Various embodiments are related to apparatuses and methods for basing actions on a location of a card swipe. A computer system receives information indicative of a location of a mobile device associated with a customer at a time corresponding to a swipe of a payment card at a card reader of a merchant. The location information can indicate, for example, the location of the mobile device as being at a GPS coordinate, or at a merchant's place of business. When the location information indicates that the mobile device and the card swipe are located near to each other, or are both located at the same merchant's place of business, a reduced level of fraud analysis can be used when authorizing the purchase transaction. A targeted ad can be sent to a mobile device associated with the customer based on the location of the card reader used for the card swipe.

Payment card (e.g., credit card, debit card) fraud is a significant concern for many parties, including banks that issue payment cards, merchants that accept payment cards, and customers that obtain and use payment cards to pay for purchases and other financial transactions. Criminals are able to counterfeit a payment card given the right information, and the information is often not difficult for the thieves to obtain. News media reports of thousands, and even millions, of payment cards being stolen from companies by criminals that are able to break into the companies' computer networks are alarmingly common. The criminals can counterfeit a payment card using this stolen payment card information, or can simply sell the payment card information to other criminals who will counterfeit the payment card. Payment card information can be stolen as simply as by a waiter or waitress at a restaurant swiping a customer's payment card through a personal card reader the size of an ice cube after the customer provides the payment card to pay for a meal. Criminals can use this information to counterfeit a payment card, and can use the payment card to make a fraudulent purchase or to pay for a fraudulent financial transaction.

Performing actions based on the location of mobile device during a card swipe


A rack system is disclosed. The racks and the computer systems included within the racks have a shallow configuration. The racks are placed next to one another in a back-to-back configuration in which the backs of each of the racks are adjacent to one another. All of the user-accessible components of the computers system face toward the front of each rack. The heated air from each of the computer systems is expelled in the space between each of the racks. The space between each of the racks is relatively narrow, as there are no user-accessible components between the racks. The racks are coupled to one another with a bar that may include at least some spring action to accommodate some movement of the racks toward or away from one another without the tipping of either rack.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system is typically housed with a rack. A rack is a structure that is able to house multiple information handling systems, with each system occupying one or more slots in the rack. Multiple racks can be housed within a single room or data center. The design of the rack typically allows access to and removal of each system from the rack. The depth of a rack is a measure of the distance of the rack in the direction that is transverse to the face of the rack. If a rack is sufficiently deep, the rack can house computer systems that have a configuration in which the depth of the chassis or housing of the computer system is long as compared length or width of the face of the computer system.
One difficulty of data centers is the heat generated by the multiple computer systems in the data center. Excessive heat leads to high cooling costs for a data center and can result in the degradation in the performance of the computer systems of the rack or data center. In an effort to remove heat from a data center having multiple racks, racks having a sizeable depth have been arranged in a cooling center along parallel lines in a row so that the heat from two adjacent racks is expelled into a common area between the racks, which area is known as the hot aisle. Directly opposite the hot aisle, on the other side of each row of racks is a cool aisle, which is distinguished by the fact that no heated air is expelled from a rack into the cool aisle. Although the arrangement of rows of racks to create alternating and wide hot aisles and cool aisles creates some advantages in the management of heat generated by the computer systems of the data center, this arrangement has a large footprint and consumes a substantial amount of floor space in the data center, thereby reducing the number of computer systems that can be housed within the available space of the data center.


A computer program method enables a user to find the most relevant documents by searching of distributed databases, i.e., the World Wide Web. The program employs the user""s profile, based on the user""s foci of interest, the user""s query and a semantic analysis of the query and documents. In one embodiment, the retrieved documents are ranked according to relevancy based on the user""s profile and query.

The present invention relates to computer software programs and more particularly to a computer software search program to search distributed text databases.
At the present time there is a need for a more accurate computer software search program to search distributed text databases in response to a user""s query and to respond by retrieving the documents, or sections of documents, most pertinent to the query. A database is a body of information made up of records. A user of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) may be interested in obtaining documents relating to a relatively narrow field, for example, the present physical location of guitars that had been owned by Bob Dylan, or documents describing cures for microscopic colitis.
Despite the fact that enormous popularity and sophisticated technology turned the Internet into not only the major source of information, but also media for a wide range of day-to-day activities, WWW, and other distributed sets of databases, still remains not a too friendly place for a typical Internet user. This is due partly to overwhelming amounts of information accessible through the Internet and partly to the fact that intrinsic xe2x80x9cnatural lawsxe2x80x9d of the cyber World significantly differ from those with which Internet users gained familiarity in the real World.
Effective information acquisition has two crucial aspects: retrieval and presentation. A successful retrieval should utilize all available sources of information and select those which are the most suitable to the type of information required or the most appropriate to the query that initiated the process. On the other hand, the presentation should reorganize the acquired information by eliminating the irrelevant or technically inaccessible information and by sorting, ordering and grouping the relevant information in a manner that enables the real World user to take decisions and to react efficiently.
The success of both of these aspects depends critically on the ability to understand the needs and intentions behind the process of information acquisition, as well as on the ability to evaluate the acquired information. The existing instruments for information acquisition from the Internet (search engines, portals, etc.) have failed to develop any of these abilities and depend heavily on the experience and skillfulness of an Internet user.
Using the presently available search engines, such as LYCOS(trademark), EXCITE(trademark), INFO SEEK(trademark), WEB CRAWLER(trademark), ALTA VISTA(trademark), NORTHERN LIGHT(trademark), YAHOO(trademark), HOT BOT(trademark), or a meta-search engine such as META CRAWLER(trademark), DOGPILE(trademark), INFERENCE FIND(trademark), MAMMA(trademark) and SAVVY SEARCH(trademark), it often is difficult, time-consuming and frustrating for the user to obtain the exact information regarding what the user enters as an enquiry to the search engine. It is not uncommon for the user to be told, by the search engine, that an enquiry resulted in over 20,000 documents or that there are no documentsxe2x80x94when in fact there are many. An important function is the xe2x80x9crankingxe2x80x9d of the documents found in a search, with generally the 10 highest ranking documents being presented first, followed by the next 10, etc., etc. The user""s enquiry, sometimes called xe2x80x9csearch strategy statementxe2x80x9d, generally uses specific terms, i.e., keywords.
That process, however, often gives inaccurate results in that it misses relevant documents, provides irrelevant documents, and often provides too many documents. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a kind of xe2x80x9cvirtual representativexe2x80x9d of a real World user in the cyber World that is able to accurately acquire information on behalf of the user.
Such a virtual representative can serve as a personal assistantxe2x80x94born and bred in the cyber World. This assistant can independently perform numerous activities on behalf of a real World user and not only relieve him or her from the Web routine, but also increase significantly the productivity of his or her activities using sets of distributed databases, such as the WWW.
The present invention provides a robot (independently operating agent that combines machine understanding and automation of routines). The robot is capable of (1) collecting information from a variety of Web, or other distributed data based sources in parallel; (2) semantically analyzing the retrieved information in order to evaluate its suitability to user""s intentions and expectations; (3) reorganizing the retrieved information in a useful manner; and (4) extracting information concerning an Internet user in order to formulate his, or her, foci of interest. This robot operates xe2x80x9con topxe2x80x9d of various Web based and other sources of information and instruments for information acquisition and does not require any particular database of its own or any reprocessing of the Web content.
The robot is activated by an explicit user""s action (e.g. posting a query), or automatically when searching for Web content that match foci of interest of a user. In both cases the robot can collect information either from a set of information sources predefined by the user (e.g., a particular Web site, search engines supplying a particular type of content, such as news or press releases etc.), or by automatically selecting the most appropriate sources of information. This activity of the robot is terminated either by an explicit action on behalf of a user, or when exhausting all the relevant sources, or when a satisfying amount of relevant information has been retrieved.
The retrieved information is semantically analyzed. The obsolete or inaccessible information is completely ignored. From each retrieved document the semantic core information is extracted in order to create its xe2x80x9cshorthandxe2x80x9d signature. These signatures are compared in order to detect the semantic common denominators and to group the retrieved documents by common topics. The resulting subgroups are sorted, by their relevancy to the initial query, and ranked by their suitability to the user""s foci of interest. If necessary, the documents are further grouped by the domains in their Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). Accordingly, the results are not presented in their raw form (like in regular search engines), but rather as topics extracted from retrieved documents which are sorted xe2x80x9con-the-flyxe2x80x9d by their semantic relevancy to the query and ranked by their suitability to the user""s interests.
The robot can learn about user""s interests in a variety of ways. It can extract the most dominant topics from any textual information electronically supplied by the user (such as the so-called xe2x80x9cbookmarksxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfavoritesxe2x80x9d from a Web browser or any other set of documents that are representative of his or her interests). In addition, the robot follows user""s reactions to supplied information: selected topics, preferred information sources, typical domains, preferred type of documents etc. The collected information is incorporated into the user""s foci of interest in order to keep them updated. They are further enhanced with the information from frequently repeated queries. The user is also allowed to manually modify and enrich his or her foci of interest. The robot is equipped with a mechanism simulating natural amnesia which disregards and eventually removes obsolete constituents.
If the robot is based on a Web server, rather than on the client computer, the robot can operate independently and without any direct supervision on behalf of a user. A user can be informed when the required information is available and he or she can access the information next time when the user comes on line (connects to the server).

