A swivel lock assembly with electronic and manual actuating means to unlock a handle thereby permitting access to the interior of the cabinet wherein the manual actuator can override the electronic actuator and vice versa. When in a locked position, the handle rests within lock housing such that the handle engages a blocker mounted within the housing. To unlock the handle, the blocker is manipulated by electronic or manual actuation such that the handle is no longer constrained and can be swung away from the housing about a handle pivot.

There currently exists in the market locking systems for cabinet doors, such as those used to secure computer server cabinets, which have two or more locking mechanisms incorporated within the locking system. These locking systems prevent unwanted access to the interior of the cabinet. Typically, a latch secures the cabinet door, with release of that latch dependent upon presentation of proper verification, such as through a key card for electronic actuation or through a key for manual actuation. Upon proper verification, a handle of the locking system is released and, once released, the handle can be turned or swiveled to release the latch.
While there exists many locking systems within the art, the present invention achieves advantages not taught or suggested by the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,681,424 teaches a swivel lock system of this type having a shuttle that is driven by a solenoid in a first direction to secure the handle and in a second direction to release the handle. A stop, whose position is controlled by turning of a manual actuator, either permits the shuttle to move or blocks the shuttle from moving. When the shuttle is blocked from movement to secure the handle, the solenoid cannot move the shuttle from its blocked position to release the handle. The present invention, as described in two embodiments, overcomes this shortfall and other shortfalls existing in the art.

Swivel lock system with manual override and drive position control


A clasp for the cords of a bola tie comprising two mating shell halves and a manually operable spring biased clamp disposed between the shell halves to provide an enclosed clasp which is releasable and which provides improved external appearance and mechanical function. The inner surfaces of the clasp which engage the tie ends are smooth non-abrading convex portions of toroidal-like surfaces and clasp the tie ends around an extensive part of the periphery of the cord and along extended portions of the cord. Although firmly clasping the cord ends the clasp may be forced along the cord ends without manually releasing the clamp.

Bola-style neckties have long been a commonly worn type of neckwear, particularly in the western United States. Such ties typically consist of a cord of 3/16 inch or smaller diameter worn around the neck, the free ends being held together by an clasp bearing some form of ornamentation such as precious stones. Clasps traditionally used for bola style type ties have been non-releasable devices which slide upon the cords comprising the tie and which rely on friction to maintain their position. Examples of this type of clasp are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,846,688 to Meeker and 2,896,217 to Cedarstaff. Because of the constant friction on the tie such clasps are inconvenient to operate and create substantial wear on the tie through use over a period of time.
An example of a releasable prior art bola tie clasp is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,277 to Day. Such prior art clasp had a number of disadvantages. First the clasp requires the addition of a stone or other ornamentation (column 2, line 36-39) or other ornamentation to form a completed article of jewelry. Second the clasp is constructed of parts which are separable from one another and requires the cords of a bola tie to be in place to hold the various components together. Third, even with its releasable feature, it does not provide the smooth sliding and clamping surfaces of the present invention which minimize wear on the cords of a bola tie during continued normal use.

Enclosed yoke clasp for bola-style necktie


A method of monitoring a mount system for an aircraft propulsion turbo-prop engine including the steps of dynamically measuring the fraction of output shaft torque being reacted by a selected one of the mount elements of the mount system and comparing the dynamically measured fraction with a predetermined fraction for the selected mount element corresponding to normal operation of the mount system. Variation between dynamic fraction and the predetermined fraction indicates a change of load distribution between the mount elements of the mount system.

In fail-safe mount systems for aircraft propulsion turbo-prop engines where progressive deterioration of one resilient element may be imperceptible, expensive and time consuming periodic inspections of the mount systems are required. A method and apparatus according to this invention dynamically monitors an engine mount system for an aircraft propulsion turbo-prop engine so that such periodic inspections are unnecessary.

Method of monitoring a mount system for an aircraft engine


Elevator, which comprises an elevator car, at least one traction sheave, at least two motors for rotating one or more traction sheaves, an elevator shaft or similar, a machine room or similar space, and hoisting roping. The elevator comprises a first motor in the machine room or similar, which is on a first level in the vertical direction, and a second motor, which is on a second level in the vertical direction, which second level is essentially higher in the vertical direction than the first level.

In elevator systems the mass of the load moved with the motor is to a great extent dependent on the lifting height of the elevator. In elevators of high lifting heights the hoisting ropes are long and the motor must be able to move also the roping, in addition to the elevator car and the load. Long and thick ropes are heavy and set challenging power requirements for the hoisting machinery especially in acceleration situations, when the power required from the hoisting machinery is at its greatest.
Elevators of a high lifting height that move the elevator car via ropes by means of a traction sheave rotated by an electric motor are prior art. It is prior art to dimension such a large motor in terms of its output power capacity for the hoisting machinery of an elevator of a high lifting height that it performs its task alone. As the heights of buildings, and thus also lifting heights, grow it would thus become necessary to arrange increasingly larger motors in new buildings. A motor of the desired size range is not always necessarily available, however. Additionally, taking a heavy motor of large size into the machine room may be awkward owing to the cramped spaces. That being the case, in elevator systems possessing a high lifting height, in other words in high-rise elevators, using only one motor is not always advantageous. The object of the invention is suited for use in super-high-rise elevators with machine room, which have a very high lifting height even on the high-rise scale. The machinery size of these kinds of elevators may exceed, in terms of their width, even the size of the cross-section of the elevator shaft, if the machinery comprises only one extremely large motor. The machine room should thus be very wide, possibly disadvantageously wide, compared to the space taken by the elevator on the other floors of the building, in which case e.g. problems can be caused in the design of the bearing structures of the building by, among other reasons, causing a discontinuity in the structures at the point of the machine room. Another drawback in using one enormous machine size is that, owing to their rarity, production quantities are so small that their manufacturing costs would be exceptionally large.
Elevators, especially elevators without machine room, the ropes of which are moved with two traction shaves, which traction sheaves are rotated by separate electric motors, are also prior art. It is prior art to install these motors and traction sheaves in the same elevator shaft. In this case the hoisting load can be divided between two traction sheaves and the motor rotating them. One advantage, among others, is that despite the increase in machinery size, a spacious elevator car fits into the shaft and the cross-section of the elevator shaft can be utilized effectively throughout the entire length of the shaft.


A garment hanger and a sizer that can be removably mounted to the hanger are provided. The sizer includes a pair of inwardly extending fingers for mounting the sizer to a hook or a body of the hanger. The sizer can be manually or automatically removed from the sizer by a tool, by inserting the tool into a space between the hanger and a respective inwardly extending finger. The hanger and the sizer enable a method of reusing hangers and sizers, by automatically removing the sizers from the hangers, processing the removed hangers and sizers to provide reusable hangers and sizers. The reusable hangers and sizers are distributed to remote garment manufacturers for providing garment-on-hanger products.

The present disclosure relates generally to molded plastic garment hangers as are widely used for the purpose of shipping and displaying garments. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to garment hangers and sizers that can be removably mounted to the hooks of the hangers, and a methodology of reusing the hangers and the sizers. The reuse program of the hanger and sizer saves materials, and thus, provides economic and environmentally advantageous products.
In the area of retail garment sales, so-called Garment-On-Hanger (GOH) programs have become preferred by retailers. In a GOH program, garments are delivered to retail merchants already suspended from hangers, where upon arrival at the retail location the garments are immediately placed on display for sale.
In particular, retailers have specified particular hangers or hanger characteristics among suppliers in order to achieve uniformity on their sales floors. To this end, standards as to hanger size, shape, performance characteristics, etc., are maintained, for example, by organizations such as the Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards Association (VICS). Intimate apparel hangers, pinch grip hangers, top garment hangers and so on are among the standardized hangers under the VICS standards.
Additionally, and interrelated to the promulgation of GOH programs, retailers and their customers desire to have the hanger itself display some indicia regarding the item carried upon it. Categories of indicia include origin of manufacturer, materials of the garments and prices of the garments, but mostly the sizes of garments. Sizers can be secured to the hanger at any suitable location to provide a displaying surface on which garment sizes are printed.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a novel hanger and sizer and a combination thereof, which can be used to enable a novel reuse methodology of the hanger and sizer.

