In one aspect, the present invention is a system for preparing a patient for an endoscopy procedure, such as a colonoscopy. The endoscopic preparation and examination system includes an endoscope, a source of irrigation and aspiration, and a control unit. The endoscope includes an elongated flexible shaft with a distal tip and a proximal end, at least one aspiration lumen and at least one irrigation lumen. A plurality of irrigation ports are functionally connected to the at least one irrigation lumen and a plurality of aspiration ports are functionally connected to the at least one aspiration lumen. In another aspect, the invention provides a method of clearing an obstructed view in a patient prior to, or during an endoscopic examination.

It has become well established that there are major public health benefits from regular endoscopic examinations of patients' internal structures such as the alimentary and excretory canals. In any endoscopic procedure, there is always a need for the introduction and evacuation of different types of fluids, such as water, saline, drugs, contrast material, dyes, or emulsifiers. One such endoscopic procedure is a colonoscopy, which is an internal examination of the colon by means of an instrument called a colonoscope. A standard colonoscope is typically 135-185 cm in length and 12-13 mm in diameter and includes a fiber optic imaging bundle, illumination fibers, and an instrument or working channel that may be used for the delivery of tools into the patient and the vacuum evacuation of liquids. The colonoscope is inserted into the colon via the patient's anus and is advanced through the colon, allowing direct visual examination of the colon wall, the ileocecal valve, and portions of the terminal ileum. Approximately six million colonoscopies are performed each year.
In colonoscopic procedures, clear visualization of the entire colon, cecum and rectum is required for the procedure to be effective and efficient. It is estimated that about 20% of all colon polyps in patients are undetected due to low visibility, which can arise from poor colon preparation. Presently, about 10% of all colonoscopy patients are non-compliant with prescribed preparatory procedures and approximately 4% of all patients are unable to complete the exam due to an excess of stool in the colon. The remaining 6% are considered marginal, and the colonoscopy may still be performed if the colon is further evacuated as a part of the procedure. Conventionally, the marginal colons are cleared by repeatedly administering several small (e.g. 60 cc) fluid flushes through an endoscope's working channel by means of an ancillary apparatus that employs a low-volume wash and suction. The waste slurry is then removed with suction through the working channel in the endoscope. This tedious and inefficient process is limited by the amount of stool that can be removed with each flush. The process also causes a loss of productivity due to the added time required to fully evacuate the colon.
Conventional endoscopes are expensive hand-assembled medical devices costing in the range of approximately $25,000 for an endoscope, and much more for the associated operator console. Because of the expense, these endoscopes are built to withstand repeated disinfections and use upon many patients. Conventional endoscopes are generally built of strong composite materials, which decrease the flexibility of the endoscope and thus can compromise patient comfort. Furthermore, conventional endoscopes are complex and fragile instruments that frequently need expensive repair as a result of damage during use or during a disinfection procedure. A problem encountered with conventional endoscopes is the difficulty of sterilization between procedures. Sterilization of endoscopes may be accomplished with an autoclave, however, this tends to be harmful to the polymer components of the probe. Chemical bath sterilization may be used, however, this method cannot ensure complete removal of biological material that may become trapped within the channels of the endoscope probe.
Low cost, disposable medical devices designated for a single use have become popular for instruments that are difficult to sterilize or clean properly. Single use, disposable devices are packaged in sterile wrappers to avoid the risk of pathogenic cross-contamination of diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and other pathogens. Hospitals generally welcome the convenience of single use disposable products because they no longer have to be concerned with product age, overuse, breakage, malfunction and sterilization. One medical device that has not previously been inexpensive enough to be considered truly disposable is the endoscope, such as a colonoscope, ureteroscope, gastroscope, bronchoscope, duodenoscope, etc. Such a single-use or disposable endoscope is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/406,149 filed Apr. 1, 2003, Ser. No. 10/811,781, filed Mar. 29, 2004, and Ser. No. 10/956,007, filed Sep. 30, 2004, all assigned to Scimed Life Systems, Inc./Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc., which are incorporated herein by reference.
To overcome these and other problems, there is a need for a way to perform an irrigation and evacuation process prior to and/or during an endoscopy procedure upon poorly prepared or non-prepared patients, by use of an endoscope that is capable of preparing the patient and optionally also examining the patient. The endoscope can be reusable, or designed as a low cost endoscope that can be used for a single procedure and thrown away. The preparation and examination endoscope should be simple and easy to use in order to efficiently prepare patients for a colonoscopy procedure.

Device for obstruction removal with specific tip structure


A process for constructing a self-sealing layer for landfills and waste dumps that use a base layer, cap layer, or liner to seal the area from water percolation through cracks or holes. A layer of soil is provided having specified characteristics which will become flowable under the effects of water moving through the layer. The soil is moved into the crack or hole by the water and accumulates until the breach is sealed. Geotextiles, otherwise known as textile mats, may be used inside the layer to reinforce the layer and enhance the self sealing effect of the flowable soil layer. Water glass and an appropriate gelling agent may be used in an embedding zone on either side of the mat to enhance the adhesion between the mat and the material in the cap, base, or liner.

In the course of general environmental protection, increasingly stringent requirements are being made for the protection of the subsurface and ground water. Capping and lining the landfill with plastic sheets or with mineral earth substances, e.g., loam, clay-containing loam, or clay is known. If plastic sheets are applied to the embankments, they are made rough on both sides by a ribbing. When loam is applied to embankments sealed with plastic sheets, nubs must also be welded beyond the ribbing, to secure the loam against sliding down the foil, depending on the slope of the embankment.
In some circumstances, it is useful to use a combination of a mineral sealing layer and plastic covering sheets. The mineral sealing layer must, however, maintain the highest possible plasticity to avoid or at least minimize the formation of cracks in the mineral layer. Newer studies from dump excavations have shown that mineral sealing layers located under plastic sheets tend to dry out and form cracks. Crack formation is particularly a problem for mineral layers with high clay content.
For subsurfaces that are highly susceptible to settling such as old dumps, considerable improvements must be made on the subsurface to reduce the crack formation in the mineral capping layer that might be caused by uneven settling of the waste dump mass.
Certain methods can be used to reduce the uneven settling rate of shifting subsoils. One method includes intensive depth compression with gravel piles. Another method is high shear-strength support layers arranged under the mineral capping layer to achieve the most uniform settling behavior in the region of application. Despite these measures, settling cracks cannot be completely avoided since the settling and sinking conditions in an old dump mass are independent of the load due to different types of deposits within the dump. Added to the problem of shifting dump masses are volumetric changes due to degradation caused by rotting and the shrinkage caused by drying. The same holds true for settleable subsurfaces when high loads are applied to the capping layer or layers.
For the capping layer to have sufficient protection against percolating surface water and for liners against water from within the waste dump it is required to form the sealing layer with a minimum gradient of 3 to 5% with due consideration for the settling and sinking so that trapped water can readily run off. High rates of settling or widely different rates of uneven settling may require considerably greater gradients than is normally required thereby increasing the cost of applying the appropriate grade to the landfill.
For the surface or covering layers a continuous surface filter such as gravel, coarse sand, or filter mats may be used over the mineral sealing layer to drain the seepage from within the landfill or the surface water from the top soil or cultivable soil applied over any capping layer. If there are long periods of dry weather, the capping layer under the cultivable soil and the surface filter might become so dried out that shrinkage cracks will form. This is particularly a problem for cover layers of clay, loam, or other artificial mixtures, e.g., tailings with additives of flotation foam and bentonite or mineral mixtures with additives of bentonite. The drying effects in combination with uneven settling rates present the possibility of a high rate of crack formation which can lead to complete destruction of seal integrity so that the waste dump is no longer properly functional.
Due in part to heightened environmental awareness and a few isolated instances of problems, regulatory agencies have raised the requirements for cover layers of waste dumps and have made them equivalent to the quality requirements for liner layers. With the conventional mineral capping materials, the more stringent requirements translate into greater layer thicknesses with the correspondingly higher costs.
From earth works and foundation construction it is known to apply geotextile fabrics, i.e., water permeable flow material or fabric under dams on soft soil layers. These geotextile fabrics provide a uniform surface that is interconnected to hinder the partial sinking of the dam banking material into the soft subsurface and prevents localized fractures in the embankments and a great measure of the adverse effects from strongly differentiated settling conditions. Further applications of geotextiles are described in "Merkblatt fur die Anwendung von Geotextilien im Erdbau", 1987 Edition, Forschungsgesellschaft far StraBen- und Verkehrswesen, Arbeitsgruppe Erd- und Grundbau, Alfred-Schutte Allee 10, 5000 Koln 21. The use of geotextiles for separation and protective layers is also known in waste dump construction.
Despite the above described measures, it has still not been possible to produce sealings and in particular cover sealings for waste dumps, so that they remain functional over longer duration despite the more or less unavoidable crack formation.
It would be desirable to have a cap construction and/or a base or liner construction that would maintain a high level of seal integrity despite uneven settling or extended periods of dry weather.
It would be desirable if the cap, base, or liner construction would compensate for the adverse effects on seal integrity caused by the formation of cracks in such layers.

