A clutch driving module is disposed in a lock which is able to drive the clutch driving module selectively to control an exterior handle assembly whether be able to drive a latch assembly in lock or unlock or not. And the clutch driving module is able to respectively make an interior handle assembly and the exterior handle assembly controlling the lock in lock or unlock independently.

Referring to FIG. 1, a lock 100 is usually disposed on a door for security or personnel access control, wherein the lock 100 includes an interior handle assembly 110, a latch assembly 120, an exterior handle assembly 130 and a retractor 140. A latch 121 of the latch assembly 120 is lodged into a door frame, an exterior handle 131 of the exterior handle assembly 130 is not able to drive the retractor 140 to drive the latch 121 of the latch assembly 120 in operation when a control button 111 of the interior handle assembly 110 is pressed or turned, and the lock 100 is locked.
Turn an interior handle 112 of the interior handle assembly 110 to restore the control button 111 and unlock the lock 100 when the door is intend to unlock.
Or, use a key 150 to drive a lock cylinder assembly 132 of the exterior handle assembly 130 to restore the control button 111 of the interior handle assembly 110 and unlock the lock 100.
Owing to the reason that the control button 111 of the interior handle assembly 110 must be pressed or turned before lock the door 100, so the exterior handle assembly 130 is not able to lock the door 100 when the control button 111 of the interior handle assembly 110 is not pressed or turned, therefore causes inconvenience of the user.


A seal assembly forms a barrier between a compressor's interior and exterior regions. The seals assembly includes a primary seal stage and a secondary seal stage. The primary seal stage is formed of materials chosen to effectively block flow of gas through the seal assembly. The secondary seal stage is formed of materials chosen to survive a failure of the primary seal stage.

Seal systems are used in a wide variety of rotary shaft devices, such as blowers, compressors, and pumps, which have critical sealing requirements. Dry gas seal systems provide a barrier between the gas in the working chamber, or process gas, and the external environment to minimize the loss of process gas to the environment. Seal systems may include two stages of seals arranged in tandem to improve reliability. Mosley and Haynes, in European Patent Application publication EP 0 701 074 A1, describe a dry gas seal with two face seal stages of the same construction.
Dry gas seals operate with very small gaps or separations between opposed sealing surfaces. Brittle materials such silicon or tungsten carbide are used for some sealing surfaces to provide precise surfaces for small separations between the opposed sealing surfaces. Such materials may, however, fail and a failure can be catastrophic.
The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above as well as additional problems discovered by the inventor.


A method of making a window pane that has a plurality of glass pieces arranged in a predetermined pattern and joined at adjacent edges by cames having flanges on both faces of the pane. The method includes the steps of making a mold of both faces of a master window to be duplicated, positioning pieces of glass which are copies of these used to make the original onto the molded surface of one mold with the edges of each piece of glass adjoining the open channel pattern of the mold, said pattern produced by the cames of the master window. The faces of the mold portions are joined, clamping the glass pieces between them. Moldable, colored resin is introduced to fill the spaces between the glass pieces and allowed to set. The finished article is then removed from the mold and has cames which faithfully duplicate in pattern, color and texture the leaded cames of the original.

Leaded glass windows, popularly known as stained glass windows, have been a popular tradition since before the Renaissance. The windows or panels are made of individually cut pieces of glass which are joined by soldered H-shaped lead cames that support the glass pieces at adjacent edges. The pieces of glass are often of different colors and cut in predetermined shapes to produce a desired design. The methods used to make the traditional product have changed little to the present time and require a tremendous amount of labor to hand cut, assemble and solder the pieces of glass and lead together.
Due to the increasing popularity of incorporating the windows or panels into doors and windows of buildings, such as churches and residences, and into various articles of furniture, there is a need for a method of making the articles in a faster, more efficient and more economic way.
In addition, there is a need to overcome the several disadvantages of traditional leaded glass windows. These disadvantages include weight and the inability of lead to adhere to the glass resulting both in air and water leakage and in loose glass pieces. Over time lead will decay or rot, clay applied to the window as an additional sealant will dry out, break up and fall out, and because of the weight the window will sag.
Various methods have been proposed for making simulated stained glass windows. The goals have been two-fold: to reduce the amount of labor needed, and thus the cost; and to make an article which is stronger and more trouble-free than those made in the traditional way.
A variety of prior art methods are disclosed in the following U.S. patents. Charlton, U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,850, teaches the use of a single glass pane with a unitary, pre-cast reticulated came network adhesively applied to the surface of the glass. Meltzer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,260, discloses a method of simulating stained glass using pieces of textured plastic joined at the edges by plastic adhesive. Goralnik, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,217,326 and 4,343,758, disclose a method of making a cut glass panel comprising a plurality of cut glass pieces joined by cames made of epoxy resin in a predetermined pattern. The method comprises the steps of: a) producing a silicone mold with grooves in the face in the pattern of the cames; (b) pouring epoxy resin into the grooves to form the flanges for one side of the glass panel and allowing it to cure; (c) removing the flanges from the mold; (d) positioning pieces of glass on the mold; (e) filling the spaces between adjacent glass pieces with epoxy resin; (f) arranging the previously formed flanges on the upper surface of the glass pieces so as to adhere to the epoxy resin at the top of the spaces; (g) allowing the entire assembly to cure; and (h) removing the completed panel from the mold.
Additional methods are disclosed in the following U.S. patents: Gibson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,140 (pattern etched into glass and filled with colored composition); Nussbaum, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,835, (L-shaped frame supporting glass pieces with a cover having flat strips simulating the cames); Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,456 (plastic cames are pre-formed and a liquid plastic is poured into the spaces on top of a removable filler); McCracken, U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,958 (pane of clear glass supports color layers on one side and cames on the other); Holt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,689 (plastic cames disposed on top surface of a glass sheet); Ferro, U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,235 (die mold contains a plastic film with dark strips in registry with die recesses and has a liquid resin injected into mold cavity); and Del Grande, U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,847 (joins pieces of glass together with an adhesive containing solder).
Many of the foregoing procedures have their own disadvantages, including the inability to produce a realistic stained glass window, the cost to set up a production run and overall weakness of the resultant product. Thus, there is still the need for a method that produces a realistic product that still overcomes the aforementioned defects.

Method of making a stained glass article


Various methods and systems are provided for edge windowing of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In one example, among others, a method includes obtaining an edge windowing portion by reducing a cyclic prefix size for a quantity of edge subcarriers in an OFDM symbol and reducing side lobes by applying a windowing function to the edge subcarriers. In another example, a device includes a separator capable of dividing subcarriers of an OFDM symbol into first and second subcarrier groups, a first CP adder capable of obtaining a windowing portion by adjusting a cyclic prefix size of the first subcarrier group, and a first windower capable of reducing side lobes by applying a windowing function to the first subcarrier group. In another example, a method includes determining a RMS delay spread of a mobile station and scheduling a subcarrier based at least in part upon the RMS delay spread.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a signaling scheme that may be used for cognitive radios and spectrum aggregation techniques. However, rectangular windowing of OFDM symbols produces high side lobes, which results in adjacent channel interference (ACI). It would be desirable to reduce the ACI while maintaining a high level of spectrum efficiency for OFDM based systems.


The present invention relates to an optical communication network and to a network element for use in such a network. The network element comprises a plurality of receivers (70-76) for receiving optical communication signals, a plurality of transmitters (54-62, 82-86) for transmitting optical communication signals, and a plurality of network connections, each network connection having an individual signal impairment characteristic. The pluralities of receivers (70-76) and transmitters (54-62, 82-86) are adapted to employ a plurality of different modulation schemes (64, 66). Furthermore, the pluralities of receivers (70-76) and transmitters (54-62, 82-86) are assigned to the network connections as a function of the individual signal impairment characteristics.

