The present invention relates to an apparatus (1) and process for measuring characteristics of a particle flow. The measuring is done with two different cut-off diameters of a particle trap (13) of which one cut-off diameter is adjusted based on the measured particle characteristics.

There is a constant increase in the demand for real-time particle control. Especially the real-time exhaust control of combustion engines, such as vehicles, requires reliable and non-expensive particle monitoring. Requirement for particle control exists also e.g. in indoor air quality and outdoor monitoring or with air traffic safety. The particle amount is in most cases expressed as particle mass concentration, in mg/m3 or equivalent.
Various particle measurement devices are based on electrically charging particles and measuring the electrical current carried by such charged particles. One such prior art method and apparatus for measuring fine particles is described in document WO2009109688 A1, Pegasor Oy, Nov. 11, 2009. In this prior art method clean, essentially particle free, gas is supplied into the apparatus and directed as a main flow via an inlet chamber to an ejector provided inside the apparatus. The clean gas is further ionized before and during supplying it into the inlet chamber. The ionized clean gas may be preferably fed to the ejector at a sonic or close to sonic speed. The ionizing of the clean gas may be carried out for example using a corona charger. The inlet chamber is further provided with a sample inlet arranged in fluid communication with a channel or a space comprising aerosol having fine particles. The clean gas flow and the ejector together cause suction to the sample inlet such that a sample aerosol flow is formed from the duct or the space to the inlet chamber. The sample aerosol flow is thus provided as a side flow to the ejector. The ionized clean gas charges the particles. The charged particles may be further conducted back to the duct or space containing the aerosol. The fine particles of the aerosol sample are thus monitored by monitoring the electrical charge carried by the electrically charged particles. Free ions may further be removed using an ion trap.
A major problem in any particle measurement device which is based on electrically charging particles and measuring the electrical current carried by such charged particles is the conversion of the measured electrical current to actual characteristics of the particle flow, such as particle count, surface area or mass concentration. The conversion factor may be simply determined by calibrating a particle measurement device against a reference method. For example mass concentration is typically calibrated against gravimetric method, which accurately determines mass concentration. However, such calibration may change due to changes in the shape of particle size distribution curve, mean particle diameter, width of a lognormal particle size distribution curve, particle shape (usually expresses with fractal parameters) or particle density.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,812,306 B2, TSI, Incorporated, Oct. 12, 2010, describes an instrument for non-invasively measuring nanoparticle exposure includes a corona discharge element generating ions to effect unipolar diffusion charging of an aerosol, followed by an ion trap for removing excess ions and a portion of the charged particles with electrical mobilities above a threshold. Downstream, an electrically conductive HEPA filter or other collecting element accumulates the charged particles and provides the resultant current to an electrometer amplifier. The instrument is tunable to alter the electrometer amplifier output toward closer correspondence with a selected function describing particle behavior, e.g. nanoparticle deposition in a selected region of the respiratory system. Tuning entails adjusting voltages applied to one or more of the ion trap, the corona discharge element and the collecting element. Alternatively, tuning involves adjusting the aerosol flow rate, either directly or in comparison to the flow rate of a gas conducting the ions toward merger with the aerosol. The publication is focused on the measurement of particle concentrations in terms of surface area, as such accumulated or aggregate surface area are expected to provide more useful assessments of health risks due to nanoparticle exposure. The publication actually teaches that mass concentration measurements are not useful in indicating health effects and thus would not motivate person seeking for a solution on converting measured electrical current into mass concentration to examine the technique described in the publication.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,122,711 B2, Robert Bosch GmbH, Feb. 28, 2012, concerns a procedure to ascertain a concentration of sooty particles in an exhaust gas system of an internal combustion engine or a depletion of an emission control system of the internal combustion engine due to the loading of sooty particles, whereby the sooty particle concentration in the exhaust gas system is determined by means of a collecting particle sensor, which emits a sensor signal and whereby the depletion of the emission control system due to the loading of sooty particles is determined from the sooty particle concentration. The sensor signal is corrected by means of predetermined corrections with regard to a sensor temperature and/or an exhaust gas temperature and/or a flow velocity of the exhaust gas and/or a voltage applied at the particle sensor. Transverse sensibilities of the particle sensor can thereby be taken into account during the evaluation; and the determination of the accumulated loading of sooty particles and the determination of the sooty particle concentration in the exhaust gas system are improved. In the process, the sensor temperature enters into the correction to the extent that a temperature dependence of the electrical resistance of the loading of sooty particles is determined in a preparation phase and can be taken into account during the evaluation of the sensor signal. Although the procedure improves the mass concentration measurement, it involves extra components and is thus clumsy and costly.
Publication WO 2013/132154 A1 presents a prior art solution, where a stable elevated cut-off size of measured particles is utilized to improve the accuracy of the results when indicated as mass concentration. This kind of solution can give good results, if the size distribution of measured aerosol particles is situated in limited and known size range. For optimal results, the setting of the cut-off size should be pre-set to the optimal value for each measurement based on the assumed size range. Another limitation with this kind of solution is that it cannot improve the number-concentration value of measured result.
Thus the particle sensors of the prior art possess the technical problem of the electrical current signal vs. characteristics of particles in the particle flow being sensitive to external conditions. There is need for a sensor which can measure or monitor particle characteristics even when the particle mean diameter is changing. Especially advantageous would be the improvement in the accuracy of both number and mass concentrations without presumptions of the particle size range.

Apparatus and process for measuring characteristics of particle flow


A method of manufacturing a brush includes inserting bristles into bristles insertion holes, and implanting the bristles in a resin material. The inserting further includes preparing sleeves corresponding to cross sectional shapes and cross sectional areas of the bristles insertion holes; introducing the bristles into the sleeves; and independently inserting the bristles within each of the sleeves to the corresponding bristles insertion holes.

Previously, there has been widely performed a method of inserting bristles into bristles setting holes and fixing them by anchoring a metal plate. This method enables the brush to be simple. However, the following problems, among other problems, occur: the anchoring metal plate may become corroded; the anchoring metal plate has to be removed from plastic (the main part of a toothbrush) during disposal of the toothbrush; a thickness of a bristles implanting portion of a toothbrush cannot be reduced; bristles having large diameters cannot be implanted on the bristle implanting portion; and oblique implanting of bristles is difficult.
The following three methods do not use an anchoring metal plate:
(1) Type I: Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-16725, U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,313
The bristles are inserted into bristles insertion holes of a metal mold, and a plastic material is charged into roots of the bristles. Accordingly, a handle portion and bristles implanting portion of a toothbrush are manufactured. In this method, the plastic material tends to leak from the bristles insertion holes when charging the plastic material. In order to avoid the leakage, the roots of the bristles are fused to fill fine gaps in the bristles insertion holes. However, this is not sufficient to solve the leakage problem. When molding pressure is increased, the leakage still occurs.
(2) Type II: U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,400, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-182632
A toothbrush consisting of a brush head having perforated bristles setting holes and a recess, a brush neck, and brush handle is produced by injection molding from a suitable plastic material in a mold. Bristles are inserted into the perforated bristles setting holes and the ends of the bristles projecting from the back surface of the brush head are fused in an appropriate manner. The brush head portion is set in the mold to fill the brush head recess with a plastic material. In this method, leakage of the plastic material from the gap of the bristles setting holes is generated during the filling process, as in type I manufacturing mentioned above.
(3) Type III: Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-46962
The ends of the bristles are fused to form thick portions. A first surface of the head portion is also fused. The thick portions of the bristles are pressed against the fused surface of the head portion to fix the bristles to the head portion. In this method, quality control is difficult.
Recently, there is desired a toothbrush which is excellent for dental health, has good plaque removing characteristics, has excellent interdental cleaning characteristics, and is effective at massaging gums. In order to manufacture such a toothbrush, various creative efforts have been applied to the handle and the bristle implanting portion. The present invention relates to an improvement of the bristle implanting method.
Bristle performance depends upon the bristle implanting method, and recently various methods have been tried. Apart from the bristles implanting method, there are several factors to be considered for good performance of toothbrush. These factors include: a strength of the bristles, a size of the bristles, a thickness of the bristles, an area and a shape of the bristles setting holes, and the like. It is desirable that a single apparatus may manufacture various types of toothbrushes.
The following items can be listed as main factors of the bristles implanting method for a toothbrush.
(1) An angle of bristles against the brush head can be freely altered.
(2) A shape of bristles use ends can be optionally designed.
(3) A brush head can be made thin.
(4) No leakage of plastic material exists near bristles setting holes.
(5) Equipment of compact size and wide adaptability for production of several kinds of toothbrushes.
The present invention intends to manufacture a toothbrush satisfying the factors mentioned above without using an anchoring metal plate.
In a toothbrush without an anchoring metal plate, the oblique bristles implanting technique is difficult. A toothbrush having an inclined bristles is disclosed, for example, in WO99/23910A1, WO01/13762A1 and WO01/14117A1. The manufacturing method in these references falls within the method the type I described in the background art. In this method, in order to prevent a leakage of the charged plastic material from the bristles insertion hole; two methods are employed, i) increasing a charging density of the bristles, and ii) filling the bristles insertion hole with plastic material. Since the bristles implanting base portion of the toothbrush becomes exposed when used, the method ii) mentioned above is difficult to employ. Accordingly, the method i) mentioned above may be employed, however, in the case of using precut bristles, it is hard to insert the bristles into the bristles insertion hole at a high density.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-182632 discloses that the bristles are inserted into the bristles insertion hole from a tapered holder by a bristles extrusion pin. However, all of the bristles are not inclined with respect to the implanted bristles base portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,519 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,224 disclose oblique implanting of bristles. However, these methods do not attain implanting with constant number and high density of bristles. Accordingly, in these methods a gap in the bristles insertion hole tends to be formed and the leakage problem is not resolved. Further, these methods do not include a method to change the shape of the use end of the bristles.
In order to pick up a constant number of the bristles into the bristles insertion hole and implant the bristles with a high density, it is well known to insert from a reel. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-194433 discloses a method of supplying the bristles from the reel, cutting the bristles to a suitable length, and thereafter increasing an implanting charging density of the bristles and forming the use end of the bristles. This method requires a compression apparatus and makes the equipment structure complex. Further, formation of the use end shape of the bristles is limited. It is possible to apply this method to oblique implanting of bristles. However, it is necessary to arrange a reel for supplying the bristles in an oblique direction. Accordingly, a direction of the implanting (a direction of the incline) is limited in view of contact and intersection between the reels and conveying paths of the bristles.

