A continuously variable transmission includes a case member including an outer surface on the side where a torque converter is disposed and an inner surface on the side where a driving force transmission mechanism is disposed. The case member includes a supporting hole by which a bearing that supports a third shaft is supported, a supporting hole by which a bearing that supports a fourth shaft is supported, and an oil path through which an lubricant, to be supplied to the bearing and the bearing, is supplied. The oil path protrudes from the outer surface from the case member and has a straight line shape connecting between the supporting hole and the supporting hole. Thus, components can be appropriately lubricated even when it is difficult to provide lubrication pipes.

Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which an oil path is provided to a connection case portion (housing) to which a torque converter is connected from the outer side.
Patent document 2 discloses a configuration in which a lubrication pipe is provided as a method of lubricating components of a continuously variable transmission.
Based on the configurations disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, various components may be lubricated by connecting the oil path of the housing and the lubrication pipe. However, an area around the housing may have components, such as gears, densely arranged, meaning that the provision of the lubrication pipe may render the layout difficult.
FIGS. 5A, 5B and FIGS. 6A, 6B are diagrams illustrating a case member 80 (housing) according to a conventional example. FIG. 5A is a plan view of the case member 80 as viewed from the side cover (not illustrated). FIG. 5B is an enlarged view of the main part of the case member 80 as illustrated in FIG. 5A.
FIG. 6A is a plan view of the case member 80 as viewed from the housing (converter cover). FIG. 6B is an enlarged view of the main part of the case member 80 as FIG. 6A.
In FIGS. 5A, 5B and FIGS. 6A, 6B, an end surface on the viewer side in the drawing sheet is hatched for the sake of description.
A continuously variable transmission for a vehicle includes a plurality of rotation transmission shafts (first shaft, second shaft, third shaft, fourth shaft) that are arranged in parallel with each other.
As illustrated in FIG. 5A, the case member 80, which is a component of a transmission case, is provided with supporting holes 81, 82, 83, and 84 for the rotation transmission shafts (first shaft, second shaft, third shaft, fourth shaft).
Of the supporting holes 81, 82, 83, and 84, the supporting holes 81 and 84 are through holes and the remaining supporting holes 82 and 83 are bottomed supporting holes.
To a circumference wall portion 851 surrounding a region including the supporting holes 81, 82, 83, and 84, a side cover (not illustrated) is assembled from the viewer side in the drawing sheet and is fixed thereto using a bolt (not illustrated).
The side cover (not illustrated) also includes supporting holes supporting the plurality of rotation transmission shafts, and one end and the other end in the longitudinal direction of each of the plurality of rotation transmission shaft are rotatably supported respectively by the case member 80 and the side cover (not illustrated).
A supply hole 861 for a lubricant OL is open inside the circumference wall portion 851 and outside an arched wall 820 surrounding the supporting hole 82.
Into this supply hole 861, the lubricant OL from an oil pressure control circuit (not illustrated) included in the continuously variable transmission is supplied.
The supporting hole 82 is formed to be recessed toward the farther side from the viewer in the drawing sheet, and has a bottom wall 821 provided with an oil path 86 (see FIG. 5B) in communication with the supply hole 861.
In the case member 80, the oil path 86 is provided in a wall portion 85 partitioning the region on the side of the side cover (the viewer side in the drawing sheet) and the region on the side of the housing (the side farther from the viewer in the drawing sheet).
The oil path 86 is linearly provided along a straight line L1 connecting between an axis X2 of the second shaft and an axis X3 of the third shaft.
In the region of the supporting hole 82, the oil path 86 is provided to cross the axis X2 of the second shaft in the radial direction. A region of the oil path 86 positioned in the supporting hole 82 bulges toward the viewer side in the drawing sheet from the bottom wall 821 of the supporting hole 82.
Thus, the region of the oil path 86 that bulges toward the viewer side in the drawing sheet functions as a rib for increasing the rigidity and strength of the case member 80.
At a position of the oil path 86 intersecting with the axis X2, a cylindrical supporting tube 825 is provided. One end of the second shaft 2 is rotatably supported by this supporting tube 825.
The supporting tube 825 is in communication with the oil path 86, and a part of the lubricant OL flowing in the oil path 86 is supplied into an oil path in the second shaft (not illustrated) from the supporting tube 825.
A bearing (not illustrated) supporting one end of the second shaft in the supporting hole 82 is lubricated with the lubricant OL supplied from the supporting tube 825.
A ring shaped supporting portion 830 surrounding the supporting hole 83 is provided at a position adjacent to the supporting hole 82. At a position of the supporting portion 830 intersecting with the axis X3 on the inner side, a cylindrical supporting tube 835 is provided. One end of the third shaft is rotatably supported by this supporting tube 835.
The supporting tube 835 is in communication with the oil path 86, and a part of the lubricant OL flowing in the oil path 86 is supplied into an oil path in the third shaft from the supporting tube 835.
A bearing (not illustrated) supporting one end of the third shaft in the supporting hole 83 is lubricated by the lubricant OL supplied from the supporting tube 835.
In the supporting hole 83, an oil path 832 is provided on a straight line L1 connecting between the axis X2 and the axis X3 and at a position in contact with the inner circumference of the supporting portion 830.
The oil path 832 is also in communication with the oil path 86, and a part of the lubricant OL flowing in the oil path 86 is supplied into the supporting hole 83 from the oil path 832.
One end 89a of a guide pipe 89 (lubrication pipe) for the lubricant is attached to a position of the oil path 86 close to the outer circumference of the supporting portion 830 from the viewer side in the drawing sheet.
In plan view, the guide pipe 89 includes a straight line portion 891 linearly extending downward toward the supporting hole 84, and a bend portion 892.
The bend portion 892 is bent to be in a shape circumventing the outer circumference of a differential case (not illustrated) rotatably supported by the supporting hole 84. An oil hole 89c is provided in a portion of the bent portion 892 facing the supporting hole 84. The oil hole 89c faces the differential case (not illustrated) rotatably supported by the supporting hole 84.
Thus, a part of the lubricant OL flowed into the guide pipe 89 from the oil path 86 described above is ejected toward the outer circumference of the differential case (not illustrated) through the oil hole 89c.
The differential case (not illustrated) is rotatably supported by the cylindrical supporting portion 840 surrounding the supporting hole 84 via a bearing (not illustrated).
The supporting portion 840 is in communication with the oil path 841 extending downward toward the circumference wall portion 851 in the wall portion 85. The oil path 841 is open toward the viewer side in the drawing sheet at a lower portion of the supporting portion 840, with the other end 89b of the guide pipe 89 attached to the oil path 841 from the viewer side in the drawing sheet.
Thus, a part of the lubricant OL flowed into the guide pipe 89 from the oil path 86 described above is supplied to the supporting portion 840 through the oil path 841 to lubricate the bearing supported on the inner side of the supporting portion 840.
In a region of the case member 80 inside the circumference wall portion 851, components such as gears are densely arranged. Thus, depending on the specification of the case member 80, the guide pipe (lubrication pipe) may be difficult to provide.
Thus, there is a demand for enabling appropriate lubrication of various components, even when the lubrication pipe is difficult to provide.


Disclosed is a method for manufacturing an article made of a polymerized material including the steps of: —providing a vat of polymerizable material, transparent at least in the 400-800 nanometers wavelengths range, —irradiating the polymerizable material with a laser beam according to a predetermined pattern so as to polymerize the polymerizable material in order to form the article, the predetermined pattern being determined based on a three-dimension representation of the article with the positions in three dimensions of a plurality of volume units adapted to form together the article, the laser beam scanning the vat in three dimensions in order to be focused at each position of the volume units present in the predetermined pattern so as to initiate locally the polymerization of the polymerizable material at each of these positions.

Different methods for manufacturing articles in polymerized material are well known.
Known micro production processes enable high-resolution structuring of arbitrary 3D patterns in photosensitive materials. The polymerization is for example triggered locally by two-photon absorption of a laser beam.
The resolution, i.e., the voxel size, is determined mostly by the laser spot size in the material, the power of the laser source and the properties of the photosensitive material itself.
In order to obtain the shape of the article, the article is built according to a layer-by-layer build process on a substrate that is moved relative to the focusing optics of the laser beam. In a first known implementation, called "fixed-beam moving-sample" (FBMS), the substrate is moved in all three dimensions by a high-precision positioning unit relative to the focusing optics, while the laser is fixed. The movement of the substrate is often driven by piezo actuators that allow for a very precise focus trajectory. In a second known implementation, the laser beam is laterally scanned using galvanometric mirrors, while the substrate is moved vertically, said vertical movement of the substrate being controlled by piezo-actuators.
This known technology is of very high precision and relatively slow. It is rather not adapted to the building of article of size bigger than a few hundreds of micrometers.