System and method for searching databases employing user profiles


A self-locking belt roller is provided and includes a belt winding shaft rotatably mountable in a housing, a profiled head, and a torsion rod which becomes operational to resist further extraction of a belt from the belt roller so as to effect thereby a first force limiting operation of the belt roller. The belt roller also includes a resistance facilitating element on the belt winding shaft or the profiled head and a deformation element for increasing the resistance force of the belt roller to further extraction of the belt either at the time before the actuation of the torsion rod to resist further belt unwinding or at the time during which the torsion rod resists further belt extraction. The deformation element is engaged by the resistance facilitating element during further rotation of the belt roller in a manner to increase the resistance of the belt roller to further extraction of the belt.

The present invention relates to a self-locking belt roller with a vehicle-sensitive and/or seatbelt-sensitive controllable locking device, the belt roller being provided with a first force limiting device in the form of a torsion rod connected, on the one hand, to the belt winding shaft and, on the other hand, to a special profiled head which is secured to the housing via a controllable blocking element, the belt roller further including an additional deformation element for increasing the resistance to belt withdrawal which is actuated at a location between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head before and/or during the actuation of the torsion rod.
A belt roller with the aforementioned features is described in WO 96/32303. To the extent that additional measures are already described in this publication, they relate to an increase in the restraining forces before the actuation and/or during the actuation of the torsion rod, so that the vehicle occupant still participates during the relatively low initial deceleration of the motor vehicle and later initially upon, for example, contact with an airbag, a reduced restraining force is effected via the actuated torsion rod, whereby this conventional arrangement is representative of the state of the art from which the present invention proceeds in that there is provided, between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head which is lockable onto the circumference of the belt winding shaft, a bendable bolt around the circumference of the belt winding shaft which during a relative movement or relative turning of the belt winding shaft with respect to the profiled head is first initially actuated and bends within a predetermined freedom of movement space before, due to the further relative turning, the force level of the torsion rod is actuated.
In connection with conventional belt rollers, the disadvantage still exists that the disposition of an additional deformation member in addition to the torsion rod requires as a prerequisite a radial overlapping of the belt winding shaft and the profiled head; furthermore, the arrangement of the bending bolt around the circumference of the belt winding shaft so as to permit the predetermined freedom of movement space for its bending is expensive and can be realized only with considerable effort.
The present invention offers a solution to the challenge of providing a belt roller having the afore-described state of the art characteristics which is improved therefrom in a manner such that the arrangement of an additional deformation member is realized in a simpler manner without construction restrictions.
The solution to this challenge is hereinafter described in connection with the advantageous embodiments and variations of the belt roller of the present invention.
The present invention proceeds from the basic concept that the deformation element has its one end engaged or hooked onto the belt winding shaft or onto the profiled head and is configured as a bending element which corresponds to the circumference of the belt winding shaft along its contour and, further, that the bending element has a dimensionally conforming cut out which is engaged by another component in the form of a resistance facilitating element arranged either on the profiled head or the belt winding shaft. In this manner, the present invention relies on the principle of actuating an additional deformation member, as well, in connection with the axially adjacent arranged belt winding shaft and profiled head, in the form of a bending element which is preferably configured as a steel band section and which is seated on the rear side of the belt winding shaft or on the profiled head and which, during a relative turning of the belt shaft and the profiled head, that itself is fixedly connected to the belt winding shaft upon actuation of a blocking element, is drawn through another component in the form of a non-rotating resistance facilitating element. With the thus-effected deformation work, the desired force limitation is performed.
In this connection, a configuration of a force limiting apparatus with a steel band section that is drawn through a resistance facilitating element, the steel band section being basically a bending element, is disclosed in EP 0 791 513 A1.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, it is initially provided that the resistance facilitating element is configured in a non-rotating extension on either the profiled head or the belt winding shaft.
In this connection, in a first alternative embodiment of the present invention, it can be provided that the bending element is hooked onto the rear side of the belt winding shaft adjacent the profiled head and that the extension with the resistance facilitating element is fixedly mounted on the profiled head, whereby the bending element can be disposed in a recess or trough formed in the rear side of the belt winding shaft.
In accordance with a further alternative configuration of the present invention, it is provided that the bending element is suspended on the rear side of the profiled head which is adjacent the belt winding shaft and that the extension is disposed with the resistance facilitating element on the belt winding shaft.
In a further additional configuration of the present invention, it is provided that the bending element is disposed in an extension which is mounted in a non-rotating manner on the profiled head and that the resistance facilitating element is mounted on the belt winding shaft.
It can also be provided that the resistance facilitating element is configured on the rear side of the seat belt winding shaft neighboring the profiled head. The present invention can, in this connection, also be realized such that the resistance facilitating element is configured on a special shaft ring which is connectable with the belt winding shaft.
In a further configuration of the present invention, it is provided that the resistance facilitating element is arranged on the profiled head.
Within the scope of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is provided that a security ring is arranged between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head in the form of a roller bushing at a location between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head which effects a reduction of the friction which occurs between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head during a phase of the force limitation. It is provided that the security ring is formed with a rotation preventing axial projection which extends into the respective component and seats therein in order to secure the security ring for its security task. Furthermore, the security ring can include a radial portion operable to prevent displacement movement of the bending element out of its mounted disposition on the respective one of the belt winding shaft and the profiled head, whereby the radial piece is, additionally, a slotted angular element in the plane of the bending element having a slot which receives therein the bending element. In this manner, the security ring effects a sufficient interconnection of the bending element within the scope of its arrangement between the belt winding shaft and the profiled head.
To the extent that an embodiment of the present invention includes the bending element in a form in which the bending element has a uniform dimension along its length, the additional moment created by the bending element is constant. In accordance with a configuration of the present invention, a degressive force path can be adjusted by a pulling through of the bending element through the resistance facilitating element such that the bending element has, in a direction from its hook catch, either a decreasing material strength along its length or a decreasing width along its width; also, a combination of both of these measures is possible.

Self-locking belt roller having two retraction force limiting elements


Methods of destroying toxic volatile air-borne toxins are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, a piece of formaldehyde laden wood substrate such as paneling or furniture is treated with a TiO.sub.2 solution to form a thin and translucent veneer on the surface. This layer acts like a membrane preventing outward transport of formaldehyde and other harmful compounds produced by weatherization and natural degradation of the substrate. In a prefered embodiment the photocatalytic destruction of formaldehyde is achieved. Other toxins destroyed include terpenes and other types of toxic volatile organic compounds(VOCs). While the prefered embodiment is applied to wood based supports such as paneling and furniture, the invention has applicability for other surfaces such as caskets and roof shingles. For example, the TiO.sub.2 coating can be used on flexible paper type face masks in order to destroy air-borne toxic compounds such as formaldehyde and the like that are used in medical environments where embalming procedures using toxins such as formaldehyde are used.

Toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde are increasingly prevalent in indoor air in both residential and in industrial settings. Formaldehyde is used in manufacturing of resins, plastics, rubber, textile finishes and especially wood based products. Ureaformaldehyde and melamine-formaldehyde resins are known for the release of formaldehyde. In particular, formaldehyde is released by the offgassing from urea-formaldehyde foam that is used as insulation for homes and businesses as well as carpet paddings. Formaldehyde is also released by the offgassing from urea-formaldehyde bonded chipboard that is used in furniture manufacturing and for building materials. Other undesirable toxins emitted from wood are monoterpenes which are a natural byproduct of wood devolatilization.
Major terpenic VOCs which are the natural toxic byproducts of wood devolatilization when wood is exposed or degraded include .alpha.-pinene, .beta.-pinene, limonene, camphene, and fenchone.
The Clean Air Act of 1990 requires minimization of discharges to the environment and limiting VOC emissions. The detoxification of hazardous compounds generated within a given medium will require an oxidative process to "burn off" the pollutant species.
A substance that can mediate oxidation of the environmental pollutants to deep oxidation by-products such as CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O would be desirable. In general, this implies the use of oxidizing agents such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide. However, these two oxidizing agents alone are not capable of total destruction of the contaminants.
Currently, the most advanced technology for the reduction of VOCs is regenerative catalytic oxidation(RCO).
Coupling light with an oxidant such as ozone O.sub.3, hydrogen peroxide H.sub.2 O.sub.2, titania TiO.sub.2, and others referred to as advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) has been shown to accomplish deep oxidation of all carbonaceous species to CO.sub.2. In heterogeneous photocatalysis, the oxidation process is aided by using photocatalysts such as TiO.sub.2, zinc oxide (ZnO) and the like. For example, TiO.sub.2 particles are readily activated upon exposure to near UV radiation (wavelengths below 365 nm) producing electron/hole (e.sup.- /h.sup.+) pairs on the semiconductor surface. The electrons and holes act as strong reducing and oxidizing agents that facilitate mineralization of the target organics via formation of active species such as superoxide ion radical (O.sub.2.sup.-.circle-solid.), hydroxyl radical (OH.sup..circle-solid.), and peroxyl radical (HO.sub.2.sup..circle-solid.) on the semiconductor surface. For example, conduction band electrons (e.sup.-.sub.CB) can reduce molecular oxygen to reactive radicals as follows:
e.sup.-.sub.CB +O.sub.2 .fwdarw.O.sub.2.sup.-.circle-solid. PA1 O.sub.2.sup.-.circle-solid. +H.sup.+ .fwdarw.HO.sub.2.sup.-.circle-solid. PA1 2 HO.sub.2.sup.-.circle-solid. .fwdarw.O.sub.2 +H.sub.2 O.sub.2 PA1 H.sub.2 O.sub.2 .fwdarw.2 OH.sup..circle-solid. PA1 h.sup.+.sub.VB +H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.H.sup.+
Table 1 depicts the relative oxidizing power of surface borne radicals compared with other commonly used oxidants. See Harris, J. C., Ozonation, In Unit Operations for Treatment of Hazardous Industrial Wastes, Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, N.J., 1978. It can be seen that the oxidizing power of hydroxyl radicals is highest among all transhalogen oxidants and surpassed only by flourine. The valence band holes (h.sup.+.sub.VB) can also oxidize water to produce hydroxyl radicals, where the net effect can be complete oxidation or full mineralization of target organics.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Relative oxidation power of oxidizing species Oxidation potential Relative oxidation power Species (volts) (based on Cl .apprxeq. 1) ______________________________________ F 3.06 2.25 OH.sup..cndot. 2.80 2.05 atomic oxygen 2.42 1.78 O.sub.3 2.07 1.52 H.sub.2 O.sub.2 1.77 1.30 HO.sub.2.sup..cndot. 1.70 1.25 permanganate 1.70 1.25 hypochlorous acid 1.49 1.10 Cl 1.36 1.00 ______________________________________
The net effect is generally complete oxidation and full mineralization of target organics. Titania-catalyzed photooxidation processes combine light-assisted interactions of both homogeneous and heterogeneous nature. In addition, the combination of photons and the semiconductor photocatalyst results in new reaction pathways (i.e. photoreduction of oxygen by conduction band electrons and photooxidation by valence band holes) unavailable in non-catalytic photolysis. Reactive species (e.g. superoxide anion and hydroxyl radicals, etc.) are produced photolytically on the surface of the catalyst in the presence of water vapor and/or oxygen molecules eliminating the need for addition of active oxidants such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide. Also, the catalytically active surfaces that exist on titania influence the photodegradation kinetics and the extent of conversion of the target organic molecules. These factors combine to produce many opportunities and process flexibility to affect conversion efficiencies as well as the selectivities of the photocatalytic process. Unlike thermocatalytic processes, the photocatalytic process actually benefits from high moisture content of the media within which toxins reside as the hole oxidation of water generates highly reactive OH.sup..circle-solid. species that attack target organics.
Thus, the need exists to develop a more effective process for the detoxification of manufactured and wood borne toxic emissions such as formaldehyde and terpenes.

Method of photocatalytic destruction of harmful volatile compounds at emitting surfaces


A gear train including an internal gear is combined with a forced synchronized clutch and a hydraulic coupling to form a reversing apparatus for ship propellers.

This invention relates to reversing apparatus and more particularly to reversing apparatus for reversing the direction of fixed pitch propellers which propel a ship.
Ship propulsion systems require some method of reversing the thrust produced by the propellers in order to slow down, stop and reverse the movement of the ship. Turbine drives often incorporate special blades which can be utilized to reverse the direction in which the turbine rotates. In such instances, reversing apparatus are not required. However, diesel engines, gas turbines, as well as many steam turbines are unidirectional, that is, their direction of rotation is fixed so that gearing or other drives such as variable pitch propellers must be provided to slow down, stop and reverse movement of the ship. The propulsion systems are very large, thousands of horsepower, therefore, the reversing apparatus must be able to transmit large quantities of energy, and be reliable and easy to maintain.


A tree climbing suit 10 formed as a one-piece suit has a long-sleeved upper torso portion 12 and a lower torso portion 22. The long-sleeved upper torso portion 12 has two long sleeves 14 for covering the arms and a shirt portion 16 for covering the chest region. The lower torso portion 22 covers the waist region and has a pair of pant legs 24 for covering the leg portion of the wearer 2. The tree climbing suit 10 has a plurality of tree contacting gripping patches 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 sewn or otherwise affixed to the suit in locations for gripping a tree. The tree-gripping patches are located at least on the regions that are in direct contact with the tree when attempting to climb it. The tree-gripping patches 30, 32, 34 are respectively located at least on portions of the long-sleeves 14, in the chest region on the shirt portion 16, and the inseams 25 of the pant legs 24 preferably extending from pant leg 24 to pant leg 24 traversing across the crotch region of the inseam 25.

In tree climbing the degree of difficulty of climbing is often dependent on grabbing branches or limbs to pull oneself up and using the limbs to provide footing as one progresses upwardly. Similarly these features of the tree make climbing relatively easy. Many trees fall into this category and are not difficult to climb. Other trees present much more difficulty to climb in that the branches are often at heights of 20-40 feet as in the case of pine trees grown for lumber, but generally these trees are not climbed unless being removed in an urban setting to prevent the tree from falling on a structure. In these situations, the tree cutter either uses a lift machine to access the parts of the tree where he can tie the tree off in sections as he cuts and lowers the limbs to the ground or in some cases the cutter uses shoes with spikes attached to assist climbing and a harness belt attached at the waist and wrapped around the tree to help hold the climber as he works cutting the upper limbs and lowering them by ropes to the ground. These spiked shoes can tear pieces of bark from the tree, but in a tree removal effort, the damage to the bark is not relevant.
In other applications, large coconut palm trees have the palm fronds and coconuts growing at the very tops of the trees. The coconuts weigh several pounds and when ripe fall from these trees. Again in urban regions falling coconuts can be dangerous. In other situations it is desirable to harvest these coconuts and tree climbers with a machete or large cutting device must climb the palm tree to harvest the coconuts. Other types of palm trees provide similar issues.
In these cases the climber needs to get to the fruit or leaves, then cut down and do so in a safe reliable way that does not damage the tree.
Numerous injuries and even deaths have occurred climbing coconut palm trees. Natives in many regions harvesting the coconuts have learned to shimmy up these trees using bare feet and a loop of thick cord to hold the feet tethered and their arms to work their way to the top. Some skilled climbers do this all day harvesting the crop.
Ideally, the efficiency of climbing could be improved if the tree climbers could use less exertion when climbing; then productivity could be improved.
Even more importantly, if the climber was less fatigued, he or she would be less prone to death or injuries due to falling.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cost-efficient article of clothing that facilitates tree climbing.