Manufacturing method and apparatus of brush


A method for the assessment of the product shelf life in a package, and a device for accelerating the permeation of a test gas into a package. To significantly reduce the test time and to accelerate the permeation of a test gas, and in order to supply realistic results of the time-dependent permeations into the charged product in a simple manner, a closed package filled with charged product is placed in an overpressure chamber, and stored in the overpressure chamber over a specified time period under overpressure and at a specified temperature in a test gas atmosphere, wherein a defined amount of test gas permeates into the package. The package is stored over a certain time period under the influence of heat and/or light and then the charged product is subjected to analytical and/or sensory examination. The device includes an overpressure container for the accommodation of at least one package with a closable inlet opening, a gas inlet for feeding the test gas, a gas outlet for discharging the test gas, and a device for setting and maintaining an overpressure.

In particular in the foodstuffs sector the various packages must ensure optimum protection for the product. Both with regard to the material selection and the design of the package, the package must here fulfil high requirements specific to the product charged. Perfect product quality must be guaranteed within the declared minimum shelf life. Apart from the microbiological preservability, which can be ensured by suitable methods, such as heating, aseptic filling and packing, as well as preservation, essentially the chemical or physical changes of the charged product, which can lead to aromatic changes, are also of essential concern. In particular, the permeation of substances, particularly such as oxygen, through the package and the subsequent modification of the composition of the charged product by these substances can influence the quality of the product in decisive ways.
Apart from material inspection tests and theoretical computational models, standard qualification tests, such as a product storage test in real time are available for the determination of the minimum shelf life. Here, the package to be investigated is filled and stored over the time period of the intended minimum shelf life under controlled conditions. This means however that an adequately reliable conclusion about the suitability of a package design for an existing product or, vice versa, a new product development for an existing type of package can only be made after the intended minimum shelf life has expired. The main disadvantage of this test method lies in this very long testing period of several months. Due to the increasingly larger variety of products, increasingly shorter product life cycles with at the same time a high expectancy on the part of the consumer with regard to product quality and reliability, within the competition amongst product suppliers there is the necessity of reducing the required development time.

Method of assessing the product shelf life in a package


Instruction execution delay is alterable after the system design has been finalized, thus enabling the system to dynamically account for various conditions that impact instruction execution. In some embodiments, the dynamic delay is determined by an application to be executed by the processing system. In other embodiments, the dynamic delay is determined by analyzing the history of previously executed instructions. In yet other embodiments, the dynamic delay is determined by assessing the processing resources available to a given application. Regardless, the delay may be dynamically altered on a per-instruction, multiple instruction, or application basis. Processor instruction execution may be controlled by determining a first delay value for a first set of one or more instructions and a second delay value for a second set of one or more instructions. Execution of the sets of instructions is delayed based on the corresponding delay value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to microprocessors, and particularly relates to dynamically delaying instruction execution.
2. Relevant Background
Modern processing systems conventionally include a main or central processor and one or more coprocessors. The main processor offloads certain tasks to the coprocessors. For example, floating-point, arithmetic, graphics, signal-processing, string-processing, encryption, and/or vector-processing tasks can be off-loaded to corresponding coprocessors. The computational load placed on the main processor is lightened by offloading processor-intensive tasks, thus improving system performance.
An instruction offloaded to a coprocessor may be speculative, that is, the main processor has not yet finally resolved whether the instruction should be executed when it is provided to the coprocessor for execution. This often occurs in the context of conditional branch instructions. When a conditional branch instruction is encountered, the processor predicts which path it will take; whether it will jump to a different stream of code (i.e., the branch is taken), or if execution will continue with the instruction after the branch (i.e., the branch is not taken). The processor or coprocessor then speculatively executes one or more instructions associated with the predicted path. When the branch instruction is later resolved, it may be determined that the path was incorrectly predicted, often referred to as a branch misprediction. When a branch misprediction occurs, all instructions in the mispredicted path are discarded or flushed. Power consumption may be adversely affected as any work performed on instructions in the mispredicted path was unnecessary, yet could have been substantial.
To reduce the adverse effects associated with mispredicted branches, conventional coprocessors operate with a fixed instruction execution delay. Instructions received by a conventional coprocessor incur an execution delay corresponding to the fixed delay. As such, execution of instructions received by the coprocessor does not begin until the fixed delay lapses. Once the processor's design is 'frozen', the instruction execution delay cannot be modified without revising the design. Thus, each instruction executed by a conventional coprocessor incurs the same fixed delay without regard to the particular software application being executed nor the environment in which it is run. However, different application types result in different instruction execution predictability. That is, speculative instructions associated with some application types are almost always correctly predicted taken, and thus, speculative instruction execution is fairly reliable because the likelihood of branch misprediction is relatively low.
For example, the inverse transform function employed by a video decoding application is executed for each macro block of every video frame. Conversely, execution of speculative instructions associated with other application types may be less reliable, making the likelihood of execution pipeline flushing higher. For example, the de-blocking and de-ringing filter functions executed by a video decoding application depend on the pixel values of a particular video frame, and are executed less predictably. As a result, a fixed instruction execution delay may hamper processor performance or power when executing speculative instructions associated with applications that have different instruction execution predictabilities.
Instruction execution delay is conventionally fixed to one extreme that enables full speculative instruction execution or to the other extreme that enables no speculative instruction execution. In full speculative instruction execution mode, coprocessors speculatively execute each instruction provided to them without delay and before the instruction has been committed by the main processor. As such, the fixed instruction execution delay is essentially zero. Although this technique is beneficial for performance, it hampers power efficiency when speculative instruction execution becomes unpredictable. For example, highly speculative instructions may be mispredicted often, thus causing a zero-delay coprocessor to frequently execute code unnecessarily. Power efficiency is degraded each time computations associated with a mispredicted instruction are flushed from the execution pipeline. However, performance is enhanced due to the lack of additional startup latency for new instructions issued to the coprocessor.
Conversely, in non-speculative execution configurations, a coprocessor defers instruction execution until the main processor commits the corresponding instruction. Although this technique is beneficial from a power point of view for highly speculative instructions by preventing the execution of instructions which will subsequently be flushed, it hampers system performance due to its additional startup latency. When branches are often predicted correctly, and can be fed continuously to the coprocessor, the long startup latency is hidden and thus performance is not significantly degraded. On the other hand, the non-speculative approach greatly increases the instruction's effective latency when, for example, the processor is waiting for the results from the coprocessor.