Method for manufacturing an article made of a polymerized material


Systems, apparatuses, services, platforms, and methods are discussed herein that provide user search services to a communication platform. An example user search service receives a query indicted by a user to find users of a communication platform associated with one or more search terms. The example user search service also presents to the user a search result view comprising resultant users on the communication platform, where the search result view includes one or more graphical annotations in association with ones of the resultant users that indicate a quantity of common users on the communication platform between the user and the ones of the resultant users.

Conferencing and telephony services have become more popular as the capacity and capabilities of networks and communication devices have advanced. Users of these services engage in video calls in the context of business, social, and other interactions, and using a variety of communication platforms and technologies. Skype®, Skype® for Business, Google Hangouts®, and Facetime® are just some examples of such services. Additionally, messaging services can be integrated with the conferencing and telephony services or operated as stand-along messaging platforms.
Users can engage in search features of these conferencing, telephony, or messaging services to find other users on the communication platforms, such as typing in a username or various search parameters to discover other users. However, these search features typically are difficult to optimize with regard to search scope, and can either give too broad of results or too narrow of results. Moreover, as the quantity of users of these communication platforms increases, searching among the multitude of users can consume processing resources and storage of pre-searched results. This can lead to a poor user experience when searching among users and finding people for engaging in communication sessions.
Overview
Systems, apparatuses, services, platforms, and methods are discussed herein that provide user search services to a communication platform. An example user search service receives a query indicted by a user to find users of a communication platform associated with one or more search terms. The example user search service also presents to the user a search result view comprising resultant users on the communication platform, where the search result view includes one or more graphical annotations in association with ones of the resultant users that indicate a quantity of common users on the communication platform between the user and the ones of the resultant users.
This Overview is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. It may be understood that this Overview is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Search prioritization interfaces for communication platform users


System and method for testing changes to binary code of a computer program include: collecting test coverage data from an executed set of tests of an original computer program; calculating a baseline report containing correlations between the executed set of tests and blocks of binary code of the original computer program; determining binary code changes between the original computer program and a modified version of the computer program; identifying one or more tests to be executed for verifying the binary code changes.

During software application development, organizations often create a suite of regression tests to verify that the functionality of the application continues to work as expected as they continue development. When the regression test suite gets large, these organizations have many tests to run to verify the quality of the software application. Moreover, the entire test suite may take a long time to execute, especially when testing a web user interface (UI) using known Selenium™ framework, or representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) using web application testing programs, for example, Parasoft SOAtest™, etc. In such cases, developers, quality assurance (QA) or information technology (IT) integrators are not able to obtain quick feedback about the impact of changes to the application by running all tests. Obtaining quick feedback is especially important for continuous deployment of applications in which software functionalities are delivered frequently through automated deployments.
There are existing approaches that attempt to solve this problem by identifying a subset of tests to run based on analyzing changes made to the source code of the application and correlating those changes with previously collected data about which tests executed which lines of code. These approaches require having access to source code controlled by a version control system such as, Git™ or Subversion™. However, QA or IT integrators who execute the tests may have limited or no access to the source code of the application under test.
In many cases, QA or IT integrators have access only to the application's binary files (object code) delivered by development teams. Conventionally, the only way to verify changes to the object code of an application in these cases is to execute the entire set of tests manually or by an automated test executor, even if the changes affect only a small portion of the application.

System and method for test impact analysis of computer programs


Oxidative dehydrogenation of light paraffins, such as ethane at moderate temperatures (<500° C.) to produce ethylene without the formation of side products such as acetic acid and/or other oxygenated hydrocarbons is achieved using tellurium-free, multimetallic catalysts possessing orthorhombic M1 phase and other crystalline structures that have an important role for obtaining high performance catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene. Such catalysts are prepared using thermal and hydrothermal methods.

