A method of making a transparent conductive graphene hybrid, comprising the steps of providing a PMMA/Graphene hybrid, functionalizing the PMMA/Graphene hybrid, providing a transparent substrate, oxidizing the transparent substrate, treating the oxidized substrate and forming a functionalized substrate, applying the PMMA/Graphene hybrid to the functionalized substrate, removing the PMMA, and forming a transparent conductive graphene hybrid. A transparent conductive graphene hybrid comprising a transparent substrate, wherein the transparent substrate is oxidized, and wherein the transparent substrate is treated with TFPA-NH2 to form a functionalized substrate, and a layer of graphene on the functionalized substrate.

This disclosure teaches a method to produce conductive IR transparent hybrid materials on organic and inorganic materials without loss of electrical properties over time.
Since its discovery in 2004, a monolayer of sp2 carbon called graphene, has attracted extensive amount of research (over 14,000 papers with the keyword grapheme). This is due to its extremely high carrier mobility (>200 000 cm2V−1s−1), a room temperature quantum Hall effect, a tremendously high optical transparency of 97.7% can capture broader spectrum than conventional semiconducting materials, a high Young's modulus (1 TPa), and extraordinarily large specific surface area of 2630 m2/g−1. Graphene applications range from high end physics instrumentations, metrology, electronics, spintronics, photonics and optoelectronic devices, sensors, flexible electronics, as well as energy storage devices such as batteries, supercapacitors, solar cells and in biomedical applications as single molecule screening devices, targeted drug delivery systems, etc.
Graphene has attracted a lot of attention for its promise as a transparent conductor. Indeed, depending on the sheet resistance in Ω/sq inch−1, it can be used as touch screens (400-500 Ω/sq inch−1), smart windows (300-400 Ω/sq inch−1), flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)/Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) displays (25-300 Ω/sq inch−1), and solar cells (1-10 Ω/sq inch−1). The state of the art transparent conducting materials (indium tin oxide (ITO) or fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)) are currently the most expensive parts of a dye-sensitized solar cell. In addition, these oxides are typically deposited at high temperatures beyond the thermal limit of polymers, and their brittleness is a drawback when flexibility is required. For example, resistivity of 100 Ohm/sq was obtained by graphene functionalization with HNO3.
Although combined low resistivity (<10 Ω/sq) and high transparency in the graphene transparent conductors has not been achieved yet, graphene has shown promise. Reduction of graphene resistivity to 50 Ohm/sq was obtained by stacking single graphene layers (4 sequential single layer transfers) and then functionalization of the top surface by HNO3. The lowest reported value was by Hong of 30 Ohm/sq. Other solvents were tried as well—SoCL2, H2SO4, nitromethane, HCl. However, the final graphene surfaces are unstable. Bult et. al. discussed the role of dopants on carrier transport for graphene transparent conducting thin films. They used hydrazine doping performed in helium glove box, nitric acid dip and polyethyleneimine in air. They achieved 50 Ohm/sq for 89% transmission. However, they also show change in electrical performance of hydrazine functionalized devices within 150 seconds of exposure to air. Graphene surface functionalization with diethylenetriamine (DETA) in vapor phase which induces n-type doping was shown by Y. Kim et. al. When this is combined with substrate-induced doping using amine-functionalized self-assembled covered SiO2/Si, the group shows that graphene's sheet resistance is reduced to 86 Ohm/sq. The issue with surface stability was not analyzed.

Stable IR transparent conductive graphene hybrid materials and methods of making

The Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transfer member, a power supply, and a control device that controls the power supply to output a DC-AC superimposed bias or a DC bias to transfer a toner image on the image carrier onto a recording medium. The control device controls the power supply to alternately output a first bias being a DC component the same in polarity as the DC bias and a second bias being a DC component opposite in polarity to the DC bias to clean the transfer member when image formation is not taking place. The first bias is output with two target output values including a first value and a second value lower than the first value. The second bias is output with one target output value. An output time of the second bias is longer than an output time of the first bias.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that transfers a toner image on an image carrier onto a recording medium.
2. Related Art
In a typical image forming apparatus that transfers a toner image on a surface of an image carrier onto a recording medium clamped in a transfer nip, the toner image is first formed on a surface of a drum-shaped photoconductor serving as an image carrier in accordance with a well-known electrophotographic process. The photoconductor is contacted against an endless intermediate transfer belt serving as an image carrier and an intermediate transfer member, to thereby form a primary transfer nip. In the primary transfer nip, the toner image on the photoconductor is primary-transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt. The intermediate transfer belt is then contacted against a secondary transfer roller serving as a transfer member (i.e., a secondary transfer member), to thereby form a secondary transfer nip. The intermediate transfer belt is clamped between the secondary transfer roller and a secondary transfer facing roller disposed inside a loop of the intermediate transfer belt. The secondary transfer facing roller inside the loop is electrically grounded and the secondary transfer roller outside the loop is supplied with a secondary transfer bias (voltage) from a power supply, thereby forming a secondary transfer electric field for electrostatically moving the toner image from the secondary transfer facing roller side to the secondary transfer roller side in the secondary transfer nip between the secondary transfer facing roller and the secondary transfer roller. Then, with the secondary transfer electric field and a nip pressure, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is secondary-transferred onto a recording sheet serving as the recording medium (also referred to as a transfer sheet) transported to the secondary transfer nip in synchronization with the arrival of the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt.
If the thus-configured image forming apparatus uses a recording sheet with large surface irregularities, such as traditional Japanese paper, an uneven density pattern mirroring the surface irregularities is likely to appear in the image. The uneven density pattern is due to a failure to transfer a sufficient amount of toner to recesses in a surface of the recording sheet, making the image density lower in the recesses than in projections on the surface of the recording sheet. To address this issue, the image forming apparatus may be configured to supply not a secondary transfer bias including only a direct-current (DC) voltage but a secondary transfer bias consisting of a superimposed bias having a DC voltage superimposed with an alternating-current (AC) voltage. With such a secondary transfer bias, the appearance of the uneven density pattern is minimized more than with the secondary transfer bias including only the DC voltage.
To secondary-transfer the toner image transferred to the intermediate transfer member onto the recording sheet, the secondary transfer member such as the secondary transfer roller is normally disposed at a secondary transfer position facing a surface of the intermediate transfer member, thereby forming the secondary transfer nip between the intermediate transfer member and the secondary transfer member at the secondary transfer position. With the secondary transfer bias supplied to the secondary transfer nip, the toner image carried on the intermediate transfer member is electrostatically transferred onto the recording sheet in the secondary transfer nip.
With such a configuration, when the recording sheet is not present in the secondary transfer nip, the secondary transfer member is in contact with the surface of the intermediate transfer member. Conversely, when the recording sheet is present in the secondary transfer nip, the secondary transfer member is in contact with the rear surface of the recording sheet. Therefore, if toner on the surface of the intermediate transfer member adheres to a surface of the secondary transfer member when the recording sheet is absent in the secondary transfer nip, the toner may later adhere to the rear surface of the recording sheet, contaminating the rear surface of the recording sheet.
To prevent such contamination of the rear surface of the recording sheet, the image forming apparatus may employ a bias cleaning system to clean off the toner adhering to the secondary transfer member, without providing a cleaning device for cleaning the secondary transfer member. According to the bias cleaning system, the toner adhering to the secondary transfer member is transferred to the surface of the intermediate transfer member by a cleaning bias supplied to a secondary transfer area at a predetermined time when image formation is not taking place (e.g., before or after an image forming job), and then the toner is cleaned off by a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the intermediate transfer member.
The bias cleaning system is capable of minimizing or preventing altogether contamination of the rear surface of the recording sheet without providing the cleaning device for the secondary transfer member, and thus is advantageous in terms of a reduction in size and cost of the image forming apparatus. The bias cleaning may be performed by supplying a negative cleaning bias, which is the same as a transfer bias for transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer member to the recording sheet, and a positive cleaning bias opposite in polarity to the negative cleaning bias. Further, the image forming apparatus may be configured to change cleaning bias supply conditions in accordance with the usage of the image forming apparatus based on the result of detection of the toner image on the intermediate transfer member to perform an appropriate amount of cleaning on the secondary transfer member.
To supply the above-described superimposed bias, however, the image forming apparatus requires a circuit for supplying the AC component. If the circuit for supplying the AC component is included in the power supply, however, a load caused by the circuit delays the rise of the DC component. Particularly if the circuit for supplying the AC component includes a capacitor, the delay in rise of the DC component is prominent. The delay of the rise time reduces the time for supplying the voltage necessary for the bias cleaning of the transfer member, which may result in insufficient cleaning and thus the contamination of the rear surface of the recording sheet in a printing operation.
To ensure sufficient cleaning performance by quickening the rise of the DC component, the image forming apparatus may be configured to output the DC component in two stages at the rise thereof. This configuration, however, increases the cost of the power supply, which increases the overall cost of the image forming apparatus. Increasing the cost of the power supply despite a low frequency of the bias cleaning of the transfer member is uneconomical. Alternatively, the overall supply time of the cleaning bias may be increased to ensure the time for the bias cleaning. In this case, there is no increase in cost of the power supply, but the bias supply time in the image transfer is also increased. Since the image transfer is frequently performed, the increase of the bias supply time in the image transfer reduces image transfer productivity.
Further, the image forming apparatus may be configured to output a large bias to improve the bias cleaning performance. This configuration, however, also causes the increase in cost of the power supply and thus the increase in overall cost of the image forming apparatus. Increasing the cost of the power supply despite the low frequency of the bias cleaning of the transfer member is uneconomical, as described above. Further, if the overall supply time of the large bias is increased, there is no increase in cost of the power supply, but the bias supply time in the image transfer process is also increased, reducing image transfer productivity owing to the high frequency of the image transfer.


