The present invention relates to a fuel tank mounting structure for a vehicle which includes a rear floor panel forming a rear portion floor, a first cross member disposed in front of and under the rear floor panel and extending in a vehicle width direction, and a second cross member disposed rearward of the first cross member and extending in the vehicle width direction. A fuel tank is supported by belts stretched between the first and the second cross members so as to abut on an undersurface of the rear floor panel via a resilient pad. Brackets are joined to the first cross member such that they project rearward of the first cross member, each of the belts is connected to the first cross member by the corresponding bracket, and the fuel tank abuts on a rear surface of each bracket via a second resilient pad.

In general, a fuel tank of an automobile is hung under a rear floor panel by belts. Such a fuel tank is filled with a fuel, which sloshes because of acceleration, deceleration, or the like of the vehicle, so that a fuel sloshing sound (splashing sound) is generated. In this respect, various techniques have been proposed conventionally to reduce the fuel sloshing sound.
For example, JP2001-63389A discloses a fuel tank disposition structure in which a recessed portion is formed in a flat floor panel, and a fuel tank is fixed by being pressed onto corner positions of the recessed portion by belts, via pads. It is said that since the rigidity is higher in the corner positions of the recessed portion than in the other flat portions, the technique can reduce the transmission of sound from the fuel tank to the floor panel, and can prevent leakage of the fuel sloshing sound in the fuel tank to the vehicle interior.
In JP2001-63389A, front attachment portions of the belts used to hang the fuel tank are attached to a rear-floor front cross member (a seat cross member) under the floor panel, and it seems according to the drawings that a front surface of the fuel tank does not abut on anything. Setting the front surface of the fuel tank free as described above makes the fuel tank itself not fixed firmly and thus is not preferable from the viewpoint of safety. Meanwhile, suppose a case where the front surface of the fuel tank abuts on the rear-floor front cross member. In such a case, when the front surface of the fuel tank is pressed onto the rear-floor front cross member at the flat surface portion thereof which has a relatively low rigidity, the flat surface portion of the rear-floor front cross member vibrates as a result of the fuel sloshing, and the sound of the fuel sloshing may be transmitted to the vehicle interior.

Fuel tank mounting structure for vehicle


In the apparatus for producing trichlorosilane in which metal silicon powder supplied into the reactor is reacted with hydrogen chloride gas while being fluidized by the gas, thereby taking out trichlorosilane generated by the reaction from the upper part of the reactor, and a plurality of gas flow controlling members are installed at the internal space of the reactor along the vertical direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for producing trichlorosilane in which metal silicon powder is reacted with hydrogen chloride gas while being fluidized by the hydrogen chloride gas, thereby producing trichlorosilane.
2. Description of Related Art
Trichlorosilane (SiHCl3) used as a raw material for producing high purity silicon is produced by reacting metal silicon powder (Si) of about 98% in purity with hydrogen chloride gas (HCl).
The apparatus for producing trichlorosilane is, for example as disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H08-59221, provided with a reactor, a raw material supply device for supplying metal silicon powder to the bottom of the reactor, and gas introduction device for introducing hydrogen chloride gas with which metal silicon powder is reacted. In the apparatus for producing trichlorosilane, the metal silicon powder inside the reactor is reacted with hydrogen chloride gas while being fluidized with the hydrogen chloride gas, thereby taking out the generated trichlorosilane from the upper part of the reactor. A heat transfer tube which flows a heating medium along the vertical direction is provided inside the reactor.
Incidentally, metal silicon powder is fluidized at the inner bottom of the reactor by ascending hydrogen chloride gas which is introduced from therebelow, and the metal silicon powder is contacted with the hydrogen chloride gas to cause a reaction during fluidization. In this embodiment, the hydrogen chloride gas ascends like bubbles from the lower part to the upper part in the fluidized bed of the metal silicon powder. However, in the meantime, the bubbles grow greater at the upper part of the reactor than at the lower part thereof. When the bubbles of hydrogen chloride gas grow greater, there is a decrease in the contact area with the metal silicon powder, resulting in a tendency of lower efficiency of the reaction takes place particularly at the upper part of the reactor.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, an object of which is to provide an apparatus and method for producing trichlorosilane in which hydrogen chloride gas introduced from the lower part of the reactor is made an effective contribution even at the upper part of the reactor, thereby attaining a higher reaction efficiency.


The present invention relates to a method and a system for the treatment of exhaust gas from industrial processes comprising at least the following consecutive steps: a) passing an exhaust gas comprising volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and/or amines through a catalytic zone at elevated temperatures, said catalytic zone comprises a deNOx-catalyst and an oxidation catalyst thereby providing a first treated gas stream, and b) subjecting the first treated gas stream to ultraviolet radiation in order cause photooxidation.

Foundries melt ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys and reshape them into products at or near their finished shape through the pouring and solidification of the molten metal or alloy into a mold. The foundry industry is a differentiated and diverse industry. Foundries, involved in metal castings from both ferrous and nonferrous alloys, play a significant role in the generation of VOCs and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
In the metal casting industry air pollution involve various emission sources such as for example the curing of castings such as during the cold-box process, the recycling of sand, the decomposition of binders by the hot metal poured into a form and others).
As examples of emissions in foundries can be mentioned mineral dusts, acidifying compounds, products of incomplete combustion, inorganic substances, volatile organic carbons (VOCs) including partially oxidised hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) and other odorous substances e.g. tertiary amines, from mould production, casting, cooling and knocking out.
A general overview of the inputs and outputs of the foundry process is available from the "Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Smitheries and Foundries Industry" established by the European Commission in May 2005.
An overview focusing on potential pollution associated with mold and core production is provided in N. Tiedje et al.: "Emission of organic compounds from mould and core binders used for casting iron, aluminium and bronze in sand moulds", J Environ Sci Health A Tax Hazard Subst Environ Eng. 2010 December; 45(14):1866-1876.
In some foundry processes, e.g. the cold-box process, the binder comprising a polyol component and an isocyanate component is cured by injecting a volatile tertiary amine as a catalyst in a gaseous form into the mould/cores. The curing speed can be very high, which allows high production rates to be achieved but also the tertiary amine emission needs to be under control.
Typically used tertiary amines are trimethyl amine, dimethyl ethyl amine, dimethylisopropylamine, dimethyl propylamine and triethyl amine. In a cold box process the tertiary amines are passed in a gaseous form through a shaped mixture of an aggregate and the binder (U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,579). Generally phenolic formaldehyde resins are used as polyol component.
The use of the cold-box process has been constantly expanding over the last few years, and since amines have a relatively low exposure value limit, and possess a strong characteristic smell at very low concentrations it is necessary to collect and treat emissions containing amines.
While extraction may be a solution to remove the polluted exhaust gas directly at the work place, the different HAP and VOC emissions still have to be removed from the exhaust gas before it can be safely emitted into the surroundings. Traditionally, amines and VOCs have been removed from foundry exhaust gas using different and individual exhaust air clearing technologies, however since the exhaust gas and accordingly the content of the hazardous pollutant differ depending on the respective foundry process, gas treatment systems used in the foundries are often complex, large and accordingly expensive both to use, manufacture and install.
A known method are biofilters that traditionally have been applied for the removal of odorous gases, which mainly consist of amines from the exhaust-gas from coldbox core-making processes and for the removal of VOCs (e.g. BTEX) from casting shop exhaust gases. The good performance of the filter depends on the balance between the supply of nutrient (compounds for abatement/decomposition) and the number of microorganisms. Biofiltration is based on the ability of microbes living in a fibre-peat filter bed to oxygenate malodorous gases and convert them into odourless compounds. The odorous compounds are adsorbed in the water phase and are decomposed by micro-organisms living on the filter material. However, there are a number of problems associated with biofilters such that the organisms are often very specific with regard to the substrates and are not for multipurpose use, populations may be poisoned, or the biomass may accumulate and the filters may be clogged.
Amines and VOCs can also be removed from the exhaust gas using thermal postcombustion, where the amines and VOCs are burnt. In small foundries with discontinuous production as for example the cold box method, this process is generally not controlled effectively as this among others requires that an afterburner chamber is correctly designed, that the temperature in said chamber is at least 800° C., and that the minimum dwell time of the exhaust gas in said chamber is at least 2 seconds. Accordingly, energy consumption is high and the process is therefore expensive to operate.
A very common process is the chemical absorption (scrubbing) amines contained in the exhaust air. For instance, amines are strong bases, and react with sulphuric or phosphoric acid. It is essential to work in a pH-range below pH 3 to avoid amine emissions. As a consequence, the scrubbing solution is replaced from time to time to remove concentrated salts, which subsequently require disposal as a hazardous waste. It is technically possible to process the scrubbing solution to reclaim the amine for re-use, however, the process if often expensive and time consuming.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,543,163 and 4,472,246 describe a process for recovery of amines from amine-containing spent acid stripping liquor. The feedstock for the process is an acid scrub liquor used to scrub amine from a vapor stream thereof which was used in a cold-box molding process in the foundry industry or in the cure of vapor permeation curable coatings in the coatings industry.
Thus, even though there presently exist a number of different technologies aiming at treating an exhaust gas from a foundry, these solutions all require large amounts of energy, are very complicated to control and maintain, and are expensive and time consuming to use.