Ethylene is the keystone of the petrochemical industry, since; it is employed as the main building block for the production of polymers, ethyl-benzene and styrene, among other chemical products of great importance in the modern world. Ethylene is produced from the steam-cracking (pyrolysis) of saturated hydrocarbon cuts, chiefly ethane and propane. Such processes are carried out in the presence of superheated steam at temperatures within the range 800-1000° C. Operating under these conditions involves a huge energetic demand and very high expenses related to the cost and maintenance of the furnaces which provide the heat required for the process. Also, due to the usage of high temperature, a wide variety of byproducts are formed, such as di-olefins as well as acetylene being the ones observed at the largest concentrations. The separation of these formed species from the reactor effluent requires a relatively complex scheme involving extractive distillation and/or selective hydrogenation, the latter in the particular case of having acetylene, which at the end requires of an additional investment. As a consequence, for economic and environmental reasons, several worldwide companies and research groups have focused their efforts on finding alternative process to produce ethylene.
An attractive route to produce ethylene is through the oxidative dehydrogenation reaction of ethane. The oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODH-E) is an exothermal reaction which is not limited by the thermodynamic equilibrium and, hence, full ethane conversion is possible at low reaction temperatures (<500° C.). In the ODH-E, additionally, the number of side reactions is rather limited; usually, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide appear as the main side products, while the formation of coke is negligible. Despite the many efforts dedicated to obtain catalysts with high activity and selectivity features, to the date, industrial application of ODH-E is still far from a reality. In fact, economic calculations have indicated that ethylene yields reported so far during ODH-E are not yet sufficient to be considered as an economically profitable process. It is therefore clear that more efforts are required to further improve the catalyst performance whilst, in the process context, particular attention is to be paid to design an adequate reactor configuration due to the thermal characteristics of the reactions involved.
Vanadium based catalysts supported on conventional materials were the first catalytic systems used for the ODH-E, notwithstanding, their efficiency to produce ethylene was not very high (Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane and propane: commercial How far from implementation? Cavani et al., Catalysis Today, 127 (2007) 113). In particular, at high ethane conversions, an important amount of carbon oxides and acetic acid were observed in detriment to ethylene formation.
The use of catalysts based on oxides of molybdenum and vanadium together with other oxides of transition metals, e.g., Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Nb, Ta or Ce, calcined at 400° C., was proposed by Thorsteinson et al. in "The Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane over Catalyst Containing Mixed Oxides of Molybdenum and Vanadium", Journal of Catalysis, 52 (1978) 116. The best result was obtained over a solid with the composition Mo0.61V0.31Nb0.08 supported in gamma alumina, yielding a 25% of ethylene at 340° C.
Later, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,346, U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,236 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,790 assigned to Union Carbide Corporation, the synthesis of catalyst for ODH-E at low temperature is reported. U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,236, in particular, discloses a catalyst with a composition MoVNbSbM (M being at least one of the following elements Li, Sc, Na, Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ti, Zr, Hf, Y, Ta, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Ce, La, Zn, Cd, Hg, Al, Tl, Pb, As, Bi, Te, U and W). The best catalytic result offered in this patent was obtained over the Mo0.61V0.26Nb0.07Sb0.04Ca0.02 system, exhibiting an ethane conversion equal to 34% and selectivity to ethylene of 86% when the reaction was conducted at 330° C. After a further increase in the reaction temperature to 400° C., 73% of the fed ethane was converted with an ethylene selectivity of 71%. In reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,346, the formation of acetic acid is reported to occur during the ODH-E.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,578, granted to Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics and Union Carbide Corporation, and EP 0294846A3 with Union Carbide Corporation as applicant, McCain and co-workers claim about a catalytic composition with a general formula MoaVvNbSbXe (X being at least one of the following metals Li, Sc, Na, Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ti, Zr, Hf, Y, Ta, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Ce, La, Zn, Cd, Hg, Al, Tl, Pb, As, Bi, Te, U and W, preferably Ca) to produce acetic acid from ethane, or a mixture ethane/ethylene, with a remarkably high selectivity to the mentioned acid.
Japanese patent JP 10143314 granted to Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd. describes a MoVSbX catalytic system (wherein X corresponds to Ti, Zr, Nb, Ta, Cr, W, Mn, Fe, Ru, Co, Rh, Ir, Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Zn, In, Sn, Pb, Bi, Ce and alkaline rare earth metals) which exhibits a crystalline structure defined by a X-ray spectrum included in the patent. The catalytic system was used for the selective oxidation of ethane to ethylene with ethane conversions as high as 90.8% and selectivity to ethylene of 68%.
MoVNbSb mixed oxides have been also proposed as effective catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to produce ethylene, as well as acetic acid, in patent EP-A-0294845 granted to Union Carbide.
WO 99/13980, assigned to Saudi Basic Ind., in turn, reports a Mo—V—Nb based catalyst doped with small amounts of P, Hf, Te and/or As. Solids were thermally treated under air atmosphere between 250 and 450° C. and then used in the oxidation of ethane to produce acetic acid, reporting yields within the 12-17% range.
In Japanese Patent JP10017523 granted to Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd. in 1998, inventors proposed a catalyst for the oxidation of ethane to acetic acid. It is composed of a metal—Ru, Rh, Ir Pd and/or Pt—supported over a mixed oxide of MoVXZ. In this patent, particular attention is paid on a Pd based catalyst supported on a mixed oxide constituted of MoVNbSb, which exhibited yields to acetic acid as high as 59.7%.
Several US patents, in particular U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,920A, U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,610B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,241B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,977B1 and U.S. 2003/0100794A1 have been granted to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, a Saudi Arabian company. These patents report on the performance of Mo and V based catalysts promoted with other metals for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane at low temperatures. The catalytic activity experiments contained in these documents, however, were carried out using molecular oxygen as an oxidant to yield mainly acetic acid, while ethylene is formed as byproduct.
In U.S. 2003/01000794A1, a new catalyst with a general formula MOaVbAlcXdYeOz, where in X is at least one of the elements belonging to the group W and Mn; Y is at least one element selected from the group Pd, Sb, Ca, P, Ga, Ge, Si, Mg, Nb and K; an "z" is an integer number representing the number of oxygen atoms required to satisfy the valence of Mo, V, Al, X and Y. These catalysts were utilized in the partial oxidation of ethane to produce acetic acid as well as ethylene.
Additionally, methods to produce catalyst containing Mo, V, Sb and Nb are also claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,629 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,109,144 B2, both assigned to Asahi Kasei Kabushiki Kaisha. The composition of the catalyst is represented by the general formula Mo1.0VaSbbNbcZdOn. In the latter, Z corresponds to at least an element belonging to the group W, Cr, Ti, Al, Ta, Zr, Hf, Mn, Fe, Ru, Co, Rh, Ni, Pd, Pt, Zn, B, In, Ge, Sn, Pb, Bi, Y, Ga, rare earths and alkaline rare earth metals. These catalysts were employed in the ammoxidation of propane or isobutene.
In U.S. 2008/0161602A1, which claims the benefits from the provisional application patent U.S. Ser. No. 60/877,270, describes a catalytic formulation denoted by the general formula MoaVbNbcTedSbeOf, wherein a=1, b=0.01-1.0, c=0.1-1.0, d=0.1-1.0 e=0.01-1.0 and f depend upon the oxidation state of the other elements. A particular feature of these catalysts is to exhibit at least two crystalline phases, namely, an orthorhombic one denoted as M1 and a second pseudo-hexagonal phase named M2. The referred solid is used to promote the partial oxidation of propane to acrylic acid, acetic acid being one of the most important side-product.
U.S. 2011/0245571A1 and U.S. 2012/0016171A1, to Nova Chemicals International S.A., claim a process for the preparation of a catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane, with a relatively high yield to ethylene reporting selectivity to ethylene higher than 90% with productivity in the range 2,500 g ethylene per hour and kg of catalyst. The catalyst claimed is a tellurium-containing solid with as general formula VxMoyNbzTemMenOp, wherein Me is a metal belonging to the group Ta, Ti, W, Hf, Zr and Sb, or a mixture of them. Metals are deposited over a matrix composed of oxides of Ti, Zr, Al, Mg, La, Si or mixtures thereof, or even a matrix of carbon.
U.S. 2010/0256432A1, assigned to Lummus Novolent GMBH/Lummus Technology Inc., and U.S. Pat. No. 8,105,971B2 to Lummus Technology Inc., claim a high performance catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene. Over this catalytic system represented by Mo1.0V0.29Nb0.17Sb0.01Te0.125Ox, ethane conversion reached values of up to 81% with an ethylene selectivity of 89% when reaction is conducted at 360° C. Notice that this solid also contains tellurium as an ingredient of the formulation.
U.S. 2006/0183941A1, J. L. Dubois, W. Ueda et al., in contrast, claims a tellurium-free catalyst represented by the general formula Mo1.0VaSbbNbcSidOx, in which a=0.006-1.0, b=0.006-1.0, c=0.006-1.0, d=0-3.5 and "x" is the amount of oxygen bonded to other elements. The catalyst is applied to the partial oxidation of propane to yield acrylic acid.
One of the most efficient catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene has been described in WO 03/064035 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,179, by J. M. Lopez-Nieto et al., and granted to UPV-CSIC. There is claimed a catalyst based on a mixture of mixed oxides, MoTeVNb, which exhibited a yield to ethylene close to 75%. This high-efficiency solid contains tellurium as well.
Similar catalysts have been reported in the open literature. Ueda et al. in "Selective oxidation of light alkanes over hydrothermally synthesized Mo—V-M-O (M=Al, Ga, Bi, Sb, and Te) oxide catalysts", Applied Catalysis A: General 200 (2000) 135. The formation of acetic acid is, however, always observed in the reactor effluent. Selectivity to ethylene is lower than 75% for an ethane conversion lower than 20%.
Also, Botella et al. in "Selective oxidation of ethane: Developing an orthorhombic phase in Mo—V—X (X=Nb, Sb, Te) mixed oxides", Catalysis Today 142 (2009) 272, used a MoVSb based catalyst for the ODH-E with a capacity to convert ca. 40% ethane and a selectivity to ethylene in the 90-92% range.
Due to the economic, technical and environmental advantages that the process for producing ethylene by the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane has exhibited, the attention of research groups has been focused mainly on improving the catalyst formulation. One of the main challenges to be solved is the minimization of the formation of byproducts, in particular carbon oxides (COx). These compounds, apart from decreasing the global efficiency of the process, are produced via very exothermal reactions. Thus, catalysts with a high potential to be used at the industrial scale are expected to display selectivity to ethylene between 80 and 85% for ethane conversion in the range 50-60%. Moreover, the formation of oxygenate products, e.g., acetic acid and aldehydes, must be avoided on the referred catalytic systems as their presence would involve additional stages in the separation train or troubles in the reactor.
On the other hand, the presence of tellurium seems to be indispensable in most of the high efficiency catalytic systems reported in many patents to date for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene. Notwithstanding, the relatively high susceptibility of tellurium to reducing atmospheres, together with the large amount of metal that is lost during the thermal activation stages, appears to be a restriction for a catalyst scaling-up to industrial level. This problem would be always latent in industrial practice since, during operation, the reaction mixture can be composed of ethane diluted in nitrogen, i.e., a reductive mixture which, in the presence of hot-spots would favor the reduction and further loss of tellurium with the consequent gradual decay in the catalytic properties of the solid.

Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene and preparation of multimetallic mixed oxide catalyst for such process


Embodiments of the present invention provide light diffusion into edge lines of a modular display, and thus provide a modular display that is capable of displaying a single, continuous image without visible edge lines between individual display modules. One display module includes a multitude of pixels that contain red, green, blue, and white light sources. The replacement of an edge line blocking dam with the light diffusion edge line of the individual display module can provide a single, continuous image to be displayed thereon without visible, image-quality-reducing edge lines. With various heights of the buffer layer, the light can concentrate on the edge line in modular display. The individual display modules can be light emitting diode (LED), organic LED (OLED), UV LED, RGB LED, Phosphor-based LED, Quantum dot LED, or displays based upon a combination thereof. Furthermore, the variable height buffer layer allows for a modular display image in 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional formats.

