A suction type sheet carrying mechanism for a high speed image forming apparatus, in which a sheet is separated from an electrophotosensitive drum by air suction performed by mechanically combining fixed air suction holes of a hollow shaft and rotated air suction holes of belt pulleys. The sheet is stuck onto rotating endless belts and carried along a curved route by air suction performed by combining moving air holes of moving endless belts. High speed air flows through ditches provided on a belt guide board placed under the endless belts. The sheet is carried through a fixing unit under high temperature circumstances by rotating air suction metal rollers arranged perpendicular to the direction in which the sheet is carried. Fixed air suction holes in a hollow shaft and rotating air suction holes at ring-shaped ridges of a cylinder rotated around the hollow shaft of each air suction metal roller combine to form suction to hold the sheet.

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for transcribing an image onto a recording sheet by using toner. Particularly, the present invention is directed to a suction-type sheet carrying mechanism for a high speed image forming apparatus.
Recently, an image forming apparatus has been widely used for transcribing an image onto a recording sheet by using toner as seen in an electrophotographic duplicator. The image forming apparatus is separated into two types, a low speed type operating at a low transcribing speed such as 10 sheets per minute and a high speed type operating at a high transcribing speed such as 100 sheets per minute. The present invention relates to a high speed type image forming apparatus.
In the image forming apparatus, a train of electrical image signals to be transcribed is fed to the image forming apparatus, then a toner image is developed on a photosensitive surface of an image forming medium such as a rotated photosensitive drum or circulated belt, the toner image is transcribed onto a recording sheet at an image transcription unit, and then a toner image transcribed on the recording sheet is fixed at a fixing unit.
In the image transcription unit, the toner image on the image forming medium is transcribed onto the recording sheet by a charging action. However, the charge is discharged also in the image transcription unit after the image transcription on the recording sheet is over. Therefore, the charge still remains on the recording sheet, so that the recording sheet is hard to separate from the photosensitive surface.
The recording sheets fed to the image transcription unit are sent from a sheet cassette and those passed through the image transcription unit are sent to a sheet stacker through a fixing unit. Such a transfer of the recording sheet is performed by a sheet carrying mechanism. The sheet carrying mechanism is divided into two: a first sheet carrying mechanism for carrying the sheet from the sheet cassette to the image transcription unit and a second sheet carrying mechanism for carrying the sheet from the the image transcription unit to the sheet stacker. The present invention is directed to the second sheet carrying mechanism.
In the high speed image forming apparatus, a metal belt, forming a photosensitive layer thereon, has been used as the image forming medium. However, a photosensitive drum, which will be simply called a "drum" hereinafter, is better than the metal belt because the high speed image transcription can be performed more economically; is more stable, and has a longer life. However, a diameter of the drum cannot be made small because the units for toner image forming, developing and transcription are all required to be arranged close to the drum. Therefore, there is a problem in the second carrying mechanism that the recording sheet just passed through the image transcription unit tends to be stuck electrostatically to a cylindrical surface of the drum. In other words, the recording sheet just passed through the image transcription unit is difficult to separate from the cylindrical surface when the usual belts and rollers or pulleys are used in the second carrying mechanism. As long as the usual belts and rollers are used in the second carrying mechanism, the usual belt type image forming medium may be superior, compared with a drum type image forming medium because the belt type medium can be turned with a small radius, using a roller having a small radius, at an ejecting point of the recording sheet from the image transcription unit. This can provide a potential problem in the second sheet carrying mechanism.
In the second sheet carrying mechanism of the high speed image forming apparatus using the drum, there are still two other problems with respect to a very strong fixing flush light irradiated from the fixing unit. The very strong flush light is required to fix the toner image onto the recording sheet being carried at high speed.
One of two other problems is that a sheet carrying route between the image transcription unit and the fixing unit is required to be curved and run through a narrow portion for preventing the fixing flush light from leaking onto the cylindrical surface of the drum along the sheet carrying route. Therefore, the recording sheet cannot be reliably carried by the usual sheet carrying mechanism. Particularly, since a surface of the recording sheet on which the toner image is transcribed is very delicate before the toner image is fixed, the recording sheet must be tightly set on the sheet carrying mechanism and carefully carried. This is not easy at the high carrying speed of the recording sheet.
The other problem is that a nonmetallic belt cannot be used for carrying the recording sheet through a fixing path in the fixing unit because the nonmetallic belt is damaged by heat due to the flush light. However, a metallic belt is difficult to use for high speed revolution and has a short.
These problems can be solved by introducing a suction-type sheet carrying mechanism in the second sheet carrying mechanism. The suction-type sheet carrying mechanism is a mechanism by which the recording sheet is stuck to a carrying medium such as a belt by air suction.
The suction-type sheet carrying mechanism has been applied to the sheet carrying mechanism. The Japanese laid open patent application SHOH 58-55957 to J. SHINOZAKI on Apr. 2, 1983, is an example of a device for separating the recording sheet from drum surface. According to SHINOZAKI, the sheet is separated from the drum surface by a separation unit applying the air suction technique located at the sheet exit of the image transcription unit. The separation unit comprises an endless belt having a plurality of belt holes and an air suction mechanism associated with the belt holes. The air suction at the air suction mechanism is carried out, particularly by applying an air valve in an air exhausting route for increasing an instantaneous suction force of air. The feature of SHINOZAKI is to perform air suction using belt holes. Accordingly, this reference assumes there is a lot of air leakage at the connection between the belt holes and the air suction mechanism because the structure of the air suction mechanism is too complicated, which may be a reason of introducing the air valve in the air exhausting route.

Suction-type sheet carrying mechanism applied to an image forming apparatus


A yield amount of a vehicle is given notice of more accurately before two vehicles pass each other. In a driving assistance system, a yield amount calculation unit calculates a yield amount of a first vehicle on the basis of the width of the first vehicle, the width of a second vehicle, the current position of the first vehicle in the width direction detected by a first position detection unit, the passing position predicted by a passing position prediction unit, the road width at the passing position specified by a road width specification unit. The notification unit gives notice of the yield amount of the first vehicle at least in the first vehicle on the basis of the calculation result from the yield amount calculation unit.

JP2006-273000A discloses a vehicle driving assistance device for assisting driving when vehicles pass each other. This vehicle driving assistance device predicts a passing position where a driver's vehicle and an oncoming vehicle pass each other, and calculates a first remaining road width obtained by subtracting the width of the oncoming vehicle from the road width at the predicted passing position. Furthermore, the driving assistance device detects a preliminary passing position where a second remaining road width obtained by subtracting the width of the oncoming vehicle from the road width is not less than the width at which the driver's vehicle and the oncoming vehicle can pass each other with enough room, the detected preliminary passing position being further on the driver's vehicle side than the predicted passing position. If the first remaining road width is smaller than a caution-required width at which caution is necessary when the driver's vehicle and the oncoming vehicle pass each other and the preliminary passing position is detected, a second driving assistance control is performed such that the vehicles pass each other at the preliminary passing position.
The driving assistance device disclosed in JP2006-273000A determines whether or not passing is difficult for the vehicles at the predicted passing position, and if it is difficult, performs deceleration control to decelerate the vehicle such that the vehicles pass each other at a wider portion of the road. However, this technique includes only the idea of adjusting the position in travelling direction, and does not include the idea of finely assisting driving with respect to the road width direction. For this reason, there is a problem in that it is not easy for a driver to understand the extent by which the vehicle is to move to the side (yield) when the vehicles pass each other.
The present disclosure has been conceived in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present disclosure is giving notification of the yield amount of a vehicle more accurately before the vehicles pass each other.

Driving assistance system and driving assistance device


The invention relates to a registration system (13) for registering an imaging device (2) like an x-ray C-arm device with a tracking device (4) like an optical shape sensing tracking device. An object detection unit (5) is adapted to a) allow a user to add markers to an image of an object for indicating arbitrary positions on the object and b) provide a representation of the object based on the added markers, wherein a registration unit (6) determines registration parameters based on a location of the object tracked by the tracking device and on the location of the representation. This kind of registration can be performed with any object being visible for the user in the image, thereby permitting to use a wide variety of objects for the registration.

WO 2013/001388 A1 discloses a system for providing a live three-dimensional image of a body lumen. The system comprises an x-ray system for generating an x-ray image of the body lumen and an optical shape sensing (OSS) device for determining a three-dimensional shape of a flexible surgical tool within the body lumen. The determined three-dimensional shape of the flexible surgical tool and the x-ray image of the body lumen are registered to each other based on, inter alia, a segmentation of the surgical tool in the x-ray image.
US 2010/0056904 A1 discloses an interventional system comprising an interventional instrument like a catheter to be navigated from an insertion site to a treatment site within a patient. During the navigation procedure the interventional instrument, which is equipped with an optical fiber member, is tracked by using OSS, wherein the tracked location is shown on a magnetic resonance image of the patient. In order to show the location of the interventional instrument tracked by OSS on the magnetic resonance image of the patient, an OSS tracking system for tracking the interventional instrument and a magnetic resonance imaging system for generating the magnetic resonance image need to be registered to each other. The registration is performed by marking within the magnetic resonance image a plurality of known points on the optical fiber member of the interventional instrument, wherein the known points carry markers visible in the magnetic resonance image.
This interventional procedure can only be performed with specific interventional instruments, which are equipped with an optical fiber member having markers, which are visible in the magnetic resonance image, at known points. The interventional procedure is therefore limited to certain interventional instruments only.