Method and arrangement in a first base station for calculating a first location parameter α of a user equipment in order to improve beamforming accuracy. The first base station and the user equipment are comprised in a Coordinated Multiple Point “CoMP” communication system together with a second base station. The method comprises measuring a signal received from the user equipment, estimating a first parameter value α′ based on the measured signal, obtaining a second parameter value α″, based on an estimated second location parameter β of the user equipment, estimated at the second base station and calculating the first location parameter α, based on the first estimated parameter value α′ and the obtained second parameter value α″.

Coordinated multiple point (CoMP) is a key feature in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) advanced to further improve the coverage of high data rates, the cell-edge throughput and/or to increase system throughput, with the aim to meet 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE advanced requirements on downlink. In the present context, the expression uplink denotes the communication from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, while the expression downlink denotes communication in the opposite direction, i.e., from the base station to the user equipment. Downlink CoMP transmission refers to a system where the transmission at multiple, geographically separated antenna sites is dynamically coordinated. The coordination can either be distributed, by means of direct communication between the different sites, or by means of a central coordinating node. Examples of coordinated transmission schemes include two main categories: Coordinated scheduling and/or beamforming and Joint processing/ transmission.
Coordinated Scheduling and/or Beamforming
It is characterized by that data to a single user equipment is simultaneously transmitted from multiple transmission points, e.g., to, coherently or non-coherently, improve the received signal quality and/or cancel actively interference for other user equipments, which puts higher requirements on the coordination links and the backhaul since the user data need to be made available at the multiple coordinated transmission points.
Coordinated scheduling: This is a most straight-forward approach of CoMP, meaning that user equipments are scheduled to be served by their attached cells in a manner such that the mutual interference among them within the cooperating set is minimized. This can to some extent be seen as an extension of the Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) functionality present already in LTE Rel-8. Since it is a scheduling based solution, the physical layer transmission and reception of user data remain unchanged.
Coordinated beamforming: When the transmission points in the cooperating set are equipped with antenna arrays, a multi-antenna user equipment may receive multiple data streams, where the streams may be transmitted from multiple transmission points or a single transmission point in the cooperating set. In addition, Grid-of-Beams (GOB) based Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA) and/or Multiuser beamforming received considerable attentions. Coordinated beamforming requires estimates of transmit channel correlation matrices for antenna arrays at all transmission points in the cooperating set, which can be obtained by means of uplink Sounding Reference Signals (SRS).
Joint Processing/Transmission
Coordinated transmission schemes comprising joint processing/transmission is characterized by that data to a single user equipment is simultaneously transmitted from multiple transmission points, e.g., to coherently or non-coherently improve the received signal quality and/or cancel actively interference for other user equipments, which puts higher requirements on the coordination links and the backhaul since the user data need to be made available at the multiple coordinated transmission points.
Joint processing/transmission is according to some embodiments carried out from several transmission points and pre-coded in a coherent fashion. In Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, channel reciprocity between uplink and downlink can in principle be used to acquire this CSI at the network side, based on transmission of uplink SRS. Meanwhile, the differences due to the analogue receive/transmit chains need to be worked out. In Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, the CSI about the downlink channels must be explicitly fed back from each user equipment to its coordination centre. The bit rate needed to support this feedback on the uplink increases significantly with some factors, e.g., user equipment's speed and frequency-domain channel selectivity, which is a very challenging problem.
Implementation of Downlink CoMP
For different categories mentioned above, different design is considered. In the case of coordinated scheduling, the actual downlink transmission can be carried out exactly as for LTE Rel-8 implying no specific impact to the radio-interface specification. In the case of coordinated beamforming with multi-stream downlink transmissions, multiple user equipment-specific reference signals (DRS) is needed and standardized to support since coordinated beamforming employs adaptive beam weights which are not derived from a codebook and multiple DRS are used for channel demodulation.
In the case of joint transmission, two alternatives are possible: joint transmission can be seen as originating from a set of cell-specific antenna ports, which may be associated with different cells. This can be seen as a generalization of LTE Rel-8 code-book-based multi-antenna transmission to antenna ports of more than one cell. In this case, user equipment channel estimation would rely on the cell-specific reference signal associated with each of the antenna ports involved in the joint transmission. However, the user equipment would need to know how the transmission is carried out, i.e., the exact set of antenna ports that are involved in the joint transmission and what transmission weight is applied at each antenna port.
For non-codebook based beamforming, each site in a cooperating set will need channel information based on uplink SRS to generate beamforming vector. The beamforming accuracy is directly related to downlink CoMP performance. However, in a realistic downlink CoMP system, beamforming accuracy will face some challenges.
Different link quality from the user equipment to different site in a cooperating set. In a typical case, the user equipment location in a CoMP system depends on CoMP scheduling strategy and geometric structure, which possibly results in different distance between the user equipment and different site. Furthermore, uplink power control and uplink timing advance are adjusted only according to one of sites, e.g., the nearest site. Different uplink transmission quality will impact on beamforming accuracy.
Therefore, from user equipment point of view there are two kinds of site in a cooperating set in terms of different uplink transmission quality: the one which is relatively far away from the user equipment, which may be referred to as a "Weak" site and the one which is relatively near to the user equipment which may be referred to as a "Strong" site.
Based on the analysis above, downlink CoMP performance is to some extent impacted and limited by the weak sites, which possibly result in poor beamforming accuracy. So, to improve the beamforming accuracy in the weak sites can improve overall downlink CoMP performance, e.g., reduced interference in multi-user beamforming system and increased signal power in single-user beamforming system.
There are different strategies for non-codebook based beamforming in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). In TDD, channel reciprocity can be exploited to benefit short-term beamforming by means of the method of channel matrix decomposition. Whereas for FDD, this would imply that the information is limited to path loss and long-term fading due to no channel reciprocity in separate bands. However, one general way for both FDD and TDD is to utilize spatial information, e.g., direction of arrival (DoA), regardless of whether or not channel reciprocity can be exploited.
It is thus a problem to determine the location of a user equipment in relation to a base station, e.g., by determine direction of arrival or distance with an improved accuracy.

Method and arrangement in a wireless communication system


A guide rail (1, 22) for valve tappets (2) of an internal combustion engine is provided. The guide rail (1, 22) has receptacle spaces (4), which are each used for receiving one of the valve tappets (2) and in which there are flattened sections (6) interacting in a positive-fit connection with key surfaces (7) of the valve tappets (2), such that each of the valve tappets (2) is protected from rotating about its longitudinal axis, with the flattened sections (6) permitting alignment of the valve tappet (2) parallel to the flattened sections (6). Here, the guide rail (1, 22) is formed as a metal carrier (3, 25) and rotational protection elements (8, 9, 23), which are fixed on this carrier, have the flattened sections (6) which also permit alignment of the valve tappet (2) orthogonal to the flattened sections (6), in that each flattened section (6) belonging to one of the receptacle spaces (4) can be displaced relative to the metal carrier (3, 25).

