There is disclosed synthesis of CH.sub.3 OH from carbon monoxide and hydrogen using an extremely active homogeneous catalyst for methanol synthesis directly from synthesis gas. The catalyst operates preferably between 100.degree.-150.degree. C. and preferably at 100-150 psia synthesis gas to produce methanol. Use can be made of syngas mixtures which contain considerable quantities of other gases, such as nitrogen, methane or excess hydrogen. The catalyst is composed of two components: (a) a transition metal carbonyl complex and (b) an alkoxide component. In the simplest formulation, component (a) is a complex of nickel tetracarbonyl and component (b) is methoxide (CH.sub.3 O.sup.-), both being dissolved in a methanol solvent system. The presence of a co-solvent such as p-dioxane, THF, polyalcohols, ethers, hydrocarbons, and crown ethers accelerates the methanol synthesis reaction.

This invention relates to novel homogeneous catalyst formulations for methanol production. These new formulations have a number of features: liquid phase performance, low temperature, low pressure performance, high activity, and high selectivity, which permits gas conversions in one pass through greater than 90%, and under optimum conditions gas conversions of about 97%. Since this catalyst system is a liquid phase system, it permits the reaction between carbon monoxide and hydrogen to form methanol, which is an exothermic reaction, to proceed at fully isothermal conditions. In contrast, the traditional pelleted, solid catalysts used in methanol production create hot spots in the reactor which prevent the process from operating efficiently. Further, because the homogeneous catalyst is in solution, reaction heat removal can be decoupled from kinetics. Thus, unlike existing processes, with the instant process optimum performance, both chemically and thermally, can be built into the production system separately, with the components of the production system designed to optimize heat removal and kinetics.
The homogeneous catalyst formulation of the present invention overcome other disadvantages of conventional, solid-phase, methanol synthesis catalysts. Typically, conventional processes require high temperatures (250.degree. C.) and high pressure (765 psi) and are limited by the low equilibrium conversion (60%). Using the catalysts of the present invention, methanol production can be conducted at low temperatures and pressure with a high equilibrium conversion.
Further, conventional type catalysts, such as pellet type catalysts, usually exhibit a gas conversion rate of about 16-30% per pass, necessitating the re-cycling of the feed gas in order to operate the production system at an economically acceptable efficiency. Thus, although partial oxidation of natural gas yields an ideal methanol feed gas, partial oxidation cannot be used to produce the feed gas for conventional catalyst systems because such systems require a feed gas with very low levels of inert gases, especially nitrogen. Inerts such as nitrogen that build up in the recycle stream must be kept low for process efficiency. To produce feed gases with low levels of inerts, the partial oxidation would have to be carried out using oxygen and this approach renders this method of feed gas preparation economically unfeasible. The instant catalyst system makes it possible to take advantage of partial oxidation production of the synthesis feed gas because the high conversion eliminates the need for a recycle stream and thereby permits use of air rather than oxygen, saving the large costs for oxygen generation. A further improvement that results from the high efficiency of the process that permits one pass through operation is that the atmospheric nitrogen that enters the system through the air partial oxidation step leaves the reactor at reaction pressure and can be expanded to provide energy, for example for air compression.
The present invention provides a homogeneous catalyst that permits the production of methanol from a synthesis gas feed gas containing inert gases, at low temperatures and pressures and at high gas conversion rates. This represents a significant improvement in reaction conditions and process efficiency over the conventional methanol catalysts.

Homogeneous catalyst formulations for methanol production


The present invention will yield enhanced gain over a conventional antenna system by taking advantage of combining directional antennae. In one embodiment, the invention utilizes four 10 dB dipole, vertically-polarized, omni-directional antennae having a reflector added to each one to limit the horizontal beamwidth to 90.degree. and increase the gain to 16 dB. The vertical beamwidth remains at 7.degree.. By utilizing four of these antennae and utilizing power combining hybrids to connect each of the two opposed antennae together, excess gain over a 10 dB omni-directional system will be obtained. The effective antenna gain is equal to the directional antenna gain minus the omni-directional antenna gain minus the hybrid loss. Thus, the vertical beamwidth and physical height of the antenna are preserved with the increase in gain at the cost of a little antenna complexity.

Omni-directional antennae are in wide use in communication systems. In such systems, there is an attempt to maximize antenna gain in order to maximize the carrier-to-noise ratio and carrier-to-interference ratio. One method of maximizing omni-directional antenna gain is to stack dipoles in a collinear manner. There are, however, two limitations which must be considered when maximizing antenna gain by stacking dipoles in a collinear manner.
The first limitation is created by physical problems associated with the antenna. It is well known that the power gain of an omni-directional, collinear antenna varies directly with the length of the radiator. Thus, the longer the antenna, the greater the gain. However, simply increasing the length of the antenna to achieve the gain creates other problems. The Federal Communications Commission Rules require aircraft warning lighting on any antenna, itself, that extends more than twenty feet above the top of a tower, building or water tower. Thus, to achieve greater gain, decoupling networks would be required as well as a side ladder for changing the required lights. The additional length, then, creates both electrical and mechanical problems which are not easily solved without greater expenses being required. As the length of the antenna is increased, the physical strength of the antenna must be increased to account for the increased loading under wind loading conditions due to the longer lever arm.
The second limitation on achieving higher gain by stacking dipoles is the compression of the vertical beamwidth as the antenna is increased in length and the gain is increased. The beamwidth decreases by a factor of 2 to achieve each increase in antenna gain of 3 dB. As the beam narrows the criticality of mounting and of maintaining the exact perpendicular position of the antenna, even under wind loading, becomes very important. For a 10 dBd gain antenna, a movement of as slight as 31/2.degree. under high wind conditions, would cause a loss in signal level of 3 dB. It is apparent that such a higher gain antenna must be built more rugged, thus requiring heavier material to be used, in order to form more substantial towers for maintaining the antenna in a fixed position at all times. Further, as the beamwidth narrows, the dead zone or cone of silence beneath the antenna increases. This produces more dead spots. Further, phasing harnesses become more critical as the number of stacked elements increase.
The present invention overcomes disadvantages of the prior art by allowing antenna gain to be increased without increasing the antenna length (height) and without compressing the vertical beamwidth. This is accomplished by limiting the horizontal beamwidth of omni-directional antennae with the use of reflectors. By decreasing the horizontal angle of coverage of the omni-directional antenna, additional gain is achieved without sacrificing vertical beamwidth. Thus, at least four 16 dBd vertically L polarized antennae are formed by taking 10 dBd omni-directional antennae and adding reflectors to limit the horizontal beamwidth to 90.degree.. The vertical beamwidth remains at 7.degree.. Power combining hybrids connect each of the two opposed directional antennae. The output signal from the two hybrids is coupled to a diversity receiver where the amplitude and phase of the signals are adjusted and combined in a constructive manner.
The invention may combine N such directional antennae, where N is an even number .ltoreq.2, with each two opposing antenna outputs being coupled to a passive power combining hybrid. The output of each of the hybrids is then coupled to the diversity receiver.
Thus, the invention provides an improved system having enhanced antenna gain with the use of at least four directional antennae covering a 360.degree. horizontal beamwidth sector and a fixed vertical beamwidth sector and where each individual antenna is arranged to cover no more than a 90.degree. beamwidth sector. A power combiner (hybrid) is coupled to each opposed pair of antennae for combining the signals from the opposed antennae and a single channel diversity receiver is coupled to the hybrid combiners for optimally adjusting the phase and amplitude of each signal and combining the signals.
Each of the directional antennae comprises an omni-directional antenna and a reflector associated with each antenna to limit the horizontal beamwidth to no more than 90.degree..
In the general embodiment of the invention, at least N directional antennae covering 360.degree. horizontal beamwidth sector and having a fixed vertical beamwidth sector are constructed such that each individual antenna is arranged to cover no more than a 360.degree./N beamwidth sector where N=an even number .ltoreq.2. Thus, N=2, 4, 6, 8 and the like.
Further, the equipment arrangement as disclosed herein, has a single channel (frequency) for each receiver. To accommodate multiple channels, a preamplifier/power splitter (multi-coupler) is needed for each signal lead from each combining hybrid feeding each diversity receiver.