Method and apparatus for executing processor instructions based on a dynamically alterable delay


A tape cassette of the type in which a tape having a transparent predetermined portion is housed between an upper cassette half and a lower cassette half in such a manner that the tape intersects a light path connecting a light emitting element insertion portion and a light receiving window formed through a side wall of the tape cassette, a light emitting element is inserted into the light emitting element insertion portion and a light receiving element is located outside of the light receiving window, thereby detecting the predetermined portion of the magnetic tape, and wherein the tape cassette has a rib formed on the upper cassette half, a rib formed on the lower cassette half, and an optical fiber bundle provided along the light path and near the light receiving window, whereby even when the tape cassette is a color other than black, a photoelectric type start sensor or end sensor can be prevented from malfunctioning.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tape cassettes and, more particularly, is directed to a tape cassette suitable as a so-called color tape cassette of a video tape recorder (VTR).
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to simplify the loading or unloading of a recording and reproducing magnetic tape in a video tape recorder, a tape cassette having a magnetic tape wound therein is useful. It is convenient for a user, when this tape cassette is loaded into the video tape recorder, if the video tape recorder/player can determine whether the magnetic tape within the tape cassette is in the rewound state (start mode) or whether the magnetic tape is in the wound state (end mode). For this reason, the tape cassette is generally provided with a mechanism, by which the start mode or the end mode of the magnetic tape can be detected from the outside of the cassette.
FIG. 1 shows such a prior-art tape cassette which is generally designated by reference number 1. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes an upper cassette half, 3 a lower cassette half and a 4 magnetic tape. A transparent leader/trailer tape 4a is connected to the respective ends of the magnetic tape 4. A guard panel 5 protects the magnetic tape 4 from smudges, finger marks and so on. Transparent windows 6A, 6B are formed on the upper cassette half 2 so that the inside of the tape cassette can be visually confirmed.
FIG. 2 shows the side of the lower cassette half 3 of the prior-art tape cassette of the example shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 2, it will be seen that the magnetic tape 4 is supplied from a supply reel 7A and is taken up by a take-up reel 7B through a guide pole 11, a tape guide 12, a front panel 3b of the lower cassette half 3, a tape guide 13 and a guide roller 14. The supply reel 7A is held between a reel flange 8A and a lower reel flange (not shown), and the take-up reel 7B is held between a reel flange 8B and a lower reel flange (not shown). Brake levers 9A and 9B are respectively engaged with lower reel flanges (not shown), and these brake levers 9A and 9B are operated by a release 10 from the outside.
Along the front panel 3b, arcuate front ribs 15 and 16 are formed to be substantially coaxial with the supply reel 7A and the take-up reel 7B, whereby a space 17 is formed between the magnetic tape 4 and the front rib 15. Also, a space 18 is formed on the front panel 3b. Loading posts (not shown) of a video tape recorder are inserted into these spaces 17 and 18 when the tape cassette is loaded into the video tape recorder. Through the cylindrical wall 19, there are provided lighting windows 19a and 19b in an opposing relation with an angular extent of substantially 180 degrees.
One end of a side wall 3a of the lower cassette half 3 near the side of the take-up reel 7B is recessed to form a partition 20 as shown in FIG. 3. The partition 20 is covered with the guard panel 5. As shown in FIG. 3, apertures 20a, 20b and a light receiving window 21 are formed through the partition 20. Two partitions 22, 23 extend from the lower cassette half 3 perpendicular to the partition 20 and aligned slits 22a, 23a are respectively formed on the partitions 22, 23. Rotating shafts 24c and 24d of a lid locking member 24 are engaged with the above-mentioned slits 22a and 23a, and the lid locking member 24 is generally spring-biased by a spring (not shown) in the direction shown by .theta. in FIG. 3. Accordingly, as, for example, shown in FIG. 1, a lock-releasing pin 24a and a lock lever 24b of the lid locking member 24 project to the outside through the apertures 20a and 20b of the partition 20, and the lock lever 24b is engaged with a lock slit 5a of the guard panel 5 (when the guard panel 5 is in its normally closed position). When the guard panel 5 is opened, as shown in FIG. 1, the engagement between the lock lever 24 and the lock slit 5a has to be released by inwardly pushing the lock releasing pin 24a.
A side wall 3c of the lower cassette half is parallel to the side wall 3a. Further, one end of the side wall 3c at its position near the side of the supply reel 7A is concave to provide a partition 25 covered with the guard panel 5 as shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, a light receiving window 26 of a slit configuration is formed in the partition 25.
In order for the video tape recorder to determine whether the magnetic tape 4 is in the start mode or in the end mode after the tape cassette 1 shown in the example of FIG. 1 is loaded into the video tape recorder, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a light emitting element 27 is inserted into the cylindrical wall 19 of the lower cassette half 3 and a start sensor 28 and an end sensor 29, each formed of a light receiving element, are positioned outside the light receiving windows 21 and 26, respectively. When the transparent leader tape 4a intersects an optical axis L.sub.1 connecting the lighting window 19a and the light receiving window 21, the start sensor 28 generates a signal, while when the transparent trailer tape 4a intersects an optical axis L.sub.2 connecting the lighting window 19b and the light receiving window 26, the end sensor 29 generates a signal. Thus, the video tape recorder can determine whether the magnetic tape 4 is in the start mode or in the end mode.
In the prior-art tape cassette, the upper cassette half 2 and the lower cassette half 3 are both made of a black (light absorption property) resin so that the light emitted from the light emitting element 27 of the tape cassette which is inserted into the video tape recorder is hardly reflected irregularly within the housing of the tape cassette. Also, light from various light sources located outside the tape cassette cannot pass through the upper cassette half 2 into the inside of the tape cassette to be reflected on its inside wall and leaked to the outside through the light receiving windows 21, 26. Consequently, the start sensor 28 and the end sensor 29 are prevented from malfunctioning.
With the spreading use of video tape recorders, however, it is desirable that a tape cassette for a video tape recorder be formed as a so-called color tape cassette. We have made experiments wherein colors of the upper cassette half 2 and the lower cassette half 3 are changed to colors other than black, for example, gray and green. Experimental results revealed that as shown in FIG. 4, an irregularly-reflected light L.sub.3 from the bottom plate 3d of the lower cassette half 3, an irregularly-reflected light L.sub.4 from the reel flange 8B, an external illumination light L.sub.5 passing through the upper cassette half 2 and so on enter the end sensor 29 through the light receiving window 26. There is then presented a problem that the end sensor 29 is caused to malfunction when the magnetic tape 4 is not in the end mode. The start sensor 28 suffers from a similar problem.
Japanese Laid-open Utility Model No. 62-98086 discloses a tape cassette in which while the color thereof remains black, a light-shielding wall is provided near the light receiving window 26 so as to close the spacing between the guide pole 11 and the side wall 3c of the lower cassette half 3, in order to improve the operation of the end sensor 29. The above-mentioned light-shielding wall, however, cannot be formed without difficulty because the guide pole 11 is generally made of metal. In addition, the light-shielding wall is effective only for an incident light irregularly-reflected from the direction of the guide pole 11.

Tape cassette utilizing fiber optic bundle


A wearable device interactive system and techniques, methods and apparatuses thereof are described. A wearable device may sense a user input by a hand of the user, analyze the user input, and perform one or more operations responsive to a result of the analysis. For example, the wearable device may launch an application corresponding to the user input. As another example, the wearable device may recognize a text at a fingertip of the user and determine a location of the wearable device to determine a context, and launch an application corresponding to the context.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Wearable devices generally are devices that are clothing, apparels and/or accessories worn by a user and incorporating computer and/or advanced electronic technologies. Examples of wearable devices include smart watches, smart bracelets, fitness bands and the like. Wearable devices make technology pervasive by interweaving technology into a user's daily life. A wearable device has either no display or a small display for the user to view information provided by the wearable device. Even when there is a display, however, the size of a viewable area of the display is usually less than 1.5 in2. For instance, a smart watch may be equipped with a touch-sensing display for a user to interact with the smart watch. Nevertheless, it is not easy for the user to user his/her finger to operate the tiny display.


An evaporative type medium condenser without the using of conventional cooling fins comprises: characteristically a plurality of streamline cross sectional bare metal tubes disposed in parallel for medium coils to instead the conventional round sectional tubes thereof; a recycling water supply system having a plurality of water spray nozzles for spraying fine water particles onto the surface of coil tubes formed a water film continuously held thereon; a fan system to provide a wind flow blowing over the streamline tubes in a direction from a large head front portion of the streamline cross section to a gradual reduced rear portion thereof and to provide a low pressure area thereat so as to speedy the evaporation of the water film on the surface of the coils tubes for improving a high cooling efficiency to reach a high E.E.R. therefore.

