A process of treating water to remove transuranic elements contained therein by adjusting the pH of a transuranic element-containing water source to within the range of about 6.5 to about 14.0, admixing the water source with an alkali or alkaline earth ferrate in an amount sufficient to form a precipitate within the water source, the amount of ferrate effective to reduce the transuranic element concentration in the water source, permitting the precipitate in the admixture to separate and thereby yield a supernatant liquid having a reduced transuranic element concentration, and separating the supernatant liquid having the reduced transuranic element concentration from the admixture is provided. Additionally, a water soluble salt, e.g., a zirconium salt, can be added with the alkali or alkaline earth ferrate in the process to provide greater removal efficiencies. A composition of matter including an alkali or alkaline earth ferrate and a water soluble salt, e.g., a zirconium salt, is also provided.

While water treatment techniques are available to remove contaminants, e.g., metal contaminants and in particular, transuranic metal contaminants, it is desirable that such processes generate a minimum of resultant sludge or solid waste as increased cost for disposal of solid metal wastes has forced industries and governmental agencies to seek techniques that generate less solid waste in a cost effective manner. Presently, ferric or ferrous salts such as ferric sulfate, ferric chloride and ferrous chloride or ferrous sulfate are used as coagulants for removal of trace amounts of transuranic elements from wastewater streams. However, lower allowable standards for wastewater discharge may not be easily met by such coagulants without generation of excessive solid waste.
In the past few years, there has been increased interest by the water treatment industry in the use of ferrate salts as, e.g., a possible substitute for chlorination processes. For example, potassium ferrate may be used in the treatment and purification of water (see Murmann et al, "Experiments Utilizing FeO.sub.4.sup.-2 for Purifying Water". Water Research, Vol. 8, pp. 79-93 (1974); Gilbert et al, "An Investigation of the Applicability of Ferrate Ion for Disinfection", J. Am. Water Works, Vol. 68(9), pp. 495-497 (1986); and Waite et al., "Iron (VI) Ferrate as a General Oxidant for Water and Wastewater Treatment", Ozone/Chlorine Dioxide Oxid. Prod., Org. Matter Process Conference, (1976), published 1978, pp. 410-425). Ferrate salts are also known as useful for precipitation and/or coagulation of solids in the wastewater.
Stricter laws and regulations aimed at protecting public health and preventing contamination of the environment have been gradually instituted by various federal and state governmental bodies. For example, the Water Pollution Control Act and Safe Drinking Water Act have set specific requirements on the quality of water discharged into streams and served to the public as potable water. Other government agencies, such as the Department of Energy (DOE), have also promulgated orders setting permissible effluent discharge standards for transuranic elements and other radionuclides from DOE facilities. Presently, DOE Order 5480.1 derived concentration guideline sets discharge limits for plutonium 238, plutonium 239/240 and americium 241 at 1.times.10.sup.-4 microcuries per milliliter. A stricter standard is expected to issue by DOE in late 1989, setting limits for the plutonium and americium contaminants at 3-4.times.10.sup.-8 microcuries per milliliter. This standard may not be consistently achievable with the present processes of treating wastewater at DOE facilities.
Accordingly, it is one object of this invention to develop a process of treating transuranic element-containing water to reduce the level of transuranic element contaminants.
It is another object of this invention to remove transuranic elements from contaminated water to under anticipated governmental discharge limits, e.g., DOE effluent standards.
It is still a further object of this invention to minimize production of the resultant solid waste, i.e., sludge, upon removal of the transuranic elements from contaminated water.
Yet another object of this invention is to remove transuranic elements from contaminated water without increasing the levels of chemical additives presently used and without alteration of presently existing process equipment.

The Regents of the University of California


A piezoelectric device includes an insulating substrate, a piezoelectric vibration device that is mounted on a device mounting pad, a metal lid member that seals the piezoelectric vibration device in an airtight manner, an external pad that is arranged outside the insulating substrate, an oscillation circuit, a temperature compensation circuit, and a temperature sensor. The lid member and the temperature sensor or the lid member and the IC component are connected to each other so as to be heat-transferable, and a heat transfer member having thermal conductivity higher than that of the material of the insulating substrate is additionally included.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric device, which is, for example, acquired by mounting a temperature-sensor attached electronic component outside a package of a piezoelectric vibrator, capable of realizing high-accuracy temperature characteristics including frequency drift characteristics at the time of start-up by allowing the thermal status of the electronic component to approach that of the piezoelectric vibration device and an electronic apparatus having the piezoelectric device built therein.
2. Related Art
In the mobile communication market, the number of manufactures increases which modularize a component group for each function in consideration of mounting various electronic components, the maintenance and handling thereof, and common characteristics of components between devices. In addition, a decrease in size and cost reduction are strongly demanded in accordance with the modularization.
Particularly, the tendency of modularization becomes strong for circuit components, of which the functions and the hardware configurations are set up and which requires high stability and high capability, such as an oscillation circuit used for generating a reference frequency signal, a PLL circuit, and a synthesizer circuit. Furthermore, by packaging such a component group as a module, there is an advantage that the shield structure can be easily set up.
As examples of a surface mounting-type IC component that is built by modularizing and packaging a plurality of related components, there are a piezoelectric vibrator, a piezoelectric oscillator, a SAW device, and the like.
In JP-A-2006-191517, JP-A-2008-263564, and JP-A-2010-035078, surface mounting-type piezoelectric oscillators are disclosed which have a structure in which an IC component including an oscillation circuit and a temperature compensation circuit is assembled outside a package of a piezoelectric vibrator for achieving further miniaturization while such functions are maintained well.
In such a type of piezoelectric oscillator, a difference between the temperature of a piezoelectric vibration device disposed inside the piezoelectric vibrator and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor mounted in the IC component that is connected to the outside of the piezoelectric vibrator may easily occur. Thus, in a case where there is a temperature difference, the oscillation frequency of the oscillator is corrected based on an output of the temperature sensor that is based on incorrect temperature data. Accordingly, it is difficult to acquire stable temperature-frequency characteristics, and the frequency drift characteristics at the time of start-up deteriorate.
In order to respond to such an inconvenience, generally, a configuration has been considered in which the temperature of the insulating substrate side, to which a piezoelectric vibrating reed is directly connected, is used as a measurement point.
In JP-A-2006-191517, a technology is disclosed in which the temperature-frequency characteristics and the frequency drift characteristics are stabilized in a temperature-compensation type piezoelectric oscillator in which an IC component as an oscillation circuit device is connected to an electrode portion arranged outside a piezoelectric vibrator in which the piezoelectric vibrating reed is housed inside the package by arranging a temperature sensor near the connection terminal of the IC component connected to the electrode portion so as to decrease the difference between the temperature of the piezoelectric vibrating reed and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor.
However, the connection terminal of the IC component that is connected to the electrode portion of the piezoelectric vibrator side is configured so as to be conductive to an amplifier of the oscillation circuit. In the amplifier, since heat is generated in accordance with the operation thereof, when the temperature sensor approaches the electrode portion of the piezoelectric vibrator side within the IC component, the temperature of the heated IC component may be detected in some cases, and the above-described frequency drift characteristics may deteriorate.
Next, in JP-A-2008-263564, a technology is disclosed in which the temperature-frequency characteristics and the frequency drift characteristics are stabilized by decreasing a difference between the temperature of a piezoelectric vibration device and the temperature detected by a temperature sensor by housing a first IC component including an oscillation circuit and a temperature sensor inside a piezoelectric vibrator in which a piezoelectric vibration device is housed inside a package, connecting a second IC component including a temperature compensation circuit to the outside of the piezoelectric vibrator and arranging the temperature sensor under the same temperature environment as that of the piezoelectric vibration device.
However, a structure in which the IC component that may be originally assembled outside the piezoelectric vibrator is divided into two components, and the first IC component to which the temperature sensor is attached is housed inside the package has a low possibility of implementation in terms of cost-performance and blocks the miniaturization of the entire oscillator.
Next, in JP-A-2010-035078, a technology is disclosed in which the temperature-frequency characteristics and the frequency drift characteristics are stabilized by decreasing a difference between the temperature of a piezoelectric vibration device and the temperature detected by a temperature sensor by connecting an IC component to a concave portion arranged outside a package housing the piezoelectric vibration device in a cantilever supporting state and connecting the temperature senor terminal of the IC component to a pillow member arranged inside the package.
However, since a conductive adhesive is interposed between the piezoelectric vibration device and a ceramic base of the package, the speed of heat transfer to the piezoelectric vibration device is slower than the speed of heat transfer to the temperature sensor terminal through the pillow member. Accordingly, it is difficult to effectively improve the frequency drift characteristics.
In any structure disclosed in the above-described technologies, the piezoelectric vibration device is configured so as to be mounted in the ceramic substrate (insulating substrate), and accordingly, it is understood that the temperature of the piezoelectric vibration device can be accurately detected by measuring the temperature of the ceramic substrate that is directly connected to the piezoelectric vibration device to which a physical distance is short. However, actually, the effect of further improving the frequency drift characteristics could not be sufficiently acquired.
As above, in a general surface mounting-type piezoelectric oscillator in which the IC component including a temperature sensor is connected to the outside of the piezoelectric vibrator, there are problems in that a difference between the temperature of the piezoelectric vibration device located inside the piezoelectric vibrator and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor arranged outside the piezoelectric vibrator may easily occur, stable temperature-frequency characteristics cannot be acquired, and the frequency drift characteristics at the time of start-up deteriorate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Piezoelectric device and electronic apparatus