Method and system for treating foundry process exhaust gas


A gas turbine engine turbine blade includes an airfoil having pressure and suction sides joined together at leading and trailing edges and extending from a root to a tip. The airfoil also includes a longitudinally extending flow channel for receiving compressed air, with the flow channel including a chordally extending, imperforate septum dividing the flow channel into first and second laterally spaced apart flow chambers. The blade further includes a supply manifold for receiving the compressed air at a single pressure which is disposed in flow communication with both the first and second chambers for channeling thereto respective first and second portions of the compressed air. The septum is used to reduce or eliminate radial velocity distortion, or blowoff of film cooling air from the suction side.

A conventional gas turbine engine includes a compressor for providing compressed air to a combustor wherein it is mixed with fuel and ignited for generating combustion gases. The combustion gases are channeled firstly through a high pressure turbine and typically through a low pressure turbine disposed downstream therefrom for extracting energy to drive the compressor and provide output power in the form of a combustion gas exhaust jet or shaft power for rotating a fan for generating thrust for powering an aircraft in flight. The efficiency of the engine is directly related to the high pressure turbine inlet temperature of the combustion gases channeled thereto. Since the combustion gases are considerably hot, the turbine rotor blades are typically hollow and provided with conventional film cooling holes for providing effective cooling thereof for ensuring a useful operating life. A portion of the compressed air from the compressor is suitably channeled to the turbine blades for cooling, and since such compressed air does not undergo combustion in the combustor, the net efficiency of the engine is decreased.
Accordingly, turbine blades are continually being improved for reducing the required amount of compressor cooling air channeled thereto for improving overall efficiency of the engine while still providing acceptable life of the blade. For example, in advanced gas turbine engines being presently considered, substantial reductions in cooling airflow through the turbine blades is being considered along with a substantial increase in the turbine rotor inlet temperature for substantially improving the operating efficiency of the engine. This will require a substantial increase in heat transfer effectiveness in cooling the turbine blades using the reduced amount of cooling airflow.
A conventional turbine blade includes a concave pressure side and a convex suction side over which the static pressure of the combustion gases channeled thereover varies significantly. Compressed air is conventionally channeled upwardly through the blade dovetail and into conventional serpentine passages through the blade airfoil for the convective coding thereof. The several passages within the blade airfoil may have various heat transfer enhancement turbulator ribs or pins for increasing the heat transfer coefficient over that for a smooth wall. Furthermore, conventional film cooling holes are selectively provided around the surface of the airfoil as required for forming suitable film cooling air layers to protect the airfoil against the hot combustion gases. Since the leading edge of the airfoil is typically subjected to the highest heat flux from the combustion gases, it typically requires the greatest protection from the heat and the highest heat transfer enhancement from the compressed air being channeled through the airfoil.
In one conventional airfoil having a mid-chord radial flow channel, the compressed air is normally channeled therethrough with a fairly uniform parabolic radial velocity distribution with a maximum velocity near the center of the channel and lower velocities adjacent the pressure and suction side interior walls of the airfoil. However, it has been observed that by providing a plurality of film cooling holes along the radial channel to eject uniformly part of the inlet channel air flow out the airfoil external surface on only one side of the channel, such as the pressure side, with the other, suction side of the channel being imperforate, the radial velocity distribution of the compressed air through the channel is distorted with the peak velocity being moved transversely toward the film cooling holes. Correspondingly, the velocity of the compressed air adjacent the opposite, suction side decreases for a given average flow rate through the channel. Accordingly, the decreased compressed air velocity adjacent the imperforate wall results in a decrease of the convective heat transfer enhancement of that wall which typically requires an increase in the average velocity of the compressed air to offset the decrease at the wall to ensure effective cooling thereof.
Furthermore, the turbine blade must also be designed to provide an adequate backflow margin to ensure that the combustion gases are not allowed to backflow through the film cooling holes into the blade airfoil during operation. The pressure of the compressed air inside the airfoil is, therefore, predeterminedly selected to be suitably larger than the pressure of the combustion gases flowing over the airfoil to ensure the forward flow of the compressed air from the interior of the airfoil through the film cooling holes to the exterior of the airfoil. Since the leading edge region of a typical high pressure turbine blade includes film cooling holes along both the pressure and suction sides of the airfoil, the pressure of the compressed air inside the airfoil must be suitably large to provide an effective backflow margin through the pressure side film cooling holes adjacent the leading edge which are subject to the highest pressure from the combustion gases flowable over the airfoil. However, since the pressure of the combustion gases channeled over the suction side of the airfoil is necessarily lower than that over the pressure side, the pressure ratio of the compressed air inside the airfoil relative to the suction side adjacent the leading edge is relatively high, and higher than the pressure ratio across the pressure side at the leading edge, which increases the ejection velocity of the film cooling air through the suction side leading edge film cooling holes. This may lead to a condition known as blowoff wherein the film cooling air initially breaks free from the airfoil suction side as it is ejected from the film cooling holes before reattaching to the suction side downstream therefrom. This leads to a decrease in the air film effectiveness and cooling capability of the film cooling air in this region.
In both of the above situations, the internal heat transfer coefficient and the film cooling effectiveness of the compressed air channeled through the airfoil are decreased, which requires even more air, for example, to ensure acceptable cooling of the turbine blade, which decreases overall efficiency. Furthermore, it is desirable to channel the compressed air through the airfoil with as little pressure losses therein as possible to further increase the overall efficiency of the engine.
Since a high pressure turbine blade typically includes several serpentine flow passages therein and film cooling holes along the pressure and suction sides thereof, as well as discharge holes through the trailing edge thereof, the blade must be suitably tested to ensure that suitable flow is obtained through all of the holes. In a turbine blade having two or more independent cooling air channels or circuits therethrough, for example one circuit channeling cooling air from the mid-chord and out through the leading edge holes, and a second circuit channeling air through the mid-chord and out the trailing edge holes, the several holes of each circuit must be independently plugged, for example, to test the operation of the other circuit. This is a relatively complex procedure required for ensuring effective operation of all the apertures through the blade airfoil.


An approach is provided in which a method, system, and computer program product load a first program and a second program on a target host that includes a host kernel. The first program and the second program are both pre-compiled on a build system that is different from the target host. The method, system, and computer program product execute at least a subset of the first program on the host kernel and the subset of the first program captures a set of kernel structure information from the host kernel. The method, system, and program product load, at the target host, the set of kernel structure information into the second program at one or more placeholder locations. Then, the method, system and program product execute at least a subset of the second program with the set of kernel structure information on the target kernel.

Linux is a family of open-source operating systems based on a Linux kernel, which is a monolithic kernel with a modular design and supports features once only available in closed source kernels. The Linux kernel includes a technology called extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) that enables small programs to run in the Linux kernel.
eBPF programs are utilized by monitoring/observability tools because eBPF programs hook directly into various subsystems of the Linux kernel (e.g., networking, process management, filesystems, etc.) and capture meaningful events and metrics. Some eBPF programs perform aggregations in kernel space and send the aggregated values to user space, which is more efficient than sending an entire set of captured metrics to user space and requiring a program in user space to perform the aggregation.
Because eBPF programs have access to kernel data structures and therefore need access to kernel headers at compilation time, eBPF programs are typically compiled on a specific target host on which they execute. As such, existing approaches that utilize eBPF programs require both a compiler toolchain as well as the kernel headers be on a specific target host to successfully compile the eBPF programs.

Adapting pre-compiled eBPF programs at runtime for the host kernel by offset inference

International Business Machines Corporation


A puckering preventing shuttle device of a sewing machine capable of providing high quality stitches without producing puckering by eliminating needle thread extraction resistance on the outer periphery of a rotating hook bobbin case holder to reduce the tension of a needle thread so as to keep a balance between the needle thread and a bobbin thread and also enabling the proper tightening of the threads even in an extra-soft fabric. The device comprises the rotating hook bobbin case holder (80) storing a bobbin case storing a bobbin around which the bobbin thread is wrapped and detachably fixed to a machine frame and locked to the machine frame by rotating hook bobbin case holder stopper (90) to stop its rotation and a rotating hook (70) in which the rotating hook bobbin case holder (80) is installed, having a sword tip (75), and rotated by a lower shaft. A needle thread inlet (EN1) and a needle thread outlet (EX1) are formed at circumferentially different positions between the rotating hook bobbin case holder stopper (90) and the rotating hook bobbin case holder (80) where the loop of the needle thread picked up by the sword tip (75) for each rotation of the rotatingly driven rotating hook (70) forms a clearance for guiding in and out the needle thread on the outer periphery of the rotating hook bobbin case holder (80) by eccentrically disposing the rotating center (O1) of the rotating hook (70) relative to the rotating center of the lower shaft.

