An optical film laminate includes a substrate including a crystallizable ester type thermoplastic resin in the form of a continuous web; and a polarizing film including a polyvinyl alcohol type resin layer formed on the substrate, said polarizing film including a dichroic material impregnated therein in a molecularly oriented state, wherein the polarizing film is formed by providing a laminate including the polyvinyl alcohol type resin layer formed on a substrate including a crystallizable ester type thermoplastic resin in an amorphous state and subjecting the laminate to a 2-stage stretching process including a preliminary in-air stretching and an in-boric-acid-solution stretching under a temperature maintaining the amorphous state of the substrate, such that the polyvinyl alcohol type resin layer is stretched to a thickness of 10 μm or less, the polarizing film having optical properties based on the formulae P>−(100.929T−42.4−1) ×100 (where T<42.3) and P≧99.9 (where T≧42.3).

A well-known method for manufacturing a polarizing film or a so-called polarizer (hereinafter, referred as "a polarizing film") comprises steps of subjecting a film of polyvinyl alcohol resin type material (hereinafter, referred as "PVA type resin") to dyeing and stretching processes to thereby provide a stretched film having a dichroic material impregnated therein with a molecularly oriented state.
However, it is not possible to manufacture a polarizing film having a thickness of 10 μm or less through a conventional method using a general mono-layer of PVA type resin. The reason for such difficulty is that the thickness of the mono-layer resin used in the method has to be 30 μm or less. As described later, PVA type resin is hydrophilic. The single resin layer comprised of a PVA type resin having a thickness of 30 μm or less is difficult to be processed through the dyeing and/or stretching process without being subjected to any risk of the layer being partially dissolved or broken. Specifically, there remains an unsolved technical problem of manufacturing a polarizing film having, for example, a thickness of 10 μm or less and having a uniform thickness and stable optical property.
Thus, a method for producing a polarizing film using a thermoplastic resin substrate has been proposed as shown by a schematic diagram in FIG. 24. The method for manufacturing a polarizing film using a thermoplastic resin substrate is noticeable in that it allows for making the film thinner, and thus allows for more uniform thin film compared with the method for manufacturing the polarizing film using a mono-layer PVA type resin. Nevertheless, the polarizing film having a thickness of 10 μm or less has not been in practical use. Specific examples hithertofore proposed will be described later
In the case of a polarizing film which is to be adhesively attached to each of the opposite surfaces of a liquid-crystal cell for use in a liquid-crystal display apparatus, according to the method for manufacturing a polarizing film with a mono-layer of the PVA type resin as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication JP2005-266325A (the Patent Document 1), the polarizing film is manufactured, for example, by transporting a PVA type resin mono-layer of a thickness of 60 to 80 μm through a transporting apparatus comprising a plurality sets of rolls driven at different peripheral speeds, and immersing the PVA type resin mono-layer in a dyeing solution to have a dichroic material impregnated therein, while stretching the mono-layer comprising the PVA type resin in the dichroic material solution at around 60° C. This is the polarizing film manufactured from a mono-layer having a thickness of 20 to 30 μm. Presently, the polarizing film manufactured using the method has optical properties of a single layer transmittance of 42% or higher and a polarization rate of 99.95% or higher, and is used for a large-sized screen television.
However, since the PVA type resin is hydrophilic, a polarizing film is sensitive to change of temperature and humidity and is apt to produce changes in dimensions such as expansion or shrinkage due to changes in environmental conditions possibly resulting in cracks. In order to suppress expansion and shrinkage and to minimize effects of temperature and/or humidity, it has been a usual practice in a polarizing film for use with a television to provide a film of triacetylcellulose (TAC) having a thickness of 40 to 80 μm laminated on each of the opposite surfaces of the polarizing film as a protection film.
It should however be noted that, in the case of a mono-layer polarizing film, since there is a certain limit in reducing the thickness of the polarizing film, it is still difficult to completely restrict the expansion or shrinkage, so that, when an optical film laminate including such polarizing film is adhesively attached to a component such as an adjacent optical film or a liquid-crystal cell through a layer of a bonding or adhesive agent, a stress is induced in such component by the expansion or shrinkage of the polarizing film. Such stress may cause a distortion in the displayed image in a liquid-crystal display apparatus. Since the image distortion is caused by an optical elasticity or deformation of the component induced by a stress produced under the shrinkage in the polarizing film, the material to be used for such component must be limited to be of a low optical elasticity and/or of low birefringent property in order to reduce the image distortion. In addition, since the stress produced under the shrinkage of the polarizing film may possibly cause the optical film laminate to be detached from the liquid-crystal cell, it is required to use an adhesive agent of a higher adhesive power. However, using such adhesive agent of high adhesive power makes re-working operation difficult. The above is the technical problem inherent to a use of a mono-layer polarizing film.
Under such circumstances, there is a need for a manufacture of polarizing films, which can be used in place of the method using a mono-layer polarizing film in which difficulties have been encountered in an effort for producing polarizing films of a decreased thickness. However, if a PVA type resin mono-layer film having a thickness smaller than 50 μm is passed through a transporting apparatus including a plurality sets of rolls driven at different peripheral speeds and stretched in a dye solution around a temperature of 60° C. to produce a polarizing film having a thickness of 10 μm or less, the PVA type resin mono-layer comprised of a hydrophilic polymer composition may be at least partially dissolved in the solution as the thickness is decreased by stretching, or may be broken because of being unable to withstand the stretching stress.
Because of such problems, the methods disclosed in the Patent Documents 2 to 5 have been proposed as new manufacturing methods of polarizing films. In those methods, a polarizing film is manufactured by forming a layer of a PVA type resin on a thermoplastic resin substrate of a certain thickness and stretching thus formed PVA type resin layer together with the thermoplastic resin substrate. Specifically, the methods correspond to reference test samples 1, 2 or 3. Describing in more detail, the method corresponding to the reference test samples 1 or 2 includes steps of providing a laminate comprising a thermoplastic resin substrate and a PVA type resin layer and subjecting the laminate to stretching in air typically at a stretching temperature of 60 to 110° C. using, for example, a stretching apparatus arranged in an oven. Then, the PVA type resin layer having molecular orientation produced through the stretching is subjected to a dyeing process to have a dichroic material impregnated therein. According to the method corresponding to the reference test sample 3, the PVA type resin layer in the laminate comprising the thermoplastic resin substrate and the PVA type resin layer is first dyed to have a dichroic material impregnated therein. Then, the laminate comprising the PVA type resin layer having the dichroic material impregnated therein is stretched in air typically at a stretching temperature of 60 to 110° C. The above process is the method of manufacturing the polarizing film having the dichroic material in a molecularly oriented state as disclosed in the Patent Documents 2 to 5. These are the methods which have hithertofore been proposed for manufacturing a polarizing film using a thermoplastic resin substrate. FIG. 25 shows results of verifying test performed by the inventors for determining optical properties accomplished in the polarizing film disclosed in the Patent Document 2 to 5.
The polarizing film produced by the aforementioned manufacturing process is promising from viewpoint of reducing the thickness of a large size display element, eliminating distortions in displayed images and reducing industrial waste. However, up to now, the polarizing film manufactured by the aforementioned process has not been practically used. The reason for this is considered as that the polarizing film has a lower degree of optical properties in terms of the polarizing property, as shown in FIG. 25 illustrating the optical properties of the reference test samples 1 to 3, and thus, there is still unsolved technical problem in an effort for producing a polarizing film with a sufficiently high optical property.
The prior art documents referred to in the above and following descriptions are listed below.                Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication JP2005-266325A        Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent 4279944B        Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication JP2001-343521A        Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Publication JP8-12296B        Patent Document 5: U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,523        Non-Patent Document 1: H, W. Siesler, Adv. Polym. Sci., 65, 1 (1984)

Polarizing film, optical film laminate including polarizing film, and method for manufacturing the same


A teaching apparatus and method of enabling a child who does not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper and lower letters to enter data into a computer is presented. In one embodiment, a computer keyboard overlay having lower-case letters is provided. The overlay is preferably transparent, and the lower-case letter is positioned in a non-interfering location relative to the upper-case letter on the alphabet keys such that both the upper-case and lower-case letters are visible to the child when installed. A computer keyboard is also presented that included both glyphs for upper-case and lower-case letters on the alphabet keys. The glyphs of the lower-case letters may be positioned on the keys directly, or may be applied along with a layer to the keys. A method comprises the step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another.