An image processing apparatus comprises: a dividing unit that divides two frame images into a plurality of divided areas; a determination unit that determines a representative point for each of the divided areas in one of the two frame images; a setting unit that, for each of the two frame images, sets image portions for detecting movement between the two frame images, based on the representative points; and a detection unit that detects movement between the two frame images based on correlation values of image signals in the set image portions, wherein for each of the divided areas, the determination unit determines a feature point of the divided area or a predetermined fixed point as the representative point of the divided area in accordance with a position of the divided area in the one frame image.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and more specifically relates to an image processing apparatus and method for detecting motion vectors.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to perform image stabilization on a video captured using an imaging apparatus such as a digital still camera or a digital video camera, a moving amount between frame images is detected, and images are aligned by being shifted according to the detected moving amount. Methods for detecting the moving amount between frame images include a method of using information from an external device such as a gyrosensor and a method of estimating the moving amount from captured frame images.
Various proposals have been conventionally made for methods for estimating the moving amount with use of frame images, and a representative one of such methods is motion vector detection by template matching. In template matching, first, one of two captured frame images is set as the primary image, the other one is set as the reference image, and a rectangular area of a predetermined size in the primary image is set as a template block. Then the template block is shifted in the reference image, and a correlation is obtained between primary image pixel values in the template block and reference image pixels values in the template block at each of the shifted positions of the template block. At this time, the position at which the correlation is the highest in the reference image is the destination of the template block, and the direction to the destination and the movement amount that are based on the position of the template block in the primary image are used as the motion vector.
In order to improve the motion vector detection rate, there is a technique in which feature points are extracted, the template block is placed on an extracted feature point, and then template matching is performed between frame images. However, when feature point extraction is performed on an entire image, the distribution of feature points is often uneven, and if a motion vector obtained using uneven feature points is used in image stabilization, the image stabilization becomes focused on an area in which features are concentrated. Image stabilization is performed in order to correct a movement amount in the case where an image has moved by the same amount and in the same direction as a whole due to hand shake, but if the subject itself in the area with a concentration of feature points moves, and that movement is corrected as well, then it is not possible to perform appropriate image stabilization.
In view of this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-192060 discloses a technique in which, in order to distribute feature points evenly in an image, the image is divided into grid blocks, a feature value representing a feature magnitude is calculated for each pixel, and the pixel with the highest feature value in each grid block is extracted as a feature point. FIG. 13 is a diagram based on Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-192060 for describing a case in which a feature point is obtained for each grid block, template blocks are placed on the obtained feature points, and template matching is performed.
In FIG. 13, 1301 denotes an image, 1302 denotes grid blocks, 1303 denotes feature points in grid blocks, 1304 denotes templates, and 1305 denotes search ranges for templates. Two feature points are shown in this example, and therefore "−1" is added to the reference signs for the elements related to one of the feature points, and "−2" is added to the reference signs for the elements related to the other feature point. For example, in the grid block 1302-1, template matching is performed based on the template 1304-1 that is centered on the feature point 1303-1.
Real-time performance is required in the motion vector detection circuit used in a video camera or the like for image stabilization processing performed on a moving image. For this reason, the circuit is controlled such that, in the grid block 1302-1 for example, template matching processing for the grid block 1302-1 can be started immediately after the completion of image generation for template matching and feature point calculation processing for the grid block 1302-1.
However, as illustrated by the grid block 1302-2 at the lower edge of the image 1301, there are cases where when the feature point 1303-2 is in the bottom portion of the grid block 1302-2, the template 1304-2 and the search range 1305-2 protrude from the bottom of the grid block 1302-2. In such a case, pixel values in an area 1306 below the lower edge grid block 1302-2 are also needed in order to perform template matching. Accordingly, template matching processing cannot be started immediately after the completion of image generation of grid block 1302-2 for template matching and calculation processing for the feature point 1303-2. The start of matching processing becomes delayed until at least image generation for template matching has been completed for the area 1306 outside the grid block 1302-2.
Also, in consideration of the case where a template image and a search range protrude out from a grid block, pixel values need to be prepared in areas outside of grid blocks, and therefore the amount of data written to a memory increases.


(1H-azol-1-ylmethyl)substituted quinazoline derivatives, compositions containing the same, and methods of treating mammals suffering from disorders which are characterized by an increased proliferation and/or abnormal differentiation of epithelial tissues.

In the European Patent Application No. 260,744, published Mar. 3, 1988, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,684, there are described (1H-azol-1-ylmethyl) substituted benzimidazole derivatives which compounds are useful as androgenic hormone biosynthesis inhibitors. The compounds of the present invention differ from the cited art compounds by the fact that they contain a quinazoline moiety in place of an benzimidazole moiety and by their favourable pharmaceutical properties. In particular the compounds of the invention suppress the plasma elimination of retinoic acids. Further it was shown that some compounds inhibit the action of the enzyme complex a romatase which catalyses the formation of estrogens from androgenic steroids in mammals.

(1H-azol-1-ylmethyl) substituted quinazoline derivatives


According to one embodiment, a wireless communication apparatus includes a transmitter. The transmitter transmits, in a first period, a first information frame. The first information frame includes first, verification information and a first key usable in the first period. The transmitter transmits, in the first period and after transmitting the first information frame, a data frame including first data. The transmitter transmits, in the first period and after transmitting the first information frame, a second information frame. The data frame includes a fourth key usable in a second period following the first period. The transmitter transmits, in the second period, a third information frame including third verification information and the fourth key.

IEEE 802.11bc is one of next generation wireless local area network (LAN) standards. In IEEE 802.11bc, a method of transmitting data with broadcasting from a wireless base station (access point: AP) to many wireless terminals (stations: STAs) without performing association processes to establish communication links has been considered. For example, the AP broadcasts data for real-time distribution of events such as sports and concert to the STAs in a stadium.
Each wireless terminal receives not only the data but also information to verify the security of the wireless base station and the authenticity of the data (hereinafter referred to as verification information) from the wireless base station. The wireless terminal verifies the security of wireless base station and the authenticity of the data using the verification information. The wireless terminal can properly operate with the data authenticity of which is confirmed, that is received from the wireless base station security of which is confirmed.
However, when the reception of the verification information is not successful, the wireless terminal cannot verify the security of the wireless base station and the authenticity of the data. When falling to receive the verification information, the wireless terminal cannot verify the authenticity of the received data, and thus, the wireless terminal may not acquire data correctly. Alternatively, since the wireless terminal cannot verify the authenticity of the received data until receiving verification information from the wireless base station next time, a time to acquire data may be delayed.
Thus, a new function to increase a possibility of correctly acquiring data is required.

Wireless communication apparatus and method


A cultivator for aerating a ground surface. The cultivator has a support frame moveable relative to the ground surface and a follower first pivotally connected to the support frame by a first pair of spaced link arms. The link arms have two pairs of equidistantly spaced pivot points for linear movement of the follower in a first direction away from the support frame. A tool support member is pivotally connected to the follower by a second pair of spaced link arms. The second link arms have two pairs of equidistantly spaced pivot points for linear movement of a cultivating tool in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. A driver effects cyclic movement of the tool support member in the second direction and movement of the follower in the first direction. A bias element provides resilient damping of the movement of the follower along the first direction away from the support frame, wherein the resilient damping is provided at an extremity of movement of the follower outward from the support frame along the first direction, to urge the follower in the direction of inward movement toward the support frame. A dampening element provides resilient damping of the movement of the follower along the first direction toward the support frame, the resilient damping provided at an extremity of movement of the follower inward toward the support frame in the first direction to progressively arrest movement of the follower in the direction of inward movement toward the support frame.

