There is provided a fixing belt that has sufficient fixing performance even at high sheet-feeding speeds of 100 ppm or more, does not cause offset even with respect to color toners, produces glossy high-quality images at the level of photograph image quality, and has high durability such that mechanical strength or image quality can hardly be reduced during continuous operation. The color image fixing belt of the invention is characterized by being made of a polyimide resin and has an inner diameter of no less than 300 mm, and the outer circumference surface of the belt has a surface roughness (Rz) of 1 μm or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a fixing belt that can produce high-quality color images when used as a fixing belt in an image-forming device such as a copying machine and a printing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, fixing methods using heat, pressure or a combination thereof have been proposed for fixing of images on a transfer paper sheet or the like in the image-forming device. Examples of such methods include oven fixing methods, flash fixing methods, pressure fixing methods, and hot roller fixing methods. In particular, the hot roller fixing methods are widely used in view of thermal efficiency, combustion risk, fixing properties, or the like. In the hot roller fixing method, a hot roller and a press roller are arranged opposite to each other, and a transfer paper sheet is fed between both rollers. In this method, a toner provisionally fixed on the transfer paper sheet is fused and fixed by the generation of heat from a heater embedded in the hot roller, and the fixing is reinforced by pressing with the press roller, so that images are formed with the toner on the transfer paper sheet. Such a hot roller fixing method, however, requires high pressure load for the fusion and fixation of the toner on the transfer paper sheet, because of small contact area.
Against the problem, belt fixing methods are proposed. This method includes arranging a roller and a belt opposite to each other and feeding a transfer paper sheet between them to fix a toner. This method also needs basic functions including pressing, heating, driving, and releasing, like the hot roller fixing method, but these functions may be performed by any of the roller and the belt. A belt with high following performance provided on one side can increase the contact area and reduce the pressure load. In the belt fixing method, however, an increase in sheet-feeding speed leads to an increase in pressure load, and thus, there is proposed a fixing belt having a fluoroplastic layer with improved wear resistance of release layer. Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-114585 has proposed a fixing belt having a fluoroplastic layer with improved wear resistance of release layer.


The present invention relates to a liquid hand dishwashing cleaning composition including a surfactant system, wherein the surfactant system includes an anionic surfactant and a co-surfactant, wherein the anionic surfactant includes a mixture of a linear anionic surfactant and a branched anionic surfactant with a defined degree of branching and with the branching predominantly on an unalkoxylated alkyl sulfate surfactant. Such compositions exhibit surprising and unexpected improved sudsing profile, preferably stable suds, especially when the manual dishwashing is performed in a sink full of water with the cleaning composition diluted in it.

Traditionally, manual dishwashing is performed in a sink full of water with the cleaning composition diluted in it. Accordingly, with this method of hand dishwashing, the user relies on the sudsing profile as an indicator of the composition's cleaning ability. To qualify a dishwashing detergent as having a good sudsing profile, the generated foam must produce high suds volume and/or longevity (i.e., longevity) of the suds (i.e., stable suds), preferably with sustained suds aesthetics throughout dilution during the wash process (i.e., suds whiteness and consistency), to indicate to the user that sufficient active ingredients (e.g., surfactants) are present to perform the desired cleaning. Previous attempts to improve sudsing profile have not focused on the use of the defined mixture according to the invention of linear and branched anionic surfactant, specifically where the branching predominantly is positioned on an unalkoxylated alkyl sulfate surfactant in particular to improve suds generation and/or suds stabilization in the presence of particulate soils.
Thus, the need remains for a cleaning composition having a good sudsing profile, in particular increased suds volume and/or increased suds stabilization benefits in the presence of particulate soils, particularly through-out the entire manual dishwashing operation. The need also exists for a cleaning composition, particularly a hand dishwashing cleaning composition, that sustains suds aesthetics throughout the dilution and the wash process provides good product dissolution and good cleaning, particularly good removal of particulate soils from dishware. The Applicant has discovered that some or all of the above-mentioned needs can be at least partially fulfilled through cleaning compositions as described herein below.

Liquid hand dishwashing cleaning composition comprising linear and branched alkyl anionic surfactant mixture


A fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base includes continuous reinforcing fibers aligned in parallel to each other and a thermoplastic resin is impregnated thereinto, wherein the base has a fiber volume content of 40-65 vol % and a dispersion parameter D of the fibers, determined by (i)-(iv), of 90% or more: (i) a cross-section of the fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base that is perpendicular to the alignment direction of the reinforcing fibers is divided into a plurality of sections, and one of the sections is photographed, (ii) the photograph image of the section is divided into a plurality of square units each having a one-side length t, (iii) a dispersion parameter d is calculated, (iv) with respect to other sections, (i) to (iii) are repeatedly performed, and an average value of dispersion parameters d of the plurality of sections is dispersion parameter D.

A fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base made by impregnating a thermoplastic resin into continuous reinforcing fibers is excellent in specific strength and specific stiffness, high in weight reduction effect, and high in heat resistance and chemical resistance and, therefore, is preferably used for various applications such as transportation equipment such as aircraft, automobiles and the like, sports and electric/electronic parts. In recent years, due to the growing demand for weight reduction, replacement from metallic parts to resin parts, reduction in size and modularity of parts are progressing, mainly for aircraft and automobile applications and, therefore, development of materials is required to be more excellent in moldability and excellent in mechanical properties.
As a composite material for a structural material having excellent moldability and mechanical properties, for example, a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin prepreg containing carbon fibers in a polyamide resin (for example, refer to JP-A-2013-159675) is known. Although such a prepreg is expected as a weight-reduction material to realize high mechanical properties to stably exhibit mechanical properties, it is necessary that the impregnation property of a matrix resin into portions between fiber bundles and reinforcing fibers uniformly disperse in the fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base.
As a method of obtaining uniformity of the dispersion of reinforcing fibers, for example as described in JP-A-HEI 8-164521, a method is exemplified wherein a sectional image of a fiber-reinforced composite material is divided into sections each having an appropriate size and it is determined from a variation of the areal rates of reinforcing fibers in respective divided sections. In such a method, however, when reinforcing fibers are distributed, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, it is impossible to appropriately evaluate the density of reinforcing fibers in each section, and there is a possibility that in practice reinforcing fibers are dispersed in a nonuniform manner. Therefore, a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base with reinforcing fiber more uniformly dispersed is required.
Accordingly, it could be helpful to provide a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base with a thermoplastic resin as a matrix in which reinforcing fibers are more reliably uniformly dispersed and has a small variation in mechanical properties.

Fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-resin base and molded article obtained therefrom


The invention disclosed buck power factor correction system. The system includes: a first storing device, for storing and discharging energy; a first converter device, coupled to the first storing device, for transferring and converting energy; a second storing device, coupled to the first storing device, for storing and discharging energy; and a second converter device, coupled to the second storing device, for transferring and converting energy.