A grinding machine is particularly adapted to produce blades and buckets of the kind used in turbines and other objects having complex curved surfaces. Data blocks representing the surface of the object to be created are stored in a computer that controls the machine to finish a rough blank into the final object. An abrasive belt passes over a nose roller to make a line contact with the workpiece. The belt and the workpiece are subject to six computer-controlled degrees of freedom: three in translation and three in rotation. The supporting arm of the nose roller can be moved angularly about the belt contact point while the nose roller can be adjusted about a perpendicular axis through the contact point of the belt. Feedback controls indicate the position of and the motion velocity about the six axes. A positional feedback indicates the precise position of the workpiece at the finishing point to permit automatic compensation for belt wear.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machine tools for shaping or finishing objects of complex shape to conform to a predetermined computer model. More particularly, it relates to a grinding machine having six axes under simultaneous computer control that permit simplified computer control programs and automatically produces objects of complex shapes rapidly and accurately. The described embodiment of the invention is particularly adapted to produce airfoil shaped blades and buckets, for example, of the kind used in turbines, and other objects having complex curved surfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
Objects of complex shape, such as turbine blades and buckets, are generally manufactured in several stages. In the first stage, a rough form is created by casting, forging, or milling by pantographic or numerically-controlled equipment. In the pantographic milling process, a cutter blade is controlled to follow the path of a tracing tool as it makes successive peripheral paths around a prototype. In a numerically-controlled milling process, a ball-end milling cutter is caused to follow a predetermined path to generate a near-final shape.
In milling processes, manufacturing economy dictates that the distance between adjacent passes around the periphery of the workpiece is relatively large. The workpiece surface, as it is generated by milling, is not smooth but consists of numerous nearly-parallel shallow grooves that correspond to the path of the cutting tool. The as-milled workpiece is not smooth enough or close enough to the required dimensions to have practical application. Cast or forged parts have inherently rough surfaces and coarse manufacturing tolerances, unless the parts are made by expensive precision casting processes, such as investment casting.
The cast or milled workpieces must be further refined in a second stage to smooth the surface and to bring it within permissible dimensional tolerances. There are several variations of these processes, but all are expensive and result in a significant rejection rate because of dimensions that are outside of acceptable tolerances. Automatic machining using computer controlled equipment has not been commercially practicable because of the complexity of the necessary programs to operate the finishing equipment using the current milling techniques.
U. S. Pat. No. 4,369,563 describes a computer-controlled machine system in which a number of separate numerically controlled machines perform successive machining operations on a workpiece that is moved automatically from one station to another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,809 employs an end milling machine in which a plane end of a milling element is maintained approximately parallel with the plane of the surface being shaped. However when machining concave surfaces, such as those of turbine blades, the axis of the milling element is purposely skewed with respect to the local normal to avoid undercutting the surface. The milling device disclosed does not provide a smooth surface finish within the necessary tolerances for many applications.

Computer controlled grinding machine for producing objects with complex shapes


Nanoparticles are coated using thick-film techniques with a catalyst to promote the growth of carbon nanotubes thereon. In one example, alumina nanoparticles are coated with a copper catalyst. Such nanoparticles can be selectively deposited onto a substrate to create a field emission cathode, which can then be utilized within field emission devices.

Metal catalysts, such as nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), and their alloys, have been extensively investigated for carbon nanotube growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A typical means of growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the surface of a substrate is to deposit a thin film catalyst onto the surface. However, the thickness of catalyst is critical to the CVD grown CNTs in terms of their density, diameter, and length. Moreover, with Ni, Co, and Fe catalysts, it is difficult to control the diameter and density of CNTs due to their relatively high deposition rates and thickness sensitivity. On the other hand, field emission properties of CNTs are strongly dependent on their distributed density and aspect ratio. Thus, to control the growth of CNTs for a variety of applications, more types of catalyst and alloy need to be developed.


A radio controlled vehicle having a device attached to the front of the vehicle for scooping and retaining a playing ball in a retaining area. The ball is scooped and captured by driving the vehicle towards the ball with sufficient velocity to guide it between channeling rails and through a flexible retaining barrier which prevents further escape of the ball during vehicle maneuvering. The vehicle also includes a ball propelling device which is capable of forcefully dislodging the ball from its retaining area and imparting a velocity to the ball away from the vehicle. This system can be used to play a game whereby the bounds of a playing area and goals are defined, and players maneuver their vehicles within this area. Players capture the free ranging ball, maneuver it towards a goal, aim and shoot the ball in an attempt to score. Errant in-bound shots would then be re-captured, re-maneuvered, and re-shot during the course of play.

Presently, radio controlled (RC) cars, trucks, and other such vehicles are extremely popular worldwide with enthusiasts ranging from all age groups. As a result, major international competitions exist with professional drivers garnering sponsorships from a large variety of equipment sponsors including such manufacturers as Futaba, Airtronics, Kyosho, Hitech, Traxxas, Yokomo, and Tamiya. A variety of international organizations exist which also organize racing and performance competitions. These organizations include the International Federation of Model Auto Racing (IFMAR), Radio Operated Auto Racing (ROAR), European Federation of Radio Operated Automobiles (EFRA), and the Fourth Association of Model Auto Racing (FAMAR).
Generally, RC vehicles provide a low cost alternative to racing enthusiasts who do not race full sized vehicles due to age, cost or the threat of injury. Thus, the thrills of racing can be experienced without the inherent dangers. Racing typically occurs on tracks ranging from ovals to complex patterns, and from paved to off road conditions. The cars complete a series of laps until a winner is determined from the fastest car and remotely located driver. Today, RC cars of all complexity levels and sizes (e.g. 1/24th through 1/4 scale) are used by adults and children alike for uses far simpler than racing. Today, a magnitude of users can be found who simply enjoy remotely roving their RC cars around a large given area such as a parking lot.
Along these lines, many observers find the constant repetition of racing laps to be uninteresting. Hence, while popular, model racing has limited appeal to the average sports enthusiast who is interested in team oriented sports or in reaching some type of goal that requires strategy. Team sports carry appeal because they pit one team against the other, with each team desiring to score as many points as possible within an allotted time period. A complex strategy of offense and defense evolves for each sport beyond that of racing's speed and driving skills. Consequently, many drivers are also enthusiasts of a wide variety of other sports.
Such team sports include football, soccer, basketball, and hockey. As is well known, soccer is the most popular and widely followed team sport in the world. Hockey (both street and ice) is also very popular worldwide. Reasons for soccer's appeal include its simplicity and overall low cost to play. With any plot of land or vacant lot a soccer game can be organized and played. Also, soccer lends itself to all skill levels because a player need only minimal skills to start.
Given the immense popularity of soccer (and other team sports), and the relatively unrelated popularity of RC cars, a game might exist which would combine the enthusiasm for these endeavors and allow an operator to use an RC car as an actual player. The car should be capable of retrieving and retaining a ball so that the car's roving mobility can be strategically used to move the ball into scoring position. A goal would be provided whereby the car could propel the ball forward upon a given RC command. The game might proceed then--much like soccer--where a series of cars on one team would offensively attack the opponents goal and defensively attempt to prevent scoring upon their own goal.
Thus, what is needed in the art into which this invention applies, is such a device that allows RC vehicles to be manipulated/incorporated into a game type situation such as soccer, wherein the vehicle is capable of scooping a ball with a retaining apparatus and propelling the ball based upon a radio controlled command.

Game device for a radio controlled vehicle


A light control device and method for stimulating plant growth is disclosed. The light control device includes a light source capable of emitting light required for plant growth. The light control device further comprises a plurality of light conversion films rotatably mounted upon a film switching unit arranged around the light source, the film switching unit driven by a motor arranged therewithin. The plurality of light conversion films may further provide a plurality of light spectra required during a plurality of plant growth stages. The light control device determines plant growth stage based on the size and the height of the plants. The motor rotates the film switching unit, based on the plant growth stage of the plants, in such a manner that a light conversion film, associated with the plant growth stage of the plants, is positioned in front of the light source. Such positioning stimulates the plant growth.

Photosynthesis is a process of converting light energy from the sun, in which, chlorophyll in foliage absorbs sunlight to provide energy to the plants. Most plants only absorb some specific light in visible spectrum. A grow light (a kind of an electric light) is an artificial light source used to stimulate plant growth by emitting light appropriate for the photosynthesis. The grow light attempts to provide a light spectrum required for natural growth of the plants by mimicking outdoor light conditions such as color, temperature, intensity of the light. Growth cycle of each plant comprises various growth stages (e.g. germination/vegetative phase or the flowering/fruiting phase), in which, each growth stage requires a specific range of light spectrum depending on type of the plants being cultivated.
In the available grow light systems, plants are shifted from one growing rack to another growing rack based on their growth stages in order to provide the required light spectrum. Such shifting not only makes indoor cultivation complex, but also hampers the growth of the plants and increases the cost. This is because, while shifting the plants from one place to another place, the plants come into natural indoor environment which may not match with an artificial environment (mimicking the outdoor light conditions) provided by the grow light systems.
Another challenge is maintaining spectral uniformity of the available grow light systems. The spectral uniformity of the available grow light systems are poor as they use red-LED, blue-LED, white-LED as combined spectrum. Due to such combination, the light spectrum varies from one position to another position. Further, the available grow light systems provide limited growth rate and fail to generate specific nutrients. Therefore, there is long standing need of a device and a method for stimulating plant growth without shifting their positions.

Light control device for stimulating plant growth and method thereof

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited


A compressed wafer mulch, the compressed wafer mulch including corn stover fibers, paper fibers, compost or a mixture thereof, and a method of making the same.

