This disclosure relates to a greenhouse system. The greenhouse system includes a metallic structural element and an anode mounted on the metallic structural element. A method is also disclosed.

This disclosure relates generally to preventing corrosion in a greenhouse. Corrosion is caused by chemical reactions when metals are exposed to certain environmental conditions. The environmental conditions that cause corrosion may include chemicals, substances with high or low pH balances, salt, or even water. Byproducts of corrosion in commonly used metallic construction materials may include rust and aluminum oxide. Once corrosion has begun on a metal surface, it often worsens and spreads rapidly. Corrosion is visually unappealing and deteriorates the structural integrity of the metal.
Many greenhouse structures are built using metallic materials, which can corrode and deteriorate over time. The relatively harsh environment within a greenhouse can accelerate the process of corrosion within the metal structure of a greenhouse. Known preventative measures for counteracting the naturally occurring corrosion processes include coating or treating the metal surfaces. Such coatings or treatments may include painting, powder coating, galvanizing, electro plating, and anodizing. However, these treatments are not always effective.


A fiber-optically-and-pneumatically-controlled firing set for explosive-bridgewire detonators. The firing set consists of a detonation-controlling module and a battery-operated firing module that are interconnected by fiber-optic signal conductors and a pneumatic conduit. The firing set provides high voltage isolation between the control module and the firing module while employing redundant safety features including fail-safe pneumatic crowbar shunting of the firing module output, frequency-selective fiber-optic signal communication, controlled battery life and explosive material detonation enablement and multiple, fail-safe serial switching to control the energy transfer sequence in the firing module. Both high voltage and low potential uses of the invention are included.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States for all governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty.
In certain specialized situations there is need to employ an explosive charge device in a high voltage electrical environment. More precisely, in some instances it is desirable for an explosive charge device and its detonation/initiating apparatus to remain usable and safe from unintended detonation even though the device is arbitrarily and suddenly elevated in electrical potential from zero or ground potential to a potential of several hundred kilovolts or megavolts. The explosive charge device involved in this environment may be as small and as simple as an explosive bolt of the type often used in rocket and space applications or may be of a larger and more complex nature as needed for explosive disintegration of a larger apparatus or at least its key integration elements. The specialized situations needing this combination of explosive separation or disintegration may exist in certain military weapons environments, particularly in systems employing high-energy and/or high-voltage pulse forming networks or similar apparatus. Needs for this capability may also be found in the electrical utility field where it can be desirable to interrupt the connection between a high voltage source and its load in a simple, rapid, permanent and visible manner. Such disconnection may be appropriate between a transmission line and a transformer primary winding terminal for example.
To date, alternate arrangements having safe detonation/initiation functional capability in the presence of the dual hazards of high explosives and very high voltage are believed not to exist. Although standard explosive fuses, or chemical fuses, may be feasible for normal operation in these environmental conditions, such devices have irresolvable safety problems in an abort-or-misfire situation in, for example, a laboratory test requiring an experimental apparatus to be approached for repair or dismantling.
The present invention provides a safe and reliable apparatus and method for operating explosive-bridge-wire (EBW) detonators and associated explosive charges that are raised to electrical potentials of hundreds of thousands of volts or megavolts above a surrounding environment. The invention excludes metallic conductors in locations that could disturb electromagnetic fields or short-circuit electrical operating potentials. The invention method and apparatus also meet the safety requirements imposed in connection with explosive materials use in most test and operating environments and enables the safe handling of abort and explosive misfire situations.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an explosive material detonation apparatus and method that are usable in a very high electrical voltage environment.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation arrangement that is also usable in ordinary low voltage or zero voltage environments.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation apparatus that is relatively simple in arrangement and operation.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation apparatus that is manually controlled while having automatic electrical and electronic supervision functions.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation controller allowing safe abortion of an embarked-upon detonation program from plural controller operating states.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation system combining fiber optic and pneumatic communication between two major system components.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation apparatus providing an armed and detonation-enabled period of finite and predictable duration.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation system having large stray electromagnetic signal immunity.
It is another object of the invention to provide an explosive material detonation arrangement that is inclusive of a plurality of safety operating features.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by instantly segregable elevated electrical potential apparatus comprising the combination of:
an assembly joined together in an electrically insulated, local explosive material-detonation responsive manner;
a source of elevated electrical potential connected between said assembly and a surrounding environment electrical node;
an electrically initiateable charge of explosive material located adjacent portions of said elevated electrical potential assembly;
a quantity-limited depletable source of explosive material-detonation initiating electrical energy located adjacent said charge of explosive material, said quantity-limited source of explosive material-detonation initiating electrical energy being also disposed at said elevated electrical potential with respect to said surrounding environment;
a wired conductor path inclusive of a coded optical energy responsive electrical switching element connecting said quantity-limited source of explosive material-detonation initiating electrical energy with said electrically initiateable charge of explosive material;
said quantity-limited depletable source of explosive material-detonation initiating electrical energy, said wired conductor path, and said coded optical energy responsive electrical switching element comprising an explosive material firing module also disposed at said elevated electrical potential with respect to said surrounding environment;
a detonation controlling module coupled with said firing module by a multiple parallel path fiber optic optical energy signal transmission apparatus;
said multiple parallel path fiber optic optical energy signal transmission apparatus being also electrically non conducting with respect to said elevated electrical potential of said assembly;
said detonation controlling module including electrical circuit means defining a successive sequence plurality of detonation controlling module and firing module operating states including an initial off state, a final state initiating detonating of said electrically initiateable charge of explosive material and a plurality of intermediate operating states;
said detonation controlling module and said firing module including optical signal transmission and reception means for communicating optical signals indicative of existence of selected of said detonation controlling module operating states between said detonation controlling module and said firing module coded optical energy-responsive electrical switching element via said multiple parallel path fiber optic optical energy signal transmission apparatus;
said detonation controlling module and said firing module including optical signal transmission and reception means for communicating optical signals indicative of existence of selected of said firing module operating states between said firing module and said detonation controlling module via said multiple parallel path fiber optic optical energy signal transmission apparatus;
said detonation controlling module also including manually electable operating state termination inputs enabling premature, and non detonating of said explosive material, resetting termination of a selected plurality of said intermediate states in said detonation controlling module and said firing module;
said quantity-limited depletable source of explosive material initiation electrical energy enabling time duration predictions of detonation energy available possible detonating of said explosive material and ensuing commencement of a remainder, insufficient detonation energy available, safe explosive material handling time;
manual operating means for initiating detonation of said explosive material upon transition through a selected plurality of said detonation controlling module and firing module operating states.

