A roof construction uses a one-component adhesive to adhere roof tiles to a roof. The adhesive is formed in a U-shaped pattern in that the adhesive is dispensed in a bottom leg deposit on the tile's underside, a bight deposit extending about the tile's leading edge and a top adhesive deposit overlying the bottom deposit and extending on the outside surface of the tile. As the tiles are laid onto the roof in an overlying fashion, the U-shaped adhesive is sandwiched between the tile, the overlying tile and the roof forming sealing contact therewith and therebetween.

Roof construction, particularly residential roof construction, varies by climatic location throughout the United States. This invention relates to protective roof coverings formed by roof tiles as opposed to asphalt based roof shingles typically used in the northern parts of the United States to form a protective roof covering. Roof tiles are typically constructed from natural materials such as clay, concrete, stone, ceramics (including brick and fired clay) and have also been made of synthetic material, typically plastic and it is possible to have tiles formed from combinations of natural and synthetic materials, i.e., fibrous cement.
Traditionally, in the United States, roof tiles have been applied with a cementitious material, typically mortar usually mixed at the site. The prior art patents incorporated by reference discuss at length inherent problems encountered when mortar is used to affix roof tiles to the roof substrate and those problems will not be restated herein. However, the prior art patents have not discussed mortar patterns used to affix the roof tiles to the roof. While it may have been conventional at one time to simply place the mortar on the underside of the roof tile, without regard to mortar amount, building construction regulations such as those promulgated by Southern Building Code, Florida, require that no more than 33% of the area underneath the tile be covered by the adhering material. This leaves the space between tiles and between roof and tiles open for air circulation so that the tiles are less likely to be pulled off the roofs during hurricane winds. Accordingly, conventional practice today is to trowel a glob or pad of mortar over the central underside area of the tile (or alternatively, a deposit of the mortar is placed on the roof), which is then flattened somewhat when the tile is positioned onto the roof substrate. Again, the height and area of the mortar pad is such that no more than 33% of the area of the tile is to be covered by the cementitious material. In practice, it sometimes occurs that too little or too much mortar is used which, coupled with the well known adhesive inconsistencies of mortar, results in faulty tile application.
Because of the limitations of conventional cementitious materials, specifically mortar, other types of materials, principally adhesives, have been investigated for use as bonding agents to affix roof tiles to the roof substrate without the need for mechanical fasteners.
A) U.S. Chronology.
Accordingly, at least as early as the summer of 1992, I purchased an off-the-shelf, commercially available, one-component, polyurethane foam in a pressurized aerosol spray type container. The polyurethane foam was applied as a deposit in the shape of a centrally positioned pad, replicating the conventional mortar pad shape and position, and used to affix the roof tiles to the roof. It was found that the polyurethane foam would act as an adhesive fixing the tile to the roof substrate. However, the expansion of the foam lifted the tile as the foam cured and it was believed that the strength of the adhesive bond had to be thoroughly investigated as well as formulations addressing the tile lifting before a commercial product could be offered. Through my employer at that time, Life Tile (a subsidiary of Boral Concrete Products), a number of polyurethane foam companies were contacted to determine if there was an interest in pursuing a joint test program utilizing polyurethane foam as a roof tile adhesive. One company, Poly-Foam Products, Inc. expressed an interest in the roof tile application and I worked with that company commencing in the spring of 1993 on a program which resulted in the development of a two-component, polyurethane roof tile adhesive as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,342, incorporated by reference herein. As is well known, two-component, polyurethane foam is significantly different from a one-component, polyurethane foam. For instance, the chemical reaction of the formulation in a two-component foam occurs when the "A" side (isocyanate) contacts the "B" side whereas a one-component, polyurethane foam undergoes a pre-polymerization reaction within the container and utilizes moisture to effect foaming or frothing as well as curing of the polyurethane. The formulations are markedly different and traditionally the foams, even when sold for the same application, have different characteristics. For example, the two-component foam generally will not expand to the extent of a one-component foam after it has initially foamed on mixing. On the other hand, because of the A/B reaction, a two-component foam will generally have a quicker tack time or shorter open time than a one-component foam. Chemical formulations of the foam, however, can significantly vary such characteristics. In any event, the two-component foam adhesive described in the '342 patent places an adhesive bead extending the length of the tile. While this placement pattern has been tested and approved by the Southern Building Code, Florida for use as a roof-tile adhesive, placing the foam in a bead running the length of the tile is an excessive use of adhesive foam resulting in a higher cost to the roofing contractor than what otherwise is required. Additionally, the two-component application requiring two separate pressurized containers of chemicals, is somewhat unwieldy for use in roofing residential dwellings, especially if the roof pitch is steep.
In late 1995, I began testing a one-component, polyurethane foam supplied by Insta-Foam, Inc. and developed an adhesive pattern to minimize the use of the foam as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,536. The '536 patent discloses placing two discrete foam deposits (approximately the diameter of a tennis ball) at diagonally opposing corners of the roof tile. As shown in all the embodiments of my patent, one deposit is placed at the leading edge corner of the tile between the roof substrate and the tile underside while the other foam deposit is placed at the trailing edge corner between the outside surface of the lower tile (which the upper tile overlaps) and the underside surface of the upper tile. While less adhesive is used in the system disclosed in the '536 patent when compared to the adhesive used in the system of the '342 patent, two separate deposits are required per tile and only one deposit per tile extends between the roof and tile. This placement fundamentally limits the adhesion ability of the roof system. However, the use of small paddy sizes addressed the issues of tile displacement resulting from expansion during curing at least to the extent that noticeable tile displacement did not occur if the adhesive was properly applied.
The above represents what is believed a chronological development of the utilization of polyurethane foam as a roof tile adhesive in the United States and this is believed consistent with approvals given by building code regulatory agencies of Dade County, Florida which has approved the use of polyurethane foam when placed in a pattern as described in the '342 and '536 patents.
B) Europe.
In Europe, polyurethane foam has long been used to secure roof tiles. For example, an especially fabricated roofing tile having recesses for receiving polyurethane foam is disclosed in UK patent application No. GB 2169329 A, published Jul. 9, 1986. The assignee's sister company has sold a general purpose, one-component, polyurethane foam for use in adhering roof tiles to roofs. A published application of a one-component foam sold in Europe is to place a bead adjacent the leading edge on the outside surface of one tile contacting the trailing edge of the underside surface of a higher tile. Another common application of polyurethane foam is to spray the foam from the inside of the building to fill any cracks between tiles as well as to secure the tiles to longitudinally extending rafters. It is believed that European companies, including assignee's sister company, have sold one-component foams for roofing applications since as early as 1988.
C) Adhesive Application.
Apart from polyurethane foams, special roof tile adhesives have been developed for securing roof tiles to the roof substrate. In particular, Ohio Sealants, Inc. has developed a roof tile adhesive marketed under its Pro Series.RTM. RT600 brand name which has been certified by Dade County for repair of existing roof tiles. Specifically, certified repairs require the removal or the lifting of an existing loose tile sufficient to enable the application of a minimum 1".times.1" bead of adhesive to the existing mortar pad so that both the mortar pad and the under side of the tile are in contact with adhesive and in addition, a 3/8" thick by 2" long bead of adhesive must be applied to the head of the previous tile. Generally, specially formulated, one component, roof sealing adhesives are sold in caulk-type containers which are suitable for repairing existing tiles as opposed to laying courses of tiles covering the entire roof.

Roof tile construction using sandwiched adhesive


A connector with a shutter for protecting a contact portion of a peripheral device used in a computer, said connector comprising a housing, a shutter capable of closing an aperture portion of the housing, a spring for applying pressure to said shutter in the closed position and a stopper for detaining said shutter in the closed position, said housing accommodating said shutter, spring and stopper, and said shutter comprising a guiding device for guiding said shutter when said shutter slides in opposition to the pressure of said spring.