The invention is based on a priority application EP03360055.2 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a network element for use in an optical communication network and in particular to a network element for use in a DWDM communication network.
The invention further relates to an optical communication network comprising corresponding network elements.
Optical communication networks and in particular DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex) communication networks are basically known. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,307,986 B1 discloses an approach for protection switching in bidirectional WDM optical communication networks using transponders. The background portion of this document provides a general overview of such kind of networks and refers to further background literature.
A basic idea of a DWDM communication network is to transmit a plurality of optical communication signals across a common optical fiber by using wavelength division multiplexing. This means that the plurality of messages to be transmitted is modulated onto a plurality of optical carrier wavelengths thereby providing wavelength separated communication channels for each message.
The modulation process may be carried out using various modulation techniques and parameters. Each of the various alternatives is referred to as a modulation scheme in the following. The modulation schemes may comprise different modulation formats, such as Amplitude Shift Keying with Return-to-Zero signals (RZ), Amplitude Shift Keying with Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ), Phase Shift Keying and in particular Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK), Phase-Shaped Binary Transmission (PSBT), and others. The modulation schemes may further comprise different modulation techniques, such as direct modulation of a laser source or external modulation of a continuous light beam provided from a light source. Likewise, the optical network may be designed to communicate message signals with a specific bit rate in all the communication channels.
As it is known to the skilled person in the field of optical communication technology, optical signals propagating along an optical fiber suffer from a plurality of different signal impairments, in particular from chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, scattering and others. Since these signal impairments become more severe the longer the spans between an optical transmitter and an optical receiver is, it is difficult to scale up an existing optical communication network designed for covering short or medium distances to long haul or ultra-long haul hops. Moreover, since the signal impairments are also dependent on the wavelength used, it is also difficult to add or switch to new wavelengths in an existing concept.
Previous approaches to cope with the increasing problems of signal impairments in long distance optical networks have envisaged the introduction of dispersion compensation devices, preferably adaptive compensation devices. While it is basically possible to increase the signal quality transmitted over long distance hops, such compensation devices are rather expensive thereby increasing the costs of the overall network concept. Additionally, there may be circumstances where such adaptive compensation devices introduce instabilities in the network.
On the other hand, it is known to those skilled in the art that different modulation schemes, and in particular different modulation formats, might be differently affected by the signal impairments. In other words, a PSBT transmission, for instance, is more robust against dispersion than NRZ, for instance. A successful approach using PSBT is disclosed, for instance, by Charlet et al., "Capacity over 21×100 km Using Bandwidth-Limited Phase-Shaped Binary Transmission", ECOC′02. Likewise, a RZ modulation format is interestingly robust against polarization mode dispersion, cf. Khosravani et al., "Comparison of Different Modulation Formats in Terrestrial Systems with High Polarization Mode Dispersion", OFC′00, WL5.

Network element for use in an optical communication network, in particular a DWDM communication network


Processing a dataflow program by a program development tool includes analyzing an actor defined by the dataflow program to identify original sequences of actions that can be reformulated to achieve greater execution parallelism while maintaining the same functionality as the original sequences. A processed dataflow program is produced comprising processed dataflow program instructions and decision point program instructions. The processed dataflow program instructions comprise alternative sequences of reformulated actions that achieve greater execution parallelism while maintaining the same functionality as the identified one or more original sequences. The decision point program instructions direct processing equipment to select and execute one or more of the alternative sequences of reformulated actions, wherein selection is based on state and token information in existence at the time of selection. When more than one alternative sequence can be selected, selection of sequence with highest parallelism is preferred.

The present invention relates to dataflow programming environments, and more particularly to processing a dataflow program in a manner that results in a processed (e.g., reformulated) dataflow program having the same functionality but with increased parallelization within individual actors.
Dataflow modeling is emerging as a promising programming paradigm for streaming applications for multicore hardware and parallel platforms in general. This more constrained programming model benefits high-level transformations and facilitates advanced code optimizations and run-time scheduling.
A dataflow program is made up of a number of computational kernels, (called "actors" or "functional units") and connections that specify the flow of data between the actors. An important property of a dataflow program is that the actors only interact by means of the flow of data over the connections: there is no other interaction. In particular, actors do not share state. The absence of shared state makes a dataflow program relatively easy to parallelize: the actors can execute in parallel, with each actor's execution being constrained only by the requirement that all of its inputs be available.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary graphical representation of a dataflow program 100 having seven actors, identified with respective reference numerals A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The actors A, B, C, D, E, F, and G carry out their functions by means of their code (i.e., program instructions) being executed within a processing environment 101 that comprises one or more programmable processors 103 that retrieve program instructions and data from one or more non-transitory processor readable storage media (e.g., as represented by memory 105). Connections between the actors are indicated by arrows. The dataflow program 100 illustrates that an actor can have one or more input connections, and can have any number of output connections, including none. For example, actor G lacks any output ports, and is consequently commonly referred to as a "sink". A sink does not affect the state of the other actors. In practice, sinks typically represent interaction with the environment in which the dataflow program executes. For example, a sink could represent an actuator, an output device, or the like. A sink could also represent a system that has not yet been implemented, in which case the sink mimics the missing subsystem's demand for input.
Feedback loops can be formed as illustrated in this example by actors C, D, E, and F forming a cycle, and also by actor B having a self-loop. It will be observed that feedback limits parallelism, since an actor's firing (i.e., its execution) may have to await the presence of input data derived from one of its earlier firings.
Communication between actors occurs asynchronously by means of the passing of so-called "tokens", which are messages from one actor to another. These messages can represent any type of information (e.g., numeric, alphabetic, program-defined values, etc.), with the particular type of information in any one case being defined by the dataflow program. As used herein, the term "value" refers to the particular information (as distinguished from the information type or range of possible information instances) represented by a token or instance of an actor state without any limitation regarding whether that value is numeric, alphabetic, or other, and without regard to whether the information is or is not a complex data structure (e.g., a data structure comprising a plurality of members, each having its own associated value).
The dataflow programming model is a natural fit for many traditional Digital Signal Processing (DSP) applications such as, and without limitation, audio and video coding, radio baseband algorithms, cryptography applications, and the like. Dataflow in this manner decouples the program specification from the available level of parallelism in the target hardware since the actual mapping of tasks onto threads, processes and cores is not done in the application code but instead in the compilation and deployment phase.
In a dataflow program, each actor's operation may consist of a number of actions, with each action firing as soon as all of its required input tokens become valid (i.e., are available) and, if one or more output tokens are produced from the actor, there is space available in corresponding output port buffers. Whether the firing of the action occurs as soon as it is instructed to do so or whether it must nonetheless wait for one or more other activities within the actor to conclude will depend on resource usage within the actor. Just as the firing of various actors within a dataflow program may be able to fire concurrently or alternatively may require some sort of sequential firing based on their relative data dependence on one another, the firing of various actions within an actor can either be performed concurrently or may alternatively require that some sequentiality be imposed based on whether the actions in question will be reading or writing the same resource; it is a requirement that only one action be able to read from or write to a resource during any action firing.
An input token that, either alone or in conjunction with others, instigates an action's firing is "consumed" as a result (i.e., it is removed from the incoming connection and ceases to be present at the actor's input port). An actor's actions can also be triggered by one or more state conditions, which include state variables combined with action trigger guard conditions and the action scheduler's finite state machine conditions. Guard conditions may be Boolean expressions that test any persistent state variable of the actor or its input token. (A persistent state variable of an actor may be modeled, or in some cases implemented, as the actor producing a token that it feeds back to one of its input ports. In FIG. 1, the actor B's self-loop can be an example of a persistent state variable of actor B.) One example (from among many) of a dataflow programming language is the CAL language that was developed at UC Berkeley The CAL language is described in "CAL Language Report: Specification of the CAL actor language, Johan Eker and Jörn W. Janneck, Technical Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M03/48, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., 94720, USA, Dec. 1, 2003", which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In CAL, operations are represented by actors that may contain actions that read data from input ports (and thereby consume the data) and that produce data that is supplied to output ports. The CAL dataflow language has been selected as the formalism to be used in the new MPEG/RVC standard ISO/IEC 23001-4 or MPEG-B pt. 4. Similar programming models are also useful for implementing various functional components in mobile telecommunications networks.
Typically, the token passing between actors (and therefore also each connection from an actor output port to an actor input port) is modeled (but not necessarily implemented) as a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) buffer, such that an actor's output port that is sourcing a token pushes the token into a FIFO and an actor's input port that is to receive the token pops the token from the FIFO. An important characteristic of a FIFO (and therefore also of a connection between actor output and input ports) is that it preserves the order of the tokens contained therein; the reader of the FIFO receives the token in the same order in which that token was provided to the FIFO. Also, actors are typically able to test for the presence of tokens in a FIFO connected to one of the actor's input ports, and also to ascertain how many tokens are present in a FIFO, all without having to actually pop any tokens (and thereby remove the data from the FIFO).
The interested reader may refer to U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,272 to Janneck et al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The referenced document provides an overview of various aspects of dataflow program makeup and functionality.
As observed earlier, the amount of parallelism that can be extracted from a dataflow program is limited by feedback. This is because feedback limits the number of executions ("firings") of an actor that can be performed (simultaneously) before the actor requires an input that depends on the result of one of those firings. Reference is again made to FIG. 1, which illustrates two examples of feedback: one being the connectivity between actors C through F and another being the self-loop of actor B.
Also as mentioned above, although actors do not share state, it is in many cases convenient to allow each actor to have local state. In the general case, mutation of the local state serializes the execution of the actor (i.e., the result of one firing is required by a subsequent firing). A common practice is to represent this constraint using feedback, with each stateful actor having a connection that is a self-loop (see, e.g., the actor B in FIG. 1). Any firing of the actor (at least conceptually) reads the current state as input and produces the possibly updated state as output.
Setting aside consideration of dataflow programs for the moment, parallelization and vectorization of sequential programs have been considered in other programming contexts. Loops (i.e., iterative control-flow constructs, such as "for"-loops) traditionally form the basis of such techniques. The amount of parallelism (e.g., the number of instances of the "loop body" that can execute in parallel) is limited by data dependence.
In an imperative programming language, such as C and FORTRAN (both of which have been studied extensively in the context of parallelization and vectorization), parallelization might be limited by true data dependence as well as artificial data dependence. True data dependence is the constraint that a value must be computed before it can be used (e.g., true data dependence exists in a program in which a first statement assigns a value to a variable a, and a subsequent statement utilizes the variable a), whereas artificial data dependence stems from the fact that storage (variables of the program) can be assigned (given values) multiple times (e.g., artificial data dependence exists in a program in which a variable a is used in a program statement that precedes a subsequent statement in which the variable a is assigned a new value; in this case, the subsequent statement cannot be executed until the first statement has been executed). There are two types of artificial data dependence: anti-dependence and output dependence. Anti-dependence is the requirement that all uses of a variable must take place before the variable is reassigned. Output dependence is the constraint that the order of two assignments must be preserved.
Unlike true data dependence, artificial data dependence can, at least theoretically, be eliminated by replicating storage. Examples of practical techniques to this end are:                "Scalar renaming", which gives a variable a different "name" (storage location) in different parts of the program. Ideally, each assignment is associated with a distinct "name" (in which case no artificial dependence remains).        "Scalar expansion", by which an array is substituted for a scalar variable.        In this way, each loop iteration gets a unique storage location for the scalar variable.
There are also techniques that transform a program into a form that has an identical effect, but that avoids true data dependences that prevent parallelization. For instance:                "Induction variable substitution", which substitutes a linear expression in a loop counter for a variable that is incremented (or decremented) by a constant in each iteration of the loop. The concept of induction variables can be generalized into other sequences that can be expressed as functions of a loop counter. This technique is thus not limited to linear functions.        "Idiom recognition", which substitutes an efficient parallel implementation for part of a loop that computes a particular function (from a set of "known" functions). An example employs so-called "reductions" (sum, product, min or max, etc., over all elements in an array). Given original code that uses a scalar variable to accumulate results, which serializes loop iterations (true data dependence), each of the mentioned reductions has a parallel implementation with an equivalent effect and these implementations could be known to a compiler a priori.
The interested reader is referred to H. Zima, "Supercompilers for Parallel and Vector Computers", ACM Press, NY, USA 1991, ISBN 0-201-17560-6, pages 180, 184, 225, and 235 (which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) for more information about the various techniques discussed above. For more information about induction variable substitution, reference is also made to M. Wolfe, "Beyond induction variables", in Proc. ACM SIGPLAN Conf on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI '92), 1992, pp. 162-174, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Returning now to a consideration of dataflow programming, given that the current practice is to serialize the firings of an actor with local state, slower execution of such programs can be expected. One could avoid this result by disallowing local state in actors, but such an approach would make dataflow programming less expressive and more cumbersome to use in practice. The alternative, which involves serialized execution of actors with state, may introduce serial bottlenecks in an implementation of a dataflow program on parallel hardware (e.g., multi-core, multi-processor, vector processor systems).
The inventors of the subject matter described herein have considered that one way to address this problem is to find a way to reformulate the actor's program code in a way that retains the code's functionality while increasing parallelism between that actor's actions. One impediment in following through with this approach, however, is that the techniques that are known in the field of parallelization and vectorization of loops in sequential control-flow programs are not directly applicable in the context of dataflow programs. The main complication is that, in general, the effect of each actor firing depends on both state and inputs. This breaks the regular access patterns that are required in loops, which are candidates for parallelization (or vectorization).
Considering the bigger picture, it is a great challenge to efficiently and automatically parallelize (or vectorize) a program that is written in a sequential, imperative programming language (e.g., C or FORTRAN). By contrast, a dataflow program is parallel by construction, because its actors can execute in parallel. Nonetheless, the parallel execution of actors in a dataflow program does not bring with it parallel execution of actions within an actor. Since dataflow programs are often run in processing environments that facilitate parallel execution of processes, it would be advantageous to make use of this environment to speed up the execution of individual actors defined within a dataflow program.
It is therefore desirable to have improved dataflow program parallelizing/vectorizing methods and apparatuses for achieving higher levels of parallel code execution in connection with dataflow programs.

