Two gas-filled chambers (K1, K2) arranged one behind the other in the beam path, with frontal areas (F) transparent to the beam, are interconnected by a first line (L12) which contains a first pressure or flow rate sensor (SF1). A buffer space (P) is connected to one of the two chambers (K1) via a second line (L11) in which is arranged a second pressure or flow rate sensor (SF2). The output signals from both flow rate sensors (SF1, SF2) are taken via amplifiers (V1, V2) to a differentiator. The degree of amplification of at least one amplifier (V2) is tunable for equalizing. The field of application of the invention is in gas analyzers operating on the infrared absorption system.

The present invention relates to a pneumatic, two-layer detector for use in NDIR (Non-dispersive Infrared) gas analyzers having two, coaxially arranged, gas-filled chambers with radiation permeable frontal areas, a line which couples the chambers, and a pressure or flow-rate sensor of a pneumo-electrical transducer arranged in the line.
These types of detectors are employed in gas analyzers, in which modulated infrared (IR) radiation strikes the detector through a cuvette filled with the gas being analyzed. As a rule, the gas being analyzed is a gas mixture having one or more components to be evaluated. The components to be evaluated or a gas having the same kind of absorptive capacity for IR-radiation constitute the gas filling in the detector chambers (see, e.g., German Patent 1 017 385).
Distortions in the measuring-signal occur because of so-called "cross sensitivity". That is, there are instances when the absorption bands of other components contained in the gas being analyzed overlap with those of the component to be measured. The known two-layer detector configuration, in which the two chambers are pneumatically connected back to back, improves the selectivity ratio. In this manner, the sensitivity due to the absorption bands of all disturbing components may be reduced but can not be totally eliminated. Thus there is a need for a detector for use in a gas analyzer which eliminates cross-sensitivity due to the absorption bands of other components contained in the gas being analyzed.

Pneumatic two-layer detector for NDIR gas analyzers


A sleeve is provided for a mechanical screw press for expressing liquid from liquid-containing grains and seeds. The sleeve of the present invention is formed with drainage apertures located between longitudinally extending runner portions and includes slots formed in the runner portions adjacent to the drainage apertures. With the use of such slots, uniform screen bars can be used throughout the sleeve and main cage of the screw press.

This invention relates to a sleeve for use in a mechanical screw press and, more particularly, to an improved sleeve construction for a high-pressure mechanical screw press for continually expressing liquid from liquid contained seeds or grains.
Generally, screw presses are of heavy construction which allows the seed or grain material to be pressed under extremely high pressures and temperatures to express the oils or liquids.
Screw presses generally comprise a main cage having side walls with linear apertures to drain the liquids or oils pressed from the grains or seeds. The side walls of the main cage include linear screen bars supported by semi-cylindrical sleeves wherein pairs of sleeves are fastened together in facing relationship along the length of the main cage to form, in combination with the screen bars, a cylindrical passage. In addition, each sleeve is formed with drainage apertures such that liquid passing through the linear apertures between the screen bars will drain out of the main cage through the sleeve.
Each of the pressure worms includes a screw flight mounted for rotation on a shaft, and pressure collars having a radially outwardly angled circumferential surface are provided between adjacent pressure worms to form restrictions to the passage of material through the main cage of the screw press. Therefore, when the shaft is rotated, thereby rotating the pressure worms, the material within the press is forced into the passage between the pressure collars and the linear screen bars such that the material is compressed in the passage to express out fluids contained in the material. The fluids then pass through the linear apertures defined between the screen bars and through the drainage apertures of the sleeves for collection thereof.
Each of the semi-cylindrical sleeve portions include a plurality of curved circumferentially extending slat portions formed integrally with longitudinally extending runner portions wherein the drainage apertures are defined between the slat portions and the lateral edges of the apertures are defined by the runner portions. Typically each of the slat and runner portions include fluid passages for conveying a cooling fluid through the sleeve to control the temperature of the main cage during an expressing operation.
In order to allow the liquids or oils to drain from the runner portions of the semi-cylindrical sleeve, laterally outwardly from the drainage apertures, the screen bars lying along the runner portions are each provided with laterally extending notches on a face thereof that lies in contact with the sleeve. Thus, fluids passing between the screen bars located on the runner portions will flow through the notches and then pass through the drainage apertures.
The use of the notched out screen bars along the runner portions of the semi-cylindrical sleeves has been found to be inconvenient in that two different types of screen bars are required in the main cage, one being with notches and the other being without notches. In addition, the notches must be aligned with the drainage apertures during installation of the screen bars which increases the amount of time required to install the bars.
Thus, there is a need to provide a means in which a single type of screen bar can be used throughout the main cage and yet allow the liquids or oils expressed from the seeds or grains to pass to the drainage apertures from the screen bars located on the runner portions. Further, there is a need to provide a structure incorporating a screen bar which is uniformly easy to install on the sleeve.


The subject matter of the instant invention relates to a dental implant surgical apparatus and system comprising a customized dental ridge augmentation matrix and one or, optionally, a plurality of dental implant surgical drill guides, and methods of use thereof.

Dental implants are well known components of dental surgery that are used to support various dental prostheses by anchoring the prosthesis to the bone of the jaw or skull of the subject, indeed, for many people, dental implants are a practical solution to the problem of missing teeth. In fact, for some subjects, a missing tooth may be replaced in a single day. In some cases, however, abnormal tooth loss can result in jaw bone defects from adverse healing of an extraction socket, e.g., a subject seeking a dental implant may present with a deficient alveolar ridge. In such cases, due to the lack of supporting bone structure, dental implants at conventional diameters are not possible without first augmenting the osseous anatomy in the subject using bone grafts.
Various methods exist for guided bone regeneration in implant dentistry. In a particular method, bone graft materials are placed in the jaw and metal appliances are placed around the area to contain and protect the bone graft materials during a period of bone regrowth. Oral surgical appliances developed for such use include thin protective mesh shells made of a biocompatible metal such as titanium. See, e.g., Jensen, et al., Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants, Vol 29, No. 1, 2014, e103-e105. Thus, conventional methods of implant dentistry can include first performing hard tissue augmentation surgery, waiting a suitable period of time to permit bone growth, and then performing one or more subsequent surgical procedures to remove any space maintenance device over the bone graft, place the dental implant in the newly formed bone, and attach any required abutment and prosthesis, e.g., a crown, bridge, or denture.
One of skill in the art will appreciate that the conventional placement of dental implants such as detailed above can be complicated by space constraints in the oral cavity. Thus, surgical drill guides are often used in conjunction with conventional implant drilling systems to direct the placement and angle of the drill and thus help ensure proper placement of the dental implant. Conventional guided implant surgery protocols typically use computer-aided designed and/or computer-aided manufactured (CAD/CAM fabricated) surgical guides to allow positioning of implant osteotomies of sequentially increasing diameter to prepare implant drill osteotomies. For stability, such surgical drill guides are conventionally secured to oral mucosa, bone and/or teeth in the subject. The major drawback of conventional tooth-borne implant surgical guides is that they can only be used when there are adjacent teeth on either side of the implant site. In addition, osseous level implant surgical guides require additional fixation using pins into the surgical site, which increases surgical time and morbidity.
Notwithstanding the benefits of existing technology, the placement of dental implants can be an inconvenient, time consuming process involving multiple clinical appointments. As such, there currently remains a need for improved methods and devices for promoting the reconstruction of oral osseous anatomy and surgical placement of dental implants in a subject in need thereof. In particular, improved methods and devices that would permit the simultaneous surgical placement of bone augmentation matrix materials and dental implants are desired.

