A cone disc infinitely-variable gearbox including a shaft, a cone disc preferably embodied in one piece with the shaft, a cone disc connected to the shaft in a non-rotating axially-displaceable manner, a bearing ring axially fixed onto the shaft at a separation from the rear face of the displaceable cone disc, a radial inner pressure chamber formed between the cone disc and the bearing ring, which may be altered in the axial direction and which may be pressurized with pressure medium, through an opening embodied in the shaft, for displacement of the cone disc and a radial outer pressure chamber which may be altered in the axial direction and which may be pressurized with pressure medium, through a further opening embodied in the shaft, for displacement of the cone disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cone pulley CVT, a method for defining the spread width between the two cone pulleys of such a transmission, and a method for towing such a transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently the use of cone pulley CVTs in passenger cars has increased, due to the successful development of such transmissions with sufficient torque transmission capability, good acoustic properties and a long service life.
As the use of cone pulley CVTs increases, the significance of both cost and road capability increases.
It is the purpose of the invention to design cone pulley CVTs that are less costly and have better road capability.

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


Disclosed are compounds that are shown to inhibit the biological activity of nitric oxide synthases (NOSs). Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds, and methods of using the compounds and pharmaceutical compositions for treating a subject in need thereof. Because the disclosed compounds are shown to inhibit the activity of nitric oxide synthases (NOSs), the disclosed compounds and pharmaceutical compositions may be utilized in methods for treating a subject having or at risk for developing a disease or disorder that is associated with NOS activity.

The field of the invention relates to compounds that inhibit the biological activity of nitric oxide synthases (NOSs). In particular, the field of the of the invention relates to compounds that selectively inhibit nitric oxide synthases such as human neuronal NOS (nNOS) and bacterial NOS (bNOS).
NO is a highly reactive free radical produced by the hemethiolate monooxygenase nitric oxide synthase (NOS, mNOS=mammalian NOS, bNOS=bacterial NOS). NOS generates NO by oxidizing L-Arg and is found in both mammals and some bacteria. While mNOS is a multi-domain protein composed of both oxygenase and reductase domains, bNOS from the genus Bacillus and Staphylococcus contains only an oxygenase domain. X-ray crystal structures determined for both bNOS and mNOS oxygenase domains reveals a near identical tertiary structure and active site except that bNOS lacks the N-terminal fragment that contains the Zn2+ binding motif observed in mNOS.
In mammalian systems, NO functions as an essential signaling molecule and is involved in a variety of physiological functions ranging from blood pressure homeostasis to neural cell communication and host defense. There are three mNOS isoforms: endothelial NOS (eNOS), inducible NOS (iNOS) and neuronal NOS (nNOS). Owing to the pathological consequences of the over or under production of NO, significant effort has been made toward the development and characterization of isoform selective mNOS inhibitors, which has resulted in the development of many unique inhibitors.
One of the major issues in the design of bNOS inhibitors is its structural similarity to mNOS isoforms. Direct comparison of the mammalian and bacterial NOS structures/sequences reveals several key differences that could be exploited for a bNOS inhibitor design effort. The first key difference is between the domain architecture of the NOS isoforms. Each mNOS is a multi-domained protein composed of both a reductase and oxygenase domain whose activity is regulated by calmodulin. In sharp contrast, bNOS is only composed of an oxygenase domain and is not regulated by calmodulin. Since bNOS is not covalently linked to its redox partners like mNOS, bNOS must utilize redox partners for activity. A second key difference is amino acid variances between the NOS active sites. For example, both bNOS and endothelial NOS (eNOS) have an Asn residue that directly interacts with the L-Arg substrate while this residue is Asp in nNOS and inducible NOS (iNOS). The active site Asp/Asn difference provided the initial structural underpinning for the design of nNOS selective inhibitors. Despite this difference in electrostatics between bNOS and nNOS, inhibitors that target the Asn residue might be detrimental if they also inhibit the critical eNOS isoform. Additional active site differences in bNOS include His128 (mammalian equivalent is Ser) and Ile218 (mammalian equivalent is Val). The slightly bulkier Ile adjacent to the O2 binding site has been shown to decrease the NO release rates in bNOS. The last key difference between mNOS and bNOS is present at the pterin cofactor-binding site. Since bNOS lacks the N-terminal Zn2+ binding motif present in mNOS, the pterin binding site is more exposed in bNOS, resulting in weaker micromolar binding affinity in bNOS vs. the stronger nanomolar affinity in mNOS. While the physiologically relevant bNOS cofactor that binds to the bNOS pterin site remains unknown, inhibitors that target this site are an attractive avenue for structure-based drug design.
In Gram-positive bacteria, bNOS produced NO has been found to modulate macromolecules by nitrosylation, to function as a commensal molecule, to protect against oxidative stress, and to detoxify antimicrobials (See, e.g., Gusarov, I. and Nudler, E. NO-mediated cytoprotection: instant adaption to oxidative stress in bacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 13855-13860 (2005); and Gusarov, I., Shatalin, K., Starodubtseva, M. and Nudler, E. Endogenous nitric oxide protects bacteria against a wide spectrum of antibiotics. Science 325, 1380-1384 (2009)). Although the biological function of NO varies among bacterial organisms, the unique ability of NO to protect the pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis against oxidative and antibiotic-induced oxidative stress by activation of catalase and by suppression of damaging Fenton chemistry implicates bNOS as a potential therapeutic target (Gusarov, supra). Moreover, commonly used antibiotics for the treatment of Gram-positive pathogens-like beta-lactams and vancomycin-elicit antibacterial function by generation of reactive oxygen species. Together, these data suggest that inhibition of bNOS will attenuate bacterial survival against antibiotic induced oxidative stress. Owing to the essential role NO plays in mammals, development of a bNOS-specific inhibitor ideally should take advantage of subtle differences between bNOS and mNOS.
To do so first requires identification of NOS inhibitors that demonstrate antimicrobial-like properties within a bacterial system under oxidative stress and characterization of the inhibitor-binding mode for structure-based inhibitor development. Studies on the effects of inhibitors on bNOS have thus far been limited to the finding that nonselective NOS inhibitor NG-methyl-L-arginine generates greater sensitivity to H2O2-induced oxidative stress in B. anthracis. Accordingly, there is an ongoing search in the art for NOS inhibitors that decrease bacterial viability in the presence of an antimicrobial agent or otherwise under conditions inducing oxidative stress.
As bacterial pathogens acquire resistance to commonly used antibiotics, it has become clear that novel therapeutic strategies are required to combat serious infections. In particular, there is an urgent need for the development of new pharmaceuticals that target methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA, a Gram-positive pathogen resistant to common antibiotics like isoxazoyl penicillins and β-lactams, was first reported in 1961 and remains one of the most costly bacterial infections worldwide. MRSA has remained a major threat to public health in part due to the emergence of community-associated strains, its varying epidemiology, and drug resistance. In recent years, the threat of MRSA has been compounded by reports of vancomycin resistant strains, as this agent is often considered the drug of last resort. Therefore, characterization and exploitation of alternative bacterial drug targets is essential for future successful management of MRSA infections.
Recent gene deletion experiments in S. aureus, B. anthracis and B. subtilis have implicated bacterial nitric oxide synthase (bNOS) as a potential drug target, as it provides the bacterial cell a protective defense mechanism against oxidative stress and select antibiotics. The growth of B. subtilis was found to be severely perturbed in response to combination therapy with an active site NOS inhibitor and an established antimicrobial.
While such evidence suggests bNOS as a potential therapeutic target for improving the efficacy of antimicrobials, design and development of a potent bNOS inhibitor is complicated by the active site structural homology shared with the three mammalian NOS (mNOS) isoforms. Especially considering the critical role of mammalian iNOS in pathogen clearance, bNOS inhibitors must be isoform specific to circumvent short-circuiting critical mammalian NO functions. Recent structure-based studies suggest that bNOS specificity can be achieved through targeting the pterin-binding site, as the bNOS and mNOS pterin binding sites are quite different.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mammalian and bacterial nitric oxide synthase inhibitors


