When an abnormality or a sign of abnormality occurs in an electric power generating facility, an appropriate operating support can be made in a short time. The electric power facility operation remote supporting method in accordance with the present invention is characterized by that an abnormality or a sign of abnormality is judged based on at least one of information on an operating state of the electric power generating facility and information on time-varying characteristics of components in the electric power generating facility, and a service mode is set based on the judged information of the abnormality or the sign of abnormality, preset abnormality corrective data and preset service modes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric power facility operation remote supporting method and an electric power facility operation remote supporting system.
2. Prior Art
A method of supporting operation of a facility is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-249716. Further, there is disclosed Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-6938 (published on Jan. 11, 2002) which is a prior patent application No. 2000-249716 relating to the present invention. These relate to the technology in which a level of abnormality in an electric power generating facility to be supported is judged, and then delivery of operation supporting information or a direct restoring corrective action is made based on the judged level. However, both of the conventional technologies described above do not take any concrete items of monitoring information nor any diagnostic logic and control changing means necessary for applying the technology to an electric power facility into consideration. In order to remotely monitor and diagnose an electric power generating facility, it is necessary to grasp a sign of phenomenon causing an abnormality. Further, it is also necessary to prevent unscheduled stopping of the facility operation which will be caused when the sign of the abnormal phenomenon is left as it is. In addition the above, when the unscheduled stopping of the facility operation is made, the outage time should be shortened by performing the diagnosis in a short time and producing the permanent corrective action plan in a short time.
In regard to a monitoring and diagnosing system and a method of operating the system which are suitable for performing services to support operation of a plurality of electric power supply facilities, a technology is required. The technology is effective particularly to an electric power supply system composed of a group of electric power generating facilities connected to an electric power system and a group of distributed electric source facilities such as an independent electric power generating facility, an IPP, a fuel cell and so on.

Electric power generating facility operation remote supporting method and electric power generating facility operation remote supporting system


The mobile terminal provided by the present disclosure includes a terminal body and a control unit. The terminal body is provided with a flash lamp. A zoom lens is provided in an advancing direction of a light of the flash lamp. The control unit is configured to control the flash lamp to switch between a flash mode and a flashlight mode according to an input command. The zoom lens has a plurality of operating states and can converge the light of the flash lamp in at least one operating state. Thus, the mobile terminal can be used as a flash and as a flashlight having a relatively large irradiation distance and further as a flashlight with adjustable irradiation distance.

Mobile phones and other mobile terminals are one of the equipment that people in today's society cannot be separated therefrom. In order to improve the convenience of mobile phones, mobile phones are getting smaller and thinner but still cannot meet the needs of the people. For example, the mobile phone generally uses the LED flash lamp as a flashlight, but the LED flash lamp is originally designed for compensating the light while photographing and the light is generally scattered light and cannot be converged, thus, the Irradiation distance is short. Also, when people in a meeting and usually need to use a laser pointer or a page-turning laser pointer. If forgot to bring one, the user may feel inconvenient and the effect of PPT demonstration may be affected. In addition, sometimes people may want to quickly know the distance between two objects but without a tape with them, thus, it will be a great convenience to the people if the mobile phone has a distance-measuring function.

ZHEJIANG GEELY AUTOMOBILE RESEARCH INSTITUTE CO., LTD.


A cleaning tank apparatus and methods for cleaning workpieces are described. The cleaning tank may include an outlet plate having a top edge and a bottom edge, with the outlet plate having a plurality of rows of outlet openings. The plurality of rows of outlet openings including a first row of outlet openings being closest to the top edge of the outlet plate, and a second row of outlet openings below the first row of outlet openings, wherein at least one of the outlet openings of the first row is larger than the outlet openings of the second row.

During a series of magnetic recording disk manufacturing operations, a disk's surface is exposed to various types of contaminants. Any material present in a manufacturing operation is a potential source of contamination. For example, sources of contamination may include process gases, chemicals, deposition materials, and liquids. The various contaminants may be deposited on the disk's surface in particulate form. If the particulate contamination is not removed, it may interfere with the proper fabrication of a magnetic recording disk. Therefore, it is necessary to clean contamination from the surface of the disk after one or more stages in the manufacturing process, such as post sputtering.
Contamination may be removed using a sonication technique where a disk is submerged in a cleaning tank containing a cleaning liquid in order to remove a majority of the particles from the disk's surface. A cross flow of the cleaning liquid is established in the cleaning tank in order to remove loose particles from a vicinity of the disk. The relative strength between the cross flow and acoustic stream generated by the sonication determines two cleaning performance metrics: (1) contaminant particle removal efficiency, and (2) contaminant particle re-deposition (i.e., on the disk) rate.
FIG. 1A illustrates a conventional cleaning tank which is designed with 16 circular outlet openings that are configured to establish an outgoing flow of liquid. The 16 outlet openings are divided into four rows, which each row having four outlet openings. The outgoing flow rate in each outlet opening may be adjusted using a manual valve. FIG. 1B shows the dimensions of a conventional cleaning tank outlet plate. Each of the outlet openings of the outlet plate are 0.75 inches (in) in diameter, corresponding to an opening area of approximately 1.77 square inches (in2). The outlet plate has a width of 17 inches and a length of 13 inches. A centerline running through the lowest, fourth row of outlet openings is spaced 2.5 inches from the bottom edge of the outlet plate. A centerline running through the third row of outlet openings is spaced 5 inches from the bottom edge of the outlet plate. A centerline running through the second row of outlet openings is spaced 7.5 inches from the bottom edge of the outlet plate. A centerline running through the first row of outlet openings is spaced 10 inches from the bottom edge of the outlet plate. Accordingly, there is distance of 2.5 inches between each of the rows of outlet openings, with the centerline of top most, first row being spaced 3 inches from the top edge of outlet plate.
Referring again to FIG. 1A, the size of each of the outlet openings affects the cross tunnel flow in the laminar flow regime. If the outlet openings are too small, most of the incoming flow would hit the outlet plate and create bounce back flow turbulence. If the outlet openings are too large, most of the incoming flow would not follow the desired laminar stream flow. Rather, most of the flow would follow the pressure term in the Bernoulli flow dynamics. One problem with the conventional cleaning tank illustrated in FIG. 1A is that it may not be able to handle high cross flow rates. Conventional cleaning tanks are designed to operate with a cross flow rate in a range of 15 to 30 liters per minute (LPM). If the incoming flow through the inlet plate were to be increased above the 30 LPM limit, the extra incoming flow would result in overflow out of the cleaning tank as illustrated by the chart of FIG. 2. As such, conventional cleaning tanks as currently designed would not be able to handle higher incoming flow rates.


This invention relates to determining page elements to display in response to a search. A method embodiment of this invention determines a page element based on a search result. The method includes: (1) determining a set of result classifications based on the search result, wherein each result classification includes a result category and a result score; and (2) determining the page element based on the set of result classifications. In this way, a classification is determined based on a search result and page elements are generated based on the classification. By using the search result, as opposed to just the query, page elements are generated that corresponds to a predominant interpretation of the user's query within the search results. As result, the page elements may, in most cases, accurately reflect the user's intent.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to determining page elements to display in response to a search.
2. Related Art
A search engine enables a user to search for web pages. A user may submit a query to a search engine. In an example, the user may submit a query using a browser on a client. The browser may send the query as a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request. The HTTP request containing the query may be sent to a server. The server, in turn, sends it onto a search engine. The search engine returns a set of results to the server. The server may generate a page to display the set of results to the user. In an example, the page may be encoded in hypertext markup language (HTML). The server may then send the page to the client as an HTTP response. The browser may then render the page for the user to view.
The server may include a page element on the page, in addition to the set of results. The page element may correspond to a classification. The server may determine a classification, and trigger a page element that corresponds to the classification.
A traditional approach determines a classification based on the query. This approach can problematic, because the query may be an ambiguous indicator of the user's intent. For example, if the query was "burns", a page element related to medical conditions may be generated in the page. However, the page element related to medical conditions may not be relevant to the user, if the user meant "burns" to refer to the comedian, George Burns.
Methods and systems are needed to generate page elements that more accurately correspond to the user's intent.

