SOC designs increasingly feature IP cores with standardized wrapper cells having vendor-provided test patterns for the internal logic. To test wrapper, interconnect, and other boundary logic, a boundary model is extracted from the design in a synthesis or ATPG environment. Wrapper cells are identified and boundary logic extracted by structural tracing of wrapper chains and tracing from core inputs/outputs to the wrapper cells. A created boundary model excludes core internal logic tested by vendor-provided test patterns to be migrated to the containing chip interface. An SOC ATPG model is built including boundary models for all embedded cores, interconnects, and any other logic residing at the SOC top hierarchical level. This model is very compact yet accurate for testing logic external to all embedded cores. Test time is reduced and test pattern generation greatly simplified, while featuring good test coverage. The same approach is used for 3D packages having multiple dies.

Integrated circuit designs continue to increase in size and complexity, a bottom-up hierarchical design flow is becoming more common. In particular, system on a chip-type designs ("SOC") incorporating a number of intellectual property cores ("IP cores") are increasingly common. SOCs are devices partially or wholly integrating various computer components into a monolithic semiconductor integrated circuit or a single package carrying several interconnected monolithic integrated circuits. "Chip" includes either configuration. An IP core is a reusable unit of logic, cell, or chip layout design that can be used as building blocks along with other logic to create a chip, including SOCs. Examples of IP cores include microprocessors such as those having ARM architectures, and peripheral controllers such as those for PCI Express, SDRAM, Ethernet, or USB devices. IP cores can be available as synthesizable register-transfer level ("RTL") in a suitable hardware description language or as physical layouts at a transistor level. IP cores are so named because an IP core is generally licensed from the vendor who is the party or entity that creates the IP core, and is licensed by the circuit designer for use in the SOC.
In a bottom-up flow the IP cores are separately designed and acquired, then integrated into an SOC. The IP core vendor can also create test patterns specific to a particular IP core, which can then be migrated for use in testing the SOC. The advantage of such an arrangement is that the test patterns are then portable along with the IP core, and may be used for any number of SOC designs incorporating that particular IP core. This simplifies test pattern generation for the SOC as a whole.
The various test patterns created or provided by the various vendors for the IP cores of the SOC do not test the interconnect logic between the IP cores. From the point of view of SOC testability, such logic should be tested. Current techniques to test the interconnect logic first confirm that the entire model of the SOC including the IP cores are built to ensure completeness. Then, each of the fault sites are accounted for within the IP cores that are already tested by the IP core-level test patterns.
The disadvantages of the above-described approach are myriad. First, as designs continue to become larger, the model size and runtime to create automated test pattern generation ("ATPG") models also increase significantly. Depending on the size of the IP core relative to the SOC top-level logic, the runtime increase can be as high as ten- to twenty-fold by including the full IP core along with the interconnect logic during ATPG; the size of the IP core logic can be ten or more times the size of the interconnect logic. For example, an SOC having one hundred million logic gates may have ten million logic gates for boundary, interconnect, and glue logic. Creating an ATPG model for the SOC that includes IP core internal logic gates in addition to the interconnect and glue logic results in a large and complex model, and thus model size and runtime for ATPG are larger than is really necessary. Second, the accuracy of the true interconnect fault coverage is reduced because there is a significant amount of bookkeeping involved for the faults within each IP core; it is not trivial to know which faults should be considered part of the interconnect and which should be part of the IP core internal logic. Third, simulation of the SOC test patterns require huge databases and runtimes. Fourth, delay-annotated simulation is not possible currently without a complete SOC model first being built. Fifth, some IP cores provided by third-parties may not have a full ATPG model due to the third-parties' concerns about protecting their intellectual property, limiting test pattern generation. Sixth, in the above approach, there is no automated generation of testmode setup and ATPG protocol files. Finally, as more and more circuit designs move towards three-dimensional designs having stacks of integrated circuits, developing complete ATPG models for all the embedded dies will become infeasible due to the further increased model size.
One approach that attempts to address these disadvantages is the Interface Logic Model ("mM"). ILM is a concept used in the areas of timing and physical design where gate-level representations of a physical block are used in hierarchical design flows; only the connections from the input to the first level of flip-flops, and the connections from the last stage of flip-flops to the outputs are represented. All other internal flip-flop to flip-flop paths are stripped out in an ILM, such that the ILM is like a black box. For very large chips, using an ILM for all embedded blocks can be a more efficient alternative to a full netlist representation. For static timing analysis ("STA"), if it is infeasible to run STA on the full design, then STA can be run at the block-level for the intra-block paths. Chip-level STA can use ILMs for the inter-block paths. The advantage of ILM for STA is that the entire clock-to-clock path is visible at the top level for interface nets, unlike a traditional block-based hierarchical implementation flow. This gives better accuracy in analysis for interface nets at a negligible increase in overhead due to additional memory and runtime. However, an ILM is insufficient and over-simplified when used for hierarchical design for test ("DFT"), since it is neither complete nor accurate for ATPG. For example, leading companies have attempted to extend ILM for SOC testing, but have found this technique to encounter large numbers of serious problems at the level of the test floor due to extensive miscompares caused by the use of the incomplete and inaccurate ATPG models. Thus, a way to create a more complete and accurate model that still reduces the amount of logic being modeled for an IP core is needed.

Method and apparatus for automated extraction of a design for test boundary model from embedded IP cores for hierarchical and three-dimensional interconnect test


A method is shown for installing a product monitoring device in an underground storage tank, such as the tanks used to store petroleum products. A product sensor is passed through the annular space defined between the tank riser pipe and fill pipe into the tank interior. The product sensor is used to sense representative characteristics of the product located within the tank interior.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to underground storage tank systems and to an improved method for installing a product monitoring device in such a tank with minimum disruption to the existing storage tank installation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Underground storage tank systems are commonly employed for the storage of petroleum, hazardous chemicals and other products. For instance, most gasoline service stations, truck stops and similar facilities employ underground fuel storage tanks which are refilled by means of a riser pipe which extends upwardly from the buried tank into a relatively shallow manhole in the concrete apron of the location. The sides of the manhole are spaced a sufficient radial distance from the riser pipe to provide convenient access for coupling and uncoupling the supply hose of a supply truck to the top of the riser pipe. A fill tube extends within the riser pipe into the interior of the tank and is spaced concentrically within the riser pipe to thereby define an annular space between the fill tube and the riser pipe. The bottom of the manhole can be open or closed, e.g., cemented or filled with dirt or a mixture of pea gravel.
It is often advantageous to install a product monitoring device within the interior of the underground storage tank, e.g., to report product levels for inventory control purposes, or in special operating modes to detect tank leakage.
The present invention has as its object to provide a simple and economical method for installing a product monitoring device in an underground storage tank.
The present invention also has as its object to provide an improved installation method for such a device in an underground storage tank which allows minimum disruption to the existing storage tank installation, including the existing concrete apron which covers the buried storage tank.
Additional objects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description which follows.