The present invention relates generally to educational aids, and more particularly to computer-related educational aids that enhance familiarity with and ease of use of a computer for young children.
The explosion of the Internet and the proliferation of personal computers confirms that the world is truly in the information age. Once only the tool for scientists in research facilities and universities, the personal computer of today may be found in nearly all businesses, most homes, and many schools and preschools. The early introduction, acceptance, and usage of these personal computers has led social psychologists to label the current generation as xe2x80x9cGeneration Dxe2x80x9d for digital. While many adults still find it difficult to stop 12:00 flashing on their home VCRs, kids of today have no problem downloading music, performing research projects, trading e-mails, chatting, etc. on personal computers more powerful than those that landed man on the Moon.
As more and more people utilize personal computers, parents and educators are recognizing the benefits that may be gained through early exposure and usage of these tools with younger and younger children. Indeed, many preschools, kindergartens, and first graders are now routinely being exposed to personal computers in the classroom and well as at home. Unfortunately, while the technology of the microprocessors that drive the computers has advanced significantly over the years, the primary user interface to the computer, the keyboard, has not changed in any significant way in more than a century and a quarter. Indeed, the current design of the QWERTY keyboard was first introduced in 1872 for the express purpose of making typing more difficult, and hence slower, for secretaries in companies. This was needed because of the original design of the typewriter that used long arms driven by the keys to place the type on the paper. If the succeeding letter was typed too quickly after the preceding letter, the arms for these two or more letters could, and often would, become jammed with one another. While digital computers no longer suffer from such a mechanical problem, the design of the present keyboard, which was meant to be difficult to use by experienced secretaries and typists in businesses, remains with us to this day.
Unfortunately, this carryover QWERTY keyboard design presents an additional problem to the early computer education of a child. However, this problem is much more subtle than commonly recognized problem presented by the non-alphabetical layout of the keys. This problem exists not because of the physical position of the keys, but because this carryover QWERTY design does not take into consideration the way that preschool through first grade students are taught reading, writing, and, more specifically, the alphabet. Most preschool and elementary school programs uniformly teach these young students lower case letters first. That is, a child""s early exposure to the written word takes place in the realm of lower case letters, except for the beginning of their names, days of the week, etc. The QWERTY keyboard, quite to the contrary, displays all of the letters of the alphabet in upper case letters. As a result of the mismatch of the child""s early education with lower case letters and the QWERTY keyboard""s exclusive use of upper case letters, a child""s early exposure to the personal computer can become quite confusing and frustrating. This confusion and frustration results with young children because they have not yet mastered the relationship between capital and lower case letters. Yet, they are asked to enter data that is given to them in lower case letters into the computer using the keys that display only upper case letters. For many an early leaner, the glyphs that make up the upper case letters are completely foreign to them.
As an example of this subtle, but nearly crippling problem, consider the operation of most educational software programs. To allow tracking of a child""s performance, these programs typically require that a child first xe2x80x9clog inxe2x80x9d by typing his or her name. However, a student named xe2x80x9cSierraxe2x80x9d would have a very difficult time finding the letters of her name on the QWERTY keyboard without a complete mastery of the relationship between upper case and lower case letters. That is, the student would need to type the keys displaying xe2x80x9cSIERRAxe2x80x9d, even though most educators do not allow a child to write her name in this fashion. As such, the QWERTY keyboard has already undermined the educator""s ability to teach the child the proper usage of letters to form her name, and has caused some level of dissonance in the child who knows that such usage is improper. However, the dissonance and confusion does not stop there. Once the student has found and typed the keys marked xe2x80x9cSIERRAxe2x80x9d, she would look at the computer screen only to see her name displayed using the letters xe2x80x9csierraxe2x80x9d because these young students do not have any knowledge of the shift key. This also causes confusion and dissonance in the child because she also knows that this is not the correct way to write her name.
This is a doubled headed problem resulting from the carryover design of the QWERTY keyboard. The student first struggles to find the letters (displayed as all upper case on the keys) he or she needs to log in to the educational program to begin the lesson, then looks up only to see his or her name is displayed differently (in all lower case letters) on the screen than what he or she just entered on the keyboard. This apparent disconnect between the data entry device of the keyboard and the data display device of the monitor is quite confusing for the early leaner. These students often become quite frustrated since they have not even logged in to the educational program, and yet they feel that they are already struggling to understand. This problem is further compounded because many of the early educational software packages also use lower case letters to teach early reading. However, when the program asks a student to find, e.g., the letter xe2x80x9cjxe2x80x9d it does not appear anywhere on the student""s keyboard (however an adult readily recognizes that the xe2x80x9cJxe2x80x9d will properly satisfy the program""s request).
Because the benefits of teaching lower case letters to early learners first, it would be foolish to suggest that the entire educational system will be changed to accommodate this problem resulting from the design of the QWERTY keyboard. Therefore, there exists a need for early learners in preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary school for a keyboard that takes into account an early learner""s knowledge of letters. Also, since many school districts across the country have already purchased computer hardware, there exists a need in the art to virtually and apparently modify existing keyboards owned by the schools to aid the early learner in acquiring computer skills by reducing any unnecessary frustrations resulting from a keyboard that was originally designed to be used only by adults.
In view of the above, an embodiment of the present invention presents a computer-related teaching apparatus for use with a computer keyboard and a computer comprising a keyboard overlay adapted to cover at least a portion of the computer keyboard. This keyboard overlay has a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures, each having at least a transparent upper surface to allow printed indicia on a key of the keyboard to be visible through the surface. Preferably, at least a portion of the transparent upper surfaces of the key-accommodating structures that correspond to alphabet keys of the keyboard has a lower-case letter positioned thereon in a non-interfering location relative to a position of the printed indicia on the alphabet key.
In one embodiment of the invention, the printed indicia on the alphabet keys of the keyboard is positioned in a first quadrant of the key, and the lower-case letter is positioned in a fourth quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures. Alternatively, the lower-case letter is positioned in a second quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures. As a further alternative, the lower-case letter is positioned in a third quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the teaching apparatus is used in an educational environment that uses a font style with which to teach children. In this embodiment the lower-case letters are rendered in that font style. In many preschools and elementary schools the font style used to teach the children is D""Nealian, and therefore the lower-case letters are rendered in D""Nealian. In other preschools and elementary schools the font style used to teach children is Zaner Bloser, and therefore the lower-case letters are rendered in Zaner Bloser.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the lower-case letter is positioned on an under surface of the transparent upper surface of the individual key-accommodating structure. Preferably, a transparent protective layer is attached to the under surface of the transparent upper surface of the individual key-accommodating structure such that the lower-case letter is positioned between the transparent upper surface and the transparent protective layer. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the keyboard overlay is adapted to cover a whole of the keyboard.
An alternate preferred embodiment of the present invention presents a computer-related teaching apparatus for use with young children who do not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters. This embodiment comprising a computer keyboard having a plurality of individual keys, at least a portion of the individual keys including a glyph of an upper-case letter and a glyph of an associated lower-case letter. In one embodiment, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a horizontal relationship to one another in a plane of the keys. Alternatively, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a diagonal relationship to one another in a plane of the keys. As a further alternative, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a vertical relationship to one another in a plane of the keys.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the glyph of the upper-case letter is positioned on the keys, and the glyph of the lower-case letter is positioned on a layer that is overlaid on the keys. Preferably, the layer is adhesively applied on the individual keys. Alternatively, the layer is formed into a keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures having at least a transparent upper surface to allow the glyph of an upper-case letter on the keys to be visible. The glyph of a lower-case letter is positioned on the layer in a non-interfering location relative to the position of the glyph of the upper-case letter on the keys.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a method of enabling a person who does not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters to enter data into a computer is presented. This method comprises the step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another. In one embodiment, this step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one anther comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard, and a computer keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures. Preferably, each structure has at least a transparent upper surface to allow printed indicia on a key of the computer keyboard to be visible therethrough. At least a portion of the transparent upper surfaces of the key-accommodating structures that correspond to alphabet keys of the computer keyboard has a lower-case letter positioned thereon in a non-interfering location relative to a position of the printed indicia on the alphabet key.
In one embodiment of this method, the step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard having a plurality of individual keys, at least a portion of the individual keys including a glyph of an upper-case letter and a glyph of an associated lower-case letter. Alternatively, this step comprises the step of applying transparent stickers having a lower-case letter displayed thereon to associated alphabet keys of a computer keyboard in a position such that both upper and lower case letters are displayed. As a further alternative, this step comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard, and a computer keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures. Preferably, each structure associated with an alphabet key of the keyboard has an upper-case and a lower-case letter positioned thereon.
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, a method of enabling a child who does not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters to enter data into a computer via a standard computer keyboard is presented. This method comprises the step of providing a keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures for accommodating at least a portion of the keys of the computer keyboard. Preferably, the keyboard overlay displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another.
Other objectives, advantages, and embodiments of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Teaching apparatus and method of enabling use of keyboard by young children


The present invention relates to a method for controlling injection of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen or a hydrogen based gas, and a water-based fluid medium into a combustion engine. The method comprises the steps of:                in a first operational mode injecting the gaseous fuel and optionally a water based fluid medium into a combustion chamber of the engine at a relatively high pressure;        in a second operational mode injecting water as liquid into engine to reduce the temperature and pressure inside the combustion chamber, and injecting the gaseous fuel into the combustion chamber at a relatively low pressure.