Dental ridge augmentation matrix with integrated dental implant surgical drill guide system

The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy


An apparatus for transferring a plurality of substrates in manufacturing a liquid crystal display, includes a storage unit to store the plurality of substrates, an unloading member disposed in the storage unit to unload the substrates from the storage unit, a cassette disposed in the storage unit to lift and lower the plurality of substrates between respective storage substrate positions and the unloading member, a processing equipment to receive the substrates unloaded from the cassette, and a substrate feeder to receive the substrates from the storage unit unloaded by the unloading member and to load the substrates into the processing equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for loading a substrate of a liquid crystal display (LCD) and, more particularly, to an apparatus for loading a substrate of an LCD capable of reducing the cost while enhancing the speed of a loading process of substrates into processing lines.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, as various mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and notebook computers are developed, demands for flat panel display devices, which are light, small, and thin are increasing for mobile electronic devices. Examples of flat panel display devices include liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), field emission displays (FEDs), and vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) which are being actively studied. Among them, the LCD is receiving much attention because of advantages including easy mass-production, simple driving unit, and high quality pictures. An LCD displays information on a screen using anisotropic properties of liquid crystals.
With reference to FIG. 1, LCD 1 includes a lower substrate 5, an upper substrate 3 and a liquid crystal layer 7 formed between the lower substrate 5 and the upper substrate 3. The lower substrate 5 is a driving element array substrate. Although not shown, a plurality of pixels are formed on the lower substrate 5. Each pixel on the lower substrate 5 includes a driving element such as a thin film transistor (TFT). The upper substrate 3 is a color filter substrate which includes color filter layers for actually implementing colors. Pixel electrodes and common electrodes are formed on the lower and upper substrates 5 and 3 (not shown), and an alignment film for aligning liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 7 is coated (not shown). The lower and upper substrate 5 and 3 are attached by a sealant 9 with the liquid crystal layer 7 being formed therebetween. The amount of light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer 7 is controlled by driving the liquid crystal molecules, thereby allowing information to be displayed. The liquid crystal molecules are driven by a driving element formed on the lower substrate 5.
The fabrication process of the LCD includes a plurality of steps which will now be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows two branches of processes. In FIG. 2, the left branch corresponds to the process for the lower substrate 5, and the right branch corresponds to the process for the upper substrate 3. First, in step S101, a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines are formed to define each pixel region on the lower substrate 5 in the driving element array process. Further, in step S101, TFTs and driving elements are formed in the pixel regions, connected to the gate lines and data lines. In addition, pixel electrodes are formed connected to the TFTs through the TFT array process S101 to drive the liquid crystal layer when a signal is applied through the TFTs. At the same time, in step S104, R, G and B color filters for implementing colors and common electrodes are formed on the upper substrate 3 according to the color filter process S104.
Subsequently, in step S102, an alignment film is coated on the lower substrate 5 and then rubbed to provide an alignment anchoring force or a surface fixing force. At the same time, in step S105, an alignment film is coated on the upper substrate 3 and then rubbed to provide an alignment anchoring force or a surface fixing force. These forces are applied to the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer formed between the upper and lower substrates 3 and 5.
Thereafter, in step S103, spacers for uniformly maintaining a cell gap spread on the lower substrate 5 is dispersed. And at the same time, in step S106, the sealant 9 is coated on an outer edge portion of the upper substrate 3. Subsequently, the lower and upper substrates 5 and 3 are attached by applying pressure thereto, in the assembling step S107.
The lower and upper substrates 5 and 3 are formed as large-scale glass substrates. In other words, a plurality of panel regions are formed on a single large-scale glass substrate, where the TFTs, the driving elements, and the color filter layers are formed on each panel region. Therefore, in order to fabricate each liquid crystal panel, the glass substrates should be cut and processed. This is performed in the cutting panel step S108.
Thereafter, in step S109, liquid crystal is injected into each of the processed liquid crystal panels through a liquid crystal injection hole, and the liquid crystal injection hole is sealed to form the liquid crystal layer. Finally, each liquid crystal panel is tested in the testing step S110.
Each process presented above is performed in separate processing equipment. Thus, whenever each process is completed, the substrates 3 and 5 are transferred to the next processing equipment. Here, the substrates 3 and 5 are transferred in the form of cassettes. The substrates 3 and 5 are initially loaded in a cassette, transferred while in the cassette to a different port, unloaded from the cassette, loaded to a corresponding processing equipment, and then subjected to a corresponding process.
FIG. 3 shows a related art substrate loading apparatus 70 for unloading the substrate 1 from the cassette 20 and loading it to the processing equipment 60. As shown in FIG. 3, the cassette 20 that receives a plurality of substrates 1 is positioned at port 30. In this case, the cassette 20 is arranged such that it can be either lifted or lowered in the port 30. As the substrate 1 is unloaded, starting from the lowermost substrate 1, the cassette 20 is lowered accordingly. A robot 50 is installed in front of the cassette 20. The robot 50 includes a base 51, robot arm 52, and a shaft 54. The base 51 is formed on a guide rail 40, which can move along the guide rail 40. The shaft 54, which is able to be rotated simultaneously when lifted, is installed on the base 51. The robot arm 52, which can extend to allow the substrate 1 to be mounted on an end portion thereof, is installed at the shaft 54. A processing equipment 60 is provided at the opposite side of the port 30 along the guide rail 40, and performs a process on the substrate 1 when the substrate 1 is unloaded from the cassette 20.
In the substrate loading apparatus 70 shown in FIG. 3, the arm 52 of the robot 50 is positioned with a pre-set height so as to be able to extend into the cassette 20 to mount the lowermost substrate 1. When the lowermost substrate 1 is unloaded and mounted on the robot arm 52, the robot 50 then moves along the guide rail 40 to load the unloaded substrate 1 into the processing equipment 60. After one substrate 1 is unloaded, the cassette 20 is lowered. Here, the movement distance of the cassette 20 is the same as the receiving interval inside the cassette 20, so that the next lowermost substrate 1 would be positioned at the height of the robot arm 52 (X2). Thereafter, the same process, previously mentioned, is repeatedly performed to load the next substrate 1 into the processing equipment 60. Such operation is repeatedly performed until all the substrates 1 received in the cassette 20 are unloaded. In other words, the operation is repeatedly performed until the uppermost substrate 1 in the cassette 20 is unloaded.
When the uppermost substrate 1 received in the cassette 20 is unloaded, the cassette 20 comes to a completely lowered state, where the cassette 20 contacts the bottom of the port 30. In this state, the uppermost substrate 1 is mounted on the robot arm 52. Thus, if the position (X2) of the robot arm 52 is not as high as distance from the bottom to the uppermost substrate 1 of the cassette 20 (X1), even after the cassette 20 is completely lowered, the uppermost substrate 1 of the cassette 20 cannot be mounted on the robot arm 52, making it impossible to unload the substrate 1. In other words, the height (X2) of the robot arm 52 should be greater than the height (X1) from the bottom to the uppermost substrate 1 of the cassette 20 (namely, X2≧X1) in order to unload the substrates 1 from the cassette 20. The height (X3) of the entrance 62 of the processing equipment 60 is generally lower than the height (X2) of the robot arm 52 (X2>X3). Thus, in order to load the substrate 1 unloaded from the cassette 20 into the processing equipment 60, the robot arm 52 should be lowered by a distance of X2−X3.
Therefore, in the related art substrate loading apparatus 70, the loading process is delayed since the robot arm 52 is repeatedly lifted up and lowered down to unload the substrates 1 from the cassette 20 and further to reload the substrates 1 into the processing equipment 60. In addition, as the height of the cassette 20 increases, which allows more substrates 1 to be received at the port 30 in a single cassette 20, the resulting distance that the robot arm 52 is to be lifted or lowered is further increased, which cause more delay in the loading process.

Apparatus for loading substrate of liquid crystal display


A new and distinct cultivar of Cordyline plant named ‘Southern Splendour’, characterized by its upright and outwardly arching growth habit; slender stems with short internodes; long arching linear leaves with pink and brown-colored longitudinal stripes; and good keeping quality and garden performance.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Cordyline plant, botanically known as Cordyline australis, and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Southern Splendour'.
The new Cordyline is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Cordyline australis cultivar Red Star, not patented. The new Cordyline was discovered and selected by the Inventor within a population of plants of the parent selection in a controlled environment in Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand in 1996.
Asexual reproduction of the new Cordyline by micropropagated cuttings in Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand since 1997, has shown that the unique features of this new Cordyline are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand including a roller offset angle adjusting device which can easily adjust roller offset angles of a pair of twisting rollers for twisting a fiber-reinforced resin strand, the device being simple in structure. An offset angle of a first twisting roller can be adjusted by only rotating a first shaft roller support member in the roller offset angle adjusting device of the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand around the axis of a first driving shaft which is orthogonal to a first roller support shaft of the first twisting roller. Likewise, an offset angle of a second twisting roller can be adjusted by only rotating a second shaft roller support member around the axis of a second driving shaft which is orthogonal to a second roller support shaft of the second twisting roller.

