field sensor. The sensor is located at the top of the straining device and arranged to project its sensing field upwardly.

Strainers for bilge pumps, commonly known as strum boxes, are well known. Their purpose is to prevent debris being drawn from the bilge of a vessel into the bilge pump. Traditionally, bilge pumps have been manually operated although, more recently, water level detectors, typically in the form of float switches, have been provided in the bilge area of a vessel separately from the strum to control the operation of powered bilge pumps. However, the provision of a water level detector increases the complexity of installation since it has to be correctly positioned in the bilge area with respect to the strainer. The water level detector also adds to the cost of the bilge pump system.
It would be desirable to provide a system that overcomes the problems outlined above.


The method of the present invention detoxifies spent aluminum potliners to remove hazardous cyanides, fluorides, and polynuclear aromatics by reacting crushed potliners with a CaCl.sub.2 /HCl leach mill solution in the presence of iron. The method produces a solid waste suitable for landfill disposal and a recyclable reaction liquor. The reaction to destroy the polynuclear aromatics preferably occurs at a pH of no more than about 0.2, at about 120.degree. C. and 80 psig following destruction of the cyanides and converting of the fluorides to florspar in an initial oxidation at a lower temperature, lower pressure, and higher pH.

Aluminum potliners are created in the smelting of aluminum metal and its alloys. They are the liners of the pots into which the molten aluminum is poured. A typical liner lasts about five years. The Pacific Northwest aluminum producers currently annually produce about 50,000-75,000 tons of spent potliners. (The production of aluminum generates about 35 kg of spent potliner per ton of metal.) Spent potliners are currently classified in the U.S. as hazardous waste. They contain significant concentrations of four soluble pollutants, namely, cyanides, fluorides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs), and heavy metals (such as lead, beryllium, and cadmium).
A treatment process for spent potliners must be technically feasible at a reasonable cost (with reasonable capital cost). It must produce disposable waste products that comply with all environmental control regulations. It must be robust to tolerate variations in the feed because spent potliners from different sources differ significantly in their makeup (that is, the process should be able to accept widely differing feedstreams rather than be limited to a particular feedstock). All spent aluminum potliners require treatment prior to landfill disposal, so aluminum producers are struggling to find an acceptable treatment process.
Reynold's proposed using a thermal treatment process involving high temperatures in a rotary kiln with the addition of sand and limestone to complex with the fluorides. Comalco proposed using a two-step process involving a calciner to complex the cyanides followed by a hydrometallurgical step to recover the fluorides. Pechiney's SPLIT process introduced ground potliner to a hot airflow vortex rotating at supersonic speeds to destroy the cyanides while reacting the fluorides with an additive to produce a disposable solid waste.
Details for two other spent potliner treatment processes are presented in:
(1) J. Bernier et al., "The LCLL Process - Spent Potlining Recycling Solution," 52nd Annual Conf. of Metallurgists, Quebec, Canada, Aug. 28-Sep. 2, 1993; and PA1 (2) R. Adrien et al., "A Process for Treatment and Recovery of Spent Potliners," Light Metals 1996, The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Soc. (1996) 1261-1263.
I incorporate these articles by reference. The "LCLL process" is Alcan's Low Caustic Leaching and Liming process which involves three steps that require the use of complicated reactors and associated transfer equipment First, the LCLL process digests (leaches) finely ground spent potlining in a dilute caustic solution at around 85.degree. C. for about one hour. Then, Alcan adds NaOH in a plugflow reactor at about 180.degree. C. and 160 psig to destroy the cyanide in the leach solution in about one additional hour of processing while producing sodium fluoride. Finally, Alcan adds more caustic (generally, lime) to the remaining fluoride liquor for a third hour of treatment in equipment comparable to aluminum smelter wet scrubbers to produce calcium fluoride and a recyclable, caustic leach solution. The LCLL process requires a significant capital expenditure for the processing equipment.
The Adrien process uses five stages to recover calcium fluoride, aluminum fluoride suitable for smelting, and a disposal, carbonaceous, solid waste from the spent potliner. Adrien leaches the crushed potliner, washes the solid residue with two acid washes using NH.sub.4 F or another fluoroacid, and, finally, uses a water wash.