Process for producing a sealing for waste dumps and the like


A high temperature magnetic amplifier, which utilizes the nonlinear properties of square loop magnetic cores to achieve very large amounts of both voltage and power amplification. By combining square loop, grain-oriented magnetic materials with high temperatures along with high temperature packaging approaches, high temperature long lifetime components can be produced. The high temperature magnetic amplifier is used as a building block to develop high temperature versions of operational amplifiers, comparators, voltage regulators, timers, counters, modulators, motor starters, servo systems, converters, inverters, power switches and many other devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in transformers for a wide range of electronic applications. The fields of use for this invention include Aerospace, Automotive, Power Generation, Power Distribution, Down Hole, Industrial Process, and any other field where high temperature, high reliability, high radiation, and/or high power electronics are needed. The present invention is specifically directed to transformers and electric circuits usable above 450 degrees Celsius. The fields of use for this invention include Aerospace, Automotive, Power Generation, Power Distribution, Down Hole, Industrial Process, and any other field where high temperature, high reliability, high radiation, and/or high power electronics are needed.
2. Description of the Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, low temperature transformers below 4350 degrees Celsius are known in various forms. Patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,408, issued to Link on Apr. 1, 1980 entitled High temperature transformer assembly; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,929, issued to Parker, et al. on Nov. 29, 1994 High temperature insulation for liquid-filled transformers. Each of these patents is hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Magnetic amplifiers were invented early in the 20th century, and found use in a wide range of electronics applications until the advent of the transistor. Magnetic amplifiers were used in high power and high reliability applications instead of vacuum tubes for their scalability and mechanical ruggedness. Some magnetic amplifiers achieved voltage gains of over a million, and many different systems utilized them as a basic building block. After the invention of the transistor, the magnetic amplifier was largely forgotten, except for a few special cases such as high power regulators on switching converters.

Arkansas Power Electronics International, Inc.


A database of the location based relationships of points of interest within an environment is automatically generated using a digital representation of the environment that includes the points of interest at different locations within the environment. The locations of the points of interest in the environment are identified and the location based relationships between the points of interest are determined. The points of interest are labeled with the determined relationships and the points of interest and labeled relationships are stored. For example, a graph structure may be produced where each node is a point of interest and the edges between nodes is labeled with the determined relationships.

Indoor location based searching (LBS) mapping systems typically consist of many points of interest. Typically the points of interest are obtained from independent layers in facility drawings and have no relationship to each other. However, relationships between points of interest can be very useful for contextual search applications, which is one of the primary applications of indoor LBS. An example of such an application is a search for a printer that is near a coffee machine or to determine the location of a particular person's office. In conventional mapping systems, however, items such as printers and coffee machines, or individual's names and room numbers are stored in different layers without relationship to each other. Accordingly, improvements of LBS mapping systems are desirable.

Automatic linking of points of interest for indoor location based searching


Implementations relate to a system for video encoding and conversion including an image resolution conversion component operable to convert a resolution of a source image frame from a first resolution to a second resolution to produce a first intermediate image frame at the second resolution; an image conversion component operable to receive the first intermediate image frame and convert an image size of the first intermediate image frame to another image frame size to produce a first viewable image frame; an image viewer component operable to display the first viewable image on a first display; a color space conversion component comprising a luminance conversion component and a chrominance operable to receive the first viewable image frame and convent a first luminance value and a first chrominance value of the first viewable image frame to a second intermediate image frame having a second luminance value and a second chrominance value.

With the popularity and abundance of mobile computing devices with camera functionality ever increasing, video conferencing and video chat are becoming important services to be provided by the mobile computing platform. However with this abundance of different mobile computing devices with varied processor, camera, and display capabilities, conventional video conferencing and video chat applications are not easily customizable to improve the user experience. For example, one type of device may be able to display a higher quality or resolution video, while another may not. A higher quality or resolution video encoded and transmitted to a device that is not capable of supporting that quality or resolution can present a number of disadvantages to either the device itself and/or to the network that is supporting the devices. What is needed is an improved mechanism for encoding video for video chat or video conferencing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A heatsink plate includes a bottom wall and two opposite side walls. Each of the two opposite side walls has a first side, a second side, and a concave shoulder located between the first side and the second side. The second side of each of the two opposite side walls has two opposite ends each formed with a positioning ear. Thus, by design of the positioning ear and the concave shoulder, the heatsink plates are closely combined with each other rigidly and stably without any gap being defined therebetween, so that the airflow passes through the combined heatsink plates more conveniently, so as to reduce the air shear force and increase the air flow rate of the ventilating fan, thereby enhancing the heat dissipation effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heatsink plate, and more particularly to a heatsink plate having an excellent heat dissipation effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional heatsink plate 1 in accordance with the prior art shown in FIG. 1 has a sheet shape, and has a top portion 11 formed with a plurality of openings 111 and a bottom portion 12 provided with a horizontal piece 121. The conventional heatsink plate 1 has two ends each formed with two opposite corner pieces 13. In such a manner, when the conventional heatsink plates 1 are combined, the corner pieces 13 are connected so that the conventional heatsink plates 1 are combined with each other.
However, due to design of the openings 111, the horizontal piece 121 and the corner pieces 13, the combined heatsink plates 1 present an uneven state, thereby forming gaps therebetween, so that the airflow cannot pass through the combined heatsink plates 1 conveniently, so as to increase the air shear force and decrease the air flow rate of the ventilating fan mounted on the combined heatsink plates 1, thereby decreasing the heat dissipation effect.
The present invention is to mitigate and/or obviate the disadvantage of the conventional heatsink plate.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a heatsink plate having an excellent heat dissipation effect.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a heatsink plate, wherein by design of the positioning ear and the concave shoulder, the heatsink plates are closely combined with each other rigidly and stably without any gap being defined therebetween, so that the airflow passes through the combined heatsink plates more conveniently, so as to reduce the air shear force and increase the air flow rate of the ventilating fan mounted on the combined heatsink plates, thereby enhancing the heat dissipation effect.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a heatsink plate, wherein the bottom wall and each of the two opposite side walls of the heatsink plate have a planar shape, so that the contact area between the airflow and the combined heatsink plates are increased, thereby enhancing the heat dissipation effect.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a heatsink plate, comprising a bottom wall and two opposite side walls, wherein:
each of the two opposite side walls has a first side connected to the bottom wall and a second side located opposite to the bottom wall;
each of the two opposite side walls is formed with a bent concave shoulder located between the first side and the second side; and
the second side of each of the two opposite side walls has two opposite ends each formed with a positioning ear.
Further benefits and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after a careful reading of the detailed description with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.


The present invention provides a display device capable of realizing an appropriate screen display luminance in accordance with a video feature quantity and brightness around and sufficiently reducing power consumption. A liquid crystal display apparatus (1) includes: a liquid crystal panel (20) for displaying a video by an input video signal; a backlight unit (17) as a light source for irradiating the liquid crystal panel (20); and a brightness sensor (24) for detecting the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus (1). According to the brightness detected by the brightness sensor (24), luminance conversion characteristic defining the light emission luminance of the backlight for the feature quantity (such as APL) of the input video signal is changed. Here, the luminance conversion characteristic is changed so that the light emission luminance is reduced as the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus becomes darker and the position of the characteristic modification point as the point where the slope of the luminance conversion characteristic is changed is shifted in the direction of the feature quantity change. According to the obtained luminance conversion characteristic, the light emission luminance of the backlight is controlled.