A great number of current electrical appliances operate on direct current, and thus need direct-alternating current conversion since public electricity is alternating current. To reduce reactive power of an electronic system as well as to minimize current harmonics that cause system interference, a power factor corrector is prevailingly implemented in many electrical appliances that are required to have a high power factor and low current harmonics. A common power factor correction circuit stereotypically adopts a boost approach, which is however set back by a limitation that a direct-current output voltage is necessarily higher than a peak value of an alternating-current input voltage. Further, although other circuits capable of outputting a lower voltage by means of buck or buck-boost are available, these circuits suffer from drawbacks from having less satisfactory characteristics and efficiency, a large volume for a corresponding storage component, complex control means to low feasibilities.
FIG. 1A shows a boost converter circuit frequently adopted by a conventional power factor corrector, which is advantaged by having a higher power factor and simpler control means. FIG. 1B shows a schematic diagram of waveforms of an input voltage Vs and a current Is of the conventional power factor corrector in FIG. 1A, where ω is an angular frequency of public electricity, and Vm and Im respectively represent a voltage peak and a current peak. A current path of the boost converter circuit allows partial energy from a power source AC to directly charge a direct-current link capacitor CDC (as shown by a solid-line arrow in FIG. 1A). Therefore, an energy-storing inductor in the boost converter circuit only needs to store relatively lower energy, so that it has not only a smaller volume but also high efficiency. QPFC in FIG. 1A represents an active switch transistor, DPFC represents a diode, and a capacitor Cs may be designed based on actual requirements. However, accompanied with a high output voltage, power components of the above conventional power factor corrector are often encountered with a higher voltage stress. In addition, for a load with a lower voltage requirement (lower than a peak voltage of the power source), the conventional boost power factor corrector, instead of directly providing an appropriate power source, is only able to provide a rated voltage needed by the load after stepping down its output voltage via a buck converter circuit, as shown in FIG. 2. Yet, the above design increases a circuit size and production costs as well as circuit power consumption, such that conversion efficiency of an overall circuit is reduced as a result.
To optimize conversion efficiency of a circuit, a power factor corrector with a design of a buck converter circuit has also been proposed, as shown in FIG. 3A. A current path of a buck converter circuit also allows partial energy from the power source AC to directly charge the direct-current link capacitor CDC. Therefore, the energy-storing inductor in the buck converter circuit only needs to store relatively lower energy, so that it has not only a smaller volume but also high efficiency. A main shortcoming of the buck power factor corrector is that, when a power source voltage is lower than a direct-current output voltage, the circuit fails to induce an input current such that the input current becomes discontinuous, as shown in FIG. 3B. As a result, the buck power factor corrector has a lower power factor and larger current harmonics. In addition, the buck power factor corrector is further compromised by more complex control means.
There is also a buck-boost converter circuit (as shown in FIG. 4) or a fly-back converter circuit (as shown in FIG. 5) for serving as a power factor corrector. The two types of converter circuits above although indeed achieve a better power factor, due to the fact that the current path in converter circuits does not allow energy from the power source to directly charge the direct-current link capacitor, they are both disadvantaged by having a larger storage requirement for the inductor, a larger volume and poorer efficiency caused by magnetic energy loss.
There is yet another power factor corrector formed by integrating a boost converter circuit and a buck converter circuit, as shown in FIG. 6. An active switch transistor Q1 performs buck conversion when an active switch transistor Q2 is off; the active switch transistor Q2 performs boost conversion when the active switch transistor Q1 is off. However, unless being implemented in a customized integrated for a specific use, such design is extreme complex and is rather highly unfeasible and unpractical.
All the abovementioned conventional power factor correctors are disfavored by one common disadvantage—a large energy-storing capacitor CDC is required. To maintain a stable voltage at a load, an extremely small voltage change ΔV of the capacitor CDC is needed, which means that it is necessary that the capacitor CDC have sufficient capacitance for absorbing double-fold frequency power wave induced by the public electricity, as shown in FIG. 7. Limited by the extremely small voltage change ΔV for absorbing a difference between an input power and an output power, a capacitance of the direct-link capacitor needs to be very large.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A wire-processing device has a swivel-arm with gripper and open gripper-jaws and is able to thread a wire into a guide-tube arranged on a holder of the gripper and which serves as feeder to feed wire-ends to processing stations. The swivel-arm with the gripper is swiveled with reduced torque from a neutral position toward a wire-guide that functions as a threading aid, a pipe of the gripper actuating the wire-guide from a rest position to a working position. To allow threading of the wire into the guide-tube, the wire-guide bridges a distance between the pipe and the holder. After threading, the swivel-arm swivels back into the neutral position, the gripper-jaws being thereby closed, and the wire-guide is returned to the rest position by a tension spring.

The present invention relates to a wire-processing device with processing stations for processing a wire, which device has at least one feeder with a guide-tube that feeds the wire to the processing stations, and in which a threading aid is provided for threading the cable into the guide-tube.
Usually, the processing stations of a wire-processing device are arranged in a circle, and a swivel-arm feeds the wire-ends to the processing stations for processing (cutting, insulation-stripping, crimping, sleeving, etc.). The wire-ends must be fed to the processing stations accurately, both in the direction of the length of the wire and in the radial direction. Before cutting and insulation-stripping take place, a gripper of the swivel-arm grips the wire. Therefore, provided that the wire-end is guided accurately in a guide-tube of the gripper, the feeding accuracy depends only on the positioning accuracy of the swivel-arm drive. The internal diameter of the guide-tube must be adapted to the cross-section of the wire in such manner that the wire-end in the guide-tube can only move in the longitudinal axis of the wire. Depending on the cross-section of the wire which is to be processed, a corresponding guide-tube must be used, so that the wire-end cannot execute unexpected movements relative to the guide-tube.
When changing from one wire cross-section to another wire cross-section, the guide-tube of the gripper that was previously used must be removed, and a guide-tube which is adapted to the new cross-section must be mounted, into which the wire must be newly threaded. Particularly in the area of the gripper and at the gripper jaws, the leading wire-end causes problems when being advanced, the wire-end catching against edges and component joints. As remedy, a threading aid is foreseen which bridges the area of the gripper jaws when the gripper is open. The threading aid is arranged stationary separate from the gripper in the longitudinal axis of the wire, i.e. the neutral position, the open gripper passing over the threading aid for the purpose of threading. The halves of the threading aid are closed by means of their own, for example pneumatic, actuators, and the wire is advanced through the trumpet-shaped threading aid into the guide-tube. Subsequently, the halves of the threading aid are actively opened by means of the actuators, and the gripper jaws are closed.
A disadvantage of this known device is that the threading aid is arranged in the swiveling, or working, area for wire feeding, and is also actively controlled. In the event of incorrect functioning of the control of the gripper and/or of the threading aid, collisions between the gripper and the threading aid are unavoidable.


Method and device of beam control for stabilizing the laser beam output is controlled by adjusting the driving current of laser beam source. To adjust the driving current output light from laser beam source is detected by a photo detector. This output light has the same specific polarization components the light used to record or read from a magnetic optical disc. The detected light is converted into an electric signal corresponding to the light intensity. This electric signal is compared with a specified reference level to determine the change in the output level of the laser source due to a change in the ambient temperature.