Such a guide rail is used for rotation protection of valve tappets, which are typically embodied as roller tappets of a push rod valve train. Simultaneously, they can be used as installation aids for the valve tappet, in that the guide rail and the valve tappets form one structural unit that is protected from loss during transport and installation, so that several valve tappets can be installed simultaneously into the tappet guides of the internal combustion engine.
From DE 101 63 411 A1, which is considered a class-forming invention, a sheet-metal guide rail emerges, which has an especially flat shape and therefore is superior in terms of overall height in comparison with guide rails made from plastic, which are also disclosed in this publication. Plastic guide rails can indeed be produced economically as one-piece injection-molded parts and are also exceptionally well suited, through their own deformation, for equalizing tolerance-related positional deviations in surfaces that are part of the tappet guide system due to their relatively low material stiffness. These surfaces include the tappet guides, the flattened sections of the guide rail, as well as the key surfaces of the valve tappet. Nevertheless, even this low material stiffness must be compensated by increased dimensional stiffness in the longitudinal direction of the valve tappet, so that the overall height of such guide rails can exceed the available installation space in modern internal combustion engines with compact constructions.
While the guide rail proposed in the cited publication, which is composed of sheet metal with a flat overall height, exhibits sufficient dimensional stiffness in the longitudinal direction of the valve tappet, disadvantageously it can also deform only slightly orthogonal to its longitudinal extent and to the longitudinal axis of the valve tappet. The cause here is essentially the relatively high material stiffness of the sheet metal in connection with the high geometrical moment of inertia of the guide rail in this direction. The flattened sections extending parallel to the longitudinal extent of this guide rail are indeed wider than the key surfaces of the valve tappet and therefore permit a free alignment of the valve tappet parallel to the flattened sections; however, compensation of tolerance-related positional deviations is made considerably more difficult due to the high dimensional resistance of the guide rail orthogonal to the flattened sections.
In addition, the flattened sections in the receptacle spaces for the valve tappets are embodied very low and are therefore exposed to a considerable risk of wear as metallic surfaces in their function as rotation protection for the valve tappet. Theoretically this risk of wear can be minimized by subjecting the guide rail to a heat treatment for surface hardening of the flattened sections, but this heat treatment can lead to an impermissibly high dimensional deformation of the guide rail. The alignment errors of the flattened sections with reference to the key surfaces of the valve tappet, in association with such dimensional deformation, can then in practice increase the wear susceptibility of the flattened section despite surface hardening, because the valve tappet mounted in the tappet guides become clamped under the application of considerable transverse forces on the key surfaces between the flattened sections due to the high dimensional stiffness of the guide rail. Simultaneously, it has proven to be extraordinarily difficult to keep this dimensional deformation within tolerable limits in the production of the guide rails in a reliable process, so that there is always the risk of an increased rejection rate and consequently higher costs per piece for the guide rail.

Guide rail for valve tappet of an internal combustion engine


A method and system enable tape back-up of objects stored to an object storage platform and also enable efficient backup to a secondary storage device data objects. An offline-replica bit within a metadata of an object being stored is set to a first value, indicating that the stored object is available for secondary storage to a second storage device. In response to receiving a request for backup of one or more objects from the object storage platform: the storage controller: identifies which objects have an offline-replica bit value that is the first value; and provides only those objects requested that have their offline-replica bit value equal to the first value. An external backup tracking mechanism identifies which objects have been backed-up to the secondary storage, and only those objects that have not previously been backed up are backed up during a subsequent backup request.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to information handling systems and in particular to data storage mechanisms of information handling systems. Still more particularly the present disclosure relates to enabling back-up of data objects stored on an object storage platform.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One important function performed by information handling systems is the long term storage of data on one or more storage devices. There are many different types of such storage devices and systems implemented in the industry, included large scale storage systems designed for storage of vast amounts of data. One particular type of storage methodology currently in use is the object storage platform, which is primarily designed as a long-term archive storage platform. Object storage platforms provide what is generally referred to in the industry as Content Addressable Storage (CAS) and/or Fixed Content Storage (FCS). With this storage methodology, data is stored on disk rather than on tape. These object storage platforms can create multiple replicas for each object to protect against data loss, but do not support backup of data to a separate tape system. One concern created by this method of data storage is that if the data center in which the storage is installed is lost due to some failure, a complete loss of the data would occur because all replicas of the data will be lost. An available option to mitigate that risk of a full loss of data is to replicate objects to a remote site; however, this option is often expensive to implement and may take a long time to recover data in the event of total loss of the primary storage system.
Also, a large number of businesses require a backup of their data for regulatory compliance. Thus, many businesses use object storage for archive and compliance reasons. With the object storage platform, some objects are written as immutable, which means the object cannot be changed once the object is written. The drawback of not being able to back up the objects stored on the object storage platform to tape makes the use of object storage platforms as a permanent data storage solution not feasible for certain users who prefer or need to have their data backed up to tape.

System and method to backup objects on an object storage platform


Disclosed are lubricant compositions containing a lubricant and: (a) the reaction product of a non-metallic dihydrocarbylaromatic or monohydrocarbylaromatic sulfonate and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite; or (b) the reaction product of a non-metallic dialkylnaphthalene sulfonate and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite and further containing an acid or acid supplying component; or (c) an unreacted mixture of dialkylnaphthalene sulfonic acid and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite.

Calcium sulfonate is a known rust inhibitor and demulsifier additive for lubricating oils and greases. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,419,251 and 4,419,252 disclose calcium dinonyl naphthalene sulfonate as a component for a lubricant concentrate for forming oil-in-water emulsions upon dilution with water. Organophosphites have been used for their extreme pressure and antiwear properties in lubricant formulations. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,491 and 4,626,368 discloses the use of reaction products of dialkyl and trialkyl phosphites in lubricant compositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,209 to Law and Wu teaches lubricant compositions containing a lubricant and:
(a) the reaction product of a metal dihydrocarbylaromatic sulfonate and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite; or PA1 (b) the reaction product of a metal dialkylnaphthalene sulfonate and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite and further containing an acid or acid supplying component; or PA1 (c) an unreacted mixture of dialkylnaphthalene sulfonic acid and a dialkyl or trialkyl phosphite.

Lubricant compositions containing arylsulfonic acids, and organo phosphites and reaction products thereof


An apparatus for transporting small vehicles within the bed of a truck which comprises a frame sized to be locatable within the bed of a truck, a platform slidably supported by the frame movable between a first position parallel to and proximate to the bed of the truck and a second position parallel to and vertically spaced above the first position and an actuator operable to move the platform between the first and second positions. The actuator may comprises a winch and the apparatus may include at least one catch for selectively engaging and supporting the platform at the second position.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle transportation in general and in particular to an apparatus for transporting small vehicles within the bed of a truck.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of recreational type vehicles is a common and enjoyable pastime. Such recreational type vehicles may comprise all terrain vehicles (ATVs) snowmobiles and the like. It is well known that the use of such vehicles is not permitted in residential neighborhoods where many users live. Therefore it is frequently necessary to transport such vehicles to a location where they can be safely used in compliance with local regulations.
ATVs are typically transported with the use of pick-up trucks either in the bed of the truck or on a trailer towed therebehind. Such trailers are often not practical due to the difficulty of towing such a trailer through difficult terrain or being required to turn the truck and trailer around in a relatively tight space.
It is common for users to wish to transport two ATVs at the same time so that more than one person may participate in this activity at the same time. Present difficulties exist with current devices for transporting two ATVs on pick-up trucks. Such devices commonly include ATV carrier racks comprising a platform supported above the box of the pick-up truck. Such platforms are commonly designed to carry the ATVs either side by side or one behind the other therein and are therefore commonly substantially wider than the pick-up truck itself. This increased width due to the ATV carrier makes navigating the pick-up more difficult. Additionally, having both ATVs supported at an elevated height above the box of the pick-up truck increases the center of gravity of the truck.
Previous attempts to solve the above difficulties have not been adequate. In particular, some previous solutions have provided an elevated rotatable platform supported above the bed of a truck which may be angled to load a top ATV and then raised to permit storage of a second ATV thereunder. An example of such devices is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0014068 to Smith. A disadvantage of such rotating platforms is that the topmost ATV is required to be loaded onto an angled platform. This can be dangerous and difficult due to the need to stop and stabilize the ATV on the angled platform before securing it thereto and thereafter raisin the top platform.


A controller device in communication with service delivery devices of an aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system receives objective information associated with an aircraft comprising the aircraft IFE system. The controller device also receives subjective passenger information associated with a passenger of the aircraft. A service is determined to deliver to the passenger during a flight on the aircraft based on the received objective and subjective passenger information. A service delivery device is identified among the service delivery devices of the aircraft that is associated with a seat assigned to the passenger or determined to be operated by the passenger. The controller controls delivery of the determined service to the identified service delivery device.