As techniques according to a related art relating to a manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand, for example, configurations described below are known. To begin with, a manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to a first related art example will be described with reference to FIG. 4 which is a schematic view to explain the configuration of this apparatus. The manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to the first related art example is configured to efficiently manufacture a fiber-reinforced resin strand having high adhesion between a reinforcing fiber and resin.
To be more specific, spreaders 8 that spread a reinforcing fiber bundle are provided inside a crosshead 5 into which a molten resin material 2 is continuously supplied from an extruding machine 6 by driving of a screw 7. In addition, at the exist side of the crosshead 5, a forming die 9, a cooler 10, twisting rollers (also referred to as cross roller capstans) 11 and 12, and pultruding rollers 13 are provided sequentially in this order from the exist side. According to the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand thus configured, after reinforcing fibers 1, 1, . . . and so forth fed from bobbins 4, are soaked in a molten resin material 2 inside the crosshead 5 to be impregnated with resin, the sectional shape is determined by the forming die 9, after which they are cooled to harden by the cooler 10.
The twisting rollers 11 and 12 are rubber rollers and configured to be driven to rotate in directions opposite to each other. These twisting rollers 11 and 12 are provided so as to incline in directions opposite to each other on a horizontal plane. A fiber-reinforced resin strand 3 being pinched in the crossed portion of the twisting rollers 11 and 12 is pultruded in the direction indicated by an arrow so that the fiber-reinforced resin strand 3 can rotate about the shaft center in the longitudinal direction. The fiber-reinforced resin strand 3 is twisted on the way to the cooler 10 from the spreader 8 on the lowermost stream side owing to such rotations. The fiber-reinforced resin strand 3 thus twisted is cut into a predetermined length to manufacture pellets by a pelletizer 14 located remote from the pultruding rollers 13 in the crosshead 5 (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
A manufacturing apparatus of a continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic resin strand (hereinafter, referred to as a fiber-reinforced resin strand) according to a second related art example will be described briefly. In short, the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to the second related art example is configured to be able to perform the manufacturing continuously over a long period when manufacturing the fiber-reinforced resin strand.
More specifically, it is an apparatus configured in such a manner that a reinforcing fiber bundle is introduced into molten thermoplastic resin inside a thermoplastic resin bath container (corresponding to the crosshead of the first related art example) to let the reinforcing fiber bundle be impregnated with the thermoplastic resin and a continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic resin strand is manufactured by pultruding a resin-impregnated fiber bundle from an exit nozzle of the thermoplastic resin bath container. Rollers that come into contact with a reinforcing fiber bundle are disposed inside the thermoplastic resin bath container so as to cross a traveling track of the reinforcing fiber bundle. Each roller is formed of a shaft and a tube, and the tube is supported around the shaft in a rotatable manner. In addition, means for retaining the twists of the fiber-reinforced resin strand imparted from twisting rollers that twist the fiber-reinforced resin strand is provided between the twisting rollers and a pelletizer (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
In the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to related art, a pair of twisting rollers is inclined in different directions, that is, offset angles are imparted thereto, and the strand is pulled while twisting the strand between opposed outer peripheries of the pair of twisting rollers. But in certain operating conditions, it is necessary to adjust the offset angle of each of the paired twisting rollers. A roller offset angle adjusting device for adjusting offset angles of a pair of twisting rollers in such manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to a related art is configured for example as follows. Two examples of roller offset angle adjusting devices in the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand will be explained below while taking, as an example, a case of adjusting offset angles of the twisting rollers 11 and 12 in the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to the foregoing first related art example, with reference to a schematic view for explaining the configuration which shows the main part of the roller offset angle adjusting device.
First, the roller offset angle adjusting device in the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to a first example will be described while making reference successively to FIG. 5(a) as seen from a strand moving direction side and FIG. 5(b) as seen in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 5(a). In the roller offset angle adjusting device according to the first example, the first twisting roller 11 is configured so that an angle θ1 between a rotational center Rc1 of the first twisting roller 11 and a horizontal line LH is adjusted by first offset angle adjusting means (not shown) together with a first motor 71 with reduction gear which drives the first twisting roller 11 to rotate. The second twisting roller 12 is configured so that an angle θ2 between a rotational center Rc2 of the second twisting roller 12 and the horizontal line LH is adjusted by second offset angle adjusting means (not shown) together with a second motor 72 with reduction gear which drives the second twisting roller 12 to rotate. The reference numeral 73 denotes a strand and the numeral 74 denotes a strand pass line.
Next, the roller offset angle adjusting device in the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to the second example will be described while making reference successively to FIG. 6(a) as seen from a strand moving direction, and FIG. 6(b) as seen in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 6(a). In the roller offset angle adjusting device according to this second example, an expansion joint 81b whose length can be adjusted axially, is connected to an opposite side of a roller shaft 81a of a first twisting roller 11 with respect to the roller 11, the shaft 81a being inclined at an angle of θ1 relative to a horizontal line LH. A universal joint 81c is connected to the expansion joint 81b. And the universal joint 81c is also connected to an expansion joint 81d, the expansion joint 81d being adjustable in length and connected to an end portion of a first driving shaft 81e which is rotated by a motor 83 via a belt 84 and a pulley 81f.
On the other hand, an expansion joint 82b whose length can be adjusted axially, is connected to an opposite side of a roller shaft 82a of a second twisting roller 12 facing the first twisting roller 11, with respect to the roller 12. The roller shaft 82a is inclined at an angle of θ2 relative to the horizontal line LH. A universal joint 82c is connected to the expansion joint 82b. And the universal joint 82c is also connected to an expansion joint 82d, the expansion joint being adjustable in length and connected to an end portion of a second driving shaft 82e which is rotated by the motor 83 via the belt 84 and a pulley 82f. Further, an idler pulley (not shown), whose rotational center position is changed as necessary, is provided for the belt 84 to cope with a change in spacing between the pulleys 81f and 82f.
Thus, according to the roller offset angle adjusting device of the second example, the offset angle θ1 of the first twisting roller 11 is adjusted by an expanding/contracting operation of the length-adjustable expansion joints 81b and 81d, while the offset angle θ2 of the second twisting roller 12 is adjusted by an expanding/contracting operation of the length-adjustable expansion joints 82b and 82d. The reference numeral 85 denotes a strand, and the numeral 86 denotes a strand pass line.
According to the general roller offset angle adjusting devices of the above two examples in the manufacturing apparatus of a fiber-reinforced resin strand according to related art, the offset angle adjusting operations for the twisting rollers are very complicated, the roller spacing adjusting operations for the twisting rollers performed in response to a change in strand diameter are also complicated, and the devices' structures are complicated. Besides, an increase in size is unavoidable. There have been such problems to be solved. More particularly, in the roller offset angle adjusting device of the first example, in addition to the necessity of synchronized driving of two motors with reduction gear, the motors with reduction gear must be moved during roller offset angle adjustment and roller spacing adjustment. As a result, it is inevitable for the angle adjusting means to become large-sized and complicated in configuration. In the roller offset angle adjusting device of the second example, it is necessary to use universal joints, thus inevitably resulting in that the driving shaft system for driving the first and second twisting rollers become long. In addition, the roller spacing adjustment for the twisting rollers requires movement of each driving shaft system. Consequently, the angle adjusting means become large-sized and complicated, and the roller offset angle adjustment and the roller spacing adjustment for the twisting rollers also become complicated.
[Patent Literature 1]    Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5 (1993)-169445
[Patent Literature 2]    Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-175512

Manufacturing apparatus of fiber-reinforced resin strand


Novel cinnamamide derivatives and the salts thereof are provided. An antihyperlipidemic composition is also provided. The composition comprises an active ingredient which is at least one selected from the group consisting of the above-mentioned cinnamamide derivative and the pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

1. Field of the invention:
The present invention relates to a cinnamamide derivative and the salts thereof, which are novel compounds possessing antihyperlipidemic activities in addition to being useful as intermediates for many other organic compounds; and an antihyperlipidemic composition or antiarteriosclerotic composition comprising the aforementioned substance as an active ingredient.
2. Description of the prior art:
Arteriosclerosis is one of the most widespread human diseases at the present time, and it is known that arteriosclerosis is one of the main contributing factors in angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction and many other grave disorders. One of the principal causative factors of arteriosclerosis is hyperlipidemia.
As is well known, serum lipid concentrations, particularly serum cholesterol levels, are very closely related with the occurrence of arteriosclerosis. Serum cholesterol is classified into categories such as LDL (i.e., low density lipoprotein) and HDL (i.e., high density lipoprotein). The presence of LDL-cholesterol promotes the deposition of cholesterol onto the arterial walls, however, HDL-cholesterol transports excess cholesterol from the peripheral blood vessels and returns this cholesterol to the liver, thereby preventing the deposition of cholesterol onto the arterial walls. Thus, the susceptibility of the arterial walls to the accumulation of cholesterol is governed by the total serum cholesterol concentration and by the ratio of LDL to HDL. Therefore, an antihyperlipidemic agent which serves to reduce serum cholesterol levels, particularly LDL-cholesterol levels, is an important desideratum in the medical field.
In general, in many cases antihyperlipidemic agents are administered over a prolonged period, and are therefore required to be of high safety. However, existing drugs in this category, for example, clofibrate, entail serious side effects such as liver damage, therefore, they are not adequately safe.


