Devices, systems and methods by which the real or apparent renovascular perfusion and intrarenal pressure may be selectively and controllably increased. By selectively and controllably increasing renovascular perfusion and interstitial hydrostatic pressure when the heart is unable to pump sufficient blood or when renal perfusion is suboptimal, the present invention reduces or reverses neurohormonal activation and fluid retention, and thereby minimizes their deleterious effects on the heart, vasculature, kidneys and other body systems.

The present invention generally relates to medical devices and methods of use for the treatment and/or management of cardiovascular and renal disorders. Specifically, the present invention relates to devices and methods for controlling renal perfusion in the renovascular system for the treatment and/or management of cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension and congestive heart failure, and renal disorders such as renal insufficiency and end stage renal disease.
Cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to patient illness and mortality. It also is a primary driver of health care expenditure, costing more than $326 billion each year in the United States. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a major cardiovascular disorder that is estimated to affect over 50 million people in the United States alone. Of those with hypertension, it is reported that fewer than 30% have their blood pressure under control. Hypertension is a leading cause of heart failure and stroke. It is the primary cause of death in over 42,000 patients per year and is listed as a primary or contributing cause of death in over 200,000 patients per year in the U.S. Accordingly, hypertension is a serious health problem demanding significant research and development for the treatment thereof.
Hypertension occurs when the body's smaller blood vessels (arterioles) constrict, causing an increase in blood pressure. Because the blood vessels constrict, the heart must work harder to maintain blood flow at the higher pressures. Although the body may tolerate short periods of increased blood pressure, sustained hypertension may eventually result in damage to multiple body organs, including the kidneys, brain, eyes and other tissues, causing a variety of maladies associated therewith. The elevated blood pressure may also damage the lining of the blood vessels, accelerating the process of atherosclerosis and increasing the likelihood that a blood clot may develop. This could lead to a heart attack and/or stroke. Sustained high blood pressure may eventually result in an enlarged and damaged heart (hypertrophy), which may lead to heart failure.
Heart failure is the final common expression of a variety of cardiovascular disorders, including ischemic heart disease. It is characterized by an inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs and results in fatigue, reduced exercise capacity and poor survival. It is estimated that approximately 5,000,000 people in the United States suffer from heart failure, directly leading to 39,000 deaths per year and contributing to another 225,000 deaths per year. It is also estimated that greater than 400,000 new cases of heart failure are diagnosed each year. Heart failure accounts for over 900,000 hospital admissions annually, and it is the most common discharge diagnosis in patients over the age of 65 years. It has been reported that the cost of treating heart failure in the United States exceeds $20 billion annually. Accordingly, heart failure is also a serious health problem demanding significant research and development for the treatment and/or management thereof.
End stage renal disease (ESRD) affects over 300,000 people in the United States, with an annual incidence of over 79,000. Death from ESRD occurred in over 60,000 cases in 1998; the five year survival rate is less than 30%. Medicare payments in 1998 for the treatment of ESRD exceeded $10 billion. Accordingly, ESRD is a major health problem demanding improved therapy and management.
Heart failure results in the activation of a number of body systems to compensate for the heart's inability to pump sufficient blood. Many of these responses are mediated by an increase in the level of activation of the sympathetic nervous system as well as activation of multiple other neurohormonal responses. Generally speaking, this sympathetic nervous system activation signals the heart to increase heart rate and force of contraction to increase the cardiac output; it signals the kidneys to expand the blood volume by retaining sodium and water; and it signals the arterioles to constrict to elevate the blood pressure. The cardiac, renal and vascular responses increase the workload of the head, further accelerating myocardial damage and exacerbating the heart failure state. Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the level of sympathetic nervous system and other neurohormonal activation in order to stop or at least minimize this vicious cycle and thereby treat or manage the heart failure.
A number of drug treatments have been proposed for the management of hypertension, heart failure and other cardiovascular and renal disorders. These include vasodilators to reduce the blood pressure and ease the workload of the heart, diuretics to reduce fluid overload, inhibitors and blocking agents of the body's neurohormonal responses, and other medicaments.
Various surgical procedures have also been proposed for these maladies. For example, heart transplantation has been proposed for patients who suffer from severe, refractory heart failure. Alternatively, an implantable medical device such as a ventricular assist device may be implanted in the chest to increase the pumping action of the heart. Alternatively, an intra aortic balloon pump may be used for maintaining heart function for short periods of time, but typically no longer than one month. Other surgical procedures are available as well.
Although each of these alternative approaches is beneficial in some ways, each of the therapies has its own disadvantages. For example, drug therapy is often incompletely effective. Some patients may be unresponsive (refractory) to medical therapy. Drugs often have unwanted side effects and may need to be given in complex regimens. These and other factors contribute to poor patient compliance with medical therapy. Drug therapy may also be expensive, adding to the health care costs associated with these disorders. Likewise, surgical approaches are very costly, may be associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality and may not alter the natural history of the disease. Accordingly, there continues to be a substantial and long felt need for new devices and methods for treating and/or managing high blood pressure, heart failure and renal disease, as well as their associated complications.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for controlling renovascular perfusion


The invention relates to an apparatus for hot and cold processing (1), the apparatus comprising: a heat pump (74) configured to pump heat from a first part of the heat pump to a second part of the heat pump, thereby cooling the first part of the heat pump for cold processing (73); a first heat sink (72) arranged to be in thermal contact with the second part of the heat pump such that heat may be transferred from the second part of the heat pump to the first heat sink and thereby cool the second part of the heat pump.

In many areas of industry it is required that materials are heated and cooled rapidly. Example industries include plastic reforming, motor body repairs, clothing repairs and manufacturer, plastic leisure goods, marine industries and the hairdressing industry. The general practice is to heat a range of materials reform or shape the material or article and then rapid cool to maintain the shape.
For hairdressing, the state of the art goes back 50 and more years it has been known that applying gentle heat to the hair follicles produces a change in the chemical makeup of the hair follicle.
In the case of hair tongs and straightening tongs, advances have been made in the mariner by which the heat is transmitted to the hair by the heating element with the express purpose of heating the full cross section in the shortest time to avoid damage. It is a fact that applying high heat to the hair can destroy it or damage it. In recent times manufacturers have steadily increased the temperature of their irons up to 230 degrees centigrade. This particular high heat iron became popular until women complained about damage to their hair. The inventors of the following devices and technology set about refining and developing the method by which heat is introduced to the hair. It is a known fact that heating the hair changes the hydrogen bonds within the follicle. A challenge was to define the correct or most suitable temperature to which hair may be heated.
It is also known in the art that cooling hair after it has been heated and formed into a desired style helps set the style, so that the hair maintains the style for a longer period of time.
In the case conventional of hair dryers, arrangements provide for rapid heating of hair by a heated air stream, whilst cooling is provided by switching off the heating elements placed in a driven air steam.
However, at best the "cool" air provided by these dryers is the same temperature as the ambient air. More commonly, the cool air is actually warmer than the ambient air, because it has been contaminated by residual heated air produced whilst the heating element cools down.
As such, the rate at which hair can be cooled (which is determined by the temperature difference between the hair and the cooling medium) is limited when using conventional apparatuses. In the case of hair tongs, it is known to use the casing of the hair tongs to cool hair after it has been in contact with the heated element of the tongs. However, once again, the casing is certainly no cooler than the ambient conditions and is likely to be much hotter due to heat leakage from the heated plates (although the casing may still be cooler than the plates themselves).
Therefore, it is desirable to incorporate a method of active cooling into hair styling devices, so that hair can be both quickly heated and quickly cooled. The active cooling would not only allow for lower cooling temperatures to be achieved, but would also allow for the cooling effect to be more rapidly available. That is, there would be no need to wait for a heating element to cool down before a cool stream of air could be achieved. At present, it is common for hairdressers to forgo the cooling function of conventional hair dryers in favour of manually blowing on hair which has been heated and put into a shape, in order to cool the hair down. This is because the cooling function of the conventional hair dryers does not provide suitably cool air fast enough after the hair dryer has produced heated air.
One way of cooling is to use the thermoelectric effect to create a temperature difference across a device constructed from suitable materials by applying an electric voltage across the device. This is also known as the Peltier effect, and devices making use of the Peltier device are commonly referred to as Peltier modules. Because these devices are most often used to produce a source of cooling (as opposed to a source of heating) these devices are also known as thermoelectric coolers (TECs).
Previous patents teach the use of Peltier modules mounted in hair irons to provide heat and or hot and cold. In WO 2007/00700 A2 there is described a device whereby quote:
"A preferred kind of coolers based on the Peltier effect, so-called thermoelectric coolers (TEC). TEC's usually having a cold and hot side. Particularly compact hair styling appliances can be achieved, if the cooling member is the cold side of a TEC and the heating member is the hot side of a TEC."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,103 discloses a hair dryer which utilises the thermoelectric effect. A Peltier device is positioned in a conduit, such that air flowing over one side of the Peltier device is cooled, whilst air flowing over the other side is heated. Therefore, existing hair styling devices do not heat and cool a lock of hair efficiently, resulting in costly delays for professional hairdressers in time wasted between heating and cooling operations.