A vacuum cleaner has an agitator assembly that is coupled to a motor via a belt, and a belt shifting assembly which has a belt shifter which moves the belt between engagement with a drive pulley or an idler pulley on the agitator assembly. A biasing member biases the belt shifter between engagement with the drive pulley and the idler pulley.

Vacuum cleaners typically employ an agitator assembly that is configured to release dust, hair and other debris, collectively referred to herein as debris, from a surface to be cleaned. The debris is transported via a working airflow to a downstream separator that separates the debris from the working airflow and deposits the debris in a downstream dirt collector.
A vacuum cleaner agitator assembly typically comprises an agitator dowel that is rotatably mounted within a housing and configured to rotate about bearing assemblies at each end thereof. An agitator assembly can be driven by a belt operably connecting a shaft on a motor to a drive pulley on the agitator dowel. Optionally, the agitator assembly can include clutch mechanism for selectively engaging or disengaging the agitator drive. One type of clutch mechanism is a belt shifter that can selectively shift the belt onto an idler pulley on the agitator dowel to selectively stop rotation of the agitator assembly, while continuing rotation of the motor shaft.


Methods and kits for mitigating a toxic effect of at least one of vesicants and caustic gases in a subject in need thereof are described. In particular, an effective amount of a thrombopoietin (TPO) mimetic, such as RWJ-800088 or romiplostim, is used to mitigate the toxic effect of the vesicant or caustic gas.

Military strategists that coordinate chemical threat preparedness anticipate an increasing risk for acts of terrorism involving the use of vesicants and caustic gases. The low technical skill and inexpensive reagents and equipment required to produce these substances increase the likelihood of use by radical groups conducting terror attacks on the homeland and battlefield.
Inhalation exposure to vesicant and caustic gases is known to induce acute lung injury marked by edema, micro-hemorrhage, cellular influx and endothelial/epithelial cell damage. In a small proportion of recorded human cases of exposures, the levels of toxic gas were high enough to results in death within a short period. However, for the much larger percentage of survivors of exposure incidents, the debilitating acute effects gradually subside with a concomitant development of a profibrotic process that leads to an irreversible pulmonary fibrosis contributing to long-term morbidity.
Although personal protection equipment (i.e., gas masks) can be used to prevent exposure, and specific types of counteragents are being developed to neutralize these reactive substances following release into the environment, there are limited options to mitigate the toxic effects of these substances immediately following human exposure.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0083321 discloses compositions and methods for minimizing or avoiding adverse effects of vesicants such as mustard gas and other agents that cause vesication-type reactions. The compositions comprise at least one matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor, preferably in combination with at least one protease inhibitor.
International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2014028509 disclosed a method of treating a subject having a bone marrow injury resulting from exposure to mustard gas and nitrogen mustard. The method involves administering a c-Mpl receptor agonist, such as thrombopoietin (TPO) mimetics. International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2008/086025 also discloses a method of treating a respiratory disorder by administering compounds having erythropoietin activity or thrombopoietin (TPO) activity.
It is known that TPO regulates platelet levels by binding to c-MPL on megakaryocytes (to stimulate platelet maturation) and existing platelets (providing negative feedback) (Mitchell and Bussell, Semin. Hematol. 52(1):46-52 (2015)). TPO may also act directly on vasculature by binding to c-mpl receptors located on vascular endothelial cells (Langer et al., J. Mol. Cell Cardiol. 47(2):315-25 (2009)). There have been several studies demonstrating direct vascular protective effects of thrombopoietin in animal models of doxorubicin mediated cardiovascular injury (Chan et al., Eur. J. Heart Fail. 13(4):366-76 (2011)), cardiovascular ischemia reperfusion injury (Baker et al., Cardiovasc. Res. 77(1):44-53 (2008)) and stroke (Zhou et al., J. Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 31(3):924-33 (2011)). However, recombinant human TPO (rhTPO) is not a viable therapy in humans, due to induction of cross-reactive antibodies to endogenous TPO that can lead to chronic thrombocytopenia (Li et al., Blood 98(12):3241-8 (2001)).
There is a need for new ways to mitigate the toxic effects of the vesicants and caustic gases following human exposure.

Methods of mitigating toxic effects of vesicants and caustic gas

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey


Disclosed herein are graphene-coated lithium manganese oxide spinels cathodes for high-performance batteries Li-ion batteries and methods for making thereof. A single-layer graphene coating is shown to significantly reduce manganese loss in the cathodes while concurrently promoting the formation of a well-defined solid electrolyte interphase layer.