Classifying search results to determine page elements


Solid, slowly dispersible well treatment composites are provided which have a sufficiently high melting point to prevent melting of the composite in hot weather. The composites have a low solubility and high specific gravity compared to prior art treatment agents; thus the composites readily sink in well and pipeline fluids and slowly release treatment ingredients over time, depending on the downhole and pipeline conditions. The composites include a nonylphenol ethoxylate having at least about 50 moles of ethylene oxide per mole of nonylphenol and a fatty acid amide having from 14-20 carbon atoms. Preferably, the composites further include a weighting agent and active ingredients selected from the group consisting of corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, bactericides, scale converters, foaming agents, and mixtures thereof. In one embodiment, the composites are spherical in shape and are passed through pipelines for maintenance and treatment of the pipelines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with solid, high specific gravity, low solubility well treatment composites used for oil and gas well and pipeline treatments. More particularly, the composites of the invention have a high melting point, thus eliminating the problem of ambient air melting, are sufficiently dense so as to readily sink in typical well fluids, and have a low solubility that generates a slow release of the composite ingredients into well or pipeline fluids. The composites of the invention preferably comprise a nonylphenol ethoxylate and a fatty acid amide, and also further include a weighting agent such as barium sulfate, sodium chloride, or sodium bicarbonate, and active ingredients selected from the group consisting of corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, bactericides, scale converters, foaming agents, and mixtures thereof. In one embodiment, the composites are formed into spherical bodies having a maximum surface-to-surface dimension of about 2 inches for use in treating and maintaining oil and gas pipelines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oil and gas wells and pipelines require the periodic addition of treatment agents, such as scale and corrosion inhibitors, in order to facilitate smooth, trouble-free operations. In wells, such agents are often in liquid form, and are commonly added into the annular space between the well sidewall and the internal well casing. Well operators use a number of expedients for such additions, such as introduction through a side arm flush associated with the well fluid removal system. Because conventional treating agents tend to float on the well fluid, it is a common practice to add excess well fluid after addition of the treatment agent in order to drive the agent downwardly to a subterranean level adjacent the lower end of the well casing. As can be appreciated, this practice largely or completely shuts down well production, and it is not uncommon to thereby lose an entire day's production during the treatment process.
The foregoing difficulty is particularly acute in the case of low fluid wells having a relatively low static fluid level, in that relatively large amounts of fluid must be added atop the agent in order to drive the agent down to an operative level. However, the problem can also be significant in high fluid wells, because of the need to drive the active chemical downwardly through relatively long columns of fluid. Indeed, it is sometimes impossible in such situations to drive the chemical down far enough into the well formation, and the chemical may be significantly diluted before it reaches the downhole pump.
Weighted treatment agents have been used in the past in an effort to overcome this problem. These materials are in fluid form, but include glycerine or molasses in order to give the fluid a higher specific gravity. Unfortunately, this tends to be an expensive process, and such weighting agents have a tendency to adhere to the outside of the well tubing and casing.
Solid composites have also been utilized to provide a method for downhole treatment. For example, mold inhibitors such as the commercial product Iconol NP-100 Pastille FD (a nonylphenol ethoxylate available from BASF Corp.) have been mixed with active ingredients (such as corrosion inhibitors or bactericides) and formed into pellets. The melting point of NP-100 is approximately 69.degree. C. However, when the active ingredients are added to NP-100 and the mixture is formed into pellets, the melting point of the entire pellet composite is only about 54.degree. C. This results in pellets which melt easily in hot weather and dissolve quickly downhole.
Oil and gas pipelines typically span for hundreds of miles underground from the oil or gas source to various points of delivery. Treating and maintaining these pipelines is particularly critical as repairs are difficult and costly. If a portion of a pipeline is corroded or if flow is being impeded by scale build-up, pipeline operators must first locate the problem area. Once the problem is located, the ground around that section of the pipeline must be excavated and the pipeline repaired or replaced. This shuts down oil and gas delivery for some time and is particularly problematic when the problem area is located under an urban area or in an isolated area such as a dessert.


A cylindrical-roller bearing comprises, associated with at least one of its external and internal races, a retaining member for the rollers of the bearing. In order to lower the friction component and provide better conditions for assembly of the bearing, and to simplify manufacture, at least one of the retaining members is constituted by a retaining ring of synthetic plastics resin material being in snap connection with the respective bearing race with which it is associated.

This invention relates to a cylindrical-roller bearing comprising, at the external and/or the internal race thereof, guiding and retaining rim means for the cylindrical rollers.
Up to now, the retaining means serving for the lateral guidance and axial support of the rollers are usually integral with the internal and the external races of the bearing. This results evidently in a metallic contact between the rollers and the retaining means which must be considered as unsatisfactory in view of the friction components thereof. It is, indeed, known to provide roller bearings having cylindrical rollers with loose retaining flange rings of sintered steel, described in Austrian Pat. No. 352,484, which offers advantages in the manufacture and improves the functioning of the bearing in emergency situations; the end faces of the flange rings turned toward the rollers can be provided with lubricating grooves. However, the tribological properties of the bearing are hardly improved, and special steps are required for clamping together the flange rings and the races to obtain an integrated bearing.
Finally, it is also known in many cases to provide an annular groove or the like in one of the races, adjacent the rolling surface thereof, and to snap an elastic ring into such groove, such rings serving, however, as optionally reinforced sealing rings which are to prevent the escape of grease from the bearing and the penetration of impurities into the same, but have nothing to do with guiding or supporting the rollers in the races.


A light emitting device including a light emitting structure including a first conductive type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductive type semiconductor layer; a first photonic crystal structure on the light emitting structure; a lower encapsulant on the first photonic crystal structure; and a second photonic crystal structure on the lower encapsulant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device and corresponding method of manufacturing a light emitting device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Nitride semiconductors are used in optical devices and high-power electronic devices because they exhibit a high thermal stability and a wide band gap. However, the light emitting efficiency of the Nitride semiconductor light emitting devices needs to be improved.

Light emitting device with vertically adjustable light emitting pattern


A set of golf clubs which are dynamically matched and a method for producing such a set. The dynamically matched set of clubs is one whose clubs meet one of the following criteria:. i) all components of the inertia tensor are substantially the same, PA0 ii) one or more of the products of inertia are substantially the same, PA0 iii) two or mroe of the components of the inertia tensor are substantially the same. Matching a component of the inertia tensor of a club consists of making that component constant for all clubs in the set or having it progressively vary through the different clubs in the set.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to the field of a dynamically matched set of golf clubs.
2. Background of Invention
FIG. 1 shows the typical golf club comprising a shaft 30, a grip 32 located at one end of the shaft referred to as the grip or butt end 34, and a clubhead 36 located at the other end of shaft 30. The forward end of clubhead 36 is known as the toe 38 and the opposite end is known as the heel 40.
The matching of golf clubs in the past has involved both static and dynamic methods. The static method is often referred to as the swing-weight method which correlates the relative weight in the club head to the overall weight. By definition (U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,953,916 and 1,594,801) the swing-weight is the moment of the club's weight about a fulcrum 12 inches (30.48 cm) from the grip end of the club. The value of the moment is correlated to an index consisting of a letter and a number, C2, C3, . . . C9, D0, D1 . . . D9 . . . , representing increasing moment. That is, the moment generated by a D2 club is greater than the moment generated by a C2 club. A set of clubs is matched by making every club in the set a specific swing-weight. For example, a set of clubs may be matched by making all the clubs have a swing-weight of D0.
Dynamic correlation of golf clubs is a second way of matching in which the moment of inertia, I, or the radius of gyration, k, is prescribed for a set of clubs. Prescribing the moment of inertia about a given axis is tantamount to prescribing the radius of gyration about that axis because the two are related through the mass of the club, m, as follows: EQU k.sup.2 I/m. (1)
The value of the moment of inertia, and hence the radius of gyration, is dependent on the axis of rotation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,128,242; 5,094,101; and 3,698,239 claim to match the moment of inertia of a set of golf clubs as they rotate about a single axis which may correspond to the grip end of the club, the center of gravity, or the center of percussion. The deficiency in dynamically matching clubs with these methods is that only one axis, and one corresponding moment of inertia is considered. This is not sufficient to fully characterize the dynamic response of the club since there are two remaining axes to measure the moments of inertia as well as the products of inertia since, in general, the axis of interest may not be principal axes.
In order to dynamically characterize a golf club, in accordance with this invention, one must know the mass, m, the center of gravity, G, and the inertia tensor ##EQU1## where I.sub.xx, I.sub.yy, and I.sub.zz are moments of inertia about the x, y, and z axes, respectively, and I.sub.xy, I.sub.xz, and I.sub.yz are the products of inertia.
As a simple example, consider the right-cylinder of FIG. 2 as an example of the ienrtia tensor. An dynamics book (Beer and Johnson, 1988) gives the inertia tensor with respect to the centroidal, or center of gravity, axes as follows: ##EQU2## where m is the mass of the cylinder. The products of ienrtia are zero because of the symmetry of the material with respect to axes <xyz>. The inertia tensor with respect to axes <x.sub.1 y.sub.1 z.sub.1 > can be easily determined to be ##EQU3## In order to fully describe the dynamic response of a club, one must determine the six inertia terms I.sub.xx, I.sub.yy, I.sub.zz, I.sub.xy, I.sub.xz, and I.sub.yz referred to a specific reference frame, the mass, and the center of gravity.
Once this is specified, the ienrtia tensor can be described for any other axis parallel to the centroidal axes by using the parallel axis therorem (Beer and Johnson, 1988), ##EQU4## where <xyz> and <x.sub.1 y.sub.1 z.sub.1 > are centroidal axes and an arbitrary set of axes parallel to the centroidal axes, respectively. In the second term of each of the six equations, x, y, and z are the perpendicular distance that x is from x.sub.1, y is from y.sub.1, and z is from z.sub.I, respectively.
If the inertia tensor components are desired at an axis, <x.sub.2 y.sub.2 z.sub.2 >, which is neither at the centroid nor has all three axes parallel to the centroidal axes, <xyz>, then the following transformation must be applied to the inertia tensor after the parallel axis theorem, Eq. 5, has been applied: ##EQU5## where EQU .alpha..sub.11 =cos(x.sub.2,x.sub.1),.alpha..sub.12 =cos(x.sub.2,y.sub.1),.alpha..sub.13 =cos(x.sub.2,z.sub.1) EQU .alpha..sub.21 =cos(y.sub.2,x.sub.1),.alpha..sub.31 =cos(z.sub.2,x.sub.1),.alpha..sub.32 =cos(z.sub.2,y.sub.1)7)
(Ref. Mase and Mase, 1992).