Conventional processes for producing revegetation/erosion controlling pellets already exist. Most known processes utilize various wood, paper, straw, synthetic fibers and blends thereof which are then compressed into pellets. The pellets are used in drop spreaders and/or hydraulic mulching machines in areas to promote the desired revegetation or erosion control.
An example of a process for producing an ag-fiber pellet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,597 which identifies a process for making pelletized mint mulch utilizing the mint plant residue from production of mint oil as a primary feed stock. The mint plant residue is formed into pellets and the resultant pellets are then crumbled. Pelletizing compresses the mint fibers which greatly reduces pellet bulk, and subsequent crimping then promotes separability of the pellets to facilitate consumption or use within an alternative agricultural application. Crumbling fractures the pellets so that they will more readily break apart and absorb water. Crumbled mint mulch can be used in both a dry form, and as a slurry for spray application by a hydro-mulching machine.
Mulch which may include compost is largely biodegradable and is formed of chopped or shredded vegetation which is used to enhance germination of seeds. As the seeds germinate, the mulch slowly degrades delivering nutrients to the surrounding soil to promote plant growth. U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,299 discloses a mulch comprising paper particles and corn particles. The paper and corn particles are intimately mixed into a substantially uniform mulch and may be compressed into a pellet form.
Another example of a pelletized mulch is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,733 wherein mulching pellets are formed from waste paper scrap by incorporating particulate, water-insoluble, swellable, gel-forming polymer into the pellet-forming composition. The formed pellets swell and disintegrate after being spread and impregnated with water, to increase their area of ground-coverage, to release any included nutrients or seeds, and to deposit polymer particles having water-absorbing properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,860 discloses a pelletized straw mulch for soil stabilization and grass and wild flower seed enhancement.
To date, however, no compressed wafer product is known which combines the beneficial qualities of the various sources of mulch or compost into a single mulch product. It would be beneficial to provide a mulch product in the form of a compressed wafer which combines various sources, and which has had wider application range, including livestock feed, erosion control, revegetation, potting purposes, for bare root plants, and other agricultural purposes.
Corn stover is made from the corn plant, including the stalk and leaves but excludes the corn kernel, tassel and cob. Corn stover is a main waste product of the corn producing industry.
Current approaches to recycling corn waste materials are limited and usually include an initial chopping step followed by the spreading of the chopped corn waster over the field, or tilling the corn waste material under the surface of the soil to decompose. Alternatively, the corn waste may be processed and ensiled as silage for livestock feed.
It would be beneficial to employ corn stover with paper, wood, natural fibers, synthetic fibers, polymers, wood shavings, wood fibers, dairy compost, yard waste compost, other compost, soybean straw, oat hulls, alfalfa (Hoy), and other types of straw and/or grain hulls, as a wafered mulch product, which can be used for livestock, erosion control, revegetation, potting purposes, for bare root plants, and/or other agricultural purposes.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.

AG-wafer product and method of making same


A fixing device for soft tissue includes: a driving device, screw tube and a drive rod. A catheter is connected with the screw tube by screw thread, and a plurality of absorbable screws or titanium screws are provided in the catheter. A screw thread structure is formed on a nailed beam of each of the absorbable screws, and a lead spring is provided on each of the absorbable screws. The plurality of absorbable screws or titanium screws are connected in series and provided in the catheter with a spiral groove in a head-to-nail sequence. When used, by pulling the trigger, the driving rod is rotated driven by the driving device, in such a manner that the absorbable screw or the titanium screw can be shot out of the catheter one by one. The fixing device of the present invention has characteristics of anti-adhesion, convenient and reliable operation.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of mechanical equipments, and more particularly to a fixing device for soft tissue comprising an absorbable screw or a titanium screw.
Description of Related Arts
Incisional hernia, which refers to a type of hernia that abdominal viscera or tissue protrudes from abdominal incision, is a common placation in laparotomy. The incision along a middle line of a lower portion of the abdomen has a high incidence of incisional hernia. The incisional hernia mostly occurs on longitudinal incision positions of the abdomen including incision dehiscence, incision infection and a secondary incision healing. A minority of the incisional hernia appears a long time after operation on the ones without incision dehiscence history. A morbidity of the incisional hernia is at a range of 2-11%, and an infected incision has an incisional hernia of about 40%. The incisional hernia on abdominal wall is mainly treated by operation. The conventional repair method for the incisional hernia includes an open style hernia plastic operation with or without an artificial patch and a laparoscopicinc insional hernia repair operation. A recurrence rate of the incisional hernia by a simple tissue suture repair operation is up to 20-50%. According to a principle of incisional hernia classification in China, a medium-large or even huge scale of incisional hernia is more common in clinical trials. These types of incisional hernia are mainly performed with tension-free hernioplasty by artificial patch, which is capable of reducing the recurrence rate of the incisional hernia to about 10%. Compared with open style hernia plastic operations, the laparoscopicinc insional hernia repair has characteristics as follows.
(1) The laparoscopic incisional hernia repair follows the principle of abdominal wall hernia surgery, and is in line with biological engineering mechanics of repairing for strengthening the rear wall, and the recurrence rate after the operation is below 5%.
(2) The surgical approach is far away from the original incision hernia, so as to reduce the infection chance on implant positions of material, which is particularly suitable for the wound infection persons.
(3) A wide range of the abdominal tissue is not damaged to be free, and the original strength of the abdominal wall is retained as much as possible, which is more suitable for recurrent incisional hernia.
(4) Soft tissue capable of supplying blood is retained between skin on the hernia defect position and the artificial patch, and the soft tissue is capable of effectively cover and oppress the artificial patch, which is capable of facilitating the fibrous tissue to grow into an aperture of polypropylene mesh, so as to improve the tension strength between the artificial patch and the abdominal wall.
(5) Contents of free hernia in the pneumoperitoneum are more intuitively clear, and the force of gravity causes the contents of the hernia drooped naturally, so as to avoid the passive situation of intestinal injuries.
(6) An occult "pinhole hernia" is easier to find, so as to reduce the recurrence of abdominal hernia after operation caused thereby.
(7) Multi-point fixed patch is sutured and screwed in the abdominal cavity to reduce the uniformly dispersed tension.
(8) The area implanting the patch does has no skin incisions, so as to reduce the possibility of hematoma and liquid and replacement of a conventional drainage tube is not needed, so as to reduce the chance of contamination.
(9) The patch is fixed by non-abdominal wall penetration, so the postoperative pain is light, the duration of the operation is short and the patient recovers quickly.
(10) The laparoscopicinc operation is capable of not only reducing incisional infection, reducing postoperative recurrent rate but also achieving minimally invasive effects.
(11) The laparoscopicinc operation is technical demanding and requires a relative long learning time.
Based on the characteristics mentioned above, laparoscopic incisional hernia repair gradually attracts people's concern in recent years, and becomes more and more popular in the treatment of incisional hernia. The method for fixing patch in the laparoscopicinc hernia repair comprises completely suturing, completely nailing, combination of suturing, nailing and adhesive, and there is no uniform standard currently.
In the conventional art, TYCO healthcare group discloses a speculum stapling device and a disposable screw case in a patent application with an application number of 200810009395.6. In a US application with an application number of 2007/0038220 A1, John Isbell Shipp discloses an absorbable screw nail for fixing Surgical Mesh, wherein the absorbable screw nail is made of a copolymer of lactide and glycolide. In a US patent with an application number of US 2007/0250064 A1, Davol, Inc., Cranston, R.I. discloses a surgical operation fixing method and device. In a US patent with an application number of US 2003/0187465 A1, SOFRADIM PRODUCTION, Trevoux (FR) discloses an I-shaped operation fixing device. In a US application with a publication number of U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,479, Origin Medsystems, Inc. Menlo park, Calif. discloses a surgical spiral fixing device. The fixing device mentioned above solves the problems of time-consuming and inconvenient during the process of repairing suture, and furthermore, hemorrhage and trauma of the patient is decreased. The conventional surgical fixing device is in a type of a staple. Deformation fixed by the staple type fixing device needs other components such as an iron felt, and thus the structure is very complicated an the cost is high. A far-end of the one way screw nail has a penetrating point, and a near-end thereof has a T-shaped bar, wherein the T-shaped bar equally divides a diameter of the screw nail and provides a stress face. According to another embodiment, the screw nail is a double-sided screw, a far-end of the double-sided screw nail has two penetrating points and a near-end thereof has a connecting bar, wherein the connecting bar connects two spiral coils and equally divides diameters of the two spiral coils. In the conventional art, the fixing device is generally a disposable product and may cause friction tissue injury on the human body during operation process.