The race to make faster charging, higher capacity, less expensive, and more reliable lithium-ion batteries has been ongoing since they were commercialized by Sony in 1991.[1,2] While modern-day commercial lithium-ion batteries for portable electronic devices primarily employ LiCoO2 cathodes, manganese oxides are more attractive for heavy-duty transportation applications, such as all-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, because they are abundant, low cost, and environmentally friendly materials.[1,3] In the ideal LiMn2O4 (LMO) spinel crystal structure, the manganese ions alternate between close-packed oxygen planes in a 3:1 ratio, creating a three-dimensional network of interconnected interstitial sites for lithium-ion transport.[4,5] This structure allows for rapid lithiation/delithiation (discharge/charge) reactions that are required for high power applications. Furthermore, LMO offers improved thermal stability relative to LiCoO2, especially in a highly delithiated state, resulting in safer batteries.[6]
However, a major disadvantage of LMO spinel cathodes is that they lose capacity following long term cycling due to Mn2+ dissolution from the surface of the cathode into the electrolyte during charge/discharge as a result of the disproportionation reaction: 2Mn3+→Mn4++Mn2+.[7,8] Researchers have attempted to mitigate Mn3+ dissolution with a number of modifications. One type of modification is to change the composition of the parent LMO electrode by cation substitution (e.g., LiMxMn2-xO4, M=Li, Co, Ni, Zn)[9-14] to reduce the amount of Mn3+ in the structure. An alternative modification is to provide a protective surface oxide coatings, including. Al2O3,[15] ZrO2,[16] Y2O3,[17] and TiO2.[7] For example, Ju et al., disclosed a hybrid graphene/Y2O3/LiMn2O4 microsphere and suppression of the Mn3+ dissolution by the Y2O3 oxide that surrounded the LiMn2O4 core [J. Alloy and Compounds 2014, 584, 454]. In yet another modification, Zhuo et al. disclose the use of liquid polyacrylonitrile (LPAN) to prepare a "graphene-like" membrane as a protective coating that is about 3 nm thick, i.e. approximately one order of magnitude thicker than graphene [J. Power Sources 2014, 247, 721].
Despite attempts to mitigate Mn3+ dissolution, the realization of a thin and uniform surface film that does not compromise surface conductivity remains an outstanding challenge.

Graphene-coated metal oxide spinel cathodes


A drive circuit of plasma display panel (PDP) unit including at least a pair of electrodes and discharge cells connected thereto, further comprises a first path having a first switch and a first coil for applying voltage to the discharge cells; a second path having a second switch and a second coil for expelling the voltage applied to the discharge cells; and electric charge accumulating devices connected to the first path and the second path, wherein the inductance value of the second coil is larger than the inductance value of the first coil.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology relating to matrix type plasma display panel (PDP) and more particularly to technology relating to plasma display panel whose drive power supply is automatically adjusted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since before, it has been well known that reactive power can be decreased in sustain period because if the resonance frequency of the sustain circuit is reduced in a drive circuit of the PDP unit, a current peak value at the time of resonance is decreased, so that effective current is also decreased.
The sustain circuit mentioned here refers to a circuit for supplying electric power to a discharge cell in order to sustain discharge in a stable condition and the sustain period refers to a period in which light emission of the discharge cell is repeated by the sustain circuit so as to maintain the light emission condition.
Conventional technology about the driving circuit of the PDP unit has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-293135.
However, if the resonance frequency of the sustain circuit is decreased, there is a trouble that it leads to changing discharge condition thereby affecting discharge margin and discharge intensity.
The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-293135 does not describe any special matter about reduction of reactive power by operating the resonance frequency of the sustain circuit.
An object of the present invention is to provide a drive circuit of the PDP unit capable of operating the resonance frequency of the sustain circuit so as to reduce reactive power in a circuit in the sustain period without affecting discharge margin and discharge intensity.
A drive circuit of PDP unit including at least a pair of electrodes and discharge cells connected thereto, is further provided: a first path having a first switch and a first coil for applying voltage to the discharge cells; a second path having a second switch and a second coil for expelling the voltage applied to the discharge cells; and electric charge accumulating devices connected to the first path and the second path, wherein the inductance value of the second coil is larger than the inductance value of the first coil.
Consequently, according to the present invention, the resonance frequency at the time of fall, which does not affect discharge condition, can be reduced while maintaining a conventional resonance frequency at the time of leading, which affects the discharge condition. Thus, the peak value of current upon resonance can be reduced and effective current can be reduced, so that reactive power in a circuit in the sustain period can be reduced.