In the prior art, in an industrial or home lock stitch sewing machine using a full rotation hook, either a shuttle bobbin having a lower thread wound thereon or a shuttle bobbin case accommodating the bobbin is mounted in an inner hook, and the inner hook or an outer hook is equipped with a loop-taker point. The hook having the loop-taker point is rotated to guide in the upper thread inserted into a needle so that the upper thread is picked up by the loop-taker point and the upper thread and the lower thread may be interlaced to form lock stitches in a work.
In the case of an outer hook rotation type having the loop-taker point in the outer hook, for example, the inner hook has to be fixed by an abutment between an inner hook groove formed in the inner hook and an inner hook stopper disposed at a frame. Since the inner hook is fixed although the outer hook is rotated at a high speed, the abutment between the inner hook stopper and the inner hook groove is made in a high rotation-friction torque. When the upper thread is guided out from the hook, it is obliged to push the abutment and guide out when it is taken up by a thread take-up lever. As a result, the upper thread is subjected to a far higher inner hook extraction tension than the intrinsically necessary thread pulling tension by the thread take-up lever. This make it impossible to stabilize the interlace point between the upper thread and the lower thread at the time when the upper thread and the lower thread are interlaced to form the lock stitches in the work, so that the seam puckering is caused in the work by the high upper thread tension.
In the case of an outer hook rotation type horizontal hook, therefore, a rotation hook device (as referred to Patent Publication 1, for example) is proposed which is provided with an opener, which rocks at a predetermined timing according to the rotation of an outer hook, and a stopper plate which is attached to the opener and can alternately engage with stopper grooves formed in the inner hook. The stopper plate is extracted from one of the stopper grooves, when the upper thread passes through the stopper groove, and the other stopper groove is brought into engagement to stop the rotation of the inner hook.
There is proposed an opener (as referred to Patent Publication 2, for example), in which the upper thread is guided out from the outer hook by forcibly opening the abutment between the inner hook stopper and the inner hook groove.
There is further proposed an opener driving mechanism (as referred to Patent Publication 3, for example), which can be attached to a general-purpose horizontal hook of a sewing machine and equipped with an opener for rotating an inner hook oppositely to the rotating direction of the outer hook thereby to reduce the rattling noises between the engaging projection of the inner hook and the retaining member of the throat plate.
Those hook device using the opener has drawbacks of complicated mechanisms and serious noises. There is further proposed a full rotation hook (as referred to Patent Publication 4 or Patent Publication 5, for example), in which the inner hook is equipped with a loop-taker point and in which a driver axis is eccentric to the rotation center of the inner hook.
There is also known a fine thread split preventing full rotation hook device (as referred to Patent Publication 6 or Patent Publication 7), in which a needle thread is prevented, when extracted or guided out from the inner hook, from becoming wild, thereby to avoid the piercing of the needle thread by the needle or the shortage of the thread.
Patent Publication 1: JP-A-61-149196;
Patent Publication 2: JP-A-63-115591;
Patent Publication 3: JP-A-2002-143588;
Patent Publication 4: Domestic Re-publication of PCT
Patent application: 2000/73556
Patent Publication 5: JP-A-11-226284
Patent Publication 6: JP-A-53-119153
Patent Publication 7: JP-A-53-125151

Seam puckering preventing shuttle device of sewing machine


Provided are an electronic musical instrument, computer storage device, and method generating tones for held notes. Indication is made of held notes having pitches as held in response to receiving note-on information for the held notes from an input device of an electronic musical instrument while receiving hold information from a hold device of the electronic musical instrument. Note-on information is received for a received note having a pitch while generating the pitches for the held notes. Selection is made of one of the held notes to release according to a first selection criteria in response to determining that the pitch difference of the received note and at least one of the held notes does not exceed the predetermined number of tones or selection is made according to a second selection criteria if the pitch difference exceeds the predetermined number of tones.

Electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and the like can generate tones with various kinds of tone colors. For imitating a performance played on a natural musical instrument by an electronic musical instrument, the imitated tone color needs to faithfully imitate the tone color of the natural musical instrument. In addition, the performer needs to understand characteristics peculiar to the musical instrument and perform pieces of music while operating user interfaces of the musical instrument (such as, for example, the keyboard, the pitch-bend lever, the modulation lever, HOLD pedal and the like) during his or her performance. Therefore, when a performer attempts to imitate a performance played on a certain musical instrument, using an electronic musical instrument, the performer needs to have good understanding of the characteristics of the musical instrument to be imitated, and is required to have high-level skills in performance technique to make full use of the user interface according to the characteristics during performance.
For example, in an arpeggio performance technique, which is one of the performance techniques for an acoustic guitar, multiple strings are played and sounded in succession. When the arpeggio performance is imitated by an electronic musical instrument, it is necessary to carry out the performance while stepping on the HOLD pedal to hold tones corresponding to keys that have been released (in other words, the silencing control on the tones is withheld to continue generation of the tones) so that the sounding tones would not be broken. However, when the performance is carried out while stepping on the hold pedal, and when too many sounds are held, for example, when sounds exceeding the number of the strings on a guitar are held, the identity of a guitar arpeggio would be harmed. Accordingly, the performer needs to switch on and off the hold pedal at appropriate timings, which requires high-level performance technique.
Japanese Patent Application No. 3671545, also published as U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,755, pertains to an electronic musical instrument with a fixed number of sound generation channels, and describes a technology pertaining to limiting the number of sound generation channels that can be allocated to resonance sounds, in which, when the number of resonance sounds has already reached the limited number of sound generation channels, one of the sound generation channels allocated to resonance sounds with a lower resonance sound signal level is silenced and released, and the released sound generation channel is allocated to the new resonance sound.


Aspects of this disclosure relate to a custom aircraft door mounting system that employs a vertical rolling motion enabled assembly, comprising: a first fitting configured to be mounted to an overhead structure of an aircraft, the first fitting including a cam follower slot formed within the first fitting; an elastomeric bearing pivotally coupled to a second fitting; and a cam follower coupled to the elastomeric bearing, the cam follower being configured to slide vertically within the cam follower slot to accommodate relative motion between the second fitting and the overhead structure of the aircraft.

Many aircraft, such as helicopters, are standardly equipped with sliding doors for entering or exiting an aircraft. Purchasers of such aircraft may desire to have custom aircraft doors installed as an aftermarket modification. Existing systems typically lack the required range of motion, or they may distort during use due to aircraft motions or vibrations. Consequently, there is a need for mounting assemblies that enable custom aircraft doors to be installed in an effectively secured manner without sacrificing range of motion, or distortion.


A feedback system including a controller configured to: register a system account for each of a plurality of users, wherein the feedback system account includes a unique identification code for each of the plurality of users; provide a graphic user interface through which a first user: generates a request for feedback; selects one or more groups to which to communicate the request for feedback, where in the selection of the groups includes associating one or more unique identification codes with each of the groups; receives feedback from at least a second user associated with a unique identification code associated with one of the groups, wherein, upon receipt of the feedback from the second user, the first user is automatically authorized to reply to the second user; and accesses feedback analytics related to the feedback received in response to the request for feedback.

The present subject matter relates generally to a system for interactive feedback between consumers and businesses. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems that enable users to send feedback other users, to request feedback from other users, to respond to feedback, and to view summaries and statistics of feedback received. Using the systems and methods described herein, individuals and companies can send, receive, respond to, and request feedback conversations that are tracked by company, by location, by department, by employee, by user group, and by individual user. The users are also able to view summaries and statistics of the feedback and feedback requests sent and received using the systems and methods described herein.
Receiving feedback from consumers is an important business process. Feedback helps businesses to correct mistakes, find new opportunities, reduce cost, and create value. Likewise, consumers find value in providing feedback to businesses so that the business may meet the customers' needs, to compliment good service, or to remedy poor service.
Previous approaches to providing and receiving feedback to businesses have generally been ad hoc and incomplete. One previous feedback mechanism is the feedback card. This form of feedback fails to take advantage of the speed offered by new technologies. Additionally, the right party in the business for the feedback may not necessarily receive feedback cards. Newer technologies, such as feedback email addresses, may speed the delivery of feedback, but do not ensure that the feedback is received by the appropriate party. There is a need for feedback that is quickly received by the correct party.
Additionally, previous feedback systems failed to direct feedback to the appropriate business unit to receive and act on the feedback. For example, a business may have many different business locations. A customer may want to provide feedback about the specific location, provide feedback to certain employees, or provide feedback to the corporate office. Previously used in-store feedback cards may not provide the consumer a sufficient assurance that the feedback will be seen by corporate. Additionally, previous systems provide little expectation of a timely response.
Further, previous feedback mechanisms failed to provide summary statistics to permit decision makers to leverage feedback to find actionable insights.
Accordingly, there is a need for a feedback system to send feedback to other users, request feedback from other users, to respond to feedback, and to view summaries and statistics of feedback received, as described herein.


