A servo valve comprising a drive for moving a valve spindle (6) coupled through a lever and a link body with the drive. The lever (34) is pivotably mounted in a lever housing (30) which is connected at one end to the valve housing (2) and at its other end to a housing (54) of the drive, and a position controller (114) is disposed on the lever housing (30). The servo valve has a compact and enclosed design and can be economically manufactured and assembled.

The invention relates to a servo valve comprising a valve housing, a valve spindle movable axially within said housing, a drive for operating said spindle, and a position controller for actuating said drive depending on the position of said spindle, and in particular to a servo valve with a drive especially adapted for pneumatic operation.
Servo valves of this kind are disclosed, for example, in Kemmler, U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,224. In this valve design the diaphragm drive is connected by a yoke to the valve housing. The diaphragm drive and the diaphragm are coaxial with the axially displaceable valve spindle which is coupled directly with the diaphragm plate. Beside the yoke is a position controller which by means of a lever detects the stroke of the valve spindle. The bulk, and especially the height, are comparatively great, primarily because of the open fitting of the diaphragm drive to the valve housing and the freely accessible detection of the spindle position by means of the lever of the position control. This open method of construction can lead to difficulties in practice, especially in the application of protective paints to entire apparatus, and accidental losses of adjustment.
Irwin, U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,501 discloses a pressure control with an integrated diaphragm drive, which can be used especially in gas lines for stoves or water heaters. When the valve is open, one chamber of the diaphragm drive is pressurized by the pressure of the medium which flows through the valve, while the other chamber is subjected to pressure in order to open the valve, for example, the pressure of water to be heated. By means of a lever the diaphragm drive shifts the valve body in accordance with the equilibrium of the forces that establishes itself on the diaphragm. Changes in pressure in the chambers corresponding to the momentary pressures of the gas and of the water directly produce a change in the position of the valve body, and it is not easily possible to establish a precise flow cross section through the valve.
A flow controller is also disclosed in Katz et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,722 which has a lever in a sealed chamber which is inserted between an electromagnetic servo drive and a valve. The servo drive contains a pin having a rounded tip which is in contact with one end of the lever. There is no means for detecting the axial position of the valve spindle, nor is there a position controller. Since the pin of the servo drive and also the valve spindle are only touching the lever, additional measures are necessary in order, for example, to maintain contact between the pin and the lever when pin is moving away from the lever.
Finally, a valve operating apparatus is disclosed in Latour, U.S. Pat. No. 2,657,710. The valve body is a component of a piston which is axially displaceable in a cylinder and is biased by a spring. The spring is disposed in a chamber of the cylinder, and this chamber is in communication with a venting valve. The venting valve can be operated by means of an electromagnetic drive and a lever, and the valve movement is limited by means of screws and springs. The position of the valve body integrated into the piston cannot be defined in advance, inasmuch as the valve configured in this manner is either fully open or fully closed, and defined intermediate positions are not easily established.


A trajectory control device controlling a trajectory of a movable portion includes a servo-system response-trajectory calculation unit that computes a servo-system response trajectory based on a position command of each movable axis, a shape-feature determination unit that outputs a shape feature amount including information of a position of a boundary point in a path shape and a running direction near the boundary point based on a determination from the position command whether the shape of the commanded path is straight or curved line, a position-vector correction unit that corrects a position vector based on the position command, the servo-system response trajectory and the shape feature amount, and outputs a corrected position command, and servo control units that control a motor of each movable axis by outputting a motor drive torque so that a position of each movable axis follows the corrected position command.

When machining is performed using a machine such as an NC machine tool or an NC laser beam machine, control is made such that a position of a tool (an edge tool such as an end mill) relative to a workpiece is displaced along a commanded path. This control is referred to as "trajectory control" and is generally performed by executing servo control so that an actual position of each movable axis of the machine follows a position command of each movable axis obtained from the commanded path.
As a problem in executing the trajectory control, there has conventionally been a point where an actual trajectory deviates from the commanded path due to a response delay of a control system of each movable axis. Usually, because control is executed for each movable axis of the machine, each movable axis makes movement with a servo system response thereof being delayed with respect to a position command due to an error resulting from the response delay of the control system of each axis. When a moving direction of the commanded path does not change as in a straight line, even if each axis makes movement with a delay, a trajectory of the servo-system response does not deviate from the commanded path. That is, although an error appears in a tangential direction of the commanded path, an error does not appear in a normal direction of the commanded path. On the other hand, when the moving direction of the commanded path changes as in a curved line or a corner shape, an error appears in the normal direction of the commanded path due to a delay of the servo control system of each axis.
In the following explanations, among errors with respect to the position command of a position of the servo system response, a component in the tangential direction of the commanded path is referred to as "following error", and a component in the normal direction of the commanded path is referred to as "trajectory error". Generally, if there is a trajectory error, a machined shape does not match with an intended shape, and so this situation is not preferable. Meanwhile, the following error does not directly affect the machined shape, and thus the following error may be frequently allowable, but if the following error is excessive, then the machining time increases, and so this situation is not preferable.
As means for limiting these trajectory errors and following errors, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method in which in control of a hand position of a robot, a hand position after a predetermined sampling time is estimated, and a position command is corrected by a value of a normal vector drawn from the estimated hand position to a target trajectory, so that the hand position is maintained on the target trajectory and a trajectory error is limited while allowing a time delay. That is, among errors occurring at the time of executing control of a plurality of movable axes, the trajectory error, which is an error in a direction perpendicular to the target trajectory, namely a commanded path, is estimated, and the commanded path is corrected in an opposite direction by the amount of the estimated trajectory error, so as to correct the trajectory error, thereby limiting the trajectory error possibly occurring in a moving path.


A jalousi wall assembly for a passenger bridge, which jalousi wall assembly including a first jalousi wall in turn having a first end and a second end, which first end is arranged to be wound up on, and off from, a first roll with a first vertical rotation axis (A2), and which second end is arranged to be fastened to the passenger bridge, wherein the first roll is arranged to be fastened to the frame of a movable opening of the passenger bridge and to follow horizontal movements of the frame by the first jalousi wall being wound up on, or off from, the first roll, whereby a horizontal length of the first jalousi wall, between the first end and the second end, is adjusted in response to a horizontal movement of the frame. The application relates to a jalousi wall assembly further including a wire having a first and a second end, which first end is wound about the first vertical rotation axis (A2) such that the first jalousi wall is wound up on the first roll when the wire is pulled at its second end, and in that the jalousi wall assembly further includes a wire tension device including a gas spring arranged to maintain a tension in the wire while the frame moves.

A bridge head is a structure arranged at a distal end of a passenger bridge segment, comprising a cabin which rotatingly engages with a main body of the bridge head, typically by being displaced along an outer periphery of the said main body, such as in a horizontal plane, which periphery may be semi-circular. Via the cabin, passengers can pass between the passenger bridge and a door opening in a ship or the like. Such bridge heads are known from, inter alia, SE 1351035-9.
The horizontal turnability of the cabin accomplishes that the cabin can be horizontally pivoted in relation to said distal end of the passenger bridge, to allow various angles between the passenger bridge and the said door opening.
Conventionally, such bridge heads are equipped with folding jalousi walls, covering the sides of the bridge head which is not occupied by the cabin. As the cabin moves horizontally, the jalousi wall on one side of the cabin unfolds to become wider and the jalousi wall on the other side of the cabin folds to become narrower, so that the bridge head sides are covered by either jalousi wall or cabin at all times.
The term "jalousi wall", as used herein, is intended to denote a construction similar to that of a jalousi sliding door of a conventional jalousi cabinet. Hence, such a jalousi wall is intended for being slided, such as sideways, following a curved wall contour. Such a jalousi wall may comprise a number of elongated, rigid pieces, such as vertically arranged, that are joined together so that they are always parallel to each other but so that they can pivot in relation to each other in a way so that the jalousi wall can follow said wall contour as the jalousi wall slided along said contour, such as horizontally.
Advantageously, such jalousi wall folding mechanism is automatic, following the cabin movements. This is preferably the case also for a jalousi wall assembly according to the invention. To accomplish this, the jalousi wall on either side of the cabin has a first respective end which is wound up on a respective vertically arranged roll with a vertical axis, while a respective opposite, second end of each jalousi wall is permanently fastened to the bridge head. In order to provide automatic folding of the jalousi walls when the cabin moves in both directions, the rolls are conventionally spring-loaded, so that the respective jalousi wall is wound up in the absence of a horizontal pulling force applied to an end part of the jalousi wall in question. This spring loading conventionally uses a torsion spring arranged inside the roll in question. As will be described in the following, the present invention uses a different approach to achieve such automatic operation of the jalousi wall.
The conventional construction provides good performance in terms of folding and unfolding of the jalousi walls. However, for maintenance it is complicated and time-consuming to access the torsion spring, such as for replacement of the torsion spring.