Drive circuit of plasma display panel unit


A cleansing device for mammalian skin includes a cleansing head having a plurality of elastomeric cleansing features extending away from the first surface and having an aspect ratio of about 1:5 to 10:1. The cleansing head is attached to a handle adapted to apply oscillating movement to one or more cleansing head sections to provide a total displacement per oscillation of about 2 mm to 8 mm at a frequency of about 5 Hz to 30 Hz.

Skin is the largest organ of the human body with several important functions, including forming a physical barrier to the environment, protection against micro-organisms, allowing and limiting the inward and outward passage of water and electrolytes, ultraviolent radiation and toxic agents. Within the skin there are three structural layers; the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutis. Keratinocytes are the main cell type found within the epidermis. Fibroblasts are the predominant cell type within the dermis. The dermis is composed of a supportive extracellular matrix and contains bundles of collagen which run parallel to the skin surface. The role of fibroblasts within the dermis is to produce collagen, elastin, and structural proteoglycans. The collagen fibers constitute 70% of the dermis, giving it strength and toughness while elastin provides normal elasticity and flexibility. The proteoglycans provide viscosity and hydration. Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) is associated with the regulations of extracellular matrix production in human skin connective tissue. This factor is also of importance in the process of wound healing. Skin also is innervated and vascularized, and also contains small numbers of immune cells (e.g., mast cells, tissue macrophages, etc.).
Aging of human skin is associated with discoloration, wrinkling, and sagging effect. These developments related to aging are dramatically visible in human skin which becomes dry, wrinkled, lax, and irregularly pigmented over time. Typically, aged skin is characterized by a flattening of the dermal epidermal junction, increased atrophy, and a loss of elasticity of the dermal connective tissue. The loss of firmness and elasticity is commonly associated with the decrease/loss and disorganization of the major extracellular components, including collagen I (associated with being the primary cause of wrinkle formation), elastin, and large and small proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. Aging skin also possesses decreased TGF-β which results in reduced production of collagen and compromised wound healing. A histological analysis of aging in human skin has revealed a decrease in tissue thickness, disorganization of collagen, and accumulation of non-functional elastin.
Handheld skin cleansing devices are used for cosmetic purposes to efficiently cleanse facial skin. In some cases the devices claim additional benefits, such as exfoliation, smoothing/resurfacing, or deep cleaning. Such devices have one or more discrete electrically powered bristle brushes or nonwoven fabric pads that oscillate, vibrate, or a combination thereof to provide mechanical action of the brush(es) or pad(s) against the skin. Typically, a cleanser is applied to the bristles or the pad. Cleansing effectiveness of these devices depends on the bristle or pad type, pressure applied, and the type of cleanser.
One example of many is the SonicDermabrasion Facial Brush ST255, sold by PRETIKA® Corp. of Laguna Hills, Calif. The brush includes a handle and a round bristle brush head that rotates. Another example is the Pore Sonic Cleanser sold by Pobling of Seoul, South Korea, which includes an oblong brush that is vibrated. A further example is found in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0233798 for BRUSHHEAD FOR ELECTRIC SKIN BRUSH APPLIANCE, published Sep. 20, 2012. Another example is the MIA 1®, MIA 2®, and MIA 3®, sold by CLARISONIC® of Redmond, Wash. A further example is the PRO X® Facial Brush by Procter & Gamble of Cincinnati, Ohio. Many examples similar to these are easily found in department stores, drug stores and online.
Such rotating and/or vibrating heads provide cleansing action that is superior to the use of hands to clean one's face. However, the brushes and pads only reach the surface of the topmost layer of skin cells. Brush tips do not effectively reach the interstitial spaces between cells or other fine skin features where dirt or dead cells may be trapped, and thus do not effectively clean such spaces. Additionally, brushes tend to build up a combination of cleansers, dirt, bacteria, and dead skin cells at the base of the bristles that is difficult or impossible to clean off. Finally, brushes used for facial cleansing tend to lift, but not remove facial skin cells. Thus, brushes can actually have a skin roughening effect.

Device and method for cleansing and treating skin