An pet food dispensing device includes a dispenser, an outer case, a pet food container, a slant guide, a driving device, and dispensing spouts. The dispenser includes a shaft, a dispensing disc, and a stirrer. The dispensing disc includes a top and bottom layers, which are positioned adjacently. The top layer of the dispensing disc includes one or more bumps on the top surface. The stirrer of the pet food dispenser includes a first flap extended from the first edge of the bottom layer of the dispensing disc, and the first flap is bent downwardly below the horizontal plane. In another embodiment, the stirrer includes an inner case and an elastic string member adjacently below the dispensing disc. The angle of the arc recess defined by the top and bottom layers varies from zero to one hundred eighty degrees. An outer case houses all parts.

The present invention relates to an improved automatic pet food dispensing device. More particularly, this invention relates to an automatic pet food dispensing device that will prevent the device from jamming in dispensing the pet food.
The related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/620,662 by the inventor of this invention is incorporated by reference into this disclosure as if fully set forth herein.
Pet food dispensers of prior arts have a serious problem, jamming, among many others. Since it was supposed to be automatic, the jammed pet food dispensing device is outright trouble to the pets and to the pet owners who are trusting the device and traveling for a couple of days.
The fact that the grains of pet food is small compared to the opening through which the pet food is led does not guarantee a smooth flow intended by the designer of the pet food dispensing device. The interaction between pet food particles and the inner wall of the container or the edges of the opening and even among the food particles generates a bunch of complex behaviors of the granular media, which is one of the major subjects of research for nonlinear dynamics. The granular particles may behaves like a liquid under some conditions such as the size and shape of the individual particle, and be packed into a substantial solid block.
Accordingly, a need for an improved pet food dispensing device has been present for a long time considering the growing number of pets all around the world. This invention is directed to solve the problems and satisfy the long-felt need.


A process for preparing a medicinal aerosol formulation containing a propellant that is gaseous at standard temperature and pressure and filling the formulation into a metered dose aerosol canister. The process involves mixing the propellant and the drug at ambient temperature and under pressure sufficient to liquify the propellant to afford a formulation. The formulation is cooled to a temperature sufficiently low to liquify the propellant at atmospheric pressure and filled into aerosol canisters in an environment of controlled humidity. An aerosol valve is placed on each aerosol canister and the finished canisters are removed from the controlled environment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to aerosol drug formulations. This invention also relates to methods of preparing aerosol drug formulations and to methods of filling aerosol canisters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional chlorofluorocarbon based medicinal aerosol formulations generally contain a relatively nonvolatile component (e.g., trichlorofluoromethane, propellant 11), a surfactant, a drug, and a volatile propellant system (e.g., a combination of dichlorodifluoromethane, propellant 12, and dichlorotetrafluoroethane, propellant 114). Such formulations can be filled into individual aerosol canisters by one of two conventional methods: pressure filling or cold filling. Cold filling generally involves the preparation of a mixture of the nonvolatile components at room temperature and ambient pressure to form a concentrate. This concentrate is then cooled to a temperature at which the remaining components are liquid at ambient pressure. The volatile components are also cooled and added to the concentrate to afford a liquid formulation that is filled into individual canisters, also at reduced temperature. A valve is crimped into place on the canister and the finished product is allowed to warm to ambient temperature.
Pressure filling involves the same preparation of a concentrate of the nonvolatile components. An appropriate amount of the concentrate is metered into an individual canister at ambient temperature and pressure. A valve is then crimped into place. The volatile components are then added to the canister via the valve under pressure sufficient to liquify the volatile components.
European Patent Application 0,419,261 (Burt et al.) describes a method of introducing into a container a suspension or solution of a material in a propellant held under pressure. The method comprises bringing a filling head into communication with a container, introducing a quantity of the suspension or solution into the container through the filling head, introducing a quantity of a high pressure propellant into the filling head while it is still in communication with the container, thereby flushing through any suspension or solution remaining in the filling head. This pressure filling method is said to avoid the escape of pharmaceutical material when the filling head is removed from the container.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


A gas separation centrifuge is provided with a housing having a top, a bottom and a plurality of joined side walls parallel to an axis and forming a predetermined regular polygon cross-sectional shape perpendicular to the axis. A rotor is mounted for coaxial rotation within the housing, including a plurality of inverted truncated pyramid plates forming the predetermined regular polygon shape at an outer periphery, and forming the predetermined regular polygon shape at an interior edge. The plurality of inverted truncated pyramid plates are stacked coaxially and are axially spaced apart to form planar channels therebetween and define an interior annular volume with openings therefrom into the planar channels. There are also openings through the outer periphery. A first plurality of stationary concentric input tubes extends into the interior annular volume. Each input tube is connectable to a source of inlet fluid and communicates with the interior annular volume at different distances along the axis terminating close to the bottom of the housing. A second plurality of stationary concentric output tubes also extends into the interior annular volume. Each output tube is connectable to a collection device and communicates with the interior annular volume at different distances along the axis close to the top of the housing. One of the plurality of input tubes is connected to a source of liquid solvent for injecting a quantity sufficient for coating the interior side walls to a thickness less than the minimum clearance distance between the exterior periphery of the rotor plates. A motor is connected for rotating the rotor at a speed sufficient to cause a maximum pressure above about 1,000 psi in the housing at the side walls. Another of the plurality of input tubes is connected to a source of a gaseous mixture. At least one of the outlet tubes has an opening at a position in the interior annular volume for withdrawing one gas of said mixture in a high state of purity.

Kinetic theories have predicted that a partial separation of constituents of a gaseous mixture will occur when the mixture is subjected to a pressure gradient. Industrial processes for separating individual fractions of mixtures on the basis of a pressure gradient are not widespread. In order to obtain sufficient separation between components of a gaseous mixture, relatively steep pressure gradients are required. In the past, large pressure gradients could be achieved in a gaseous mixture using a standard gas centrifuge. Other devices utilizing pressure diffusion sometimes include a separation nozzle, particularly for enrichment of isotopes of uranium.
The typical or standard gas centrifuge includes a tall vertical rotary cylinder fed with the gas mixture to be separated. The cylinder is rotated about its axis at a high angular velocity. The rotation of the cylinder causes the gas mixture to increase its angular rotational velocity so that the lighter components of the mixture move toward the axis and the heavier components of the mixture move toward the wall. Under standard conditions, significant high-purity separation is difficult to achieve unless the rotational velocity is extremely high. A plurality of sequentially ganged or cascaded gas centrifuges are often used to obtain significantly pure components.
Countercurrent gas centrifuges rotate a tall vertical cylinder and also induce an axial convective circulation in order to increase the basic separation effect. The countercurrent flow has been provided using external pumps, by providing an axial temperature gradient or by insertion of a stationary member in the rotating cylinder.
A device known as a separation nozzle uses a concept of a pressure gradient induced in a curved expanding supersonic jet to achieve separation of a gas mixture. The power consumption of separation nozzles is significant relative to the separation achieved. In various prior gas separation centrifuge devices, including countercurrent gas centrifuges and expanding jet or separation nozzle centrifuges, many stages cascaded together have often been required in order to obtain the desired separation.
Another device sometimes previously suggested for gas-gas separation includes a vortex tube or a vortex chamber separator in which a fluidic separation process results from centrifugal forces used for separating or precipitating a denser disperse phase from a lighter continuous flowable phase. Vortex chamber separators have the disadvantage of relatively bad separating efficiency relative to the energy requirement, primarily because of high flow resistance in the vortex chamber and also the use of multi-chamber systems with relatively high volume.
Another centrifuge for separating impurities from gas mixtures, especially for separating sulphur compounds (SO.sub.2) from flue gases, from oil, or from coal-fired furnaces which contain sulphur compounds (SO.sub.2) was disclosed by Wedege in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,648. A rotor was suggested comprising two separate concentric sets of frustoconical plates with the inlet gas mixture being arranged in the annular space between the two concentric sets. Outlets for the heavy gases were to be at the periphery of the rotatable concentric plate. The SO.sub.2 was to be removed from the periphery and thus cleaned. The remaining gas mixture was to be removed at the central axis. Frustoconical impeller plates in a centrifuge have also been suggested for separating dust particles from suspension in gas as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,716.
The separation of dust particles or other solids from flue gases and the separation of heavy gaseous components such as SO.sub.2 having a density at one atmosphere, which is more than two times as dense as the air or the flue gas in which the impurities are carried, have not provided adequate solutions for gas-gas separation where the relative densities of the components of the gas mixture are only slightly different.