Garment hangers and sizers and method for reusing the same


An apparatus for folding a continuous length of fabric extracted from a dyeing range. The apparatus includes a fabric receptacle for receiving the fabric from the dyeing range and a two-directional plaiting system for folding the fabric. In the preferred embodiment, a control system controls the speed and tension of the fabric to prevent tearing or sagging of the fabric during unloading. Also, a pulley and squeegee system receives the continuous fabric and extracting liquid from the fabric prior to folding. The pulley and squeegee system includes a first nip drive and a second nip drive, each of the drives including a pair of rollers spaced apart to allow the continuous fabric to feed through the nip drives to extract excess water from the fabric.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device for automatically unloading fabric from a dyeing or finishing range, such as a jet dyeing machine, and, more particularly, a portable device for unloading fabric which is readily adaptable to a broad range of machinery.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The production of fabric is a generally sequential process that ultimately finishes with a completed fabric of a certain type, color, and size or other predetermined specification. One of the steps of this process may be dyeing the fabric and then unloading it from the dye system in order to move the product along to the next step in the process. To facilitate transportation, the fabric is often unloaded from the dye system into tubs where it can be transported to the next downstream process or stored until needed. During a typical day of operation, the dye systems are in continuous use but are only unloaded on a periodic basis.
Previous attempts to automate the unloading process have had numerous drawbacks or other constraints. The dye system and the surrounding plant facility place a size constraint on the unloader. The dye systems are often placed in close proximity to other machinery to maximize the amount of dyeing equipment at one facility and production capability. Unfortunately, the close spacing of the machinery requires that unloading devices be relatively small to fit within the close dimensions. Previous unloaders are either too cumbersome to move in the tight quarters or require too much space.
Another drawback of existing unloaders is that a single facility may use a variety of dyeing ranges each having different physical dimensions, such as the placement and size of fabric removal ports. Previous unloading systems were adapted to fit only one specific type of machine and are unable to be used on other machinery having different physical dimensions. This requires that specific unloaders be purchased for each type of dyeing range which is expensive and also takes additional floor space in an already congested area. Alternatively, the unloaders are placed on each individual dye systems. This usage, however, is prohibitively expensive, an inefficient use of resources that require unnecessary duplication of a resource that is only periodically used, and sometimes impossible given space constraints.
Previous unloading systems have also required additional material handling of the fabric. Certain unloaders induced twists and bunches in the fabric which stretched the fabric and introduced other defects that required the fabric to be detwisted before further processing can be performed. Additionally, previous unloaders could not maintain a high unloading speed to keep the process flowing efficiently.
One type of previous unloader used a coiled removal system. This rotational system unloaded the dyeing range into a device similar to a large funnel. The funnel then coiled the fabric into tubs which were then pushed to the next downstream process. The funnel operated in a manner similar to a rope, causing twisting and stretching problems. This removal system did not meet the speed requirements, and did not use the tubs efficiently, as the coiled placement of the fabric did not fill the tub corners and center requiring the use of additional tubs to move the material and shutting down the unloader as the tubs were changed out.
Thus, there remains a need for a dye system unloading device that is capable of automatically unloading fabric from a dyeing range, such as a jet dyeing machine, at a high speed and reloadable in a short period of time while, at the same time, may be easily moved from dyeing range to dyeing range as needed.


A system and method is provided that generates and transmits images over a communication network to an end user. The system and method includes a zoom and pan (ZAP) feature that offers a user the ability to see all available detail of a displayed image despite the limited image display area. Specifically, images presented within a zoom and pan interface allow the user to zoom in to a particular area of a displayed image to see additional detail, pan to view various areas of the displayed image, and to zoom out again to view the whole displayed image in context. The ZAP feature is applied to a dynamically generated image that includes at least one dynamic image feature, and viewing-region-tracking information is generated enabling user viewing characteristics to be tracked and analyzed.

The establishment of the Internet has enabled the average individual to retrieve and manipulate vast amounts of information from sources throughout the world. In the beginning, the Internet was primarily used to transfer information in the form of text data due to limitations in the technology associated with the capture, storage, manipulation and transfer of digital images over the Internet. These limitations included, for example, the expense of electronic imaging equipment and electronic memory devices, limited computer processing speeds, and the limited data transfer rates associated with available communication networks.
As technology has progressed, however, many of the limitations associated with the transmission of digital images described above have been overcome. The average home computer, for example, is now equipped with sufficient processing speed and memory to easily store and manipulate large numbers of high resolution digital images. Data transfer rates have also dramatically improved through the use of high speed DSL, fiber optic networks, cable modems and satellite links. Further, advances in image capture technologies have also lowered the price of digital cameras and digital scanners to such a degree that conventional silver halide imaging has essentially been rendered obsolete in the mass consumer market. Even the lowest priced electronic cameras and cellular telephones employ images sensors having resolutions unobtainable in the mass consumer market just a decade ago. The overall result of these technological advances has been an explosion in the use of digital images to convey information worldwide over the Internet.
In particular, the use of digital images to display products in electronic commerce applications has become a critical factor in the success of companies utilizing electronic commerce sites to sell products over the Internet. While early electronic commerce sites were basically limited to text descriptions of the products being offered for sale, it quickly became apparent that consumers would hesitate to buy a large number of products—for example clothing—unless the consumer could actually see what they were buying. Accordingly, electronic commerce sites began to include digital images of their products which could be viewed by the user prior to purchase.
It further became apparent that sales could be increased if consumers could make requests to change a displayed image. For example, the consumer may wish to change the size of the image being displayed, change the color of the item being displayed or may wish to display two items together in a specific combination related to the user's own tastes. Alternatively, the consumer may wish to add something to the image in order to customize the item being purchased. A typical example of such customization would be allowing the consumer to add a name on the back of a sports jersey.
The basic infrastructure of the Internet, however, was not originally developed to allow for dynamically creating, manipulating and transferring digital images on a per request basis in an efficient manner, in which the composition, format, presentation, and content of the digital images could be determined by directives presented at the time of a request generated by a user. Instead, conventional technologies and protocols at that time required each potentially desired digital image be separately created and maintained on an image server. As a result, a great deal of resources, both in human development time and electronic image storage capability, were required to create and maintain digital images on electronic commerce servers, which greatly increased the expense of utilizing digital images in electronic commerce applications.
In order to overcome these problems, LiquidPixels, Inc. of Fairport, N.Y. developed and implemented a novel technology, referred to as LiquiFire™, that allows users to dynamically create and manipulate images on demand and in real time. The technology employs a system and method to perform dynamic imaging operations in response to commands received from a user. The technology developed by LiquidPixels, Inc, is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,109,985, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference. With the development of the LiquiFire™ technology, it is now possible to generate digital images on the fly in response to a user's request.
In a specific implementation, the LiquiFire™ system and method includes a parser that takes a request and interprets it into a set of individualized operation commands that will, in sequence, be performed to create or alter an image. Each command, for example, may indicate a source for image data to be acquired, perform an image manipulation on a previously acquired image (including such operations as composition, text, drawing, filtering, etc.), modify the state of the request to provide information which may be used by commands later in the request (by performing calculations, database queries, time decisions, if decisions, etc), perform mathematical or positional calculations, create a new image based on data, or indicate disposition of the image. The commands derived from the parser are defined as a "job", namely, a job is composed of a list of commands that will be performed in sequence, and represents the sequential collection of commands that were parsed from the data presented in the request. One or more image processing engines may be called upon as the job is processed to perform requested image transformations. These engines may be added to over time to allow for extension and customization of the system. An output formatter takes the resulting processed image and converts it to the desired format stated in the request received from the end user.
The LiquiFire™ system and method can be utilized in a number of different applications. For example, the system and method can be utilized to create advertisements (visual or audible) targeted for a specific recipient, utilizing information about that recipient to drive the creation or modification of the advertisement in such areas as: Internet radio advertising and building on-the-fly audio streams; Interactive TV and building on-the-fly commercials on a per viewer basis; direct marketing print advertising; and direct marketing HTML email advertising wherein an e-mail sent to a recipient includes images related to product advertisements and allows the customer to dynamically alter the images in order to customize the product being purchased. The type of information known about the recipient can be specific (such as favorite ice cream, current salary, etc.), but may also be as simple as what time zone the recipient is in or what time are they viewing the advertisement.
The system and method can also be utilized to insert data into a pre-existing or in on-the-fly generated image or graphic templates for the purpose of enticing a viewer into pursuing additional information about a product or service. Examples include: inserting up-to-the-second stock quotes into an ad that is advertising a financial services company; inserting up-to-the-second sports scores into an ad which is advertising sporting goods (note that the specific sports selected to display could be driven by information about the viewer); inserting up-to-the-second pricing information regarding an on-going sale or auction; combining images or graphics in order to create a new image for the purpose of enticing a viewer into pursuing additional information about a product or products. Examples of combining images include: combining any viewer selected necktie on to any viewer selected shirt; creating an image of a piece of furniture upholstered in any viewer selected fabric/pattern; creating an image of a house by combining photos of siding, shutters, doors and viewer selected color schemes.
Regardless of the specific application, digital images embedded within an Internet Web page or any other interactive medium require a tradeoff between the size of the digital image and the amount of visible detail available. Image display real estate—the area available to place an image on a page—is always limited, which results in the limitation of the size of the displayed digital image and the amount of detail that can be provided in the displayed digital image. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a feature to the user that would allow the user, under the user's control, to view all areas of the displayed digital image in greater detail. Further, given that the area of interest within an image can represent important information to a marketer, it would also be desirable to be able to determine and track which areas of the displayed image were of particular interest to a user or how the user interacted with the displayed image.

