An apparatus and method of predicting the end of life of a consumable. A basic weighted least squares algorithm has been extended and augmented to compensate for observed common consumable/printer behavior. The system uses consumable usage data (such as toner level) acquired from the device to predict the current and future consumable level and to predict the remaining life. The apparatus and method monitors the consumable's usage and updates the prediction so that when the predicted remaining life matches a preset threshold, it automatically triggers an order placement event to ship product to customer.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems that use life histories to determine component life, and more particularly to systems that use weighted least square regression to create a predictor for the expiration of replaceable components.
In an image formation processing apparatus represented by a printer system or the like, print processing is performed by using print materials such as a photoreceptor, a toner, and the like. Because these materials are reduced or degraded according to the use thereof, they are consumable items which require maintenance or repletion. Some of these consumables may be arranged or embodied in units/cartridges and, if intended for replacement by the customer or machine owner, may be referred to as a customer replaceable unit (CRU). Examples of a CRU may include printer cartridge, toner cartridge, transfer assembly unit, photo conductive imaging unit, transfer roller, fuser or drum oil unit, and the like. It is known to provide the CRU with a monitoring device commonly referred to as a CRUM (Customer Replaceable Unit Monitor). A CRUM is typically associated with a memory device, such as a ROM, EEPROM, SRAM, and other suitable non-volatile memory device or data collecting network system, with processing capabilities provided in or on the cartridge. Information identifying the CRU and/or may be written on the EEPROM. The printer system or the like updates the information in the memory element or other data collection system with monitored data to monitor the status of the replaceable module at the machine, at an external facility, or at the CRU.
The toner level in such an image forming apparatus is critical, and users appreciate knowing how much material is available. This is known as the remaining useful life of a consumable. A user may be distressed when finding out that the printer ran out of ink or toner in the middle of a print job. If the user was able to determine in advance that the useful life was relatively low, the user could take some steps to either more accurately estimate the possibilities of printing an entire print job using the amount of toner remaining in the currently installed toner cartridge at the printer, or could first go to the printer and install a new cartridge or ask someone at the network administrative level to replace the toner cartridge. Since most of the printers in the field are under some kind of service contract, the service providers would like to know exactly when they should ship the next consumable to the customer to replace the one in use without interrupting the printing service. A common method in predicting the remaining useful life of a consumable is by usage of a simple least square linear regression method. The simple least square regression method is a statistical technique which models the relationship between a set of dependent/response variables and a set of independent/predictor variables like the number of usage days or number of pages that can be printed until the life of the consumable is extinguished. The simple linear regression technique works well when the behavior of the dependent variables is regular (the usage is pretty much stable) and the variation is minor. The daily usage of the consumables, such as the daily usage of toner on office printing devices, is, however, by no means regular; printing is bursty and unpredictable on a daily basis. These problems reduce the ability of simple linear regression techniques to accurately predict the remaining life of toner cartridges and other consumables. Alternative approaches such as decision trees and classifiers to determine whether or not the level of a consumable is within a pre-specified reorder range have high scalability and implementation costs.
Statistically, the accuracy of results from any prediction model for consumable remaining life may depend on quite a few parameters such as the mean and the standard deviation/variance of the predicted time when life of the consumables ends, and the correlation coefficients between the usage of the consumable and the output of the service where, how and what the dependence are may depend on the consumable and how the model is created.

Predicting remaining useful life for a consumable using a weighted least square regression prediction technique


This disclosure is directed to apparatuses, systems, and methods associated with the aerial delivery of materials in a manner that is inexpensive, accurate, efficient, and effective. More specifically this disclosure teaches deploying an aerial delivery container holding some material from an aircraft and releasing the material from the aerial delivery container, all in a controlled manner, while the aerial delivery container is airborne. With reference to the exemplary embodiments, the apparatuses, systems and methods of the present disclosure are taught within the context of releasing a firefighting suppressant over a fire.

Conventional aerial firefighting includes the use of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, usually outfitted with tanks capable of holding thousands of gallons of water or other fire retardant. These aircraft, airtankers or waterbombers as they are sometimes called, are typically filled with fire retardant payloads and flown over fires where the payloads are dumped onto locations below in the hope of extinguishing, suppressing, or otherwise controlling the fire.
During an aerial firefighting attempt, airtankers typically fly at altitudes under 300 feet to improve the effectiveness of the material being dumped form the aircraft. Consequently, firefighting missions are frequently flown through thick smoke, shifting winds, and rugged terrain that often include tall trees and power lines. These conditions typically require aerial firefighting efforts to be performed during daylight hours with good visibility.
Aerial firefighting effectiveness using conventional airtankers is further limited by the problem of the entire payload typically being released over a single target. If only a portion of the payload is needed at a particular target, or if there are multiple targets requiring attention during the same mission the typical airtanker cannot usually adapt by adjusting payload release.


The disclosed mounting systems may include a rail assembly, a cradle, and at least one bracket. The rail assembly may include at least one base rail element and at least one sliding rail element. The cradle may be configured to couple to the sliding rail element. The bracket may be configured to support a video-conferencing device and to couple to the cradle. Various other related methods and systems are also disclosed.

Video-conferencing systems are used in business and other settings to connect people who are in different locations for meetings, collaboration, and other communications. Video-conferencing systems typically include a display screen and a video-conferencing processing device, which may process and transmit incoming and outgoing video and audio signals to enable participants to communicate with each other. Such processing devices may be positioned behind the associated display screens to hide them from view during normal operation.
Display screens for video-conferencing may be relatively heavy, and some display screens and processing devices may be wall-mounted at or above waist-height. Thus, significant physical effort and/or more than one person may be required for accessing video-conferencing processing devices for installation, maintenance, adjustments, or removal. In addition, installation or removal of the processing devices may require the use of tools to secure the devices to a wall or other supporting structure, and may be performed in tight spaces (e.g., behind the display screens).

Mounting systems for a video-conferencing device, video conferencing systems, and related methods


A laser cladding head comprises a protective housing, a focal array, a turning mirror, and a powder nozzle. The housing extends along a primary axis from a proximal end to a distal end. The focal array is situated at the proximal end and oriented to receive and focus collimated light in a beam directed substantially along the primary axis. The turning mirror is situated at the distal end and disposed to redirect the beam in an emission direction, towards a target point separated from the turning mirror by a working distance of at most a tenth the focal length. The turning mirror is a nonfocal reflective surface indexable to alter an impingement location of the beam on the turning mirror. The powder nozzle is situated at the distal end and receives and directs weld material towards the target point for melting.

Laser powder deposition is commonly used in manufacture and repair methods in the aerospace industry, particularly for large, high-value castings that are too crack sensitive to be welded via conventional processes. Laser cladding heads spray pulverant towards an area to be joined or repaired, while a laser beam (typically received via an optical fiber line) creates a small melt pool on the surface of the workpiece. This melt pool captures and incorporates some of the powder. Lasers in such systems can be tightly focused, enabling precise deposition of powder in a target area (e.g. along a weld seam, or to repair a crack or inclusion arising during manufacture or operation of a workpiece).
Common weld heads consist of two concentric hollow cones separated by a small gap. Metal powder, carried by an inert gas such as helium, exits between these cones and is focused on a target point of the workpiece. A laser is simultaneously focused at the same target point through the center of the inner cone. In these systems, conical powder jets are disposed coaxially about the laser beam, and additional inert gas is often directed substantially along the same axis to the molten puddle at the target point to protect from oxidation while powder is deposited.
Coaxial laser cladding heads are typically quite long (e.g. 500 mm or more), and are consequently unsuitable for applications where obstructions near the target point block access, such as when performing a weld within a pipe or other confined space. Some laser cladding heads used for these kinds of applications instead emit both beam and powder sideways from the end of a long wand that can be inserted between obstructions to access the workpiece and target point.


