A bell device includes a securing device attached to a bell member, a seat rotatably secured to the securing device with a shaft and rotatable relative to the securing device about the shaft, and a resilient member having one end secured to the seat and a clapper secured to the other end. An actuator rod may rotate the seat relative to the securing device, to actuate the clapper to strike against the bell member and to make sounds, without moving the bell member. A spring member may bias the seat to disengage the clapper from the bell member. The clapper may be caused to strike against the bell member when shaking or moving the bell member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bell assembly, and more particularly to a bell assembly including an actuatable clapper for striking bell body without moving or shaking the bell body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical bells comprise a bell body, and a jinglet, sounder, hammer, tongue, striker or clapper disposed in the bell body, and movable to strike against the bell body, in order to make various sounds. Normally, the bell body is required to be moved, shaken, vibrated, or oscillated by the users, in order to make the sounds.
For example, U.S. Patent No. 1,349,694 to Roy discloses one of the typical bells that comprise a striker or clapper disposed in the bell body, for striking against the bell body to make various sounds. The bell body should also be shaken or oscillated by the users, in order to make the sounds.
The typical clock towers or bell towers may comprise one or more huge bells each having a striker or clapper disposed in the bell body, and a huge and/or complicated actuating device may be provided to rotate or to oscillate the bell body, for allowing the clapper to strike against the bell body, in order to make various sounds. The actuating device normally comprises a complicated configuration that may not be easily manufactured and installed in the bell towers.
For the huge bells of the other typical clock towers or bell towers, a huge and/or complicated actuating device may be provided to move or to oscillate the clapper, to force the clapper to strike against the bell body, in order to make various sounds. The actuating device normally also comprises a complicated configuration that may not be easily manufactured and installed in the bell towers. The huge bells of the typical bell towers may not be moved or shook by the users.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional bell assemblies.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a bell assembly including an actuatable clapper for striking onto the bell body without moving or shaking the bell body, and allowable to strike onto the bell body by moving or oscillating or shaking the bell body.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a bell assembly comprising a bell member, a securing device attached to the bell member, a seat rotatably secured to the securing device with a shaft, and rotatable relative to the securing device about the shaft, a resilient member including a first end secured to the seat, and including a second end, a clapper secured to the second end of the resilient member, means for rotating the seat relative to the securing device, to actuate the clapper to strike against the bell member, and to make sounds, without moving the bell member, and means for biasing the seat to engage with the securing device, and to disengage the clapper from the bell member. The clapper is allowed to strike against the bell member when shaking the bell member by users.
The bell member includes an aperture formed therein, the securing device includes a panel engaged with the bell member and a conduit extended from the panel and engaged through the aperture of the bell member, to secure the securing device to the bell member. The securing device includes at least one ear extended from the panel thereof and having a hole formed in the ear, to receive the shaft.
A housing is further provided and includes a plate having a barrel extended therefrom, the barrel includes a bore formed therein to receive the conduit, the panel of the securing device may force the bell member toward the plate of the housing, to secure the bell member in the housing.
The securing device includes a catch extended from the conduit, to engage with the barrel and to secure the conduit to the barrel. The barrel includes a peripheral shoulder formed therein to receive the catch of the securing device, and to lock the conduit to the barrel. The conduit of the securing device may include a slot formed therein to increase a resilience of the catch, and to allow said catch to detachably lock the conduit to the barrel.
The housing includes a first end having the plate provided thereon, and a second end having a peripheral skirt provided thereon, and at least one opening formed therein to form at least one bar therein, the bar is coupled between the plate and the peripheral skirt of the housing.
The housing includes at least one pad attached to the peripheral skirt to make a point-contact with supporting surfaces. The housing includes at least one projection extended from the plate thereof, and engaged with the bell member, to make a point-contact with the bell member.
A handle may further be provided and secured to the barrel of the housing, and moved in concert with the housing. The rotating means includes a rod slideably received in the handle and in the conduit of the securing device, and the rod includes an inner end engage able with the seat, to rotate the seat relative to the securing device against the biasing means when the rod is moved relative to the handle.
The conduit includes a bore formed therein, and a peripheral rib extended radically into the bore thereof, to engage with the rod, and to guide the rod to move axially along the conduit. The handle includes a bore formed therein to slideably receive the rod, and includes a peripheral flange extended into the bore thereof, to engage with the rod and to limit the rod to move relative to the handle.
The rod includes a knob secured thereto and extended out of the handle for being depressed by users. The rod includes a first end extendible out of the handle, and means for biasing the first end or the knob of the rod out of the handle, and to disengage the inner end of the rod from the seat.
The aperture of the bell member includes a non-circular cross section, the conduit includes a non-circular cross section to mate with the non-circular aperture of the bell member, and to prevent the securing device from rotating relative to the bell member.
Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.


A multi-quantum well structure with a large second order optical nonlinearity and transparent at short wavelengths of up to 350 nm. is described. Alternating insulator and semiconductor layers are grown on a substrate to form a multi-quantum well structure, such that the potential function for electrons in the semiconductor layers is asymmetric in a direction normal to the substrate. Sub-bands of electrons in the conduction band lead to a large optical nonlinearity with efficient second harmonics generation, and is obtained by an appropriate selection of the width and shape of the well. The structure, preferably packaged on the same substrate of a laser diode, is used as an on-chip source of blue light.

Semiconductor lasers are routinely used in the field of opto-electronics in such diverse areas as optical information processing, optical communication, laser processing, medical treatment and optical measurement. Although GaAs lasers with wavelengths of 780 nm-830 nm (i.e., near the infrared range) are most commonly used today, many applications in the optical industry require that the wavelength of coherent beams emitted by semiconductor lasers be even shorter. Research and development is being promoted to comply with this demand. By way of example, in the field of optical storage, shorter wavelengths are required to increase the storage density of an optical recording medium. For color display, blue is essential. In the field of laser printers, shorter wavelengths mean higher photon energy, which translates into making a relevant chemical reaction more efficient. Consequently, various attempts have been made to generate coherent blue light with wavelengths of 300 nm to 500 nm by combining a semiconductor laser that generates red or near infrared light with wavelengths of 600 nm to 1000 nm, and a wavelength converter that converts the fundamental light wave emitted from a semiconductor laser into light with shorter wavelengths. Such a wavelength converter typically utilizes a second-order optical nonlinearity (second-harmonic generation (or SHG), sum frequency generation, or difference frequency generation) in order to achieve an efficient conversion.
Examples of conventional wavelength converters include inorganic crystals such as KDP, ADP, and LiNbO.sub.3. However, such materials do not possess a sufficiently high nonlinearity. Furthermore, a relatively large crystal is necessary to perform wavelength conversion at high efficiency, with the result that it is difficult to reduce the size of the device.
Other examples of wavelength converters include a multi-quantum-well structure, as it is described by M. M. Fejer, S. J. B. Yoo, R. L. Byer, A Harwit, and J. S. Harris, Jr., Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1041 (1989), and by E. Rosenchef, P. Bois, J. Nagle, and S. DeLaitre, Electron. Lett., 25, 1063 (1989). Reported are the results of experiments in which a multi-quantum-well structure consisting of a GaAs layer and a GaAlAs layer disposed on the substrate is used for converting infrared light (with a wavelength of 10.6 .mu.m). These reports reveal that a multi-quantum-well structure (include the barrier layer and the well layer are made from a III-V compound) has a high nonlinearity. However, a problem exists in that a multi-quantum-well structure is not transparent to light for a wavelength shorter than infrared; it absorbs such a light, with the result that it cannot be used to shorten the wavelength of the coherent light emitted by the semiconductor laser. Moreover, transparency is required for visible light, including blue light, to generate blue light by a second-order optical effect.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention discloses a rotatable electrical plug. The rotatable electrical plug includes a housing, a first conductor, a second conductor, a third conductor, and a rotator. The first conductor, the second conductor, and the third conductor are provided in a first conductive region, a second conductive region, and a third conductive region in the housing respectively, wherein the projection regions of the first conductive region and the second conductive region in the normal direction of the housing are overlapped. Both of the first conductor and the second conductor are of a tubular form formed by a single metal sheet, and the first conductor, the second conductor, and the third conductor are electrically contacted to a first contactor, a second contactor, and a third conductor in the inner side of the rotator respectively. The volume of the rotatable electrical plug is greatly reduced so as to enhance the convenience.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a rotatable electrical plug, and more particularly, to a rotatable electrical plug having an effectively reduced size.
2. Description of Related Art
With development of the science and technologies, various domestic appliance products have become indispensable to the life, what accompanies this is massive demands for electric power. In order to supply electric power for these domestic appliance products, an electrical plug must be used to connect a receptacle to receive the power. Sometimes, the electrical plug must be inserted in different directions in order to adapt to the position of the receptacle, and this is likely to cause excessive rotation or bending of electrical wires and thus increases the probability of damaging the electrical wires.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,093 discloses a rotatable electrical plug, which has a rotary electrical connection device comprising a first set of conductors and a second set of conductors. The first set of conductors is contacted and connected with conductors of corresponding electrical wires, and the second set of conductors is contacted and connected with conductors of corresponding plug pins. Therefore, after the first set of conductors and the second set of conductors are electrically connected, the electrical wires and the plug pins can be electrically connected. Furthermore, when the electrical plug has two plug pins, the first set of conductors has two conductive pieces, and the two conductive pieces are both an annular metal sheet and must both surround a center of a housing of the electrical plug while being electrically isolated from each other. One of the conductive pieces is disposed as an inner ring, and the other of the conductive pieces is disposed as an outer ring.
If such a design is applied to an electrical plug having three plug pins, then the first set of conductors has three conductive pieces, with one of the conductive pieces being disposed as an innermost ring and the other two of the conductive pieces being disposed as a middle ring and an outermost ring. Because the number of the conductive pieces varies with the number of the plug pins and the conductive pieces are transversely arranged in the housing of the electrical plug in sequence, a too large transverse dimension of the electrical plug will be caused. When there is a need to apply the electrical plug of such a design to a receptacle sequence having more than two receptacles, a too large space will be occupied and adjacent receptacles will be blocked due to the too large transverse dimension of the electrical plug, which causes inconvenience in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,566,223 discloses an electrical connector having three tubular conductors which are vertically stacked in sequence. Although the aforesaid problem of the too large transverse dimension of the electrical plug is eliminated, there is a shortcoming that a longitudinal dimension of the electrical plug is too large, which is likely to cause inconvenience in storage. Moreover, when there is a need to plug this electrical plug into a receptacle behind a piece of furniture, the electrical plug may fail to extend to the behind of the furniture due to the too large thickness.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a perspective exploded view of a rotatable electrical plug of the prior art. China Utility Model No. 2,253,877 discloses a rotatable electrical plug 10, which uses two tabular conductors and one tubular conductor 13 simultaneously to reduce both the longitudinal dimension and the transverse dimension of the electrical plug 10. Moreover, the electrical plug 10 further uses a U-shaped metal annulus 11 and a U-shaped metal annulus 12 in place of the two tabular conductors to reduce the transverse dimension of the electrical plug 10. Although the transverse dimension of the electrical plug 10 can be slightly reduced by using the U-shaped metal annulus 11 and the U-shaped metal annulus 12 simultaneously, a spring (not shown) is still used thereunder to push the U-shaped metal annulus 11 and the U-shaped metal annulus 12 upwards to electrically connect with electrode ends 16 of plug pins 15. The upward elastic force will add to the difficulty in packaging of an upper housing 17 and a lower housing 18. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a rotatable electrical plug that allows to be packaged more conveniently and has a reduced volume.