Parallelization of dataflow actors with local state


Conventional game consoles have a preference to connect to the Internet, which facilitates audio communications by gamers. However, when conventional game consoles are connected over a local area network, they somehow inhibit audio communications. A game communications exchange is coupled to game consoles and audio gear sets of gamers to facilitate audio communications by creating a common channel and distribute audio information from the common channel.

Where multiple gaming consoles are connected together in a LAN environment (such as in a team-versus-team setup at a tournament), it is difficult for the individual gamers to communicate with their teammates and also hear the sounds of their individual games. As such, at a gaming tournament, with teammates sitting side-by-side in front of multiple game screens with their volumes turned up, the teammates communicate strategy to each other by shouting. The gamers would like to be able to isolate sounds so that they can hear their individual games' sounds (shooting, explosions, music, and so on), but they also would like to be able to communicate with their teammates.

Game system mixing player voice signals with game sound signal


A series of appliances including a first appliance and a second appliance. The first appliance can be configured to receive at least one tooth of a first jaw and have a first number of bite adjustment structures extending from the lingual surface of the first appliance. The first number of bite adjustment structures can have a first shape and location specific to a first stage of the treatment plan. The second appliance can be configured to receive at least one tooth of the second jaw, have a second number of bite adjustment structures extending from the second appliance and be designed to make contact with the first number of bite adjustment structures.

In some dental treatment cases, a patient may have a malocclusion, where the patient's teeth do not line up properly. One example of a malocclusion is a deep bite, which is an acute case of an overbite where the patient's lower teeth are overlapped by the upper teeth and the lower incisors may come into contact with the gingival tissue in the upper arch of the jaw. A deep bite can be an aesthetic problem and/or a problem with health consequences such as damage to the roots of the upper teeth, damage to the gingival tissue in the upper arch of the jaw, and/or wearing of the bottom teeth from frictional contact with the upper teeth, among others.
Some previous approaches to correcting a deep bite condition in a patient may have included intrusion of the anterior (e.g., incisors and/or canines) teeth and/or extrusion of the posterior teeth (e.g., premolars and/or molars). Extrusion of the posterior teeth may be facilitated by the use of bite turbos (e.g., metal blocks adhered to a back (lingual) surface of the upper anterior teeth to reduce contact between posterior teeth in an opposing jaw and allow for more eruption), anterior bite plates contacting the anterior dentition while allowing posterior eruption (e.g., in non-adult patients)). However, extrusion of posterior teeth in adult patients may lead to unstable results. Intrusion of the anterior teeth may be facilitated by anchor bend (e.g., metal anchors on the molars that are used to apply an upward force to the incisors), J-hook headgear, expansion screws, or bypass archwires that bypass premolars and/or canines to maintain reduced forces by lengthening the span between molars and incisors. Another previous approach to correcting a deep bite condition in a patient may be orthognathic surgical correction in which the jaw is surgically modified to reduce or correct the malocclusion.
These methods may be effective, but they may have to be accomplished before alignment of the teeth of the jaw can be initiated and/or cause the patient to recover from surgery prior to beginning treatment for occlusion. Additionally, in some situations, crooked or tipped teeth may not allow these types of devices to be utilized or may render them ineffective.