Enhanced zoom and pan for viewing digital images


A composite material is provided comprising a porous polymeric matrix having metal-organic framework (MOF) domains dispersed within the porous polymeric matrix, each of said MOF domains in fluid communication with the external environment through the pores in the porous polymeric matrix. A process of using the composite material to chemically modify or detoxify a chemical warfare agent or a toxic industrial chemical is also provided. The chemical warfare agent or the toxic industrial chemical is brought into contact with a MOF domain within the porous polymeric matrix so that the MOFs adsorb and chemically modify the chemical warfare agent or the toxic industrial chemical. A process for producing such a composite material is also disclosed.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous inorganic-organic hybrid crystalline materials formed by metal ions or metal clusters connected by covalent bonds between metal orbitals and organic ligands. Accordingly, MOFs have properties of both organic and inorganic materials. Attractive aspects of MOFs are high porosity, well-regulated and tunable pore structure, and tunable structural diversity. MOF membranes and composite materials are characterized by high throughput, and applications include membrane filtration of liquid and gaseous media.
MOFs are a class of materials currently being widely investigated in various fields, such as separations, storage, catalysis, filtration, decontamination, and sensing, among others. MOFs are comprised of secondary building units (SBU), typically made from metal oxide clusters) connected by organic linkers. The resulting structure is an extended, 3-dimensional framework that is often highly porous. Due to the ability to change/tune both the SBU (e.g., changing metal type) and organic linker (e.g. putting functional groups on the linker, using larger/bulkier/longer linkers), an incredibly broad range of structures is possible.
There are multiple sub-groups of MOFs, such as isoreticular MOFs (IRMOFs), MIL (Materials Institute Lavoisier) MOFs, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), and others. Typically, these groups are based on similarities of the structures. For example, most of the IRMOFs contain zinc acetate SBUs, and changing the linker results in a wide range of porous structures. However, IRMOFs in particular are not stable to water.
UiO-66-type MOFs are structures originally synthesized at the University of Oslo. Comprised of zirconium-based SBUs, this series of MOFs is particularly stable to water as well as acidic conditions. UiO-66 utilizes a terephthalic acid (aka benzene dicarboxylate) linker that can be functionalized with a variety of groups, such as an amine group (herein known as UiO-66-NH2).
Toxic chemical and chemical warfare agent (CWA) decomposition poses an ongoing challenge in a variety of settings including environmental contamination and chemical weapons release. Pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate, which is also known as Soman or GD, and O-ethyl S-(2-diisopropylamino)ethyl methylphosphonothiolate, known as VX; are nerve agents that are among several organophosphorus compounds (OPs) that inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and are practically difficult to deactivate. OPs also include a number of insecticides and herbicides that can contaminate areas.
Decontamination typically involves thermal decomposition and/or excessive volumes of washing solutions that are time consuming, energy inefficient, and remove equipment from operation. It is also commonly the case that subsequent degradation and treatment of collected waste streams is also required. Many MOFs, including UiO-66-NH2, are active towards toxic chemicals, including chemical warfare agents (CWAs). UiO-66-NH2 has been shown to hydrolyze CWAs such as Soman, mustard agents, and VX. However, MOFs have characteristics similar to inorganic crystalline materials in being generally brittle crystalline powders or particles, so incorporating MOFs into practical devices often presents a problem.
Thus, there exists a need for a new composition that provides the reactivity of a MOF in a pliable and porous matrix. There further exists a need for the use of such a composition in processes to deactivate toxic industrial chemicals and CWAs such as nerve agents.

Metal-organic framework/polymer foam composite materials and their uses in decontamination and/or ballistic protection

The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Army


A header detection technique for WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) receivers is provided. The WLAN receiver comprises a signal processing unit that has analog circuitry and digital circuitry. There is further provided a header detection circuit for detecting a header in a received signal. The header detection circuit is comprised in the analog circuitry. In an embodiment, digital circuitry may be woken up based on a header detect signal that is generated by the header detection circuit. The embodiments may reduce the power consumption of the receiver, and the false detection rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) receivers and corresponding methods and integrated circuit chips, and in particular to the header detection in such receivers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wireless local area network is a flexible data communications system implemented as an extension to or as an alternative for, a wired LAN. Using radio frequency or infrared technology, WLAN systems transmit and receive data over the air, minimizing the need for wired connections. Thus, WLAN systems combine data connectivity with user mobility.
Today, most WLAN systems use spread spectrum technology, a wide-band radio frequency technique developed for use in reliable and secure communication systems. The spread spectrum technology is designed to trade-off bandwidth efficiency for reliability, integrity and security. Two types of spread spectrum radio systems are frequently used: frequency hopping and direct sequence systems.
The standard defining and governing wireless local area networks that operate in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, is the IEEE 802.11 standard. To allow higher data rate transmissions, the standard was extended to 802.11b that allows data rates of 5.5 and 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Further extensions exist.
Examples of these extensions are the IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standards. The 802.11a specification applies to wireless ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) systems and is used in access hubs. 802.11a operates at radio frequencies between 5 GHz and 6 GHz. It uses a modulation scheme known as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) that makes possible data speeds as high as 54 Mbps, but most commonly, communications take place at 6 Mbps, 12 Mbps, or 24 Mbps. The 802.11b standard uses a modulation method known as Complementary Code Keying (CCK) which allows high data rates and is less susceptible to multi-path propagation interference. The 802.11g standard can use data rates of up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz frequency band using OFDM. Since both 802.11g and 802.11b operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, they are completely inter-operable. The 802.11g standard defines CCK-OFDM as optional transmit mode that combines the access modes of 802.11a and 802.11b, and which can support transmission rates of up to 22 Mbps.
In any transmit mode, a WLAN receiver needs to detect the headers in the received signals. For this purpose, conventional WLAN receivers convert the incoming analog signals to digital signals and perform some digital signal processing on the converted signals to detect the headers. This is an approach which has been shown to usually work properly, but under certain circumstances, the conventional header detection schemes are of insufficient precision and accuracy and work sometimes inefficiently. Moreover, the power consumption involved with detecting headers in conventional receivers is rather high.

WLAN header detection in analog radio front end


An oscillating device is provided that has several oscillators. Each oscillator has a capacitive inductive resonant circuit and a flow-through conduction circuit having a negative flow-through conduction. The inductive elements of the oscillators are mutually coupled. Each oscillator also has short-circuit or not short-circuit the capacitive element of the oscillator. The oscillating device also has a controllable commutating means arranged to activate one oscillator at a time.

The increasing number of communication standards and the centralization of all these standards within a single portable communication apparatus are difficult to achieve. Specifically, in order to transmit and receive on each of the bands concerned by these standards an oscillating element capable of operating continuously on all these frequency bands must be used. An oscillating element comprising a juxtaposition of several oscillating circuits does not allow a continuous operation between the frequency bands. Another oscillating element comprising a single oscillator with a tunable frequency does not allow a sufficient amplitude of frequency variation.
A chosen solution usually consists of using a single circuit supplying several oscillators, making operation possible on several bands. The use of a single circuit also makes it possible to reduce costs and make miniaturization of the electronic circuit easier.
In this type of circuit, the induction coils of each of the oscillators may also be mutually coupled electromagnetically. Therefore, in patents U.S. Pat. No. 7,423,495 and WO 2006/020873, several oscillating circuits are mutually coupled via induction coils. The values of the induction coils vary depending on the modes of the other oscillators and this makes it possible to multiply the number of operating modes.


The hierarchy of an operation screen of a digital PPC (scanner device) used as an image fetching device is set to correspond to the hierarchy of a directory in a file server for recording a scanned image file. That is, the hierarchy of the operation screen and the hierarchy of the directory are set to have a correspondence relation with respect to each other and changing points of the respective hierarchies reflect on the opposite hierarchies.

This invention relates to an image processing system commonly used by a plurality of personal computers by using a digital copying machine as a scanner device in a local area network on which the personal computers and digital copying machine are connected via a file server, for example.
In recent years, paper documents still play an important role in offices in which the service using documents formed in an electronic data form is generalized with the development of large-capacity memory devices and network and the necessity of efficiently taking information recorded on paper into the electronic data-form environment is increased according to the user environment dealing with electronic data-form information.
In an application field of the conventional scanner device, the scanner device is installed and exclusively used for a specified user or machine and deals with an independent document each time an image of the document is required to be read. Thus, the necessity for reading or fetching the image is generalized, requests for reading a large number of documents by a plurality of users are increased and an idea of commonly using a scanner device with high speed and highly intelligent function by a plurality of users is widely spread to make the image reading operation efficient.
Under this condition, in order to reduce occupied time of the scanner device commonly used, an attempt is made to previously allot an image reading function to the operation button of the scanner device and omit the setting operation for the scanner device which will be effected by the user at the time of image reading, or provide a common file server for temporarily storing a read image and set a directory of storage destination of the previously fetched image on the file server to the operation button of the scanner device so that the process for confirming or modifying the read or fetched image can be effected in a place separated from the scanner device.
A plurality of operation buttons are prepared in the scanner device or digital copying machine according to a condition in which the scanner is commonly used by a plurality of users and the improvement is made according to the common-usage environment in which the individual user can allot the function used by himself to the operation button.
For the common scanner, it is an important subject to acquire the security for a read or fetched image, and in the conventional case (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-205513), users who can utilize buttons for the respective operation buttons and authorities for access to the fetched image are previously set to the operation buttons by separately providing a server for effecting the user management.
By setting the various contents to the operation buttons of the scanner device, the degree of freedom of the user setting is greatly increased, but the processing contents for the operation buttons and the setting operation of the access authority become complicated because of the high degree of freedom and there occurs a problem that the simplicity of utilization of the scanner device is lost.