A device for cleaning soiled footwear with a contoured brush attached to a base section made of flexible carpet or the like, the brush member having one end with affixed bristles pointing upwardly and outwardly for cleaning the instep portions of soiled footwear and having an opposite end comprising an integrally formed U-shaped recessed opening with an overhanging lip used as a boot-jack or footwear remover, allowing the user to clean and remove soiled shoes or boots and change into different footwear and providing the user with a flat, clean surface upon which to stand during this operation.

The present invention relates to a portable apparatus which provides a means for cleaning soiled footwear and also for changing shoes or boots in a cleaner and more comfortable manner than previously possible.
Numerous types of sporting or working activities take place in environments in which dust, dirt, mud, snow or ice becomes stuck to the bottoms and sides of shoes or boots. Inevitably it becomes desirable to clean the bottoms and sides of shoes and boots before entering cars, homes, etc.
It is also desirable to provide a portable boot scraper or other type of instep cleaner. The instep is an area of footwear in which mud or other debris is prone to accumulate as it is essentially a wedge shaped cavity on the bottoms of footwear where the heel section would be affixed to the sole portion. Typically, outside of homes or buildings one might encounter a boot scrape permanently mounted in the ground or sidewalk. However, it is desirable to provide a portable scraper or other method for cleaning the instep sections of soiled footwear.
A common problem which has always existed is that during the operation of changing shoes or boots it is always necessary to have a clean place to stand or sit in order to protect the use's foot itself from becoming soiled. This problem might exist, for example, after sporting events such as golf where it would be desirable to clean one's shoes and possibly change them in the parking lot of a golf course before entering the car or clubhouse. A brush alone might solve the problem of dirty shoes but it would not assist the user in changing his or her shoes.
This invention is designed to provide a means whereby soiled shoes or boots (footwear) can be cleaned immediately after use. Additionally, the user can utilize the invention for changing his or her shoes conveniently and comfortably, while wearing socks or stockings or in bare feet, and putting on a new pair of shoes.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a portable shoe cleaning assembly which would allow the user to clean the bottom portions and the side portions and instep portions of soiled sport or work shoes.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a means for removing soiled shoes or boots while standing in a parking lot or outside of a car or the like.
It is also an object of this invention to provide the user with a clean and comfortable surface upon which to stand during the operation of cleaning and changing soiled shoes or boots.
It is a further object of this invention to describe a method for cleaning mud, dirt, snow and the like from sport or work shoes or boots or the like.


Described is an application program interface (API) that enables dynamic modification to applications executing in a heterogeneous distributed computing environment. The application program interface includes a navigation function, a query function, a thread management function, and a modifier function. The navigation function returns program information for a local or remote computer (i.e., specified computing device). The query function returns information about a program on the specified computing device. The thread management function controls execution of other programs on the specified computing device. The modifier function modifies a system memory on the specified computing device that stores the heterogeneous program. The API works in conjunction with a hierarchical intermediate representation of the heterogeneous program such that pre-defined program tools can modify the intermediate representation and write these modifications to the specified computing device while the heterogeneous program remains operational.

In the past, when a computer experienced a problem with one of its applications while running online, the computer was taken offline to simulate the problem. However, with the advent of the Internet, computers cannot be taken offline so readily in order to identify the problem. Typically, these computers are running numerous applications and are servicing several requests from different Internet users at any one time. Therefore, it is undesirable for these computers to be taken offline. Rather, it is desirable for these computers to remain operational (i.e., "live") at all times. Thus, these computers are commonly referred to as "live" systems.
Even if it were allowable to take these computers offline, there would still be problems with diagnosing the problem offline. For example, the problems occurring online are typically related to the loading and unique circumstances of the computer at the time the problem occurred. Thus, if the computer were taken offline, the problem would disappear. In addition, for computers operating in a heterogeneous distributed computing environment, the problem is even more difficult to diagnose offline. These computers in this distributed computing environment may have various architectures and run various operating systems. The applications on these computers may have heterogeneous components that have routines in different instruction sets (i.e., Intel x86, Intel IA-64, Visual Basic (VB) byte code, Java class files, and other Virtual Machine (VM) binary). In addition, the heterogeneous components may be operating on different computers. Thus, it is difficult to generate a test scenario that has the same distribution of applications and components and has the same loading. Therefore, offline testing of computers is not very successful in duplicating and solving problems occurring on computers operating on the Internet.
Until now, there has been no workable solution for analyzing live systems in a heterogeneous distributed computing environment.

Application program interface for dynamic instrumentation of a heterogeneous program in a distributed environment


A vehicle charging system includes a vehicle propelled by an electric machine powered by a chargeable energy storage system. The charging system also includes a controller programmed to predict at least one upcoming plug-in event based on historical charging data, and define a plug-in routine based on a plurality of upcoming plug-in events. The controller is also programmed to set a charging schedule to coincide with the plug-in routine such that a target state of charge (SOC) is achieved at a conclusion of each of the plurality of upcoming plug-in events. Each target SOC corresponding to a plug-in event is based on minimizing a charging energy cost of the plug-in routine and an expected energy depletion ahead of a next subsequent plug-in event.

Electrified vehicles may include a rechargeable high-voltage battery to provide power to the propulsion system as well as other vehicle systems. In cases where the battery is recharged using power from the electrical grid, the other vehicle system may rely on power from the grid as opposed to draining battery power. Also, such vehicles may be connected to a network and receive information about scheduled user events that affect an expected conclusion of a charge procedure.
Electrical costs may be less stable compared to petrol fuel pricing. That is, pricing of electricity can vary by location, time of day, availability (i.e., supply), and consumption (i.e., demand). Related to consistency associated with petrol fuel pricing, few sources provide infrastructure and distribution networks for gas stations. Comparatively, infrastructure for electricity is more commonplace and varies widely geographically with a larger number of smaller companies providing electric charging. The differences in infrastructure introduce greater variability in the prices for electric vehicle charging. Moreover, electric recharging requires more time compared to refueling petrol fuel. It may be difficult for an electric vehicle user to understand and track electricity pricing variability and schedule in advance the most efficient vehicle recharging.

Vehicle charging control systems and methods


The present application provides a copolymer including one or more units of pyrene and one or more units of pyrrole. The present application also provides a method of producing a copolymer, including incubating pyrene monomer and pyrrole monomer with an oxidant in the presence of a reaction solvent. Uses of the copolymers are also provided.

Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic compound consisting of four benzene rings fused together. Pyrene exhibits high quantum yield, good photostability, and long fluorescence lifetime. Pyrene and its derivatives are often used to make fluorescent dyes, biological probes, sensors, photoelectronic devices, and press-sensitive materials.
Polypyrenes have longer π-conjugation chains than pyrene monomers, and are expected to possess better fluorescence, electroluminescence and thermostability. Recently, oligopyrene has been synthesized by an electrochemical method, and it is found that oligopyrene formed by α,α-coupling of pyrene rings can emit about 9 times stronger and more unitarily colored fluorescence than the pyrene monomers. However, oligopyrene shows dissatisfactory solubility and processibility. In addition, the electrochemical method for synthesizing oligopyrene is expensive and has low production yield and thus not suitable for large-scale manufacture.
Pyrrole is a heterocyclic aromatic compound with a five-membered ring. Polypyrrole has high thermal stability and excellent electrical conducting activity. Pyrrole may be used as a material for electrochromic devices, organic transistor suppercapacitors, chemical sensors and biosensors.

Copolymer of pyrene and pyrrole and method of producing the copolymer


In one aspect, a method for comparing suppliers includes sending survey questions for receipt by supplier computer systems. Programming instructions are also sent for receipt and execution by the supplier computer systems. The programming instructions are for causing the supplier computer systems to return supplier survey answers to a server. The answers are included in responding documents and are defined in a certain format as data elements included in the responding documents. The data elements are then parsed from the responding documents responsive to predetermined programming instructions and evaluated the data elements responsive to a predetermined set of rules.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a method, apparatus and computer program product relating to comparing capabilities or resources, such as software technology, of prospective suppliers, and more particularly to automated comparison using network delivery of surveys.
2. Related Art
In today's marketplace there are a multitude of divergent implementations of similar technologies. Particularly with regard to software technology, development and availability of international and industry standards lag far behind in satisfying the need for common technology implementations. Organizations ("evaluators") seeking suppliers of technology such as software face a daunting task when they undertake to identify suppliers who currently share similar technology implementations and strategies with the evaluator or one another, or are at least willing to adopt a future technology road map or strategic direction in common with that of the evaluator. Consequently there is a need for a highly organized and automated way to collect technology information from suppliers and efficiently evaluate the information, such as by comparison to the evaluator's own technology requirements.