Registration system for registering an imaging device with a tracking device


A system and method for providing autonomous control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is disclosed. The system includes a ground station in communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method for providing autonomous control of a UAV includes methods for processing communications between the ground station and UAV. The method also includes procedures for processing commands from the ground station. Also included in the method is a process for estimating the attitude of the UAV and autonomously maintaining its altitude within a desired threshold. The method also includes a process for autonomously orbiting about a specified point in space. Combined with these processes, the method also includes a process for an autonomous takeoff and landing of the UAV.

Due to recent directives from the Department of Defense, there is great pressure to develop the technology behind unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs are remotely piloted or autonomous aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment, or other payloads.
UAVs have proven their usefulness in military applications in recent years. Large UAVs have become an integral part of the U.S. arsenal. Large UAVs have executed surveillance and tactical missions in virtually every part of the world. The military is also making use of smaller UAVs, known as miniature and micro UAVs. Mini UAVs have been used all over the world by small military units as a short-range video reconnaissance platform. The mini UAVs have proven themselves as robust and reliable, but do have disadvantages. One disadvantage of the Mini-UAVs is that they typically require 2- to 3-man crews to transport and operate them.
In addition to military applications, there are many civilian applications for UAVs. There is great interest in adopting UAVs for a variety of applications. These include government applications, such as fire fighting and law enforcement. The U.S. spends millions of dollars each year patrolling borders with conventional aircraft. If border agents were equipped with UAVs, thousands of dollars could be saved, as UAVs cost much less then similarly equipped full-size aircraft. In the private sector, there also exists a range of surveillance applications for UAVs. One example is use by the media. Newscasters spend millions of dollars on piloted helicopters to cover breaking news stories. UAVs could be launched over a breaking story to gather aerial footage immediately.
The increasing power of computational resources has enabled the development of autonomous flight control systems that are capable of dealing with the complex task of path planning in dynamic and uncertain environments. Such path planning algorithms and route navigation aids are needed to accomplish future uses of UAVs.

Programmable autopilot system for autonomous flight of unmanned aerial vehicles


A table assembly comprising a leg assembly including a first elongated member parallel to a substantially vertical extension axis and a second elongated member supported by the first member for sliding motion along the extension axis between extended and retracted positions, a load compensator including a spring supported by the second elongated member and operatively coupled to the first elongated member, a table top supported by the second member and a locking assembly including a lock housing supported by the leg assembly and forming a lock housing passageway that passes there through, a first coupler supported by the leg assembly and including an elongated central portion that extends through the lock housing passageway and a locking member moveable between a locked position wherein the locking member is operably linked to the first coupler to restrict movement and an unlocked position wherein the locking member is de-linked from the first coupler.

The inventive concepts described herein pertain to tables and, more particularly, to a vertical and adjustable support for tables or the like.
Tables are used in many different environments for many different purposes. For instance, in an office environment, tables may be used in a partition space as a desk top to support a seated person, as a monitor support, as a conferencing table for seated conferees, as a standing conferencing table, as a work station supporting surface for a standing person, etc. Where tables are used for many different applications, ideally, the tables are constructed to have task specific heights that are ergonomically correct. For instance, in the case of a desk top for use by a seated user, a surface top height should be approximately 28 to 30 inches above a supporting floor. As another instance, in the case of a desk top for use by a standing user, the surface height should be approximately 42 to 45 inches above a supporting floor. Many other surface heights are optimal for other tasks.
In order to reduce the number of tables required to support different tasks within an environment, adjustable height tables have been developed that allow a user to modify table height to provide table surfaces at task optimized heights. Thus, for instance, some exemplary adjustable tables include leg structure including a lower column mounted to a base support and an upper column that is received within an internal channel formed by the lower column and telescopes therefrom and a table top that is mounted to the top end of the lower column. Here, a locking mechanism is provided to lock the relative juxtapositions of the upper and lower columns. To adjust table top height, the locking mechanism is unlocked and the upper column is extended from the lower column until a desired height is reached after which the locking mechanism is again locked.
One particularly advantageously table configuration includes a single pedestal type support structure disposed below a table top. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, a single pedestal structure facilitates additional design options, especially where the single pedestal structure can be off table top center (e.g., closer to a rear table top edge than to an oppositely facing front table top edge).
One problem with telescoped upper and lower columns that support a table top is that the upper column, table top and load thereon are often relatively heavy and therefore difficult for a person to raise and lower in a controlled fashion. One solution to the weight problem has been to provide a counterbalance assembly in conjunction with a height adjustable table that, as the label implies, compensates for or balances at least a portion of the combined weight of the upper column, table top and load thereon.
One exemplary single pedestal counterbalancing system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,597 (hereinafter "the '597 patent") which includes a metal roll type spring mounted near the top end of an upper column, a pulley mounted near the bottom of the upper column and a cable having a central portion supported by the pulley and first and second ends that extend up to the top end of a lower stationary column and to a free end of the spring. The spring is in a normally wound state when the upper column is in a raised position and is in an extended a loaded state when the upper column is lowered into the lower column. Thus, the spring provides a counterbalance force that tends to drive the upper column and table top mounted thereto upward.
While the solution described in the '597 patent can be employed in a single pedestal type support structure, this solution has several shortcomings. First, this solution provides no way of conveniently adjusting the counterbalance force to compensate for different table top loads. To this end, because table top loads often vary appreciably, it is advantageous to provide some type of mechanism that allows the counterbalance force to be adjusted within some anticipated range (e.g., 50 to 300 pounds). In the case of the '597 patent, counterbalance adjustment is accomplished by adding additional springs (see FIGS. 11 and 12) which is a cumbersome task at best and, in most cases, likely would be completely avoided by a table user.
Second, the '597 patent solution fails to provide a safety mechanism for arresting upper column movement when the table top is either overloaded or, given a specific counterbalance force, under loaded. Thus, for instance, if the tabletop load is much greater than the counterbalance force when a locking mechanism is unlocked, the table top and load will drop quickly and unexpectedly. Similarly, if the table top load is much smaller than the counterbalance force is on the table top when the locking mechanism is unlocked, the table top and load would rise quickly and unexpectedly. Unexpected table movement can be hazardous.
Third, the amount of counterbalance force required to aid in raising the upper column, table top and load thereon in the '597 patent, in addition to depending on the size of the load, also depends on the distribution of the load. In this regard, a considerable amount of friction results when the upper column moves with respect to the lower column as at least portions of the upper and lower columns make direct contact during movement. The amount of friction is exacerbated if the load on the table top is unevenly distributed. Thus, for instance, if the load is located proximate one edge of the table top instead of directly over the pedestal support, the upper column will be somewhat cantilevered from the lower column and greater friction will occur—thus the same load can have appreciably different effects on the required counterbalancing force required to be effective.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,075 (hereinafter "the '075 patent") describes a table system that includes many of the features that the '597 patent solution lacks, albeit in the context of a configuration that includes two upper columns as opposed to a single column. To this end, the '075 patent teaches two raisable columns supported by a base where a release mechanism is operable to attempt to release a locking mechanism which, when unlocked, allows a table top to be moved upward or downward along a table stroke. Here, a spring loaded cam member operates as a counterbalance mechanism.
The '075 patent also teaches a mechanism for adjusting the counterbalancing assembly so that different counterbalance forces can be dialed in to compensate for different table top loads. Thus, for instance, where it is contemplated that a computer monitor may be placed on and removed from a table top at different times, by providing an adjustable counterbalance assembly, the changing load can be effectively compensated and the force required by a person attempting to change table top height can be minimized.
The '075 patent further teaches a safety mechanism for, when the locking mechanism is unlocked, prohibiting downward table movement when the table top load is greater than some maximum load level associated with a safe rate of table top descent. Similarly, the '075 patent teaches a safety mechanism for, when the locking mechanism is unlocked, prohibiting upward table movement when the table top is under loaded to an extent greater than some minimum load level associated with a safe rate of table top ascent.
While the solution described in the '075 patent has many advantageous features, unfortunately the solution also has several shortcomings. First, while the '075 patent teaches an overload/under load safety mechanism, the safety mechanism is only partially effective. To this end, the safety mechanism taught by the '075 patent works when a table top is over or under loaded when a locking mechanism is unlocked. However, if table load changes while the locking mechanism is unlocked and the table is either moving up or down (i.e., a person places a heavy box on the table top or removes a heavy box from the top), the overload/underload protection mechanism will not activate and the table top will either rise or drop quickly and unexpectedly.
Second, the '075 patent solution is designed for raising two columns, not one, and requires space between the two columns for accommodating various components. Thus, the '075 patent solution includes components that cannot be concealed within a single telescoping type column configuration which is preferred for many applications for aesthetic as well as design and space saving reasons.
Third, the '075 patent solution does not appear to facilitate a constant upward force on the upper column and table top irrespective of the height of the table top along its stroke as is desired in many applications. Instead, the upward force appears to be variable along the table top stroke and to depend at least in part on table top height.
Fourth, the '075 patent solution requires a table user to either modify table top load or manually adjust the counterbalance force when a load and the counterbalance force are not sufficiently balanced prior to changing the table top height. Here, changing the counterbalance force can be a tedious task as the table user has to estimate the amount of unbalance when adjusting the required amount of counterbalance which, in most cases, would be an iterative process.
Fifth, assuming the counterbalance force is similar to a table load when the locking mechanism is unlocked, the '075 patent appears to allow fast table top movement. For instance, when the locking mechanism is unlocked, a table user can force the table top up or down very quickly. While fast table top movement may seem advantageous, rapid movement can cause excessive wear and even damage to assembly components. For example, if the top is forced rapidly downward toward the end of the movement stroke, the moveable column components may collide with excessive force with the stationary components. As another example, if the locking mechanism is released while the table top is rapidly descending, the locking mechanism could be damaged as movement of the moving column is halted. Similarly, if the top moves to rapidly, items such as displays, printers, etc., supported by the top could be damaged.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a simplified counterbalancing assembly that could be mounted within a single column type support structure. It would also be advantageous to have a safety locking mechanism for use in a single column where the safety locking mechanism operates any time an overload condition or an under load condition occurs. In at least some cases it would be advantageous if the counterbalancing mechanism were adjustable. Moreover, in at least some cases it would be advantageous if the maximum up and down speed of the table top were controlled.