A method, computer program and system, which, given a set of Boolean state variables, a set of state transitions described as truth tables for the state variables, a set of initial states (that is states that objects happen to be in when they are brand new or when they are introduced into the system), all established by a natural modeling of the application domain, can derive an encoding that is provably isomorphic to the initial one but smaller, and transitions that match exactly the initial transitions but operating upon the new encoding, without incurring a significant time penalty. This effect is obtained by generating the extensive set of significant states, renumbering those states, then modifying the transitions implementation so as to use the renumbered states in place of the original ones.

An application typically using object states encoding is static analysis of variables in compilers. In this step of static analysis, the compiler validates the code flow by detecting the impossible variable states or transitions in each branch of the code. One other application is inventory management of physical objects such as containers on which are attached Rfids able to record the container's id and states.
Objects states are well represented by a collection of Boolean properties such as a given local variable which can be deemed valued to null, or not, initialized, or not, etc., at a given point in time. Similarly, a container may have different states depending if it is in a warehouse, on board a truck, on board a train, on board a ship, etc. During the life of objects, events drive predictable changes in objects states, called states transitions, that programs must track. Transitions on those states are coded by use of Boolean arithmetic with the usual operands (and, or, not) to implement truth tables. Truth tables typically give, for a given operation, and the entry states of one to many objects, the expected states of the objects after the transition has occurred. Coming back to the example of a variable in a program, when a local variable that is not initialized is assigned a value, it becomes initialized: in other terms, its 'initialized' Boolean property changes from false to true; similarly, with the example of container, when a container is unloaded from a truck into a warehouse, its 'on board truck' property becomes false and its 'in warehouse' property becomes true. The use of Boolean variables is efficient for the storage of states and the computation of states transitions because the underlying technology (memory, buses and processors) uses bits sets, usually grouped by words that comprise 32, 64 or 128 bits, at the very heart of computing and storage systems. Moreover, it implements efficient Boolean operations on those sets.
When the number of objects for which the states must be tracked and computed becomes very large, one encoding technique that is eventually efficient both in terms of space and time is to use a set of large bitfields (each set typically comprised of an array of words), each bitfield coding one of the Boolean properties, and each object being associated to a specific rank within the bitfields. Using the bitwise operators of the used programming language to operate Boolean transformation one word at a time, states transformations can be operated for objects sets instead of demanding for a per object computation. For example, if we take 8 bit long bitfields and associate the lower order bit to object 1, the following bitfield encodes a given Boolean property as being true for object 1, false for object 2, true for object 3, false for others: "0000 0101"
There is a potentially big issue with this approach though. It is very weak at detecting impossible states, that is, states that the objects cannot reach. Taking an obvious example, a variable cannot simultaneously be initialized and not initialized, or a container cannot be at the same time on board a train and on board a ship (whereas it could be on board a truck and on board a ship). If the programmer initially chooses to code the 'initialized' and 'uninitialized' properties into two separate Boolean variables, the fact that those properties are always linked by a negation may go unnoticed for a while. If this remains unnoticed, the encoding will consume one more property than needed per object, resulting into space waste and superfluous calculations. This example is obvious but less obvious examples abound when the state variables number grows. For example, in the container case, 'on board train' and 'on board ship' are negatively correlated, whereas 'on board truck' and 'on board ship' are not.
There is also a considerable amount of prior art work related to the optimization of Boolean multi-variate transformations. For an example, see 'Two-level logic optimization', Coudert et al., 2001 (in IKLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE SERIES)([Coudert 2001]). Their main focus is on providing ways to produce near optimal Boolean logic for use in dedicated hardware circuitry. An elaboration of these is very useful in any multi-variate Boolean transformation. These do not fulfill the needs exposed above by themselves though, since they only tackle the reduction of the time needed to implement given truth tables. They do not address the reduction of the number of considered variables. When applied to the initial problem of optimizing object states and transitions, this prior art would deliver a gain in computation time but not in space.
Hence, there is a need for a solution that enables programmers to define states and transitions according to the desired semantics and still implement them in an efficient way in terms of space for encoding them.
A first step in space optimization for encoding object states and transitions has been observed at least in Eclipse, an open source project on the web site http://www.eclipse.org,
and more particularly in the class:
org.eclipse.jdt.internal.compiler.flow.UnconditionalFlowInfo
for the 3.1 version of the product. This implementation uses natural Boolean sets to encode the states of numerous objects in a relatively efficient manner by using bitfield encoding. This implementation adds new functions to the compiler, and drives the number of Boolean properties up, raising concerns about a degradation of performances on time and space. An ad hoc approach enabled the development team to identify some of the unneeded combinations and to re-encode the states by coordinating some Boolean pairs (that is, for example, the meaning of the first bit depends on the value of the second bit).
This proved error prone, gave no warranty regarding optimality of the resulting encoding, and is very inflexible (the addition of a new state variable breaks the encoding). As a consequence, in order to save space and to keep complexity under control, developers cut back on functionalities. In conclusion, bitfield encoding is part of the solution but it is not sufficient for saving space with an important number of objects.

International Business Machines Corporation


A fishing weight especially designed for use with a hollow plastic lure having a loop at one end attachably threaded on a hook, from its point to its operative position stopped by an eye of the hook, the weight being adapted to fit within the hollow of the lure.

This invention relates to a new improved weight for fishing lures, and to a combination of the weight with a hook and a plastic lure.
Generally, weights or sinkers for fishing purposes have been molded pieces of lead that are attached to a fishing line above the hook or lure so as not to interfere with the fish attracted to the lure and yet be close enough to the hook or lure that it brings the hook or lure to the desired depth in the water. It is generally believed by fishermen that the weight or sinker should be as invisible as possible so as not to scare the fish away and at the same time be effective in keeping the hook or lure at a selected depth. Both of these requirements have not been found in weights used in the prior art.
A particularly desirable hook and lure is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,402 issued Mar. 6, 1990 to Thomas C. Clark. This combination can easily be enhanced by the weight of this invention.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel improved fishing weight. It is another object to provide a weight that can be concealed inside a plastic lure. Still other objects will become apparent from the more detailed description which follows.


A golf score card includes an arrangement for assisting a player in evaluating the characteristics of the greens of a golf course. The card includes a markable substrate, such as paper or the like, to facilitate keeping score on a hole-by-hole basis. The card further includes a graphic illustration of each of the holes of the course, with the illustration including a graphic depiction of the general shape of the putting green of each hole. In order to facilitate play, graphic indicia are provided for indicating the direction of the grain of the grass on the green.

For many years, the game of golf has proven to be a challenging sport of enduring popularity. Part of the game's appeal stems from the fact that players of all ages and abilities can participate, with all players being able to experience the challenge of any given golf course and the excitement of skillful play.
Part of the challenge of the game relates to the player's evaluation and interpretation of the geography, relative distances, hazards, and obstacles of a given golf hole. In this regard, skillful play on the putting surfaces of the course's greens requires study and evaluation of a number of different variables.
In particular, a player must evaluate the manner in which his putting stroke will be affected by the sloping surfaces of the green, its relative "speed", and the influence of the grain of the grass of the putting surface. Grain generally refers to the predominant direction in which the grass of the putting surface tends to grow.
The direction of the grain can be influenced by the green's slope, its orientation relative to the prevailing weather conditions and natural light, and the type of grass used for the putting surface. The combination of these variables sometimes results in a green exhibiting more than one direction to the grain of the grass. Moreover, the regular cutting and grooming of a green can influence the effect of the grain on putting. Specifically, cutting can increase the effect of the grain on a ball's rotation, since cutting typically results in relatively "blunt" ends of the blades of grass to be presented to the ball.
Accordingly, the present invention contemplates an arrangement whereby a player can be assisted in evaluating the grain of the grass making up the putting surface of a golf hole.