For a liquid crystal display apparatus including: a liquid crystal panel that modulates a light beam from a light source according to a video signal; and a backlight unit to illuminate the liquid crystal panel, a technique is known according to which the emission luminance of the light source for the backlight is adapted to be controlled corresponding to the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus. In this case, the liquid crystal display apparatus includes a brightness sensor to detect the surrounding brightness, and the emission luminance of the backlight light source is controlled according to the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus detected by the brightness sensor. In this case, a visibility that can not be overwhelmed by the surrounding light can be obtained by, for example, brightening the emission luminance of the backlight light source following the brightness around the liquid crystal display when the surround becomes brighter.
In the description hereinafter, "contrast" refers to the difference in the brightness between the darkest portion and brightest portion in an image and "contrast feeling" refers to a vivid impression felt due to the difference in the brightness between the darkest portion and brightest portion in an image.
As to the above technique of controlling the display condition of a screen corresponding to the brightness around a display apparatus, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses an image display device that improves the visibility by increasing the brightness of an image thereon as suppressing the increase of the power consumption. According to this technique, the emission luminance of a backlight is adapted to be controlled using: a white display pixel number calculating portion that calculates the number of white display pixels using an image signal; an surrounding environment brightness detecting portion that detects the brightness of the surrounding environment; the number of white display pixel or the white display area that the above white display pixel number calculating portion has calculated; and the brightness of the surrounding environment that the above surrounding environment luminance detecting portion has detected.
The image display device of the above Patent Document 1 is adapted to provide images each having an excellent contrast suppressing the black portions therein to be lighted and, simultaneously, facilitate suppression of increase of the power consumption, by having stored in a data storing portion experimental data of the surrounding environment luminance and the emission intensity of the backlight obtained to the extent that black portions are not lighted.
The above image display device is provided with the surrounding environment brightness detecting portion that is a sensor capable of always monitoring the brightness of the surrounding environment (the surrounding environment brightness) and this portion controls the emission intensity of the backlight when all pixel display white and, simultaneously, controls the emission intensity of the backlight according to the magnitude of the image luminance. In this case, for a low-brightness display screen on which a small number of pixels display white, the entire screen is brightened by increasing the emission intensity of the backlight to the extent that the black level is not lighted. In contrast, for a bright screen on which a large number of pixels display white, power consumption saving can be facilitated and, simultaneously, a high-brightness display screen is retained by reducing the emission intensity of the backlight to a proper level. The emission intensity of the backlight is controlled using a method of controlling at least one of the backlight current, the emission pulse width (pulse duty), and the number of emission pulses.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus that is adapted to execute a backlight control based on brightness information of a video, and brightness information around the liquid crystal panel. In this case, the liquid crystal display apparatus includes: a brightness detector to detect the brightness around the liquid crystal panel; and a means that executes the brightness control of the backlight based on the brightness around the liquid crystal panel detected by the brightness detector. For example, when the brightness around the liquid crystal panel becomes lower than a reference value, a dark video looks brighter than usual and, therefore, an inverter power circuit is controlled to reduce the brightness of the backlight (cold cathode tube). In contrast, when the brightness around the liquid crystal panel becomes higher than a reference value, a bright video looks darker than usual and, therefore, the inverter power circuit is controlled to increase the brightness of the backlight (cold cathode tube).
For example, Patent Document 3 discloses a projection type display device that adjusts the illuminance light quantity based on video information and optimally sets the range within which the light quantity adjusting is allowed (light attenuation range) thereof corresponding to the brightness of the viewing environment. In this case, the projection type display device includes a brightness detecting means of detecting the brightness of the viewing environment, and a means of setting the range within which the light quantity of the light source is attenuated based on the brightness of the viewing environment detected by the brightness detecting means. The attenuation light quantity of the light source is increased when the surround is bright, and the attenuation light quantity is reduced when the surround is dark and, thereby, the problem of under-brightness caused by excessive light quantity adjusting can be solved.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-294767    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-350134    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-354882


Apparatus for training an operator in use of electrohydraulics that includes an electric-motor/hydraulic-pump with an integrated fluid sump mounted on a portable support. An electrohydraulic valve on the support is preconnected to the pump, and has at least one solenoid valve responsive to valve control signals for controlling the valve to supply fluid from the pump. A hydraulic cylinder is carried on the support and preconnected to the valve for generating mechanical motion as a function of fluid supplied by the valve from the pump. An electronic controller is mounted on the support. A plurality of electrical connectors are mounted on an operator panel on the support and individually preconnected behind the operator panel to the valve controller, to the solenoid of the electrohydraulic valve and to a mechanism on the panel for generating an operator command signal. The electrical connectors are selectively interconnectable by the operator using suitable removable cables for configuring the controller, command generator and valve in a desired electronic control configuration.

Apparatus has heretofore been marketed by applicant's assignee for use as a training aid in theory and practice of hydromechanical fluid power systems. In such apparatus, a plurality of hydromechanical devices, such as fluid-powered hydraulic motors, valves and cylinders, are mounted on a vertical panel carried by a wheeled frame. A hydraulic pump is carried by the frame, and is selectively connectable by quick-disconnect hoses to one or more of the hydromechanical devices. All components are standard industrial devices with which the laboratory or classroom trainee thus becomes familiar through a series of exercises or problems set by an instructor or instruction manual. For training in electrohydraulics, which represents the current trend in the fluid power industry, an electrohydraulic servo trainer module has been provided as a separate unit or as an accessory to the standard hydromechanical trainer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,067 assigned to the assignee hereof discloses apparatus for training an operator in theory and practice of electrohydraulic control systems. The apparatus includes a plurality of electrohydraulic devices for performing hydraulic operations as differing functions of associated electronic control signals. A plurality of differing electronic controllers are adapted to generate electronic control signals to operate the electrohydraulic devices. The electronic controllers bear graphic indicia identifying the controller and associating each controller with corresponding electrohydraulic devices on the training unit. Each controller has a plurality of available input, output and control connections, which may be selectively interconnected with each other and with the electrohydraulic devices by suitable cables for configuring the controller and associated devices with a multiplicity of differing operating modes. The electrohydraulic devices are connectable by quick-disconnect hoses to a fluid power source carried by the trainer, and are associated with indicia for generating a visually observable indication of operation of the devices, so that an operator can observe effects of differing electronic control configurations on the devices.
Although the apparatus described above and discussed in the noted patent have met with substantial acceptance and success in both the academic and industrial training environments, further improvements remain desirable. In particular, both of such apparatus are fairly large, embodying a multiplicity of hydraulic and/or electronic apparatus. What is needed, and what the present invention seeks to provide, is a small training unit that may be lifted manually and transported in the trunk of a car, for example, so as to be readily transportable to training sites and/or a student's home for practice. Another object of the present invention is to provide a small and readily portable electrohydraulic trainer of the described character that emphasizes training in the electronic control aspects of electrohydraulics, as distinguished from the hydromechanical aspects of electrohydraulic systems. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a trainer of the described character that is economical to manufacture, and yet is versatile in terms of capability for training a student or technician in a variety of electronic control situations, and that realistically simulates situations that the trainee may encounter in the field while at the same time providing a user-friendly mechanism for enhanced trainee understanding of electronic control theory and practice.


Diagnosing operation of an impulse piping line in an industrial process is provided. A vibration source transmits a vibration signal through the piping and a vibration signal receiver receives the vibration signal. The operation of the impulse piping line is diagnosed, such as failure or impending failures, based upon the received vibration signal.

The present invention relates to process devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to process devices which coupled to process fluid through process piping.
Various types of process devices are used to measure process variables and couple to process fluid through process piping. For example, fluid flow meters are used in industrial process control environments to measure fluid flow and provide outputs related to flow indicators and process controllers. Inferential flow meters measure fluid flow in a pipe by measuring a pressure drop near a discontinuity within the pipe. The discontinuity (primary element) can be an orifice, a nozzle, a venturi, a pitot tube, a vortex shedding bar, a target or even a simple bend in the pipe. Flow around the discontinuity causes both a pressure drop and increased turbulence. The pressure drop is sensed by a pressure transmitter (secondary element) placed outside the pipe and connected by impulse lines or impulse passageways to the fluid in the pipe. These connections are also referred to as impulse piping. Reliability depends on maintaining a correct calibration. Impulse lines can become plugged over time, which also adversely affects calibration.
Disassembly and inspection of the impulse lines is one method used to identify and correct plugging of lines. Another known method for detecting plugging is to periodically add a "check pulse" to the measurement signal from a pressure transmitter. This check pulse causes a control system connected to the transmitter to disturb the flow. If the pressure transmitter fails to accurately sense the flow disturbance, an alarm signal is generated indicating line plugging. Another known method for detecting plugging is sensing of both static and differential pressures. If there is inadequate correlation between oscillations in the static and differential pressures, then an alarm signal is generated indicating line plugging. Still another known method for detecting line plugging is to sense static pressures and pass them through high pass and low pass filters. Noise signals obtained from the filters are compared to a threshold, and if variance in the noise is less than the threshold, an alarm signal can be triggered which indicates that the line is blocked.
These known methods rely on providing static pressure sensors, disassembly of the flow meter or use of an external control system for diagnostics. The methods increase complexity and reduce reliability. There is thus a need for improved diagnostic technology that can provide more predictive, less reactive maintenance to reduce cost or improve reliability.

Diagnostics of impulse piping in an industrial process


The present disclosure relates to topical sunscreen formulations comprising a semifluorinated alkane and a metal oxide selected from titanium dioxide, zinc oxide or mixtures thereof.