A packet transfer control method and a node device which are capable of providing a dedicated cut-through path for a specific end-to-end packet flow, while reducing a time required until the cut-through path is established, so as to be able to reduce the load of the address analysis processing at the router. One node belonging to one logical network stores an information indicating an existence of a first dedicated virtual path for transferring packet flows specified by a first condition, which is capable of transferring packets without applying a network layer processing up to another node belonging to another logical network, and the communicates an identifier information for identifying a second dedicated virtual path for transferring a packet flow specified by a second condition which is more specific than the first condition by utilizing the first dedicated virtual path, and a condition information for indicating the second condition, in order to set up the second dedicated virtual path up to a termination point node of the first dedicated virtual path or a further downstream side node, between that one node and the termination point node.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a node device (including a router device for relaying packets) for transferring packets from one logical network to another logical network, and a packet transfer control method to be carried out at a node device.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the packet communication network for transferring packets on a network layer such as that of the Internet protocol, logical networks are defined. Within the same logical network, the packet transfer is carried out in a prescribed frame format according to a protocol (Ethernet, point-to-point link, ATM, frame relay, etc.) of a datalink layer constituting that logical network.
On the other hand, in a case of transferring a packet to the different logical network, an address information of the packet is analyzed at a router located on a boundary between logical networks, and the packet is relayed by being transferred toward a prescribed logical network. Consequently, a packer relay transfer processing based on the address analysis at a router will be carried out as many times as a number of logical network boundaries that the packet passes through.
As the datalink network constituting individual logical network becomes faster, there arises a problem that such a relay transfer processing based on the address analysis at a router becomes a bottleneck for the overall transfer performance. In order to resolve this problem, there has been a proposition of a method for carrying out a cut-through transfer in which the address analysis processing for each packet at a router is not required so as to significantly improve a router processing performance, as described in detail in the IETF RFC 1953 and 1954.
At a router that carries out this cut-through transfer scheme, the information such as an address and an upper level protocol is analyzed for the first one or few packets, and prescribed control messages are exchanged with a neighboring router (a previous or next hop router belonging to the identical logical network) on a route of the analyzed packet flow so as to store the information on the analyzed packet flow by mapping it to a header value (a VPI/VCI value of a cell header in a case of ATM) that can be processed at high speed.
Then, the transfer processing for subsequent packets belonging to that packet flow are carried out according to the stored header value that can be processed at high speed. By carrying out the above processing at each router on the route of the packet flow, it becomes possible to carry out the fast transfer (referred to as a cut-through transfer hereafter) processing for packets other than the first few packets. Also, by notifying a request on the communication quality from an end-host, it also becomes possible to provide a cut-through path that satisfies a requested communication quality with respect to an end-to-end flow.
The above described packet transfer control method sets up a cut-through path for each communication between specific transmitting host and receiving host, for example, so that a number of cut-through paths to be managed by the router can be potentially large. Also, there is a need to carry out the address analysis processing for each packet just as in the conventional router until the cut-through path is established, so that there can be a router at which the address analysis processing for each packet may cause the bottleneck.
For this reason, there is also a proposition of a method in which a cut-through path between specific routers is set up in advance at a time of the network activation, for example, instead of setting up a dedicated cut-through path for a specific end-to-end packet flow at a time of detecting that packet flow. In this case, it is impractical to set up a cut-through path dedicatedly with respect to every conceivable end-to-end packet flow, so that a cut-through path will be set up to have a general availability (such that all packet flows destined to a specific logical network from one router can use it commonly, for example). Consequently, various end-to-end packet flows are going to share the cut-through path formed from one router to another router of another logical network.
In this method, it is possible to eliminate a possibility for causing the bottleneck due to the conventional address analysis processing until the cut-through path is formed as encountered in the earlier described method. However, in this method, when a scale of the network is increased, a number of cut-through paths to be set up in advance also increases, so that it is preferable to limit a number of cut-through paths to a reasonable level (such that the cut-through path is set up in advance only for those packet flows which are destined to a logical network which is known to have a large traffic, for example). In such a case, when some end-to-end packet flow occurs, if there is no cut-through path set up in advance on the route of that packet flow, the conventional transfer processing based on the address analysis for each packet must be carried out at routers on that route, and therefore the problem of the performance bottleneck arises again.
Also, in this method for setting up a cut-through path with a certain degree of general availability, it is impossible to provide a dedicated cut-through path that satisfies the requested communication quality with respect to a specific end-to-end packet flow.

Packet transfer control method and node device using plurality of dedicated cut-through paths


A process for the efficient manufacture of 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines from relatively inexpensive raw materials is provided.. The vapor phase condensation/cyclization of 1,3-diamino-2-propanol and an alkanecarboxylic acid produces an equilibrium mixture of 2-alkyl-5-hydroxytetrahydropyrimidine and 2-alkyl-5-(aminomethyl)oxazoline. After separation from the oxazoline, the tetrahydropyrimidine can be dehydrogenated under mild neutral conditions with manganese dioxide to produce 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines.

2-Alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines, particularly the 2-t-butyl homolog, are advantageously employed as intermediates for the preparation of insecticidal O-5-pyrimidinyl phosphorothioates as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,127,652 and 4,729,987. Typically, 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines are prepared from the corresponding 2-alkylpyrimidine by selective halogenation of the 5-position followed by hydrolysis to the 5-hydroxy analog. ##STR1## Although fraught with difficulties, 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines can be successfully prepared by this conventional approach; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,590 concerning chlorination and U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,930 concerning hydrolysis. Nevertheless, this scheme is not as straightforward as it appears to be.
Since most 2-alkylpyrimidines are not commercially available, the starting materials for this route must themselves be prepared. This is usually accomplished by reacting an alkanecarboxylic acid (RCO.sub.2 H) with 1,3-diaminopropane in the vapor phase; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,427. This reaction first involves a condensation/cyclization to an intermediate 2-alkyl-1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine followed by dehydrogenation to the 2-alkylpyrimidine. Thus, for example, 2-t-butyl-5-hydroxypyrimidine would typically be prepared from pivalic acid and 1,3-diaminopropane by the following scheme. ##STR2## It would be highly desirable to have a more direct route to 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines that would entail fewer steps and fewer unit operations.
One approach to abbreviating the conventional scheme would be to employ an acyclic raw material already functionalized with oxygen which, when cyclized, would incorporate the oxygen functionality in the proper ring position. In accord with this approach, U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,929 discloses the cyclization of pivalic acid and 1,3-diamino-2-propanol to 2-t-butyl-5-hydroxy-1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine. However, this patent remains surprisingly silent concerning the subsequent dehydrogenation of this intermediate to the corresponding pyrimidinol.

Process for the preparation of 2-alkyl-5-hydroxypyrimidines from 1,3-diamino-2-propanol and an alkanecarboxylic acid