For many years, the demands on internal combustion engines have been steadily increasing and engines are continuously developed to meet the various demands from the market. Reduction of exhaust gases, increasing engine efficiency, i.e. reduced fuel consumption, and lower noise level from the engines are some of the criteria that are important aspects when choosing vehicle engine. Furthermore, in the field of trucks, there are applicable law directives that have e.g. determined the maximum amount of exhaust gas pollution allowable. Still further, a reduction of the overall cost of the vehicle is important and since the engine constitutes a relatively large portion of the total costs, it is natural that also the costs of engine components are reduced.
In order to meet the described demands, various engine concepts have been developed throughout the years where conventional combustion cylinders have been combined with e.g. a pre-compression stage and/or an expansion stage. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 967,828 discloses an internal combustion engine with an object of minimizing the number of cylinders and moving parts required to perform an engine cycle. The internal combustion engine in U.S. Pat. No. 967,828 comprises a high-pressure cylinder and a low-pressure cylinder, which are connected to each other by means of two conduits. The low-pressure cylinder is equipped to alternately perform the functions of a compressor and an expander. Hereby, the need of a separate compressor and a separate expander is reduced, and the internal combustion engine can be made relatively compact.
Other engine concepts relate to the fuel used and combusted in the combustion engine. For example, gasoline and diesel cab be exchanged to more environmentally friendly fuels, e.g. biofuels such as e.g. ethanol. In some cases, when exchanging the fuel, the combustion engine needs to be adapted to optimally operate on the new fuel. Lately, clean combustion engines, such as e.g. near zero emission combustion engines have become increasingly interesting. For example, by changing the fuel to hydrogen, or a hydrogen based fuel, the combustion of hydrogen with oxygen produces only water as biproduct (theoretically). However, by changing the fuel to enable such clean combustion engines, more drastic adaptations to the conventional combustion engine needs to be carried out to optimally operate on the new fuel. There is thus a need in the industry for an improved combustion engine.

Method for controlling injection in a combustion engine


An absorption heat pump and a cogeneration system are provided to have high efficiency of utilizing exhaust heat. An absorption heat pump having an evaporator, an absorber, a high-temperature regenerator, a low-temperature regenerator and a condenser is combined with a fuel cell such that the pump includes a cycle in which vapor exhaust heat from the fuel cell is used as a heat source for the evaporator and the high-temperature regenerator, and another cycle in which warm-water exhaust heat from the fuel cell is used as a heat source for the low-temperature regenerator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an absorption heat pump and a cogeneration system which utilize exhaust heat.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a cogeneration system (electric energy-heat simultaneous supply system) is a fuel cell. A fuel cell, for example, a phosphoric acid fuel cell, is a system in which hydrogen gas (H.sub.2) obtained by reforming city gas, etc. and oxygen (O.sub.2) in air are respectively supplied to the cathode and anode that are separated from each other in a solution of phosphoric acid, in this example, so as to generate electric power. At the anode, hydrogen ions (H.sup.+) which have moved from the cathode through the phosphoric acid solution, react with hydroxyl ions (OH.sup.-) generated at the anode. As a result, water (H.sub.2 O) is generated, and heat of reaction is simultaneously generated. It is therefore necessary to cool the cell in order that power generation can be performed continuously. For this purpose, the heat of reaction is normally removed by water cooling. Since such exhaust heat has a temperature level which is not less than 100.degree. C. and which reaches 180.degree. C. as a highest temperature, when a gas-liquid separating apparatus is interposed, it is possible to extract saturated water vapor of 4 to 8 kg/cm.sup.2 G. Hydrogen gas for power generation is obtained, for example, by mixing methane gas (CH.sub.4), the main component of city gas, with a part of the water vapor, and heating the mixture with a burner. Since exhaust gas resulting from combustion by the burner has a high temperature, when such exhaust heat is recovered with cooling water, it is possible to obtain exhaust-heat warm water normally having a temperature of 60.degree. to 85.degree. C.
The total quantity of heat that can be extracted in this way in the form of water vapor and warm water while a fuel cell generates power corresponds approximately to as much as 40% of the quantity of heat which can be obtained through direct combustion of the same amount of city gas (the amount of generated power corresponds approximately to 40% of that fraction). Therefore, it is essential to effectively utilize exhaust heats in order to improve the overall efficiency of the system.
An example of art related to this kind of system is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2-37262.
Various forms have been considered for %he utilization of exhaust heat. For example, it has been studied to use exhaust heat as the heat source of absorption-type refrigerators. When extracting warm water from a conventional absorption-type water-cooler/heater, however, it has been impossible to obtain a heat quantity of warm water which is above the input heat quantity, and effective utilization of exhaust heat has not been achieved. No consideration has been given to an exhaust heat processing system which is essential to maintaining the operation of a fuel cell, and no suitable system has been made for enabling exhaust heat of a fuel cell, which is operated in a continuous mode basically, to be applied to certain uses (such as cooling and heating of a predetermined space, and supply of hot-water) which can involve great changes in load. Thus, the problem of how to make a cogeneration system capable of utilizing exhaust heat highly efficiently has not been solved.

Absorption heat pump and cogeneration system utilizing exhaust heat


A blood purification apparatus employing a single-needle double-pump method and being capable of automatically discharging a priming solution that has undergone substitution from a blood circuit during blood removal. A blood purification apparatus includes a blood circuit to which an only puncture needle is connectable, a dialyzer that purifies blood flowing in the blood circuit, a first blood pump, a second blood pump, and a control device that allows the blood of a patient to be extracorporeally circulated through the blood circuit by causing the first blood pump and the second blood pump to alternately undergo normal rotation. During blood removal, the control device operates to substitute a priming solution in the blood circuit with the blood of the patient and to discharge the priming solution having undergone the substitution from the blood circuit by causing the first blood pump to undergo normal rotation and the second blood pump to undergo reverse rotation.

In a general blood purification treatment, blood collected from a patient is extracorporeally circulated and is then returned to the body of the patient through a blood circuit. The blood circuit basically includes an arterial blood circuit and a venous blood circuit that are connectable to a dialyzer (a blood purification device) including, for example, hollow fiber membranes (blood purification membranes). The blood of the patient is purified by the dialyzer while being extracorporeally circulated through the blood circuit. Thus, the blood purification treatment is performed.
In a blood purification method called a single-needle double-pump method, an only puncture needle (a single needle) is connected to each of the distal ends of the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit with a wye interposed therebetween, and the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit are provided with respective peristaltic blood pumps. The two blood pumps are alternately activated to undergo normal rotation, whereby the blood of the patient is extracorporeally circulated through the blood circuit. Such a technique has not been disclosed by any publicly known invention, and there is no information on patent literature to be cited.


A processor system and computer-implemented method are provided for generating a composite video stream which may include a non-volumetric video and a volumetric video, at least part of which is to be displayed in front of the non-volumetric video. The volumetric video may be included in the composite video stream in the form of a non-volumetric representation of the volumetric video, for example inserted into a spatial subregion of the non-volumetric video which may be occluded by the volumetric video during display. The encoding, transmission and decoding may thus not have to be modified to support volumetric video. Signaling data may be provided which may be indicative of the composite video stream containing the non-volumetric representation of the volumetric video. A processor system and computer-implemented method may be provided for rendering the composite video stream using the signaling data.