High voltage tolerant explosive initiation

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


Techniques for reducing the complexity and power requirements of precompensation units, as well as equalizers, devices, and systems employing such techniques. In an illustrative method for providing high speed equalization, the method comprises: obtaining a channel response that presents trailing intersymbol interference in a signal having a sequence of symbols from a symbol set; determining a distribution of threshold values for a precompensation unit corresponding to said channel response with said symbol set; deriving a reduced set of threshold values from said distribution; and implementing a decision feedback equalizer with a reduced-complexity precompensation unit employing the reduced set of threshold values. In a related illustrative method for providing high speed equalization, the method comprises: obtaining a channel response that presents trailing intersymbol interference in a signal having a sequence of symbols from a symbol set, the channel response and symbol set corresponding to an initial distribution of threshold values for a precompensation unit; deriving a filter that converts the channel response into a modified channel response, the modified channel response and symbol set corresponding to an improved distribution of threshold values in that the improved distribution includes fewer distinct threshold values or reduced spacing between at least some adjacent threshold values; and implementing a decision feedback equalizer with a reduced-complexity precompensation unit employing the threshold values in the improved distribution.

Digital communications occur between sending and receiving devices over an intermediate communications medium, or "channel" (e.g., a fiber optic cable or insulated copper wires). Each sending device typically transmits symbols at a fixed symbol rate, while each receiving device detects a (potentially corrupted) sequence of symbols and attempts to reconstruct the transmitted data. A "symbol" is a state or significant condition of the channel that persists for a fixed period of time, called a "symbol interval." A symbol may be, for example, an electrical voltage or current level, an optical power level, a phase value, or a particular frequency or wavelength. A change from one channel state to another is called a symbol transition. Each symbol may represent (i.e., encode) one or more binary bits of the data. Alternatively, the data may be represented by symbol transitions, or by a sequence of two or more symbols.
Many digital communication links use only one bit per symbol; a binary '0' is represented by one symbol (e.g., an electrical voltage or current signal within a first range), and binary '1' by another symbol (e.g., an electrical voltage or current signal within a second range), but higher-order signal constellations are known and frequently used. In 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4), each symbol interval may carry any one of four symbols, denoted as −3, −1, +1, and +3. Two binary bits can thus be represented by each symbol.
Channel non-idealities produce dispersion which may cause each symbol to perturb its neighboring symbols, causing intersymbol interference (ISI). ISI can make it difficult for the receiving device to determine which symbols were sent in each interval, particularly when such ISI is combined with additive noise.
To combat noise and ISI, receiving devices may employ various equalization techniques. Linear equalizers generally have to balance between reducing ISI and avoiding noise amplification. Decision Feedback Equalizers (DFE) are often preferred for their ability to combat ISI without inherently requiring noise amplification. As the name suggests, a DFE employs a feedback path to remove ISI effects derived from previously-decided symbols.
A standard textbook implementation of a DFE employs a number of cascaded circuit elements to generate the feedback signal and apply it to the received input signal, all of which must complete their operation in less than one symbol interval. At a symbol interval of 100 picoseconds (for a symbol rate of 10 GSymbol/s), this implementation is very challenging with currently available silicon semiconductor processing technologies. Even data rates around a few gigabits per second can be difficult to achieve due to performance limitations of silicon-based integrated circuits.
Accordingly, certain proposed designs such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,301,036 ("High-speed adaptive decision feedback equalizer") and U.S. Pat. No. 9,071,479 ("High-speed parallel decision feedback equalizer") employ alternative implementations that exploit the use of precomputation modules. The inventor has discovered that in many cases the complexity and power requirements of such modules are excessive, constituting a dominant fraction (>80%) of the areal and power requirements for the receiving device.