Jalousi wall assembly for a passenger bridge


A cigar splitter comprises: a housing having two open ends, an inside wall and outside surface, and a long axis, wherein the open ends are in line with each other permitting a cigar to be inserted through one end and out the other. A blade is attached to the inside of the housing, the blade oriented for cutting an outer sheath of the cigar as the cigar is inserted through one end of the splitter housing and out the other end. An apparatus for lighting and splitting a cigar comprising a cigar splitter as described above and can maintain active and inactive configurations of the splitter for safety of the user.

The subject invention generally relates to a cigar splitter and a combination cigar splitter and lighter. Some users of cigars and other products for smoking find it advantageous and enjoyable to substitute the filling in premade cigars and smoke the cigar with the substituted filling. The present invention addresses this need by providing an apparatus for splitting cigars. The present invention also address the need to simplify the number of apparatuses for the enjoyment of substituting filling in cigars and smoking the substitute filled cigar by providing an apparatus for lighting and splitting the cigar.


The invention provides a method of reducing the propensity of a diesel fuel composition to take up zinc when exposed to zinc during storage and/or transportation, the method comprising formulating a diesel fuel composition to be stored or transported in contact with zinc such that said diesel fuel composition has an aniline point greater than 80° C.

It is well known that trace amounts of zinc dissolved in diesel fuel can rapidly accelerate injector nozzle fouling in modern common rail diesel engines. These deposits line the metal surfaces inside the very small holes of the injector nozzle, thereby reducing the fuel flow into the engine which ultimately results in a loss of engine power. According to the study by Leedham et al ("Impact of Fuel Additives on Diesel Injector Deposits," SAE Technical Paper 2004-01-2935, 2004), trace amounts of zinc (of the order of 1 ppm) in a diesel fuel composition can cause significant power loss (ca. 12%) in a common rail diesel engine when advanced injector nozzles are used.
In general, diesel fuels are known to be prone to zinc pick-up during transportation if exposed to zinc containing components. Conventional wisdom in the art is that it is preferable to avoid any contact between diesel range material and zinc containing systems (see for example, BP Document ADF1403, "Long term storage of diesel", 2005) either during storage or transportation. It is acknowledged nonetheless, that in non-ideal circumstances, it is possible that contact might occur.
It has been experimentally demonstrated that diesel fuels can pick up zinc in the market logistic system, e.g. if the fuels come into contact with galvanised pipes and fittings; or if diesel fuels to which acid-based lubricity improvers have been added are stored in zinc-containing vehicle fuel tanks. There have been inconsistencies in measurement of the extent of zinc contamination in commercial diesel fuels, largely as a result of uncertainty in the probability of zinc exposure across several studies. However, it is not disputed that the presence of zinc in a market diesel fuel composition at levels even as low as 1 ppm would cause significant injector fouling problems.
Deposit control additives (DCA) have hence been developed to effectively combat zinc-related injector fouling. Many of these additives are also very effective at dissolving the deposits from previously fouled injectors. These deposit control additives appear to act by increasing or facilitating zinc solubility in diesel fuel compositions which typically results in zinc levels in the fuel that are significantly elevated over those where no additive is used. The efficacy of these additives does mean that any potential zinc-induced injector fouling problem can be eliminated, but only if they are used routinely, which result in increased cost. The increase in dissolved zinc in the diesel fuel composition as a result of using the additives could lead to other problems, such as the diesel particulate filter (DPF) operating ineffectively.


A system can include multiple individual status identifiers that correspond to multiple users and a group status identifier that corresponds to a group with which the users are associated. A status identifier update module can update the group status identifier based on a change to at least one of the individual status identifiers.

Current collaborative systems allow for an individual user to set his or her presence or status such that other users can see if he or she is available. For example, chat clients can indicate whether the user is available to chat or whether he or she is currently busy with other tasks. The user's personal status can indicate to others whether there is a special way to communicate with him or her outside of the chat tool. Chat clients can also allow for a person to set up his or her own list of contacts and groups within the system.
However, such systems are limited. For example, the individual status or present value for a user of these current tools is singular. That is, the user's status cannot be set differently for any of the individuals or groups in the user's contact list, let alone any other users or groups within the system. For example, if a certain user sets his or her status to "busy," then his or her personal status is set to "busy" for all of that user's contacts and groups with which he maintains a connection, regardless of the significance of any of those groups or individual contacts to the user.

Auto generated and inferred group chat presence


A wing unit is used in a wing flapping apparatus to perform a swinging motion to thereby generate levitation force. The wing unit includes a nonwoven fabric that forms a wing surface; a frame body overlaid on the nonwoven fabric and extending along the wing surface; and a resin material disposed in a cavity included in the nonwoven fabric to integrate the nonwoven fabric and the frame body with each other. According to this configuration, a light-weight and high-strength wing unit that produces a suppressed wing flapping noise, a wing flapping apparatus including the wing unit, and a method of manufacturing the wing unit are provided.

Conventional wing flapping apparatuses, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent National Publication No. 2012-529398 (PTL 1), provide a wing flapping apparatus configured such that a rocker arm is attached at the base end of a mast having a wing unit attached thereto, in which the rotational motion output from a rotary motor serving as a driving source is converted by a crank into a reciprocating linear motion, thereby causing the rocker arm to be cyclically pushed and pulled, to allow the rocker arm to drive the mast, so that the wing unit swings back and forth.
PTL 1: Japanese Patent National Publication No. 2012-529398.
As disclosed in PTL 1, a wing flapping apparatus having a wing unit configured to perform a swinging motion to thereby generate levitation force is known. In order to improve the energy efficiency in such a wing flapping apparatus, the weight of the wing unit needs to be reduced while the strength of the wing unit needs to be sufficiently ensured so as to allow the wing unit to withstand the wind pressure received during its swinging motion.
Furthermore, the noise (i.e., wing flapping noise) caused by the swinging motion of the wing unit is increased depending on the material used for the wing unit. This may reduce the product value of the wing flapping apparatus.

Wing unit, wing flapping apparatus, and method of manufacturing wing unit


A casting handle for fishing rods including a lowermost end; a reel seat portion; an elongated protrusion comprising an index finger recess comprising an index finger front wall and a middle finger recess comprising a middle finger back wall; and an index finger collar portion that is bulgedly outwardly extended from side surfaces of the collar portion to above the reel seat portion so as to define a surface having ridges on the side surfaces, said surface being tangential to a plane defined by the front wall of the index finger recess.

The present invention relates to a casting handle for fishing rods, which is provided with a recess with which the index finger is engaged, and is designed to positively receive a casting reel thereon.
In order to assure the required distance and accurate direction in casting, a fishing rod must be handled in a well-stabilized state, and in order to handle the fishing rod in that state, index finger grip power, is very important. For this purpose, there are casting handles for fishing rods, which includes a reel seat provided with a recess.
In the case of casting, a large force must be applied to the fishing rod, especially by fingers. Increasing the grip power of the index finger only by forming a recess for index finger does not assure the optimum increase in grip power. Such a problem may be solved by increasing the depth of that recess, but most of the current recesses reach the limits in terms of depth, because they cannot extend beyond the rod-surface.
An object of the invention is therefore to provide a casting handle for fishing rods, which can assure sufficient index finger grip power and, moreover, can enable casting to be done with increased stability.


Disclosed herein is technology that detects potentially deceptive URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) of a homograph attack (e.g., an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) homograph attack). In one or more implementations, the detection may be accomplished, at least in part, by assessing the likelihood that all of the characters in the URI (e.g., domain name) were typed on a keyboard using a single keyboard map. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

A "black hat" (e.g., malicious internet con artist) wishes to lure an unsuspecting target to a website of their creation. In doing so, the black hat hopes to extract personal or financial information from the target, download malicious software onto the target's machine or device, or otherwise act in a fraudulent or harmful manner to the target.
Often, the black hat accomplishes this feat by creating a counterfeit or fake website of a well-known company or organization. While the black hat has the means to create deceptive content of its website, the black hat does not own or control the domain name of the original website.
To fool the internet denizens, the black hat may use a fake Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed a web address, that appears similar to the real URL of the genuine website, but the fake URL differs in at least some ways. This type of attack is often called a homograph attack. For example, a simple homograph attack may use fake URL that swaps the letters for numbers. Examples of this include www.g00gle.co.uk and bl00mberg.com.
Generally, in a homograph attack, the black hat attempts to deceive an internet user by leveraging the similarities in the appearance between a fake URL and a genuine URL to lure the user into visiting the black hat's website using the fake URL. This attack has some known aliases: homoglyph attack, script spoofing, and homograph domain name spoofing. Also, this type of attack may be part of a so-called phishing attack.
Characters (e.g., letters and numbers) that look alike are called homoglyphs or homographs, thus the name of the attack. Examples of such are the Latin small letter O (U+006F) and the digit zero (U+0030). Hypothetically, one might register bl00mberg.com or g00gle.com and get away with it.
In an internationalized domain name (IDN) homograph attack, a black hat creates and registers one or several fake domains using at least one look-alike character from a different language. Again, hypothetically, one might register google.com, but not before swapping the Latin small letter O (U+006F) with the Greek small letter Omicron (U+03BF).
The Detailed Description references the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like features and components.