Load compensator for height adjustable table


A method and an apparatus to avoid a deadlock in a computer system with several busses connected by a bus adapter. If units of different busses of the computer system simultaneously start operations for which more than one bus is needed, it may come to a deadlock. By introducing a BUS SUSPEND signal to one of the busses and adapting the bus-protocol to honor this signal at distinct time slots, deadlock situations are avoided.

The subject matter of the present invention pertains to computer systems, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for avoiding deadlock in a computer system with two or more protocol-controlled busses connected by a bus adapter, if units of different busses simultaneously start operation for which more than one bus is needed.
In a computer system, various processors and input/output units disposed within the computer system may require access to a common shared data bus at approximately the same time. However, the data bus can handle only one access at a time. Therefore, some mechanism is required for determining which unit and which processor may be granted access to the bus.
Various arbitration mechanisms have been used by computer systems. In an article entitled "Performance Analysis of High-Speed Digital Busses for Multiprocessing Systems" by W. L. Bain and S. R. Ahuja, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., several arbitration mechanisms are discussed. The article discusses, for example, the Static Priority Algorithm, the Fixed Time Slice Algorithm, Dynamic Priority Algorithms including the Least Recently Used Algorithm and the Rotating Daisy Chain Algorithm, and the First Come First Served Algorithm.
Most of the above-mentioned arbitration mechanisms are based on a fixed priority in descending order. None take account of the following special features: dual level input/output (I/O) requests for preventing I/O time-outs, a rotating selectively changeable highest priority at all I/O levels for preventing processor lock-outs, an instruction cache preemptive grant which saves one arbitration cycle, data cache in-page and cast-out operations in one cycle, which saves one arbitration cycle, and Processor Bus Operation (PBO) grants during refresh for utilizing cycles otherwise wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,183 to Flahive et al discloses a mechanism for granting access to a shared bus on a "rotating priority basis". However, the arbitration scheme discussed in this patent resembles the rotating daisy chain algorithm mentioned above. There is no mention of the following special features and problems.
In a system with two data busses, where a bus unit of a bus #1 wants to communicate with a bus unit of a bus #2, while a bus unit of bus #2 wants to communicate with another bus unit of bus #1, the following deadlock situations may occur:
1. Both operations have been started and cannot be completed because the other bus is occupied.
2. No operation can be started.
The 1st situation will occur, if use of one bus is granted almost independently of the occupational state of the other bus.
The 2nd situation will occur, if use of a bus is granted only when the other bus is free.
According to the above-mentioned prior art, there are two known ways to solve the problem. Both adversely affect the performance of the system.
By the first method, a higher priority is assigned to one of the busses. An operation on the second bus can start only after both busses have activated their GRANT signals. Operations on the higher priority bus may start whenever this bus is free. This scheme requires several additional bus cycles for each operation started on the low-priority bus.
The second method allows all operations to start whenever their respective bus has issued its GRANT signal. However, whenever the bus coupling device receives two operations which are to be transferred to the other bus, it will cancel one operation. In this case, the cancelled operation has to be started anew after the operation which caused the cancellation has been completed. The performance penalty is only on the cancelled operation, but unduly frequent cancellation, say, in case of register polling, may prompt an operation never to be performed.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a method for avoiding a deadlock in a system with several busses interconnected by a bus adapter, which is universally applicable to a variety of different I/O device busses or adapters therefor.
Another general object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which comprises less complicated adapters and avoids deadlock situations.

Method and apparatus for avoiding deadlock in a computer system with two or more protocol-controlled buses interconnected by a bus adaptor

International Business Machines Corporation


An exposed main landing gear cavity in a bottom wall of an aircraft fuselage may include a main landing gear cavity outer ring recessed within the fuselage and having an inner surface encircling the main landing gear cavity, first baffle extending inward from the outer ring inner surface at an aft and inboard position on the inner surface, and a second baffle extending inward from the outer ring inner surface at an aft and outboard position on the outer ring inner surface. The main landing gear cavity may further include an aft fairing disposed proximate the outer ring bottom edge of the outer ring and connected to the fuselage at an aft side of the main landing gear cavity. An aft fairing top surface may have curvature causing the top surface to extend downward away from the outer ring as the top surface extends inward away from the outer ring.

Aircraft have main landing gear to support the aircraft during takeoff and landing, and while the aircraft is sitting and taxiing on the ground. During flight, the landing gear are not needed for support, and can cause drag that can reduce the efficiency of the aircraft. For aircraft that travel long distances or require high fuel efficiency and maneuverability, the landing gear are retracted into the fuselage and/or the wings during flight to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. To reduce weight, cost and complexity, while the landing gear may be retracted during flight, some aircraft do not have a complete main landing gear door to fully cover the landing gear on the underside of the fuselage when the aircraft is in flight. The absence of a complete main landing gear door results in a cavity around the landing gear and an aerodynamic discontinuity that exposes the cavity to the airstream and creates noise and drag that are undesirable and can still reduce the efficiency of the aircraft.

Drag reduction device for exposed landing gear cavities


A substantially non-aqueous iodine microbicide composition comprising (a) a povidone-iodine in an amount of from 0.0005% to 1.0% by weight based on the total amount of the composition, and (b) a solvent comprising a lower alcohol having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms or a mixture of a lower alcohol having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms and a non-hydrated polyhydric alcohol, and an aerosol-type iodine microbicide composition containing the iodine microbicide composition.