The present invention is a connector with a shutter for use with a peripheral device or the like for a computer, and is specifically a connector with a shutter for preventing damage to electronic circuits inside the peripheral device due to static electricity or the like, caused by the hand contacting the contact portion while carrying the peripheral device.
In peripheral devices for connection to computers, the connector portions of the peripheral devices are often exposed to the outside. Among high-capacity memory devices which are a type of peripheral device, examples include hard disk drives (hereafter referred to as HDD""s).
In recent years, the popularity of laptop computers (or so-called notebook computers) has led to smaller HDD""s, and the storage of music and video has shifted from recording media using conventional magnetic tape to storage on recording media for computers such as HDD""s, thus causing a steady increase in the capacity of HDD""s.
Furthermore, the spread of broadband technology and the like on the internet can be predicted to result in increased distribution of music and video through the internet, making it desirable to be able to record such data through portable recording media. Thus, a future increase in the demand for portable high-capacity HDD""s can be foreseen.
On the other hand, when using HDD""s as recording media for music and video in conjunction with computers, the ease with which copying is possible will give rise to problems of security, but a security chip for maintaining the security of data is currently in development, so that security problems can be solved by mounting such a security chip on the HDD.
In this case, the structure of the above-mentioned connector portion of the HDD presents a problem. If the contact in the connector portion of the HDD is exposed to the outside, the connector can come into contact with the hands, in which case static electricity or the like can cause damage to electronic circuits, chips and the like in the HDD. If there is a security chip, the risk of damage due to static electricity or the like is likewise extremely high. In this case, not only does it become impossible to maintain the security of the data, but damage to the HDD control circuitry could make it impossible to read out the recorded data.
Additionally, since it is important to protect the contact portion from dust and the like in order to avoid damaging the hardware, a mechanism for protecting the contact portion is needed. Japanese Patent No. 2999364 proposes, as an xe2x80x9celectrical connectorxe2x80x9d, a connector with a shutter. In this connector, a shutter is provided on a male connector, and this shutter slides inside the connector under pressure when the connector is plugged. However, this connector simply closes off the front surface of the connector by pressure from a spring when not plugged, and does not secure the shutter, so that the touch of a hand can easily cause the shutter to move, thereby exposing the contact portion.
Additionally, while Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. H1-161683 also proposes a xe2x80x9cconnector with shutterxe2x80x9d, this connector also does not secure the shutter when not plugged in, which gives rise to the problem of the contact portion being exposed as described above.
Similarly, Japanese Utility Model Publications S63-186067, S63-188879 and H5-6726 all propose connectors having a shutter function, but these shutters are also unsecured, thus involving the same problems as described above.
Additionally, while HDD""s have been taken as an example here, the above-described problem is common too all devices having a contact portion outside the body, such as, for example, DVD drives.
In view of the above, and with the aim of overcoming the above-described problems, the present invention offers a connector with a shutter for protecting a first contact portion of a peripheral device used in a computer, said connector being characterized by comprising a housing having an aperture into which a second contact portion can be inserted; a shutter capable of closing said aperture; a spring for applying pressure to said shutter in the closed position; and a stopper for detaining said shutter in the closed position; wherein said housing accommodates said shutter, spring and stopper, and said shutter comprises a guiding device for guiding said shutter when said shutter slides in opposition to the pressure of said spring.
The structures of the respective parts of the present invention shall be described hereafter with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a connector with shutter according to the present invention. In the drawing, the housing 20 comprises an aperture portion 26 into which a second contact portion can be inserted, a first contact portion 25 in the center of the aperture portion 26 and guide devices 24 provided to the right and left of the aperture portion 26. To the right and left outside of the housing are provided guide rails 22 for insertion of stopper release means, with a taper that increases in going from inside to outside being provided at the entrance to the guide rails. The guide rails 22 are provided with aperture portions 27 to enable a portion of the stopper to project inside the rails. Next, springs 23 for pressing the shutter 11 to close the aperture portion 26 are inserted over the cylindrical guide devices 24. An aperture portion 12 through which the first contact portion passes is provided in the shutter, and through holes 15 are opened on both edges of the aperture portion 12 to enable passage of the guide devices 24. Additionally, both sides of the shutter 11 have a first detaining portion 13 for keeping the shutter from being pushed outside the housing by the pressure of the spring when not plugged in, and a second detaining portion 14 for keeping the shutter from being pushed back into the housing by pressure from an external force when not plugged in. Although the shutter is detained by the pressure of the spring and the first detaining portion 13 when not plugged in, it is preferable in this case for the front surface of the shutter to be positioned slightly behind the front surface of the housing, i.e. the surface having the aperture portion 26, in the direction of insertion of the connector. Specifically, it should be positioned about 0.2 mm behind. However, the position of the shutter 11 is not restricted thereto. Additionally, while a plurality of the first detaining portion 13 may be provided, there is no restriction thereto, as described above.
FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of a connector according to the invention, shown along with a slot 30. The slot 30 is provided with stopper release means 32 which are tapered at the tip, and has opened therein a guide device insertion port 33 for insertion of the guide device 24, and a contact receiving portion 34. Additionally, when plugging in the connector, the face 31 in which the guide device insertion port 33 and the contact receiving portion 34 are provided pushes the shutter 11 to release the detainment, to expose the first contact portion 25.
Next, the structure of the stopper 40 is shown in FIG. 3. As shown in the drawing, it consists of securing portions 44, 42 for securing the stopper to the housing, a shutter detaining portion 43 for detaining the shutter, a detaining portion support 45 and a stopper release portion 41. The stopper release portion 41 projects into the guide rails 22 positioned on both sides of the housing 20. While the details shall be described below, the shutter 11 is released from detainment when the stopper release means 32 presses against the stopper release portion 41 so as to move the shutter detaining portion 43.
The structures of the respective parts of the connector have been described above. Next, the makeup of the connector with shutter of the present invention shall be described. FIG. 4 is a partial cutaway view of the connector. As seen in the drawing, a shutter 11 is provided inside the housing 20 so as to seal off the aperture portion 26 of the housing, and is pressed by a spring 23 installed in the guide device 24. To oppose the pressure from the spring, the shutter 11 is detained against the housing by means of a claw 16 on a first detaining portion 13 (see FIG. 5). The center of the through hole 15 of the guide device of the shutter 11 is aligned with the center axis of the guide device 24 provided in the housing 20. A stopper 40 is provided adjacent to the shutter, and when unplugged, the shutter detaining portion 43 is positioned immediately behind a second shutter detaining portion 14 of the shutter 11. The stopper release portion 41 of the stopper 40 projects through an aperture portion 26 provided in the guide rail 22 to be positioned inside the guide rail 22.
FIG. 5 is a drawing showing the state in which the shutter 11 is detained to the housing 20 by means of the claw 16 on the first detaining portion 13 of the shutter 11 in opposition to the pressure of the spring 23.
As described above, in the connector with shutter of the present invention, the shutter 11 is detained and secured by means of the stopper 40, even when unplugged.
Next, the details of the actions to be taken when plugging in the connector with shutter of the present invention shall be described. With reference to FIGS. 2 and 4, a connector 10 and a slot 30 are brought opposite each other, and the connector 10 is inserted into the slot 30. At this time, stopper release means 32 in the slot 30 are inserted into the connector along guide rails 22. As the connector is slid further inside the slot, the stopper release means 32 contacts a stopper release portion 41 projecting into the guide rail. If the connector 10 is slid still further, the tapers of the stopper release means 32 press the stopper release portion toward the inside of the housing, while a securing portion 44 of the stopper is warped toward the inside of the housing. As a result, the shutter detaining portion 43 also moves from an initial position toward the inside of the housing. If the shutter detaining portion 43 is moved a sufficient distance, the detaining portion 43 is released from immediately behind the second detaining portion 14 of the shutter 11, thus releasing the shutter 11 from detainment.
As the connector slides yet further, the face 31 of the slot 30 comes into contact with the shutter. Since the shutter 11 is already released from detainment at this time, the pressure from sliding the connector will cause the face 31 to slide the shutter 11. At this time, the second detaining portion 14 of the shutter 11 passes through the arch-shaped space formed by the shutter detaining portion 43 of the stopper 40, the detaining portion support 45 (see FIG. 3) and the stopper securing portion 44. As a result, the first connector portion of the connector is able to fit with a second contact portion in the slot.
Next, the actions to be taken to release the connector 10 from the connector receiving portion shall be described. When the connector and slot are fitted together, the stopper 40 is pressed by the stopper release means 32 of the slot and is thereby warped, so that the stopper release portion 41 contacts the stopper release means 32 and applies pressure to the stopper release means 32. The connector slides in this state. Additionally, at this time, the pressure of the spring 23 for pressing the shutter 11 causes the shutter 11 to be pressed outward with respect to the connector housing. When the connector is slid further, before the taper portion of the stopper release means 32 reaches the stopper release portion 41, the second detaining portion 14 of the shutter 11 arrives before the shutter detaining portion 43, i.e. on the housing aperture portion 26 side. Next, the taper portion of the stopper release means reaches the position of the stopper release portion 41, whereupon the stopper release portion 41 moves along the slope of the taper due to the pressure from the warpage of the stopper securing portion 44, until the stopper release portion 41 finally projects into the guide rail 22 to return the stopper to its initial state. At this time, the shutter detaining portion 43 also moves similarly, and comes to a position immediately behind the second detaining portion 14 of the shutter 11. In this state, it becomes possible to detain the shutter 11. By further pulling the connector, the shutter can be pushed further outside the housing by the pressure from the spring 23, so that the first detaining portion 13 of the shutter 11 is detained by the housing 20 at a predetermined position (see FIG. 5), and the movement of the shutter 11 stops.
The manner in which the connector is separated from the slot is has been described above. While the connector of the present invention primarily protects the contact portions of HDD""s from contact with the hands as described above, those skilled in the art will recognize that it also has the effect of preventing invasion by dust. Additionally, the present invention is effective not only for HDD""s, but also for other peripheral devices for computers, such as printers, DVD drives and the like, having a structure in which contact portions are exposed from the casing.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the connector of the present invention, when connected with a so-called flat cable 60. One end of the flat cable is soldered to the back surface of the first contact portion of the connector, i.e. the end portion on the side which connects to the HDD. The other end of the flat cable is connected to the HDD, and the connector, cable and HDD are housed in a casing. At this time, the structure can be made to absorb impacts when dropped or the like, by housing them such that the HDD body is not rigidly affixed to the casing. The dotted chain line in FIG. 6 represents the casing for housing the connector, flat cable and HDD.
Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. In FIG. 7, a concave notch 70 is provided in the second detaining portion 14. Additionally, in FIG. 8, a stopper release means 71 is provided along the slot. As shown in the drawing, the length of the stopper release means 71 is made shorter than the length of insertion of the connector.
As described above, when the connector is inserted into the slot, the stopper release means presses against the stopper release portion 41, thus releasing the detainment of the shutter, and causing the shutter to be pushed and slid away from the face 31 of the slot. When the connector is further slid out, the pressure applied to the stopper 40 by the stopper release means 71 is released at a predetermined position due to the fact that the stopper release means 71 is shorter than the connector insertion length. At this time, the shutter detaining portion 43 of the stopper fits into the notch 70 of the second detaining portion 14. As a result, the shutter is secured, and the first contact portion and second contact portion can be reliably fitted together.
Additionally, in order for the second detaining portion 14 to fit with the shutter detaining portion 43, adequate force is necessary. Therefore, the second detaining portion 14 may be formed as a separate body of a material such as metal for attachment.
The above-described embodiments and drawings are given for the purpose of indicating representative structures for understanding the present invention. Therefore, whereas the shape and structure of the connector and slot, specifically the shape and location of the first and second detaining portions of the shutter, the shape and location of the through holes 15 and guide devices 24 of the shutter and housing (see FIG. 4), the shape and location of the stopper 40 and the shape and location of the stopper release means 32, and other features could be readily modified by those skilled in the art, all of such modifications are to be included within the scope of the present invention.
As described above, the present invention offers a connector for peripheral devices such as HDD""s with security chips or the like, the connector having a shutter to prevent the contact portions of the peripheral devices from being exposed to the outside when not plugged in as when being carried, especially damage to the electronic circuitry inside due to static electricity when touched by the hand, by providing a mechanism for detaining and securing the shutter when unplugged, thus protecting the contact portion.