Detection of potentially deceptive URI (uniform resource identifier) of a homograph attack


An ophthalmic endoilluminator having only a first monochromatic light source emitting a first light and a second monochromatic light source emitting a second light. The first and second lights defining a light color axis representable on a chromaticity graph. A collimation element configured to collimate at least one of the first and second lights. An optical mixing device configured to mix the first and second lights into a single light beam. A lens configured to focus the single light beam. An optical fiber configured to carry the single light beam. A controller coupled to at least one of the first and second monochromatic light sources. The controller configured to tune at least one of the first and second monochromatic light sources such that the single beam of light represents a specific color of light at a point along the light color axis on the chromaticity graph.

There continues to be a need for improving ophthalmic illuminators used in ophthalmic surgery. Current ophthalmic illuminators utilize white light sources such as tungsten filament bulbs, halogen bulbs, and/or High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps such as metal halide and Xenon lamps. However, there are many drawbacks to using the current ophthalmic illuminators.
For example, the bulbs and lamps used in current ophthalmic illuminators have a short life time. Because the bulbs and lamps burn out every 30-400 hours, they often burn out during a surgical procedure. Thus, such failures increase the risk of harm to the patient because of the immediate lack of light and the interruption of surgery. The bulb replacement cost is also very high in current ophthalmic endo illuminators.
Furthermore, these bulbs and lamps generate substantial amounts of heat such that current ophthalmic endo illuminators have to be made of components capable of withstanding high temperature. Because of the heat produced by the bulbs and lamps used in current ophthalmic illuminators a cooling fan is implemented within the illuminator which adds to the cost of production/use as well as increases the bulkiness/size of the illuminator. This fan also generates substantial levels of noise in the operating room. In use, these bulbs and lamps take a certain time period to warm up (e.g. tungsten filament to reach thermal equilibrium) during which the color and brightness produced by the ophthalmic illuminator changes.
No LED ophthalmic endo illuminators currently exist, but an RGB scheme has been proposed that mixes at least three monochromatic light sources such that illuminator produces a light having adjustable color, including white. Mixing three or more monochromatic light sources to produce a given light would require a complicated optical scheme in order for the three or more monochromatic light sources to be appropriately mixed. Additionally, the more monochromic light sources an ophthalmic illuminator is required to have to operate correctly the more opportunity there is for problems to occur if one of the light sources stops working. As compared to existing endo illuminators, any proposed LED endo illuminator should have a longer LED light source lifetime and "instant on" capability.
Accordingly, there remains a need for ophthalmic endo illuminators devices and methods for using during ocular surgery that use less than three monochromatic light sources, improve the quality of illumination (e.g. brightness and/or color), reduce the generation of heat and noise during use, increase reliability of the instrument during a surgical procedure, and extend the life span of the light source to eliminate any bulb replacement issues.

Bichromatic white ophthalmic illuminator


A locking gimbal ring assembly including an inner ring for holding an article and an outer clamping element for receiving the inner holding ring and connectable with an outside structure, with the outer clamping element being formed of two superimposed annular elements having each a circular half-hole provided on an adjacent end surface of each of the annular element and complementary to each other, the complementary circular half-holes forming a clamping socket, the top and bottom annular elements having at least a pair of complementary opposite holes for connecting the top and bottom annular elements together, the assembly further including a pin connectable with the inner holding ring for joint pivotal movement therewith and receivable in the clamping socket formed by the annular elements, and screws extending into the pair of complementary holes formed in the top and bottom annular elements for adjustably connecting the top and bottom annual elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking gimbal ring assembly including an inner ring for holding an article, an outer clamping element, which can, e.g., be formed as a ring for receiving the inner holding ring and connectable with outside points, and elements for pivotally connecting the inner holding ring with the outer clamping element. The present invention also relates to a ring element forming the outer clamping ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Circular gimbal ring assemblies or gimbals are generally used for supporting an article in horizontal, vertical, or arbitrary inclined positions. A conventional gimbal ring assembly includes an inner ring for holding, e.g., a lamp, and an outer clamping ring connected with the inner ring and secured in an outside structure. The inner holding ring is securable in the clamping ring with a possibility of pivotal movement therein and after having been pivoted to a predetermined position, is secured in that position.
A conventional gimbal ring assembly is shown in FIGS. 1-2. It includes a one-piece clamping ring securable to outside points, e.g., with two screws and nuts, with the screws extending through diametrically opposite openings formed in the outer clamping ring. Generally, the inner ring is securable to the outer ring with diametrically opposite threaded pins with nuts or screws. When the position of the inner holding ring need be changed, the nuts or screws are released, and the inner holding ring is pivoted to a desired position. Then, the nuts or screws are tightened again.
The above-described conventional gimbal ring assembly has a number of drawbacks. On many occasions, there is little space between the outer clamping ring and the structure, to which the gimbal ring assembly is attached. Therefore, the nuts or screws, with which the outer clamping ring is attached to the inner holding ring, can be accessed only with much difficulties. Further, an operator needs to use both hands for releasing or tightening the nuts or the screws. Still further, it is practically impossible to retain the inner holding ring in a precisely predetermined position during tightening of the nuts or screws. This is because the tightening torque causes shifting of the inner holding ring.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a locking circular gimbal assembly which would insure easy release and tightening of the inner holding ring.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a locking circular gimbal assembly in which the inner holding ring can be precisely secured in its predetermined position.


A method of drying wet toner particles includes adding different sized wet toner particles to a dryer drying chamber and drying each of the wet toner particles for a drying time TD. The drying time TD can vary for each toner particle and is proportional to the mass of the wet toner particle. The method can also include introducing a heated drying gas into the drying chamber to create a circulating flow of drying gas. The method also includes adjusting the pressure and/or velocity and/or angle of the heated drying gas to control the amount of deagglomeration of the toner particles.

The present invention relates to a system and method of drying chemical toner particles, and more particularly a system and method for drying chemical toner particles in a circulating flow of drying gas.
Chemical toner used in copiers is composed of toner particles which are applied to paper to produce an image. It is desirable that the toner particles be uniformly sized, having a narrow size distribution, to produce images with improved resolution and clarity. For example, in one known application, solid toner particles are produced having a typical average size distribution of approximately 6 microns in diameter with most particles falling in a range of about 2 to 8 microns.
It is also desirable that the toner particles flow freely during use to provide superior results. Moisture retained by the toner particles can cause the particles to stick together and not flow freely. During the process of manufacturing toner, the toner particles are dried until they have a moisture content sufficiently low enough that the toner particles do not stick together.
The toner particles are separated from each other in a process called deagglomeration. During drying, sufficient deagglomeration exposes the surface of each particle to enable efficient heat transfer from the particle which also aids in drying.
In a conventional process of forming chemical toner, latex particles and pigment particles are heated in a chemical reactor to form covalent bonds between the particles. The covalent bonds provide attractive forces between the particles causing them to come together or aggregate. The aggregated particles are then coalesced to make them more robust.
At this point in the process, the particles are in a liquid dispersion, also known as a mother liquor, which includes the toner particles, as well as residuals such as latex, pigment, surfactants, and other materials used in the process. Next, the mother liquor is dewatered from the particles to obtain a slurry including the solid toner particles as well as residuals including surfactants used to stabilize the latex, pigments and waxes. The wetcake is then washed to remove more of the residuals. The wetcake may be washed several times.
The washed toner particles, or wetcake, is then dried to provide free-flowing individual toner particles. Several different processes have been used for drying the toner particles, including indirect dryers such as disc dryers, drum dryers, paddle dryers, rotary dryers, and direct dryers including vacuum, freeze fluid bed and conveyers.
The wetcake includes a large number of different sized wet toner particles. Further, the moisture retained by each wet particle is typically proportional to the particle size, so that larger particles retain more moisture than smaller particles. A problem with conventional toner particle drying systems and methods, is that the drying time for each particle, that is the length of time each particle is dried, is approximately equal. Thus moisture retained by the particles is not removed in an effective and efficient manner. In order to remove enough of the moisture from the larger particles, conventional drying apparatus and processes often dry the smaller particles for too long, overheating them above their glass transition point (Tg).
Toner particles heated above their glass transition point (Tg) or melting point (Tm), can fuse with other particles. The fused toner particle clumps have sizes which exceed the desired range of particle size resulting in poor toner performance. It is desirable to dry each toner particle to remove the desired amount of moisture while preventing overheating which can result in the undesirable fusion of toner particles.
Additionally, the feed material enters the drying system as a de-lumped wetcake, and needs to be separated further to produce a free flowing product. Conventional toner drying technologies provide limited deagglomeration capabilities. It is desirable to improve deagglomeration during drying.
A system and method of drying wet toner particles used for hard-copy document and image reproduction.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention a method of drying wet toner particles is provided. The method includes adding different sized wet toner particles to a dryer drying chamber and drying each of the wet toner particles for a drying time TD. The drying time TD can vary for each toner particle and is proportional to the mass of the wet toner particle.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, the method can include introducing a heated drying gas into the drying chamber to create a circulating flow of drying gas having a curved portion, and retaining the toner particles in the circulating flow until the toner particles lose enough moisture that exiting forces overcome centrifugal forces and the toner particles no longer remain in the drying chamber.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a dryer for drying toner particles is included. The dryer includes a drying chamber, at least one drying gas inlet for introducing heated drying gas into the drying chamber to produce a circulating flow of drying gas. The dryer includes a feed inlet for introducing wet toner particles into the circulating flow of drying gas to dry the wet toner particles. The dryer also includes an exit path communicating with the drying chamber for directing an exiting stream of the drying gas out of the drying chamber to move dry toner particles from the drying chamber.
Other features, benefits and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.
The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. The invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components, and in various steps and arrangements of steps, preferred embodiments of which will be illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is diagram illustrating a dryer in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is diagram of a portion of the dryer show in FIG. 1 illustrating the forces exerted on a toner particle when the toner particle remains in the circulating stream in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 3 is diagram of a portion of the dryer show in FIG. 1 illustrating the forces exerted on a toner particle when the toner particle exits the drying chamber in accordance with the invention; and
FIG. 4. illustrates the steps of the invention.