The present invention relates to an evaporative type medium condenser of an outdoor apparatus of an air conditioning system without the utilizing of conventional cooling fins especially relates to an evaporative condenser which a plurality of streamline cross section bare metal tubes are used for the medium coils to tack the place of conventional round tube coils for highly increasing the evaporative efficiency by the bare streamline tubes themselves to omit the using of cooling fins so as to thoroughly avoid the possibility of deposit dirt and sediment on the coil tubes between conventional cooling fins to provide the improvement of a long life time and convenient for maintenance and cleaning therefore.
The air conditioning system is a very important installation now in daily life of human been, as to save the energy source, a problem of how to improve the E.E.R. of an air conditioning system will be a target of the designers and producers to be reached, therefore the type of heat dissipation for cooling the medium coils is improved from air cooling to water cooling and then tendered to evaporative cooling.
Theoretically, 1 Kg of water absorbs 539 Kcal of latent heat while evaporated, but absorbs only 30 Kcal of heat while the temperature of 1 Kg cooling water be raised 30xc2x0 C. as a maximum value that a water cooling system can be achieved, the deferent ratio is 18 times.
However, in now a day the most of so called evaporative cooling system in market are not a real evaporating system but a combination of air cooling water cooling and evaporative cooling. Because:
Firstly, there are still conventional round tubes used for medium coils. As shown in FIG. 1A, which a wind flow W blows faced to a leading edge A of a round sectional tube 110 with a layer of water film thereon, divided into two flows around the surface of the tube 110 respectively to point F and Fxe2x80x2 through two opposite point D and Dxe2x80x2 of a diameter of the tube 110 as shown by arrow headed lines and then directly blows to a tube 110xe2x80x2 of next row of the coils. In that case, a lot of drawbacks will be happened as:
1. The wind flow W dose not blows over a rear portion of the curved surface of an arc FEFxe2x80x2 (E is the end edge of the tube110) it""s a kind of waste.
2. The eddy currents will be occurred behind the rear edge E and also a windless area will be happened thereat to offer a poor effect to the next row tube 110xe2x80x2.
3. Essentially the evaporation efficiency is not fully developed while the wind flow W blows over the water film on the surface of curved area ADF and ADxe2x80x2Fxe2x80x2 is under a condition of normal atmosphere pressure.
Secondary, there are still cooling fins used in high density as 13xcx9c17 piece per inch, in which there will be water layers full filled the interval between two adjacent fins but no water films occurred on the fins for evaporating therefore it is not a real evaporative system in fact.
FIG. 1B shows a streamline cross sectional tube 120 according to the present invention to instead of the conventional round tube for medium coils which a wind flow W blows headed to a leading edge A of a large head portion of the streamline tube 120 and divided into two opposite path around the surface of tube 120 passing through the diameter DDxe2x80x2, respectively to a gradual reduced rear portion of curve DE and Dxe2x80x2Exe2x80x2, in which, according to theory of aerodynamics, the wind flow W will blows still around the surface DE and Dxe2x80x2Exe2x80x2 of the reduced area closely, further more, there a rapid acceleration will be occurred to provide a large negative pressure thereon, therefore as a water film kept continuously on the surface of the streamline tube 120 in a wind flow W, it will be evaporated easily even at a room temperature under an extra low pressure (large negative pressure) and a large amount of latent heat of water evaporation (539 cal for evaporating 1 gr of water) will be absorbed from the gaseous state medium in the tube 120 to produce a low temperature thereat, in which a low critical pressure of a medium compressor is need for condensing the low temperature medium from gaseous state into liquid state so as to save energy for improving E.E.R. therefore.
Practically a streamline cross section can be combined with two different ellipses by half and half, which FIG. 2A shown a first ellipse xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d taken from a projection view of a tilt cutting to a round tube R of a diameter D with an obtuse angle xcex1, while FIG. 2B shows a second ellipse xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d taken from a projection view cutting to a same round tube R of a diameter D with an acute angle xcex2, and FIG. 2C is a cross sectional view of a streamline tube combined with a left half of ellipse xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d and a right half of ellipse xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, in which the preferable value of tilt angle xcex1 and xcex2 used in the present invention are;
xcex1=60xc2x0xc2x15xc2x0, xcex2=25xc2x0xc2x15xc2x0
In FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C, actually xcex1=60xc2x0, xcex2=25xc2x0.
Further more, a streamline cross section is different from a cross section of a symmetrical aerofoil, which a symmetrical aerofoil section tube as shown in the figures of the prior arts of U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,936 and Japan patent 63,096,490 there a rear end of the tube is a narrow sharp angular form, while a rear end of a streamline cross sectional tube of the present invention as shows in FIG. 1B is characteristically formed of an end portion of an ellipse with a convex curve to avoid a narrow sharp angular edge inside the tube, a narrow sharp angular form inside the tube may do nothing for a regular heat exchanger as claimed in the foresaid prior arts, but there will be a serious drawback for using to a medium condenser, because there will be a large amount of pressure drop occurred due to a high friction loss when the medium flow runs in the narrow sharp angular portion inside the tube, in which , an extra power of a medium compressor is needed for recovering the loss of pressure drop, the E.E.R. then can not be improved therefore.
FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of a streamline tube may used in the present invention which a streamline tube 120 has a tail fin 122 extended from a rear end edge for increasing the heat dissipation rear therefore.
The present invention is a mew design according to the theory of aerodynamics to solve all the foresaid drawbacks of the conventional medium condensers.
Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a medium condenser composed of a plurality of streamline cross section bare metal tubes to improve a high evaporative heat dissipation efficiency according the theory of aerodynamics.
Another main object of the present invention is to provide a medium condenser without the using of conventional cooling fins to avoid the deposit dirt and sediment on the coil tubes between conventional cooling fins so as to maintain a long life time therefore.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a medium condenser without conventional cooling fins for saving the cost and work of manufacturing, and convenient for maintenance and cleaning.

Evaporative condenser without cooling fins


In a plural phase electric motor, a control method senses regeneration current from a non-energized phase and commutates to the next state. In the next state, the unenergized phase of the present state is energized in a polarity opposing the regeneration current of the present state, such that during the next state, energization current is directed in the last noted phase in a direction opposite to the regeneration current of the present state. In the state prior to the present state, the unenergized phase of the present state is energized in a polarity aiding the regeneration current of the present state, such that during the prior state, energization current is directed in the last noted phase in the same direction as the regeneration current of the present state. In the preferred embodiment, all of the commutation switches are periodically simultaneously turned off for a given blanking interval, and the regeneration current is sensed on a common DC bus during such interval.

The invention relates to commutation control methods and circuitry for electric motors including at least three phases energized in a cyclic sequence having a plurality of states, wherein during each state, two of the phases are energized and the third phase is unenergized.
In a plural phase electric motor, the phases are energized to create a rotating magnetic field, which the rotor will follow due to the torque produced thereon. To sustain rotation of the rotor, the phase windings are energized in a given sequence having a plurality of states. The change from one state or to the next state is called commutation. Commutation ensures continued rotation of the magnetic field, and hence continued rotation of the rotor. It is desirable to know the position of the rotor, in order to select the proper commutation timing and energization state of the various windings, and hence provide the optimum magnetic field pattern for producing optimum torque on the rotor. When the rotor passes a given position, it is desired to commutate to the next state in the energization sequence of the phase windings, to continue to apply torque to the rotor.
In the control of variable speed electric motors, it is desirable to have feedback of motor speed. This feedback typically consists of an external sensor that connects to the motor shaft and directly reads the rotor information. This external sensor adds an undesirable cost to the motor control, and requires additional wiring to the motor. The burden of these extra wires is compounded in applications such as air conditioning compressors, where the motor is hermetically sealed. It is therefore desired in various applications to eliminate external sensors and extra wires.
Various sensorless motor control systems are known in the prior art. In one method, back emf of an unenergized phase is sensed to control commutation to the next state. In another method, changing reluctance of the unenergized phase is sensed as a function of rotor position, to control commutation to the next state. In the latter method, the unenergized phase winding is pulsed with a test current to determine changing reluctance.
In the present invention, regeneration current is sensed from the unenergized phase, and the motor is commutated to the next state in response to such regeneration current. In the preferred embodiment, bus regeneration current is sensed with all commutation switches off. In an alternate embodiment, individual phase regeneration current is sensed.

Electric motor with regeneration current commutation


A biaxially stretched polypropylene film includes protrusions on both surfaces, in which the biaxially stretched polypropylene film has a thickness t1 of 1 μm to 3 μm, has a tensile strength in the machine direction of 120 MPa to 250 MPa, has a tensile strength in the transverse direction of 250 MPa to 400 MPa, has a minimum protrusion height Pmin of 100 nm or greater and a maximum protrusion height Pmax of 1,600 nm or smaller for either surface, and satisfies all of Formulae (1) to (3) when one of the surfaces is surface A and the other is surface B: 0.5≦Pa250-450/Pa≦1.0 (1), 0.5≦Pb450-1600/Pb≦1.0 (2), and 600≦Pa+Pb≦1,200 (3).