A fluid pressure relief system and method for a pressure vessel or tank (10) having a normal vent (16) with a first pilot operated safety valve (18) and an emergency vent (62) having a second pilot operated safety valve (25). A vapor recovery line (20) is connected to relief valve (18) and collected at a vapor storage container (21). A manway (22) on the pressure vessel (10) shown in FIG. 2 defines the emergency vent (62) and a main valve member (66) has a counterweight (74) thereon to urge main valve member (66) to a seated closed position on nozzle (60). The first pilot operated safety valve (18) for the normal vent (16) is shown in FIG. 7 and has a T-shaped body (142) with a main relief valve member (172) at one end of the body (142) mounted for movement in a generally horizontal direction and controlled by a diaphragm (176) at an opposite end of the body (142).

Heretofore, pilot operated relief valves have been utilized on pressure vessels, such as tanks, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,065 dated Nov. 10, 1987, for example, in the opening and closing of a main relief valve member and including the opening of the main valve member under a vacuum condition. However, the main relief valve has not functioned independently of the pilot valve such as may be necessary for a severe service and corrosion environment. The main valve member is in a fail open position in the event of any malfunctioning of the pilot valve.
Present pilot operated relief valves can be operated at pressures very near the set pressure without leakage, and general seat tightness under all conditions is superior because of the high seating loads. Weighted and spring loaded relief valve members, however, are very simple and provide consistent reliability for users. Pilot valves which also provide excellent reliability, except under extreme service conditions, are more complex in operation but have superior performance.
Pilot operated relief valves are particularly useful for low pressure vessels designed for a pressure under 15 psi. Such low pressure vessels are required to have: (1) a normal vent (usually small in orifice size) that limits the pressure rise due to either the addition of liquid to the vessel or the increase in vessel vapor space operating ambient temperature, (2) a normal breather (usually small in orifice size) that limits the vacuum on the vessel caused by removal of liquid from the vessel or a reduction in vessel vapor space operating ambient temperature, and (3) an emergency pressure vent (usually large in orifice size) that relieves the pressure in a vessel in the event the tank is subjected to fire or the like. Present code requirements for a low pressure vessel do not permit the setting of a valve above the maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP). Full relief capacity for the emergency vent may be at a pressure of 20% above the MAWP.
Heretofore, pilot operated relief valves have been utilized with the normal vent of a pressure vessel and upon opening of the main valve member under control of the pilot, fluid vapors have normally been vented to atmosphere. Recent requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit the leakage of harmful vapors from pressure vessels to a maximum concentration of 500 parts per million and these requirements have to be accomplished by Dec. 31, 1992. Thus, it is necessary under certain conditions to collect the leakage of any harmful vapors from the pilot valve, particularly where the pilot valve is set to operate at a set pressure generally around 100% of the MAWP, for example, and this causes a relatively high frequency of operation of the pilot valve resulting in an opening of the main valve member for vapor leakage.

Fluid pressure relief system for pressure vessels


A method of disassembling at least a portion of a structure that includes parts which are bonded together. The method includes selecting a subsurface depth within the structure at which it is desired to cause debonding of the structure. A laser beam diameter, pulse width and power level predetermined to produce a peak tensile stress within the structure at the selected depth are selected. A laser having the selected beam diameter is used to apply a shock load at the selected pulse width and power level to the structure. Using this method, damaged or unwanted aircraft skin, patches or overlays on structure can be removed more cleanly and simply than milling, grinding or other mechanical methods.

Composite materials are widely used in aircraft applications. It is not unusual for aircraft to incur accidental damage in the course of everyday airport operations and maintenance. Repairing impact damage typically involves the removal of material over bonded substructure joints. Removing composite material over regions of strong bonds can be an arduous and dirty task which involves cutting, grinding and/or machining tough material.

Using laser shock loads to debond structures


A power divider couples a received signal to a pair of signal channels. The first channel includes a pulse signal processor coupled to the power divider through a band reject filter. The second channel includes a continuous wave signal detector and processor coupled to the power divider through a bandpass filter. The bandpass and band reject filters are responsive to a control signal for tuning the center frequencies of the respective pass band and reject band to a frequency within a predetermined range of frequencies. The continuous wave signal detector and processor determines the frequency of a detected continuous wave signal using the first channel, and tunes, by producing the above-mentioned control signal, the center frequencies of the bandpass and band reject filters to the frequency of the detected continuous wave signal. The band reject filter rejects the continuous wave signal in the first channel. The continuous wave signal detector and processor then monitors the second channel to detect the absence of the detected continuous wave signal.

The present invention relates generally to radio frequency (R.F.) receivers and more particularly to R.F. receivers adapted to process received R.F. pulses and reject received R.F. continuous wave (CW) signals.
As is known in the art a CW signal is a signal with a time duration substantially longer than the time duration of a single pulse from a pulsed signal. In R.F. receivers adapted to process received R.F. pulses, strong CW signals may interfere with the reception of the desired pulsed signals, especially if the frequencies of the CW signals are close in frequency to the carrier frequencies of the pulsed signals. For this reason, it is often desirable to filter out strong CW signals.
One method for filtering out, or tuning out a CW signal, while allowing pulsed signals to pass through for processing, is to provide a notch, or band reject filter whose center frequency is tuned to the frequency of the CW signal. Thus all received signals except those having a frequency within the notch of the band reject filter are passed for processing. Where multiple CW signals are present in the frequency band of interest, it is common for only one band reject filter to be used. This one band reject filter is tuned to filter out the strongest CW signal present in the frequency band of interest. Often, a YIG (yittrium-iron-garnet) filter is used as the band reject filter because it can be used at frequencies in the GHz range, and its band reject center frequency can be tuned over a very broad frequency range.
With such method, the reject band of the band reject filter is first tuned below the lowest frequency in a predetermined band of interest so that all frequencies within the predetermined frequency band pass to a CW signal detector. The CW signal detector determines if a received signal is a CW signal by comparing its time duration with a predetermined time duration threshold. If the time duration of the received signal exceeds the threshold, then the received signal is characterized as a CW signal. The YIG control circuit then tunes the center frequency of the band reject filter to a frequency which is slightly below the frequency band of interest. The center frequency of the band reject filter is then increased in successive steps of frequency so as to sweep through the frequency band of interest. After each step, the amplitude of the band reject filter output signal is compared to the value of a variable which is equal to the smallest amplitude of the band reject filter output signal previously measured during the present sweep. If the amplitude of the band reject filter output signal is larger than the value of the variable, then this amplitude is discarded. If the amplitude of the band reject filter output signal is less than the value of the variable, then the variable takes on a new value which is equal to the amplitude of the band reject filter output signal. In addition, the YIG control circuit stores the center frequency of the band reject filter associated with the lowest amplitude previously measured during the sweep. After the YIG control circuit has finished the sweep, the center frequency of the band reject filter is set at the frequency where the minimum amplitude occurred, i.e. the frequency where maximum CW signal rejection occurred. The band reject filter now provides maximum rejection of the strongest CW signal present within the frequency band of interest.
When the CW signal is no longer present within the frequency band of interest, the reject band of the band reject filter is returned to a frequency outside of the frequency band of interest. This allows all frequencies within the frequency band of interest to pass through the filter for processing. Since the CW signal is being rejected by the band reject filter, there will be very small change in the filter output when the CW signal is no longer present. This small change in the filter output may be too small for the post-filter circuitry to detect the absence of the CW signal with the required accuracy. Therefore, to obtain more accurate CW signal "absence" detection, the center frequency of the band reject filter is periodically tuned to another frequency away from the frequency of the previously detected CW signal, in order that the post-filter circuitry is able to measure the amplitude of this CW signal and determine if this CW signal is still present.
While such method may be useful in some applications, the time required to periodically tune the center frequency of the band reject filter away from the frequency of the previously detected CW signal to determine if this CW signal is still present may be excessive. A second problem with such method is that the periodic tuning of the center frequency of the band reject filter to a frequency away from that of the previously detected CW signal may cause distortion to the amplitudes of the pulses of interest. Additionally, when a pulse, with a carrier frequency at, or near, the frequency of the CW signal occurs during the sweep process and the center frequency of the filter is at the frequency of the CW signal, a false amplitude reading may occur. If this false amplitude is larger than any of the other amplitudes measured during the sweep, then the center frequency of the band reject filter will be tuned to an incorrect frequency. That is, the center frequency of the band reject filter will be tuned to a frequency other than that frequency required to provide maximum rejection of the CW signal.