The signal strength of a received signal in a communication system is estimated by the measured signal strength of a desired signal which is transmitted from a source device to a destination device. The energy of the desired signal and the energy of the noise are measured or computed. The measured signal strength can be computed by dividing the energy of the desired signal with the energy of the noise. The signal strength of the desired signal can be estimated as the maximum likelihood estimate of the actual signal strength .alpha.. The signal strength of the desired signal can also be estimated based on the expected value of the energy of the desired signal. The signal strength of the desired signal can further be estimated based on the expected value of the energy of the desired signal and accounting for a predetermined bias.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing an estimate of the signal strength of a received signal in a communication system.
II. Discussion of the Background
In many communication systems, the efficient use of system resource depends on the ability to accurately estimate the quality of the communication channel or link. The channel quality is related to the signal strength of a received signal which has been transmitted through the communication channel. Typically, the received signal comprises a desired signal and noise. The desired signal can be an information transmission signal or a signal representative of the information transmission, such as a pilot signal. The signal strength of the desired signal can be estimated and this signal strength can be used as an estimate of the signal strength of the received signal. Signal strength is defined as the signal-to-noise ratio SNR (the energy of the desired signal divided by the energy of the noise) or the signal-to-signal-plus-noise ratio S/N.sub.t (the energy of the desired signal divided by the total received energy).
A communication system can use the signal strength measurement to perform a variety of system optimization. First, the system can efficiently allocate resource based on the signal strength measurement. For example, the system can allocate more resource to transmissions on poor quality channels in order to maintain a requisite level or performance (e.g., a predetermined bit-error-rate). Alternatively, the system can allocate less resource to transmissions on poor quality channels in order to conserve resource. It can be determined that these transmissions are inefficient use of system resource since a small amount of information is transmitted versus a large amount of expended resource. Second, the signal strength measurement can be used to adjust the transmission rate to more efficiently utilize the allocated resource. For example, the transmission rate can be increased for transmissions on high quality channels and decreased for transmissions on poor quality channels. Third, the signal strength measurement can be used to more efficiently manage the communication system. As an example, consider a communication system which supports soft handoff. Soft handoff denotes the redundant transmissions from two or more source devices to a destination device to provide space diversity which can improve performance and reliability. The system can use the signal strength measurement to efficiently add or remove source device to or from the soft handoff transmissions. Soft handoff is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501, entitled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A SOFT HANDOFF IN COMMUNICATIONS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", issued Mar. 31, 1992, and U.S. Pat. No.5,267,261, entitled "MOBILE STATION ASSISTED SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM", issued Nov. 30, 1993, both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
In a typical communication system, the signal strength of a desired signal is computed from measurements of the energy of the desired signal and the energy of the noise. The energy of the desired signal can be determined by processing the received signal to remove the noise and computing the energy of the remaining desired signal. The energy of the noise can also be determined and computed. Alternatively, the energy of the noise can be set to a predetermined value by maintaining the amplitude of the received signal at a predetermined level through an automatic gain control (AGC) loop.
Accurate measurement of the signal strength is difficult because of a variety of factors. First, communication systems inherently operate in noisy environment. The noise increases the variation in the measurements of the energy of the desired signal and the energy of the noise. The variation in the measurements can be reduced by averaging the measurements over a longer time period. However, a tradeoff is made between the amount (or length) of averaging and the response time. Second, for mobile communication systems, the signal strength measurement is further complicated by variations in the channel characteristics due to the mobility of the communication devices. In a terrestrial environment, the transmitted signal can arrive at the destination device through one or more signal paths because of reflections and refractions from artifacts in the transmission path. The multiple copies of the received signal can add constructively or destructively at the destination device. A small displacement in the location of the destination device can result in a large change in the measured energy. This fading phenomenon can cause large variation in the signal strength measurement. And third, the signal strength measurements have a distribution density function which can be dependent on the structure of the signal and the statistic of the noise (e.g., an analog signal or a quadrature phase shift keying QPSK modulated signal) and the quality of the communication link.
For the foregoing reasons, a method and apparatus which can provide accurate estimates of the signal strength of a received signal in a communication system are much needed in the art.

Method and system for providing an estimate of the signal strength of a received signal


Provided is a voltage regulator including a soft-start circuit having a small area and capable of suppressing an inrush current by causing a reference voltage circuit to rise gently with time. In the soft-start circuit, a capacitor is connected to an output of a reference voltage circuit driven by a constant current of a constant current circuit, and hence the soft-start circuit can raise a reference voltage gently to prevent an inrush current with a small area. After the end of a soft-start period, the constant current circuit is disconnected, and the reference voltage circuit is driven by a power source. Thus, the operation becomes stable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voltage regulator, and more specifically, to a voltage regulator having a soft-start function of suppressing an inrush current that occurs at a time of steep rise of power supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a voltage regulator. The voltage regulator includes an output transistor 1, a voltage dividing circuit 2, a reference voltage circuit 3, an error amplifier 4, and a soft-start circuit 5. At the time of steep rise of power supply, the soft-start circuit 5 controls a reference voltage Vref output from the reference voltage circuit 3 so that a reference voltage Vss may rise gently, to thereby suppress an inrush current.
The conventional soft-start circuit of the voltage regulator is formed of a circuit as illustrated in FIG. 3 (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-109747).
The soft-start circuit 5 increases the reference voltage Vss gradually to a target value. The soft-start circuit 5 includes a digital circuit 71 for inputting a clock, a step circuit 72 for increasing the reference voltage Vref from 0 V to the target value in a stepwise manner, and a buffer circuit 73 for converting a change in step output of the step circuit 72 into a reference voltage Vss having a gentle gradient.
The conventional soft-start circuit, however, has the following problem.
When the reference voltage Vss is increased in a stepwise manner, as the reference voltage Vss becomes higher, the amount of the voltage increase per step becomes larger, resulting in an increased inrush current. On the other hand, in order to reduce the amount of the voltage increase per step, the number of stages of resistors needs to be larger, resulting in an increased area of the soft-start circuit.


Split packing followers for use with valves are disclosed. A disclosed packing follower includes a first member having a first portion of a flange and a first portion of a curved wall extending substantially perpendiculary from the first portion of the flange to define a first portion of a cylindrical member. The disclosed packing follower further includes a second member separable from the first member. The second member include a second portion of the flange and a second portion of a curved wall extending substantially perpendiculary from the second portion of the flange to define a second portion of the cylindrical member. The first and second member include complementary interlocking structures that are configured to mechanically couple the first and second members to form the packing follower.

Rotary and sliding stem valves typically including a packing to prevent leakage of process fluid past valve stems or shafts. In particular, the packing surrounds the valve stem or shaft and is typically compressed by a packing follower to ensure that an inner bore of the packing is sealed against the valve stem or shaft and that the outer surface of the packing is sealed against an opening in the valve body or bonnet assembly.
In the case of a sliding stem valve, the valve stem slides against the inner bore of the packing and, in the case of a rotary valve, the valve shaft rotates against the inner bore in the packing. In either case, the movement of the valve stem or shaft against the inner bore of the packing tends to wear the packing, which may ultimately result in leakage of process fluid past the valve stem or shaft and the packing. Although a valve packing can typically be field serviced (e.g., removed and replaced), such service usually requires time consuming and/or difficult removal of the valve actuator and/or other components from the valve because the packing follower is typically installed on and removed from the valve by sliding it over the actuator end of the valve stem or shaft.

Split packing follower for use with valves


A billiard cue tip formed of plastic material adapted to provide greater surface contact upon impact with a billiard ball to improve control of the movement of the ball. The cue tip surface has several annular and several radially grooves that intersect to form therebetween pads that can expand into the grooves upon impact to increase the amount of surface contact between the cue tip and the ball.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to billiard cue tips and more particularly to a plastic billiard cue tip having a unique contour and configuration adapted to provide greater surface contact between the cue tip and a billiard ball on impact and also greater resiliency to give a player cue more control.
2. Description of Background Art
A background art search directed to the subject matter of this application conducted in the United States Patent and Trademark Office disclosed the following letters patent:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,390,331 1,532,943 1,550,852 2,072,484 3,445,112 Great Britain Patents: 13,511 and 17,516 ______________________________________
None of the patents uncovered in the search discloses a cue tip similar to that of Applicant which has intersecting annular and radial grooves in the front or outer surface thereof that form therebetween separate pads capable of expanding into portions of the grooves upon impact with a billiard ball to provide greater surface contact between the cue tip and the ball.

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In a method for transmitting control signals in a multicast communication system, wherein the multicast communication system broadcasts one or more multicast channels, one or more occurrences of a first control signal are transmitted. The first control signal includes at least control information corresponding to the one or more multicast channels. Additionally, one or more occurrences of a second control signal are transmitted for each of the one or more multicast channels. The second control signal includes at least control information corresponding to the respective multicast channel. At least one transmission of an occurrence of the second control signal is synchronized with at least one transmission of an occurrence of the first control signal.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
In a multicast communication system, a network device broadcasts data to multiple other communication devices. Multicast communication systems generally employ multiple control signals, or control channels, to communicate to the receiving devices certain information characterizing an ongoing broadcast service, and characterizing individual broadcast channels within the broadcast. Such control signals are periodically transmitted from the broadcasting network device to the receiving devices to communicate current system information.