Apparatus and computer program product for technology comparisons

International Business Machines Corporation


An ultrasound scanner (100) which has a plurality of ultrasound transducers (104) directed normal to a scanning surface (106) to scan a workpiece (114), the scanner (100) comprising a couplant filled latex rubber sheath (106) shaped to the surface of a workpiece (114).

Non-visible areas of materials, such as the interiors of components, welds and composite materials can be analysed using ultrasonic testing. This type of non-destructive testing (NDT) utilises the reflection of sound waves to detect faults and features which would otherwise be very difficult to detect without destroying the component in the process. Ultrasonic testing is a common technique in the aerospace sector to test the integrity of materials at manufacture and during service.
Scanners tend to be of the portable type (i.e. more suited to in-service scanning) or non-portable type (specifically for production).
A feature of ultrasonic testing is that a couplant is required to aid transmission of the ultrasonic energy to the test specimen because the acoustic impedance mismatch between air and solids (i.e. such as the test specimen) is large. This causes reflection of the sound waves and a loss in scan quality if a couplant is not used. Couplants generally take the form of water or gel or a deformable solid.
Traditionally, ultrasonic testing has been limited in terms of inspection speed as the operation had to be carried out on a point-by-point basis. Improvements have led to the development of array scanning, or "paintbrush" scanning which permits a continuous scan over a surface to produce a two dimensional image of the desired region of the test component. Such equipment however is bulky and limited to use in a production (as opposed to service) environment and is not considered portable.
Scanning of radii and tightly curved areas is a problem. Defects in e.g. laminar composites often occur parallel to the surface of the workpiece. As such the ultrasonic transducer needs to have its scanning vector oriented normal to the surface of the workpiece to scan effectively.
This causes problems in tightly curved areas, and especially at tight fillet radii found for example at the root of a stringer web. Such radii are in the order of 5 mm radius and the use of traditional bulky scanners in this area is not effective. In particular, linear scanning arrays can not project ultrasonic energy normal to the surface of a curved component.
It is desirable to scan such radii at a minimum resolution of about 1 mm.
It is an aim of the invention to provide an improved inspection device.


A delivery device for a sheet-processing machine, comprises at least one deposition station and a conveyer station, by the use of which, upstream-processed sheets of printed material can be picked up in a transfer location, and can be conveyed through the deposition station via a first conveying system, where they can be deposited optionally to form a stack, or can be conveyed beyond that stack. A holding device, which holds down the uppermost sheet of the stack during the transfer of a sheet to be conveyed against an entrainment or a lifting, is provided with one or with a plurality of holding assemblies which are spaced apart from each other transversely to the transport direction. A sheet-guiding element may be provided, which adjoins the deposition station and which is variable in its vertical position with at least its upstream end by the use of an actuating drive.

In a section of "Handbuch der Printmedien" (Handbook of Print Media) by Helmut Kipphan, Springer Verlag, 2000, that deals with material and data flow, a dual-stream delivery system, depicted in FIG. 8.1-11 (chapter 8.1), is described as a "highly automated variant of a non-stop delivery system". Dual-stream delivery systems are also described as being usable as "waste diverters" for removing defective or misprinted sheets.
JP 25 17276 B2 discloses a delivery device having two delivery stations, with a guide element being provided between the first and second delivery stations. A stop that can be pivoted into and out of the transport path is provided in the end region.
DE 10 2008 006528 A1 discloses a mechanism for ejecting sheets, in which a sheet to be ejected can be channeled downward out of a guide plane that has blower air openings and is located upstream of the main pile. For this purpose, in one embodiment, a separating rake, which otherwise acts as a continuation of the guide surface, is pivoted into the transport path to channel the sheet downward out of the guide plane onto an auxiliary pile. A guide element adjacent to the diversion point is equipped with blower air openings.
DE 10329833 A1 similarly discloses a sheet guiding device that has an element that can be pivoted downward in order to feed sheets to be discharged as waste sheets onto a waste pile. The sheets are transported by means of grippers, which are opened at the delivery point by means of contact with an opening cam. The cam, which is provided above the waste pile, can be pivoted into and out of the transport path of the gripper opening mechanism. Also provided above the waste pile is a blower system, which acts on the top side of the sheets. A guide surface that adjoins the pivotable part of the guide plane, can be operated with positive or negative pressure by means of a fan.
A brochure detailing the "Rapida 106", which is available on the home page of Koenig & Bauer A G at http://www.kba.com/bogenoffset/bogenoffsetmaschinen/product/rapida-106/detail/, shows on pages 26 and 27 a delivery system in which a Venturi sheet guiding system is used.
DE 10 2012 206929 A1 discloses a sheet brake with a suction belt, which brakes sheets by deceleration of the belt. Once the gripper has opened, the speed is decreased from the gripper carriage speed to a deposition speed. The cam for opening the gripper is displaceable. The drives for the brake elements and for adjusting the gripper cam can be implemented via the press controller.
DE 10 2009 027633 A1 discloses a blower air device having at least one blower air bar extending in the transport direction and having fan elements. The blower air bar can be used to selectively influence the blowing action in the middle region of the incoming sheets. Blower air is preferably applied synchronized with the working cycle of the sheets coming from the printing press.
EP 1958906 A2 relates to a sheet guiding mechanism in a pile delivery system comprising two delivery stations. A blower system comprising a plurality of fans is assigned to the first delivery station. For the operating mode in which a sheet will be guided onto the second pile, the fans on the suction side are covered by the insertion of a shielding plate. The deposition of the sheets in the delivery station is controlled by means of a gripper opening cam, which can be moved into or out of the movement path of the gripper opening mechanism.
DE 103 29 833 A1 discloses a delivery device that has means for forming a waste pile and a good sheet pile, wherein a gripper opening cam above the former pile can be pivoted into and out of the movement path of a gripper bar in order to activate and deactivate sheet release.
DE 10 2008 020533 A1 discloses a blower air device located above a stacking chute of a sheet delivery. Adjustable baffle surfaces of an air guide device can be used to deflect the blower air away from the sheet transport path or to aim the blower air toward the sheet. During operation, the air guide device is positioned by means of a control unit in synchronism with the sequence of sheets such that in front of the sheet leading edge in the transport direction, the guide device is in the closed position, and behind of the sheet leading edge, the guide device is in the open position, that is to say air can pass through it.
DE 693 07 840 T2 discloses a delivery system having a delivery station and a switching unit that effects release and includes a switching cam and a cam follower, which is functionally assigned to a holding element. To adjust the release point, the switching cam is disposed on a base plate, which is mounted so as to move in the transport direction in relation to the press frame. To activate and deactivate the sheet release mechanism, the switching cam is pivoted, via a type of toggle lever mechanism, about a pivot axis provided on the base plate.
DE 103 54 673 A1 discloses a delivery system for forming only one pile, in which the point of sheet release is determined by the point of first contact. When a switching cam is in the first position, sheets are released above the pile. When the switching cam is in the second position, in which first contact occurs later, sheets that are designated for test sheet removal are still guided past pile stops and are not released until they reach a test sheet stop. The point of first contact is adjusted by pivoting the switching cam by means of a drive means embodied as a pneumatic cylinder.
DE 102 05 213 A1 relates to a delivery system having a pile delivery, in which flat printed substrates can be conveyed by means of a gripper system to a delivery, where they can be deposited onto a pile. To eject waste paper or test sheets, a sheet is conveyed past the delivery system and transferred to a suction belt conveyor beyond the delivery system. This transfer is highly sensitive to deviations from the optimum relative position of gripper system and suction belt. To compensate for tolerance deviations, or to enable adjustment to different substrate thicknesses, the suction belt can be moved vertically into different grid positions by means of a spindle drive.
DE 199 05 263 C1 discloses a catching device in a delivery system for test sheets, in which the test sheets are held on sheet supports of the catching device by clamping fingers.
DE 196 31 598 A1 discloses a sheet guiding element in a delivery of a printing machine having blower air openings, which is provided in the transport path upstream of the pile space.
Known from EP 1 489 031 A2 is a sheet guidance system for a dual-pule delivery, in which during conveyance of a sheet beyond the first pile space, a guide rail of a guide device is moved from a point downstream to above the pile space to be bypassed. In this way, the most flutter-free possible transport of the sheet to be conveyed past the pile is achieved.
JP 2006 036511 A also discloses a sheet guidance system, in which a guidance aid can be moved from a point downstream to above a pile space to be bypassed.
EP 0 845 431 A2 related to a non-stop delivery device, in which during a pile change, an auxiliary pile board is inserted from the rear above the pile to be removed. To avoid also displacing the topmost layer of the pile upstream, during insertion of the auxiliary pile board an actuating device is active, controlled by sensors, causing a retaining device to secure the topmost sheet on the main pile.
DE 42 13 032 A2 relates to a device for removing sample sheets, in which to prepare for removal of a sample sheet, an auxiliary stop is placed on the currently topmost sheet of the pile, on which the incoming sample sheet comes to rest and which can be removed once support fingers that support the subsequent sheet have been inserted.