The present invention relates to an optical memory system for recording, reading or erasing information by irradiating an optical disc such as magneto-optical disc, with light emitted from a semiconductor laser, and more particularly, to a beam control device of a semiconductor laser used in an optical memory system and the control method thereof.
Recently optical discs, magneto-optical discs and many others have been developed as systems making use of laser beam.
For example, a magneto-optical disc memory device is an optical recording and reading apparatus for recording, reading or erasing by using a magnetic film having an axis of easy magnetization perpendicular to the surface of the magnetic film as the recording medium, and irradiating it with a laser beam. The recording and reading methods of a magneto-optical disc memory device are explained below.
In recording, the information is recorded as follows. A laser beam focused to a spot of a diameter of about 1 .mu.m is modulated in intensity depending on the information signal and is emitted to the magnetic film surface to elevate the temperature of the magnetic film locally. In this heated area, the coercive force decreases, and therefore, when an auxiliary magnetic field is applied simultaneously from an outside source, the direction of a magnetization is inverted, and the information is recorded.
In reading, on the other hand, the recorded magnetic film surface is irradiated with al linearly polarized light of laser beam having a smaller quantity of light than when recording. As a result, the reflected light produces an inclination of polarization due to the magneto-optical effect of magnetic film (Kerr effect). This inclination is passed through an analyzer to be converted into a change in intensity of light. When the change is detected by a photo detector, a read out signal is obtained.
The light intensity of laser beam requires two output levels, that is, high and low, as discussed above. Namely, the output light intensity level is high when recording (erasing), and is low when reading.
The semiconductor laser emitting a laser beam possesses a temperature characteristic, that varies intensity of laser beam depending on the ambient temperature. In other words, when the ambient temperature changes, the ratio of polarization (the light intensity of P-polarized component/the light intensity of S-polarized component) fluctuates. When the high output light intensity of laser beam varies in the information recording mode, insufficient or excessive writing of information on the recording medium may occur, thereby deteriorating the reliability of the read out information. On the other hand, when the low output light intensity varies in information reading mode, the S/N ratio of the read out signal deteriorates. Therefore, it is necessary to stabilize the light intensity of laser beam at both high and low output levels.
Therefore, conventionally, in this sort of system, the output light from the laser light source is detected by a monitor detector, and the driving current of the laser light source is controlled depending on this result of detection so as to stabilize the laser beam output.
For example, generally, the laser beam is controlled in the following two manners.
(1) The method of recording the laser beam oscillated from the back side of a resonator of semiconductor laser by a photo detector for monitoring and controlling the output light intensity at the front side of the resonator on the basis of the light intensity information obtained from this photo detector.
(2) The method of recording part of the output light at the front side of a resonator of semiconductor laser by using a beam splitter or the like by a detector for monitoring and controlling the output light intensity at the front side of the resonator on the basis of the light intensity information obtained from this detector.
Anyway, in the systems making use of laser beam, it is general to extracting only a specific polarized component in a laser beam. For example, in a magneto-optical system, the information is recorded or read out by using the P-polarized component of the laser beam.
In such conventional laser beam controlling methods, however, since the light entering the photo detector for monitoring contains other polarized components aside from a specific polarized component, the light intensity information obtained in the photo detector for monitoring includes light intensity information obtained on the basis of other polarized components other than the actually required specific polarized component.
Accordingly, in an optical system for recording, reading and/or erasing the information by a laser beam of a specific polarized component, when the laser beam is controlled by light intensity information including light intensity information other than the specific polarized component, the laser beam of the specific polarized component delivered from the laser is influenced by the light intensity of other polarized components, so that the laser beam may not be controlled accurately. That is, the light intensity of laser beam necessary for recording, reading and/or erasing cannot be applied to the optical disc.
In a system using a laser beam of specific polarized component, a more accurate control of the output of laser beam may be realized by obtaining the light intensity information acquired by utilizing a photo detector for monitoring the specific polarized component being used (the P-polarized component in a magneto-optical system) and controlling according to this light intensity information. It is possible to control accurately the specific polarized component in the laser beam outputted from the laser to the optical disc.
Below, in the magneto-optical system in which a specific polarized component is a P-polarized component, possible problems are discussed.
In the conventional method, the light entering the photo detector for monitoring contains both P-polarized component and S-polarized component. Therefore, if the ratio of the P-polarized component to the S-polarized component in the laser beam the polarization ratio) is always constant, the laser beam output light intensity of the P-polarized component can be controlled by the methods (1), (2) above. Actually, however, since the polarization ratio increases or decreases depending on the changes of the ambient temperature of the laser, the conventional light intensity information from the photo detector for monitoring comprising the P-polarized component and S-polarized component is different from the light intensity of the laser beam of the actually used P-polarized component (the light intensity of laser beam outputted to the magneto-optical disc). This phenomenon occurs not only due to variations of the polarization ratio, but also due to rotation of the direction of polarization of the laser output beam.
FIG. 4 shows the relationship between laser driving current (I) and laser output intensity (power) at various ambient temperatures (Tc) of the semiconductor laser. As understood from this diagram, when the temperature rises, the driving current must be increased in order to obtain a specified laser output intensity (for example, about 3 mW when reading, or about 30 mW when recording or erasing).
If the laser is driven at a driving current I' (mA) and the ambient temperature of the laser (T.degree. C.) is not changed, the laser output comprising both P-polarized component and S-polarized component becomes a specified level P1. If the laser is driven at the same driving current (I') and the laser ambient temperature (T) rises, the laser output is lower than level P1, or if the laser ambient temperature (T) drops, the laser output is higher than level P1 (FIG. 5 (1)). Meanwhile, the polarization ratio remains constant if the laser is driven by the driving current I' (mA) and the laser ambient temperature (T.degree. C.) does not change. At this time, as for the P-polarized component, the light intensity of laser beam is a specified level P2. If the laser is driven by the same driving current and the laser ambient temperature rises, the light intensity of laser beam of P-polarized component is lower than level P2, and if the laser ambient temperature drops, the light intensity of laser beam of P-polarized component is higher than level P2 (FIG. 5 (2)).
Thus, according to the conventional stabilizing method of light intensity of laser beam, that is, when the light intensity of laser beam comprising both P-polarized component and S-polarized component are detected by a photo detector for monitoring, and the laser driving current is controlled according to this result of detection, the light intensity of laser output comprising the P-polarized component and S-polarized component can be maintained at a specified level of P1 at each temperature as shown in FIG. 6 (1). But the light intensity of P-polarized component is influenced by the S-polarized component because the light intensity of laser beam is controlled by detecting both P-polarized component and S-polarized component, and it cannot be kept at a specified level of P2 as shown in FIG. 6 (2), that is, the light intensity of laser beam is higher than level P2 when the laser ambient temperature is lower, and is lower than level P2 when the laser ambient temperature is higher. Therefore, in spite of correction of the light intensity of laser beam, the light intensity of the P-polarized component in the laser beam given from the laser to the magneto-optical disc cannot be adjusted to the specified level P2, so that the temperature variations may adversely affect reading recording or erasing as stated above. Incidentally, the graphs in FIGS. 5 (1), (2) and FIGS. 6(1), (2) schematically show the increase and decrease due to temperature changes.
Thus, conventionally, since the light intensity information from the photo detector for monitoring is different from the actually used light intensity, it is impossible to control the light intensity of laser beam accurately by the control on the basis of the above light intensity information.

Beam control device utilizing beam having a specific direction of polarization to control a laser used in an optical memory system


The present invention applies to vape type devices also known as e-cigarettes and e-cigars. In order to expand the acceptable use of Vape type devices, exhalation filtration is offered with a wider bore than the intake bore to permit a more comfortable exhalation. In order to avoid having to carry two devices, a Vape device and a filtration type device, the two are merged into one convenient device for portability, the larger exterior bore device to further act as a stand reducing table top footprint use and provision of the addition of some electronic features included for locating the device, theft avoidance and to electronically certify the user has diligently utilized the filter in public or regulated spaces.

Vaping uses auto combustion, so the user is not required to combust anything, cannot start a fire, can use Vape devices in bed. In part, these devices typically rely on human power for the movement of air. It's not a cigarette and it's not a cigar. There is an electrical or electronic element utilized to efficiently convert fluid to vapor and the vapor carries a scent and may also carry nicotine and other chemical agents.
Filtration was used successfully on cigarettes on the intake side to try to capture some of the tar and other harmful byproducts of combustion during inhalation. In Vape settings, filtration of the exhaled content is still a desirable feature protecting the surrounding environment. People and animals benefit from not having to share in inhaling the various contents of the Vape mechanism in use. Add to this thinking the high pluralities of Vape devices concentrated in a public space and the problem is better illuminated. In fact, Vape exhalation will affix to such things as carpet, cloth, curtains, seat covers, people's clothing, so it really is an issue. Also, the combined chemicals of a plurality of Vape type devices would be unknown, inclusive of the potential for illegal substances emitted into the air, where children will inhale them. This is unacceptable.
City, County, State and Federal law may eventually mandate all vaping devices to filter their exhaust, or, the public cannot use Vaping in public places. Carriers such as bus, train, plane, may mandate use of Vaping with filtration with or without the law mandating it, by way of patron demand.
Examples of prior art fail to provide a public-friendly vaping-type method of tobacco, or other substances traditionally consumed by smoking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,518 Requires you to change exhalation paths. It used a U shaped tube to capture any excess smoke and pull it through. It never claims to get all the smoke, admits it can only get some of it. It is built around a miniature fan and requires power and the fan to operate. It suggests a method to filter exhalations, but without preventing an associated interference with the act of inhalation, thus greatly imposing on the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,083 monitors exhalation but does not provide means to reduce or eliminate dissemination of associated products into the environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,374 provides a method for reusing exhaled smoke by using a bag, but eventually allowing the bags contents to pass unimpeded and unfiltered into the environment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

E-cigarettes, E-cigars, vape-device public safety and protection mechanisms


A hempcrete wall comprising a stud wall, a hemprecte block panel including hemp hurd, hydrated type S lime, and a pumice, and a lumber embedded in the hemprete block panel with holes that allows fixing the hempcrete block panel to the stud wall. The hempcrete block includes a 17.5 lbs of hemp hurd, 10 lbs hydrated type S lime, 17 lbs of powdered pumice, and 44 lbs water.

Hempcrete or hemcrete has been used as a building material for a long time. It has been recently popularized in several European countries. Traditionally hempcrete has been cast to form monolithic wall structures, much like poured concrete. Hempcrete has always been a mixture of hydraulic lime, hemp shiv (or hurd), and water. Cast, monolithic walls must be allowed to dry out until moisture content is below 20% in order to be finished and usable.
Currently, hempcrete as a material being used one of two ways. One way is by being cast into forms on site to construct monolithic wall structures of hempcrete around a timber frame. The hempcrete has to be left to dry for 6-8 weeks before it is finished, delaying construction. There are also currently hempcrete blocks that are being used with both built in wood framing and without wood framing. These blocks are simply rectangular in shape and are deficient in the way that they either do not take the place or insulation and structural loading fully, or they cannot be used between traditional wood lumber framing to provide sufficient compressive strength.
Another shortcoming of traditional hempcrete in general is the necessity to use hydraulic lime to ensure a quick set in order for the hempcrete to maintain its shape. Further, no current hempcrete product has any material that allows retaining shape and structural strength. No current hempcrete panel also incorporates the use of horizontal wood support in order to increase racking and transverse load strength.


School District Administrators have the real-time monitoring of students and school buses during daily school transportation. The IRITRANS® system will provide school districts with real-time bus locations and more importantly the “specific identity of all students on-board”. The system prevents students from becoming lost by boarding or exiting at the wrong assigned bus stop. The iris scanning process is completely mobile from all points of the bus for loading and unloading students with special needs requirements. If a student has a medical emergency the medical history is available to responders for correct treatment. In a hijacking event authorities have access to the real-time GPS location of the bus and the specific identity of students onboard. In the event of a school evacuation, administrators know where the students have been taken and the identity of the students on a specific bus to provide parents. On field trips students are accounted for and not left behind on the return trip. Students will not be abandoned or left sleeping on the school bus.