Synchronization of control signal transmissions for a multicast service


Disclosed are compound of formula (I) and pharmaceutically accepted salts and prodrugs thereof, wherein each of R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, X1, and X2 is as defined in the description. These compounds are protein kinases inhibitors, especially the inhibitors of Mek, which are useful in the treatment of cancers and inflammation of mammals. Disclosed are the treatment methods of cancers and inflammation of mammals as well as pharmaceutical expositions comprising the compounds described herein. The preparation of benzoheterocyclic compounds are disclosed. Disclosed are the preparation of potential drug candidates, such as benzooxazol, benzothiazol, benzothiadiazol and the like.

Cell signaling through growth factor receptors and protein kinases is an important regulator of cell growth, proliferation and differentiation. In normal cell growth, factors (i.e. PDGF or EGF and others), through receptor activation (i.e. ErbB2, EGFR, PDGFR), activate MAP (Mitogen-activating protein) kinase pathways. One of the most important and most well understood MAP kinase pathways involved in normal and uncontrolled cell growth is the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk kinase pathway. In proliferative diseases, genetic mutations and/or overexpression of the growth factor receptors, downstream signaling proteins, or protein kinases involved in the kinase pathway lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation and, eventually, tumor formation. For example, some cancers contain mutations which results in the activation of this pathway due to continuous production of growth factors. The statistics show that mutated, oncogenic forms of Ras are found in 50% of colon and >90% pancreatic cancers. Recently, bRaf mutations have been identified in more than 60% of malignant melanoma. Studies of primary tumor samples and cell lines have also shown constitutive or overactivation of the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk pathway in cancers of pancreas, colon, lung, ovary and kidney.
As constitutive or overactivation of MAP kinase cascade plays a pivotal role in cell proliferation and differentiation, inhibition of this pathway is believed to be beneficial in hyperproliferative diseases. Mek is a key player in this pathway as it is downstream of Ras and Raf, Additionally, it is an attractive therapeutic target because the only known substrates for Mek phosphorylation are the MAP kinases, Erk 1 and 2. Hence, inhibition of MEK would block Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk pathway and result in cell growth inhibition, especially the cell growth due to the overactivation of Ras or Raf Meanwhile Mek is also related to inflammatory disease and symptoms, including acute and chronic inflammation.
Inhibitors of Mek have shown some effects in clinical experiments of nude mice. Recently, some Mek inhibitors have been applied at clinical experiments of people. Therefore, Mek is a potential new target and more and more Mek inhibitors are developed and reported, for example, WO 98/43960; WO 99/01421; WO 99/01426; WO 00/41505; WO 00/42002; WO 00/41003; WO 00/41994; WO 00/42022; WO 00/42029; WO 00/68201; WO 01/68619; WO 02/06213; WO 03/077914; WO 03/077855; WO 03/077914; WO 05/023251; WO 05/023759; WO 05/051300; WO 05/051301; WO 05/051302; WO 05/051906; WO 05/000818; WO 05/007616; WO 05/009975; WO 05/046665; WO 06/134469; WO 07/044084; WO 07/014011; WO 07/121269; WO 07/121481; WO 07/071951; WO 07/044515; WO 08/021389; WO 08/076415; WO 08/089459; WO 08/078086; WO 08/120004; WO 08/124085; WO 08/125820; WO 09/018238; WO 09/074827; WO 09/013426; WO 09/093008; WO 09/093009; WO 09/093013; WO 09/153554 and so on.
However, many known MEK inhibitors suffer from weak inhibitory activity, intolerable toxicity or lack of desirable pharmaceutical properties. Thus, there remains a need for potent inhibitors of MEK with appropriate pharmaceutical properties for clinical applications.

Benzoheterocyclic compounds and use thereof


Disclosed in a halogen-free flame-retardant epoxy resin composition, comprising (A) a bisphenol A type epoxy resin, (B) a novolak type epoxy resin, (C) a phenolic resin type curing agent, (D) a curing accelerator, and (E) an inorganic filler. The phenolic resin type curing agent (C) is provided by a nitrogen-containing phenolic resin, preferably, by a co-condensation resin formed by the reaction among a phenolic compound, a guanamine compound, and an aldehyde compound. More desirably, a phenolic resin containing both phosphorus and nitrogen should be used as the curing agent (C). Further, a combination of the co-condensation resin noted above (C-1) and a reactive phosphoric acid ester can be used as a curing agent.

In recent years, safety to humans including, for example, the air pollution problem attracts world-wide attentions. In this connection, electric and electronic appliances are required to be more harmless and more safe in addition to the requirement of a high flame retardancy. To be more specific, the electric and electronic appliances are required to be resistant to flame and, at the same time, not to generate noxious gases. It has been customary in the past to use a glass/epoxy as a substrate of a printed wiring board on which electric and electronic appliances are to be mounted. In general, a brominated epoxy resin containing bromine as a flame-retardant, particularly, tetrabromobisphenol-A type epoxy resin, is used for forming the substrate of the printed wiring board.
The brominated epoxy resin certainly exhibits a high flame retardancy, but generates a noxious hydrogen halide (hydrogen bromide) gas when burned. To overcome the difficulty, epoxy resin compositions containing non-halogen flame-retardants such as nitrogen compounds, phosphorus compounds, inorganic compounds, etc., have been developed, as reported in, for example, British Patent No. 1,112,139 and Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 2-269730, However, these flame-retardants give rise to a detrimental effect to the curing of the epoxy resin and impairs the humidity resistance of the cured composition. In addition, a glass cloth is less likely to be impregnated with the epoxy resin composition if the composition contains the non-halogen flame-retardants mentioned.
The present invention is intended to provide an epoxy resin composition which does not contain a halogen element but exhibits a good flame retardancy and which permits overcoming the above-noted problems inherent in the prior art.
The present invention is also intended to provide a prepreg impregnated with such an epoxy resin composition as well as a laminate, copper-clad laminate and printed wiring board using such a prepreg sheet.