Method for installing product monitoring device in underground storage tanks


An incremental collector that employs remembered sets to identify the locations where a mutator has modified references to objects in respective heap regions employs a thread operating concurrently with the mutator to update the remembered sets in accordance with reference mutation. Specifically, when the mutator modifies a reference in one of a plurality of “cards” into which the collector treats the heap as divided, the concurrent thread ordinarily searches the card for references in accordance with which it updates the remembered set. But it selects certain cards, in which it has observed particularly high mutation activity, as ones in which reference mutation will not cause concurrent remembered-set updating. Remembered-set updating in response to those cards' references occurs only when all mutator threads have been suspended.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns computer-program compiling and in particular to what has in that discipline come to be referred to as "garbage collection."
2. Background Information
Garbage collection is the term that has come to be used for the operations by which data objects that a program will no longer use are recognized so that the computer memory occupied by those objects can be reclaimed for reuse. For the purposes of this discussion, the term object refers to a data structure represented in a computer system's memory. Other terms sometimes used for the same concept are record and structure. An object may be identified by a reference, a relatively small amount of information that can be used to access the object. A reference can be represented as a "pointer" or a "machine address," which may require, for instance, only sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four bits of information, although there are other ways to represent a reference.
In some systems, which are usually known as "object oriented," objects may have associated methods, which are routines that can be invoked by reference to the object. An object also may belong to a class, which is an organizational entity that may contain method code or other information shared by all objects belonging to that class. In the discussion that follows, though, the term object will not be limited to such structures; it will additionally include structures with which methods and classes are not associated.
Garbage collection is used almost exclusively in environments in which memory can be allocated to some objects dynamically. Not all systems employ dynamic allocation. In some computer languages, source programs must be se written so that all objects to which the program's variables refer are bound to storage locations at compile time. This storage-allocation approach, sometimes referred to as "static allocation," is the policy traditionally used by the Fortran programming language, for example.
Even for compilers that are thought of as allocating objects only statically, of course, there is often a certain level of abstraction to this binding of objects to storage locations. Consider the typical computer system 10 depicted in FIG. 1, for example. Data that a microprocessor 11 uses and instructions for operating on them may reside in onboard cache memory or be received from further cache memory 12, possibly through the mediation of a cache controller 13. That controller 13 can in turn receive such data from system read/write memory ("RAM") 14 through a RAM controller 15 or from various peripheral devices through a system bus 16. The memory space made available to an application program may be "virtual" in the sense that it may actually be considerably larger than RAM 14 provides. So the RAM contents will be swapped to and from a system disk 17.
Additionally, the actual physical operations performed to access some of the most-recently visited parts of the process's address space often will actually be performed in the cache 12 or in a cache on board microprocessor 11 rather than on the RAM 14. Those caches would swap data and instructions with the RAM 14 just as RAM 14 and system disk 17 do with each other.
A further level of abstraction results from the fact that an application will often be run as one of many processes operating concurrently with the support of an underlying operating system. As part of that system's memory management, the application's memory space may be moved among different actual physical locations many times in order to allow different processes to employ shared physical memory devices. That is, the location specified in the application's machine code may actually result in different physical locations at different times because the operating system adds different offsets to the machine-language-specified location.
Some computer systems may employ a plurality of processors so that different processes' executions actually do occur simultaneously. Such systems come in a wide variety of configurations. Some may be largely the same as that of FIG. 1 with the exception that they include more than one microprocessor such as processor 11, possibly together with respective cache memories, sharing common read/write memory by communication over the common bus 16.
In other configurations, parts of the shared memory may be more local to one or more processors than to others. In such a situation, one or the other or both of the processors may need to fetch code or data or both from a remote location, but it will often be true that parts of the code will be replicated in both places.
Despite these expedients, the use of static memory allocation in writing certain long-lived applications makes it difficult to restrict storage requirements to the available memory space. Abiding by space limitations is easier when the platform provides for dynamic memory allocation, i.e., when the platform enables allocation of memory space to be delayed until after the program has been loaded and is already running.
Dynamic allocation has a number of advantages, among which is that the run-time system is able to adapt allocation to run-time conditions; for given objects the programmer can specify respective conditions on which space should be allocated to them. The C-language library function malloc( ) is often used for this purpose. Conversely, the programmer can specify conditions under which memory previously allocated to a given object can be reclaimed for reuse. The C-language library function free( ) results in such memory reclamation.
Because dynamic allocation provides for memory reuse, it facilitates generation of large or long-lived applications, which over the course of their lifetimes may employ objects whose total memory requirements would greatly exceed the available memory resources if they were bound to memory locations statically.
Particularly for long-lived applications, though, allocation and reclamation of dynamic memory must be performed carefully. If the application fails to reclaim unused memory—or, worse, loses track of the address of a dynamically allocated segment of memory—its memory requirements will grow over time to exceed the system's available memory. This kind of error is known as a "memory leak." Another kind of error occurs when an application reclaims memory for reuse even though it still maintains a reference to that memory. If the reclaimed memory is reallocated for a different purpose, the application may inadvertently manipulate the same memory in multiple inconsistent ways. This kind of error is known as a "dangling reference," because an application should not retain a reference to a memory location once that location is reclaimed. Explicitly managing dynamic memory by using interfaces like malloc( )/free( ) often leads to these problems.
Such leaks and related errors can be made less likely by reclaiming memory space more automatically. As was mentioned above, the software and/or hardware used for this purpose is typically referred to as a garbage collector. Garbage collectors operate by inspecting the running program's current state, determining from that state whether it can decide that there are some objects that the program can no longer reach, and reclaiming objects thus found not to be reachable. The criteria that garbage collectors use for this purpose vary, but, for example, a program's global variables are normally considered reachable throughout a program's life. Although they are not ordinarily stored in the memory space that the garbage collector manages, they may contain references to dynamically allocated objects that are, and the garbage collector will consider such objects reachable. It will typically also consider an object reachable if it is referred to by a reference in a register or a thread's call stack. And reachability is contagious: if a reachable object refers to another object, that other object is reachable, too.
It is advantageous to use garbage collectors because, whereas a programmer working on a particular sequence of code can perform his task creditably in most respects with only local knowledge of the application, memory allocation and reclamation tend to require more-global knowledge. A programmer dealing with a small subroutine, for example, may well be able to identify the point in the subroutine beyond which the routine has finished with a given memory portion, but knowing whether the application as a whole will be finished with it at that point is often much more difficult. In contrast, garbage collectors typically work by tracing references from some conservative notion of a "root set," e.g., global variables, registers, and the call stack: they thereby obtain reachability information methodically. By using a garbage collector, the programmer is relieved of the need to worry about the application's global state and can concentrate on (more-manageable) local-state issues. The result is applications that are more robust, having no dangling references and fewer memory leaks.
Garbage-collection mechanisms can be implemented by various parts and levels of a computing system. One approach is simply to provide them as part of a batch compiler's output. Consider FIG. 2's simple batch-compiler operation, for example. A computer system executes in accordance with compiler object code and therefore acts as a compiler 20. The compiler object code is typically stored on a medium such as FIG. 1's system disk 17 or some other machine-readable medium, and it is loaded into RAM 14 to configure the computer system to act as a compiler. In some cases, though, the compiler object code's persistent storage may instead be provided in a server system remote from the machine that performs the compiling. The electrical signals that typically carry the digital data by which the computer systems exchange that code are examples of the kinds of electromagnetic signals by which the computer instructions can be communicated. Others are radio waves, microwaves, and both visible and invisible light.
The input to the compiler is the application source code, and the end product of the compiler process is application object code. This object code defines an application 21, which typically operates on input such as mouse clicks, etc., to generate a display or some other type of output. This object code implements the relationship that the programmer intends to specify by his application source code. In one approach to garbage collection, the compiler 20, without the programmer's explicit direction, additionally generates code that automatically reclaims unreachable memory space.
Even in this simple case, though, there is a sense in which the application does not itself provide the entire garbage collector. Specifically, the application will typically call upon the underlying operating system's memory-allocation functions. And the operating system may in turn take advantage of hardware that lends itself particularly to use in garbage collection. So even a very simple system may disperse the garbage-collection mechanism over a number of computer-system layers.
To get some sense of the variety of system components that can be used to implement garbage collection, consider FIG. 3's example of a more complex way in which various levels of source code can result in the machine instructions that a processor executes. In the FIG. 3 arrangement, the human applications programmer produces source code 22 written in a high-level language. A compiler 23 typically converts that code into "class files." These files include routines written in instructions, called "byte code" 24, for a "virtual machine" that various processors can be software-configured to emulate. This conversion into byte code is almost always separated in time from that code's execution, so FIG. 3 divides the sequence into a "compile-time environment" 25 separate from a "run-time environment" 26, in which execution occurs. One example of a high-level language for which compilers are available to produce such virtual-machine instructions is the Java™ programming language. (Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., in the United States and other countries.)
Most typically, the class files' byte-code routines are executed by a processor under control of a virtual-machine process 27. That process emulates a virtual machine from whose instruction set the byte code is drawn. As is true of the compiler 23, the virtual-machine process 27 may be specified by code stored on a local disk or some other machine-readable medium from which it is read into FIG. 1's RAM 14 to configure the computer system to implement the garbage collector and otherwise act as a virtual machine. Again, though, that code's persistent storage may instead be provided by a server system remote from the processor that implements the virtual machine, in which case the code would be transmitted by electromagnetic signals to the virtual-machine-implementing processor.
In some implementations, much of the virtual machine's action in executing these byte codes is most like what those skilled in the art refer to as "interpreting," so FIG. 3 depicts the virtual machine as including an "interpreter" 28 for that purpose. In addition to or instead of running an interpreter, many virtual-machine implementations actually compile the byte codes concurrently with the resultant object code's execution, so FIG. 3 depicts the virtual machine as additionally including a "just-in-time" compiler 29.
The resultant instructions typically invoke calls to a run-time system 30, which handles matters such as loading new class files as they are needed and includes much of garbage-collector implementation. The run-time system will typically call on the services of an underlying operating system 31. Among the differences between the arrangements of FIGS. 2 and 3 in that FIG. 3's compiler 23 for converting the human programmer's code does not contribute to providing the garbage-collection function; that results largely from the virtual machine 27's operation.
Independently of the specific system-architecture levels at which the collector resides, garbage collection usually includes some amount of reference tracing to determine whether objects are at least potentially reachable; if they are not potentially reachable, they are garbage, and their memory space can therefore be reclaimed. The most straightforward and accurate way to do the tracing is to start at the root set and scan recursively for referred-to objects until all have been identified. If an object is not encountered in that process, it is not reachable, even if it is referred to by a reference in some other object.
Now, it would be unacceptable in many applications to have the mutator pause while the collector traces references through the whole heap. So some garbage collectors operate "space-incrementally." In each successive collection increment, which typically (but not necessarily) is all performed during a single pause in mutator execution, the collector considers a small portion, or collection set, of the heap. For respective regions of the heap into which the collector treats the heap as divided, the collector keeps track of the references that refer directly to objects in those regions. A collection-set object can be recognized as unreachable if no reference chain from such a reference includes it. This approach can often limit the lengths of collection pauses adequately.
Even in space-incremental approaches, though, it is desirable to reduce collection-pause lengths as much as possible, and one way of doing so involves the way in which the system updates "remembered sets." For each of a number of heap regions, the system keeps a so-called remembered set of the locations where references to objects in those regions have been observed. To enable the collector to keep remembered sets complete, mutators written for use with space-incremental collectors typically include so-called write barriers. A write barrier is code added to a reference-writing operation to notify the collector of that operation. Write barriers of the type relevant here do so by recording information from which the collector can determine where references were written, although they may additionally record other types of information about the operation, such as the reference value written or replaced. Before it uses the remembered sets to determine collection-set objects' potential reachability, the collector typically updates them, and in doing so it can limit its attention to locations identified by the write barriers as possibly modified since the last collection interval.
To this end, the write barrier can simply add to a list, commonly called a sequential-store buffer, of locations where reference mutation has occurred. An alternative, which FIG. 4 illustrates, is for the write barrier instead to employ what is often referred to as a "card table." FIG. 4 depicts a garbage-collected heap 40. Of that heap a portion 42, which for reasons that will become apparent will be referred to as the "mature generation," is shown as divided into sections known for this purpose as "cards" such as card 46. Card size is a design choice, but it is usually such that a plurality fit into each region, such as region 48, with which a separate remembered set is associated. The collector maintains a card table 50 containing an entry for each card. When the mutator writes a reference, such as reference 52 in card 46, it makes the entry 54 associated with that card (or, say, with the card in which the object containing the reference begins) indicate that the card is "dirty," i.e., that the card has had one or more of its references modified.
As was stated above, a collector updating remembered sets can restrict its attention to references located in dirty cards. Some collectors use this approach uniformly. To indicate that not all do, though, FIG. 4 shows only the mature generation as divided into cards. A typical approach to garbage collection is to place most newly allocated objects in a small heap portion, or "young generation." Since newly allocated objects have a greater tendency to become unreachable than objects that have already remained reachable for some time, the collector collects the young generation frequently, and it copies ("promotes") objects into the mature generation when they have survived a certain number of young-generation collections. In the common arrangement in which the collector collects the entire young generation just before every increment of mature-generation collection, it does not need write-barrier results to find references in the young generation, because that part of the heap is being completely scanned as part of the young-generation collection operation. Also, although the collector does need to keep track of references in the rest of the heap that refer to young-generation objects in the young generation, it may for that purpose employ a type of remembered set for the young generation that differs from the type it uses for mature-generation references to mature-generation objects.
In any event, even though the collector restricts its attention to references located in dirty cards, the amount of time required to update remembered sets can be significant. So, to limit the portion of the collection-pause length taken up by updating, some collectors employ one or more remembered-set-updating threads that execute concurrently with the mutator. Usually, some remembered-set-updating activity remains to be done when the collection pause occurs, but much of it will typically have been performed already, concurrently with the mutator's execution, so the pause's duration is less than it would have been without the concurrent remembered-set-updating.
Although concurrent remembered-set-updating thus reduces the remembered-set-updating portion of a pause's duration, it nonetheless exacts its own cost. If the same reference is modified more than once between collection pauses, for example, the number of times the remembered set needs to be updated in response to a given reference location is greater than it would be if updating were limited to collection pauses. Moreover, the resultant remembered-set size can be greater, so the time required to scan the thereby-listed locations for references to collection-set objects can be greater.