System and method for drying toner particles


The invention provides a device for measuring an inside diameter of a body lumen, such as an air passageway. The device includes a flexible catheter having an inflation lumen, a fluid dispenser in fluid communication with the inflation lumen and operable to communicate a measurable fluid volume change with the inflation lumen, and an expandable member in fluid communication with the inflation lumen and having a known relationship between volume and a changeable transverse dimension, the transverse dimension being changeable in response to fluid volume changes of the fluid dispenser and arranged for placement adjacent to opposing portions of an interior wall of the air passageway. The expandable member may be dimensioned for transoral placement into the air passageway, and may comprise a balloon that includes a complaint material.

The present invention is generally directed to a device and method for measuring the inside diameter of a body lumen and, more particularly, of air passageways. The present invention is more particularly directed toward measuring an inside diameter of an air passageway by transorally inserting a balloon having a known volume-to-diameter relationship in the air passageway, expanding the balloon with a volume of fluid to a known transverse diameter, and determining that the transverse diameter is adjacent to opposing portions of an interior wall of the air passageway.
Several emerging technologies employ devices placed in the air passageways to diagnose and treat conditions of the lung, conditions of organs and body structures that are in proximity to the lungs, and conditions that are systemic. For example, a treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) involves placing obstructing devices in selected air passageways to collapse lung portions distal of the obstructing devices. The devices are typically placed in air passageways between approximately 4 and 10 mm in diameter.
The performance of intra-bronchial devices may be enhanced by sizing the device to fit the air passageway. However, no method or device presently exists for determining the inside diameter of an air passageway. There is a need in the art for quickly and economically measuring the inside diameter of an air passageway to assist in selecting the size of an obstructing device.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a new and improved apparatus and method for measuring the inside diameter of air passageways.

Device and method for measuring the diameter of an air passageway


Embodiments are directed towards budgeting and forecasting of information technology and services. In at least one of the various embodiments, financial allocation models may include multiple cost objects and one or more allocation rules. In at least one of the various embodiments, allocation rules may determine how costs associated with cost objects may be allocated to other cost objects. In at least one of the various embodiments, costs corresponding to one or more selected cost objects may be traced within a financial allocation model. Also, costs associated with multiple cost line items from different cost objects may simultaneously traced for efficient cross-referencing of disparate cost line items. Further, in at least one of the various embodiments, a display of the cost traces may be rendered and displayed to provide a visualization of the traced costs.

Businesses that strive to remain viable and successful in today's competitive commercial environment are required to adopt accurate and responsive budgeting practices. To improve efficiency, businesses use financial allocation models that apply modern budgeting and forecasting techniques. For some budget techniques, the complexity of the financial allocation model increases as the number of tracked activities and elements increases. Therefore, for larger enterprises, sophisticated computer programs and computing devices are often required to assist in generating useful and relevant budgets based on financial allocation models.
In some cases, the large number of items represented in a financial allocation model can make analysis of the financial allocation model difficult. Further, the size and complexity of a financial allocation model can make it difficult to trace the cost allocations between groups and/or items within the model. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the invention has been made.

System and method for visualizing trace of costs across a graph of financial allocation rules


For the preparation of high purity glass powder having a mean particle size of .ltoreq.10 .mu.m, glass powder having a larger particle size up to 300 .mu.m is ground to the desired particle size in a stirred mill with glass grinding elements in the presence of a grinding liquid comprising water or preferably a mixture of at least 50% by weight of water and at least one water-soluble, oxygen-containing organic compound having 1 to 5 carbon atoms in the molecule, e.g., tert.-butyl alcohol; the ground slurry is then frozen, and the solvent is subsequently removed from the frozen slurry by freeze-drying. A resultant glass powder with a mean particle size d.sub.50 of 0.5 to 2 .mu.m is particularly suitable as a filler for synthetic resins in the dental sector.

This invention relates to the preparation of very fine glass powder of high purity having a mean particle size d.sub.50 of .ltoreq.10 .mu.m by wet-grinding in the presence of grinding elements.
High-purity glass powders are required, in particular, as fillers for plastics employed in the dental sector, for example, dental fillings. For glass powders of this type, mean particle diameters d.sub.50 of at most 10 .mu.m, preferably <5 .mu.m, in particular .ltoreq.3 .mu.m are required since the mechanical properties such as polishability and abrasion resistance, are improved with increasing fineness (decreasing particle diameter). Excessively large glass particles (<10 .mu.m) produce a rough surface in the cured plastic or break out and leave holes and sharp edges. The refractive index of the glass powder must agree very closely with that of the plastic in order to achieve high transparency and translucency of the filled plastic. If the glass powder contains, for example, coloring particles or particles having different refractive indices, the translucency and transparency and possibly also the color of the filled plastic are impaired, so that the plastic can frequently only be used with considerable restrictions, if at all.
Glass powders are prepared by grinding. The grinding processes hitherto have the disadvantages of, in some cases, high energy consumption for the grinding, long grinding times for fine particle sizes and high abrasion of grinding pebbles and the mill wall. The abrasion particles impair the transparency and translucency of the filled plastic and make the production of very pale tooth colors difficult.
The conventional dry-grinding processes are at the limit of their performance for these small particle sizes, require long grinding times and generally require an additional air separator for classifying the grinding material. Abrasion of the grinding elements, wear of the grinding container or of the air separator and the energy consumption are so high that these grinding processes are unsuitable for the preparation of very fine glass powders.
Although wet-grinding processes using water yield fine particle sizes in a shorter time than do dry-grinding processes, the grinding elements are still subject to considerable abrasion and a particular disadvantage is that numerous agglomerates, i.e., very solid clusters of powder particles, which act in a similar way to large individual particles and dramatically impair the properties of the filled plastic, form from the grinding slurry on drying. If, by contrast, the grinding is carried out in the presence of organic liquids in which agglomeration is substantially suppressed on drying (for example, low-boiling hydrocarbons), the grinding times are considerably extended, the amount of grinding abrasion increases correspondingly and additional safety precautions for example, explosion protection, become necessary.