Biaxially stretched polypropylene films are excellent in transparency, mechanical properties, electrical properties, and the like and therefore have many applications such as packaging, tapes, and electrical uses including cable wrapping and capacitors.
As for capacitor applications, the films are particularly preferably used in high-voltage capacitors for direct current use and for alternating current use because of their excellent dielectric strength properties and low-loss properties.
Recently, various types of electric equipment have been incorporating inverters, and along with this trend, demands have been growing for capacitors smaller in size and enhanced in capacitance. Because of these demands from the market, in particular from automobile applications (including a hybrid car application), a biaxially stretched polypropylene film that is thinner and is also improved in dielectric strength and processability into an element is essential.
From the viewpoints of dielectric strength and processability into an element, it is necessary to make the surface of the biaxially stretched polypropylene film moderately rough, which is particularly important in order to improve the smoothness and oil impregnation of the film or to ensure the protective properties of a metallized capacitor. The protective properties herein mean a function, of a metallized capacitor the electrode of which is a metallized film formed on such a dielectric film, to allow the deposited metal to scatter at the time of overdischarge due to discharge energy so as to recover insulation and to prevent a short circuit, thereby maintaining the functions of the capacitor or preventing dielectric breakdown of the capacitor. The protective properties are also an extremely useful function from the safety viewpoint.
As a method of achieving a rough surface, mechanical methods such as embossing and sandblasting, chemical methods such as chemical etching with a solvent, a method of stretching a sheet containing polymers of different species such as polyethylene, a method of stretching a sheet in which β crystals have formed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 51-63500 and 2001-324607, for example), and the like are conventionally suggested.
However, these may not necessarily be adequate in terms of roughness density, irregularly large protrusions, and the number of protrusions because roughness density is low in the mechanical methods and the chemical methods and, in the method of stretching a sheet in which β crystals have formed, irregularly large protrusions readily form. In addition, films with rough surfaces that are formed by these methods tend to cause insufficient oil impregnation between film layers at the time of capacitor fabrication to leave some areas not impregnated, which can impair the lifetime of the capacitor. In the method of stretching a sheet containing polymers of different species such as polyethylene, although capacitor fabrication leaves fewer air bubbles, the polymers of different species can adversely affect at the time of film recycling to impair recyclability.
Besides, the biaxially stretched polypropylene film obtained by any of these methods may not achieve adequate protective properties under stringent conditions with a potential gradient of 350 V/μm or higher where the capacitor is used, which can lower reliability. The potential gradient herein is the voltage applied to a dielectric film, after divided by the thickness of the film, that is, voltage applied per unit film thickness.
On the other hand, in terms of roughness density and uniform protrusions, a polypropylene film with high melt tension (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-72778, for example), a film in which a polypropylene film with high melt tension and a usual polypropylene film are stacked (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-129944, for example), and the like are suggested. When a polypropylene resin with high melt tension is used in a capacitor, however, heat resistance and pressure resistance cannot be adequate due to the resin structure and therefore dielectric breakdown voltage significantly decreases in particular at high temperatures. In addition, by the technique of stacking a polypropylene resin with high melt tension, especially in the case of a thin film having a film thickness of 5 μm or smaller, it is very difficult to achieve a stacked structure with uniform thickness, and the fact of the matter is that the dielectric film to be obtained is poor in uniformity and therefore cannot be satisfactory in practical use.
Japanese Patent No. 3508515 discloses a biaxially stretched polypropylene film in which the degree of surface roughness is controlled and a method for fabricating the same. However, this method is inadequate and is less prone to roughen both surfaces of the film finely and to control the protrusion height for both surfaces of the film.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-308604 and 2008-133446 where roughness is specified for at least one surface of the film claim that a finely roughened surface formed by specifying the β crystal fraction of a cast raw sheet to be within a certain range can have windability into an element and pressure resistance in balance. This fabrication method, however, cannot adequately control the degree of surface roughness for both surfaces of the film, and the finely roughened surface of the resulting film is yet to satisfy requirements for pressure resistance and processability into an element particularly in automobile applications.

Biaxially stretched polypropylene film, metallized film and film capacitor


A tree stand for supporting a Christmas tree in an upright position has a remote watering box/water storage tank disguised to resemble a wrapped gift/Christmas present under the tree. Water can run through tubing positioned under the tree skirt from the bottom of the remote watering box to the bottom of the watertight tree stand. When a ball valve (or similar valve means) in the water line is opened, the level in the stand will rise to the level of the water in the tank. Water can be easily added to the watering box/storage tank to maintain it at the desired level without a person having to crawl under the tree. The tree stand has four legs which can fold up to give the stand a compact shape which can nest within the remote watering box reducing the amount of storage space required when the stand is not being used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Christmas tree stands, and more particularly, to a Christmas tree stand having a remote watering system especially adapted to permit watering the tree without climbing under the tree.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Christmas tree stands in the form of support devices for holding up live Christmas trees are well known in the prior art. Many of the prior art Christmas tree stands provide basins for holding water around the lower trunk of the tree to prevent the tree from drying out, which can be very dangerous since a dried out tree presents a serious fire threat (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,461 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,951). It is also known to have a Christmas tree watering stand in liquid communication with a water source (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,176 and U.S. Pat. No. 115,076,009 as well as U.S. Pat. Des. No. 319,416).
Thus, while the foregoing body of prior art indicates it to be well known to use Christmas tree stands in liquid communication with a water source, the provision of a more simple and cost effective device is not contemplated. Nor does the prior art described above teach or suggest a Christmas tree stand device with a remote watering box/reservoir shaped like a Christmas present which may be used by individuals to water their Christmas tree without crawling under the tree and for which, when not needed, the stand can be neatly folded up and placed inside the remote box/reservoir for easy storage. The foregoing disadvantages are overcome by the unique Christmas tree stand having a wrapped Christmas gift box shaped remote watering box/reservoir of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident.

Christmas tree stand with remote watering system


Crosslinked polymers and their uses in electrochemical systems, for example, as electrolyte membrane, are described. More precisely, these crosslinked polymers are formed by the crosslinking of a random copolymer based on monomers of glycidyl methacrylate or acrylate and of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl acrylate or methacrylate with a volatile polyamine crosslinking agent.

One of the problems encountered when using membranes in lithium-polymer batteries is with respect to their degradation over time. This phenomenon is particularly important when using radical crosslinking agents activated chemically or by photochemistry during the formation of a crosslinked membrane to increase its mechanical strength. Indeed, the formation of free radicals in the polymeric structure causes degradation of the membrane by extraction of the protons present on the main chain, thereby causing chain scission mechanism. This phenomenon is particularly important during the use of UV light for initiating the reaction (see Koo, G.-H. et al, J. Appl. Polym. Sc. 2012, 125 (4), 2659-2667; and Shyichuk, A. V. et al, Polymer Degradation and Stability 2005, 88 (3), 415-419).
Chemical crosslinking by reaction of an amine with an oxirane group is common in the world of epoxy-type coatings and draws more and more of the attention of chemists due to its great reactivity (see Benaglia, M. et al, Polym. Chem. 2013, 4 (1), 124-132; and Gadwal, I. et al, Macromolecules, 2013, 47 (1), 35-40). These materials, commonly called thermosetting materials, are of interest because of their hardening which increases both their chemical and mechanical resistance (see Enns, J. B. et al, J. Appl. Polym. Sc., 1983, 28 (9), 2831-2846; and Jordan, C. et al, J. Appl. Polym. Sc., 1992, 46 (5), 859-871).
A literature review shows that there are several types of chemical crosslinking reactions. Most lead to the formation of unwanted by-products such as water or acids. Other reactions are carried out at high temperature or in the presence of a copper-based inorganic catalyst (for example, see Tillet, G. et al, Prog. Polym. Sc., 2011, 36 (2), 191-217). These various residual elements are not desirable in an electrochemical system.
Several amine crosslinking agents are present on the market. However, these are not very volatile and remain trapped in the polymer, the crosslinking reactions not being 100% completed in order to obtain optimum mechanical properties (see Jordan et al, Supra).
It has been demonstrated that the use of a Jeffamine®-type crosslinking agent for the formation of gel-like membranes for the ionic conduction of lithium allows for the formation of a crosslinked polymer (see, for example, Luo, D. et al, J. Appl. Polym. Sc. 2011, 120 (5), 2979-2984). It is however possible that these free crosslinking agents react during battery cycling thereby causing an accelerated degradation of the lithium anode and/or of the gel electrolyte by migration of compounds from the membrane to the anode. Moreover, the presence of free Jeffamine increases the elasticity of the membrane and reduces its mechanical properties by a plasticizer effect.

Crosslinked polymer based on a random copolymer and a volatile polyaminated crosslinking agent and processes for producing same


A low beam headlamp for motor vehicles includes an objective made of pressed glass whose one side is formed as aspheric partial surfaces of identical or different aspherity. The partial surfaces are staggered in the direction parallel to the optical axis of the objective and the resulting step has rounded edges. The aspheric partial surfaces adjust light distribution to achieve a desired quality of the light-dark boundary zone projected on the driveway, and provide corrected color fringes of the passing light beam.

The present invention relates to a low beam or fog headlamp for motor vehicles, including a reflector which by reflecting light rays from a light source generates a beam of light directed past an optically effective edge of a light shield into an objective which in turn projects a partial light beam at the edge of the light shield as a light-dark boundary zone on a driveway.
In known headlamps of this kind the light distribution of the projected light beam is determined substantially by the shape of the reflector. In addition, it has been devised to suppress or completely eliminate interfering and undesirable color fringes of the light beam by additional optical means.
For this purpose, additional separate devices have been used in the headlamp which of necessity cost an increased technological expense and in the case of extreme operational conditions, impair the functional safety of the reflector.