An imaging probe for a biological sample includes an OCT probe and an ultrasound probe combined with the OCT probe in an integral probe package capable of providing by a single scanning operation images from the OCT probe and ultrasound probe to simultaneously provide integrated optical coherence tomography (OCT) and ultrasound imaging of the same biological sample. A method to provide high resolution imaging of biomedical tissue includes the steps of finding an area of interest using the guidance of ultrasound imaging, and obtaining an OCT image and once the area of interest is identified where the combination of the two imaging modalities yields high resolution OCT and deep penetration depth ultrasound imaging.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of intravascular imaging, in particular to an integrated ultrasound guided optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic probe used in intravascular or biomedical imaging and a method of using the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a medical imaging methodology that has been used to show the anatomy of the wall of blood vessels in living animals and humans by using a miniaturized ultrasound probe. IVUS can help physicians determine the amount of plaque from the cross-sectional image of blood vessels. In other words, IVUS can visualize not only the lumen of the coronary arteries but also the objects hidden within the wall, such as atheroma. However, because the reflection coefficient of the ultrasound of blood vessel is quite small, high sensitivity and larger bandwidth ultrasound probe are key factors of high-quality intravascular ultrasound images. High sensitivity and large bandwidth probes can be fabricated by using high electromechanical coupling coefficient (Kt) piezoelectric materials. Research shows Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3—PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) is the one of the most promising high Kt commercial piezoelectric materials. It has been reported that a PMN-PT may be used as a single crystal transducer with a −6 dB fractional bandwidth of 114%.
On the other hand, the outer diameter of the ultrasound probe should be less than 3 mm to fulfill the requirement of IVUS biomedical imaging applications. Therefore, the fabrication of a miniaturized ultrasound probe is another important issue for IVUS imaging. High frequency (40 MHz) PMN-PT needle ultrasound transducers for biomedical applications have been made known in the art.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a recently developed imaging modality using coherent gating to obtain high-resolution surface images of tissue microstructure. OCT endoscope design uses a fixed gradient-index (GRIN) lens and prism as the optical tip. Rotational torque is transferred from the endoscope's proximal end to the distal tip. OCT can provide imaging resolutions that approach those of conventional histopathology and can be performed in situ and in vivo. In vivo images of living animals have been demonstrated by using motor-based scanning endoscopic probes known in the art.
Nevertheless, one of drawbacks of OCT is that it needs to use saline water to flush blood away from the probe in order to remove the interference received from the blood. Therefore, how to minimize the times of saline water flushing is becoming a major topic in the OCT research filed nowadays. This problem is currently solved by inserting a balloon catheter at the imaging region to achieve blood occlusion, or by injecting relative large amounts of saline or other agents to flush away blood. However, both solutions have medical safety concerns. In the case of IVUS imaging, blood serves as the natural transmission media of the sound wave.
Additionally, the imaging resolution of IVUS is much less than that of OCT. In particular, IVUS is able to visualize the coronary artery from the inside-out owing to its larger penetration depth than OCT. In direct contrast, OCT can provide high-quality, micrometer-resolution, and three-dimensional images which are superior to IVUS.
Therefore, what is needed is a novel imaging probe combining a high frequency IVUS transducer with a 3-D scanning OCT probe to obtain the high-resolution cross-sectional intravascular images.
Optical coherent tomography (OCT) and ultrasound imaging are two of the most widely used image modalities. These image modalities share with common advantages, including: low-cost, high spatial resolution, portable, real-time, noninvasive, and non-radioactive. OCT and ultrasound imaging both measure cross-sectional tissue image. OCT measures tissue surface profile and cross-sectional image within a few millimeter depth range under the skin with a superior image resolution of 10 micrometers; high frequency ultrasound imaging also measures cross-sectional tissue image with a much deeper depth but with lower image resolution, on the order of 100 micrometers. OCT and ultrasound imaging modalities can be combined to provide a deeper cross-sectional imaging (tomography).
However, conventional ultrasound imaging performs relatively poor in blood vessel imaging, with lower imaging contrast, due to weak echo-genicity of blood. With recent developments in photoacoustics imaging, this limitation can be resolved. Photoacoustics imaging exploits the selective absorption property of hemoglobin to visible and near infrared (500-1200 nm) radiation, while tissues are relatively transparent in this optical spectrum. Through the optical absorption and thermoelastic expansion of blood vessels to short laser pulses, broadband ultrasound echo signals, up to 40 MHz, are generated from nanosecond laser radiated blood vessels. Since photoacoustic signals share the same acoustic spectra with ultrasound, photoacoustics imaging can be acquired and reconstructed by conventional ultrasound system.
A paper, entitled "Photoacoustic imaging of blood vessels with a double-ring sensor featuring a narrow angular aperture" by Kolkman et al. (Journal of Biomedical Optics, 9(6), 1327-1335, 2004) has proposed the development of a photoacoustic imaging probe, consisting of a double-ring polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric polymer sensor and an optical fiber located at its center. A 600 micrometer diameter optical fiber is used to transmit near infrared light to excite blood vessels; the double-ring piezoelectric polymer sensors acquire acoustic signal to generate ultrasound image.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,231, entitled "Laser ultrasound probe and ablator" describes a laser ultrasound probe, consisting of a ultrasound receiving sensor, made of PVDF piezoelectric polymer material for receiving photoacoustic signals and an optical fiber for transmitting laser radiation and generating photoacoustic signals by radiating the laser onto blood vessels.
Both of the above related prior art documents fail to present the concept of integrating OCT/ultrasound imaging/photoacoustics imaging modalities into a single image probe.

Ultrasound guided optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic probe for biomedical imaging

The Regents of the University of California


A method of controlling a television receiver, and which includes receiving, via an input unit, an automatic channel setting command for automatically setting channels; searching, via a processor, television broadcast channels including television airwave and cable channels and media sources different than the television airwave and cable channels; and assigning, via the processor, preset channels to the television broadcast channels and assigning non-preset channels to the media sources found in the searching step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and corresponding apparatus for assigning channel numbers to multiple media sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Televisions reproduce and display data received broadcast providers and also reproduce and display data received from a Blu-ray disk (BD) player, a DVD player, set top box, etc. Thus, users can watch their favorite television program while it is being currently broadcast or can watch their favorite program at a later data if the program has been previously recorded. The BD player and DVD player also allow users to play music recorded on a disc such as a CD.
In addition, each of the different components associated with the television such as the BD player has its own remote controller for controlling operations related to its own functions. When a surround sound system is additionally included with the television, there can be as many as three or four separate remote controllers that have to be individually operated. The operation of the multiple components associated with the television is often cumbersome and difficult, especially for older people.

Navigation method of mobile terminal and apparatus thereof


A medical access shirt includes a shirt body having a pair of front shirt panels and a rear shirt panel carried by the front shirt panels and a generally elongated, rectangular rear shirt panel opening in the rear shirt panel.

Conventional medical garments typically include a lightweight short-sleeved cotton or polyester gown which is placed over the patient's arms and covers the front and sides of the patient. The gown may include a strap which can be tied to secure the gown over the backside of the patient. The medical garments enable medical personnel easy access to the patient for insertion of intravenous tubing and cleaning and the like while affording the patient a measure of dignity.
Terminal patients are often confined to a hospice facility in their final days. Such patients may be required to take painkillers or other medication by intravenous drip. These patients may also require regular cleaning by a hospice caregiver. Terminal patients are often visited by friends and family members who may wish to encourage the patient or have a final visit before the patient passes. Therefore, these patients may desire to wear clothing which is more presentable and stylish than conventional medical garments while at the same time provides medical access to caregivers.
Therefore, a medical access shirt which enhances medical access to a patient such as a terminal patient while giving the patient a styled or dressed appearance to the patient is needed.


The present invention relates to a silicone coating composition which, when cured on a solid substrate either by ultraviolet or electron beam radiation, provides a transparent abrasion resistant coating firmly adhered thereon. The silicon coating is prepared by reacting at least one multifunctional acrylate monomer with an amino-organofunctional silane, mixing the modified silane with at least one acrylic monomer and thereafter adding colloidal silica.