Preparation of very fine glass powder of high purity


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that tests the quality and/or the reliability of a component. During operation, the system applies test conditions to a plurality of specimens of the component. While applying the test conditions, the system measures the same variable from each of the plurality of specimens. Next, the system computes a running average of the measured variable across the plurality of specimens. The system then computes residuals between the measured variable for each specimen and the running average. The system next determines from the residuals whether the associated specimens are degraded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for determining the quality and/or the reliability of a component in a system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining the quality and/or the reliability of a component by monitoring dynamic variables associated with the component during an in-situ stress-test of the component.
2. Related Art
Computer system manufacturers routinely evaluate the quality and/or the reliability of individual computer system components to ensure that the computer systems manufactured from the components meet or exceed quality and reliability requirements of their customers. Typically, component reliabilities are determined through "reliability-evaluation studies." These reliability-evaluation studies can include "accelerated-life studies," which accelerate the failure mechanisms of a component, or "repair-center reliability evaluations," wherein the vendor tests components returned from the field. On the other hand, the quality of components is determined through "burn-in screens," which are designed to eliminate early failures prior to shipping to customers. These types of tests typically involve using environmental stress-test chambers to hold and/or cycle one or more stress variables (e.g. temperature, humidity, radiation, etc.) at levels that are believed to accelerate subtle failure mechanisms within a component. The components under test are then placed inside the stress-test chamber and subjected to those stress conditions.
Note that during a reliability-evaluation, even when subjected to the stress conditions, the components typically need to remain in the stress-test chambers for long time periods, which may range from hours to months, before failures are detected. Furthermore, it is usually not possible to apply pass/fail tests for the components or systems while they are in the stress-test chambers. Consequently, at predetermined time intervals, the components or systems under stress-test are typically removed from the stress-test chambers and are tested externally (referred to as "ex-situ" tests) to count the number of components that have failed. The components or systems that have not failed are then returned to the stress-test chambers and are tested further. In this way, the reliability-evaluation study generates a history of failed and not-failed component/system counts at discrete intervals, e.g. 100 hours, 200 hours, 300 hours and so on.
Unfortunately, these ex-situ reliability-evaluation studies which use stress-test chambers are both expensive and time-consuming. This is a consequence of the fact that most reliability-evaluation studies have to deal with a tradeoff between the number of units being stress-tested, and the time they remain under stress-test. More specifically, if the components are expensive and/or in very short supply (e.g. pre-manufacturing prototype components) so that only a few components can be stress-tested, then extremely long test windows are needed to get a statistically significant number of failures in order to draw meaningful conclusions for reliability. On the other hand, if the components are inexpensive and readily obtainable, so that a large number of units can be placed under a stress-test, when the stress-test is halted to evaluate how many units have failed (which involves measuring every unit under test), the ex-situ evaluation becomes extremely resource-intensive and consequently expensive.
One solution to the above-described problems is to test and evaluate component reliabilities while the components are under stress in the stress-test chamber. This requires the ability to monitor specific physical variables which indicate the health of the components and which can be obtained directly from the components under test. However, a primary challenge in effectively performing this type of reliability-evaluation technique is to come up with a way to precisely detect when a component is degrading under stress conditions. Co-pending patent application Ser. No. 11/219,091 (listed above) applies a Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) to those physical variables under surveillance. This technique can accurately identify the incipience or onset of gradual component degradation when the monitored variables are relatively stationary (in the statistical sense) with time.
Unfortunately, for many reliability studies, the telemetry signals from the stress-test chamber contain significant dynamic behavior. This can occur, for example, in accelerated-life studies if the system is actively varying one or more stress variables, causing the stress variables to introduce dynamics into the telemetry metrics. The dynamic behavior also occurs in the early failure rate studies, burn-in screens and repair-center reliability evaluations. In these cases, the telemetry signals cannot be assumed to be stationary. Hence, the stationarity assumption, which is important for the SPRT technique to operate correctly, may be invalid.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus for detecting degradation in a component under test by monitoring telemetry signals which exhibits dynamical behaviors.

Determining the quality and reliability of a component by monitoring dynamic variables


A system for supplying a pre-determined ratio of liquid foam concentrate and water to a mixing device immediately upstream from a fire fighting nozzle. The system is electronically balanced by measuring pressure from a plurality of pressure signal sensors and transmitting said pressure signals to a controller unit. A foam additive pump is powered by a fixed displacement piston motor which in turn is electronically modulated independently of the level of operation of the water pump by a control system that is responsive both to the water pressure developed by the water pump and to the foam liquid concentrate pressure developed by the additive pump.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for extinguishing fires, and in particular to a system for adding liquid foam concentrate into water lines, and mixing the foam concentrate with water in a mixing device, such as a venturi and dispensing said mixture through a nozzle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional foam additive systems for fighting fires employ numerous mechanisms for supplying foam liquid concentrate via supply conduits to one or more of the discharge outlets of a water pump. The goal of such a system is to achieve xe2x80x9cbalanced pressurexe2x80x9d between the fluid line, typically a water line; and the additive line, typically a foam concentrate supply line. At balanced pressure, the system responds to high fluid pressure with a correlatively high additive pressure, and corresponds to low fluid pressure with a relatively low additive pressure. Thus, at high water pressure and flows, foam is added at an equal pressure and at a flow calculated to maintain a pre-determined ratio of water to foam. The same is true for low pressure and flow.
xe2x80x9cBalanced pressurexe2x80x9d is particularly important in the fire-fighting field, because the water to foam ratio is critical to optimize fire fighting efficiency based on the type of fire fuel that that is present. Ranges between 0.2%-6% of foam have been reported as optimal, depending on the composition and fuel of the target fire. Further complicating the task of balancing pressure is the extremely variable water flows and pressures. Thus, the amount and pressure of foam must meet the varying pressure and volume of water being used.
Various systems presently exist to attempt xe2x80x9cbalanced pressure.xe2x80x9d Early systems used the bladder method to add foam into the water line, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,244 (1991) to Grindley et al. In a bladder system, a foam containing bladder is placed inside a pressurized water container, and the water line pressure is equilibrated with the air surrounding the foam bladder, keeping the foam and water at balanced pressure. However, this method severely limited the foam supply, such that realistically only one bladder could be used on each fire. Additionally, when the foam in the bladder was exhausted, bladder change-out was cumbersome and slow.
Another balanced pressure additive system involves an additive pump. These pump systems are of one or two basic types. One embodiment of an additive pump system is a bypass system, in which a foam pump runs at a constant speed discharging foam through a foam discharge outlet. A balanced pressure valve is located at the outlet and the balanced pressure valve allows the unneeded foam to re-circulate into a foam storage tank. However, this system responds poorly to water pressure variation in that it could not maintain exacting water to foam ratios. Another drawback of this system is that the foam tends to become heated as it is re-circulated into the foam storage tank. The heated foam, which has different flow characteristics than ambient temperature foam, mixes poorly with ambient temperature water. In addition the foam in the storage tank can become aerated due to the large quantity of foam being re-circulated. This aerated foam can cause the system to act erratic when it is drawn into the suction side of the foam pump.
Another embodiment of an additive pump system is a hydraulically powered demand system that varies additive pump output in response to different readings from a flow meter installed in the water pump discharge line that measures water flow rate. This system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,383 (1992) to Haugen et al. The flow meter signal is processed by a microprocessor to match the output of the flow on the additive pump with a measure of the additive pump output fed back to the microprocessor to maintain the additive flow rate at the proper proportion to the water flow rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,487 (1984) to Purvis et al. teaches an improved system for supplying foam liquid concentrate to water pump discharge outlets wherein the output of the concentrate pump is controlled in accordance with the demand for liquid concentrate, irrespective of variations in water pump flow rate and operating pressure. This is achieved by driving the foam concentrate pump with a variable output hydraulic drive, which in turn is automatically modulated independently of the level of operation by the water pump by a hydraulic control circuit responsive both to the water pressure developed by the pump and to the foam liquid concentrate pressure developed by the concentrate pump. The hydraulic control circuit includes a fluid pressure responsive adjusting mechanism for varying the displacement of the hydrostatic pump. A servo control module is connected in the hydraulic control circuit between a rotary gear charge pump and the adjusting mechanism. The servo control module operates to modulate the hydraulic fluid pressure being applied to the adjusting mechanism in response to variations in the water pressure developed by the water pump and the foam liquid concentrate pressure developed by the concentrate pump. In other words, this system uses hydraulics to control the balanced pressure system. The servo control module senses the foam concentrate pressure and the water pressure. This in turn sends hydraulic fluid through a valve system that actuates a cylinder in the pump. The cylinder then mechanically changes the stroke of the hydraulic pump.
Another system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,328 (1998) to Mason et al. To again maintain balanced pressure, a balances pressure valve with electric switches provides the required control. The system has two limit switches that are actuated when the shaft of the balanced pressure valve rises or falls. These switches start or stop an electric motor that with a cable that controls the stroke of the hydraulic pump. Because of the imprecise control, the balance valve is also capable of sending excess foam concentrate to the suction side of the foam pump for proper proportioning.
These prior art systems are either entirely mechanical in nature or electric components (i.e. switches and motors) are used to control the hydraulic pump. The present invention utilizes an electronic programmable logic controller to control the hydraulic pump.
The programmable controller provides the following advantages. The system has increased reliability due to the durability of circuit boards with no moving components. The system response time is increased due to advantages of electronics compared to mechanical methods. This response time is critical in this application due to the changes in flows and pressures at the fire scene. The accuracy of the system is critical with firefighter safety when using a class B foam blanket.
A basic objective of the present invention is to avoid the above-mentioned problems by monitoring fluid pressures not fluid flow, and electrically or electronically controlling foam additive flow. This solves a long-felt need for an accurate foam proportioning system based on demand. These and other objectives and advantages of the present invention are achieved in a preferred embodiment to be hereinafter described in greater detail. By contrast, the above-noted prior art devices rely upon fluid flow or hydraulic balancing circuits for maintaining balanced pressure. The prior art systems do not electronically control foam additive flow.
The foam additive system comprises a source of pressurized water, a water supply system in fluid communication with the source of pressurized water, and a fluid/additive mixing device in fluid communication with the water supply system. An additive pump, a motor, such as a piston motor mechanically coupled to the additive pump, and an additive supply line system connect the additive source with the fluid/additive mixing device. The additive supply line system is in fluid communication with the additive pump. An additive pump control apparatus is present for varying the rate of foam additive. The additive pump control apparatus is connected to the motor and the additive pump. The control apparatus is responsive to and in communication with a measure of additive supply line system pressure and a measure of water supply system pressure. Pressure transducers are utilized to measure the foam additive system pressure and the water supply system pressure.
The additive supply system further comprises a variable output hydraulic drive means coupled to and powering the motor. A hydraulic fluid reservoir supplies the hydraulic fluid required for the system. A hydrostatic pump having a pressure compensator and a swash plate is also provided, the hydrostatic pump being in fluid communication between the reservoir and the motor. In addition there is provided a second motor for driving the hydrostatic pump, the hydrostatic pump being operable to supply hydraulic fluid under pressure to the motor, and the hydrostatic pump having a variable displacement controlled by a pressure compensator.
The novelty or improvement of the present system includes an electronic proportional relief valve fluidly coupled to the hydrostatic pump and the hydraulic fluid reservoir and electronically connected to a digital controller. The aforementioned pressure transducers send electronic signals to the digital controller. The electronic proportional relief valve receives an electronic signal from the digital controller that in turn communicates a hydraulic pressure signal to the pressure compensator. In response to changes in the hydraulic pressure signal received from the proportional relief valve, the pressure compensator adjusts the swash plate. The compensator features the sensing ability to respond to pressure changes as quick as three variations per second. The compensator and an in-line orifice also serve as a speed control based on load sensing, preventing the additive pump""s hydraulic motor from exceeding a predetermined speed.
By using two electronic signals from the pressure transmitters, a method of electronically varying the additive supply system is also disclosed.