RF receiver adapted to process received RF pulses and reject RF continuous wave signals


A safety lancet for preventing reuse is provided, including an upper and lower case, moving block, guide, pressing plate, seating recess, and resilient spring. The upper case and a lower cases are coupled together with a space therein and a through-hole at the front to expose a lancet needle. The moving block is movable within the cases. with the lancet needle at the front. The guide is positioned behind the moving block within the cases and includes an anti-reverse ledge to selectively restrict reverse movement for reloading of the moving block. The pressing plate is pivotably mounted to the upper case and includes a stopper on which the moving block is caught, and a pressing projection for pressing the guide. The seating recess is defined in a bottom of the lower case, in which the guide descends and is seated. The resilient spring supports the rear of the moving block.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a safety lancet, and more particularly, to a safety lancet capable of fundamentally preventing the reuse of lancets for collecting blood, in order to obviate the possibility of infections arising from such reuse.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lancets (blood collecting needles) are generally used in hospitals and other facilities to conveniently collect blood for the purpose of conducting various tests on patients. For example, a lancet is used to apply pressure to capillary subcutaneous tissue of a finger or toe to draw and collect a small amount of blood, which is then used to measure a diabetic patient's blood-sugar level or is input to a blood analysis device for cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), etc. to perform various blood analyses.
Following blood collection, conventional blood collecting devices were often reused after being washed with water or subjected to simple sterilization, which is a serious form of medical malpractice that can cause the transmission of AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases through tainted blood.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a related art disposable automatic blood collecting device 100 developed to prevent its reuse, which includes a housing 110 having a sectional barrel structure, and a lancet needle 120 for collecting blood. The housing 110 is configured with an upper and lower case 110a and 110b capable of being spread apart and closed. With the upper and lower cases 110a and 110b of the house 110 opened, the lancet needle 120 is stored in a storage space 112, and when the installation of the lancet needle 120 is completed, the upper and lower cases 110a and 110b are converged together to complete the product. The storage space 112 is defined within the housing 110 to store the lancet needle 120 for collecting blood. A front wall opening 116a is defined through a portion of a front wall 116 of the housing 110, a top wall opening 118a-1 is defined in the top wall to correspond to the shape of press/release means 118, and the remaining wall portions are sealed inside and out.
The press/release means 118 is provided on a side of the housing 110 to prevent the lancet needle 120 from travelling forward to the front wall opening 116a of the housing 110. The press/release means 118 is provided with a disengagement prevention catch 111 projecting from a side thereof. and a catching ledge 124 formed at the front end of the lancet needle 120 is maintained in a latched state by the disengagement prevention catch 111 to prevent movement of the lancet needle 120. A concave pressing portion 117 is defined at a predetermined position in the press/release means 118, an anti-slip projection 113 is formed projecting in an undulating manner on the top surface of the pressing portion 117, and a portion at the front end of the press/release means 118 is connected at a predetermined location at the top surface wall of the housing by means of a thin film type connecting piece 114.
During use of the above-configured automatic blood collecting device 100, when a user presses the pressing portion 117 of the press/release means 118 towards the top wall opening 118a-1 of the housing 110, the latching of the catching ledge 124 of the lancet needle 120 to the disengagement prevention catch 111 is disengaged so that it travels toward the front wall opening 116a. Here, the lancet needle 120 receives resilient force from a spring 130 provided within the housing 110 and moves forward toward the front wall opening 116a, and the needle 122 moves to the outside of the front wall opening 116a. In the process of pressing the press/release means 118, the thin film type connecting piece 114 connecting the housing 110 and press/release means 118 is disconnected and separates. Therefore, because the press/release means 118 is not returned to its original position, it cannot fix the lancet needle 120, and can thus prevent reuse of the automatic blood collecting device 100.
However, after the above blood collecting device of the related art is used, the disconnected connecting piece 114 may be reconnected to the upper wall of the housing 110 through melting under a certain temperature, making reuse possible.


A method and system of using a type of wave rotor to reform a hydrocarbon fluid using pressure waves within the wave rotor to reformulate a hydrocarbon fluid, such as methane or the like, into a lighter hydrocarbon, hydrogen, or, in some instances, hydrogen, partially decomposed hydrocarbon fluid and carbon solids.

Carbon Dioxide emissions are believed to be one of the leading contributors to global climate changes. As a result, research sectors, industry sectors and public policy sectors are racing to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of humans, to help reduce, minimize, and even eliminate the carbon dioxide emissions from energy sources such as fossil fuels.
Hydrogen is one such fuel that is being used more prevalently today as a result of these attempts to reduce our carbon footprint. Hydrogen gas can be used to produce power with no negative impact on the environment, unlike power produced using fossil fuels.
Hydrogen can be produced using many methods, however the overwhelming majority of industrial hydrogen is generated using steam methane reforming Steam methane reforming is a process where methane and steam are heated until they react, reforming into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The chemical reaction describing steam reforming of the hydrocarbon methane is:CH4+2H2O+ENERGY=>CO2+4H2
Steam methane reforming is a well-developed and refined process that has become an industry standard. Notwithstanding, steam reforming has its draw backs. Most notably, it generates carbon dioxide which is currently vented to the atmosphere. Additionally, the energy required for the process is generated using hydrocarbon fuels, further adding to the carbon dioxide emission problem. A second drawback of the steam methane reforming process is that it consumes water (steam), which is becoming a valuable resource. In addition to the environmental impacts, the capital cost of steam reforming plants is prohibitive for small to medium size applications because the technology does not scale down well.
Thus, there remains a significant unmet need for providing an environmentally friendly, cost effective and scalable hydrogen production method. What is needed are better hydrogen production systems and methods.

Hydrocarbon wave reformer and methods of use


An improved pultrusion process for preparing composite materials having about 10 percent to about 45 percent by volume of reinforcing fibers so as to produce a composite material having enhanced flexibility as compared with composite materials having a higher percent of reinforcing fibers by volume. Articles of manufacture made from composite material produced by the improved pultrusion process, specifically spinal implants, are also provided.

Spinal disorders such as degenerative disc disease, disc herniation, osteoporosis, spondylolisthesis, stenosis, scoliosis and other curvature abnormalities, kyphosis, tumor, and fracture may result from factors including trauma, disease and degenerative conditions caused by injury and aging. Spinal disorders typically result in symptoms including pain, nerve damage, and partial or complete loss of mobility.
Non-surgical treatments, such as medication, rehabilitation and exercise can be effective, however, may fail to relieve the symptoms associated with these disorders. Surgical treatment of these spinal disorders includes discectomy, laminectomy, fusion and implantable prosthetics. As part of these surgical treatments, spinal implants are used. These implants must be made from biocompatible material having high tensile strength and various degrees of flexibility. One suitable material that can be used to produce these implants is thermoplastic composite material manufactured using a pultrusion process.
The pultrusion process as commonly practiced uses reinforcing material, for example, glass filaments, or other reinforcing fibers such as carbon and high strength organic fibers, combined in associated groupings or "tows" that are passed through a tank containing the polymer which is to form the continuous phase in the form of a liquid solution, or in melted form. The plastic coated tows are thereafter drawn through a heated die. The coated tows emerging from the heated die as a relatively rigid composite having reinforced fibers positioned throughout the material. In order to be able to pull the composite through the heated curing die there must be a relatively high percentage of reinforcing fibers in the composite. However, a composite material produced having a relatively high percentage of continuous reinforcing fibers results in a less flexible composite material than materials having a lower concentration of continuous fibers.
Accordingly, the thermoplastic composite material produced by existing pultrusion processes are often too rigid to be suitable for the manufacture of biological implants, for example spinal implants, because of the high percentage of continuous fibers required to support the existing pultrusion process make the material very rigid. This disclosure describes an improved pultrusion process and articles manufactured therefrom that has a lower fiber content and is more flexible than existing pultrusion products.