Student transportation involves a lot of moving parts and can be a source of a district's greatest risk exposure. Each year there are numerous reports of students getting on the wrong bus, getting off at the wrong bus stop, failing to return home from field trips or even worse, not getting off the bus at all—in some cases with fatal consequences. In addition modern terrorism has no limits and can strike anywhere, at any time and claim any victim. Knowing the location of a student and the specific bus transporting the student and the locations where the student boarded and disembarked from the school bus is tremendously useful for the security of the students and the peace of mind of the parents and the school administration both at the school level and the school district level. This information is enormously helpful to law enforcement when a bus has been attacked, high jacked or a student is believed kidnapped or missing.
It would be tremendously valuable to have access to the real-time location of any school bus in a school district bus fleet and also the real-time specific identify of all students riding each school bus. Besides providing a high level of security, such access monitoring prevents or minimizes the chance of students becoming lost by boarding or exiting a school bus at the wrong assigned stop location.
The identity of the students boarding or exiting the bus is confirmed and recorded by bio-metrically iris scanning the student. In the preferred embodiment the scanning process would be completely mobile so that the students boarding or exiting the bus can be biometrically iris scanned upon entrance or anywhere around the bus. Scan identification processing can be conducted even outside the bus at the back, side or front door entries. A mobile scanning capability provides the ability to identify and process special needs students who have exceptional transportation requirements, such as students confined to a wheelchair.
Knowing what bus a student is being transported on and the location of the bus real-time, is particularly advantageous in the event of a student with a medical emergency or a bus accident. Medical information of a student with special medical problems is maintained in the student data file maintained at the school and/or the school district network server. If a medical emergency arises for a student on a bus during school bus transportation, the bus driver can alert the dispatcher or other administrators at the school transportation department.(collectively referred to as the "school transportation department") of the medical emergency identifying the student by name or by a student identification number. The dispatcher or other equivalent personnel can notify the appropriate medical responder of the medical emergency, identify the student involved and supply the accurate location of the bus. When the time is appropriate, the dispatcher or other equivalent personnel can transmit the medical information in the student's file verbally or by text or email message to a smart phone or computer tablet so the medical responder can treat the student with accurate medical treatment.
School buses have been hijacked in the past and government terror officials list school buses as targets. With the present system and method the bus driver can simply activate an alarm from the computer tablet used in the present invention. Activation of the alarm immediately sends an emergency notification to the transportation dispatcher or other equivalent personnel. The dispatcher or equivalent personnel notifies law enforcement and identifies the bus and gives the real-time location of the bus and optionally the specific students on board the bus.
The present system and method can be used for transportation to and from school and any other student transportation including field trips. For field trips each student will be assigned a specific bus and each student will be scanned to identify when the student boards the bus. When the student disembarks at the field trip destination, the student will be scanned again. At the completion of the field trip, the students will return to their assigned bus and be scanned for identification at boarding. If a student fails to board the assigned bus for the return trip at the completion of loading the bus, the scanning system will sound and/or visually signal that a student is missing. The driver will take appropriate action as established by the school or school district administration policy. If all the students have boarded their assigned bus, they will make the return trip. When the bus returns to the drop off point, students will be scanned again for identification assuring all students have returned and exited the bus. In this process all students can be accounted for that made the field trip.
A reoccurring problem with school bus transportation is substitute drivers not being familiar with an assigned daily route. Over time the substitute drivers learn the school bus routes, but before they master the routes, they must rely on hardcopy maps or typed instructions furnished by the school district transportation department. The computer tablet with an embedded GPS system can display or both audibly or visually provide navigation for the designated bus route to guide or assist the substitute driver.
It is vital for security and other reasons described above to furnish a method and system that can enable school district transportation administrators to have real-time information for the location of each of its school buses and the identity of all students on the bus real-time during all types of daily school transportation.
At the present time most school districts rely on the bus driver to identify the students boarding the bus by visual recognition and/or by name recognition. The bus driver may or may not have a check off list of the names of all the students scheduled for his bus for the bus route. It is a fully manual system and there is no accurate way for the school transportation or district administration to determine real-time what students are on-board the bus or what students have disembarked from the bus. Although some school districts have the bus driver report into the appropriate school district department by radio or cell phone when a student is absent from assigned bus transportation. There is no current system that presently exists, except the system of the present invention that accurately identifies each student that has boarded a school bus or disembarked from a school bus.
Some school districts have initiated an ID card system where the card can be read by an proximity reader mounted on the interior of the bus. This was an improvement over the manual system discussed above. However the system and method are far from accurate. Students can forget or lose or have stolen the ID card/badge or the students can substitute or swap card/badges among themselves. In contrast the present system eliminates the need for ID cards or badges and there is no way that a student can lose or substitute an iris identification. The iris bio-metric identification is a fool proof way to identify a student because each person's iris is unique to that person. No two people have the same distinctive iris patterns, even identical twins. The left and right iris of the same person are also different patterns. The present system and method is one of the most accurate biometric processes available for identification purposes. It is mobile and can be used anywhere inside or outside the bus, It is accurate and with a good reading always correctly identifies the student assuming that the student has been previously enrolled in the database and his scanned enrollment reading is stored in a school district's Cloud database server.
All other solutions being used are found to be inaccurate, inconsistent, non-secure products using ID identification cards, RFID tags or bar code components to track students. These components can easily be lost, forgotten, misplace or traded. The iris bio-metric solution is the one and only 99.5% accurate and most ideal system available for school transportation requirements. The system and method of the present invention completely separates itself from any other solution on the market with its mobility, accuracy and identification consistency.

Real-time school bus and student tracking


A modular communications connector includes a housing defining a plug receiving opening, a conductor carrying sled including a printed circuit board designed in conjunction with the conductors to improve crosstalk performance. The connector includes a wire containment fixture arrangement allows for simplified field termination of the modular connector. The connector is assembled by loading the contacts and printed circuit board onto the sled, which is snap fit into the housing. Then, wires are positioned through the wire containment fixture and the fixture is slidably engaged with the sled at a first position and slid along the sled to a second position where the wires are terminated with IDCs mounted on the sled. The connector preferably includes first and second pluralities of conductors, with the second plurality each having IDC portions arranged in first and second rows of four IDCs. The top and bottom IDC portion at each end of the rows terminates an associated wire pair and the two internal IDC portions of each row terminates an associated wire pair. The connector also preferably includes a printed circuit board that is engageable with both the first and second plurality of conductors. The printed circuit board has at least three layers, with a pair of outer layers containing traces that complete an electrical path between the IDCs of the second plurality of conductors and a corresponding first end portion of the first plurality of conductors. One or more capacitors are provided on inner layer of the printed circuit board.

The present invention relates to modular communication connectors and more particularly to a modular communication connector that utilizes a printed circuit board design and conductor arrangement to provide for improved crosstalk performance and also provides for simplified wire termination.
Standard telephone jack connectors and other modular connectors of generally similar design are well known in the communications industry. However, along with the constantly increasing signal transmission rates exists the need for modular communication connectors to have improved crosstalk performance. It is also important for these connectors to continue to have simple field termination capability. Thus, increasing performance requirements for communication connectors establish a need in the art of modular communication connectors to be economically manufactured which can be easily field terminated and that will achieve higher levels of suppressing crosstalk interference.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a modular communication connector with improved crosstalk performance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular communication connector with simplified field terminability.
In general, a modular communications connector, includes a housing defining a plug receiving opening, a conductor carrying sled supporting a plurality of conductors each including an insulation displacement contact (IDC) portion disposed extending rearwardly in a direction generally parallel to an axis of entry of the plug received opening; and a wire containment fixture having means for positioning wires with respect to the IDC portions, said fixture being engageable to and slidably movable along a portion of the conductor carrying sled. The connector also utilizes a printed circuit board design incorporating capacitors which in conjunction with the conductor design improves the overall crosstalk performance. The IDC portions of the conductors are arranged in upper and lower rows of four IDC portions each such that the top and bottom IDC portion at each end of the rows terminates a wire pair and the two internal IDC portions of each row terminates a wire pair and the printed circuit board includes at least three layers with the outer layers containing a plurality of traces for interconnecting the first and second plurality of conductors, and formed on an inner layer of the PCB for affecting the crosstalk performance of the conductor.