A system and method are provided for downloading data to a client device by deferral to an on-line storage device. A client sends a login request to a network-connected remote service device, and receives a remote service identification (ID) from the remote service device. The client sends a token request message, with the remote service ID, to a network-connected on-line storage device, and receives a first token identification (ID) associated with a first session and an on-line storage ID from the on-line storage device. The client sends an upload request message to the remote service device. The upload request message includes the first token ID and on-line storage ID, and identifies a first file to be uploaded to the on-line storage device. Subsequent to the on-line storage device receiving the first file from the remote service device, the client downloads the first file from the on-line storage device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital information communication and storage, and more particularly to a system and method for deferring the downloading of data to a client from a network-connected remote service provider.
2. Description of the Related Art
As noted in Wikipedia, a proxy server is a server (a computer system executing an application program) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server evaluates the request according to its filtering rules. For example, it may filter traffic by IP address or protocol. If the request is validated by the filter, the proxy provides the resource by connecting to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the client. A proxy server may optionally alter the client's request or the server's response, and sometimes it may serve the request without contacting the specified server. In this case, it 'caches' responses from the remote server, and returns subsequent requests for the same content directly.
A proxy server may be used to speed up access to resources through caching. For example, web proxies are commonly used to cache web pages from a web server. A proxy server can be placed in the user's local computer or at various points between the user and the destination servers on the Internet. A caching proxy server accelerates service requests by retrieving content saved from a previous request made by the same client or even other clients. Caching proxies keep local copies of frequently requested resources, allowing large organizations to significantly reduce their upstream bandwidth usage and cost, while significantly increasing performance. Most ISPs and large businesses have a caching proxy.
A proxy that focuses on World Wide Web traffic is called a "web proxy". The most common use of a web proxy is to serve as a web cache. Most proxy programs provide a means to deny access to URLs specified in a blacklist, thus providing content filtering. This is often used in a corporate, educational or library environment, and anywhere else where content filtering is desired. Some web proxies reformat web pages for a specific purpose or audience, such as for cell phones and PDAs.
Conventionally, most systems use rudimentary shared access to download or upload data on behalf of a third party. Typically, a remote service must know the user's credentials prior to connect to an on-line storage system on behalf of the user. The problem is that the user must communicate the credentials to the remote service before, or at some point during the transaction. Since these credentials are stored for future use, and may be used in multiple transactions, they can becomes "stolen", subjecting the user to unknown liabilities.
It would be advantageous if large data downloads from remote service devices could be deferred, by temporarily storing the data in an on-line storage device.

System and method for deferred data downloading


Parametric shape recognition is achieved through a decomposition of shapes into a hierarchy of subshapes ordered by their decreasing restrictions. Instances of each of the subshapes are individually located in the design shape and then reconstructed to form an instance of the entire shape. The basis for the hierarchy of subshapes can be specified by the designer or based on the default parameter relations that come from architectural and engineering knowledge. The levels of the hierarchy are defined so that the most constrained lines of a shape are those lines that the designer intended exactly. These most constrained lines have specified parametric relations to other line segments and those relations, if altered, will compromise the designer's intentions. Conversely, the lowest level of the hierarchy, which contains the least constrained line segments, only implies a specific connectivity between line segments, necessitating a vaster search. The parametric recognition of curved line shapes uses a two-step approach that first performs shape matching with an equivalent straight-line shape then checks those transformations for matching with the actual curved lines. This approach has advantages over just matching characteristic polygons in that it can match equivalent curves with differing characteristic polygons as well as emergent shapes.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to shape grammars and, more particularly, to shape grammar systems and methods having parametric shape recognition.
2. Description of the Background
A shape grammar provides a formal method for the construction of shapes. Knowledge is encoded within a grammar in the shapes that define its rules. Synthesizing designs in the language defined by the grammar is a matter of applying rules beginning with an initial shape and finishing with a terminating rule.
Shape grammars originated in the architectural field from work done by Stiny and Gips (1972, Shape Grammars and the Generative Specification of Painting and Sculpture. Information Processing 71, IFIP, North-Holland, Amsterdam) where they were used to capture the style of Queen Anne houses (Flemming, U. 1987. The Role of Shape Grammars in the Analysis and Creation of Designs. Kalay Y. E. (ed.), Computability of Designs (New York: John Wiley), pp. 245-272.) and articulate the rules of Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie house (Koning, H. and Eizenberg, J. 1981. The Language of the Prairie: Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Houses. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 8:295-323), among other applications. Shape grammars can be classified as a production system (Stiny and Gips, Production Systems and Grammars in a Uniform Characterization, Environment and Planning B, 7:399-408 (1980)) containing all of the necessary parts, objects, system definition, and an interpretive mechanism. A shape grammar is a set of rules, based on shape, that is used to generate designs through rule applications. Rules take the form of a→b, where a and b both denote shapes. A rule is applicable if the left-hand shape, a, can be found in the design shape, denoted c. If the rule is applied, the left hand shape is subtracted from the design and the right-hand shape is added to the design, denoted c−τ(a)+τ(b), where shapes a and b undergo a transformation τ according to the transformation required to make shape a a subshape of shape c.
Shape grammars, having their roots in architecture literature, have recently found application in engineering, such as in the design of coffeemakers, lathe process plans, roof trusses, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators. Shape grammars may be conceptualized of as a type of expert system based on geometry. Shape grammars, however, have succeeded in engineering applications where traditional expert systems have failed because of: (i) their direct handing of reasoning about geometry; (ii) their ability to operate on a parametric geometric representation; and (iii) their ability to support emergence of shape. These advantages presage a future in which shape grammars play an increasingly larger role in engineering design in comparison with the traditional expert systems.
Representation of products with a shape grammar is limited by the technology available to implement the grammar. A shape grammar interpreter must provide the means to add, subtract, and perform subshape matching in order to implement a grammar. A system that can perform addition, subtraction, and recognition operations on shapes as well as interface with a human user or automated function is called an interpreter. Interpreters can implement any shape grammar whose shapes are limited to the restrictions implied by the shape operations. Shape grammar interpreters provide a quick method to move a shape grammar from paper to an implemented design synthesis tool. Krishnamurti, The Arithmetic of Shapes, Environment and Planning B. Planning and Design 7:463-484 (1980) described a method for non-parametric subshape recognition of lines in two and three dimensions as well as shape addition and subtraction.
In the past, however, shape grammars have been limited by the difficulty and time intensity in their implementations. Implementations have not allowed for general parametric shape recognition. Engineering shape grammars in particular have been restricted to limited, non-parametric shape recognition and often are hard-coded. These drawbacks minimize much of the beneficial potential of shape grammars.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a shape grammar system that uses shape recognition to provide, for example, an automated approach to product generation. There further exists a need for a shape grammar system in which engineering knowledge (geometry-based and otherwise) may be incorporated into implementation design rules in order to drive design exploration and the generation of designs toward a desired end.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A heat radiating conduit having heat radiating fins is arranged in adjacency to a pneumatic tube receiving pressurized air in cooperation with a thermostatic switch to actuate pressurizing of the tube upon obtaining predetermined ambient air temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to radiant heat apparatus, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved radiant heat apparatus wherein the same is directed to the directing of pressurized air between heat radiating fins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Radiant heat apparatus is available in the prior art and typically represented by a fluid conduit directing heated fluid therethrough, with the conduit further including various heat dispensing structure. The instant invention attempts to overcome deficiencies of the prior art by providing for, in addition to a heat conduit to employ radiant fins, a bore assembly to direct air between the fins to direct such heat throughout an environment.


A circuit for recognizing double key inputs includes a key input part, a key signal generating part, a comparing circuit and a detecting part, the key signal generating part operates simultaneously with the key input of the key input part and generates a key signal which is provided to the comparing circuit which outputs a high level only at the time of two or more key inputs. A high level output of the comparing circuit is added to an output voltage of the key input part when two or more keys are pressed. The circuit provides the advantage that double key inputs can be easily recognized with a minimum number of key input lines.