A semiconductor memory device includes a clock synchronizing unit for receiving a first power voltage through a first power voltage terminal, and an additional power voltage providing unit for additionally providing a second power voltage to the first power voltage terminal for a predetermined period after leaving a power down mode.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and to a method for driving the semiconductor memory device. More particularly, the invention relates to stably providing a clock at the memory device at a predetermined timing after a power down mode.
Generally, semiconductor memory devices such as a double data rate synchronous DRAM (DDR SDRAM) receive external clock signals to generate internal clock signals. A number of circuits in such semiconductor memory devices receive the internal clock signals for use as reference clocks of corresponding circuits. A clock skew may occur in a semiconductor memory device due to a delay generated by a transmission route for transmitting the internal clock in the semiconductor memory device. Thus, the semiconductor memory device includes a clock synchronization circuit to compensate the clock skew. A phase locked loop (PLL) and a delay locked loop (DLL) represent the clock synchronization circuit.
The semiconductor memory device receives an external power voltage to generate internal power voltages. The internal power voltages operate at various voltage levels. For example, the internal power voltages include a pumping power voltage that is supplied to word lines and higher than the external power voltage, a core power voltage supplied to a bit line sense amp amplifier, a peripheral circuit power voltage supplied to a peripheral circuit, and a DLL power voltage supplied to a DLL.
The semiconductor memory devices have been developed to meet requirements for very large scale integration, high-speed, and low power. Generally, a power down mode is used for low power consumption. The power down mode indicates an operation mode for minimizing current consumption in the semiconductor memory device. When the semiconductor memory device enters the power down mode, it consumes minimum current.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a typical DLL.
Referring to FIG. 1, the DLL includes a phase detecting unit 110, a control signal generating unit 130, a variable delaying unit 150, and a delay replicating unit 170.
The phase detecting unit 110 detects phases of an external clock signal CLK_EXT and a feedback clock signal CLK_FED to output a detect signal DET. The control signal generating unit 130 generates a corresponding delay control signal CNT_D in response to the detect signal DET. The variable delaying unit 150 delays the external clock signal CLK_EXT in response to the delay control signal CNT_D to generate a DLL clock signal CLK_DLL. The delay replicating unit 170 delays the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL for a time caused by a clock path through which the external clock signal CLK_EXT is transmitted to a data output circuit to generate a feedback clock signal CLK_FED.
The variable delaying unit 150 includes a plurality of unit delay cells (not shown). The variable delaying unit 150 receives an operation voltage from a DLL power voltage V_DLL.
FIG. 2 is a timing diagram showing a locking operation of the DLL in FIG. 1. For the convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the cycle of an external clock signal CLK_EXT is 10 ns and a phase difference between the locked DLL clock signal CLK_DLL and the external clock signal CLK_EXT is 2 n. It is assumed that each of the unit delaying cell delays an input signal for 70 ps and the variable delaying unit 150 is set to delay the external clock signal CLK_EXT for 1 ns at an initial operation time. An initial delay time of the external clock signal CLK_EXT is 1 ns.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the phase detecting unit 110 compares the external clock signal CLK_EXT with the feedback clock signal CLK_FED to output the detect signal DET. Then, the control signal generating unit 130 generates a delay control signal CNT_D according to the detect signal DET. The variable delaying unit 150 changes the number of activated unit delay cells in response to the delay control signal CNT_D.
When hundred unit delay cells in the variable delaying unit 150 are activated, the variable delaying unit 150 delays the external clock signal CLK_EXT for 8 ns.
When the variable delaying unit 150 delays 8 ns, a phase difference between the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL and the external cock signal CLK_EXT becomes 2 ns. In this case, the feedback clock signal CLK_FED from the delay replicating unit 170 is synchronized with the external clock signal CLK_EXT. This state is called that the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL is locked.
A normal mode is described, hereinbefore. The semiconductor memory device enters the power down mode after a normal mode.
Hereinafter, the power down mode is described in detail. When the semiconductor memory device enters the power down mode, the DLL stores locking information and stops the locking operation. When the semiconductor memory device leaves the power down mode, the variable delaying unit 150 starts to operate with the locking information stored before entering the power down mode. The DLL power voltage V_DLL supplied to the variable delaying unit 150 may drop due to an immediate circuit operation. Because the power voltage should be provided to all circuits in the memory device when the semiconductor memory device escapes the power down mode.
FIG. 3 is a timing diagram showing a problem occurring after leaving the power down mode.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL is locked totally to be delayed for 8 ns in the locking state. In detail, the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL is set to be initially delayed for 1 ns and then delayed for 7 ns by hundred unit delay cells of the variable delaying unit 150.
When the semiconductor memory device escapes the power down mode, since the power voltage is supplied to lots of circuit blocks in the memory device, the power voltage V_DLL temporally drops. Thus, delay time of the unit delay cells in the variable delaying unit 150 increases. That is, when the variable delaying unit 150 is locked for 8 ns by hundred unit delay cells before entering the power down mode, the delay time of the variable delaying unit 150 temporally increases when the semiconductor memory device escapes the power down mode. The delay time in hundred unit delay cells increases due to the voltage drop of the power voltage V_DLL. That means that the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL is delayed for delay time of 8 n+a.
Because of that, a DQS signal, i.e., a reference signal for outputting data, generated by the DLL clock signal CLK_DLL does not have a predetermined timing in comparison with the external clock signal CLK_EXT. A tDQSCK, i.e., a margin timing which is a specification between the external clock signal CLK_EXT and the DQS signal, is not satisfied. The more unit delay cells are used before entering the power down mode, the more difficult it becomes to be satisfied with the tDQSCK.

Semiconductor memory device and operation method thereof


A fireman's coat and drag harness therefore are provided. The drag harness includes first and second work portions received within the coat adjacent the corresponding arm portions thereof. The loop portions extend about corresponding arms of the wearer of the coat. A drag loop is operatively connected to the first and second loop portions. The drag loop extends through an opening in the torso portion of the coat so as to allow a potential rescuer to grasp the drag loop in order to drag an incapacitated person to safety.

By way of background, firemen and persons engaged in rescue and clean-up operations at hazardous locales typically work in pairs. If one of the pair becomes injured or is overcome by fumes or the like, the other is present to effect a rescue. In order to rescue the incapacitated person, an individual will often grab the clothing of the other and drag the person to safety. Alternatively, the individual may position the incapacitated partner on their back and carry the fallen person to safety.
Removing an incapacitated person from a hazardous environment may be quite difficult. For example, the incapacitated person may be significantly larger than the rescuer. Consequently, it may be difficult for the rescuer to carry or drag the incapacitated person to safety. In addition, it is often times too difficult to grasp clothing of the incapacitated person to drag such person to safety. Further, since clothing, such as a fireman's coat, is not secured to the incapacitated person, it may be possible to inadvertently remove the person's coat from the incapacitated person during the dragging of such person to safety. As a result, the fireman's coat must be repositioned on the incapacitated person to prevent further injury to the incapacitated person due to potential burning debris on the floor surface through which the incapacitated person is dragged. This, in turn, increases the time required to remove the incapacitated person from the hazardous environment.
Therefore, it is a primary object and feature of the present invention to provide a coat incorporating a drag harness which may be easily and simply grasped by a potential rescuer.
It is a further object and feature of the present invention to provide a coat incorporating a drag harness which maintains an incapacitated individual within the coat when such individual is being dragged therewith causing a rescue operation.
It is a still further object and feature of the present invention to provide a coat incorporating a drag harness which minimizes the possibility of such harness accidentally snagging on items when the wearer of the coat passes through a hazardous environment.
In accordance with the present invention, a drag harness for a fireman's coat is provided. The coat has interior and exterior surfaces; a torso portion for positioning about the torso of a wearer; and first and second arm portions extending from the torso portion for receiving corresponding arms of the wearer. The drag harness includes first and second loop portions within the coat adjacent corresponding arm portions such that the loop portions extend about corresponding arms when the arms of the wearer are received within the arm portions of the coat. A drag loop is operatively connected to the first and second loop portions and extends through an opening of the torso portion of the coat to allow a potential rescuer to grasp the same.
Each loop portion has a first configuration allowing one of the arms to pass therethrough and a second configuration capturing one of the arms therein. The first and second loop portions are interconnected by a cross strap extending along the interior surface of the torso portion of the coat. A support structure interconnected to the inner surface of the torso portion of the coat defines a passageway for receiving the cross strap therethrough and maintains the cross strap adjacent the interior surface of the torso portion. The drag loop includes a first strap portion terminating at an end and a second strap portion terminating at an end wherein a connection structure connects the end of the first and second strap portion.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, a coat is provided. The coat includes a torso portion for positioning about the torso of a wearer. The torso portion has an inner surface defining an interior of the torso portion and an outer surface. First and second arm portions extend from the torso portion. Each arm portion has an interior communicating with the torso portion for receiving corresponding arms of the wearer. A drag harness is supported within the interior of the torso portion. The drag harness includes first and second arm loops which extend about corresponding arms of the wearer when the arms of the wearer are received within the arm portions and a drag loop which extends through an opening of the torso portion so as to allow a potential rescuer to grasp the same.
Each arm loop of the drag harness has a first configuration allowing one of the arms to pass therethrough and a second configuration capturing the one of the arms therein. The first and second arm loops are interconnected by a cross strap extending along the interior surface of the torso portion of the coat. A support structure is interconnected to the interior surface of the torso portion of the coat. The support structure defines a passageway for receiving the cross strap and maintaining the cross strap adjacent to the interior surface of the torso portion. The drag loop includes a first strap portion terminating at an end and a second strap portion terminating at an end. A connection structure interconnects the ends of the first and second strap portions. A flap is interconnected to the outer surface of the torso portion so as to overlap the opening. The flap defines the drag loop receiving cavity for receiving the drag loop during non-use. The coat may also include a liner having a first portion received within the torso portion and arm receiving portions received within corresponding arm portions.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, a coat is provided. The coat includes a torso portion for positioning about the torso of a wearer. The torso portion has an inner surface defining an interior of the torso portion, an outer surface, and an opening therebetween. First and second arm portions extend from the torso portion. Each arm portion has an interior communicating with the interior of the torso portion for receiving corresponding arms of the wearer. A liner is also provided. The liner includes a first portion received within the torso portion and arm receiving portions received within corresponding arm portions. A drag harness is positioned about the liner and includes first and second arm loops which extend about corresponding arms when the arms of the wearer are received within the arm portions, and a drag loop which extends through the opening in the torso portion so as to allow a potential rescuer to grasp the same. A flap is interconnected to the outer surface of the torso portion and overlaps the opening. The flap defines a drag loop receiving cavity for housing the drag loop.
Each arm loop of the drag harness has a first configuration allowing one of the arms to pass therethrough and a second configuration capturing the one of the arms therein. The first and second arm loops are interconnected by a cross strap which extends along the inner surface of the torso portion of the coat. A support structure is interconnected to the interior surface of the torso portion of the coat. The support structure defines a passageway for receiving the cross strap and maintaining the cross strap adjacent the interior surface of the torso portion. The drag loop includes a first strap portion terminating at an end and a second strap portion terminating at an end. A connection structure connects the ends of the first and second strap portions.