Low crosstalk modular communication connector


The present invention pertains to a cable comprising: —at least one conductor coated by an insulation coating layer, —a first protective layer surrounding said insulation coating layer, said first protective layer at least comprising, but preferably being made of a tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) copolymer comprising from 0.8% to 2.5% by weight of recurring units derived from at least one perfluorinated alkyl vinyl ether having formula (I) here below: CF2═CF—O—Rf, wherein Rf is a linear or branched C3-C5 perfluorinated alkyl group or a linear or branched C3-C12 perfluorinated alkyl group comprising one or more ether oxygen atoms, said TFE copolymer having a melt flow index comprised between 1.0 and 6.0 g/10 min, as measured according to ASTM D1238 at 372° C. under a load of 5 Kg [polymer (F)]; —optionally, a second protective layer surrounding said first protective layer, and —an armor shell surrounding said first or second protective layer. The invention also pertains to use of the cable in downhole wells.

Many types of cables have been used over the years in downhole wells for communication with logging tools and other equipments located in a downhole environment.
More particularly, cables are used in the oil drilling industry to transmit information and data from a drilling equipment to a control unit located remote to the onshore or offshore drilling region.
Cables are also used for electrically power downhole operations such as drilling.
Downhole wells are bored in the earth and are typically used for conveying oils and/or gases from the earth or for recovering heat energy at temperatures depending where the well is drilled and how deep, typically higher than 200° C. The drilling operations indeed involve deeper and deeper wells and typically reach temperatures as high as 260° C. or higher than 260° C., especially proximate to the bottom of the well.
The most common of these cables are typically referred to as wireline cables by virtue of their inclusion of one or multiple layers of wire armors which also serve as the load bearing members of the cable. While wireline cables are typically durable, at least in many environments, they are not always well-suited for certain applications.
A protective layer typically surrounds the central core of the cable. The central core of the cable may be an electrical conductor or an optical fiber. The protective layer may be formed of any materials suitable for use in downhole conditions. In applications where the central core includes an electrical conductor, the protective layer will commonly also be electrically insulative.
Where an insulative protective layer is required and high operating temperatures, usually higher than 200° C., are encountered, melt-processable tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) fluoropolymers with 1-5% by moles of recurring units derived from perfluoroalkylvinylethers (PAVEs) are currently preferred. In particular, melt-processable TFE copolymers with perfluoropropylvinylether (PPVE) are most preferred because of their higher melting point, typically between 302° C. and 310° C.
For instance, US 2012/0031607 (E.I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND COMPANY) 9 Feb. 2012 discloses communication cables for use in downhole wells for operations at temperatures of at least 280° C., wherein the insulative protective layer comprises commonly known melt-processable TFE copolymers with PAVEs blended with low molecular weight polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
However, commonly known melt-processable fluoropolymers derived from tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and perfluoroalkylvinylethers (PAVEs) typically suffer from plastic deformation under the influence of external pressure impacts, in particular at high operating temperatures, thus causing the fluoropolymers to squeeze out within the gaps in the adjacent wire armors of the cable.
This commonly results in a failure of the cable or a deformation of the cable that renders it inefficient.


Disclosed is a sheet feeder device including support for a generally vertical stack of sheets. The support means includes endless belts having an upper belt run position to extend across the bottom of the stack of sheets. A stationary gate forming member is provided which is positioned above the upper run of the belts and adjacent the forward side of the stack to define a nip which forms a gap between the gate forming member and the upper run for permitting the lowermost sheet of the stack to pass forwardly from the stack through a nip. The gate forming member is a cylindrical roll defining a central axis and an outer peripheral surface which is concentric to the central axis. The roll has a plurality of annular grooves extending about the circumference thereof, and the grooves are disposed concentrically about a second axis which is eccentric to the central axis. An elastomeric ring is disposed in each of the grooves, and the rings have a coefficient of friction which is higher than that of the material of the roll.

Generally, sheet feeding devices capable of high speed feeding are relatively complicated, and require a large number of complex and interrelated moving parts which are subject to wearing out and failure.
Most known sheet feeders cannot dispense sheets in a shingled manner, but rather, only one sheet at a time. The ability to shingle sheets would greatly increase the efficiency of any feeder device, however, most feeder devices lack this ability. Also, most friction feed devices have problems feeding coated and slick stacks.
Prior sheet feeder devices use suction cups to engage the bottom of the sheet being fed. The suction cups then pull the sheet downward and a separator member holds the sheet downward by inserting itself between the stack of sheets and the suctioned sheet. Then, a gripper arm member pulls the suctioned piece out and drops the sheet onto a conveyor belt for individual processing. The use of the suction cup presents numerous problems for different applications. For example, if the sheet being fed is a folded sheet of paper, the suction cup can adhere only to the lower portion of the folded paper. Consequently, the separator member does not separate between two separate sheets in the stack but rather between different folds of the same sheet.
Another problem with the suction cup method is that it is unable to adequately perform when the sheets are made of a stiff material rather than a flexible material since the suction is not strong enough to bend the sheet.
Yet another problem with prior sheet feeder devices is the wearing out of parts of the device. In devices with a stationary top roller, this top roller often wore out and was expensive and inconvenient to replace.


Disclosed is a kit including a first container including a composition including at least one antioxidant selenoprotein and at least one second container including at least one composition including at least one oxidant selenocompound. Also disclosed is a method of administration that allows to administer effective and cytotoxic doses of selenocompounds, allowing the inhibition of the hyper-activation of phagocytes and in particular of circulating immature neutrophils and directly and indirectly protects endothelial cells, in particular for the treatment of sepsis, SIRS and leukemia. Further disclosed is an administration device adapted to the administration method.