Golf score card with putting green grain indicia


This invention relates to an evaporative salt plant installation including methods of operation and apparatus which produce high purity salt economically and in high yield comprising the combination of a gas turbine which drives a vapor compressor, whose exhaust gases are used to produce steam to drive a topping steam turbine generator, which in turn generates the electrical energy requirements of the plant, and wherein the discharge vapors from the steam turbine are combined with the discharge vapors from the vapor compressor, which is in turn in combination with a vapor compression evaporator and a purge evaporator, whereby both evaporators produce salt, and where the overhead vapors of the purge evaporator are used in a brine cooled condenser to preheat input cold brine, thereby producing water condensate which is recovered, along with evaporator steam chest condensate streams, and used in solution mining underground salt, thereby allowing for both the productive use and recovery of substantially all the raw material and energy inputs to the plant, and the friendly environmental operation of the plant.

Salt is one of the most abundant materials on earth and is one of the largest volume inorganic materials used in industry in the production of chlorine and caustic soda by the electrolytic processes and is used in the manufacture of many products, both organic and inorganic. Salt is also used for snow and ice control and as a mineral in animal diets, as a food preservative and for flavoring food. Salt is the most common and readily available non-metallic mineral in the world. Oceans contain an inexaustible supply of salt. The identified resources of salt in the United States alone are estimated at over sixty trillion tons.
Salt is produced by direct removal as rock salt from underground deposits, by solution mining underground deposits, or by evaporation from solution mining or naturally occuring brines or sea water. Underground deposits are large beds of concentrated salt which have been deposited through evaporation of brines over the geological ages. Underground deposits are mined as rock salt using conventional mining techniques or by solution mining creating a brine. In solution mining water is pumped into the salt bed, the salt is dissolved in the water and the resultant brine is brought to the surface. Many processes and techniques have been disclosed for the mining and production of salt from these various raw material sources, and many processes and techniques have been disclosed for the purification of the salt produced by the mining processes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,647,396 and 3,655,333 are examples of disclosures of processes for purifying salt already produced.
Processes have been employed and described in the prior art for the production of high purity salt at the initial site where the salt recovery processes are used for the mining of the salt. Because of the high cost of energy, especially in the cost of petroleum derived energy, created by the changes in the mid-east two decades ago, which created the energy crisis, many attempts have been made to optimize the conservation of energy in the production of high quality salt. Background information on the processes, equipment and techniques employed in these endevours are described in the Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, edited by Kirk-Othmer, Third Edition, Volume 9, under the heading Energy Management starting on page 21 through 45, and under the heading Evaporation, starting on page 472 through 493. Additional background information is also disclosed in the Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design, edited by John J. McKetta, Volume 20, under the heading Evaporator Operation starting on page 396 continuing under the heading Evaporation through page 445. Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, Sixth Edition, under Evaporators, starting on page 11-31 through 11-43 also provides background information related to this invention.
A recent process design for the production of evaporative salt from solution mined brine which pursues the objectives of making salt while at the same time conserving the use of energy is described in the publication of the Fifth International Symposium on Salt--Northern Ohio Geological Society in an article by A. Pavik, G. Arcangeli and J. C. Gallot, starting on page 335 thru 339. The article describes a process installed by Montedison at Ciro Marina-Calbria, Italy. The article describes a salt plant with solution mining and an evaporation plant employing quadruple effect evaporators and a mechanical recompression evaporator and includes the generation of steam at high pressure which is used to drive two steam turbines. One of these steam turbines is connected to an alternator which generates the necessary electric current used in the plant and the other is used to drive a compressor which recompresses the vapors from the single effect evaporator, so that it can be reused in the heating elements of the single effect evaporator. The excess steam from both steam turbines is used to drive the quadruple effect evaporator train.
In accordance with this invention, we employ an evaporative salt plant, including methods of operation and apparatus which produce high purity salt economically and in high yield, comprising the combination of a gas turbine which drives a vapor compressor while the gas turbine exhaust gases are used to produce high pressure steam which is used to drive a steam turbine, which in turn generates the electrical energy requirements of the plant, and wherein the discharge vapors from the steam turbine are combined with the discharge vapors from the vapor compressor, which is in turn in combination with a vapor compression evaporator and a purge evaporator, whereby both evaporators produce salt, and where the overhead vapors of the purge evaporator are used in a brine cooled condenser to preheat input cold brine. Water condensate is recovered from the evaporator heater and brine cooled condenser and used in solution mining the underground salt, thereby allowing for productive use and recovery of substantially all the raw material and over 70% of energy inputs to the plant, and friendly environmental operation of the plant.


An espresso coffee machine is described, said machine comprising: a dispensing group and a corresponding coffee boiler containing water under pressure; a heater device for heating the water in the coffee boiler; a temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the water in the coffee boiler; a processor connected to said sensor and configured to drive said heater device so that the water in the coffee boiler is at a set reference temperature, wherein said processor comprises a feedback system; and wherein the value of said set reference temperature is varied as a function of at least one of the following parameters: (a) a first parameter which is a function of the time elapsed from an operating cycle of the machine or a frequency of use of the machine within a time interval; (b) a second parameter which is a function of the temperature of a component of the machine; and (c) a third parameter which is a function of the environment.