Cultivators of this type are used for maintaining landscaped ground surfaces, including turf. In this sense the term "turf" refers to grass and other material which is specifically grown for playing sport and used for example to form golf course greens, sporting fields and bowling greens. Cultivators are frequently used on these types or surfaces for repeatedly penetrating the ground surface, forming a plurality of holes so that the ground surface is aerated, to improve growth of the grass or other material and enhance the condition of the surface for playing purposes.
In conducting this type of aeration of turf surfaces, the neatness of the edges of the hole made by the cultivator can significantly affect the overall result. For example in the case of golfing or bowling greens and the like where the vegetation is short, a hole with rough edges or too large a hole can cause spot erosion, resulting in an undesirable dimple in the ground surface. This effect is aggravated when the forward movement of a cultivator differs from the speed of the hole-making tool over the ground surface, causing the hole-making tool to "break" the ground surface. Often this problem is encountered in cultivators powered by a link to a prime mover (such as a tractor), where difficulties in synchronising the speed of the hole making tool with the speed of the prime mover, arises, for example due to different gear ratios between the driving wheels of the tractor and the power link.
One known cultivator described in Australian Patent Application 73500/87 has a structure mounted on ground engaging wheels with tool support means mounted on the frame so that the tool support means is moveable relative to the structure. A cultivating tool, usually a tine or series of tines is mounted on a flat plate so that the tine(s) are relatively vertical to the plate. The plate is mounted on the tool support means via a pair of link arms so that the plate (and vertical tines) freely pivots relative to the tool support means.
As the cultivator moves forward along the ground surface (via a prime mover), the fly wheel drives one end of the tool support member in a circular path. This causes the other end of the tool support means to move in a reciprocating motion so that the cultivating tool is repeatedly forced into the ground surface. This cycle of reciprocating motion of repeated penetrations by the cultivation tool is used to produce holes and is generally referred to as an aeration time cycle. The horizontal plate freely pivots about the tool support means via link arms, so that the cultivating tool tends to be substantially vertical despite the rotation of the fly wheel during the aeration time cycle. Accordingly, the cultivating tool is kept substantially vertical for entry and withdrawal from the ground surface as the link arms will pivot to compensate for forward motion of the cultivating device. That is, at each part of the cycle in which the tool is withdrawn from the ground surface, the freely pivoting link arms positions the cultivation tool in a substantially vertical position for the next cycle of penetration into the ground. This means that fairly neat holes are produced in the ground through this flywheel arrangement.
While this cultivator achieves fairly neat holes in ground surfaces such as turf, the free pivoting arrangement of the cultivation tool restricts the depth of holes that can be produced. This is at least partly the result of the above described cultivator not being suitable for scaling up in size. If this cultivating device is directly scaled up to a larger machine to provide deeper holes, the number of holes in a given surface area would reduce because the distance between holes formed by the cultivating tool would also be scaled upward. The distance between these holes would increase because the necessary scaling up of the size of the flywheel is to increase vertical travel of the cultivating tool. While it has been proposed to use a plate of increased area to cover this increased distance (using a larger number of tines per plate), such plates are unwieldy and awkward as well as requiring greatly increased power to effect penetration of the larger number of tines.


A coupler for attaching a lower segment of a viscometer bob shaft to an upper segment of a viscometer bob shaft includes an upper assembly connected to the upper segment, a lower assembly connected to the lower segment, a magnetic coupler, and a rotation connection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to viscometers and more particularly to a coupler for providing connection of an upper segment and a lower segment of a bob shaft of a co-axial viscometer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rotating viscometers include, among other things, a bob suspended from a bob shaft, and a torque-measuring device. In operation the bob is positioned in a sample cup containing a sample fluid. The fluid sample is rotated in relation to the bob by rotation of the sample cup or a sleeve in order to determine properties of the sample fluid.
It is necessary from time to time to clean the bob, change the bob type, replace the bob, or repair the bob. The bob is commonly attached to the bob shaft through use of threading so that the bob is screwed on and off the bob shaft for cleaning, replacement, or repair. This prior art attachment method creates the possibility of human error including over and under tightening during replacement of a bob. Over tightening of a bob to a bob shaft can lead to seizure of the bob to the bob shaft as well as to the sensing parts of the equipment. Under tightening of a bob to a bob shaft can lead to release of the bob during operation. This prior art attachment can also lead to damage to the bob and/or bob shaft including damage to the threading itself.
Another prior art method of bob attachment is a taper bore fit of the bob shaft in a hollow bob. This attachment method creates the possibility of the bob falling off and even the potential of rupture or explosion if fluid gets trapped inside the hollow bob and is heated.
Exemplary rotating viscometers having bob shafts are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,457 to Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,610 to Raffer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,559 to Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,127 to Hongfeng, U.S. Pat. No. 6,938,474 to Hongfeng and U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,416 to Hongfeng. The identified patents disclose various ways of attaching a bob to a bob shaft and/or a torsion wire, attaching a bob by use of threading of the bob and the bob shaft or by constructing the bob integral with the bob shaft.


Techniques are described for selectively filtering data, such as network packets, that correspond to forwarding tables. For example, a router receives packets from an input interface of an interface card (IFC). The router applies one or more input interface filters associated with the input interface that received the packet. The router selectively associates the packet with a forwarding table, applies a corresponding forwarding filter, and determines the output interface corresponding to the next hop of the packet. The router may further apply one or more output interface filters associated with the output interface, and forwards the packet in accordance with the respective forwarding information.

A computer network is a collection of interconnected computing devices that exchange data and share resources. In a packet-based network, such as the Internet, the computing devices communicate data by dividing the data into small blocks called packets. The packets are individually routed across the network from a source device to a destination device. The destination device extracts the data from the packets and assembles the data into its original form. Dividing the data into packets enables the source device to resend only those individual packets that may be lost during transmission.
Certain devices within the network, such as routers, maintain routing information that describes routes through the network. Each route defines a path between two locations on the network. From the routing information, the routers may generate forwarding information, which is used by the routers to relay packet flows through the network and, more particularly to relay the packet flows to a next hop. In reference to forwarding a packet, the "next hop" from a network router typically refers to a neighboring device along a given route. Conventional routers often maintain the forwarding information in the form of one or more forwarding tables. Upon receiving an incoming packet, the router examines information within the packet to identify the destination for the packet. Based on the destination, the router forwards the packet in accordance with one of the forwarding tables.
The routers may further apply packet filters to packet flows through the routers. For example, the router may compare header information within the packet to a set of filtering rules, sometimes referred to as "terms". The filtering rules may specify, for example, particular source IP address, destination IP addresses, and other criteria for filtering packets. Specifically, the router identify packets from the packet flows that match the filtering rules, and perform an associated action on the packet depending on which filtering rule the packet matched. The action may include dropping the packet, remarking the packet as lower priority, counting packets that match the filtering rule, and the like. For example, the router drop packets having a source IP address of a device sourcing a denial of service (DoS) attack by applying a filtering rule for the source IP address dropping any packets matching the filter rule Conventional routers typically apply the filters to packet flows based on the interfaces from with the flows are received, i.e., on an interface-by-interface basis. For instance, the router may apply an interface-specific filter to each of the packet flows received by a given interface. Alternatively, the routers may apply a single packet filter to all packet flows regardless of the interface from which the packet.

Filtering data flows based on associated forwarding tables


Discloses is a method for transmitting cell change instruction information, which is to be performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method for transmitting cell change instruction information includes: selecting or reselecting a second cell from a first cell; comparing a first cell ID of the first cell with a second cell ID of the second cell, or comparing a first tracking area code (TAC) of the first cell with a second TAC of the second cell; and transmitting cell change instruction information to a network when the result of the comparison shows that the first cell ID does not match the second cell ID or the first TAC does not match the second TAC.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for updating location information of a terminal.
2. Related Art
3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) evolved from a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is introduced as the 3GPP release 8. The 3GPP LTE uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) in a downlink, and uses single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in an uplink. The 3GPP LTE employs multiple input multiple output (MIMO) having up to four antennas. In recent years, there is an ongoing discussion on 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-A) evolved from the 3GPP LTE.
Recently, a machine type communication (MTC) system which performs communication between machines without intervention of a human user is actively utilized. A service provided through MTC is differentiated from the conventional communication service requiring human intervention, and its service range is various as follows. For example, the MTC can provide various services such as tracking, metering, monitoring, payment, medical field services, remote controlling, etc. An MTC device, which is a user equipment used in the MTC, can have a limited mobility, and a plurality of MTC devices can exist in a cell.
When the conventional paging procedure is used to deliver a paging message to a plurality of user equipments in a system (e.g., an MTC system) in which the plurality of user equipments having mobility with a limited range operate, it may cause a load problem in a core network and a radio interface. To solve this problem, the core network needs to obtain location information of the user equipment, and when the location information of the user equipment is changed, for example, when there is a change in a cell in which the user equipment operates, there is a need to consider a method for reporting the change to the core network to update the location information.

Method and apparatus for updating location information for a terminal


A concrete slab, and a building construction system employing the concrete slab, in which the slab is formed in a casting or extrusion process to include a plurality of longitudinally extending core passages, and a groove extending transversely across one end face thereof. A plurality of invention slabs are stacked side by side to form a continuous wall structure, a plurality of conventional cored floor slabs are arranged with their one ends supported on the upper ends of the invention wall slabs, and concrete slurry is poured into the interface between the wall slabs and the floor slabs to fill at least some of the vertical core passages in the wall slabs and at least portions of the horizontal core passages in the floor slabs to form a continuous reinforcing concrete frame within the wall and floor. The concrete slabs provide a form for molding the reinforcing concrete frame and also add significantly the overall strength of the wall by providing a rigid concrete bridging structure between the vertical columns and horizontal bond beams of the reinforcing concrete frame.