A position detector includes a pair of magnetic sensors spaced from each other and a magnetic force generator movable relative to the pair of magnetic sensors. The length of the magnetic force generator along the space between the magnetic sensors is equal to or larger than a length of a space between the magnetic sensors. Preferably, the length of the magnetic force generator along the space between the magnetic sensors is equal to or larger than a sum of the length of the space between the magnetic sensors and an allowable moving distance of the magnetic force generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a position detector for detecting relative positions of two objects, and a camera-shake compensation mechanism and an image capture apparatus each of which utilizes the position detector.
2. Description of the Background Art
Among various types of position detectors for detecting relative positions of two objects (a linear encoder, for example), a position detector of a type that utilizes a Hall effect device (magnetic sensor) has been developed. One example of such position detector is a position detection sensor taught by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-318459 (which will be hereinafter referred to as "JP 2003-318459"), which is used as a pointing device or the like. The position detection sensor taught by JP 2003-318459 includes a ferrite magnet and a pair of Hall effect devices, and detects a position of the ferrite magnet based on an output difference between the pair of Hall effect devices.
The position detection sensor taught by JP 2003-318459, however, is susceptible to influences of an external magnetic field, and thus detection accuracy thereof is not always sufficiently high.

Position sensing device for determining a relative position of a magnet with respect to a magnetic field sensing element pair


A device for estimating slip angle of vehicle body of a vehicle, having: means for calculating yaw rate based upon such parameters as detected steering angle, vehicle speed, lateral acceleration and braking forces as variable parameters, the slip angle of the vehicle body estimated by the vehicle body slip angle estimation device, a first feedback factor multiplied to difference between the detected yaw rate and the yaw rate calculated by the yaw rate calculation means, and fixed parameters particular to the vehicle, such that the calculated yaw rate converges to the detected yaw rate; means for calculating slip angle of the vehicle body based upon such parameters as detected steering angle, vehicle speed, lateral acceleration, braking forces and yaw rate, the yaw rate calculated by the yaw rate calculation means, a second feedback factor multiplied to the difference between the detected yaw rate and the yaw rate calculated by the yaw rate calculation means, and fixed parameters particular to the vehicle, such that the calculated yaw rate converges to the detected yaw rate; means for detecting saturation index against the difference between a standard yaw rate based upon the calculations by the yaw rate calculation means and the detected yaw rate; and means for modifying the first and second feedback factors according to the saturation index such that non-linearity between lateral forces acting at the wheels and slip angles of the wheels is compensated for by the modification of the first and second feedback factors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for estimating slip angle of vehicle body, and more particularly, a device for estimating slip angle of vehicle body through cyclically repeated computer feedback calculations of related parameters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the vehicle stability control recently getting more popular in the art of computer based running behavior control of vehicles, the slip angle of vehicle body is one of the most desired parameters useful for effectively controlling the running behavior of vehicles. The slip angle of vehicle body is not directly detectable. It must be estimated based upon various directly detectable parameters such as steering angle, vehicle speed, lateral acceleration, yaw rate, etc. However, more essentially, the slip angle of vehicle body is dependent upon the friction coefficient between the wheel tires and the road surface which is not directly detectable, and, still worse, has a non-linearly saturating characteristic. Therefore, it was very difficult to estimate the slip angle of the vehicle body at high accuracy.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 62-83247, it is described to estimate the slip angle of vehicle body through a comparison of a slip angle of vehicle body estimated from a vehicle model inputted with input data such as steering angle and vehicle speed and a slip angle of vehicle body calculated from lateral acceleration, yaw rate and vehicle speed, while making an adjustment modification of cornering power of the front and rear wheels.
When a vehicle model is employed to estimate running behaviors of a vehicle, estimations are available generally at relatively high accuracy in a linear zone where the tire grip force against the road surface is proportional to the slip angle of wheel, but the accuracy rapidly lowers when the vehicle gets out of the linear zone according to increase of the slip angle of wheel. In the art of estimating a certain parameter by cyclically repeated computer calculations of related parameters, even a minute error of a parameter can be integrated to produce a large error which renders the estimation almost useless.

Device for estimating slip angle of vehicle body through interrelation thereof with yaw rate


A ceramic boron-containing dopant paste is disclosed. The ceramic boron-containing dopant paste further comprising a set of solvents, a set of ceramic particles dispersed in the set of solvents, a set of boron compound particles dispersed in the set of solvents, a set of binder molecules dissolved in the set of solvents. Wherein, the ceramic boron-containing dopant paste has a shear thinning power law index n between about 0.01 and about 1.