A portable water-purifying means comprising an oblong pump room containing a hand pump therein and an oblong water-purifying room containing a water-purifying means therein and being equipped on its upper side with a water outlet in a casing equipped with a water inlet. The pump room and the water-purifying room are arranged in parallel to each other with a partition separating the two rooms, and these rooms communicate with each other through a passage arranged on their bottom sides. The water inlet and the passage are provided respectively with check valves which operates to limit flow of water to the direction from the inlet to the water-purifying room.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable water purifier.
2. Description of prior art
For purifying polluted water such as river water, lake water, and other water which is not suitable for drinking or cooking to obtain clear water for the use for drinking, cooking and the like, the water is generally supplied to a small-size tank containing active carbon or small stones for purification, and the purified water is then recovered from the outlet arranged on the bottom of the tank. Although such a conventional purifying device is of relatively small size, it is still too large for people to carry with them to outdoors where no water service is available.


Systems and methods for making ice utilize self-demolding ice molds. Responsive to freezing of water in the mold into ice, an ejection apparatus is compressed. Via a force arising from the compression, the ejection apparatus ejects the ice from the mold. Ice machines may utilize multiple molds, and water filling a first mold may be utilized to at least partially melt ice in a second mold to facilitate ejection of the ice from the second mold.

Often, automatic ice makers include electric heaters to facilitate release of the ice. However, these electric heaters consume significant energy. Alternatives include manual ice makers; however, these ice makers require the ice to be manually released from the ice mold. Accordingly, improved ice makers, ice molds, and methods of use thereof remain desirable.

Self-demolding ice mold and methods of use and automation

Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University


A comminution device comprises a plurality of first cutting elements having first serrated cutting edges disposed on a first circular path; a second cutting element having a second serrated cutting edge corresponding to the first serrated cutting edges for cutting through cutting material, the second cutting element being displaceable about an axis of rotation on a second circular path concentric with the first circular path. The second serrated cutting edge comprises a plurality of jags and each jag comprises a radially inner flank and a radially outer flank, each at an angle to the axis of rotation. A drive rotationally drives the second cutting element about the axis of rotation and an adjustment mechanism by which the plurality of first cutting elements and the second cutting element are displaceable relative to each other axially in the direction of the axis of rotation, that a cutting gap between them is adjustable.

A generic comminution device is known, for example, from EP 2 613 884 B1. Such cutting devices are used to comminute solids, solid masses, or liquids containing solids and are used in particular as a so-called wet comminutor, for example, in the food industry, in the preparation of bio-suspensions for further energetic use, or to prepare flowable mixtures mixed with solids in other agricultural uses and, in this case, to comminute the solids contained therein.
A further such cutting device is known from PCT/EP 2010/053800. In this prior art comminution device, the first and second cutting element are formed by a fixed, circular perforated disc on the one hand and a blade rotating around the central axis of the perforated disc, which blade abuts with a cutting edge on the surface of the perforated disc. The mass to be comminuted is pressed through the holes in the perforated disc, or flows through said holes and in this case, solids passing through the holes are comminuted by a shearing action between the blade edge and an edge delimiting the respective hole.
However, it has been shown that such comminutors are indeed well suited to provide a coarse comminution, and they have also been proven largely in practice, but there is a need for some processes to further comminute the material. This applies, for example, to materials that are difficult to ferment, such as long-fibre materials, manure, or grass silage. Although the known comminutors can cut the fibres, a comminution into very short fibre parts is generally not possible.
To address this problem, the present invention seeks to provide a comminution device of the type mentioned above, with which a fine comminution of difficult to ferment material, such as long-fibre material, manure, or grass silage, is effectively and efficiently possible.


An apparatus and method for the determination of the attitude of a remotely monitored device attached or non-attached to the body of a remotely monitored person is disclosed. The device attitude is determined by two tilt-over switches having pre-defined operating angles that operate in combination. Periodically, indication concerning the number degrees of inclination measured by two tilt-over switches is obtained and a device attitude monitoring calculation is performed based on the indications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for remote tracking and monitoring of persons and more particularly to attitude determination of a remotely monitored device which is periodically or permanently attached to the body of a monitored person.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Currently, remote tracking and monitoring of persons are achieved via the utilization of radio and cellular technologies. Typically, a body-worn electronic tag and an optional tracking, processing and reporting device that communicates with the electronic tag, are attached to the monitored person's body, where the tag or the associated tracking device is periodically or continuously broadcasts a radio signal to a local or remote monitoring station via a cellular site. The signal includes tracking information in encoded format where the information could contain one or more types of tracking data, such as location data, and/or device attitude data where the device is periodically or permanently attached to the body of the monitored person. Location data indicates the geographical location of the monitored device while attitude data indicates the position of the monitored device relative to a frame of reference, such as the vertical-horizontal axis. In accordance with the specific application, the apparatus could be adapted to handle different types of relevant tracking information. Thus, for example, a legally movement-restricted or location-restricted person, such as a convicted criminal offender under house arrest, could be monitored by the collection of both location data and attitude data in order to make sure that location-restriction or movement-restriction order is properly maintained
Location data could be determined either in accordance with the identification of the signaling path, through cellular or Global Positioning System satellites (GPS)-assisted triangulation techniques, or other location-finding techniques while device attitude data could be collected by specialized electromechanical devices such as inertial measurement devices, or tip-over switches.
Device attitude represents the position or the arrangement of either a non-attached or a body-attached device when situated in space relative to the vertical-horizontal axis frame. In remote personal tracking and monitoring systems a device attitude detector and indicator is an electromechanical apparatus that detects the attitude of a non-attached or body-attached device relative to a frame of reference, such as the vertical-horizontal axis, and informs the monitoring station of the detected attitude. The device attitude detector apparatus is typically used for detecting and indicating whether the non-attached monitored device or the body-attached device and therefore the body of the monitored person to which the device is attached is in a standing position (vertical) or in a lying down position (horizontal). The known instruments used for attitude detection are multi-axis motion sensors, such as traditional gyroscopes (gyros), inertial measurement units (IMUs) or solid-state miniature tri-axial gyroscopes. In some remote personal tracking and monitoring systems 3 degrees of freedom motion sensors are used to assist in determining if the unit is in motion. Determining whether the unit is in motion is important from a number of reasons. One of the reasons is to determine the location of the tracked individual through receiving GPS data associated with the individual location. Another reason is to conserve battery power by changing the GPS mode to a battery conserving mode if the individual is not in motion. There are number disadvantages in the above now used devices. One disadvantage lies in the sensitivity of such sensors, whereby each movement would trigger the device to determine that the individual being tracked is moving, while in fact, such individual has not moved at all. Another disadvantage lies in the fact that now used sensors, which do not comprise inertial detectors, are not likely to detect very slow movement. Thus, an offender may move around very slowly without activating the GPS and thus will be able to change his position without detection. As a result using these devices in human personal monitoring where the requirements for attitude information are considerably simpler is not cost effective and is too cumbersome. There is therefore a need in the art to provide a simple and cost effective mechanism which will be effective in determining when an individual being monitored using a GPS tracking and monitoring unit has moved from one location to another, while activating the unit's GPS only when necessary.