This invention relates to wall slabs and more particularly to wall slabs formed of concrete and suitable for use in creating concrete building structures.
Extensive efforts have been directed toward developing construction blocks of foam plastic having central voids adapted to receive concrete slurry. The blocks act as forms for molding the load supporting reinforced concrete frames and remain in place to provide the finished wall surfaces, insulation and vapor barrier. The foam plastic does not act as a load bearing member in the finished structure but simply acts to retain the concrete slurry in the form during the hardening or curing process. The lightweight of the plastic allows these blocks to be made in relatively large modules, and yet be handled manually without any special material handling equipment. The blocks are typically formed with interlocking configurations on their edges so that a plurality of blocks may be stacked relative to one another with their voids aligned to form continuous channels for the reception of the concrete slurry.
It has been proposed that these blocks be formed of polyurethane, polystyrene or other foam plastic materials. One obstacle to the widespread use of these blocks in construction has been the fact that all of these organic materials decompose to varying extents under sufficient heat, sometimes generating noxious gases. Some may additionally tend to support combustion to a degree.
Certain forms of porous inorganic materials exist such as stranded fiberglass which do not decompose to any appreciable extent under heat nor support combustion and it has been proposed that the lightweight block forms for reinforced concrete construction be formed of these materials. Blocks formed primarily of these inorganic materials do improve the fire resistance of a structure relative to the resistance of a structure formed of foam plastic blocks, but they create several new problems.
Specifically, these inorganic materials have substantially higher thermal conductivity than the foam plastic materials and accordingly the resultant structures are not nearly as well insulated per relative unit thickness of material. Further, inorganic foam materials in general, and those based on glass in particular, are very expensive and very brittle and may easily break in transit or when subjected to the forces created during vibration of the concrete slurry. Additionally the inorganic forms are not self-foaming, are much more difficult and expensive to mold than the foam plastics, and are much heavier as well.
It has also been proposed to form these blocks on a composite basis with a central core of a foam plastic sheathed on its four sides by inorganic foam material so that the organically based plastic foam is completely encased within the inorganic foam. Whereas these composite blocks eliminate the noxious foam problem of the foam plastic and improve the thermal conductivity properties of the block, they still retain the relatively brittle and easily breakable material at the outer surfaces of the block; the block is relatively expensive and complicated to manufacture; and the block is relatively difficult to handle.
It has also been proposed to fabricate these blocks from tubes and sheet metal structures as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,042. These fabricated blocks are quite expensive, however, and their load bearing capacity is quite limited.


A translation insensitive keratometer includes a pair of laser sources and optical coupling systems for irradiating a specular object. The laser beams are reflected separately back through the optical coupling systems to a pair of moire deflectometers.

In a significant number of medical treatments administered by medical practitioners treating various functions and disorders of the human eye, a need arises to deal with the shape of the outer layer or cornea of the eye. As is known, the cornea is a thin somewhat flexible generally transparent tissue forming the outer coat of the eye which has a nearly spherical curvature. As a result, the human cornea may be regarded approximately as a spherical specular object having negative reflecting power. The latter term refers to the fact that when light is reflected from the cornea its divergence increases. Of particular interest to the present invention, is the need which arises to measure the radius of curvature and topography or shape of the anterior or front service of the cornea. It is often necessary to undertake cornea measurements both statically and dynamically in different diagnoses and treatments. The measurement of cornea surface curvature, shape or topography is referred to as keratometry. To meet the needs of keratometry, various instruments referred to as keratometers have been developed. In most cases, such instruments utilize classical imaging techniques.
Conventional keratometers are limited to measurement only of cornea surface curvature. They cannot map the surface contours of the cornea with high resolution. In addition, they have a slow response time and are unable to measure dynamic changes in surface shape. Finally, they tend to obscure or interfere with the field of view of the examining practitioners or operating surgeons which in turn limits its degree of use.
There arises, therefore, a need in the art for an improved system of keratometry that accurately measures cornea surface topography in real time without interfering significantly with the view of treating surgeons and other practitioners.
The present invention applies moire deflectometry techniques to keratometry. The basic principles of moire deflectometry are illustrated and discussed in detail in a number of publications including an article entitled MOIRE DEFLECTOMETRY: A RAY DEFLECTING APPROACH TO OPTICAL TESTING by Okafri and Iglatt published in OPTICAL ENGINEERING, 24(6), 944-960(Nov./Dec. 1985). As is set forth therein, moire deflectometry utilizes a collimated light beam which is directed toward a parallel pair of optical gratings having alternating equally spaced opaque and clear stripes. The stripes of the two gratings are oriented at a small angular displacement with respect to each other. The interaction of the grating elements and the collimated light beam produce a fringe light pattern on a receiving device such as a screen. As an alternative to a conventional screen, a TV camera utilizing a charge coupled device detector array may be utilized to produce electronic formatted video images.
The basic moire deflectometer described above produces the desired measurement of a lens shape when the light beam incident upon the gratings has been reflected from the to-be-measured object. When so used, the fringe pattern referred to as a moire deflectogram produces a fringe pattern indicative of the shape of the reflecting object. To properly map the two-dimensional shape of an object, two measurements are required in which the reflected light from the object is passed through grating pairs which are rotated ninety degrees between measurements. In most of the moire deflectometers presently utilized for optical measurements, the collimated light beam is usually provided by a helium neon laser having a wavelength of approximately six hundred thirty three nanometers.
While the foregoing described conventional moire deflectometers have achieved some level of success for use in optical testing, their use for keratometry would be subject to several problems and limitations. One of the most significant limitations arises from the dependence of the system's accuracy upon the careful placement or measurement of the distance between the deflectometer and the cornea surface. That is to say, the measurement made is extremely sensitive to this distance and careful calibration must be utilized. In addition, great difficulty is experienced in maintaining a static position of the human eye being examined which further exacerbates the problem.

Translation insensitive keratometer using moire deflectometry


The present invention includes an apparatus and a method of making a three dimensional graphite structure with a controlled porosity comprising: plating a metal layer on at least one of a nickel, an iron or a cobalt foam substrate; annealing the metal and the nickel, iron or cobalt foam into a porous metal-nickel, iron or cobalt catalyst, wherein the catalyst has a smooth and a porous surface; etching the smooth surface of the annealed porous metal-nickel, iron or cobalt catalyst; growing a carbonaceous layer on the porous surface of the annealed porous metal-nickel, iron or cobalt catalyst; and completely etching the porous metal-nickel, iron or cobalt catalyst to obtain the graphite layer.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with three-dimensional carbon-based structures.
The fast depletion of fossil energy and the associated adverse environmental impacts make it highly desirable to explore renewable-energy technologies. Carbonaceous materials with various morphologies and chemistries, such as carbon nanotubes1-3, bucky balls4, 5, graphene6-8, and thin graphite9-12, have emerged as key structures for energy storage and conversion devices13-17. Among them, thin graphite has received considerable interest as electrode supports owing to their high electric conductivity, excellent mechanical durability, and ultra-low mass density9, 18. However, it remains a challenge to rationally and efficiently synthesize carbonaceous materials into 3-D porous nanosuperstructures, which boast both high specific surface areas and fast ionic transports that significantly improve the performance of energy devices.
Previously, intensive research demonstrated the ultra-large specific surface area of graphene and its usage in energy devices, such as supercapacitors19, 20. Nevertheless, the assembly of graphene sheets is difficult to control, which could reduce the actual available surface areas and thus lower the device performance21. Recently, commercially available 3-D nickel foams were employed as catalysts for the synthesis of 3-D thin graphite22. Although this approach resolved the assembly problem of carbonaceous materials as electrodes for energy devices, the feature size of the as-obtained graphite resides at a scale of ˜100 μm. Complex chemical synthesis can produce porous carbon with pore sizes of a few nanometers23. Nevertheless, it remains extremely difficult to achieve 3-D carbonaceous nanostructures with multilevel porosity, which promises high surface areas and enhanced ionic transport24.

Method for manufacturing of three-dimensional freestanding porous thin-graphite with hierarchical porosity

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


A homogeneous process for hydrocracking of carbohydrates in the presence of soluble transition metal hydrogenation catalyst with the production of lower polyhydric alcohols. A carbohydrate is contacted with hydrogen in the presence of a soluble transition metal catalyst and a strong base at a temperature of from about 25.degree. C. to about 200.degree. C. and a pressure of from about 15 to about 3000 psi.

The present invention is a process for the hydrocracking of carbohydrates in the presence of a homogeneous transition metal catalyst to give commercially important glycols.
In the past, conversions of this type have been carried out using heterogeneous metal catalysts at high temperatures, typically about 200.degree. C., with hydrogen pressures over 500 psi, in the presence of promoters. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,780 disclosed the hydrocracking of carbohydrate polyols using a heterogeneous catalyst of a Group VIII metal such as ruthenium composited on a support and an alkaline earth metal oxide. The process requires a temperature of 150.degree. to 250.degree. C. and a pressure of 500-5,000 psig. U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,331 discloses hydrogenolysing of hydrogenated sugars to lower polyhydric alcohols using a supported, sulfided RuCl.sub.3 catalyst and a base, at a temperature of 150.degree.-300.degree. C. and a hydrocarbon pressure of 500-5,000 psig. U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,823 describes the hydrogenolysis of plyhydroxylated compounds in the presence of a shaped carbonaceous prepolymer impregnated with a Group VIII metal such as ruthenium, at 175.degree.-250.degree. C. and 10-2,000 psi.
Other heterogeneous hydrogenation catalysts such as supported nickel, platinum or palladium used with bases in the hydrogenolysis of carbohydrates are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,404,411 4,380,678, 3,396,199 and 3,030,429. Typical feedstocks are glucose or glucitol (sorbitol) and typical products are mixtures of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and glycerol.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,209,055 discloses a process for cleaving monosaccharides in the presence of a tertiary amine and a Raney nickel catalyst in a solvent at a temperature of at lest 75.degree. C. and a hydrogen pressure of at least 2,000 psi.
Heterogeneous catalysts form a separate phase from reactants and products and are generally solids. Homogeneous catalysts, in contrast to heterogeneous catalysts, can be dispersed in solution.
Soluble ruthenium complexes have been used as homogeneous catalysts for hydrogenation reactions. Linn, Jr., D. E. et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 109, 2969-2974 (1987) discloses the hydrogenation of ketones and arenes in the presence of RuH.sub.4 -(PPh.sub.3).sub.3 or [RuH.sub.3 (PPh.sub.3).sub.3 ].sup.- in tetrahydrofuran solution. U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,284 discloses homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of sugars in the presence of a ruthenium triphenylphosphine complex and a strong acid. For example, fructose was hydrogenated to yield mannitol and glucitol. However, no carbohydrate hydrocracking has been previously undertaken or suggested using homogeneously catalyzed reactions.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a process for the hydrocracking or hydrogenolysis of carbohydriates using homogeneous catalysts under milder conditions than previously possible with better product selectivity, thereby reducing the costs associated with both substrate conversion and product purification.