Alkaline pulping (such as Kraft) processes for various lignocellulosic materials, such as coniferous or disiduous wood chips, into pulp is improved by adding relatively small amounts of a digestive additive selected from the group consisting essentially of anionic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, and anionic/nonionic surfactant blends, such as sodium alpha-sulfo methyl laurate, cocodiethanolamide, butyl ethylenoxide-propylenoxide block copolymers, etc. to the alkaline cooking media to obtain pulps having a select Kappa number range with a reduction in pulp material reject percentage, a reduction of H-factor, a reduction of white liquor requirements and a reduction of cooking time period, relative to H-factor, reject percentages, white liquor requirements and digestion periods experienced in similar alkaline digestion processes without the inventive digestive additive.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to pulp production and somewhat more particularly to the process of preparing pulp from a lignocellulosic material, such as coniferous or deciduous wood.
2. Prior Art
Production of pulp from lignocellulosic materials is well known and may involve mechanical, chemical, and thermal processes, or a select combination of such processes to produce cellulosic fibers which can be manufactured into various products, for example, paper. Particularly economically attractive processes typically involve chemical pulping, semichemical pulping and/or chemi-thermomechanical pulping, due to relatively high pulp yields.
Typically, in chemical pulping processes, shredded or chipped lignocellulosic materials are subjected to chemical reagents that remove at least partially, as by dissolving, extracting, dispersing or the like, lignin, hemicellulose, gums, carbohydrates, fatty materials, etc., collectively referred to as "resins" from, for example, wood chips to release cellulose fibers during a digestion process. A presently dominant chemical pulping process in the U.S. and certain other regions of the world is a so-called Kraft process. In the Kraft or sulphate process, sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfite typically comprise the principal cooking or digestive chemicals, which when admixed with water are generally referred to as alkaline pulping liquor or white liquor. The alkaline reagents react with lignin and other resin molecules, breaking them into smaller segments whose sodium salts are soluble or dispersable in the cooking liquor.
In the Kraft pulping process, a select amount of, for example wood chips, which may be pre-treated with steam or water that may also include chemical reagents, are charged to a digester vessel, along with alkaline pulping liquor to attain a select chemical or liquid-to-wood ratio and this material charge is then subjected to controlled heat and pressure over a select period of time. Both batch and continuous digestion processes are known. In batch processes, the material charged may be held under select temperature/pressure condition for a calculated period of time to attain a desired pulp characteristic and then discharged or "blown" into a holding tank so as to yield a pre-calculated amount of pulp suitable for further processing, such as chemical and/or heat recovery, washing, further digestive-type processing, bleaching, etc. prior to, for example, paper manufacturing. In a continuous digestion process, the material charge is controllably moved through zones of select temperature/pressure to a regulated discharge point, (i.e., a valve) to continuously yield pulp having desired characteristics (i.e., reduced "resins" content, a select Kappa number or range, water drainability, etc.).
A primary object of a pulping or digestion process is to reduce the amount of "resins" present in pulp fibers without deleteriously affecting paper forming characteristics while maintaining an economically viable process and product (pulp) costs. An emphasis has been placed in pulping processes involving chemical means to provide chemical reagents compatible with the digestion conditions and cooking chemicals and which aid deresination. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,058 describes the use of ethoxylated phenols and tall oil as deresination agents. U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,045, on the other hand, describes the use of copolymers of polyethylenoxide and polypropylenoxide as deresination agents. Organic solvents, such as kerosene, methanol, etc. and various emulsifiers such as certain sulfonated fatty acids (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,400) and solubilizint agents, such as C.sub.12 alpha-olefin sulfonates (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,254) have also been suggested as deresination agents. In addition, anthraquinione and certain derivatives thereof have been suggested as additives or catalysts useful in cooking liquors for deresination of lignocellulosic materials, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,280. However, these various additives, solvents, catalysts, etc. tend to exhibit various drawbacks, including high chemical costs, excessive processing time, incompatibility with typical alkaline processing parameters, etc.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved method of producing pulps, such as paperboard pulps, containerboard pulps, linerboard pulps, corrugated medium pulps, Kraft or sulphate market pulps, etc., by adding a digestion additive to alkaline pulping liquor in a pulping process to attain a reduced H-factor, reduced material rejects, reduced "fresh" pulping liquor requirements and reduced cooking or digestion time periods relative to heretofore practiced pulping processes.
Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the detailed description that follows.


A method, system, and apparatus are disclosed that correct a differential clock signal. A clock correction circuit may determine a DC correction for a first clock signal of a differential clock signal and a DC correction for a second clock signal of a differential clock signal based upon a DC level of the differential clock signal. The clock correction circuit may adjust a DC level of the first clock signal based upon the DC correction for the first clock signal and a DC level of the second clock signal based upon the DC correction for the second clock signal to substantially maintain a duty cycle of the differential clock signal.

Wireless transmission systems may have transceivers to modulate and demodulate signals based upon a differential clock signal. For some modulation techniques, accuracy of modulating and demodulating is dependent upon the accuracy of the differential clock signal. In particular, some modulation techniques require a differential clock signal with a 50 percent duty cycle.


The disclosed embodiments relate to creation and dissemination of unique identifiers, i.e. tokens, for use in communication of messages from a transaction processing system, to participants therein whereby messages, or at least a portion of the content thereof, indicative of a response to a request, to transact or modify a prior transaction, are consolidated, or otherwise combined, with the corresponding directed reporting messages communicated to the particular participants participating in the reported transaction while preserving the anonymity of those participants to which messages are particularly directed. The identifiers are structured so as to facilitate rapid validation and dissemination while eliminating the ability to associate any given identifier, or set thereof, with a participant.

A financial instrument trading system, such as a futures exchange, referred to herein also as an "Exchange", such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), provides a contract market where financial instruments, for example futures and options on futures, are traded. Futures is a term used to designate all contracts for the purchase or sale of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery or cash settlement on a commodity futures exchange. A futures contract is a legally binding agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a specified price at a predetermined future time. An option is the right, but not the obligation, to sell or buy the underlying instrument (in this case, a futures contract) at a specified price within a specified time. The commodity to be delivered in fulfillment of the contract, or alternatively the commodity for which the cash market price shall determine the final settlement price of the futures contract, is known as the contract's underlying reference or "underlier." The terms and conditions of each futures contract are standardized as to the specification of the contract's underlying reference commodity, the quality of such commodity, quantity, delivery date, and means of contract settlement. Cash Settlement is a method of settling a futures contract whereby the parties effect final settlement when the contract expires by paying/receiving the loss/gain related to the contract in cash, rather than by effecting physical sale and purchase of the underlying reference commodity at a price determined by the futures contract, price.
Typically, the Exchange provides for a centralized "clearing house" through which all trades made must be confirmed, matched, and settled each day until offset or delivered. The clearing house is an adjunct to the Exchange, and may be an operating division of the Exchange, which is responsible for settling trading accounts, clearing trades, collecting and maintaining performance bond funds, regulating delivery, and reporting trading data. The essential role of the clearing house is to mitigate credit risk. Clearing is the procedure through which the Clearing House becomes buyer to each seller of a futures contract, and seller to each buyer, also referred to as a novation, and assumes responsibility for protecting buyers and sellers from financial loss due to breach of contract, by assuring performance on each contract. A clearing member is a firm qualified to clear trades through the Clearing House.
Current financial instrument trading systems allow traders to submit orders and receive confirmations, market data, and other information electronically via a network. These "electronic" marketplaces are an alternative to pit based trading systems whereby the traders, or their representatives, all physically stand in a designated location, i.e. a trading pit, and trade with each other via oral and hand based communication. Anyone standing in or near the trading pit may be privy to the trades taking place, i.e. who is trading, what they are offering to trade (price and quantity), and what ultimately trades. Electronic trading systems attempt to replicate the trading pit environment in a marketplace of electronic form. In doing so, electronic trading systems ideally offer an efficient, fair and balanced market where market prices reflect a true consensus of the value of traded products among the market participants, where the intentional or unintentional influence of any one market participant is minimized if not eliminated, and where unfair or inequitable advantages with respect to information access are minimized if not eliminated.
One manner in which electronic marketplaces attempt to achieve these goals is by equitably providing access to public market information, such as by efficiently disseminating public data, e.g. market data, prices, etc. or changes thereto, to all market participants, and by separating and restricting the communication of private data, e.g. orders and the responses thereto, from that public information. However, as more traders place more trades, the volume of data being communicated increases as well, increasing the burden on the communication infrastructure and supporting resources that are used to generate and transmit the communications in this manner.

Tokens, and the use thereof, for public distribution of messages having a private association with a subset of the message recipients


A MEMS vapour bubble generator that uses a heater in thermal contact with a liquid to generate a bubble. The heater is energized by an electrical pulse that is shaped to have a relatively low power, sub-nucleating portion and a high power portion that nucleates the bubble. The thermal energy transferred to the liquid by the sub-nucleating portion speeds up the nucleation of the bubble across the surface of the heater during the nucleating portion. This produces larger, more stable bubble having a regular shape.