Dynamically matched set of golf clubs and method and apparatus for designing the same using the inertia tensor


An intra-aortic balloon catheter having an ultra-thin stretch blow molded balloon membrane. The balloon membrane is made from thermoplastic elastomeric and/or semicrystalline materials such as but not limited to polyurethane and polyetheramid.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improved intra-aortic balloon catheter. More particularly, the invention relates to an intra-aortic balloon catheter having an ultra-thin stretch blow molded balloon membrane with improved abrasion resistance, fatigue life, and aneurization resistance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Intra-aortic balloon (IAB) catheters are used in patients with left heart failure to augment the pumping action of the heart. The catheters, approximately 1 meter long, have an inflatable and deflatable balloon at the distal end. The catheter is typically inserted into the femoral artery and moved up the descending thoracic aorta until the distal tip of the balloon is positioned just below or distal to the left subclavian artery. The proximal end of the catheter remains outside of the patient's body. A passageway for inflating and deflating the balloon extends through the catheter and is connected at its proximal end to an external pump. The patient's central aortic pressure is used to time the balloon and the patient's ECG may be used to trigger balloon inflation in synchronous counterpulsation to the patient's heart beat.
Intra-aortic balloon therapy increases coronary artery perfusion, decreases the workload of the left ventricle, and allows healing of the injured myocardium. Ideally, the balloon should be inflating immediately after the aortic valve closes and deflating just prior to the onset of systole. When properly coordinated, the inflation of the balloon raises the patient's diastolic pressure, increasing the oxygen supply to the myocardium; and balloon deflation just prior to the onset of systole lowers the patient's diastolic pressure, reducing myocardial oxygen demand.
Intra-aortic balloon catheters may also have a central passageway or lumen which can be used to measure aortic pressure. In this dual lumen construction, the central lumen may also be used to accommodate a guide wire to facilitate placement of the catheter and to infuse fluids, or to do blood sampling.
Typical dual lumen intra-aortic balloon catheters have an outer, flexible, plastic tube, which serves as the inflating and deflating gas passageway, and a central tube therethrough formed of plastic tubing, stainless steel tubing, or wire coil embedded in plastic tubing. A polyurethane compound is used to form the balloon.
All IAB catheters have two opposing design considerations. On the one hand, it is desirable to make the outer diameter of the entire catheter as small as possible: to facilitate insertion of the catheter into the aorta, maximizing blood flow past the inserted catheter, and to allow for the use of a smaller sheath to further maximize distal flow. On the other hand, however, it is desirable to make the inner diameter of the outer tube as large as possible because a large gas path area is required to accomplish the rapid inflation and deflation of the balloon. As a result of these opposing design considerations there is a need for a smaller catheter with a larger gas path area.
One method of making the outer diameter of the wrapped balloon portion of the catheter as small as possible is to wrap the balloon in its deflated state as tightly as possible around the inner tube. Wrapping the balloon tightly, however, has posed a number of difficulties. First, it is difficult to wrap the balloon tightly because of the friction between contacting surfaces of the balloon. Second, contacting surfaces of a tightly wrapped balloon may stick upon initial inflation. Datascope Investment Corp.'s co-pending application Ser. No. 08/958,004, filed on Oct. 27, 1997, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a lubricous coating for the balloon membrane which solves the above mentioned problems. The coating allows the balloon membrane to be wrapped tightly more easily and prevents sticking of the balloon membrane upon initial inflation.
A second method of making the outer diameter of the wrapped balloon portion of the catheter as small as possible is to decrease the size of the inner tube. Datascope Investment Corp.'s co-pending application Ser. No. 08/958,004 also discloses an intra-aortic balloon catheter with an inner tube having a smaller diameter only in the portion enveloped by the balloon membrane.
Although the above two methods have substantially reduced the overall insertion size of the intra-aortic balloon catheter the need still exists for greater size reduction. Furthermore, the need also exists for a balloon membrane with improved abrasion resistance, fatigue life, and aneurization resistance. Currently, the method of manufacturing polyurethane balloon membranes is solvent casting. This casting method does not provide the formed membrane with ideal physical and mechanical properties. A solvent caste membrane with the basic mechanical properties necessary for balloon pumping, typically has a single wall thickness of 4 to 6 mils (a mil is equal to one thousandth of an inch) which leads to a relatively large wrapped diameter of the balloon membrane. A thin solvent caste polyurethane membrane is capable of being manufactured, however, such a membrane does not demonstrate the required abrasion resistance and fatigue life. Therefore, the need exists for an improved method of making a balloon membrane which will allow for a balloon membrane having a reduced thickness, and at the same, having improved mechanical properties, including an improved abrasion resistance, fatigue life, and aneurization resistance.
The present invention comprises an intra-aortic balloon catheter having a stretch blow molded balloon membrane. The balloon membrane is made from thermoplastic elastomeric and/or semicrystalline materials such as but not limited to polyurethane and polyetheramid. As discussed above, intra-aortic balloon membranes are generally solvent cast.
The process of stretch blow molding catheter balloon membranes is known in the art. However, intra-aortic balloons have been traditionally made by solvent casting because intra-aortic balloon membranes require special characteristics: they must be substantially nondistensible and have high abrasion resistance, fatigue life, and aneurization resistance. Stretch blow molding has been traditionally used for angioplasty balloon membranes. These balloons are generally made from PET, Nylon, or PEBAX materials. These materials achieve their high strength at least partially because of the crystallization formed in their microstructure during the initial stretching step of the tube and as a result of quickly cooling the tube to a temperature below the crystallization temperature of the tube material. Crystallization of the microstructure increases the strength of the balloon membrane, however, as the inventors of the present invention have discovered, it has a negative effect on the abrasion resistance and fatigue life of the balloon membrane. Given that angioplasty balloon/PTCA therapy is a short duration therapy, crystallization is generally not a problem. Actually, it is quite useful given that it enhances the strength of the balloon material. Intra-aortic balloon therapy, on the other hand, involves repetitive inflation and deflation of the balloon membrane over a longer period of time. Accordingly, it is known in the art that stretch blow molded balloons are not appropriate for intra-aortic balloon membranes, which require high strength as well as high abrasion resistance and fatigue life.
The present invention overcomes the above described obstacle by relying on the increased strength of polyurethane resulting from the high orientation and molecular interaction of the polyurethane molecules along the longitudinal axis of the tube. Said orientation results from stretching the tube until substantially all stretchability is removed. Polyurethane, and the other materials listed in the present application, do not exhibit significant stress induced crystallization upon stretching. Accordingly, the inventors of the present invention have discovered a means to create a balloon membrane strong enough to endure intra-aortic balloon pumping therapy without creating crystallization microstructure, which they have discovered, is detrimental to the abrasion resistance and fatigue life of the balloon membrane.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,618 to Leonhardt discloses a pulmonary artery balloon catheter comprising a catheter terminating in a blow molded polyurethane balloon membrane. Pulmonary artery catheters are generally used for blood pressure measurements. Upon insertion and placement of the catheter the balloon membrane is inflated, occluding the housing blood vessel, so as to create a measurable pressure differential on either side of the balloon membrane. In order to achieve complete occlusion of the housing blood vessel the pulmonary artery catheter balloon membrane is elastic so as to allow expansion of the membrane. This is in contrast to the balloon membrane of the present invention which is stretch blow molded and is specifically manufactured to substantially eliminate distensibility in the final product.

Intra-aortic balloon catheter having an ultra-thin stretch blow molded balloon membrane


The present disclosure provides technical solutions related to action undo service based on cloud platform. Related operations dependent on target operations to be undone may be obtained by dependency analysis and the target operations and the related operations may be undone by time sequence so as to reduce the conflict caused by the undo operations.