Hydrocracking of carbohydrates making glycerol, glycols and other polyols

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


The mounting system may be used to support a display on a support surface. The mounting system may include a top rail secured to the support surface. The mounting system may also include a mounting arm hung from the top rail and a support rail attached to the mounting arm that supports the whiteboard. The mounting system may provide permanent or removable attachment to the support surface that may interchangeably accommodate a variety of displays.

Teaching professionals utilize many different educational tools to illustrate concepts and assist student understanding and development. Instructors have used chalkboards for decades to illustrate visual characteristics to a students to help them visualize and understand information. A chalkboard utilizes a piece of chalk, usually of a lighter color, against a darker color board. The chalk, however, caused dust when used. Chalkboards were also limited in their color range and the visibility of the chalk to a large audience. Whiteboards or dry-erase boards, were subsequently developed to permit an instructor to write on a white colored board with markers of various colors. The marks were then easily removed by wiping them off the surface of the board. The whiteboards are generally easier to use and less messy. The use of whiteboards have proliferated into everyday use in offices, meeting rooms, classrooms, and other environments.
However, one common problem with conventional whiteboards, is that there are essentially only two types: (1) permanently mounted, and (2) portable. The permanently affixed whiteboard acts as a replacement to the chalkboard, but is limited to only that functionality A portable whiteboard generally has a plurality of feet and a support to hold the board on a wheelable base. Therefore, the whiteboard may be replaced and moved to a new location as needed by the user. The portable whiteboard is generally smaller, and is still cumbersome to set up, remove, and store. Interactive whiteboards are generally even more difficult to transport as they are generally heavier and more delicate because of the additional electronics within the board.


Disclosed is a fixing unit including a fixing member; a pressure member brought into press-contact with a front surface of the fixing member; a pressure mechanism that changes a position at which the pressure member is brought into press-contact with the fixing member, the pressure mechanism being capable of controlling a presence or absence and a width of the nip part; and a cleaning web unit having a contact roller brought into contact with at least the pressure member via a web, a supply roller that supplies a new web, and a winding roller that winds and collects the web having wiped off an attachment on the pressure roller. The contact roller is caused to move following a movement of the pressure mechanism to maintain a constant contact position, a constant contact direction, and a constant contact force thereof with respect to the pressure member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing unit and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the fixing unit, such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, and a multi-task machine having plural such functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a mainstream technique for fixing toner onto a recording medium, a fixing unit using heat and pressure causes a pressure member to be brought into press-contact with a fixing member including a heat source and then causes a transfer sheet having an unfixed toner image thereon to pass through an area between the fixing member and the pressure member.
The fixing member is subjected to treatment, such as fluorine coating, for preventing its front surface from having toner attached. However, a so-called offset phenomenon, in which toner on a recording medium is slightly attached to the fixing member, may occur depending on environment and conditions on the recording medium. It is known that the offset toner remains on the fixing member and the pressure member contacting the fixing member and is finally reversely transferred onto the recording medium to cause disturbances in an image. To prevent this problem, the fixing member is provided with a cleaning member such as a cleaning web and a cleaning roller. The cleaning member is brought into press-contact with the fixing member and the pressure member to collect the offset toner.
Some of the fixing units like the one described above have the function of causing a pressure member to be moved relative to a fixing member to be brought into press-contact with the fixing member, reduce pressure between the pressure member and the fixing member, and separate the pressure member and the fixing member from each other. Further, it is known that this function is directed to prevent the degradation of the fixing member and the pressure member or used to separate, when the fixing unit is not used, the fixing member and the pressure member from each other so as not to put a load on the members and to cool only the pressure member. Further, other fixing units may have the function of establishing plural positional relationships between a pressure member and a fixing member such as a strong press-contact state and a weak press-contact state when the pressure member is brought into press-contact with the fixing member. It is known that this function is used to produce an optimum press-contact state between the pressure member and the fixing member depending on environment and conditions on a recording medium.
To perform a constant cleaning function at any positional relationship between the pressure member and the fixing member when the cleaning member is brought into contact with the movable pressure member, it is preferable that the cleaning member be brought into contact with the pressure member at a prescribed contact position, at a prescribed contact angle, and with a prescribed contact force. If a distance between a contact roller and the pressure member becomes large and the contact force of a cleaning web becomes too weak, the cleaning function cannot be satisfactorily performed, which results in disturbances in an image.
Further, if the distance between the contact roller and the pressure member becomes small and the contact force becomes too strong, there is a likelihood of a normal correction of toner with the cleaning web being hindered due to the degradation of the materials of the contact roller and the pressure member and an increase in a torque required for winding the cleaning web.
Further, there is no problem with the cleaning member being completely fixed with respect to the fixing unit if the moving amount of the pressure member is substantially small at the contact position of the cleaning member. However, if the pressure member is separated from the fixing member, its moving amount becomes large, which may cause cleaned-up toner to be scattered and retransferred onto a recording medium.
Further, if the cleaning member is a cleaning web, a positional relationship between the shafts of a cleaning web member that contacts the pressure member, a winding roller that collects a used cleaning web, and a supply roller that supplies a new cleaning web may be broken with the movement of the pressure member. This results in the cleaning web having slack, which may hinder a normal collection of a used cleaning web. To prevent this problem, it has been known to use a method for moving a cleaning web following the movement of a pressure member.
The above method, however, requires a user to manually remove a recording medium if a jam occurs after the recording medium has passed through a nip. On this occasion, the pressure member may be driven in a direction opposite to its original driving direction (i.e., rotation a roller and reverse traveling of a belt) depending on how the recording medium is removed. Consequently, the cleaning web excessively wound off the supply roller has great slack at a cleaning nip formed when the cleaning member contacts the pressure member. If the cleaning web has great slack to the extent that a normal winding operation of the cleaning web cannot be performed, a cleaning failure occurs, with the result that an abnormal image may be formed on a recording medium due to black spots, escaping of toner, or the like, and the feeding of sheets may be disabled since the slack web reaches a fixing nip.
As a countermeasure for this problem in terms of control, it has been known to use a method for feeding a next sheet after the cleaning web is wound by a certain amount following a jam. However, since this method causes a user to be on standby for a time required to wind the cleaning web by a certain amount and unnecessarily consumes the cleaning web, the service life of the cleaning web is reduced.
Further, as a countermeasure for this problem in terms of a mechanical configuration, it has been known to use a technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 for preventing a cleaning web from having slack. This technique has a mechanism for controlling the intensity of the contact force of a contact roller or the contact/separation thereof and is aimed at realizing an optimum cleaning function according to use situations. In the case of applying this mechanism as a countermeasure for the above problem, the contact roller separating from a pressure member with which the contact roller is brought into contact at the time of processing the jam described above eliminates concern about an excessive winding of the cleaning web from a supply roller even if the pressure member is driven in any direction. However, this method not only increases a manufacturing cost by an amount corresponding to the mechanism allowing for controlling the intensity of the contact force of the contact roller and the contact/separation thereof but also results in complicated control. Further, there is a case in which toner on a recording medium may be unfixed when a jam is caused in a fixing unit. Therefore, it is necessary to assume a case in which the toner enters a cleaning nip. Moreover, there is a case in which the toner is solidified between the cleaning web and the pressure member if the entered toner is in a semi-molten state to bond the cleaning web and the pressure member together. Therefore, even if the contact roller is separated from the pressure member, the cleaning web is pulled by a bonding part between the contact roller and the pressure member, which results in the cleaning web being wound off the supply roller.
Further, it has been known to use a mechanism for using a driving source for collecting a used cleaning web and supplying a new cleaning web. However, since a cleaning member is a consumable supply and required to be replaced, it is preferable that the number of replacement parts of the cleaning member be minimized in terms of manufacturing cost.
Further, since the fixing unit is at high temperature immediately after its operation, it can be assumed that a cleaning web unit is also at high temperature when being replaced. Accordingly, it is desirable that an operator not replace the cleaning web unit immediately after its operation since the operator may have a risk of being injured such as burning his/her hands. However, the operator is notified of the risk only by an alert message, and thus reliability is lacking. Therefore, it is preferable that fixing unit itself have a safety system as a hardware device.    Patent Document 1: JP-B2-4266027    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2009-037078    Patent Document 3: JP-A-2003-167465    Patent Document 4: JP-A-2000-321914    Patent Document 5: JP-A-2008-304714

Fixing unit and image forming apparatus using fixing unit


An aqueous solution comprised of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide and an ethoxylated alcohol, is injected into a subterranean hydrocarbon bearing formation via an injection well followed by injection of a drive fluid. The solution displaces hydrocarbons from formation pores and the drive fluid pushes the displaced hydrocarbon and the aqueous solution toward a production well enhancing hydrocarbon production. The ethoxylated alcohol decreases solution viscosity and increases solution screen factors resulting in improved injectivity, improved mobility control and ultimately improved hydrocarbon production.