A method in which the key input can be recognized by a minimum number of signal lines has been needed because multiple lines, such as scanning lines, cannot be used in the structure of inputs by separated keys or a fuzzy chip such as a cleaner. Generally, a fuzzy chip and a circuit receiving a separated key or an analog input form a system which is able to recognize a key input with a minimum number of signal lines without scanning lines. Therefore, for such a structure of a separated key or fuzzy chip, such as a cleaner, multiple lines, such as key scan lines cannot be used, and a method is required for recognizing the keys with a minimum number of lines.
To solve this problem, each of the keys can be constructed so as to be provided with a different level of input voltage from each other. However, while this enables the recognition of key inputs by a minimum number of signal lines, a circuit for applying different voltage levels to a key input circuit according to each key is very complicated. Particularly, if two or more keys are pressed, recognizing errors of key inputs can occur and it is difficult to detect same.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional switch multiple selection detecting circuit as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. Pyung Sung 1-103317. The circuit includes a plurality of switches 1 arranged in a matrix, a switching driving circuit 7 for driving the switches 1 by means of a clock, a flip-flop 2 for memorizing a switch state of the switches in a constant period as driven by the switch driving circuit 7, a multiple selection detecting part 4 for determining whether or not the switch is multiple-selected from the output of the flip-flop 2 and a strobe signal generating part 13 for outputting a signal when a multiple selection does not occur so that a low level signal is output when the multiple switch is selected, whereas when the multiple switch is not selected, the high level signal is output by a strobe signal output OK. As shown in FIG. 1, strobe signal generating part 13 may include an AND gate having a pair of inverted inputs. One of these inputs receives an output 9 from detecting part 4, and the other one of the inputs receives an output 8 from circuit 3 which is an NAND gate coupled to receive outputs of the flip-flop 2. As also shown in FIG. 1, the clock provided to circuit 7 and flip-flop 2 is provided by the circuit including NAND gate 11 and inverter 12. In the conventional circuit, the output is stopped, if multiple switches are selected, and otherwise, the operation according to the input key is performed. Accordingly, the existence of the multiple switch selection is determined only to perform a more accurate operation, and the method for recognizing multiple key inputs by one line has not been suggested. Also, while multiple switch selection key input errors are detected by stopping the output, the constitution of the circuit is rather complicated.


An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal spectrum shaping device comprises an input interface configured to receive an input signal, a modulation portion coupled to the input interface, configured to modulate the input signal to generate a plurality of uncompensated sub-carriers, and a sub-carrier gain control module configured to selectively apply a plurality of gain factors to the plurality of uncompensated sub-carriers to generate a plurality of compensated sub-carriers that are substantially equal in amplitude.

Multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) is a modulation technique used in some wireless communication systems such as ultra-wideband (UWB). The MB-OFDM modulation technique combines OFDM modulation with frequency hopping. It is a modulation technique suitable for devices designed to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations relating to UWB devices.
Unlike most other wireless systems in which the transmit power limit is typically set with respect to the total power integrated over the entire signal band, UWB devices are allowed to operate within a relatively wide frequency band provided that two criteria are met. First, the occupied bandwidth is required to meet a predefined minimum. Second, the radiated power measured over an integrating bandwidth anywhere within the signal band is required to be less than a predefined maximum. According to the current regulations, UWB devices are allowed to operate in the frequency band between 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The occupied bandwidth is required to meet a minimum of 500 MHz and the radiated power, when measured over a bandwidth of 1 MHz anywhere within the signal band, is required to be less than −41.3 dBm.
Since in UWB the integrating bandwidth (1 MHz) is much smaller than the bandwidth of the UWB signal itself (500 MHz), the shape of the spectrum is an important issue. In order to maximize the output power of a MB-OFDM transmitter, the spectrum of the generated signal should be made as flat as possible. FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a frequency spectrum of an ideal UWB signal. In practice, factors such as D/A converter pulse shape, non-ideal filter characteristics, component variations and data characteristics tend to affect the shape of the spectrum. FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating the frequency spectrum of a typical UWB signal generated by an existing device. There are peaks and variations in the frequency spectrum. The transmit power is typically limited by the largest peak in the signal spectrum. It would be desirable to have a UWB MB-OFDM transmitter design that would generate a flat output spectrum over the operating frequency range of the transmitter.

OFDM signal spectrum shaping device and method for OFDM signal spectrum shaping


A long sequence correlation coprocessor LSCC accelerates the bitwise corrtion of arbitrarily long digital sequences by calculating in parallel the correlation score for 16, for example, adjacent bit alignments between two binary sequences. The LSCC integrated circuit is incorporated into a computer system with memory storage buffers and a separate general purpose computer processor which serves as its controller. Each of the LSCC's set of sequential counters simultaneously tallies a separate correlation coefficient. During each LSCC clock cycle, counter enable logic associated with each counter compares one bit of a first sequence with one bit of a second sequence to increment the counter if the bits are the same. A shift register assures that the same bit of the first sequence is simultaneously compared to different bits of the second sequence to simultaneously calculate the correlation coefficient by the different counters to represent different alignments of the two sequences. Two sequence input elements, each with a control block, present the sequence bits serially to this shift register and the count enable logic associated with the sequential counters. Two (or some other number of) data receivers accept externally clocked serial data streams, divide them into computer words, and make them available for the external computer processor to transfer to external memory storage buffers. The external computer processor controls the LSCC's correlation process by writing appropriate control parameters to the LSCC's control registers; by writing the length of the sequences to be correlated to the LSCC's length register; by coordinating the flow of the data streams from the LSCC's data receivers to the memory storage buffers; by coordinating the flow of the words of data from the memory storage buffers to the LSCC's sequence input elements as required; and by reading the correlation coefficients from the sequential counters upon completion of each full correlation calculation.

The present invention relates to the field of binary data correlation and more specifically to correlation coprocessors. Digital correlation is the process of establishing the degree of similarity between two digital sequences by counting the number of bits which are the same in the two sequences. For example, the 9-bit sequences "010010101" and "011010110" have a correlation coefficient of 6, meaning that they are the same in 6 of the 9-bit positions. The correlation coefficient is dependent on the alignment of the two sequences, so that if the second sequence is rotated right one bit, to become "00101011", the correlation coefficient falls to 4. An incoming stream of data may be correlated with one or more predetermined sequences to determine which of them is embedded in the data stream, and where. Or, a data stream may be compared with itself to detect periodic patterns, and to establish the length of these patterns. Alternatively, two incoming data streams may be compared to each other to determine the degree to which they match, and to determine the optimum synchronization alignment between them. PG,4
A number of VLSI correlation integrated circuits have been developed over the past decade. To minimize correlation delay for extremely time-critical applications such as radar, the logic incorporated in these chips calculates a correlation score using a parallel adder, so for each correlation clock cycle, typically 50 ns, the correlator calculates the score for the next alignment of input data and the reference pattern. Therefore the number of input bits to the adder must be as large as the length of the sequences to be correlated. Current correlation integrated circuits can typically handle 64 to 256 bits of data at a time. If longer sequences must be correlated, more hardware is required.
Consider, for example, a data processing application in which a binary data stream is coming in from a radar or some other high data-rate source at 10 Mbps (10 million bits per second). Every time a new bit comes in, the preceding 100 bits of the data stream have to be correlated with a given 100-bit reference pattern. The chip is initially loaded with the reference pattern, and then the data stream is fed in at 10 Mbps. Every 100 ns a new bit is clocked into the chip. The same clock also shifts the last 99 bits inside the chip, and 100 comparators inside the chip each generate a "1" for each bit that matches or a "0" signal for each bit that does not match. Then a large adder array sums the number of "1" signals, and the correlation coefficient appears in binary on 7 parallel output lines (perhaps on the next clock pulse, 100 ns later). So every 100 ns, which is the bit time of the data, one new correlation coefficient is calculated. Thus a 100-bit sliding window of the data is correlated with a predefined bit sequence, in real time. The numbers of this example may be applicable to a radar application, and current chip technology supports this kind of processing speed.
However, there are circumstances where it is necessary to correlate much longer sequences of data which may have been previously captured and stored in computer memory, or which arrives at a much lower data rate. Consider, for example, an acoustic application, in which the data is coming in at 10 kbps (10 thousand bits per second, or 1,000 times slower than the radar example mentioned above) and it is desired to correlate a 10,000-bit pattern (100 times longer than before). If the previous approach is merely expanded, 100 times as many chips will be needed, each running at 1/1000 the speed of which it is capable.
Moreover, while prior art correlation processors calculate the correlation between incoming serial data and a predefined reference sequence, in many correlation applications the reference pattern is not known in advance; repetitions within the incoming data itself have to be analyzed. The approximate length (for example, 10,000 bits) of the repeating pattern is known, but doppler effects can shorten or lengthen it. To correct for this effect, the actual pattern length must be determined, so the last 9,990 bits are correlated with the preceding 9,990; the last 9,991 bits with the preceding 9,991; . . . and the last 10,010 bits with the preceding 10,010. This does not need to be done for every new bit that comes in, just once per pattern block of 10,000 bits; 10,000 scores are not needed for every 10,000 bits, just 20 or so, to track the doppler error. After the doppler correction is determined for a block of data, it is also possible to reprocess the same data in order to identify other repetition patterns in the data.
Thus, there is a need for VLSI correlation processing hardware that can economically address acoustic and other applications requiring the correlation of long sequences of binary data.