In-flight entertainment (IFE) systems are deployed onboard aircraft to provide entertainment for passengers in a passenger cabin. IFE systems typically provide passengers with television, movies, games, audio entertainment programming, and other electronic content.
IFE systems can provide video-on-demand services to passengers from a library of electronic content made available by the airline or an associated entity (i.e., a content service provider). Selection of content to be included or maintained within an IFE system can be a difficult but important process. Passenger satisfaction with a flight experience and, ultimately, with an airline can be significantly impacted by what content is made available through an IFE system.
Content is presently selected for IFE systems based on box office ratings, TV ratings, and "usage data" captured by IFE systems across a fleet of aircraft. Usage data indicates what content was used by passengers during earlier flights. Usage data can provide a relatively limited understanding of content usage, such as the number of times and duration content was viewed during various flights, and what particular content may be interesting to a particular passenger.
IFE systems are increasingly being used to provide an expanded set of services, beyond electronic content, to passengers. Existing IFE systems are unable to curate such content and services in a sufficiently user centric manner.

User centric service and content curation through in-flight entertainment system


A client device requests a web page via a network, where the web page is identified by an identifier and references a widget. In response to receipt of the requested web page, the client device requests the widget referenced by the web page and presents, within the requested web page, a presentation of the widget. Thereafter, in response to a user input via the presentation of the widget, information is transmitted via a secure connection between the widget on the client device and a server. The client device optionally presents confirmation of receipt of the information via the presentation of the widget while maintaining user context in the web page.

1. Technical field
The present invention relates in general to network technology, and in particular, to secure online communication through a widget in a web page.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of a prior art network environment 100 in which online financial payments are made. In the depicted example, network environment 100 includes a network 102, which can include one or more wired and/or wireless public and/or private networks, such as corporate intranet(s) and/or public networks such as the Internet. Coupled to network 102 are at least one company server 104 belonging to an organization, such as a for-profit or not-for-profit business or association, and a separate payment server 106. Company server 104 and payment server 106 are accessed on network 102 via different Internet Protocol (IP) service addresses. In various implementations, payment server 106 may belong to the same organization that operates company server 104 or may alternatively belong to an application service provider that provides payment services on behalf of one or more other organizations (e.g., in exchange for a percentage of the payments received).
Network environment 100 further includes a client device 108, such as a personal computer, laptop computer, mobile phone or other computing device. Client device 108 executes a browser 110 through which a user can access various web pages via network 102.
As further illustrated in FIG. 1, company server 104 hosts a web page 120 containing a sub-window 122 through which the user of client device 108 may initiate financial payments utilizing browser 110. The financial payments can be made in exchange for goods or services or can simply be donations. Payment server 106 hosts a secure payment web page 130 through which financial payments initiated in sub-window 122 are completed. The security of payment web page 130, which is provided through the use of a secure communication protocol such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer (HTTPS), is indicated in FIG. 1 by shading.
In operation, a user at a client device 108 accesses web page 120 on company server 104 utilizing browser 110. In order to make a financial payment, the user first interacts with sub-window 122, for example, by activating a payment control (e.g., a payment button). The user may also optionally enter personal or transaction-related information within sub-window 122 or a different pop-up window invoked by interaction with sub-window 122. When all required personal and/or transaction-related information is entered, the user may provide a further input, such as selection of a "submit" button, to signify readiness to actually complete the financial payment.
In response to receipt of the input signifying user readiness to complete the financial payment, sub-window 122 or a pop-up window spawned by sub-window 122 redirects browser 110 to a secure payment web page 130 hosted on payment service server 106, as indicated by arrow 124. In performing the redirection, sub-window 122 also transmits the user-entered personal or transaction-related information, if any, to secure payment web page 130.
Following the redirection to payment web page 130, the user completes the financial payment by interacting with payment web page 130 on payment service server 106. For example, the user may enter credit card information or bank account and routing information in payment web page 130 in order to complete the financial payment. Payment server 106 typically confirms completion of the financial payment by the user by serving to browser 110 a different confirmation page (not illustrated).
When making an online financial payment such as that described above, users have two primary concerns, namely, security and authenticity. Security is a concern because users do not want their private personal or financial information intercepted and misused. Authenticity is also a concern because users want payments to be received by the intended recipient rather than an unknown third party. The conventional payment infrastructure described above attempts to address these concerns through authentication with a "trusted" third party that is presumed to be viewed as reliable by users. In many cases, the "trusted" third party provides a badge or seal that is embedded in sub-window 122 and/or a window spawned by sub-window 122. Users can allay concerns regarding the authenticity of the party hosting sub-window 122 by clicking on the badge or seal to establish communication with the "trusted" third party over network 102 to enable confirmation of the authenticity of the party.

Secure online communication through a widget on a web page


A foldable kitchen sink suitable for used as either of an outdoor sink and an outdoor multipurpose table. The foldable kitchen sink comprises a pair of support members hinged to each other to be folded, the pair of support members having a dishwater bucket and a grille, respectively, the dishwater bucket and grille being detachably mounted on the support members. A pair of upper panels are provided at both side ends of each of the support members such that they selectively cover the dishwater bucket or the grille. A pair of twin legs and a pair of single legs are hinged to lower surfaces of the support members such that the twin legs are diagonally opposed to each other and the single legs are diagonally opposed to each other. The twin legs and the single legs are foldable, and each of the twin legs comprises two legs connected to each other by a support beam extending therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a kitchen sink, especially to a portable kitchen sink, and more particularly to a foldable kitchen sink suitable for used as either of an outdoor sink and an outdoor multipurpose table.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is apparent to those skilled in the art that there have been proposed several types of foldable kitchen sinks such as disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 91-194 and Korean Patent Application No. 91-10936, published under Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 93-66. However, each of the foldable sinks disclosed in the above Korean patents comprises a plurality of elements, thus to have a substantially complex construction. In this regard, the known foldable kitchen sink has a problem that it requires a complex assembling process, thereby deteriorating the operation efficiency as well as the productivity, and increasing the manufacturing cost.
Especially, the above foldable kitchen sink is folded and unfolded with several steps and, as a result, its folding and unfolding operation is relatively complex. In addition, since the folding structure of this foldable sink comprises a plurality of elements, so that the repeated folding and unfolding operations inevitably cause the folding structure to be out of order, thus to reduce the using life of the foldable kitchen sink. When this foldable kitchen sink is folded, it shows a three stepped side appearance, so that it has such considerable thickness and volume that its management when folded and carried with one is not easy.


The invention relates to a spring-and-damper unit with an external storage device for installation between a vehicle body and a wheel guidance part. To create the greatest possible supporting length for the piston rod in a given installation space, the storage device is preferably connected to a spring plate, on which rests a carrying spring embodied as a coil spring, while the spring plate is arranged in a pressure-tight fashion on the cylinder or a container surrounding the cylinder. The interior of the cylinder or the container is hydraulically connected to the storage device via a connecting channel in the spring plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spring-and-damper unit for installation between a vehicle body and a wheel guidance part of a motor vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a spring and damper unit including a vibration damper and a spring, wherein the vibration damper has a piston rod having a piston which runs in a cylinder and divides the cylinder into a first working space surrounding the piston rod and a second working space remote from the piston rod. The vibration damper further includes a storage space arranged outside of the cylinder hydraulically connected to the second working space and serves as a compensation space for the piston rod volume moving into and out of the cylinder.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior art vibration damper is disclosed in reference DE 42 33 701 A1. This reference discloses a storage device and/or compensation space arranged outside of a cylinder of the vibration damper and in which a gas space is separated from a fluid space in the interior of the storage space by a diaphragm. An embodiment with a second compensation space also exists. This type of vibration damper is designed to combine the advantages of a two-pipe vibration damper with those of a one-pipe vibration damper, to achieve a vibration damper with improved damping properties. However, the separating element between the gas space and the fluid space in the storage device is essential in this type of vibration damper to prevent the gas from going into solution in the damping fluid and to thus preclude the formation of a gas cushion in one working space. This is needed to ensure a correct response by the vibration damper even in the event of small strokes.
Another type of prior art vibration damper is disclosed, for example, in references DE 28 21 492 A1 and DE 28 55 561 A1. These spring-and-damper units include a spring or compensation space located outside of a cylinder of a vibration damper with a diaphragm between the gas filling and the damping fluid filling in the spring or compensation space. An embodiment with a spring space whose gas filling is separated from the damping fluid filling by a separating piston is also described. Such spring-and-damper units are used for the suspension and damping of the rear wheel in motorcycles and are installed between the rear wheel rocker arm and the frame so that the units do not have to absorb any wheel guidance forces.

Spring and damper unit with external storage device


Upon installing an application, one of a plurality of frameworks determines a framework in which the application is to be installed, and installs the application in the determined framework.