Reduced complexity precomputation for decision feedback equalizer


A cold field emission (CFE) electron source for a focused electron beam system such as a transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), or scanning electron microscope (SEM) is disclosed. The source employs an emitter enclosure electrode behind the CFE tip which, in conjunction with the extractor electrode, defines a closed volume that can be thoroughly cleaned by electron impact desorption (EID) and radiative heating from a heated filament located between the emitter enclosure electrode and extractor electrode. The extractor electrode may have a counterbore which restricts backscattered electrons generated at the extractor from reaching portions of the source and gun which have not been cleaned by EID. Pre-cleaning of the emitter enclosure electrode and extractor electrode prior to cold field emission substantially improves both source emission stability and frequency noise characteristics, enabling source operation over time intervals adequate for application to TEMs, STEMs, and SEMs.

In focused electron beam systems a column is typically used to focus an electron beam onto the surface of a target to be imaged and (optionally) processed using the beam. In these columns, an electron source generates the initial beam of electrons, which then passes into an electron "gun", which typically focuses the charged particles into a roughly parallel beam which enters the main body of the column. Various types of electron sources have been used in focused electron beam systems, including thermionic cathodes, Schottky emitters, and cold field emitters (CFEs). Of these, CFEs are characterized by the highest brightnesses and smallest energy spreads, potentially enabling the smallest beam sizes at the target, with the highest current densities, thus enabling improved imaging resolution. Unfortunately, CFE sources have also shown a tendency for very fast (˜0.5 to 1.5 hours) quenching of the emission current even in excellent UHV (˜10−10 Torr) conditions. In an attempt to solve or ameliorate this problem, FEI Company, Hillsboro, Oreg., developed and patented (U.S. Pat. No. 7,888,654, to Tessner II et al. for "Cold Field Emitter") an oxidized W(111) CFE that demonstrates much slower quenching than previous (unoxidized tip) CFE sources. These improved CFE sources, however, still demonstrate noise in the emission current after a short period of source operation. Thus, there is a need for a CFE source with improved emission stability while demonstrating reduced noise.

Stable cold field emission electron source


A screw, comprising a head, and a shaft, wherein the shaft comprises a first threaded shaft portion; a second threaded shaft portion disposed contiguous to said head; and a middle shaft portion disposed between said first threaded shaft portion and said second threaded shaft, wherein said middle shaft portion is an irregular form.

The human spine extends from the head to the tailbone, and made-up of bones known as vertebrae. The spine is one of the most important structures in the human body. It is strong but flexible, allowing a wide range of movements. Because the spine is so important for support and movement, a problem, e.g. back disorders, can disrupt even the simplest activities of life. Depending on the condition of the spine, a doctor may choose to use a posterior approach to treat the back disorder that includes the use of a pedicle screw system where a biocompatible screw commonly made of titanium is placed in the pedicle of the vertebrae to provide a base for a further support structure, for example.
Unfortunately, pedicle screws are not without their inherent problems. Complications from the use of pedicle screws are common, which include loosening, breakage, damage to nearby joints, penetration of major blood vessels, and injuries to delicate neurological structures including nerve roots and the spinal cord. Of these complications, damage to the adjacent neurological structures is among the most debilitating, and difficult to manage. Technology has been introduced over the years in an attempt to decrease the risk of nerve damage associated with placement of pedicle screws, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,235,076, titled METHOD OF IMPROVING PEDICLE SCREW PLACEMENT IN SPINAL SURGERY issued Jun. 26, 2007, which describes the use of a determining size and trajectory of a pedicle screw through 3D imaging. The use of intraoperative fluoroscopy can reduce the incidence of misplaced screws, as can technology which utilizes computer guidance-based on preoperative CT scanning. Even with these techniques, the risk of injury to nerve roots from the use of pedicle screw fixation continues to plague the use of these devices.
Nerve root injuries can be devastating. Patients with nerves that have been damaged by poorly placed pedicle screws may fail to recover; leading to chronic and disabling pain. These patients have few treatment options, and often remain in pain for years, if not for their entire lives. The nerve roots may be injured either at the time of surgery, or injury may accumulate over time from the threads of the screws acting against the roots.
What is needed is a new and simple design for a pedicle screw that will greatly reduce, or eliminate, the damage to nerve roots when used by properly trained and qualified surgeons.