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


A suspension set for an agricultural implement includes a first arm, a holder attached to a portion of a chassis of the agricultural implement, the holder comprising an attachment point for receiving the first arm to allow pivoting of the first arm, a first flange associated with the first arm, and at least a disc associated with the first arm via the first flange. The holder comprises a second attachment point to receive a second arm to allow pivoting of the second arm. The first flange is replaced by a second flange when the second arm is inserted. The second flange is associated with the first and second arms and with the disc. Receipt of the second arm and replacement of the first flange by the second flange provides a pantographic movement to the disc.

In general, planting implements (such as planters) are towed behind a tractor or other working vehicle through a hitch attached to a rigid structure of the implement, such as a chassis. These planting implements typically include multiple row units of planting distributed across the width of the implement, wherein said planting rows may vary in number, such as from 2 to 30 planting rows, or even more. Each planting unit is configured to cut the straw, open a groove in the soil, deposit seeds at a desired depth below the soil surface, thereby establishing planted seed rows, close the opened groove and, in some models, compact the soil after closing.
Optionally, planters may also comprise a system of fertilizer deposition on the soil when a groove is opened in the soil, wherein said fertilizer deposition may be carried out together with the opening disc. Furthermore, silos or tanks to store seeds and fertilizer, as well as systems for dispensing seeds and fertilizer may be coupled to the implement rigid structure, which herein is also referred to as chassis.
Planters are agricultural implement quite known and widespread in the state of the art, which is a reason why there is no need for more detailed description herein.
The discs performing the opening (groove) in the soil to allow seed deposit—herein referred to as opening disc—is usually mounted on a suspension to accompany the irregularities of the soil and open grooves at a constant depth. Seed deposit at a constant depth with respect to the soil surface is a desirable feature because it increases the crop yield, given that the growth of the crop will be more homogeneous with respect to seeds planted at different depths.
Under certain conditions and certain soil run by the planter, it may be desirable that the opening disc (or the opening discs, considering each opening disc of each planting row) exhibits a pivotal movement with respect to a support point, that is, the disc angularly varies its height in relation to a reference point. On the other hand, for other types of soil and planting conditions, it may be desirable that the opening disc exhibits a pantograph movement, that is, that it vertically varies its height in relation to a reference point.
The currently existing problem is that the known prior art planters have only one type of suspension, either pivoting or pantographic, and if the producer wants to vary the type of movement of the opening disc depending on the varying soil conditions, for instance, it is necessary to possess a second agricultural implement already provided with a different suspension from the one of the other available implement. Alternatively, in order to avoid purchasing a second implement, the producer would have to retrofit the existing implement, which would be time-consuming and relatively onerous.
Thus, there is the need for an agricultural implement, such as a planter, allowing the suspension of the opening disc to exhibit both a pivoting (angular) and a pantographic (vertical) movement to follow the soil irregularities with no need for major changes in the implement. The invention aims to meet this need, among others.

Suspension assembly and kit for a planter


The present invention provides a self-propelled impact boring tool which, according to one aspect of the invention, has a simplified tail assembly so that the tool can be readily assembled and dissambled to allow replacement of worn parts. Such a tail assembly includes a nut and an end cap which can be secured together by a series of conventional bolts which extend into threaded holes in the nut. The nut, which is screwed into the rear end of the tool body, can be clamped in position with the screws with far less torque than would otherwise be required with a conventional, unitary tailpiece.

Self-propelled pneumatic tools for making small diameter holes through soil are well known. Such tools are used to form holes for pipes or cables beneath roadways without need for digging a trench across the roadway. These tools include, as general components, a torpedo-shaped body having a tapered nose and an open rear end, an air supply hose which enters the rear of the tool and connects it to an air compressor, a piston or striker disposed for reciprocal movement within the tool, and an air distributing mechanism for causing the striker to move rapidly back and forth. The striker impacts against the front wall (anvil) of the interior of the tool body, causing the tool to move violently forward into the soil. The friction between the outside of the tool body and the surrounding soil tends to hold the tool in place as the striker moves back for another blow, resulting in incremental forward movement through the soil. Exhaust passages are provided in the tail assembly of the tool to allow spent compressed air to escape into the atmosphere.
Most impact boring tools of this type have a valveless air distributing mechanism which utilizes a stepped air inlet. See, for example, Sudnishnikov et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,354, issued Nov. 12, 1968. The step of the air inlet is in sliding, sealing contact with a tubular cavity in the rear of the striker. The striker has radial passages through the tubular wall surrounding this cavity, and an outer bearing surface of enlarged diameter at the rear end of the striker. This bearing surface engages the inner surface of the tool body.
Air fed into the tool enters the cavity in the striker through the air inlet, creating a constant pressure which urges the striker forward. When the striker has moved forward sufficiently far so that the radial passages clear the front end of the step, compressed air enters the space between the striker and the body ahead of the bearing surface at the rear of the striker. Since the cross-sectional area of the front of the striker is greater than the cross-sectional area of its rear cavity, the net force exerted by the compressed air now urges the striker backwards instead of forwards. This generally happens just after the striker has imparted a blow to the anvil at the front of the tool.
As the striker moves rearwardly, the radial holes pass back over the step and isolate the front chamber of the tool from the compressed air supply. The momentum of the striker carries it rearwardly until the radial holes clear the rear end of the step. At this time the pressure in the front chamber is relieved because the air therein rushes out through the radial holes and passes through exhaust passages at the rear of the tool into the atmosphere. The pressure in the rear cavity of the striker, which defines a constant pressure chamber together with the stepped air inlet, then causes the striker to move forwardly again, and the cycle is repeated.
In some prior tools, the air inlet includes a separate air inlet pipe, which is secured to the body by a radial flange having exhaust holes therethrough, and a stepped bushing connected to the air inlet pipe by a flexible hose. See Sudnishnikov et al. U.S. Pat Nos. 3,410,354, issued Nov. 12, 1968 and 4,078,619, issued Mar. 14, 1978.
These tools have been made reversible by providing a threaded connection between the air inlet sleeve and the surrounding structure which holds the air inlet concentric with the tool body. See, for example, Sudnishnikov et al. U.S. Pat No. 3,756,328, issued Nov. 12, 1968. The threaded connection allows the operator to rotate the air supply hose and thereby displace the stepped air inlet rearwardly relative to the striker. Since the stroke of the striker is determined by the position of the step, i.e., the positions at which the radial holes are uncovered, rearward displacement of the stepped air inlet causes the striker to hit against the tail nut at the rear of the tool instead of the front anvil, driving the tool rearwardly out of the hole.
The screw reverse mechanism described in the foregoing U.S. Pat. 3,756,328 has proven inconvenient. To reverse the tool, it is often necessary to rotate the air hose as many as 12-18 times. This can prove difficult when the tool has travelled a great distance because of the length of hose that must be rotated.
The foregoing tool also employs a large, heavy tailpiece which is threadedly secured in the rear end of the tool body. In practice this type of tailpiece has proven very difficult to remove, making the tool hard to disassemble for servicing or replacement of worn parts. The '328 tool also utilizes a large, cylindrical shock absorber through which the exhaust passages are formed. This shock absorber must generally be bonded to the adjoining casing and tailpiece, again rendering the tool difficult to assemble and disassemble.
The tailpiece of the '328 tool and other conventional tools has a rearwardly tapered rear portion with a central circular hole through which the air hose extends. As shown in Bouplon U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,457, issued May 5, 1987, the hose is generally secured to the air inlet by a metal coupling. Exhaust air must pass between the metal coupling and the rim of the tailpiece in order to escape from the tool. During reverse movement, small stones can become jammed in the space between the coupling and the tailpiece, making it impossible to rotate the hose to switch modes.
The tool body of the foregoing known tools is generally made from a solid steel bar which is drilled out to form the tubular tool body. This method of fabricating the tool body is results in a large amount of wasted material, increasing substantially the cost to manufacture such a tool.
Known tools also produce a loud, high-pitched ringing sound during operation. This sound results from the undampened blows of the striker against the body, and poses a potential health hazard to the tool user.
The present invention addresses the foregoing drawbacks of known tools.