This invention delays with a siloxane composition used primarily as a transparent coating on solid substrates. More specifically the composition can be used to coat solid substrates to render such substrates abrasion resistant, weather resistant, ultraviolet light. (UV), resistant, and to allow such substrates to be tinted and/or dyed. The compositions of this invention when cured on solid substrates especially polycarbonate, yield uniform, gel free, glossy surfaces to the coated substrates. Current markets for such coatings are well established and will expand as the abrasion resistance and weatherability of these coatings is improved.
The present invention offers significant advantages over many of the known silicone coating compositions in that an amino-organofunctional silane is used instead of the more costly acryloxyfunctional silanes to solubilize and stabilize the colloidal silica. Silicone coating compositions found in the relevant background information such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,205 issued Jun. 19, 1984 and assigned to General Electric Company, Schenectady, N.Y., discloses an ultraviolet light curable, composition prepared from the addition of a multifunctional acrylate monomer to a mixture of an acryloxyfunctional silane and aqueous colloidal silica. The solvent remaining after mixing the components is removed with heating; a photo initiator is then added and the composition is UV radiation cured. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,504 issued Dec. 4, 1984 and assigned to General Electric Company, Waterford, N.Y., discloses an ultraviolet light curable composition prepared from the addition of a multifunctioal acrylate monomer to a mixture of acryloxyfunctional silanes, and/or glycidoxy functional silanes and aqueous colloidal silica. The solvent remaining after mixing the components is removed with heating; a photo initiator is then added and the composition is UV radiation cured. Thus, neither of these patents teach the composition or the process of the present invention.
Amino-organofunctional silanes and siloxanes have been incorporated into coating compositions that are used as adhesion promoters and releasing films but never before has colloidal silica been added to these formulations to provide a silicon coating composition which, when cured on a solid substrate provides a transparent abrasion resistant coating firmly adhered thereon. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,086 and assigned to Dai Nippon Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha: Shin-Etsa Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, both of Japan, discloses silicone compounds made by reacting a primary amino-organofunctional silane with a di-or multifunctional acrylic compound b a Michael addition reaction. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,026 and assigned to Dow Corning Corporation, Midland, Mich., discloses silicone compounds made by reacting a primary or secondary amino-organofunctional silane with a di-or multifunctional acryl compound by a Michael addition reaction. The uniqueness of the present invention is found in that it further reacts the products formed from the reaction between an amino-organofunctional silane and multifunctional acrylate with dispersions of colloidal silica to yield a transparent abrasion resistant coating with superior properties.

Radiation curable acryloxyfunctional silicone coating composition


An ESD protection structure comprising a first semiconductor region of a first doping type, a second semiconductor region of the first doping type, a semiconductor structure of a second doping type opposite to the first doping type formed to provide lateral isolation between the first and second semiconductor regions of the first doping type, and a first contact region of the second doping type formed within a surface of the second semiconductor region. A thyristor structure is formed within the ESD protection structure comprising the first contact region of the second doping type, the second semiconductor region of the first doping type, the semiconductor structure of the second doping type, and the first semiconductor region of the first doping type. Wherein no contact region is formed within a surface of the semiconductor structure of the second doping type between the first and second semiconductor regions of the first doping type.

Integrated circuit (IC) devices are prone to electrostatic discharge (ESD) events, whereby external contacts of the IC devices are subjected to large electrical charges (positive or negative). Functional circuitry within an IC device is required to be protected from electrical currents created by such large electrical charges at the external contacts of the IC devices, which can cause erroneous behavior within the functional circuitry and even permanently damage the functional circuitry due to the magnitude of the electrical currents that can be generated by ESD events.
To protect the functional circuitry of an IC device from ESD events, it is known to provide susceptible external contacts of the IC device with ESD protection structures. Conventional ESD protection structures typically include thyristor structures (i.e. P-N-P-N semiconductor structures) coupled between an external contact to be protected, such as an input/output (I/O) contact of the IC device, and a power supply contact (e.g. ground or Vss) to which ESD currents are to be shunted.
Silicon on insulator (SOI) technology refers to the use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate in place of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing, especially microelectronics, to reduce parasitic device capacitance, thereby improving performance. SOI-based devices differ from conventional silicon-built devices in that the silicon junction is above an electrical insulator such as silicon dioxide.
Conventional ESD protection structures have been found to have poor robustness against prolonged ESD gun stress tests when implemented with SOI technology due to current focalization causing hotspots within the ESD protection structures, and often do not meet ESD requirements for automotive applications and the like, for example the 2 k/330 pF gun model and the required +/−8 kV gun stress target.

ESD protection structure and method of fabrication thereof


A computer implemented method of creating a clustering model used for clustering a plurality of log messages comprising using one or more processors for receiving a plurality of training log messages, performing the following for each of the plurality of training log messages: calculating a string distance between a textual content of the respective training log message and a representative string pattern of each of the plurality of clusters, associating the respective training log message with a respective one of the plurality of clusters in case the string distance is within a predefined threshold and adding a new cluster to the plurality of clusters for associating respective training log message in case the string distance exceeds the predefined threshold, and outputting the clustering model.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to clustering of log messages, and, more specifically, but not exclusively, to clustering of log messages according to textual similarity of the log messages and string patterns of a plurality of clusters of a clustering model.
Computing platforms, systems, services and/or applications are constantly evolving in functionality as well as in scope and deployment. In order to maintain, improve and/or analyze such platforms, systems, services and/or applications involving huge data volumes, analysis tools capable of handling such large data volumes were developed.
A major paradigm for such big data analysis is data logging and log analysis which may serve for multiple objectives such as, for example, compliance with security policies, compliance with audit and/or regulation, system and/or application troubleshooting, forensics (e.g. during investigations, in response to subpoena, etc.), security incident response, understanding user behavior and/or the like.
The log messages or log files comprising streams of messages in time-sequence may be received from a plurality of sources such as, for example, computing devices, network devices, operating systems, services, applications and practically by any intelligent or programmable device.
The received log messages may be stored and analyzed in order to generate analytics data which may significantly improve exploring operational flows, characteristics, user behavior and/or the like of the platforms, systems, services and/or applications for which the data is collected.


A system and method enabling location-based activation of applications. The system comprises one or more servers storing and providing a persistent virtual world system including a virtual version of the real-world comprising one or more applications virtually attached to virtual-world entities positioned according to real-world coordinates, and being configured to compute the state of the virtual-world entities and to process the applications; send a minimum amount of application graphical representation to the user device responsive to receiving a notification of a user device accessing a trigger zone associated with the application(s); determine suitable application media streams to be sent to the user device responsive to receiving a notification of user interaction with the application graphical representation, perform heavy-load computational tasks on the media streams, and deliver the streams to the user devices, which perform lightweight computational tasks on the media content to output the media content.

Generally, location based services (LBS) are deployed in wireless networks that may be accessed by wireless devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, head-mounted displays, and other devices. LBSs may include a broad range of services that may be based on the current location of a user with respect to a specific place. Examples of LBS include providing the location of the nearest restaurant, banking automatic teller machine (ATM), or the whereabouts of a person; parcel tracking; providing advertising directed at potential customers based on the current customer location; and personalized weather services. LBSs are typically provided via a wireless network to which a user of a wireless device may subscribe or connect to as a casual user. Once connected, the current user location may be derived from various types of information, such as GPS, uplink time difference of arrival (u-TDOA), and others.
Certain applications, especially those involving immersive interactive experiences (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality or merged reality), may require media content rendering. Typically, these applications requiring immersive interactions are primarily downloaded and hosted on the client (device) side, resulting in high hardware demands to execute the applications. Users may also be required to download a plurality of applications, each application corresponding to a different type of experience, increasing memory and other hardware requirements on the user device. Furthermore, rendering using a user device, such as a mobile device or other mobile computers, due to hardware constraints, may limit the quality and type of media content that can be received by the users and the quality and speed of the media content streaming.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Location-based application stream activation


A device for monitoring the functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance includes at least one collecting chamber with at least one inlet orifice, at least one outlet orifice, and at least one sensor. The outlet orifice of the collecting chamber has a smaller cross section than the inlet orifice, and the sensor is a level sensor that transmits signals to an evaluation apparatus, by which an entire functioning of the rotating liquid-discharging appliance can be monitored. The monitoring device is disposed approximately in a region acted upon with liquid by the appliance to be monitored.