The invention is a method of harvesting ice formed on the freezing tube evaporator of a shell ice maker by trapping the gas phase refrigerant in the evaporator using a steam trap of the type that allows liquids to pass but not gases. The gas phase refrigerant can thus be maintained in the evaporator without circulating the gas phase refrigerant entirely through the refrigeration system. As a result, a greater fraction of the gas phase refrigerant in the evaporator condenses than would otherwise condense there if the gas phase refrigerant continued to flow without being trapped in the evaporator. The result is an increase in the heat transferred from the refrigerant to the evaporator and to the ice formed thereon and thus reduces the time and energy required to harvest the ice and correspondingly raises the efficiency of the entire ice making cycle.

An ice making machine is a particular version of a generally well known device which may be referred to as a refrigerator or heat pump depending upon the specific application of the device. Mechanical refrigeration is the process of absorbing heat from a substance and transferring this heat elsewhere--usually to the atmosphere--through a cooling medium. The most common cooling mediums are water or air. In mechanical refrigeration systems, the transfer of heat is accomplished through the use of commercial refrigerants which are capable of absorbing heat and boiling to gases at relatively low pressures and temperatures, and then giving up the heat as they condense into liquids at higher pressures and temperatures.
In its basic form a refrigeration system includes a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator as its main elements. Most systems also usually include some sort of liquid control system, a reservoir referred to as a receiver, and suitable piping and valves.
The compressor is the device in the system that draws the cold, heat carrying refrigerant in the gas phase from the evaporator at relatively low pressure and temperature. The compressor raises both the pressure and temperature of the gas to the point at which the gas will condense to a liquid at ordinary water or air temperatures, typically between about 85.degree. F. and 105.degree. F.
The refrigerant typically flows from the compressor to the condenser. The condenser transfers the heat absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator to the atmosphere through the condenser's own cooling medium, which in common applications is water or air. In general, the refrigerant will condense from the gas phase to the liquid phase at this point.
The evaporator is the cooling component of the system in which the pressure is reduced and the liquid refrigerant allowed to boil to a gas at a relatively low temperature. This change of state absorbs heat from the substance surrounding the evaporator.
The liquid control system pipes and pumps the refrigerant from the evaporator, to the compressor, to the condenser, and back to the evaporator. Additionally, the system includes a liquid control device immediately ahead of the evaporator. This is typically an expansion or float valve which meters the proper amount of liquid refrigerant to the evaporator and which seals the high pressure and low pressure sides of the system from one another. The receiver stores a sufficient quantity of high pressure liquid refrigerant to insure a constant supply of liquid refrigerant to the liquid control device at all times.
A shell ice maker is a particular type of refrigeration system in which the evaporator takes the form of vertically oriented stainless steel tubes upon which water is sprayed and freezes into ice as the evaporator is cooled. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,739,457 to Chapman and 4,324,109 and 4,404,810, both to Garland, are illustrative of shell ice making machines. Other background information on shell ice making machines is available from the Frick Division of York International Corporation of Waynesboro, Pa.
In a shell ice maker, water is sprayed onto the stainless steel tubes which make up the evaporator and freeze in place upon those tubes. A typical refrigerant for such a shell ice maker is ammonia or one of the appropriate chlorofluorocarbons. In order to harvest ice from the ice maker, however, some mechanism must be incorporated for removing ice from the stainless steel tubes. The most common method is to operate the entire ice maker on a timed cycle. In the major portion of the cycle, liquid refrigerant is pumped to the evaporator and allowed to evaporate, thereby cooling the evaporator and encouraging ice to freeze on the stainless steel tubes as water is sprayed upon them.
In the shorter portion of the cycle, and in order to remove the ice from the tubes, the ice maker also includes a series of pipes and valves for directing the warmer gas phase refrigerant into the stainless steel tubes of the evaporator. The warmer gas phase refrigerant in turn warms the tubes and melts at least a small portion of the ice on the exterior of the tubes so that the remainder will tend to slide off under the influence of gravity. When the ice strikes the lower portions of the ice maker, it breaks into pieces, and if necessary, is subjected to further mechanical breaking action to reduce the size of the pieces even further.
Such a typical shell ice making device will include the usual elements of the compressor and the condenser along with a common liquid-gas header for some or all of the stainless steel tubes of the evaporator, and a liquid-gas accumulator for regulating the flow of gas and liquid throughout the entire system. In a typical arrangement, the accumulator is physically located above the header so that liquid refrigerant can be added to the evaporator simply by allowing it to flow downwardly under the influence of gravity from the accumulator, into the header and then into the freezing tubes.
Refrigerant in the gas phase, however, will not automatically flow into the freezing tubes and must be specifically drawn out of the accumulator, compressed, and pumped into the freezing tubes. This pumping action, as would be expected, requires that a sufficient amount of mechanical energy be expended in order to draw the gas phase refrigerant from the evaporator, through the piping and liquid control system, into the accumulator, and finally into the compressor.
In typical ice making operations, an ice making cycle is selected that will produce a certain amount of ice and is represented by a certain time period during which liquid refrigerant must be circulated through the evaporator. Correspondingly, the harvesting cycle is likewise represented by a certain period of time during which gas phase refrigerant must be circulated through the evaporator to harvest the ice just grown. As an example, in a ten minute ice making cycle, liquid refrigerant would be circulated through the evaporator tubes for about seven and half minutes and then gas phase refrigerant would be cycled through for about two and half minutes. Thus, approximately twenty-five percent of every cycle is spent harvesting ice, not because it takes the ice that long to fall from the tubes, but because it takes that proportion of time to circulate enough of the gas phase refrigerant through the entire system to transfer enough heat to melt the ice sufficiently for it to fall.
As another disadvantage of this system, when pumping gas throughout the system, the suction pressure of the compressor is raised rather significantly, often to seventy pounds or higher before the ice defrosts and harvests. As might be expected, this uses significant amounts of energy. As known to those familiar with such systems, the suction required from the compressor also becomes greater when the ambient temperature is warmer.
Finally, the proportion of any given cycle used to harvest ice represents energy--and therefore mechanical and economic resources--used to pump gas phase refrigerant throughout the system. Alternatively, if the ice could be harvested more efficiently, that same energy could be used to form more ice, or the energy needed to form any given amount of ice could be correspondingly reduced.
There thus exists the need to reduce the energy consumption of the ice making cycle as well as to reduce the load on the mechanical equipment such as the condensers and the compressors, as well as a lessening of the proportionate time required to form and then harvest any particular amount of ice.