Cloud platforms allow user do many complex operations with single command. However, when users make one or a series of wrong actions, it will be a disaster for their services, and manually recovery is very difficult. Nowadays, there is no tool in mainstream cloud platforms that could cancel management action series and recover the services status.

Action undo service based on cloud platform


A premix burner, for example for a gas turbine, having a conical swirl generator (1) and a cylindrical mixing section (2) which follows it in the direction of flow, includes a high-pressure atomizer nozzle (10) with one or more fuel feed passages. The high-pressure atomizer nozzle (10) includes at least two outlet passages, through which liquid fuel enters the swirl generator (1), these passages being arranged off-center with respect to the longitudinal axis of the nozzle and being configured in such a way that the spray cone (11) of the fuel is oriented at an angle (β) with respect to the longitudinal axis of the swirl generator (1) which is smaller than the cone half-angle (α) of the swirl generator (1). The outlet passages in particular have an internal geometry with a conically narrowed section.

1. Field of Endeavor
The disclosure relates to a premix burner for a gas turbine, in particular to a nozzle for atomising liquid fuel in a premix burner with a conical swirl generator and a subsequent cylindrical mixing section.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Premix burners with a conical swirl generator and a subsequent cylindrical mixing section are known, for example, from EP918191. The swirl generator, which serves as a premix section, has conical interleaved sections, the longitudinal axes of which are in each case offset with respect to one another. Compressed combustion air passes through tangential inflow passages between the walls of the conical sections into the mixing space of the swirl generator. A fuel is introduced via one or more nozzles or alternatively via fuel lines along the tangential air inflow passages into the mixing space, where it is mixed with the air. Further premixing of air and fuel is achieved in the subsequent mixing section, in that the latter produces high-quality mixing on account of the flows being routed without any losses. The mixing section also performs the function of preventing flashback of the flame from the combustion chamber into which the mixing section expands.
A further premix burner of this type is disclosed in DE 103 55 930. The outlet region of the mixing section is, in that case, provided with undulations which generate axial swirls and as a result influence the turbulence in the outlet region and the flow stability. The fuel is introduced axially via a nozzle into the conical swirl generator, with the nozzle opening lying on the longitudinal axis of the premix burner.
DE 197 30 617 discloses a two-stage pressure atomiser nozzle for use in combustion technology with two coaxial tubes and a mixing chamber into which two feed passages lead. A nozzle outlet bore lies on the axis of the nozzle tubes and has a diameter which is in a given ratio to the diameter of the feed passages.
DE 44 40 558 discloses a premix burner with a conical swirl generator. The fuel is introduced via a nozzle with openings which do not lie on the longitudinal axis of the nozzle. The angle between the resulting spray cones and the longitudinal axis of the nozzle is in particular larger than the divergence angle of the conical part of the swirl generator. The abovementioned fuel nozzle is designed specifically for a premix burner without a cylindrical mixing section.
EP 899 508 discloses a premix burner with a swirl generator having a cylindrically formed mixing section as described in the introduction, and in particular a fuel nozzle with nozzle tubes 104 which each generate a fuel jet with an injection angle with respect to the central axis of the fuel nozzle which is equal to the divergence angle of the cone of the swirl generator.
EP 902233 discloses a combined pressure atomiser nozzle for a gas turbine burner with swirl generator, the nozzle body of which has two separate feed passages, from each of which an outlet opening leads into the mixing space of the burner. The nozzle body therefore has two different nozzles, namely: a radially outer multi-hole nozzle with outlet openings arranged off-center; and a central nozzle, lying on the longitudinal axis, with a centrally arranged outlet opening. The outlet openings arranged off-center are positioned in such a way that the spray cones are directed into the wake of the cone shells of the swirl generator. At full load, this nozzle is operated by way of the outlet openings positioned off-center. At partial load, the nozzle is switched over to the central outlet openings, in order to prevent drops of fuel oil being deposited on the walls of the swirl generator.
DE 19536837 discloses an apparatus for injecting fuels having a swirl chamber within the injection apparatus or nozzle. An axially running air feed passage 5 and a fuel passage 2 which runs parallel to the longitudinal axis of the nozzle lead into this swirl chamber 1, in which air and fuel in a first phase are mixed while they are still inside the nozzle. As seen in the direction of flow, the swirl chamber has a conically narrowed section, through which the air/fuel mix flows, ultimately passing via an outlet opening lying on the longitudinal axis of the nozzle into a burner mixing space. The only outlet opening from the nozzle is arranged on the longitudinal axis of the nozzle.


A TCP/IP socket extension may bind a single socket to more than one IP address. The socket API extension may allow a user to bind a socket to a list of IP addresses instead of a single IP address. Additional socket APIs may allow applications to bind an existing socket to one or more additional IP addresses. Bind-specific support may enhance a user's capability to specify one or more IPv4 addresses and/or IPv6 addresses or other addresses to bind to a generic server information handling system (IHS). The method may convert a generic server IHS into a bind-specific server IHS that accepts new connections over both the IPv4 and IPv6 network transports and/or other network transports without requiring changes to the server IHS. A modified TCP/IP stack may provide support for multiple sockets. The method may map multiple address/port/protocol tuples to the same socket.

The disclosures herein relate generally to communicating with applications in information handling systems (IHSs) that use transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP). TCP/IP applications use sockets to communicate with each other. A TCP/IP server may create within its TCP/IP application a socket and bind the socket to a port/IP pair to facilitate communication with a TCP/IP client.

Binding multiple addresses to a socket in a network system

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for providing access to changed states in a data source to front-ends and back-ends in a data orchestration system. When displaying a scene including transformed data, a data orchestration system may receive a change to the data source from the data repository or a client viewing the data. The data orchestration system may transform data based on configured data pipelines and propagate the changed state to all viewing clients and to the backend data repository. By managing the connections, pipelines, operators, data sources, clients, backends, and other components, the data orchestration system may provide intelligent data solutions and advanced analytic capabilities across the entirety of an organization's data landscape.

In some cases, organizations integrate vast amounts of data from across distributed data landscapes by employing a data orchestration system. Through a data orchestration system, an organization may integrate, manage, and organize a data landscape while extracting maximum value from the data towards programmatic, analytical, or diagnostic goals. Data orchestration systems have been developed and deployed across a multitude of industries, including the financial and banking sectors, transportation services, entertainment industries, insurance, healthcare, education, medicine, retail, and more. Handling such immense amounts of varied and substantial data presents unique technical problems requiring distinct solutions because traditional data processing applications may not be able to fully leverage and extract meaning from the gargantuan and dispersed datasets captured by modern organizations, given their sheer scale. Moreover, a data orchestration system requires specialized approaches to ingest and transform the data and to facilitate collaboration between members of the organization and other users.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Providing changing data-source states to front ends viewing a scene in a data orchestration system


This application discloses a device state synchronization method. The method performed by a common capability component, the method includes: receiving a first representation state instance resource creation request sent by an application, where the first representation state instance resource creation request includes a device state attribute; creating a first representation state instance resource based on the first representation state instance resource creation request and a created second representation state instance resource; sending a device state update request to a device, where the device state update request includes the device state attribute; receiving an actual state instance resource creation request sent by the device; creating an actual state instance resource based on the actual state instance resource creation request; and sending to the application, information indicating that an actual state resource is successfully created.

An internet of things (IoT) system may include a platform, a gateway, a device, and an application. FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart of interaction between an application, a common capability component (CSE), and a device. The CSE is a common capability component defined in the internet of things system.
When the application intends to update an actual state of the device, the application first sends a resource update request to the CSE to update a representation state of the device. After successfully updating a resource state, the CSE returns an update success response to the application. The device monitors a resource change in a polling or subscription manner. In FIG. 2, a notification subscription method is used, that is, the device subscribes to the resource change. If a resource changes, the CSE sends a notification to the device. The notification includes a latest state after the resource changes. When the device receives the notification and detects the resource change, the device first returns a notification reception response to the CSE, and then updates the actual state of the device through a local hardware driver or interface.
However, the CSE allows only one application to update a resource at a time. In addition, when receiving a resource update request sent by an application, the CSE locks the resource and rejects another request, reducing system availability.

Device state synchronization method and common capability component

Huawei Cloud Computing Technologies Co., Ltd.


A sub-node, such as a repeater station or relay station, equipped with a multi-beam sub-node link antenna. The beams of the sub-node link antenna allow communication between the sub-node and at least two nodes (access points/base stations) 11A-B; 11A-E. The sub-node is further provided with at least one transmitting and receiving coverage antenna to generate coverage in at least one geographical secondary coverage area a; a-c, and a control mechanism that selects one of the nodes to extend the geographical primary coverage area A-B; A-E of the node 11A-B; 11A-E to include the geographical secondary coverage area a; a-c of the sub-node. The invention is also related to a cellular communication network, and a method for generating coverage in a cellular communication network.