The invention lies in the field of appliances. The invention relates to a device for monitoring the functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance.
Rotating liquid-discharging appliances may be, for example, lawn sprinklers or spray arms of a dishwashing machine, etc. Should there be a fault in the functioning of such an appliance, for example, should it come to a stop, decreases efficiency and results. In the case of a fault with lawn sprinklers, a limited area of the lawn to be sprinkled is sprinkled with an unnecessarily large quantity of water and the rest of the lawn area is not sprinkled at all, thus, killing off the lawn because of over watering, on one hand, and because of no watering, on the other hand. With respect to such a fault with spray arms of dishwashing machines, the batch to be cleaned may be acted upon unevenly by cleaning liquid, thus, leading to an inadequate cleaning result. However, should such a functional fault of an appliance cause no liquid to be discharged, in lawn sprinklers this, of course, also leads to the lawn being killed off because of no watering and, in the case of spray arms of dishwashing machines, leads, of course, to no cleaning result at all because the batch to be cleaned is not acted upon by cleaning liquid (the cleaning liquid carrying out essentially all of the cleaning).
German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE-OS 37 32 451 discloses, for example, a monitoring device for the rotational movement of a spray arm of a dishwashing machine. The device checks only the rotational movement of the spray arm. It does not check the discharge of the liquid.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a device for monitoring the functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance that overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and that provides, in a simple way, a device that monitors the entire functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a device for monitoring a functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance, including at least one collection device defining a collection chamber having at least one inlet with a given cross-section, at least one outlet with a cross-section smaller than the given cross-section, and an interior fluidically connected to the inlet and to the outlet. The monitoring device having at least one level sensor fluidically connected to the interior and being disposed approximately in a region acted upon with liquid by the appliance to be monitored. The level sensor produces a signal to be evaluated by an evaluation device.
In the event of the fault-free rotation of the liquid-discharge appliance and in the event of the fault-free discharge of liquid, in the device according to the invention, the collecting chamber is filled with the liquid through the inlet orifice and is emptied again through the outlet orifice so that the sensor detects a constantly fluctuating filling level in the collecting chamber. The evaluation apparatus can interpret the fluctuation in a simple way as the satisfactory functioning of the liquid-discharging appliance. Should rotation and/or the discharge of liquid not take place, whether the collecting chamber is acted upon or not, the sensor does not detect a constantly fluctuating filling level in the collecting chamber, which is then interpreted by the evaluation apparatus in a simple way as a functional fault of the liquid-discharging appliance. When the collecting chamber is not acted upon with liquid, for example, when the appliance to be monitored is at a standstill or in the absence of the discharge of liquid, the sensor detects a constantly empty collecting chamber. However, should the collecting chamber be acted upon constantly with liquid, with the appliance to be monitored being at a standstill, the sensor detects a constantly fully filled collecting chamber. At all events, in both instances, no constantly fluctuating filling level is measured, so that the evaluation apparatus detects in a simple way a functional fault of the liquid-discharging appliance. The invention provides in a simple way a device by which the entire functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance can be monitored.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the cross-section of the inlet orifice and of the outlet orifice and also the volume of the collecting chamber are dimensioned such that, under normal functioning conditions of the appliance to be monitored, the liquid level in the collecting chamber oscillates periodically about a predetermined reference level. By such a measure, the device according to the invention becomes even more functionally reliable because a periodically oscillating liquid level can be evaluated even more easily.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the level sensor is an optical sensor, thus, achieving a simplification in the detection of the level in the collecting chamber.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the sensor part of the optical sensor is a V-angle shape of a substantially transparent vertical wall of the collecting chamber, the V-angle shape projecting with the vertex into the interior wall of the collecting chamber. When these optical sensors, normally referred to as immersion rods with light refraction, are used for liquid-level measurement, the device according to the invention becomes even more functionally reliable.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the sensor part is the V-shaped portion of the vertical wall.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, the inlet is fluidically connected to the region acted upon with liquid.
With the objects of the invention in view, in a dishwashing machine having an evaluation device and at least one rotating spray arm spraying washing liquid at least at a region in the machine, there is also provided a device for monitoring a functioning of the spray arm including at least one collection device defining a collection chamber having at least one inlet with a given cross-section, at least one outlet with a cross-section smaller than the given cross-section, and an interior fluidically connected to the inlet and to the outlet, having at least one level sensor fluidically connected to the interior, the level sensor producing a signal evaluated by the evaluation device, and being disposed approximately at the region in the machine.
In accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, the device is disposed in a dishwashing machine for monitoring the functioning of at least one rotating spray arm spraying washing liquid, with the result that the reliable cleaning action of the dishwashing machine is ensured in a simple way.
In accordance with yet an added feature of the invention, advantageously, the device is disposed in a side wall of the dishwashing machine, thus, achieving a simplification in the installation of the device according to the invention.
In accordance with yet an additional feature of the invention, the device is disposed in a door of the dishwashing machine. The largest possible variety of assemblies is normally installed in the door of the dishwashing machine, so that the installation of a further assembly does not signify any particularly high outlay.
In accordance with again another feature of the invention, the device is disposed in a cleaning-agent dispensing unit. By being installed in an assembly that is already present in a dishwashing machine, it is possible for the device according to the invention to be installed in the dishwashing machine without any further outlay.
In accordance with again a further feature of the invention, in the event of a fault, the signals from the level sensor lead, through the evaluation apparatus, to a change in the control and/or to the interruption of a program cycle and/or to the activation of an optical and/or acoustic warning signal, with the result that impairments of a cleaning result due to the malfunctioning of the spray arm can be avoided as far as possible.
With the objects of the invention in view, in an appliance having an evaluation device and a rotating liquid-discharging device spraying washing liquid at least at a region in the appliance, there is also provided a device for monitoring a functioning of the rotating liquid-discharging device including at least one collection device defining a collection chamber having at least one inlet with a given cross-section, at least one outlet with a cross-section smaller than the given cross-section, and an interior fluidically connected to the inlet and to the outlet, having at least one level sensor fluidically connected to the interior, the level sensor producing a signal evaluated by the evaluation device, and being disposed approximately at the region in the appliance.
With the objects of the invention in view, in combination with an appliance having an evaluation device and a rotating liquid-discharging device spraying washing liquid at least at a region in the appliance, there is also provided a device for monitoring a functioning of the rotating liquid-discharging device, the monitoring device including at least one collection device defining a collection chamber having at least one inlet with a given cross-section, at least one outlet with a cross-section smaller than the given cross-section, and an interior fluidically connected to the inlet and to the outlet, having at least one level sensor fluidically connected to the interior, the level sensor producing a signal evaluated by the evaluation device, and being disposed approximately at the region in the appliance.
Other features that are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a device for monitoring the functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance, it is, nevertheless, not intended to be limited to the details shown because various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Device for monitoring the functioning of a rotating liquid-discharging appliance


A method and system for controlling a flow control valve, comprising measuring a flow at a suitable point of a flow process and calculating a pressure drop across the valve from a Cv curve of the valve, a measured valve opening αm, and the measured flow (Qm). From this calculated pressure drop, a flow set point (Qsp), and an inverse Cv curve of the valve, a new valve opening (αc) providing the desired flow is calculated. The control is thus adapted to each operating point and its prevailing flow gain and linearizes the dependence between flow control and flow.

A control valve is generally used for a continuous control of a liquid or gas flow in different pipelines and processes. In a processing industry, such as pulp and paper, oil refining, petrochemical and chemical industries, different kinds of control valves installed in a plant's pipe system control material flows in the process. A material flow may contain any fluid material, such as fluids, liquors, liquids, gases and steam. The control valve is usually connected with an actuator, which moves the closing element of the valve to a desired open position between fully open and fully closed positions. The actuator may be a cylinder-piston, for example. The actuator, for its part, is usually controlled by a valve positioner or a valve guide, which controls the position of the closing element of the control valve and thus the material flow in the process according to a control signal from the controller.
Processes are controlled by control loops/circuits. A control loop or circuit consists, for instance, of a process to be controlled, a control valve, a measuring sensor and transmitter, and a controller. The controller gives the control valve a control signal as an analog current signal or a digital control message, for example. The measuring sensor measures a controlled variable, and the measurement product obtained is fed back to the controller, where it is compared with a given reference value. On the basis of the difference variable, the controller calculates the control for the control valve. Usually the controller functions in such a manner that it minimizes the difference variable by a suitable control algorithm, such as a PI or PID algorithm. This control algorithm is typically tuned for each valve during mounting or operation.
A known flow control implemented with a control valve comprises an entity consisting of a control valve, a controller and a flow indicator. A PID or PE type of controller receives a flow set point Qsp and a measured flow Qm. In the PID control algorithm it is assumed that the control valve is linear, i.e. that the flow is linearly dependent on the control signal, which is also referred to as a linear installed characteristic. When the control valve is linear, the controller parameters P, I and D may be fixed values. Flow gain dQ/dα (Q=flow, α=valve opening) of the installed control valve must in this case be constant in order for the control valve to operate in a stable manner and with as small an error as possible in the entire flow area to be controlled.
In practice, the characteristic of the control valve installed in the process pipeline is non-linear due to the natural characteristic of the valve, overdimensioning of the valve, pipeline losses and the pump curve. In other words, with different valve openings the flow gain varies considerably in process conditions. In this case, the PID controller gain should always be changed to adapt to each operating point in order to achieve a good flow control. Another problem is that the slope of the installed characteristic does not remain constant at the same operating point of the control valve but changes, for example, when the other control elements connected to the pipeline are performing control operations. For stability reasons, the controller parameters must often be set according to the highest flow gain of the value and the process conditions, and when changes take place, in the region of a lower flow gain the flow to be controlled has error a long time because of the slowness of the control. To alleviate this problem, the flow gain that changes regularly according to the flow may be compensated for by a tabulated gain of the controller. In practice, it is difficult to find tabular values, and they cannot be used for compensating for randomly changing process conditions.
Finnish Patent FI 53047 discloses utilization of a Cv (flow co-efficient) curve of a valve for controlling the control valve. In this known solution, the valve opening and the pressure drop Δp across the valve are measured. These are read to a control unit, in which there is stored the Cv curve of the valve as a function of the position of the closure member. By using a known flow equationQ=N*Cv*√{square root over (Δp/G)}  (1)
the control unit solves the required Cv value and, by utilizing the Cv curve, the required position of the closure member, when Q=Qsp, G=relative density of material flow and N=constant coefficient. Inaccuracies in the Cv curve of the valve, the measurement of the valve opening and the measured pressure drop across the valve appear as a permanent error in the controlled flow. The equations of the patent FI 53047 use the coefficient kv, whose value may be kv=0.857×Cv, for instance. The difference between the coefficient kv and the parameter Cv used herein is the unit used.