Pultrusion process for preparing composites having low percentage of fibers and articles made from same


A method for the transformation of material (e.g. plastic material) into an optically modulating state via laser radiation is described. The optically modulating state may be a state in which light is emitted at a different wavelength than it is absorbed. The plastic material to may be a thermoplastic or elastomeric material, or an organic polymer selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polycarbonate and polycycloolefin. The laser radiation may comprise the application of an amount of energy of about 0.1 nJoule/μm2 to about 100 μJoule/μm2 and/or may comprise a radiation of a wavelength of about 355 nm to about 1064 nm. The optically modulating state of the plastic material may absorb light in a wavelength spectrum of about 380 nm to about 540 nm and/or a wavelength spectrum of about 635 nm to about 655 nm. The optically modulating state of the plastic material may emit light in a wavelength spectrum of about 550 nm to about 800 nm. The transformation of the plastic material may comprise the generation of optically modulating elements on the surface of said plastic material, selected from the group comprising geometrical forms, geometrical pattern, spots, dots, lines, circles, squares, characters, symbols, drawings, barcode and datamatrixcode. The material may be used as component for the manufacture of a device, microfluidic device, system, cartridge or instrument. Based on the employment of the material the usability of a device or system and/or of any procedure, function or method carried out with it or in it may be determined and/or controlled.

The labeling and marking of material and products is becoming of rising importance in many industrial fields. The labels and marks are predominantly generated using conventional techniques such as printing, stamping, engraving or embossing. Marking via the application of laser radiation has been established as interesting alternative to these techniques since it is rapid, can be applied on non-planar surfaces and is in general durable and abrasion-resistant due to the inscription in the material, in particular plastic material, itself.
Laser marking methods have been described for different materials, in particular for plastics or polymeric materials. The underlying effect is generally based on an interaction between the polymeric matrix of the material or a laser sensitive additive to said material with a laser beam, which generates a high degree of thermal energy at the laser target point. The application of energy is assumed to result in pyrolysis, carbonization and/or ablation of material, leading to macroscopic modifications of the material, which are optically detectable for the human eye. U.S. Pat. No. 6,284,184 discloses a method of laser marking a plastic substrate based on a layered polymeric substrate, which is ablated in order to reveal a differently colored layer underneath. U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,973 discloses a system, in which the laser radiation passes through the surface of a first layer material and becomes absorbed in a second layer material leading to a laser conveyed marking therein.
The described methods are focused on the generation of generally visible labels or modifications on the treated material, which may however not be applicable in situations in which an optical reaction other than optical reflection is required.
There is thus a need for techniques and materials which overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.

Transformation of material into an optically modulating state via laser radiation


A sales data processing apparatus includes a display, a product scanner to obtain a commodity code from a product being registered in a sales transaction, a storage unit to store journal data including product information for registered. A controller is configured to record product information for products registered in the sales transaction and output a notification of an error in the sales transaction when detected. The notification is output to the display screen and includes information regarding resolution of the error. The controller executes a first countermeasure for resolving the error, then stops the sales transaction if the error is not resolved. The controller then executes a second countermeasure after the sales transaction has been stopped and starts a new transaction if the error is resolved by the second countermeasure.

There has been a demand for sales data processing apparatuses for which minor errors can be resolved without depending on maintenance personnel. This demand has grown with the introduction self-checkout apparatuses in retail stores and the increasing prevalence of stores that are unmanned or having only a small number of personnel available.
Certain technologies for resolving errors in a sales data processing apparatus without depending on maintenance personnel have been disclosed before. In such known examples, the device that causes the error must be disconnected or taken offline even though sales data processing apparatus are preferably continuously used or at least available for customer use.
However, when an error occurs due to, for example, the timing of communication with another device overlaps, there are many cases where the error can be resolved by re-executing the same process again, resetting a device sub-component to a previous state, or rebooting the entire apparatus. When such relatively quickly fixable errors occur, it is not appropriate to resolve the error by entirely disconnecting the sales processing apparatus.

Sales data processing apparatus and method


The most reliable server-aided computation system and method where a client request a server to perform modular exponentiation computation without revealing a cleint's secret to the server. The computation system includes a main device having a modular multiplication processing portion so that at least two integers are multiplied and a result thereof is divided by a modulus so as to obtain a residue thereof, exponent register portion for storing a secret exponent, and memory portion for storing a computed result in the processing portion; an auxiliary device having a modular multiplication processing portion for performing computation requested by the main device and sending back a result thus obtained therefrom to the main device; and communications channel for communicating data between the main device and the auxiliary device, wherein the auxiliary means performs computing steps without involving the secret exponent d which is only known to the main device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a highly safe server-aided computation system and method where a client requests a server to perform an arithmetic operation which does not depend on the client's secret.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a public key cryptosystem is actively under investigation in order to obtain security of a communication information processing. The many public key cryptosystems such as an RSA system performs the following basic operation of modular exponentiation: EQU C=M.sup.d mod n (1)
where M denotes a plain text and d a secret exponent. The RSA system is called as such after the initials of the last names of three inventors thereof, Rivest, Shamlr and Adleman. Here, in order to secure the cryptosystem, a large number such as one with 512 bits length or more is generally used for each variable C, M, n and d. Therefore, steps for processing are significantly long, and when the arithmetic operations necessary for the steps is to be carried out by a system having a relatively slow processing speed, it takes a very long time to complete the operation.
Moreover, in the course of decoding the RSA cryptosystem, the exponent d must be kept secret in equation (1), so that care must be taken in dealing with the exponent when arithmetic operation is performed. It is convenient and safe on carriage that the d or n which serves as a key for decryption is stored in storage media such as an IC card or the like. However, in a case where an other system other than the IC card performs the exponentiation, the keys d and n must be sent to a system in which the modular exponentiation is operated, thus causing a possibility that the secret exponent d may be revealed to a third party. Moreover, though the modular exponentiation may be operated by a CPU (central processing unit) equipped in the IC card, it is difficult to achieve a practically fast processing time by the CPU equipped with the IC card since a capacity for numeric calculation in the IC card's CPU is very limited.
Therefore, conventionally proposed is that an auxiliary system is assigned for performing fast processing and keeping a secrecy on the exponent. This is called a server-aided secret computation method. Generally, the server-aided secret computation is executed by a system comprising three portions that are a client, a server and a communication line connecting the client and and the server. Among the calculation system, the client is a system which has a secret information regarding an object processing and is inferior to the server in the capacity of the arithmetic operation. The server executes a processing content requested by the client and sends back a result thereof to the client through the communication line. In the above processing, the server-aided secret computation method is such that a whole processing time is reduced by means of an auxiliary help from the server without revealing the secret information of the client to the third party. When the server-aided secret computation is configured using decryption system of the RSA cryptography, the exponent d in equation (1) is the secret information of the client.
As examples of the conventional server-aided computation protocols, there is a method proposed by Matsumoto et. al. ("Speeding up secret computation with insecure auxiliary devices", Proc. of Crypto 1988, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 408, pp. 497-506, 1988), and there is another revised and variation version by C. S. Laih et. al. (C. S. Laih et. al., "Two efficient server-aided secret computation protocols", proceeding of ASIACRYPT 1991). However, security of their protocols suggested by Matsumoto et. al. and Laih et. al. is unclear since transmitted messages between the client and the server are not perfectly independent of the secret exponent In order to possibly prevent the drawbacks in the above two examples, there is a method propose by Quisquater et. al. where the server's processing is made independent of the secret exponent (d) (J. J. Quisquater et. al. "Speeding up smart card RSA computations with insecure coprocessors", Smart Card 2000, Amsterdam 4-6, pp. 191-197, North Holland, Amsterdam, 1991). However, the method by Quisquater et. al. necessitates a huge volume of processing and communication in the client and the server, and there has been waited a further efficient technique to date.
As for a method where a modular exponentiation is realized with less number of modular multiplications there have been suggested various methods therefor. However, these methods differ in the server-aided secret computation in that the modular exponentiation is executed by both server and client and the object of these conventional methods do not lie in the fact that the exponent is revealed to no one but the client. Therefore, such conventional methods can not be applied to fulfill the objective of the server-aided computation.
Accordingly, in the conventional protocols such as one suggested by Matsumoto et. al., the security of the protocols is doubtful so that there is strong possibility that secret key might be revealed to the third party. Moreover, in the method employed by Quisquater et. al., there is far too much processing amount so that there is needed a much longer time for completing the arithmetic operation.