Method and apparatus for improving the efficiency of ice production


A hand dishwashing detergent composition comprising a humectant, and a pearlescent agent to provide superior grease cleaning and hand mildness.

Optimisation of grease cleaning is an ongoing task in the field of hand dishwashing. Consumers utilizing liquid detergent as a light-duty liquid dishwashing detergent composition tend to wash greasy, difficult to clean items at the end of their washing experience, after easier to clean items such as glasses and flatware are cleaned. Light-duty liquid dishwashing detergent compositions require a high suds profile while providing grease cleaning.
Recent trend has been to develop hand dishwashing compositions which provide effective cleaning and as well some hand care benefits. For example, Henkel WO2007/028571 discloses liquid aqueous cleaning products for hard surfaces, in particular for manual dishwashing, comprising an active with a beneficial effect on skin sensation that can be selected from sensorial actives and/or actives with a positive biological effect. Lion JP2005-179438 describes a liquid detergent composition for kitchen which reduces hand skin problems caused by detergents, prevents hand skin surface from becoming hard and keeps the hand skin in a fresh condition by using a plant extract, a polyhydric alcohol and a surfactant.
The object of the present invention is to provide hand dishwashing compositions which provide excellent hand mildness. It has been surprisingly found that the humectant component of the present invention does provide effective hand mildness when the composition of the present invention is used in a manual dishwashing operation. It has been further found that the pearlescent agent of the present invention such as those having a plate like structure e.g. mica, would participate to the skin benefit by their action in skin color correction and on skin gloss correction. The interference with light provided by the pearlescent agent contributes to the correction of colors and of the skin gloss via an adjustment of reflective property of skin. Therefore, it has been found that the composition of the present invention comprising both a humectant and a pearlescent agent provide a very positive effect on skin.
It is another advantage of the composition of the present invention to communicate to the consumer that such product will provide the claimed hand care benefit. The addition of the pearlescent agent will indeed provide an excellent aesthetics that will communicate to the consumer the benefit of superior skin mildness. Another advantage of the present invention is that good grease cleaning performance and a high suds profile is maintained while providing as well the hand care benefit of the present invention.

Liquid hand diswashing detergent composition


A method of efficiently checking a filesystem for errors is provided, the filesystem including a set of data blocks and a set of VBPs, the set of VBPs arranged in a set of VBP blocks, each VBP block storing a plurality of the VBPs. The method includes multiple stages, one stage including iterating through VBP blocks of the filesystem to generate a validity bitmap, and a later stage including traversing a block pointer structure associated with each of a set of files of the filesystem, the traversal making reference to the validity bitmap.

Data storage systems are used to store large quantities of data on arrays of persistent storage devices. The storage is often arranged into various layers. In some arrangements, a container filesystem layer stores files which represent logical disks at a higher layer.
A filesystem consistency check (FSCK) operation can be run on a filesystem to determine if there are any errors in the structure of the filesystem. An FSCK operation can also be run on a container filesystem to determine if there are any errors within any of logical disks contained therein. The FSCK operation typically proceeds by traversing pointers in an inode of the filesystem and checking the various pointed-to data blocks to ensure consistency.

Techniques for efficiently performing a filesystem consistency check


Remote platform enhanced munitions detection can support improved detection of munitions by separating the signal source platform from a detector on a remote mobile platform. The source platform may support a large, complex, or expensive optical laser or radio frequency source. The source platform may also support a remote signal processing system. The electromagnetic source may be used to illuminate munitions or threat material from a standoff distance. The mobile platform may be maneuvered and positioned closer to the measurement target. The mobile platform may be equipped with an appropriate electromagnetic detector to obtain measurement data at different ranges and positions around the measurement target. The mobile platform may also provide an articulating arm with a mirror or reflector to support non-line-of-sight measurements.