Apparatus and method for determining the attitude of a remotely monitored device


Exemplary semiconductor processing chambers may include a substrate support positioned within a processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The chamber may include a lid plate. The chamber may include a gasbox positioned between the lid plate and the substrate support. The gasbox may be characterized by a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. The gasbox may define a central aperture. The gasbox may define an annular channel in the first surface of the gasbox extending about the central aperture through the gasbox. The gasbox may include an annular cover extending across the annular channel defined in the first surface of the gasbox. The chamber may include a blocker plate positioned between the gasbox and the substrate support. The chamber may include a ferrite block positioned between the lid plate and the blocker plate.

Integrated circuits are made possible by processes which produce intricately patterned material layers on substrate surfaces. Producing patterned material on a substrate requires controlled methods for forming and removing material. Chamber components often deliver processing gases to a substrate for depositing films or removing materials. The processing gases may be plasma enhanced to increase the reactivity of the effluents produced. However, depending on aspects of the plasma enhancement, the materials may not deposit uniformly on the substrate.
Thus, there is a need for improved systems and methods that can be used to produce high quality devices and structures. These and other needs are addressed by the present technology.


Embodiments of present disclosure discloses system and method for managing applications in electronic device. Initially, relation tree associated with applications is identified. The relation tree is generated based on learning technique implemented for applications, parameters, enablers associated with electronic device. Based on identified relation tree, enablers are identified from plurality of enablers, corresponding to each of applications. Further, current status of parameters based on current status of enablers is retrieved. The relation tree is updated based on learning technique implemented for at least one of the current status of the parameters, new applications, new parameters, enablers associated with the electronic device. An application from the applications is identified based on the current status of the parameters and the relation tree. The electronic device is instructed to perform operations associated with the identified application.

Electronic devices include laptops, tablets, phablets, computers, smart phones, smart watches, smart televisions and the like, through which a user may be able to access one or more applications. Each of the one or more applications may be used to perform one or more operations. The one or more applications may include, but are not limited to, a chatting application, social networking application, chatting application, messaging application, music application, camera application and so on. The one or more operations may be performed based on inputs from the user associated with the corresponding electronic devices. Managing of the applications may be required to avoid performing undesired operations in the electronic devices. The undesired operation may be due to unauthorized inputs or unintentional inputs. In some scenarios, the undesired operations may be due to lack of monitoring of one or more attributes that may be associated with performance of the one or more operations.
Existing systems disclose to manage the one or more applications based on the inputs from the user at an instant of time. In the existing system, the one or more applications are managed based on the inputs and does not consider the historic data associated with the user. Also, the one or more attributes associated with the one or more applications may not be monitored for managing the one or more applications. In some existing system, the user may not be aware on why a particular operation is performed during managing of the one or more applications and the existing systems do not provide information associated the operation to the user.
The information disclosed in this background of the disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Method and system for managing applications in an electronic device


The present invention provides, among other things, methods and compositions for encoding a substrate for detecting and quantifying target nucleic acids.

The multiplexed detection of biomolecules plays an important role in clinical diagnostics, discovery, and basic science. This requires the ability to both encode substrates associated with specific biomolecule targets, and also to associate a detectable signal to the biomolecule target being quantified. For multiplexed assays, it is common to use functionalized substrates, planar or particle-based, to capture and quantify targets. In the case of particle-based multiplexed assays, each particle is functionalized with a probe that captures a specific target, and encoded for identification during analysis. In order to quantify the amount of target captured on a particle, a suitable labeling scheme is typically used to provide a measurable signal associated with the target. One class of molecules that is particularly challenging to quantify due to limitations with existing approaches to labeling is microRNA (miRNA).
miRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that mediate protein translation and are known to be dysregulated in diseases including diabetes, Alzheimer's, and cancer. With greater stability and predictive value than mRNA, this relatively small class of biomolecules has become increasingly important in disease diagnosis and prognosis. However, the sequence homology, wide range of abundance, and common secondary structures of miRNAs have complicated efforts to develop accurate, unbiased quantification techniques. Applications in the discovery and clinical fields require high-throughput processing, large coding libraries for multiplexed analysis, and the flexibility to develop custom assays. Microarray approaches provide high sensitivity and multiplexing capacity, but their low-throughput, complexity, and fixed design make them less than ideal for use in a clinical setting. PCR-based strategies suffer from similar throughput issues, require lengthy optimization for multiplexing, and are only semi-quantitative. Existing bead-based systems provide a high sample throughput (>100 samples per day), but with reduced sensitivity, dynamic range, and multiplexing capacities. Therefore, there is a need for improved methods for detecting and quantifying nucleic acids, such as, miRNA.
The multiplexed detection of miRNAs, or any other biomolecules requires the ability to encode a substrate associated with each. There are two broad classes of technologies used for multiplexing—planar arrays and suspension (particle-based) arrays, both of which have application-specific advantages. While planar arrays rely strictly on positional encoding, suspension arrays have utilized a great number of encoding schemes that can be classified as spectrometric, graphical, electronic, or physical.
Spectrometric encoding encompasses any scheme that relies on the use of specific wavelengths of light or radiation (including fluorophores, chromophores, photonic structures, or Raman tags) to identify a species. Fluorescence-encoded microbeads can be rapidly processed using conventional flow-cytometry (or on fiber-optic arrays), making them a popular platform for multiplexing. Most spectrometric encoding methods rely on the encapsulation of detectable entities for encoding, which can be very challenging depending on the substrate used. A more robust and generally-applicable encoding method is needed to enable rapid, universal encoding of substrates for multiplexed detection.

Nucleic acid detection and quantification by post-hybridization labeling and universal encoding


An information processing device configured to process moving image data includes a plurality of calculating units configured to transform a frame rate by subjecting two pieces of frame data to addition and subtraction; and a control unit configured to control the plurality of calculating units to subject each frame data of the moving image data to at least one of the addition and the subtraction by the number of times necessary for transforming the frame rate of the moving image data into a desired rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device and method, and a program, and particularly relates to an information processing device and method, and a program, whereby a moving image having a high frame rate can be readily subjected to variable playback.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing typical image compression systems include the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) system, the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) system, and so forth, which have been standardized by ISO (International Standards Organization).
Of the MPEG system, a system called MPEG-2 has been employed for compressing an HDTV (High Definition Television) interlaced moving image in BS (Broadcasting Satellite) digital broadcasting, which the Japanese public has become accustomed to. Also, contents to be recorded in a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) medium and sold are also compressed and encoded by this MPEG-2 system.
A TV (Television) signal is configured of images of 30 frames (60 fields) per one second, but it has been pointed out that with the number of images being of such a level, the reproducibility of a high-speed moving object is poor. Therefore, in recent years, the need of handling moving images with a frame rate several times thereof, for example, a moving image having a high frame rate of 120 frames per second to 240 frames per second, has been increasing.
However, increasing the frame rate several fold increases the data rate proportionately, so it becomes difficult to perform encoding processing on the fly (in real time) without delay, and particularly, there has been the possibility that realization of hardware, which can encode in real time with the MPEG system using inter frame compression, might turn out to be impractical due to problems such as cost.
In order to avoid such a problem, a method has been disclosed wherein a plurality of codecs of an intra encoding system are arrayed, and compression encoding is performed with time sharing (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-104694).
With Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-104694, in order to encode a moving image in high efficiency, such as 525/60 p (a progressive image of which the horizontal resolution is 525 lines, and the frame rate is 60 frames per second), 1080/60 p (a progressive image of which the horizontal resolution is 1080 lines, and the frame rate is 60 frames per second), and so forth, a technique has been disclosed wherein the sum signal and difference signal of image signals between frames are extracted every two frames, and each of the extracted signals is encoded, thereby controlling the ratio between the coding bit rate of the sum signal and the coding bit rate of the difference signal.