Wide-area coverage is achieved in a number of ways in today's systems. Examples of existing access point coverage solutions include high-gain antennas, higher-order receive diversity, transmitter coherent combining (TCC), and high-altitude antennas (up to hundreds of meters above ground).
All these solutions are based on adapting the access point configuration to enhance the coverage. On downlink, increased EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power), as provided by high-gain antennas and TCC, gives increased signal strength at the terminal (user equipment). On uplink, high-gain antennas and higher-order receive diversity provide an increase in effective access point receiver sensitivity by extracting additional signal energy using effectively larger antenna apertures. Finally, high-altitude antenna installations provide enhanced coverage (on downlink and uplink) by reducing the path loss.
The solutions outlined above provide increased coverage, but often with a marginal rate of return that approaches zero (or becomes small enough not to warrant implementation of the solution) when the desired improvement in coverage is significant, say tens of dBs or more in terms of signal strength. The drawbacks of some existing solutions, in terms of their providing major coverage improvements, are presented below.
High-gain antennas derive their high gain from a decrease in half-power beamwidth (which is directly related to the antenna size). However, the smallest useful beamwidth is limited by the angular spread of the propagation environment, which means that the effective installed antenna gain becomes significantly lower than that of the antenna in free space when the (free-space) beam is too narrow. The smallest useful beamwidth, in the elevation plane, is also limited by the expected sway profile of the tower or mast: the beam must be wide enough to maintain proper illumination of the desired coverage area within the interval of realized pointing directions that result from tower or mast movement. High-gain antennas can provide coverage improvement on both uplink and downlink.
Transmitter coherent combining (TCC) is based on using multiple (power) amplifiers in parallel and combining their output signals to generate an effective output power equal to the sum of the output powers of the individual amplifiers. One drawback of additional amplifiers is increased energy consumption related to running and cooling the amplifiers, which gives increased OPEX. TCC is a downlink-only method for coverage improvement.
Higher-order receive diversity works by extracting signal energy using multiple sensors (antennas) at different locations, in different directions, and/or with multiple polarizations. It requires an additional uplink radio chain (including antenna, tower-mounted amplifier, feeder, and radio) for each additional sensor, which gives increased capital expenditures. It also requires larger than conventional cabinets to accommodate the extra receiver equipment. Higher-order receive diversity is an uplink-only method.
The hitherto described methods for generating increased coverage (wide-area coverage) share the common drawback that a 3 dB increase of coverage requires a doubling of the "equipment": the area of high-gain antennas must double for every additional 3 dB of gain, TCC requires twice as many amplifiers for a 3 dB gain, and twice as many receiver radio chains are needed to get a higher-order receive diversity gain of 3 dB (ignoring gain due to fading statistics, which approaches zero when the number of receiver chains is large). Obviously, there is a limit for any practical application at which the cost, i.e. capital expenditures (CAPEX) and/or operational expenditures (OPEX), and sheer volume and weight of the equipment make these types of coverage solutions unsuitable.
Yet another coverage method is high-altitude antennas which improve the path loss by providing line-of-sight propagation to a larger part of the coverage area, be it directly to terminals or to reflection/diffraction points in the environment. Because of the large distance to ground, the signal correlation over the antenna aperture may also be improved resulting in higher effective gain (approaching the free-space gain). However, high-altitude antennas require high masts or towers and may require long feeder cables. The former can make the total access point very expensive (CAPEX), whereas the latter can be both costly and inefficient due to transmission losses in the feeders (CAPEX and OPEX). High-altitude antennas can provide coverage improvement on both uplink and downlink.
In conclusion, present access point-based coverage solutions can provide improved coverage, but become increasingly inefficient as the coverage requirements are raised.
Traditional repeaters are also used to create coverage. However, a traditional repeater uses one single sub-node link antenna with a single main beam for communication with one specific access point. This can be a very poor solution in many systems. For example, in CDMA systems, a property called cell breathing is common. Cell breathing refers to the (slow) dynamic expansion and contraction of the footprint of a CDMA cell, which may depend on the number of users connected at any given moment or, in general, the traffic load in the cell and which can be used to balance the load between neighboring cells. Pro-active cell breathing (and cell optimization in general) can be achieved by for example tuning of pilot power and antenna tilt. Since a traditional repeater provides coverage for a fixed area, it defeats the purpose of pro-active cell breathing by always providing coverage over a particular area for the same access point. In addition, the quality of the communications link between access point and repeater is affected by the cell breathing, when cell breathing is performed using power control of cell-defining pilot signals or antenna tilt. In this case, the performance in the area covered by the repeater may show unacceptably large fluctuations.
An example of a prior art bidirectional repeater for wireless communication systems is disclosed in EP 1 445 876, assigned to California Amplifier Inc. The disclosed repeater is provided with a link antenna to establish communication with a dedicated base station (access point) and a bidirectional coverage antenna to generate coverage in a geographical area poorly covered, or not covered at all, by the base station coverage antenna. This type of repeater may be used in a communication system as shown in FIG. 1. One base station 2A is provided with an antenna system 3 that generates coverage to a geographical primary coverage area "A". The same antenna system 3 (including transmitting and receiving antennas) communicates via signals 4 with a repeater 5a. The repeater 5a receives and transmits signals to the base station 2A using a link antenna 6, and generates coverage to a geographical secondary coverage area "a" using a coverage antenna 7. A terminal 8 communicates via signals 9 with the repeater 5a using the coverage antenna 7, and a communication link between the terminal 8 and the base station 2 is established through the secondary coverage area a provided by the repeater.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,590, by Minori Kawano et al., a repeater is disclosed having a link antenna to establish communication with one or more dedicated base stations (access points) and a receiving antenna to receive signals in up-link from a terminal close to the repeater and direct the signals to the base station closest to the terminal. The terminal receives signal in down-link directly from the base station coverage antenna. This type of communication network is shown in FIG. 2 comprising three base stations 2A, 2B, 2C. Each base station is provided with an antenna system 3A, 3B, 3C that generates coverage to geographical primary coverage areas A, B and C, respectively. These primary coverage areas are normally overlapping, but a straight line is drawn for illustrating purposes. A repeater 5abc is arranged at a position with equal distance to the three base stations, and all three base stations communicate with the repeater independently of each other. The repeater 5abc is provided with receive coverage antennas to receive signals from terminals 8 close to the repeater 5abc, and transmit link antennas to communicate with the base station. Only secondary reception coverage areas a, b and c are thus generated by the repeater. In up-link, a terminal 8 arranged within secondary reception coverage area b transmits a signal to the repeater 5abc, and the repeater then forwards an amplified signal to the base station 2B. In down-link, the base station directly transmits a signal to the terminal 8.
A problem with the existing repeater stations, or relay stations, is the imperfect coverage performance in a cellular network. The existing cell plan, with its location of access points (base stations), cannot provide cell-wide coverage, at points within the desired coverage area, or at the border of the desired coverage area, or both.

Method and apparatus for generating coverage in a cellular network


This invention relates to a multi-story parking garage which includes a plurality of parking garage floors and a plurality of parking spaces on each of the floors. The garage is further comprised of interconnecting rails and tracks along which a vehicle conveyer device can move so as to transfer cars from an entrance of the garage to parking spaces in the garage on different floors of the garage and then remove the cars from the parking spaces and move them to the exit point of the garage. The vehicle conveyer is comprised of a flat car frame having a plurality of rollers connected thereto which can move along the rails. The flat car includes grooved surface areas which are positioned in a manner corresponding to the four wheels of a car. A shifter device is provided which is of a relatively short height so that it can move beneath a car by moving horizontally along a track and then move upward vertically. Two pairs of catcher arms positioned on a shifter device are pivotally connected and movable so that the arms can be extended downward so that prongs on the arms are buried within the grooves. The arms can then be raised out of the grooves forcing the vehicle upward. When held in an upward position, the vehicle can be positioned on a vehicle conveyer and placed in any given parking space within the garage. The components are connected to electrical signaling circuits which signaling circuits are interconnected with a computer so that the operation of the components and storing of the cars is done automatically.