Iodine has a high microbicidal activity and has an extremely low toxicity to human bodies, and therefore it is widely utilized as a component for microbicides.
As a solvent for such iodine microbicide composition, an aqueous is generally utilized, but iodine is hardly stable in an aqueous solution. Accordingly, when an iodine-containing aqueous solution is stored for a long period of time, iodine therein would decompose and the iodine concentration in the resulting solution would decrease.
This phenomenon is more remarkable when the iodine concentration in the solution is lower. Accordingly, in order to inhibit the decrease of the iodine content in a conventional iodine microbicide composition of an aqueous solution system, the iodine concentration in the aqueous solution should be made higher, being 0.5% or more; so as to maintain the stability of the aqueous solution.
However, it is known that the microbicidal activity of iodine becomes maximum when the concentration of the free active iodine (hereinafter referred to as "effective iodine concentration") is in the range of from 10 to 100 ppm, and, therefore, if the iodine content is 0.5% or more, the concentration is too high to sufficiently display the microbicidal power. This is a problem. In fact, the effective iodine concentration of conventional iodine microbicide compositions is almost from about 6,000 to 17,000 ppm and, therefore, the microbicidal effect of such compositions is sacrificed for the stability of the iodine content therein.
In addition, if the iodine concentration is to high, there is another problem that the offensive odor is too strong and the substances to be protected from microbes by the microbicide would disadvantageously be colored.
Under these circumstances, it has been desired to develop an iodine microbicide composition having a low iodine concentration and having a high storage stability.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2242/88 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,149) illustrates an iodine microbicide composition with a low iodine concentration which, however, essentially uses an aqueous solution as a solvent, similar to the above-mentioned conventional microbicide, and, therefore, the microbicidal power of the composition could not be sufficient.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,275 teaches the use of a solvent containing an alcohol in a high concentration for an iodine composition having a high iodine concentration of from 1.8 to 2.2 g/100 ml. With this composition, however, none of the above-mentioned problems of the deterioration of the microbicidal activity because of the high iodine concentration, the unpleasant feeling because of the offensive odor and the coloration of the substances to be protected from microbes could be overcome.
In actual use, the conventional high iodine microbicidal compositions have various problems such that these must be diluted just before use and the dilution, requires complicated operation and, therefore, construction articles, such as a stool, etc., could not be disinfected with ease.
Another means of spraying an iodine microbicide from an aerosol container containing the microbicide has been proposed. Such means is advantageous since these do not require dilution of the microbicide and the aerosol container can be used with ease. However, conventional aerosol containers contain metallic parts everywhere because of the gaseous pressure-resistance, and the metallic parts would be corroded by the metal-corroding action of the iodine microbicide in the container or the metallic parts would often have an influence on the stability of iodine in the microbicide to decrease the effective iodine concentration. Accordingly, it is unsuitable to put an iodine microbicide in an aerosol container with metallic parts.
It may be considered to form an aerosol container from a synthetic resin, but synthetic resins generally have a large iodine gas permeability. Therefore, if an iodine microbicide is filled in a synthetic resin container, the iodine would permeate through the container and diffuse out therefrom. Thus, it is also unsuitable to put an iodine microbicide in an aerosol container made of a synthetic resin.


A mooring system for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO) employs a vessel mounted rotatable turret and a single point mooring arrangement. The mooring arrangement includes a single anchor chain that is removably attached at a top end to the vessel, and is attached at a submerged bottom end to three sealed anchored leg chains. The anchor chain is secured to the vessel by means of a chain stopper that is centrally located in the rotatable turret, and allows the vessel to rotate freely about the anchor chain's vertical axis. One or more submerged fluid carrying risers are detachably connected to a swivel stack positioned above the mooring table in line with the rotational axis of the anchor chain so that the risers and the anchor chain will not become entangled with one another during vessel rotation. In one embodiment, the swivel stack and a pulley sheave for retrieving the anchor chain are mounted on a movable frame that facilitates quick and easy connection/disconnection of the chain and risers. In a second embodiment, the pulley sheave is disposed on a frame that is pivotally mounted to the vessel so that it can be rotated between a first position for retrieving the anchor chain, and a second position that enables free rotation of the mooring table and a swivel stack support attached thereto.

The present invention relates to a mooring system for tanker vessels that employs a vessel mounted turret in combination with a single anchor chain, three leg mooring arrangement to automatically accommodate movement of the vessel due to environmental forces, provide a removable connection to a subsea oil riser, and be easily adapted to varying water depths.
FPSOs are Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels which are employed to temporarily store oil received from offshore subsea and dry surface wells (or in the case of an FSO, pumped from offshore production facilities) until an oil tanker anives to receive the oil from the FPSO. Typically, an FPSO is itself an oil tanker that has been modified to receive the oil directly from one or more subsea risers (flexible pipelines), and be moored in a fixed position near the offshore oil wellheads or production facilities. The mooring systems employed to hold the FPSOs in place must be specially designed for a number of reasons. In particular, the mooring system must not interfere with one or more subsea oil risers that are employed to transfer oil from the offshore production facility to the FPSO. Additionally, the mooring system must be designed to withstand adverse environmental conditions, including rough seas and strong winds, since offshore production facilities are typically located in areas subject to such conditions.
The foregoing requirements have resulted in the design of a number of different mooring arrangements for FPSOs. The most popular design is known as a single point mooring system in which only the bow (or stern) of the FPSO is attached to the mooring, thus allowing the FPSO to pivot or "weathervane" about a single axis of rotation in response to wind or water currents. The most popular of the single point mooring systems is the turret mooring system. Previous turret mooring systems have consisted of a number of mooring lines that are attached to a rotatable turret. The risers enter the rotatable turret centrally inside a turret chain attachment-point radius. The turret mooring may be attached to the sea bed by 5 to 20 mooring lines in a radial or clustered pattern. A number of these turret mooring systems have been built so that they can be disconnected before severe storms approach. The turret mooring is then dropped or lowered into the sea from the FPSO while the turret turntable is still attached to the risers and the anchor chains. These systems are complex and expensive to build, and they are not built for multiple relocations at low cost. The weathervaning action also presents problems if the water and/or wind currents are such that the FPSO pivots more than 360 degrees about its starting position, thereby twisting the oil riser(s) and the mooring chains. Hence, the turret moorings are made such that they can rotate around a single point of rotation on bearings.


An apparatus and method to use a shunt network across source terminals of cascode transistors that drive a differential current to control gain. When the gates of the cascode transistors and transistors of the shunt network are activated by a same bias voltage, the gain control is substantially independent of process, voltage and temperature variations.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate to communication devices and more particularly to a gain control scheme for a differential amplifier.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Communication systems typically operate in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wired communication systems may operate according to one or more versions of the Ethernet standard, the System Packet Interface (SPI) standard, or various other standards. Wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). Typically, the transceiver includes a data modulation stage and an RF stage. The data modulation stage (baseband process) converts between data and baseband signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard. The RF stage (transmitter section and receiver section) converts between baseband signals and RF signals. The RF stage may be a direct conversion transceiver that converts directly between baseband and RF or may include one or more intermediate frequency stages.
Wireless communication devices utilize gain control circuitry to provide control over amplification. One type of gain control circuitry incorporates differential amplifiers. For example, a Gilbert cell mixer may employ such differential amplification stage or stages where gain may be adjusted. Although there are variety of techniques to adjust gain, many amplifiers are not consistent over a range of operations. For example, when integrated devices are manufactured, the process variations from chip to chip may introduce inconsistencies in circuit operation. Furthermore, supply voltage variations during operation may introduce inconsistencies that affect amplifier operations. Temperature variations may also impact consistent operation of the circuit.
Process, voltage and temperature (as they pertain to circuit operation) are commonly referred to as PVT and changes in one or more of the PVT characteristics may change over an acceptable operating range of a circuit. Generally, it is desirable to obtain a circuit response that is independent of PVT so that variations of PVT cause little or no change in the operational characteristics of the circuit. In tight gain controlled amplifier circuits, the gain of the amplifier may remain substantially constant over the operational range of the amplifier, if the amplifier is made to respond independent of PVT.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to implement a gain control scheme independent of process, voltage and temperature effects.

Gain control scheme independent of process, voltage and temperature


A fire-retarded cellulose fiber material composed of phosphoric acid and ammonium sulfate as fire-retardant chemical components, absorbed, adsorbed and/or adhered on the cellulose fibers, and optional non-fire retardant additives, and methods of producing the fire-retarded cellulose fiber material are disclosed.