Sepsis corresponds to an excessive systemic inflammatory response of the organism usually in reaction to a bacterial infection, but also to a parasite, viral or fungal infection. In the current state of the art sepsis is a syndrome and not a disease. Severe sepsis is defined by the presence of one or several dysfunctions or failures of organs and of signs of peripheral hypo-perfusion, while septic shock is defined by the presence of a persistent hypotension despite adequate filling, usually associated with multiple organ failures. Adequate generally means filling of 20 to 30 mg/kg. In both cases, an excessive or badly adapted complex response of the organism requires the use of substitution of major functions in resuscitation to prevent death. This complex deployment of assistance to major functions allows persons to survive sepsis, who would not survive otherwise; however, despite these expensive substitutions, the mortality rates of these patients, 28 days after the beginning of the episode, are about 20 to 30%, and 40 to 50%, respectively. Furthermore, the number of beds in resuscitation services for their efficient treatment is limited. Sepsis thus results in a very significant number of deaths, slightly higher than that due to myocardial infarction, and is the leading causing of death in hospitals and accounts for more than 5% of hospital expenses (0.5% of the GDP). It is one of the leading causes of death in the world and would be the leading cause in the case of a pandemic in which resuscitation services were completely overloaded. It corresponds to one of the main causes of health expenses in current practice around the world. Furthermore, it would be an important cause of death in the case of a pandemic situation—sepsis is the origin of deaths for example in the case of plague epidemics —, disasters (associated with crush injuries), bioterrorism or war. In the latter case, it would easily be associated with another cause of the systemic inflammation caused by extensive burns, which would account for more than 30% of all victims. Acute inflammation is also a major event in irradiation victims who do not die immediately.
At the present time, treatment of this medical emergency consists in the administration of antibiotics within one hour, associated with filling, oxygenation, the introduction of catecholamines and management in resuscitation services in the absence of specific treatment. Furthermore, a low dose of corticoids may be administered to the patient but this remains very controversial and has limited—if any—efficiency. Worldwide recommendations have been produced in the framework of the surviving sepsis campaign, cooperative work done worldwide including the main resuscitation companies, including American and European companies. Nevertheless, at the present time there is no specific treatment for this excessive defense reaction of the organism, and most proposed treatments are attempts to allow the organism to survive this self-aggression situation by implementing the most judicious possible life-support while waiting for the end of this reaction, having treated the origin of what triggered it (activation of toll-receptors), infectious in the case of sepsis (PAMPS), cell damage in the case of systemic acute inflammatory syndromes (DAMPS).
At the microcirculation level, the interaction of phagocyte cells and the endothelium, succeeding the very fast alert of cells of the secondary innate response to activation of Toll receptors, participates in the modification of the endothelium (flip-flap) changing from a non-adherent, non-inflammatory and non-coagulating endothelium to an adherent, inflammatory and coagulating endothelium then damaged with abrasion of the endothelium surface layer (ESL), formation of nitro-oxygenated reactive derivative—such as peroxynitrite by the joint action of adherent granulocytes (emission of superoxide anion) and activated endothelial cells (emission of NO), emission of microparticles, and opening of tight junctions and distress of the endothelium. This dysfunction of the microcirculation and this distress of the endothelium are considered as one of the elements or the major element in the occurrence of multiple organ failures secondary to severe sepsis and to septic shock. These multiple organ failures can lead to death despite life-support in resuscitation services that enables patients who would otherwise have died to survive temporarily or not, and lead to death in the absence of this resuscitation care. It can be considered (mathematical model applied to biology) that this situation was a chaos situation.
The objective of resuscitation is then to bring the subject, once the acute episode has passed, to the homeostasis attractor by progressively liberating survival attractors related to life-support. This hyper-inflammatory state usually leads to acquired immunodeficiency that will be the ground for new infections, possibly with pathogens not dangerous in a non-immunodepressed subject and that can lead to another sepsis reaction. There is then a strong risk of going from septic shock to septic shock until the subject becomes exhausted in a sequence of stagnation and major malnutrition usually leading to a therapeutic limitation in an out-of-control situation in which it no longer seems possible to return to a situation without life-support, corresponding to obstinacy.
Reactive oxygen derivatives (oxidative metabolism (respiratory burst) of granulocytes, hyperactivation of endothelial cells with the synthesis of NO, ischemia-reperfusion phenomena and mitochondrial distress) generated by the struggle against infectious agents play a major role in endothelial dysfunction, the first step towards multiple organ failures and death. Selenium is a bivalent atom in physiopathology. Physicochemically, it is in column VI which is the column of oxygen (chalcogens chemical family). Indeed, chemically and biochemically, small selenocompounds are often toxic oxidizing molecules.
Thus, sodium selenite is one of the most toxic selenocompounds and its toxicity is similar to the toxicity of arsenic salts. A concentration of 10 μmol/L leads to cell destruction for detached cells (Stewart M S, Free Radic Biol Med. 1999 January; 26(1-2):42-8). A selenium concentration of 18 μmol/L is observed in the case of lethal intoxication (Nuttall K L, Ann Clin Lab Sci. 2006 Autumn; 36(4):409-20). The lethal dose in man would appear to be of the order of 1.5 to 3 mg/kg. Sodium selenite will react preferentially with disulfide bridges. Its toxicity is higher on free cells than on cell layers, and also much higher on hyper-activated cells than on quiescent cells. In vitro, its cytotoxic activity particularly on cancer cells has been demonstrated for concentrations of selenium above 2 to 5 μmol/L in the form of sodium selenite. The toxicity of sodium selenite appears to act principally at the mitochondria level particularly in cells in hyperactivity.
Incorporated into selenoproteins, selenium—like that included in the sodium selenite molecule—enables these proteins to be a key element in the antioxidant defense in mammals. Consequently, cases of acute poisoning by selenocompounds are fully reversible if they are not fatal, since once incorporated into these selenoproteins, selenium has an antioxidant action opposite to that of oxidizing selenocompounds like selenite. In order to improve their antioxidant defense (and their regulation of the intra-cellular redox potential modulating all cell activity), mammals and birds have acquired a particular amino acid, selenocysteine, in which selenium replaces sulfur in cysteine. This replacement is genetically controlled with the modification of the significance of the UGA stop codon due to the presence of an adjacent structure and requires energy in the form of ATP. The presence of this amino acid at the active site of selenoenyzmes will enable these enzymes to have a faster and more robust antioxidant action than their iron precursors and replacement of selenocysteine by cysteine at the active site reduces the efficiency of these enzymes by a factor of 1000. Selenoproteins are major antioxidant enzymes in mammals. A shortage of selenium is fatal in man and the knock-out model for selenocysteine is fatal.
At the plasma level, there are two selenoproteins, namely selenoprotein-P, a protein that is highly conserved across species and an exception among selenoenzymes due to the fact that it comprises 9 selenocysteine amino acids (while the others only have one selenocysteine amino acid), and plasma glutathione peroxidase. Selenoprotein-P (Sel-P) accounts for 60% of plasma selenium. It transports biologically active selenium (selenocysteine) between the liver and tissues and participates directly in antioxidant protection of the endothelium by an enzymatic action, probably detoxifying, of the peroxynitrite ion. It has been shown that it plays a role in membrane stabilization limiting the emission of microparticles.
Due to apprehension of the toxicity of sodium selenite, this selenite was administered continuously or with boluses over 30 minutes as described in Angstwurm M W, (Crit Care Med. 2007 January; 35(1):118-26) who observes a tendency towards a decrease in mortality with an administration of 1000 μg of selenium in the form of sodium selenite (14 μg/kg) followed by an administration of the same dose continuously over 24 h, continued for 15 days, but whose results have not yet been reproduced (Angstwurm M W, Crit Care Med. 2007 January; 35(1):118-26). The maximum dose of 1000 μg/day is recommended by Heyland D K (Crit Care. 2007; 11(4):153), since a dose of 4000 μg/day (55 μg/kg) administered continuously did not have a beneficial effect, in his opinion due to negative effects. The bolus administration of 2000 μg (80 μg/kg) in sheep achieves positive effects, contrary to the administration of the same dose continuously, nevertheless it cannot be used to reach a conclusion about the advantage of bolus administration (Wang Z et al. Shock. 2009 August; 32(2):140-6). In fact, the advantage of this bolus administration remains very debatable (Alhazzani, W. et al. Crit Care Med. 2013 June; 41(6):1555-64). At the present time, the recommendations of the European Nutrition Society (ESPEN) are to not exceed 750 to 1000 μg/day due to risks of toxicity (Singer P et al. Clin Nutr. 2009 August; 28(4):387-400), this corresponds to the NOAEL No Adverse Effect Level determined in nutrition (800 μg, which is 11 μg/kg per day). On its part, the American Nutrition Society, ASPEN, recommends an optimum input between 500 and 750 μg/day. Considering the different study results, the benefits of administration of selenium in resuscitation patients in sepsis are not recommended in Dellinger R P et al. Crit Care Med. 2013 June; 41(2):580-637) nor in Casaer M P et al. (N Engl J Med. 2014 Mar. 27; 370(13):1227-36).
However, the Applicant remains convinced that the administration of compounds containing selenium (or selenite) is a suitable response to manage toxic circulating elements in the case of sepsis and leukemia.
In this context, the Applicant considered how the administration of compounds containing selenium could be optimized, while protecting the organism from their toxic effects. To the Applicant's knowledge, there is currently no solution to this technical problem. And in any case, there is a very strong need for means of significantly reducing the high death rate in patients suffering from sepsis and leukemia.

Kit for treating sepsis and/or any systemic (SIRS) or damaging cellular hyperinflammation


This patent document discusses, among other things, systems, devices, and methods for predicting an occurrence of impending thoracic fluid accumulation and in one example, invoking a responsive therapy, such as to prevent or minimize the consequences of the impending thoracic fluid accumulation. One example of the present systems, devices, and methods senses or receives at least one parameter that is statistically associated with impending thoracic fluid accumulation from a subject. Using such parameter(s), a probability of impending thoracic fluid accumulation is estimated. A list of parameters determines which values are recurrently sensed or received at various desired time intervals. Another example of the present systems, devices, and methods weights the sensed or received parameter value(s) to compute the probability estimate of impending thoracic fluid accumulation. A responsive preventive thoracic fluid accumulation therapy or other therapy is selected and activated using the probability estimate of impending thoracic fluid accumulation.

Congestive heart failure (CHF), which is also sometimes referred to simply as "heart failure," is a condition in which a subject's heart can't pump the needed amount of blood to the subject's other organs. Heart failure may result from a variety of causes, some of which include: a narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (coronary artery disease); a past heart attack or myocardial infarction, with scar tissue that interferes with the heart muscle's normal work; a high blood pressure condition; a heart valve disease due to past rheumatic fever or other causes; a primary disease of the heart muscle itself (cardiomyopathy); a heart defect present at birth (congenital heart defects); or an infection of the heart valves or heart muscle itself (endocarditis or myocarditis).
Heart failure can be conceptualized as an enlarged weakened heart muscle, which results in poor cardiac output of blood. As blood flow out of the heart slows, blood returning to the heart through the veins backs up, causing congestion in bodily tissues. This congestion may cause swelling in the legs, ankles, or other parts of the body and may also result in fluid collecting in the subject's thorax, which may become a barrier to normal oxygen exchange.
The fluid build-up in the thorax may result in pulmonary edema or pleural effusion. These conditions, if left untreated, may in turn lead to death. Pulmonary edema includes the build-up of extravascular fluid in the lungs. During pulmonary edema, fluid accumulates in extracellular spaces, such as the spaces between lung tissue cells. Pleural effusion, on the other hand, is the build-up of extravascular fluid in the space between the lungs and the rib cage. The lungs are covered by a membrane called the pleura, which has two layers, an inner layer and an outer layer. The outer layer lines the rib cage and diaphragm. The inner layer covers the lungs. The pleura produces a fluid, which acts as a lubricant to help in breathing, allowing the lungs to move in and out smoothly. Pleural effusion is the accumulation of too much of such fluid. Both pulmonary edema and pleural effusion, if they exist, present medical emergencies that require immediate (oftentimes challenging) care and can sometimes prove fatal.