Some micro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices process or use liquids to operate. In one class of these liquid-containing devices, resistive heaters are used to heat the liquid to the liquid's superheat limit, resulting in the formation of a rapidly expanding vapor bubble. The impulse provided by the bubble expansion can be used as a mechanism for moving liquid through the device. This is the case in thermal inkjet printheads where each nozzle has a heater that generates a bubble to eject a drop of ink onto the print media. In light of the widespread use of inkjet printers, the present invention will be described with particular reference to its use in this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to inkjet printheads and is equally suited to other devices in which vapor bubbles formed by resistive heaters are used to move liquid through the device (e.g. some 'Lab-on-a-chip' devices).
The time scale for heating a liquid to its superheat limit determines how much thermal energy will be stored in the liquid when the superheat limit is reached: this determines how much vapor will be produced and the impulse of the expanding vapor bubble (impulse being defined as pressure integrated over area and time). Longer time scales for heating result in a greater volume of liquid being heated and hence a larger amount of stored energy, a larger amount of vapor and larger bubble impulse. This leads to some degree of tunability for the bubbles produced by MEMS heaters. Controlling the time scale for heating to the superheat limit is simply a matter of controlling the power supplied to the heater during the nucleation event: lower power will result in a longer nucleation time and larger bubble impulse, at the cost of an increased energy requirement (the extra energy stored in the liquid must be supplied by the heater). Controlling the power may be done by way of reduced voltage across the heater or by way of pulse width modulation of the voltage to obtain a lower time averaged power.
While this effect may be useful in controlling e.g. the flow rate of a MEMS bubble pump or the force applied to a clogged nozzle in an inkjet printer (the subject of a co-pending application referred to by Ser. No. 11/544,770, the designer of such a system must be wary of ensuring bubble stability. A typical heater heating a water-based liquid will generate unstable, non-repeatable bubbles if the time scale for heating is much longer than 1 microsecond (see FIG. 1). This non-repeatability will compromise device operation or severely limit the range of bubble impulse available to the designer.

MEMS bubble generator for large stable vapor bubbles


A battery pack apparatus comprising a first cell bank and a laminated cooling plate. The first cell bank includes a first tray and at least one battery cell coupled to the tray. The laminated cooling plate being in contact with the first cell bank and including a plurality of face sheets and a plurality of internal sheets. The face sheets forming a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet. The plurality of internal sheets forming a plurality of fluid passages connecting the fluid inlet to the fluid outlet. The internal sheets further formed to include fluid pathways defining the fluid passages wherein none of the fluid pathways individually defining an uninterrupted flow path.

The present disclosure relates to battery packs for automotive vehicles. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to battery cooling apparatus using a fluid state medium to cool battery packs having at least one stacked array of rechargeable battery cells.
Electric vehicles, including hybrid electric vehicles, have electric motors for propelling the vehicles along roadways, for example, and these electric motors typically rely upon onboard rechargeable batteries as their energy source. Battery packs having a fairly large number of individual rechargeable battery cells are frequently used with such vehicles. An example of a battery cell that is used in electric vehicles is a lithium ion battery cell. When recharging and when discharging to provide power to the electric motors of electric vehicles, the battery cells generate heat that needs to be removed in order to maintain the battery cells below their maximum allowable temperatures so that the battery cells are not damaged or destroyed by the heat. When removing heat from battery packs, it is desirable but not necessary to have the faces of each of the battery cells maintained at a fairly uniform temperature.
It is known in the art that liquid-cooling provides significant convection coefficients and can be used to cool battery packs. However, some of these systems include dozens or hundreds of liquid-sealed connections. This proliferation of connections may add cost and risk of leakage to the liquid coolers for use with battery packs. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved liquid cooled battery pack apparatus.

Close-coupled dry battery system for hybrid and electric vehicles


An apparatus, method and an image quality guide document are disclosed. The method includes, for at least one image in a set of images undergoing image enhancement, identifying image quality-related features for the image based on enhancements being applied to the image, identifying image content-related features based on content of the image, determining a content-based degradation of the image based on the identified image quality-related features and image content-related features, and generating a thumbnail of the image. The method further includes generating an image quality guide document for the set of images in which at least one of the thumbnails is associated with a respective text description that is based on the determined content-based degradation.

The exemplary embodiment relates to the field of image processing. It finds particular application in connection with the provision of feedback on the automated enhancement of digital images, and is described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that it may find more general application in image classification, image content analysis, image archiving, image database management and searching, and so forth.
Photographers are now using digital image capture devices, such as cameras, cell phones, and optical scanners, to capture images in digital format. The captured images are often sent to photofinishing services or content-sharing communities. Regardless of the final medium in which the images will be managed, shared and visualized, the quality expectations of users are growing. These services often make use of automated or semi-automated enhancement methods to correct detected degradations in an image. For example, features such as automatic color balance or red-eye correction are now standard components in many image editing applications. Acquisition conditions, user expertise, compression algorithms and sensor quality can seriously degrade the final image quality. Image enhancement tools attempt to compensate for this degradation by altering image features for subsequent analysis, distribution or display. Examples of these image features include contrast and edge enhancement, noise filtering for a wide variety of noise sources, sharpening, exposure correction, color balance adjustment, automatic cropping, and correction of shaky images. Traditional photofinishing services available online enable clients to enhance images manually or automatically through proprietary algorithms before printing however, no feedback is given to clients on the quality of the original images and on the effect of the applied enhancements in the final prints.
When the enhancements are performed automatically, without user input, the amateur photographer may not notice the enhancements without a close inspection of the finished product, and thus is often unaware that the photofinishing service has considerably improved the visual appearance of the image in the process. Moreover, the photographer does not appreciate that changes in shooting techniques could avoid similar image degradations in the future. Perceiving the quality of a digital image is in general a difficult exercise for non-expert users. In particular, it is not easy to spot specific degradations (e.g., low contrast vs. low saturation, incorrect white balance, and the like) or to understand how these degradations could have been avoided at the time the photo was taken.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A volume management method is proposed for setting at least a logical volume over a plurality of physical storage devices by taking requested performance of other volumes into consideration. The volume management method comprises the steps of: receiving a volume creation request specifying a requested storage capacity and requested average performance; forming a judgment as to whether or not there exists an unoccupied area satisfying the requested storage capacity throughout the storage devices; forming a judgment as to whether or not all volumes, which include existing volumes each sharing any of the storage devices with a volume to be created and the volume to be created, each satisfy its requested average performance by referring to information of requested average performance on a storage means for each of the existing volumes if the unoccupied area satisfying a requested storage capacity is determined to exist; and setting the volume to be created if all the volumes each satisfy the requested average performance.