As televisions and other video displays continue to evolve, the desire for enhanced functionality continues. For example, many computer users now use multiple displays so that different sets of data can be viewed in series or in parallel. These multiple computer displays can typically be organized with a single screen's image being repeated across multiple displays or as an extended desktop wherein the multiple displays are virtually connected wherein the mouse icon will move from one display to another with relative screen locations being determined during setup of the multiple display management software.
In addition, many restaurants, open public areas, and other establishments attempt to increase the size of a display by aligning several displays in an attempt to create a larger image. Examples of such technology have been developed by CineMassive® and 9× Media®, Inc. Unfortunately, no previous approach has been successful in aligning multiple displays without either different images being displayed and/or edge line from the displays appearing in the image in a grid-like or other fashion. Such edge lines cause the image to be segmented or non-continuous in nature, which decreases its image quality and its ease of viewing to the user. In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a solution that solves at least one of the deficiencies in the prior art.
Current LED device pixels have a blocking dam around the edge line of each pixel to protect against color diffusion between pixels. Light diffusion between pixels results in a resolution performance decrease. A modular display with blocking dams around each pixel can bring a visible edge line into the produced image.
As LEDs continue to grow in popularity as an efficient technological device, the need for continued advancement grows as well. Along these lines, obtaining white light output from LED is not only needed, but also difficult to achieve. Many approaches in the past have attempted to find new ways to obtain white light. However, many of these approaches perform such processing at the chip level instead of at the wafer level. Such an approach can result in chip waste. Moreover, none of the existing approaches vary phosphor ratios based on an underlying device measurement (such as a wavelength of a light output). For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,044 forms a pedestal on top of a pad. The pedestal is a stud bump that is used for connectivity. This approach is not ideal as it is inefficient, does not provide chip level coating, is much harder to polish, and is easily contaminated. Moreover, in previous approaches such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,446,733 and 7,190,328, pads were manufactured so that all LEDs thereon had the same height. In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a LED and associated method of manufacture that addresses the deficiencies of the related art.

Light diffusion of visible edge lines in a multi-dimensional modular display


A user interface for displaying and playing multimedia contents is capable of allowing the user to easily recognize information about multimedia contents at a glance, and allowing the user to more easily retrieve desired information, through an image pre-play function. An apparatus includes the user interface, and a control method for the apparatus are includes displaying a sorting item of a multimedia content, and arranging file information included in the sorting item and having the form of a playable image.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an apparatus for displaying and playing multimedia contents, and, more particularly, to a user interface for displaying and playing the multimedia contents, which is capable of allowing the user to easily recognize information about multimedia contents at a glance, and allowing the user to more easily retrieve desired information, through an image pre-play function, an apparatus comprising the same, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In accordance with recent developments in the field of image and audio media, a recording medium capable of recording and storing a large amount of high-quality image data or high-quality audio data corresponding to a long playback time has been developed and are commercially available. Such a recording medium includes an optical disc, such as, a digital versatile disc (DVD), for example.
Also, an optical disc system capable of recording multimedia contents on an optical disc and playing the recorded multimedia contents has been developed and are commercially available. Such multimedia contents include images and audio, for example, and such an optical disc system includes a digital versatile disc (DVD) recorder, for example.
Such a DVD recorder plays back images and/or audio recorded on a DVD, and outputs the images and/or audio through a screen and/or a speaker. For multimedia contents consisting of moving images, the DVD recorder uses a coding compression algorithm proposed by the moving picture expert group (MPEG) to encode and record the multimedia contents. For the playback of the recorded multimedia contents, the DVD recorder decodes the encoded multimedia contents to reproduce original multimedia contents.
Personal video recorders (PVRs) have also been developed and are commercially available. Since such PVRs store a broadcast signal transmitted from a broadcasting station in a hard disk drive (HDD) or a storage medium other than the HDD in the form of a digital signal, it provides an environment enabling the user not only to view a broadcast of the broadcast signal in real time, but also to play back a stored broadcast signal every time the user wants to view a stored broadcast of the broadcast signal.
In typical cases, however, retrieval of a desired multimedia content can be achieved only after the user opens storage areas, namely, folders, in which the multimedia contents are stored one by one, because the multimedia contents are arranged in a form of a list.
In the typical multimedia content retrieval method, a number of operations performed to retrieve a desired multimedia content from the folder in which multimedia contents are stored increases as a depth (or a number of subfolders) of the folder increases. In order to retrieve a desired one of the multimedia contents, the user should search the multimedia contents stored in the subfolders one by one.
In the typical multimedia content retrieval method, in which listed multimedia contents are searched individually to retrieve a desired multimedia content, the searching operation is carried out only based on titles of the multimedia contents. In order to obtain detailed information about a certain multimedia content, it is necessary to actually play back the multimedia content. For this reason, it is inconvenient when the played-back multimedia content does not correspond to a multimedia content desired by the user, since search and retrieval operations would need to be repeated, possibly multiple times, to retrieve the desired multimedia content.
Furthermore, the recent increase in the capacities of the DVDs and the PVRs, and the recent continuous increase in the number of available multimedia contents have resulted in increased difficulty in searching an enormous amount of the multimedia contents.

User interface for displaying and playing multimedia contents, apparatus comprising the same, and control method thereof


The present invention provides compositions and methods for identifying and utilizing proinflammatory nucleic acids. In particular, this invention relates to compounds, particularly oligonucleotides, which exert their effect through triggering receptors expressed by myeloid cells (TREMs), specifically TREM 2.

Oligonucleotides with a bacterial-like "CpG" have been shown to trigger proinflammatory responses through activation of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). This results in activation of a signal transduction pathway involving the Myd88 adaptor protein, and downstream activation of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) family members and the nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B pathway. This stimulation leads to an increased production of cytokines including interferons, interleukin (IL)-6 and 12, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), chemokines, costimulatory molecules, and antigen presentation on antigen presenting cells (APCs). This process further stimulates adaptive immunity and potentiates a T-helper 1 (Th1) type response.
The cellular and humoral immune responses stimulated by exposure to CpG oligonucleotides is likely a result of the relative abundance of unmethylated CpG motifs in bacteria and other pathogens, as compared to mammalian DNA, in which such motifs are rare. The human immune system has apparently evolved to recognize CpG sequences as early signs of infection and to initiate an immediate immune response against pathogens without causing adverse reactions frequently seen with other proinflammatory agents. Thus, CpG containing nucleic acids, relying on this innate immunity, can utilze a distinct and natural pathway for immune therapy.
Oligonucleotides containing CpG motifs have been developed to exploit this process for use for the prevention and treatment of infections (Dalpke et al., BioDrugs. 2002; 16:419-31, incorporated herein by reference); vaccine adjuvants (Rothenfusser et al., Curr Opin Mol. Ther. 2003. 5:98-106, incorporated herein by reference), including those for the induction of mucosal immunity (Curr Opin Investig Drugs. 2004.5:141-5); allergy (Gangloff and Guenounou. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2004. 26:115-25, incorporated herein by reference); cancer (Jaing et al., Curr Opin Mol. Ther. 2003. 5:180-5; Wang et al., Curr Pharm Des. 2005. 11:2889-907, both incorporated herein by reference); HIV (Becker. Virus Genes. 2005. 30:251-66, incorporated herein by reference); and autoimmune diseases such as lupus (Lenert, Clin Exp Immunol. 2005. 140:1-10, incorporated herein by reference). Importantly proinflammatory CpG motifs show optimal activity in both mouse and human systems without the need to change sequences, suggesting an overriding of the species-dependent specificity of the receptor by the use of synthetic motifs (Kandimalla et al., Biochem Soc Trans. 2003. 31:654-8, incorporated herein by reference).
The activity of CpG proinflammatory nucleic acids can be tested in various immune cell assays. Such methods are described in detail in PCT Published Patent Applications PCT/US95/01570 (WO 96/02555) and PCT/US97/19791 (WO 98/18810) claiming priority to U.S. Ser. Nos. 08/386,063 and 08/960,774, filed on Feb. 7, 1995 and Oct. 30, 1997 respectively. The methods require the use of primary cells from either mice or humans. The effectiveness of the assay on determining the activity of a nucleic acid is dependent upon the appropriate receptors and signaling pathways being present in the cells used.
Recently, research has shown that oligonucleotides devoid of CpG motifs are capable of eliciting a proinflammatory response in vivo and in vitro. Using a mouse knockout model, it was demonstrated that the response to these oligonucleotides is mediated by TLR9. It was suggested that the immunostimulatory motif consists of a 5′-TC dinucleotide in a thymidine rich background, preferably about at least 35% (Vollmer et al., Immunol. 2004. 113:212-223, incorporated herein by reference). The motif was found to stimulate B-cell activation, but lacked a Th1-like cytokines and chemokines.
Oligonucleotides intended for antisense applications are designed to avoid CpG and other proinflammatory motifs that induce a proinflammatory response by using various chemical modifications (i.e. 2′MOE sugars and methylation of cytosine residues) (Henry et al., J. Pharmacol. Expt. Thera. 2000. 292: 468-479). However, some oligonucleotides have immunostimulatory activity, despite having no identifiable proinflammatory motifs and/or containing modified nucleobases to reduce immunostimulatory activity. Such activity is often not identified until the oligonucleotide is administered to an animal. An in vitro method for identifying such oligonucleotides would be desirable.