Prediction of thoracic fluid accumulation


A crankshaft has a receiving platform for catching lubricant dropping from a main bearing assembly. The receiving platform has at least one wall disposed thereon. The wall has one point that is the furthest from the rotational axis of the crankshaft. One channel is defined in the platform and has an inlet disposed close to the point of the wall that is furthest from the rotational axis of the crankshaft. The channel has an outlet in the vicinity of a connecting rod bearing assembly, so that lubricant dropped on the receiving platform will flow to the connecting rod bearing assembly.

As with other types of internal combustion engines, two-stroke engines comprise a crankshaft disposed in a crankcase for converting the linear movement of the engine's piston, or pistons, into rotating torque. The crankshaft usually comprises a crankshaft body made of a single piece of hard material, such as steel, and the main components of the crankshaft are integrally formed with the crankshaft body. In some instances, the crankshaft body may also be made of parts connected together by various means known in the art. The crankshaft is rotatably connected to the crankcase via a plurality of main bearing assemblies, and rotatably connected to the connecting rods transmitting the energy generated by the pistons via connecting rod bearing assemblies. Since the crankshaft usually rotates at high speed within the crankcase, the various bearing assemblies connected thereto, including the connecting rod bearing assemblies, need to be appropriately lubricated.
Two-stroke engines do not generally have sophisticated pressurized lubrication systems for lubricating all the various components of the crankshaft and the various components connected thereto such as those generally found in four-stroke engines. This is particularly true regarding vertically oriented two-stroke engines used in marine outboard engines.
In particular, it is know in the art to lubricate the connecting rod bearing assemblies of vertically oriented two-stroke engines by spraying lubricant within the crankcase in the vicinity of the connecting rod bearing assemblies rotating path using low capacity lubricant pumps. U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,500 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,573 provide examples of such connecting rod bearing assemblies lubrication systems.
However, since lubricant is not discharged directly within or close to the connecting rod bearing assemblies, a significant volume of lubricant is required to appropriately lubricate the connecting rod bearing assemblies. Furthermore, a significant portion of the lubricant sprayed into the crankcase finds its way to the combustion chamber of the cylinders, and incomplete combustion of such lubricant within the combustion chamber increases the engine's pollutant emissions.
In view of the above, there is a need for a vertically oriented two-stroke engine having a lubrication system for the connecting rod bearings assemblies discharging a limited volume of lubricant in the vicinity of such connecting rod bearing assemblies so that less lubricant need to be used and less lubricant is ultimately burned in the combustion chamber, which entails that less pollutant emissions are release in the atmosphere when the two-stroke engine is used.


A method comprises defining a machine learning model corresponding to a plurality of layouts for content based on a plurality of target user types, processing the content to identify a theme of the content, generating at least one electronic document for the content based on the theme and at least one of the plurality layouts, analyzing a plurality of interactions of a user with the electronic document, wherein the plurality of interactions include one or more searches performed by the user to retrieve the electronic document, and/or one or more steps taken by the user to consume the content in the electronic document, identifying at least one pattern of the user corresponding to the retrieval and/or consumption of the content, and training the machine learning model based on the at least one pattern by applying one or more machine learning algorithms to data from the plurality of interactions.

Content is abundant, and is present in different documentation sets. However, when users attempt to search for and retrieve the content or information related to the content, using, for example, internal and external search engines, the desired content may not necessarily appear in the search results.
In general, the same information can be consumed differently by different users, and the sentiments about the information can vary from user to user. For example, the way data center administrators will consume and search for information may be significantly different from the way a chief experience officer (CXO) will consume and search for the information.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved information processing systems that can take into account different audiences for content and modify the presentation of the content so that availability and relevance of the content increases for users accessing the content.

Dynamic modification of information presentation and linkage based on usage patterns and sentiments


A new compound, dioscoretine, as well as the process for making the same is described. According to a preferred embodiment, dioscoretine is derived from the tuber of Dioscorea dumetorum. Dioscoretine is a hypoglycemic agent and thus is useful for therapeutic treatment of conditions such as diabetes mellitus.

The common yellow yam Dioscorea dumetorum has been used by herbalists and practitioners of West African folk medicine for treatment of diabetes, as a topical anesthetic as well as an arrow poison and as a bait for monkeys (see generally, Corley et al. 1985, Tetrahedron Lett. 26(13):1615-1618). Additionally, D. dumetorum tubers are used as famine food, although it is well-known that the yams must be carefully prepared by soaking for several days in running or salt water and boiling overnight. In fact several cases of serious poisoning have resulted from ingestion of improperly prepared tubers (Undie et al., 1986, J. Ethnopharm. 15:133-144).
For use in herbal medicine for treatment of diabetes, a decoction is prepared by steeping the peeled tuber in native gin, distilled from fermented palm wine containing about 30-70% ethanol (termed "kai-kai") for about three days. The decoction is boiled until the color changes from yellow to brown and then is administered to patients in small cupfuls. (Undie et al., supra).
In a preliminary investigation, Undie et al., (supra), have shown that crude extracts of D. dumetorum possess hypoglycemic activity when administered to experimental animals. The authors stated, however, that several constituents were present in the extracts and nothing could be known with respect to what constituent was responsible for the observed hypoglycemic effects.
Corley et al. (supra) has shown that a methanol extract of D. dumetorum contains alkaloids including dihydrodoiscorine and dumetorine which may have convulsive, toxic activity.

Dioscoretine and its use as a hypoglycemic agent


A method that considers battery capacity for providing cell balancing for battery cells in a battery pack. The method includes providing a current state-of-charge for each battery cell in the battery pack for a current time frame and a previous state-of-charge for each battery cell in the battery pack from a previous time frame. The method also includes subtracting the current state-of-charge from the previous state-of-charge for each battery cell to generate a cell delta state-of-charge for each cell and providing an average cell delta state-of-charge of the cell delta state-of-charges for all of the cells. The method also includes dividing each cell delta state-of-charge by the average cell delta state-of-charge to provide a relative cell delta state-of-charge for each cell and dividing the current state-of-charge by the relative cell delta state-of-charge for that cell to generate a capacity adjustment state-of-charge that identifies the capacity of the cell.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for providing battery cell balancing and, more particularly, to a system and method that provides battery cell balancing using changes in state-of-charge (SOC) of each cell in the battery to determine the relative capacity of these cells.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Electric vehicles are becoming more and more prevalent. These vehicles include hybrid vehicles, such as the extended range electric vehicles (EREV) that combine a battery and a main power source, such as an internal combustion engine, fuel cell systems, etc., and electric only vehicles, such as the battery electric vehicles (BEV). All of these types of electric vehicles employ a high voltage battery that includes a number of battery cells. These batteries can be different battery types, such as lithium ion, nickel metal hydride, lead acid, etc. A typical high voltage battery system for an electric vehicle may include a large number of battery cells or modules including several battery cells to meet the vehicle power and energy requirements. The battery system can include individual battery modules where each battery module may include a certain number of battery cells, such as twelve cells. The individual battery cells may be electrically coupled in series, or a series of cells may be electrically coupled in parallel, where a number of cells in the module are connected in series and each module is electrically coupled to the other modules in parallel. Different vehicle designs include different battery designs that employ various trade-offs and advantages for a particular application.
When a battery pack is relatively new, each cell in the battery pack typically operates at about the same level of performance, i.e., maximum charge or capacity. However, as the battery pack ages over time, each cell typically degrades in performance differently than the other cells, where the performance of the battery pack is limited by the performance of the lowest performing cell. Further, a battery cell or battery module in the battery pack may fail or may otherwise be limited in performance for other reasons, such as an internal short, loss of capacity, high resistance, high temperature, etc. If a failing cell or module can be identified, it may be possible to replace that particular cell or module without replacing the entire battery pack because it is generally cheaper to replace a single cell or group of cells than the whole battery pack. However, the new battery cell or module would not be at the same level of performance as the other battery cells in the battery pack, and therefore, the new cell needs to be matched in performance for proper operation of the battery.
Electric vehicles typically include cell balancing algorithms that control the charging of the battery so that the state-of-charge of the battery cells is about the same. Known cell balancing algorithms only look at cell state-of-charge, and not cell capacity, where the algorithm identifies the capacity of the cells as the same or nearly the same. When new battery cells are added to the battery pack, the cell balancing algorithm does not treat the new cells any different than the old cells so that during the charging sequence, the state-of-charge of the degraded cells will increase faster. This causes the cell balancing algorithm to discharge the higher state-of-charge cells faster, which are the cells that have the lower capacity, which causes them to be discharged too much during operation of a vehicle. Thus, improvements in cell balancing algorithms can be provided that will operate to extend the useful life of a battery pack.