In general, the present invention relates to a volume management method for defining a volume on a physical storage device of a storage apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a processing technique for creating and moving a volume by consideration of effects on performance of other volumes.
There exists a technology called RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) for improving reliability and performance by grouping two or more physical disks to provide redundancy. In using a storage apparatus by adoption of the RAID technology, first of all, two or more physical disks (physical storage devices) of a storage apparatus are collected to form a group called a parity group. Then, logical storage areas are defined in the parity group. The logical storage areas are each called a volume to be used by a computer making accesses to the storage apparatus. In many cases, at least two volumes can be defined in a parity group. FIG. 1(a) shows typical definition. As shown in FIG. 1(a), four physical disks 1001, 1002, 1003 and 1004 constitute a parity group 1005 in which three volumes 1006, 1007 and 1008 are defined. The volumes 1006, 1007 and 1008 defined in the parity group 1005 all use the physical disks 1001, 1002, 1003 and 1004. A state of letting different volumes share the same physical disk prevails not only in a case wherein a storage apparatus adopting the RAID technology is used, but also a case in which two or more volumes are defined on a physical disk.
There are several ways to define the method of composing a parity group of a plurality of physical disks by using such a RAID technology. A standard used in the definition of the method is referred to as a RAID level. At RAID level 0, which is also called a stripe, for example, data is written sequentially into a plurality of physical disks in predetermined-size units. At RAID level 1, which is called a mirror, on the other hand, data is read out from and written into 2 physical disks. At RAID levels 4 and 5 for storing data redundantly, data is stored by being distributed among a plurality of disks except one specific disk so that data can be recovered onto the specific disk in case another physical disk fails and becomes unusable. RAID levels 4 and 5 differ from each other in that they employ different ways of holding redundant data.
There also exists a storage apparatus in which a parity group is composed by grouping partial areas of physical disks instead of whole areas of physical disks. In this case, a physical disk may belong to a plurality of parity groups. An example is shown in FIG. 1(b). In this example, a parity group 1015 is composed of partial areas of physical disks 1009, 1010, 1011 and 1012. A volume 1016 is defined in the parity group 1015. A parity group 1013 is composed of partial areas of physical disks 1009 and 1010 and no volume is defined in the parity group 1013. A parity group 1014 is composed of partial areas of physical disks 1011 and 1012 and a volume 1017 is defined in the parity group 1014. In this storage apparatus, the physical disks 1009, 1010, 1011 and 1012 each belong to 2 parity groups.
In some storage apparatuses adopting the RAID technology, a volume is not directly defined in a parity group. Instead, such storage apparatuses have a function whereby logical disks are defined in a parity group, logical disks are divided and joined repeatedly across several hierarchical layers and a logical disk at the top hierarchical layer is defined as a volume. In the storage apparatus shown in FIG. 1(b), for example, a logical disk is defined in each of parity groups 1013 and 1014, and what is obtained by joining the defined logical disks forms a volume.
One of references describing the RAID technology is a document authored by Mark Farley with a title of xe2x80x9cBuilding Storage Networks,xe2x80x9d Network Professional""s Library, Osborne.
By the way, in recent years, attention is paid to a SAN (Storage Area Network), which is a high-speed network comprising typically fiber channels connecting a plurality of storage apparatuses to a plurality of client computers using the storage apparatuses. In the SAN environment, a client computer is capable of using two or more storage apparatuses at the same time and a storage apparatus can be used by two or more client computers. A typical configuration of the SAN is shown in FIG. 2. In the SAN configuration shown in FIG. 2, a network 2001 connects storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007, client computers 2002 and 2003 using the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007 as well as a management computer 2004 for managing the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007 to each other. The management computer 2004 defines internal configurations of the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007, which are connected to the network 2001, and controls permissions of accesses to the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the SAN environment shown in FIG. 2, if the client computer 2002 is given an access permission by the management computer 2004, the client computer 2002 is capable of making accesses to all the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007. In addition, the client computer 2002 and the client computer 2003 are capable of sharing the storage apparatus 2005.
Many storage apparatuses such as the storage apparatuses 2005, 2006 and 2007, which are used in the SAN environment like the one shown in FIG. 2, adopt the RAID technology described earlier. For example, a plurality of volumes using the same physical disks are created in the storage apparatus 2005, and each of the volumes can be used by the client computers 2002 and 2003.
One of references describing the SAN is a document with a title of xe2x80x9cData Storage: Report 2000,xe2x80x9d an edition of Nikkei Computopia, 2000.
A storage management program is used for doing work to create and move a parity group and a volume. The storage management program is executed by the management computer connected to the SAN or a SAN terminal provided with a storage apparatus. If physical disks in a storage apparatus being processed have sufficiently large storage capacities and the storage apparatus"" necessary resources can all be used, requested operations can always be carried out.
By the way, the storage management program may have a function relevant to management of performance of physical disks and volumes. The storage management program may be provided with a function to monitor an average access time of a volume in physical disks and issues a warning if the monitored access time exceeds the average access time""s upper limit determined in advance. The storage management program may have a function to store a performance log and optimize performance by relocation of volumes in accordance with the stored performance log.
In a case wherein two or more volumes use the same physical disk shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), if accesses are concentrated on a specific one of the volumes, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that the performance of another volume using the same physical disk deteriorates. Assume that accesses are concentrated on the volume 1006 shown in FIG. 1(a). In this case, the performance of the volumes 1007 and 1008, which use the same physical disk, deteriorates. From a different point of view, if an already existing volume displays requested performance and a new volume is created to use the same physical disk as the already existing volume or a volume is moved from another physical disk to the same physical disk, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that the already existing volume is no longer capable of satisfying the requested performance. Assume that the volume 1006 shown in FIG. 1(a) currently has an average access time of 18 msec, satisfying a required average access time of 20 msec. Let a new volume be created in the parity group 1005. In this case, the average access time of the volume 1006 deteriorates to 23 msec. Thus, the volume 1006 no longer satisfies the requested average access time of 20 msec.
In an environment wherein a physical disk can be used from a plurality of client computers as is the case with the SAN environment shown in FIG. 2, special attention needs to be paid to the problems described above. This is because volumes used by different client computers can be defined on the same physical disk. In such a case, if a volume is newly created to be used by a certain client computer, the performance of a volume used by another client computer deteriorates. In addition, most of storage apparatuses used in the SAN environment adopt the RAID technology wherein relations between physical disks and volumes are set repeatedly across several hierarchical layers, resulting in a complexity. Thus, the person in charge of storage-apparatus management must manually verify which volumes share the same physical disk when changing a volume configuration. Such manual work is impractical.
In spite of the fact that the contemporary storage apparatus has the problems described above, the conventional management program and the conventional storage apparatus do not have a function for creating and moving a volume by consideration of effects on the performance of another volume.
In addition, a management program having the conventional function related to performance adopts a technique for detecting deterioration of performance and improving the deteriorating performance after actually using a volume instead of considering effects on the performance of another volume in creating or moving a volume. Thus, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that a volume becomes incapable of meeting requested average performance temporarily and the performance of another volume deteriorates even after volume relocation for preventing the performance from deteriorating.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a management technique for creating and moving a volume by consideration of requested performance of all related other volumes.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a volume management method for setting at least a logical volume over a plurality of physical storage devices, said volume management method comprising the steps of:
receiving a volume creation request specifying information on a requested storage capacity and information on requested average performance;
forming a judgment as to whether or not there exists an unoccupied area satisfying the requested storage capacity throughout the storage devices;
forming a judgment as to whether or not all volumes, which include existing volumes each sharing any of the storage devices with a volume to be created and the volume to be created, each satisfy its requested average performance by referring to information of requested average performance on a storage means for each of said existing volumes if said unoccupied area satisfying a requested storage capacity is determined to exist; and
setting said volume to be created if all said volumes each satisfy said requested average performance.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a volume management method for searching a storage apparatus comprising a plurality of physical storage devices, on which at least one logical volume is set, for an unoccupied area used by a new volume over some of said physical storage devices, said volume management method comprising the steps of:
receiving an unoccupied-area-searching request specifying information on requested average performance;
forming a judgment as to whether or not all volumes, which include existing volumes and the new volume supposed to be added to the existing volumes, each satisfy its requested average performance by referring to information of requested average performance on a storage means for each of the existing volumes which share any of the storage device with an unoccupied area; and
displaying information on the area if all the volumes each satisfy the requested average performance.


A lighting system for display cases wherein a tubular housing for a lamp or lamps is secured to a display case frame in an unobtrusive manner and is rotatably adjustable to optimally direct emitted light.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to see-through display cabinets and is particularly concerned with the systems that are used to mount light tubes within the cabinets such that the tubes effectively and adjustably illuminate items placed in the cabinets and can be easily removed and installed.
2. Prior Art
It has long been desirable that display cases or cabinets be provided with windows through which products placed in the cabinet can be viewed. It has become even more desirable in recent years to make the frames for such cabinets narrow and to have larger glass areas. Consequently, it has become more and more important that lighting systems be provided for the cases or cabinets that will allow the contents to be illuminated for display, but wherein the lighting system itself be unobtrusive while still providing the necessary illumination.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,764,999, discloses an electric lighting system for a display case wherein electric wiring is hidden in the frame of the case and exteriorly mounted lamps in outer shells have inner curved deflectors to direct light into the case.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 665,264, 845,652, and 892,235, disclose show cases with light systems that include lamps and curved light and heat deflectors with means to secure the systems to frame structures of the cases, and an illuminating indicating instrument is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,982,847. None of which devices and systems shows a mounting like the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,341, discloses a display case lighting system wherein one or more fluorescent tubes are supported by an extrusion mounted to corner frame members of the case and are supported thereto by a system of interdigitated flanges.


A ready to attach actuation device module is provided for use with a dispenser, such as an ice or water dispenser in a refrigerator. The module includes an electrical actuation device, a wiring lead extending from the actuation device and an electrical connector attached at an end of the wiring lead. A housing encloses the actuation device and at least a portion of the wiring lead. The module incorporates an attachment mechanism which is engageable with the dispenser. The housing includes all stylings for the actuation device module.