Information processing device and method, and program


The invention relates to a combination valve (15) for pressure control and venting in a fuel system for delivering fuel to an internal combustion engine. The valve comprises a primary valve cone (25), which is supported so that it is displaceable between two limit positions in a cylinder bore (24) in a valve housing (23), against the action of a first spring element (26). The displacement of the valve cone from an inoperative limit position into an operative limit position leads to the opening of a connection between an inlet duct (32) and an outlet duct (33) in the valve housing. The valve cone (25) is provided with an inner passage (27), which is designed to accommodate a secondary valve cone (28). This is displaceable between a support surface (29) and a valve seat (30) against the action of a second spring element (31) having a lower spring constant than the first spring element. A displacement of the secondary valve cone against the action of the second spring element (31) leads to the opening of a connection between the inlet duct (32) and a venting duct (34).

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a combination valve for pressure control and venting in a fuel system for delivering fuel to an internal combustion engine, comprising a primary valve cone, which is supported so that it is displaceable between two limit positions in a cylinder bore in a valve housing, against the action of a spring element, the displacement of the valve cone from an inoperative limit position into an operative limit position leading to the opening of a connection between an inlet duct and an outlet duct in the valve housing. The invention also relates to a fuel system for use of the combination valve.
2. Background
Fuel systems for diesel engines use relatively high working pressures. If air gets into the fuel system on the high-pressure side, it is not possible to maintain the required working pressure. Engine operating problems can also arise if the fuel has a high water content. Fuel systems for diesel engines are usually provided with venting screw and hand pump, which can be used to vent air and drain water from the fuel system. The method of removing air or water by means of venting screw and hand pump is time-consuming and awkward.
Fuel systems exist which have arrangements for automating the process of removing air or water, as disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,161. This patent describes a pump which can be driven in two directions by means of a microprocessor for use in removing water from a fuel system. However, this arrangement only facilitates the process of venting air from the fuel system, and further measures are required in order to remove air from the high-pressure side of the system. This arrangement means, therefore, that the number of fuel system components is increased without entirely solving the problem by facilitating the process of venting air.

Fuel system combination valve for an internal combustion engine and such a fuel system


Technology for creating a feature map for localizing a mobile robot and extracting feature information of surroundings is provided. According to one aspect, feature information including a reflection function is extracted from information acquired using a 3D distance sensor and used as a basis for creating a feature map. Thus, a feature map that is less sensitive to change in the surrounding environment can be created, and a success rate of feature matching can be increased.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to technology for extracting feature information from nearby objects and using the extracted feature information to create a feature map for localization of a mobile robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several maps are used in mobile robots depending on purpose of use, but grid maps and feature maps are used the most.
Grid maps are a type of map in which a grid of fixed size is used to reflect and store the position and shape of the surrounding environment and obstacles as they are. Grid maps are very intuitive and easy to work with but have the disadvantage of drastic increase in memory required as the robot's use space becomes larger.
In contrast, feature maps detect and store only required feature information about the surrounding environment and obstacles, such as location and color, and thus do not require much memory. However, it is relatively dependent on feature detection capabilities of a system.
In order to create a feature map, a method of installing a camera in the robot and using image information obtained from the camera to extract features of surrounding objects is often used.
However, in order to localize the robot, currently extracted features must match registered features, but the image information from the camera has a problem that it is not easy to compensate for image scaling, rotation and affine curvature due to variation in lighting and robot location. Consequently, matching capability is very limited.
Accordingly, there is need for a method of creating a feature map that is less sensitive to variation in the surrounding environment and extracts feature information more efficiently.

Apparatus and method for extracting feature information of object and apparatus and method for creating feature map


A multifunction device includes a look-up table generation portion for generating a look-up table in accordance with a profile of a print mechanism or an image read mechanism and a profile of an apparatus except for the multifunction device, a look-up table memory for storing the generated look-up table, and a color conversion portion for performing a process of color conversion for image data obtained by an input and output interface or the image read mechanism in accordance with the look-up table stored in the look-up table memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processor or the like for outputting a color image obtained by a scanner to a monitor or a printing apparatus, or outputting a color image displayed on a monitor to a printing apparatus appropriately.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a color image is outputted from a monitor and a printing apparatus in accordance with the same image data, it is difficult to get complete color matching between the color on the display screen and the color on the printed matter. In addition, it is also difficult to reproduce the completely same color as an original when obtaining an original color image by a scanner and outputting it from a monitor or a printing apparatus. Therefore, in order to reproduce a color that is as similar as possible, a color matching technique is proposed.
A standard of the color matching is defined by International Color Consortium (ICC) so as to promote standardization of the same. Thus, it has been inevitable for manufacturers to adapt apparatuses handling color data to the ICC standard. In general, color characteristic data of an apparatus that supports the ICC standard is called an "ICC profile". The ICC profile is represented by a look-up table (LUT) or table data for a matrix conversion, and this format is based on the ICC standard.
A designer of an apparatus can design the ICC profile freely within the ICC standard. The ICC standard has a flexibility and a high degree of freedom, so a designer can determine a lattice point pitch of LUT and a data bit length of each value rather freely, for example. Conventionally, in order to maintain the high flexibility of the ICC standard in a process of a color conversion, the color conversion process is performed by a software process as described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2002-94823.
Recently, a print engine that is adopted for a printing apparatus, a copying machine and a multifunction peripheral (MFP) has become faster and faster.
However, the color conversion process (color matching) performed by a software process as the conventional method requires a lot of time, so the performance thanks to the high speed of the print engine cannot be used sufficiently.
In addition, a multifunction device having functions of color print, color copy, color scanner and others has become a main stream recently. Such a multifunction device has to perform various types of color matching process for each of the functions.

Image processor, image output device, image input device, and multifunction device

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


This invention relates generally to a memory cell. The embodiments of the present invention provide a SRAM cell and a SRAM cell array comprising such SRAM cell. The SRAM cell according to the embodiments of the present invention includes a pull-up transistor and a pull-down transistor, such that it is unnecessary to pre-charge a pre-read bit line at the time of performing read operation. By adopting the method of the present invention, generation of leakage current can be suppressed and hence power consumption of SRAM chip can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to circuit techniques, and more specifically, to a memory cell.
2. Related Art
Static random-access memory (SRAM) is an important type of memory. Typical SRAM configuration includes an SRAM cell and a sense amplifier. An SRAM cell is a basic unit in SRAM chip for storing logic values. SRAM cell itself has a limited driving ability, which cannot meet the requirement for driving post stage logic circuits. A sense amplifier is employed for processing signals outputted from SRAM cell. A sense amplifier is capable of driving post stage logic circuits due to its stronger driving ability. A sense amplifier usually is multiplexed by a plurality of SRAM cells.
FIG. 1 is a structure of a conventional SRAM cell, in which, logic values are stored in a circuit consisting of M1, M2, M3 and M4 and this part forms a core memory circuit. WWL is used for controlling transistors M5 and M6 to select the SRAM cell for performing a write operation. WBL and /WBL are used for inputting to the SRAM cell a value to be written. This part forms a write-related circuit. RWL is used for controlling transistor M8 to select the SRAM cell for performing a read operation. RBL is used for reading out values stored in the SRAM cell. If the values stored in the SRAM cell correspond to producing a low level on RBL, M7 is turned on by a high level at an output node NC of the core memory circuit. If the values stored in the SRAM cell correspond to producing a high level on RBL, M7 is cut off by a low level at the node NC. This part forms a read-related circuit.
In the above-described structure, RBL is pre-charged to a high level. That is to say, RBL is always at a high level unless a low level needs to be outputted. During a read operation, pre-charging RBL is stopped. Then, M8 is turned on by a high level on RWL, so as to select the SRAM cell. In the case where M7 is also turned on, a path is formed from RBL to a reference level, so as to pull down the level on RBL from a high level to a low level.
After the read operation is finished, M8 is cut off by the low level on RWL and the pre-charge circuit is re-connected to RBL, and thus RBL resumes a high level. When M7 is cut off, there is no path formed between RBL and the reference level, and thus RBL still maintains a high level. When the read operation is finished, M8 is cut off by the low level on RML and the pre-charge circuit is re-connected to RBL, which is still at a high level.
One of ordinary skill in the art can understand that, even if the transistor is in an OFF state, there exists a weak current flowing between a source and a drain because of a potential difference between the source and the drain of the transistor. This weak current is referred to as leakage current. This leakage current is related to the potential difference between a source and a drain as well as related to the dimension of a transistor channel. In order to make RBL switch rapidly from a high level to a low level when a low level needs to be outputted, M8 usually has a relatively large dimension of channel for rapidly forming a path from RBL to reference level.
However, the large dimension of M8 means a relatively large leakage current existing in M8. As described above, whether M7 is turned on depends on logic values stored in the SRAM cell. Assumed that the probabilities of having logic value 0 stored in SRAM cell and having logic value 1 stored in SRAM cell both are 50%, M7 is in an ON state for half the time.
Accordingly, within half the working time of the SRAM cell, there is a relatively large leakage current flowing from RBL to reference level. Although the leakage current is much smaller than working current, its influence on power consumption cannot be ignored since it always exists.
Therefore, a new technical solution is desirable for improving leakage current performance of SRAM cell.