Description of Related Art
Hydrocarbons within a subterranean formation are normally removed from the formation by primary recovery methods which employ naturally occurring water or gas pressure found within the formation to carry hydrocarbons to the earth's surface. When naturally occurring formation pressure is insufficient or formation pressure has been depleted by hydrocarbon production, secondary recovery methods must be used to produce hydrocarbons from the formation.
One type of secondary recovery is the use of soluble or miscible phase displacement techniques wherein aqueous solutions are injected into wells which are in fluid communication with hydrocarbon bearing subterranean formations. The solutions are soluble or miscible with the hydrocarbons and cause the hydrocarbons to be displaced from the pores within the formation. Once displaced, the hydrocarbons are pushed toward production wells by drive fluids. A common problem with these types of hydrocarbon recovery methods are that aqueous solutions often have poor injection profiles due to low solution viscosity. Low viscosity results in fingering and a reduction of hydrocarbon recovery.
The ability of a solution to finger through a formation is dependent on fluid "mobility". A laboratory method for obtaining a measure of the relative mobility of solutions is described in the American Institute of Mining Engineers' paper "Factors Influencing Mobility Control by Polymer Solution" by R. R. Jennings, J. H. Rogers, and T. J. West, SPE Paper No. 2867 prepared for the Ninth Biennial Production Techniques Symposium, held in Wichita Falls, Tex. May 14-15, 1970. In this method, the solution to be tested flows through screens and the ratio of the time required for the test solution to flow through the "screen viscometer" divided by the time required for a standard solvent (water) to flow through the viscometer is termed the "screen factor". Screen factors indicate the effectiveness of a solution's mobility control. The greater the screen factor the better the mobility control.
Generally, mobility control in a waterflood is achieved by addition of polymers to increase the viscosity of the aqueous solution. The increased viscosity decreases the channeling of the aqueous solution through the formation, and thereby improves the efficiency of oil recovery from the production well. However, the greater the screen factor and mobility control the more difficult an aqueous solution is to inject due to increased solution viscosity. Additionally, increasing solution viscosity often causes plugging within the subterranean formation due to coagulated polymeric materials blocking the pores within the formation. To mitigate the problem of formation plugging, it is common in the industry to filter the aqueous polymer solution to remove the coagulated polymers prior to injection into the formation.
The use of aqueous solutions of polymeric materials injected into a subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formations via injection wells to enhance recovery of hydrocarbons from production wells is well known in the art. Also well known is the addition of various organic chemicals to the aqueous polymeric solutions to achieve either changes in viscosity or changes in filterability. U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,748 to Ferrell et al. discloses a method for improving polymer augmented waterflood filterability by addition of sulfated ethoxylated alcohol and an ethoxylated alcohol to the polymer solution. The method enhances filterability of the aqueous solution so that it possesses improved injectivity characteristics when used as a formation waterflood. U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,316 to Mitchell discloses a process for preinjecting an aqueous solution of water-soluble polymer and an anionic surfactant into a hydrocarbon bearing formation followed by injection of a gas. The surfactant improves both mobility and profile control of the aqueous polymer solution and thereby improves hydrocarbon recovery.
The Ferrell patent recognized that filterability of flood solutions are improved by adding both sulfated ethoxylated alcohol and ethoxylated alcohols to the waterflood. The Mitchell patent recognized that nonionic surfactants such as alcohol ethoxylates improved mobility and profile control in a gas flooding process. However, neither these patents have recognized that when ethoxylated alcohols are added to aqueous solutions of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides that the solution screen factor increases (i.e. solution mobility control improves, mobility is decreased and fingering is decreased) at the same time that viscosity decreases (i.e. filterability improves). Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to present a method to reduce fingering within a waterflood and improve injectivity by simultaneously increasing the screen factor and decreasing viscosity of an aqueous PHPA solution. The improved injectivity and screen factors result in improved recovery of hydrocarbons from the formation by reducing the difficulty of injecting the aqueous solution into the formation and improving the mobility control of the aqueous solution as it displaces hydrocarbons toward the production well.

Process to improve hydrocarbon recovery by decreasing injection solution viscosity and improving solution screen factor


A process for creating a metal etch mask from either cobalt, nickel, palladium, iron or copper which may be utilized for halogen-plasma excavation of deep trenches. The process begins by creating a thin isolation layer of either silicon nitride or silicon dioxide on top of the layer to be trenched. A thin layer of one of the metals selected from the aforementioned list of five is then created on top of the isolation layer. A layer of polysilicon is then blanket deposited on top of the refractory metal layer. Photoresist masking is then performed as though the photoresist were the actual pattern for the trench etch. Exposed portions of the polysilicon layer are then etched away with an anisotropic etch. Following a photoresist strip, the substrate and overlying layers are subjected to an elevated temperature step, which causes the polysilicon to react with the underlying metal layer to form metal silicide. In substrate regions where no polysilicon overlies the metal layer, no silicide is formed. Next, the metal silicide is removed with a wet etch. A metal mask remains that is essentially an exact image of the original photoresist mask. Trenches may be etched to any desired depth with virtually no consumption of the metal mask. Once the trench etch is complete, the metal etch mask may be stripped utilizing a wet etch reagent such as aqua regia.

Silicon dioxide has become the preferred hard-mask patterning material for plasma etching deep trenches in silicon. In a chemically-halogenated plasma (the standard environment for such etches), silicon dioxide has a reactivity (also termed "selectivity") approximately 1/40 to 1/10 that of silicon. In other words, the silicon dioxide mask is consumed during the etch at a rate of 1/40 to 1/10 the rate at which silicon is consumed. For a given mask thickness, mask selectivity effectively limits trench depth. At the high end of the selectivity range, it is necessary to alter the chemistry of the plasma with chemical species that tend to cause deposition of unwanted materials on the surfaces of the etch chamber. For example, the presence of oxygen radicals and ions, chemical species that enhance selectivity of silicon over oxide during a halogenated-plasma etch, react with silicon to form silicon dioxide that is deposited as a glass layer on etch chamber walls. Deposited materials represent a potential source of pollution that must be periodically removed from the chamber. In addition, since mask selectivity may also be etch-rate dependent, it may be necessary to perform a plasma etch at an inconveniently slow rate in order to achieve a desired trench depth with a mask of optimal maximum thickness. Furthermore, as silicon dioxide masking material is eroded during a plasma etch, it may be redeposited on trench sidewalls near the mouth of the trench, thus, further complicating the fabrication process. Finally, if MOS gates have been created prior to an anisotropic plasma trench etch, removal of a silicon dioxide patterning mask with an isotropic oxide etch subsequent to the trench etch may compromise the integrity of existing gate oxide. This is especially true at gate edges.
What is needed is a patterning mask material that is essentially impervious to halogenated-plasma etches, and that does not require exotic modification of a halogen plasma. Ideally, the mask could be removed with a chemical wet etch that would not etch existing circuitry components.

Process for creating a metal etch mask which may be utilized for halogen-plasma excavation of deep trenches


The present invention relates to petrochemistry, gas chemistry, coal chemistry, particularly the invention relates to a catalyst for synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO and H2 and a preparation method thereof. The catalyst is pelletized and comprises at least Raney cobalt as active component in an amount of 1-40% by weight based on the total weight of the catalyst, metallic aluminium in an amount of 25-94% by weight based on the total weight of the catalyst and a binder in an amount of 5-30% by weight based on the total weight of the catalyst. The present invention provides the catalyst stability to overheating and high productivity of hydrocarbons C5-C100 for synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO and H2.