Fast server-aided computation system and method for modular exponentiation without revealing client's secret to auxiliary device


An additive manufacturing system is provided including a light source configured to emit light, a vessel configured to contain a photopolymer, and a bed having a surface disposed at least partially within the vessel. The surface is movable in a first direction relative to the light source. A membrane is fixed to the vessel and is positioned between the light source and the photopolymer. A movable carrier is disposed between the light source and the membrane. The light source is operably coupled to the movable carrier.

Printing of 3D objects typically involves the use of a printer that applies thin layers of material in succession. For example, a 3D printer can include a container for holding a liquid polymer that can be cured on a bed to produce a 3D object. The printer can include a light source and a controller that selectively controls the light source to expose the liquid polymer to light to print successive layers of the 3D object. Existing systems, however, require light sources that are dynamically controllable by a compute device to form specific layers of a 3D object.
Further, in existing systems to separate the cured layer from the base, the bed on which cured object is being formed is moved to cause separation of the cured layer from the base. This movement is large (e.g. multiples of the thickness of the layer) and is done slowly to provide the desired separation. Further, the separation of the layer is performed over the entire area of the layer at once. It should be appreciated that this movement of the bed to separate the cured layer slows the time to form the desired object.
Accordingly, while existing 3D printing systems are suitable for their intended purpose the need for improvement remains, particularly in providing a 3D printing system that cures photopolymers using a light source in a cost effective manner and having the features described herein.

Methods, systems, and devices for three-dimensional object generation and physical mask curing


A method for managing the temperature of three-dimensional object during additive manufacturing includes depositing material on a partial fabrication of the three-dimensional object, determining thermal properties of the three-dimensional object after depositing the material, and controlling cooling of the object according to said thermal properties. In some examples, the determining of the thermal properties includes determining a temperature variation across the object and controlling position-dependent cooling of the object in a feedback arrangement. Resulting uniform temperature of the object under fabrication can improve dimensional accuracy and material properties of the object.

This application relates to thermal management during additive fabrication.
Additive manufacturing refers to fabricating an object by selective addition of material. One approach to additive manufacturing works by "slicing" a digital model of an object into layers. A fabrication apparatus uses data representing the layers of the model to deposit physical layers of material, starting with a bottom layer and ending with a top layer. Additive manufacturing is rapidly gaining popularity in a variety of markets including automotive, aerospace, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and industrial tooling.
One type of additive fabrication apparatus includes a jetting printhead mounted on a gantry. The printhead deposits droplets of liquid printable resins at different locations within a build volume to fabricate an object that is supported by a build platform. In some cases, the printhead moves relative to the build platform. In other cases, the build platform moves relative to the printhead. An apparatus of this type is sometimes called a "3D printer."
One class of materials used for additive manufacturing are photo-curable resins (e.g., UV or near-UV curable resins). These liquid materials are polymerized/solidified using light. Typically, a light source moves relative to the build platform to cause or initiate polymerization of the resin after each layer. The polymerization process is usually exothermic. Significant amount of heat energy can be released to the surrounding spatial neighborhood during this process. This exothermic energy might cause temperature variations throughout the build volume. This, in turn, can lead to many undesired effects such as deformation of printed parts, residual stresses in printed materials, or melting of the support material (e.g., a wax).
It is possible to enclose the fabrication apparatus in an enclosure within which a constant temperature is maintained, for example, being a few degrees higher than the temperature outside of enclosure. But such an approach can only generally cool the object being fabricated.

Thermal management for additive fabrication


An image processing system includes a first image processing apparatus and a second image processing apparatus connected to the first image processing apparatus. The first image processing apparatus includes a reader reading image data, a storage storing job information, a request unit transmitting a job request as a job to the second image processing apparatus to execute the job corresponding to the job information based on a job execution scheduling, and an introducing unit introducing the job information to the second image processing apparatus. The second image processing apparatus includes a receiver receiving the job request from the first image processing apparatus as the job, a job executing unit executing the job corresponding to the job information, a determining unit determining whether to acquire the job information based on the job execution scheduling, and an acquiring unit acquiring the job information based on a determined result from the determining unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to an image processing system and an image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a technology known in the art in which plural image processing apparatuses are connected such that, when one image processing apparatus receives a FAX transmission job that the image processing apparatus may not be able to carry out by itself, the image processing apparatus may request other image processing apparatuses connected to it to carry out such a FAX transmission job. For example, in such a technology, one image processing apparatus having no FAX function (hereinafter called a "master machine") connects to another image processing apparatus having a FAX function (hereinafter called a "slave machine") such that a document read by the master machine is FAX transmitted by the slave machine connected to the master machine.
However, in this example, an upper limit of one FAX operation conducted by the slave machine is predetermined so that a new job may not be carried out if the operation of the new job exceeds the upper limit of the FAX operation. The upper limit is set for the FAX operation to prevent a storage region for the FAX transmission function from receiving jobs that may exceed its capacity, because the storage region needs to store FAX transmission condition information such as an address or image information every time a new job is assigned. Note that the FAX transmission condition information and the image information contained in a job are hereinafter simply called "job information").
In such collaborative FAX transmission, since each of the master machine and the slave machine includes a storage region, such a master-slave model may carry out the number of FAX transmissions more than the number of FAX transmissions carried out by a stand-alone FAX machine. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-290647 discloses an example of the master-slave model configuration in which a master digital copier reads a document image, transfers the read document image to a slave digital copier having a FAX function, and requests the slave digital copier to fax the transferred document image.
However, it may not be efficient for FAX transmission scheduling to simply carry out specific jobs in corresponding apparatuses. The FAX transmissions are generally carried out based on the round-robin job scheduling. The round-robin job scheduling differs from sequential job scheduling where jobs are processed in the job-introduced order. Specifically, in the round-robin job scheduling, job requests are transmitted in the address order from respective first addresses in different job queues. That is, after all job requests corresponding to the first addresses in the different job queues are transmitted, and job requests corresponding to the second addresses are transmitted. The job information is distributed between the master machine and the slave machine in the master-slave model. However, in such round-robin job scheduling, when the slave machine needs to transmit a job request (i.e., when a transmission turn of a job request comes) but the appropriate job information corresponding to the job request is not readily available (i.e., not stored) in the slave machine, the slave machine may not be able to transmit the job request to a corresponding address due to lack of the necessary information in the slave machine.

Image processing system and apparatus for storing job information used for later acquiring corresponding image data upon job processing


A data processor comprises a decoder for decoding the compressed data into decoded data while reading the compressed data from a first data storage, a second data storage for storing therein the decoded data, a DA converter for converting the decoded data into an analog signal while reading the decoded data in real-time, a first controller for controlling the decoder to perform intermittent operation by executing a process between reading the compressed data and storing the decoded data at a speed faster than real-time, a clock/power controller for making a restriction of power consumption of the decoder and the first controller in downtime of the intermittent operation, a second controller for outputting a control signal in accordance with the storage state of the decoded data, and an activation controller for controlling the clock/power controller to lift the restriction in response to reception of the control signal.

In recent years, there have been proposed a wide variety of terminals, such as mobile phones, handheld terminals and cordless monitors, having a feature of AV reproduction such as audio reproduction and video reproduction, and a feature for viewing and listening of broadcasting such as radio broadcasting and television broadcasting. Additionally, there have so far been also proposed a wide variety of compression methods each involving a heavy processing load to meet requirements for transmitting or storing high-compressed contents. On the other hand, there have been many requirements for reproducing continuously to view and listen for long periods of time. The mobile terminal powered by battery is therefore required to reduce power consumption to be continuously operable for long periods of time. The aforementioned problem is resolved by a conventional technology described hereinafter.
The conventional data processor of this type is designed to receive and decode broadcast waves intermittently to store the result of decoding into a memory (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of the conventional data processor disclosed in the Patent Document 1.
In FIG. 11, the conventional data processor comprises a broadcast receiver 1 for receiving broadcast waves a decoder 2 for decoding data obtained from the broadcast waves received by the broadcast receiver 1, a data storage 3 for storing therein decoded data indicative of the result of decoding by the decoder 2, a DA converter 4 for converting the data stored in the data storage 3 into an analog signal, a system controller 5 for controlling an operation of each part of the data processor, a power supply 6 for controlling power supply to each part of the data processor, and a timer 7 for notifying a timing of activation of the decoder 2.
The conventional data processor thus constructed receives and decodes the broadcast data updated in several times on one day, while making the broadcast receiver 1 and the decoder 2 perform intermittent operation. The conventional data processor, in particular, starts supplying the power to the broadcast receiver 1 and the decoder 2 in accordance with interruption of the timer 7 before receiving the broadcast waves. The conventional data processor then receives the broadcast waves with the broadcast receiver 1, and stores the result of decoding by the decoder 2 into the data storage 3. The system controller 5 then controls the broadcast receiver 1, the decoder 2 and the data storage 3 to halt each process, and stops supplying the power from the power supply 6 to the broadcast receiver 1 and the decoder 2.
As described above, the conventional data processor is designed to stop supplying the power in downtime of the intermittent operation so as to make a reduction of the power consumption under a standby state.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication H11-122586

Clock and power control for intermittent operation of decoder


A processing apparatus is disclosed for representing cognitively biased selection behavior of a consumer as a learnable model with high prediction accuracy taking into account even feature values of a product and the consumer. The processing apparatus generates a selection model obtained by modeling selection behavior of a selection entity that selects at least one choice out of presented input choices. The processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit to acquire training data including a plurality of input feature vectors that indicate features of a plurality of the choices presented to the selection entity and an output feature vector that indicates a feature of an output choice. The processing apparatus further includes an input combining unit to combine the plurality of input vectors to generate an input combined vector, and a learning processing unit to learn a selection model on the basis of the input combined vector and the output vector.