An apparatus (10) for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle (12) comprises a vehicle occupant protection device (14) that is inflatable between a part (16) of the vehicle and a vehicle occupant. The apparatus (10) also comprises an inflation fluid source (24) that is actuatable to direct into the vehicle occupant protection device (14) both gas for initially inflating the vehicle occupant protection device and materials (82, 124) for forming a low-density closed cell foam material in the vehicle occupant protection device. The closed cell foam material assists in maintaining the vehicle occupant protection device (14) in an inflated condition.

It is known to inflate a vehicle occupant protection device to help protect a vehicle occupant. The vehicle occupant protection device is inflated by inflation fluid from an inflator. One particular type of vehicle occupant protection device is an inflatable curtain that is inflatable into a position between the vehicle occupant and the side structure of the vehicle to help protect the vehicle occupant in the event of a side impact to the vehicle and/or a vehicle rollover. It may be desirable for the inflatable curtain to remain inflated for an extended period of time.

Inflator assembly for a vehicle occupant protection device


A method for time stamping a digital document is disclosed. The document originator creates a time stamp receipt by combining the document and a digital time indication. The time stamp receipt is submitted to a time stamping agent having a trusted clock. The time stamping agent optionally validates the time stamp receipt and then computes the age of the time stamp receipt. If valid, the time stamping agent certifies the time stamp receipt by signing the time stamp receipt with a private signature key. The private signature key is selected from a group of signature keys by the time stamping agent based on the computed age of the time stamp receipt.

The present invention relates generally to cryptographic protocols and, more particularly, to a time-stamping protocol for time-stamping digital documents.
There are times when it is desirable to prove the existence of a document as of a particular date. For example, patent disputes concerning the inventorship of an invention often turn on who is able to produce corroborating documentary evidence dating their conception of the invention. A common procedure for dating records is to keep the records in a daily journal or notebook with each page sequentially numbered and dated. Another procedure for dating a record is to have the record witnessed by an uninterested or trusted party that can attest to the existence of the document. The increasing use of computers, however, makes these time-stamping methods obsolete. It is relatively easy to change the date-stamp added to a document by the computer when the document was created. Further, while it is difficult to alter a paper document without leaving some signs of tampering, digital records can be easily altered or revised without leaving any evidence of tampering. Therefore, people are less likely to trust a digital document than a paper document that has been time-stamped using conventional time-stamping procedures.
To be trusted, a time-stamping procedure for digital documents should meet the following criteria:
1. The data itself must be time-stamped, without any regard to the physical medium on which it resides.
2. It must be impossible to change a single bit of the data without that change being apparent.
3. It must be impossible to timestamp a document with a date and time different than the current date and time.
One method for time-stamping a digital document would be to archive the document with a trusted escrow agent. In this case, the document originator sends a copy of the digital document to a trusted escrow agent. The escrow agent records the date and time that the document was received and retains a copy in his archives. Later, if a dispute arises over the date of the document, the document originator can contact the escrow agent who produces his copy of the document and verifies that it was received on a particular date. This time-stamping procedure has a number of drawbacks. First, the document originator must disclose the contents of the document to the escrow agent. Also, large documents take a relatively long period of time to transmit to the escrow agent and they require a large amount of data storage.
An improvement of the escrow procedure is to use a hash of the document. Instead of sending the document to the escrow agent, the document originator hashes the document using a one-way hash algorithm and sends the generated hash value to the escrow agent. The escrow agent stores the hash value along with the date and time that it was received in his archives. Later the document originator can use the services of the escrow agent to prove the existence of the document as of a particular date. The disputed document can be hashed and the resulting hash value can be compared to the hash value stored by the escrow agent in his archives for equality. If the hash values are equal, the document is presumed to be in existence as of the date associated with the stored hash value. One advantage of this method is that the document originator does not need to disclose the contents of the document to the escrow agent.
The need to escrow the document or hash value can be eliminated by having a time stamping authority generate a certified time stamp receipt using a cryptographic signature scheme as taught in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,954 to Haber et al. and Fischer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,752. In this case, the document originator hashes the document and transmits the hash value to the time stamping authority. The time stamping authority appends the current date and time to the hash value to create a time stamp receipt and digitally signs the time stamp receipt with a private signature key. The time stamping authority""s public verification key is distributed and available to anyone interested in validating a time stamp receipt created by time stamping authority. The public verification key is typically stored in a public key certificate signed by a Certification Authority so that anyone desiring to validate the time stamp receipt with the public key can have confidence in the authenticity of the key.
Another approach to time stamping documents is disclosed in PCT WO 99/16209 entitled Method and System For Transient Key Digital Time Stamps. In this application, time stamp receipts are signed by the time stamping authority using transient, time-related keys. The time-stamping authority periodically generates a signature generation key, which is valid for a predetermined interval of time. Documents received during the specified time interval are signed using the key corresponding to that interval. At the end of the interval, a new key is generated for the next interval and the previously used key is discarded. In this manner, a new signature generation key is generated at a predetermined interval of time. The public verification key associated with each private signature generation key is saved for future authentication of the time stamp receipt.
The present invention is a time-stamping protocol for time-stamping digital documents so that the date of the document can be verified. The method presumes the existence of a trusted agent referred to herein as the time-stamping authority (TSA). According to the present invention, the TSA maintains a plurality of public and private key pairs that are used to sign and verify documents. Each key pair is associated with a predetermined time interval. The document originator creates a time stamp receipt by combining the document or other identifying data proving the substance of a document with a time indication. The document originator sends the time stamp receipt to the TSA. After validating the time stamp receipt, the TSA computes the age of the time stamp receipt and uses the computed age to select a key pair. The time stamp receipt is then signed by the time stamping agent using the private signature key from the selected key pair.

Time stamping method using time delta in key certificate

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is directed to the use of cangrelor for the treatment and/or prevention of shunt thrombosis in patients suffering congenital heart diseases undergoing shunt surgery. The invention is also directed to the use of cangrelor for the treatment and/or prevention of stent thrombosis in pediatric patients undergoing stent implantation.

Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most common type of birth defect. It affects 8 out of every 1,000 newborns and has a wide range of disease severity. However, the majority of those born with structural heart anomalies are otherwise healthy, and corrective procedures may result in a normal lifespan (Monagle, 2005). While great technical advances have been achieved in palliative and corrective measures and in the care of critically ill neonates, these procedures are associated with an increased risk of acute thrombotic events (ATE) in this patient population (Monagle, 2004; Tormene et al., 2006; Monagle et al., 2008; Manlhiot et al., 2011).
Palliation with a modified BT shunt is indispensable for the management of a select group of neonates with cyanotic congenital heart disease. However, such patients are at high risk for thrombotic complications such as acute shunt occlusion, which remains a major source of morbidity and mortality. Although aspirin therapy, in general, is thought to reduce the risk of shunt occlusion and improve survival, it is typically not administered until 12 to 24 hours after surgery. A limited retrospective review of pediatric cardiac patients with evidence of shunt occlusion at Columbia University Medical Center revealed that the majority of cases occurred prior to the administration of an antiplatelet agent, establishing an unmet need for thromboprophylaxis during this vulnerable period.
Acute thromboembolic events (ATE) are rapidly becoming the new epidemic in centers that care for critically ill neonates due to an increase in invasive monitoring, lifesaving technologies such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and new surgical techniques and graft materials used to repair complex congenital heart disease. (Monagle P, Newall F, Barnes C, Savoia H, Campbell J, Wallace T, Crock C. "Arterial thromboembolic disease: a single-centre case series study." J Paediatr Child Health. 2008; 44:2832; Tormene D, Gavasso S, Rossetto V, Simioni P. "Thrombosis and thrombophilia in children: a systematic review." Semin Throm. Hemost. 2006; 32:724-728; Manlhiot C, Menjak I B, Brandäo L R, Gruenwald C E, Schwartz S M, Sivarajan V B, Yoon H, Maratta R, Carew C L, McMullen J A, Clarizia N A, Holtby H M, Williams S, Caldarone C A, Van Arsdell G S, Chan A K, McCrindle B W. "Risk, clinical features, and outcomes of thrombosis associated with pediatric cardiac surgery." Circulation. 2011; 124:1511-1519; Chalmers E A. "Pediatric thrombosis." J Clin Pathol. 2000; 53:419-423.) In the latter case, infants (<6 months) constitute the major proportion (˜70%) of patients seen in tertiary care centers with ATEs. (Monagle P. "Anticoagulation in the young." Heart. 2004; 90:808-812.) In particular, those with single ventricle physiology who require a systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt placement (e.g. modified Blalock-Taussing or central shunts) are at greatest risk, especially in the early postoperative period. (Manlhiot C, Menjak I B, Brandão L R, Gruenwald C E, Schwartz S M, Sivarajan V B, Yoon H, Maratta R, Carew C L, McMullen J A, Clarizia N A, Holtby H M, Williams S, Caldarone C A, Van Arsdell G S, Chan A K, McCrindle B W. "Risk, clinical features, and outcomes of thrombosis associated with pediatric cardiac surgery." Circulation. 2011; 124:1511-1519; Fenton K N, Siewers R D, Rebovich B, Pigula F A. "Interim mortality in infants with systemic-to pulmonary artery shunts." Ann Thorac Surg. 2003; 76:152-156; Monagle Paul. "Thrombosis in children with B T shunts," Glenns and Fontans. Prog Pediatr Cardiol. 2005; 21:17-21; Al Jubair K A, Al Fagih M R, Al Jarallah A S, Al Yousef S, Ali Khan M A, Ashmeg A, Al Faraidi Y, Sawyer W. "Results of 546 Blalock-Taussig shunts performed in 478 patients." Cardiol Young. 1998; 8:486-490.) Consequently, this has resulted in suboptimal postoperative outcomes as exemplified in a retrospective review of 2,058 neonates who underwent palliation with a systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt at multiple centers; discharge mortality and complication rates were around an aggregate of 6.7% and 12.3%, respectively. (Heidari-Bateni G, Norouzi S, Hall M, Brar A, Eghtesady P. "Defining the best practice patterns for the pediatric systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt procedure." J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2014; 147:869-873.) Early institution of aspirin, an irreversible inhibitor of platelet cyclooxygenase, within 12 hours of surgery has reduced the risk of shunt thrombosis and death in this patient population. (Al Jubair K A, Al Fagih M R, Al Jarallah A S, Al Yousef S, Ali Khan M A, Ashmeg A, Al Faraidi Y, Sawyer W. Results of 546 "Blalock-Taussig shunts performed in 478 patients." Cardiol Young. 1998; 8:486-490; Heidari-Bateni G, Norouzi S, Hall M, Brar A, Eghtesady P. "Defining the best practice patterns for the pediatric systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt procedure." J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2014; 147:869-873; Li J S, Yow E, Berezny K Y, Rhodes J F, Bokesch P M, Charpie J R, Forbus G A, Mahony L, Boshkov L, Lambert V, Bonnet D, Michel-Behnke I, Graham T P, Takahashi M, Jaggers J, Califf R M, Rakhit A, Fontecave S, Sanders S P. "Clinical outcomes of palliative surgery including a systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt in infants with cyanotic congenital heart disease: does aspirin make a difference?" Circulation. 2007; 116:293-297; Motz R, Wessel A, Ruschewski W, Bürsch J. "Reduced frequency of occlusion of aorto-pulmonary shunts in infants receiving aspirin." Cardiol Young. 1999; 9:474-477). However, there remains an urgent need for pharmacologic protection prior to the administration of an oral antiplatelet agent in order to minimize the period during which patients are vulnerable to an ATE.
Thienopyridines (e.g. clopidogrel) are a class of antiplatelet agents that target the ADP receptor P2Y12 and are known to reduce the risk of ischemia and thrombosis in adult patients during and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). They do so by impairing P2Y12 potentiation of platelet dense granule secretion in response to strong agonists, stabilization of platelet aggregates by contributing to the activation of αIIbβ3, and inhibition of the antiplatelet effects of prostacyclin. Despite its proven clinical efficacy, clopidogrel has several major drawbacks that would limit it use during the vulnerable period for post-operative pediatric cardiac patients. These include the requirement for oral administration that may result in erratic absorption particularly in bypass cases, delay in the onset of action due to the need for conversion of the pro-drug to an active metabolite, and irreversible inhibition of P2Y12 that would necessitate platelet transfusion(s) if bleeding occurred
Interestingly, a previous clinical trial evaluating clopidogrel therapy in infants with cyanotic congenital heart disease palliated with a systemic-to-pulmonary-artery shunt failed to show any benefit in reducing the rate of death or shunt-related morbidity in drug treated patients. In the majority of cases, patients were also receiving aspirin therapy at the time of administration of clopidogrel. Of note, clopidrogrel is a prodrug that requires metabolism by the liver to generate its active form, which was unknown at the time that study was performed. It is also an irreversible inhibitor of the P2Y12 receptor. Target value for platelet inhibition in that trial was ˜30% as determined by LTA. One major conclusion drawn from this study was that platelets from these young patients might be less responsive to agonists such as ADP as evidenced by the lower dose of clopidogrel needed to achieve similar levels of inhibition of platelet aggregation using LTA as compared to adults. This suggested that the P2Y12 signaling pathway may be developmentally regulated and/or of less importance in supporting thrombus generation in this population as compared to adults.
Cangrelor, an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) analogue, is a P2Y12 receptor antagonist given intravenously with properties more suitable for short-term use, which include a rapid, direct, predictable, and reversible inhibition of platelet function. It does not require conversion to an active form as compared to clopidogrel. It has a half-life of 3 to 6 minutes in adults with restoration of hemostasis, as assessed by bleeding time, seen within 10 minutes of cessation of infusion of a supratherapeutic dose and full platelet function recovery within 60 minutes as determined by response to ADP.
The alternatives forms and salts of cangrelor, processes for their production, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising them, are well known in the art and set forth, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,219. Additional disclosure relevant to the production and use of cangrelor may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,955,447; 6,130,208; 6,114,313; 8,680,052; 759,316; 9,295,687; 9,427,448; 9,439,921; and 9,700,575.
Cangrelor is also rapidly inactivated by dephosphorylation to the nucleoside. On the basis of these characteristics, it was selected for clinical development as an IV antithrombotic agent and has recently been approved by the FDA for use in adults undergoing PCI.
Cangrelor may also have value as a potential bridging agent to oral therapy in neonates with cyanotic congenital heart disease who require palliation with a systemic-to-pulmonary-artery shunt.
Despite advances in adjunctive pharmacotherapy, there remains an urgent need for pharmacologic protection prior to the administration of an oral antiplatelet agent in order to minimize the period immediately after surgery during which patients, in particular the pediatric patients, are vulnerable to an acute thrombotic event (ATE).
We provide a pharmaceutical composition comprising a P2Y12 inhibitor as anti-platelet agents for use in preventing and/or treating thrombosis, having pharmacological properties that are well suited for critically ill pediatric and pediatric patients with congenital heart disease requiring thromboprophylaxis.

Method of preventing of systemic-to-pulmonary-artery shunt thrombosis


A method for plasticating and conveying macromolecular materials based on elongational flow and equipment thereof are disclosed. A set of spaces having specific shape is used, and the volume of the spaces can increase and decrease periodically, and the materials flow into the spaces when the volume is increasing; and are pressed, plasticated and discharged when the volume is decreasing, so that the plasticating and conveying process is mainly under normal stress. A vane-type plasticating and conveying unit mainly comprises a cylindrical hollow stator; a columned rotor eccentrically installed in the inner cavity of the stator, wherein a group of rectangular slots are formed along the circumference of the rotor; a plurality of vanes which are arranged evenly in the slots and baffles mounted on the two sides of the stator. The inner surface of the stator, the outer surface of the rotor, the two vanes, and the two baffles surround to form the spaces having specific shape. The vane-type plasticating and conveying unit and various screw-type extruding unit or various plunger-injection unit can be combined to form a vane-type plasticating and injection device of an extruder or injection machine. The present invention is of short material thermo-mechanical history, low energy consumption, wide adaptability, and small volume.

Macromolecular materials processing is a process with high energy consumption. Normally, screw machinery such as screw type extruder and screw type injection machine is used. The plastic materials should be proceeded with the process of conveying, melting and plasticating, during the processing of extrusion, injection or calendering, and this process occupies most of the energy consumption of the processing of macromolecular materials. In the screw machinery, the plasticating and conveying of the materials mainly depends on the dragging effect during the rotation of screw, wherein the solid conveying relies on friction, the melt conveying relies on viscosity, the velocity gradient of the materials is vertical to the direction of flow and deformation, and this flow and deformation is mainly subject to the shear stress. Therefore, it can be considered that the current screw machinery widely used is a screw type plasticating and conveying equipment of macromolecular materials based on shear rheology, and it is unavoidable that the capability of plasticating and conveying strongly depends on the internal friction of materials and the friction between the materials and the surface of material barrel. These two problems also depend on the physical property of the materials and the process conditions during manufacturing. In screw machinery, approaches such as providing grooves on the solid conveying section of the material barrel to increase the friction between the barrel and the materials, enlarging the length/diameter ratio of screw, and optimizing the screw structure are usually adopted to solve the above problems. However, these approaches may result in the increase of the thermo-mechanical history, the energy consumption, and the volume of the equipment, etc.
The dynamic processing technology shortens the thermo-mechanical history of the materials and reduces the flow resistance of the materials during the processing, so that the energy consumption of plasticating and conveying is reduced, and the plasticating capacity is improved. However, the dynamic processing equipment for macromolecular materials is essentially a screw type machine in which the plasticating and conveying of materials are based on shear rheology, and thus it can not overcome the problem that the capability of plasticating and conveying strongly depends on the friction between the materials and the inner surface of the material barrel and the internal friction of materials. Accordingly, the reduction in energy consumption of plasticating and conveying and the improvement in capability of plasticating and conveying are quite limited.