Foam additive supply system for rescue and fire fighting vehicles


A torch angle measuring device, comprising: (a) a support rigidly clampable to the nozzle of the torch; (b) a reference member; (c) joint means between the reference member and the support providing axes of rotational movement therebetween, the axes being at 90.degree. to each other and each being transverse by 90.degree. to the nozzle axis; and (d) plumb level means on the reference member for displaying levelness in planes parallel to the joint means axes. The joint means has the first of the axes effective to determine lead angle and the second of said axes effective to determine transverse angle. The device additionally includes means for holding the device in an adjusted angle position.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the art of accurately setting an arc welding torch in a mechanically fixed orientation to a relatively moving workpiece during welding to enhance the quality of the weld.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Arc welding torches can be straight, angled or curved, and the degree of straightness, angle or curvature can vary between manufacturers. Nonetheless, the axis of the gas nozzle for such torches is coincidental with the axis of the welding electrode wire (which is in coincident with the torch contact tip). It is the orientation between (a) the line of movement for weld travel, and (ii) the axis of the electrode wire passing through the weld bead that determines the weld angle. Weld angle is compound, comprising: (a) an inclination between such electrode axis and the line of movement in a plane that is at 90.degree. either to the axis of rotation if the workpiece is rotating relatively or to the first general plane of the workpiece if stationary (often called lead angle), and (b) an inclination between such electrode axis and the line of movement in a plane parallel to the axis of rotation if the workpiece is rotating relatively or to a second general plane at 90.degree. of the first plane if the workpiece is stationary (often called transverse angle).
Torch angle is a critical parameter in welding; in many cases it is second in importance only to welding current. Applicants are unaware of any prior art that is effective in measuring or setting torch angle independent of the workpiece as part of the fixturing. It is common practice to estimate the initial torch angle based upon experience and data, and then modify the angle using protractors by a trial and error technique to arrive at the optimum angle for welding quality in a production run. Attempts to fixture the measurement have consistently resulted in use of devices, often very complex, that contact the workpiece to be welded to establish references (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,124,093; 3,443,732; and 4,202,535). This latter approach is disadvantageous because it is cumbersome in automatic robotic applications which are frequently changing and the torch is held independent of the workpiece.
What is needed is a device that not only eliminates estimation, but accurately, quickly, and universally establishes torch angle in three-dimensional space independent of the workpiece, and does so with ease and without complexity.

Quick setting angle device for a welding torch


An access key for a device having a fingerprint activated lock includes an electrically conductive member having surface features formed on a surface thereof that can he recognized by the fingerprint activated lock as a unique fingerprint. A second electrically conductive member is electrically coupled to the first electrically conductive member. The second electrically conductive member is electrically coupled to the body of a user such that the sensor recognizes the first electrically conductive member as a fingerprint. The second electrically conductive member is preferably a ring, stylus or gripping portion upon which the first electrically conductive member is mounted. The electrically conductive member is preferably constructed from a capacitive elastomer such as an electrically conductive silicone. The access key functions as a synthetic fingerprint to limit access to a system to a possessor of the key. Access to the system provided by key can be limited to a predetermined period of time or a selected geographic area.

Fingerprint identification sensors that can detect and identify human fingerprints are increasingly used to secure computers, mobile phones and sensitive facilities. Unfortunately, the unique nature of the human fingerprint makes it impossible to transfer or share them between individuals. Therefore, any changes or transfers in authorizations require the entry of new fingerprints into the system. Therefore, what is needed is an improved way to use existing fingerprint identification sensors to provide a transferable authorization solution.


A data protection system configured to replicate data may generate rescue packages that allow the system to recover when communication between a splitter or source of the production data being replicated and an appliance that stores the replicated data is disrupted. The rescue package is stored on a datastore and is then retrieved by the data protection system or another splitter. After processing the rescue package, which may contain IOs that the data protection is unaware of due to the communication disruption, replication may resume normally.

Generally, replication is a process in which input/outputs (IOs) such as writes are detected and sent to another device in addition to their intended destination. This process generates replicated data or backups that are substantially the same as the production data. However, the ability to replicate data with a very low recovery point objective (RPO) can be complicated when the target of the replicated data is unable to communicate with the source of the replicated data.
More specifically, replication becomes complicated when the source of the replicated production data is unable to communicate with the target of the replicated data. This problem becomes larger as the time during which communication is lost rises.
The process of replicating data is further complicated by the configuration of modern computing systems. In addition to facing problems when communication is lost, additional problems arise when the configuration of the source data changes. For example, virtual machines may move from one host to another host. When this occurs and when communication is lost, the ability to resume replication once communication is reestablished is difficult.

Rescue package for uncontrollable splitters


Techniques for detecting jammers in a received signal are described. A jammer detector includes a jammer filter for attenuating transmit signals leaked into the receive path, a pulse generator for converting the interference signals into discrete-level pulses, and a pulse processor for determining the presence of jammers in the discrete-level pulses. In an exemplary embodiment, the pulse processor is configured to further discriminate among close-in jammers that are close to the desired receive frequency, far-away jammers, and jammers arising from the transmit signals leaked into the receive path. In another exemplary embodiment, hysteresis is provided in the pulse generator to enable the generation of reliable pulses. Further aspects include configuring the jammer detector for operation in a plurality of frequency bands and/or according to a plurality of communications standards.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communications devices, and more specifically, to techniques for detecting interference in communications receivers.
2. Background
In a communications system, a receiver receives a signal from a transmitter, typically in the presence of noise and interference, and attempts to recover the information sent by the transmitter. Examples of interference may include TX jammers arising from signal leakage from a transmit (TX) signal path co-located with the receiver, as well as jammers derived from other sources. Strong jammers may desensitize a receiver due to, e.g., the non-linear characteristics of the receiver which may mix the jammer signals into the desired signal.
To deal with strong jammers, a receiver may be designed to support both normal and high-linearity operating modes. In the high-linearity operating mode, the receiver may offer better linearity characteristics to minimize the distortion caused by the strong jammers, typically at the cost of greater power consumption. The receiver may be configured to switch from a normal operating mode to a high-linearity operating mode upon the detection of strong enough jammers. This feature demands the availability of jammer detectors that can reliably sense the presence of strong jammers in a received signal.
It would be desirable to provide jammer detectors that are low-cost, reliable, and easily configurable for operation in a plurality of frequency bands and/or according to a plurality of communications standards.