Conventionally, there are many kinds of software called a framework, platform, application server, program container, and the like, which are used to perform execution control of application programs on, e.g., a server of a computer system. Such software will be generally referred to as a framework hereinafter.
This framework has a so-called "lifecycle management function of an application program". This "lifecycle management function of an application program" implements the following execution control.
installation of an application program to be executed on the framework
uninstallation of an unwanted application program
execution of an installed application program
stop of an application program which is running
updating of an installed application program, and so forth
These management methods and forms of application programs to be installed on respective frameworks are different depending on frameworks.
As typical frameworks, "The Apache Jakarta Tomcat 5.5 Servlet/JSP Container UserGuide" (Apache Project, 2004) and "OSGi Service Platform Specification Release 2" (OSGI, 2001) are known.
In "The Apache Jakarta Tomcat 5.5 Servlet/JSP Container UserGuide", a distribution format of an application program called a WAR format is prevalent. If this WAR file is stored in a specific directory, it is recognized that a new WAR file is stored, and that file is automatically converted into an executable form, thus implementing installation. Also, an application which manages the lifecycle of an application program using this mechanism is supported, and an application program can be installed/uninstalled/started/stopped, and so forth from a remote.
In "OSGi Service Platform Specification Release 2", a unit of application program called "bundle" is defined, and a form of a bundle file that forms this bundle is also defined. A lifecycle management function is provided for these bundles.
On the other hand, in a system called "embedded device" other than a general-purpose computer, along with an increase in speed and capacity of hardware resources of the device, technologies developed by the general-purpose computer are to be used in the embedded device in many cases.
In a server of a general-purpose computer system operators who manage hardware and software of the server have received professional educations. Therefore, even when the management method of an application program is different depending on frameworks, if it is assumed that they have skills to cope with such differences, no problem is posed.
On the other hand, in the embedded device, it is not expected in most cases that a person who has high professional skills is designated as an operator who actually manages the device.
Therefore, when the management method of an application program is different for respective frameworks, operation errors are more likely to occur due to inexperience and lack of technical knowledge. That is, the entire system is more likely to cause functional disturbance. Also, it can be hardly said that even the operator who manages the server be free of operation errors.
Also, license management, security check, and the like of application programs are often normally made at the time of installation. Therefore, if an installation method as a part of the lifecycle management method of an application program is different for respective frameworks, a plurality license management functions and security check functions must be prepared in the system. That is, the use efficiency of hardware resources undesirably lowers.
In addition, network approach paths for remote control must be open to outside for respective frameworks, and there are many routes that may allow encroachment from outside into the system. Hence, such routes may become a bottleneck in terms of security.


There is disclosed a system, method and software program for managing parking spaces in a geographical area. The system, method and software program includes monitoring the geographical area; identifying one or more available parking spaces in the geographical area based at least partly upon the monitoring; informing, over the air interface, one or more vehicle operators about a first available parking space of the one or more available parking spaces identified; and completing a parking reservation for the first available parking space with a first vehicle operator of the one or more vehicle operators.

In certain geographies, parking a motor vehicle is oftentimes seen as an adventure at best and a nightmare at worst. Finding an available parking space is often too time consuming. For parking spaces having more traditional parking meters, the driver is sometimes forced to return to his/her vehicle's space prematurely for additional payment in order to ensure that a parking ticket is not issued or the vehicle is not towed. For municipalities, the costs associated with enforcing payment for use of its parking spaces include personnel salaries and associated equipment for manually monitoring the spaces. Even with relatively strict enforcement, municipalities still lose parking revenue due to drivers parking vehicles without paying the necessary parking fee. To be sure, there exists a need for easier parking space locating and payment by motor vehicle drivers while ensuring that parking fees are suitably collected by municipalities.

Intelligent parking managing system, and methods of utilizing same


Printed circuit boards (PCB's) with edge connectors undergo bending stresses whenever the edge connectors are plugged into mating connectors. The bending stresses causes deformation of the printed circuit board, which can have deleterious effects on electrical components thereon. Slots are provided on the PCB to enable the portion of the PCB surrounding the edge connector to bend relative to the remainder of the PCB, thereby confine the bending to a localized area between the ends of the slots, and isolate the electrical components from any stresses caused thereby.

Conventional printed circuit boards (PCB) 1 often include a PCB edge connector 2 to provide connectivity to adjacent or superposed PCBs or other electrical connectors. Spacers 3 with fasteners 4 are provided for separating the PCB 1 from adjacent mechanical components, e.g. housing, or other electrical components, e.g. other PCBs. In many cases, due to tolerance variations of supporting mechanical components and connectors, the connection of the electrical connectors 2 forces some displacement (see FIG. 1) of the connector 2, which causes bending of the PCB 1 located between lines 5 and 6. The amount of force applied permanently to connector 2 and the amount of bend are proportional to the amount of the displacement of the connector 2. Unfortunately, the bending of the PCB 1 is harmful to other components, such as ceramic capacitors, integrated circuits (IC's) in a ball grid array (BGA) and similar packages, and other electronic components in rigid packages.
Traditionally, designers used cables to eliminate PCB bend. The disadvantage of a cabled solution is that it adds complexity, reduces reliability, adds one or more additional connectors or soldered wires, and requires additional space which is not always available.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a PCB with a slot to ensure the PCB bends in a desired position, thereby isolating specific components on the PCB from stress and minimizing the harmful effects of the displacement of the PCB edge connector by localizing the area of the PCB bend.

Isolating stress on a printed circuit board


The present invention relates to an examining device (1) for processing and analyzing an image of a bio sample, an examining method for processing and analyzing an image of a bio sample, a computer program element for controlling such device (1), and a corresponding computer readable medium. The examining device (1) for processing and analyzing an image of a bio sample comprises an interface unit, an image analyzing unit, and a display unit. The interface unit is configured to provide an image of a bio sample. The image analyzing unit is configured to indicate a region of interest in the image as reference region, to extract a characteristic of the reference region from the image and to analyze the image for alternative regions with a similar characteristic. The display unit is configured to display the result of the analysis for alternative regions with a similar characteristic.

Pathology diagnostic investigation of patient material (tissue and cells) is the basis of many treatment decisions, in particular in oncology. Standard, thin slices from a biopsy are presented on microscope slides and stained according to certain protocols to visualize the morphology of the tissue. Assessment generally occurs with a bright field microscope.
US 2012/045790 A1 discloses a method for use in biology, histology, and pathology. It comprises providing a digital first image of a first slice of an object comprising biological material; generating a digital second image of a second slice of the object; determining a region of interest in the second image on the basis of a region of interest in the first image; determining a region of interest in the second slice on the basis of the region of interest in the second image; and extracting material from the region of interest in the second slice.
Currently, a selection of a region-of-interest (ROI) is done manually, which is inaccurate, as well as cumbersome. Besides, better or alternative regions in the tissue can be overlooked. Other regions can be better for different reasons. One reason can be that the region contains more relevant cells/material for a subsequent analysis. Another reason can be that the region is more homogeneous, improving the sensitivity and specificity as well as the reproducibility.

Examining device for processing and analyzing an image


A waste sterilizing and crushing apparatus includes a heating chamber adapted to receive wastes therein, and a heater for heating the interior of the heating chamber. The bottom of the heating chamber is formed with a discharge port, and a cover plate driven by a driving device to open and close the discharge port. A crusher is disposed below the heating chamber for crushing wastes, and a feeder is provided whereby wastes discharged through the discharge port are fed into the crusher. When the wastes are heated in the heating chamber, the discharge port is opened by the action of the cover plate. Thereupon, the wastes in the heating chamber are charged into the crusher through the discharge port and feeder.

This invention relates to a waste sterilizing and crushing apparatus and more particularly it relates to an apparatus which, when it is desired to dispose of medical wastes, such as disposable injectors and the like, heats said wastes for sterilization and then crushes them.
For example, in hospitals, disposable injectors and drip infusion containers are discarded after use. Further, experimental animals, such as rats, are used and their dead bodies are discarded.
The various wastes described above usually contain disease causing germs. Thus, it has been suggested to sterilize the wastes by chemicals.
Wastes from hospitals are buried in a land to be reclaimed, but if their bulk is great, it sometimes occurs that they cannot be buried directly in such land. Thus, it is contemplated to crush said wastes to minimize their bulk.
However, if wastes are treated with chemicals for sterilization, it becomes difficult to treat these chemicals themselves after use.
When wastes are to be crushed, crushing conditions differ to a large extent from wastes to wastes; some wastes, such as injectors, are solid, and others, such as dead bodies of rats, are soft, containing water. Therefore, if a single type of crusher is used to crush all these wastes, a desired crushing effect would not be obtained.

Waste sterilizing and crushing apparatus


A global messaging system and method are described in which the user is able to send and receive unlimited text messages to contacts.