The detection of munitions can be an important aspect of military and security operations. Munitions can include explosives, bombs, landmines, missiles, warheads, improvised explosive devices, anti-personnel weapons, ammunition, bullets, mortars, rockets, propellants, fuels or any explosive or projectile object. Detecting munitions from a distant standoff position can improve the safety of personnel as well as the security of detection operations.
Conventional optical measurement and sensing techniques may be used to remotely detect munitions. However, signal to clutter ratios in areas surrounding measurement targets may complicate remote optical detection. Remote detection techniques may also be limited in range due to signal loss. Such signal loss may result from both atmospheric clutter and attenuation of the signal during round trip propagation. Remote optical detection may also require prior knowledge as to specific locations of munitions or other measurement targets in order to obtain meaningful sensor data. Furthermore, the use of high powered optical beams for sensing can pre-detonate explosives or other munitions.


The present invention relates to a spatial arrangement for optimizing the broadcasting of a sound signal and thus replacing the conventional stereo systems. For this purpose, the spatial arrangement is capable of broadcasting a spatialized sound signal, the spatialized sound signal comprising N mutually distinct audio signals, N being an integer strictly greater than 3, and the spatial arrangement comprising a set of N sound broadcasting devices predominantly distributed over the entire width of a scene. Each sound broadcasting device receives an audio signal of which it will amplify and broadcast the transmitted sound. In particular, each sound broadcasting device is specifically capable of reproducing and preserving the characteristics of the sound transmitted by the audio signal received, in particular the sound frequency bands and the sound intensity of the frequency bands of the audio signal.

Nowadays, the concert public address system is carried out mainly by two raised broadcasting points, arranged to the left and to the right of the stage edge. FIG. 1a shows such a stereo arrangement 10.
In the example, a vertical stack 3 of M loudspeaker enclosures is arranged to the left G of the stage 1 and the same stack 3 is arranged to the right of the stage 1, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1. In the present case, the vertical groups of loudspeaker enclosures are suspended to the left G and to the right D of the stage 1 while remaining globally in the width L of the stage.
The stereo arrangement 10 also comprises two identical sets 4 of sub-bass enclosures, one arranged to the left G and the other to the right D of the stage edge below the stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures, each set 4 comprising a number Y of sub-bass enclosures, Y being an integer greater than or equal to 1.
The sets of sub-bass enclosures 4 may be raised or placed on the floor, or even distributed along a line colinear with the stage 1, on the floor where the audience 2 is located.
The stereo arrangement 10 such as described by FIG. 1a is capable of broadcasting two identical or different audio signals.
When the two signals broadcast by the stereo arrangement 10 are identical in content and in intensity, the equivalent source is then perceived at the middle, between the two stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures, in the event that the listener is positioned on the perpendicular bisector of the line formed by the two left G and right D broadcasting points.
For the audience located on this line the sources may in addition be spatialized by playing on the relative intensity of the signal injected into the two stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures.
Spatialization is to be understood as the fact of being able to locate, in the space, the area of emission of a specific sound such as same emitted by a musical instrument located on the stage 1. In the case of a sound source whereof the emission is picked up, amplified then reproduced by an arrangement of sound devices, we speak of "good spatialization" when there is a concordance between the area of the space where the sound source is located and the area of the space where the listener perceives the sound emission of the same source.
The intensity stereophony makes it possible to modify the spatialization of the source by varying the intensity of the signal broadcast by the left stack 3 and/or the intensity of the signal broadcast by the right stack 3. The equivalent source may then be spatialized between the two stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures. However, the spatialization operates correctly for the listeners located on the perpendicular bisector. For the listeners located outside of the perpendicular bisector, the spatialization is bad.
The use of two audio signals identical in content (source placed at the center for example) reproduced by the two left and right stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures generates interferences that can be perceived as soon as the listener is not on the perpendicular bisector. The interferences have for effect of significantly degrading the quality of reproduction and above all the intelligibility of the message to be reproduced. In this case the engineer of the sound will naturally avoid the superposition of areas of coverage of the two stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures in order to limit the extent of the interferences.
When the two audio signals broadcast are different in content, the phenomenon of interferences is much less pronounced and it is also possible to spatialize two sources in two different points. As the interferences are no longer a problem (in the extreme case where each stack 3 of loudspeaker enclosures reproduces a specific audio signal), the engineer of the sound will try to maximize the common coverage area of the two stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures so that the listeners can hear both the audio signal broadcast by the stack 3 located to the right and the audio signal broadcast by the stack 3 located to the left. The listeners positioned outside of the common coverage area will not hear the two audio signals but one or other of the audio signals broadcast by the left and right stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures.
Therefore, it can be seen that there is a contradiction with the recommendation made in the case of identical audio signals.
Therefore, it seems impossible to combine good spatialization and intelligibility of the audio signals spatialized for the entire audience with a stereo arrangement 10.
FIG. 1b shows a top view of a performance hall equipped with the stereo arrangement 10 of FIG. 1a broadcasting an identical audio signal to the left and to the right of the stage 1. In FIG. 1b, the quality of the spatialization of the sound is shown in light grey for the area of good spatialization ZBS corresponding to the area close to the perpendicular bisector 5, in dark grey for the area where the quality of the spatialization is average ZMS and in white the area where the quality is poor ZFS and where the listener does not perceive all of the stacks 3 of loudspeaker enclosures.
FIG. 1c shows the sound level generated by the left G and right D sound broadcasting points of the stereo arrangement 10 illustrated in FIG. 1a, over a frequency range from 20 Hz to 63 Hz. It is also observed on the FIG. the typical losses of sound level of an interferential area. The sound quality is significantly degraded.
The concert public address is intended to reproduce as best as possible the musical content for a large audience 2 whereof the listeners are mostly placed outside of the perpendicular bisector 5. Based on this observation, the multichannel public address system starts to be adopted which consists of replacing the two left G and right D broadcasting points with a set of identical (in technical features and in quantities of enclosures) broadcasting points distributed collinearly with the stage.
The layout enables the engineer of the sound to position the audio signals representing the spatialized sound sources in the broadcasting points that are the closest thereto. Therefore, we speak of spatialized audio signals.
If the audience 2 is in the common coverage of the broadcasting points, the difficulties explained above are resolved. Consequently, it will be sought to maximize the common coverage area of the broadcasting points for the multichannel public address system.
Indeed each source may be reproduced by a single broadcasting point located as close as possible thereto. Consequently, the sound is emitted coherently with the physical position of the source, it is that a good location is obtained. Finally, the reproduction being predominantly made from a broadcasting point, the quality of the sound is optimum since free of interferences.
However, the configuration is not optimum as soon as this involves reproducing dynamic, powerful modern music and having a spectral content loaded in the bass.
In particular, it seems unreasonable, as much for questions of budgetary order as for obstruction of the vision of the stage, to place as many loudspeaker enclosures in each multichannel broadcasting point as what was done in left/right configuration.
Therefore, there is a real need to take into account the requirements associated with the spatialization of the music in public address systems like the various types of instruments and the specificities thereof, the density of the instruments, etc. overcoming the defects, drawbacks and obstacles of the prior art, particularly of a spatial arrangement for controlling the various parameters.