The present invention relates generally to refrigeration appliances with dispensers for water, ice or both.
Refrigeration appliances with having dispensers are well known, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,804,974, 6,763,976 and 6,425,425.
In several of these patents, the actuating device for the dispenser comprises a mechanical lever or paddle which must be attached separately to the dispenser housing or refrigeration appliance cabinet, as well as an electrical switch which is activated by the lever or paddle, and also must be separately attached to the dispenser housing or cabinet. In other arrangements, the actuation device is composed of several components which are assembled onto the refrigerator cabinet or dispenser housing separately, usually with separate fasteners. Finishing elements, including covers, indicia or other markings, and similar styling elements, are applied or attached separately after the other components have been assembled to the cabinet or dispenser. This type of assembly process results in a large number of individual parts being assembled onto the dispenser housing or refrigerator cabinet at the assembly line, increasing the complexity and cost of the appliance.
It would be an improvement in the art if an actuator for a refrigeration appliance dispenser were provided which is fully assembled and complete when it is brought to the assembly line to mate with the dispenser housing or the refrigeration appliance.

Self contained actuator for refrigerator dispenser functions


In a time division multiplex access (TDMA-TDD) type wireless communication system in which a communication operation is carried out between a first communication apparatus (mother appliance) and a second communication apparatus (child appliance), and since a slot diversity mode is selected while considering power consumption on the side of the second communication apparatus, the wireless communication system performs such a wireless communication having a higher wireless quality. Based upon a power supply remaining energy capacity on the side of the second communication apparatus, and an electromagnetic wave environment when a wireless signal is received, a slot diversity mode is selected. For example, it is so assumed that 1 frame corresponds to 8 slots, a wireless signal is transmitted from the first communication apparatus to the second communication apparatus by employing two, or more slots, whereas a wireless signal is transmitted from the second communication apparatus to the first communication by employing one slot within the remaining 2 to 6 (8-2) pieces of the slots. As a result, since a total number of the wireless transmission slots used in the second communication apparatus is reduced, transmission electric power can be lowered which may occupy a large ratio within the entire power consumption.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a wireless communication system and a communication method, which are adaptable to slot diversity in order to improve wireless communication qualities in the TDMA-TDD system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Very recently, among wireless telephone apparatus for communicating voice signals in wireless manners, TDMA-TDD (time division multiplex access) type digital communication systems such as DECT system and PHS system have gradually constituted a major wireless telephone system from analog communication systems. In this TDMA-TDD system, for instance, while a frame having a constant time is equally subdivided into "N" pieces of slots (time slots), both a transmission signal and a reception signal are multiplexed in each of equally-divided time slots, and then, a multiplex communication operation is carried out between a mother appliance and a child appliance in a digital telephone system.
Also, in the IMS band, TDMA-TDD type communication apparatus have been developed and are operable in such a frequency hopping system for performing a communication operation while frequencies to be used are sequentially changed.
Preventing a deterioration of communication qualities, which is caused by wireless interference during wireless communications, may constitute an important aspect. Generally speaking, TDMA type communication apparatus using the frequency hopping system employ a so-called "channel swapping method" capable of suppressing an error occurrence caused by wireless interference. In the above-described channel swapping method, a portion of channels usable in a communication operation is set as a replace-purpose reserve channel, and then, a wireless communication is carried out under better wireless condition while the channels (frequencies) other than the reserve channel are switched in a predetermined sequence. When a wireless quality of a channel under use is deteriorated, such a notification that this deteriorated communication channel is replaced by the reserve channel is made with respect to a communication counter party, and the communication operation is continued.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei-7-28248 discloses the frequency diversity in the time division wireless communication system. That is, in this frequency diversity system, as to such a communication system (namely, frequency hopping system) that a plurality of frequencies are employed and communication operation is carried out while the frequencies are switched every slot within 1 frame, all of signals of the respective slots within 1 frame are made equal to each other, and the same signals are transmitted by changing the carrier frequencies in a temporal aspect. It should be noted that one of times which are segmented within 1 frame is refereed to as a "slot." Also, this disclosed technique may also be referred to as a "slot diversity technique", because not only the frequencies are changed, but also the same signals are transmitted by employing a plurality of slots within 1 frame.
On the other hand, in a wireless communication system which is arranged by a mother appliance operated by a commercial power supply and a child appliance which is connected to this mother appliance in a wireless manner and is driven by a battery, when a slot diversity control operation is carried, since large power consumption is required, there is such a problem that a portability of the child appliance is deteriorated due to lowering of communication time. In the above-explained slot diversity control operation, in order to improve a wireless communication quality, wireless signals which have been modulated by the same transmission data are transmitted in two, or more slots within the same frame from one communication apparatus, whereas the other communication apparatus receives the wireless signals of these plural slots, and then reproduces such a wireless signal having a better communication quality. Also, even under better electromagnetic wave environment, since the above-explained slot diversity control operation is carried out, unnecessary electric power is consumed.

Wireless communication system and communication method


An electromagnetically driven transport device 1 includes a transport unit 4 for transporting an article M to be transported, an electromagnetically driven vibrating unit 2 for vibrating the transport unit 1 to transport the article, a frequency controlling unit 14, a time detecting unit 15 and a frequency setting unit 16. The frequency controlling unit 14 controls a driving frequency of a driving power source 13 of the vibrating unit 2. The time detecting unit 15 detects a time length T during which when the driving frequency is changed the driving current of the vibrating unit at each of frequency exceeds a reference current value. The frequency setting unit 16 is operable to set an actual driving frequency based on the time length T detected by the time detecting unit 15.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetically driven transport device for electromagnetically vibrating a transport unit to transport an article to be transported, and a weighing apparatus utilizing such transport device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The transport device of the kind referred to above is so designed and so configured that the transport unit such as, for example, a trough for the support thereon of articles to be transported is mounted on a support base through a bracket that can be vibrated forwards and rearwards by an electromagnet to thereby transport the articles successively. In such case, in order to achieve an efficient transport of the articles, the driving frequency of an electric power source for driving the electromagnet is chosen to be equal to the natural frequency of the transport device.
Methods hitherto known to coordinate the driving frequency with the natural frequency of the transport device includes the use of an inverter for variably setting the driving frequency so that the driving frequency at which the electric power supplied can be maximized is used to actually drive the electromagnet to achieve the transport such as disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Patent No. 2,770,295 (JPA3-223014); and the use of an inverter for variably setting the driving frequency so that the driving frequency at which the current can be maximized can be determined automatically at which the transport device is driven to achieve the transport of the articles such as disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 7-060188.
It has, however, been found that with the transport device that is driven to effect the actual transport at the driving frequency at which the electric power supplied can be maximized, a detecting circuit for detecting a voltage and a current is needed for calculation of the electric power and the transport device is accordingly complicated in structure. On the other hand, with the transport device that is driven at the driving frequency that is automatically determined at which the electric current can be maximized requires the use of a calculating unit and a storage unit of a correspondingly large capacity for detecting the electric current at all times and then to calculate the maximum value of the electric current and the transport device is therefore complicated in structure and high in cost.
The present invention has therefore been devised to substantially eliminate the above discussed problems and inconveniences and is intended to provide a simple and low-cost, electromagnetically driven transport device capable of achieving an efficient transport and, also, a weighing apparatus utilizing at least one such electromagnetically driven transport device.
In order to accomplish the foregoing object, the present invention provides an electromagnetically driven transport device which includes a transport unit for transporting an article to be transported; an electromagnetically driven vibrating unit for vibrating the transport unit to transport the article; a control unit for controlling a driving frequency of a driving power source of the vibrating unit; a time detecting unit for detecting a time length during which when the driving frequency is changed the driving current of the vibrating unit at each of frequency exceeds a reference current value; and a frequency setting unit for setting an actual driving frequency based on the time length detected by the time detecting unit.
According to the present invention, when the driving frequency of the driving power source of the vibrating unit is varied by the control unit, the time detecting unit detects the time length during which the driving current of the vibrating unit at each of the frequencies exceeds the reference current value and the frequency setting unit sets the actual driving frequency based on the time length so detected. Accordingly, with no need to use any detecting circuit for detecting a voltage or a current, any calculating unit and any storage unit of a large capacity, the transport unit can be vibrated at the driving frequency close to the natural frequency of the transport device and, therefore, it is possible to achieve an efficient transport drive with a simplified and low-cost structure.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the time detecting unit may include an element that is activated when the driving current exceeds the reference current value, and is operable to detect the time length depending on an operating condition of such element. Alternatively, the time detecting unit may include a voltage comparator for comparing a voltage corresponding to the driving current with a voltage corresponding to the reference current value for outputting an output signal, so that the time length can be detected in dependence on a condition of the output signal from the voltage comparator. With this configuration, the time detecting unit can have a simple and low-cost structure to achieve an efficient transport drive.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the electromagnetically driven transport device may further include a memory for storing a reference current value and a detecting means for detecting a current value of the driving current, and the time detecting unit is operable to detect the time length based on the detected current value and the reference current value.
According to this configuration, since the reference current value appropriate to a particular kind of the article to be transported and/or a particular type of the transport unit can be read out from the storage unit and be then used, it is possible to achieve an efficient transport drive appropriate to various modes of operation of the transport device.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the frequency setting unit may set the actual driving frequency based on change of the time length. Accordingly, even though the time length represents various values, the actual driving frequency appropriate to such change of the time length can be set.
In a still further preferred embodiment of the present invention, detection performed by the time detecting unit is carried out during a trial run of the transport device and drive of the transport device at the actual driving frequency so set is carried out during an actual run of the transport device. In such case, from the very beginning of the actual run, the transport of the articles can be efficiently performed with the transport device driven at the proper actual driving frequency.
The present invention also provides a weighing apparatus which includes a plurality of electromagnetically driven transport devices each being of the structure as discussed above and a weighing unit for weighing an article transported by each of the electromagnetically driven transport device. In this weighing apparatus, the actual driving frequency for each of the electromagnetically driven transport devices is preferably individually set by the frequency setting unit.
With this weighing apparatus, since for each of the transport devices employed therein the transport unit can be vibrated at the actual driving frequency about equal to the natural frequency of the transport device, it is possible to achieve an efficient transport drive.