Cellulose insulation is typically manufactured from recycled paper and cardboard. The U.S. government requires that all cellulose insulation meet ASTM C-739. This mandate requires testing for critical radiant flux (CRF) (flame), smoldering combustion, odor emission, corrosion, thermal resistance (R-value), fungi resistance, and moisture absorption. In addition to these tests, off-gassing of ammonia or the toxicity of boric acid are problems that need to be addressed. The air-borne dust generated during the installation of cellulose insulation creates an unpleasant working environment for installers and presents an infertility issue in cases where borates are used. Borates are used in 99% of cellulose insulation. While removal of dust from cellulose insulation rectifies many problems, there remains the problem of disposal of the dust.
Burning or combustion of cellulose fiber materials such as paper, cardboard, etc., generally involves two different chemical processes: a) flaming, which results from ignition of gases released by pyrolysis of the cellulose fiber material, and b) smolder, a slow, high temperature, flameless combustion which results from oxidation of the remaining carbon-rich material, as with charcoal in a barbeque.
Cellulose insulation is flammable and prone to smoldering. However, specific chemical additions to a paper material will increase its resistance to burning. Some chemicals will extinguish flaming but not smoldering combustion. Examples of such flame-only extinguishing chemicals include borax pentahydrate, hydrated magnesium sulfate, aluminum trihydrate, and ammonium sulfate, among others. Other chemicals can extinguish both flaming and smolder. Examples of these chemicals include ammonium sulfate and boric acid.
Although there are many chemicals that extinguish flaming, to date, boric acid is the only known economically viable chemical that can effectively extinguish smolder. Boric acid is the primary smolder inhibitor. The two fire-retardant formulas in almost exclusive use today in the cellulose insulation manufacturing industry are: a) 1 part boric acid to 2 or 3 parts ammonium sulfate (60%), and b) 1 part boric acid to 2 to 3 parts borax (35%). The remaining 5 percent of industry products will always use boric acid (as smolder inhibitor) with other flame inhibitors such as Epsom salts, etc. Without boric acid, smolder could not be guaranteed to be prevented, and in order to market cellulose insulation products, the U.S. government mandates the prevention of smolder.
Borates and ammonium sulfate represent 95% (by weight) of all the flame retardants used by the cellulose industry but their future use is in doubt because of government restrictions. France has banned the use of ammonium sulfate because of ammonia out-gassing and consequent problems. Europe is expected to follow. There are growing concerns about potential adverse health effects associated with the use of and exposure to borate compounds (e.g., borax, boric acid, etc.), which, although providing fire retardant and insecticidal properties, are respiratory irritants and have shown to have adverse reproductive effects in test animals. Europe banned the use of any borate compound due to fears of infertility. Pleas from the cellulose industry lead to the European Union (EU) giving a 2-year allowance to use borates but restricted its use to 5% by weight of the finished product. The U.S. government has these two problems under consideration but until a conclusion is reached it is required for manufacturers to inform users of its products that they could interfere with reproduction.
Testing for flaming is carried out using critical radiant flux (CRF) equipment. In that test, a "pass" is achieved if the cellulose material will not support surface burning while being subjected to radiation of 0.12 watts/cm2 or less. Smolder testing is performed by positioning a lighted cigarette into a sample of insulation at settled density contained within a 9″×9″×4″ open-top stainless steel box. The sample is left for 2 hours after which it is considered to be a pass if it loses less than 15% of its original weight.
In Europe, various classifications are available ranging from Category A to Category F. Chemical loading that allows cellulose insulation to meet ASTM C-739 would also allow it to meet a Category B. To obtain a Category C listing, lesser amounts of chemical can be used than required under ASTM C-739 standards.
In order to prevent flaming and smoldering combustion, most cellulose insulation is manufactured by applying fire retardant chemicals in powder form, for example, hydrated borax, boric acid, ammonium sulfate, aluminum trihydrate (ATH), etc. In order to meet government standards for cellulose insulation, the loading of a powdered chemical is typically about 14% to 18% by weight (wt %) of the final insulation product. However, powdered chemicals are relatively expensive and their inclusion significantly raises the costs associated with the manufacture of a cellulose insulation product.
In addition, applying fire retardant chemicals only in powder form dusts the cellulose particle surface, with a large portion of the powder being present in the product as loose dust particles, requiring high loadings of chemical and higher costs. By comparison, the application of a liquid form of the fire retardant chemical will penetrate the cellulose particles and thereby require lower loading of the fire retardant chemical. This application of liquid fire retardant chemical can lower raw material cost to result in appreciable cost savings. Liquid fire retardant compositions are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,414 and 4,168,175 (Shutt). Examples of liquid fire retardant chemicals include aqueous solutions of ammonium sulfate, monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, ammonium tripolyphosphate, boric acid, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, and mixtures thereof, dissolved in water. Of those chemicals, ammonium sulfate is the most popular due to its low price and high solubility in water.
A disadvantage of currently known liquid fire retardant chemicals is that they can be corrosive and/or devolve ammonia through off-gassing. In addition, as discussed above, exposure to borate compounds has been linked to potential adverse health effects.
Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is corrosion that develops over time beneath thermal insulation used, for example, on pipes, tanks and various manufacturing and process equipment. CUI typically results from condensation, rainwater, cleaning fluids, etc., that seep in and permeate into the insulation and onto the underlying substrate and subsequently cause off-gassing of ammonia resulting in corrosion of pipes, etc., and damage to the substrate.
Accordingly, it would be desirable from an industry standpoint to provide a cellulose material that would overcome the foregoing disadvantages. It would also be desirable to produce such a cellulose material at a low cost, with liquid chemical as the sole flame retardant which will possess the requisite level of fire retardance to meet various government regulations and standards.

Water based liquid fire retardant for use in cellulose insulation


A method for controlling the communications of a computer in a computer network or a plurality of single computers in a computer network, in which the computer is connected to other computers and the single computers are connected with each other via a standard network LAN and a high performance network SAN. Each single computer comprises, in an operation system kernel, a protocol unit connected with the standard network LAN for servicing communication protocols and a library, which is connected in front of the operation system kernel, for which applications are sitting at a communication interface. Selection of the communication path between the standard network LAN and the high performance network SAN occurs in a network selection unit integrated with a base library. It is thereby provided that the network selection happens after the communication interface of the library and before access to the operation system kernel. If the network selection happens before access to the operation system, the library can be connected via a communication path with the high performance network SAN, which bypasses the operation system kernel.

Single computers or so-called workstation computers, which may be a conventional personal computer (PC) or a workstation, have been highly improved in the last years with regard to their computing speed and therefore computing performance so that a plurality of programs, both in the private and the commercial field, are executable with them. In particular, in the commercial field, for example for organization of medium or big companies, for simulation of application and production sequences, but also in the field of research and science, the computing performances of the PCs having presently the highest performance, however, are not adequate to process the pending amount of data in an economically acceptable time period. Usually, for such computing intensive tasks, so-called large-scale computers have to be accessed, which are however very cost-intensive.
Since a long time, it was tried, by setting up a computer network out of several parallel connected single computers, which are each realized by a common PC, to provide a cost-effective alternative to large-scale computers. Thereby, the single computers usually comprise standard processors which have, contrary to special processors, a better price-performance-ratio and shorter further development times. The set up or architecture of such a computer network, which is also designated as parallel computer, is therefore limited to the expansion of the Uni-Processor-Architecture with a communication interface, which realizes the communication between the single processors, as well as the replication of the expanded Uni-Processor-Architecture.
To set up a known computer network, a number of workstation computers, so-called (computing-) nodes, a special high performance network SAN (System Area Network), which is operated additionally to a standard network LAN (Local Area Network), as well as an operation system for the computing nodes are used. At present, systems with common processors are used as workstation computers or computing nodes in a known computer network. Apart from single processor systems (Uni Processors), small SMP (Symmetrical Multi Processor) systems (Dual Processors) may also be used as node computers. The expansion of the node computers (main memory, hard disks, processors, etc.) further depends to a great extent from the user's demand.
The conventional process for integration of a network within the operation system of a single computer is depicted in FIG. 1. Main component in an operation system kernel 10 is a first network specific device driver 11 for the standard network LAN and a second network specific device driver 12 for the high performance network SAN. Both parallel arranged device drivers 11 and 12 are accessed depending on an in advance connected network selection unit 13 and each adjust the network specific communication interface to the interface expected by the network protocols. Specific control of the network as well as its integration is to a great extent hidden from the user. He further uses the communication operations provided by a system library 14 and only after servicing the communication protocols in a protocol unit 15 within the operation system kernel 10, the actual transition to the different communication networks takes place. Therefore, the conventional communication path occurs starting from an application A or B, eventually by using a programming environment 26 via the communication interface 23 of the system library 14, the access to the operation system 10, the servicing of the communication protocols in the protocol unit 15, the network selection in the network selection unit 13, the control via the respective device driver 11 or 12 till the access to the hardware in form of a network card 16 or 17 belonging to the selected network.
In case of corresponding balance between communication—and computing performance, large-scale computers have an essential significance, as shown by their increasing distribution. However, success of computer bundles—as cost-effective alternative to large-scale computers—is up to now rather moderate and limited to special application classes having low communication effort. One reason for this lies in the low to moderate data transfer performance for available communication networks in the LAN sector, which however was removed by the arrival of new high performance networks in the SAN sector. When using such high performance networks, however, it is getting very soon obvious that the conventional communication path anchored in the operation system—as described above—is not able to exhaust also not approximately, the performance potential of the high performance networks. The reason for this lies in the architecture of the communication path itself, as well as in the usage of standardized communication protocols (e.g. TCP/IP), which all were not designed for the needs of parallel processing, but for usage in long-distance networks.
A limited function scope of the networks used in the long-distance field involves mechanisms for path finding, flow control, fragmenting or defragmenting, sequence maintainance, buffer storage, error detection and error handling, which are all included in the functional scope of standardized communication protocols (e.g. TCP/IP). Further, standardized communication protocols often provide functionalities, which are rather troublesome during usage in parallel systems. That are especially fixed packet sizes, large-scale check sum calculations, several protocol layers and a plurality of information in the packet headers. The unavoidable providing of this information costs time, which is undesired delay time from the program developer's perspective. To complicate it, a communication path depicted in FIG. 1 is not able to adjust itself to the functionality of the underlying networks and always assumes a provided minimum scope. Just this leads, when employing special high performance networks, to implementation of already present functionality within the protocol software, which considerably delays its servicing, and decisively hinders the application stuck thereon.
For solving this problem, it is known to use methods for latency time reduction, which focus on eliminating, as far as possible, inefficiencies on the communication path. Thereby, starting points are not only at the employed communication networks, but above all at the employed network protocols, the interaction with the operation system as well as the definition and the substance of the communication interface provided on the application layer. Reduction of communication latency times is based on specific relocation of tasks from higher layers to lower layers of the communication path or communication hardware, which leads to restructuring of the communication path in its entirety.