There has been known a method of analyzing consumption behavior of consumers, a system for recommending products to consumers, and the like (see, for example, Non-Patent Literatures 1 to 3). It is known that, when a consumer selects one or a plurality of products out of a plurality of products, selection behavior of the consumer is variously cognitively biased. A related art thereof is known (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 to 4 and Non-Patent Literatures 1 to 3).
Patent Literature 1 JP2009-87235A.
Patent Literature 2 JP2010-26596A.
Non-Patent Literature 1 Roe, Robert M.; Busemeyer, Jermone R.; Townsend, James T.; "Multichoice decision field theory: A dynamic connectionst model of decision making", Psychological Review, Vol. 108(2), April 2001, 370-392.
Non-Patent Literature 2 Hruschka, Harald.; "Analyzing market baskets by restricted Boltzmann machines.", OR Spectrum, August 2012, 1-20.
Non-Patent Literature 3 Teppan, Erich Christian; Alexander Felfernig; "Minimization of product utility estimation errors in recommender result set evaluations," Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology-Volume 01. IEEE Computer Society, 2009.
Non-Patent Literature 4 Shenoy, P.; Yu, A. J.; "Rational preference shifts in multi-attribute choice: What is fair?", Internet <URL: http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/˜ajyu/Papers/jdm_cogsci13.pdf>, 2013.
Non-Patent Literature 5 Hinton, G. E.; Salakhutdinov, R.; "Replicated softmax: an undirected topic model.", Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22, NIPS 2009, pp. 1607-1614.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Processing apparatus, processing method, estimating apparatus, estimating method, and program

International Business Machines Corporation


An ethanol production process and system for recovering high value oil products. The invention includes adding a heated lipid (oil) stream to a thin stillage stream to break the water/oil emulsion and free bound oil then recovering the oil. The process uses oil as the heat transfer mechanism to increase both the volume and quality of the oil recovered.

A conventional dry grind milling process is shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the modern ethanol dry milled facility begins with a feedstock at step 10, such as field corn or sorghum, grinds that feedstock into flour with a hammer mill 12 then wets that flour to create a mash 14. Customarily, the mash is heated to about 180° F. and is cooled to about 90° F. prior to fermentation. The mash is customarily at a pH of between about 4.0 to 5.5. The mash 14 may be further ground in a fine grinding operation 16 or it may be transferred directly to a liquefaction tank 18 where enzymes are added to convert the starches in the mash to sugars 18. These sugars are thereafter converted into ethanol through fermentation 22. Following fermentation 22, the entire mix from the fermentation vessel is delivered to a distillation process 24 where it is further heated with the alcohol removed from the mix by vaporization which is recaptured by condensation thereby providing the primary product, ethanol 28, 30. Other purification steps, such as the use of molecular sieves 26, may also be employed in the process. The process mix remaining after the distillation step 24 is generally referred to as whole stillage.
The focus of the ethanol industry has traditionally been on the output of alcohol and maximization of production from the available starch for conversion. This conversion was accomplished in the front end of an ethanol plant, and once the alcohol was removed from the process stream, the plant was left with the task of disposing of large volumes of whole stillage. Traditionally, the "front end" of the process refers to the process steps which occur before fermentation and the "back end" refers to the process steps which occur after fermentation. In the early days of the modern ethanol production industry, this problem was simply addressed by removing water from the whole stillage and selling the remainder as a by-product for use as animal feed. This by-product was called distiller's dried grain (DDG) or distiller's dried grain with solubles (DDGS).
Beginning about the early 2000s, the industry began to also focus on the potential products presented by the whole stillage. As a result of sheer volume and water content, the industry focus was and remains on dewatering of whole stillage which, in the past, presented the opportunity to sell DDG or DDGS and, more recently, presents the opportunity to fraction the contents of the whole stillage to recover more useful by-products.
The dewatering process of the whole stillage follows distillation. The whole stillage is sent to a separation step 32. At the separation step 32, often involving the use of large horizontal centrifuges, the whole stillage is separated into a primarily heavy solids stream referred to as wet cake. The wet cake was historically sent to driers 36 for further dewatering in the production of DDGS.
The second stream emerging from the separation step 32 is a primarily liquid stream which contained mostly water with dissolved solubles and, also, a small percentage of solids. This liquid stream was referred to as the thin stillage steam. A portion of the liquid/thin stillage is recirculated back to the slurry mix 14 (stream labeled "back set" in the figures) so as to reduce the amount of fresh water introduced into the process and, further, to reduce the amount of thin stillage that required processing via the evaporators. Historically, the thin stillage is sent to the evaporation step 34 where it was subjected to a series of dewatering processes by circulation through multiple evaporators 34. One of the historic ethanol plant designs used a series of eight evaporators through which the thin stillage stream flowed, usually in series. In early ethanol plant designs, after completing the evaporation step 34, the resulting concentrated thin stillage stream was generally referred to as syrup, and the syrup was customarily added to the wet cake content in the drier 36 where further dewatering occurred in the production and recovery of DDGS 38. Optionally, if a nearby market existed, the syrup could be sold separately as a liquid animal feed supplement and, as it was not added to the wet cake in the drier 36, the resulting solid feed product that emerged from the driers was DDG. Also, with nearby markets, the wet cake could bypass the drier operation and be sold as wet DDG or the syrup could be sprayed upon the wet cake, with this mix bypassing the driers and sold as wet DDGS for use as animal feed.
In the 1950s, it was understood that the content of oil available from corn harvested in the United States was highly variable. In the article by Lofland, et. al., Distribution of Fatty Acids in Corn Oil, The Journal of the American Chemists Society, Vol. 31, 412-413 (October 1954), oil content in corn was found to vary from 1.13% to 13.80%. Also, when ethanol plants began operations in earnest, there was no ready market for corn oil and, further, there were no specifications utilized by plants that mandated the corn feedstock material contain a particular percentage of corn oil. This was in line with the industry focus on alcohol output and efficiencies of fermentation (i.e.—implementation of fine grind operations on the mash to expose more surface area of starch in the resultant mash which would undergo fermentation). As the focus in the industry was beginning to expand to include matters other than the efficiency and output of alcohol, the infant biodiesel industry began to move away from the use of soybean oil as its feedstock replacing it with corn oil. This emerging market propelled the ethanol industry to add well known processes of oil separation using centrifuges to their backside operations which processes were used to separate oil from the thin stillage stream. This oil separation process was most often implemented near the evaporators as it afforded the plant the opportunity to control the water content of the in-feed stream to the centrifuge so as to facilitate the mechanical separation of the corn oil. In operation, the thin stillage stream was frequently diverted from the piping connecting two of the evaporators; it was sent to centrifuges where it was processed with oil separating from the stream, and the thin stillage stream was thereafter returned to the piping system so as to flow into the evaporation unit where it was headed prior to diversion. As noted above, this stream would frequently thereafter be sent to the drier to become a part of the DDGS. The oil portion separated from the thin stillage stream was often further processed by storage in vessels that allowed the solids captured by centrifugation to separate with the remainder sold as corn oil.
One problem with traditional processes is that the thin stillage includes emulsions which capture and bind oil. The bound oil is difficult to separate from the thin stillage. Therefore, there is a need for a process which increases the amount of oil recovered from ethanol plants.