Delivery device and method for operating a delivery device


Methods and apparatuses for automated multi-lingual support are described herein. A relay service provides translation services between a hearing-impaired user and a hearing-capable user. The relay service includes a database with one or more entries. Each of the one or more entries is associated with a contact of the hearing-impaired user and includes one or more connection indicators for the contact and one or more spoken languages for the contact. A profile system determines an identified entry in the database using a calling connection indicator associated with the hearing-capable user to compare with the one or more connection indicators. A call distribution system establishes a calling connection over a voice-capable network with the calling connection indicator associated with the hearing-capable user and routes the calling connection to a translator capable in the one or more spoken languages associated with the hearing-capable user determined from the identified entry.

Many individuals with significant hearing loss are not able to communicate effectively over conventional telephone systems that rely upon voice communications. Since the early 1960s, devices have been available for facilitating the communication between hearing and hearing-impaired users.
The hearing-impaired user would utilize a teletypewriter (TTY) to communicate over the telephone lines. Such devices, known as Telephone Devices for the Deaf (TDDs) are configured to allow a hearing-impaired user to type a message on a keyboard that is then sent to the receiving user. Upon receipt of the coded signal, the signal is decoded and displayed on a message terminal. The receiving party may thereafter respond using a similar procedure. It should be apparent that such a communication approach is slow and cumbersome. Standardized methodologies have been developed for enabling a hearing-impaired user equipped with a TDD to communicate telephonically with normal hearing individuals not equipped with an equivalent device. To provide such a capability, relay services have been established and staffed with interpreters equipped to receive phone calls from either the hearing-impaired user as initiated using a TDD or from a hearing-capable user using conventional voice telephony. The relay interpreter's function is to establish a communication session between the calling and called parties and to thereafter serve as an interpreter between the users. In a typical conversation utilizing the relay services, the hearing-impaired user enters keystrokes, which in turn send a message to the relay services interpreter who then voices the received text-based message to the hearing party over a voice-based communication channel. A hearing-capable user thereupon may voice a response to the relay services interpreter who in turn enters keystrokes that form a text-based message, which is delivered to the hearing-impaired user and presented on the TDD device. Such a process continues for the duration of the conversation or communication session.
While TDD devices facilitate communication with at least one hearing-impaired user, they are limited in fulfilling various needs of hearing-impaired users and more particularly in providing communication options for hearing-impaired individuals having varying degrees of impairment. For example, a hearing-impaired individual, while being impaired as to the hearing or receiving of audio signals, may in fact be capable of generating voice communication that is adequately intelligible so as to be comprehended by a hearing-capable party. In fact a significant number of hearing-impaired individuals have the ability to intelligibly speak but their hearing is inadequate for conventional communications over voice telephony. For efficiency, as well as other reasons, such speech-capable hearing-impaired individuals regularly desire to converse using voice-based responses.
Video phone communication systems provide visual and audio communication between two or more users during a communication session. A video phone camera at a first location can transmit and receive audio and video signals to and from a video phone camera at a second location such that participants at the first location are perceived to be present or face-to-face with participants at a second location and vice versa.
Video phone communication systems span a variety of applications. One possible application of a video phone system includes facilitization of a communication session with a deaf or hearing-impaired user. A hearing-impaired user can use a video phone during a communication session to relay his or her expressions. The expressions, such as sign language and/or body language, may be interpreted or translated by a translation service such as a video relay service (VRS). The translation service provides a hearing-capable translator who relays the expressions of the hearing-impaired caller to a hearing-capable user on the other end of the communication session in a conventional manner, such as through the use of a voice-based dialogue conveyed over a conventional voice phone.
A hearing-impaired user may have a need to communicate with a hearing-capable user that speaks a language different from the standard language spoken by translators at the VRS. In such cases, conventional VRS systems have a translator answer a call from a hearing-capable user in the standard language. If the translator does not handle calls in the spoken language of the hearing-capable user, the translator must then reroute the call to another translator that can handle the spoken language of the hearing-capable user.
Therefore, in order to provide increased efficiency for users of a VRS, there is a need for improving efficiencies during the setup time of a call from hearing-capable users using different spoken languages.

Methods and apparatuses for multi-lingual support for hearing impaired communication


An apparatus for portioning meat includes a base unit, controlling means, first drive means mounted on the base unit, a casing mounted on the base unit, second drive means that cooperates with the first drive means to rotate the casing, and a pressing member dividing the casing into at least two chambers, an in-feed chamber and a pressing chamber. The pressing member is rotatably mounted between the base unit and a top plate, so as to be off-center with respect to the casing, substantially closer to the pressing chamber than the in-feed chamber, such that the pressing member has freedom to move in direction substantially perpendicular to the off-center direction. The apparatus also includes an ejecting device mounted on the base unit, a portioning plate receiving the meat ejected from the pressing chamber, a position adjustable bottom piece, and a cutting means, positioned between the pressing chamber and the portioning plate.

In many areas of the food industry, it is desirable for certain food to be prepared in portions which are as accurate and equal in weight, shape and size as possible.
Modern food industry demands high levels of productivity and precision. It is the aim of the producer and requests of the buyer to obtain as accurate portion size as possible. It is also an important factor that the objects, in this case fish or meat portions have a certain configuration and/or thickness due to the end buyers' requests. Enhanced processing technology would lead to much better utilization of raw material and thus cost-effectiveness of processing.
It would be desirable if the production and further processing of meat products such as i.e. beef, pork or turkey could be cut and prepared in portions which are almost identical. Correspondingly equally sized portions of meat could then be processed further or sold optimally.
Corresponding calibrating devices have been disclosed for shaped and processed meat, in which the meat is initially processed and then pressed together again to take on a certain shape. However, this requires the stringy meat to be processed into very small pieces or involves utilizing meat residues. A calibrated cutting installation having a shaping tube for feeding the meat to a cutting device in order to separate meat into portions which are as much as possible of equal size by means of a cutter has already been disclosed. The shaping tube can be separated into two parts in the longitudinal direction. The end of the shaping tube, at a so-called delivery hole, is adjoined by pot-shaped or shell-shaped depressions, the size and volume of which predetermine the corresponding portion. Then, a cutter can be moved through a spacer gap between the feed hole of the shaping tube and the abovementioned calibrated shaping cavity, the oblique arrangement of the cutting edges of the cutter causes a pulling cut, with the result that the corresponding amount of meat situated in the calibrated shaping cavity can be separated from the large remaining amount of meat situated in the shaping tube. Then, the pot-shaped calibrating plate can be moved in order to remove the amount of meat which is situated in the calibrating cavity from the calibrating cavity and, for example, to deliver it to a conveyor belt.
A device for cutting pieces of raw meat into dices or strips has already been disclosed. Since meat in the thawed state is too yielding and soft to be cut into dice or longitudinal strips, some of these known methods require the meat to be partially frozen beforehand. It may even be necessary for the piece of meat to be laterally compressed prior to cutting so that it can then be forced out of a pressing cavity. However, known methods of this type are generally only able to produce unevenly portioned slices, since the small pieces of meat are often not cut through cleanly.
In view of the above prior art, the object of the present invention is to provide an improved calibrated cutting device which can be used to portion any type of food that is suitable for cutting, in particular meat, with or without bones, as optimally as possible, with the minimum possible weight, shape and size discrepancies.