It may be desirable to transmit a volumetric video and a non-volumetric video to a client device for simultaneous display by the client device.
Such a scenario may, for example, occur in the fields of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Here, VR involves the use of computer technology to simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment, while AR refers to the use of computer technology to augment a user's view of the physical real-world environment by overlaying a virtual environment over, or in another manner combining the virtual environment with the user's view of the physical real-world environment. Typically, VR and/or AR rendering devices make use of Head Mounted Displays (HMD) to render the virtual environment to the user, although particularly in VR, other types of displays and rendering techniques may be used as well, including but not limited to holography and Cave automatic virtual environments (recursive acronym CAVE).
VR/AR may be used to render scenes which are represented by three-dimensional (3D) graphics, e.g., defined as a set of vertices, edges, faces, etc.
However, in many cases, it may be desirable to establish a video-based representation of a scene in VR. For example, the video may be a video recording of a real-life scene, or a video obtained by Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) of a virtual scene, etc. In some cases, the video may represent a panoramic or omnidirectional video which may provide a large field of view of the scene, e.g., allowing a user to 'look around' within the scene. The rendering of such a video-based representation of a scene may involve displaying the image data of the video on the inside of a virtual body, such as a sphere, and then rendering from a viewpoint within or facing the virtual body. For example, in a multiuser communication session in VR, which is also referred to as 'Social VR', an omnidirectional video of a tropical island may be used as a 'virtual backdrop' for the multiuser communication session by projecting the video onto the inside of a sphere and placing avatars representing the users of the multiuser communication session inside the sphere, thereby providing each user with a view of the other participants on the tropical island. See for example ill which describes such a 'Social VR' use-case, albeit for an image-based instead of video-based backdrop.
The video is typically a 2D video, or a stereoscopic 3D video which is recorded and intended to be viewed from a particular viewpoint. However, for a more immersive experience in both AR and VR, a viewer may desire six degrees of freedom (6DoF). That is, when for example wearing a head-mounted AR or VR display, the viewer may experience changes in the environment when moving his/her head in all directions, e.g., when changing head position forward/backward (surge), up/down (heave) and left/right (sway) combined with changes in orientation through rotation.
It is known that volumetric 3D video may provide a viewer with a 6DoF experience. Examples of volumetric 3D video formats, which are in the following also simply referred to as volumetric video formats, are for example described in [2], and may include Gabor holograms, light fields, point clouds and other video formats.
However, volumetric videos are not yet widely distributed, neither in the domain of VR/AR nor in other domains, in part due to a limited availability of suitable source material (e.g., camera recordings and/or depth registrations, e.g., by a depth sensor or laser) but also due to technical considerations, for example since a volumetric video may represent a large amount of data and may thereby require significant storage, bandwidth and encoding and decoding capabilities.
For such and similar reasons, it may be desirable to use a combination of 2D video or stereoscopic 3D video (henceforth jointly referred to as 'non-volumetric' video) with one or more select instances of volumetric video. Such instances of volumetric video may represent 3D objects of interest. For example, in the aforementioned use-case of a multiuser communication session, the avatars of participants may instead be represented by a volumetric capture of each participant, e.g., as may be obtained using a 3D sensor camera such as the Microsoft Kinect.
A specific example of volumetric video may be a 3D point cloud video. In general, a point cloud may be defined as a set of data points in a coordinate system, and is typically used to measure and represent physical world surfaces. Usually, a 3D point cloud is defined in a Cartesian coordinate system, e.g., with a X-, Y- and Z-coordinate. A time-series of such 3D point clouds may also be simply referred to as a 3D point cloud video. Such 3D point cloud videos may be in color, in that points may be assigned a color attribute, e.g., a luminance and a chrominance value.
Compression techniques may be applied to volumetric videos to reduce the amount of data to be stored, transmitted, etc. For example, for 3D point clouds, so-called Point Cloud Compression (PCC) [3] may be used. However, PCC and similar techniques are currently not optimized for streaming, e.g., from a server to a client device. Additionally, a client device may now receive multiple compressed and encoded data streams, namely a bitstream representing the non-volumetric video and separately a bitstream representing the volumetric video. It may be challenging for the client device to receive and decode multiple bitstreams simultaneously. For example, the decoding of a volumetric video stream may be more computationally complex, e.g., as it may have to be performed in software instead of relying on hardware support, e.g., dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) support. Such hardware support typically is available for decoding non-volumetric video. A related problem may be the relatively large bandwidth required to transmit both bitstreams.

Streaming volumetric and non-volumetric video

Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO


An apparatus, system, and method of searching are disclosed. When a search result includes a plurality of images being obtained from the same document, the plurality of images being obtained from the same document is displayed, one by one, in the order determined based on priority order information.

An information search system allows a user to search various types of electronic data including electronic data generated in an image file format. In response to a search request input by the user, an image that matches the search request may be displayed to the user, for example, with information regarding a document from which the image is obtained. Using the information regarding the document, the user may access the document containing the displayed image, for example, when the user determines that the displayed image satisfies the user's need.
The above-described searching method may not be effective especially when more than one image is obtained from the same document, as the user may end up with accessing the same document more than once.

Apparatus, system, and method for information search


A storage array disposed in a data storage system is reconfigured. A data storage system is supplied comprising a plurality of data storage devices, wherein each of the plurality of data storage devices is assigned to one of a plurality of data storage arrays, or is assigned as a spare device. An unassigned data storage device is detected. If any of the plurality of data storage arrays comprises an intermixed data storage array, the storage array is reconfigured to restore the intermixed data storage array to a homogeneous technology class comprising the unassigned device. If any of the plurality of data storage arrays comprises a degraded data storage array, the storage array is reconfigured to restore the degraded storage array to optimal reliability, optimal performance, and optimal efficiency.

Data storage systems are used to store information provided by one or more host computer systems. Such data storage systems receive requests to write information to a plurality of data storage devices, and requests to retrieve information from that plurality of data storage devices. It is known in the art to configure the plurality of data storage devices into two or more storage arrays.
Storage system vendors have begun providing the availability of high-capacity, low-cost storage class devices (near-line class storage devices such as serial-advanced technology attachment (SATA) and fibre channel advanced technology attachment (FATA) which typically have lower reliability characteristics than the more traditional server class devices (FC-AL, SCSI, SAS, SSA) with larger capacity per device. When such devices are intermixed within a data storage system, it may result in an intermix of storage device technologies that have differing reliability characteristics within the same global sparing domain.
When these devices are intermixed within the same global sparing domain, it is possible that even in systems that disallow intermix of storage technology classes during array creation due to storage devices failures a RAID array will contain devices of an intermix of storage technology classes. The operation of a RAID array with an intermix of storage device technology classes can be problematic due to the difference in reliability characteristics of the devices. The difference in the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and performance (resulting data transfer rates of a device in different IO workloads) between the storage device technology classes may result in array performance degradation and/or increased exposure to data loss from subsequent storage device failures.
What is needed is an apparatus and method to reconfigure one or more of the storage arrays when an unassigned data storage device is detected in the data storage system. Additionally, what is needed is a method of reconfiguration providing a policy that establishes a priority to restoring the reliability of a RAID array to optimum during a repair action where an eligible storage device has been repaired.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of repair management for RAID arrays

International Business Machines Corporation


A portable traffic control system for control of traffic at temporary locations includes a trailer having a base supported by an axle and wheels, two signal supports connected to the base and an actuating mechanism for selectively urging the signal supports from a transporting position to an operating position and back. A transverse arm connected to one signal support is extendable laterally and outwardly from the trailer. A signal head is attached to the transverse arm and a second signal head is attached to the upper end of the second signal support.

This invention relates to the field of portable traffic control systems for use at temporary locations on streets and highways. More specifically, the invention relates to the trailer structure for transporting and erecting such traffic control signals.
In the construction and transportation industries there has long been a requirement for portable traffic control systems that can be located on or adjacent to highways and city streets. These signals are required where road construction is underway and requires that traffic be temporarily rerouted or traffic flow be controlled. Such apparatus is also necessary when permanent signal installations have been damaged or otherwise rendered inoperable, thus requiring some temporary traffic control while repairs are being effected. An alternative to portable systems is the use of flag personnel or traffic officers, who would have to be present 24 hours a day, thus requiring a substantial investment in manpower.
Several portable traffic signals have been found in the prior art, and some of them have filled some of the basic needs for such units, although all have been found wanting in one or more areas. Most of these prior art units fail to meet highway department standards in various states and are not effective for their intended purpose. Certain of these prior art units provide a signal only at the side of the road and do not include the inportant signal positioned over the roadway for increased visibility. One unit, disclosed in Woudenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,225, overcomes a number of these disadvantages and provides a signal head both at the side of the road and positioned over the road. However, the Woudenberg structure, by its basic configuration, requires that it be assembled and disassembled from the support each time the unit is to be transported and erected. To prepare this unit for operation, each of the two signal heads must be removed from their carriers on the trailer and attached to the operating supports. These supports are then raised and extended into position. Such assembly and disassembly is time consuming and presents additional opportunities for dropping or otherwise damaging the signal head.


An invention is provided for conversion of methane into hydrocarbon fuels is disclosed. The invention includes providing methane to an illumination chamber, and illuminating the methane with substantially narrow bandwidth photons of a predefined wavelength. The photons are provided from a substantially uncollimated light source producing photon intensities less than 10 Watt/m2. As a result, the methane is placed in an excited state that results in the molecules of the methane reacting more readily with other molecules to form a final product.