Control method and control system for a flow control valve


Apparatuses, methods, and systems for grouping antenna elements to enhance an antenna array response resolution, are disclosed. One method includes selecting a plurality of groups of antenna elements from an antenna array, wherein each group includes a plurality of antenna elements of the antenna array, determining an optimal phase setting for a beam directed from each group to a target device, and characterizing each of the groups including adjusting a phase of an electronic signal passing through each of the antenna elements of the group based on the optimal phase setting of the group, adjusting an amplitude ai of the electronic signal the passing through each of the antenna elements of the group to compensate for a loss of antenna array gain of the antenna array due to grouping of the antenna elements, and storing the adjusted phase and adjusted amplitude for each of the antenna element.

At least some multiple antenna systems operate to form beams for enhanced communication between wireless devices. Some wireless devices use low-resolution phase shifters for formation of the beams. However, low-resolution phase shifters can result in undesirable sidelobes in the antenna response.
It is desirable to have methods apparatuses, and systems for grouping antenna elements to enhance an antenna array response resolution.

Grouping antenna elements to enhanced an antenna array response resolution


A semiconductor memory apparatus capable of judging whether or not there is short circuit between bit lines 1 (word lines) by respectively connecting a plurality of the bit lines 1 (word lines), wired in parallel to each other so as to select memory cell for outputting data from a memory cell array 4 in which memory cells are arranged in the form of matrix, connected to power source potential line 14 and ground potential line 16 alternately through switching elements 5, 6 respectively, thereby measuring leak current flowing between the both lines 14 and 16 in the state where the switching elements 5, 6 are ON, a testing apparatus being provided with a power source 10 supplying to each of the switching elements 5, 6 of this semiconductor memory apparatus and with an ampere meter 11 for measuring leak current, and relieving method for the semiconductor memory apparatus from short circuit between the bit lines (word lines) by making the switching elements 5, 6 ON as well as applying overvoltage to the bit lines (word lines) from the power source 10, thereby generating Joule heat at foreign matter which short-circuits between adjacent bit lines 1 (word lines) so as to burn off the foreign matter by the Joule heat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor memory apparatus, particularly to a semiconductor memory apparatus which is composed of memory cell array and has signal lines, that is, memory cell select lines (bit lines, word lines) selecting the memory cell for writing in and reading out data, and further relates to a testing apparatus for detecting whether there is a short circuit or not between the memory cell select lines (bit lines and/or word lines) thereof and to a method for relieving the semiconductor memory apparatus from short circuit caused by foreign matter between the memory cell select liens.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional- semiconductor memory apparatus.
In FIG. 1, reference symbol 1 designates a bit line, 2 a selector, 3 a row decoder, and 4 a memory cell array respectively.
The memory cell array 4 is configured by arranging memory cells in the form of matrix. The bit lines 1 as column direction memory cell select lines of the memory cell array 4 are provided in plural number and wired in parallel to each other, and each bit line 1 connects memory cells of each column on the memory cell array 4 to the selector 2. Further, the word lines (not shown) as row direction memory cell select lines are also provided in plural number and wired in parallel to each other, and each word line connects memory cells of each row on the memory cell array 4 to the row decoder 3.
Such a conventional semiconductor memory apparatus is operated as follows.
Assuming that one word line is designated by the row decoder 3, memory contents of all the memory cells on the designated world line are read out and outputted to all the bit lines 1, and only the data outputted to one or more bit lines 1 selected by the selector 2 are read out.
By the way, as shown in FIG. 1, when foreign matter E attaches to two bit lines 1, 1 each being adjacent to each other, inter bit line short circuit between bit lines is generated. This is also the same as the word lines.
Conventionally, rejection of products in which inter bit line and/or inter word line short circuit in the process of producing and examination has been performed by such an indirect method that the memory contents of the memory cells are read out and judged whether or not it coincides with a predetermined expected value, not such a method that whether or not inter bit line and/or inter word line is generated in real is examined directly.
As aforementioned, in the conventional semiconductor memory apparatus, since short circuit generated between the bit lines and/or inter word lines as memory cell select lines of the memory cells was judged by the indirect method, the apparatus was not reliable in accuracy. There was also a problem that it required a long time to examine short circuit.
Further, there is also a problem that yield is low in production process since a product which was judged to have generated inter bit line and/or inter word line short circuit was rejected as a defective.

Semiconductor memory apparatus, test apparatus therefor and method for relieving semiconductor memory apparatus from short circuit


In a steering device for an outboard engine, a drive shaft of a helm mechanism and an output shaft of an electric assist mechanism are disposed orthogonally to a steering output shaft of a steering operation member. Where the steering operation member is a tiller handle, a torque sensor, provided between an outboard engine body and the tiller handle, detects, as steering torque, a difference between steering angles of the engine body and the tiller handle, and the helm mechanism, drivable by the assist mechanism, operates to compensate for the difference between the steering angles. The assist mechanism and the helm mechanism are provided on the body of the boat.

Generally, in boats provided with an outboard engine, a steering wheel or tiller handle is used, as s steering operation member of a steering device, for steering the outboard engine mounted on a rear end portion of the body of the boat. Among the conventionally-known outboard engine steering devices is one which includes an assist mechanism provided between a steering wheel and a hydraulic helm pump (hydraulic steering pump), and in which steering force (operating force) of the steering wheel is assisted by the assist mechanism. One example of such a steering device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-231383 (hereinafter referred to as "the patent literature"). Because the steering wheel is provided on a front portion of the body (typically on an instrument panel) of the boat separately and at a considerable distance from the outboard engine, the assist mechanism and hydraulic helm pump can be provided near the steering wheel.
With the prior art steering device disclosed in the patent literature, as the steering wheel is operated, the steering force of the steering wheel is assisted by the assist mechanism, so that a drive shaft of the helm mechanism can be actuated with a relatively small steering force; namely, the necessary steering force of the steering wheel can be reduced by the provision of the assist mechanism. By the drive shaft of the helm mechanism being operated as above, oil is ejected from the helm mechanism and directed to a steering means, so that the steering means is actuated by the oil to steer the outboard engine.
However, the prior art steering device disclosed in the patent literature, where the helm mechanism is provided in axial alignment with the steering wheel and assist mechanism, would undesirably have a great total length from the steering wheel to the helm mechanism. Thus, a relatively great installation space would be required on and in the body of the boat for installing the prior art steering device. Therefore, the application of the prior art steering device disclosed in the patent literature is limited only to boats where a relatively great installation space can be secured on and in the body of the boat.
Also known are steering devices provided with a tiller handle, in which the tiller handle is connected, via a connection section, to the body of the outboard engine so that the outboard engine body can be steered by a human operator operating the tiller handle leftward or rightward. However, because the tiller handle is connected to the outboard engine body via the connecting section, it is difficult to provide the assist mechanism and helm mechanism near the tiller handle.