In crowded industrial and highly populated areas, there is an increasing need for parking space. In an effort to solve that need, there have been developed a number of multi-story parking garages. Some such garages are so compact in configuration that the vehicles cannot be driven from the entrance to the parking space and then to the exit. The garages must be designed so that the vehicle can be mechanically moved by some conveyer means from the entrance to a parking space and then from that parking space to an exit. Comb-shaped catchers are used to convey vehicles within such compact parking garages. The comb-shaped catchers which convey vehicles may be divided generally into two categories.
One main category of the comb-shaped catchers is disclosed within Japanese UM Publication No. 54-62286. In this publication, there is disclosed a comb-shaped conveyer which includes plates that have teeth onto which the tires of the vehicle are driven. The plates are positioned parallel to each other on both sides of the vehicle conveyer and on the center of the respective parking space and may shift longitudinally, perpendicularly or transversely.
When a vehicle enters the parking space, the tires of the vehicle are driven onto the respective comb-shaped plate of the vehicle conveyer. The vehicle conveyer then lifts the vehicle sideways to the front of the arranged parking space. The floor of the parking space having the comb-shape plates thereon advances under the comb-shaped plates of the vehicle conveyer on which the vehicle is placed and the comb-shaped plates holding the vehicle may be shifted downward by utilizing the teeth of the comb-shaped plates. The vehicle is transferred from the comb-shaped plates of the conveyer to the comb-shaped plates of the parking space and shifted sideways towards the parking space. The vehicle conveyer with the comb-shaped plates passes through the comb-shaped plates of the parking space and then shifts downward in order to return. When leaving the parking space, the vehicle conveyer and parking space operate in a reverse fashion.
A second process for conveying vehicles within a multi-story parking garage is disclosed within Japanese Patent Publication 63-251576. This vehicle conveyer operates in a manner similar to that disclosed within the above-discussed publication JA 54-62286. However, in accordance with the device disclosed with in JA 63-251576, the comb-shaped plates of the vehicle conveyer on which the vehicle is placed shift toward the vehicle above the arranged parking space and then shifted downward, and by means of the teeth on the comb-shaped plates of the vehicle conveyer and pass through the space between the teeth of the comb-shaped plates of the parking space. Accordingly, the vehicle is transferred in a forward-direction position.
Conventional vehicle conveyers, such as described above, are designed so that the use of space is not efficiently utilized. Further, due to the configuration of the conveyers, they must operate at a relatively low rate of speed in order to insure safety. In addition, even after the power driving the conveyers is stopped, the mechanism still requires the use of a hand brake or some type of reduction gear in order to halt the operation of the device and insure that the vehicle remains stationary in its parking space. The present invention endeavors to eliminate and/or alleviate such problems and provide a parking conveyer system whereby the space is efficiently utilized, the vehicles are quickly moved from the entrance to the parking space and from the parking space to the exit and whereby they can be held securely in place without the use of extraneous braking operations.

Vehicle conveyer for a multi-story parking garage


An environmental control system includes a turbomachine and an air cycle machine that is driven by shaft power of the turbomachine. The turbomachine includes a compressor, which supplies compressed bleed air to the air cycle machine. Ambient air is compressed by the compressor, and heat of compression is removed by an air-to-air heat exchanger, which envelops the turbomachine. The cooled, compressed air is expanded in the air cycle machine to produce a stream of cooled, conditioned air. Ambient air used by the air-to-air heat exchanger to cool the compressed bleed air is drawn into the turbomachine""s exhaust by an eductor.

The invention relates to environmental control systems. The invention also relates to turbomachines.
The assignee of the present invention is quite accomplished in the design of environmental control systems, as evidenced by the following sampling of their U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,060 to Kinsell, Noe and Campbell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,273 to Kinsell, Saba and Strang; U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,565 to Thomson, Matulich and Emerson; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,763 to Becosby and Araki. The environmental controls systems disclosed in these four patents are driven by bleed air from propulsion engines.
An environmental control system comprises a turbomachine; and an air cycle machine driven by shaft power of the turbomachine. The air cycle machine is adapted to receive bleed air from the compressor of the turbomachine.

Turbomachine-driven environmental control system


Determination of the rate of penetration (ROP) of drilling has usually been based upon surface measurements and may not be an accurate representation of the actual ROP. This can cause problems in Logging While Drilling (LWD). Because of the lack of a high-speed surface-to-downhole communication while drilling, a conventional method of measuring ROP at the surface does not provide a solution to this problem. However, the instantaneous ROP can be derived downhole with a certain degree of accuracy by utilizing an accelerometer placed in (or near) the tool to measure acceleration in the axial direction. When three-component accelerometers are used, the method may be used to determine the true vertical depth of the borehole.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to methods for determining the rate of penetration of a drillbit and using the determined rate of penetration for controlling the operation of downhole logging tools. The method of the invention is applicable for use with both measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tools and wireline tools.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the rotary drilling of wells such as hydrocarbon wells, a drill bit located at the end of a drill string is rotated so as to cause the bit to drill into the formation. The rate of penetration (ROP) depends upon the weight on bit (WOB), the rotary speed of the drill and the formation and also the condition of the drill bit. The earliest prior art methods for measuring ROP were based on monitoring the rate at which the drill string is lowered into the well at the surface. However because the drill string, which is formed of steel pipes, is relatively long, the elasticity or compliance of the string can result in the actual ROP being different from the rate at which the string is lowered into the hole.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,688,871 to Lubinski and U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,560 to Guignard teach methods to correct for this difference by modeling the drill string is as an elastic spring with the elasticity of the string being calculated theoretically from the length of the drill string and the Young""s modulus of the pipe used to form the string. This information is then used to calculate ROP from the load applied at the hook suspending the drill string and the rate at which the string is lowered into the well. These methods do not account for the friction encountered by the drill string as a result of contact with the wall of the well. Patent FR 2 038 700 to Gosselin teaches a method of correcting for this effect by making an in situ measurement of the modulus of elasticity. This is achieved by determining the variations in tension to which the drill string is subjected as the bit goes down the well until it touches the bottom. Since it is difficult to determine exactly when the bit touches the bottom from surface measurements, strain gauges are provided near the bit and a telemetry system is required to relay the information to the surface. In MWD applications, the data rate of the telemetry system is necessarily limited. Additionally, this method still does not provide measurements when drilling is taking place.
There have been a number of teachings of the use of Kalman filtering for determining the rate of penetration of a drillbit. For example, Sengbush (FR 2 165 851 and AU 44,424/72), uses a mathematical model applicable for roller cone bits for describing the drill bit cutting rate. The model requires a knowledge of the drill depth, the drill rotational speed, and the weight on bit. Chan in U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,286 discusses a related problem of a wireline logging tool on an elastic cable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,875 to Kerbart, during an initial period, the well is drilled keeping, on average, the value of weight F of the drill string measured at the surface relatively constant, and the instantaneous values of the drill string rate of penetration VS and the weight F are measured at the surface at different successive moments. The value of the drill string average rate of penetration VSM at the surface is determined from the values of VS measured and the successive values of dF/dt of the first derivative with respect to time. The coefficient of apparent rigidity of the drill string during the initial period is then determined from the values of VSM, VS and dF/dt. Finally, the rate VF is calculated. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,286 to Booer, a state space formulation of the model in the Kerbart patent is used with a Kalman filter to determine the downhole ROP. The quantity observed in Booer is the surface displacement. Those versed in the art would recognize that a fundamental problem in Kalman filtering is the identification of the state transition matrix that governs the evolution of the state space model. Kalman filtering is also computationally intensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,726 to Chau teaches the use of a three-component accelerometer near a drillbit used for boring a near horizontal borehole. Integration of the accelerometer outputs is performed to determine the position of the drillbit. This integration is susceptible to integration errors. In Chau, at specified times, a dipole antenna is used in conjunction with a surface EM transmitter to get an absolute position of the drillbit and to correct for the integration errors. This is possible in near horizontal borcholes but is impractical for deep wells drilled in hydrocarbon exploration.
Determination of the ROP is of particular importance in measurement of compressional and shear velocities of formations in measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tools. In wireline logging, a plurality of acoustic transmitters is used in conjunction with arrays of acoustic receivers for determining these velocities, the transmitters being excited at regular intervals related to the logging speed to give redundant measurements of these velocities. In MWD applications using devices such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,294 to Leggett et al, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, excitation at regular time intervals is not necessarily desirable if the ROP is time varying. The method of the present invention makes it possible to determine the ROP with relatively simple computations and thus control the operation of the acoustic logging tool.
Generally, depth determination is less a problem in wireline tools. One of the earliest teachings is that of Bowers et al (U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,447) In Bowers, the tension between the tool and its supporting cable is measured, as is the movement of the cable at the surface of the earth. The tension and cable movement are then combined in a computer along with a plurality of constants representative of various characteristics of the cable and its surround medium to produce an output signal representative of the movement of the tool and relating to the changes in tension Examples of the use of accelerometers for wireline use are given in Chan (U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,242) teaches a high resolution method and apparatus for measuring the depth of a tool suspended from a cable. The tool includes accelerometers for measuring its acceleration and this measurement is combined with a cable depth measurement with which the amount of cable in the borehole is determined. A Kalman filter is employed to continually provide estimates of the velocity and depth of the tool from the accelerometer and cable depth measurements. A filter modifier alters operation of the filter during discontinuous motions of the tool such as when it is stuck and slips. A tool sticking detector senses when the tool is stuck and for how long to correspondingly modify the filter by forcing it to more strongly rely upon accelerometer measurements when the tool is stuck and gradually return to normal filter operation when the tool resumes movement after having been stuck. However, as noted above, it is particularly when a tool is stuck that integration of accelerometer measurements tend to become unreliable.
There is a need for a method of determination of depth of a tool in a borehole that is not susceptible to the errors discussed above. The present invention satisfies this need.
The present invention is a method of determining the rate of penetration of a downhole drilling assembly conveyed in a borehole during drilling of the borehole. An accelerometer on the downhole assembly is used to make measurements indicative of axial motion of the drilling assembly. In one embodiment of the invention, these measurements are used to determine the axial velocity of motion. Maxima or minima of the velocity are identified and from these, the rate of penetration is determined assuming that the penetration occurs in discrete steps. Alternatively, maxima or minima of the axial displacement are determined and these are used to obtain a depth curve as a function of time. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the rate of penetration is determined from the average acceleration of the downhole assembly and its instantaneous frequency. The determined rate of penetration may then be used to control the operation of a logging while drilling tool. Specifically, the activation of a transmitter of the logging tool is controlled to give measurements at desired depths. This is particularly desirable in array logging tools such as are used in borehole-compensated acoustic logging. Operation of other downhole tools may also be controlled based on depth determination.
In an alternate embodiment of the invention, measurements made using accelerometers are also used to get an estimate of the depth of a downhole tool conveyed on a wireline.