An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet feeding apparatus that has sheet supporting device for supporting a sheet, a driving rotary member driven and rotated by a driving source, a rocking member disposed rockably on the driving rotary member, a sheet feeding rotary member rotatably disposed on the rocking member and can be brought into contact with the sheet supported by the sheet supporting device, a following rotary member coupled with the sheet feeding rotary member on the rocking member, a winding and hanging member hung around the driving rotary member and the following rotary member, a separating slant surface disposed on a side of leading ends of sheets fed out by the sheet feeding rotary member for separating the sheets one by one, and rocking force generating device disposed on the rocking member for guiding a tensed side of the winding and hanging member in a direction away from the sheets, and for generating a rocking force, on the rocking member, which brings the sheet feeding rotary member into pressure contact with the sheet by receiving a pressing force produced due to a tension of the tensed side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus which feeds sheets and an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a facsimile, a printer or a multi function peripheral (MFP) having functions of these apparatuses which is equipped in a main body with the sheet feeding apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
A sheet feeding apparatus is conventionally assembled, for example, in a main body of an image forming apparatus and feeds sheets to image forming means which forms an image. The image forming apparatus forms images on individual sheets. A sheet separating mechanism which separates the sheets one by one is disposed in the sheet feeding apparatus assembled in such an apparatus which carries out any treatment on the individual sheets.
As an example of this sheet separating mechanism, there is a slant surface type sheet separating mechanism which separates sheet by utilizing a slant surface. This slant surface type sheet separating mechanism is configured to stop a leading end of an uppermost sheet fed (sent) by a sheet feeding roller with the slant surface and guide the uppermost sheet along the slant surface. Should a plurality of sheets be sent out following the uppermost sheet sent by the sheet feeding roller, the sheet separating mechanism stops and disposes leading ends of the plurality of sheets with the slant surface, thereby feeding the sheets one by one in a separated condition.
Usable as sheets which can be separated with the sheet separating mechanism are various kinds of articles such as paper, resin sheets, thin paper, thick paper, postal cards, letters and the like.
Referring now to FIG. 9, description will be made of a configuration of a sheet feeding apparatus in which the slant surface type sheet separating mechanism is assembled.
A sheet feeding apparatus 101 is composed of a sheet feeding tray unit 102 in which sheets to be fed are mounted, a sheet feeding unit 103 which is to feed the mounted sheets consecutively, a conveying unit 104 which conveys the fed sheets to an image forming unit 3, for example, of an image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 and the like.
The sheet feeding tray unit 102 is composed of a sheet feeding tray 121 on which sheets S are to be mounted, a separating slant surface plate 122 which stops, disposes and separates the sheets at a sheet feeding time while guiding the sheets obliquely, and the like. The separating slant surface plate 122 is the slant surface type sheet separating mechanism.
The sheet feeding unit 103 is composed of a sheet feeding arm 114 which is rotatably attached to a driving shaft 113, a driving gear 112 which is integrated with the driving shaft 113, a sheet feeding roller 105 rotatably disposed at a rocking end of the sheet feeding arm 114, a following gear 123 which is integrated with the sheet feeding roller 105, a gear train 124 which consists of six idler gears 111, 110, 109, 108, 107 and 106 which are provided on the sheet feeding arm 114 to transfer the rotation of the driving gear 112 to the following gear 123, and the like.
The conveying unit 104 is composed of a lower guide 115 which guides a bottom surface of a fed sheet, an upper guide 116 which is integrated with the lower guide 115 and guides a top surface of the fed sheet, a roller holder 119 which is rotatably supported by the upper guide 116, a conveying roller 117 which is disposed on the lower guide 115 and conveys the fed sheet in a predetermined direction, a conveying roller 118 which is rotatably disposed in the roller holder 119 in opposition to the conveying roller 117, a conveying spring 120 which urges the roller holder 119 so that the conveying roller 118 is pressed to the conveying roller 117 and the like.
Now, feeding operations of the sheet feeding apparatus will be described on the basis of FIGS. 9 to 11.
At a sheet feeding time and a stop time, the driving shaft 113 is rotated and stopped under rotating control with a controllable driving mechanism (not shown). When sheet feeding is to be started, the driving shaft 113 is rotated with a rotating drive force of the driving mechanism (not shown). This rotation is transmitted from the driving gear 112 to the following gear 123 by way of the gear train 124, whereby the sheet feeding roller 105 starts rotating. By urging means (not shown) and due to weights of the sheet feeding arm 114, the sheet feeding roller 105, the gear train 124 and the like, the sheet feeding arm 114 which is holding the sheet feeding roller 105 revolvably around the driving shaft 131 is subjected to a force in a direction to be rotated counterclockwise in the drawings. Due to this force, the sheet feeding roller 105 is in light pressure contact with a top surface of a sheet which is uppermost out of sheets mounted on the sheet feeding tray 121.
Accordingly, exerted to the sheet is a feeding force which is produced in a sheet feeding direction by a frictional force when the sheet feeding roller 105 starts rotating. At this time, the sheet is pressed to the separating slant surface plate 122 and subjected to a reaction force F. That is, a leading end portion of the sheet is subjected to the feeding force of the sheet feeding roller 105 while being pressed to the separating slant surface plate 122. As a result, the leading end portion of the sheet is curved. In a condition where the sheet is curved, the leading end of the sheet slides along the separating slant surface plate 122 toward the lower guide 115. When the sheets are to be sent out in an overlapped condition at this time, leading ends of the overlapped sheets are separated by the separating slant surface plate 122 and only one sheet is sent out. An advancing direction of the sheet is determined by the upper guide 116 and the lower guide 115, whereby the sheet enters a nip formed between the conveying roller 118 urged toward the carrying roller 117 by the carrying spring 120 and the conveying roller 117, and further conveyed by the conveying roller 117 in a direction indicated by an arrow A.
When a thick sheet having a high rigidity is to be fed, however, the conventional sheet feeding apparatus 101 may hardly curve the leading end portion of the thick sheet having the high rigidity with the separating slant surface plate 122, thereby allowing a sheet feeding pressure to be enhanced autonomously by rotations of a motor of the driving mechanism which rotates the driving shaft 113 and increasing a torque which is required for driving the sheet feeding roller 105.
Accordingly, the conventional sheet feeding apparatus uses a motor which has a large output torque so that even the thick sheet having the high rigidity can be fed by rotating the sheet feeding roller 105. However, the motor which has the large output torque is expensive and large. Accordingly, the conventional sheet feeding apparatus is expensive and may be large due to a large space required for installing the motor.
Furthermore, a small angle xcex1 is formed between the sheet feeding arm 114 and the sheet feeding tray 121 as shown in FIG. 10 when a large number of sheets are mounted on the sheet feeding trays 121. The sheet feeding roller 105 is subjected to the reaction force F of the sheet feeding force when rotated. This reaction force F is divided into a component of force N in a direction of the sheet feeding pressure and a component of force T in a direction along a longitudinal direction of the sheet feeding arm 114. However, the force N in the direction of the sheet feeding pressure is low since the angle xcex1 is small. Accordingly, a sheet feeding force remains weak since the sheet feeding pressure is not so high. When the thick sheet having the high rigidity is fed, the sheet feeding apparatus 101 is therefore incapable of advancing the sheet along the separating slant surface plate 122 and may cause improper sheet feeding. The angle xcex1 is an angle which is formed between a line L connecting a center of the driving shaft 113, that is, a center of the driving gear 112, to a center of the sheet feeding roller 105 and a top surface of the uppermost sheet.
When a small number of sheets are mounted on the sheet feeding tray 121, in contrast, a large angle xcex1 is formed between the sheet feeding arm 114 and the sheet feeding tray 121 as shown in FIG. 11. The sheet feeding roller 105 is subjected to a reaction force F of the sheet feeding force when rotated. This reaction force F is divided into a component of force N in the direction of the sheet feeding pressure and a component of force T in the direction along the longitudinal direction of the sheet feeding arm 114. However, the force N in the sheet feeding pressure is strong since the above described angle xcex1 is large. Accordingly, the sheet feeding pressure is high. The sheet feeding pressure is higher than required and a torque required for driving the sheet feeding roller 105 is also larger than required. As a result, the motor may be out of adjustment, thereby causing improper sheet feeding.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet feeding apparatus which is capable of enhancing performance for separating and feeding a thick sheet having high rigidity even when a sheet feeding arm and the sheet form a small angle for feeding the thick sheet having the high rigidity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet feeding apparatus which is capable of further enhancing performance for separating and feeding a thick sheet having high rigidity even when a sheet feeding arm and the sheet form a large angle for feeding the thick sheet having the high rigidity,
A sheet feeding apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising:
sheet supporting means for supporting a sheet;
a driving rotary member which is driven and rotated by a driving source;
a rocking member which is disposed on the above described driving rotary member so as to be capable of rocking;
a sheet feeding rotary member which is rotatably disposed on the above described rocking member and can be brought into contact with the sheet supported by the above described sheet support means;
a following rotary member which is coupled with the above described sheet feeding rotary member on the above described rocking member;
a winding and hanging member hung around the above described driving rotary member and the above described following rotary member;
a separating slant surface which is disposed on a side of leading ends of sheets fed out by the above described sheet feeding rotary member and functions to separate the sent sheets one by one; and
rocking force generating means which is disposed on the above described rocking member, guides a tensed side of the above described winding and hanging member in a direction to separate this side from the above described sheets, and for generating a rocking force, on said rocking member, which brings the above described sheet feeding rotary member into pressure contact with the sheet by receiving a pressing force produced due to a tension of the tensed side.

Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus equipped therewith


A grilling device comprises an upper shell and a lower shell, an upper pan disposed on the lower surface of the upper pan and a lower pan disposed on the top surface of the lower shell, and electric heating tubes disposed on the rear sides of the pans, wherein the top surface of the lower pan is slant from two sides to the middle portion, and the shape of the lower surface of the upper pan is cooperated with the shape of the top surface of the lower pan. When cooking, the oil will flow to the middle and will be discharged out from the opening in the middle. The steam can be discharged from two sides because the pan is lower in middle and higher in two sides. Steam is prevented from being discharged from front side. The arc surface has more cooking surface in the same size.