The present invention relates in general to the sector of machines for the preparation of beverages. More particularly, it relates to a machine for preparing espresso coffee (or another beverage) provided with an improved system for regulating the temperature of the water in the boiler. The present invention also relates to a method for regulating the temperature of the water in an espresso coffee machine.

Espresso coffee machine with improved system for regulating the temperature of the water and method for regulating the temperature of the water in an espresso coffee machine


A tool assembly in which a tool is releasably mounted on a tool holder. The tool is supported by the tool holder at two spaced apart regions which are formed independently therefore alignment between the axes of the tool and tool holder does not rely on tight manufacturing tolerances.

In such tool assemblies the tool holder is installed on a power driven machine, and the tool is a cutting tool, an adaptor for holding tools or any other means required for performing a metal working operation. The clamping mechanism provides a means for quickly changing tools during the metal working operations.
The coupling mechanism has the main objectives of transferring torque by, inter alia, frictional force from a spindle via the tool holder to the tool while maintaining alignment between the rotational axes of the tool and spindle. In order to achieve these objectives, the shank of the tool and the socket of the tool holder are typically formed with compatible conical geometries, while a collet and coupling member ensure "full coupling" between these geometries. "Full coupling" is defined as contact of about 70% of the length between the shank and socket faces and is achieved by the following two conditions. First, the diameters of the shank and socket, at their widest ends and narrowest ends, must not exceed their required dimensions by more than several microns. Second, a significant drawing force has to be applied via the collet onto the coupling member. Typically, the shank is hollow and the periphery walls of the socket are designed to be resilient in order to enable the required elastic deformation for "full coupling".
U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,919 describes a clamping mechanism wherein the shank has a cone shape which corresponds to the internal cone shape of the socket. A high tensile force ensures "full coupling" between the shank and socket. In order to ensure alignment of rotational axes between the spindle and tool, tight tolerances must be maintained during manufacturing of the shank and socket. In this type of clamping mechanism, any error occurring during manufacturing or any obstruction such as dirt or a metal chip caught between the shank and socket will cause miss alignment.
Another example of a clamping mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,308. The coupling between the shank and socket occurs in two regions: in a region of a tapered portion adjacent a wider end of the shank and in a region of a cylindrical portion adjacent a narrower end thereof The short tapered portion of the shaft extends over approximately a ⅓ of the axial length of the socket. As a result, a relatively smaller force is required in order to ensure "full coupling". However, in order to ensure alignment of rotational axes between the spindle and tool, tight manufacturing tolerances are still required during manufacturing of the tapered and cylindrical portions of the shaft and socket.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a clamping mechanism that significantly reduces or overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages.

E.T.M. Precision Tools Manufacturing Ltd.


A method of attaching a leader to a snelled fly by connecting a loop bearing a bead at the end of a leader to a snell loop at the end of a leader is disclosed. Generally the snell loop is first slipped over the beaded bead loop. Then, a length of the snell monofilament line is pulled through the bead loop. The snell loop and bead loop are simultaneously pulled in opposing directions forming a bead loop knot with said bead resting on one side of the knot. The process of detaching said knot is a simple reversal of the attachment process. The present method avoids the need of cutting a snell loop to replace a fishing fly and makes it possible to easily untie a loop-to-loop knot and avoid damaging a snell.

Fishing equipment varies widely and is designed to attract and capture specific species of fish found in various bodies of water. Fly fishing is one type of fishing which employs specialized fishing equipment. Fishhooks, fishing flies, and the line material vary from rather large to miniscule with fly size running from about 1.5 to 2 inches in length to 3/16 inch in length, line strengths from 20 pounds to 1 pound, and hook lengths from roughly 1¾ inch to 3/16 inch in length. A fishhook generally includes an eye to attach a fishing line. The eye of the hook is proportional to the size of wire used to make the hook, so that large, strong hooks have relatively large eyes and small, delicate hooks have relatively small eyes. It follows, therefore, that the smaller the fly, the more difficult and time consuming the task of threading the leader through the eye of the hook. Considering streamside conditions, limited eyesight; poor lighting environment; windy conditions; inclement weather; and limited manual dexterity exacerbate the difficulty of connecting a fishing leader to a fish fly. Hampered by poor eyesight and/or limited manual dexterity, the generally accepted solution to the aforementioned problems is to use a snelled fly and a loop-to-loop knot attachment to the leader. A snelled fly is a fly fitted with a relatively short length of monofilament line. The monofilament line is affixed to the fly on one end and with a loop on the opposite end. However, a loop-to-loop knot made from monofilament line is nearly impossible to untie. The loop-to-loop knot method of attaching a leader to a fly usually requires cutting the snell loop in order to replace the fishing fly. The present method makes it possible to easily untie a loop-to-loop knot and avoid damaging the snell.

Method of attaching a leader to a snelled fly


The invention relates to a control system for a building zone which is climate conditioned by a climate conditioning system, wherein the climate conditioning system controls at least one climate parameter in the building zone, the climate parameter being at least one of: temperature (T) and humidity (RH). The control system is configured to provide a climate parameter target to a building management system. The climate parameter target is determined dynamically based on current sensor measurements while taking energy, thermal comfort and preservation requirements into account. Namely, rather than continuously steering the climate parameter to reach a preset value, some ‘free-running’ of the climate parameter is allowed by calculating a permissible range for the climate parameter, which reduces active climate conditioning and thereby contributes to energy savings. To further take preservation requirements into account, the rate of change in the climate parameter is limited to a maximum.