Method for controlling the communication of single computers in a computer network


A lift anchor assembly is characterized by a lift anchor defining a longitudinal axis, a bilaterally symmetrical lift plate, an opening through the lift plate bisected by the longitudinal axis, a bilaterally symmetrical embedment portion spaced away from and coupled with the lift plate, and a pair of elongate legs, each coupled with the embedment portion and with the lift plate parallel to the longitudinal axis. A recess insert is characterized by a pair of pivotably coupled concave insert shells defining a chamber and a longitudinal plane of symmetry. An elongate rod-like shear bar is characterized by a U-shaped bend. The recess insert is engageable with the lift anchor by coupling the insert shells on either side of the lift anchor through the opening. The shear bar is engageable with the lift anchor and recess insert by positioning the U-shaped bend over the lift plate and the opening.

The present invention relates generally to erection anchors and recess inserts for concrete structural components. In particular, the invention relates to an integrated erection anchor and recess insert that can be assembled, utilized during placement of fresh concrete to provide a recess for access to the erection anchor, and readily separated leaving the erection anchor embedded in the concrete and the recess insert removable for use in subsequent concrete placements.

Lift anchor assembly for precast portland cement concrete shapes


A ballast circuit for a high intensity discharge lamp includes a boost converter, responsive to a dc input voltage, for providing a boosted dc output voltage; a boost controller, responsive to the boosted dc output voltage, for driving the boost converter to maintain the boosted output voltage at a predetermined level; a buck converter, responsive to the boosted dc output voltage, for providing a reduced dc output voltage; and a buck controller, responsive to the reduced output voltage, for driving the buck converter to operate the discharge lamp in a transition mode and maintaining the reduced dc output voltage at a preselected level for operating the discharge lamp in a steady state mode.

High intensity discharge (HID) lamps provide light by producing an arc between an anode and a cathode, rather than energizing a filament. These lamps include dc metal halide lamps and high pressure Xenon lamps which combine high luminance and good color retention. Applications include low dc input, portable light fixtures and ac powered fiber-optic illuminators used for industrial and medical lighting.
Typical ballast circuits take a low input, ac or dc, and amplify the input over several stages producing high currents and thus requiring circuits which can control the current to provide a more steady current thereby providing a more steady light output, i.e. no flickering of the light. However, because these circuits operate at higher currents, the circuits must include heavy duty components specially designed to carry such high currents which further adds to the expense of producing these circuits. Moreover, because the ac voltages include high frequencies, the circuits must protect against acoustic arc resonance induced by the high frequencies which further causes the light to flicker.
By requiring numerous and complex circuits to accommodate the above requirements, there is a high power loss in the form of heat due to the high current through so many different circuits. This further requires a means for cooling the circuit by a cooling interval before relighting the lamp as well as the need for actively cooling the circuits by including fans, further adding to the current consumed by the circuit to operate the fans and further increasing the power losses.
As a result, these lamps are neither energy efficient nor inexpensive to produce and operate.

Ballast circuit for high intensity discharge lamps


An improved lubrication system for the spindle bar assembly of a cotton harvester apparatus is disclosed. The system comprises a hydraulic pump connected to the hydraulic system of a harvester which pumps lubricant from a disposable cube of lubricant located on board the harvester into a manifold system having conduits in fluid communication with the existing lubrication system of the harvester, and a fluid restriction device disposed in line with the conduits to control the flow of lubricant to each spindle bar so that equal amounts of lubricant are provided thereto, notwithstanding differences in the lengths of the conduits.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cotton picker machines and their lubrication. More particularly, it relates to a novel process for the periodic application of grease to the rotating spindles and associated gear trains of a cotton picker machine without the delays and loss of production time required by conventional lubrication methods, apparatus for performing the lubrication and grease cartridges for retaining the lubrication until dispensed by the present invention.
2. Art Background
Cotton, the vegetable fiber produced by shrubs and small trees of the genus Gossypium, has been cultivated and utilized for at least five thousand years and still constitutes one of the leading cash crops of U.S. agriculture. Among the leading cotton-producing states are Texas, California, Mississippi, Arizona and Arkansas. In spite of the introduction of many synthetic fibers, cotton remains a principal raw material for the world's textile industry.
Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long growing season with abundant sunshine and water during the period of growth and dry weather when the cotton is ready for harvest. In different geographical areas, the crop matures at different times of the year. But it is critical that the crop be completely harvested in as short a period as possible--no longer than eighteen to twenty days. If harvesting is delayed beyond that point, the cotton will discolor and some will simply blow away. And of course there is always the danger of rain. Thus efficient utilization of time is extremely important, and any method of reducing lost time and "down time" will greatly improve the success of and the yield from the harvest.
One of the necessary tasks which heretofore has taken considerable time during the harvest is the lubrication of the harvesting machines, known as cotton pickers. Cotton pickers are self-propelled and utilize rows of spindles, rotating at speeds up to 4000 rpm, mounted upon moving bars. As the machine proceeds along a row of plants, the spindles, which are barbed, contact the cotton and pull it from the boll. The support bars continually carry the spindles pass a series of rubber fingers called "doffers" which pull the cotton fibers from the spindle, from which they are air-blown upwards through a chute into an overhead bin or "basket". The spindle bars, which travel on a track, then carry the spindles through a water-wash and air-drying stage and back to the front of the machine where they contact more plants and remove more cotton. Power to the spindles is supplied from a planetary gear system which drives individual complex shaft and gear train assemblies inside each of the hollow spindle bars. The spindles and associated gears and bearings are lubricated by a thin (NLGI Grade 00) grease known simply as cotton-picker grease, introduced into the bars through a series of lubricating ports. Approximately thirty two pounds of grease are required to fill a cotton picker spindle systemon a two row cotton picker machine.
Heretofore, application and replenishment of cotton picker spindle grease has consumed a significant amount of lost production time which is of critical importance during the hectic harvest period. Cotton picker grease is lost at an appreciable and unpredictable rate during the operation of the machine. Industry practice is to refill the bars after each ten hours of operation. This refilling operation cannot be done before the day's picking, inasmuch as the grease will not flow properly through the system until the machinery is warm. The conventional practice, therefore, has been to send a maintenance vehicle with grease applicators to meet and lubricate the cotton picker somewhere in the fields. The refilling operation done in this way normally takes from forty-five minutes to an hour, during which time the cotton picker is idle and unable to harvest.
The use of continuous grease applicators such as are customarily employed on large trucks and continuously operating machinery has not proved successful when applied to cotton pickers. The consumption of cotton picking grease during harvest does not occur at a uniform rate, and heretofore continuous application systems have not been found that could supply the required amount of grease in all parts of the system. A manufacturer of cotton picker machines recently incorporated a bulk reservoir mounted on the machine. Grease is pumped into the reservoir and periodically added to the system by a belt-driven pump with an electric clutch. This approach has the obvious disadvantage that the reservoir itself must be periodically filled, a time-consuming and labor intensive operation. The reservoir is mounted near the cotton basket at the top of the machines. Cotton dust can be ignited by a spark, and basket fires are not unusual; and the proximity of a large quantity of grease can increase the severity of the fire. This system has not been able to solve the problems of cotton-picker lubrication.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,978 discloses a lubrication distribution system for a cotton picker machine. A reservoir of grease is disposed on-board a cotton picker. In order to activate the lubrication system, an electric clutch is activated to couple a displacement pump to the engine (drive shaft) of the cotton picker which supplies grease under pressure to a manually operated two way valve which distributes the grease to all of the various areas of the cotton picker to be lubricated, first one area when the valve is in a first position, and then another area when the valve is in a second position. The distribution of the grease to the components to be lubricated is controlled by the length and internal diameter of the conduit carrying the grease to the lubrication points. Areas which require more grease have shorter tubing having a larger internal diameter. Areas requiring less grease have longer tubing with a smaller internal diameter. There are various problems with this device. The driving of the pump off of the drive shaft of the final drive via a belt has been shown to have various mechanical problems because of the infrequency of activation of the electric clutch as well as the difficult access to the drive shaft. Moreover, there is no disclosure that this system can be retrofitted onto existing cotton pickers, and it is not apparent that such retrofit is possible, at least not without some great difficulty and substantial modification to the existing devices. Further, the use of different length and diameter conduit makes it difficult to assemble the lubrication system, and such size differences of the conduit appear to be critical to the functioning of the subject invention.