A solar cell converts solar energy directly to DC electric energy. Generally configured as a photodiode, it permits light to penetrate into the vicinity of metal contacts such that a generated charge carrier (electrons or holes (a lack of electrons)) may be extracted as current. And like most other diodes, photodiodes are formed by combining p-type and n-type semiconductors to form a junction.
Electrons on the p-type side of the junction within the electric field (or built-in potential) may then be attracted to the n-type region (usually doped with phosphorous) and repelled from the p-type region (usually doped with boron), whereas holes within the electric field on the n-type side of the junction may then be attracted to the p-type region and repelled from the n-type region. Generally, the n-type region and/or the p-type region can each respectively be comprised of varying levels of relative dopant concentration, often shown as n−, n+, n++, p−, p+, p++, etc. The built-in potential and thus magnitude of electric field generally depend on the level of doping between two adjacent layers.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a simplified diagram of a conventional solar cell is shown. In general, a moderately doped diffused emitter region 108 is generally formed above a relatively light and counter-doped diffused region absorber region 110. In addition, prior to the deposition of silicon nitride (SiNx) layer 104 on the front of the substrate, the set of metal contacts, comprising front-metal contact 102 and back surface field (BSF)/back metal contact 116, are formed on and fired into silicon substrate 110.
In a common configuration, a light n-type phosphorous-doped diffused region 108 (generally called the emitter or field), is formed by exposing the boron-doped substrate to POCl3 (phosphorus oxychloride) ambient to form phosphosilicate glass (PSG) on the surface of the wafer. The reduction of phosphorus pentoxide by silicon releases phosphorus into the bulk of the substrate and dopes it. The reaction is typically:4POCl3(g)+3O2(g)→2P2O5(l)+6Cl2(g)  [Equation 1A]2P2O5(l)+5Si(s)→5SiO2(s)+4P(s)  [Equation 1B]Si+O2→SiO2  [Equation 2]
The POCl3 ambient typically includes nitrogen gas (N2 gas) which is flowed through a bubbler filled with liquid POCl3, and a reactive oxygen gas (reactive O2 gas) configured to react with the vaporized POCl3 to form the deposition (processing) gas. In general, the reduction of P2O5 to free phosphorous is directly proportional to the availability of Si atoms.
During the diffusion process, the substrates are loaded in either a back-to-back configurations with two substrates per slot, or in a single wafer per slot configuration, such that all substrate surfaces exposed to the furnace ambient are doped with phosphorus.
Prior to the deposition of silicon nitride (SiNx) layer 104 on the front of the substrate, residual surface glass (PSG) formed on the substrate surface during the POCl3 deposition process may be removed by exposing the doped silicon substrate to an etchant, such as hydrofluoric acid (HF). The set of metal contacts, comprising front-metal contact 102 and BSF (back surface field)/back metal contact 116, are then sequentially formed on and subsequently fired into doped silicon substrate 110.
The front metal contact 102 is commonly formed by depositing an Ag (silver) paste, comprising Ag powder (about 70 to about 80 wt % (weight percent)), lead borosilicate glass (frit) PbO—B2O3—SiO2 (about 1 to about 10 wt %), and organic components (about 15 to about 30 wt %). After deposition the paste is dried at a low temperature to remove organic solvents and fired at high temperatures to form the conductive metal layer and to enable the silicon-metal contact.
BSF/back metal contact 116 is generally formed from aluminum (in the case of a p-type substrate) and is configured to create a potential barrier that repels and thus minimizes the impact of minority carrier rear surface recombination. In addition, Ag pads [not shown] are generally applied onto BSF/back metal contract 116 in order to facilitate soldering for interconnection into modules.
However, the use of aluminum may also be problematic for multiple reasons. As a result of thermal expansion mismatch between the silicon wafer and the aluminum layer, an aluminum BSF tends to cause solar cell warping, which leads to difficulties in subsequent production processes and decreases the yield due to increased breakage. Aluminum is also a poor reflector for the red light that is not absorbed by the wafer, reducing the solar cell efficiency. In addition, aluminum generally provides sub-optimal passivation to the substrate rear surface.
One solution may be to replace the blanket aluminum with a more reflective and better passivated layer in order to reduce charge carrier recombination and increase the absorption of long wavelength light. Additionally, the rear metal contact area may also be reduced to further optimize charge carrier recombination.
Solar cells configured with this architecture are commonly referred to as PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell) an architecture that was first introduced in 1989 by the University of New South Wales [A. W. Blakers, et al., Applied Physics Letters, 55 (1989) 1363-1365]. The devices fabricated in that study used heavily doped substrates as well as numerous expensive processing steps that are not compatible with high throughput manufacturing. Other versions of this cell architecture were later introduced as options to further increase the efficiency. Most notable among them is the PERL (passivated emitter rear locally diffused) [A. Wang, et al. J. Appl. Phys. Lett. 57, 602, (1990)], PERT (passivated emitter, rear totally diffused) [J. Zhao, A. Wang, P. P. Altermatt, M. A. Green, J. P. Rakotoniaina and O. Breitenstein, 29th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, New Orleans, p. 218, (2002)], and PERF (passivated emitter rear floating junction) cells [P. P. Altermatt, et al. J. Appl. Phys. 80 (6), September 1996, pp. 3574-3586]. Similar to the original PERC cell, these architectures are expensive to manufacture. Since their introduction there have been numerous attempts to develop an industrially viable approach to make these cells.
In an alternate configuration, a selective emitter solar cell architecture on the front of the wafer may be used to further optimize solar cell efficiency. A selective emitter uses a first lightly doped region optimized for low recombination, and a second heavily doped region (of the same dopant type) optimized for low resistance ohmic metal contact.
Referring now to FIG. 2, a simplified diagram is shown of a solar cell with rear passivated and reduced rear area metal contact on a p− (boron doped) substrate 210 with an n+ (phosphorous doped) emitter region 220.
Here, a set of front metal contacts 222 connects to n+ emitter region 220 through front surface SiNx layer 219 in order to form an Ohmic contact. SiNx layer 219 is generally configured to passivate the front surface as well as to minimize light reflection from the top surface of the solar cell.
Likewise, the set of back metal contacts 216 connects with substrate 210 through back surface passivation layer 214 (such as SiNx) in order to also make an Ohmic contact.
However, the solar cell conversion efficiency of this architecture may also be problematic. For example, the presence of a metal layer in direct contact with the weakly-doped base wafer will tend to result in high contact resistance (i.e., a non-Ohmic contact). In addition, direct contact between n+ layer 212 (a byproduct of the POCl3 diffusion process) and the set of back metal contacts 216 will also tend to result in a shunted junction that further reduces device efficiency.
One solution may be to use a doping paste to form a localized p+ (heavily doped) region between n+ layer 212 and the set of back metal contacts 216 in order to minimize detrimental shunting. However, the use of conventional dopant pastes is problematic since they are generally comprised of SiO2 matrix with an addition of dopant containing compounds (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,091 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,695,903).
Aside from detrimental auto doping (the creation of volatile dopant species which dope unwanted surface areas away from the intended deposition area), conventional doping pastes are generally unable to mask ambient POCl3 (the absence of which would counter-dope the local region to a detrimental n-type and thus shunt).
In addition, because glasses (such as SiO2) tend to reflow at the temperatures required for dopant diffusion, and because this temperature is further reduced by the addition of dopants, it is difficult to created patterned features with traditional dopant pastes. Furthermore, because the paste matrix is silicon oxide, conventional dopant pastes are generally not compatible with HF-based acidic chemistries typically used to clean the substrate surface after paste deposition and prior to the diffusion process.
In view of the foregoing, there is a desire for a doping paste that is resilient to high temperature oxidizing processes (such as the POCl3 diffusion process), is able to mask ambient POCl3, and is compatible with HF-based acidic cleaning chemistries.