Hot-card caching to avoid excessive remembered-set updating


A paper feed roller-producing method is to be provided, which enables more inexpensive mass produce of a high precision paper feed roller, with a high precision, having no connecting portion in a roller portion, by using a hydraulic composition.

The present invention relates to a method for producing paper feed rollers in which a hydraulic composition is used for roller portions and which are employed in apparatuses, such as printers, facsimile machines and copying machines, requiring papers to be accurately conveyed.
Formerly, metallic rollers, rubber rollers, etc. have been used as paper feed rollers. The metallic rollers have been each produced by attaching end plates with shaft portions to both end portions of a hollow metallic cylindrical body constituting a roller portion, respectively, by welding. In this case, although a rotary shaft of the metallic roller is formed by the shaft portions at the opposite ends, there is a very difficult problem in ensuring the concentricity between the metallic cylindrical body and the rotary shaft. Further, paper feed rollers in which a roller portion is constituted with hard rubber to reduce the weight have been used, but there is a problem in that errors are likely to occur in feeding papers owing to large heat expansion of the roller portion.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. made an invention directed to a method for the production of an integrated paper feed roller by preparing a cylindrical molded body having a given length from a hydraulic composition according to a press molding method and fixing the molded body around the outer periphery of a rotary shaft, and Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. filed an application therefor under Japanese Patent Application No. 10-177,100. Further, Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. filed patent application under Japanese patent application No. 11-28,137, etc. directed to a method for the production of paper feed rollers in which roller portions are formed by connecting a plurality of cylindrical molded bodies.
According to this method, since the length of the cylindrical molded bodies themselves can be shortened as compared with that of a desired roller portion, non-uniform pressure applied during the press molding can be prevented, and a shaping mold can be made smaller. Further, if the length of a single cylindrical body is set based on the relationship between the size of papers and the number of such cylindrical molded bodies to be connected, and a plurality of the cylindrical molded bodies having a single shape are preliminarily prepared, plural kinds of paper feed rollers can be easily produced depending upon the sizes of papers by using given numbers of the cylindrical molded bodies having a single shape. This enables the inexpensive mass production of the paper feed rollers with a high precision.
However, since the roller portion is formed by connecting plural cylindrical molded bodies in the above method, there is a problem in that the hardness of the roller portion is low. Further, although the rigidity can be increased by appropriately selecting an adhesive used in the connecting portion, it leads to cost-up, and there is a limit for the increase in the rigidity.
The present invention is aimed at solving the above problems, and providing a paper feed roller-producing method capable of mass-producing, with a higher precision at a more inexpensive cost, a high-precision paper feed roller having no connecting portion at a roller portion according to an extrusion molding with use of a hydraulic composition.
The paper feed roller-producing method according to the present invention is a method for producing a paper feed roller comprising a rotary shaft and a cylindrical roller portion integrated around the outer periphery of the rotary shaft, characterized in that the roller portion is formed by extruding a hydraulic composition and curing and hardening the extrudate product.
The following will be recited as preferred embodiments of the paper feed roller-producing method according to the present invention.
(1) A hollow cylindrical molded body is extruded from the hydraulic composition, the rotary shaft is inserted through a hole of the molded body, and the molded body is cured and hardened to integrate the rotary shaft and the roller portion.
(2) A hollow cylindrical molded body is extruded from the hydraulic composition, the molded body is cured and hardened, and the rotary shaft is inserted through a hole of the molded body to integrate the rotary shaft and the roller portion.
(3) A hydraulic composition is concentrically extruded around the rotary shaft, and cured and hardened to integrate the rotary shaft and the roller portion.
Among the above, the method (3) is most preferable.
The hydraulic composition preferably comprises 100 wt. parts of a mixed powder, 2 to 9 wt. parts of a workability improver, and 0.5 to 5 wt. parts of a thickening agent, said mixed powder comprising 40 to 80 wt % of a hydraulic powder, 10 to 50 wt % of a non-hydraulic powder having the average particle diameter smaller than that of the hydraulic powder by an order of one digit or more, and 10 to 30 wt % of an extrusion improver
The extrusion improver is preferably an inorganic scaly material. As the inorganic scaly material, talc and mica may be recited.
The workability improver is preferably a powder or emulsion composed of at least one resin selected from a vinyl acetate resin or a copolymer resin with vinyl acetate, an acrylic resin or an acrylic copolymer resin, a styrene resin or a copolymer resin with styrene and an epoxy resin

Abstract: The method for producing a paper feed roller includes a rotary shaft and a cylindrical roller portion integrated around an outer periphery of the rotary shaft, characterized in that the roller portion is formed by extruding a hydraulic composition and curing and hardening the extrudate.