Electromagnetically driven transport device and weighing apparatus using the same


A weft processing apparatus includes a weft releasing device for releasing or detaching a leading end of a weft from the peripheral surface of a weft cheese, a fluid jetting device for moving the released weft leading end to a weft introducing port of a weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus, and a guide device for guiding the weft leading end and the jetted fluid stream. The weft releasing device is in the form of a blow nozzle device or a suction pipe. In the former case, the blow nozzle device serves also as the fluid jetting device. The suction pipe has an intake port provided with a holding member such as a net or brush for temporarily holding the weft in a congregated state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weft processing apparatus for guiding the leading end of a weft fed from a weft supply source in the form of a cheese to a weft winding type weft length-sizing and reserving apparatus when a weft feed failure such as breakage of the weft occurs between the weft cheese and the weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus or when a weft of a new cheese is to be used upon exhaustion of the weft cheese used till then.
2. Prior Art
A weft processing apparatus of the type mentioned above is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 264949/1988 (JP-A-63-264949). In the disclosed apparatus, a suction guide tube of a conical configuration is set at a suction position in the vicinity of the peripheral surface of a weft cheese for drawing out by suction the leading end of a weft from the weft cheese and is then displaced to a stand-by position far away from the weft cheese, wherein the leading end of the weft being held under suction is inserted into an introducing port of the winding type weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus. The leading end of the weft sucked by the suction guide tube and positioned at the introducing port is then inserted into the introducing port under the sucking action thereof to be thereby threaded into and through the weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus. In this manner, the suction guide tube is changed over between the sucking position where it encloses the weft cheese and the stand-by position far away from the weft cheese.
Since the prior art apparatus is of such a structure that the drawing-out of the leading end of the weft from the cheese and the introduction of the weft drawn out to the introducing port of the weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus are performed by using one and the same suction guide tube, the latter is restricted in respect to the configuration size and the location for installation and thus suffers from a problem that the freedom in design is seriously limited. For example, the sucking position of the suction guide tube has to be set so as to match with the full bobbin weft cheese. Consequently, when failure occurs in the course of feeding a weft under the condition that the diameter of the weft cheese has been decreased smaller than that of the full bobbin cheese, the sucking position of the suction guide tube will no longer be optimal for the weft cheese of concern. As a result, the sucking action of the suction guide tube becomes lowered particularly when the weft cheese has been reduced in the diameter, giving rise to the unwanted possibility that the drawing-out of the leading end of the weft from the weft cheese results in failure. Also, the structure of the apparatus is inevitably more complicated because of the necessity for moving the suction guide tube toward the weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus in order to introduce the weft leading end into the introducing port of the weft length-measuring and reserving apparatus.
Further, it is noted that the leading end of the weft sucked by the suction guide tube lies in a linear form. In this conjunction, it is clear that the area presented by the weft of a linear form and subjected to the action of a transporting air flow such as suction or blowing is very small. Consequently, displacement of the linear weft to another place or location under the action of the transporting air flow lacks in reliability.

Weft processing and releasing apparatus in a jet loom

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho


A medical blood-treating apparatus for the extra-corporeal treatment of blood has an extra-corporeal blood circuit. An arrangement for the extra-corporeal treatment of blood and an arrangement for electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) with which muscles of the patient can be stimulated in a targeted fashion during the dialysis treatment are provided. For this purpose, the arrangement for EMS has a means of generating electrical pulses, and has one or more electrodes connected to the means of generating electrical pulses. To enable targeted stimulation, the electrodes are applied to the patient's skin, e.g., the legs, during the blood treatment. Muscle stimulation during blood treatment may result in the dialysis treatment being more tolerable for the patient and increase the efficiency of the blood treatment. The blood-treating apparatus according to the invention allows an improvement in the efficiency of the blood treatment without any active sporting activity or exercise by the patient.

In the event of chronic kidney failure, various methods for the extra-corporeal treatment or cleansing of the blood are used to remove substances which are normally eliminated in the urine and for the purpose of therapeutic dehydration. In haemodialysis, the patient's blood is cleansed outside the body in a dialyzer. The dialyzer has a blood chamber and a dialysis-fluid chamber, which chambers are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. During the treatment, the patient's blood flows through the blood chamber, with dialysis fluid flowing through the dialysis-fluid chamber of the dialyzer to cleanse the blood of substances which are normally eliminated in the urine.
Whereas in hemodialysis (HD), the transport of the substances of lower molecular weight through the membrane of the dialyzer is determined in essence by the differences in concentration between the dialysis fluid and the blood (diffusion), in hemofiltration (HF), substances dissolved in the plasma, and particularly substances of higher molecular weight, are removed effectively by a high flow of liquid through the membrane of the dialyzer (convection). In hemofiltration the dialyser acts as a filter. A combination of the two methods is called hemodiafiltration (HDF).
In the extra-corporeal treatment of blood, such as hemodialysis for example, the following problems arise. During the dialysis, it is essentially only the patients' blood which is cleansed but not the cellular and intra-cellular compartments. Because the transport of the toxins dissolved in water into the blood takes place only very slowly, better results are obtained from a dialysis treatment extending over quite a long period of time than from a short dialysis. Because of the effective cleansing of the blood and the poor cleansing of the cellular and intra-cellular compartments, high concentration gradients arise. What therefore occurs immediately after the dialysis is a balancing of the concentrations of the toxins between the compartments and the blood, an occurrence which is referred to as a rebound. The rebound places a considerable stress on the patient's circulation. In certain cases, the rebound may even result in circulatory failure after dialysis. A further problem arises from the fact that the dialysis treatment has to be carried out in a sitting or lying position, because the patient's radius of action is restricted by the dialysis machine. Physical immobility however causes an inhibition of blood flow to the peripheral parts of the body, and particularly the legs, for which reason the blood is less well cleansed in these parts.
In the specialized field of dialysis, it is widely known that regular sporting activity by the patient has a beneficial effect on the dialysis treatment (Nephron 42: 311-316 (1986) Exercise Training Reduces Coronary Risk and Effectively Rehabilitates Hemodialysis Patients, Andrew P. Goldberg et al.).
It is also known that the efficiency of dialysis treatment can be significantly increased if the patient indulges in active physical activity during the dialysis treatment. The so-called rebound effects can also be reduced in this way. It is known that physical activity by the patient during the dialysis treatment results in improved blood circulation in the body, which means that the flow of blood is better through areas in which it is only weak, by which means the cleansing of the blood is improved. What is seen with physical activity during the dialysis is not only a slight rise in pulse rate and blood pressure but also improved metabolic exchange between the compartments and an increase in clearance, which is equivalent to dialysis treatment of longer duration. What is also seen is a reduction in the rebound of urea, creatinine and potassium (Nephron 43: 87-92 (1986), Effects of Exercise Training during Hemodialyses, Patricia L. Painter et al.; Nephrol Dial Transplant (1999) 14: 2927-2931, The effect of exercise during haemodialysis on solute removal, Chiew H. Kong et al.).
Also known as measures which stimulate the circulation and encourage blood flow are massages particularly of the patient's legs, although these are found to be labor-intensive and cost-intensive. Also, the results from massages are difficult to repeat.
The studies of the effect of sporting activity on the results of dialysis treatments were carried out on patients whose physical fitness was sufficiently good. However, because of the high average age of dialysis patients, which is approximately 67 years, the physical fitness of many such patients is no longer adequate for them to themselves actively perform sporting exercises during the dialysis treatment. Attention must also be paid to the fact that, when there are movements by the patient, the venous and/or the arterial needle may accidentally be disconnected during the dialysis. Therefore, any sporting activity by the dialysis patient during dialysis treatment requires closer monitoring, in which case the requirements which the technical safety precautions for quickly detecting the disconnection of a needle need to meet have to be made more stringent, which likewise involves higher costs.
In the field of sports medicine, it is known for the fitness of sportsmen and athletes to be increased by what is termed electrical muscle stimulation, also referred to as EMS. In this, the targeted electrical stimulation of the muscles is used not only for training but also for warming up, relaxing and accelerated regeneration. It is also known for electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) to be used for therapeutic measures.
US 2005/0131489 A1 for example describes the use of electrical muscle stimulation for preventing venous thromboses in immobile patients, such as in intensive care units, for example. An arrangement for muscle stimulation for the same application is also known from WO 03/063960 A2.
The object underlying the invention is to provide a medical blood-treating apparatus which allows blood to be treated extra-corporeally with greater efficiency. A further object of the invention is to specify a method for treating blood extra-corporeally with greater efficiency. It is also an object of the invention to provide an arrangement for the extra-corporeal treatment of blood for use with an arrangement for electrical muscle stimulation, and an arrangement for electrical muscle stimulation for use with an arrangement for the extra-corporeal treatment of blood, with which arrangements the efficiency of the extra-corporeal treatment of the blood can be increased.