It is desirable to control climate conditions in building zones, e.g., a room or indoor space of a building, for comfort but also for preservation reasons. For example, the indoor conditions of museums, galleries, and archives play an important role in the preservation process of artworks and artefacts. More generally, this applies to all buildings or building structures in which the indoor climate is controlled to preserve the in-house collection, the historic building itself, or its historic interior. Preventive conservation, specifically controlling the indoor air temperature (T) and relative air humidity (RH), is a main reason for applying full air-conditioning systems in museums nowadays. Besides the prevailing T-level and RH-level, fluctuations of T and RH form important boundary conditions in the context of preventive conservation.
Research and practice in the 20th century led to stringent limits for humidity levels and fluctuations around an optimum of 21° C. and 50% RH. In the 1980's, museums became aware of the consequences of pursuing such stringent climate conditions: besides condensation problems in winter (and consequently moisture damage to collections and historic buildings), energy demands were excessive. Accordingly, the concept of seasonal adjustments was devised, which for example allowed RH to vary from 40% in winter to 55% in summer by manually adjusting the setpoints by 2% per month. In the 2000's, advances in the museum field's view on indoor climate conditioning included an increased focus on sustainability. Among other aspects, this resulted in gradually replacing precautionary safety, e.g., stringent T and RH, by an appropriate environment: this involved employing a pragmatic approach by developing custom requirements for specific cases instead of applying general requirements to all collections and building types.
The European standard EN15757 [1] indicates opportunities for controlled variations in climate parameters and elaborates on a statistical method on how to analyze the historic climate to calculate permissible seasonal variations based on variations that objects already have been exposed to, e.g., the so-called proofed fluctuations concept.
The substantial energy saving potential of less stringent indoor climate control, particularly with respect to various building types and climate regions, has been demonstrated by Kramer [2]: building simulations over one year were used to show the combined effect on energy efficiency of applying collection requirements and thermal comfort requirements. Collection requirements for temperature and relative humidity were based on ASHRAE's Handbook of HVAC Applications (2015, Chapter 23) and in particular the indoor climate classes for museums, galleries, archives, and libraries. However, while [2] demonstrates, via computer simulations, the energy saving potential using long-term measurements, e.g., spanning periods of longer than a year, there is a need for real-time control of the climate parameter(s) in a building zone which considers preservation requirements and facilitates increased energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

Control system for climate conditioning of a building zone


A mobile device is adapted for protecting private information on the mobile device in a hybrid automatic speech recognition arrangement. The mobile device includes a speech input component for receiving a speech input signal from a user. Additionally, the mobile device includes a local ASR arrangement for performing local ASR processing of the speech input signal and determining if private information is included within the speech input signal. A control unit on the mobile device obscures private information in the speech input signal if the local ASR arrangement identifies information within a speech recognition result as private information. The control unit releases the speech input signal with the obscured private information for transmission to a remote server for further ASR processing.

It is known in the prior art to have an automatic speech recognition system (ASR) system for determining a semantic meaning of a speech input. Typically, the speech is processed into a sequence of digital speech feature frames. Each speech feature frame can be thought of as a multi-dimensional vector that represents various characteristics of the speech signal present during a short time window of the speech. For, example the multi-dimensional vector of each speech frame can be derived from cepstral features of the short time Fourier transform spectrum of the speech signal, the short time power or component of a given frequency band, as well as, the corresponding first- and second-order derivatives. In a continuous recognition system, variable numbers of speech frames are organized as utterances representing a period of speech followed by a pause, which in real life loosely corresponds to a spoken sentence or phrase.
Recently, ASR technology has advanced enough to have applications that are implemented on the limited footprint of a mobile device. This can involve a somewhat limited stand-alone ASR arrangement on the mobile device, or more extensive capability can be provided in a client-server arrangement where the local mobile device does initial processing of speech inputs, and possibly some local ASR recognition processing, but the main ASR processing is performed at a remote server with greater resources, then the recognition results are returned for use at the mobile device.
U.S. Patent Publication 20110054899 describes a hybrid client-server ASR arrangement for a mobile device in which speech recognition may be performed locally by the device and/or remotely by a remote ASR server depending on one or more criteria such as time, policy, confidence score, network availability, and the like.

Protection of private information in a client/server automatic speech recognition system

Abstract: Results from the remote server's ASR processing are integrated and combined with results from local ASR processing to display information on the mobile device.


Cutting elements and hardfacing materials are in the form of a milled tooth having an uppermost first surface or crest and remaining surfaces such as flank surfaces and end surfaces extending downwardly away from crest. The crest has a hardfaced layer disposed thereon formed from a premium hardfacing material, and one or more of the remaining cutting element surfaces has a hardfaced layer formed from a hardfacing material different than the premium hardfacing material, wherein the hardfaced layer on the crest has a wear resistance at least 10% greater than that of the remaining cutting element hardfaced surfaces. The hardfaced layer on the crest may extend along a partial portion of one or more of the adjacent remaining cutting element surfaces.