Generally, the grilling devices comprise an upper shell and a lower shell, a upper pan disposed on the lower surface of the upper pan and a lower pan disposed on the top surface of the lower shell. The grilling usually are used for cooking food with much oil such as meat, much oil will be produced in cooking, and the oil must be discharged from the pan timely, or else the oil will affect the taste of the cooked food. Commonly, an oil discharging opening is set in the front side of the pan of the grilling device, and an oil box is disposed under the pan for collecting the oil. Pans of the grilling device are plane or a little slant, thus the oil can flow into the oil box.
However, the above grilling device have the following disadvantages: firstly, because the pan is plane, the oil discharge speed is slow and the oil is stayed in the grilling device for too long, thus affect the taste of the cooked food; secondly, in cooking, the steam may be discharged from the front side, thus the users may be burned by the steam; thirdly, a plane pan has smaller cooking surface in same size of the grilling device.

Tsann Kuen (Zhangzhou) Enterprise Co., Ltd.


A method of joining web portions includes advancing web portions onto a rotating drum such that the web portions overlap at an overlap area as the web portions wrap around the drum. The web portions each have a melting temperature. A fluid is heated to a temperature sufficient to at least partially melt the web portions. A fluid nozzle retracts from an aperture in the drum and a jet of the heated fluid is directed from a fluid nozzle onto the web portions at the overlap area. The heated fluid penetrates and at least partially melts the web portions. The web portions are at least partially melted using the heated fluid. A press member shifts through the aperture in the drum to compress the web portions between the pressure member and an anvil roll to join the web portions together at the overlap area.

Along an assembly line, various types of articles, such as for example, diapers and other absorbent articles, may be assembled by adding components to and/or otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. In some cases, individual components created from advancing web or webs are combined with other individual components created from other advancing web or webs. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, leg cuffs, waist bands, absorbent core components, front and/or back ears, fastening components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, stretch side panels, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing web(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the web(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles.
In some converting configurations, discrete chassis spaced apart from each other are advanced in a machine direction and are arranged with a longitudinal axis parallel with the cross direction. Opposing waist regions of discrete chassis are then connected with continuous lengths of elastically extendable front and back belt webs advancing in the machine direction. While connected with the chassis, the front and back belt webs are maintained in a fully stretched condition along the machine direction, forming a continuous length of absorbent articles. The continuous length of absorbent articles may then be folded in a cross direction. During the folding process in some converting configurations, one of the front and back belt webs is folded into a facing relationship with the opposing belt. The front and back belts may then be bonded together to create the side seams on diapers.
Consequently, it would be beneficial to provide methods and apparatuses for more precisely controlling the location and strength of bonds used to form the side seams.

Apparatuses and methods for bonding substrates


The total number of object images is “N”. Object images whose the number is less than “N” are displayed on a display among the N-object images according to a previously defined display rule. When a selected object image is shifted by n-object images, a position obtained by shifting by a distance becomes a new position of the selected object image, wherein the distance is obtained by multiplying by “n” a value obtained by dividing the distance between a display position of an object image and a display position of the selected object image by a value obtained by subtracting “1” from “N”.

For example, in order to select any object image from among object images such as thumbnail images of contents data, images to be used to select any channel from among channels received by a tuner, or icons indicative of application programs, the object images are displayed on a display. An object image display apparatus and method that display object images on a display are described in Patent Literatures 1 to 5, for example.

Object image display apparatus, object image display method and object image display program


A welding-type system and method for operating a welding-type system is disclosed. The system includes a switched power delivery circuit connected to deliver power to output terminals and an open-circuit voltage (OCV) control circuit configured to adjust an operational state of the switched power delivery circuit. A controller is included that is configured to monitor the output terminals to identify an open circuit condition and selectively engage the OCV control circuit to adjust the operational state of the switched power delivery circuit to reduce a voltage of the output power delivered to the output terminals during the open circuit condition.

The present invention relates generally to a welding-type system and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling an open-circuit voltage supplied by the welding-type power source under various conditions.
There are many welding-type systems that are used for a variety of applications. Some welding-type systems, as used herein, include welding systems, plasma cutting systems, and induction heating systems. Accordingly, welding-type power, as used herein, refers to welding, plasma cutting, or induction heating power. One primary component of these welding-type systems is a welding-type power supply that delivers welding-type power conditioned to perform a specific welding-type process. Often, a particular power supply will have a topology and a control scheme chosen or optimized for a particular welding-type application or to deliver a particular welding-type power. For example, a welding power supply might be designed for a metal-inert gas (MIG), tungsten-inert gas (TIG), or stick welding process, to name but a few.
Some welding-type applications utilize a wire feeder that drives a consumable wire electrode to perform a desired welding-type process, such as a MIG welding process. One common type of wire feeder is a voltage sensing wire feeder. Voltage sensing wire feeders, as used herein, include wire feeders that derive operational power from the output voltage provided by a welding-type power supply to drive a desired welding process. Generally, voltage sensing wire feeders become active when the voltage and/or current provided by an associated power supply increases above a threshold value. In this regard, the wire feeder does not typically receive control signals or communicate with the power supply. Because the wire feeder derives operational power from the output of the welding-type power supply, the welding-type power supply must continuously provide a minimum amount of power needed to operate the wire feeder, even during open circuit conditions.
Generally, a typical voltage sense wire feeder requires approximately 1 to 10 watts of power to operate in an idle state and, often, requires in excess of 150-200 watts in a jog or weld state when the wire feeder motor is running. The actual power required is dependent on motor design, wire feed speed and torque. To this end, in an effort to accommodate various design concerns, welding-type power supplies typically provide an output voltage of approximately 15 to 44 volts when driving a welding process, but provide an increased voltage (e.g., approximately 70-80 volts) under open circuit conditions. The increased open circuit voltage helps to create and stabilize the arc. While this increased open circuit voltage (OCV) is desirable for weld process performance, the relatively high OCV is undesirable in some circumstances. For example, a higher voltage will possibly cause the user discomfort in the event the user touches both outputs.
To this end, some attempts have been made to design a power supply or device capable of providing a reduced OCV. However, prior attempts are generally not well-suited for inverter-based, DC welding-type power supplies, especially with the capability to power a voltage sensing wire feeder with reduced open circuit voltage during the idle and jog states.
For example, some phase controlled welding-type power supplies have been designed to provide a reduced OCV. However, these phase controlled welding-type power supplies are, generally, not capable of providing a broad range of power outputs needed to power a wide variety of welding-type processes. That is, unlike inverter-based or "switched" power supplies, phase controlled welding-type power supplies are typically limited to powering stick or MIG welding-processes. Beyond being able to act as a "multi-process" welding-type power source, inverter-based power supplies are often desirable due to a decreased size and weight over other welding-type power supplies, such as phase controlled welding-type power supplies.
Accordingly, voltage reducing devices have been developed that can be arranged between an inverter-based power supply and a welding load and/or wire feeder. These autonomous devices are designed to reduce the open-circuit voltage available at the welding torch. However, such autonomous voltage reducing devices (VRD) have a number of drawbacks. First, these VRDs add to the complexity of the overall system by requiring an autonomous device to be coupled with the welding-type system. Second, since these VRDs are connected between the output terminals of the welding-type power supply and the welding torch, only the OCV available at the welding torch is reduced and the OCV at output terminals of the welding-type power supply is not reduced. Third, these VRDs are not designed to accommodate some devices and processes, such as voltage sensing wire feeders and trigger jogs, because they are generally unable to adequately distinguish between the power draw by a voltage sensing wire feeder or a trigger jog that occurs during open-circuit conditions and initiation of a welding-type process
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a switched or inverter-based, DC welding-type power supply capable of powering a voltage sensing wire feeder during idle, jog, and welding conditions, but without delivering an undesirable OCV. Furthermore, it would be desirable to have such a welding-type power source capable of driving a wide variety of welding-type processes with and without voltage sensing wire feeders. Additionally, the reduced open circuit voltage should not interfere with arc starting and arc stability.

Welding-type power source with integrated open-circuit voltage controller


A mobile communication device includes, in part, a first wireless receiver adapted to determine, as it travels along a path, a multitude of positions of the mobile communication device using signals received from a primary positioning source, a second wireless receiver adapted to receive signals from one or more ambient wireless sources as the mobile communication device travels along the path, and a positioning module. An internal or external memory stores estimated positions and corresponding time references of the signals of the one or more ambient sources. The positioning module uses the data stored in the database to estimate the position of the mobile communication device when no primary positioning source signal is available. The positioning module optionally uses the data stored in the database to improve estimates of the position of the mobile communication device when primary positioning signal is available.