A reproducing processor for processing a video format signal and allowing, during dropout, selective inhibition of at least one of dropout compensation and video signal correction processing, for preventing production of uncorrectable errors due to a processsing of digital data of the video format signal. Included are: a dropout compensation component for carrying out dropout compensation for a video format signal obtained from the reproducing component in the absence of a digital data signal reproducing command, and not carrying dropout compensation in response to the digital data signal reproducing command; and a signal selection component for selectively outputting an output of a waveform shaping component in response to the digital data signal reproducing command, and for selectively outputting an output of a signal processing component in the absence of the digital data signal reproducing command. The signal selection component may be excluded, whereupon the reproducing processor outputs, respectively, separate outputs of the signal processing means and waveform shaping means.

A recording and reproducing system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,647 which enables voice to be added to pictures obtained at the time of still picture reproduction of recorded information in a recording medium, by executing recording in a recording medium, for example, inserting a digital data including voice information after compressing the time base in a portion of a video format signal and by inserting video information in the remaining portion.
The prior art reproducing processor for reproducing and processing a video format signal recorded in a recording medium with such a system is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, a disk 1 serving as a recording medium is driven to be rotated by a spindle motor 2. As the disk 1 is rotated, a signal recorded in the disk 1 is read by a pickup 3. The pickup 3 is carried by a slider (not shown) which is moved in the radial direction of the disk 1, and the information detection point (light spot for information detection) of the pickup 3 can freely be positioned in the radial direction of the disk 1. Further, various servo systems such as a spindle servo system, tangential servo system and tracking servo system are also provided. However, they are already well known so that they will not be shown here.
The so-called RF (high frequency) signal output from the pickup 3 is supplied to a video demodulation circuit 6 after it is amplified by an RF amplifier 5. The video signal is demodulated in the video demodulation circuit 6 by undergoing the frequency demodulation processing of the RF signal. The demodulated video signal is supplied to a dropout correction circuit 7. To the dropout correction circuit 7 there is supplied, for example, a high level dropout detection signal from a dropout detection circuit 8. The dropout detection circuit 8 has a constitution in which a dropout detection signal is generated, for example, when the interval between the zero cross points of the RF signal exceeds a predetermined value. Further, the dropout correction circuit 7 is so constructed as to correct the dropout upon receipt of a dropout detection signal, by outputting the dropout section of the video signal by replacing it with the video signal at the time by 1H earlier from now. The output of the dropout correction circuit 7 is supplied to a time base error correction circuit 9. The time base error correction circuit 9 has a variable delay element of, for example, CCD, and is constructed so as to eliminate litters due to eccentricity of the disk or the like by delaying the output of the dropout correction circuit 7 by a time corresponding to the phase difference between the reference signal with a predetermined frequency and the horizontal synchronizing signal in the output of the dropout correction circuit 7.
A video format signal whose jitters are removed by the time base error correction circuit 9 is supplied to a pulse waveform shaping circuit 10. The pulse waveform shaping circuit 10 consists, for example, of an equalizer having predetermined amplitude and phase characteristics. A video format signal which underwent pulse waveform shaping by which its amplitude is corrected and phase is compensated for by the pulse waveform shaping circuit 10 is supplied to a hue correction circuit 11 and a signal separation circuit 12. The hue correction circuit 11 has, for example, a variable delay element analogous to the time base error correction circuit 9, and it is constructed so as to eliminate jitters in chroma level by delaying the video format signal by a time corresponding to the phase difference between the color burst in the video format signal and a reference signal with a predetermined frequency. The output of the hue correction circuit 11 is supplied to a noise reduction circuit 13 with a constitution by which, for example, a micro level of the signal is detected and added to the original signal with reversed phase. After suppression of noise with this arrangement, the signal is supplied to a character insertion circuit 14. The character insertion circuit 14 has a constitution by which a video signal corresponding to the character indicated by the data sent from a system controller 15 is synthesized with the video format signal output from the noise reduction circuit 13. The output of the character insertion circuit 14 is supplied to the output terminal OUT.
On the other hand, in the signal separation circuit 12, horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals and a control signal indicating the recording position inserted to the portion corresponding to a predetermined line in the flyback period are separated out from the video format signal and are supplied to the system controller 15. The system controller 15 is composed of a microcomputer consisting, for example, of a processor, ROM, RAM and the like, and carries out arithmetic operation based on a data or program stored in ROM, RAM or the like by a command supplied from an external equipment. The system controller 15 then supplies instruction signals such as play, pause, search and the like to a playing unit control circuit 16 and supplies a data designating a character to be inserted to the character insertion circuit 14.
With the constitution as in the above, when a dropout is generated in a section where a digital data of a video format signal is inserted, the section is replaced by the signal precedent by 1H, creating an inconvenience that an uncorrectable error is generated in the digital data. Moreover, the amplitude characteristic and the phase characteristic of the digital data are set by the digital data waveform shaping circuit 9 so as to give a minimum read error rate. For this reason, there has also been a drawback in that the variable ranges in video making such as the adjustment of the amount of noise reduction and frequency characteristic for the section carrying the video information of the video format signal becomes narrowed down making it different to obtain a desired video.

Reproducing processor allowing selective inhibition of dropout compensation and video signal correction processing


A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a compressor having an impeller configured to rotate and drive a working fluid through a working fluid circuit of the HVAC system in an active operating mode. The HVAC system further includes a controller configured to, in response to receiving an input indicative of a transition to operate in an inactive operating mode, suspend the active operating mode by interrupting a supply of power to the compressor, adjust pre-rotation vanes of the compressor, a variable geometry diffuser of the compressor to a first position, or both to enable a backflow of the working fluid through the compressor for a first interval of time, and, after the first interval of time has elapsed, adjust the pre-rotation vanes, the variable geometry diffuser, or both to a second position to block the backflow of the working fluid through the compressor.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Chiller systems, or vapor compression systems, utilize a working fluid, typically referred to as a refrigerant, which changes phases between vapor, liquid, and combinations thereof, in response to exposure to different temperatures and pressures associated with operation of the vapor compression system. For example, a heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) system or a heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) system may include a chiller, which is a type of vapor compression system, configured to place the working fluid in a heat exchange relationship with a conditioning fluid. The HVAC&R system may include a compressor that pressurizes the working fluid to circulate the working fluid through various components of the HVAC&R system, thereby enabling the working fluid to undergo phase changes. For example, the compressor may include an impeller configured to rotate and compress the working fluid to direct the working fluid through the components of the HVAC&R system. However, it may be difficult to quickly reduce the rotational speed of the impeller to near-zero, such as when the HVAC&R system transitions from an active operating mode to an inactive operating mode.


A method and device for recording the position of implants secured in bone in an area having fixed surface features. The device and method feature a stent and an indexing assembly. The stent and indexing assembly record the position of the implant with respect to the surface features, which implants can later be exposed with a guided tissue punch.