Bisphenol A and novolak epoxy resins with nitrogen-containing phenolic resin


A temperature inside the information reproducing and recording apparatus is always monitored and it is judged whether the temperatures is a proper operation start temperature, a stop temperature or a restart temperature or not. Based on this judgement, the start and the like of the reproducing and recording operation is properly controlled. Further, with respect to the reproducing and the recording of the information, their respective proper operation temperature ranges are set individually.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus such as a CD player, an MD player mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical information reproducing and recording apparatus such as a CD player, an MD player mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile is exposed to a thermal environment which intensely changes by seasons or the weather. Accordingly, in general, a temperature sensor is mounted in the inside of the apparatus and when the temperature in the inside of the apparatus is abnormally elevated or lowered, the temperature sensor detects this phenomenon and automatically stops the operation of the apparatus thus preventing breakage and deterioration of quality of devices inside the apparatus due to the abnormal temperature.
In general, in an optical information reproducing apparatus such as a CD player which reproduces information recorded on an optical recording medium, laser beams are irradiated on a recording surface of a disc using optical reading means including a light source such as a laser diode which optically reads the recorded information and extracts modulated components contained in the reflected light so as to reproduce the recorded information.
However, because the laser diode which constitutes a light source is a semiconductor , there has been a problem that the laser diode breaks in a short time, when the laser diode is operated under a high temperature.
In view of the above, a conventional optical information reproducing apparatus adapts a constitution in which the temperature of the optical reading means is monitored and when the temperature exceeds a given temperature, the operation of the optical reading means is stopped. Under such a constitution, when the operation of the optical reading means is stopped and the temperature is lowered to a value below a given temperature, the operation will start again. However, due to a coupled effect of the heat generated by the re-operation and the preheat remaining in the apparatus, the temperature of the optical reading means exceeds the given temperature immediately after the operation so that the operation must be stopped again. Such starting and stopping operations are cumbersome.
On the other hand, since an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus such as an MD player performs not only the reproduction of the information but also the recording of the information and hence, it is necessary to drive a laser diode with a larger electric power at the time of recording compared with the electric power at the time of reproducing. The generation of heat of the optical reading means including the light source such as the laser diode largely differs between the time of recording and the time of reproducing. Accordingly, when an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus such as the MD player is mounted on a vehicle, in view of the severe change of environmental temperature derived from mounting of the apparatus on the vehicle and hence, a delicate temperature monitoring which considers the difference of heat generation between the time of recording information and the time of reproducing information becomes necessary.
An optical information reproducing and recording apparatus such as the MD player heats a magnetic film on the surface of a disc, which constitutes a recording medium, at a given temperature by the irradiation of laser beams from the laser diode and simultaneously writes information in the disc by applying a magnetic modulation to the above-mentioned magnetic film by means of an information recording magnetic head disposed adjacent to the disc.
In general, it has been known that when the laser diode is driven under the thermal environment of an excessively high temperature or an excessively low temperature, the quality of a semiconductor which constitutes the laser diode is deteriorated, thus remarkably shortening the lifetime thereof.
In view of the above, to prevent failures derived from the deterioration of the laser diode, the conventional vehicle-mounting-type information reproducing and recording apparatus detects the temperature of the apparatus, particularly the temperature in the vicinity of the laser diode and automatically stops the irradiation of laser beams, that is, the writing of the information when the temperature exceeds a given temperature range.
On the other hand, in an optical reproducing and recording apparatus such as the MD player, when information signal such as music is written in the disc, after the recording of the information signal is completed, a signal(hereinafter called xe2x80x9cadministration signalxe2x80x9d) which administrates the recording conditions such as playing time of the recorded music, the recording order in the disc, the recording area and address in the disc is recorded together with administration signal area on the disc. After recording the information signals, the information reproducing and recording apparatus performs the reproducing and the editing of the music recorded in the disc based on such administration signals. Accordingly, when the administration signals are not written due to some reasons, even when the information signals on the music are wholly accurately written, the reproducing and editing of the music recorded in the disc becomes impossible.
However, in the conventional vehicle-mounting-type information reproducing and recording apparatus, when the temperature in the inside of the apparatus deviates from a given usage temperature range in the midst of writing the music, the writing operation is instantly stopped and the disc is ejected from the apparatus housing so as to prevent the deterioration of the laser diode. Accordingly, the writing of the administration signals can not be performed so that the information signals recorded in the disc when the writing is stopped are wasted whereby the availability of the information recording and reproducing apparatus in operation is remarkably reduced.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus which can maintain the reliability of the apparatus even under the severe temperature change and is capable of performing proper operations.
According to the present invention, an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus which records information to a optical information recording medium and reproduces the recorded information includes first signal processing part which processes a input signal and generates a writing signal to the information recording medium, information writing part which writes the writing signal into the information recording medium, information reading part which reads information recorded in the information recording medium and generates a reading signal, second signal processing part which performs signal processing of the reading signal and generates an information reproducing signal, temperature detecting part which detects the temperature of the information writing part and the information reading part, control part which controls operations of the information writing part and the information reading part based on a detected value from the temperature detecting part, wherein the control part performs a control such that the control part allows the operation of the information writing part and the information reading part only when the detected value falls within a first temperature setting range, the control part stops the operation of the information writing part and information reading part when the detected value exceeds a second temperature setting range, and the control part allows the restarting of the operations of information writing part and the information reading part when the detected value falls within a third temperature setting range, and the first to third temperature setting ranges can be set individually with respect to respective operations of the information writing or the information reading.
Further, according to the present invention, an optical information reproducing and recording apparatus which records an information signal in an optical information recording medium together with a administration signal and reproduces the signals includes information writing and reading part which writes the information signal and the administration signal into the information recording medium or reads the written signals by irradiating optical beams to the information recording medium, temperature detecting part for detecting a temperature of the information writing and reading part, control part which controls the writing operation or the reading operation of the information writing and reading part in response to a writing or reading command and based on a detected value from the temperature detecting part, wherein the control part performs a control such that provided that the writing command is supplied to the control part, when the detected value is out of a given set temperature range, the control part stops the writing operation of the information signal and shifts the writing operation to only the writing operation of the administration signal.

Optical information reproducing and recording apparatus utilizing varying temperature setting ranges


A system and method for identifying whether data skew is causing delays in a map phase and/or a reduce phase of a query of a distributed database. The system and method identify the values of various metrics relating to a database query. These metrics include map phase and reduce phase durations and various related metrics. The system and method gather statistics of multiple queries to determine correlation levels between the metrics and the map phase and reduce phase durations. Based on the statistics, the system and method determine whether one or both of the map and reduce phases for a query/response are taking longer than expected. If the durations are longer than expected, the system identifies the delay as caused by data skew and informs the originator of the query.

Databases that are distributed across many computers, including some SQL databases, Hadoop databases (e.g., eBay's® Hadoop® database), etc. receive queries and for some such databases perform these queries in parallel on different parts of a data set that are distributed on different servers, then return a response to the originator of the query and/or one or more other designated locations. Responses to queries are generally returned fastest when the data being queried is evenly distributed among multiple servers. All other things being equal, some distributed databases take longer to respond to queries when the data set(s) being queried are concentrated entirely or mostly on a small number of servers (or one server). Thus long delays can be caused by such concentrations of data (sometimes called "data skew"). However, all other things are not always equal. There may be various other causes for a response to a query to be long delayed, such as resource congestion. That is, the distributed database may receive large numbers of queries at the same time. In such a case, even a query on well distributed data will take a long time.
This occurs because various queries are designed and sent to the database servers by various users and groups of users. There is generally little to no coordination among users to ensure that the system receives a steady supply of queries, rather than receiving many queries during some periods (e.g., weekdays from 9 AM-5 PM) and few queries at other times (e.g., weekends at 2 AM).
Although some database systems redistribute data based on the queries that come in, in some cases this is not necessary, even when data for a particular query is highly skewed. For example, some queries may so simple and/or be performed on so little data that even when a high percentage of that data is concentrated on one server, the response would come in an acceptable amount of time, unless the database (or the specific server on which the data for that query is concentrated) is congested. That is, even in a case where there is a high data skew and a long delay, the high data skew may not be at fault for the long delay.
The performance of a query by the database servers and the return of the response may be referred to herein as a "job" and the delay between submitting the query and receiving the response may be referred to as a "job delay". Currently, it is very difficult to know if a job delay is caused by a data skew issue or a congestion issue. This is a problem for users of distributed databases, because data skew issue will cause their jobs run extremely slowly which may not only affect the business contracts for the use of the database, but also impact the performance of the entire database due to resource contention. Accordingly, there is a need for a user friendly tool to determine the cause of long job delays.
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.

Distributed database job data skew detection


A portable whip antenna (100) is used to form a parallel wire transmission line (304) and support for a dipole antenna system (900). The portable whip antenna is formed of an elongated monopole radiating element (306) extending from a feed point (114, 202) comprising an RF connector, which can be connected directly to a portable radio transceiver (200). A first flexible conductor extends parallel to and spaced apart from the elongated monopole radiating element of the whip antenna to form the parallel wire transmission line. A first dipole element (512) is formed from a portion of the first flexible conductor extending from a link member in a first direction transverse to a length of the elongated monopole radiating element. A second dipole radiating element (516) is formed of an elongated length of a second flexible conductor (522) extending in a second direction transverse to the elongated monopole radiating element.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to methods and systems for adapting antennas for various operating conditions, and more particularly for adapting a whip type antenna to a dipole antenna having either a flat-top, inverted-L or inverted-V configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
A whip antenna generally consists of a single driven linear element, which may be formed of a flexible rod member. The rod member is sometimes mounted above a ground plane for improved performance. A whip or monopole antenna has an omni-directional radiation pattern, meaning that the radiation gain is the same in all azimuth directions. The gain tends to diminish with increasing elevation angle, such that antenna gain is practically zero in a direction aligned with the axis of the antenna. While this arrangement works well for many applications, it is not well suited for Near Vertical Incidence Skywave or NVIS communications.
A portable vertical whip or monopole antenna is frequently used with various portable manpack transceivers. One such portable vertical whip antenna is an AT-271 antenna (also known as AS-271/PRC; National Stock Number NSN 5820-00-242-4967). Maximum range of ground-wave communications with a portable whip antenna such as the AT-271 is typically about 15 miles on the battlefield. However, modern battlefield doctrine also uses HF manpack transceivers for communications in the range of 25-200+ miles. Such distances require an antenna capable of NVIS (overhead pattern) performance.
For reasons explained above, vertical monopole antennas like the AT-271 are not generally suited for NVIS communications. Other antennas, such as the AS-2259 antenna system (also known as the AS-2259/GR; NSN 5980-00-106-6130) are well suited for NVIS; however, the AS-2259 is generally shunned due to its weight and bulk. Manpack HF transceivers are designed for users who operate in what the military refers to as "dismounted" configuration, i.e. a soldier with a radio on his back. Most HF dismount use has an element of covert or inserted operation. As such, these operations require small/light and quick to deploy antennas for which the AS-2259 is not well suited. Both the AT-271 and AS-2259 are produced many manufacturers but their design is dictated by military specifications.
A simple wire dipole type antenna can work well for NVIS communications. However, wire antennas of this kind have limited performance if they are too close to the ground. In many tactical environments, the absence of suitable support structures means that a wire dipole antenna will either be placed directly on or just a few inches above the ground. The result is relatively poor antenna performance. Wire antennas can be raised up above the ground if support structures are present. However, such support structures are often heavy and bulky, making them impractical to carry.
The RF-1942 (RF-1942-AT001) is a military HF vehicular antenna kit which can be configured in several different ways for different operational scenarios. The antenna includes a plurality of composite tubular sections that can be threaded together to form a whip antenna. The antenna kit also includes an inverted "V" component which is used to convert the whip antenna to an inverted "V" configuration. The inverted "V" component consists of a insulated winder structure onto which two wire antenna elements can be wound when stored. The winder structure is essentially a solid block of insulating material which is fixed to a female threaded element. The female threaded element can be screwed onto a male threaded element at the top end of the whip antenna.
One problem with the RF-1942 concerns deployment of the wire elements used to form an inverted "V" antenna. The wire elements which form the inverted "V" inevitably become twisted when unwrapped from the winder structure. The twisted wires are difficult to deploy and have a tendency to become tangled. This problem is compounded when the winder element is threaded onto the top end of the whip antenna. The problem is also compounded due to a downlead portion of one of the wire elements which extends adjacent to a length of the whip antenna to an antenna feed point. Once the winder is tightly threaded onto the top of the whip antenna, it is substantially fixed in position relative to the whip. In other words, the winder is not generally free to rotate around the whip. Consequently, when wire dipole antenna elements are deployed from the rigid and fixed structure of the winder, the wire elements forming the dipole antenna cannot be freely rotated around the axis of the whip antenna for purposes of facilitating deployment. This can be nuisance when trees or other obstacles interfere with deployment of the wire elements. Moreover, the down-lead element of the RF-1942 which extends along the length of the whip is formed as one continuous element with one of the dipole elements. This continuous element is threaded through the winder. Consequently, any rotation of the winder structure that does happen to occur will result in the down-lead component becoming wrapped or twisted around the whip antenna. As a practical matter, this arrangement tends to be inconvenient to deploy in the field.