A method to deliver an expandable casing string to an uncased borehole coaxially upon a composite coiled tubing drilling string is presented. Once the drilling operation is completed, the casing string is expanded by supplying pressure between the coaxially positioned strings to expand the casing string to the borehole. Preferably, the outer diameter of the casing string contains an adhesive agent designed to be activated by the expansion of the casing string against the borehole wall. Alternatively, the mechanical structure of the casing string itself may be configured to prevent the casing string from collapsing once it has been expanded. Once expanded, the casing string is left behind to isolate the well formation from drilling and production fluids that may subsequently flow therethrough.

Not applicable.
Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for casing wellbores drilled within the earth. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for casing wellbores drilled within the earth by a composite coiled tubing drilling apparatus. More particularly still, the present invention relates to a method for drilling and casing a wellbore with a composite coiled tubing drilling system in a single trip downhole.
2. Background of the Invention
Traditional drilling rigs include large structures that are erected upon land or offshore. The rigs typically support each length of drill string as it is fed into the well and provide rotational motion to a drill bit at the end of the string of drill pipe. Often, when starting a new well, a large diameter drill bit is used for the first several hundred feet of borehole. Once this borehole is complete, the bit is retrieved and a string of metal pipe, known as casing, is placed in the newly drilled borehole. The casing string is slightly smaller in outer diameter than the drilled borehole. Once in the well, the casing is cemented in place and provides a well-defined and fixed reference for subsequent drilling operations. With the first section of casing string installed, a smaller drill bit is lowered through it and is used to drill another, narrower borehole for the next section of casing string to be installed. As each borehole section is drilled, the gage of the drill bit and diameter of the subsequent casing string are reduced until the entire string of casing resembles an extended, inverted telescope. These lengths of casing serve to isolate the drilling and production fluids from the formation surrounding the casing, thereby preventing loss of these fluids into the formation, cross-contamination of the drilling fluids and formation fluids, and degradation of the surrounding formation.
Recent developments in drilling technology have led to the replacement of conventional drill pipe, which is assembled from relatively short lenghts of rigid pipe, with coiled tubing, which is a single length of flexible pipe, typically of steel or a composite. Systems of this type have the ability to operate without conventional pipe-handling equipment, and are capable of drilling much deeper into the earth""s crust and with much more directional capability than was previously achievable. In a composite tubing drilling system, a drilling apparatus is deployed downhole at the end of a long string of composite tubing or hose, the hose being deployed from a large spool on a specialty rig or truck located at the surface. Because no kelly or rotary table is used, all of the mechanical energy to rotate an attached drill bit is created downhole by a downhole drilling motor, with a tractor device being used to maintain the proper amount of weight on bit and torque. As the density of the tubing can be adjusted during manufacture to allow the string to be buoyant in the column drilling fluid, the maximum depth achievable with a drilling system of this type is not limited by the tensile strength of the tubing. Furthermore, because of the relative short tool length and increased flexibility of the composite tubing compared to conventional drill pipe systems, the drilling apparatus is capable of making directional changes with much smaller turning radii than are achievable with rigid drill strings. Additionally, because the composite tubing is preferably manufactured from an electrically insulating material, communications conduits (wire pairs, fiber optic lines) can be incorporated into the sidewall of the tubing during manufacture. Such features enable drillers to send and receive real-time data and commands to and from the drilling apparatus, rather than rely on traditional forms of telemetry.
One drawback to systems of this type is that with the elimination of the conventional drilling rig and the complex directional movement of the composite coiled tubing drilling system, conventional casing strings are not easily deployed into a well created by such a system. Also, because the same apparatus is used to drill an entire well from start to finish, the telescoping casing technique is impractical. Furthermore, because the drilling apparatus may execute complex directional changes along its drillpath, conventional steel casing is not pliable enough to follow such a well contour. To prevent the loss of drilling and production fluids through formation leaching, a casing methodology applicable to wells drilled with composite coiled tubing drilling systems is highly desirable.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.
The deficiencies of the prior art are overcome using a method that includes delivering an expandable casing string to an uncased borehole coaxially upon a composite coiled tubing drilling string. Once drilling operations are complete in one portion of the borehole, pressure is supplied between the drill string and the coaxially mounted casing string so as to expand the casing string to the full gage of the borehole. Preferably, the outer surface of the casing string includes an adhesive agent that is designed to be activated by the expansion of the casing string against the borehole wall. Alternatively, the mechanical structure of the casing string itself may be configured to prevent the casing string from collapsing once it has been expanded. Once expanded, the casing string is left behind to isolate the well formation from drilling and production fluids that may subsequently flow through the wellbore.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent on reading the detailed description of the invention in conjunction with the drawings.


A heating rack comprising a plurality of spaced discrete elongate members (26) which an object (16) to be heated is placed and exposed to a source of heat. Each member (26) having a main body (28) with two side faces (30) that, in use, extend in a vertical direction and along the member (26), and a side member (32) located at the lowermost extremity of each side face (30). Each side member is shaped, positioned, and arranged, relative to its respective side face (30) so that, in use, liquid from the object (16) when it is heated is induced to run down each side face (30) due to surface tension effects and is collected by each side member (32) and directed in a direction along each side member (32) to a collection region at one or both ends of the members (26).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to heating racks and in particular, although not exclusively to heating racks for heating and cooking food. The invention has particular relevance to the cooking of fatty foods over naked flames such as barbecues.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is to be understood that the present invention may be applied in cooking ovens or in grills and industrial ovens. Where the context permits, the present invention may be used in the heating of other objects where heating the object results in the melting of the object.
One of the main problems with cooking fatty foods such as sausages, meat, kebabs, beef burgers and the like over charcoal or gas heated synthetic charcoal or coals, is that the fat runs down and drips into the heated coals and ignites. This causes flames to rise and overcook or burn the food being cooked.
Often the resulting flare-up causes personal danger to the user and many a user of barbecues have barbecued more than they bargained for!
There have been a number of attempts, some very complex solutions, to prevent the fat from igniting. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,725, there is shown a grill having a grid element. The grid element comprises a base element and upstanding ribs. Openings are provided.
One problem associated with the prior art is that those solutions have resulted in a reduction of direct heat radiation from the heat source, which is undesirable because it reduces the cooking efficiency.


Methods for designing and manufacturing an integrated circuit are disclosed, in which the physical design process for a standard cell or cells utilizes a preferred diagonal direction for minimum-width patterns on at least one layer, where the standard cell or cells are used in the layout of an integrated circuit. The methods also include forming the patterns on a photomask using model-based fracturing techniques with charged particle beam simulation, and forming the patterns on a substrate such a silicon wafer using the photomask and an optical lithographic process with directional illumination which is optimized for the preferred diagonal direction.