Methane gas is a plentiful source of fuel, but as a greenhouse gas it presents issues in terms of global warming. It further offers a challenge in that it is a gas over a wide range of temperatures and cannot be easily converted to liquid for ease of transport to markets. "Gas to Liquids" (GTL) is a term used to describe a variety of processes that convert an input gas (for example, methane) to a longer chain hydrocarbon (ideally, a liquid). The vast majority of GTL processes in use and under development today employ heat and physical catalysts. One such example is the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process, named after the two inventors of the process. The F-T process burns some of the source gas (natural gas, consisting primarily of methane) to heat up a chamber of natural gas, which is then allowed to come into contact with a physical catalyst. The rapid movements of the heated molecules increase the likelihood that they will encounter the catalyst. On the surface of the catalyst, the molecules have a lower activation potential—that is, the barrier to a reaction (such as the combining of two methane molecules) is reduced, and longer chain hydrocarbons are created at a much higher rate than would occur otherwise.
One drawback to this conventional approach to producing longer chain hydrocarbons is that the process is very inefficient. Large amounts of heat must be produced to achieve the throughputs desired. A second drawback of this approach is that the catalyst "fatigues," where oxidation and the gradual accumulation of impurities reduces its efficiency over time. The catalyst must be replaced or reconditioned, and this is both an expensive and time-consuming process that incurs great expense to the user.
A third drawback of the F-T process is that a reasonable return on investment can only be achieved for very large F-T facilities. This precludes building a transportable or small system that can be taken to remote sources of gas. Approximately one-third of all natural gas is said to be "stranded"—that is, it is located at a place where it cannot be accessed at a reasonable cost. Finally, the F-T process is not species-specific. That is, it is not possible to tune the process to produce a single final long chain hydrocarbon. By its very nature, it produces a wide distribution of hydrocarbons, thereby requiring the subsequent separation of these products using fractionation, another large, expensive process.
In response, additional approaches have been proposed. One approach to enabling chemical reactions is through the introduction of photons of sufficient energy to break molecular bonds. Early work by Morrey (U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,466, 1978) introduced lasers to enhance chemical reactions. At the time of that patent, lasers were the only source of ultra-high intensity beams of collimated photons, but they suffered from producing only long wavelength (low energy) photons. Morrey introduced a non-linear crystal which produced a doubling of the photon frequency (thereby producing a beam of half the wavelength). These frequency doubled photons had sufficient energy to break the chemical bonds, but the technique suffered from extremely low frequency doubling efficiencies.
An alternative approach was described by Geiger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,575, issued in 1994. Geiger speaks to the reaction of at least 2 hydrocarbons to produce a third and higher hydrocarbon species, and cites conversions such as methane to ethane and higher hydrocarbons as an example result of the process. Geiger's system uses a chamber into which the first hydrocarbon is injected through a high temperature nozzle, and is surrounded by an array of optical parametric oscillators/lasers (OPO) which provide high intensities of short wavelength photons. This approach suffers from the use of a costly and delicate instrument that increases frequency doubling, which was required at the time of the patent. There is a need to make a system that is more practical.
Another approach is described in a patent publication by Gondal, US Patent Publication 2005/0045467, in which the inventor discloses the use of high intensity Nd:Yag lasers to photo-dissociate molecules of methane in order to break the C—H bonds to enable subsequent reactions that form higher hydrocarbons, such as ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and isobutane.
There are three basic problems with this approach. First, lasers are expensive and are not well suited to volume photochemistry. By their nature, as illustrated in FIG. 1, lasers produce a small (millimeter) diameter beam of high intensity collimated light. Gondal describes the use of an Nd:YAG laser—this is a high power, water cooled laser that is not practical for the field on its own merit. In order to be excited by a photon from a laser source, a target molecule must pass through the laser beam. Gondal reveals a method in his disclosure where he further increases the intensity of the photon beam by focusing the already small beam to as fine a point as possible. Since the beam is small (usually on the order of a millimeter), a very small fraction of a volume of molecules is likely to pass through the small beam at any time. This leads to long exposure times (Gondal cites exposure times of 20-60 minutes) in order to get any appreciable reaction. Second, Gondal's disclosure only addresses the photochemistry of methane alone without additional reactants, and its subsequent byproducts of high hydrocarbons using only carbon and hydrogen. This approach does not address more complex and commercially valuable products such as ethanol which are obtained through the use of multiple molecular species. Third, the laser and its power supply together weigh in excess of 400 pounds and they require cooling water flowing at the rate of 4 liters per minute. This limits the portability and use of the technology in remote locations.
Hence, there is a need to convert methane gas and other hydrocarbons to longer chain hydrocarbons that can be transported in liquid form, if this conversion can be accomplished economically. Ideally, this conversion should be accomplished at the site of the natural gas to avoid a need for costly pipelines. Thus, there is a need to develop a low cost, light weight, efficient process to convert methane gas to a liquid fuel such as, for example, ethanol. Ideally the system should be small and portable and require minimum cooling for the light source.

System and method for conversion of methane into hydrocarbon fuels


A system for controlling airflow through an under-hood compartment of a vehicle includes a first grille opening and a second grille opening each disposed at an entrance to the under-hood compartment. The first and second grille openings are configured to admit a first portion of the airflow and a second portion of the airflow, respectively, to the under-hood compartment from the ambient. The system also includes a selectable position shutter assembly disposed at the second grille opening and configured to control the second portion of the airflow admitted to the under-hood compartment. The system additionally includes a vent opening at least partially defined by the body and configured to exhaust at least a fraction of the first portion of the airflow from the under-hood compartment to the ambient. A vehicle employing the system and housing an internal combustion engine and a heat exchanger in the under-hood compartment is also disclosed.

Among various other uses, motor vehicles frequently employ ambient airflow for cooling powertrain components situated in an under-hood compartment. Ambient airflow typically enters the under-hood compartment through a grille opening strategically positioned in a high pressure area on the vehicle body.
Such a motor vehicle may also employ an adjustable shutter to control the amount of ambient airflow thus entering the under-hood compartment. The adjustable shutter may therefore be used to tailor the amount of airflow entering the under-hood compartment to the cooling requirements of a particular powertrain.


A heat exchanger, especially a cooling radiator for motor vehicle engine, comprises a multiplicity of tubes of oblong cross section, each having an end portion fitted in a corresponding hole formed in a header plate, the joint being sealed by means of a sealing gasket. The sealing gasket has a tubular portion compressed between each tube end portion and an internal surface of the corresponding hole in the header plate, each tube end portion being formed with a peripheral bead spaces away from the terminal edge of the tube.

The oblong cross section of the tubes may depart to a greater or lesser extent from the shape of a circle, and it may for example, be oval, elliptical or flattened in shape. In this last case it may have two long sides opposed to each other, and two opposed short sides. The long sides may be straight or curved and the short sides are curved. Such tubes of oblong cross section are so disposed that the largest dimension of their cross section extends in the direction which is substantially parallel to the direction of flow of air through the bundle of tubes in the heat exchanger. In this way, heat exchangers are made which have both an improved efficiency and a reduced size as compared with heat exchangers in which the tubes are of circular cross section.
In heat exchangers of the type described above, which may also be called "mechanical assembly heat exchangers", the quality of the seal at the level of the joint between the end portion of each tube and the header plate depends mainly on the mechanical strength of the tube end portion when subjected to the mechanical force exerted on it by the surrounding portion of the sealing gasket. The resistance of the tube end portion to this applied force depends mainly on its rigidity, and especially on the shape of its cross section. In this connection, the closer the cross sectional shape of the end portion is to a circle, the greater will be its rigidity. Conversely, the more the shape of the cross section departs from a circular shape, i.e. the more flattened it is, the less rigid will be the end portion of the tube. This reduction in rigidity occurs in the regions of the cross section which lie in the direction of the largest dimension, that is to say along its long sides. This represents a drawback which is all the more serious in view of the current trend towards the use of tubes having an oblong cross section with a very flattened configuration.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, various solutions have already been proposed for increasing the strength of the end portions of tubes having oblong cross sections. For example, one such solution is described in the specification of French published patent application FR 2406794A, which proposes, in particular, that the long sides of the oblong cross section should be thickened as compared with the short sides. This makes it necessary to extrude special tubes of non-constant thickness. The same French patent specification also proposes to introduce particular special profile shapes into the end portions of the tube, such as to prevent deformation of the end portions. Such a solution is not satisfactory because it necessitates an additional fitting operation, and it is also detrimental to the flow of fluid through the tubes.
In addition, it has been proposed, for example in the specification of French published patent application FR 2570814A, to form a peripheral bead on the end portion of a tube of circular cross section, so as to serve as an abutment during introduction of this end portion into a corresponding hole in a header plate. In this way a predetermined spacing is provided between two header plates, and therefore between two headers of a heat exchanger.