The invention presents a fast-drying nail polish topcoat composition with high shine and long wear. The disclosed combination of at least two cellulose-derived primary film formers, a ketone-aldehyde resin, a plasticizer, a hydrocarbon oil, and solvents selected such that no more than 20% of the solvents have an evaporation rate less than or equal to butyl acetate provides a nail polish that can be dried within 30 seconds on fingernails without sacrificing other critical properties.

Consumers use nail polish to cosmetically enhance the appearance of their nails or protect the nails from the abuses found in their everyday environment. Often this requires a nail polish that is formulated to provide a good shine.
Consumers also desire a durable nail polish. Lack of durability is often evidenced by unsightly chipping or peeling of the coating soon after the original coating has been applied, requiring at least in part a reapplication of the coating in an attempt to recreate the aesthetic appearance or the therapeutic benefits of the original nail coating. Application and/or removal of more durable nail coatings is often very time consuming, requiring long cure times upon administration by skilled personnel leading to added costs for the consumer.
Modern, fast-paced consumers desire a nail polish topcoat with an easy application that dries rapidly. Fast-dry nail polish topcoat is generally achieved through the selection of volatile solvent system selection and introduction of specific film formers which can gives topcoat desirable properties such as fast-solvent releasing, high clarity, high gloss, durability, good adhesion and stability.
Selection of solvent package is critical to shorten the drying time of topcoat. Volatile solvents with high evaporation rate can be chosen for this purpose. However, the fast evaporation of solvents in nail polishes when applied to manicure or pedicure could lead to undesired properties such as streaking, air bubbling, hazing, and reduced gloss and adhesion. Further, some of solvents that evaporate quickly—toluene and acetone, for example—are toxic.
A number of efforts have been made to take advantage of appropriate solvent combination to achieve fast drying speed as well as high shine and long wear. Thus, a fast-drying nail polish topcoat that retains shine and long wear, is therefore highly desirable.


Disclosed herein a solder injection head including: a bump material storing part having a bump material stored therein; a discharging part having one side connected to the bump material storing part and discharging the bump material to the outside; a heating part formed at at least one side of the discharging part and heating the bump material passing through the discharging part; and a press-fitting part press-fitting the bump material discharged to the outside and injecting the bump material onto a substrate.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a solder injection head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bumps may be formed on a substrate in order to mount electronic components on the substrate. Examples of a typical method of forming the bump include a solder paste printing method, a solder ball mounting method, and a melted solder injection method. The solder paste printing method is a method in which a solder paste is printed on the substrate and a reflow is performed on the solder paste. The solder ball mounting method is a method in which a fine solder ball is directly mounted on the substrate. The melted solder injection method is a method in which a melted solder is directly injected onto the substrate or injected onto the substrate using a mask. In an apparatus for directly injecting the melted solder, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,333, all solders are stored in the melted state in the solder injection apparatus. In this case, the melted solders may be left in the solder injection apparatus for a long period of time. In the case in which the solders are left in the melted state for a long period of time, the solders are oxidized, such that it is difficult to form a reliable bump later.


A brace insert device that is configured to be cast in concrete includes an anchor insert that has a hub with a threaded inner surface and a plurality of legs extending from the hub. A fastener has a shank portion that is threadably engaged with the threaded inner surface of the hub, where a head portion of the fastener is coupled to an end of the shank portion. A cap has an inner surface that is disposed over and conceals the head portion of the fastener. The cap is configured to be removed from a cured concrete structure to expose and allow operable access to the head portion of the fastener for use in attaching a wall brace.

Concrete panels are used in concrete and precast wall construction, and are typically used to construct commercial buildings, such as warehouses and factories. A concrete panel is constructed with reinforcement and concrete. The construction involves building a rectangular concrete form on site in the case of tilt-up, and off site in the case of precast wall construction. Steel reinforced rebar or other reinforcement is mounted in the form, the form is filled with concrete, and after the concrete cures, the concrete panel is properly aligned creating a wall section. Numerous wall sections generally are fabricated and attached together to frame members of the building to construct complete walls. Utility conduits may be embedded within the wall sections as needed to provide electricity and plumbing. The forms into which the concrete is poured are typically fabricated from wood or metal and, for tilt-up panels, they are formed at a worksite on the ground adjacent to the location where the wall is constructed.
Brace inserts are commonly cast in tilt-up or precast concrete wall panels. The brace inserts are typically cast into the wall panels with a plastic plug, which is later removed during placement of the panel. Once the plug is removed from the insert cast into the wall panel, a metal brace coil bolt is then inserted for a shoe of a wall brace to be attached to the wall panel. With the wall brace attached to the brace insert, the wall brace is used to impart rigidity to the wall panel while the building is being constructed. Plastic plugs are often stripped or torn apart when removing the plug, which can hinder or prevent secure insertion of the bolt.

Brace insert device used in the construction of concrete panels


A camera comprises a photo taking optical system; driving means for driving the photo taking optical system; a shutter; switching means for causing transmission of the driving force of the driving means to the photo taking optical system to be changed over to the shutter; and control means for controlling the shutter by converting the opening time of the shutter into the driving degree of the driving means.

1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a camera and more particularly to an improvement on a photo taking lens and shutter driving device of a camera arranged to perform driving control over the photo taking lens and the shutter.
2. Description of the Related Art:
The conventional camera of the kind called a compact camera and designed for reduction in size and cost has a lens barrel part arranged to separately include therein a device for driving a photo taking lens and another device for operating a shutter. These separate driving devices are arranged to be controlled by discrete signals and different driving manners respectively. Hence, the driving mechanism and the circuit of the feedback signal system of the camera has been complex and thus resulted in an increased cost.


In a method for automatically selecting color calibrations for digital color image recording, especially for digital photography or digital video recording in any lighting conditions, at least one color calibration is produced and stored by recording a calibrated color table. The color calibration which best resembles the color cast of a color image is selected on the basis of the correlation between the color cast parameters of the color image which is being recorded and the respective color calibration. In the event that no matching color calibration is found by comparing the color cast parameters, a standard color calibration is selected.