Systems and services exist that allow a user to send a short message service (SMS) or text message (both known more generally as a text message) to another user. Typically, the text message can be initiated by a user with a computing device that has phone capabilities such as a cell phone, a converged device, etc. and the phone company/service provider charges the user a set fee for a predetermined number of text messages. Text messages are especially popular with teenagers and younger people. The problem is typically that, although the per message charge is relatively small, it can become very expensive if the user goes over the allotted text messages which occurs often with younger people/teenagers who text message frequently.
There are also services provided that allow the user, using a plug-in on a computer, to send and receive text messages. Typically, a fee is charged to send a predetermined number of text messages. The drawback of these systems, however, is that any reply text message goes back to the user's cellphone or computing device which is very inconvenient. Thus, it is desirable to provide global text messaging system and method that overcomes the issues with existing systems and method and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.


Generally, this disclosure provides systems and methods for distributed phased array multiple input multiple output (DPA-MIMO) communications. A system may comprise                a baseband processing unit;        a plurality of beamforming (BF) modules each of which comprises at least a beamforming antenna and a transceiver circuit comprising at least a downconverter that downconverts a beamformed antenna radio frequency signal to an intermediate frequency signal, and an upconverter that upconverts an intermediate frequency signal to radio frequency and sends to said beamforming antenna for transmission;        a plurality of intermediate frequency (IF) radios, each of which comprises a receive chain circuit that includes at least a downconverter that downconverts an intermediate frequency signal sent from said BF module to a basedband signal conveyed to said baseband processing unit, and a transmit chain circuit that includes at least an upconverter that upconverts a baseband signal received from said baseband processing unit to an intermediate frequency signal which is conveyed to said beamforming module;        and        a plurality of cables or any type of physical signal transmission medium, each of which connects one of said beamforming modules with one of said intermediate frequency radios.

The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Current mobile computing devices such as, but not limited to, smartphones typically contain more wireless technologies and standards as time progresses. Support for more wireless technologies and standards may be typically achieved by additional hardware systems. Considerations are typically given for power, cost, and/or physical space when designing mobile computing devices for users
Typically, current wireless communication systems require higher data rates to enable increasingly complex applications. Wireless communication systems may involve communications at frequencies as high as 60 GHz. Communications at high frequencies may allow for more available spectrums and bandwidths, but may lead to high propagation loss and penetration loss. Spectral efficiency may be improved by multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques.
Fifth generation wireless communication systems such as 5G typically are expected to have peak data throughputs of approximately 10 gigabits per second. Higher data throughputs typically may be achieved by using a broader frequency range, improving data encoding and/or error correction, and/or improving signal reception. Higher frequencies such as those above 37 GHz are typically known to have a higher degree of signal interference from physical objects such as, but not limited to, buildings and/or people, compared to typically more traditional cellular frequencies. Improvements in data encoding and/or error correction typically require considerations for hardware costs and/or power usage. Signal reception may typically be improved with additional hardware components such as, but not limited to, antennas and/or amplifiers and typically require considerations such as, but not limited to, hardware cost, power usage, and/or physical dimensions.
The following is an example of a specific aspect in the prior art that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limited the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon. By way of educational background, another aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that some companies may implement wireless communication designs that comprise of a plurality of antennas to improve signal reception of a predetermined frequency range.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that these traditional techniques are not perfect and leave room for more optimal approaches.

Distributed phased arrays based MIMO (DPA-MIMO) for next generation wireless user equipment hardware design and method


A collecting and discharge device for the cutting jet of a fluid jet cutting system, comprises a cutting jet collector and a discharge for the cutting medium flow collected the cutting jet collector. The cutting jet collector has a jet discharge channel with an inlet region for introducing the cutting jet. The cutting jet is in flow connection with an outlet region via an discharge line. The jet discharge channel leads into a suction chamber disposed underneath the outlet region, said suction chamber having an enlarged cross section in the outlet region compared with the cross section of the jet discharge channel. The suction chamber additionally connects the jet discharge channel with the discharge line and with a suction channel as well as being otherwise closed. The suction channel provides suction at a suction opening forming a suction mouth in a suction region surrounding the inlet region of the jet discharge channel.

Collection and discharge devices for the cutting jet of a liquid cutting system or plant of this type as well as an associated liquid cutting system are known from DE 35 18 166 C1.
The liquid cutting system described in connection with the functional description of the known collecting and discharging device has a workpiece support over which the workpieces are guided through the cutting jet, making a cut. The cutting jet emerging from the underside of the workpiece is collected by the collection and discharge device below the workpiece support, expanded and discharged for processing. The cutting jet comprises the actual liquid cutting medium on the one hand and any gaseous components or solid particles originating from the workpiece on the other.
All types of workpieces can be cut with the known liquid cutting systems. Cutting by means of a liquid jet has the advantage that virtually no forces occur in the feed direction, precise cutting geometries can be realized and comparatively high feed speeds can be achieved. A possible application for such liquid cutting systems, besides cutting plastic, foam or metal, is cutting food.
Cutting food is often not easy with conventional cutting devices, such as ultrasonic knives or saws. Non-frozen foods are usually soft, which leads to the risk of solid components within the food getting caught on the cutting tools and smearing the cut.
For example, when cutting pieces of cake, a harder piece of chocolate or a fruit ingredient can make the cutting edge so irregular that the product no longer meets the quality requirements. Furthermore, a knife moving through a cake, for example, can smear fruit pulp along the dividing plane, resulting in an unsightly side surface. For these reasons, cutting by means of a liquid jet is a suitable method.
Existing liquid cutting systems have collection and discharge devices for the escaping cutting jet. Here it is known that this cutting jet is processed using various aids, for example to reduce the energy of the jet, so that the collection and discharge device is not exposed to excessive wear.
A disadvantage of the collection and discharge devices used up to now is that below the workpiece, when the cutting jet emerges from the cut, turbulence can occur, which can lead on the one hand to parts of the fluid used for cutting or to particles separated from the workpiece being released into the environment during cutting. Such particles can also settle on the underside of the workpiece.
While contamination of the underside of the workpiece is often a nuisance when cutting industrially used intermediate products made of plastic or metal, as these products have to be cleaned again afterwards, cutting foams or even food can cause major problems. Here, for example, contamination of the product must be avoided as it cannot be reversed.
For example, the soaking of an porous foam below the cutting line is usually undesirable. In connection with food, moisture penetration is also undesirable. Furthermore, particles can settle in the region of the cutting edges, which impair the visual appearance of the cutting line or the food itself. In addition to the particles removed by the cutting jet as a result of the cutting process, these can also include components in the form of icing sugar or other components that can be swirled up as a result of the dynamic movements that occur and subsequently settle uncontrollably in undesirable places.
The workpiece support can also be contaminated by such effects, which in turn can indirectly lead to contamination of the workpiece itself. In connection with food, there is the further problem that residues of the previously cut food can be deposited on the workpiece support, which then has to be cleaned to avoid contamination of the following food. Especially in connection with egg-containing, poultry-containing or fish-containing food, this can lead to an increased expense.
From DE 100 51 942 B4 a liquid cutting system is known which has a jet outlet below the workpiece support. This jet discharge is surrounded by a ring-shaped channel in which an increased liquid pressure provided by an external supply line is applied, whereby liquid is introduced into the jet discharge from this channel in the upper region. This creates a flow directed in the direction of the jet entry within the jet outlet into which the cutting jet enters, in order to slow down and expand the cutting jet in the liquid flow in this way.
This device suffers from the disadvantage that contamination can occur below the workpiece support and effective extraction of residual cutting material is not possible. Furthermore, due to the water-filled inlet channel for the cutting jet, there is a risk that parts of the cutting jet or the water in the inlet channel may splash back.
From the WO 2017/071697 A1 a liquid cutting system for food is known, which has a lower jet outlet and an annular channel arranged around it, whereby suspended matter is extracted via the annular channel. This is achieved by connecting the duct to an external vacuum source, which in turn increases the effort required.
The known collecting and discharge devices for the cutting jet of a liquid cutting system have the disadvantage that cutting media parts or entrained particles can contaminate the workpiece or the environment.

Collecting and discharging device for the cutting jet of a liquid cutting system


A steering column device has a downward U-shaped attachment bracket, an upward U-shaped lower jacket, a polygonal cylindrical mid jacket 3, a polygonal cylindrical upper jacket 4 inserted into the polygonal cylindrical mid jacket 3 and a shock energy absorbing mechanism 26 to absorb a shock energy at the time of a secondary collision. The shock energy absorbing mechanism 26 has a contracting guide part 27 to perform sliding and contracting operation of the upper jacket 4 to the mid jacket 3 separately from an energy absorbing part 28. The contracting guide part 27 is formed by interposing a plurality of linear guides 29 at an overlapping part between the mid jacket 3 and the upper jacket 4, linear guides 29 in which a plurality of bolls 29b arranged in the sliding direction of the mid jacket 3 and the upper jacket 4 are connected to each other through holders 29a.