Cotton picker spindle lubrication apparatus, method and lubrication cartridge therefore


A turbocharger is provided that includes a turbine, a compressor and a bearing housing disposed and connected between the turbine and the compressor. A shaft is rotatably disposed within the bearing housing and extending into the turbine and the compressor. A bearing arrangement is disposed between the shaft and the bearing housing and includes a inner bearing race element and an outer bearing race element. The compressor wheel includes a hub having a collar portion with a bore therein for receiving an end of the shaft. An end portion of the inner bearing race element is arranged to engage an outer circumferential surface of the collar portion.

Internal combustion engines are supplied with a mixture of air and fuel for combustion within the engine that generates mechanical power. To maximize the power generated by this combustion process, the engine is often equipped with a turbocharged air induction system. A turbocharged air induction system includes a turbocharger that uses exhaust from the engine to compress air flowing into the engine, thereby forcing more air into a combustion chamber of the engine than the engine could otherwise draw into the combustion chamber. This increased supply of air allows for increased fueling, resulting in an increased engine power output.
A turbocharger generally comprises a compressor wheel mounted on one end of a single shaft in a compressor housing and a turbine wheel mounted on the other end of the shaft in a turbine housing. Typically, the turbine housing is formed separately from the compressor housing. A bearing housing is connected between the turbine and compressor housings for containing bearings for the shaft. The turbine housing receives exhaust gas from the engine and directs it to the turbine wheel which is driven by the exhaust gas. The turbine assembly thus extracts power from the exhaust gas and drives the compressor.
The connection between the compressor wheel and the turbocharger shaft typically involves the turbocharger shaft being received in an internal bore in a boss that extends from the hub of the compressor wheel. However, such connections can lose radial piloting during operation of the turbocharger which can lead to shaft imbalance. Piloting the hub of the compressor wheel inside of a shaft can lead to high stresses as the impeller grows into the interface during operation of the turbocharger.

Turbocharger with bearing piloted compressor wheel


Compositions and methods for modulating the expression of a protein of interest are provided.

It has long been appreciated that gene expression can be regulated at the post-transcriptional level, defined to be the steps between transcription initiation and release of the nascent polypeptide from the ribosome. Antisense based approaches encompass a broad variety of techniques, but have in common an oligonucleotide that is designed to base pair with its complementary target mRNA, or more broadly to any RNA, leading to either degradation of the RNA or impaired function (e.g., impaired translation). Classical antisense approaches were designed to interfere with translation of the target mRNA or induce its degradation via Rnase H. Ribozyme-containing antisense molecules also can induce RNA degradation and have the advantage that they can be turned over (i.e., re-used) to cleave more RNA targets. RNAi-based approaches have proven more successful and involve using siRNA to target the mRNA to be degraded (see, e.g., Novina et al. (2004) Nature 430:161-4). However, some mRNAs are only modestly downregulated (2-fold) by RNAi and others are refractory. The 3′ end processing (also called polyadenylation, poly(A) tail addition, or cleavage and polyadenylation) of nearly all eukaryotic pre-mRNA comprises two steps: (1) cleavage of the pre-mRNA followed by (2) the synthesis of a poly(A) tail at the 3′ end of the upstream cleavage product. 3′ end formation is essential to mRNA maturation and, in this sense, is as important as transcription initiation for producing a functional mRNA. 3′ end formation also functions to enhance transcription termination, transport of the mRNA from the nucleus, and mRNA translation and stability (Eckner et al. (1991) EMBO J., 10:3513-3522; Sachs et al. (1993) J. Biol. Chem., 268:22955-8). Defects in mRNA 3′ end formation can profoundly influence cell growth, development and function (see, e.g., Zhao et al. (1999) Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., 63:405-445; Proudfoot et al. (2002). Cell 108:501-12).
Cleavage and polyadenylation requires two elements. The highly conserved AAUAAA sequence (also called the poly(A) signal or the hexanucleotide sequence) is found 10 to 30 nucleotides upstream of the cleavage site. This hexanucleotide is essential for both cleavage and polyadenylation and any point mutations (with the exception of AUUAAA) result in a large decrease in its activity (Proudfoot et al. (1976) Nature 263:211-4; Sheets et al. (1990) Nucl. Acids Res., 18:5799-805). However, recent bioinformatic studies have suggested that single-base variants or more-rarely double-base variants of AWUAAA (W=A or U) are allowed (Beaudoing et al. (2000) Gen. Res. 10:1001-1010; Tian et al. (2005) Nuc. Acids Res., 33:201-12).
The second element is a less-conserved U- or GU-rich region approximately 30 nucleotides downstream of the cleavage site and thus is called the downstream sequence element (DSE). Point mutations or small deletions do not greatly influence DSE's function. Nevertheless, the proximity of the DSE to the poly(A) site can affect the choice of the cleavage site and the efficiency of cleavage (Zhao et al. (1999). Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., 63:405-445). The cleavage site itself (usually referred to as the pA site or poly(A) site) is selected mainly by the distance between the AAUAAA signal and the DSE (Chen et al. (1995). Nuc. Acids Res., 23:2614-2620). For most genes, cleavage happens after a CA dinucleotide.
In addition to the above signals, auxiliary sequences have also been found to have a positive or negative modulatory activity on 3′ end processing.
The cleavage/polyadenylation machinery is composed of multiple protein factors with some having multiple subunits. The endonucleolytic cleavage step involves Cleavage/Polyadenylation Specificity Factor (CPSF) binding to A(A/U)UAAA and Cleavage stimulatory Factor (CstF) binding the DSE. Other required factors include Cleavage Factors 1 and 2 (CF Im and CF IIm), RNA polymerase II (Pol II), Symplekin, and poly(A) polymerase (PAP), although the absolute requirement for PAP is still unclear. Once cleavage has occurred the downstream pre-mRNA fragment is rapidly degraded whereas the upstream fragment undergoes poly(A) tail addition that requires CPSF, PAP, and poly(A)-binding protein II (PAB II).
In principle, having the ability to switch on or off a gene's poly(A) site or sites is a way to directly control expression of that gene. There are natural examples where a gene's expression can be controlled by dialing up or down the poly(A) site. Perhaps the best understood example involves excess U1A protein negatively autoregulating its own synthesis by inhibiting polyadenylation of its own pre-mRNA. Without a poly(A) tail, the mRNA fails to leave the nucleus and is degraded leading to lower levels of U1A mRNA and U1A protein. The mechanism involves 2 molecules of U1A protein binding to a site just upstream of its own pre-mRNA's poly(A) site with the resulting (U1A)2-pre-mRNA complex inhibiting 3′-end processing of the U1A pre-mRNA by inhibiting the polyadenylation activity of PAP (Boelens et al. (1993) Cell 72:881-892; Gunderson et al. (1994) Cell 76:531-541; Gunderson et al. (1997) Genes Dev., 11:761-773). An illustrative example, albeit artificial, of "dialing" is found in Guan et al. (Mol. Cell. Biol. (2003) 23:3163-3172). Guan et al. demonstrate that endogenous U1A protein levels are dialed up or down by dialing up or down the activity of its poly(A) site through a stably-expressed epitope-tagged U1A protein that is under the control of a Tet-regulated promoter. The epitope-tagged U1A protein is not subject to autoregulation because its expression cassette lacks the autoregulatory 3′UTR element.
Another natural example of dialing a poly(A) site involves U1 snRNP binding to a "U1 site" just upstream of the poly(A) site of the bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV1) late gene pre-mRNA (Furth et al. (1994) Mol. Cell. Biol., 14: 5278-5289). The term "U1 site", which stands for U1 snRNP binding site, is used so as to distinguish it from U1 snRNP's better known function in 5′ splice site (5′ss) binding during pre-mRNA splicing. U1 snRNP consists of 10 proteins in complex with a 164 nucleotide U1 snRNA that base pairs to the BPV1 U1 site via nucleotides 2-11 of U1 snRNA (see, e.g., Will et al. (1997) Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 9:320-8), notably the same nucleotides 2-11 also basepair to the 5′ss sequence as part of the splicing mechanism. Subsequent to its discovery in BPV1, mechanistic studies demonstrated the U1-70K component of the U1 snRNP directly binds to and inhibits the polyadenylation activity of poly(A) polymerase (Gunderson, et al. (1998) Mol. Cell 1:255-264), the enzyme that adds the poly(A) tail. Additional studies in vivo that eliminated the U1-70K binding site confirmed U1-70K as the effector subunit that inhibits expression (Beckley et al. (2001) Mol. Cell. Biol., 21:2815-25; Sajic et al. (2007) Nuc. Acids Res., 35:247-55).
The U1in gene silencing technologies use 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNA (see, e.g., U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2003/0082149 and 2005/0043261). U1in stands for U1 snRNP inhibition of expression and refers to two recently developed gene silencing technologies that involve expression of a 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNA where nucleotides 2-11 of U1 snRNA are complementary to a 10 nucleotide sequence in the target gene's 3′ terminal exon. The 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNA is expressed from a U1 snRNA expression cassette containing promoter elements and a 3′ end formation signal from the U1 snRNA gene. The 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNA transcript assembles with the canonical U1 snRNP proteins into a 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNP that then binds to and inhibits polyadenylation of the targeted pre-mRNA. The 3 key features to make U1in silencing work are: (1) the U1 site on the target pre-mRNA and the 5′-end-mutated U1 snRNA must be perfectly complementary across all 10 basepairs, as a single base mismatch is sufficient to lose silencing (Liu et al. (2002) Nuc. Acids Res., 30:2329-39), (2) the U1 site must be in the 3′ terminal exon of the target pre-mRNA (Beckley et al. (2001) Mol. Cell. Biol., 21:2815-25; Fortes et al. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 100:8264-8269), and (3) the U1-70K binding site on the U1 snRNA must be intact. Although U1in has been successfully used in several instances, its development as a widely-used technology has been limited for a variety of reasons.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that there is still a need for methods of regulating gene expression.