Enhanced separation of corn oil from the ethanol manufacturing process


A reconfigurable magnetic therapy apparatus is formed by multiple magnetic magnetic components which are maintained in a stable planar array by either mutual magnetic attraction or mechanical fixtures which may include a ferromagnetic backing plate to which the elements are magnetically attached. The array can be separated and reconfigured by the user to provide different magnetic patterns that favor either high surface strength, or deep penetration, or multiple smaller sub arrays to treat multiple sites.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnet arrays that are used to deliver magnetic therapeutic fields to tissue in plants and animals. In particular a plurality of discrete shaped magnetic elements can be combined to form a single magnet array comprising discrete magnetic zones which may be of like polarity or mixed polarity. The overall polarization of the single magnet array can be varied by positioning the poles of each of the magnetic elements to be either North or South. Thus to obtain like polarity in the magnet array the polarity of each of the magnetic elements that comprise the array would be positioned to either North or South. Another embodiment according to the present invention comprises moats or spacer elements of non-magnetic material positioned in between each of the magnetic elements that comprise the magnet array.
2. Description of Related Art
Curative, and also prophylactic, magnetic field treatment is well known in the art. For example, it is known that magnetic bands covering the lower back can be effective in reducing pain originating in the lower back, and that a magnetic bracelet worn on the wrist can reduce pain or stiffness originating in the wrist. It is also known that the application of magnetic devices directly to the site of other painful body parts such as elbows or ankles can reduce pain in those parts. These known methods all typically involve the use of permanent magnets.
Many patents have been issued for therapeutic magnets including patents for concentric circle magnetic patterns impressed into flexible magnet material by relatively simple methods using permanent magnet fixtures or electrical discharge magnetizing fixtures. The resultant magnets typically have residual magnetic fields of 750 Gauss to 3,000 Gauss and can be created in a field of under 10,000 Gauss, which is achievable with neodymium or other high power permanent magnet fixtures. The problem with that method is that the power required to magnetize a concentrically arranged high power permanent magnet such as neodymium iron boron is too high.
Monolithic composite high power "Hard" magnet concentric patterns are difficult to achieve, because it is not practical using current technology to impress concentric magnetic zones of opposite polarity onto a wafer of homogeneous high power magnet material such as neodymium iron boron. Nominally 40,000 Gauss is required to coerce the field in neodymium. Additionally once a particular polarization pattern is impressed onto a wafer that polarization pattern can only be modified by subjecting the wafer to the same process that was used to originally impress the magnetic zones onto it.
Some practitioners believe that one magnetic pole has a different therapeutic effect than the other. For example some practitioners prefer to use a magnetic array having an all North polarization when treating a given condition. A technical obstacle present when constructing concentric patterns of a multi-element single pole array using high power permanent magnets is that magnetic disks of like polarity in the same plane mutually repel each other.
Thus a need exists for a high power permanent magnet device that can be configured into concentric patterns of either like or mixed polarities and an efficient way to construct concentric patterns with permanent high power magnets regardless of like or mixed polarity magnetic distribution.


A radiation monitoring system for detecting levels of radiation emitted from moving objects traveling at a wide range of speeds, including the high speeds normally encountered with vehicles traveling on highways, interstates, thoroughfares, railroads and conveyors. At least two and preferably three ionizing radiation detectors are employed, spaced apart in series along the direction of travel of the moving object or vehicle. The object or vehicle is monitored for radioactivity and the results are transmitted and processed at a central location. The individual results from each detector for a particular object or vehicle are summed and averaged over the number of detectors used thereby clearly distinguishing the fluctuating background radiation detected at each detector from the consistent high levels of radiation detected from those moving objects or vehicles measured emitting radiation. The results are cooperatively linked by an identification system such as a web cam or other photographic device which obtains visual identification of the objects and vehicles emitting the abnormally high levels of radiation detected.

The present invention relates to the detection of ionizing radiation, particularly to a method and apparatus for detecting ionizing radiation and moving sources, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for detecting high levels of ionizing radiation emitted from vehicles moving at high speeds along public roadways.
The problem of detecting moving objects that emit ionizing radiation has become significant. Scrap metal moving into scrap yards and steel mills must not contain significant radioactive contamination. The result of a truckload, or railcar load of scrap metal with radioactive contamination moving into a scrap yard could be the decontamination of the yard at great cost. The result of a contaminated load of scrap metal moving into a steel mill could be the decontamination of the mill. High decontamination costs have been encountered in such situations. The scrap metal, with the hidden radioactive contamination, may be moving into the yard or mill by truck, by railcar or by conveyor belt.
Prior art for monitoring ionizing radiation contamination in the loads of trucks and train cars for such purposes is well known, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,705,818 and 5,679,956. However, in this prior art, the preference is that the vehicle not move more than five or six miles per hour, as higher speeds decrease the sensitivity of the detection system. Thus, these systems are inherently impractical for monitoring vehicles when on public roads or railways or objects on a conveyor moving at moderate or full speed. It is therefore highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system.
Another prior art system can detect ionizing radiation in vehicles moving nearly 19 miles per hour by using an adaptive filter method. Such method uses at least three separate detectors, and data from a reading off of a vehicle from each detector is compared to a reading of background radiation, and only if all three detectors detect sufficiently high levels of radiation is an alarm sounded. In this way, false alarms are minimized. However, such a system is limited as it still is not practical for vehicles moving at highway speeds or on interstates moving at interstate speeds. Additionally, such a system may be susceptible to false negative readings in the event one of the detectors should have detected a sufficiently high level of radiation to trip an alarm but did not, causing the system to fail to sound an alarm.
The need for monitoring high levels of ionizing radiation from vehicles traveling at speeds in excess of 19 miles an hour as well as at lower speeds is clear in the wake of the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and the increasing threat around the world from terrorist groups. Terrorists, such as World Trade Center attack suspect Osama bin Laden, claim to have nuclear and chemical weapons, according to accounts published in Pakistani newspapers and other Middle East news sources. U.S. officials have stated that terrorists are trying to acquire nuclear materials and weapons. Thus, there is the possibility that a terrorist could surround a car bomb with dangerous radioactive material. Under those circumstances, it is necessary to explore the question of whether or not authorities can detect vehicles carrying radioactive sources.
Vehicles cannot be regularly stopped and inspected with a handheld detection device because interstate highway traffic would be snarled, the program would require a large number of inspectors and police to back them up, and a terrorist could avoid the obvious roadblock by using an alternate route. An effective system must be inexpensive, detect radioactive material in a vehicle, identify the vehicle so that it can be stopped by police, avoid slowing down traffic to a crawl, and be so inconspicuous that a terrorist will not notice it and circumvent the system by using a secondary road. Therefore, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system capable of regularly taking accurate readings above 19 miles per hour and from vehicles moving at a wide range of speeds including top speeds on highways, interstates and thoroughfares. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that can provide visual identification of a vehicle corresponding to the detector reading therefrom. It is further highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that is inconspicuous at least until such time as detection and identification may be made.
Prior art systems employ different means and methods for taking into account and compensating for background radiation levels as well as the natural shielding effect of most vehicles as they pass through the scanning area of the radiation detector. However, to take advantage of such means and methods requires additional skill and know-how for computing the specific relationships of timed readings and generating algorithms and other formulas and methods for arriving at accurate measurement results. Furthermore, each such means or method has an impact on the sensitivity of the system that may be used. Therefore, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that uses a simple yet unique method for arriving at accurate radiation detection results despite sensitivity considerations caused by readings generated from naturally occurring radioactive material and other background radiation sources. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that uses the background readings detected in a way that affirmatively differentiates high level readings from materials carried by a vehicle traveling at high speed. It is further highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that can monitor radiation with a high degree of sensitivity without concern of anomalous background radiation sources.
Finally, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system having all of the above identified features.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system capable of regularly taking accurate readings above 19 miles per hour and from vehicles moving at a wide range of speeds including top speeds on highways, interstates and thoroughfares.
It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that can provide visual identification of a vehicle corresponding to the detector reading therefrom.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that is inconspicuous at least until such time as detection and identification may be made.
It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that uses a simple yet unique method for arriving at accurate radiation detection results despite sensitivity considerations caused by readings generated from naturally occurring radioactive material and other background radiation sources.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that uses the background readings detected in a way that affirmatively differentiates high level readings from materials carried by a vehicle traveling at high speed.
It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system that can monitor radiation with a high degree of sensitivity without concern of anomalous background radiation sources.
Finally, it is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved radiation monitoring system having all of the above identified features.
In the broader aspects of the invention there is provided a radiation monitoring system for detecting levels of radiation emitted from moving objects traveling at a wide range of speeds, including the high speeds normally encountered with vehicles traveling on highways, interstates, thoroughfares, railroads and conveyors. At least two and preferably three or more ionizing radiation detectors are employed, spaced apart in series along the direction of travel of the moving object or vehicle. The object or vehicle is monitored for radioactivity and the results are transmitted and processed at a central location. The individual results from each detector for a particular object or vehicle are summed and averaged over the number of detectors used clearly distinguishing the fluctuating background radiation detected at each detector from the consistent high levels of radiation detected from those moving objects or vehicles measured and are cooperatively linked by an identification system such as a web cam or other photographic device which obtains visual identification of the objects and vehicles emitting the abnormally high levels of radiation detected.

Method and apparatus for a radiation monitoring system