Method and a device for plasticizing and transporting polymer material based on elongation rheology


An electron transport material includes zinc oxide (ZnO) doped with metal ions. The metal ions are two or three metal ions of different valences of a same metal element. A lowest valence state of the metal ions is positive divalent.

With display technology continues to progress, quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLED) using a quantum dot (QD) material as a light-emitting layer attract more and more attention. The properties of the QD materials include high luminous efficiency, controllable luminescent color, high color purity, good device stability, usability in flexible displays, etc. These properties of QLED make it very a very attractive choice in the fields of display technology and solid-state lighting.
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is used as an electron transport layer (ETL) material, which is commonly used in the QLED. ZnO has a good energy level match with the cathode and the QD light-emitting layer, which can significantly reduce an electron injection barrier from the cathode to the QD light-emitting layer. ZnO also has a deeper valence band energy level, which can effectively block a hole. Furthermore, the ZnO material has a good electron transport capability with electron mobility up to 10−3 cm2/V·s. These properties make the ZnO material a most often selected material for the ETL of a QLED device, which can significantly improve stability and luminous efficiency of the device.
To further improve the performance of the QLED device, metal-ion-doped ZnO ETL is widely used. The method can adjust a forbidden bandwidth of the ZnO ETL to a certain width, which can optimize conductivity and energy level structure of the ZnO ETL. As such, the metal-ion-doped ZnO ETL improves the luminous efficiency of the QLED device. For example, doping the ZnO material with high valent metal ions, such as Al3+, Ga3+, etc., can increase a free carrier density of the ZnO material and obtain an excellent conductivity property. To further improve the conductivity of the ZnO material, the amount of dopant is necessary to be increased. However, since a large ion radius difference between the commonly used high-valent metal ions and Zn2+, solid solubility of the high-valent metal ions is greatly limited in the ZnO. Thus, the electrical conductivity of the ZnO material is hard to be further improved. Therefore, existing technology needs to be improved and developed.

Electron transport material and formation method and quantum dot light emitting diode


A method achieves minimum limit cycle oscillation (LCO) amplitude of a digital low dropout regulator (D-LDO) by adding auxiliary unit power transistors in parallel with the main PMOS array with selected unit strength and LCO mode. An improved D-LDO with reduced LCO amplitude includes an auxiliary power transistor array in selected strength driven by an output of a comparator in parallel with a main power transistor array.

A D-LDO manages to operate at low voltage and scale with process. Acceleration of the transient response of the D-LDO by a high sampling frequency inevitably undermine the steady-state power consumption, while low sampling frequency operations result in a longer charging/discharging on the output capacitor once an inherent ripple exists on the control word. This ripple is known as limit cycle oscillation (LCO) which incites large, unfavorable output voltage variation.
New methods and systems that achieve minimum LCO amplitude of D-LDO will assist in advancing technological needs and solving technological problems.

Limit cycle oscillation reduction for digital low dropout regulators


A hot gas valve disc for a divert and attitude control disc switching element used in a propelled craft. The hot gas valve disc comprises a first layer comprising a first metal material having a first grain size and a first grain orientation, and at least one additional layer comprising a second metal material having a second grain size that differs from the first grain size, or a second grain orientation that differs from the first grain orientation. A method of manufacturing the hot gas valve disc comprises the steps of fabricating a first metal layer using a solid-free-form fabrication process, the first metal layer having a set of grain characteristics comprising grain size and grain structure, followed by heating the first layer and thereby changing at least one of the grain characteristics.

Space craft, missiles, and other projectiles are sometimes equipped with steering features that enable the projectiles to provide for their own guidance. Some of such features include various propellant output valves that operate by opening and closing to redirect propellant thrust and thereby steer the projectile.
Valves for propellant redirection are typically lightweight, yet capable of withstanding the hot environment produced by engine gases since engine gas generators may use and exhaust gases at between 2000 and 5000° F. Even if valves are only required to be briefly exposed to hot gases, the valves should be capable of withstanding such high temperatures for their short duty cycles. For this reason, high temperature divert and attitude control valves for space craft, missiles, interceptors, and other craft are sometimes formed from refractory metals that maintain their strength and form at high temperatures. Also, valves and valve components that are not subjected to hot environments are commonly made from refractory metals or other metals that have high strength and are metallurgically sound.
Although care is taken to produce hot gas valves and other valves that are structurally and metallurgically sound, the processes for manufacturing the valves can be somewhat inefficient. Refractory metal hot gas valve components are currently produced by performing electro-discharge machining and grinding processes on large refractory metal plates or bars. The plates and bars themselves are typically fabricated using sintered powder metallurgy processes. Although the valves that are formed from these combined processes are operable at high temperatures, the valve components may include micropores or other inconsistencies that are sometimes products of sintered powder metallurgy processes, and that may affect valve's mechanical integrity if the components are included in the valve. The component inconsistencies require screening prior to manufacturing and/or using a hot gas valve to assure that the valve will operate correctly at high temperatures.
One example of a valve component that is formed from a refractory metal using sintered powder metallurgy processes is a disc that is a component of some hot gas valves that are used in missiles. The disc allows propellant gas to flow out of only one side of the valve or the other. However, if the discs have micropores or other inconsistencies that are sometimes associated with sintered powder metallurgy processes, they can potentially deform or crack at temperatures ranging from room temperature to the elevated operating temperatures.
Since hot gas valves that include discs for gas flow regulation provide some distinct advantages over other valve designs, many efforts have been undertaken to find ways to manufacture refractory metal discs having consistent structural and metallurgical characteristics. One recent manufacturing development includes fabricating a refractory metal-based plate, such as a rhenium-based plate, using layer additive manufacturing (LAM), which is one of many solid-free-form fabrication processes that are increasingly being used to manufacture parts in three-dimensional space by depositing successive layers of material. However, the LAM-formed discs are typically either sufficiently ductile but have low strength, or are sufficiently strong but have low ductility, depending on the refractory metal alloy composition.
Hence, there is a need for methods for manufacturing hot gas valve discs and other valve components that have high ductility and high strength. There is a particular need for methods that manufacture such components with high structural and metallurgical consistency so that the need for inefficient screening methods can be minimized.

Solid-free-form fabrication of hot gas valve discs


A process for coating a ribbon of float glass is disclosed. It comprises the steps of forming a glass ribbon, depositing a first transparent conductive coating upon a major surface of the ribbon which does not extend to the edges of the ribbon while the ribbon is at an elevated temperature, cooling said coated ribbon under controlled conditions in an annealing lehr and cutting off the edges of the ribbon so as to produce a ribbon having a uniform coating extending across the full width of the cut ribbon which is characterized in that a second conductive coating is deposited upon the uncoated edges of the ribbon while that edge is at a temperature which is above the ambient temperature. The invention finds particular application in the production of coated glass products where the thickness of the glass ribbon is at least 8 mm and most particularly where the thickness of the glass is at least 10 mm.

This invention relates to novel processes for the production of coated glass during a float glass production process.
The float glass process, developed by Pilkington in 1952, is now the world standard for high quality glass production. Float glass is often processed further before being fitted into buildings and vehicles.
The process is used to make glass as thin as 0.4 mm and as thick as 25 mm. A 'batch' of precisely mixed raw materials is melted in a furnace. Molten glass, at approximately 1000° C., is poured continuously from the furnace onto a shallow bath of molten tin in a chemically controlled atmosphere. The glass floats on the tin, spreads out and forms a level surface. Thickness is controlled by the speed at which the solidifying glass ribbon is drawn off from the bath. The ribbon of glass which is produced is passed to a lehr in which it cools under controlled conditions. After annealing the glass emerges as a 'fire' polished product with virtually parallel surfaces.
The heat and light transmission properties of the glass may be varied by depositing a transparent coating upon at least one surface of the glass ribbon. These coatings may be deposited during the float glass production process. The processes which are used to deposit such coatings are commonly termed on line coating processes. Such processes are well established in commercial production and may be carried out using atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition processes (hereinafter for convenience APCVD processes). In an APCVD process a fluid mixture is directed onto the surface of the glass ribbon at a point where the ribbon is at an elevated temperature and the heat of the glass causes the reaction of the components of the fluid mixture and the deposition of a coating upon the surface of the glass ribbon. Such processes are particularly useful in the float bath. The float bath is maintained under a reducing atmosphere in order to avoid oxidation of the tin and is maintained at substantially atmospheric pressure. The glass is at a high temperature typically from 750° C. to 400° C.
Such processes may be carried out using known methods and apparatus such as those which are described in EP 785868. The apparatus typically comprises one or more distributor beams which extend transversely across the float bath section. The processes are designed to coat the entire width of the glass ribbon and the distributor beams are typically represented as extending across the entire width of the ribbon. However in practice the distributor beams do not extend to the edges of the ribbon because of the potential for the components of the fluid mixture to react with and/or contaminate the tin in the float bath. The extremities of the ribbon are left uncoated and are cut off after the ribbon leaves the annealing lehr.
One problem which is commonly encountered in a float glass production process is the breakage of the glass ribbon as it passes through the annealing lehr. These breakages are unpredictable events which reduce the yield of usable glass and which detract from the economics of the process. They occur during the production of uncoated glass possibly because the extremities of the ribbon, which are often termed the knurl, are thinner than the centre of the ribbon which leads to thermal and mechanical stresses in the ribbon. The problem of breakages in the ribbon is exacerbated when a coated glass ribbon is produced. The rate of heat loss in the ribbon is greater in the uncoated edges of the ribbon than in the coated section of the ribbon. This results in a temperature differential between these two portions of the ribbon as it passes through the annealing lehr which causes a thermal stress which can result in breaking of the ribbon which is undesirable.
Attempts have been made to reduce the number of breakages by providing heating means to raise the temperature of the uncoated edges of the ribbon. These attempts have not been entirely successful particularly when the coated section of the glass ribbon has a thickness of greater than 4 mm.


