A molding die device is provided for bringing a resin sheet into close contact with a pair of dies by vacuum suction from a cavity surface to perform molding. An outer frame portion is formed integrally with an outer peripheral portion of the respective dies arranged to face each other. Moreover, one of the dies has a recessed portion formed at the position of the one of the dies facing the outer frame portion of the other die and configured so that the outer frame portion of the one of the dies can be housed in the recessed portion. The outer frame portion is formed to protrude most in each die. Upon molding, the dies are clamped together after vacuum suction has been performed with the resin sheet being arranged in contact with the outer frame portions.

For example, in the case of forming a resin molded article with a single wall structure, vacuum molding or pressure molding is performed such that after a thermoplastic resin original fabric sheet prepared in advance has been reheated to a molten state, the sheet closely contacts a die cavity by vacuum suction or air pressure. Vacuum molding or pressure molding has characteristics such as a characteristic suitable for high-mix low-volume production. Moreover, the applicant of the present application has developed a molding technique including bringing each of two extruded resin sheets into close contact with a corresponding one of dies in a pair by vacuum suction and subsequently clamping the dies to integrate these two resin sheets together.
In this type of vacuum molding or pressure molding, the heated molten resin sheet needs to be reliably in close contact with a cavity surface of the die. With poor close contact of the resin sheet with a die cavity, the surface shape of the die cannot be sufficiently transferred. For this reason, a resin molded article with predetermined quality cannot be obtained.
Meanwhile, the die shape has been diversified due to resin molded article diversification. For this reason, it is difficult to perform vacuum suction for the resin sheet in some cases. For bringing the resin sheet into close contact with the die cavity, vacuum suction is performed after a tip end of the die has contacted the resin sheet. However, in this state, the resin sheets contacting the dies need to form a closed space.
Among the above-described various dies, there is, however, a die having a parting line in a complicated (three-dimensionally curved) shape, for example. In this case, a clearance is also formed between the die and the resin sheet stacked in contact with the die. That is, there is a problem that it is difficult to form the closed space.
In view of such a situation, an attempt has been made to modify the die for forming the closed space. For example, JP-A-2012-192521 discloses a molding device configured so that thermoplastic resin extruded in a sheet shape from an extruding machine can closely contact a frame positioned at the periphery of a die. This molding device is configured such that a tip end surface of the frame is in a single plane. With this configuration, even when the shape of a parting line of the die is complicated, a resin sheet is arranged in contact with the frame, thereby forming a closed space. As a result, vacuum suction can be reliably performed.
Moreover, JP-A-5-16218 discloses a vacuum molding die used for bonding, at the same time as vacuum molding, a skin material in the form of a thin sheet to a surface of a base material set on the vacuum molding die, the base material being in a shape having a recessed surface portion at a substantially center portion. A frame protruding higher than an outer edge portion of the base material is provided at a portion of the vacuum molding die positioned at an outer peripheral portion of the set base material. It is described that upon vacuum molding of the skin material set on the frame, molding is performed such that the skin material comes into contact with the recessed surface portion in advance of the outer edge portion of the base material.


A complex prepared by combining a metal compound and an N-heterocyclic carbene has catalytic activity for condensation reaction of polyorganosiloxane compositions. The composition includes the complex, a silanol functional compound having an average per molecule of one or more silicon bonded hydroxy moieties.

Bases used as condensation reaction catalysts such as 1,8-Diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU); 1,5-Diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene; 1,4-Diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO); and others suffer from the drawback of inhibition of catalysis when a filler is added to a composition containing such catalyst. Metallic condensation reaction catalysts (such as acetyl acetonates of aluminum or zinc) suffer from the drawback of causing scission of aromatic groups from siloxane resins, particularly resin-linear compounds. There is an industry need for catalysts that can deliver controlled cure of siloxane compounds, including resin-linear compounds, via condensation reaction in the presence of untreated fillers, such as phosphors.