Human skin is sensitive to sunlight and artificial light in the wavelengths range between about 290 and 400 nm (uv light). Prolonged exposure to uv lights causes serious skin conditions from erythema, sunburns, reddening, blisterings to carcinomas. Since increased incidence in skin cancer cases, such as squamous and basal cell carcinomas, has been reported worldwide, use of photoprotective agents has increased over the years. Photoprotective agents are commonly used either therapeutically or prophylactically.
A sunscreen, also known as sunblock, is a topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation and thus helps protect against sunburns. A sunscreen typically comprises UV blockers or absorbers to reduce the negative impacts on the skin from the sun such as burning, wrinkles and cancer. Ideal sun screening agents should be safe, chemically inert, non irritating, nontoxic, photostable, invisible, non-staining, non-greasy, and able to provide complete protection to the skin against damage from solar radiation. They should be formulated in a cosmetically acceptable form and ingredients should remain on the upper layers of the skin even after sweating and swimming. They should also effectively block both UVB and UVA rays.
Generally, sunscreens are available in the form of creams, lotion, gels, ointments, pastes, oils, butters, sticks, and sprays. Spray or gel-based sunscreens are preferred in oily skin and acne.
Common actives which are included in sunscreens are titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone, benzophenone 8, octocrylene and oxybenzone, together with other agents like moisturising agents, humectants and emollients. Inorganic chemicals like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide absorb and scatter uv rays, unlike organic chemicals which only absorb. When a sunscreen lotion is put on the skin, it forms a continuous film which provides protection from UV rays. Ideally, this film will spread easily and will be resistant to wash-off.
When formulating a sunscreen, various factors should be considered like the solubility and stability of some uv filters and, being cosmetic items, also the sensorial aspects. The ideal aim is the highest possible protection with the minimum possible amount of uv filters. Moreover, a high amount of sunscreen ingredients is often associated to a bad, like greasy or waxy, final perception of the skin. (Cosmetics 2017, 4, 15). Ease of application and cosmetic appeal are important in formulating sunscreen compositions. A sunscreen formulation should rub in easily, be non-sticky and invisible on the skin after application.
EP0433086 B1 describes sunscreen compositions comprising mixtures of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. EP 3145473 B1 relates to sunscreen products comprising multilayer type encapsulations containing pigments in which excessive whiteness due to titanium dioxide and zinc oxide is visually masked upon skin application.


LNG facility employing one or more vertical core-in-kettle heat exchangers to cool natural gas via indirect heat exchange with a refrigerant. The vertical core-in-kettle heat exchangers save plot space and can be use to reduce the size of cold boxes employed in the LNG facility. In addition, vertical core-in-kettle heat exchangers can exhibit enhanced heat transfer efficiency due to improved refrigerant access to the core, improved refrigerant circulation around the core, and/or improved vapor/liquid disengagement above the core.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for liquefying natural gas. In another aspect, the invention concerns an improved method and apparatus for facilitating indirect heat transfer between a refrigerant and a cooled fluid. In still another aspect, the invention relates to a system for liquefying natural gas that employs at least one vertical core-in-kettle heat exchanger to cool the natural gas.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The cryogenic liquefaction of natural gas is routinely practiced as a means of converting natural gas into a more convenient form for transportation and storage. Such liquefaction reduces the volume of the natural gas by about 600-fold and results in a product which can be stored and transported at near atmospheric pressure.
Natural gas is frequently transported by pipeline from the supply source to a distant market. It is desirable to operate the pipeline under a substantially constant and high load factor but often the deliverability or capacity of the pipeline will exceed demand while at other times the demand may exceed the deliverability of the pipeline. In order to shave off the peaks where demand exceeds supply or the valleys when supply exceeds demand, it is desirable to store the excess gas in such a manner that it can be delivered when demand exceeds supply. Such practice allows future demand peaks to be met with material from storage. One practical means for doing this is to convert the gas to a liquefied state for storage and to then vaporize the liquid as demand requires.
The liquefaction of natural gas is of even greater importance when transporting gas from a supply source which is separated by great distances from the candidate market and a pipeline either is not available or is impractical. This is particularly true where transport must be made by ocean-going vessels. Ship transportation in the gaseous state is generally not practical because appreciable pressurization is required to significantly reduce the specific volume of the gas. Such pressurization requires the use of more expensive storage containers.
In order to store and transport natural gas in the liquid state; the natural gas is preferably cooled to −240° F. to −260° F. where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) possesses a near-atmospheric vapor pressure. Numerous systems exist in the prior art for the liquefaction of natural gas in which the gas is liquefied by sequentially passing the gas at an elevated pressure through a plurality of cooling stages whereupon the gas is cooled to successively lower temperatures until the liquefaction temperature is reached. Cooling is generally accomplished by indirect heat exchange with one or more refrigerants such as propane, propylene, ethane, ethylene, methane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or combinations of the preceding refrigerants (e.g., mixed refrigerant systems). A liquefaction methodology which is particularly applicable to the current invention employs an open methane cycle for the final refrigeration cycle wherein a pressurized LNG-bearing stream is flashed and the flash vapors (i.e., the flash gas stream(s)) are subsequently employed as cooling agents, recompressed, cooled, combined with the processed natural gas feed stream and liquefied thereby producing the pressurized LNG-bearing stream.
Many LNG facilities are located in relatively remote areas near natural gas reserves. When a new LNG facility is built in such a remote location it is common for the major components of the LNG facility to be manufactured in a more populated area and subsequently shipped (usually by ocean-going vessel) to the site of the LNG facility for final assembly. In order to save costs, it is desirable for the bulk of the complex components of the LNG facility to be constructed prior to shipping, so that most of the construction at the site of the LNG facility involves relatively simple assembly of the pre-fabricated complex components. However, as the capacity and size of LNG facilities increases, certain complex components have become too large to construct off-site and then ship to the final destination. One such component is known as a "cold box."
A cold box is simply an enclosure that houses a plurality of refrigeration components (e.g., heat exchangers, valves, and conduits) that operate at a similar low temperature. In a typical cold box, the refrigeration components are assembled in the enclosure and surrounded by a flowable insulation (e.g., particles of expanded perlite) to insulated the multiple refrigeration components. Cold boxes provide a much more efficient and cost effective means for insulating multiple refrigeration components, verses individually insulating each component.
As alluded to above, it is much less expensive to assemble all of the components of a cold box in a more populated area and then ship the entire assembled cold box to the remote LNG facility site for installation. However, as LNG facilities have continued to increase in capacity and size, the size of cold boxes has also increased. In fact, some cold boxes are now too large to ship on standard ocean-going vessels. The main reason for the increased size of the cold boxes is that the conventional horizontal core-in-kettle heat exchangers disposed inside the cold boxes have increased in size to account for the higher cooling demand of larger LNG facilities. Thus, newly-constructed high-capacity LNG facilities utilizing conventional horizontal core-in-kettle heat exchangers require the cold box to be assembled on-site because a pre-assembled cold box would be too large to ship on a standard ocean-going vessel.
In addition to the size/space problems posed by conventional horizontal core-in-kettle heat exchangers, a number of heat transfer inefficiencies can be associated with such horizontal core-in-kettle heat exchangers. For example, the minimal liquid refrigerant depth provided below the core of the exchanger can hamper the availability of liquid refrigerant to the core. Also, the vertical distance between the top of the core and the upper gaseous refrigerant outlet of the shell may be too small to provide adequate disengagement of the gaseous and liquid phases of the refrigerant. When adequate liquid/gas disengagement above the core is not achieved, a significant amount of liquid refrigerant entrained in the upwardly-flowing gaseous refrigerant can undesirably exit the upper gaseous refrigerant outlet of the shell.

Vertical heat exchanger configuration for LNG facility


Structures including a spin torque transfer magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and methods for fabricating same. A first contact is coupled with a first portion of a free layer of the MTJ stack, and a second contact is coupled with a second portion of the free layer of the MTJ stack. The free layer is laterally arranged between the first contact and the second contact.

The present invention relates to integrated circuits and semiconductor device fabrication and, more specifically, to structures that include a spin-torque-transfer magnetic tunnel junction stack and methods for fabricating such structures.
Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile computer memory technology based on magnetoresistance. Because MRAM is non-volatile, MRAM can maintain memory content when the memory device is not powered. In an MRAM, data is stored by magnetoresistive elements made from a pinned magnetic layer and a free magnetic layer, each of which holds a magnetization. The magnetization of the pinned layer is fixed in its magnetic orientation, and the magnetization of the free layer can be changed by an external magnetic field generated by a programming current. In particular, the external magnetic field can cause the magnetic orientations of the magnetic layers to either be parallel, giving a lower electrical resistance across the layers ("0" state), or antiparallel, giving a higher electrical resistance across the layers ("1" state). The switching of the magnetic orientation of the free layer and the resulting high or low resistance states across the magnetic layers provide for the write and read operations of the MRAM cell.
A spin-torque-transfer MRAM (STT-MRAM) cell may include a magnetoresistive data-storing element in the form of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) that includes a pinned magnetic layer, a free magnetic layer, and an insulating layer between the magnetic layers. The STT-MRAM cell further includes an access transistor, and is coupled with a bit line, a word line, and a source line. A programming current typically flows through the access transistor and the magnetic cell stack. The pinned magnetic layer polarizes the electron spin of the programming current, and torque is created as the spin-polarized current passes through the MTJ. The spin-polarized electron current interacts with the free magnetic layer by exerting a torque on the free magnetic layer. When the torque of the spin-polarized electron current passing through the MTJ is greater than a critical switching current density, the torque exerted by the spin-polarized electron current is sufficient to switch the magnetization of the free magnetic layer. Thus, the magnetization of the free magnetic layer can be aligned to be either parallel or antiparallel to the pinned layer, and the resistance state across the MTJ is changed.
Improved structures including a spin-torque-transfer magnetic tunnel junction stack and methods for fabricating such structures are needed.