International Business Machines Corporation


A NAND-type flash memory device has a shared string and or ground selecting line structure, in which string and/or ground selecting lines of adjacent memory blocks are electrically connected to each other so that string/ground selecting transistors, adjacent along a string, can share a butting contact. Thus, a layout area along a wordline is reduced in proportion to the number of reduced butting contacts.

This application claims for priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2001-47478, filed on Aug. 7, 2001, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
This disclosure relates to a data storage device and, more particularly, to an electrically erasable and programmable flash memory device.
An electrically erasable and programmable flash memory device continuously holds data even though a power is not applied. Particularly, a NAND-type flash memory device has a string structure in which a plurality of flash memory cells are serially connected to each other, so that it is appropriate for integration and can be offered at a low price. Therefore, the NAND-type flash memory device is used as a data memory of various portable products.
Recently, demand for flash memory devices has increased. One of the request is for enhancement of data input/output speed. By increasing a page size (or page depth) and a memory block size, the data input/output speed can be enhanced. The xe2x80x9cpagexe2x80x9d is made of a group of memory cells selected at the same time as activation of one wordline, and is a basic unit of read and program operations. The xe2x80x9cmemory blockxe2x80x9d is in turn made of a group of a several pages, and is a basic unit of an erase operation.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a conventional NAND-type flash memory device includes a memory cell array 10, a page buffer circuit (or data sensing and latching circuit) 14, and a column decoder circuit 16. The memory cell array 10 is made of a plurality of memory blocks BLK0-BLKn, (n being a positive integer) each including a plurality of strings. Each of the strings is made of a string selecting transistor SST coupled to a corresponding bitline (e.g., BL0), a ground selecting transistor GST coupled to a common source line CSL, and memory cells MC15-MC0 serially connected between the string and ground selecting transistors SST and GST. The string selecting transistor SST, the memory cells MC15-MC0, and the ground selecting transistor GSL are coupled to a string selecting line SSL, wordlines WL15-WL0, and a ground selecting line GSL, respectively. Block selecting transistors BS17-BL0 are commonly controlled by a block selecting signal BS.
A row selecting circuit 12 selects one wordline (or page) out of the wordlines WL0-WL15 by controlling block selecting transistors BS0-BS17. The page buffer circuit 14 temporarily stores data to be stored in memory cells of a selected page or senses the data stored therein. The page buffer circuit 14 is made of a plurality of page buffers (or data sensing and latching blocks) each corresponding to columns (i.e., bitlines) associated with a selected page. The detailed operations of such a page buffer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,818, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated herein. Data bits sensed from memory cells of a selected page are output from the memory device with a predetermined unit (e.g., byte unit: x8).
The page size and block size are decided with hardware while designing a flash memory. Unlike a NOR-type flash memory reading data by a random access of a byte (x8) or word (x16) unit, the NAND-type flash memory device senses or latches data with a page unit for a relatively long time (e.g., dozens of microseconds) using the page buffer circuit 14. An nREx pin is toggled to fetch the latched data with a xe2x80x9cx8xe2x80x9d unit by a data processing system (e.g., CPU). Therefore, the NAND-type flash memory needs a relatively long latency in data reading. But a data output speed of the NAND-type flash memory is high once a page buffer circuit senses and latches data.
It is well known that each of the memory cells constituting a cell string is made of a floating gate transistor having a source, a drain, a floating gate, and a control gate. The control gate of the respective floating gate transistors is connected to a wordline. Since each of the memory cells constituting the cell string is made of the floating gate transistor, for the string and ground selecting transistors acting as a conventional NMOS transistor, the first polysilicon layer for a floating gate and the second polysilicon layer for a control gate must be electrically coupled. This is described more fully herein below.
Referring now to FIG. 2, wordlines and ground selecting lines of each memory block (e.g., an ith memory block and an (i+1)th memory block) are formed by a self-aligned manner. In the ith memory block BLKi, a floating gate and a control gate of a ground selecting transistor GSTi are electrically connected to each other by a metal M1 (e.g., tungsten) in order to act as a conventional NMOS transistor. Likewise, in the (n+1)th memory block, a floating gate and a control gate of a string selecting transistor SSTi+1 are electrically connected to each other by the metal M1 (e.g., tungsten) in, order to act as the conventional NMOS transistor.
To accomplish this, a contact hole is formed so that the polysilicon floating gate can be exposed. The contact hole is filled with a metal so that the polysilicon for a control gate and the polysilicon for a floating gate can electrically contact each other. A contact formed through these steps is so-called xe2x80x9cbutting contactxe2x80x9d. In each of the memory blocks, the butting contact increases the layout area along a row or wordline. Furthermore, the butting contact increases the layout area along a string. Such a phenomenon can cause serious problems as integration density becomes high.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a NAND-type flash memory device having a shared selecting line structure. Also, embodiments of the invention provide a reduced area shared by a butting contact of a string/ground selecting transistor.
A further understanding of the nature and advantage of the invention herein may be realized by reference to the specification and the attached drawings.


A motor includes a motor portion and a speed reducing portion. In the motor portion, a brush holder that holds a feeder brush for feeding electric power to a commutator is arranged at an opening of a yoke. The speed reducing portion has a speed reducing mechanism, which is arranged in a gear housing. The speed reducing mechanism outputs drive force produced by a rotary shaft of the motor portion with the rotating speed of the rotary shaft reduced by the speed reducing mechanism. A brush holder includes a support pillar projecting toward the gear housing and an urging member that urges the feeder brush against the commutator. A positioning portion for positioning the brush holder with respect to the gear housing in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction is formed at a distal end portion of the support pillar.

Conventionally, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-18794, for example, this type of motor is configured by a motor portion having a rotor received in a yoke housing and a speed reducing portion mounted at an output-side end portion of the motor portion to reduce the rotating speed of the motor portion. In the motor portion, the rotary shaft of the rotor projects from an opening of the yoke housing at the axial output side toward the speed reducing portion. A brush holder for holding a feeder brush is arranged in the opening of the yoke housing to supply electric power to a commutator. The speed reducing portion includes a gear housing, which is fixed to an output-side end portion of the yoke housing through a fastening member such as a screw. The gear housing accommodates members for configuring a speed reducing mechanism, including a worm gear and a worm wheel. Drive force produced by the motor portion is output in a state in which the rotating speed is reduced by the speed reducing mechanism.
The motor includes a positioning projection, which projects axially in the gear housing. A positioning hole, with which the positioning projection is engaged, is formed in an inner surface of the brush holder. To join the motor portion and the speed reducing portion together, the positioning projection of the gear housing is engaged with the positioning hole of the brush holder. The motor portion and the speed reducing portion are thus positioned in a direction perpendicular to the axial directions of the motor portion, which includes the brush holder, and the gear housing. This facilitates joint of the motor portion and the speed reducing portion.
The brush holder includes an urging member for pressing the brush against the commutator, a noise suppression element such as a capacitor, and a terminal member for electrical connection of a noise suppression element and the brush. These components are arranged at a high density to reduce the size of the brush holder in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction. If the brush holder includes positioning portions as described above, the brush holder is enlarged in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction to have space for mounting the positioning portions. In this regard, more improvement is necessary.


In a microcellular cordless telephone network, radio speech channels are divided into several channel groups such that no intermodulation products occur among the channels of each group. In each microcell is located a base unit to which one of the channel groups is dynamically assigned. To achieve the channel assignment, each base unit generates priority values of the channel groups as representations of usage of the channel groups, consistently updates them through a statistical process and assigns one of the channel groups having a maximum priority value to the base unit.

The present invention relates generally to switched telephone networks for serving an area which is divided into relatively small service zones in which cordless telephones are located, and more specifically to a channel assignment technique for use with such cordless telephone networks.
With cellular mobile telephony, automobile stations are usually located at such greater distances apart that signals transmitted from mobile stations are not strong enough to interfere with other stations to produce intermodulation products, No difficulty arises in assigning speech channels to the mobile stations. However, with microcellular systems which are currently employed in business environments, the service area is divided into small zones, or microcells with a radius of as small as several tens of meters and cordless telephones are usually located at short distances apart. In some instances, the distance between adjacent cordless stations may be as short as 1 meter. In addition, the size and shape of each of the microcells differ from one cell to another and a great number of base units must be provided. One problem associated with such microcellular systems is that due to the high density of cordless units intermodulation products are often generated between adjacent units and seriously affect the operation of the system.