Traditional means of location estimation using a wireless receiver and known beacons, as is implemented in a traditional GPS system, require knowledge of the position of four or more beacons and the distance of the receiver from each beacon. Three beacons may be used if assumption about location on the earth's spherical surface is made.

GPS-assisted source and receiver location estimation


Disclosed is a process for producing multicoat color and/or effect paint systems on automobile bodies. The disclosed process includes applying an aqueous base coat material to the body and drying or partially curing the resultant aqueous basecoat film, applying an aqueous powder slurry clearcoat material to the dried or partially cured aqueous basecoat film (I), and curing the films (I) and (II) by heat or by heat and actinic radiation (dual cure). Applying the aqueous powder slurry clearcoat material (II) involves electrostatic coating of the exterior body parts, followed by pneumatic spraying (compressed air spraying) of the interior body parts.

In automotive OEM finishing, the interior parts of the automobile bodies are normally first painted by pneumatic spraying or compressed air spraying. Pneumatic spraying is selected because the cavities and recesses are difficult to coat electrostatically, owing to the formation of Faraday cages.
For the painting of the interior, the doors are opened and, by hand or using an automatic painting device, the rabbets and the insides of the doors are painted. This, however, produces a spray mist which falls onto the outside of the body. The area around the doors and the hood are particularly affected by this phenomenon. When powder clearcoat slurries are used, this spray mist dries particularly rapidly and, in the course of subsequent electrostatic coating of the exterior parts of the body, it is only covered by, rather than being taken up again into, the powder clearcoat slurry employed for said exterior coating. At those points where the spray mist landed, therefore, after baking there are elevations or leveling defects which become visible at a size of more than 0.5 μm. Since, moreover, these elevations or leveling defects are present on regions of the body which are particularly easy to see, they are especially evident and give rise to the impression that the product as a whole is of inadequate quality.
These effects are not so pronounced with solventborne clearcoat materials, since these materials have higher solids contents, so that the difference between the solids content of the wet paint and the solids content of the spray mist is lower than in the case of the powder slurry clearcoat materials. Moreover, the solventborne clearcoat materials have a lower viscosity and, consequently, they spread more effectively. As a result, the spray mist too becomes flatter. Not least, because of the presence therein of high-boiling organic solvents ("long solvents") they do not dry so rapidly and can therefore be taken up much more effectively by clearcoat materials applied over them.
It is an object of the present invention find a novel process for producing multicoat color and/or effect paint systems on automobile bodies which no longer has the disadvantages of the prior art but instead, even when using powder slurry clearcoat materials, gives paint systems which no longer exhibit any visible elevations or leveling defects.

Method for producing color and/or effect-producing multilayer paints on car bodies


A clutch control device for vehicle equipped with a clutch actuator driven by a working fluid, wherein secular change in the flow rate control valve for controlling the working fluid is compensated, and the rate of connection of the clutch is correctly controlled by a simple means. To control the stroke of a clutch actuator 110, the clutch control device is provided with a single flow rate control valve 1 that controls the feed and discharge of the working fluid by using an electromagnetic solenoid. A flow rate control valve control device 9 is provided with a learning device 91 that learns the neutral position of the flow rate control valve 1 which shuts off the flow of the working fluid, separately detects the amounts of electric current to a coil 8 of when the rate of change in the stroke becomes zero depending upon the directions in which the valve body of the flow control valve 1 moves, and learns the central point at the neutral position by averaging the detected values. In controlling the stroke of the clutch, the amount of electric current to the coil 8 is corrected based on the learned value to compensate for a change in the flow rate characteristics by secular changes.

For easy driving of a vehicle and for reducing fatigue to the driver, various kinds of power transmission devices for vehicles have, in recent years, been widely used for easy driving. A representative example will be a so-called automatic transmission (AT) combining a torque converter and a planetary gear device together. A power transmission device which uses a transmission of the type of parallel shaft gear mechanism similar to the so-called manual transmission (MT) in combination with an automatic clutch, is one of such automatic power transmission devices for vehicles. In this power transmission device, a clutch disposed between an engine and a transmission is provided with a clutch actuator, and the clutch is automatically disconnected and connected at the time when the driver changes the speed by shifting the gear by using a shift lever or at the start of the vehicle eliminating the need of operating the clutch pedal by the driver. There has been further proposed a power transmission device which automatically shifts the gear depending upon the traveling condition of the vehicle by using an electronically controlled device obviating the need of operating the shift lever by the driver.
A clutch (dry type single disk clutch) installed between an engine and a transmission is provided with a clutch disk 101 which has a friction disk fixed to the peripheral portion thereof as shown in FIG. 6. The clutch is slidably spline fitted to a transmission input shaft 103 rotatably supported by a crankshaft 102 of the engine. A pressure plate 105 is provided on the back of the friction disk of the clutch disk 101 to bring the friction disk into pressed contact with a flywheel 104 at the rear end of the crankshaft 102. Further, a diaphragm spring 107 is attached to a clutch cover 106 that is fixed to the flywheel 104. When the vehicle is normally traveling, the diaphragm spring 107 brings the clutch disk 101 into pressed contact with the flywheel 104 via the pressure plate 105 and, therefore, the engine power is transmitted to the transmission input shaft 103 via the clutch disk 101.
The clutch is equipped with an operation mechanism for disconnecting and connecting the transmission of power, and the operation mechanism is constituted by a release bearing 108 fitted onto the transmission input shaft 103, a release fork 109, a clutch actuator 110 and the like. The clutch actuator 110 is a fluid pressure cylinder operated by a pneumatic pressure or a hydraulic pressure, and its piston is coupled to one end of the release fork 109. Provision is, further, made of a stopper 111 for mechanically limiting the movement in order to prevent the occurrence of damage to the clutch actuator 110 and the like caused by excessively large movement of the piston.
At the time of cutting off the engine power for shifting the gear of the transmission, the working fluid is fed to the clutch actuator 110 to displace one end of the release fork 109 toward the right in the drawing. The other end of the release fork 109 displaces toward the opposite direction, causing the release bearing 108 coming in contact therewith to slide leftward so that the diaphragm spring 107 moves as represented by a two-dot chain line in the drawing. Therefore, the spring force that pushes the pressure plate 105 is released, and the transmission of the engine power to the transmission input shaft 103 is cut off. To connect the clutch again after having finished the gear shift, the working fluid in the clutch actuator 110 is discharged, and the release fork 109 is moved leftward by a return spring 112 or the like. The state of connecting the clutch (rate of connection) is determined by the movement of the piston of the clutch actuator 110, i.e., by the stroke of the clutch actuator.
At the time of gear shifting, the clutch must be disconnected and connected quickly without causing shift shock. Therefore, at the time of connecting again the clutch that is once disconnected after having shifted the gear (after the gears are engaged), the piston of the clutch actuator 110 is, first, quickly moved in a direction of connection so as to quickly pass through an invalid region where the torque is not substantially transmitted, and the rate of connection is gradually increased in the so-called half-engage clutch region where the torque starts transmitting in order to avoid the shift shock caused by a sharp increase in the rate of connection as illustrated in a graph of FIG. 7 that shows changes in the stroke. The above control is executed by varying the amount of the working fluid in the clutch actuator 110 to correctly control the stroke thereof.
A clutch control device which automatically disconnects and connects the clutch at the time of gear shifting is provided with a working fluid pressure source such as an air tank that feeds the working fluid, a stroke sensor for detecting the movement of the piston of the clutch actuator, and control valves for controlling the amount of the working fluid in the clutch actuator. The clutch control device executes the clutch control at the time of gear shifting. Usually, the control valves are arranged in the working fluid feed pipe and in the discharge pipe, respectively. The rate of connection of the clutch is controlled by opening and closing these two control valves. There has also been known a clutch control device which feeds and discharges the working fluid in the clutch actuator by using a single flow rate control valve as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3417823.
In the clutch control device that uses a single flow rate control valve as shown in a circuit diagram of FIG. 8, the flow rate control valve 1 is connected to a communication passage 2 communicated with the clutch actuator 110, to a pressure source passage 4 communicated with the working fluid pressure source 3 such as an air tank, and to a discharge passage 5 for discharging the working fluid from the clutch actuator 110 and, further, three ports, i.e., a communication port 2p, a pressure source port 4p and a discharge port 5p, which are opens to the respective passages, are formed therein.
The flow rate control valve 1 of FIG. 8 is a proportional control valve of the type of slide valve equipped with a drive device of the type of electromagnetic solenoid, and works as a valve actuator for operating a valve body 6. Namely, the flow control valve 1 has such flow rate characteristics that the flow rate of the working fluid that flows therethrough varies depending upon the position of the valve body 6. The amount of electric current flowing into the electromagnetic solenoid serves as an operation amount for varying the flow rate. To control the stroke of the clutch, a flow rate control valve control device 9 is connected to the flow rate control valve 1 to control the amount of electric current to a coil 8 responsive to a detection signal from a stroke sensor 7.
As shown in detail in the operation view of FIG. 9, the valve body 6 of the flow rate control valve 1 has two lands on the way thereof, one end of the valve body 6 being coupled to a moving yoke 10 of the electromagnetic solenoid. A spring 11 is arranged at the other end of the valve body 6, and the position of the valve body 1 is determined by a balance between the magnetic force acting on the moving yoke 10 and the resilient force of the spring 11. When the flow of current to the coil 8 is interrupted (amount of current, 0%), the valve body 6 is pushed by the spring 1i and assumes a position shown in FIG. 9(b) whereby the communication port 2p communicates with the discharge port 5p, and the working fluid in the clutch actuator 110 is discharged to the exterior permitting the clutch to be connected. If the electric current flowing into the coil 8 assumes a maximum value (100%), the valve body 6 is brought to a position shown in FIG. 9(c) compressing the spring 11, and the communication port 2p communicates with the pressure source port 4p. Therefore, the working fluid in the pressure source 3 is introduced into the clutch actuator 110 through the communication port 2p, and the clutch is disconnected. When a 50%-current flows into the coil 8, the valve body 6 is brought to a position of FIG. 9(a), i.e., brought to the neutral position, and the communication port 2p is cut off from the power source port 4p and the discharge port 5p, so that the stroke of the clutch is maintained at a predetermined position. To control the stroke of the clutch at the time of gear shifting as shown in FIG. 7, the amount of electric current flowing into the coil is so controlled as to vary according to a pattern shown on the lower side in FIG. 7.
Here, described below is a relationship between the position of the valve body of the flow rate control valve and the flow rate. In the flow rate control valve in which the length L of the land is the same as the width W of the communication port 2p, the working fluid readily starts flowing if the valve body is deviated toward the right or the left from the neutral position in FIG. 9(a). The flow rate control valve has only one neutral position at which the flow rate becomes 0, and has flow rate characteristics as represented by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 11 which shows the flow rate of the working fluid relative to the electric current that flows into the coil 8. When the above flow rate control valve is used, the amount of the working fluid in the clutch actuator 11 readily varies if deviated from the neutral position. To maintain the stroke at a predetermined position, therefore, it becomes necessary to accurately control the electric current that flows into the coil 8.
On the other hand, if the length L of the land is set to be larger than the width W of the communication port 2p by only a small amount as shown in FIG. 10(a), then a small width is imparted to the neutral position of the flow rate control valve 1. In this case, the flow rate characteristics become as represented by a solid line in FIG. 11, and the neutral position includes a dead zone DZ where the flow rate does not change despite the operation amount is varied. Therefore, despite the electric current varies to some extent due to disturbance or the like while the electric current flowing into the coil 8 has been so set as to maintain the stroke at the predetermined position, the stroke does not vary and a stable operation is realized. The dead zone DZ of the flow rate control valve 1 may also be introduced by unavoidable errors during the production in the step of producing the flow rate control valves.
In the flow rate control valve which includes the dead zone DZ, the position where the valve body 6 is brought to a halt so as to maintain a predetermined stroke while the stroke of the clutch is being controlled, varies in the direction in which the valve body 6 moves. When the valve body 6 moves toward the right in FIG. 10 to arrive at the neutral position, i.e., when the working fluid is fed to the clutch actuator 110 to operate the clutch in the direction of disconnection (stroke increases) and, thereafter, the valve body 6 is brought to the neutral position to cut off the feed, the valve body 6 stops at a position of FIG. 10(b) (corresponds to a point P in FIG. 11) where the right end of the land of the valve body 6 closes the communication port 2p. Conversely, when the valve body 6 moves toward the left in FIG. 10 to arrive at the neutral position, i.e., when the working fluid is discharged from the clutch actuator 110 to operate the clutch in the direction of connection (stroke decreases) and, thereafter, the valve body 6 is brought to the neutral position to stop the discharge, the valve body 6 stops at a position of FIG. 10(c) (corresponds to a point N in FIG. 11) where the left end of the land of the valve body 6 closes the communication port 2p.