Interference detection apparatus and method


A liquid cooled internal combustion engine, comprising: an integrally cast engine main body including a cylinder block, a cylinder head, and a crankcase skirt, a crankcase cover attached to an open end of the skirt to define a crankcase therein, a crankshaft extending vertically in the crankcase and rotatably supported by the skirt at its both ends, a camshaft rotatably supported by the cylinder head and extending in parallel with the crankshaft, a timing belt passed around pulleys mounted on lower ends of the camshaft and the crankshaft, respectively, and extending in a belt chamber defined in the cylinder block along a lower side of the cylinder bore; a cooling liquid jacket defined in the cylinder block along upper and lateral sides of the cylinder bore. The jacket may be formed during the casting process by pulling a core either upwards or toward the open end of the skirt. The cooling liquid may consist of the lubricating oil for the engine. Thus, a jacket for the cooling liquid can be formed without requiring its cylinder head to be cast separately from its cylinder block, and the rigidity of the part of the cylinder block adjoining its cylinder head can be increased without increasing its wall thickness. Also, a compact design of the engine is made possible, and the process of fabricating the engine can be simplified.

In a liquid cooled engine, a jacket is defined around each of its cylinders for circulating cooling liquid therein. In a normal internal combustion engine using a cylinder block and a cylinder head which are separately cast by metallic dies, it is customary to use inner cores which may be pulled out of the cylinder block from its interface with the cylinder head along a cylinder longitudinal line. In such an engine, the part of the cylinder defining a combustion chamber in cooperation with the cylinder head is known to reach a highest temperature level, and is therefore subjected to most severe thermal stresses.
In the case of a cylinder block having an annular opening around each of its cylinders at its interface with the cylinder head, it is necessary to increase the wall thickness of such a region in order to achieve a necessary rigidity of the part of the cylinder block defining the combustion chamber when the piston is near its top dead center. At the same time, not only the interface of the cylinder block with its cylinder head is required to be finished with a high precision but also the cylinder head and the cylinder block must be assembled together with a high precision to prevent leakage of cooling liquid into the combustion chamber. All these factors contributed to the increase in the cost of internal combustion engines.
Also, most liquid cooled engines are provided with radiators to remove heat from the cooling liquid, and the need for such a radiator prevented the use of a liquid cooling system in small engines due to economical considerations and space restrictions. Japanese patent laid open publication No. 1-151709 discloses a flywheel in which a heat exchange passage is defined for removing heat from the cooling liquid. Japanese utility model laid open publication No. 58-37920 discloses an internal combustion engine in which its lubricating oil is circulated in its jacket to achieve a favorable cooling effect and increase the capacity of its oil sump without increasing the size of its oil pan.
However, these prior art engines are intended for normal engines having a horizontal crankshaft, and cannot be directly applied to vertical crankshaft engines. Furthermore, they are not suitable for application to small engines due to their complex oil passage structure and jacket structure, respectively.

Liquid cooled internal combustion engine


A method is provided for forming a multi-level interconnect structure on a semiconductor substrate, e.g., for use in an integrated circuit, comprising forming on the substrate a first interconnection level comprising a first dielectric layer and a first set of conductive structures arranged in the first dielectric layer, forming on the first interconnection level a second interconnection level comprising a second dielectric layer and a second set of conductive structures arranged in the second dielectric layer, and forming on the second interconnection level a third interconnection level.

There is a continuous strive to make integrated circuits smaller and denser. Integrated circuits typically comprise multi-level interconnect structures. Such a structure may include a number of vertically stacked interconnection levels, each comprising horizontally extending conductive paths or lines arranged in a dielectric layer. Conductive paths of adjacent interconnection levels may be interconnected by vertically extending connections known as vias extending vertically between conductive paths of two interconnection levels.
In conventional circuit fabrication, an interconnection level is typically formed in what in the art is known as a "dual damascene process". According to this approach horizontally extending trenches are etched in a dielectric layer. Further, vertically extending via holes are formed in the dielectric layer. Thereafter the trenches and via holes are simultaneously filled with a conductive material to form conductive lines in the trenches and conductive vias in the via holes. The process may be repeated to form a stack of interconnection levels.
To enable more area efficient and flexible signal routing within an interconnect structure it has been proposed to incorporate so-called multi-level vias or "supervias". A multi-level via is a via which directly interconnects two non-adjacent interconnection levels and electrically bypasses an intermediate level. Although multi-level vias is a promising concept, designing viable integration processes for forming interconnection structures comprising such multi-level vias however remains a challenge.

Method for forming a multi-level interconnect structure


A fuel economy display control method for a hybrid vehicle includes driving electric power supplied to a travel motor from a battery is generated by an electric power generation device that generates electric power by consuming fuel. The fuel economy display control method includes an electric power economy computation step in which instantaneous electric power economy according to an output of the travel motor is computed, a fuel economy computation step in which instantaneous fuel economy corresponding to the above instantaneous electric power economy is computed in accordance with an operating state set for the electric power generation device, and a display step in which the instantaneous fuel economy is displayed on a display device arranged inside a vehicle cabin.

As a vehicle in which an engine serves as a driving source, there is known a vehicle in which instantaneous fuel economy is computed in accordance with an operating state of the engine and displayed for a driver inside a vehicle cabin. Also, JP2013-032152A discloses a method for calculating a distance to empty per unit electric power consumption (electric power economy) based on electric power of a battery, the electric power being consumed due to traveling, and charged electric power by regeneration in a vehicle in which a travel motor is driven by electric power from the battery (an EV).

Fuel economy display control method and fuel economy display control system


The present invention relates to a multi-output self-balancing power circuit. In one embodiment, a multi-output self-balancing power circuit can include: a transformer formed by a primary winding and n (e.g., greater than 2) series connected secondary windings; n output circuits corresponding to the n secondary windings, where each of the n output circuits can include a rectifier diode and a filter capacitor, and a load can be parallel coupled with the filter capacitor; n output circuits series coupled between a first output terminal of a first secondary winding and a second output terminal of an nth secondary winding; and (n−1) current balancing capacitors coupled between a common junction of n secondary windings and a common junction of n output circuits.

A plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) may be assembled together in high-efficiency and high-brightness lighting applications. The brightness of LEDs directly may be directly related to the current flowing through the LEDs. In general, the LEDs may be much brighter as the current is higher. In order to achieve balanced-brightness between a plurality of LEDs, multiple LEDs may be connected in series, and a primary controlled flyback may be utilized as a driver for the LEDs. As shown in FIG. 1, a current flowing through the LED strings can be controlled by controlling switch Q1 according to a primary current. However, only one LED string can be driven by this topology, and if the quantity of series connected LEDs is more than a certain number, the voltage across the LED string may be much higher. As a result, the withstand voltage of the rectifier diode may be increased to meet the requirements, and it may be difficult to improve system conversion efficiency. In addition, design and production costs may be increased as a large bulk capacitor is employed as the filter capacitor.

Multi-output self-balancing power circuit

Silergy Semiconductor Technology (Hangzhou) Ltd


A system for marking moving objects by laser beams, in which there is inserted in a beam path extracavity optical deflector comprising a germanium crystal and a transducer which converts radio frequency signals into sound waves which excite the crystal. There is also a series of fixed, different frequency oscillators, an electronic switch and a control unit selecting at all times one of the switches to connect at any time of the oscillators to be transducer. It allows for high speed marking.