Dynamic channel assignment cordless telecommunication network


Apparatus for parsing and tokenizing a data stream comprises: a storage component to store a history buffer containing an unencoded version of a previously encoded string; a comparison component to compare a string from the input data stream with the unencoded version of at least one previously encoded string; a second storage component store: an indicator that at least two matches were found by the first comparison component, and tokens corresponding to the matches; a summing component to sum potential token lengths to provide total potential token lengths; a second comparison component to compare total potential token lengths; a selection component to select a match corresponding to a shortest total token length to represent the string from said input data stream; and an emitting component for emitting tokens representing the match corresponding to the shortest total token length. The tokens may be used in, for example, compression or encryption.

Adaptive data transform algorithms are well known in the field of data compression, encryption and message digest generation. In particular, the "history buffer" versions of these adaptive data transform algorithms, for example the Lempel-Ziv 1 (or LZ1) compression algorithm, have become particularly popular in hardware implementations where their relatively modest buffer requirements and predictable performance make them a good fit for most underlying technologies.
The LZ1 algorithm works by examining the input string of characters and keeping a record of the characters it has encountered. Then, when a string appears that has occurred before in recent history, it is replaced in the output string by a "token": a code indicating where in the past the string has occurred and for how long. Both the compressor and decompressor must use a "history buffer" of a defined length, but otherwise no more information need be passed between them.
Like many compression and other data transform algorithms, LZ1 describes the format of the compressed data, rather than how the compression should be performed. It is quite common for two or more LZ1 compressed data streams of different lengths to decompress to the same data; therefore any valid compressed data stream is not necessarily coded in its most efficient (i.e. most compressed) form. The same applies to data streams that have been encrypted using adaptive transform to increase the entropy of the information. In many cases, there are efficiencies to be gained by optimization of the overall length of the tokens used to encode the data.
Some variations in the basic LZ1 algorithm have emerged, in particular using variable-length tokens to improve coding efficiency. For the purposes of this description, the variation known as IBMLZ1 will be used, but any version of the LZ1 algorithm would serve equally well. It will be clear to one skilled in the data processing art that many adaptive data transforms for encryption and for message digest generation exhibit the same need for optimal economy in parsing and tokenizing their respective input data streams.
The traditional method of finding occurrences of input strings in a history buffer in, for example LZ1 compression, can be described as "greedy" parsing. This is because the conventional parsing method always prefers the longest candidate string for encoding.
For example, suppose the history buffer contains the words "consensus" and "contagious", and a new string, "contact" appears for processing (as shown in FIG. 5). The first three letters, "con", will be matched with both strings in the buffer, and both will be regarded as candidates for substitution.
But the fourth letter, "t" matches only with "contagious", and so "consensus" is abandoned as a potential replacement pointer. The fifth letter, "a" also matches with "contagious", but the match fails at the sixth, "c". Thus the matched string terminates at this point, and a pointer to the string "conta" is substituted in the output stream. Thus the parser (the apparatus or process that compares input characters with the contents of the history buffer and finds the best match) has been greedy in using the longest string it could find.
If the parser processes input bytes one at a time, as is the case in conventional LZ1 processing, then the greedy algorithm is the best to use. The longer the encoded string, the greater the compression. However, another reason for describing it as greedy is that it has chosen the first string it could find.
Co-pending PCT patent application number WO/GB03/00384, assigned to the same assignee, describes a hardware method of implementing LZ1 compression that processes an indefinite number of bytes per cycle. A further refinement providing a reduced gate cost and capable of processing three bytes per cycle is disclosed in co-pending PCT patent application number WO/GB03/00388, assigned to the same assignee.
However, these and all the parsers presently known in the art employ the greedy algorithm described above. Although this algorithm is best in the single-byte situation, there are many circumstances in which it does not produce optimum compression.
The Applicant believes that it would be desirable to alleviate this problem by providing an improved parser capable of providing greater compression efficiency.

Data parsing and tokenizing apparatus, method and program


A control system which allows electro-pneumatic control of an equalizing reservoir with the capacity to create penalty applications in a purely pneumatic manner. A controller for the equalizing reservoir includes an electro-pneumatic source of pressure or atmosphere responsive to an electrical equalizing pressure control signal and a pilot valve selectively connecting the electro-pneumatic source or atmosphere to the equalizing reservoir in response to pressure in a pilot port of the first pilot valve. A magnetic valve is provided having a first input connected to a second source of pressure, a second input connected to atmosphere and an output connected to the pilot port of the first pilot valve. At least one penalty valve is connected to the pilot input of the first pilot valve and is responsive to a penalty signal to connect the pilot input to atmosphere. The pilot valve and the penalty valve pneumatically produce a brake application regardless of the state of the magnetic valve or its controller.

The present system relates generally to brake control systems and more specifically to a controller for an equalizing reservoir of a rail brake system, which includes a brake pipe controlled by a relay valve in response to pressure in the equalizing reservoir.
Prior rail brake systems have had either fully-pneumatic control of the equalizing reservoir (ER) or electro-pneumatic control of the ER. On systems which use fully-pneumatic ER control, penalty brake applications were created by exhausting a previously pressurized penalty pipe. This caused a subsequent pneumatic exhaust of the ER and brake application. On systems which use electro-pneumatic ER control, penalty brake applications are signaled to the brake system by electrical signals. The ER is then reduced to apply the brakes via electro-pneumatic control. Prior brake systems including ER controllers are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,036,284 and 6,318,811.
The present control system allows electro-pneumatic control of ER but with the capacity to create penalty applications in a purely pneumatic manner. A controller for an ER includes an electro-pneumatic source of pressure or atmosphere responsive to an electrical equalizing pressure control signal and a pilot valve selectively connecting the electro-pneumatic source or atmosphere to the equalizing reservoir in response to pressure in a pilot port of the first pilot valve. A magnetic valve is provided having a first input connected to a second source of pressure, a second input connected to atmosphere and an output connected to the pilot port of the first pilot valve. At least one penalty valve is connected to the pilot input of the first pilot valve and is responsive to a penalty signal to connect the pilot input to atmosphere.
The one or more penalty valves may be connected to the pilot port of the first pilot valve via the first input of the magnetic valve or may be connected to the pilot port of the first pilot valve at the output of the magnetic valve. The penalty valves are responsive to an electric penalty signal or a pneumatic penalty signal. One or more of the penalty valves may be connected to the pilot port of the first pilot valve by a suppression or second pilot valve which selectively disconnects the penalty valve from the pilot port in response to a suppression signal. A pilot port of the second pilot valve may either be controlled by a second magnetic valve or by a pneumatic source of a suppression signal.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.

Electronic equalizing reservoir controller with pneumatic penalty override


Disclosed is a polyester resin containing the polycondensation product of (a) at least one diacid, acid ester, or diester, and (b) at least two diols. The at least two diols include a disproportionated rosin diol and 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane. Also disclosed is a toner composition having particles which include the disclosed polyester resin. Further disclosed is a method of preparing the disclosed polyester resin, and a method of forming toner particles that includes the disclosed polyester resin.

The basic process for the formation and development of images on the surface of photoconductive materials by electrostatic means entails placing a uniform electrostatic charge on a photoconductive insulating layer known as a photoconductor or photoreceptor, exposing the photoreceptor to a light and shadow image to dissipate the charge on the areas of the photoreceptor exposed to the light, and developing the resulting electrostatic latent image by depositing on the image a finely divided electroscopic material known as toner. Toner typically comprises a resin and a colorant. The toner will normally be attracted to those areas of the photoreceptor which retain a charge, thereby forming a toner image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image. This developed image may then be transferred to a substrate such as paper. The transferred image may subsequently be permanently affixed to the substrate by heat, pressure, a combination of heat and pressure, or other suitable fixing means such as solvent or overcoating treatment.
Numerous processes are available for the preparation of toners. Emulsion aggregation (EA) is one such method. Emulsion aggregation toners can be used in forming print and/or xerographic images. Emulsion aggregation techniques can entail the formation of an emulsion latex of the resin particles by heating the resin, using emulsion polymerization, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,943, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference. Polyester EA ultra low melt (ULM) toners have been prepared utilizing amorphous and crystalline polyester resins as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,547,499, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference.
Exemplary emulsion aggregation toners include acrylate based toners, such as those based on styrene acrylate toner particles as illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,967, and polyester toner particles, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,916,725 and 7,785,763 and U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0107989, the disclosures of each of which are totally incorporated herein by reference.
Many polymeric materials utilized in the formation of toners are based upon the extraction and processing of fossil fuels, leading ultimately to increases in greenhouse gases and accumulation of non-degradable materials in the environment. Energy and environmental policies, increasing and volatile oil prices, and public/political awareness of the rapid depletion of global fossil reserves have created a need to find sustainable monomers derived from biomaterials. By using bio-renewable feedstock, manufacturers can reduce their carbon footprint and move to a zero-carbon or even a carbon-neutral footprint. Bio-based polymers are also very attractive in terms of specific energy and emission savings. Using bio-based feedstock can decrease the amount of plastic targeted for landfills, help provide new sources of income for domestic agriculture, and reduce the economic risks and uncertainty associated with reliance on petroleum.
While known compositions and processes are suitable for their intended purposes, improved resins and toner compositions, including resins and toners derived from sources other than petroleum and/or from renewable resources, are desirable. There is also a need for toners derived from relatively inexpensive sources. In addition, there is a need for toners, such as emulsion aggregation toners, having the aforementioned advantages. Further, there is a need for emulsion aggregation toners derived either from petroleum-based sources or from renewable resources that can be obtained in high yield, have small particle size, have controlled particle morphology or shape, have a narrow particle GSD, and have a core-shell structure.