Various embodiments comprise systems, methods, mechanisms, and apparatus by which a network operator such as a wireline internet service provider (ISP) may determine that an endpoint device has one or more other wireless devices tethered to it, such as a mobile handset providing dual-Wi-Fi ad-hoc tethering (i.e., connected to a high-speed Wi-Fi network while simultaneously providing Wi-Fi connections to wireless devices tethered to the mobile handset), by monitoring Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP traffic flow associated with endpoint devices (i.e., to or through endpoint devices), characterizing these traffic flows in accordance with one or more error indicative criteria to establish thereby a baseline profile of error indicative criteria that is indicative of a TCP/IP traffic flow associated with an endpoint device that is not associated with tethering (e.g., a rate or number of duplicate ACKs), wherein deviations from the baseline profile of error indicative criteria beyond a threshold are indicative of a TCP/IP traffic flow associated with an endpoint device that is associated with tethering.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Modern mobile devices can broadcast an ad-hoc Wi-Fi Service Set Identifier (SSID) that can be used to share the mobile device's internet access with other devices within range. This feature is referred to as a personal hotspot or tethering. Several forms of tethering exit to include wireless tethering—utilizing the Wi-Fi standard hotspot (e.g., 802.11x), and wired tethering—utilizing an adapter to directly connect to the mobile device.
In the past, mobile handsets capable of tethering have allowed connected devices to share the handset's mobile network data connection (e.g., 4G/LTE or 5G). Wireline Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have not been impacted by this since such a data connection does not result in traffic across the wireline ISP's network. That is, the technical limitations of mobile device tethering did not allow for concurrent Wi-Fi connections to be active (one to connect the handset to a highspeed wireline network, and one to allow tethered devices to connect to the handset), thereby limiting the 'sharing' of a mobile handset's internet access to that of the mobile network.
Mobile devices are being introduced that offer dual Wi-Fi radio access technology (RAT) capability providing, thereby, dual-Wi-Fi ad-hoc tethering where the mobile device may be connected to a high-speed Wi-Fi network while simultaneously providing a WiFi hotspot connection to another (tethered) wireless devices. This effectively provides a tethered device access to the high-speed wireline internet service provider (ISP) data network via the Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi link provided by the UE. This presents various problems to a wireline ISP, and must be detected to be managed by the ISP.

Identifying a tethered device using TCP error transmissions


Audio data to be played back is associated with meta data indicating the timing of beat that serves as a basis for a rhythm of a music piece. In a fast-forward playback mode, the associated meta data is read. A portion of the audio data containing the timing of beat is determined as a playback portion A and the remaining portion in a beat-to-beat interval C is determined as a non-playback portion B. Only the playback portion A is sequentially played back and output. The relative duration of a playback portion A and a non-playback portion B is determined according to a playback speed required in fast-forward playback.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio playback technologies and, more particularly, to an audio player provided with the function for fast-forward playback capable of providing an acoustic output at an increased playback speed, and to an audio fast-forward playback method applied to the player.
2. Description of the Related Art
People can now make a large amount of audio data available to themselves and enjoy the audio in various ways, supported by technical aspects such as advances in audio data coding technologies, availability of large-capacity, small-sized storage devices, and improvement in network availability. Audio player for enjoying purchased music software or self-made music pieces are now highly functional; they can not only play back audio data in the order of recording but also can easily play back in a random order, skip to a next music piece, or repeatedly play back a particular music piece.
Fast-forward playback is one such function of an audio player. Generally, when a user want to listen to a part of a music piece ahead of the part being played back, the user increases the playback speed by using the function for fast-forward playback. When the playback advances to the desired part, the user returns the speed to normal. While playback may be advanced to a part ahead of the part being played back by skipping to an index recorded at the start of the data for a music piece or the data for movement, fast-forward playback is largely different from the skipping function in that the user can advance the playback while listening to an actual music piece.
Technologies for fast-forward playback include thinning out audio signals in units of samples, and thinning out audio signals in units of blocks. The former thins out digital data produced by sampling at, for example, 44.1 kHz at a rate commensurate with the required playback speed and plays back accordingly. For example, double playback speed is achieved by thinning out nth samples, where n is an odd number, and playing back even numbered samples. The latter partitions audio data into a block to be played back, a block to be dropped, and a block to be played back and so forth. For example, quadruple speed is achieved by repeating the process of playing back for one second and dropping blocks for three seconds.
One of the greatest features of fast-forward playback is that the user can listen to sound being played back as the fast-forward playback is proceeding. However, the related-art methods such as those described above have disadvantages in that, as the playback speed is increased, the user experiences significant changes in musical pitches or musical tones, or playback parts are turned into fragments of sound quite unlike the original music piece, with the result that it may be useless to let the user listen to playback. For this reason, usable playback speed is limited.

Audio player and audio fast-forward playback method capable of high-speed fast-forward playback and allowing recognition of music pieces


A check or other document verification method in which a data encryption algorithm is applied to personal identification number (PIN) and selected other information particular to each document such as check number or amount of check. The resulting derivation is printed on the face of the document at the time the document is originated, in human readable form and possibly in machine readable form. The recipient of the document is issued a proprietary card, preferably an integrated circuit or "smart card", which contains an identical algorithm to that used when the document was originated. When the document holder presents a check for cashing or otherwise presents a document for verification, the cardholder is first identified with the card by inserting the card in a terminal and manually entering a PIN as is a common practice. Then the person who was given the document for validation, such as a check cashier, enters the selected information from the face of the document, which is processed utilizing the previously entered PIN and the algorithm from the card to derive a number. The number thus derived may be compared to the derivation which was printed on the document, visually or automatically by incorporating the capability within the terminal for reading the derived number from the face of the document. The proposed method thus validates the cardholder as the legitimate holder of the card, the cardholder as the legitimate holder of the document, and the document as having been legitimately produced for the specific cardholder.

The present invention relates to document verification systems and more particularly to a virtually fool-proof document verification system employing multiple cross-checks. The system may be used in connection with paper instruments, such as checks, security documents, ambassadors' pouches and the contents thereof, etc.
The fraudulent misuse of documents has, in the past, been limited only by the ingenuity of those attempting such misuse. In the case of payroll checks, blank checks may be stolen from an employer, completed, and presented for payment. Already-completed checks may also be illegally obtained either before or after distribution to a recipient. Although the frequency of such occurrences is low, when they do occur, the amount involved may be quite high, because the perpetrators are often professional criminals. The cost of guarding against the possibility of checks being stolen is high because of the extraordinary precautions which must be taken during handling and storage.
Government checks including welfare and social security checks present a particular and somewhat different problem. Recipients of government checks often have difficulty finding someone to cash their checks. Check cashing locations may be few in number, inconveniently located, and inordinately expensive in terms of the service fee charged. These types of checks quite often do not lend themselves to automatic deposit in financial institutions, particularly in the case of welfare checks, because the amounts involved are too small and the retention period of the funds is too short to encourage banks to establish demand deposit accounts (DDA) for welfare recipients. Retailers are often reluctant to cash government checks because of the risk of stolen, forged, or falsified checks, and because the checks may be returned as invalid at any time for a period of up to one year, which makes recovery all but impossible.
There are many check authorization programs currently in use, many of which are applied at the point of sale. In the best of cases, these may be based on a magnetic stripe identification card carried by an individual which is used to access a computer database either directly or through a data communications network. The database provides information regarding the eligibility of the individual to receive funds but has little or no capability of determining authenticity of the check being presented or the validity of the relationship between the individual and the check. The database would normally include check cashing parameters for the individual, such as size and frequency of check cashing privileges, and any one or a combination of several types of identifiers. Although such check authorization systems are loosely referred to as "check verification systems", this term is a misnomer in that the authenticity of the checks is not verified, rather the eligibility of the individuals is. Unlike paper checks, however, the individuals involved are of course not subject to the check clearing process or subject to return when fraud is discovered. Certainly, a visual verification of some sort may be made of the physical check such as looking for water-marked paper, unusual check numbering schemes, and foul-ups such as misspellings, illegibility and ink smudges. But professional and semi-professional criminals make few such mistakes.
When private check cashers such as currency exchanges cash checks, they look for obvious discrepancies, try to identify the individual (perhaps from past acquaintance) and then cash the check for a fee. Because validation, strictly speaking, is lacking or non-existent, the fee must be structured to allow for significant losses, and is often in the range of one to several dollars each for checks that may well be for a few hundred dollars or less. Whatever the fee is, it is a significant percentage of the face value of the check and is imposed on individuals whose options are few, if any. The truly needy and the legitimately entitled suffer not only from the acts of the dishonest, but also from the weakness of the system.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a more fool-proof document verification system. Another object of the present invention is to provide a document verification system having multiple cross-checks.