The present invention relates to a steering column device which is mounted on a vehicle, and particularly to a steering column device having a function for absorbing shock energy particularly at the time of a secondary collision caused by an occupant.
In this type of the steering column device having the shock energy absorbing function, as is well known, it is possible to perform the relative sliding operation between the outer tube of an upper side and the inner tube of a lower side, which form a steering column. When a predetermined load is exerted on a steering wheel at the time of the secondary collision of the occupant caused by the collision of the vehicle (primary collision), the shock energy is absorbed by performing the relative sliding operation between the outer tube and the inner tube.
On the other hand, a wrench might occur by exerting a load on the steering wheel from a direction other than the axial direction of the steering column at the time of the secondary collision of the occupant by the difference of a condition at the time of the vehicle collision (for example, a full-wrap frontal collision or an offset frontal collision) and the difference of the mounting angle of the steering column to the vehicle. In this case, there is a fear that a predetermined shock energy absorbing performance is not obtained. As a solution to this, for example, a steering column device disclosed in JP Patent Application Publication No. 2014-101070 is proposed.
In the steering column device disclosed in JP Patent Application Publication No. 2014-101070, the steering column device has the outer tube of an upper side and the inner tube of a lower side which relatively slide in the axial direction of the outer tube and the inner tube at the time of the shock absorption with the collision of the vehicle. In addition, a rolling element (sliding resistance reduction element), such as a cylindrical roller, is provided at each end portion of the outer tube and the inner tube. The rolling element provided at the end portion of the outer tube is brought into press-contact with the inner tube, and the rolling element provided at the end portion of the inner tube is brought into press-contact with the outer tube.
Furthermore, although an object is different from that of the steering column device disclosed in JP 2014-101070, JP Patent Application Publication No. 2010-18182 discloses a steering column device in which a rolling element is interposed between the outer tube of an upper side and the inner tube of a lower side, similar to the rolling element disclosed in JP 2014-101070 (see FIG. 14 and FIG. 17 to FIG. 20 of JP 2010-18182).


A nail cartridge structure for a nail gun has at least two nail cartridges and a nail cartridge switching unit that is connected to a front end of the gun body. The nail cartridges are used to hold either one size of nails or different sizes of nails, respectively. The nail cartridge switching unit is connected to the nail cartridges and is operated by the user to selectively switch the nail feed to the desired nail cartridge.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a nail cartridge structure for a nail gun and, more particularly, to a nail cartridge structure that can accommodate nail cartridges containing different sizes of nails and selectively switch to one desired nail cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of a nail gun is known in the art to shoot conveniently nails into an object. The nail gun conventionally comprises a gun body that is connected to a nail cartridge. The nail cartridge contains nails that are continuously fed to the front end of the gun body to be shot in.
Unfortunately, the conventional nail gun can only accommodate one nail cartridge. Therefore, only one size of nail is provided during each use. If the user wishes to use another size of nails, either another nail cartridge containing the desired size of nails has to be mounted, or nails of the different size have to be inserted in the already-mounted nail cartridge. These processes are cumbersome and time-consuming. Furthermore, in order to allow a larger amount of nails in each recharge, the nail cartridge usually is dimensionally long since only one placement space is provided for one nail cartridge. This results in a cumbersome handling of the nail gun.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a nail cartridge structure for a nail gun that can juxtapose a plurality of nail cartridges respectively containing the same or different sizes of nails. Via a simple operation, the user can selectively switch to the desired nail cartridge without the need to mount additional nail cartridges or recharge with nails of other sizes. Thereby, the use of the nail gun is more convenient and more efficient.
It is another object of the invention to provide a nail cartridge structure for a nail gun that accommodate a plurality of nail cartridges that is either longitudinally reduced to render the handling of the nail gun more convenient while allowing the charging of a same amount of nails, or have the conventional long length to increase the number of nails in a recharge.
To accomplish the above and other objectives, a nail cartridge structure for a nail gun comprises a gun body to a front end of which is mounted a nail cartridge switching unit. The nail cartridge switching unit includes a nail slot movable base driven in a sliding motion between a left and right side to perform a switching action between nail cartridges. At least two nail cartridges are further juxtaposed to each other and respectively connected to a bottom of the nail slot movable base.
To provide a further understanding of the invention, the following detailed description illustrates embodiments and examples of the invention that are provided for explaining the invention and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention.


A high-speed transportation device with a tube as a rail, including a tube structure, a carrier structure, a control system, a braking system, and a drive system. The tube structure is an extension structure surrounded by a tube wall. The tube wall is provided with a plurality of unidirectional airflow windows configured to control a flowing direction of airflow. The carrier structure operates in the tube structure. The carrier structure is a carriage-type structure. The unidirectional airflow window installed on the tube structure of the invention can significantly reduce the air resistance of the operational system. Compared with the current rapid transportation device, this invention has the advantages of high efficiency, low cost, fast speed and high safety, and can be used for the development of new rapid transportation system.

In our daily life, the commonly used transportation vehicles are automobiles, trains, aircrafts, ships, electric vehicles, motorcycles, etc. Among them, there are many types of automobiles, which can be divided into passenger cars mainly used for carrying passengers, trucks mainly used for carrying cargo, special-purpose vehicles used for construction engineering, agricultural production and sports competition, etc. according to their application. The automobiles can be divided into ordinary cars and off-road vehicles according to the adaptability to the road, and can be divided into piston type internal combustion engine car, electric engine car, gas turbine engine car according to the power type of the engine. There are also many types of aircrafts, which can be divided into civilian passenger airplane, military transport aircraft, military aircraft, etc. according to the application. The aircrafts can be divided into propeller aircraft and jet aircraft according to the type of engine. Trains include ordinary trains, maglev trains and high-speed trains. At present, the vacuum tube train proposed in the United States represents a development direction of high-speed rail transit in the future. However, maintaining the vacuum and magnetic levitation state in the vacuum tube is a technical problem that needs to be solved urgently. In addition, the underground tunnel operation system being developed in the United States also has high construction cost and operating cost. The existing high-speed rail can increase the speed, while the risk of derailment is difficult to solve. With the progress of society and the development of the times, people are increasingly demanding how to improve the efficiency of using time. Saving time is synonymous with improving efficiency. Therefore, it is of great significance and important practical value to develop a rapid transportation device which has the convenience of trains and cars and no derailment risk and can surpass the existing ground running speed, reach the speed of aircraft and save time.

High speed transportation in running tube as running rail


Methods and structures for shielding optical waveguides are provided. A method includes forming a first optical waveguide core and forming a second optical waveguide core adjacent to the first optical waveguide core. The method also includes forming an insulator layer over the first optical waveguide core and the second optical waveguide core. The method further includes forming a shielding structure in the insulator layer between the first optical waveguide core and the second optical waveguide core.

An optical waveguide device typically includes a substrate, a cladding layer formed on the substrate, and a waveguide—also called waveguide core—formed in the cladding layer for transmitting an optical signal. Such waveguide devices are also called integrated optical devices or opto-electronic integrated circuits. The core commonly has the shape of a strip or a rib. Light signals may be introduced into and out of the core by coupling optical fibers thereto. The core has a top surface and opposing parallel side walls. The core serves to confine an optical light signal transmitted thereto, and the light signal is mostly contained in the core as it is transmitted therethrough.
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes, such as masking and etching, are commonly used to form the core. Etching, such as reactive ion etching (RIE), can result in core side wall roughness that causes scattering of light propagating along the waveguide. This light scattering produces an optical loss in the waveguide, and can also lead to cross talk between adjacent waveguides. Isolation of waveguides is routinely accomplished by differences in index of refraction of the materials that make up the core and the cladding layer. However, differences in index of refraction between the core and a cladding material do not completely eliminate undesired communication between adjacent cores.