Spatial arrangement of sound broadcasting devices


An anti-squeal shim comprises a metal plate and a compound layer applied to at least one side of the metal plate. The compound includes a nonmetal fiber other than asbestos, an elastomer, a filler and small pieces of cork. The anti-squeal shim is disposed between a forcing member that urges a friction pad against a disc rotor and a backing plate of the friction pad in a disc brake. Also disclosed is a disc brake where only one side of the metal plate of the anti-squeal shim is coated with the compound layer and the anti-squeal shim is opposed to the forcing member without intervention of a backing-up shim.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disc brake, and more particularly to an anti-squeal shim structure therein for eliminating "brake squeal" and for heat insulation.
2. Related art
A disc brake generally includes a disc rotor rotating with a wheel of an automotive vehicle, a pair of friction pads each having a backing plate and a friction member secured to the disc rotor side of the backing plate, a caliper secured to a support member of the vehicle and supporting the friction pads movably toward and away from opposite friction surfaces of the disc rotor, and hydraulic actuating means such as a hydraulic cylinder urging the friction pads through forcing members such as a brake piston and a finger of the caliper against the friction surfaces of the disc rotor to restrain a rotation of the disc rotor.
With such a construction, a disc brake may under some conditions emit squealing noise in operation. This brake squeal noise is considered to be caused by relative displacements between the backing plates of the friction pads and the forcing members and by vibrations due to interactions between the friction pads and the disc rotor when the friction pads are urged against the disc rotor.
To reduce or eliminate such brake squeal noise, generally anti-squeal shims each made of a steel plate with damping material layers applied to both faces thereof have been interposed between the friction pads and the forcing members. In most cases, each damping material layer of the anti-squeal shims is formed of a layer consisting solely of a synthetic rubber of about 100 microns thick, the surface of which layer further being coated with a graphite layer to decrease the coefficient of friction.
However, the conventional anti-squeal shim with the rubber only layer suffers from the following shortcomings. Satisfactory vibration damping properties cannot be obtained, and thereby the brake squeal cannot be prevented satisfactorily. When the anti-squeal shim is urged against the caliper, a lateral flow is occurred in the rubber layer thereof and the layer is apt to come off. Since the heat resisting temperature of the rubber layer is low, usually about 150.degree. C., the frictional heat produced between the friction pad and the disc rotor and transmitted to the anti-squeal shim through the friction pad ages and rags the rubber layer in a relatively short period of time. Therefore, the conventional anti-squeal shim is not durable, and thereby the effect of reducing the brake squeal is further deteriorated in a relatively short period of time.
The present inventor has disclosed another type of anti-squeal shim, in Japanese Patent Laying-open Publication No. Showa 63-101530, wherein the damping material layers applied to the both sides of a metal plate are formed of a compound including a heat resistant nonmetal fiber other than asbestos, an elastomer and a filler. According to this anti-squeal shim, the effect of reducing the brake squeal can be heightened, there is little danger of a lateral flow occurring in the damping material layers, or the compound layers, and the heat resisting temperature of the compound layers is high, thus the anti-squeal shim is durable and can keep the effect of reducing the brake squeal stably in a long period of time. In addition, the anti-squeal shim has a good heat insulation property and reduces the heat transfer from the friction pad to the brake fluid in the hydraulic system therethrough, improving the reliability of the hydraulic system of the brake apparatus.
However, the anti-squeal shim with the compound layers presents problems discussed hereinafter. The greater the percentage of the heat resisting nonmetal fiber and the filler in the compound is, the higher become the effect of reducing the brake squeal and the heat insulation property of the anti-squeal shim. The reason for it appears to be that the greater the percentage of the nonmetal fiber and the filler in the compound is, the more the compound has voids therein. However, as the percentage of the nonmetal fiber and the filler is increased in the compound to improve the effect of reducing the brake squeal noise and the heat insulation property, the percentage of the elastomer is inversely decreased, causing the bonding strength between the nonmetal fiber and the elastomer in the compound to be decreased. As a result, separations between the elastomer and the nonmetal fiber are apt to occur in the compound layer during a punching process or the like in the manufacturing process of the anti-squeal shim.
On the other hand, in a disc brake, generally, the contact area between the anti-squeal shim and the forcing member such as a brake piston or a finger of the caliper is relatively small. For example, generally the brake piston is hollow with a thin wall shell with the open end thereof opposed to the anti-squeal shim, and thereby the contact area between the anti-squeal shim and the piston forms a ring shape. Accordingly, in case of the conventional anti-squeal shim wherein both faces thereof are coated with the damping material layers, if the anti-squeal shim and the forcing member are directly opposed to each other, an extremely high pressure will be partially applied to the damping material layer on the side of the forcing member. To obviate the above-mentioned disadvantage, another shim, so-called "backing-up shim", has heretofore been interposed between the anti-squeal shim and the forcing member.
However, the disc brake apparatus equipped with the backing-up shim has the following deficiencies.
(a) Numbers of parts as well as manufacturing costs are increased.
(b) Even if the anti-squeal shim is provided with holes therethrough or recesses at the periphery thereof to improve the heat insulating effect, the desired effect cannot be produced because the backing-up shim covers the holes or recesses.