Heat exchanger with tubes of oblong cross section, in particular for motor vehicles


A cylindrical wrapped bush has a joint extending over the entire width of the wrapped bush and serves to slidably or rotatably support a shaft on the inner peripheral surface of the wrapped bush. The joint is extended slantwise or stepwise relative to a generatrix on the outer peripheral surface of the wrapped bush at an angle which is more than 0 degree, but smaller than 85 degrees.

This invention relates to improvements in a wrapped bush, and more particularly, to a wrapped bush of which joint is extended slantwise or stepwise relative to a generatrix of the outer periphery of the wrapped bush.
A conventional wrapped bush is formed by rolling up a rectangular plate into a cylindrical configuration such that its joint corresponds with a generatrix of the outer peripheral surface. This kind of wrapped bush involves the following disadvantages. First, a large power is required for rolling up a rectangular plate into a cylindrical configuration, which results in the degree of adhesion being poor and it being difficult to maintain the out of roundness. Secondly, working becomes more difficult as the ratio of the wall thickness of the wrapped bush to the diameter thereof increases. Thirdly, working becomes more difficult as the width of the bush increases in relation to the diameter thereof. Fourthly, there is the possibility of portions on both sides of a joint of the wrapped bush shifting along the joint in the opposite directions to each other during services. Fifthly, there is the possibility of a lubrication film breaking to reduce the load bearing ability.


The invention relates to a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence set out in SEQ ID NO: 2 or an amino acid sequence encoded by the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or a variant polypeptide or variant polynucleotide thereof, wherein the variant polypeptide has at least 93% sequence identity with the sequence set out in SEQ ID NO: 2 or the variant polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide that has at least 93% sequence identity with the sequence set out in SEQ ID NO: 2. The invention features the full length coding sequence of the novel gene as well as the amino acid sequence of the full-length functional polypeptide and functional equivalents of the gene or the amino acid sequence. The invention also relates to methods for using the polypeptide in industrial processes. Also included in the invention are cells transformed with a polynucleotide according to the invention suitable for producing these proteins.

The invention relates to sequences comprising genes that encode polypeptides having or assisting in carbohydrate material degrading activity. The invention features the full-length coding sequence of the novel gene as well as the amino acid sequence of the full-length functional protein, and variants and fragments of the gene or the amino acid sequence. The invention also relates to methods for using these proteins in industrial processes. Also included in the invention are cells transformed with a polynucleotide according to the invention suitable for producing these proteins. Also the invention relates to the successful expression of the genes that encode polypeptides having carbohydrate material degrading activity in a host. The host may be any suitable host, for instance Aspergillus e.g. Aspergillus niger or Talaromyces, e.g. Talaromyces emersonii.

Polypeptide having cellobiohydrolase activity and uses thereof


A vibration absorber which, in the broadest sense, is based on a pendulum device for dampening undesirable vibrations which occur in a very slender structure, such as a wind turbine. The undesirable vibrations are caused by an acting force, in particular wind force. The invention thereby relates to vibration absorbers in which the pendulum mass can be temporarily stopped or braked, either entirely or partially, by an electromagnetic brake. The power supply or the current regulation of the electromagnetic brake correspondingly controls the braking function of the electromagnetic brake.

There are in principle various use cases of brakes for vibration absorbers. This applies both to vibration absorbers in wind turbines, but also to vibration absorbers in other slim structures, such as towers, masts, high-rise buildings.
In a first use case, the vibration absorber is always free. The absorber, for example of a wind turbine, is always in operation and must be captured and held by the damper for maintenance purposes.
In a second use case, the absorber is fixed during operation of the installation. The absorber, for example of a wind turbine, is switched off during operation of the installation and is intended to be switched on when the installation is put into operation or also in the case of a power outage. In this case, the absorber is used exclusively in order to safeguard the installations against Karmann vortex excitation. To this end, the absorber is operated only when the installation is at standstill. It must be absolutely guaranteed here that the absorber is reliably switched on in the case of standstill of the installation and/or in the case of a power outage.
In the third use case, the freely swinging absorber swings without braking during operation of the installation. In the case of particularly strong impacts, caused, for example, by gusts of wind, the tower of a wind turbine together with the vibration absorber is subjected to strong accelerations. Due to these accelerations, the absorber hits the end stop. In order to reduce or even prevent the impact if the absorber hits the stop, the absorber is "braked" with the aid of a brake.
In another use case, it is desirable to keep the damping of the absorber as low as possible, for example in the case of the rolling pendulum absorbers described here, which have a rotating pendulum mass alongside a main mass and are moved on a curved track. The side peaks arising in the case of these undamped systems are particularly high and can therefore have interfering effects. It therefore makes sense to brake the absorber in the frequency range less or greater (+/−10%) than the inherent frequency of the tower.
The object arising is thus to provide a brake device for pendulum absorbers, in particular rolling pendulum absorbers, for the use cases described and others, which can service the various braking and damping events, where appropriate in a targeted manner and controlled by corresponding current management.
The object has been achieved by the vibration absorbers described below and in the claims.

Vibration absorber having an electromagnetic brake for wind turbines


There is disclosed a process for producing an α-olefin oligomer by subjecting an α-olefin to oligomerization reaction in the presence of a catalyst and an organic solvent which comprises the step of spraying a solvent containing the organic solvent in the form of a linear or bar-like pressure fluid toward a wall surface of a vapor phase portion of a reactor from a nozzle fitted within a space of the vapor phase portion of the reactor to conduct the oligomerization reaction while cleaning the wall surface of the vapor phase portion of the reactor. In the production process of the present invention, it is possible to effectively prevent deposition of polymers onto the wall surface of the vapor phase portion of the reactor and stably operate the reactor for a long period of time.

Alpha-olefin oligomers having unsaturated double bonds and about 4 to about 24 carbon atoms are useful substances, and have been extensively used as monomers for olefin-based polymers and comonomers for various high-molecular polymers as well as raw materials for plasticizers, surfactants or the like. The α-olefin oligomers have been generally produced by oligomerizing ethylene in a solvent in the presence of a Ziegler catalyst.
However, in the oligomerization reaction, there is such a tendency that high-molecular polymers by-produced are deposited onto a wall surface of a vapor phase portion located in an upper part of a reactor with the passage of time. If the oligomerization reaction is continued without removal of the high-molecular polymers deposited, gradual growth of the polymers occurs, and the grown polymers are finally dropped in a reaction solution owing to increase in their weight. The high-molecular polymers dropped and included in the reaction solution will cause clogging of an external circulating-type heat exchanger provided for removing the heat of reaction, failure of pump or the like. Once such disadvantages occur, it is required to stop the continuous operation of the reactor and conduct time-consuming removal of the polymers deposited therein.
In order to inhibit the deposition of polymers onto the wall surface of the vapor phase portion of the reactor during polymerization reactions, for example, upon production of acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer resins, styrene resins or polymethyl methacrylate, there is known the method in which a mixed solution of monomers as raw materials and a solvent is sprayed into an upper vapor phase space of the reactor to wet the wall surface of the vapor phase portion of the reactor and thereby reduce the amount of the polymers deposited thereonto (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-77806). However, this publication fails to mention details of the spraying method, though it is only described that the solution to be sprayed is kept at a temperature of 0 to 60° C.
Also, there is known the technique in which a part of a solvent is atomized and supplied to a vapor phase portion of a reactor to increase a concentration of the solvent in the vapor phase portion for preventing the deposition of scales thereon (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 49-86478). However, this technique is applicable only to limited polymers such as polyacrylonitrile.

Process for producing low polymer of α-olefin


A control apparatus can monitor the internal temperature and ambient temperature of the control apparatus and save the appropriate information in the memory media of the control apparatus if the difference between the internal and external temperature exceeds the required temperature range. Even if the temperature gradient is too steep, the required information can be saved in the memory media of the control apparatus.

The present invention relates to a control apparatus and its failure analysis, particularly to the technology for analyzing control apparatus failures by recording whether the failure in the control apparatus is caused by increases in temperature due to an internal element failure in the control apparatus itself or by increases in temperature due to a system failure.
The configuration in prior art was such that as described in, for example, Japanese Application Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-267522, after the temperature of the control apparatus has been monitored using temperature sensors, when the detected temperature is higher or lower than a predetermined temperature that has been set as the judgment criterion, that state is detected as trouble and the control apparatus itself stores the corresponding trouble information or issues a warning to the user by use of a display unit.
The above-described prior art has the problem that for example, if the gradient of the temperature increases existing during trouble is too steep, the memory media themselves become damaged during storage of the corresponding trouble information into the control apparatus itself and consequently, the trouble information cannot be saved.
The prior art also poses the problem that when a failure in the control apparatus is analyzed, it cannot be judged whether the failure was caused by an abnormal ambient temperature or by trouble with the internal elements of the control apparatus itself.
The object of the present invention is to supply a control apparatus which, even if the temperature gradient is too steep, can save the required information in the memory media of the control apparatus or analyze whether the failure was caused by an abnormal ambient temperature or by trouble with the internal elements of the control apparatus itself.
In order to attain the above object, the internal temperature of the control apparatus and the ambient temperature thereof are monitored and if the difference between these temperatures oversteps the required temperature range, trouble information will be stored into the memory media of the control apparatus. Also, the required relationship on the temperature difference between the internal temperature of the control apparatus and the ambient temperature thereof is considered to judge whether the failure was caused by an abnormal ambient temperature or by trouble with the internal elements of the control apparatus itself.