Drill bits used for subterranean drilling, such as those used for drilling oil wells and the like, commonly have a steel body that is connected at the bottom of a drill string. An example such drill bits includes roller cone bits, which have a bit body and one or more roller cones rotatably mounted to the bit body. The bit body is typically formed of steel or another high strength material, and includes cutting elements at selected positions about the cones. The cones and cutting elements rotate and engage with the bottom of a hole being drilled to crush, gouge, and scrape rock for drilling the well. One type of roller cone bit, referred to as a "milled tooth" bit, has roughly trapezoidal teeth protruding from the surface of the cone for engaging the rock, and the teeth are formed of the same material as the cone. The principal faces of such milled teeth that engage the rock are usually hardfaced with a layer of material that is designed to resist wear and/or fracture.
The term "hardfaced" is understood in industry to refer to the process of applying a carbide-containing steel material (e.g., hardfacing) to the underlying steel substrate by welding process, as is described in more detail herein. Thus, the terms "hardfaced layer" or "hardfacing" are understood as referring to the layer of hardmetal that is welded onto the underlying steel substrate.
Conventional hardmetal materials used to provide wear resistance to the underlying steel substrate usually comprises pellets or particles of cemented tungsten carbide (WC—Co) and/or cast carbide particles that are embedded or suspended within a steel matrix. The carbide materials are used to impart properties of wear resistance to the steel matrix. Conventional hardmetal materials useful for forming a hardfaced layer on bits may also include iron-based steel and nickel-based high strength alloys to provide one or more certain desired physical properties. In some cases, carbide or other hard particles may be a phase that exhibits relatively high hardness for wear resistance purposes, while steel or other matrix materials act as another phase providing relatively high strength and fracture toughness.
The hardfaced layer is applied to the milled teeth by oxyacetylene or atomic hydrogen welding. The hardfacing process makes use of a welding "rod" or stick that is formed of a tube of mild steel sheet enclosing a filler which is made up of primarily carbide particles. The filler may also include deoxidizer for the steel, flux, and resin binder. The relatively wear resistant filler material is typically applied to the underlying steel tooth surface, and the underlying tooth surface is thus hardfaced, by melting an end of the rod on the face of the tooth. The steel tube melts to weld to the steel tooth and provide the matrix for the carbide particles in the tube.

Cutting elements with wear resistant surfaces


A process for producing fried starch-containing foodstuffs is described, comprising a thermal treatment resulting in gelatinization of starch, partial frying, cooling, optional freezing and optional finishing, wherein the foodstuff is subjected to a mechanical surface treatment between said thermal treatment and said partial frying. The mechanical treatment may consist of sanding, brushing, combined heat and pressure drop and other treatments. The foodstuff obtained has improved crispness, even after a holding time after finish frying.