A device for preserving a collectable article is disclosed. The device includes front and back panel members at least partially defining a cavity for receiving a collectable article. The device is formed for exposing the gaseous substance within the cavity to a desiccant. Additionally, an aspect of the present invention includes at least one spacing sheet positioned between the panel members for adjusting the height of the cavity. Another aspect of the present invention includes at least one tab protruding into the cavity for positioning the collectable article therein to form a channel around the article.

In general, the present invention relates to a protective device for retaining an article. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for preserving collectable articles.
Collecting comic books is rapidly becoming a quite lucrative endeavor. A comic book which after a period of time remains in excellent condition will draw several thousand dollars when sold. If the pages have become yellowed, stained, bent or torn the value is significantly reduced. Similarly, with other collectable items such as books, magazines, photographs, paintings, stamps and other paper products, the item's value will dramatically increase over time only if preserved in its original condition.
To maintain the item in excellent condition as it ages, the collector must take precautions to protect the item from mold, fungi and other damaging elements. The item should be stored in a manner which prevents bending or tearing. Acids which are absorbed into the material are particularly destructive, causing stains, brittleness and bleaching of dyes. As time passes, the acidity will spread from one material to another. Thus, the collectable article must be isolated from acid-forming and acid-containing elements.
Air contains several impurities which are easily converted into acids. Sulfur dioxide, released into the atmosphere by the combustion of fuel, will react with moisture and trace elements of iron or copper to form sulfuric acid. Hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, ozone and nitrogen dioxide will react with water vapor to form acids or other destructive chemicals. Similarly, many containers used for storage are formed of materials containing acids or acid-forming elements. The water vapor present in the air provides sufficient moisture to stimulate mold growth and to convert impurities in the air into damaging chemicals and acids. For optimum preservation, the collectable article must be substantially protected from the harmful effects of the air.
One method of protecting a collectable article from the deteriorating elements in the environment is to store the item in a flexible bag formed of a suitable plastic, such as polyethylene or polypropylene. The bag protects against damage such as that caused by excess moisture, dirt, and impurities found in the air, reducing the deterioration of the article. However, the plastics contain contaminants which will in time be absorbed by the item, damaging the article and substantially lowering its value. The bag may alternatively be formed of a film of an archival-quality polyester resin, which does not contain the contaminants found in the other plastics. The material in addition resists moisture, pollutants and acids. One example of an archival-quality film is MYLAR TYPE D by DuPont.
The added protection from contaminants provided by the polyester film bag reduces the amount of deterioration over time. However, a flexible bag will not protect the article from other damaging forces. Oxygen will slowly pass through the plastic, oxidizing the paper pages. Additionally, the flexible container does not provide sufficient support to adequately protect the item from bending or tearing. If the bag is not properly sealed, air will freely pass into the container, introducing moisture vapor for catalyzing the formation of acids and stimulating mold growth.
Alternatively, the collectable article may be retained within a sealed container to protect the article from destructive elements, such as those present in air. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,646,914 and 5,040,671 teach enclosures for protecting a flat collectable item. The disclosed enclosures prevent bending or tearing of the flat items. Permanently sealing the containers reduces the access of moisture and other damaging contaminants to the item. However, as with the flexible bag, impurities within the container material will eventually migrate to the item, causing discoloration and substantially reducing the value of the item. If the collector wishes to remove the article from the protective container, he has to break the seal, potentially damaging the container. The container would have to be resealed after the item is replaced. This process is inefficient, and increases the cost of preserving the collectable article. In addition, the disclosed enclosures are for flat collectable items or art objects; they are not particularly suitable for thicker items such as comics, books, and magazines.
A percentage of moisture is retained within the fibers forming the collectable article. Similarly, moisture has been captured within the material forming the container. As time passes and storage conditions change, the moisture will escape from the fibers into the container. Thus, a certain percentage of moisture will be present even in a sealed container. Desiccant has been used in packing for absorbing excess moisture or oxygen for preservation. The sealed container in U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,914 includes a desiccant added to the back panel of the enclosure for absorbing the water vapor. By exposing the gaseous substance within the enclosure to the desiccant, the excess moisture will be absorbed. The excess moisture escaping from the fibers must be removed from the entire item to sufficiently protect the article from damage. In the disclosed enclosure, the desiccant is separated from the object by a mounting board, reducing the effectiveness of the desiccant. Thus, some water vapor will remain in contact with the object. For maximum protection, the desiccant must be exposed to the gaseous substance in immediate contact with the collectable article.
The devices available in the prior art for preserving a collectable article provide protection against many of the destructive elements which induce deterioration of the item over time. However, a protective device which substantially prevents destruction caused by moisture, oxygen and contaminants such as acids while preventing bending or tearing of the item, is desirable. A protective device which preserves a collectable article without providing a permanently sealed environment is additionally desirable. A protective device which may be adapted to retain a collectable article independent of its thickness is also desirable. Additionally, a device which maximizes exposure of any gaseous substance within the device or within the article itself to a desiccant is similarly desirable.

Preservation method and device for a collectable article


A rolling regeneration diesel particulate filter and filtering process that utilizes NO produced in the process to generate additional amounts of NO2 than the NO2 produced by the diesel engine. The process includes the step of flowing diesel engine combustion exhaust through a filter system including a first section and a second section. The first section is positioned upstream of the second section with respect to the direction of the flow of the diesel engine exhaust through the filter. The first section includes a foam constructed and arranged to trap carbon-based particulates in the exhaust. A first catalyst is carried by the foam to promote the conversion of NO in the exhaust from the diesel engine to NO2. The first catalyst also promotes the reaction of NO2 with at least a portion of the carbon-based particulates trapped by the foam to form CO and NO. The first catalyst carried by the foam also promotes the oxidation of CO to CO2, and the oxidation of NO, generated by the reaction of NO2 with carbon, to generate additional amounts of NO2. The additional amounts of NO2 are also utilized to oxidize the carbon-based particulates. The second section of the filter system includes a wall flow monolith having a plurality of through hole cells formed therein running the longitudinal length of the monolith. The monolith is constructed and arranged to trap particulates in the exhaust and to promote the reaction of NO2 and carbon to produce NO and CO. The ceramic foam may also be received in and surrounded by the wall flow filter.