The method and apparatus of the present invention are useful for aiding restorative dentists and oral surgeons in the making of teeth prostheses.
To facilitate an understanding of the present invention, a brief overview of dental implant techniques may be useful. The overview is intended to be general in nature and cannot attempt to describe all the complexities of the art and science of dentistry and oral medicine.
As used herein, the terms apical and occlusal denote positions with respect to features of a patient's teeth. Apical suggests towards the root and occlusal suggests toward the chewing and biting surfaces of the teeth.
The terms "linqual" and "buccal" also denote positions with respect to the patient's teeth. Linqual denotes toward the tongue. Buccal denotes towards the cheek.
It is the practice of the resotrative dentists and oral surgeons to make a first impression of the surface features of an area in which a dental implant is to be placed. The impression is used to make a first cast. The first cast records the surface features in a form which the dentist or surgeon can readily plan future surgery, plan the placement of abutments and the type of tooth prosthesis.
Dental implantations are performed in stages. In the first stage, surgery would be performed to expose the bone, drill a cavity in the bone, and position an implant in the cavity. Implants are available in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Generally, implants are cylindrical in form having a circular occlusal surface. The occlusal surface will normally have a threaded opening to receive a screw for securing an abutment, or to receive an abutment having a corresponding threaded section. The abutment will be fitted at a later stage. A screw is normally placed in the hole as a cap during the healing process.
To facilitate securing the implant into bone and to provide alignment surfaces for abutments to be placed on the implant, some implants have keyed occlusal surfaces. On such keyed surface commonly used is a hexagonal extension of the implant.
The oral surgeon completes the first stage of surgery by closing the open surgical wound with stitches and the like, over the implant. The oral surgeon may note the location of the implant on the first cast.
Normally, the patient will not revisit the oral surgeon for three to six months. Three to six months are required for healing, to allow the implant to be securely received in the bone tissue. During the time in which the bone is receiving the implant, the original incisions in the soft tissue are healing, obscuring the location of the implant.
Three to six months after the first stage surgery, in the second stage of surgery, the oral surgeon will expose the implant to mount a temporary healing abutment. The temporary healing abutment brings the restorative surface to the crest of the gum to facilitate tissue healing. The oral surgeon may use the first cast to facilitate locating the implant. However, the exact position of the implant, its alignment, angle and position on the horizontal and vertical axis cannot be accurately placed on the surface features of the cast.
Upon completion of the second stage of surgery, the oral surgeon will secure the soft tissue with stitches, if necessary, and gauze. Oral surgeons rarely construct prosthetic teeth beyond the placement of the abutment. Typically, the oral surgeon will refer the patient to a restorative dentist.
A patient waits ten to fourteen days for healing following the placement of the temporary healing abutment to visit the restorative dentist for the first time. The patient will likely visit the restorative dentist four times.
During the patient's first visit, the restorative dentist will evaluate whether the abutment placed by the oral surgeon is suitable for a permanent prosthesis. The restorative dentist will remove the temporary healing abutment and place an impression coping on the implant. The impression coping has a cylindrical shape and is capable of being received on the implant by screws and the like. With the impression coping in place, the restorative dentist will make an impression of the surface features and the impression coping.
The impression coping is then removed from the implant. A cast of the impression is made with the impression coping and an implant analog fitted to the impression.
During the same first visit, the restorative dentist may fit a temporary crown, bridge, or tooth of acrylic material to protect the area of the future permanent prosthesis and to provide a better cosmetic appearance for the patient.
After the patient's first visit, the restorative dentist will make a diagnostic cast from the final impression. The restorative dentist will secure an implant analog to the impression coping. With the impression coping carried in the hole created when the impression was made, plaster will be poured into the impression. The diagnostic cast gives the location of the abutment or implant within the context of the surface features of the patient's mouth.
With the diagnostic cast, the restorative dentist will make a permanent abutment selection. The permanent abutment is ordered for placement in the patient's mouth at the next visit.
At the second visit, the restorative dentist secures the permanent abutment to the implant. The restorative dentist will confirm by X-ray that the permanent abutment is seated. The restorative dentist will also make a final impression.
The final impression is made with a further impression coping secured to the abutment. From the final impression, a final cast is made. An impression coping secured to an abutment analog is fitted to the impression and plaster poured into the final impression to form the final cast. The impression coping is removed to reveal an abutment analog secured in the final cast in the same respective position as the abutment in the patient's mouth.
The final cast is most often made in a dental laboratory from the final impression. With the final cast as a guide, the dental laboratory will fabricate a tooth prosthesis.
The tooth prosthesis is sent to the restorative dentist. At a third visit, the restorative dentist will temporarily mount the tooth prosthesis to the abutment to insure the tooth prosthesis fits with other teeth and features of the patient's mouth. The tooth prosthesis is then returned to the dental lab to be completed. After the dental laboratory completes the tooth prosthesis, it is sent back to the restorative dentist. The patient returns to the restorative dentist and the tooth prosthesis is permanently mounted to the abutment. The entire process of replacing a tooth may take nine months.
The long nine month period and repeated visits to the oral surgeon and the restorative dentist discourages patients from engaging in implant dentistry. Each visit to the oral surgeon and restorative dentist may produce uncomfortable experiences for patients, and increases the opportunities for patients to reevaluate their interest in having a tooth prosthesis.
A shorter period of time between the initiation of oral surgery and the fitting of a final tooth prosthesis would be more convenient, shorten periods of discomfort and provide improved cosmetic appearance and dental function for the patient. A reduction in the number of visits to oral surgeons and restorative dentists may reduce the cost of restorative dentistry.

Method and apparatus for recording the position of dental implants


A data transmission system comprising a plurality of data processing units connected to each other by optical fiber. Each data processing unit comprises optical/electrical converter means for converting an optical signal from the preceding data processing unit through the optical fiber to an electrical signal, electrical/optical converter means for converting an electrical signal to be sent to the succeeding data processing unit to an optical signal, a data receiving unit for receiving the converted electrical signal, means for determining whether or not the received signal was sent from the local data processing means, and gate means connected between the optical/electrical converter means and the electrical/optical converter means, the gate means being closed when the local data processing means performs data transmission and opened for alternative data receiving/passing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a data transmission system, and particularly to a data transmission system which can perform data transmission from a computer or data processing unit to another one or more computers in a simple construction and at high speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In automobiles, motorbicycles and the like (hereinafter simply referred to as vehicles), many functions such as spark control of the engine, fuel injection control, automatic gear change control, driving force control, brake control, suspension control, air-conditioning control and self-diagnostics are performed by an electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as ECU) including a data processing unit such as a microcomputer. Since performance of one microcomputer is insufficient for performing such a plurality of controls, separate microcomputers are used for each control task or a group of them.
Since these plurality of microcomputers often use common vehicle data such as engine speed, vehicle speed and temperature, the load of each microcomputer is reduced if data communication is performed between these microcomputers for data sharing.
As to data communication, the technique of LAN (Local Area Network) in the usual electronic communication field is well known, but, if the system of LAN is directly applied to a carborne data transmission system, the system can be unsuitably large-scale.
On the other hand, a data transmission system for vehicles which does not use the LAN technique is also described, for instance, in the Japanese Patent Kokai 62-257239 official gazette. In this system, an input/output interface provided with a shift register is connected to each of a plurality of electronic control units, and the shift registers are serially connected to each other to form a loop transmission path, and data are sequentially transmitted in the transmission path by outputting data bit-by-bit into the shift registers.
In the above-mentioned prior art data transmission system, if it is attempted to send out data to the loop transmission path in the system, data are output bit-by-bit to the shift registers constituting the transmission path. The output data are shifted bit-by-bit in synchronism with the synchronizing signal for data transmission. In this system, data sent from a microcomputer are sent to the next microcomputer after first being stored in a register, and thus there is a transmission delay for the data length to be sent to the next microcomputer.
The data delay increases as the number of the connected microcomputers increases, and therefore the number of connectable microcomputers is limited if high-speed processing is desired in engine control or the like.
Since synchronizing signal generator means and a transmission control unit are required for preventing data collision, the construction of the data transmission system becomes complicated.
Further, optical fiber is often used as the transmission path between microcomputers (refer to the U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,142, and optical beam splitters such as half mirrors or bidirectional distributors are required in order to connect signal processing units such as microcomputers to the optical fiber transmission path and distribute a signal to them. If these distributors are inserted into the optical fiber transmission path, the optical signal remarkably attenuates and repeating amplifiers are required, which leads to a complicated structure and high cost.
Here, apart from the computer performing data sending, data transmission delay can be avoided if such register as described in the above official gazette is not provided in a computer allowing the data to pass through, but, when the data passes, for instance, through a gate or the like other than the register, the data pulse width, its shape, or the like may vary during the time of passing. Such pulse change becomes more remarkable as the number of the computers constituting the data transmission system increases, and in an extreme case pulses may disappear or they may not be discriminated from the adjacent pulses. As a result, data transmission may not be accurately performed.

Data transmission system using an optical fiber loop


A low-height PIFA-fed antenna system having high gain, wide bandwidth and wide beamwidth for applications on wireless communications devices. The antenna is suitable for internal installation within a handset, such as a cellphone. The antenna includes a ground plane conductor, such as the ground plane of a wireless device, and a resonator element having a top portion with a split free end defining an open space. The antenna is well adapted for high volume manufacturing processes using conventional fabrication techniques such as metal stamping or selectively plated plastic.

Handsets used in the cellular communications industry benefit from optimum performance from antenna systems in order to maximize the two-way voice or data link between a remote base station and the handset. Most current cellphone antennas utilize either dipole, or half-dipole antennas, mounted external or internal to the handset, all of which may be susceptible to RF radio frequency loss to the hand and other inefficiencies related to their size and location on the handset.
Known wireless communications devices (WCD) utilize internally-mounted planar inverted "F" antennas (PIFA). Prior art PIFA's provide limited electrical performance over the current wide frequency ranges used in WCDs such as cellphones. One such band is the 1710-2170 MH range, which includes the 1800-1900 MHz and UMTS bands (world cellular and 3G bands). Prior art PIFA's have narrow bandwidth, omni- or near omni-radiation pattern, and relatively low efficiency. The omni-radiation pattern derives from the fact that the installation location of the PIFA resonator causes the ground traces of the printed circuit board (PCB) to be the primary radiating element of the antenna. Power loss to the hand and head of the handset user dramatically reduces antenna efficiency.
In a typical application, the link budget between a base station and a handset of the prior art is degraded by 6 dB within the high frequency range due to increased path loss, as compared to the 800-900 MHz bands. Cellphones typically operate at the same maximum power level in all frequency bands, low and high, and therefore an antenna system capable of recouping even a portion of the 6 dB loss would be highly desirable. Additionally, an antenna system that reduces power losses to the head and hand of the user is also highly desirable given the reduction of SAR.
FIGS. 15-17 depict top, end and side views of a prior art PIFA resonator 150 having top leg 152, side leg 153, an RF feed point leg 154, and a height dimension 155. FIGS. 18-19 depict top and side views of the PIFA resonator 150 as connected to a ground plane conductor 157 of a wireless communications device. Ground plane conductor 157 may be formed by the ground traces of a PCB of the WCD, such as a cellular handset. The resonator 150 is grounded to ground plane conductor 157 at location 158 which is at or very near the longitudinal edge 159 of the ground plane conductor 157. Additional aspects of PIFA antenna systems and wireless communications devices may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,574, entitled Oriented PIFA-type device and method of use for reducing RF interference, incorporated by reference herein.