The invention relates to a process for producing a fried starch-containing foodstuff, such as fried potato, fried vegetables or fried fruit, having improved crispness.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,093 describes a process of preparing fried potato pieces with improved texture and improved texture stability, wherein the potato pieces are disrupted at discrete locations of the surface to expose the interior of the pieces so as to allow moisture to escape during finish frying. The disruption is effected by scoring with a knife, after drying and partial fiying (par-frying) and before finish flying. However, this treatment drastically changes the appearance of the product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,759 discloses a potato product with increased crispness, which is produced by coating washed, cut, blanched and dried potatoes with an aqueous starch slurry and then par-frying the potato strips and freezing them. The starch slurry consists of chemically modified ungelatinized potato starch, water and other components such as corn starch and rice flour. U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,624 is aimed at enhancing crispness by impinging a high velocity stream of food particles such as potato granules, flakes, starch, flour and similar potato components, against the strips. However, the processes according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,759 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,624 require additional processing steps and additional ingredients in order to prepare and fixxe2x80x94by means of coating or impactingxe2x80x94a separate food component.
According to GB-A-2046070, blanched strips are subjected to a two-stage drying process, in which they are first exposed to high velocity ambient air and then further dried in circulating heated air. After subsequent par-frying, freezing and finish-frying, the product should demonstrate a mealy core and remain crisp and rigid for extended periods. The total moisture loss over both drying steps is about 18-26% by weight U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,397,993 and 3,649,305 also disclose hot air drying procedures of blanched (""993) and non-blanched (""305) potato strips, resulting in similar levels of moisture removal (20-30% and 10-30%, respectively). Texturing of French fries by surface-freezing to control crispness and rigidity is disclosed in Food Technology (1972) 61-68. GB-A-2157539 relates to making potato boats involving abrading the inner potato surface with starch particles. DE-C-738841 is concerned with producing fluffy potato pastry involving blanching, drying and puffing without flying.
Although these prior art products may have an increased crispness immediately after the production process, the crispness after finish frying and after a holding time of 10-20 minutes is still unsatisfactory. Consequently, there is a need for a simpler and more effective method of producing fried foodstuffs having an improved crispness, even a considerable period of time after finish frying.
It has been found now that this need can be fulfilled by a process comprising a thermal treatment wherein starch is gelatinized, optional drying, partial frying, cooling optional freezing and optional finishing the foodstuff, which is characterized in that one or more surface planes of the foodstuff is subjected to a mechanical surface treatment comprising a pressure drop at elevated temperature between said thermal treatment and said partial frying.
The mechanical treatment according to the invention is aimed at physically modifying essentially the entire surface area of one or more surface planes an is an essential step in the process of the invention. It is not necessary that the entire surface area of the foodstuff planes is modified and not even the major part of it, in order to improve crispness and especially retention of crispness of the finished product to a considerable extent. Since the method of the invention envisages to modify only the surface of the foodstuff, the depth of the modification within the product will be confined to the peripheral layers of cells. Therefore the modification will result in strips which are similar in appearance to conventionally produced fried foodstuff, such as potato chips. An additional and unexpected advantage of the present process is that the product obtained requires a shorter finish-fiying time.
The term xe2x80x9cfinishingxe2x80x9d as used herein denotes any final heat treatment for obtaining a ready-to-eat foodstuff. It will denote finish flying, i.e. cooking in oil or fat, but it can also mean other heat treatments such as oven baking (hot air, grill, microwave etc.). The effects of the treatment of the invention occur irrespective of the type and the timing of the finishing treatment.
The process according to the invention can be applied to any starch-containing foodstuff, such as root crops, tuberous plants such as potato and taro, and starch-containing fruits such as bananas. The process can also be used for fried particulate products largely consisting of starch, such as rice, tapioca, manioc an the like. The process is especially suitable for producing fried potato products.