The production of hydrocarbons from synthesis gas, i.e. carbon monoxide and hydrogen (the Fischer-Tropsch process) is well known. Suitable Fischer-Tropsch catalysts comprise a metal selected from Group VIII of the Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the Elements. Depending on the catalyst composition different products are obtained.
The Fischer-Tropsch process is highly exothermic and temperature-sensitive. High temperature leads to improving the catalyst activity however the selectivity for the main products drops because of by-product formation, such as methane and carbon dioxide. For the creation of the innovative, effective and selective catalysts there is a need in innovative solutions, which provide stability to overheating and hence isothermality of the reactor. Therefore the effective production of hydrocarbons from synthesis gas requires new type catalysts.
One of the methods for overcoming the process problem in a fixed bed reactor is increasing of the heat conductivity of the pelletized catalyst. In this case the heat-conducting materials are used for the Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. It is known that the heat-conducting materials are used as support of the catalysts.
For example, RU2256501 relates to a catalyst for synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO and H2 based on cobalt. The catalyst comprises the powder of metallic aluminium as support that provides high heat conductivity. The catalyst is prepared as follows: the aluminium powder is impregnated with an aqueous solution of cobalt nitrate. Then the impregnated powder is dried on water bath and calcined at 450° C. for 1 hour. However the catalyst has low selectivity and productivity on the main products.
RU2326732 provides the catalyst pellets for synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO and H2 comprising a metal of the VIII group of the Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the Elements and metallic aluminium. The document provides the following preparation method of the catalyst: the active metal (5-40% by weight based on the total weight of the catalyst) is applied by impregnation to the support which is prepared from a paste by extrusion; the paste comprises an oxide component (aluminium oxide and/or silicon oxide and/or titanium oxide and/or zirconium oxide), 1-25% wt metallic aluminium in the form of scales and 5-15% wt boehmite SB-1. The support (that contains the oxide component, the powder of metallic aluminium, diethyl ether, a binder, water, a plasticizer and a pore-forming component) is prepared by extrusion, drying, calcinating, and then the consecutive stages of the impregnation of the support with an aqueous solution of the salt of the active metal are carried out. The support can contain 0.1-5% by weight of a promoter (zirconium or a metal of the VIII group of the Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the Elements and/or oxides) introduced by impregnation with an aqueous solution of the salt of the promoter. However the active component is applied to the support by impregnation, it results in overconsumption of the expensive active metal because the support contains both oxide component and metallic aluminium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,642,281 discloses using of dispersed active metals, particularly Raney cobalt, as active component in the catalytic hydrogenation of CO. The catalyst is prepared by alloying of cobalt with aluminium, titanium, silicon or zinc, cooling, comminuting of the alloy to a fine powder followed by chemical extraction or dissolution of aluminium, titanium, silicon or zinc. Here Raney cobalt (skeletal cobalt) is used as separate catalyst in catalytic hydrogenation. Such catalyst is stable but quite expensive due to the high content of the cost intensive components. It is impossible to prepare such catalyst in pellets or in block.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,799 relates to catalyst pellets for hydrogenation and a preparation method thereof. The catalyst contains 15-50 weight parts of Raney metal, 1-30 weight parts of high polymer (e.g., polyethylene), 1-42 weight parts of α-oxide of aluminium and homogeneous filler. 0-40 weight parts of mineral oil is used as a plasticizer. The mixture is formed by extrusion or alloying, the polymer and the plasticizer are removed by calcination at a temperature of 850-1200° C. Once the alloys are formed, they are treated to extract aluminium with sodium hydroxide.
Therefore the catalysts and the preparation methods have the following principal drawbacks: high cost due to high content of the expensive components; low heat conductivity of pellets; difficulty and need of high temperature processing that requires special equipment, increase the catalyst cost and makes difficult the preparation method.
Summarizing the aforesaid, a need exists for an improved effective and selective, low cost catalyst which is stable to overheating. As well as there is a need in a simple preparation method of the catalyst.

Catalyst for synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO and H


Each binary floating-point value in a set of binary floating-point values is converted to a decimal floating-point value. Data are determined including an exponent, a mantissa and a quantity of decimal digits of the mantissa for each decimal floating-point value. The exponents, the mantissas and the quantity of decimal digits are individually compressed to produce compressed floating-point values based on the individual compressions.

1. Technical Field
Present invention embodiments relate to compressing floating-point data, and more specifically, to compressing binary floating-point data based on a previous loss of precision incurred during capture or processing of that floating-point data.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Storing large amounts of data for live data retrieval can he expensive due to the amount of storage and processing hardware required and maintained, and the electrical power required to operate that hardware (e.g., in datacenter operations). To reduce storage, bandwidth, and computational requirements, data compression techniques are employed. Data is compressed prior to storage and decompressed when an application or user retrieves the data. Data compression techniques may be lossless or lossy. Lossful techniques may he used when it is acceptable to lose some data precision relative to the original source data. For example, a photo presented by way of a low resolution system (e.g., a cell phone display) may not need all of the detail provided by the higher resolution source photo (e.g., a high-resolution family portrait). The cell phone essentially displays the substance of the higher resolution family portrait, but with the reduced processing and storage requirements available by using the lower resolution image (i.e., data that are imperceptible to the viewer may be discarded).
Lossless techniques for compressing data may be used when a loss of data would be detrimental (e.g., a loss of a bank account digit, a loss of social security number, or loss of data for mission critical systems such as emergency response systems). In other examples, systems that use floating-point data such as results of medical or seismic studies, those systems may not have knowledge of how the resulting data may be used, or the kind of internal structure or relationships between values that may exist, e.g., variable correlation. In such systems, it may not be known what information is relevant, and what information is irrelevant, and therefore, may he discarded as an acceptable lossy result.
Depending on system requirements, compression of all data fields may be attained down to their intrinsic entropy. For integer data, a significant amount of compression can be found by eliding high-precision bits in small-magnitude values, or in the value differences among values. In character data, useful compression may be achieved by eliding trailing spaces or by using predictive coding. However, for floating-point data types, very little compression can be achieved when using integer or character data compression techniques, and predictive coding depends on information, which is not known to the system, namely the relationships between individual values.

Compression of floating-point data by identifying a previous loss of precision

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A pipetting device is described comprising more than one pipetting unit, wherein said pipetting units are independently movable in Y and Z direction and comprise at least one module arranged in a staggered manner compared to the adjacent pipetting unit.

Pipetting devices are used in automated analyzers for distributing samples or reagents. Pipetting devices comprising more than one pipetting unit are known in the art. Movable pipetting units are useful to transfer samples or reagents from one number of vessels to another number of vessels. Such a device with movable pipetting units is known from US2001/0036425.
The present invention provides an improved device with movable pipetting units.

Pipetting device with independently movable pipette units


A vehicle system for providing an interface for driver control of at least a partially autonomous vehicle. The system includes a driver command processor that receives request signals from a driver interface device of the driver's desire for the vehicle system to take certain actions and sends appropriate signals in response thereto to the proper autonomous vehicle systems. The driver command processor also sends signal to a display device indicating available actions, acknowledgement of the driver request, status of actions being taken or to be taken, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for controlling at least a partially autonomous vehicle and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling at least a partially autonomous vehicle that includes a driver interface for providing driver requests in connection with the autonomous control.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The operation of modern vehicles is becoming more autonomous, i.e., being able to provide driving control with less and less driver intervention. Cruise control systems have been on vehicles for a number of years where the vehicle operator can set a particular speed of the vehicle, and the vehicle will maintain that speed without the driver operating the throttle. Adaptive cruise control systems have been developed in the art where not only does the system maintain the set speed, but also will automatically slow the vehicle down in the event that a slower moving preceding vehicle is detected using various sensors, such as radar and cameras. Certain modern vehicles also provide autonomous parking where the vehicle will automatically provide the steering control for parking the vehicle. Some vehicle systems intervene if the driver makes harsh steering changes that may affect the vehicle stability. Some vehicle systems attempt to maintain the vehicle near the center of a lane on the road. Further, fully autonomous vehicles have been demonstrated that can drive in simulated urban traffic up to 30 mph, observing all of the rules of the road.
As vehicle systems improve, they will become more autonomous with the goal being a completely autonomous vehicle. For example, future vehicles probably will employ autonomous systems for lane changing, passing, turns away from traffic, turns into traffic, etc. As these systems become more prevalent in vehicle technology, it will also be necessary to determine what the driver's role will be in combination with these systems for controlling vehicle speed and steering, and overriding the autonomous system.

Method and apparatus for driver control of a limited-ability autonomous vehicle


A shaped groove countermatrix for a rotary groove pulley matrix and a countermatrix head pipe bending machine has a semicircular cross-sectional tract and an end tract (2) tapered, both longitudinally and transversely, according to substantially elliptic profiles (20). The end tract (2) has its cross section substantially determined by the arcs (4, 4') of two ellipses (12) with their major axes (6, 6') parallel to and slightly offset with respect to a plane (8) of longitudinal symmetry of the groove (10). The tapering of the end tract (2) starts from a substantially parabolic profile (14) which has its axis on the plane (8) of longitudinal symmetry of the groove (10) and its vertex (16) at a short distance from the exit edge (18) of the groove (10). A well (22) allows for feeding a lubricating fluid onto the groove (10) which is in fluid communication therewith through a hole (24) via a wick (24'). A check valve ( 26) allows recharge of the well (22) with the lubricating fluid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shaped groove countermatrix for a rotary groove pulley matrix and countermatrix bending head pipe bending machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
The operating principle of such machines is to stress a pipe to be bent to bending, thus arranging the latter between the grooves of the matrix and of the countermatrix and making the pulley matrix to rotate on its axis, which pulley matrix is assembled on a driving shaft and drags the pipe along a bending path by friction in its groove.
In order to reduce ovalization as much as possible and to avoid wrinkling and breaking of the pipe during the bending operation, countermatrices are used in the prior art and have grooves shaped according to suitable geometries, as is exemplified in Italian Patent Nos. 1.147.601 and 1.172.068, granted to the same Applicants for a U.S. Patent on the present invention.
Moreover, in most cases one proceeds to the lubrication of the contact between the pipe and the countermatrix, to avoid seizures during the bending operation. This lubrication must, for instance, be carried out necessarily for aluminum pipes and for pipes with a sheath in plastic. The lubricant is sprayed or applied with a brush.
The shaped groove of the prior art that better achieves its end has been suggested by the same applicants for a U.S. Patent on the present invention, and has a semicircular cross section except in an end tract, which is the exit in the sense of a feed of the pipe during the bending operation. Such an end tract is tapered both longitudinally and transversely towards the exit edge, starting from a semicircular cross section of the groove itself, and has its cross section made up of two ellipses with their major axes parallel to and slightly offset from the plane of longitudinal symmetry of the groove, which ellipses are equal to each other and inferiorly radiused by a tract which is elliptic too.
However, such a countermatrix has the problem that the pipes bent utilizing it show a visible circular tapering at the ends of the bending tracts.
As regards the lubrication of the preceding countermatrices to prepare them for the bending operation, such lubrication has the shortcoming of being difficult and time consuming.