This invention relates to filter systems, and more particularly to a filter system for a diesel engine utilizing a rolling regeneration diesel particulate trap.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art filter system 10 for a diesel engine 12. An exhaust line 14 is provided between the diesel engine 12 and the filter system 10. The filter system may include a housing 16 that includes at least a first section 18 and a second section 20. The first section 18 typically includes a flow-through monolith 22 therein and wherein the flow-through monolith is coated with a catalyst such as platinum. The exhaust gas from the diesel engine 12 includes a variety of constituents including NO and particulate matter which typically is in the form of a carbon-based material. The catalyst on the flow-through monolith 22 promotes the reaction of the NO with oxygen also present in the exhaust gas to form NO2. However, the reaction is not efficient enough to completely convert all of the NO in the exhaust gas to NO2. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, both NO and NO2 leave the first section 18 of the filter and enter the second section 20 of the filter system. The second section 20 typically includes a wall flow monolith 24 therein. Wall flow monoliths are known to those skilled in the art and typically are manufactured from a ceramic material in a manner to provide a plurality of through hole cells running the longitudinal length of the monolith. The cross-sectional area of these through hole cells is extremely small, on the order of 10 microns. Wall flow monoliths are capable of trapping 99+ percent of the particulate emissions from a diesel engine. However, wall flow monoliths can become plugged very easily due to the very small openings of the through hole cells. As shown in FIG. 1, NO2 in the exhaust gas can be used to oxidize the carbon to form NO and CO, thus removing some of the particulate blocking the wall flow monolith. However, the amount of NO2 present in the exhaust gas from the diesel engine or generated in the flow-through monolith 22 may not be sufficient to completely oxidize the particulate blocking the wall flow monolith. Accordingly, the engine must be operated in order to generate substantial amounts of NO2 necessary to oxidize all the carbon and other particulate matter blocking the wall flow monolith. Otherwise, the wall flow monolith must be cleaned in another fashion.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a filter system for a diesel engine which resulted in the wall flow monolith being plugged less often and providing an alternative means for regenerating the trap. The present invention overcomes deficiencies in the prior art and provides alternatives and advantages thereto.
The invention includes a rolling regeneration diesel particulate filter and filtering process that reuses NO produced in the process to generate additional amounts of NO2. One embodiment of the invention includes a process including flowing diesel engine combustion exhaust through a filter system including a first and a second section. The first section is positioned upstream of the second section with respect to the flow direction of the exhaust. The first section includes a foam constructed and arranged to trap carbon-based particulates in the exhaust. A first catalyst is carried by the foam to promote the conversion of NO in the exhaust from the diesel engine to NO2. The NO2 is used to oxidize particulates trapped by the foam to form CO and NO. The first catalyst or a second catalyst on the foam further promotes the oxidation of CO to CO2, and the oxidation of NO, generated by the reaction of NO2 with carbon, to generate additional NO2. The second section of the filter system includes a wall flow filter having a plurality of through hole cells formed therein running the longitudinal length of the wall flow filter. The wall flow filter is constructed and arranged to trap particulates in the exhaust and to promote the reaction of NO2 and carbon to produce NO and CO.
In another embodiment of the invention, the foam may include a ceramic foam made from Al2O3.
In another embodiment of the invention, the ceramic foam may also include ZrO2.
In another embodiment of the invention, the first catalyst may include platinum. The platinum may be coated on the foam in a loading of at least 25 grams per cubic foot of foam.
In another embodiment of the invention, the foam may have a porosity ranging from 80% to 90% and higher.
In another embodiment of the invention, the foam may include 10 to 60 pores per inch.
In another embodiment of the invention, the wall flow filter may include 25 to 300 cells per square inch of cross-sectional area of the monolith.
In another embodiment of the invention, the filter system may include a housing. The first and second sections of the filter system may be carried in the housing.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a rolling regeneration diesel particulate filter trap having a first and a second section. The first section is positioned upstream of the second section with respect to the direction of exhaust flow through the trap. The first section includes a foam constructed and arranged to trap carbon particulates in the exhaust. A first catalyst is carried by the foam to promote the conversion of NO in the exhaust flowing through the trap to NO2. The NO2 is used to oxidize the carbon particulates trapped by the foam to form CO and NO. The first catalyst or a second catalyst in the foam further promotes the oxidation of the CO to CO2 and the oxidation of NO, generated by the reaction of NO2 and C to generate additional NO2. The second section of the trap includes a wall flow filter having a plurality of through hole cells formed therein running the longitudinal length of the filter. The filter is constructed and arranged to trap particulates in the exhaust and to promote the reaction of NO2 and C to produce NO and CO.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a diesel engine exhaust filter system including a catalyzed foam filter and wall flow filter combination, wherein at least a portion of the wall flow filter surrounds a portion of the catalyzed foam filter and so that exhaust may flow through the catalyzed foam filter and then flow through the wall flow filter.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a diesel engine exhaust filter system having a plurality of filter combinations, and wherein each filter combination includes a catalyzed foam filter and wall flow filter, and wherein at least a portion of each wall flow filter surrounds a portion of a catalyzed foam filter and so the exhaust may flow through the catalyzed foam filter and then flow through the wall flow filter.
These and other objects, features and advantages will become apparent from the following brief description of the drawings, detailed description of the preferred embodiments, and appended claims and drawings.

Rolling regeneration diesel particulate trap


An object of the present invention is to prevent stress-corrosion cracking of a header (40) of a reactor. A reactor for producing trichlorosilane by causing metal silicon powder and a hydrogen chloride gas to react with each other includes a cooler (70), the cooler including a plurality of heat transfer medium pipes (30) and a header (40), the plurality of heat transfer medium pipes being provided in a fluid bed (60) inside the reactor, the header being provided in a freeboard section (50) inside the reactor, the header being comprised of a corrosion-resistant material.

Trichlorosilane is produced by means such as, for example, a fluidized-bed reactor. In a fluid bed in the fluidized-bed reactor, metal silicon powder and a hydrogen chloride gas, which are raw materials for trichlorosilane, are caused to react with each other to produce trichlorosilane. The fluidized-bed reactor is provided with a member for reducing a temperature in the fluidized-bed reactor during a trichlorosilane production reaction. However, since the metal silicon powder is a very hard substance, a portion of the member which portion is in contact with the fluid bed may wear away. In order to solve this problem, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique of providing a wear preventing means on a surface of the portion that is in contact with the metal silicon powder (in other words, the fluid bed).

Reactor and production method of trichlorosilane


Double row angular contact ball bearing (10) has split inner rings (18, 24) and two plastic comb snap cages (32, 44). The comb cage has retaining tabs (38, 50) which mate with retaining grooves (22, 28) in the split inner rings. These retaining tabs hold the inner rings into the bearing.

Double row angular ball bearings are known, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,919. Such ball bearings have a single outer ring with a pair of adjacent inwardly oriented raceways, a single inner ring with a pair of adjacent outwardly oriented raceways, and two ball crown rings with window type cages. In the '919 patent, lugs are used to mate with a groove in either the upper or lower ring to maintain the ball crown ring in either the inner or outer ring.
A drawback to such arrangements is the weight and the size associated with such cages. Since the cages employ a window which fully encircles the ball, the bearing must account for a portion of the cage that extends into the space between the two crown rings, thereby requiring a large axial spacing between adjacent cages.
One solution to the spacing and the weight associated with such a large cage is to employ plastic snap cages. Snap cages employ pockets for housing the balls rather than windows. Such plastic snap cages are known, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,230.
Double row angular contact ball bearings having split inner ring have been used to provide increased flexibility to the bearing. One of the drawbacks with ball bearings that have split inner rings and that do not employ snap cages is that the inner rings easily separate from the bearing until such time as the bearing is mounted for its intended use. One solution to the problem of the separation of the bearing is to employ sleeves around the bearing until such time as the bearing is to be mounted for its intended purpose. The problem with the sleeves is that when the sleeves are removed the bearing can become unassembled prior to its mounting. There is a need for a better arrangement in a bearing in order to avoid the separation of the split inner ring from the bearing and to avoid potential bearing damage during handling on an assembly line.

Double row, angular contact ball bearing with two plastic comb cages with retaining tabs


An output circuit for a bus whose output node is connected to a bus, including a first current source connected to a first reference potential, a first semiconductor switching element connected between the first current source and the output node, a current control circuit for controlling the first semiconductor switching element such that the first current source and the output node are connected when a voltage of the output node is lower than a reference voltage, and the first current source and the output node are disconnected when a voltage of the output node is higher than the reference voltage, and a voltage generating circuit which is connected between the output node and a second reference potential, and includes a second semiconductor switching element turned on/off based on an output control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output circuit for a bus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an output circuit for a bus intended for consumer electronics control (CEC), which connects the control system of the entire system in a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) used in, for example, digital input/output of a digital television.
2. Description of Related Art
The HDMI is used for digital input and output of a digital television. The HDMI connects a DVD player, a high-vision tuner, an AV amplifier and the like to a digital television. A single HDMI cable enables transmission of images, sounds and control signals (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-33436).
A control system for equipment connected by the HDMI is connected through a CEC bus. The CEC bus is a bi-directional bus.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an output circuit for a bi-directional bus for a CEC bus. The output circuit for a CEC bus 7A of related art has a resistor 1C, a Schottky diode 2A, an npn transistor 41, a resistor 42, and an output control circuit 5. An output node 6 is connected to the CEC bus 7A.
The Schottky diode 2A is provided for preventing a current from flowing back from the CEC bus 7A to a power source when power is off, and connected in series to the resistor 1C. One end of this series circuit is connected to a power supply potential Vcc and the other end is connected to the output node 6. In the specification of the CEC bus 7A, the current allowed to flow while power is off is defined as 1.8 μA, and the internal pull-up resistance is defined as 27KΩ±5%. The resistor 1C and the Schottky diode 2A are required to satisfy this specification.
Between the output node 6 and a grounding potential Gnd, the npn transistor 41 and the resistor 42 are connected in series, and an output control signal is inputted to the base of the npn transistor 41. When the output control signal outputted from the output control circuit 5 becomes a high level, the electrical continuity between the emitter and the collector of the npn transistor 41 is completed, and a low level is outputted from the output node 6 to the CEC bus 7A. When the output control signal becomes low level, the npn transistor 41 is turned off, and a high level is outputted from the output node 6.
The Schottky diode 2A operates to prevent interference of the CEC functions of other equipment connected to the output node 6 while power is off.