A device for supporting an electronic display includes a support surface, a display mount configured to be coupled to a display, and a connection mechanism to connect the display mount to the support surface. The connection mechanism is configured to enable a rotation of the display mount between a first position and a second position. The device also includes a set of springs to provide a spring torque that counterbalances a gravitational torque exerted by the display. The connection mechanism causes a translation of the center point of the display relative to the support surface in concert with the rotation. The connection mechanism also causes the center of rotation of the display to shift during the rotation.

Computing devices are becoming hubs for business meetings, planning, designing, and communications. Some large format computing devices have larger displays and allow input and viewing by more than one user at a time. Collaborative computing devices and other computing devices allow for communication between groups of users, for example, in a business meeting. The collaborative computing device allow for users to interact with other, remote users through the large format display.
However, interaction with other users and presentation and input to the computing device commonly use different orientations or formats for the display and/or computing device. Interacting with a remote user, for example, in a web-conference is more natural when the display is oriented vertically allowing a majority of the user's body to be present in the frame. Presenting information from a website or in an application presentation (e.g., a slideshow) to local users may be more intuitive and comfortable with the display is oriented horizontally allowing more information to be visible to the room.

Multi-position display with an unfixed center of rotation


An event data recorder as a recording device for vehicles capable of recording clear sound data that may contribute to investigation of a cause of an accident in event recording data, regardless of a sound volume of an audio sound played back in the own vehicle, includes a video data acquisition unit configured to acquire video data including sound data and imaging an area around the own vehicle, a sound volume detection unit configured to detect a sound volume of an audio sound played back in the vehicle, and a recording control unit configured to record video data including data by which a sound volume of an audio sound can be determined and sound data on which an effect of an audio sound is small, when a sound volume of an audio sound detected by the sound volume detection unit is greater than a sound volume.

The present invention relates to a recording device for vehicles, a recording method for vehicles, and a program.
Event data recorders as recording devices for vehicles have become widespread in recent years. An event data recorder records video data in a predetermined period before and after occurrence of an event (detection of acceleration due to an accident or the like) as event recording data. Japanese patent application No. 2017-134646 discloses an event data recorder removing music from sound data included in video data, on the basis of music data acquired from an audio device, and recording the resulting data.

Recording device for vehicles, recording method for vehicles, and a non-transitory computer readable medium


This application discloses an object loading method performed at an electronic device. The electronic device determines a visible space located within an acquisition range of an image acquisition device located at a first position in a virtual scene and determines a target subspace located within a visible distance threshold indicated by a target type of a plurality of types in the visible space based on the first position, each type of the plurality of types having a visible distance threshold of an object in a subspace of the virtual scene. The electronic device then acquires an object whose visible distance is not greater than the visible distance threshold indicated by the target type in the target subspace as a to-be-rendered object and loads the to-be-rendered object in a storage resource of the user terminal to render an image of the virtual scene.

The concept of three dimensions (3D) is a concept of space. The space is composed of three axes X, Y, and Z with respect to a two-dimensional (2D) plane composed of only length and width.
The construction of a 3D virtual scene is one of the important applications of 3D. For example, a large-scale game is often provided with large scenes with numerous units such as people, animals, houses, trees, and stones. During the update of each frame of the game picture in a gaming process, objects in the scene are processed once sequentially, and the processing includes rendering and animation.

Object loading method and apparatus, storage medium, and electronic device

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


A dual beverage container holder for a vehicle. The vehicle includes a housing formed in the dashboard of the vehicle which has an opening facing the interior of the vehicle. The housing includes a central support member. An insert member includes a receiver member which is slideably journaled to the central support member. The insert member includes a base and an upper wall which are connected by the receiver member. The upper wall includes a pair of arcuate surfaces which face outward from the central receiver member. The lower wall supports at least a portion of the base of a beverage container. A pair of pivotal arms are connected to the insert and are biased for pivoting away from the receiver portion in response to sliding of the insert out of the housing. Each pivotal arm includes a free end having an arcuate surface facing toward the receiver portion for engaging the outside surface of a beverage container between the arcuate surface of the upper wall and the arcuate surface of the pivotal arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a beverage container holder for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a retractable space saving beverage container holder for extension and retraction from a dash board of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past it has been desirable to provide a construction for beverage container holders in vehicles. Several constructions have been provided including those using the door to the glove box or utilizing various storage compartments for providing a suitable location for holding beverages in the interior of the vehicle.
In the past it has also been desirable to provide a beverage container holder which would conserve space yet would allow the holding of two beverage containers at a time since it is often necessary to provide the holding of two containers at the same time when traveling in a vehicle. In addition, it has been desirable in the art to provide a beverage container holder which will hold securely various different sizes of beverage containers such as cans, bottles or coffee cups and the like and is readily adapted thereto. Examples of various container holders for vehicles are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,211 to McConnell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,037 to Flowerday; U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,584 to Dykstra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,572 to Dykstra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,908 to Dykstra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,157 to Parker; U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,072 to Owens; U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,742 to Pellegrino; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,659 to Arnold. While these cup holder constructions have been improvements in the art there remains a need in the art for an improved dual cup holder device which is retractable into a dash board orifice.


A track suspension is disclosed including a track, a drive wheel engaged with the track, a wheel support, a drive wheel shaft rotationally engaged with the wheel and a drive wheel shaft support. The wheel support is adjustably securable to the drive wheel shaft support in a plurality of laterally disposed positions and the wheel is slidingly positionable with respect to the length of the drive wheel shaft in correspondence with the adjusted position of the wheel support. Also disclosed is a tracked vehicle including a frame, at least one track suspension including a track, a drive wheel engaged with the track, a wheel support, a drive wheel shaft and a drive wheel shaft support. The wheel support is adjustably securable to the drive wheel shaft support in a plurality of laterally disposed positions and the wheel is slidingly positionable with respect to the length of the drive wheel shaft in correspondence with the adjusted position of the wheel support. Also disclosed is a method of adjusting the track width of a tracked vehicle, including the steps of (a) unfixing a wheel support of a track suspension from a drive wheel shaft support, (b) adjusting the lateral location of the track suspension with respect to the drive wheel shaft support, and (c) affixing the wheel support to the drive wheel shaft support.

It has long been known to provide work vehicles with endless track assemblies, or tracks (sometimes referred to as "crawler treads"), for ground support in order to provide increased traction and support, or flotation, upon moist or loosely packed soils. Due in part to their larger footprints which compact agricultural field soils less than do the tires of wheels of typical agricultural tractors, tracked vehicles have in recent years become increasingly popular in crop farming as well, particularly in connection with larger, heavier and more powerful tractors. Track assemblies, including undercarriage such as idler and bogie wheels, pivot brackets and other supporting structure may be referred to as track suspensions.
Maneuverability of a tractor with a connected implement is of importance, especially at the headlands of a field (i.e., at the ends of crop rows) where a tractor with implement must be turned 180 degrees. Larger wheeled tractors, which are provided with rigid frames having larger turning radii if provided with conventional front wheel steering systems, can require excessive maneuvering and/or width of headland. Their frames are therefore often hinged, or articulated, and they are steered by changing the angle of a front frame with respect to a rear frame, typically by use of a hydraulic cylinder bracketing a pivot joining the front and rear frames. This is an expensive configuration of construction, however, and is generally used only on very large tractors.
Larger tracked tractors utilizing articulated frames are produced in the QUADTRAC.TM. series of models by Case Corporation, assignee of the present invention. These utilize four endless track assemblies, one each generally located near the front and rear ends of the right and left sides of the tractor. Other tracked tractors generally utilize rigid frames with one endless track on the left side and another on the right side, and are steered by changing speed of either endless track with respect to the other. Such tractors can turn in extremely tight circles, but, in the hands of an inexperienced or inattentive operator, can easily and quickly be inadvertently jackknifed with an implement and damage the implement. Moreover, they provide a harsh ride and generally lack the directional stability desired for ease in making or following long, straight and parallel crop rows.
Because various types of crops often require differing row spacings for efficient utilization of a field, tractors are preferably provided with adjustable track width; i.e., the widths in front and rear elevation views between centerlines of tires or endless track assemblies. While this is relatively easily accomplished with wheeled tractors, it is generally a time-consuming and costly operation with a tracked tractor, requiring significant undercarriage disassembly.
It would be advantageous to provide for a work vehicle, such as an agricultural tractor, to offer the better ride and directional stability of a wheeled tractor while also offering the better traction and lesser soil compaction of a tracked tractor, without incurring the expense of an articulated configuration.
It would also be advantageous to provide for such a work vehicle to include endless track drives which are compact and which are relatively easily repositioned to change vehicle track width.