Medical blood-treating apparatus for the extra-corporeal treatment of blood


A paintbrush holder assembly affixes a standard paintbrush to a holder that in turn engages an extension rod. The holder includes a hollow tubular shaft with a circular cross section that includes a first end, a middle portion and a second end. Three or more semi-circular fasteners attach to the middle portion of the tubular shaft via flex points. One fastener includes a lock pin to engage a locking shaft. The locking shaft has an “L” shaped lock track having a sufficient size and dimension to fit about the tubular shaft and capable of sliding from the second end to a point proximate the first end. The extension rod connects to the holder via male threads which secure to female threads located at the second end of the tubular shaft.

When painting a residential or commercial facility, there are typically three types of paint systems used to affix paint to a surface. The first is a spray system that allows high velocity particulates of paint to be applied to the surface. The second system is a roller system that allows the paint to be rolled upon a large surface area. The third means for paining a surface is through a paintbrush, which is typically used in small finite areas such as proximate windows, moldings and related wall fixtures.
While a paintbrush is often preferred for difficult and small areas, one drawback occurs when such area is in a high elevation or remains difficult to reach without use of a ladder or scaffolding. One way to address this problem is by affixing the paintbrush to an extension rod. There exist a few antiquated designs that address a fastener for a paintbrush, all of which include multiple limitations and drawbacks.
One such example is Design Pat. No. D263,677 entitled "Paint Brush Extension Clamp" by Charles A. Clark which issued on Apr. 6, 1982. Under the Clark system, the clamp includes a first plate and a corresponding second plate in parallel relation with the first. Both plates are compressed by a series of four screws so as to engage the paintbrush. While the system allows the benefit of providing a variety of angled positions for the paintbrush, it is also susceptible to slippage. Moreover, there such assembly requires a large degree of time so as to engage the four screws about the paintbrush.
A second example of a prior art paint brush holder is U.S. Design Pat. No. D456,147 entitled "Extendable Universal Paint Brush Holder," issued to Charles Anderson on Apr. 30, 2002. The Anderson system includes a "U" shaped flexible holder having a first fastener and a corresponding second fastener—both in parallel relationship to each other. Both parallel members may engage a paint brush through twisting a single screw which reduces the spacing between both parallel fasteners. Again, this design requires time necessary to twist the screw, and likewise risks dislodging the paintbrush.
Others patents suggest use of a screw based system to engage the paintbrush to an extension rod. Take, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,657 entitled "Applicator having an Extension," issued to Andrew Hamilton on Aug. 15, 2000. However, such screw-based systems have many drawbacks, including the fact that the user may have to be non-standard (and likely more expensive) paint brushes.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art of paint brush extension fasteners for a device that allows use of standard paintbrushes but allows the quick and efficient ability to engage the off-the-shelf paintbrush without the need, time or annoyance of screwing varying fasteners in place.


A test system that enables real-time interactive debugging of a device under test (DUT) using native customer code. A translation module may format, in real time, debug commands, corresponding to a user input, into a format recognizable by instruments in a tester. The user input may be a test program or test instructions written in a high-level programming language. The translation module may translate the user's debug commands into lower-level test instrument commands, based on which the tester may apply control signals to a processor in the DUT to test subsystems of the DUT. A result of the test may be provided to the translation module, which may, in real time, format another debug command, or provide an indication of the result to the user. The translation module may thus enable a user to step-through and modify native customer code in an interactive manner to debug a DUT.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to testing of electronic systems, such as system-on-chip semiconductor devices.
2. Related Art
Automatic test equipment (referred to generally as a "tester") is known for testing many types of electronic devices under test (DUTs). For example, testers for test printed circuit boards and semiconductor devices are known.
In some scenarios, testers are used during manufacture of the electronic devices. In this capacity, the testers are used to identify defects such that the results of testing can be used to impact the manufacture of a DUT by conditioning certain operations on the results of testing. For example, manufacturing steps that result in the device being packaged and shipped to a customer are typically performed only if testing on a device indicates that the device is working properly. If such tests indicate that the device is not working properly, the device is often diverted such that different operations to rework or scrap the device are performed.
Testers are typically configured to run test scenarios that emulate various real-world conditions that a DUT might experience in operation. Each test scenario, for example, may have a sequence of steps that activate or utilize different portions of the DUT that are involved in a particular usage scenario. The collection of test scenarios may be selected to ascertain whether all portions of the DUT have been manufactured correctly.
The tester may implement such test scenarios by executing one or more test programs. The test programs specify operations to be performed by the tester to generate stimulus signals and measure responses for comparison to a response expected from a properly operating device. Execution of a test program may entail application of a "test pattern" to control the circuitry that generates or measures digital signals at numerous test points connected to a DUT. The test pattern is a fixed binary data set indicating, for each of multiple successive tester cycles, whether an instrument in the tester is to generate or measure a test signal. The pattern may also indicate other information about the test signals, such as their digital values.
Testers are also used while a product device is being developed—test chip to validate specific product features. During development, a design engineer may use a tester to execute test programs. These test programs are designed to exercise portions of the DUT, and are often written to surface design flaws in the DUT. Test programs created for this purpose may be limited to testing small portions of the DUT at a time.
Often, the development process is iterative, with an engineer, whether developing the DUT or the test program creating a test program and then loading that test program into a tester. The test program may be executed with a DUT connected to the tester. Based on the results of executing the test program, changes may be made to the design of the DUT. Though, changes to the test program may also result. Changes may be made, for example, to address initial flaws in the test program or as part of an incremental design approach in which, once portions of the test program or DUT are validated, other portions that interact with those portions may be added.
As the test program is changed, it may be reloaded into the tester and further iterations of the process of executing the test program, evaluating the results, and modifying the test program may be performed. These iterations can be compounded if, during testing, a problem with the design of the DUT is identified, requiring changes to the design.
A test system might also be used after a device has been manufactured. For example, if multiple devices that have been manufactured and put into use are experience similar defects, a manufacturer of the device may want to test samples to determine whether the failures are related to a latent defect in the design or systemic defects in the manufacture of the devices. Such testing may also be performed by developing a test program, possibly iteratively, to identify the source of the defects.

Debugging in a semiconductor device test environment


A heat exchanger with two concentrically disposed corrugated tubes nested one within the other for the flow of two separated fluids through the exchanger. Each tube has convolutions, and fluid openings or passageways exist for directing flow completely through each convolution of each tube for optimum heat exchange. Endplates are provided on the exchanger for assembly, and also for ease of repair and cleaning of the exchanger. The arrangement of the convolutions and openings is such that a cardioid flow pattern is obtained for the maximum efficiency of heat exchange.