Use of axial accelerometer for estimation of instantaneous ROP downhole for LWD and wireline applications


The invention relates to a retarder composition for the control of unwanted polymerization reactions during the production and processing of ethylenically unsaturated compounds, the composition comprising at least one di-substituted quinone compound and at least one hydroxylamine compound. Optionally, the composition also comprises at least one stable free radical nitroxyl compound and one or more formulation adjuvants. The invention also envisages a process stream comprising at least one ethylenically unsaturated compound, and a method for the prevention of unwanted polymerization reactions during the production and processing of ethylenically unsaturated compounds. The composition has been found to be far more effective than expected, given that the individual components show little or no efficacy when used alone, and poses much less hazard to humans than the compositions of the prior art.

During the industrial production of vinyl aromatic monomers or other ethylenically unsaturated monomers there is usually a requirement for high temperature processing operations, such as purification by fractional distillation, and the performance of said operations at elevated temperatures can often cause unwanted thermal polymerisation of the monomer. The thus formed polymer is a problem economically, and can also give rise to safety and process efficiency issues which adversely affect the monomer processing operation.
Economic loss occurs because the yield of valuable monomer is reduced due to polymerisation of the monomer to form a polymer which is merely valued, at best, on its calorific content as a fuel, whilst the process efficiency and safety problems are associated with the tendencies of the polymer to foul surfaces such as heat transfer surfaces, and to cause blockages to flow through the equipment or to increase the viscosity of process streams, so that flux oil or valuable monomer has to be added in order to reduce the viscosity and thereby enable the process stream to be moved readily by gravity, or by forced flow such as by pumping.
In order to control such unwanted polymerisation it is common practice to employ an anti-polymerant composition in the process stream. These anti-polymerant compositions essentially fall into one of two categories, namely inhibitors and retarders.
Inhibitors are effective in preventing the formation of polymer, but they are substantially consumed in this process. This consumption can cause problems in situations where the inhibitor cannot be replenished, for example because of feed pump failure. Consequent to the inhibitor being consumed there is a loss of the means of control of the polymerisation and, thus, rapid polymerisation can then occur.
Retarders, on the other hand, may be less effective than inhibitors in limiting the amount of polymerisation, but they do have the advantage that they are not substantially consumed under their conditions of use. Retarders are, therefore, more reliable because they are longer acting and they provide some security in situations where unplanned circumstances arise.
The prior art discloses many different compositions for use in controlling the extent of the unwanted polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated monomers. However, very few of the prior art compositions possess the desirable characteristics of a polymerisation retarder and those that do display such characteristics are also associated with other properties which are disadvantageous.
Thus, for example, DD-A-234020 teaches the use of compositions containing phenols, whilst U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,451 discusses nitrosophenolic compounds. Phenylenediamine compounds are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,374, whilst U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,615 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,147 are both concerned with the use of nitrophenols. SU-A-819078 and EP-A-550754 describe the use of quinine methides for this purpose, and nitroxyl compounds are the focus of JP-A-01165534, GB-A-1127127 and CS-B-260755. In addition, the use of quinones is considered in JP-A-5085964, which discloses employing p-benzoquinone as a retarder, whilst JP-A-63235390 teaches methods which are based on the incorporation of alkylated quinones, naphthaquinones and anthraquinones for the control of unwanted polymerisation.
However, none of these prior art compositions fulfils all the requirements of efficacy and ease of use which are the desired attributes of a successful composition for the control of the degree of polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated monomers during their production and processing. Consequently many subsequent attempts have been made by other workers to improve upon these aspects by means of compositions which contain at least two of these known substances. Thus, for example, processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,778 which require the use of a combination of phenylene diamines and hindered phenols, whilst mixtures of nitrophenols and hydroxylamines are considered in EP-A-240297, nitrophenols and nitroxyl compounds in U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,760, quinones and nitroxyl compounds in US-A-2002/0037958, quinones and hydroxylamines in WO-A-96/41783, and CN-A-1962582 teaches a mixture of a quinone with a nitrophenol and a nitrite.
Nevertheless, despite these efforts, even these more sophisticated compositions fail to provide all the desired characteristics of a successful polymerisation retarder composition for use in the control of the amount of unwanted polymerisation under the process conditions which are typically encountered, and there remains a need for an improved polymerisation retarder composition, most particularly for use in controlling the amount of polymerisation which occurs during the production and processing of ethylenically unsaturated monomers.
The desired characteristics of such a composition include a low potential for harm to humans, as well as a high efficacy of control of the amount of polymerisation under the process conditions. The conditions which prevail during the industrial processing of ethylenically unsaturated monomers can involve the use of elevated temperatures, for example up to about 140° C., for extended periods, e.g. two hours or more, and with low or very low oxygen levels.
Furthermore, due to the complex nature of such processing plants, non-standard operating conditions of temperature, dwell time and oxygen content can occur from time to time, thereby resulting in greater than normal reliance on the polymerisation control composition. The non-standard conditions can also involve an interruption in the flow of the polymerisation control composition into the ethylenically unsaturated monomer process stream, which may occur, for example, because a distillation column needs to be run under total reflux for a period of time. In such an event, it is a requirement of the polymerisation control composition that its efficacy should not be quickly exhausted, but that it should continue to give control over the whole duration of the period of the non-standard operating conditions. Such long-lasting polymerisation control properties can be provided by a retarder composition, whereas inhibitors do not have such longevity of efficacy and can be found to become ineffective too quickly to be useful.
It has been established that the polymerisation retarder compositions of the prior art containing phenols such as methyl pyrocatechol, cresols or xylenols, or those containing phenylenediamine compounds such as N-isopropyl-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine, are relatively ineffective at controlling the amount of polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated compounds when there is low or very low oxygen content prevailing during the processing of ethylenically unsaturated monomers. The consequence of this poor efficacy is an unacceptable economic loss of the vinyl aromatic monomer due to unwanted polymerisation. Furthermore, whilst nitroxyl compounds such as 4-amino-2,2,6,6-tetra methyl piperidine-N-oxyl (amino tempo) and 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetra methyl piperidine-N-oxyl (hydroxy tempo) are known to be very effective components of compositions for controlling the amount of unwanted polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated monomers at low and intermediate temperatures (e.g. up to about 100° C.), their efficacy decreases with increasing temperature such that, above about 120° C., they cease to control the amount of polymerisation and merely modify the characteristics of the polymer which is formed. Furthermore, it is found that these nitroxyl compounds are inhibitors rather than retarders. Therefore, nitroxyl compounds do not have the persisting action required for controlling the amount of polymerisation in the event of, for example, a period of total reflux operation.
Other chemical types, such as quinone methides and Mannich base compounds, can be used to provide non-toxic retarder compositions, but they are effective only at lower operating temperatures, such as up to about 110° C. When they are used at temperatures in excess of this they become ineffectual and the doses required are too high to be economically viable when compared to current commercially employed nitrophenol-based retarder compositions.
Nitrophenol compounds such as 2,4-dinitro-ortho-cresol (DNOC), 2,6-dinitro-para-cresol (DNPC), 2,4-dinitro-phenol (DNP) or 2,4-dinitro-ortho-sec-butyl-phenol (DNBP or "Dinoseb") are known to be effective components of polymerisation retarder compositions for controlling the polymerisation of vinyl aromatic monomers under the above mentioned conditions. These nitrophenols are particularly effective as retarders and so they are the most frequently used class of material in commercial use for controlling the amount of thermal polymerisation of vinyl aromatic monomers in processing plants. However, these nitrophenols are toxic materials with potential to cause harm to humans and to the environment. Similarly, the nitrosophenolic compounds, such as paranitrosophenol, are found to be effective components of retarder compositions, but such aromatic nitroso compounds are solid products with poor solubility characteristics, and they are therefore difficult to handle; in addition, the toxicity properties of these compounds are such that they also have potential to cause harm to humans.
Commercial operations engaged in operating vinyl aromatic monomer process plants prefer not to handle and use toxic materials for health and safety reasons. Instead, they seek to employ non-toxic materials in order to obtain the very evident benefits of promoting the health and welfare of their employees and protecting the environment. Furthermore, in view of their undesirable toxicity properties, these nitrophenols and nitrosophenols are increasingly becoming subject to regulatory actions by national and international authorities in order to restrict or prevent their commercial supply. Consequently, it is likely that such nitrophenols and nitrosophenols might cease to be available for commercial use in polymerisation control compositions in the future.
WO-A-96/41783 discloses compositions and methods of use of specified quinones and specified hydroxylamines for inhibiting the polymerisation of vinyl aromatic monomers. However, the compositions disclosed in WO-A-96/41783 are characterisable as inhibitors and they do not possess the desirable longer term protection attributes of a retarder.
In view of the problems which are associated with the polymerisation control compositions of the prior art, there exists a need for new, effective and non-toxic, polymerisation retarder compositions, which specifically do not contain materials which are toxic to humans, for use in controlling the amount of unwanted polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated monomers during their production and processing. Thus, the present invention seeks to provide new polymerisation retarder compositions which offer significant improvement over the prior art compositions in terms of efficacy in use, long lasting activity, and low toxicity.