An image-forming method for a light-sensitive material comprising a support and a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable compound, a base or base precursor and a salt of a reducing agent, wherein a heat development process is performed simultaneously with or after an imagewise exposure in the presence of the base or base precursor activator to release the reducing agent from the salt and to imagewise polymerize the polymerizable compound.

Light-sensitive materials comprising a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, a reducing agent and a polymerizable compound provided on a support can be used in an image forming method in which a latent image of silver halide is formed, and then the polymerizable compound is polymerized to form the corresponding image.
Examples of said image forming methods are described in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 45(1970)-11149 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,275), 47(1972)-20741 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,667) and 49(1974)-10697, and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 57(1982)-138632, 57(1982)-142638, 57(1982)-176033, 57(1982)-211146 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,997), 58(1983)-107529 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,637), 58(1983)-121031 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,450) and 58(1983)-169143. In these image forming methods, when the exposed silver halide is developed using a developing solution, the polymerizable compound is induced to polymerize in the presence of a reducing agent (which is oxidized) to form a polymer image. Thus, these methods need a wet development process employing a developing solution. Therefore the process takes a relatively long time.
An improved image forming method employing a dry process is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 61(1986)-69062 and 61(1986)-73145 (the contents of both publications are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 and European Patent Provisional Publication No. 0174634A2). In this image forming method, a recording material (i.e., light-sensitive material) comprising a light-sensitive layer containing a light-sensitive silver salt (i.e., silver halide), a reducing agent, a cross-linkable compound (i.e., polymerizable compound) and a binder provided on a support is imagewise exposed to form a latent image, and then the material is heated to polymerize within the area where the latent image of the silver halide has been formed. The above method employing the dry process and the light-sensitive material employable for such method are also described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publications Nos. 61(1986)-183640, 61(1986)-188535 and 61(1986)-228441 (the contents of these three publications are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 827,702 abandoned).
In the above-mentioned light-sensitive materials, the reducing agent has a function of reducing the silver halide and/or a function of accelerating polymerization of the polymerizable compound. Examples of the reducing agents having these functions include hydrazines and conventional photographic developing agents, such as hydroquinones, catechols, p-aminophenols, p-phenylenediamines, 3-pyrazolidones, 3-aminopyrazoles, 4-amino-5-pyrazolones, 5-aminouracils, 4,5-dihydroxy-6-aminopyrimidines, reductones, aminoreductones, o- or p-sulfonamidophenols, o- or p-sulfonamidonaphthols, 2-sulfonamidoindanones, 4-sulfonamido-5-pyrazolones, 3-sulfonamidoindoles, sulfonamidopyrazolobenzimidazoles, sulfonamidopyrazolotriazoles, .alpha.-sulfonamidoketones etc. Among them, a hydrazine derivative is most preferred.

Image forming method using microcapsules containing silver halide and a salt of a reducing agent


In the heat treatment of food particularly pre-packed food it is important to control the temperature and to provide uniform heat distribution within the article, By using a number of microwave emission slots in a waveguide which are brought to resonance in the presence of pre-packed articles carried over the slots by a conveyor the rate of rise of temperature within the article is controlled without unnecessary energy loss between articles carried seriatim on the conveyor The slots may be set obliquely to the direction of passage of the article Alternatively the slots may be formed by a series of smaller slots staggered obliquely across the waveguide so that the presence of the article tunes each of the slots in turn as it passes over the waveguide. The slots may be covered with low-loss dielectric material to prevent extraneous matter falling into the slots and to space the article from the slots so as to control power dissipated.

Microwave ovens are well-known for the rapid volumetric heating of food. A common problem encountered with microwave heating is the lack of uniformity of heating particularly on the edges and corners of solids.
In large scale continuous food production, uniformity of heating and the control of temperature is very important, particularly where the food is to be processed to kill bacteria in, for example, pasteurisation or sterilisation treatment. Commonly individual meals in boxes (chill foods) or rectangular blocks of wrapped food product are passed through a microwave processing oven on a conveyor belt which is transparent to the microwaves.
The present invention seeks to provide a means of heating articles, such as food products, so that there is substantially uniform heating. The invention also seeks to enable a train of articles, such as discretely wrapped solids, to be subjected to microwave energy concentrated in the discrete articles and not in the gaps within the article train. The invention also seeks inherently to control the energy dissipated in the leading and trailing edges of the solid articles in the train so as to provide substantially uniform heating throughout the article.
The invention therefore seeks to provide a method and means for controlling the temperature, for achieving substantially uniform heat distribution, and for controlling the rate of rise of temperature in the article without unnecessary energy loss between articles in a train of articles to be processed.

Method and apparatus for uniform microwave heating of an article using resonant slots


A differential pressure sensor has a magnetized piston free to move in a cylinder. Magnetic endcaps seal the ends of the cylinder, forming chambers on either side of the piston. The moveable magnetic piston is constrained by the opposing magnetic fields of the endcaps. The piston is covered with magnetic ferrofluid, providing a low friction gas-tight seal around the piston. The cylinder has two pressure input lines, one being connected to the chamber on either side of the piston. The relative pressures of the input lines cause the piston to move to a position of equilibrium within the cylinder, with the magnetic fields of the endcaps holding the piston in place against the pressure. A magnetic field angle sensor detects flux lines on the outside of the cylinder, and the reading is correlated with the pressure differential between the two input lines.

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to sensors and measurement devices, and more specifically, to pressure sensors.
There are a number of different pressure related parameters that can be measured. An absolute pressure sensor measures pressure relative to perfect vacuum pressure of 0 pounds per square inch (PSI) or zero pressure. Atmospheric pressure is 101.325 kPa (14.7 PSI) at sea level with reference to vacuum. The pressure measurement taken on a car tire is sometimes called gauge pressure. A gauge pressure sensor measures the pressure relative to a given atmospheric pressure at the location of the measurement. For example, when the tire pressure gauge reads 0 PSI, there is actually around 14.7 PSI (or atmospheric pressure) in the tire. A third type of pressure measurement is differential pressure. A differential pressure sensor measures the difference between two pressure inputs to the sensing device. For example, a differential pressure sensor could be used to measure the pressure increase across an oil pipeline pump.
There are several conventional designs for pressure sensors operating on the basis of a number of different technologies. Piezoresistive strain gauge pressure sensors exploit the piezoresistive effect to detect strain due to pressure applied to a bonded strain gauge. A piezoelectric pressure sensor uses the piezoelectric effect of materials such as quartz to measure pressure induced strain. A capacitive pressure sensor has a diaphragm and pressure cavity designed to create a variable capacitor for detecting strain due to applied pressure. Electromagnetic pressure sensors measure the displacement of a diaphragm by exploiting changes in inductance, the Hall Effect, the eddy current principal, or using a Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT).
However, such conventional pressure sensing technologies are not well suited to measuring low differential pressures, are expensive, and may be difficult to operate in a environments which require high withstand pressures. Accordingly, a robust, compact pressure sensor suitable for measuring low differential pressures is needed.

Sensitive differential pressure sensor and method


Filter cartridge assemblies are provided with a generally cylindrical filter medium which defines a cylindrically shaped core space, and a pair of end caps. A threaded base member having detent projections receives at least one of the end caps, which itself is annular and has an interior cylindrical surface defining an interior space in alignment with the core space. The interior space is also provided with interrupted threads defining detent spaces. In use, therefore, the lower end cap may be threadably coupled with the threaded base member such that the detent projections are seated in respective ones of the detent, thereby minimizing the unintended threaded uncoupling therebetween. In another aspect, the filter cartridge is most preferably "coreless" and is capable of being sleeved over a permanent, reusable perforated core element. However, the core element is removably insertable within a base member to which the filter cartridge may be coupled. Specifically, one end of the core element is provided with an annular set ring. The set ring is rigidly connected to the exterior surface in surrounding relationship to the core element at a location spaced axially from the one of its ends (e.g., the lower end) towards the other end (e.g., the upper end). In use, the annular set ring provides a seat which bears against the base when the end of the core element is forcibly inserted thereinto.