Polyorganosiloxane compositions with metal based N-heterocyclic carbene condensation reaction catalysts and methods for the preparation thereof


A position detector includes a source of radiant energy, such as infrared light. A sensor is spaced from the source. The source and the sensor can be carried spaced apart from one another by a housing. Control circuits, carried by the housing, are coupled to the source and the sensor. Pulsed radiant energy, emitted by the source is incident on the sensor only when transmitted by a solid optical medium which has a predetermined orientation relative to the housing. When the medium has the predetermined orientation, the sensor receives transmitted radiant energy from the source. When the medium moves from the predetermined orientation, the sensor ceases to receive the transmitted radiant energy from the source, and the control circuits can generate an alarm indication.

There are two kinds of technology that are widely used in implementing door/window intrusion sensors. One includes a combination of a reed switch with a magnet (mechanical contacts). The other includes a source, an infrared (IR) sensor and a reflector. Unfortunately, each of these methods could be defeated by a person having limited knowledge of the sensors.
Mechanical contacts can be easily defeated from the outside by using an additional magnet to keep the reed switch actuated while the window or door is being opened.
Known intrusion sensors based on IR transmission have constantly transmitted the IR. Such devices may be defeated by shining a light, such as flashlight, at the IR sensor, or using a thin mirror as a reflector to defeat the device.

Apparatus and method of using a light conduit in a position detector


A pitch extraction apparatus for extracting (detecting)a pitch of an acoustic signal which includes circuitry for calculating the stability of the acoustic signal. The stability calculation exhibits a larger value as the amplitude of the acoustic signal is larger and when the frequency is low. Pitch extraction is performed using the calculated stability. In addition, a pitch extraction apparatus which includes a pitch extractor for extracting a pitch of an acoustic signal by discriminating whether or not an input is a voiced or voiceless sound. Based on the determination that the input is a voiceless sound, the input to or the output from the pitch extractor will be inhibited.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pitch extraction apparatus for extracting a pitch (i.e., a pitch period, pitch frequency, or pitch time) of an acoustic wave, e.g., an musical instrument sound or a voice.
2. Prior Art
Most acoustic waveforms of musical sounds or voices have a periodically repetitive waveform except for a noise-like acoustic wave such as a voiceless sound, and a change characteristic of its period, i.e., a pitch period serves as an important parameter in acoustic analysis, synthesis, or recognition. For example, in an acoustic analysis/synthesis system, a pitch extraction result extracted by an analysis unit largely influences quality of a sound synthesized by a synthesis unit.
As a method of extracting a pitch period of an acoustic signal waveform, various methods of pitch extraction (e.g., a method of calculating an autocorrelation function on each frame having a time duration almost equal to a pitch period and extracting a pitch period on the basis of the autocorrelation function) are known (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) Sho. No. 23200; W. Hess, "Pitch Determination of Speech Signal", Springer-Verlag Corp., 1983; Fujisaki et al., "A Novel Method for Pitch Extraction of Speech based on Running Analysis of the Waveform", Reference of Society for the Study of Speech, SP86-95; and the like).
The pitch extraction method is performed by calculating the autocorrelation function, which is widely used since the autocorrelation function can be calculated by processing in a time region, and the influence of a phase relationship between a waveform to be analyzed and a frame which is relatively small.