A portable generator housing is operable to house a generator. An enclosure of the portable generator housing includes a bottom, a top, and a movable side. The movable side may be removably connected with the top. The movable side is configured to move between a first position where a top edge of the movable side is adjacent to the top and a second position where the top edge of the movable side is in communication with a ground adjacent to the bottom.

Portable generators are often designed to provide easy, fast, transportable power at a variety of locations, such as construction sites, tailgates, and campgrounds. In some instances, such as during power failures or when additional power is needed to supplement utility power, portable generators may provide power to residential buildings or any other type of building or structure. It is important to ensure that the storage of portable generators is secure, as storing or leaving a portable generator outdoors may expose the portable generator to harmful elements or provide too high of a risk of theft. However, storing a portable generator in a garage or shed may not be optimal, as the stored portable generator may take up otherwise useful storage space and may not be easily accessible or serviceable, especially at night or in an emergency.

Outdoor protective housing for storing and connecting a portable generator


The recovery of vitamin K-dependent proteins produced by transformed microorganisms can be effected from the cell culture medium utilizing the changes in the protein which occur in the presence of divalent cations. The present process uses divalent cations to alter the binding affinity of the proteins and thereby selectively elute the proteins away from contaminants in the culture medium using standard chromatography.

A large number of human and other mammalian proteins, including, for example, human growth hormone, human protein C and clotting Factor VII, have been produced in host cells by transfecting these cells with DNA encoding these proteins and growing the recombinant cells under conditions favorable for the expression of the protein. Grinnell et al. describe the expression of recombinant human protein C (HPC) by human kidney cells in Biotechnology, 5:1189-1192 (1987). The proteins are secreted by the cells into the cell culture medium, and must be separated from the culture medium and the other components, such as cell waste products, cell debris and proteins or other material, which also has collected in the medium. In addition, the biological activity of the protein must be preserved, so the recovery conditions must be mild enough to preserve the biological activity of the protein, but, at the same time, thorough enough to effectively separate the protein from contaminants in the medium. Purity is often an important consideration, especially for pharmaceutical applications.
Recovery of proteins in biologically active form from cell culture medium presents a number of problems. For example, the desired protein must be separated from other closely related proteins in the cell culture medium, such as homologous, biologically inactive proteins, which may be associated with the protein. The recovery process should yield the biologically active form of the protein with a high level of purity.
Jones et al. describe a method for recovering refractile proteins (non-exported proteins which form insoluble protein granules within the host cell) from the cytoplasm of a host cell in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,922. Related patents describing denaturing-refolding protein recovery systems include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,599,197; 4,518,526; and 4,511,503.
Raush and Meng in U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,196 describe recovery of heterogenous proteins from a host cell, which are also in the form of refractile bodies.
Hung et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,362 describe a process for recovering recombinant refractile proteins from a host cell, involving denaturing the protein, and subsequent renaturing to yield the desired product.
The recovery and purification of human coagulation Factor VII is described by Brose and Majerus in The Journal of Bioloqical Chemistry, 255:1242-1247 (1980). They purified Factor VII from human plasma with a yield of about 30% using a process which involved first absorbing the proteins to barium citrate, and separating by chromatography.
Vitamin K-dependent proteins are a class of proteins involved in maintaining hemostasis. The dependency on vitamin K occurs during the biosynthesis of the proteins. Human protein C (HPC) is a vitamin K-dependent plasma glycoprotein that plays a key role in maintaining hemostasis. C. T. Esmon, Science, 235:1348-1352 (1987).
The binding of calcium ions (Ca.sup.2+) to HPC causes a conformational change in HPC that can be measured by fluoresence emission spectroscopy. Johnson et al , J. Biol. Chem., 258:5554-5560 (1983). The conformational change results in a change in surface charge distribution as measured by a difference in the migration pattern of the protein in an electrical field, such as agarose gel electrophoresis. Stenflo, J., J. Biol. Chem., 251:355-363 (1976).

Method for the purification of vitamin K-dependent proteins


Disclosed is a dishwasher, by which the dishwasher is simply configured as well as the door is facilitated to open/close. The present invention includes a cabinet having an open front side, a door opening/closing the front side of the cabinet, a locker at the door, a coupling member inside the cabinet to be elastically coupled to or separated from the locker in opening/closing the door, and a switch in rear of the coupling member to sense opening/closing of the door.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dishwasher, which is simply configured and facilitates to open/close a door.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a dishwasher is an apparatus for automatically washing and drying tableware by injecting water and detergent on the tableware. A dishwasher according to a related art is explained by referring to the attached drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dishwasher according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a dishwasher according to a related art mainly consists of a cabinet 2 having a large open front side, a washing chamber 4 provided in the cabinet 2, and a door 6 opening/closing the open front side of the cabinet 2.
A rack 8 on which tableware is put is provided in the washing chamber 4, and a nozzle 10 injecting water via injection holes 10a is rotatably provided under the rack 8.
A sump (not shown in the drawing) is provided under the washing chamber 4 to collect water therein. A pump (not shown in the drawing) pumping water to the nozzle 10 and a heater assembly (not shown in the drawing) for heating water held in the sump are provided in the sump.
Moreover, a blower assembly 12 for blowing out humid air in the dishwasher in progress and a detergent box assembly 14 storing a detergent are provided to an inside of the door 6. And, a gasket (not shown in the drawing) is provided to an inner circumference of the door 6 to make the door adhere closely to cabinet 2 when the door 6 is closed.
Meanwhile, a door lock assembly fixing the door 6 to the cabinet 2 is provided to the door 6 and cabinet 2.
FIG. 2 is a layout of a door lock assembly according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, a door lock assembly according to a related art consists of a grip 22 at the door 6, a locker 24 at the door 6, a holder 26 at the cabinet 2, and a micro switch 32 at the cabinet 2.
The grip 22 is hinge-coupled to the door 6 by a spring (not shown in the drawing). And, the locker 24 is hinge-coupled to the door 6 to be connected to the grip 22.
The holder 26 is coupled to the locker 24 to fix the door 6 to a front side of the cabinet 2. For this, a hole 24h in which the holder 26 is inserted is formed at a center if the locker 24, and a tip of the locker 24 inclines so that the holder 26 slides to be inserted in the hole 24h.
And, the micro switch 32 is provided in rear of the holder 26 to stop operating the dishwasher in case that the door 6 is open. A button 34 is provided to one side of the micro switch 32. The button 34 is compressed/restored by a link 28 provided to the cabinet 2 to control an operation of the micro switch 32.
An operation of the dishwasher according to the related art is explained as follows.
First of all, when a user holds the grip 22 to push the door 6 to the cabinet 2, the holder 26 slides along the incline tip of the locker 24 to be inserted in the hole 24h of the locker 24.
In this case, the tip of the locker 24 moves the link 28 so that the link 28 presses the button 34. Hence, the micro switch 32 is turned on and the dishwasher starts to operate according to a user's command.
Meanwhile, if the user holds to lift up the grip 22 of the door 6 and then pulls the door 6 from the cabinet 2 of the dishwasher in progress, the locker 24 inserted in the holder 26 is released from the holder 26.
In this case, the button 34 is restored to turn off the micro switch 32 as well as the contact between the tip of the locker 24 and the link 28 is released, whereby the dishwasher stops operating.
Hence, even if the door 6 is opened while the washing machine operates, the dishwasher stops operating to prevent an accident from occurring in using the dishwasher.
However, the related art dishwasher is constructed with so many complicated interworking parts such as the grip, locker, holder, link, button, and micro switch.
And, dimensional tolerance and interference of the many parts should be accurately managed, thereby having difficulty in work and part managements.
Moreover, in order to release the locking between the locker and the holder to open the door, the door has to be pulled from the body after the grip has been lifted up, thereby causing inconvenience in using the dishwasher.