Disc brake and anti-squeal shim therefor


A system for handling a telephone call within a telephone network, comprising a multi-tenanted CTI server within a telecommunications network adapted to receive telephone calls on behalf of a plurality of outlets, wherein the CTI server is adapted for queuing an incoming call in the network when no agent is available and is further adapted to forward an incoming call to an agent when the agent becomes available. The CTI server is configured to use an indicia received with the received call to identify the caller and to retrieve a profile of the caller by matching the indicia to a previously-stored indicia in a call history database collocated with the CTI server, the profile comprising at least a plurality of previous orders processed by an outlet on behalf of the caller, the profile being used to provide priority call handling for certain callers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for handling a telephone call, especially for use in the context of a fast food delivery service and other similar businesses.
2. Background of the Invention
It is very common for customers to order a product over the telephone. One particular industry where this is a very widespread activity is for home delivery of fast food, for example pizzas. The characteristics of this business place significant constraints on the handling of customer calls. Thus frequently there is no pre-existing arrangement (e.g. a contract) that ties the customer to any given pizza delivery outlet. Rather, the customer will telephone one establishment, but if their call is not handled swiftly, they may then telephone another rival establishment. If they receive good service from this rival establishment, they may call the rival first next time they need a pizza. In other words, there is high customer mobility between competing businesses, and accordingly customer service standards have to be very high to retain customers. This particular applies to the handling of incoming telephone calls, which represent the first point of contact with the customer (when it is easiest for the customer to retract and go elsewhere). Existing systems generally do not provide a mechanism to reward and retain loyal customers.
Another problem is that the call rate into pizza delivery outlets may be highly bunched. For example, if there is a popular event on television, there may be a sharp peak in calls immediately before or after the event, or during an interval (e.g. an advertising break). These variations in incoming call rate exacerbate the problem of providing a good telephone service to all customers.
A further consideration is that most pizza delivery establishments are small businesses. They cannot afford large-scale call handling facilities, either in terms of the infra structure, or the staff to run them.
It is also common for such pizza establishments to be franchise operations. The franchisor would like customers to experience a common customer interface irrespective of which franchisee they contact in order to build brand value for the franchise, but this is difficult with multiple franchisees each operating a highly local service. There is also a concern amongst franchisors that some franchisees might hide part of their business from the franchisor (in order to avoid royalty payments).
Accordingly, there are significant challenges in providing good telephone service for pizza delivery outlets and other such businesses.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for handling a telephone call