Antenna system having compact PIFA resonator with open sections


An inclined groove (11) has a first inclined groove (101) and a second inclined groove (102). The first inclined groove (101) intersects a tire equator line (CL) and extends to one side (W1) outward in the tire width direction proceeding from the forward side (F) to the rearward side (B) in the rotation direction. The second inclined groove (102) intersects the tire equator line (CL) and the first inclined groove (101), and extends to the other side (W2) outward in the tire width direction proceeding from the forward side (F) in the rotation direction to the rearward side (B) in the rotation direction. The first inclined groove (101) and the second inclined groove (102) have forward side curved grooves (111), (121) located at the forward side (F) in the rotation direction, and rearward side curved grooves (112), (122) located at the rearward side (B) in the rotation direction.

Conventionally, a variety of proposals have been made as to a tire improving a cruising performance on an icy or snowy road surface (a snowy road surface or an icy road surface). In order to enhance a cruising performance such as an acceleration performance at the time of startup on an icy or snowy road surface a braking performance at the time of stoppage, it is preferable to increase a component of a side groove along a tread widthwise direction (a so called lag groove) and to increase a percentage of a groove area in a ground surface (a negative rate).
However, if the component of the lag groove is increased too much in order to increase the negative rate, since a stability of block lowers, a driving stability in a dry road surface also lowers. On the other hand, if the content of the lag component is increased without increasing the negative rate, since a groove (a rib groove) component in a circumferential direction along a tire circumferential direction is decreased, a drainage performance also lowers.
In order to ensure compatibility between the cruising performance and the drainage performance in the icy or snowy road surface described above for example, there is proposed a tire in which a lag groove crossing in the tread widthwise direction is formed in a substantially V shape so as to be symmetrical with a tire equator line (refer to Patent Literature 1). According to this tire, the drainage performance is improved by means of a lag groove formed in a substantially V shape so as to be symmetrical with the tire equator line and a main groove that are formed in parallel to each other along the tire circumferential direction at a tread center part including the tire equator line.


A method and a network agent for providing cell assignment for a wireless device served by a network node. An input vector is created for a set of candidate cells based on measurements by the wireless device and/or by the network node related to performance and signals. A future effect of assigning the wireless device to a candidate cell is estimated for each candidate cell by applying the created input vector to an effect estimation function which may be a Q-learning function. A cell in the set of candidate cells is then determined and assigned for the wireless device, based on the estimated future effects of the candidate cells. The cell that provides the best future effect may be selected for cell assignment.

In this disclosure, the term "wireless device" is used to represent any communication entity capable of radio communication with a wireless network by sending and receiving radio signals, such as e.g. mobile telephones, tablets, laptop computers, Internet of Things, IoT, and Machine-to-Machine, M2M, devices also known as Machine Type Communication, MTC, devices, although this disclosure is not limited to these examples. Another common generic term in this field is "User Equipment, UE" which could be used herein as a synonym for wireless device. Depending on the terminology used, the wireless network mentioned herein may also be denoted a cellular network.
Further, the term "network node", is used to represent a node of a wireless network that is capable of communicating radio signals with wireless devices. Depending on the type of network, the network node in this disclosure may refer to a base station, eNB, gNB, radio node, Node B, base transceiver station, access point, etc., where gNB denotes a Next Generation NodeB. For example, the wireless network may be operating according to Long Term Evolution (LTE) or according to 5G, also referred to as "New Radio" (NR), as defined by the third Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP.
A wireless network of today, e.g. using LTE or NR technology, is built from base-stations, commonly called eNodeBs, that communicate directly with wireless devices over radio frequencies. An eNodeB can serve several "cells", where a cell can be seen as a radio resource that is defined by a radio carrier of a specific frequency range, i.e. bandwidth, providing radio coverage across a specific area. For LTE, the radio carrier bandwidth is typically between 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz depending on allocated spectrum and service needs, while NR can serve even wider bandwidths.
The radio spectrum used for radio communication in an area is divided into several non-overlapping frequency bands which are defined in the 3GPP specifications, and by local authorities. Such frequency bands have very different propagation properties. For example, a 900 MHz band can be used to cover a considerably larger area than a 2100 MHz band. The network operator is typically licensed to operate carriers in one or more of these bands, and may use multiple carriers within a single band.
Depending on the need for services, a network node serving a cell may be equipped with a single antenna or multiple antennas. Using 2, 4 or even more antennas allows for beamforming which basically directs transmitted energy towards a specific wireless device, and also multi-layer transmission using multiple distinct paths to a wireless device for transmission of data with increased throughput. This means that the throughput available from a cell to a wireless device is dependent on capabilities of the network node, e.g. number of antennas, carrier bandwidth, modulation capability, etc., as well as capabilities of the device and the propagation conditions between device and network node.
The device capabilities are commonly reported to a serving network node upon connection to a cell, and the network node then usually instructs the wireless device to measure signals received from the cell, and sometimes also from other cells referred to as neighboring cells, and to report the measuring results. This information can then be used by the network node to allocate resources to the UE. The capabilities that the wireless device reports typically contain, among other things, information about which frequency bands the wireless device can transmit and receive, what bandwidths it can handle, and how many antennas and layers it can handle. The latter capability is part of the so-called "UE class".
When a wireless device is attached to a network node, e.g. when being switched-on or after a prolonged period of sleep, the network node selects and assigns a suitable cell and network resources to the device based on the above-described capabilities and signal measurements. However, this assignment of cell and resources may not be optimal with respect to throughput and quality requirements in the device and resource usage in the network. Further, the assignment of cell is reactive and relatively static in the sense that it may be changed when the radio conditions and traffic in the cell change over time based on whether certain predefined and static rules and thresholds are met or not.
For example, a high-end mobile phone may get the best possible cell and other resources based on the conditions at the time of attachment although the conditions may later be changed allowing for a better cell assignment with higher throughput and/or service quality which thus may remain unutilized since the initial assignment may be kept unless some predefined rule or threshold is met. On the other hand, a simple Internet of Things, IoT, device with low requirements for throughput and/or quality may get a better cell and more resources than needed for operation of the IoT device just because the radio and traffic conditions happened to be favorable at the time of attachment. It is thus a problem that initial assignment of cell and resources to wireless devices as well as resource usage may turn out to be less than optimal, e.g. with respect to radio and traffic conditions in the cells as well as needs and requirements in the wireless devices.

Method and network agent for cell assignment


The invention to provide a system of equipment for making synthetic building materials using plastic wastes combined with industrial and agricultural scrap includes: sorting and cleaning equipment, grinding equipment, powder grinding equipment, mixing equipment, pelletizing equipment, drying equipment, hot stir equipment, shaping equipment are connected together by mechanical connectors. The database connected to the controller controls the sorting and cleaning equipment, the grinding equipment, the powder grinding equipment, the mixing equipment, the pelletizing equipment, the drying equipment, the hot stir equipment, and the shaping equipment through transmission channels. In addition, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing for making synthetic building materials using plastic wastes combined with industrial and agricultural scrap.