The process according to the invention is described below in more detail with a reference to fried potato chips (American: French fries), but it should be understood that the process is equally applicable to other foodstuffs as defined here above, including potato crisps (referred to in some languages including German and Dutch as xe2x80x9cchipsxe2x80x9d).
Potatoes destined for the production of chips are first steam-peeled by quickly cooking the skin at high pressure and removing it by brushing, rubbing or spraying. Then the potatoes are selected to remove blemishes, and are cut according to the desired final shape. The cut potatoes are then blanched, which involves heating at 65-100xc2x0 C. for a short time so as to gelatinize the starch and to leach out soluble reducing sugars. Blanching may be done repeatedly, with intermittent cooling. After optional dipping (addition of chemicals such as calcium or sugars) the blanched potato pieces are usually partially dried at 60-140xc2x0 C., in order to enhance crispness, to reduce fat uptake and/or to save energy.
The next step in potato chip production is partial deep-frying (par-frying) for 30 seconds to 6 minutes at 135-190xc2x0 C. in cooling oil or fat in order to evaporate water at the surface. After par-frying, superficial fat may be removed and then the chips are cooled and, in case of frozen chips, deep-frozen. Before consumption, the chips are finish fried.
The mechanical surface treatment according to the invention results in damaging the surface structure especially of the surface cells of the gelatinized foodstuff. Such treatments include xe2x80x9cexternalxe2x80x9d treatments such as sanding, brushing, rubbing, and the like, but also treatments which induce xe2x80x9cdamaging from insidexe2x80x9d, e.g. expansion by forced evaporation, such as sudden pressure drop (steam, air or the like) at high temperatures irradiation. The mechanical surface treatments is preferably carried out above 0xc2x0 C., i.e. without freezing, and does not just consist of a liquid treatment. Preferred temperatures for the mechanical treatment are between 40xc2x0 and 1000xc2x0 C., preferably between 55xc2x0 and 90xc2x0 C. The mechanical treatment may be performed using conventional equipment, such as carborundum sanding apparatus or steam peeling apparatus.
The pressure drop comprises a drop of at least 2.5 bar, preferably at least 5 bar, up to 200 bar. The initial pressure before the pressure drop is preferably at least 5 bar, up to about 200 bar. The lower pressure after the pressure drop is preferably 1 bar or lower, down to vacuum (lower than 0.01 bar). The depressurizing time is less between 2.5 seconds and 10 minutes, preferably between 10 seconds and one minute, typically 20-30 seconds; the depressurizing rate is advantageously at least 0.5 bar per second up to 5 bar per second. The pressure drop is preferably applied at a water content of the foodstuff of between 35% and 90%, most preferably between 50% and 85%, typically around 80%.
The mechanical treatments will result in a maximum enhancement of crispness and crispness retention in the finished product, when the starch in the peripheral layers of cells has been previously gelatinized. This can be done by blanching the raw tissue prior to the external mechanical treatment. It should be understood that the term xe2x80x9cblanchingxe2x80x9d as used herein comprises any treatment involving exposure of the surface layer of the product to temperatures above 55xc2x0 C., so as to allow gelatinization of the starch. If the mechanical treatment already comprises conditions resulting in surface gelatinization, such as with steam pressurizing-depressurizing, a previous blanching step is not required. The raw tissue can, immediately after washing, peeling and/or cutting, be subjected to a treatment under elevated (steam) pressure and a subsequent sudden pressure drop. Preferably such treatment is immediately followed by a drying and/or frying step, in order to fix the physically modified surface.
If a drying step is performed in the food production process, then the external mechanical treatment is preferably inserted between the blanching step and the drying step. The partial drying can be effected by air-drying for several minutes at temperatures of e.g. 60-140xc2x0 C. The drying treatment may result in a fixing of the outer structure of the product as obtained by the surface treatment. It was found furthermore, that freezing the treated material is not necessary for obtaining an optimum crispness.
The product obtained by the process of the invention has an improved crispness, and remains crispy for an extended period of time, e.g. longer than 10 minutes after finish flying. At first, sight, the resulting product does not differ from conventionally produced chips, wherein the surface structure has not been disrupted after blanching. A closer examination, however, shows that the crust of the product has a fine-grained and crumbly-like appearance. A crispy and crackle-like mouthfeel is experienced upon eating. The product also allows a faster finish-frying.