The invention relates to a system for marking moving objects by laser beams, comprising a source emitting laser beams along a path.
With increasing frequency, the packages or the products themselves have to be marked with data indicating a date, a lot number, an expiry date or other detail which is only known as from a particular moment in time, such as when the product has been packaged or when the product itself was prepared. This requirement relating to the time of marking prevents its prior inclusion in the label print, in the package print or, for example, in the mould for final preparation of the product.
Furthermore, the production, packaging or the like frequently proceeds at a very high rate whereby marking with conventional means would involve a very considerable loss of time.
As a result of the above circumstances, recourse has already been had to laser beams for the said marking operation, on the basis that said laser beams may produce a large amount of energy at the point of impingement. Nevertheless, the generally known systems are based on the insertion of a mask between the laser beam source and the area to be marked. A mask is a device which only allows the beams to pass through interstices defining the signs to be marked. Nevertheless, these masks provide images which are not variable in time and to be able to produce different images, it is necessary to have a plurality of masks available, the appropriate disposal of which is controlled by a stepper motor, with a long time of passage from one letter to another of about 200 milliseconds. The time of passage between letters is understood to be the time which has to elapse between one alphanumeric character and the next one for the process to be correct.
On the other hand, there is known one property of the germanium crystal making it capable of modifying its refractive index depending on the frequency of a received sound signal. To achieve these modifications, there is adapted a transducer of a highly conductive material which performs the function of adapting the germanium crystal to a sound signal, i.e., the speed of sound (5,500 m/s) within the crystal.
On application of this property is know with respect to the configuration of a laser generator. This configuration is basically as follows:
A constant wavelength photon generator means, such as a low pressure plasma tube with a gas mixture (CO.sub.2, N.sub.2, He), is taken and an electric field is created therein, producing a photon beam. This photon beam is guided in a cavity formed by two mirrors, one partly reflective and the other 100% reflective.
When the accumulated light energy is sufficiently high, a laser emission occurs through the partly reflective mirror.
To produce a pulsed laser beam, there is inserted within the laser cavity in the direction of the photon beam a germanium crystal with a transducer which when it is excited with a radio frequency signal causes a deviation of the photon beam path, interrupting the laser emission.
When the radio frequency signal is interrupted, the photon beam path is restored, producing a laser emission again. It should be noted that during the time the beam is interrupted there is a considerable increase of energy within the cavity, producing a high energy laser pulse when the emission is restored.

System for marking moving objects by laser beams


Disclosed is a terminal apparatus, including a protective shell and a sounding device installed in the protective shell, where the sounding device includes a vibration system and a magnetic circuit system; where the vibration system includes a vibration diaphragm including a first surface and a second surface facing away from the first surface; the magnetic circuit system is located on a side of the second surface of the vibration diaphragm; the sounding device defines a first sounding hole at a position in communication with a space on a side of the first surface, and a second sounding hole at a position in communication with a space on the side of the second surface; and the protective shell defines a first terminal sounding hole in communication with the first sounding hole, and a second terminal sounding hole in communication with the second sounding hole.

Terminal apparatuses (such as mobile phones, cordless phones, laptops, digital cameras, Bluetooth headsets, etc.) have become commonplace in people's daily lives. For the speaker, an important component in the terminal apparatus, the vibration diaphragm will radiate sound wave energy forward and backward when it works. Generally, the speaker only utilizes the sound wave energy radiated in the forward direction, but does not make good use of the sound wave energy radiated in the rearward direction. Therefore, the existing speakers generally can only achieve a one-way sounding function, which largely restricts the application of the speakers.


A system communicates with a plurality of vehicles onsite at a parking garage. The system determines an eventual intended destination for each respective vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and determines a path through the garage for each respective vehicle, to the destination for the respective vehicle. The system may segment the path into a plurality of shorter tasks for the respective vehicle, wherein each task moves the respective vehicle along the path until a point where the respective vehicle encounters an obstruction and instruct the respective vehicle to execute the shorter tasks for the respective vehicle.

Connected services have become a commonplace part of the in-vehicle experience. From applications running onboard the vehicle, to cellular and wi-fi communication enabled by the vehicle, to satellite aided navigation systems, vehicle occupants have come to increasingly expect connectivity as a standard feature of the vehicle.
This connectivity has been leveraged to provide a number of cloud-based services to vehicles as well. Since offboard computing can be vastly more powerful than an onboard computer, and because cloud-based systems often have access to crowd-sourced and immediate data, many services execute in the cloud and/or rely on the cloud for some aspect of data and/or processing.
Thus, in areas such as parking structures, where cellular connections can degrade or cease due to signal blockage, many of these applications and processes that rely on communication can temporarily cease operation or lose aspects of operation. This does not commonly present a significant problem, as a user is typically intending to leave the vehicle soon after entering a parking garage, but as autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles become more heavily reliant on communication, the ability of those vehicles to interact with the cloud and necessary remote services may be impacted, which in turn can have an impact on a vehicle's ability to self-drive or partially self-drive.


Accordingly, a method and apparatus are provided to convert received content into a first stream and a second stream, to transmit said first stream using a first tone and to transmit said second stream using an orthogonal scheme. A layering scheme is used to transmit the base stream covering a smaller area and an enhanced stream is used to cover a large utilizing orthogonal scheme.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
The wireless communication system further employs a broadcast system, wherein portion of the forward link resources are dedicated for broadcasting content. In the broadcast system, all the recipients process data received on the dedicated channel on the forward link (i.e., frequency tones that make up a shared channel), as if the information was targeted for the recipient. A typical broadcast system does not require any acknowledgement from the recipients regarding the reception of data. However, operators of the system, generally configure the AP (or access points) to use low data rate (e.g., repeat the transmission data packets that make up the content) and at high power in order to insure that all the mobile stations within the base station's coverage area receive the content, including any mobile stations that are far from the base station. However, low data rates are generally needed only for mobile stations that operate far from the currently servicing base station. Thus, all the mobile stations that operate near the base station cannot enjoy higher data rates.
Therefore, a method is needed to manage the broadcast resources to reduce the coverage hole.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for transmitting multiple streams in wireless broadcast networks


A method of determining when a communication device (11) is out-of-range of an incoming call from a central station (25), disallows communication between them for the out-of-range condition. In the central station (25), a page signal is transmitted (20) representing a call to the communication device (11). The central station (25) is capable of receiving (12) signals transmitted by the communication device (11). Recognizing (40) a lack of response by the communication device to the page signal from the central station, the central station withholds the transmission of a call set-up grant signal. Meanwhile, in the communication device, signals transmitted by the central station are received (50). The communication device transmits a page-response signal (555) representing the reception of the page signal. Recognizing an absence of a call set-up grant signal (562), the communication device indicates (563) to the subscriber that the communication device is out-of-range of the coverage area of the central station for the call.

This invention relates generally to radio communication systems, and more particularly to a system for detecting when a communication device, such as a cordless telephone, is not capable of communication with a central station.
Examples of various radio frequency (RF), portable, or cordless communication systems include cellular telephones, trunking radios, and the next generation of cordless telephones (called CT-2, for cordless telephones, second generation). A cordless, or portable telephone is typically understood to be a transceiving device designed to travel with the user.
In these systems, to establish communication between the communication devices, such as cordless telephones, a requesting cordless telephone transmits a call request to a central or base station. Upon receipt of the request, the central station returns a grant code.
Generally, a communication channel comprises a pair of frequencies for duplex operation or a single frequency for simplex operations. An inbound frequency (on the simplex or duplex channel) carries information from the cordless telephones to the central station, while the outbound frequency (on the other frequency of the duplex channel or the same frequency on the simplex channel) carries information from the central station to the cordless telephones.
When a cordless telephone is operating at such a distance (or range) from the central station that the cordless telephone has insufficient power to transmit to the central station or the base, even though the more powerful central station's transmission can reach the cordless telephone, the cordless telephone, or handset, is not in communication with a central station. In this area of weak signal strength, the cordless telephone is out-of-range.
The out-of-range condition could also be caused by channel losses, such as those due to fading or other environmental conditions surrounding the handset. One major cause of additional channel loss is the collapsed state of the handset itself. When not in use, and as an aid to traveling, the handset will probably be carried in a collapsed or closed state, with its antenna retracted. For portability, the collapsed handset will most likely be carried in a briefcase, belt holster, or pocket. Depending on the material (i.e., metal) of the carrying receptacle, its location, and the handset's retracted antenna, may all result in additional losses on the channel.
Fortunately, these additional channel losses are not seen in normal operation of the handset, with the antenna extended. However, when the base detects an inbound call from a subscriber on a land-line telephone or a cordless telephone, for another subscriber, the base must signal the other subscriber's handset, while the handset is still in a collapsed state. If the base does not overcome the worsened channel condition, a reduced range for the handset would occur.
Adding a more robust type of signaling (having more probability of signal detection) or increasing the transmitted power during initial signaling can overcome the reduced sensitivity of the collapsed handset. However, both methods create another problem, if the handset is still out-of-range. Extra base transmission range will be gained, but the handset would ring, to announce an incoming call, without being in a location to establish a reliable communication contact. Thus, the handset could ring, but the data and/or voice communication link would not be present, until the user traveled back into range, to allow the handset's transmission to be received. This annoyance would also give the user a poor system operation perception. If the phone rings, the user should be able to answer it, and have its answer received. Therefore, there is a need to indicate an out-of-range condition, without increasing the perception of a poor system operation.

Extended range paging for a radio frequency communication system