According to Ocean Conservation Association statistics in 2017, Vietnam is one of the top five countries responsible for about 13 million tons of plastic released into the ocean in a year. Vietnam Clean and Green's statistics shows that Vietnam is one of the top 5 countries to discharge plastic waste with about 1.8 million tons to the environment every year, of which about 730 thousand tons of plastic waste is dumped into the sea.
Plastic waste comes from different sources, mainly from household waste such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic straws; plastic waste from manufacturing activities from factories and industrial parks; plastic waste from tourism activities such as plastic cups, straws, bottles; medical plastic waste generated such as needles, gloves, medicine bottles. It can be said that the situation of production, consumption and plastic waste is increasing constantly, without timely treatment, the environment will be seriously damaged from plastic waste.
Good plastic waste is collected for recycling, while bad plastic waste is mixed with household waste to bury that will affect the environment in the long run. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to reuse these bad plastic waste.
In addition, there are many other types of scrap from agriculture and industry sectors. Specifically, scrap is discharged from industries such as solid waste, rags, shoes; coal slag and fly ash from thermal power plants; red mud, sludge from sand and ore exploitation activities; scrap from agricultural activities such as corn cobs, corn stalks, coffee hulls, cashew husks, bagasse, rice husks, banana stalks, dragon fruits, etc. . . . The use of this scrap contributes to solve environmental pollution, also the advantage of scrap is to increase income for workers.
It is necessary to take measures to treat environmental pollution from plastic waste and waste from agricultural and industrial sectors. One of the options to solve the above problem is to use the above-mentioned wastes as building materials.
The building materials are used very commonly in housing constructions and other constructions. The current technology of producing building materials has to use a lot of natural resources such as wood, sand, stone, etc., causing the situation of increasingly exhausting resources. Additionally, the exploitation of these raw materials causes vandalism and environmental pollution. At the same time, the production of building materials from the above materials also causes serious environmental pollution. At present, many factories producing building materials have not fully solved the problem of environmental pollution from their production activities, and have not taken advantage of available inexpensive materials.
The use of plastic wastes and industrial/agricultural scrap into the production of building materials has not been popularized and has not taken full advantage of this source of materials. Moreover, the hot stir equipment and heating equipment at the mixed processing stage to create composite materials is only achieved to a limited extent. Specifically, only one type of recycled plastic is mixed with a few scrap, which limits the productivity and waste treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to have proper equipment and methods to use plastic waste and scrap as building materials.
Patent application WO2012009005 discloses a method of producing composites from industrial or residential sludge and plastic waste, in which the plastic waste used is high density polyethylene (HDPE) and/or polypropylene (PP). The production method includes the following steps: (1) batching dried sewer sludge and the recycled plastic in appropriate small cut pieces to form a mixture; (2) heating to liquefy the mixture; (3) feeding into a compression mold to create specific structures.
Patent application KR1017511970000 discloses an apparatus and a method for manufacturing a composite material using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and volcanic ash, and more specifically, to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing a composite material using the recycled PET and volcanic ash, which are capable of manufacturing a noble composite material that is hardly affected by ultraviolet rays and has excellent adhesive strength and elasticity by using the recycled PET. The apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a material injection hopper into which mixed materials obtained by mixing 70 wt % of nylon-containing recycled PET, 20 wt % of waste aramid resin, and 10 wt % of volcanic ash including granules having a diameter of 4 mm with respect to sizes and shapes thereof are injected, and a carbon fiber, a glass fiber and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene are additionally injected; a dehumidifier which passes the materials injected into the material injection hopper through a drying process of 10 to 12 hours to remove moisture included in the materials; an extruder including an injection hopper into which the moisture-removed materials are injected, a screw which mixes the materials injected through the injection hopper, and a heater which applies heat to the materials to melt the materials when the materials are mixed by the screw, the heater providing adhesive property as the nylon and the waste aramid resin included in the PET are being mixed with each other while the materials are being molten by the heater, the volcanic ash adjusting the viscosity of the materials to produce the PET composite material, and the extruder manufacturing the PET composite material by extruding the PET composite material into a long bar shape through a discharge hole that discharges the PET composite material while extruding the produced PET composite material; a cooling unit which contacts cooling water with the PET composite material discharged from the extruder to harden the PET composite material by cooling; a compound machine which cuts the hardened PET composite material discharged from the cooling unit to a predetermined length; a carrier which carries the PET composite material using a conveyor belt; and a composite material reservoir which stores the PET composite material carried through the carrier.
Patent application KR1017511970000 discloses a preparation method of a paper-plastic composite material from recycled paper-plastic materials. The technical scheme is as follows: the method comprises the following steps: waste paper-plastic material pretreatment, paper-plastic material pulverization, raw material mixing, granulation, extrusion forming and the like, thereby obtaining the HDPE (high-density polyethylene)-base paper-plastic composite material. The method can prepare high-dispersity granules suitable for continuous industrial production from recycled paper-plastic materials, greatly improves the complex process of the waste paper-plastic material recycling procedures, reduces the energy consumption, enhances the added value of the recycled paper-plastic materials, and has important meanings for relieving environmental pollution.
It can be seen that the above technical solutions meet the purpose and requirements set out. However, all three inventions use only one type of plastic combined with one blending material to put into production without the combination of many types of plastic waste and different types of mixing materials to create synthetic building materials, and manufacturing methods do not bring high efficiency.
Therefore, it is necessary to find better ways to make use of plastic waste and industrial, agricultural wastes without affecting the environment, increase economic efficiency.
It is also necessary to produce a synthetic building material that replaces traditional building materials, reduces production costs and brings high efficiency.
It is also needed a synthetic building material manufacturing system that requires a hot stir equipment to handle different types of primary and/or recycled plastics at the same time to form a composite of materials that is used for many different types of products.
This invention provides solutions that achieve the above purposes.

System and method for making synthetic building materials using plastic waste combined with industrial and agricultural scrap


A filter unit for removing leukocytes from a leukocyte-containing suspension by passing the suspension through a filter unit. The filter unit may comprise a main filter for blocking the leukocytes and a post-filter for preventing leakage of the leukocytes having a higher median pore size than the main filter and placed downstream of the main-filter.

The invention relates to a method for removing leukocytes from a leukocyte-containing suspension and particularly from blood-derived suspensions. The invention also relates to a filter unit construction which can be used in the above method.
Leukocytes in transfused blood are in most cases not only superfluous but often detrimental. Leukocytes in the blood have been found to cause non-hemolytic febrile reactions and alloimmunization as well as to harbor viruses.
Donated blood can be used without prior treatment (xe2x80x9cwhole bloodxe2x80x9d), or, more frequently, is processed to produce a red cell or platelet concentrate. Various methods have been developed to remove leukocytes from these blood products, the most popular being filtration methods.
EP 155003 (to Asahi) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,572 (to Pall) describe filtration methods using fibrous, non-woven media to capture the leukocytes as the blood suspension is passed through them. A leukocyte removal rate of over 98% can be obtained using these methods. The disadvantage of these methods is that the filter units used in them must be composed of many layers of filter media in order to reduce leukocyte counts efficiently while at the same time providing a reasonable flow rate. This makes industrial assembly cumbersome and expensive.
An alternate method of leukocyte filtration has been described in European Patent Application EP 406485 (to NPBI Netherlands). This method uses continuous porous membranes for the filtration process instead of fibers. Using cellulose acetate, an exemplary material as described in the above application, results in over 35% of leukocytes remaining in the blood filtrate, as can be seen in FIG. 9. Thus, the above method resulted in a leukocyte removal of less than 65% as compared to greater than 98% for conventional methods. The authors of the above application came to the conclusion that a series of stacked membranes having decreasing pore size in the blood flow direction (xe2x80x98asymmetric filterxe2x80x99) showed a higher leukocyte removal capacity than membranes of uniform pore size. However, only a 25% leukocyte removal was obtained with this xe2x80x98asymmetricxe2x80x99 filter, which contained a series of 8 membranes (FIG. 8). The filtration method described in the above application is therefore not useful for the purpose of leukocyte removal from blood products.
Other recent patents have described the use of polyvinylidene fluoride and polyvinyl formal membranes for use in leukocyte removal (see e.g. WO 89/02304).
Leukocyte removal by commercial nitrocellulose membranes has been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,820,755 and 5,707,526 (Kraus et al.). A leukocyte removal of 97-99% was obtained using filters including nitrocellulose membranes in a main filter layer, and an upstream pre-filter as illustrated in FIG. 1. However, since the membrane is more efficient in leukocyte capture than the pre-filter media, the leukocytes form a concentrated xe2x80x9ccakexe2x80x9d in the membrane layer and further filtration causes some of the leukocytes to leak out as illustrated in the figure. Such leakage may make filtration quality unacceptable.
There is provided in accordance with one embodiment of the invention a filter unit for a blood-derived suspension containing leukocytes, the filter unit comprising: a main filter for blocking the leukocytes comprising at least one membrane layer, and a post-filter for preventing leakage of the leukocytes comprising at least one layer wherein the post-filter is placed downstream of said main filter and has a median pore size higher than the median pore size of said main-filter.
Further in accordance with an embodiment of the invention the main filter comprises at least one nitrocellulose membrane layer or nylon membrane layer which may be modified by a surface treatment reaction and has a median pore size in the range of 5-15 microns.
Further in accordance with an embodiment of the invention the post-filter comprises at least one non-woven polymer fabric layer and/or membrane layer.
Further in accordance with an embodiment of the invention the filter unit comprising at least one pre-filter placed upstream of the main filter and having a median pore size higher than the median pore size of the main filter.
There is thus provided in accordance with an embodiment of the invention a method for removing leukocytes from a blood-derived suspension comprising leukocytes, comprising the step of: passing the suspension through a filter unit including main-filter for blocking leukocytes and post-filter located downstream of the main-filter.