Compositions and methods for gene silencing

Rutgers, The State University of New jersey


Various embodiments of the invention are directed to orthogonal frequency chirp multiple accessing (OFCM) systems and methods. For example, various embodiments of the OFCM transmitter may utilize an architecture comprised of a baseband modulation subsystem, a subsystem for generating multiplicity N orthogonal frequency chirp waveforms, and a bank of multiplicity N spread spectrum modulators. Various embodiments of the OFCM receiver may comprise of a subsystem for generating complex conjugates of multiplicity N orthogonal frequency chirp waveforms, a bank of multiplicity N spread spectrum demodulators, a symbol estimator, a symbol timing estimator, a frequency offset estimator, a carrier phase tracking loop, a multi channel estimator, and a baseband demodulation subsystem.

Broadband wireless systems are in a rapidly evolutionary phase in terms of the development of various technologies, development of various applications, deployment of various services and generation of many important standards in the field. Although there are many factors to be considered in the design of these systems, the key factors have been the bandwidth utilization efficiency due to the limited bandwidth allocation, flexibility in operation and robustness of the communication link in the presence of various disturbances while achieving the specified performance. At present, the OFDM techniques have been adapted in many wireless communication standards, such as the World-wide Interoperability for Microwave ACCESS (Wimax), digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T), Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc.
One of the advantages of the OFDM system is the mitigation of a major source of distortion present in high data rate wireless communication links, namely the inter symbol interference (ISI) achieved by reducing the symbol period by the use of multiple carrier transmission. However, the use of a large number of carriers based on the orthogonality property in the OFDM system makes the performance of the system very sensitive to any carrier frequency offsets introduced, for example, by the Doppler shifts encountered in the wireless channels. The proper operation of the OFDM system requires means for precise estimate of the Doppler that may be different for different carriers in the frequency selective fading channel, and means to mitigate such a Doppler effect from the received OFDM signal. Various methods exist in the prior art to solve this problem.
Another important problem arising with the use of a relatively large number N of carriers used in the OFDM signal is a relatively high peak to average power ratio resulting in a much reduced radio frequency (RF) power amplifier efficiency. Due to the inherent saturation in the RF power amplifier, the signal with amplitude exceeding the input linear range of the amplifier is clipped or distorted. In order to keep the distortion to some specified limit arrived at by the signal to distortion plus noise power ratio considerations, the output RF power is backed off from the maximum available power at the amplifier output and higher is the peak to average power ratio of the signal at the amplifier input, larger is the required back off in the output power. The output back off concurrently also results in the reduction of the DC to RF power conversion efficiency of the RF power amplifier thus increasing the drain on the battery or any other power supply source in the mobile devices. Another problem arising due to distortion caused by the amplifier is the spreading of the spectrum of the OFDM signal outside the allocated band.
Various methods exist in the prior art to solve the problem of high peak to average power ratio including the method taught by Kumar in, "Multi Transform OFDM Systems and Methods with Low Peak to Average Power Ratio Signals," U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/913,761. The simulation results with the Multi Transform OFDM Systems show that the system effectively eliminates any increase in the peak to average power ratio of the OFDM signal due to a relatively large number of carriers.
However, in the multiple accessing mode of the OFDM system wherein relatively narrow band OFDM channels are assigned to various users in a mobile communication network, the frequency selective fading of the communication channel may cause severe fading of some of the user signals resulting in frequent hand offs or call drops for such users in a mobile communication network. The solution to such a problem may be the transmission of the user signal over multiple OFDM channels for providing a diversity gain and/or transmission at a much reduced data rate. However, such a solution results in a reduced capacity of the OFDM system.
Another problem with the OFDM system is that the narrow band signals of various users have no protection against any intended or unintended interference. Any significant narrowband interference in any of the OFDM channels may disrupt communication to users assigned such channels.
Band limiting filters such as square root raised cosine filters are used in the OFDM systems to minimize the transmission bandwidth. Due to band limiting filtering effects a significant number of OFDM channels at the band edges are not assigned to any users as the edge channels are subjected to significant attenuation resulting in a significant reduction of the OFDM system capacity.
There is a strong motivation to come up with systems and methods that achieve higher bandwidth efficiency compared to the OFDM system by eliminating the edge channel effects of the OFDM system, and provide protection against deep fades in some segments of the spectrum and against narrowband interference.
The orthogonal frequency chirp multiple accessing (OFCM) system of the invention is a spread spectrum system wherein each user spectrum occupies the complete wide band of the OFCM system, thereby providing protection against both the interference and frequency selective fading. Deep fading in a few segments of the wide band spectrum may not result in any significant performance degradation to any of the users. The prior art frequency chirp method used in Radar and other systems is comprised of the transmission of a single frequency chirp signal. The OFCM system of the invention is for the transmission of multiple user signals over the same transmission band in a mutually non interfering manner.
The OFCM system of the invention requires approximately the same bandwidth as that for the OFDM system, however, it does not have any edge effects of the OFDM system wherein a significant part of the transmission band is not used for information transmission, as in the OFDM system the edge OFDM channels suffer from a disproportionate amount of attenuation due to the band limiting effects. In the OFCM system of the invention, each user's transmission is over the complete wide band of the OFCM system and any filtering effects may result in only a relatively minor degradation of performance for the users, thereby solving the problem of edge effects. In prior art the frequency chirp method used in the Radar and other systems is comprised of transmission of a single frequency chirp signal. The OFCM systems of the invention are for the transmission of multiple user signals in the same transmission band in a mutually non interfering manner.
In the OCFM system of the invention, individual user signals with modulations such as MPSK (Multi Frequency Shift Keying), are constant envelope signals inheriting the property from the frequency modulated (FM) signals with an advantage in terms of requiring relatively low amplifier back off in the user to base station transmission in a mobile communication network wherein the power efficiency is relatively more important. The OFCM system of the invention inherits advantages of both the OFDM system and the spread spectrum systems such as relatively high bandwidth efficiency of the OFDM system, and the protection against frequency selective fading and narrow band interference offered by the spread spectrum systems. These and other advantages of the OFCM system will be apparent from the detailed description of the invention.

Orthogonal frequency chirp multiple accessing systems and methods


According to one embodiment, a driving method of an ink jet head includes applying a first pulse for expanding volume of a pressure chamber in which an ink is accommodated to an actuator for applying oscillation to the pressure chamber and applying a second pulse for reducing volume of the pressure chamber to the actuator immediately before ink drops discharged from a nozzle which is communicated with the pressure chamber are separated from the nozzle.

Conventionally, an ink jet head used for an ink jet type of printer or the like includes a plurality of pressure chambers which accommodate ink, nozzle plates provided to one end side of each of the pressure chambers and a plurality of piezoelectric actuators provided corresponding to each of the pressure chambers. A plurality of nozzles for discharging ink drops which correspond to each of the pressure chambers are formed on the nozzle plates.
When the piezoelectric actuators are driven, pressure oscillation is applied to the pressure chambers corresponding to the actuators. Due to the pressure oscillation, the volume inside the pressure chamber is changed and the ink drops are discharged from the nozzles corresponding to the pressure chambers. The ink drops are landed on a recording medium such as a recording sheet and dots are formed on the recording medium. As such dots are consecutively formed, characters, images or the like on the basis of image data are printed on the recording medium.
In such an ink jet head, when the ink drop is discharged from the nozzle, there is a case where fine droplets which are incidental to main droplets are discharged. Such fine droplets are called satellites. Since the flying speed of the satellite is slow, the satellites are separated from the main droplets and are landed on the recording medium. As a result, degradation in a printing quality such as printing unevenness or ghosting occurs.
The occurrence of the satellite can be prevented by making a driving voltage of the piezoelectric actuator be low. Since when the driving voltage is low, the discharge speed of the main droplets is slow, the satellites do not occur. However, when the discharge speed of the main droplets is slow, stability in discharging of the ink drops is impaired. Therefore, there is concern that the printing quality may be lowered.

Driving pulse application method and apparatus of an ink jet head