Low beam or fog headlamp for motor vehicles


An displacement correcting device is provided and includes: a rotation supporting member having a rotation shaft and rotating to support the endless belt-shaped member; a shaft supporting frame supporting a one-end supporting portion of the rotation shaft movably relative to an opposite-end supporting portion and supporting one end of the rotation shaft to be tilted about the other end; and a shaft displacing member having a rotation center disposed closer to one end portion in the axial direction than a rotation shaft supporting body and intersected by the axial direction and a rotation shaft contact portion contacting with the one end of the rotation shaft. The shaft displacing member allows the rotation shaft contact portion to rotate about the rotation center to tilt the rotation shaft when a movement sensing member detects the movement of the endless belt-shaped member to the one end of the rotation shaft.

(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a displacement correcting device, an intermediate transfer device, a transfer device, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
Techniques of conveying a medium or the like using an endless belt-shaped conveyer in image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic copiers and printers are known. In image forming apparatuses, know is a technique of correcting the meandering of an endless belt-shaped member such as the conveyer belt which occurs when a degree of parallelism of suspension members suspending the endless belt-shaped member from the rear surface thereof is low, that is, when the axial directions of the suspension members are displaced from the parallel.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Displacement correcting device, intermediate transfer device, transfer device, and image forming apparatus


A color value classification system employing a combination of four basic colors and five hues substantially covering the visible spectrum. The specific hues and tints are not equally spaced from the standpoint of wavelength, but are positioned within the visible spectrums to facilitate the making of other hues, increasing or decreasing contrasts, other shades and similar variants. The provision of twenty basic hues and percent tints permits the reproduction of the colors in commercially usable forms including printing inks, transparent color sheets, colored papers, coating materials and paints. Using a relatively small number of color variants, the teaching of color is materially simplified, as in the establishment of simple translation of art copy into forms for convenient replication.

This invention relates generally to the field of standardized color systems, and more particularly to an improved technology by means of which reproduceable colors are identified and related to a standard primarily in terms of hue and tint.
The prior art systems, typically comprise a variety of representations of very large numbers of hues and tints, each having an identifying number or symbol. Such systems do, in fact, provide means for identification, but lose sight of the fact that not all of the many artist's colors are readily reproduceable in various color mediums for purpose of reproduction. While small lots of paints and similar coatings are routinely prepared, the reproduction of colors on a printed page normally requires very precise printing inks which cannot be economically produced in large quantities, in more than a relatively limited number of colors. This is equally true in the case of the manufacture of other color materials, such as pencils, color sheets, colored paper, acrylics and airbrush colors.
As a result, it is often difficult to reproduce with any reasonable degree of fidelity, the work product of an artist who has used a random assortment of colors in the creation of a work, with a corresponding loss in visual accuracy in the reproduction. Although computer technology has permitted the accurate identification of literally thousands of hues and tints comprising the visible spectrum, the reproduction of such variations is still a matter of costly color matching using relatively complex technologies. Materials have been improved in recent years to permit increased brightness, resistance to fading, and other desirable characteristics. These improved qualities do not simplify ready reproductions of a desired color. It is known to use standard color sheets for producing original art copy, but, lacking a fully comprehensive standarized color system, the use of these sheets has resulted in limitations in reproduction.


Aspects of the disclosure relate to scenario based multiple application display on-screen. An enterprise application management server may determine one or more of secondary applications associated with a primary application. The enterprise application management server may receive information associated with a triggering event that occurred in the primary application. The enterprise application management server may determine a particular secondary application from the one or more secondary applications based on the received information associated with the triggering event. Accordingly, enterprise application management server may cause to display the particular secondary application simultaneously with the primary application on the screen of the mobile device.

In a cloud-based environment, enterprise users may need to frequently switch across multiple applications on a mobile device. For example, when a user logs in to a VPN application which may need two factor authentication (i.e., input login credential to the VPN application then input a secure token from a VIP token application), the user may need to first launch the VPN application on the mobile device, then switch to the VIP token application to copy the secure code and paste back to the VPN application. It may be tedious for the user to navigate across the primary application (e.g., the VPN application) and the secondary application (e.g., the VIP token application), and the frequent switching among applications may generate excess overhead and negatively impact productivity. As a result, conventional systems are not be able to coordinate the display of the primary application and the secondary application with efficiency, performance and an optimal user experience.

Scenario based multiple applications on-screen


The invention provides compositions and methods for the treatment of presbyopia. The compositions preferably use aceclidine separate or together with a cycloplegic agent and/or with a nonionic surfactant and viscosity enhancer, and or with low concentrations of a selective α-2 adrenergic receptor agonist.

As a person ages the minimum distance from the eye at which an object will come into focus, provided distance vision is corrected or is excellent unaided, increases. For example, a 10 year-old can focus on an object or a "focal point" only three inches (0.072 meters) from their eye while still retaining excellent distance vision; a 40 year-old at six inches (0.15 meters); and a 60 year-old at an inconvenient 39 inches (1.0 meter). This condition of increasing minimum focal length in individuals with excellent unaided distance vision is called presbyopia, loosely translated as "old-man eye".
Excellent unaided distance vision is also known as emmetropia. The inability to focus on distant focal points is known as myopia and the inability to focus on near focal points is known as hyperopia. Specifically, "distance" vision is considered any focal point 1 meter or more from the eye and near vision is any focal point less than 1 meter from the eye. The minimum focal length at which an object will come into focus is known as the "near point". The change in focus from distance to the near point and any focal point in between is called accommodation. Accommodation is often measured in diopters. Diopters are calculated by taking the reciprocal of the focal length (in meters). For example, the decrease in accommodation from a 10 year-old eye to a 60 year-old eye is about 13 diopters (1÷0.072 meters=13.89 diopters; 1÷1 meter=1 diopter).
The highest incidence of first complaint of presbyopia occurs in people ages 42-44. Presbyopia occurs because as a person ages the eye's accommodative ability which uses near reflex-pupil constriction, convergence of the eyes and particularly ciliary muscle contraction, decreases. This reduction in accommodation results in an inadequate change in the normal thickening and increased curvature of the anterior surface of the lens that is necessary for the shift in focus from distant objects to near objects. Important near focus tasks affected by presbyopia include viewing computer screens (21 inches) and reading print (16 inches).
Presbyopia is a normal and inevitable effect of ageing and is the first unmistakable sign for many in their forties that they are getting older. One study found that more than 1 billion people worldwide were presbyopic in 2005. This same study predicted that number to almost double by the year 2050. If everyone over the age of 45 is considered to be presbyopic, then an estimated 122 million people in the United States alone had presbyopia in 2010. As baby boomers reach the critical age, this number is only going to increase.
Presbyopia carries with it a stigma resulting from the limitation in ability to quickly function at many tasks requiring focusing at both distant and near points, which once occurred almost immediately. In the presbyopic patient, these tasks can be performed only by the use of eyeglasses, contact lenses or after undergoing invasive surgery. One such optical modification, the monovision procedure, can be executed with the use of glasses, contact lenses or even surgery. The monovision procedure corrects one eye for near focus and the other eye for distance focus. However, monovision correction is normally accompanied by loss of depth perception and distance vision particularly in dim light (e.g. night). Other surgical procedures that have been developed to relieve presbyopia include: (1) the implantation of intraocular lenses (INTRACOR®; registered trademark of Technolas Perfect Vision GMBH); (2) reshaping of the cornea (PresbyLASIK and conductive keratoplasty); (3) scleral band expansion; and (4) implantation of corneal inlays (Flexivue Microlens®; registered trademark of PresbiBio LLC, Kamra®; registered trademark of AcuFocus, Inc. and Vue+). Kamra® corneal inlays manufactured by AcuFocus work by inlaying a pinhole on the cornea to increase the depth of focus. A similar effect can be achieved with general miotic agents, such as pilocarpine (a non-selective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist), carbachol (a non-selective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist), and phospholine iodide (an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor). These general miotic agents trigger increased ciliary muscle contraction and induce accommodation of any remaining reserves, improving near vision at the expense of distance vision in individuals who still retain some accommodative function. While these general miotic agents also create improved depth of focus via a pinhole effect induced by pupillary miosis (i.e. constriction), to the degree accommodation occurs, the pinhole effect only partially offsets the induced accommodative myopia for distance. In some cases, such as with pilocarpine or carbachol, the induced accommodation may create up to 5 diopters or more of induced myopia resulting in induced myopia causing blurred distance vision generally and during shift of the focal point from distance to near. These general miotic agents also cause substantial redness, severe nasal congestion and create ciliary muscle spasms, which commonly induces discomfort that can be severe and long-lasting. In extreme cases, such ciliary muscle spasms can result in retinal detachment.
Miotic agents have been described in various patent and patent applications for the treatment of presbyopia. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,291,466 and 6,410,544 describe the use of pilocarpine to regulate the contraction of ciliary muscles to restore the eye to its resting state and potentially restore its accommodative abilities.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0016395 describes the use of pilocarpine with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, diclofenac, to reduce brow ache from ciliary spasm and increase the time in which the ciliary muscle contraction is regulated. International PCT Application Publication WO/2013/041967 describes the use of pilocarpine with oxymetazoline or meloxicam to temporarily overcome ocular conditions such as presbyopia.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,299,079 (HEK Development LLC) describes the use of direct acting general miotic agents such as pilocarpine, carbachol and phospholine iodide with brimonidine at a concentration from 0.05% to 3.0% w/v. However, the use of brimonidine concentrations at or above 0.05% w/v results in increased rebound hyperemia. For example, rebound redness occurs in 25% of patients using brimonidine 0.20% w/v (Alphagan®, registered trademark of Allergan, Inc.) twice daily.
These attempts at miotic treatment for presbyopia all induce transient myopia of several diopters reducing distance vision to about legal blindness or worse at the expense of improved near vision for the full duration of their action, typically lasting several hours.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a treatment of presbyopia that is non-invasive and convenient with minimal side effects. Specifically, there is a need for an ophthalmological composition that will allow a person suffering from presbyopia to focus on near objects without significant side effects such as diminished distance vision, blurred vision, pain, redness, impaired night driving or incapacitating dim light vision, induced nasal congestion, or risk of retinal detachment. Further, such treatment should provide quick onset in minutes and a duration of full effect of several hours during which a pupillary miosis of between about 1.65-2.40 mm and more preferably 1.80 mm-about 2.2 mm is achieved.