Multiple cross-check document verification system


In an antenna apparatus, on an undersurface of a metal cover, a feeding coil module is disposed. In a casing, a printed circuit board is included. A ground conductor, a feeding pin, and a ground connection conductor are disposed on the printed circuit board. When the metal cover is mounted on the casing, the feeding pin is in contact with a connection portion of the feeding coil module and is electrically connected thereto. The ground connection conductor is in contact with the metal cover and connects the metal cover to the ground conductor. The ground connection conductor is disposed at either side of a slit outside an area in which the current density of an induced current flowing through the metal cover is in a range from a maximum value to approximately 80% of the maximum value or one side of the slit in the area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna apparatus preferably for use in short-range communication and a communication terminal including the antenna apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are increasingly becoming popular as product management systems and billing and toll collection management systems. In such an RFID system, a reader/writer and an RFID tag wirelessly communicate with each other to exchange information. Each of the reader/writer and the RFID tag includes an RFID IC chip for processing a signal and an antenna for transmitting and receiving a radio signal. Predetermined information is transmitted between the antennas of the reader/writer and the RFID tag via a magnetic field or an electromagnetic field.
For example, FeliCa (registered trademark) that applies an RFID system to information communication terminals such as mobile telephones has been recently used. In Felica, a terminal itself is sometimes used as a reader/writer or an RFID tag. On the other hand, since communication terminals decrease in size and increase in functionality, there is not sufficient space for an antenna in the casings of the communication terminals. In order to solve this problem, for example, a configuration disclosed in WO2010/122685/A1 is sometimes used. In this configuration, a small coil conductor is connected to an RFID IC chip and a radio signal is transmitted from a conductive layer that is adjacent to the coil conductor and has a large area. The conductive layer functions as a radiation element (booster antenna) and is magnetically coupled to the coil conductor via an opening of the conductive layer. With this configuration, since a thin metal film can be used as the conductive layer, the conductive layer can be formed in narrow space between a printed circuit board and a terminal casing.
As the conductive layer (booster antenna), a metal film may be prepared as described above. Alternatively, in a case where the terminal casing is a metal casing, the metal casing itself may be used as the booster antenna. In this case, it is desired that the metal casing be connected to the ground of a circuit in the terminal casing. More specifically, it is desired that the metal casing be connected to the ground of a printed circuit board in the terminal casing. In the terminal casing, for example, a power supply circuit and a high-frequency signal processing circuit are formed. By using the metal casing as the ground, a ground potential in the terminal casing can become more stable. As a result, the operations of various circuits can become more stable.
However, in a case where the ground of the printed circuit board and the metal casing are connected, an antenna characteristic may be deteriorated in accordance with a connection method.

Antenna apparatus and communication terminal


An arrangement for a four-cycle, direct injected engine for an outboard motor is disclosed. In one embodiment, the engine is a V-type engine comprising first and second cylinder banks. A high pressure fuel pump is actuated by an intake camshaft of the first bank of cylinders. The engine includes a ventilation system with a lubricant separator being located in an upper portion of the second bank of cylinders. In another embodiment, the engine is an inline type engine. The fuel pump is actuated by the intake camshaft and the lubricant separator is located in an upper portion of an exhaust cam chamber.

The present application is based on and claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-338815, filed Nov. 7, 2000, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved arrangement for an outboard motor, and more particularly to an improved arrangement for a four-cycle engine of an outboard motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical outboard motor comprises a power head and a housing depending from the power head. The power head includes an internal combustion engine that drives a marine propulsion device (e.g., a propeller) through a driveshaft and a propulsion shaft, which are both journaled within the housing. The marine propulsion device is attached to the end of a propulsion unit, which extends from housing and is in a submerged position.
The internal combustion engine is typically covered by a protective cowling. The protective cowling typically comprises an upper portion and lower portion, which are removably mounted to each other by hooks or other coupling mechanisms, such as, for example, hooks. Accordingly, the upper portion can be removed from the lower portion such that the engine can be inspected and/or repaired. A general problem associated with outboard motors is that it is generally desirable to keep the height and width of the protective cowling as small as possible. As such, the space within the cowling is extremely limited. In this limited space, many engine components must be disposed.
There is an increasing emphasis on obtaining more effective emission control, better fuel economy and, at the same time, continued high or higher power output in outboard motors. Accordingly, four-cycle engines have started to replace two-cycle engines in outboard motors. In a similar manner, it has been suggested that direct fuel injection be used in outboard motors to further reduce emissions and improve performance. However, to date, it has been difficult to arrange all the components of a direct-injected four-cycle engine into the limited of space of an outboard motor cowling.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is a four-cycle engine for powering an outboard motor. The engine comprises a plurality of combustion chambers arranged generally vertically above one another. The combustion chambers are formed by at least an engine body, a cylinder head assembly and a piston that moves relative to the engine body and the cylinder head assembly. A crankshaft that extends in a generally vertical direction is coupled to the piston such that movement of the piston causes the crankshaft to rotate. At least one air intake port and at least one exhaust port communicate with the combustion chamber. An intake valve moves between an open and closed position. An exhaust valve moves between an open and closed position. An valve actuating mechanism includes an intake camshaft capable of moving the intake valves and an exhaust cam shaft capable of moving the exhaust valves. A head cover assembly covers the valve actuating mechanism and defines, at least in part, a cam chamber. A fuel injection system comprises a fuel injector communicating with each combustion chamber and arranged to deliver fuel directly to the combustion chamber. The fuel system also includes a fuel pump that communicates with at least one of the fuel injectors. The fuel pump is actuated, at least partially, by rotation of the intake cam shaft or the exhaust cam shaft and is positioned at least partially within the cam chamber.
Another aspect of the present invention is a four-cycle engine for powering an outboard motor. The engine comprises a plurality of combustion chambers arranged generally vertically above one another. The combustion chambers are formed by at least an engine body, a cylinder head assembly and a piston that moves relative to the engine body and the cylinder head assembly. A crankshaft that extends in a generally vertical direction is coupled to the piston such that movement of the piston causes the crankshaft to rotate. At least one air intake port and at least one exhaust port communicate with the combustion chamber. An intake valve moves between an open and closed position. An exhaust valve moves between an open and closed position. An valve actuating mechanism includes an intake camshaft capable of moving the intake valves and an exhaust cam shaft capable of moving the exhaust valves. A head cover assembly covers the valve actuating mechanism and defines, at least in part, a cam chamber. A fuel injection system comprises a fuel injector communicating with each combustion chamber and arranged to deliver fuel directly to the combustion chamber. The fuel system also includes a fuel pump that communicates with at least one of the fuel injectors. The fuel pump is located at partially within the cam chamber and is positioned generally between adjacent cylinder. The fuel pump has a longitudinal axis that is slanted towards a cylinder axis extending through the adjacent cylinders.


In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a projection having a tapered end portion configured to be inserted percutaneously through tissue. A measurement member is coupled to the projection and is configured to indicate a distance between adjacent anatomical structures. In another embodiment, an apparatus includes a measurement member configured to be percutaneously inserted between adjacent anatomical structures. The measurement member includes a wedge portion that is configured to contact the adjacent anatomical structures when the measurement member is moved distally between the adjacent anatomical structures. A size indicator is coupled to the wedge portion. The size indicator has a plurality of markings and is configured to be viewed on an image of the adjacent anatomical structures with the wedge portion of the measurement member disposed between the adjacent anatomical structures to indicate a distance between the adjacent anatomical structures.

The invention relates generally to measurement of distances between portions of hard tissue, for example, the percutaneous measurement of such distances.
Known surgical procedures exist in which information about the size of a particular opening or the distance between adjacent bones is obtained. For example, procedures are performed on joints such as the knee, shoulder, spine, etc. in which a device is placed between adjacent bones. Knowing the size of the opening or the space between the bones in which the device is to be placed prior to placement allows the surgeon to select the proper size of the material beforehand. This can reduce or prevent unnecessary trial and error during the placement portion of the procedure.
Known surgical procedures measure space between bones by using, for example, trial "spacers" of various sizes. Multiple spacers are tested in the space until the correct size is identified. Such tests with trial spacers are done using an open surgical approach to allow access to the joint. As with any open surgical procedure, however, the healing process is longer and the risk of injury and/or infection increases dramatically.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in the measurement of inter-bone spaces.