A plow bottom is configured to be easily reset when striking a rock while plowing. The plow operator may set the force required for the plow bottom to disengage using the adjustment switch. Once the shank strikes an object, the plow bottom will disengage. The plow operator then lifts the plow assembly using the tractor to raise the plow bottoms out of the ground. A spring then forces the disengaged plow bottom to reengage. Once the plow bottom is reengaged, the plow operator lowers the plow assembly and continues plowing the land.

Crops require and use essential nutrients from the top soil for growth. Over time nutrients tend to leech lower into the ground, and plowing the field is one way farmers bring the nutrient rich soil to the surface. Some crops, like cotton, leave thick stalks after being harvested which may cause the shanks on a plow to clog if the stalks are left in the fields while plowing. In order to avoid clogging, farmers may shred the cotton stalks and burn the fields. Also, many fields contain rocks, which can cause collision damage to the shanks. In order to protect the shanks, a shear bolt is used to connect the shanks to the plow to avoid damage by having the shear bolt break when the shank strikes a rock. Although use of shear bolts helps avoiding damage to the shank when a rock is struck, resetting the shank takes a significant amount of time. The plow operator must stop plowing the field in order to reset the shank. In order to reset the disengaged shank, the plow operator must walk to the disengaged shank, knock out the broken shear bolt, reengage the shank, replace with a new shear bolt, and then walk back to the cab of the tractor. The plow operator has to repeat this process every time a shank on the plow hits a rock that breaks the shear bolt, greatly reducing the efficiency of plowing a field.


A heat exchanger is described comprising a distributor having an outer housing and including a plurality of substantially parallel plates disposed within the housing and configured to partition an input two-phase flow into a series of primarily single-phase layers. A heat exchanger is described comprising a distributor having an outer housing including a plurality of substantially parallel channels disposed therein, each channel configured to uniformly and independently convey a portion of a homogenous input two-phase flow from an input of the distributor to an output of the distributor.

A heat exchanger may be used to provide for heat transfer from one medium to another. Heat exchangers may be used in a variety of application environments, such as refrigeration, air conditioning, power plants, petrochemical plants, petroleum refineries, gas processing, and sewage treatment.
A two-phase distribution (e.g., a distribution of both liquid and vapor) inside heat exchanger headers has posed a challenge. One environment in which such a challenge is present is in connection with evaporators of air conditioning units. Two-phase flow has been distributed using a closed-end tube with a series of holes in the side. An example of such a tube 102 is shown in FIG. 1. The tube 102 may include an open end 101, a closed-end 104 and a series of holes 106 between them. A two-phase flow may be inserted or injected into the tube via an opening. Such insertion/injection is shown via an arrow 108 in FIG. 1.
An assumption behind the tube 102 of FIG. 1 is that the flow of refrigerant entering the tube 102 at the open end 101 is annular and remains annular as it traverses the tube 102 towards the closed-end 104. If such an assumption held, a (near) uniform distribution of the two-phase refrigerant may be realized at the holes 106. In practice, the flow may tend to stratify as it traverses the tube 102 towards the closed-end 104. Such stratification may be a result of deceleration in the tube 102, and may be due to differences in mass between the liquid component and the vapor component of the two phases.
As a result of the stratification, the liquid component may tend to pool towards the closed-end 104 of the tube 102 in proximity to distal end holes 106a. Similarly, the vapor component may tend to pool and exit the tube 102 in proximity to the proximal end holes 106b. The non-ideal or non-uniform distribution of refrigerant that may be realized in actual practice may degrade the performance of the heat exchanger.
In order to address the issue of non-uniform distribution, the discharge holes 106 may be aligned at an angle, such as forty-five (45) degrees with respect to gravity. This approach, however, lacks robustness and is not universal for all operating conditions (e.g., quality and flow regimes).


A wrench for rotating a drive member such as a socket, the wrench having a housing including a head portion and a handle portion, the head portion having an inner peripheral wall defining an internal cavity; a set of drive teeth circumscribing the inner peripheral wall of the head portion of the housing and extending into the internal cavity; a drive gear disposed within the internal cavity of the head portion of the housing; a socket engaging drive member connected to the drive gear and extending outwardly from the head portion of the housing; a set of opposition gears disposed within the internal cavity of the head portion of the housing, the opposition gears being disposed between and interconnected with the drive gear and the drive teeth; and an operating assembly carried by the housing and operably associated with the drive gear, the operating assembly including a novel quick turn mechanism for controllably changing the operating mode of the wrench from a tightening mode to a loosening mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wrenches. More particularly, the invention concerns a ratchet wrench that provides constant drive to the output of the wrench upon rotational movement of the wrench handle in either direction.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Ratchet type wrenches are well known in the prior art. These types of wrenches function to apply force or torque to a nut or bolt without having to remove or replace the wrench at the end of each force-applying movement. Typically, such wrenches are used in conjunction with sockets configured for a particular nut or bolt size. While the typical prior art ratchet type wrenches provide for an acceleration of the work effort, they also exhibit an associated lost motion. More particularly, rotational movement of the wrench in one direction applies force, but during the return rotational movement no force is applied thereby resulting in wasted motion.
In the past, several attempts have been made to design ratchet wrenches that allow for drive during both the forward and return strokes of the ratchet handle. However, as a general rule, these past attempts have produced wrenches that are unduly complex, are difficult to use and are quite expensive to produce. Exemplary of these previous attempts are the prior art wrenches illustrated and described in the following patents:
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 7,168,340 issued to Green describes a ratchet wrench in which a combination ring gear, sun gear and planetary gear system is used in combination with a drive pawl arrangement to achieve power drive in both directions of operation. Accelerated speed of operation is attained upon the return stroke as a function of gear sizing. In other embodiments, the planetary gear system is replaced with an intermediate gear assembly external to and inter-engaging both a drive and driven gear.
In the prior art patent issued to Gilberto, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,132, a device in the nature of a wrench or the like is described in which reciprocatory rotary motion is converted to continuous rotation in one direction. The Gilberto device comprises first and second outer housings located in spaced relationship, a third intermediate housing lying between and joining the first and second housings, the intermediate housing having means for rotating it about a main axis, a ring lying within the intermediate housing and rotatable therein about the said main axis, the ring being formed with ratchet teeth on its outer periphery and with gear teeth on its inner periphery, a cluster of planetary gears carried within the ring and engaging the gear teeth of the ring, and a sun gear located within the cluster for rotation about the main axis and extending axially into engagement with both the first and second housings.


Exemplary embodiments of vented refill units and dispensers having vented refill units are disclosed herein. An exemplary refill unit includes a non-collapsing inverted container. The container has a neck located at the bottom of the container. A pump is secured to the neck. The pump has a housing that has a cylindrical outside surface. In addition, the housing has an attachment mechanism for attaching the pump to a venting insert. The venting insert has a cylindrical inside surface and a cylindrical outside surface. At least a portion of the venting insert is located within the neck. An air passage is located between the pump housing and the cylindrical inside surface of the venting insert. One or more apertures are located through the venting insert. A one-way air inlet valve is located proximate the one or more apertures.

Liquid dispenser systems, such as liquid soap and sanitizer dispensers, provide a user with an amount of liquid upon actuation of the dispenser. It is desirable to provide such a dispenser having a rigid container that is vented with air so that the pump may re-prime itself after a dispensing action. It is also desirable to provide such a dispenser that is easily recharged once the container runs out of liquid to dispense, and that is inexpensive to produce. Many prior art venting systems for containers leak when placed in an inverted position wherein the container of liquid is located above the pump. In addition, many prior art venting systems also leak when they are intermittently exposed to liquid. Further, over tightening of the pump to the container may cause the container to leak, or seal venting passages preventing the container from venting properly.