The present disclosure is related to the design of integration circuits, and more particularly to the use of non-manhattan patterns in integrated circuit design.
In the production or manufacturing of semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, optical lithography may be used to fabricate the semiconductor devices. Optical lithography is a printing process in which a lithographic mask or photomask manufactured from a reticle is used to transfer patterns to a substrate such as a semiconductor or silicon wafer to create the integrated circuit (I.C.). Other substrates could include flat panel displays or even other reticles. Also, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or X-ray lithography are considered types of optical lithography. The reticle or multiple reticles may contain a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the integrated circuit, and this pattern can be imaged onto a certain area on the substrate that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material known as photoresist or resist. Once the patterned layer is transferred the layer may undergo various other processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, and polishing. These processes are employed to finish an individual layer in the substrate. If several layers are required, then the whole process or variations thereof will be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, a combination of multiples of devices or integrated circuits will be present on the substrate. These integrated circuits may then be separated from one another by dicing or sawing and then may be mounted into individual packages. In the more general case, the patterns on the substrate may be used to define artifacts such as display pixels, holograms, or magnetic recording heads.
In the production or manufacturing of semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, maskless direct write may also be used to fabricate the semiconductor devices. Maskless direct write is a printing process in which charged particle beam lithography is used to transfer patterns to a substrate such as a semiconductor or silicon wafer to create the integrated circuit. Other substrates could include flat panel displays, imprint masks for nano-imprinting, or even reticles. Desired patterns of a layer are written directly on the surface, which in this case is also the substrate. Once the patterned layer is transferred the layer may undergo various other processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, and polishing. These processes are employed to finish an individual layer in the substrate. If several layers are required, then the whole process or variations thereof will be repeated for each new layer. Some of the layers may be written using optical lithography while others may be written using maskless direct write to fabricate the same substrate. Eventually, a combination of multiples of devices or integrated circuits will be present on the substrate. These integrated circuits are then separated from one another by dicing or sawing and then mounted into individual packages. In the more general case, the patterns on the surface may be used to define artifacts such as display pixels, holograms, or magnetic recording heads.
Two common types of charged particle beam lithography are variable shaped beam (VSB) and character projection (CP). These are both sub-categories of shaped beam charged particle beam lithography, in which a precise electron beam is shaped and steered so as to expose a resist-coated surface, such as the surface of a wafer or the surface of a reticle. In VSB, these shapes are simple shapes, usually limited to rectangles of certain minimum and maximum sizes and with sides which are parallel to the axes of a Cartesian coordinate plane (i.e. of "manhattan" orientation), and 45 degree right triangles (i.e. triangles with their three internal angles being 45 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees) of certain minimum and maximum sizes. At predetermined locations, doses of electrons are shot into the resist with these simple shapes. The total writing time for this type of system increases with the number of shots. In character projection (CP), there is a stencil in the system that has in it a variety of apertures or characters which may be rectilinear, arbitrary-angled linear, circular, nearly circular, annular, nearly annular, oval, nearly oval, partially circular, partially nearly circular, partially annular, partially nearly annular, partially nearly oval, or arbitrary curvilinear shapes, and which may be a connected set of complex shapes or a group of disjointed sets of a connected set of complex shapes. An electron beam can be shot through a character on the stencil to efficiently produce more complex patterns on the reticle. In theory, such a system can be faster than a VSB system because it can shoot more complex shapes with each time-consuming shot. Thus, an E-shaped pattern shot with a VSB system takes four shots, but the same E-shaped pattern can be shot with one shot with a character projection system. Note that VSB systems can be thought of as a special (simple) case of character projection, where the characters are just simple characters, usually rectangles or 45-45-90 degree triangles. It is also possible to partially expose a character. This can be done by, for instance, blocking part of the particle beam. For example, the E-shaped pattern described above can be partially exposed as an F-shaped pattern or an I-shaped pattern, where different parts of the beam are cut off by an aperture. This is the same mechanism as how various sized rectangles can be shot using VSB. In this disclosure, partial projection is used to mean both character projection and VSB projection.
As indicated, in optical lithography the lithographic mask or reticle comprises geometric patterns corresponding to the circuit components to be integrated onto a substrate. The patterns used to manufacture the reticle may be generated utilizing computer-aided design (CAD) software or programs. In designing the patterns the CAD program may follow a set of predetermined design rules in order to create the reticle. These rules are set by processing, design, and end-use limitations. An example of an end-use limitation is defining the geometry of a transistor in a way in which it cannot sufficiently operate at the required supply voltage. In particular, design rules can define the space tolerance between circuit devices or interconnect lines. The design rules are, for example, used to ensure that the circuit devices or lines do not interact with one another in an undesirable manner. For example, the design rules are used so that lines do not get too close to each other in a way that may cause a short circuit. The design rule limitations reflect, among other things, the smallest dimensions that can be reliably fabricated. When referring to these small dimensions, one usually introduces the concept of a critical dimension. These are, for instance, defined as the smallest width of a line or the smallest space between two lines, those dimensions requiring exquisite control.
One goal in integrated circuit fabrication by optical lithography is to reproduce on the substrate the original circuit design by use of the reticle. Integrated circuit fabricators are always attempting to use the semiconductor wafer real estate as efficiently as possible. Engineers keep shrinking the size of the circuits, either allowing an integrated circuit with the same number of circuit elements to be smaller and use less power, or allowing an integrated circuit of the same size to contain more circuit elements. As the size of an integrated circuit critical dimension is reduced and its circuit density increases, the critical dimension of the circuit pattern or physical design approaches the resolution limit of the optical exposure tool used in optical lithography. As the critical dimensions of the circuit pattern become smaller and approach the resolution value of the exposure tool, the accurate transcription of the physical design to the actual circuit pattern developed on the resist layer becomes difficult. To further the use of optical lithography to transfer patterns having features that are smaller than the light wavelength used in the optical lithography process, a process known as optical proximity correction (OPC) has been developed. OPC alters the physical design to compensate for distortions caused by effects such as optical diffraction and the optical interaction of features with proximate features. OPC includes all resolution enhancement technologies performed with a reticle.
There are a number of technologies used for forming patterns on a reticle, including using optical lithography or charged particle beam lithography. The most commonly used system is the variable shaped beam (VSB), where, as described above, doses of electrons with simple shapes such as manhattan rectangles and 45-degree right triangles expose a resist-coated reticle surface. In conventional mask writing, the doses or shots of electrons are conventionally designed to avoid overlap wherever possible, so as to greatly simplify calculation of how the resist on the reticle will register the pattern.
Integrated circuits are physically designed with a plurality of layers, each of which contains a plurality of patterns. Many conventional integrated circuit design methodologies require that all patterns or shapes for many of the layers in a design, including both shapes which denote transistors and shapes which represent interconnect or wires, be of manhattan orientation, with respect to the integrated circuit boundary. Design rules for many current integrated circuit fabrication processes allow shapes to be designed that are much smaller in their minimum dimension than the wavelength of the light that will be used to transfer the design pattern from a mask the wafer. In some advanced processes the design rules dictate a preferred wiring direction or orientation on one or more layers. For example, a process may restrict shapes on a given layer to have their longest dimension be aligned with the x-axis of the Cartesian plane. Alternatively, shapes having the smallest minimum dimension or minimum width may be restricted to the preferred orientation, but shapes with a width larger than the minimum width may not be restricted.
The use of non-manhattan shapes to interconnect circuit elements in the art potentially allows for reduction in the area of an integrated circuit design, reduction in power consumption of the design, improved circuit performance of the design, improved yield of the design, or improved manufacturing tolerance of the design. The layers used for interconnecting circuit elements such as standard cells, however, are conventionally larger than the layers used in the design of individual circuit elements or standard cells, such layers including diffusion, polysilicon or poly, and metal-1, where metal-1 is the first fabricated layer of metal. In circuit element or standard cell design, the diffusion and poly layers are commonly used to define individual transistors. The metal-1 layer is commonly used for interconnecting transistors within a circuit element or standard cell, such as a digital logic gate. The metal-2 layer and above (metal-3, metal-4, etc.) are commonly used for interconnecting circuit elements such as standard cells. The prior art, which addresses non-manhattan shapes on the layers which interconnect circuit elements, is not easily transferable to the thinner cell design layers because of the greater difficulty of fabricating these smaller layers, the complexity introduced by forming transistors with non-manhattan orientations, and the need to address issues of preferred direction during the design of a cell library which may be used for a plurality of integrated circuit designs. Therefore, there remains a continuing need to reduce the area, power consumption, circuit performance, yield, and manufacturing tolerance of integrated circuit designs, in particular for the layers used in cell design.

Method for integrated circuit design and manufacture using diagonal minimum-width patterns


Compositions and methods are provided for converting the predominant circulating classical monocytes to a non-classical and/or intermediate monocyte phenotype through cytokine stimulation via, for example, macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Once cultured into dendritic cells, these non-classical and/or intermediate monocyte derived cells have increased costimulatory molecule expression, which leads to improved immune and clinical responses in cancer patients receiving dendritic cell vaccination and other immunotherapies. In addition, assays and diagnostic and theranostic methods are provided herein that relate to the discoveries that, prior to treatment, intermediate (CD14+CD16+) and non-classical (CD14dimCD16+) monocytes are increased more than two-fold in patients who later had complete responses to dendritic cell therapy or DC vaccination.

A critical barrier to successful cancer treatment is the inability to initiate durable, tumor-specific responses with conventional therapy such as chemotherapy or radiation. Compared to traditional therapies, immune-based strategies can generate long-lasting systemic protection. Immunotherapy has a potential role for all cancer types. Dendritic cell (DC) vaccination is an immunotherapy designed to induce cancer-specific T cell-dependent anti-tumor immunity that can result in durable, complete responses. Recent advances in protocols that utilize dendritic cells electroporated with autologous tumor RNA (AGS-003) have led to sustained immune responses with improved patient survival.

Enrichment of CD16+ monocytes to improve dendritic cell vaccine quality