A control system for a vehicle having a dry dual clutch transmission (DCT) includes a launch condition detection module, a vehicle stop module, and a vehicle launch module. The launch condition detection module detects a launch condition based on whether (i) the vehicle is on an uphill grade and (ii) a driver of the vehicle has requested power via an accelerator. The vehicle stop module stops the vehicle when the launch condition is detected by (i) commanding an on-coming clutch of the dry DCT to a predetermined position and (ii) applying brakes of the vehicle. The vehicle launch module launches the vehicle after the vehicle is stopped by (i) fully engaging the on-coming clutch of the dry DCT and (ii) opening a throttle to a desired position corresponding to the power request.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Internal combustion engines combust an air/fuel (NF) mixture within cylinders to drive pistons that rotatably turn a crankshaft and generate drive torque. The drive torque is transferred from the crankshaft to a driveline of a vehicle via a transmission. A dual clutch transmission (DCT) includes two clutches. Each of the clutches selectively engages gears to provide a plurality of different gear ratios. The two clutches may each be "dry" clutches that directly couple the DCT to the crankshaft (also known as a "dry DCT"). For example, one dry DCT clutch may control odd numbered gears and another dry DCT clutch may control even numbered gears. Dry DCTs may provide for increased fuel economy and/or improved shift responsiveness compared to other transmissions.

System and method for controlling unpowered to powered transitions in vehicles having dry dual clutch transmissions


A flexible printed circuit board includes a substrate, a circuit pattern formed on the substrate, and a protective coating layer formed on the substrate by applying and curing a coating solution to cover and protect the circuit pattern. A method for manufacturing forming a circuit pattern on a substrate and forming a protective coating layer for covering and protecting the circuit pattern by applying a coating solution on the substrate. The circuit pattern may be securely attached to the substrate, and damage and deformation of the circuit pattern due to repeated bending or warping of the substrate may be prevented, ultimately improving operational reliability.

Typically, flexible printed circuit boards, which are configured such that a circuit pattern is formed on a thin insulating film, find applications in many fields including those of mobile electronic instruments, as well as automatic instruments and displays that must be flexible for their operation.
Particularly, there has been a strong demand for flexible printed circuit boards for mobile terminals such as smartphones. For example, flexible printed circuit boards are mainly utilized in NFC (Near Field Communication) antennas or digitizers of mobile terminals.
When installed in a display panel of an electronic instrument, such as a cellular phone, PDA, laptop computer, etc., a digitizer functions to recognize and represent the coordinates of touch points on the display panel, allowing for the natural representation of written letters or notes on the display panel.
Accordingly, the size of digitizers corresponds to that of display panels. With the tendency of display panels toward enlargement, such as in smartphones, tablet PCs, outdoor advertising displays, etc., digitizers have gradually increased in size.
With reference to FIG. 1, the demand for an electronic blackboard 1 is increasing in companies or educational institutions such as schools or academies because screen output is possible and writing is possible on the screen thereof, and the digitizer is applied in the electronic blackboard 1 so as to enable smooth and accurate writing.
The electronic blackboard 1 is installed indoors or outdoors and is thus used for lectures, seminars, conferences, presentations, etc., and includes a large display panel so that a large number of people can clearly see the screen.
Typically, a flexible printed circuit board is manufactured by etching copper foil that has been laminated on a flexible substrate or by printing a circuit pattern with a conductive paste or conductive ink on a flexible insulating film and then plating the circuit pattern.
However, such flexible printed circuit boards have to undergo etching or plating, and thus suffer from complicated manufacturing processes and high manufacturing costs.
Also, a coverlay is utilized to protect the circuit pattern, but incurs high manufacturing costs and makes it difficult to form to a thickness equal to or less than a predetermined level.
Also, the adhesion between the circuit pattern and the insulating film may decrease in the course of plating the terminal portion of the circuit pattern, undesirably leading to the circuit pattern easily separating from the insulating film.
Also, when the flexible printed circuit board is applied to flexible displays, the circuit pattern may be damaged and deformed due to repeated bending and warping, undesirably deteriorating operational reliability.
Particularly in the case where the digitizer is used for the electronic blackboard having a large screen, the size of the substrate has to be large so as to correspond to the large screen, undesirably causing problems including high manufacturing costs in the formation of the circuit pattern, easy separation of the circuit pattern from the insulating film, and damage and deformation of the circuit pattern due to the bending and warpage.
Also, the flexible printed circuit board is manufactured to have a multilayer structure so as to effectively dispose the circuits for its operation. For this, insulating films having different circuit pattern layers are attached using a bonding sheet.
Such a multilayered flexible printed circuit board includes via holes for electrically connecting the individual circuit pattern layers, but is problematic in that the manufacturing processes are complicated and the individual insulating films are adhered using a bonding sheet to be integrally formed, thus increasing the manufacturing costs.
Also, the multilayered flexible printed circuit board is problematic in that stable operational reliability is not maintained when the bondability of the bonding sheet deteriorates, and the thickness thereof is difficult to decrease, which undesirably increases the thickness of products including the same.

Flexible printed circuit board and method for manufacturing same


A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory device and a controller. The controller includes a working memory and is configured to control the nonvolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device is configured to store drive data required to access the nonvolatile memory device. When an initialization operation of the memory system is performed, the controller activates an operation standby signal after loading a portion of the drive data stored in the nonvolatile memory device into the working memory.

Embodiments of the inventive concept relate generally to a semiconductor memory device. More particularly, embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a memory system comprising a nonvolatile memory device and a controller.
Semiconductor memory devices can be roughly divided into two categories based on whether they retain stored data when disconnected from power. These categories include volatile memory devices, which lose stored data when disconnected from power, and nonvolatile memory devices, which retain stored data when disconnected from power.
Examples of volatile memory devices include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), and examples of nonvolatile memory devices include electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), phase-change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), and flash memory.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of devices employing nonvolatile memory devices. As examples, nonvolatile memory devices are being used increasingly in MP3 players, digital cameras, cellular phones, camcorders, flash cards, solid state drives (SSDs), to name but a few. In addition, there has also been an increase in the overall storage capacity of nonvolatile memory devices, resulting in a tremendous amount of nonvolatile data storage in use today.

Memory system comprising nonvolatile memory device and controller


A memory subsystem includes a memory interface for accessing a non-volatile memory (NVM), a host interface for communicating with a host, and a processor. The processor is configured to calculate a signature over program code that is used by the host and is stored in the NVM, to verify, upon detecting a boot process performed by the host, whether the boot process is legitimate, and, only if the boot process was verified to be legitimate, to provide the signature to the host for authentication to a remote server.

A secure client communicating with a server is sometimes required to authenticate itself to the server, and to prove that it has not been compromised by a hostile third party. Various solutions have been proposed for this sort of authentication process. Some solutions involve creating and reporting to the server a secure identity of the client. For example, the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specifies a solution called "Device Identifier Composition Engine" (DICE), in "Trusted Platform Architecture Hardware Requirements for a Device Identifier Composition Engine," Family 2.0, Level 00, Revision 69, Dec. 16, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Secure client authentication based on conditional provisioning of code signature