The pitch extraction method is an important theme for musical recognition, and various apparatuses for pitch extraction are already commercially available (e.g., IVL Corp., Pitch Rider series; FairLight Corp., VoiceTracker; Roland Corp., Voice Processor and MIDI Guitar; Casio Corp., MIDI Guitar; and the like). In these pitch extraction apparatuses, pitch information and intensity information obtained by a pitch extraction unit are converted to Note ON/OFF information, pitch bend information, and the like for a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), and a MIDI sound source is connected to the output of the apparatus.
In a conventional pitch extraction apparatus, an overtone component and a double-pitch component of a pitch, a harmonic component other than a pitch, and the like cause erroneous extraction, thus posing a problem. In order to prevent such erroneous extraction, a pitch search range is limited (making a great account of smoothness) or an unnecessary frequency component is removed prior to pitch extraction.
However, many conventional pitch extraction apparatuses operate within the pitch range (80 to 300 Hz) of speech (voice). In these apparatuses, a filtering operation is performed prior to pitch extraction to remove unnecessary harmonic components, and a smooth pitch track is then extracted. On the other hand, a musical instrument sound has a pitch range as wide as about 40 to 1200 Hz. If the abovementioned conventional extraction technique is employed, a high-pitch portion cannot be extracted. Therefore, extracting a pitch of the musical instrument sound, a pitch extraction apparatus needs countermeasures against a sound whose pitch abruptly changes and contains a high-pitch sound unlike normal voice.
In a small-amplitude duration included in a signal wave, pitch excitation tends to be unstable, and hence, pitch estimation becomes unstable.
Conventionally, in order to remove an irregular pitch variation and to obtain a smooth pitch track, estimated values for several frames are often buffered to correct the variation. However, since this technique prolongs a response time, it cannot be used in a real-time system. More specifically, when an apparatus is designed with an object that the previous lookup of a pitch (reference to pitch data extracted previously) is never performed, it is important to improve reliability of estimated values at respective timings.
In pitch extraction processing, since discrimination of durations where a pitch structure may or may not be present largely influences the final result, discrimination of a voiced/voiceless sound must be performed. The voiced/voiceless sound discrimination is performed using various feature parameters. For example, a typical technique using a parameter such as a zero-crossing count, a zero-crossing distance, an LPC primary coefficient, or the like is known. The conventional voiced/voiceless sound discrimination is performed in parallel processing besides pitch extraction processing. Therefore, a processing volume is increased, and logic is complicated.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the conventional problems, and has as its first object to provide a pitch extraction apparatus which can more stably extract a pitch of an acoustic wave over a wide range.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a pitch extraction apparatus which can extract a pitch of an acoustic wave over a wide range in real time.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide a pitch extraction apparatus which can perform voiced/voiceless sound discrimination with a small processing volume and simple logic, and can extract only a pitch of a voiced sound duration using said discrimination result in the case of extracting a pitch from an input acoustic signal in real time.