Measurement instrument for percutaneous surgery


An electro-optical plasma addressing device comprises a first substrate; a set of parallel first electrodes formed on the first substrate, a second substrate disposed opposite to the first substrate; a set of parallel second electrodes formed on the second substrate; a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrates; walls formed on the second electrodes so as to form discharge chambers by partitioning a space formed between the liquid crystal layer and the second substrates; and an ionizable gas sealed in the discharge chambers. Each second electrode has a terminal portion, resistive portions connected to the terminal portion, and discharge portions connected respectively to the extremities of the resistive portions, and these portions of the second electrode are formed in a plane. In a modification, the second electrode has a laminate construction consisting of a terminal portion formed on the second substrate, a resistive portion formed on the terminal portion, and discrete discharge portions formed and arranged at a specified pitch on the resistive portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electro-optical plasma addressing device having a two-layer construction, consisting of an electro-optical cell, such as a liquid crystal cell, and a plasma cell and, more specifically, to the electrode construction of the plasma cell of an electro-optical plasma addressing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An active matrix addressing system is a generally known means for enhancing the resolution and contrast of an electro-optical device of a matrix type employing a liquid crystal cell as an electro-optical cell, such as a liquid crystal display. The active matrix addressing system employs switching elements, such as thin-film transistors or the like, in combination with the picture elements and drives the switching elements in linear sequence. Since the active matrix addressing system needs a substrate provided with a plurality of semiconductor elements, such as thin-film transistors, the percentage of acceptable electro-optical optical devices of a matrix type decreases when the size of the display panel is increased.
A means for eliminating such a disadvantage of the electro-optical device, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open (Kokai) No. 1-217396 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,896,149 and 5,077,553) employs plasma switches instead of the switching elements, such as thin-film transistors. The construction of a plasma addressing display employing plasma switches for driving a liquid crystal cell will be briefly described hereinafter.
Referring to FIG. 6, the plasma addressing display has a laminate flat panel construction comprising a liquid crystal cell 101, a plasma cell 102 opposed to the liquid crystal cell 101, and an intermediate plate 103 held between the liquid crystal cell 101 and the plasma cell 102. The plasma cell 102 has a glass substrate 104 provided in its surface with a plurality of parallel grooves 105 extending, for example, along the rows of a matrix. The grooves 105 are covered closely with the middle plate 103 to form separate plasma chambers 106. An ionizable gas is sealed in the plasma chambers 106. Ridges 107 between the adjacent grooves 105 serves as partition walls separating the plasma chambers 106 from each other and as gap spacers spacing apart the plasma chambers 106. A pair of parallel electrodes 108 and 109 are extended on the bottom surface of each groove 105 for ionizing the gas sealed in the plasma chamber 106 to produce a discharge plasma. The electrodes 108 are anodes A, and the electrodes 109 are cathodes K. Such discharge regions are row scanning units.
The liquid crystal cell 101 has a transparent substrate 110 disposed opposite to the intermediate plate 103 with a specified gap therebetween and the gap is filled up with a liquid crystal 111. Signal electrodes D of a transparent conductive material are formed on the inner surface of the transparent substrate 110. The signal electrodes D extend perpendicularly to the axes of the plasma chambers 106 to function as column driving units. The virtual intersections of the row scanning units and the column driving units form a matrix of picture elements.
The operation of the plasma addressing display of FIG. 6 will be described briefly with reference to FIG. 7.
An external driving circuit for driving the plasma addressing display comprises a signal circuit 201, a scanning circuit 202 and a control circuit 203. The signal electrodes Dl to Dm, which function as column driving units, are connected respectively through buffers to the signal circuit 201, the cathodes Kl to Kn are connected respectively through buffers and resistors R to the scanning circuit 202, and the anodes Al to An are connected to a common ground. The scanning circuit 202 scans the cathodes Kl to Kn in linear sequence, and the signal circuit 201 applies analog image signals to the signal electrodes Dl to Dm in synchronism with the scanning operation of the scanning circuit 202. The control circuit 203 controls the signal circuit 201 and the scanning circuit 202 for synchronous operation. A plasma discharge region, i.e., a row scanning unit, is formed along the selected cathode Kj (j=1, 2, . . . , n-1 or n). The virtual intersections of the row scanning units and the column driving units form picture elements 204.
Load resistors R are connected respectively to the cathodes Kl to Kn to secure uniform plasma discharge over the entire area of the screen by suppressing difference in discharge current between the row scanning units. If an excessive discharge current is supplied to the cathode Kj, a voltage drop according to the current occurs across the corresponding loading resistor R to suppress the variation of effective voltage applied to the cathode Kj.
Referring to FIG. 8 showing two picture elements 204 among those of the plasma addressing display of FIG. 7, each picture element 204 is formed by connecting a sampling capacitor consisting of the signal electrode Dl (D2) and the liquid crystal 111 filling the gap between the transparent substrate 110 and the intermediate plate 103, and a plasma sampling switch S in series. The function of the plasma sampling switch S is equivalent to that of the discharge region, i.e., the row scanning unit. When activated, the interior of the discharge region is kept substantially generally at an anode potential. After plasma discharge has terminated, the potential of the discharge region coincides with a floating potential. An analog image signal is applied through the sampling switch S to the sampling capacitor of the picture element 204 for sampling hold.
Whereas the known plasma display panel forms a point-like discharge region, this plasma addressing display addresses the picture elements addressed through the plasma sampling switches. In this plasma addressing display, a discharge region, i.e., the row scanning unit, is formed between the paired anode and cathode. The length of this discharge region is considerably long when the plasma addressing display has a large screen and local discharge occurs to form a nonuniform row scanning unit due to voltage drop caused by the resistances of the anode and the cathode. If a nonuniform row scanning unit is formed, the resistances of the plasma sampling switches S differ from each other. Although the loading resistor R is connected to each cathode to produce uniform plasma discharge in the row scanning unit, the loading resistor R is unable to suppress the occurrence of local plasma discharge. Accordingly, a sufficiently high current must be supplied to the row scanning unit to produce stable plasma discharge over the entire length of the row scanning unit. Consequently, the contrast of the image displayed on the plasma addressing display is reduced by unnecessary plasma, power consumption is increased and the life of the plasma addressing display is shortened. Thus, when plasma discharge in the row scanning unit having a large length is controlled by the conventional discharge current compensating system, the distribution of plasma discharge is liable to vary delicately and the local variation of the distribution of plasma discharge cannot be absorbed and, therefore, the picture elements differ unavoidably from each other in brightness.

Electro-optical plasma addressing device with cathodes having discharge, resistive and voltage supplying portions


A bending machine for elongated workpieces, comprising a bending tool with a bending head having a bending disc with a bending groove and two slide rails, each having a molding groove and which can be placed laterally against opposing sides of the workpiece. Each slide rail is secured to a support part and laterally supports the workpiece from where the workpiece is fed into the bending groove to a point in front of the bending groove when the slide rail is resting against the workpiece. Each support part is adjustable between a starting position, in which the slide rail does not rest against the workpiece, and a final position, in which the slide rail contacts the workpiece. Upon contacting the workpiece, the other slide rail assumes its starting position. The support parts are attached to a two-arm lever, and a slide piece rests against the workpiece in each lever position.

DE 93 16 052.6 U1 describes a pipe bending machine that can be used for bending pipes to the left or right. Two separate slide rail devices are used on both sides of the longitudinal axis of the pipe to be handled, each of which can be moved in parallel to the direction of movement of the workpiece and horizontally (perpendicularly) to the workpiece. Each slide rail device can move independently of the other slide rail device. In addition, the slide rails cannot be moved vertically in order to maintain smaller interfering contours with a larger bending clearance.
Similarly, in the pipe bending machine according to EP 1 458 505 B1 or DE 602 18 339 T2, which also permits left and right bending, slide rail devices are provided on both sides of the workpiece. These can be moved in parallel to the workpiece independently of each other and together with one another perpendicular to the workpiece. However, the slide rails are not intended to move vertically here either.
An additional bending machine for left and right bending of elongated workpieces is described in EP 1 595 612 A1, in which separate slide rails for left and right bending can in turn be swiveled using a pivot movement from a position lowered below the bending plane and away from the workpiece to a raised position resting against the workpiece. In this publication, however, the slide rails are not intended to move in parallel to the workpiece or vertically.
The machine for bending pipe coils from DE 1 652 817 A1 specifies slide rails that can be moved both vertically and in the direction of movement of the workpiece. Here, however, a horizontal movement perpendicular to the workpiece is not expressly described, only a lifting of the slide rails from the workpiece is indicated.
On the other hand, slide rails that can be moved together perpendicular to the workpiece are used in the bending arrangement for pipes shown in WO 2004/000479 A1. Such rails can also be moved independently of each other and in parallel to the workpiece. In this familiar arrangement, however, there are clear interfering contours with only moderate bending clearance.
A bending machine of the aforementioned type is known from EP 2 177 287 A2. There, the slide rails mounted on both sides of the workpiece can be moved in parallel to the workpiece, wherein a vertical or a perpendicular movement to the workpiece is not provided. This known bending machine also allows left and right bending, wherein material from the coil is processed, not cut-to-length pipe sections. However, when bending pipes with a pipe gripper feed and a cut-to-length workpiece, collisions can occur in this known bending machine.