Compositions and methods for the treatment of presbyopia


An apparatus for driving a gripper belt in a rapier loom comprises a three-dimensional cam drive (1) for converting a rotational movement into a pivotal movement. The cam drive includes a rotatable cam carrier with a guide surface defining a closed curve (11), the closed curve having a generatrix (E) which is a circular arc. A pivot arm (5) engages the curved surface and pivots about an axis (3) of rotation through the center point of the generatrix. The apparatus is compact and it facilitates the adjustment of the stroke length of the gripper belt.

The present invention concerns a device for driving a gripper belt which has a three-dimensional cam drive for converting a rotational movement into a swinging movement with a cam carrier that executes a rotational movement and with a pivot arm that engages the cam carrier and executes the swinging movement. The invention also concerns a loom having such a device.
It is known to convert the rotational movement of the drive shaft of a rapier loom into a reciprocating movement for a gripper belt wheel with the help of a crank arm having a cardan joint or with the help of a three-dimensional cam drive.
Three-dimensional cam drives provided for this purpose employ a rotating cam carrier which is engaged by a pivot arm which generates the desired swinging movement.
Grooved cam globoids or hyperboloids are suitable curve carriers, but in practice, for manufacturing reasons, they are formed as cylindrical curves.
Such cam drives have the disadvantage that the pivot angle is limited. To compensate for this disadvantage, the diameter of the cam cylinder is made correspondingly large and the length of the pivot arm is increased. This leads to other disadvantages; namely, large masses and a limited stroke.

Three dimensional cam drive for gripper loom belt wheel


The force sensing switch comprising a housing and a movable member movable relative to the housing upon having a predetermined force applied thereagainst by an adjacent moving structure when the structure becomes misaligned, the movable member engaging circuitry within the housing which will produce an alarm signal and will stop the adjacent structure from moving.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a force sensitive switch. More particularly, the switch, when force is applied against a section thereof, is operative to stop a machine or the like until a structure of the machine producing the force on the switch, is repositioned.
2. Prior Art
The existing art for such devices uses roller switches or rubbing blocks for force detection. The roller switch, when contacted by a misaligned belt, for example, has a spring loaded arm which rotates about a pivot, when the arm has rotated beyond a predetermined point, the switch gives a signal by closure of contacts or the like. The roller mounted upon the pivoted arm is free to rotate about its own axis so that contact with the moving belt will not cause undue wear.
When a belt is partially misaligned, sufficient to contact the roller but insufficient to cause machine stoppage, the roller rotates continuously, generating heat, and becoming a maintenance hazard.
An alternative type of detector, known generally as a rub block or rubbing block, is made from substantially rigid material containing, embedded therewithin, a temperature detector. When used in the above described application, when the moving belt contacts the rubbing block applying force thereagainst, the rubbing block becomes heated and when the preset temperature is reached, the temperature sensor generates a signal to stop the machine. This type of detector is hazardous as heat must be generated for the device to operate.
According to the invention there is provided a force sensing switch comprising a housing and a movable member movable relative to the housing upon having a predetermined force applied thereagainst by an adjacent moving structure when the structure becomes misaligned, the movable member engaging circuitry within the housing which will produce an alarm and will stop the adjacent structure from moving.


A data processing system is described in which the workload is divided into packets. A plurality of processors access the packets and process them by rewriting them according to predetermined rules. Packets can be of a number of different types, including XAPP and PAPP. An XAPP packet contains a function and one or more arguments in evaluated form, so that the function can be immediately applied to the arguements. A PAPP packet is similar except that its arguments may not be in evaluated form. Processing of an active PAPP packet consists of activating other packets which evaluate the arguments of the PAPP packet, and converting the PAPP to a suspended XAPP packet, awaiting return information from those other packets. The use of different packet types allows greater efficiency, by eliminating redundant actions in processing of the packets.

This invention relates to data processing systems.
More specifically, the invention is concerned with a data processing system of the kind in which the workload of the system is divided into packets, each packet specifying a function and one or more arguments to which the function is to be applied. One system of this kind is described, for example, in "ALICE--A Multi-processor reduction Machine for the Parallel evaluation of applicative languages" by J. Darlington and M. Reeve, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Functional Programming Languages and Computer Architecture, 1981.
In known systems of this kind, the packets are generally all processed by the same processing algorithm. For example, the processing algorithm may first inspect the arguments of the packet to determine whether all the arguments necessary for performing the function have been evaluated. If they have, the specified function is executed; if not, then one or more further packets are activated, so as to evaluate the required arguments.
A disadvantage of this, however, is that it can result in redundant actions being performed, and hence can lead to inefficiency. One object of the present invention is to provide a way of avoiding or at least reducing this inefficiency.

Data processing system with packets specifying functions and arguments


A conveyor system for transporting shredded solid waste material to a boiler is provided. The system includes a flighted drag chain conveyor positioned within a trough-like enclosure. The conveyor includes a number of drag elements mounted to each flight, the drag elements including spring mounted tines which urged the shredded waste material through the enclosure. The tines are deflectable about the axes of the respective springs so that they can deflect about difficult to move items within the conveyor enclosure. The drag elements are preferably arranged in a staggered configuration to aid in dislodging items which may be stuck within the conveyor enclosure. One or more discharge outlets are mounted to the conveyor enclosure for receiving the shredded solid waste material from the enclosure.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to systems for delivering refuse fuel to a boiler/incinerator.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Solid waste from municipal and industrial sources is being used in increasing amounts as boiler fuel in the commercial generation of steam and electricity. This is done for economic reasons as well as because of a diminishing number of available landfills. The waste is generally preliminarily processed before its being fed to the boiler. Such processing typically includes shredding and then separating ferrous materials from the shredded waste with a magnetic separator. Recyclable and/or unprocessable materials may also be removed from the waste at a picking station prior to its transferral to the shredder.
Various systems have been devised for providing shredded waste material to the boiler of a waste treatment facility. U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,127 is directed to one such feeder assembly which includes a pair of diagonally oriented belt conveyors which define opposite sides of a hopper. Waste material deposited in the hopper is transferred to a chute conveyor which in turn carries it to a steam generating furnace. A second system employing an inclined conveyor for discharging solid waste fuel to a boiler is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,572.
The transferal of shredded solid waste material from the shredder to one or more discharge outlets may be accomplished by a conveyor which drags the material through a trough-like enclosure One of the problems encountered in such systems is the tendency of the conveyor to become caught upon some of this material, particularly over discharge outlets which may have filled up to an overflowing level. The conveyor, which is positioned above such outlets, would tend to ride up on or jam against the waste material, thereby rendering the entire conveying system substantially inoperable.

Conveyor system for shredded solid waste material


A power system is provided for a machine, such as a marine or petroleum drilling vessel. The power system may have a plurality of power sources, each with an operating range divided into a plurality of power zones. The power system may also have at least one power consumer driven by the plurality of power sources, a load manager associated with the at least one power consumer and configured to create a load demand for the plurality of power sources, and a controller in communication with the load manager and the plurality of power sources. The controller may be configured to determine a current operational mode of the power system, and to selectively cause the plurality of power sources to operate in particular zones of the plurality of power zones based on the current operational mode and the load demand.