Shaped groove countermatrix for rotary groove pulley matrix and countermatrix bending head pipe bending machines


Superabrasive inserts are disclosed. More particularly, a superabrasive insert may comprise a superabrasive layer bonded to a substrate at an interface. Further, the superabrasive layer may include a central substantially planar surface, a peripheral side surface, and an arcuate peripheral surface extending between the central substantially planar surface and the peripheral side surface. In one embodiment, the arcuate peripheral surface may comprise a lateral extent and an extension depth, wherein a ratio of the lateral extent to the extension depth is at least about 1.5. In another embodiment, an arcuate peripheral surface may comprise a substantially circular arc, wherein the substantially planar surface is tangent to the substantially circular arc and a tangent reference line to the substantially circular arc forms an angle of at least about 10° with the peripheral side surface. Subterranean drilling tools (e.g., drill bits) including at least one superabrasive insert are disclosed.

Polycrystalline diamond inserts ("PCD inserts") often form at least a portion of a cutting structure of a subterranean drilling or boring tools; including drill bits (fixed cutter, roller cone and percussion bits,) reamers, and stabilizers. Such tools, as known in the art, may be used in exploration and production relative to the oil and gas industry. PCD inserts may also be utilized as wear or cutting pads on the gage of downhole tools in order to cut and/or maintain the hole diameter. Such a PCD insert may be known as a PCD gage insert. A variety of PCD gage inserts are known in the art.
Tensile stress zones are often developed due, at least in part, to the thermal expansion differences between polycrystalline diamond and a substrate to which the polycrystalline diamond becomes bonded to during a HPHT process. Accordingly, tensile stress may be present in nearly all PCD products. The manufacturing process of PCD inserts creates residual stresses that often include tensile stress zones in the polycrystalline diamond. Tensile stress zones or regions may also be developed in response to applied forces or moments (on either the polycrystalline diamond, the substrate, or both) in combination with residual stresses.
Diamond is a brittle material that will not sustain high tensile loading. Residual and applied load stresses combined can significantly affect the performance of a PCD insert (e.g., a PCD gage insert). A polycrystalline diamond PCD gage insert (otherwise known as a diamond enhanced insert or "DEI") may be manufactured by various methods which are known in the art. For example, one process includes placing a substrate adjacent to a layer of diamond crystals in a refractory metal can. Further, a back can is then positioned over the substrate and sealed to form a can assembly, The can assembly is then placed into a cell made of an extrudable material such as pyrophyllite or talc. The cell is then subjected to conditions necessary for diamond-to-diamond bonding or sintering conditions in a high pressure/high temperature press.
Accordingly, tensile stresses developed within any portion of polycrystalline diamond, are believed to be detrimental to DEIs, gage elements, or wear elements (e.g., as used on subterranean drilling tools). Such tensile stresses are also believed to contribute to premature damage (e.g., spalling, chipping, or delamination) of the polycrystalline diamond. On the other hand, some residual stresses are believed to be beneficial. Particularly, compressive stress developed within the polycrystalline diamond of a PCD insert are believed to be beneficial and may improve the durability of the polycrystalline diamond during use. Moderate to relatively high compressive residual stresses within a polycrystalline diamond table or layer may inhibit fracture initiation and development.
Conventionally, residual stresses have been managed via the diamond/substrate design (e.g., an interface between the polycrystalline diamond and the substrate, size of the diamond and/or substrate, shape of the diamond and/or substrate, etc.). Other methods for affecting residual stresses, including, for example, transition layers between the diamond and carbide to provide a gradient of thermal expansion properties, are known in the art. Such residual stress management methods may create residual stresses that, to a limited extent, improve toughness of a PCD insert.
However, in addition to residual stress developed within a PCD, a mounting process for affixing a PCD insert to a drilling tool (e.g., brazing or press fitting the insert for attachment to the tool) may influence the stresses within the PCD insert. More particularly, press fitting or brazing will apply forces to a PCD insert that will influence and complicate the residual stress state. Generally PCD gage inserts are mechanically attached to a downhole tool by a press or interference fit. An interference fit induces compressive stresses on the enclosed material, which is typically a portion of the substrate of a PCD insert. The inference fit may create a bending moment on the exposed portion of the PCD insert. As discussed below, finite element analysis (FEA) predicts that a peripheral ring of tensile stress in the diamond table will develop due to residual stresses and the stresses developed by press fitting a conventional PCD insert, which is also described below, within a hole.
FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 show a perspective view, a schematic, side cross-sectional view, and a partial, enlarged, side cross-sectional view of a conventional DEI 10 comprising a substrate 12 and a diamond layer 20. More particularly, referring to FIGS. 1-3, a radius 16 is formed on a peripheral edge of the diamond layer 20, wherein a cross-sectional shape of the radius 16 is substantially a quarter circle (e.g., a circular arc formed by 90° central angle). Of course, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that this radius feature may be annular and is generally formed upon a circumferential edge region of the diamond layer 20. In further detail, side surface 24 of diamond layer 20 as well as substantially planar surface 22 of diamond table 20 are both substantially tangent to the radius 16 (for a given cross-sectional plane) at respective intersection edges or lines. Such a configuration may be referred to as a "one-quarter radius." Also, manufacturing processes for forming a one-quarter radius may often include a break out angle that causes the substantially planar surface 22 and the side surface 24 of the diamond layer 20 to not be exactly tangent to the curve forming the radius 16.
FIG. 4 shows a partial sectioned view of conventional DEI 10, wherein DEI is shaded according to data representing a stress field within the conventional DEI 10 shown in FIGS. 1-3. Particularly, FIG. 4 was generated by using finite element analysis to simulate the residual stresses developed during HPHT sintering of the diamond layer 20 and substrate 12 as well as stresses developed in response to press fitting the substrate within a hole formed in a steel material (e.g., an applied pressure or force about at least a portion of the periphery of the substrate). As shown in FIG. 4, a substantially continuous, circumferentially extending zone or region 31 of tensile stress is indicated proximate to the radius 16. As shown in FIG. 4, a tensile stress of about 5.746 104 psi. may be developed. Such a tensile stress zone may be detrimental if the DEI 10 is used a cutting or wear element on a subterranean drill bit, because typically at least a portion of the radius 16 may be forced against a subterranean formation and, therefore, may be subjected to relatively high additional localized applied stresses.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show a schematic side cross-sectional view and a partial enlarged side cross-sectional view of another conventional DEI 50 comprising a diamond layer 51 and a substrate 54, wherein a relatively small (e.g., 0.010 inch) chamfer 52 is formed on a peripheral edge of the diamond layer 52 (i.e., between planar surface 56 and side surface 58 of diamond layer 51) at a 45° angle θ with respect to planar surface 56 of diamond later 51. As known in the art, an interface between diamond layer 51 and substrate 54 may be nonplanar. FIG. 7 shows a further conventional DEI 60 comprising a diamond layer 61 and a substrate 64, wherein a relatively large (e.g., 0.040 inches-0.070 inches) chamfer 62 is formed on a peripheral edge of diamond layer 61 (i.e., between planar surface 66 and side surface 68 of diamond layer 61). As shown in FIG. 7, chamfer 62 is formed at a 45° angle θ with respect to planar surface 66 of diamond later 61. FIG. 8 shows yet an additional conventional DEI 70 comprising a diamond layer 72 and a substrate 74, wherein the diamond layer 72 forms a substantially hemispherical surface 76. Generally, each of these conventional DEIs may exhibit undesirable tensile stresses within at least a portion of their respective polycrystalline diamond structure.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a superabrasive insert (e.g., a polycrystalline diamond insert) with a selected arcuate peripheral surface geometry. In addition, it would be beneficial to provide a superabrasive insert exhibiting a selected peripheral surface that produces, at least in part, an associated beneficial residual stress field. Of course, subterranean drill bits including at least one such polycrystalline diamond insert may also be beneficial.

Superabrasive inserts including an arcuate peripheral surface