Ceramic boron-containing doping paste and methods therefor


A switch that includes inputs for receiving cells connected to a first storage means for storing the cells received at the inputs. The first storage means includes a plurality of portions in which each portion is associated with an input. Additionally, each portion has a number of segments in which a cell may be stored. Additionally, the switch includes an address translation means for assigning a destination from a plurality of destinations to each cell received at the inputs. A second storage means is included in the switch. This second storage means has a number of sections in which each section is associated with a destination within the plurality of destinations and each section includes a number of segments. For each cell assigned a destination, the second storage means stores information identifying the location of the cell within the first storage means. This information is stored in a segment in the section associated with the destination assigned to the cell. A reading means is employed to transfer cells from the first storage means to their destinations by accessing each section within the second storage means to obtain information to identify the location of the cell in the first storage means that should be transferred to the destination associated with a particular section in the second storage means. The information within each section in the storage means is accessed in a first-in-first-out basis.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a communication systems and in particular to a method and apparatus for routing data within the communications system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a switching system employed for routing cells from a source to a destination in a communications system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Factors driving the need for broadband communications arise from changing user needs and demands. Previously, public network needs were driven by telephoning, voice data. Data traffic has grown slowly until recently. With the lower cost in telecommunications and the higher increase in processing power of computers, the numbers of users accessing communications networks has increased. The needs of these users include, for example, video telephone, low cost video conferencing, imaging, high definition television (HDTV), and other applications requiring multimedia data transfers. Multimedia combines different forms of media in the communication of information between a user and a data processing system, such as a personal computer. A multimedia application is an application that uses different forms of communications within a single application. Multimedia applications may, for example, communicate data to a user on a computer via audio, text, and video simultaneously. Such multimedia applications are usually bit intensive, real time, and very demanding on communications networks. A number of definitions have been given for broadband service. One example is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, formerly known as CCITT), which defines broadband service as a service requiring transmission channels capable of supporting rates greater than 1.5 Mbps or a primary rate in ISDN or T1 or DS1 in digital terminology. A broadband integrated services digital network (BISDN) technology framework involves asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) as a protocol for coordinating information flow at a source and destination node. For terrestrial networks, synchronous optical network (SONET), a standard for fiber optical transmission mediums form the backbone technology for BISDN. More information on broadband communications can be found in Kumar, Broadband Communications: A Professional's Guide to (ATM) Frame Relay, SMDS, SONET, and BISDN, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, (1995).
The progress in fiber optic and network technologies have made BISDN a commercial reality and has made possible sophisticated computer applications, such as the transmission of video, voice, and other data over computer networks. ATM is the most common switching technique used by broadband networks to integrate a variety of multirate services, ranging from high speed video services and computer communications to low speed voice services, into a single high speed network. Currently, the ATM standard defined by ITU specifies fixed packet sizes (cells) consisting of 5 bytes in a control field and 48 bytes in a data field and supports line speeds of up to 150 Mbps, 600 Mbps, or above. ATM networks are packet-oriented, in which information is packetized, carried in fixed length packets, and transmitted in a slot by slot fashion. Most integrated services provided by BISDN falls into two major categories. In the first category, circuit emulation type, also called connection oriented, requires reserving the bandwidth for the whole duration of the connection because extremely low cell loss rates, such as less than 1e-1, is crucial. In the second category, the connectionless type, the bandwidth requirement is unpredictable and bursty, such as in intercomputer data communication, but a certain degree of cell loss is tolerable, such as less than 1e-6. In networks that provide both types of services, it is very common and desirable to assign higher priority to the cells of connection-oriented services than to the cells of connectionless services.
To meet high speed transmission demands, ATM employs a hardware-based fast packet switching technique that allows cells to be self-routed from input ports through an interconnection network to output ports by using the destination information stored in cell headers. Carrying large amounts of information over long distances with the help of high bandwidth satellites or fiber optics is straight forward, but the switching of high-speed packet flows is a challenging task.
The design of BISDN and ATM switches is made more difficult by the requirement that customer expectations be met and the network be used efficiently. One way to satisfy customer expectations is for the switches to ensure that the quality of service (QoS) parameter values for the multimedia services are not exceeded. A further complication of switch design is that the switches are required to have a high degree of fault-tolerance. Modern satellite systems, such as Teledesic and Advanced Satcom, have ATM switches on board the satellites. ATM networks and these types of satellites carry a large volume of integrated multimedia traffic. As a result, a failure in the switches can be catastrophic for a large number of users. Additionally, networks including satellite switches impose other complications on switch design. If the ATM switch is to be implemented on board the satellite, then the ATM switch must be as small as possible and must be implemented in technologies that consume as little power as possible.
Output conflicts and internal conflicts are two kinds of conflicts that may occur within a switching system. When several cells attempt to reach the same output at the same time, an output conflict occurs. On the other hand, an internal conflict occurs whenever two or more cells simultaneously try to use the same internal link in the communications network. Output and internal conflicts cause cells to be discarded.
Several buffer schemes have been proposed to reduce the conflicts and maintain packet loss within a desired range. These buffer schemes can be classified into three categories: input queueing, central queueing, and output queueing. For a network of size N, if the switch fabric can run N times as fast as the input and output links (i.e., with a speed-up factor of "N"), all of the arriving cells in the current time slot can be routed to their destinations before the next time slot. Thus, in the worst case, even if all the N incoming cells may request the same output, only output queues are needed. On the other hand, if a switch fabric can run only as fast as the input and output links, then only one cell per output is allowed during the time slot, and input queues are required to store the rest of the cells addressed for the same output.
Buffers are usually required in the switch elements of the switch fabric to resolve internal link usage conflicts. A Banyan switch, also called a "single path switching matrix", is a blocking network and requires internal buffers, but can become nonblocking if the incoming cells have been presorted by a batcher sorting network. Input queueing suffers from low-performance and internal queueing, also called central queueing, requires expensive and fast internal links within a switch. Output queueing has the best performance among the three, but requires the highest hardware complexity of the schemes.
Space switching has the merit of allowing high speed operation and is most appropriate for BISDN and ATM networks. According to hardware complexity, space switching can be further divided into four subcategories. (a) N.sup.2 disjoint path switching, (b) crossbar switching, (c) Banyan-based switching, and (d) shared-memory switching. Switches in the first three categories have large switch sizes and are expensive. Additionally, the performance varies with the network size.
With respect to shared memory switching, shared memory buffer management schemes, as mentioned above, includes input queueing, central queueing, and output queueing. Among all buffer management schemes, the simplest scheme is input queueing with first-and-first-out (FIFO) discipline. Head-of-line (HOL) blocking, reduces the maximum output in this queueing system. HOL blocking may exist in FIFO queues in input portions of switches. HOL blocking can reduce the throughput of switches because once the front cell in an input queue loses the contention for an output port, the cell will remain in the input queue and wait for a retry in the next time slot. Thus, the cell blocks other cells in the queue from being served even though their destination outputs may be idled. Several input queueing schemes employ a window service mechanism. Under this mechanism, those input links of these first cells do not win the output contentions can have their second cells contend for access to any idol output port. This procedure is repeated for the first W cells (window size) of each queue. The window size approach requires very complicated control hardware, but still only allows one cell from an input queue in a time slot to access the output ports. Thus, the resulting performance/cost ratio is poor.
In central queueing, a switch can run N times as fast as the input and output links (i.e., with a speed up factor of N) so that all the arriving cells in the current time slot can be routed to the destinations before the next time slot. Existing output queueing switches presently available require a large amount of hardware, have a large end to end delay, do not tolerate faults, or require expensive implementation technology.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have an approved switch for routing cells without the drawbacks mentioned for the various shared memory buffer management schemes described above. It would be advantageous to have an ATM switch that satisfies quality of standard requirements for various multi-media services but with smaller hardware cost than comparable existing ATM switches. It would also be advantageous if such a switch could be implemented using inexpensive technology consuming little power, scalable to handling various amount of traffic, and performance that is insensitive to the communications network size.

Output queueing in a broadband multi-media satellite and terrestrial communications network


The invention relates to a method for storing data (DATA) on a memory medium (MEM). The data (DATA) forms a file totality (FILE) and the memory medium (MEM) includes several unit-storage areas (U1-U10). At least one first bookkeeping (FDE, FAT) is maintained of the storage state of the memory medium, which consists of information of the location in the unit-storage areas of the data belonging to each file totality. In the storing process—the data is stored in the unit storage areas and—the said first bookkeeping, for example, concerning the location of the data in the unit storage areas, is updated. The data forming the said file totality is stored as file parts (file1, file2, fileN), on the data (data1, data2, . . . , dataN) of which the said storing process is performed.

In portable devices, such as, for example, mobile stations, video clips, for example, can be stored on a memory card or similar memory medium. However, according to the prior art, while video capture is taking place, the data is not yet stored on the memory medium in such a way that it could be, for instance, read from it afterwards. This is due to the memory-medium bookkeeping of the prior art and its updating practice in connection with the storing process.
The storing, or rather the updating of the bookkeeping of the memory medium to correspond to the data stored on it, takes place only in connection with the termination of the storing process, i.e. clearly after the actual performance of the video imaging. In the same time, a name or similar identifier for the stored file is created only at this stage. One example of this kind of bookkeeping is the memory medium's space allocation table, i.e. FAT (File Allocation Table) and the directory elementary unit FDE (File Directory Entry), which is generally applied in connection with the FAT. However, there are significant unresolved drawbacks associated with the prior art, relating, for example, to the success of storage and the possibilities to edit stored file.
If there is an unexpected power supply outage during the process of taking a video shot, during which video data is being captured using the camera sensor, then all the data that has been captured up to that point during the shooting session in question, and which has, in principle, already been physically stored on the memory medium, will normally be lost. Even though the data is already stored on the memory card during the video shoot, its location on the storage areas of the memory card has not yet been updated in the bookkeeping of the card, in such a way that it can be used from it later. The data that has been shot and already stored on the memory card thus cannot be restored along with the power supply. An uncontrolled interruption in the power supply can be caused, for example, by the device's battery becoming detached, or also by it running out of power. Such situations are quite common, particularly precisely in portable devices.
In addition, it is difficult to edit video recordings of a large file size, due to the limited storage and memory capacities of memory cards. Once a long video recording has been successfully terminated and the video file has been stored on the memory card, it is quite a large size. For example, a VGA-level recording, in which, for example, 30 frames per second are captured, may result in a file of as much as 1.35 gigabytes. The editing of a file of this size becomes a problem, if, for example, it is wished to remove some part of the clip or cut it, for example, for copying in a second location. The conventional solution to this problem is to make an editing copy of the entire file and leave the original file untouched.
Particularly precisely in portable devices, this may not necessarily always be possible, due to their limited amount of memory and the limited storage capacity of memory cards. This is because the memory card must have a sufficient amount of space to also store the edited shot, in addition to the original shot, which may also be long. If the memory card is already nearly full initially, it will not be possible to edit long shots at all. And even if editing were to be possible within the limits of the memory card's storage capacity, it would be extremely slow, due to the limited speed of the memory card's data-transfer interface.

Method and apparatus for dividing and storing data into plural files


A fuel economy system for a vehicle. The vehicle has a power supply, an HVAC system that is operable to heat and/or cool an interior compartment of the vehicle, and a destination system that is operable to estimate a length of time or distance required for the vehicle to arrive at a destination on a predefined route. The system also includes an HVAC control system in communication with the HVAC system. The HVAC control system is operable to regulate a temperature of the vehicle interior compartment by increasing or decreasing power to the HVAC system such that the interior compartment is heated or cooled. The HVAC control system is also operable to automatically reduce power to the HVAC system per a predefined reduced power plan prior to the vehicle reaching the destination.