The invention is directed to a method for the automatic selection of color calibrations for digital color image acquisition and color image recording, particularly for digital photography or digital video recording under arbitrary lighting conditions.
In digital color image acquisition, it is necessary to undertake a post-processing and correction of the digital image data in the area of the signal processing. For that purpose, the device-dependent digital image data are transformed into a standardized, device-independent color system, for example into the CIELAB system. Such a transformation is undertaken on the basis of a color calibration. A color calibration for a device for color image acquisition is acquired in that a calibrated color table having a plurality of color fields whose CIELAB color values are known is registered with the device. The image data of the take for the individual color fields in the device-dependent RGB system (red, green, blue) are interpreted and allocated to the known CIELAB color values of these color fields. The color calibration derives from this allocation, i.e. which CIELAB color data belong to specific RGB color data that the device generates when taking a picture is now known. The transformation of the take data of an image with the color calibration acquired in this way simultaneously effects a color correction of the image.
The transformation of registered RGB image data into CIELAB color data on the basis of a selected color calibration can occur in an image processing station but can also occur directly in a device for taking pictures, for example in a digital camera. Two methods are currently employed.
In the first method, every lighting condition present at the acquisition location is calibrated, i.e. the calibrated color table is first photographed under the current lighting and a color calibration matching this lighting is acquired therefrom and stored. The pictures are subsequently taken and stored. The images are then either immediately transformed into CIELAB color data with the color calibration acquired immediately therebefore or later in a processing station. Very good results with respect to the color quality are achieved with this method. However, lighting conditions can change very fast, for example due to clouds or the like given exterior shots, so that the determination of a new color calibration is required. This method has the disadvantage of greatly limiting the photographer since he needs additional material (the calibrated color table), additional knowledge and additional exposure time.
In the second method, color calibrations are defined for a few, permanently set lighting conditions, usually only daylight and artificial light, and are automatically or manually selected with an image light analysis. However, the results that are thereby achieved are not adequate given high demands or unusual lighting. Thea advantage of this method is that the user can work freely without having to constantly register color tables.
This second method is described in greater detail below. There are several possibilities for realizing the method, whereby there are two correction modules that are employed in combination or individually. The correction modules are color calibration and color cast compensation. Even when the correction modules are combined, they work independently of one another according to the Prior Art, i.e. they are selected independently of one another and are then successively applied.
When an image has a color cast, then a color cast compensation is undertaken. A color cast is usually determined in that the histograms of the red, green and blue part of the color image data are investigated. FIG. 1 shows such histograms as an example. The densities of the color parts are entered on the horizontal axis, i.e. the logarithmized light intensity data. The frequencies of occurrence with which the densities occur in the image are entered on the vertical axis. Corner values for the darkest color values (image dark) and the brightest color values (image light) in the image are derived from the histograms. For example, the density at which the accumulated histogram has reached 5% is taken as image dark, and the density at which the accumulated histogram has reached 95% is taken as image light. The corner values acquired in this way are parameters that describe the color cast of an image. In the example of FIG. 1, the red part in the image light has a higher density than the green part and the blue part. The image thus has a red cast.
The color cast compensation is generally undertaken in that each primary color (RGB) is modified independently of one another by a linear function that is implemented on intensity-linear data, i.e. data that correspond to the sensor signals in the acquisition unit and are proportional to the intensity of the incident light. The colors are thereby provided with an offset and intensified such that the corner values given image light and/or image dark coincide after application of the function, i.e. image light and/or image dark subsequently lie on the gray axis. The linear functions for the color cast compensation can be realized as look-up tables that allocate modified color part data to the as yet unmodified color part data.
The color transformation on the basis of a color calibration can be implemented in addition to the color cast compensation or alone, i.e. without a preceding or following color cast compensation. The color transformation is a multi-dimensional allocation of color data, for example of CIELAB color data, to the RGB image data. Dependencies between the primary colors are thereby taken into consideration. The color calibration is generally designed as a multi-dimensional allocation table that is also referred to as a calibration fill. The color calibration, however, can also be defined by mathematical functions, for example by matrix multiplication. A color calibration can implicitly contain a color cast compensation that is worked into the multi-dimensional allocation table. No separate color cast compensation need be undertaken then. However, the color calibration can also be produced such that it assumes data free of color cast at the input and output of the transformation. In this case, a separate color cast compensation is implemented.
According to the Prior Art, the color calibration for digital image acquisition systems is based to a great extent on traditional photography. Daylight films are mainly employed in traditional photography. They are designed for a lighting corresponding to a color temperature of 5000-6000 K. This color temperature is delivered by all photoflash systems and under good daylight conditions. Artificial light films that are designed for approximately 3000 K and are used under halogen lighting are offered as the only widespread alternative to daylight films. Corresponding to the photographic standard, the digital image acquisition systems are calibrated for a color temperature of 5000-6000 K, i.e. the acquired image data are transformed with a color calibration matching this lighting. Slight deviations of the lighting are then potentially additionally compensated with a color cast compensation. Even despite the implementation of a color cast compensation, greater deviations lead
It is an object of the invention to acquire digital image data given arbitrary lighting conditions without burdening the user with the calibration operations needed due to a change in the lighting, whereby the further-processing of the images can automatically occur and a high color quality is achieved.
This object is achieved by a method for the automatic selection of color calibrations for digital color image acquisition, particularly for digital photography or digital video recording, under arbitrary lighting conditions, whereby a color image is to be corrected. Features of the invention are characterized in that at least one color calibration is generated in that an analysis of the color cast of the data of a take of a calibrated color table is implemented, a compensation of the color cast is undertaken and parameters for the color cast compensation are stored, at least one calibration fill is calculated with a calibration software from the color cast-compensated data of the take of the calibrated color table and is stored, and an entry about the analyzed color cast is respectively undertaken in the calibration fill or fills. A processing of the acquisition data of a current image occurs in that the color cast of the current image is analyzed and compared to the color casts of the stored color calibrations by means of a correlation and a selection from the stored color calibrations is implemented, whereby that color calibration whose stored color cast has the best approximation to the color cast of the current image is selected, and the selected color calibration is provided for generating a device-independent color transformation. When no color calibration having an adequately good correlation of the color cast stored with the color calibration is found in the comparison of the color cast of the current image to the color casts of the stored color calibrations, the user is informed thereof, so that the user can select a suitable color calibration, or a standard calibration is automatically selected from the stored color calibrations and provided for generating a device-independent color transformation of the image data of the current image.
The color cast of the current image is then compared to the color cast of the selected color calibration. The color cast parameters are selected for the transformation given good correlation, and the color cast parameters of the selected color calibration are selected for the transformation given poor correlation. Subsequently, the device-independent color transformation is implemented with the selected color cast parameters and with the selected color calibration.
The invention is described in greater detail below with reference to the example of a digital camera as a color acquisition device. The same principle, however, can also be applied to digital video recording. The new method functions given arbitrary types of light for the illumination, which can deviate greatly from the ideal black body. The previous, color-correct working range of a system (approximately 5000-6000 K) is expanded by arbitrary light types. The description of the invention also occurs with reference to FIGS. 1 through 5. Shown therein are:

Method for automatically selecting color calibrations


Transactional presentation instrument systems having one or more chambers, and method of using and constructing such systems are provided. Systems can include a presentation instrument, an information storage medium configured to store a unique identifier, and a chamber having a fluid component and an object component. The object component can include a plurality of items that float in or disperse throughout the fluid component.

The present invention generally relates to transactional presentation instruments. More particularly, the present invention relates to chambered transactional presentation instrument systems and devices, and to methods for using and constructing such instruments.
Presentation instruments such as transaction cards, credit cards, debit cards, ATM cards, bank cards, stored value cards, gift cards, or the like, are well known for providing consumers with access to goods and services and are increasingly replacing other types of tender in consumer transactions. Such instruments may include a variety of different indicia to identify the instrument and other features, such as the instrument issuer, the customer, terms and conditions of use, or the like, depending in part on the type of instrument. The information may be printed on the instrument using alphanumeric characters, graphics, or the like, or may be embossed into the instrument.
Graphics, such as printed designs, have also been applied to presentation instruments to provide marketing opportunities to card issuers and aesthetic appeal to card users. Relatedly, such features on presentation instruments can often serve as a convenient ice-breaker that allows individuals to express themselves. However, there remain limitations to the currently used designs that adorn these instruments. Often, such embellishments consist simply of a two-dimensional picture or illustration affixed to the surface of the instrument. For these and other reasons, there is a need for improved systems, devices, and methods that enhance user interest and aesthetic enjoyment of such presentation instruments.
The instant invention addresses this unfulfilled need by providing chambered presentation instruments that include amusing or ornamental features for those who view or otherwise use the instruments.

Chambered presentation instruments and methods


One preferred embodiment of the present invention provides systems and methods for analyzing the delivery performance of newsgroup services. Briefly described, in architecture, one embodiment, among others, includes a newsgroup evaluation system configured to determine a delivery rate for a newsgroup server. In other embodiments, methods and systems are provided for analyzing completion and retention for newsgroup services.