A harrow assembly adapted to be towed by a towing vehicle in either a working mode or a transport mode. The harrow assembly includes front and rear offset disc harrow units pivoted at one end portion. Each offset disc harrow unit includes a transport wheel assembly, each assembly having a pair of opposed, spaced transport wheels arranged on either side of the respective harrow units.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a harrow assembly, and is more particularly concerned with an offset wheel or disc harrow designed to be towed by a vehicle in either a working mode or in a transport mode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hinge-type offset wheel harrows incorporating gangs of spaced discs are widely known and have been manufactured to incorporate various embodiments and features Due primarily to improvements in towing vehicles such as tractors, there is a trend to manufacture these harrows structurally larger than harrows previously manufactured. While the larger harrows are generally more durable and efficient than the smaller counterparts of the prior art, by increasing the size of disc harrows, various problems are encountered. For example, the disc harrows previously known were generally small enough to permit the drawbar assembly to be manually biased in an operable or in an inoperable position. Further, such a relatively lightweight drawbar could be manually removed from a harrow working position and installed in a harrow transport position. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,460,630 to Richey, the working drawbar is manually biased. The transport drawbar or tongue must be manually removed when the disc harrow is in a working position, and manually installed when the harrow is in a transport position, because the transport drawbar would interfere with the pivoting of the individual harrow units in the working mode. This arrangement is also utilized in an offset disc harrow manufactured by Marchesan under the name Super Tatu.RTM.. Because of the size of the harrow assembly of the present invention, however, the draw bar assemblies used to pull the harrow in either working or transport modes must include large, heavy steel elements which cannot be easily, manually removed and installed or easily, manually biased in an operable or inoperable position. The drawbar assemblies utilized in the prior art, therefore, are not suitable for use in the present invention.
Further, there are various means disclosed in the prior art to permit an offset disc harrow to be towed in a non-working or transport mode. This is advantageous when, for example, it is necessary to move the harrow from one field to another over a road or public highway. U.S. Pat. No. 3,460,630 also discloses a transport means in the form of wheels arranged parallel to and on either side of the entire harrow assembly. Because of the arrangement of the front and rear units of this harrow when collapsed for transportation, however, it is not possible to provide additional transport wheels between the harrow units themselves. The transport means of U.S. Pat. No. 3,460,630 is, therefore, limited in this respect, and is less stable than the present invention when being towed in the transport mode. Similarly, the Marchesan harrow utilizes outer transport wheels only. U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,919 to Coughran discloses another type of disc harrow having transport wheel assemblies. In this reference, however, the wheels are arranged between the individual harrow units only, but are transverse to the harrow units. The harrow assembly, therefore, is towed in the same orientation in the transport mode as the orientation in which it is towed in the working mode. This leads to difficulties when the harrow is being transported on the public highways since the large harrow assemblies of today are often wider than the individual road lanes. Other disc harrows which exemplify the harrows of the prior art are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,781 to Mayer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,447 to Kramer, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,471 to Welch. Because of the increasingly large structure of today's disc harrows, however, the embodiments previously used to provide transportation means for the disc harrows are less desirable than the structure of the present invention.


A method for operating a motor vehicle, in which an imminent rollover of the motor vehicle is detected, depending on the status values of the motor vehicle, at least one countermeasure being initiated and/or at least one warning message being output when an imminent rollover is detected. It is provided that, when an imminent rollover is detected, at least one of the instantaneous status values and/or the warning message is/are transmitted to a central database, where it is/they are made available for other motor vehicles.

Conventional safety systems, which should prevent accidents and in particular rollovers of motor vehicles, are often used in vehicles, which have a comparatively high center of gravity such as trucks or pickup trucks, for example. These systems detect whether there is an imminent rollover of the motor vehicle on the basis of rotational and acceleration data of the motor vehicle. If an imminent rollover is detected, then countermeasures such as targeted triggering of a braking system (ESP control) or an intervention into the steering, for example, is initiated. Simultaneously or alternatively, such rollover protection systems output a warning message to the driver of the motor vehicle acoustically or visually, for example, so that the driver himself may initiate corresponding countermeasures.

Method and device for operating a motor vehicle, motor vehicle


An application programming interface (API) supporting server and key based networking is described. In an embodiment, the API receives either a key or a server address from a service running on a server in a direct-connect topology and returns data which identifies suitable next hops for transmission of a packet of data which has a destination of the received server address or of a server address which is encoded within the received key. In another embodiment, the key also encodes information specifying alternative server addresses for use in the event that the original server is unreachable. This information may also be used to define servers for replication of the key. A further embodiment describes a method of queuing packets for transmission against multiple links, where the packet is transmitted on the first available link and at this time is removed from the queues for the other links.

Data centers supporting user-facing applications, such as email applications, or other applications like large-scale data processing, usually run a set of internal services that provide basic functionality on which to build the higher-level applications. The computer clusters used to run these services rely on general purpose network technology such as Ethernet switches and Internet protocols whose limitations and compromises, in terms of design and implementation, limit the performance and functionality of the services that run upon them. Examples of issues include bandwidth oversubscription and, where TCP/IP is used, TCP throughput collapsing as the small buffers are overrun.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known methods of communication within a computer cluster.

API supporting server and key based networking


A fixing device includes a metal plate, an endless belt, a rotating body, and a stay. The metal plate has a main part comprising a first end portion, a second end portion, and a center portion positioned therebetween and having rigidity higher than that of the first end portion and the second end portion. The endless belt has an inner peripheral surface configured to be in sliding contact with the metal plate. The main part is aligned with the rotating body in a direction from the metal plate to the rotating body. The stay is disposed opposite to the nip region with respect to the metal plate. The stay and the main part of the metal plate are deformable upon application of the load to the stay such that the main part provides a convex shape protruding toward the rotating body.

Japanese Patent No. 3817482 discloses a fixing device that includes an endless belt, a nip member disposed at an internal space of the endless belt, and a pressure roller that opposes the nip member so as to interpose the endless belt between the pressure roller and the nip member. Specifically, a surface of the nip member that is in contact with the endless belt is subjected to machining to have a convex surface in contact with the endless belt and having a central portion and end portions in an axial direction of the endless belt. The central portion has a protruding amount protruding toward the pressure roller greater than that of the end portions. In this way, wrinkling of recording sheets can be prevented.

Fixing device provided with reinforced nip member


A harness for an upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis. The harness includes a humeral cuff having medial and lateral pivot arms configured to removably attach to the socket of a below-elbow prosthesis. The humeral cuff enables a user to suspend the prosthesis without the need of a shoulder strap/harness or body harness. A cable system is affixed to the pivot arms and includes a wheel coupling the pivot arms to the control arm of a hook of the below-elbow prosthesis, thereby enabling users to operate the hook by simple flexion and extension of their arm.

The present invention relates to upper extremity below-elbow prostheses. More specifically, the present invention relates to a harness for an upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis capable of suspending a below-elbow prosthesis and facilitating its operation without the need of a shoulder strap/harness or body harness.
The majority of below-elbow amputees utilize mechanical or body-powered prosthesis that are suspended on an amputee's body via a harness that is fastened around the amputee's shoulder or upper torso. The prosthesis is controlled by upper body movements that utilize a cable connected to the harness at one end, and to a mechanical hand, hook, or elbow at the other end. Although, these harness systems provide ways in which an amputee may employ a prosthesis, they generally lack the range of motion necessary for adequate flexion and extension of a user's arm with the prosthesis. Moreover, when opening the hook of the prosthesis, these systems often require that the amputee use more physical upper body movement and strength, which can be onerous to an amputee utilizing the prosthesis for extended periods of time. Further, these shoulder harness systems are overall uncomfortable in that they give a user a feeling of confinement and are cumbersome to wear whether over or underneath a user's shirt. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved prosthesis harness configured to be attached to the socket of an upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis, which eliminates the need for a shoulder or body harness and facilities full range of motion of the prosthesis.
The use of harnesses for upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis are known in the prior art. More specifically, harnesses heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a harness for an upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis having a humeral cuff, medial and lateral pivot arms having upper and lower members pivotally attached to one another; a cable system having a first cable, a second cable, a medial cable anchor, a lateral cable anchor, and a wheel having a central cable anchor.
In these respects, the harness according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a harness for an upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis that is capable of attaching to the socket of the prosthesis and suspending it for use, without the need of a shoulder or body harness, and which facilitates full range of flexion and extension of the prosthesis.

Harness for upper extremity below-elbow prosthesis