Disposable filter cartridges are widely used for the filtration of a variety of fluids. Generally, such filter cartridges include cylindrically shaped filter media which define a central core chamber. The filter medium is typically provided with appropriate end caps which allow fluid to be forced through the depth of the filter media. Some filter cartridges (e.g., as depicted in FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,469) are provided with an integral rigid core structure which provides the filter media with structural support (e.g., so the filter medium is capable of withstanding fluid pressure differentials during use). Other filter cartridges, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,264, employ a relatively rigid, self-supporting, porous, thick-walled tubular filter cartridge element having specially designed flexible end caps. Still other filter cartridges, such as those depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,218,324 and 5,681,461 employ a "coreless" disposable filter cartridge having rigid preformed end caps. The coreless disposable filter cartridge is sleeved over, and fluid-sealed with respect to, a reusable separate core structure.
Recently, improvements in the so-called "coreless" filter cartridges were proposed by copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/154,522 filed on Sep. 16, 1998 (the entire content of which is incorporated expressly hereinto by reference, and hereinafter referred to as "the '522 application"). In general, the filter cartridge disclosed in the '522 application includes a generally cylindrical filter medium which defines a cylindrically shaped core space, and a pair of rigid, preformed end caps fixed to opposite ends of the filter medium. At least one of the end caps (e.g., the lower end cap) is annular and has an interior cylindrical surface defining an interior space in alignment with the filter cartridge's core space. A truncated generally conically shaped seal skirt is operatively associated with the annular end cap. The filter cartridge of the '522 application is sleeved over a reusable support core structure which includes a base having a truncated conically shaped seal skirt, and a tubular perforated rigid core element fixed at one end to the base. The annular end-cap and the base of the support core structure are removably mechanically coupled to one another, most preferably by being threadably interconnected. In such a manner, the seal skirt is sealingly engaged with the seal skirt of the base.
While the filter cartridge assemblies disclosed in '522 application represent novel improvements to the state of the art, some additional improvements may still be desired, especially in certain end-use applications. For example, in the power generation industry, large filter cartridge arrays housed within relatively large filtration vessels are typically needed in order to purify various process streams. These filter cartridge arrays typically use a guide rod to help center the core of an integral core/filter media cartridge. Once the cartridge is in place, they are secured to a top plate assembly (e.g., via a top stem and cotter pin arrangement). Needless to say, it is quite time consuming to replace all filter cartridges in a given filtration vessel leading to long equipment down times.
What has been needed, therefore, is an improved filter cartridge assembly which is especially adapted to be used in back-flushing filtration operations and/or which has the ability to be quickly removed. It is toward providing such needs that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention relates to improvements in filter cartridge assemblies whereby unintended threaded uncoupling between the filter cartridge and the base member may be minimized (if not eliminated entirely). More specifically, a filter cartridge assembly according to the present invention is provided with a generally cylindrical filter medium which defines a cylindrically shaped core space, and a pair of end caps fixed to opposite ends of the filter medium. A threaded base member having detent projections receives at least one of the end caps, most preferably the lower end cap. This lower end cap is annular and has an interior cylindrical surface defining an interior space in alignment with the core space. The interior space is also provided with interrupted threads defining detent spaces.
In use, therefore, the lower end cap may be threadably coupled with the threaded base member such that the detent projections are seated in respective ones of the detent spaces. In such a manner, the unintended threaded uncoupling of the lower end cap and the base member is minimized.
In another aspect of this invention, the filter cartridge is most preferably "coreless" and is capable of being sleeved over a permanent, reusable perforated core element. However, the core element is removably insertable within a base member to which the filter cartridge may be coupled. Specifically, one end of the core element is provided with an annular set ring. The set ring is rigidly connected to the exterior surface in surrounding relationship to the core element at a location spaced axially from the one of its ends (e.g., the lower end) towards the other end (e.g., the upper end). In use, the annular set ring provides a seat which bears against the base when the end of the core element is forcibly inserted thereinto.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof which follow.

Back-flushable filter cartridge assemblies

USF Filtration and Separation Group, Inc.


Presently disclosed embodiments relate to an improved electrophotographic imaging member or photoreceptor comprising a surface layer on the photoreceptor, where the surface layer comprises secondary electron emitting materials that act as a robust electrically active layer. Photoreceptors incorporating such materials into or on the surface will exhibit an increase photoreceptor life and also a reduction the operating voltage of bias charge roll (BCR) charging systems while maintaining excellent charge uniformity.

The presently disclosed embodiments relate generally to layers that are useful in imaging apparatus members and components, for use in electrophotographic, including digital, apparatuses. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to an improved electrophotographic imaging member or photoreceptor comprising a surface layer on the photoreceptor, where the surface layer comprises secondary electron emitting materials that act as a robust electrically active layer that will serve to increase photoreceptor life and also reduce the operating voltage of bias charge roll (BCR) charging systems while maintaining excellent charge uniformity.
In electrophotographic or electrophotographic printing, the charge retentive surface, typically known as a photoreceptor, is electrostatically charged, and then exposed to a light pattern of an original image to selectively discharge the surface in accordance therewith. The resulting pattern of charged and discharged areas on the photoreceptor form an electrostatic charge pattern, known as a latent image, conforming to the original image. The latent image is developed by contacting it with a finely divided electrostatically attractable powder known as toner. Toner is held on the image areas by the electrostatic charge on the photoreceptor surface. Thus, a toner image is produced in conformity with a light image of the original being reproduced or printed. The toner image may then be transferred to a substrate or support member (e.g., paper) directly or through the use of an intermediate transfer member, and the image affixed thereto to form a permanent record of the image to be reproduced or printed. Subsequent to development, excess toner left on the charge retentive surface is cleaned from the surface. The process is useful for light lens copying from an original or printing electronically generated or stored originals such as with a raster output scanner (ROS), where a charged surface may be imagewise discharged in a variety of ways.
The described electrophotographic copying process is well known and is commonly used for light lens copying of an original document. Analogous processes also exist in other electrophotographic printing applications such as, for example, digital laser printing or ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images.
To charge the surface of a photoreceptor, a contact type charging device has been used. The contact type charging device includes a conductive member which is supplied a voltage from a power source with a D.C. voltage superimposed with a A.C. voltage of no less than twice the level of the D.C. voltage. The charging device contacts the image bearing member (photoreceptor) surface, which is a member to be charged. The contact type charging device electrostatically charges the image bearing member to a predetermined potential. Typically the contact type charger is in the form of a roll charger such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,980, the relative portions thereof incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,594 describes a contact type charger in the form of a bias charge roll member, the relative portions thereof also incorporated herein by reference.
Multilayered photoreceptors or imaging members have at least two layers, and may include a substrate, a conductive layer, an optional undercoat layer (sometimes referred to as a "charge blocking layer" or "hole blocking layer"), an optional adhesive layer, a photogenerating layer (sometimes referred to as a "charge generation layer," "charge generating layer," or "charge generator layer"), a charge transport layer, and an optional overcoating layer in either a flexible belt form or a rigid drum configuration. In the multilayer configuration, the active layers of the photoreceptor are the charge generation layer (CGL) and the charge transport layer (CTL). Enhancement of charge transport across these layers provides better photoreceptor performance. Multilayered flexible photoreceptor members may include an anti-curl layer on the backside of the substrate, opposite to the side of the electrically active layers, to render the desired photoreceptor flatness.
Conventional photoreceptors are disclosed in the following patents, a number of which describe the presence of light scattering particles in the undercoat layers: Yu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,961; Yu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,839; and Katayama et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,638. The term "photoreceptor" or "photoconductor" is generally used interchangeably with the terms "imaging member." The term "electrophotographic" includes "electrophotographic" and "xerographic." The terms "charge transport molecule" are generally used interchangeably with the terms "hole transport molecule."
There is a significant need to extend photoreceptor life under bias charge roll (BCR) type charging systems. Photoreceptor surface damage is known to be caused by the flux of charged particles generated in the glow-discharge zone of the BCR. Current conventional photoreceptors used in BCR charging devices can achieve only several ten thousand prints before the photoreceptor is damaged and needs replacement. There is also a significant need to reduce power consumption and operating voltage in BCR charging systems while maintaining excellent charge uniformity. The charge current and threshold voltage are linked to the degradation of the photoreceptor surface and therefore the wear rate would be greatly improved through reduction of these parameters.
Thus, as the demand for improved print quality in xerographic reproduction is increasing, there is a continued need for achieving improved performance, such as finding a way to minimize or eliminate photoreceptor damage and wear, and to increase photoreceptor life.

Photoreceptor surface layer comprising secondary electron emitting material