Failure diagnosis method for control apparatus


An apparatus for calculating acoustic score, a method of calculating acoustic score, an apparatus for speech recognition, a method of speech recognition, and an electronic device including the same are provided. An apparatus for calculating acoustic score includes a preprocessor configured to sequentially extract audio frames into windows and a score calculator configured to calculate an acoustic score of a window by using a deep neural network (DNN)-based acoustic model.

1. Field
The following description relates to speech recognition technology and to a method and an apparatus for performing incremental speech recognition that uses a deep neural network.
2. Description of Related Art
A speech recognition engine generally includes a decoder, an acoustic model and a language model. The decoder uses the acoustic model and the language model to perform the decoding of an input audio signal. For instance, in response to receiving an input audio signal, the speech recognition engine may use the acoustic model to calculate pronunciation probabilities of each frame of the input audio signal, and the language model may provide information on the frequency of use of specific words or sentences. The decoder calculates and outputs similarities of the input audio signal to words or sentences based on information provided by the acoustic model and the language model in order to convert the input audio signal into a sequence or a word. A Gaussian mixture model is often used as an acoustic model; however, a deep neural network (DNN)-based acoustic model has been recently introduced and has shown potentials for significantly improved speech recognition performance. A bidirectional recurrent deep neural network (BRDNN), for instance, is suitable for modeling data that changes with time, such as speech.
However, the BRDNN calculates pronunciation probabilities of each frame of an audio signal by considering bidirectional information, i.e., information on previous and subsequent frames. Thus, when a BRDNN is used in speech recognition, an entire speech is provided as an input audio signal. Accordingly, a BRDNN is not suitable for incremental decoding, in which a speech recognition result is incrementally output while a user is delivering a speech.

Apparatus and method of acoustic score calculation and speech recognition using deep neural networks


An apparatus is disclosed comprising a base capable of receiving a camera including a lens, and a projector coupled to the base and adapted to project a plurality of beams of light onto a plane positioned at a focus distance from the base, wherein the projections of the beams of light on the plane are geometric shapes, and wherein an intersection of the geometric shapes is at the center of the field of view of the lens when the lens is installed on the base. In addition, an apparatus is disclosed comprising a base capable of receiving a camera including a lens, an image processor capable of being coupled to the camera for processing an image of a target captured by the camera, and a confirmation projector coupled to the image processor, wherein the projector projects a confirmation beam onto the plane of the target when the image processor signals the confirmation projector that it has processed the image.

Data acquisition devices have become an important tool in tracking many different types of items. Perhaps the best-known and longest-used type of data acquisition device is the bar-code scanner, which is often used in commercial applications such as grocery stores to identify groceries, in document applications to track documents, and so forth. Bar code scanners typically read and decode a linear bar code, which can either be printed directly on an item of interest or can be printed on a label and then attached to the item. The most familiar type of linear bar code usually consists of a series of black bars of differing widths, spaced apart from each other by white space.
Less well known than linear bar code, but equally if not more important, are two-dimensional codes, also known as "matrix" codes. The two-dimensional code has several advantages over linear code, most important of which are the ability to encode much more information than a linear code, vastly improved data integrity, and occupy far less space. A disadvantage of two-dimensional codes is that they are more difficult to read and decode. Two-dimensional codes are usually read by machine vision systems, which essentially capture a digital image of the two-dimensional code, and then proceed to analyze that image to extract the information contained in the code. One chronic difficulty that has emerged in the reading of two-dimensional codes is that of ensuring that the machine vision scanner acquires an image of the code from which it can extract information. One of the difficulties in acquiring a suitable image is ensuring that the code itself is positioned within the field of view of the scanner, and that the image is in focus.
One approach to providing position and focus feedback to the user of scanner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,981 to Roustaei et al. Roustaei describes a scanner system including a targeting feature that uses several beams of light to indicate the positions of some of the boundaries of the system's field of view. Roustaei's system suffers from various disadvantages. Among other things, the system is limited to indicating only the positions of two of the boundaries of the field of view, or, alternatively, the positions of the four corners of the field of view. Roustaei provides no indication of where the center of the field of view lies. Since the center of the field of view is the optimal position for a target whose image is to be captured, Roustaei provides sub-optimal results because it forces the user to either guess or visually interpolate the center of the field of view. Moreover, Roustaei targeting feature only tells a user when the target is in the field of view, but does not provide any information to assist the user in positioning the target at the proper focus distance. Finally, Roustaei's targeting feature employs very complex optical components, such as lasers, fiber optics, beam splitters, and complex configurations of mirrors and lenses. The nature and complexity of the components involved leads to high costs and, inevitably, to poor system reliability.
Another related and chronic problem associated with machine vision scanning of two-dimensional codes is providing feedback to the user when the code has been successfully read. Current systems either provide an audible tone when a code is read, or contain one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on the chassis of the scanner that light up when a code is successfully read. Both these approaches have disadvantages. If the audible tone is too loud, it quickly grows annoying to human operators, which could lead them to switch off the tone or ignore it altogether. If the tone's volume is reduced to make it less annoying to the operator, the operator may not be able to hear the tone in an environment with high levels of background noise. With the LED's on the chassis of the scanner, the user must continually look away from the code he or she is trying to scan to look at the LEDs to see if they light up. This is a distraction for the user, and takes their attention away from keeping the code within the field of view of the scanner.

Camera positioning and confirmation feedback system


An IV catheter system may have a catheter component with a catheter hub, a cannula extending distally from the catheter hub, and a push feature protruding outwardly from the catheter hub. The IV catheter system may also have a needle component with a needle hub, a needle extending distally from the needle hub along an axis, and a grip extending from the needle hub, generally parallel to the axis, with a pull feature. In the insertion configuration, the needle may be positioned within the cannula and the distal end of the needle hub may be seated in a needle port of the catheter hub. In the fluid delivery configuration, the needle may be positioned outside the catheter hub. The push and pull features may be positioned to facilitate manipulation with a single hand to move the IV catheter system from an insertion configuration to a fluid delivery configuration.

The present invention is generally directed to systems and methods for intravenous ("IV") delivery, by which fluids can be administered directly to the vascular system of a patient. More particularly, the present invention is directed to IV catheter systems and methods that facilitate insertion into the patient and/or motion from an insertion configuration to a fluid delivery configuration in which fluid can be delivered to the patient through the IV catheter system. An IV catheter system according to the invention is used broadly herein to describe components used to deliver the fluid to the patient, for use in arterial, intravenous, intravascular, peritoneal, and/or non-vascular administration of fluid. Of course, one of skill in the art may use an IV catheter system to administer fluids to other locations within a patient's body.
Known IV catheter systems and methods have a number of deficiencies. Many such systems require the clinician to use two hands to position the IV catheter system and/or insert the needle into the fluid delivery location on the patient (for example, the vein into which fluid is to be delivered). Further, many such systems require the clinician to use two hands to move the IV catheter system from the insertion configuration to a fluid delivery configuration, in which the needle is removed from the cannula to permit fluid to be delivered to the vein through the cannula. Thus, the clinician is required to stabilize the patient's arm or other body part having the fluid delivery location prior to insertion of the IV catheter system. As a result, extra time is required for the clinician to initiate transfusion. Further, the clinician is unable to perform any other task, such as stabilizing or reassuring the patient, during insertion and/or motion to the fluid delivery configuration.
Accordingly, there is a need for IV catheter systems and methods that facilitate IV catheter system placement, insertion, and/or preparation for fluid delivery. There is a further need for such IV catheter systems that are inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and versatile.


Nanowire and larger, post-based HEMTs, arrays of such HEMTs, and methods for their manufacture are provided. In one embodiment, a HEMT can include a III-N based core-shell structure including a core member (e.g., GaN), a shell member (e.g., AlGaN) surrounding a length of the core member and a two-dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) at the interface therebetween. The core member including a nanowire and/or a post can be disposed over a doped buffer layer and a gate material can be disposed around a portion of the shell member. Exemplary methods for making the nanowire HEMTs and arrays of nanowire HEMTs can include epitaxially forming nanowire(s) and epitaxially forming a shell member from each formed nanowire. Exemplary methods for making the post HEMTs and arrays of post HEMTs can include etching a III-N layer to form III-N post(s) followed by formation of the shell member(s).