The present invention provides a method for establishing a telecommunication connection. The method is accomplished by receiving the called party and the calling party plurality of identifying or dialing information, processing and storing identifying or dialing information in the active telephone directory, determining by data query analysis the called party and the calling party relations in the telecommunications networks, associating the relations with the networks routing information, generating dynamic calling number for the associated relations, processing and storing the dynamic calling number in the active telephone directory for routing in the telecommunication networks, and establishing a telephonic communication between the calling party and the called party using the active telephone directory dynamic calling numbers.

Most telecommunications networks are Signaling Systems 7 Networks (SS7). Traditionally, voice and data travelling on the networks would be in SS7 protocol from the originating subscriber (end node) in the network to the destination subscriber (end node) in the network. Implementation of Advanced Intelligent Network in SS7 provides enhanced capabilities to the telephone networks addressing the growing needs of telephone customers with unresolved problem of the telephone number shortage. Telecommunications based on the Internet Protocol (IP) are becoming widely acceptable. Abandonment and replacing the SS7 infrastructure would be costly. SS7 networks are reliable. Therefore, the solution is merging the SS7 with the IP based networks, particularly the Internet.
Current telephone directories' search techniques retrieve two-dimensional static information queried from flat databases. These technologies are based on one-to-one associations and link subscriber ⇄ telephone number, which fail to take into consideration dynamic and asynchronous variations in telephone directories contents, plurality of telephone directories, plurality of telephone numbers associated with a particular subscriber, devices mobility and subscribers interrelations. An important limitation of a traditional telephone directory search is that it queries a string "John Doe" but not a dynamic resource denoting a person. Moreover, a person may be attached to the plurality of communication devices and associated with the plurality of telephone numbers. Identifying a dynamic person on the plurality of dynamic telecommunications networks and determining the actively used telephone number in globally dispersed telephone directories is a problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,580,790 to Henry et al. teaches a system and method for providing a called party's telephone number in response to online communication data; however, Henry et al. does not teach the dynamic calling number stored in the active telephone directory system, nor does Henry teach the calling party and the called party names and the related profile data stored in the memory comprises dynamic calling number. Further, Henry et al. does not teach active telephone directory, nor does he teach the dynamic calling number being provided to the calling party or the called party.
While Rodriguez et al. U.S. Pat. Appl. 2002/0068599 teaches a system and method for providing a local telephone directory based on a mobile telephone location assigning dynamic speed dial keys to dynamic directory data when the mobile telephone moves from one mobile telephone area, such as cell, to another area, such prior Rodriguez's attempt have not provided a system and method for active self-managed telephone directories updating itself dynamically based on the interrelations between telephone services/subscribers and communications networks and a plurality of globally dispersed telephone services and directories databases. Rodriguez neither teaches dynamic interoperability between a plurality of globally disparate telecommunications systems nor a dynamic calling number routing within the active telephone directory system to interconnect semantically related by relationships subscribers.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a global subscriber-centric telecommunication system providing services for dynamically interrelated entities, connecting according to the relations and the latest known presence in the telecommunications networks.

Global telephony integrated system, method and apparatus


A method of connecting a tow vehicle to a trailer having a front axle assembly which pivots about a vertical axis. The method includes the following steps which will be hereinafter described. Firstly, position a drawbar assembly between the tow vehicle and the trailer. The drawbar assembly has a tow vehicle end and a trailer end. The tow vehicle end is mounted to a single articulation point at a rear of the tow vehicle. The trailer end is pivotally mounted on a substantially horizontal transverse axis thereby accommodating up and down movement while precluding side to side movement of the drawbar assembly. Secondly, position a steering arm assembly between the tow vehicle and the front axle assembly of the trailer. The steering arm assembly includes a pair of steering arms having tow vehicle ends and trailer ends. The tow vehicle ends are adapted for omni-directional attachment to the tow vehicle equidistant from the single articulation point. The trailer ends are adapted for omni-directional attachment to the front axle assembly of the trailer equidistant from the vertical pivot axis of the front axle assembly, thereby accommodating relative movement of the tow vehicle and the front axle assembly of the trailer while causing a proportionate change in the angular positioning of the front axle assembly of the trailer to maintain correct steering geometry of the trailer relative to the tow vehicle as the tow vehicle turns.

Most conventional commercial vehicle trailers are a development of the original two axle horse-drawn cart, and are equipped with a front axle assembly which pivots about a vertical axis and a drawbar which is connected to the front axle assembly so that the rear of the drawbar pivots about a horizontal transverse axis. The full weight of the trailer is accordingly supported by its front and rear axles and, if the trailer is braked, the only significant hitch loads at the rear of the towing vehicle are those required to pull the trailer. However, the inherent weakness of this design of trailer is that it has two articulation points: one at the hitch point at the rear of the towing vehicle, and the second at the vertical pivot axis of the front axle assembly. Various problems arise from the presence of two articulation points. Firstly, the drawbar tends to jackknife when the vehicle combination is operated in reverse, so that it is impractical to manoeuvre such a trailer in reverse except for short distances in a straight line. Secondly, the drawbar tends to jackknife under emergency braking. Thirdly the trailer suffers from the phenomenon known as rearward amplification. That is to say, the trailer swings more than the towing vehicle during high speed steering manoeuvres. This is a particular problem when several trailers are connected together.
Various designs have been proposed to overcome the fundamental disadvantage of the conventional trailer, which is often referred to as an "A" dolly trailer. However, practical factors such as cost and incompatibility with existing equipment have limited their widespread use.
The most common alternative designs are referred to as a "B" train and a "C" dolly (also referred to as a "B" dolly). In the "B" train, the rear of the frame of the lead trailer is extended to accommodate a fifth wheel for coupling to the following semi-trailer. This eliminates one articulation point, with an improvement in stability and manoeuvrability. However, the disadvantages compared with an "A" dolly trailer include a degradation of the off-tracking performance, increased frame stressing, cost, and incompatibility with conventional "A" dolly trailers. Further problems follow from the use of two or three axles in the area of the fifth wheel, which results in increased tire wear, and in an increase in road load concentration which would be unacceptable in some jurisdictions. Only some of these problems are overcome with the use of a "C" dolly, which is connected to the lead trailer with two pintle hooks but which permits articulation of the rearmost axle. Finally, for many practical reasons, the "B" train and its derivatives are not suitable for connecting a truck and conventional "A" dolly trailer.
In summary, the conventional "A" dolly trailer design benefits from having the entire weight of the trailer supported by its own axles. However, the presence of two articulation points adversely affects both its dynamic stability and its ability to operate in reverse. In the "B" train and "C" dolly trailer designs, the advantages of having only one articulation point are offset by the disadvantages associated with having part of the trailer weight directly supported by the towing vehicle. This results in increased frame stressing, large road load concentration, and increased tire wear.

Method and apparatus for connecting a tow vehicle to a trailer having a front axle assembly which pivots about a verticle axis


The present disclosure relates to biological processes and systems for the production of isopropanol and/or acetone utilizing modified alcohol dehydrogenases that exhibit increased activity with NADH as a cofactor. The disclosure further relates to polynucleotides and polypeptides of the modified alcohol dehydrogenases, and host cells containing the polynucleotides and expressing the polypeptides.

Metabolic pathways for fermentative production of isopropanol may make use of an NADPH-dependent secondary alcohol dehydrogenase to convert acetone to isopropanol. Within the metabolic pathways there is a positive net production of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and consumption of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). Both NADH and NADPH are essential electron donors in all organisms and the cellular pool of NADPH is lower than NADH. Considerable effort has been exerted on improving the NADPH pool in order to increase product yields dependent upon NADPH.
The present disclosure approaches the solution to increasing product yield in a different manner, by modifying the cofactor specificity of alcohol dehydrogenase to favor utilization of NADH over NADPH.

NADH-dependent enzyme mutants to convert acetone into isopropanol


A circuit tester device for testing continuity and polarity of vehicle relay circuits may include a housing and a plug carried by the housing. The circuit tester device may also have a battery lead adapted to connect to a battery terminal, and a ground lead adapted to connect to a ground. Further, the circuit tester device may have circuitry including three or more circuits connected between the battery and ground leads. Each circuit may have in series a first resistor, a first status indicator, a first diode, a test terminal, a second diode, a second status indicator and a second resistor. Each test terminal may be connected to a respective one of the pins. The circuitry may also have one or more load circuits tapped into one of the circuits between the first and second diodes. The load circuits may include in series a test switch and a load terminal.

A vehicle system may include vehicle relay circuitry having separate circuits that are connected to a relay socket adapted to receive a relay at a relay box. The continuity of each circuit may be individually tested by using a multi-meter or a test probe light. However, this is a somewhat time consuming process for determining the continuity of the entire relay circuit. In addition, the relay socket may have generally small dimensions such that it may be cumbersome to contact the multi-meter lead or test light lead with the circuit.