Bending machine for bending rod-shaped or tubular workpieces


In one aspect, the invention relates to substituted N-phenylpyrimidin-2-amine analogs, derivatives thereof, and related compounds, which are useful as inhibitors of Axl kinase; synthetic methods for making the compounds; pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds; and methods of using the compounds and compositions for treating disorders associated with dysfunction of the Axl kinase. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.

The receptor tyrosine kinases represent a superfamily of transmembrane proteins that relay signals from the extracellular environment into the cell. The signals are conveyed by ligands which bind the extracellular domains of these kinases, thereby activating a signaling pathway. In this superfamily, frequently the ligand is a type of growth factor. One subfamily of kinases within this superfamily are the TAM subfamily of kinases, which comprise the tyrosine receptor kinases Axl, Tyro3 and Mer (Hafizi S and Dahlback B. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev 2006; 17: 295-304; Linger R M, et al. Adv Cancer Res 2008; 100: 35-83). This subfamily of kinases have in common a unique extracellular domain with N-terminal immunoglobulin domains and two fibronectin type III repeat structures. The structure of the fibronection type III repeats bears structural similarity to neural cell adhesion molecules (NCAMs). Although initially characterized as a single transmembrane protein, Axl can also exist as a soluble protein (sAxl) which is generated by ADAM10 (a metalloproteinase) mediated proteolysis. The role of sAxl is less well-characterized than intact, transmemberane Axl.
The natural ligand common to the TAM kinases is Gas6, a product of the growth arrest-specific gene 6 (Hafizi S and Dahlback B. FEBS J 2006; 273:5231-44; Bellido-Martin L and de Frutos P G. Vitam Horm 2008; 78:185-209.). The protein called protein S is also a potential natural ligand of the TAM kinases. Both of these proteins, Gas6 and protein S, are vitamin K-dependent proteins and share about 43% homology and several distinct protein domains. Binding of Gas6 to Axl leads to Axl autophosphorylation and activation of downstream signaling pathways including MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathways (Angelillo-Scherrer A, et al. J Clin Invest 2008; Shankar S L, et al. J Neuorosci 2006, 26: 5638-5648; Keating A K, et al. Oncogene 2006, 25:6092-6100), although the JAK/STAT pathway may be important for TAM-mediated immune responses (Rothlin C V, et al. Cell 2007, 131: 1124-1136).
The oncogenic potential of Axl was first discovered in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), but it has been demonstrated to play a role in the progression and metastasis of other cancer types. The increased expression of Axl and/or Axl ligand, Gash, has been shown in a number of human malignancies, including ovarian, melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, uterine leiomyoma, uterine endometrial cancer, thyroid carcinoma, gastric cancer, breast cancer, NSCLC, CML, AML, colorectal carcinoma, prostate cancer, various lymphomas, and esophageal cancer. The biochemical effects of increased expression of Axl is associated with increased oncogenic transformation, cell survival, proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, and cellular adhesion. Target validation studies of in vivo cancer models show that inhibition of Axl expression by RNAi blocked tumor growth in those models (e.g. see Li, Y. et al. Oncogene 2009, 28:3442-3455).
In addition to the association with cancer and tumorigenesis, TAM family kinases are implicated in a number of other cell and physiological functions. These include regulation of vascular smooth muscle homeostasis (Korshunov V A, et al. Hypertension 2007, 50: 1057-1062; Korshunov V A, et al. Circ Res 2006, 98: 1446-1452), platelet function, thrombus stabilization (Angelillo-Scherrer A, et al. J Clin Invest 2008, 118: 583-596; Gould W R, et al. J Thromb Haemost 2005, 3: 733-741), innate immunity (Lemke G and Rothlin CV. Nat Rev Immunol 2008, 8: 327-336) and inflammation (Rothlin C V, et al. Cell 2007, 131: 1124-1136; Sharif M N, et al. J. Exp Med 2006, 203: 1891-1901).
In summary, the Axl protein appears to have a key role in a number of human disorders, including cancer. The expression of the protein and/or the ligand is altered in these cancer cells. Thus, Axl protein is an attractive and valuable target for the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents to treat cancer and other conditions. There is a need for the design of specific and selective inhibitors for the treatment of disorders mediated and/or associated with Axl kinase.

Substituted N-phenylpyrimidin-2-amine analogs as inhibitors of the Axl kinase


A roll-back flat-bed truck comprising a cab at the front end and a frame at the rear end and a flat bed secured thereto by securement member. The securement member includes a hinge having a lower hinge half-coupled to the frame and an upper hinge half coupled to the bed and a hinge pin coupling the hinge halves to allow tilting the upper hinge half and bed with respect to the lower hinge half and frame about a horizontal axis. A swivel plate is attached to the frame adjacent to the rear end of the bed. A swivel pin is positioned in an aperture extending through the swivel plate and lower hinge half to allow swiveling of the bed with respect to the frame about a vertical axis. An intermediate support is attached to the upper surface of the upper hinge half to slidably couple the bed thereto to allow for rolling the bed longitudinally with respect to the intermediate support, hinge and frame. Also provided are a first drive to slide the bed longitudinally with respect to the intermediate support, hinge and frame a second drive to tilt the bed, intermediate support and upper hinge half with respect to the lower hinge half, swivel plate and frame, and a third drive to swivel the bed, intermediate support and hinge with respect to the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle with a multi-positionable flat bed and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for loading cars or the like onto a bed as of a truck, trailer, train car or the like through mechanisms for effecting a compound pivoting/swivel motion of the bed.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is common to utilize a roll-back, flat-bed truck to quickly load and transport a car which has been disabled, in an accident, illegally parked, or which must be relocated from one sales area to another. In such situations, the transporting truck will be provided with a flat bed. Flat beds are normally movable with respect to the bed between a first or rest position on the truck frame and a second or loading position rolled-back and at an angle with respect to the frame so that the car to be transported may be moved thereon. Such beds are pivotable with respect to the truck between the two positions. In some instances the ramps are even capable of swiveling with respect to the truck in order to load cars oriented at awkward angles with respect to the location where the truck may position itself.
One of the more significant shortcomings of known devices is the inability to effect a swiveling motion of the bed when the bed is in the second or loading position, rolled back and tilted with respect to the truck. Such inability of prior art trucks renders them virtually incapable of conveniently loading a car parallel parked with its wheels locked in a turned position. If loading such a car is attempted, there is an undesired scraping of the tires on the ground during movement.
A wide variety of approaches have been attempted in the prior art to overcome such problems. By way of example, note U.S. Pat. No. 2,786,590 to Edwards wherein a flat bed may be variously repositioned with respect to a vehicle upon which it is positioned. Tilting is allowed in the truck loading embodiment, but without swiveling. In the rail car loading embodiment, swiveling is allowed only in association with an elevator-type arrangement.
In another patent of interest, U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,746 to Delachapelle a bed is pivotable with respect to a truck frame. The bed is also swivelable. But, as shown in FIG. 5, the swivel effecting mechanisms 109 are located at the level of the tires at the center of the frame. As a result, swiveling can only occur when the bed is on the frame which minimizes the utility of the apparatus. Further, no mechanisms are provided to tilt the bed independent of its orientation.
In another body of prior art, there are various devices for effecting the pivoting motion of a bed with respect to a truck frame but without a disclosure of the swiveling in combination with the pivoting in a compound motion. Note U.S. Pat. No. 2,169,611 to Ratcliffe; 2,621,814 to Lisota; 2,703,658 to Bazell; 4,249,851 to Sedelmayer; 4,456,420 to Newhard; and 4,770,592 to Winter.
These various patent all disclose mechanisms which attempt to solve the problem addressed by the instant invention. All such prior art approaches, however, have failed to offer the benefits attendant with the present invention.
As illustrated by the large body of background art and commercial devices, efforts are continuously being made in an attempt to improve roll-back, flat-bed vehicles. No prior effort, however, suggests the present inventive combination of component elements arranged and configured as disclosed herein. Prior roll-back, flat-bed vehicles do not provide the benefits attendant with the present invention. The present invention achieves its purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, through the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, and through the use of only readily available materials and conventional components.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for coupling a flat bed to the frame of a vehicle comprising an upper hinge half coupled to the bed; a lower hinge half coupled to the frame; a hinge pin coupling the hinge halves to allow tilting of the upper hinge half and bed with respect to the lower hinge half and frame about a horizontal axis; slide means to couple the bed to the upper hinge half to allow for sliding of the bed longitudinally with respect to the hinge; and a swivel pin positioned between the bed and frame and extending through an aperture in one of the hinge halves to allow swiveling of the bed with respect to the frame.
It is a further object of the present invention to move a bed of a roll-back, flat-bed vehicle in a compound tilting/swiveling motion to extend their utility.
It is a further object of the present invention to configure a hinge with one end secured in a first location and with the other end tiltable and with a swivel element for effecting a compound tilting/swiveling motion between elements coupled by the hinge.
It is a further object of the present invention to load and transport cars more conveniently with a roll-back, flat-bed truck.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a further understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Vehicle with multi-positionable flat bed