High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are common types of solid state transistors that are fabricated from semiconductor materials such as indium phosphide (InP) or gallium arsenide (GaAs). For example, GaAs has become the standard for signal amplification in civil and military radar, handset cellular, and satellite communications. GaAs has a higher electron mobility and a lower source resistance than Si, which allows GaAs based devices to function at higher frequencies. However, GaAs has a relatively small bandgap (1.42 eV at room temperature) and relatively small breakdown voltage, which prevents GaAs based HEMTs from providing high power at high frequencies.
Improvements in the manufacturing have focused interest on the development of gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) semiconductor materials to form planar AlGaN/GaN based HEMT devices. These devices can generate large amounts of power because of their unique combination of material characteristics including high breakdown fields, wide bandgaps (3.36 eV for GaN at room temperature), large conduction band offset, and high saturated electron drift velocity.
For example, a conventional 1.7 mm×1.7 mm GaN based HEMT can generate 2.2 W/mm of power and have a noise figure of less than 1 dB for the 0.2 to 8 GHz frequency range. These conventional GaN based HEMTs, however, suffer from defect density problems and self-heating issues.
Thus, there is a need to overcome these and other problems of the prior art and to provide GaN nanowire based and larger, GaN post-based HEMTs.


A double spring function seat spring assembly combines a U-shaped frame with a closed front, a number of leaf springs (26-28) connected between the front and a cross piece and a plurality of coil springs (36, 38, 40) supporting the cross piece from the frame, the leaf springs formed with a series of W and V arches to enable flexing and extension for improved durability and comfort.

1. Field of the Invention
Leaf spring arrangements for upholstered furniture seating has advantages in strength, comfort and durability when compared to traditional coil or sinuous wire springs. Greater stability and control in the movement of the springs under load provide added durability for fabrics and upholstery. Because of the strength of the leaf springs, in some uses, additional flexing segments provide improved comfort and reduced metal fatigue thereby increasing both comfort and durability. Supporting a leaf spring array from a coil spring array maximizes comfort and durability by isolating fatigue and support and comfort related functions.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,788,844 and 3,156,460 show basic leaf spring structures used to support a seat deck in upholstered furniture. U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,497 shows a more recent improvement which includes a single V arch near the front and/or rear frame member of the leaf. The basic spring has the drawbacks of metal fatigue when the leaves are of small, very flexible dimensions when sized for greater flexibility and certain comfort parameters. Because of the stiffness of metal leaf springs, the area of the springs in the three patents mentioned is a relatively small percentage of the area of the seat deck, therefore the load is spread over a large number of small leaves. The single V-arch spring remedies the fatigue and durability issues to an extent, but still has a relatively small support area and has additional limitations in control of flexing on an overall seat spring assembly These patents are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. Other patents have taught the use of coil spring supported bars, rods, or other seat decks, but not coil springs used in combination with leaf springs. The invention optimizes durability and comfort and provides improved utility in that a greater number of combinations of spring performance are available.

Double spring function upholstered furniture spring assemblies


A ship air lubrication system of an external installation type has good efficiency. An air ejecting unit includes an ejecting side chamber installed in a ship bottom of a ship and having air ejecting holes formed in a surface opposite to the ship bottom on a lower side, and a supply section which supplies air into an inner space of the ejecting side chamber. When the air in the ejecting side chamber is ejected from the air ejecting holes, the air is sheared by an external water stream, and small air bubbles are supplied to the ship bottom.

As a technique of improving an efficiency of navigation of a ship, an air lubrication system is known. The air lubrication system is a technique for supplying air bubbles to an outer plate of the ship below a water line to reduce the friction between the ship and water and further improving the efficiency of the navigation. The technique described in JP 2009-248831A is its one example.


A method for dynamically invoking a Web service. The method can include assembling a collection of references to remote implementations of the Web service based upon a common port type. One or more ports bound to the remote implementations of the Web service can be identified, and a set of port selection rules can be applied to the identified ports to select a particular one of the ports. Finally, the Web service can be invoked through the selected port. Notably, the identifying step can include parsing a Web service implementation document for each referenced remote implementation in the collection. The parsing can produce a list of ports through which the remote implementations can be invoked. Also, the method can further include compiling the set of port selection rules according to at least one of high-availability concerns, quality of service concerns and economic concerns.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to Web Services and more particularly to the dynamic invocation of Web Services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Web services have become the rage of distributed computing and are viewed as the foundation for developing a truly universal model for supporting the rapid-development of component-based applications over the World Wide Web. Typically, Web services can be defined by an interface and implemented according to the interface, though the implementation details matter little so long as the implementation conforms to the Web services interface. Once a Web service has been implemented according to a corresponding interface, the implementation can be registered with a Web services registry, such as Universal Description, Discover and Integration (UDDI), as is well known in the art.
The Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) is an XML-based language used to define the Web services interface and to describe how to access defined Web services. In a WSDL document, both input and output messages associated with the Web service can be specified. Specifically, the input message can define parameters expected by a service operation and the name of the operation to be invoked. Conversely, the output message can define the result to be returned by the operation, if any. Each of the input and corresponding output messages of the Web service can be specified within an<operation> element in the WSDL document. Moreover, the physical representation of each of the expected parameters and result can be bound to the parameters and result through the <binding> element, as is well-known in the art.
As noted in Erik Christensen, Francisco Curbera, Greg Meredith and Sanjiva Weerawarana, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Note (Mar. 15, 2001), each Web service implementation defined in a WSDL document can be defined using a <port> element. Using the <port> element, different ports can be specified through which a Web service operation can be accessed. For example, the port can specify a service address such as                http://localhost/ibm/wsdl/myService.aspx.In that case, where the service can be invoked through the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), the port definition within the service element can include:
<port name='myServicePort' binding='wsdlns:myServiceSoapBinding'><soap:address location = 'http://localhost/ibm/wsdl/myService.asp'/></port>By comparison, where the service can be invoked through HTTP, the port definition within the service element can include:
<port name='myServicePort' binding='wsdlns:myServiceHTTPBinding'><http:address location = 'http://localhost/ibm/wsdl/myService.asp' /></port>
Each Web service can be accessed through multiple different ports. For instance, Web services can be exposed through one port for SOAP invocations, through a second port for HTTP invocations, and through yet a third port for SMTP invocations. To differentiate between each port, however, each specified port must have a unique name and a binding attribute. In any case, for SOAP invocable Web services, the port element can specify a <soap:address/> element containing the service address. By comparison, for HTTP invocable Web services, the port element can specify a <http:address/> element. Still, as it will be recognized by those skilled in the art, Web services need not be exposed exclusively through SOAP, HTTP or SMTP. Rather, other remote procedure calling protocols can suffice, as is well-known in the art.


A method is presented for controlling process delay times between a) thin film deposition and lubricant application, and b) lubricant application and abrasive polishing. Applicants have discovered that for certain lubricants, a minimum delay time after the overcoat has been deposited before the lubricant is applied increases the number of disks passing the glide test after abrasive polishing. In addition, applicants have discovered that for certain lubricants, the abrasive polishing should take place within a maximum time window following the application of the lubricant. A computerized work-in-progress tracking system is preferably used to implement the method of the invention.

In a typical prior art magnetic disk recording system a slider containing magnetic transducers for reading and writing magnetic transitions is urged toward the rotating disk by a suspension. An air-bearing develops under slider and causes it to fly. The term "fly height" and air-bearing height will be used interchangeably herein. Fly heights are shrinking as the demand for increased areal density increases. A slider fly height of less than 10 nm is required for areal densities greater than 60 Gb/in2. To reach the 1 Tb/in2 mark, fly heights in the 2-3 nm range are needed. Fly heights this low place strict requirements on the allowable roughness of the disk surface.
Typically the last thin film layer which is vacuum deposited on the disk is a protective overcoat. Various carbon-based materials are currently in use for the overcoat such as diamond-like carbon, CHx and CNx, but many other materials are being explored. After the thin films have been deposited onto the disk a lubricant is applied to overcoat.
The manufacturing process for disks includes steps at various phases to reduce the roughness. One process commonly used is called "tape polishing." After the lubricant has been applied onto the disk, a tape with an extremely fine abrasive bonded thereto is used to polish the surface of the disk. Although a tape has been traditionally used, various methods of polishing can be employed. The disk's suitability as a flying surface for the slider is typically tested after this abrasive polishing in what is called a "glide test."
The requirements placed on the disk surface are so strict that subtle interactions between the thin films, the lubricant and the abrasive polishing can have a large effect on the yields of the manufacturing process.

Control of process timing during manufacturing of magnetic thin film disks

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.