Shielding structures between optical waveguides


An extendible and retractable spa jet in the retracted position resides in the side wall of a spa or tub and is connected to, and operated by, the existing pressurized water and/or air supply. In the retracted position it serves as a conventional fixed jet. When desired, it may be pulled outwardly from the side wall of the enclosure and used as a hand-held massage device to achieve concentrated, intensified massaging action at localized areas of the body not possible with fixed spa jets.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to water massage devices, and more particularly to an extendible and retractable spa jet which in the retracted position resides in the side wall of a spa or tub and may be pulled outwardly therefrom to be used as a hand-held massage device.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Hot tubs and spas are well known for injecting aerated streams of water that have a therapeutic massaging effect on the body of the occupant. The therapeutic action of the tubs or spas is achieved by the vibrating action of bubbles and forceful circulation of water produced by jet nozzles positioned in the side walls of the spa or tub. However, the location of these jets allows the occupant to juxtapose primarily the back of the neck, shoulders, and back to the jets and, for the most part makes it impossible to achieve concentrated, intensified massaging action at other localized areas of the body.
Hand-held water sprayer heads and fluid powered vibrating heads which connect to faucets of household water systems are also known, but they are not particularly suited for operation or use in a submerged body of water.
There are several patents which disclose various massage devices for use in spas or hot tubs.
Sievers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,432 discloses a water driven personal massager for use in spas, hot tubs and the like which is connected to and driven vibrationally by the pressurized water supply of the spa or tub. The device comprises a conduit for connection to the pressurized water supply, a nozzle to direct the pressurized water across an eccentrically weighted turbine or waffle plate within a hand holdable massager head.
Marshall, U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,762 discloses an aquassage apparatus comprising a length of perforated bendable tubing having suction cups secured to the bottom which is installed in conventional bath tubs. The exhaust port of a vacuum cleaner is connected at one end of the tubing and controlled by a valve to agitate the water in the tub.
Pileggi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,676 discloses a portable hand held massager in combination with a spa. The massager has a fluid motor that is mechanically connected to a reciprocating massage pad. The fluid motor is detachably connected to the pressurized fluid system of the spa, and has a sleeve adapter to attach to a jet nozzle in the wall of the spa with a flexible hose leading to the motor of the massage unit.
Stearns, III, U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,462 discloses a hand-held water driven shower massager which includes a housing having an internally disposed rotatable nozzle which is caused to rotate by the high velocity discharge of water from the nozzle. An oscillating vibrational motion is applied to the entire device by eccentrically weighting the discharge nozzle, and provides a massaging effect when pressed against the body of the user. When held away from the user, the unit functions as a source of water spray for cleansing.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and these patents in particular by an extendible and retractable spa jet which is connected to, and operated by, the existing pressurized water supply. In the retracted position, the jet resides in the side wall of a spa or tub and serves as a conventional fixed jet. When desired, it may be pulled outwardly from the side wall of the enclosure and used as a hand-held massage device to achieve concentrated, intensified massaging action at localized areas of the body not possible with fixed spa jets.


Methods and apparatus for providing a wireless expansion network. In an aspect, an apparatus includes an expansion circuit configured to identify at least one of a selected uplink (UL) channel and a selected downlink (DL) channel that are provided by one of a primary network and an expansion network, and a processing circuit configured to switch to the at least one of the selected UL and DL channels. An apparatus includes means for obtaining link parameters associated with a primary network and an expansion network, means for identifying clients that are assigned transmission channels on both the primary network and the expansion network based on the link parameters, and means for transmitting messages to the clients to indicate the assigned transmission channels.

1. Field
The present application relates generally to the operation of wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for providing a wireless expansion network to increase the capacity and performance of a primary network.
2. Background
Wireless cellular networks typically operate in licensed spectrum. However, the availability of licensed spectrum and/or its regulation often limits the number of users and services that a network can support. For example, a typical cellular network covers a geographic region by using multiple base stations where each base station covers a portion of the region. In such a network, each base station services a number of client stations within its area of coverage. Modern cellular networks offer both voice and data services. With the continuing increase in demand for higher levels of service, the capacities of these networks are stretched to the limit due to the limited availability of licensed spectrum.
Therefore, what is needed is a mechanism to increase the capacity and/or performance of wireless networks that typically utilize licensed spectrum.


To improve the recognition accuracy even when a plurality of words including a matched portion are selected as candidates for recognition. A word recognition apparatus according to the present invention includes input means for inputting a word image representing a plurality of characters; word candidate selection means for recognizing the word image input by the input means and selecting a first word candidate and a second word candidate based on a plurality of words registered in a word dictionary; and verification means for comparing the first word candidate and the second word candidate character by character and verifying a likelihood of the first word candidate based on an evaluation value obtained when the word image is recognized by characters determined as unmatched.

Word recognition is a technique that recognizes words including a plurality of predetermined character strings from information printed on paper. Address recognition is one of application fields of word recognition. Addresses are hierarchized in order of level such as a state, a city, and a place in the city. Thus, the words of each level are recognized by sequentially reading them in the hierarchical order, to thereby recognize a destination address. Assume that, for example, a specific state name contained in information at a first level can be recognized from a plurality of state names. In this case, to specify the name of a certain city, which is information at a subsequent level, it is only necessary to perform recognition among a plurality of city names belonging to the recognized state name. Such a method that limits the words to be recognized in advance is called "word driven recognition".
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique relating to a word recognition apparatus that collates a plurality of words with a character string input by a character input device, and recognizes words corresponding to the input character string. The word recognition apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1 collates the input character string with the words, and calculates the degree of difference which is a distance between the input character string and each collated word. Further, when words having a similar degree of difference are included in the plurality of words, the word recognition apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1 calculates the degree of difference (degree of mutual difference) between the words. Then, the word recognition apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1 distinguishes similar words by weighting the degree of mutual difference according to the length of the matched character string. Specifically, assuming that a word length including a larger number of characters among the words to be compared is P′ and the number of characters of a maximum common character string is d12, the degree of mutual difference is weighted using a value calculated by (P′−d12)/P′.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique relating to an apparatus that automatically sorts indefinite thin mail pieces or books according to delivery destinations. The apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is a mail sequencing system that separates objects to be processed one by one, throws the separated objects to be processed, reads information from barcodes or addresses, sorts the objects according to delivery destinations for each of a plurality of sorting bins, and stacks the objects to be processed on a stacking tray provided in each of the sorting bins, thereby performing sorting processing.

Word recognition apparatus, word recognition method, non-transitory computer readable medium storing word recognition program, and delivery item sorting apparatus


A trellis coded multilevel differential phase shift keyed mobile communication system. The system of the present invention includes a trellis encoder for translating input signals into trellis codes; a differential encoder for differentially encoding the trellis coded signals; a transmitter for transmitting the differentially encoded trellis coded signals; a receiver for receiving the transmitted signals; a differential demodulator for demodulating the received differentially encoded trellis coded signals; and a trellis decoder for decoding the differentially demodulated signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to communications systems operating over fading channels.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope thereof and additional fields in which the present invention would be of significant utility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile satellite communication systems are typified by the movement of a receiver relative to a transmitter or vice versa. The communications link between transmitters and receivers in mobile communications systems is characterized as a fading channel. Mobile satellite communications systems, having a transponder on a spacecraft and a transceiver on a ground based vehicle, cellular telephone systems and terrestrial microwave systems are examples of communications systems operating over a fading channel. A fading channel is a channel which may be severely degraded due to numerous effects including multipath fading, doppler shifts, doppler spreads and additive noise. In the often used L band, large doppler frequency spreads and shifts due to vehicle movement are particularly problematic.
The conventional solution to the problem of doppler shifts and spreads for mobile communication systems operating at L band was to use pilot tones and coherent demodulation. (See "Dual Pilot Tone Calibration Technique (DPTCT)," by M. K. Simon in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. VT-35, no. 2, May 1986, pp. 63-70.) A pilot tone is a signal of a discrete frequency in the spectrum within the data band which is transmitted with the data, demodulated and used to recover the data. As is known in the art, the ideal place for the pilot tone is in the center of the data band. Unfortunately, a pilot tone in the center of the data band would interfere with the data. Accordingly, it was necessary to shape the data spectrum to provide a notch for the pilot tone. There are at least three disadvantages with this approach. First it required the reshaping of the data spectrum, adding the cost and complexity of the system. Second, it necessitated an expansion of the bandwidth of the system. This is particularly problematic in mobile satellite communication systems which are typically severely limited in bandwidth and power. Finally, the need for guard bands around the pilot tone, in the notch, amounts to a waste of available bandwidth.
These problems are ostensibly addressed somewhat by dual tone systems which provide discrete carrier tones at the edges of the data band which are beat together in the receiver to provide a tone in the middle of the band. The problems with these systems is that when multiple channels of data are transmitted, there is a pilot tone between each of the data bands. This presents the potential for adjacent channel interference. In addition, the need for guard bands around the pilot tones, also causes some bandwidth expansion.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a mobile communication system which addresses the problem of doppler shifts and spreads while conserving bandwidth and without impairing the performance or imposing significant additional power requirements on the system.

Trellis coded multilevel DPSK system with doppler correction for mobile satellite channels