Disclosed are personal care compositions for use on hair, skin, oral cavity, throat and other mucosal surfaces containing a flavor/perfume system comprising one or more coolants, wherein the pleasant cool and refreshing sensation provided by the coolant is enhanced in terms of quicker onset, greater intensity or impact and/or longer duration, thereby improving appeal and acceptability of the compositions to consumers. In one embodiment the invention provides oral care compositions comprising                (a) a flavor composition comprising one or more non-menthol coolants and optionally one or more additional flavor ingredients,        (b) a calcium ion source and/or a calcium transport agent sufficient to potentiate and/or modulate the cooling and refreshing sensation provided by the coolant(s), and        (c) an orally-acceptable carrier.Upon application to the oral cavity, the compositions provide an immediate onset of cooling sensation which lasts longer than about 15 minutes thereby providing long-lasting clean and fresh mouth impression and encouraging user compliance and repeated use of the compositions.

Oral care products such as dentifrice and mouthrinse are routinely used by consumers as part of their oral care hygiene regimens. It is well known that oral care products can provide both therapeutic and cosmetic hygiene benefits to consumers. Therapeutic benefits include caries prevention which is typically delivered through the use of various fluoride salts; gingivitis prevention by the use of an antimicrobial agent such as triclosan, stannous fluoride, or essential oils; or hypersensitivity control through the use of ingredients such as strontium chloride or potassium nitrate. Cosmetic benefits provided by oral care products include the control of plaque and calculus formation, removal and prevention of tooth stain, tooth whitening, breath freshening, and overall improvements in mouth feel impression which can be broadly characterized as mouth feel aesthetics. Calculus and plaque along with behavioral and environmental factors lead to formation of dental stains, significantly affecting the aesthetic appearance of teeth. Behavioral and environmental factors that contribute to teeth staining propensity include regular use of coffee, tea, cola or tobacco products, and also the use of certain oral products containing ingredients that promote staining, such as cationic antimicrobials and metal salts.
Thus daily oral care at home requires products with multiple ingredients working by different mechanisms to provide the complete range of therapeutic and aesthetic benefits, including anticaries, antimicrobial, antigingivitis, antiplaque, anticalculus and anti-erosion, as well as antiodor, mouth refreshment, stain removal, stain control and tooth whitening. In order for oral care products for daily use such as dentifrice and rinses to provide complete oral care it is necessary to combine actives and additives, many of which have the disadvantage of causing negative aesthetics during use, in particular unpleasant taste and sensations and stain promotion. The unpleasant taste and mouth sensations have been described as having one or more of bitter, metallic, astringent, salty, numbing, stinging, burning, prickling, and even irritating aspects. Typical ingredients for oral care use that are associated with these aesthetic negatives include antimicrobial agents such as cetyl pyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, stannous and zinc salts; tooth bleaching agents such as peroxides; antitartar agents such as pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate and hexametaphosphate; and excipients such as baking soda and surfactants. To mitigate the aesthetic negatives from these ingredients, oral care products are typically formulated with flavoring agents, sweeteners and coolants to taste as good as possible and provide a pleasant experience. In particular, it is desirable for oral care products to provide a refreshing cooling sensation during and after use.
Thus in one aspect, the present invention provides oral care compositions comprising a flavor system comprising traditional flavor components combined with one or a mixture of coolant chemicals wherein the cooling and refreshing sensation provided by the coolant(s) is potentiated in terms of onset, intensity or impact and/or duration.

Personal care compositions providing enhanced cooling sensation


A method of forming a metallization pattern on a substrate used in the fabrication of a solar cell or other semiconductor device. The metallization pattern is formed by (1) hydrogen passivating a silicon substrate having a P/N junction formed therein adjacent one surface of the substrate, with a damaged surface layer being formed in conjunction with the hydrogen passivation process, and (2) laser annealing selected portions of said damaged layer whereby said selected portions form a metallization pattern to which selected metals will securely adhere when applied by immersion plating. The foregoing fabrication steps may be performed simultaneously.. A layer of material comprising SiO.sub.x may be redeposited on the one surface of the substrate as part of the hydrogen passivation procedure. In the laser annealing step, sections of the redeposited material scanned by the laser beam are ablated and the exposed underlying damaged surface layer is annealed.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to the fabrication of semiconductor devices and more particularly to a method of forming metallization patterns in a damaged hydrogen passivated surface layer.
2. Prior Art
Known semiconductor devices, such as photovoltaic cells, frequently comprise a plurality of conductive metallic segments attached to the front surface of a selected substrate for conducting current between various regions of the device. In the fabrication of such semiconductor devices, a plurality of relatively involved processing steps are typically required to prepare the surface of the substrate for metallization formation of the front surface conductors. These processing steps are required because the front surface of the substrate of conventional semiconductor devices is typically coated with a layer of material to which conductive materials deposited by known methods, e.g., the immersion plating process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4321283, will not readily adhere. This front surface layer is typically a dielectric layer, e.g., a glass or silicon nitride layer or a damaged layer formed in the course of performing hydrogen passivation. The glass and silicon nitride layers provide hard protective coatings for the underlying silicon substrate. As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4691077 to Gregory et al, hydrogen passivation is used to reduce minority carrier recombination losses in polycrystalline silicon semiconductor materials.
Conventionally, metallization patterns are formed by selectively removing portions of the dielectric front surface layer using known photoresist and etching methods. Selected portions (depending on the process used) of the front surface of the substrate define the regions to which conductors will be attached. Examples of known solar cell photoresist and etching methods are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4451969, 4557037, and 4612698.
Prior known methods for forming metallization patterns are not entirely satisfactory because they involve a relatively large number of processing steps. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4451969, relating to the production of solar cells, the following steps are required to prepare a photovoltaic cell silicon substrate for metal plating:
(a) forming a polysilazane coating on a first surface of the substrate having a junction in the substrate adjacent the first surface; PA1 (b) covering the polysilazane coating with a photoresist material; PA1 (c) exposing the photoresist coating to radiant energy through a mask defining a two-dimensional pattern; PA1 (d) chemically developing the photoresist so that selected portions of the photoresist are removed according to the two-dimensional pattern; PA1 (e) etching away those portions of the polysilazane coating not covered by the photoresist; and PA1 (f) heating the silicon substrate at a temperature and for a time sufficient to: PA1 (a) hydrogen passivating the bulk region of a solar cell having a P/N junction formed in said cell adjacent a first surface thereof, and PA1 (b) laser annealing those portions of the damaged surface layer created by the hydrogen passivation to which conductors will subsequently be attached by immersion plating.
(1) effect removal of said photoresist material by pyrolysis, and PA2 (2) modify said polysilazane coating so that it has a relatively low etch rate.
Since the cost of semiconductor devices such as solar cells is dependent to a major extent upon the number of required fabrication steps, it is clearly desirable to be able to form metallization patterns using a process having fewer steps than the foregoing process.
Lasers have been used to remove, or alter the microstructure of various layers on substrates of semiconductor devices, in part, as a method of reducing the number of steps involved in fabricating the device. For instance, lasers have been used in conjunction with etchants to remove selected portions of semiconductor materials, as taught, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4331504, 4401367, 4478677, 4490210, and 4490211. Lasers have also been used to alter the microstructure of portions of semiconductor materials to facilitate subsequent removal of the laser-scanned portions by specific surface etchants, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4335295 and 4415383. It also is known to cut holes by laser beam in thin films such as silicon nitride, copper and other conductor and semiconductor materials, as shown, for example, by U.S. Pat. Nos. Re: 27772, 4044222 and 4081653. Lasers have also been used to anneal predetermined areas of amorphous or polycrystalline semiconductor materials into single crystal areas, as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4388145.
Prior known methods of altering the microstructure of electrical conductor or semiconductor materials have several disadvantages when applied to the fabrication of solar cells. First, to avoid damaging the P/N junction in photovoltaic cells, the intensity and duration of exposure to the laser beam must be carefully selected. Known laser processing methods tend not to be concerned with utilizing the laser beam in a manner preventing deterioration of the P/N junction of a solar cell. Second, in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4388145, laser annealing tends only to be effective in those predetermined regions of the silicon substrate comprising a material substantially transparent to the laser beams. As such, the method of U.S. Pat. No. 4388145 tends to lack utility for annealing selected portions of a layer formed by hydrogen passivation of a silicon substrate.