Dishwasher having a lock with an elastic coupling


An amplification device for amplifying suction noise of a vehicle is disclosed herein. An embodiment of the amplification device comprises an intake duct, a connecting pipe, an elastic membrane member and a contact member. The intake duct feeds air into an engine inlet port. A connecting pipe is connected to an interior of the intake duct. The elastic membrane member blocks a passageway inside of the contacting pipe. The contact member is connected to the connecting pipe and includes at least one portion that is adapted to selectively contact a surface of the elastic membrane member that faces the intake duct.

Related art devices that amplify suction noise include, for example, the devices described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-218458 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-139982. In the amplification device described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-218458, an intake duct is connected to a dashboard by a flexible tube so that suction noise may be fed into a vehicle cabin. The amplification device of a vehicle described in 2005-139982 has a connecting pipe connected to an interior of the intake duct and an elastic membrane that blocks the connecting pipe. The elastic membrane is made to vibrate; corresponding to the variation in pressure generated inside the intake duct, thereby generating a sound that amplifies the suction noise.
However, above-described amplification devices are associated with certain problems. For instance, as the suction noise is amplified corresponding to variation in pressure in the intake duct, there is no way to selectively silence or minimize the suction noise. Thus, it would be desirable to reduce the effect of amplifying the suction noise.

Device and method for amplifying suction noise


A system and a method of transmitting data via data networks. A bi-directional data connection is created even behind firewalls, including from a client not visible to a server in the Internet. In the method and system, a first connection request for establishing a first transmission channel is sent to a server of an automation system from a first data processing device of a client via a data connection. This request is answered by the server via a second transmission channel. The data connection is kept permanently open, thereby allowing mutually time-independent bi-directional sending and receiving of data between the client and the server, via at least one data network. A COM automatic marshaller which incorporates itself into the communications chain between the client and the server is provided.

The invention relates to a system and to a method for transmitting data via data networks, especially the Internet, with asynchronous data connection.
With the help of data networks, it is possible to set up a data connection to a server from any computers, so-called clients, which have access to these data networks. This applies particularly to the World Wide Web (WWW), which is also referred to as the Internet. The terms Web or Internet server and Web or Internet client used below serve to clarify the association with the special data network, the Internet, but are not functionally different than the meaning of the terms client or server, which are used for all possible data networks.
On the Internet, a data connection is set up to a so-called Web or Internet server. Access to an Internet server takes place, for example, with the help of known Internet browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer from the company Microsoft or Netscape Communicator from the company Netscape. When setting up a data connection from a so-called Web or Internet client, a so-called request is made to an Internet server by entering and sending off a so-called URL address. When a data connection is established, the Internet server called replies with a so-called HTML page (HTML=Hyper Text Markup Language), also known as a Web page. The so-called Web clients communicate with the Web servers by transport protocols. Each data connection between Web client and Web server is based on a so-called request protocol, and, as a response to this, a so-called response protocol.

System and method for transmitting data via data networks with data conversion by a COM automatic marshaller


Methods and processes for preparing supported metal catalysts are provided, where the supported metal catalysts can be used for the bulk synthesis of carbon nanotubes. The salts of the metal and the support are selected such that they are soluble in the same solvent. The catalyst can be prepared from the liquid phase through joint precipitation of the metal and the support material. The methods can be used to increase the metal load on the support. Use of the catalysts increases the yield of the carbon nanotubes.

Metal nanoparticles are defined as having an average particle size less than 100 nm, and they have high surface area and high reactivity. Metal nanoparticles are an increasingly important industrial material, finding use as reaction catalysis (including serving as a reaction substrate), improving the behavior and properties of materials, drug delivery, as catalysts for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes, as a catalyst for hydrogen gas synthesis, and in the production of metal hydrides.
Metal nanoparticles can be produced by several techniques such as plasma or laser-driven gas phase reactions, evaporation-condensation mechanisms, and various wet chemical techniques. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,660,680 to Hampden-Smith et al. discloses the use of metal organics as precursors for the production of electrocatalyst powders. In their process, an aerosol of droplets from a liquid containing the metal organic and the support material is generated, the droplet, suspended in a carrier gas, is heated to remove the liquid to form particles of the catalyst dispersed on the support phase. However, none of the current technique provides a reliable, simple, and low-cost method for production of nanoparticles of a controlled size. The current techniques produce particles with poor crystallinity, a wide distribution of sizes around a desired nanoparticle size, or require specialized equipment, long processing times, or expensive specialty chemicals. For example, the preferred methods for the production of metal nanoparticles are hydrometallurgy and spray pyrolysis. However, these methods have several major drawbacks including preparation and handling of toxic materials that are difficult to handle, environmental emission control requirements for gaseous and liquid effluents, and a difficulty to produce average particle sizes below 100 nm.
One potentially attractive wet chemical technique for synthesis of metal nanoparticles is thermal decomposition, as these reactions may be carried using relatively simple equipment. However, currently known methods of metal nanoparticle formation using thermal decomposition require addition of a separate surfactant, thus increasing the complexity and cost of the method.
A particular application of the metal nanoparticles is in the production of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are hexagonal networks of carbon atoms forming seamless tubes with each end capped with half of a fullerene molecule. They were first reported in 1991 by Sumio Iijima who produced multi-layer concentric tubes or multi-walled carbon nanotubes by evaporating carbon in an arc discharge. In 1993, Iijima's group and an IBM team headed by Donald Bethune independently discovered that a single-wall nanotube could be made by vaporizing carbon together with a transition metal such as iron or cobalt in an arc generator (see Iijima et al. Nature 363:603 (1993); Bethune et al., Nature 363: 605 (1993) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,054). The original syntheses produced low yields of non-uniform nanotubes mixed with large amounts of soot and metal particles.
Presently, there are three main approaches for the synthesis of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. These include the electric arc discharge of graphite rod (Journet et al. Nature 388: 756 (1997)), the laser ablation of carbon (Thess et al. Science 273: 483 (1996)), and the chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbons (Ivanov et al. Chem. Phys. Lett 223: 329 (1994); Li et al. Science 274: 1701 (1996)). Multi-walled carbon nanotubes can be produced on a commercial scale by catalytic hydrocarbon cracking while single-walled carbon nanotubes are still produced on a gram scale.
Generally, single-walled carbon nanotubes are preferred over multi-walled carbon nanotubes because they have unique mechanical and electronic properties. Defects are less likely to occur in single-walled carbon nanotubes because multi-walled carbon nanotubes can survive occasional defects by forming bridges between unsaturated carbon valances, while single-walled carbon nanotubes have no neighboring walls to compensate for defects. Defect-free single-walled nanotubes are expected to have remarkable mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties that could be tunable by varying the diameter, number of concentric shells, and chirality of the tube.
It is well known that the diameter of the SWNTs produced is proportional to the size of the catalyst particle. It is generally recognized that smaller catalyst particles of less than 3 nm are preferred for the growth of smaller diameter carbon nanotubes. Further, the distribution of the catalyst particle size influences on the yield and homogeneity of the SWNTs. Thus, smaller the catalyst particle size and narrower the distribution of the particle sizes, the higher the quality of the SWNTs. However, the smaller catalyst particles easily aggregate at the higher temperatures required for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes. Further, catalysts of small average particle sizes are difficult to synthesize. For example, Tanaka et al. (2004) Carbon 24: 1285-1292, disclose a method of catalyst preparation that includes the precipitation of ferric and nickel carbonate from ferric nitrate and nickel nitrate solutions for the synthesis of carbon nanofibers. In addition, the ratio of catalyst to support determines the quantity and quality of the SWNTs produced. Typically, a ratio of catalyst to support of about 1:10 to about 1:20 is used. It is difficult to increase the catalyst load on the support because the catalyst particles aggregate. Consequently, it has been reported that catalyst to support ratios of 1:1 to 1:3 are not suitable for the production of SWNTs. However, increasing the ratio increases the cost of the materials for the bulk production of SWNTs.
Thus, there is a need for simple, reliable, and low cost thermal decomposition methods for producing supported metal nanoparticles having higher catalyst loads that allows for control of the average particle size while minimizing the amount of variance in the particle sizes. Accordingly, the present invention provides methods and processes for the production of metal nanoparticle catalysts that can be used for the bulk synthesis of SWNTs.

Catalyst for synthesis of carbon single-walled nanotubes

The Ohio State University Research Foundation