Flow rate control valve for clutch control device


Embodiments disclose techniques for executing a test case to test a processor by bypassing an instruction pipeline of the processor. In one embodiment, the processor receives a plurality of test cases to execute on the processor. Each test case includes one or more instructions. Once received, the processor loads a plurality of registers with one or more first register values for the test case by bypassing the instruction pipeline. Once loaded, the processor runs the test case using the one or more first register values. The processor then retrieves, from the plurality of registers, one or more second register values associated with results of the test case run, by bypassing the instruction pipeline.

The present disclosure generally relates to using test patterns to verify and validate a processor, and more specifically, to techniques for reducing the testing time associated with executing a test pattern on a processor for verification and validation.
The shippable product quality level (SPQL) (also referred to as shipped product quality loss) associated with a given shipment of manufactured chips to a customer plays an important role in high volume chip production. The SPQL for a shipment of manufactured chips, in general, refers to the ratio of failing (or deficient) chips to all chips shipped to a customer. For example, a one percent SPQL generally means that for every one hundred chips that are shipped to a customer, only one of the chips is deficient (or doesn't meet the customer's performance requirements). Having a high SPQL for a shipment of chips is generally undesirable. Further, failing to meet a targeted SPQL for a shipment of chips can lead to financial loss for the chip manufacturer. As such, chip manufacturers are increasingly concerned with reducing the SPQL and/or accurately determining the SPQL for manufactured chips before they are shipped to a customer.
To reduce and/or determine the SPQL, chip manufacturers typically employ processor testing tools to screen for defective chips that are produced from the manufacturing process. These testing tools typically use a wide variety of test patterns to verify and validate a system design for a processor. The goal of such tools is typically to generate the most stressful test pattern for a processor to ensure that the processor will meet the customer's performance requirements. In theory, the generated test pattern should provide maximum test coverage and should be interesting enough to stress various timing scenarios on the processor. As such, typically a large amount of test cases are usually generated in order to sufficiently test a processor.
Verifying and validating a processor using test pattern(s) generally includes three stages: (1) a test pattern generation stage; (2) a test pattern loading stage; and (3) a test pattern execution stage. During the execution stage, the processor typically processes the instructions (in a test case) in stages (often referred to as the processor pipeline). For example, the processor typically has to undergo a fetch stage, decode stage, and a dispatch stage before the instruction is executed. Going through all of these stages, however, generally increases the amount of time associated with testing a large number of test cases for a processor. Thus, it may be desirable to reduce the time associated with executing test cases for verifying and validating a processor.

Reducing SPQL tester time for the critical paths stress test

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Provided is an agent for preserving a biological component, comprising a hydrogel, the hydrogel comprising a crosslinked product formed from a compound having a plurality of hydroxyl groups and a modified hyaluronic acid having substituents capable of reacting with the hydroxyl groups to form a crosslinked structure.

Typically, as a method for preserving a biological component (for example, animal cells), there is a method which involves dispersing cells in a freeze preservative liquid, placing the resulting liquid in a tube for freeze preservation, and freeze-preserving the liquid in the tube (for example, Non Patent Literature 1). The major freeze preservative liquids to be used include a liquid obtained by adding 10% dimethyl sulfoxide into a culture medium or serum, and commercially available ones. A techniques have been also studied for holding and preserving frozen cultured cells in a culture vessel (Patent Literature 1).
Techniques for chilled preservation have been also studied. For example, Euro-Collins liquid (Non-Patent Literature 2), UW liquid (University of Wisconsin liquid) (Non Patent Literature 3), ET-kyoto liquid (Patent Literature 2), and the like have been known as a cell/tissue-preservation liquid for chilled preservation, which have been conventionally used. Patent Literature 3 describes a preservation solution for eyeball to be used for corneal transplantation that contains hyaluronic acid or its salt.
ThelioKeep, CPS-1, and the like are marketed as a commercial chilled preservation liquid. ThelioKeep contains catechin as an active ingredient and is applied to the preservation of tissues, particularly epithelial and endothelial skins and nerve tissues (Non Patent Literature 4 and Patent Literature 4). CPS-1, in which the composition of salts is optimized, is a reagent tailored for floating cells (Patent Literature 5).
A method for preserving cells, focusing attention on phosphorylcholine as a phospholipid constituting the cell membrane has been also reported (Non Patent Literature 5).
In addition, HyStem (trademark) has recently been commercially available, which is a modified hyaluronic acid for subjecting cells to 3-dimensional embedding culture (Non Patent Literatures 6, 7, and 8).
Meanwhile, Non Patent Literature 9 discloses the use of a hydrogel using phenylboronic acid-modified chitosan in the field related to diabetes treatment. Patent Literature 6 discloses a technique for using a hydrogel using phenylboronic acid-modified hyaluronic acid together with a therapeutic agent for diabetes in the field of the drug delivery system.

Agent for preserving biological component