Vented refill units and dispensers having vented refill units


A reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus is provided which is capable of displaying bright images by decreasing the loss of projected light. The reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus employs a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) panel which assures a display mode (scattering or absorption mode) which does not employ a polarizing film, unlike a conventional liquid crystal panel. It has been found that such polarizing film reduce the efficiency with which the projected light is utilized. Since such a polarizing film is not used, and since the driving circuit portion which blocks the projected light and which serves as the non-opening portion can be utilized effectively for display, brightly displayed images can be obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display apparatus, and, more particularly, to a reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus which is capable of displaying a bright image by reducing a projected light loss.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus, for example, in a display apparatus which employs an STN liquid crystal, such as disclosed in Japanese Application No. Hei 2-111554, a polarizing film is provided on an optical path for display, and display is performed by utilizing changes in the rotated state of the plane of polarization of light, caused by the application of an electric field to the liquid crystal layer.
In the conventional reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus of the above-described type, at least 50% of the projected light is lost due to the provision of the polarizing film. Therefore, the display screen of the conventional reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus is not sufficiently bright, and there has been a demand for increasing the brightness of the display screen.

Reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus having a reflective pixel electrode with an elongated window over a photoconductive element


A rate control method comprises determining a target buffer fullness for each frame of a plurality of frames, obtaining a real buffer fullness for a previous frame of the plurality of frames; determining a target allocation for a current frame based on the real buffer fullness and target buffer fullness for the previous frame, wherein at least two frames of the plurality of frames have different target buffer fullness.

Generally, in case of encoding source video stream into groups of pictures (GOPs) with a predetermined format and transmitting the GOPs over a communication channel under a target rate, a video processor may comprise an encoder to encode the source video stream, a controller to control an output rate of the encoder and a buffer to temporarily store the GOPs before being transmitted over the channel. The controller may control a target allocation (e.g., target bit number) for the encoder to encode a current frame based on a pre-determined target fullness for a buffer.


A fluid actuated packer 10 and collar 36 assembly is provided for positioning on a tubular member 12. The collar 36 is moveable by a running tool 110 positioned within the tubular member and has a closed position and a packer activate position, fluidly connects the collar 36 to the packer element 14 when in the packer activate position, and closes off the flow path 26 when in the closed position. According to a method of the invention, the flow path 26 extends from the collar to the expandable packer element 14 and is open to activate the packer element 14 and closes off the flow path 26 when in the closed position.

In many oil and gas wells where cementing casing in an existing borehole is required, a cement column must be placed from the bottom of the well to or near the surface. The strength of the formation (rock) may not allow such placement in a single pumping program. In such cases, a multiple stage cementing program must be achieved.
In order to achieve more than one circulation of cement, devices are provided to open and close a hole in the casing. Such devices known as "stage tools" are operated between the open and closed positions using hydraulic forces, including plugs displaced from the surface to the tool. Port collars serve a similar purpose, and are opened by a mechanical shifting device on a tubular string (work string) inside the casing.
In addition to providing the device to open and close a hole in the casing, many applications also require the use of a packer to seal the annulus between the casing and open hole to support the additional hydrostatic pressure which will be exerted by the higher density cement slurry when placed into the annulus. Devices used to achieve this seal are commonly known as casing packers, and may consist of an inflatable device or compression seal device, each activated by the application of fluid pressure from the inside of the casing to the expandable packer element.
Typically, inflatable packers contain two or more valves in a packer head. One valve normally controls the pressure at which inflation is initiated, and a second valve controls the maximum pressure that is applied to the packer. In cases where the inflatable packer element ruptures during the inflation process or afterwards, these valves are designed to fail in a position which does not leave a flow path between the inside of the casing and the annulus.
Due to varying conditions in wells, these fail safe valves do not always function properly and may require remedial operations to eliminate the flow path, such as squeezing cement into the valve ports. Such operations can be expensive but must be successful in order to continue drilling deeper or completing the well for production of oil or gas. Similar valves in compression seal packers have the same shortcomings, and may similarly require a cement squeezing operation to close off flow to the annulus.
A standard procedure for achieving a two-stage cementing program is to pump a volume of cement down the inside of the casing and out the end. The volume pumped is determined by the capacity of the formations to withstand the additional hydrostatic pressure applied by the cement column without fracturing or otherwise causing the cement to penetrate into the formations. When such second stage cementing operations are achieved by using a "stage tool," any cement left inside the casing and the displacement plugs that activate opening or closing of the ports must be removed by drilling through the tool, since no circulation is possible once the packer is set. Drilling cement and plugs from the inside of a stage tool can be difficult, particularly at shallow depths where there may be minimal weight of the pipe string used for such drilling, so that drilling penetration rates through the cement and plugs are slow. Hydraulically operated stage tools also require a large cement pumping volume due to the diameter of the casing, and hydraulic plugs may have sealing reliability problems.
Particularly in wells where the second stage application is shallow, a few hundred feet for example, the port collar device is preferred as such is opened, closed and tested by a mechanical shifting device run on a tubular, such as drill pipe. Any excess cement left in the tubing or casing may be removed by circulation between the interior of the casing and the interior of the drill pipe.
Relevant patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,684,551, 2,435,016, 2,602,510, 2,659,438, 2,928,470, 3,247,905, 3,464,493, 3,503,445, 3,527,297, 3,948,322, 4,424,860, 4,479,545, 4,499,947, 4,850,432, 5,024,273, 5,109,925, 5,297,633, 5,314,015, 5,375,662, 5,383,520, 5,488,994, and 5,400,855.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, and an improved packer with a controlled port collar is hereinafter disclosed.


A system for providing an iterative method of assessing accuracy of selec models of physical phenomena and for determining selection of alternate models in response to a data sequence in the presence of noise. Initially, a residual sequence is generated reflecting difference values between in response to said data sequence and an expected data sequence as would be represented by a selected model. Feature estimate values of a plurality of predetermined data features in the residual sequence are then generated. In response to the feature estimate values, a threshold value is generated for each feature at an estimated ratio of data to noise. Probability values are generated in response to the threshold value, representing the likelihood that the feature exists in the data sequence, does not exist in the data sequence, and that the existence or non-existence in the data sequence is not determinable. Finally, a model is selected in response to the probability values for use during a subsequent iteration.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of systems and more particularly to system that assesses the accuracy of assumed models of physical phenomena and provides alternate model selections in connection with information concerning the model, in the presence of noise in connection with the information. In a preferred embodiment, the invention facilitates selection of the physical processes relating to motion of a signal source moving in a medium, the propagation of the signal through the medium and the interception of the signal by the sensors being in response to received signals which may be corrupted by noise.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Expert systems can be used to identify likely models of physical phenomena in response to information about the state of the phenomena, particularly where the information is corrupted by noise. The above-identified Baylog, et al., and Ferkinhoff, et al., I are articles which generally describe a system which is used to model the motion of an object through a fluid in response to information which is received by arrays of acoustic sensors placed in the fluid. The acoustic sensors receive acoustic signals which arise from motion of the object through the fluid, or which may be emitted by the object as it propels itself through the fluid. The particular types-of sensors in the array may be selected to detect certain types of information. For example, sensors may be selected to provide the azimuth bearing of the object relative to the sensor, the angle of depression or elevation of the object relative to the location of the sensor, and the frequency of the signal. Information from these sensors may be used to provide evidence to support models representing the motion of the object through the fluid.
One problem that arises in determining the likelihood that particular models accurately represent physical processes, including the motion of the target object, is that the sensors are likely to receive not only the signals as generated by the moving physical process or object, but also noise. Indeed, noise may be due not only to acoustic signals generated by other objects than the one being modeled, but also by reflections of the signals being generated by the object being modeled off of discontinuities in the fluid, such as off the ocean floor or surface, resulting in multi-path distortion. Depending on the relative levels of the signals and the noise, certain features which are present in the signals which are used to make the determination may be masked by the noise, or at least their detection may be difficult.

Expert system for assessing accuracy of models of physical phenomena and for selecting alternate models in the presence of noise

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


Embodiments herein include an augmented reality (AR) system that predictively renders images which may reduce or remove lag. Instead of rendering images in response to sensing changes in the user orientation, the AR system generates predictive images by predicting future user orientations. The AR system can render multiple predictive images that each includes AR content that will be displayed at a future time. Because the predictive images are generated using different user orientations, the location of an object in the AR content in each of the predictive images is different. The predictive images are transmitted to the AR device which selects one of the images to display by comparing the orientations used to generate each of the predictive images with the current (actual) orientation of the user.

Virtual or augmented reality headsets have long been used for many different applications, spanning many different technological fields. In virtual reality systems, computer-generated virtual scenes are generally provided on an opaque display. In mixed and augmented reality systems, computer-generated virtual scenes or objects are combined with the views of a real-world scene on a see-through display.

Predictive rendering of augmented reality content to overlay physical structures