An Internet service provider (ISP) typically provides a core group of Internet utilities and service to its customers. Core services often include newsgroups along with Email, World Wide Web (WWW), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), etc. Newsgroups typically include a collection of topical message boards that ISP customers may post to and read messages from. The most widely available distribution of newsgroups is Usenet.
Usenet currently refers to a collection of approximately 90,000 newsgroups and is operated on thousands of newsgroup servers over the Internet or on networks employing the network news transfer protocol (NNTP). To distribute messages or articles within the network, a local newsgroup server for an ISP communicates with other newsgroup servers and compares newsgroup databases. A newsgroup server requests and receives from other servers any messages that the newsgroup server does not have. An ISP customer or newsgroup user may then access his or her local newsgroup server and retrieve messages from the local newsgroup server.
Articles or messages submitted to newsgroups are designed for discussion and are only accepted as text files. However, a binary file can be posted to newsgroups by converting the binary file to a text file. One way to post a binary file on a newsgroup is to use a program supporting UUEncode. UUEncode encodes binary data into a text message that may be posted on a newsgroup. Once posted, a user may retrieve the article or posting from the newsgroup to his or her computer and reconvert the file back to binary data using the UUDecode program. MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), a method used to add binary attachments to email, is another process for encoding binary data into a text message.
Newsgroups are organized into hierarchies based on subject distinctions. For example, several newsgroups are dedicated to binary postings. Binary postings tend to be very large as compared to text postings and do not transmit easily. In fact, some newsgroup servers prohibit posting of articles that are larger than a specific size. Therefore, a system called "Multipart Message" may be used to break up a large binary message into smaller message parts. In the system, many small messages are posted to a newsgroup, rather than one large message. A user may then retrieve all the message parts and reassemble them into a single binary file. A multipart message is identified by examining the end of a subject line of a message. All the parts of a multipart message will have a subject line that ends with [xx/yy]. For example, the first part of a 10 part message will end with [0111 0] and the fifth part will end with [0511 0], etc.
To retrieve or download messages, a user may use a separate newsreader program or a WWW browser with an inbuilt newsreader. The newsreader accesses the ISP's local newsgroup server, enabling a user to pull down as many newsgroups and articles as the user desires. However, to make newsgroups available to users, the ISP's newsgroup server has to dedicate hard drive space for storage. Accordingly, newsgroup articles are only available to users for a limited time before they are deleted to make room for new article postings.
Retention is the period of time that an article or message is accessible in a newsgroup. As articles in the newsgroup age beyond the retention period, the old articles are deleted from the server. A retention period may not be the same for all newsgroups. Some newsgroups, by their natures, involve large articles often incorporating binary files, such as images, music files, or video files. Because of the large amount of resources required by such groups, an ISP will typically set the retention of binary articles lower than the retention period for newsgroups that contain text articles. If a newsgroup's retention is set too low, however, users will not have adequate opportunity to view a newsgroup's content. Therefore, retention performance is a characteristic of the quality of newsgroup services being provided by an ISP.
Two other characteristics in evaluating newsgroup services are completion and delivery performance. Completion refers to how often all parts of a multipart binary message are available at the same time at one newsgroup. Since all parts of a multipart message are needed to completely reassemble a binary file, it is important for all the parts to be accessible in a newsgroup. Therefore, a completion rate may be specified as a percentage of all the multipart files that are present in a newsgroup at the same time. If a newsgroup has a poor completion rate, then a user cannot successfully retrieve and enjoy much of the content in the newsgroup.
Delivery performance, on the other hand, is the measurement of the speed at which a newsgroup article can be retrieved from a newsgroup server, independently of network characteristics. While traditional methods of monitoring Internet delivery performance, such as pings and traceroutes, may be adequate to evaluate some Internet services, these traditional methods do not sufficiently measure the level of retention, completion, and delivery performances being provided by a newsgroup service. For example, although a ping program may determine if a specific IP address of the newsgroup server is working, it cannot tell if a newsgroup server is capable of sending and receiving high speed transmissions. Correspondingly, a traceroute utility cannot reveal if a newsgroup server is fully capable of performing all the newsgroup services that the newsgroup server is expected to.
Therefore, for an ISP to assess the quality of newsgroup service that it provides to its customers, an ISP needs a legitimate way to test the characteristics of newsgroup service. Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

Delivery performance analysis for Internet services


An improved loader apparatus for a refuse collection truck or vehicle which includes a vertical rail assembly, a carriage apparatus mounted for vertical up and down movement along the rail assembly, a single length of drive chain for lifting and lowering the carriage apparatus between a home or down position and a dump or up position, a hydraulic motor system for driving the drive chain such that the refuse container-engaging apparatus carried by the carriage assembly can be position laterally outwardly therefrom for operatively engaging a refuse container to be emptied. The system includes a feedback system for controlling the speed, acceleration and deacceleration of the pick-up, transporting, emptying, lowering, and releasing cycle for minimizing cycle time while simultaneously maximizing the dumping efficiency of the system. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention an improved refuse collection vehicle having a plurality of individual different and distinct refuse storage bins each designated for receiving one and only one type of refuse therein such as glass, aluminum cans, plastics, other metals, garbage, trash, paper, and the like, or one and only one predetermined mix of such types. A plurality of refuse containers are located at each pick-up site, and each includes indicia for identifying the particular type or type mix of refuse contained therein for bin-selection purposes. The improved refuse collection truck of the present invention includes an improved loader assembly which has a longitudinal positioning system for selectively positioning the rail assembly and carriage assembly, including the operatively engaged refuse container to be emptied, longitudinally along the side of the vehicle to a position adjacent the particular bin designated for receiving the particular type of contents identified as being within the selected refuse container, and an automated system for longitudinally positioning, lifting, emptying, transporting, lowering, restoring and releasing the emptied refuse container to its orignal or another suitable position at the pick-up site.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved refuse collection system, and more particularly, to an improved refuse container loading assembly and a multi-bin refuse truck provided therewith.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
The prior art is illustrated generally by the following three U.S. Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,707 issued on Feb. 2, 1982 to John W. Bingham, the present inventor, for a "Side-Loading Apparatus For A Trash Collection System". This patent discloses a trash collection apparatus for mounting a in a fixed position on the side of the collection refuse truck. A frame member is extendable secured to the vehicle for movement away from and toward the truck body or bed of the vehicle. A pair of vertically extending guide rails are secured to the frame. Each guide rail incorporates a top section that is pivoted about a horizontal axis. A carriage is mounted for movement along the guide rails and incorporates a pair of gripping arms which are pivoted for movement in a horizontal plane to grasp a trash container, and the gripping arms are also pivoted for movement in vertical planes for moving to a stowage position. A hydraulic piston and cylinder are utilized to raise the carriage along the guide rails to position the carriage on the top section of the rails. Hydraulic actuators are provided for tilting the top sections of the rails when the carriage is positioned on the top sections to tip the carriage, gripping arms, and the trash container over the side of the truck for emptying the contents of the trash container into the bed or a loading station of the trash collection vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,156 issued on Nov. 8, 1977 to Vern C. Thompson and John A. Riggle for a "Lifting Arm Apparatus". The patent discloses a side-loading apparatus for facilitating the use of the system along relatively narrow aisles or alleys. It requires no manipulation of the container by the human operator, nor any preliminary dumping of material into a container permanently carried by the vehicle. Inversion of the container does not begin until it has been lifted beside the vehicle to an appropriate height adjacent an opening in the bed of the vehicle, thus avoiding spillage. The container is lifted from and replaced at a location automatically and gently, using pneumatic engagement which involves minimum damage to refuse containers. All other operations are hydraulic, and are under the operator's regular and emergency control at all times.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,710 issued on July 1, 1986 to Lawrence H. G. Kovats for a "Trash Collection Vehicle Side-Loading Apparatus". The invention of this patent is primarily directed to an improved rail construction and also to an improved means for orienting the carriage during its return to ground. One aspect of the invention is concerned with one of the guide rails on one side of the frame being straight whereas the other guide rail on the same side of the track incorporates the curved and horizontal top section. A carriage is mounted on rollers with an upper roller and a lower roller being provided on each side of the carriage. The lower roller always remains in the straight rail whereas the upper roller rides in the rail having the curved and horizontal sections at its upper end. The carriage is made to ascend and descend along the guide rails by means of a hydraulic piston-driven chain arrangement and with means to control carriage speed at various stages of ascent and descent. The refuse container is held on the carriage by means of a pair of jaws which are hydraulic actuated. A spring-loaded stop and over-travel arrangement is provided at the top of the vertical rails to assure the correct orientation of the carriage on the rails when returned to the ground position.
While these patents did represent a step forward in the prior art, they did not solve many of the problems inherent therein, and they introduced still additional problems not heretofore encountered. One major problem still existing in the prior art is that the time required to reach out and pick-up a refuse container to be emptied, retract the container toward the side of the truck, raise the container, dump the contents thereof into the refuse collection vehicle and then lower and return the emptied refuse container to its position a predetermined distance away from the side of the truck, takes far to long and adds greatly to the cost of refuse pick-up and removal.
Furthermore, the emptying efficiency of the prior art systems is relatively poor, and supposedly emptied refuse containers often retain various types and amounts of refuse therein after they have been replaced and released at the particular pick-up site. Still further, the entire process is not automated and certainly not optimized by feedback means which controls the speed, acceleration and deceleration of the cycle. Still further, most of the systems illustrated above involve many mechanical parts and are not relatively simple and maintenance free thereby causing frequent breakdown of the system and further delays in the refuse collection routine.
Furthermore, none of the prior art shows the use of a multi-bin refuse collection vehicle wherein each of the bins is adapted or designated to receive only one particular type of refuse such as glass, paper, aluminum cans, plastics, other metals, trash, garbage, and the like, or only one predetermined mix of such types. In the present system, the individual refuse containers to be picked-up and emptied include indicia means on each of the refuse containers to be emptied, and the indicia means is either visually identifiable by the operator or machine-readable by apparatus in the system for bin selection purposes. The economic value of being able to quickly and easily separate the refuse into different types is quite significant and could possibly pay for the cost of garbage, trash, or refuse removal in and of itself. Furthermore, in this day of environmental awareness, as refuse sites, incinerators, and the like are coming under fire for environmental defficiencies, the environmental impact of such a system is very, very significant. None of the vehicles of the prior art teach a vertical rail system which can be positionably horizontally or longitudinally along the side of the truck for bin selection purposes and/or for pick-up and releasing the containers at a particular position adjacent the side of the truck.
The present invention provides a solution to many of the previously unsolved problems of the prior art as well as providing a unique, totally new multi-bin refuse truck and refuse collection loading system therefore which has both great environmental and significant economic value.