Vehicles with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are known. Such systems provide comfort to one or more individuals within a passenger/interior compartment of the vehicle. In addition, such HVAC systems use power/energy to operate and are known to reduce fuel economy of the vehicle during their operation.
An individual typically turns on (energizes) the heater or air conditioner of such an HVAC system when they begin traveling in the vehicle to a workplace, a grocery store, a sporting event, and the like. It is also not uncommon for the individual to turn on the heater or air conditioner and leave it turned on for the length of the trip. Stated differently, and even though the heater or air conditioner may not be needed during the final portion of the trip, individuals typically forget to turn off the heater or air conditioner until arriving at a desired destination. Therefore, a system and/or process that automatically reduces power to an HVAC system within a vehicle that is traveling along a predefined route and as it approaches its destination would improve fuel economy of the vehicle and be desirable.

Vehicle fuel economy system and process thereof

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


This invention relates to methods for preparing photo-patterned mono- or polychromatic, polarizing films. The polarizer can be pixelated into a number of small regions wherein some of the regions have one orientation of the principal neutral or color absorbing axis; and some other of the said regions have another orientation of the principal neutral or color absorbing axis. The axis orientation is determined by the polarization vector of actinic radiation and the multi-axes orientation is possible by a separated masked exposure. This polarizer can be placed on the interior substrate surface of the LCD cell.

Light-polarization films or polarizers are major components of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and other liquid crystal (LC) devices. Common polarizers are based on polyvinyl-alcohol-iodine (PVA) films of 30-50 μm thickness. These polarizers are generally placed on the external glass surfaces of the LC cell and require protective films (e.g. cellulose triacetate or cellulose acetate butyrate). Their fabrication is rather complicated and expensive. The external placement of the polarizers results in additional reflections and parallax effect, which deteriorates the LCD contrast, optical performance and viewing angles. Consequently, thin internal polarizers for LCDs are highly desirable. However, this variant still cannot be realized on the basis of conventional PVA films.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology


Methods of biosynthesizing bacterial extracellular galactomannan polysaccharides for use in subterranean formation operations such as drilling operations, fracturing operations, or gravel packing operations including providing a feedstock comprising mannose and galactose; providing bacteria effective at fermenting mannose and galactose; introducing the bacteria to the feedstock; and fermenting the bacteria so as to produce an extracellular galactomannan polysaccharide.

The present disclosure relates to the biosynthesis of bacterial extracellular galactomannan polysaccharides and subunits thereof for use in subterranean formation operations. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to preparation of an extracellular galactomannan polysaccharide derived from mannose and galactose monosaccharides for use in subterranean formation operations.
Treatment fluids may be used in a variety of subterranean formation operations including, drilling operations, stimulation operations, sand control operations, and the like. Subterranean operations often require the use of treatment fluids that are sufficiently viscous to suspend solids, such as drill cuttings, proppant, gravel, and the like. For example, stimulation operations, such as hydraulic fracturing, typically require the use of viscosified treatment fluids in order to maintain proppant suspension for placement in fractures. By keeping the fracture from fully closing, the proppants aid in forming conductive paths to allow produced fluids, such as hydrocarbons, to flow. Similarly, sand control operations typically require the use of viscous treatment fluids to carry gravel particulates downhole to a particular location, usually between a gravel pack screen to prevent the transport of sand or other unconsolidated particles with produced fluids. The gravel particulates create a physical barrier to the transport of the sand or unconsolidated particulates. Failure of the treatment fluid to suspend the gravel particulates (i.e., maintain sufficient viscosity) could result in the deposition of the gravel particulates in an undesired location, thus frustrating the purpose of the treatment fluids.
To obtain the necessary viscosity to carry particulates, gelling agents are commonly used to viscosify treatment fluids. Such gelling agents are generally polymeric materials such as, for example, galactomannans, cellulose derivatives, and biopolymers. Galactomannans, polysaccharides comprised of the monosaccharide subunits mannose and galactose, are often preferred gelling agents because they are relatively inexpensive and exhibit high efficiency and performance in subterranean formation operations because they can be used effectively at relatively low concentrations with crosslinking agents to form high yield point fluids that can support and transport particulates (e.g., cutting particulates, proppant particulates, gravel particulates, and the like). Additionally, they can add sufficient viscosity to provide high flow viscosity fluids that are capable of fracturing oil bearing subterranean formations.
Galactomannans serve as storage carbohydrates that accumulate in the endosperm of seeds of leguminous plants (e.g., fenugreek plants (Trigonella foenum-graecum), guar bean plants (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), tara plants (Caesalpinia spinosa), locust bean plants (Ceratonia siliqua)). Galactomannans are polysaccharides consisting of a (1→4)-linked β-D-mannopyranose backbone with branchpoints from their 6-positions linked to α-D-galactose (1→6)-linked α-D-galactopyranose). Because galactomannans are produced in plants, their supply for use in treatment fluids in subterranean formation operations may be limited by the natural life cycle of the plants and related farming limitations (e.g., seasonal fluctuations, land availability, biological variability, and the like). Their supply may be further limited by global economic conditions and normal supply and demand fluctuations. Therefore, a method of producing commercial quantities of galactommanan for use in subterranean treatment operations that is renewable and season independent may be of benefit to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Methods of biosynthesizing bacterial extracellular galactomannan polysaccharides and subunits thereof for use in subterranean formation operations


A copper alloy having an improved corrosion resistance in an alcohol-containing medium, which consists essentially of 0.5 to 8 weight percent tin and/or nickel alone or in combination, 0.02 to 0.15 weight percent zirconium, and remainder weight percent copper. The zirconium is dispersed in the copper alloy as precipitates. The copper alloy is suitable for a commutator material used in a DC motor having an improved abrasive resistance.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to copper alloy, and more particularly, to a copper alloy which is suitable for a commutator of a DC motor used for an alcohol-containing fuel supply pump.
A fuel supply pump is broadly used for supplying fuel to an engine in many kinds of vehicles, such as automobiles. Such fuel supply pump comprises a pump portion for supplying fuel to the engine and a motor portion for driving the pump portion. The motor portion usually comprises a DC motor and a commutator by which the motor is driven by a DC power supply. Conventionally, silver containing copper alloys are used for such a commutator, because such copper alloys prevent the commutator from being softened by the heat of a molding resin which covers the commutator.
As a fuel for automobiles, gasoline or light oil has been used. Recently, however, in view of concerted efforts to prevent global environmental pollution, alcohol-containing fuels are proposed to be used for cleaning up automobile exhaust gases. When the conventional copper alloys are used for a commutator of a DC motor used in such an alcohol-containing fuel, however, there is a disadvantage in that the commutator, which is made of a silver-containing copper alloy, is corroded, because alcohol is more corrosive than the conventional gasoline or light oil, thereby resulting in deteriorating the durability of the motor.
2. Disclosure of the Invention
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a copper alloy which is not corroded in an alcohol-containing medium.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a commutator for a motor in which the abrasive resistance characteristics in an alcohol-containing medium are improved.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a motor in which the durability in an alcohol-containing medium is improved.
According to the first feature of the invention, a copper alloy consists essentially of:
0.5 to 8 weight percent tin or nickel alone or in combination, 0.02 to 0.15 weight percent zirconium, and the remainder weight percent copper; the zirconium being dispersed in the copper alloy as precipitates. PA1 0.5 to 8 weight percent tin or nickel alone or in combination, 0.02 to 0.15 weight percent zirconium, and the remainder weight percent copper; the zirconium being dispersed in the copper alloy as precipitates. PA1 a pump portion for supplying the medium; and PA1 a motor portion for driving the pump portion; the motor portion comprising a DC motor and a commutator, the commutator made of a copper alloy which consists essentially of: PA1 0.5 to 8 weight percent tin or nickel alone or in combination, 0.02 to 0.15 weight percent zirconium, and the remainder weight percent copper; the zirconium being dispersed in the copper alloy as precipitates.
According to the second feature of the invention, a commutator for a motor made of a copper alloy, the copper alloy consisting essentially of:
According to the third feature of the invention, a motor for supplying a medium pump which comprises:

Copper alloy having improved corrosion resistance, commutator and motor using the same