The prior art is already aware of heat exchangers utilizing corrugated tubes for the heat transfer members which contain and conduct the flow of fluid relative thereto. Examples of heat exchangers with only one corrugated tube incorporated therein are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,270,601 and 4,437,513.
As mentioned, the present invention utilizes two corrugated tubes disposed on a common axis, and examples of the prior art of that general concept are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,576,309 and 3,934,618.
In all of the aforementioned examples, the fluids flow separately and independently in each respective tube. In the present invention, the two fluids flow in the required separated paths, but they both flow in contact with each of the corrugated tubes. In fact, one of the fluids flows from the interior of one tube to the exterior of the other tube, and the other fluid flows from the exterior of one tube to the interior of the other tube. In this manner, optimum heat transfer is obtained since there is the desirable function of maximum turbulence in the flow of the fluids through the exchanger, and thus there is maximum contact of the fluids with the walls of the tubes where heat transfer is taking place.
Accordingly, the present invention improves the heat transfer between the fluids, and it also improves the fluid contacting the surface of the transfer material itself which is separating the fluids from each other, and thereby optimum heat transfer efficiency is attained.
Still further, the present invention provides the corrugated type of heat exchanger and wherein there is only minimal opportunity for leakage of the fluids from the exchanger or from one fluid passageway to the other fluid passageway within the exchanger. That is, the heat exchange surfaces themselves are of one continuous tube, and the ends of the tubes are sufficiently sealed with regard to the exchanger headers to thereby minimize the possibilities of fluid leakage within the exchanger.
Still further, the exchanger of the present invention provide for the flow of fluids in an extended path of flow through the exchanger, and that path being a serpentine path so that there is maximum contact of the fluid with the exchanger heat transfer surfaces, at least for a given total length of the exchanger itself. This is accomplished by having the fluid flow in the pattern of the corrugations itself, rather than directly past the corrugations and not into the outer radial extents defined by the corrugations of the heat exchanger tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,573 shows a heat exchanger which is simply of a straight tubular construction, rather than corrugated tubes, and it has a flow path which causes the fluids to circulate within the exchanger in a reverse pattern of flow, rather than moving directly through the exchanger. However, that arrangement is not with regard to corrugated tubes which direct the flow between the interior and exterior of the two corrugated tubes and which direct the flow into all regions of the convolutions of the corrugations themselves, as in the present invention.
In the present invention, the fluids may be either liquid or gas, including steam and air, and the two fluids flowing through the exchanger may be in any combination of liquid and gas in their respective two paths and within the confinement of the respective corrugated tubes. Still further, the exchanger of the present invention provides a construction which lends itself to easy and ready disassembly for cleaning, inspection, and the like.
Also, the exchanger of this invention accomplishes the afore mentioned, particularly with regard to presenting optimum serpentine flow and maximum heat exchanger surface area, and does so with a construction which is sturdy and is arranged to withstand internal and external fluid pressures without damage to the tubes or convolutions thereof. That is, the external pressures on the convolutions will not cause the convolutions to distort or further collapse, since the radius at the tips of the convolutions is such that the radial tips structurally support the planar portions intermediate the radial tips and thereby preclude collapse of the convolutions which are subjected to high fluid pressures. Further, for optimum heat exchange efficiency, the flow pattern of the fluid relative to both of the tubes and their respective convolutions is in a cardioid pattern which thereby divides the flow into two directions and thus results in the optimum heat exchange efficiency.


A small directional coupler includes a main line and a subline having a sufficient self-inductance value and achieving a very small insertion loss. A main-line conductor pattern and a subline conductor pattern are formed on the top surface of an insulating substrate by a method using photolithographic technologies. The main-line conductor pattern and the subline conductor pattern are formed in a spiral shape and so as to extend substantially parallel to each other. In order for the self-inductance value of the main line to be lower than the self-inductance value of the subline, the line width of the subline conductor pattern is narrower than the line width of the main-line conductor pattern. More specifically, it is preferable that the line width of the conductor pattern for a subline be about 50% to about 90% of the line width of the main-line conductor pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a directional coupler and, more particularly, to a directional coupler for use in a mobile communication device or other suitable electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Directional couplers in which two xcex/4 lines are arranged in parallel on a ceramic substrate, and in which both ends of the respective lines (a main line and a subline) are connected to external electrodes, are known. However, as the size of the directional coupler becomes smaller, the pattern formation area of the ceramic substrate must become smaller. As a result, it becomes difficult to form two parallel linear lines in this reduced area. For this reason, mechanisms in which the lines have a meandering shape or a spiral shape and in which the lines are formed within a small pattern formation area have been adopted. In particular, a similar self-inductance value can be obtained with a spiral-shaped line having a shorter line length than with a linear line.
As a construction in which a main line and a subline are combined, there is what is commonly called a xe2x80x9cside-edge-type constructionxe2x80x9d in which, as described above, a main line and a subline are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other on the same plane (the same layer). Alternatively, there is what is commonly called a xe2x80x9cbroadside-type constructionxe2x80x9d in which a main line and a subline are arranged with an insulating layer provided therebetween.
However, as the directional coupler becomes increasingly smaller, the pattern formation area is further reduced. Therefore, it becomes difficult to form a main line and a subline having the necessary self-inductance value within such a small area. In particular, when the subline cannot achieve a sufficient self-inductance value, a problem arises in that the isolation of the directional coupler becomes poor.
Furthermore, even if the line width of a main line and a subline is decreased simply to obtain the necessary self-inductance value, the resistance value of the line is caused to increase, resulting in an increase in the transmission loss of a signal. Since this causes an increase in the power consumption, this is a problem with regard to a mobile communication device, particularly, a battery-driven communication device, which problem cannot be ignored.
In order to overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a small directional coupler in which a main line and a subline have a sufficient self-inductance value and in which insertion loss is very small.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a directional coupler includes a main line through which a high-frequency signal is transmitted, and a subline, provided on the same plane as the main line, which is electromagnetically coupled to the main line at a portion where the main line and the subline oppose each other, wherein the self-inductance value of the main line is smaller than the self-inductance value of the subline.
Here, as a construction in which the self-inductance value of the main line is lower than the self-inductance value of the subline, for example, the line width of the subline is narrower than that of the main line. More specifically, the line width of the subline is preferably about 50% to about 90% of the line width of the main line.
With the above-described unique construction, for the subline requiring a large self-inductance value, a large self-inductance value is secured by making the line width relatively narrow. In contrast, for the main line which does not require a large self-inductance value in comparison with the subline, the resistance value of the line can be minimized by making the line width relatively wide. At this time, by setting the electrode thickness of the main line to about 5 xcexcm or more and by setting the ratio of the electrode thickness of the main line to that of the subline at about 2:1, the combined resistance value of the main line and the subline is decreased further, and transmission loss of a signal can be reduced.
Furthermore, as a result of multilayering the main line and the subline arranged on the same plane with an insulating layer provided therebetween and electrically connecting the main lines of each layer and the sublines of each layer in series through via holes provided in the insulating layers, respectively, a directional coupler of a multilayered structure can be obtained. For this directional coupler, since the line length of each of the main line and the subline can be lengthened, a higher degree of coupling can be obtained at high-frequency bands, and a sufficient degree of coupling can be obtained also at low-frequency bands.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a directional coupler includes a main line through which a high-frequency signal is transmitted, and a subline that is multilayered with the main line with an insulating layer provided therebetween, the subline being electromagnetically coupled to the main line along a portion where the main line and subline oppose each other, wherein the line width of the subline is narrower than the line width of the main line, and the self-inductance value of the main line is smaller than the self-inductance value of the subline.
Here, preferably, a grounding electrode opposes at least one of the lines of the main line and the subline with an insulating layer provided therebetween. As a result, a directional coupler of what is commonly called a xe2x80x9cbroadside-type constructionxe2x80x9d is obtained.
According to various preferred embodiments of the present invention, since the main line and the subline are electromagnetically coupled to each other along a portion where the main line and subline oppose each other on the same plane and since the self-inductance value of the main line is lower than the self-inductance value of the subline, a high degree of isolation is obtained, and insertion loss is greatly decreased. In particular, by setting the line width of the subline at about 50% to about 90% of the line width of the main line, a high degree of isolation is achieved also in the main line and the subline provided in a small pattern formation area, and characteristics can be improved without increasing the size of the directional coupler.
Furthermore, in the directional coupler of what is commonly called a xe2x80x9cbroadside-type constructionxe2x80x9d, by setting the line width of the subline to be narrower than the line width of the main line and by decreasing the self-inductance value of the main line to be less than the self-inductance value of the subline, a small directional coupler in which a main line and a subline have a sufficient self-inductance value and insertion loss is small can be obtained.
Other features, elements, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.