Marine vessels often include multiple engines harnessed together to drive one or more primary loads (e.g., propellers) and various auxiliary loads (e.g., HVAC, lighting, pumps, etc.). The engines can be mechanically connected to the loads or electrically connected to the loads by way of generators. In some applications, the loads of a vessel can be driven both mechanically and electrically in a hybrid arrangement.
In typical marine applications, all engines are simultaneously operated to produce about the same amount of power. For example, a particular marine vessel may have four identical engines each capable of producing about 5,000 kW. And during operation, all of the engines may be operated at the same level (e.g., at about 20% capacity) to evenly distribute the loads (e.g., to evenly distribute a 4,000 kW load). In some situations, however, an even distribution of the loads between the engines may not optimal. For instance, operating four engines at 20% capacity may be less fuel efficient, less responsive, and/or produce more emissions than operating only one of the engines at about 80% capacity or operating two engines at 30% capacity and one engine at 20% capacity.
An attempt at improving power generation efficiency is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0342020 of Blevins et al. that published on Dec. 26, 2013 ("the '020 publication"). In particular, the '020 publication discloses a power grid having a set of controllable generators and a grid controller. The grid controller is configured to determine current system load conditions of the power grid, to compute all possible load partitions between the generators associated with a total fuel consumption, and to identify a load partition with a minimum total fuel consumption from among all the possible load partition solutions. The load partition is determined from performance characterization models that are developed based on performance curves provided by the generator manufacturer, maintenance data, monitored performance data, and environmental data.
Although touted as an improvement over existing technologies, the power grid of the '020 publication may still be less than optimal. For example, it may be time consuming to compute all possible load partition solutions, resulting in system delays. Further, constantly computing and changing the load partition solutions each time the load conditions of the power grid change could result in unstable power grid conditions.
The disclosed power system is directed at overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the prior art.

Power system having zone-based load sharing


A retractable boarding assembly for use with a marine vessel mounted on a boat lift includes an elongate ramp pivotally mounted to a dock or other structure adjacent to the boat lift and supported boat. There is a directional pulley supported above a body of water adjacent to the dock. An elongate cable or marine rope engages the pulley. A first end of the cable is secured to a lift platform of the boat lift. An opposite, second end of the cable is secured to the ramp. Raising the boat lift with a boat supported thereon allows the ramp to pull the attached cable across the pulley until the boarding ramp is pivotally deployed to engage a deck of the supported boat. Alternatively, when the boat lift is lowered to introduce the boat into the water, the lift platform pulls the cable through the directional pulley such that the boarding ramp is pivotally retracted and disengaged from the deck of the boat.

Boarding ramps are commonly used to assist persons getting into and departing from a boat or other type of marine vessel. Many, if not most boarding ramps, are portable. At the commencement of a boat trip, the ramp must be securely installed between the dock or pier and the vessel. After all passengers have boarded the boat, the ramp must then be physically removed. This procedure is then repeated at the termination of the trip so that the passengers may safely and comfortably disembark the boat. The current technique of repeatedly deploying and removing the boat ramp tends to be unsafe, extremely time consuming, laborious and tedious. Typically, at least one crewman of passenger must jump back and forth between the vessel and adjacent dock, both at the beginning and at the end of the trip. To date, most boat ramps have required this type of inconvenient manual installation and removal.

Automatically retractable boarding ramp assembly for a marine vessel


The management of end-to-end cooperation among multiple e-service providers is enabled in a distributed correlation manner by locally appending a tag to each outgoing document, with each tag uniquely identifying the transaction to which it is related and identifying management information. The tags are management information structures that are updated at each participating e-service provider. Consequently, in a succession of e-service providers, the parent e-service is furnished with management information for each of the participating e-services and is able to discern the contributions of each such e-service. The different providers maintain separate management information libraries which are used in registration and correlation processes.

With the widespread deployment of the global communications network referred to as the Internet, the utilization of e-services has become prevalent. E-services are created in the form of portals and e-business websites. E-service providers interact among themselves to extend a range of functionalities to clients. The interaction may take the form of a static composition in which trading partners are generally fixed, but the trend is toward dynamic composition in which e-service providers dynamically choose their trading partners. As one example, an e-service provider of travel services may interact with a number of alternative e-service providers of airline reservations.
An "e-service" is an on-line service that completes tasks, solves problems, or conducts transactions. E-services are accessible on the Internet at a particular Uniform Resource Locator (URL). An e-service provider may depend upon other e-service providers, with the cooperation being either static or dynamic in nature, as previously noted. In FIG. 1, a parent e-service provider 10 may undertake separate conversations 12 and 14 with two other e-service providers 16 and 18. Provider 10 may be an on-line travel service, while the providers 16 and 18 may be airline and hotel services. The provider 16 is shown as engaging in separate conversations 20 and 22 with a pair of sub e-service providers 24 and 26. The sub providers may be competitors in a car service business. Thus, the e-service provider 16 may subcontract related services.
The e-service providers are federated in nature, since they interact across management domains and enterprise networks. The implementations of the e-services may be vastly different and may be based upon any of a number of different platforms. The diversity in their implementations is one reason why it is difficult to manage the overall process.
In order for the e-service providers 10, 16, 18, 24 and 26 to undertake the conversations 12, 14, 20 and 22, there must be an agreed upon document-exchange protocol or protocols. Standardized protocols include CBL, cXML, and EDI. Each conversation consists of multiple exchanges of documents, such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Each transmission of an XML document is referred to as an "exchange," so that a conversation will consist of multiple XML document exchanges. In its simplest form, a conversation consists of an attempt to enter one transaction, but a conversation can result in multiple transactions or may result in no transaction.
Management of e-service conversations is a challenging task because of the varied, federated, decentralized and distributed nature of e-services. As a single transaction spans multiple e-service providers, it is difficult to implement end-to-end e-service management. Nevertheless, there are motivations for enabling the end-to-end management. Such motivations arise from the perspective of both clients and e-service providers. Clients are interested in tracking their interactions and in understanding the internal e-service process flow. An end-to-end understanding enables the client to seek some insight into the actual e-service flow. Service providers that are using other services to provide composite services, such as the providers 10 and 16 in FIG. 1, would benefit from recognizing how the component service providers are behaving. By understanding and observing the behaviors of sub e-services, a composite e-service would be able to optimize itself by either changing its component sub providers or by instructing the existing component sub providers to improve performance.
Referring now to FIG. 2, a typical e-service receives an http request 28 from the parent e-service 10 (if it is not itself the root service) or from an ultimate consumer at a client device, such as a personal computer. The request is routed from one of the web servers 30 in a web server farm 32 to one of the application modules 34 in an application server farm 36. Thereafter, a module 38 of the e-service business logic 40 is applied to the request and a new request 42 is generated for transmission to at least one sub e-service 24. The request 42 is an http request. Some action is performed at the e-service 24 as a response to the request 42. The e-service 24 then generates a response 44 that is expected by a "listener" 46 attached to the web server farm 32.
After the http response 44 is received from the sub e-service 24, the response is directed to the business logic 40, which generates a second http response 48 that is transmitted to the parent e-service 10. The business logic 40 represents the day-to-day operations that are based upon the resources, capabilities and business rules of the particular e-service 16.
The communication pattern among the three e-services 10, 16 and 24 can vary depending upon the implementation. For example, the application logic at the application server farm 36 can cause an immediate response to be sent to the parent e-service 10, before receiving the response 44 from the sub e-service 24. A final response 48 may then be sent at a later time. Also, the final response can be sent directly to the parent e-service 10 from the sub e-service 24, instead of being routed through the business logic 40 of the intermediate e-service 16. In addition, the format of communication is not "symmetric" in the e-services world. That is, an e-service request may not always have a matching response or a single e-service request may have multiple responses. All of these factors add to the difficulty in monitoring and managing end-to-end e-service transactions. Since there is no single point of control, it is difficult to monitor the requests 28 and 42 and the responses 44 and 48 going into and coming from an e-service and to correlate the documents without knowing the business logic of the e-service. Therefore, e-service conversation and transaction level correlation typically requires intrusive instrumentation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,700 to Maccabee et al. describes a method and program storage device for correlating and collating selected measurement events into transactions that describe the behavior of end-to-end business transactions. The end-to-end business transactions are represented by all of the processing stages, such as the requests and responses, that comprise the business transaction. The Maccabee et al. method measures these processing stages and the communications between them by using sensors. The sensors monitor for selected changes in state using a variety of methods to glean which activities are being achieved. Examples of sensors include (1) software written to interact with software exits by registering for notification of selected conditions, (2) software and/or hardware written to intercept activities taken by the business transaction's software and/or hardware (e.g., interception DLLs or shared libraries, or analysis of output logs or alert messages), and (3) insertion of software and/or hardware probes within the business transaction's software and/or hardware (e.g., Application Response Measurement Application Programming Interface (ARM API) calls within business transaction source code). When appropriate, a sensor generates an event that describes the change in state, when and where it has occurred, and any extra data necessary to uniquely identify the event. The events include any additional correlation data useful for later associating the event with other events to form transactions. The sensors forward the events that they generate to their agents for temporary storage, and in certain cases distribution to other system components that have registered interest in knowing that a particular event has occurred.
While the Maccabee et al. method provides significant insights to the end-to-end business transaction processing, what is needed is a more distributed correlation approach that enables end-to-end correlation of e-service transactions in a decentralized manner.

E-service management through distributed correlation

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.