Refuse collection system, refuse collection truck and loader assembly therefor


An elevation hinge where one of the parts moves in connection to a guiding means on another part, and wherein a supporting effect is achieved on an elevation of said moving part. The elevation hinge comprises a first part including at least one guiding means, and a second part including at least one connection element for guiding the second part along the at least one guiding means. The guiding means includes a second portion adapted for guiding the connection element to and from a first portion. Guidance is performed in a linear manner or in a rotational and linear manner, in relation to the first part. A spring is fixed between a connection element and an anchor pin on the first part.

Most rooms with an area intended for seating an audience, such as a theatre or a cinema hall, are furnished with rows of retractable chairs, which spontaneously hold the seat on an upright position at a standby elevation when not in use, and allow rotating and lowering the seat to a supporting elevation in order to use it as a physical support.
This type of retracting behaviour aims at providing free space when the rotating part is not being used. This has practical advantages, for example an improved manoeuvring space for allowing users to walk around without colliding with the rotating seat, or a better access for cleaning purposes of the surface beneath the rotating part.
This type of mechanical behaviour is also known from many other applications besides seats, such as armrests, tables or shelves.
In order for the known solutions to allow movement of the rotating part onto the supporting state, they merely block the rotating part from rotating down more than a certain elevation, or pitch, angle. Since the force that is supported, e.g. a user's weight, has the same direction of the rotation to move the rotating part to the supporting state, the approach of merely allowing the rotation until a certain elevation angle and then blocking it, is the known solution in these cases. Document DE 202005017771 U1 describes a collapsible chair for a sports stadium, in which, when extended out of a protecting box, there is provided an object similar to a retractable chair. In that state, the movement of the seat to the supporting state has the same direction of the weight that can be supported, and, at an elevation angle corresponding to the supporting state, the seat is obstructed from hinging down any more.


A cage for a rolling bearing is coupled to a rolling bearing including an inner ring, an outer ring and a plurality of rolling elements rolling between the inner ring and the outer ring to keep intervals of the plurality of rolling elements, wherein the plurality of rolling elements include bodies coupled along a circumference thereof at predetermined intervals, wherein each of the bodies includes a first piece and a second piece which are attachable to each other and detachable from each other. A first coupler and a second coupler configured to be capable of being coupled to each other are respectively formed at the first piece and the second piece, and the first piece and the second piece are primarily coupled by means of a coupling force of the first coupler and the second coupler.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a cage for a rolling bearing, and more particularly, to a cage for fixedly supporting a rolling element of a rolling bearing such as a ball or a roller.
[Description about National Research and Development Support]
This study was supported by the Development of Core Space Technology Project of Ministry of Education and Science Technology, Republic of Korea (Project No. 1345168960) under the superintendence of National Research Foundation of Korea.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bearing is a mechanical element for fixing a shaft of a rolling machine to a certain position and protecting the rotation of the shaft while supporting the weight of the shaft and a load applied to the shaft. Such an industrial bearing is used as an important part in machines for every instruments or equipment employed in manufacturing and producing lines in overall industries. In order to ensure dynamic stability and reduce shaking or vibration, the bearing should have durability and stability, and for this, many techniques are being studied and developed to improve the durability and stability of a bearing.
A bearing is generally applied to a vehicle industry and may also be applied to various machines or heavy equipment which needs rapid rotation. A bearing may be applied to a heavy equipment system such as an excavator for construction, a plane, a turbo pump for a rocket engine, a cryogenic cooler, an LNG pump or the like.
A rolling bearing includes a rolling element put between an outer ring and an inner ring thereof so that the rolling element may roll in contact with the outer and inner rings to reduce friction.
Generally, a rolling bearing is used together with a cage which maintains intervals of a plurality of rolling elements which roll between the inner ring and the outer ring, and also fixes the rolling element in a rollable state and thus rotates together with the rolling element to prevent the rolling element from deviating therefrom.
However, due to an unstable state of the cage, the bearing becomes unstable due to loads and vibrations in rotating, which may damage or brake the bearing frequently.
In order to solve this problem, when the cage is assembled, the cage is managed to minimize a fraction defective, which however is not appropriate for fundamentally improving the stability of the case.

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


Tracking of targets in video captured by a multi-camera surveillance system is often difficult due to incomplete camera coverage and due to the complexities associated with automated recognition in a dense and highly variable environment. The present disclosure embraces a system and method for target tracking in a multi-camera surveillance system that reduces the time required for a user to track a target by offering computer generated search results that include suggestions of candidates found in the video that match (to some degree) the target. When one of the candidates is selected by a user, the search is shifted to other cameras and continued. In this way, the target may be tracked quickly. Further, a playlist of video snippets of the target is accumulated during the search and can be played to show all captured video of the target moving about the facility.

Safety and security is made easier through the use of camera networks. These networks use a plurality of cameras that are installed throughout a facility/location (e.g., an office building, mall, airport, parking lot, etc.). The installed cameras allow the activity occurring in various areas to be viewed by a person (or persons) in a central location (or locations).
Historically, security cameras were located only in high-traffic or high-value areas (e.g., entrances/exits, store checkouts, etc.). As cameras have become less expensive and as safety/security has become more important, camera networks have been expanded, using more cameras to cover more areas. The result is much more video delivered to the central location for analysis. To cope with the overwhelming amount of visual information, viewing tools have been created to allow users (e.g., security personnel) to manage and view video from each camera. These viewing tools may also use automation (e.g., video analysis, recognition, etc.) to help automatically detect targets/events in a video for viewing. Despite these advances some deficiencies remain. For example, even extensive camera networks still may not provide complete coverage. Indeed, it is common for a facility to only have 20% or less of its area viewed by the facility's installed cameras, making tracking targets between these cameras difficult. For example, a target (e.g., a person) moving through the field of view of one camera may reappear in the field of view of one of several other cameras at any later time. To make matters worse, the target may be moving about in a crowded environment. Alone and without any automation, a user would have to monitor many cameras simultaneously to locate the person (sometimes in a crowd) that has left one camera's field of view to determine when and where the person reappears.
While automated target recognition solutions exists, the problem described is too complex to be effective without a human. A need therefore exists for an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) that helps a user find and track a target. In addition, a need exists for a system that allows the user to combine snippets of video of the target from various cameras into a playlist that follows the target along the target's path through the facility. Such a solution would allow for fast tracking in real-time and also allow for efficient analysis of recordings that are analyzed later.

Target tracking in a multi-camera surveillance system