Pitch extraction apparatus for an acoustic signal waveform


An external video device includes inputs for receiving an audio video signal from a source. The device includes in one enclosure audio and video processor portions configured such that the audio and video processors use a general purpose external bus for coupling electrical signals from the video device to a host computer. In one embodiment, the general purpose external bus is one of an IEEE-1394 bus or a USB bus. The general purpose external bus is used to transmit video from the host computer to the external video encoder and thereby to enhance the encoding efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio video products. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods for encoding video and audio in external processors connected with a host computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advancements in imaging technology and increased computer processing power, much attention has been focused on the acquisition and processing of audio/video data in personal computers. Currently, video sources provide audio and video data in either or both of analog and digital formats. In order to facilitate the processing of video signals by computers, video boards having image acquisition capabilities are used.
These boards may be internal or external to the PC and typically accept a video signal in either an analog or digital format and transmit the signal in a digitally encoded format to the computer. Analog signals, in particular, require conversion to a digital format and in many cases compression before the data is transmitted to the host computer. Analog video signals are typically organized into frames. In the United States and other compatible countries NTSC signals are transmitted typically at 30 frames or 60 fields per second. In other parts of the world, for example in PAL systems, the video signals are transmitted at 25 frames or 50 fields per second. An analog to digital converter (ADC) digitizes the incoming video and audio signal in response to synchronization information embedded in the analog video signal.
The resulting digitized frame samples are temporarily stored in a frame acquisition buffer and then transferred to the computer system memory for further processing. In contrast, a digital video source (e.g., a digital camcorder) provides a digital video signal to the video board via the digital video port. Since the digital video signal already comprises a stream of digitized video frames, the ADC on the video board is bypassed and the digitized frame data is forwarded directly to the frame acquisition buffer in the board.
In both cases, the data is available to the host computer processor via a communications cable. The communications cable may be an internal bus or an external bus. Further, it may be compressed in a standard format, such as MPEG, before transmission to the host computer. The audio signal is also converted where necessary to digital formats and stored in a synchronized manner with the stored digital video data frames.
With the increase in processor speeds available in consumer PC's, consumer non-linear video editing applications have become more prevalent. Non-linear video editing refers to the process of editing a video file by converting the video to a series of video segments that can be accessed in a non-linear (e.g., random) manner. Typically the video signal and its various video segments are stored in a digitized form on a hard disk. The edited video is then reassembled by accessing the selected video segments as well as effects, and transitions.
Often, video capture boards are add-in boards available for insertion into an internal bus of a PC. In some cases, the video capture add-in board is available as a peripheral, connected to the PC over an external bus. External busses such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and/or the IEEE-1394 Bus are increasingly found on consumer PC's.
Video editing typically involves high speed busses and high capacity storage. Raw video significantly increases the demands on the busses and storage in comparison to compressed video. Hence, most video captured is compressed, i.e., encoded before the digitized video is transmitted to the host computer for editing.
DV-25 is a common compression format used for video. This format involves intra-frame compression which makes it especially suitable for many editing applications. Unfortunately, the DV format is not a common consumer distribution format. Typically, videos are distributed in any of several MPEG formats. For example, the VCD format employs an MPEG-1 compression scheme and enjoys popularity in many parts of the world, especially Asia. MPEG-2 provides an even higher resolution and even greater popularity when stored on optical DVD's (Digital Versatile Disks). Accordingly, many consumers have a desire to convert edited video in the DV-25 format into one or more consumer distributable formats.
Even with the availability of increased PC processor speeds, the process of transcoding, i.e., converting the videos from one compression format (e.g., DV-25) to another (e.g., any of the MPEG formats), is both a time consuming and a processor intensive task, typically performed in a software encoder in the host computer.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved device for transcoding video from one video format to another.

Method and apparatus for encoding video in conjunction with a host processor


Oil, used as a lubricant and coolant in an industrial process, may become contaminated by foreign materials, for example, water and solid particulate. Because of its cost, continued use of the oil is desirous but impossible if the foreign materials are not removed when the concentration of such becomes excessive. By heating the contaminated oil and adding a chemical agent such as an alkaline solution of sodium metasilicate, the oil may be selectively separated from its contaminants allowing its further use.

1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates generally to separating processes wherein a liquid based mixture may be divided into distinct phases to allow selective processing of each such phase. More particularly, this invention relates to treating oil which has become contaminated during use in an industrial process. By being able to remove the contaminants from the oil, the oil may be returned to the industrial process for reuse.
2. Prior Art
Separating processes applicable to liquids as well known and may be divided into three general categories. A first category includes mechanical means in which physical properties are considered. For example, a filter media may be used to retain solid particulate in the liquid as it flows through the filter media.
Where the particle size of the particulate is generally submicronic, mechanical filtration is impractical because an extremely tight filter septum is required to effect separation. Such a septum rapidly blinds off, resulting in short filter cycles and high media usage.
Another means of separation is by settling. However, where the particulate size is small and the difference in specific gravity of the liquid and particulate is not substantial, the particulate tends to stay in suspension. Under these conditions, separation may take days. Centrifugal separation can also be used but extremely high rotational speed can be required.
Other separating methods include magnetic separators, electromagnetic devices, electrophoresis, electrostriction and electrostatic separation. All of these means are expensive and produce questionable results.
Another such process relying on physical properties for separation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,490. This reference suggests that waste solids may be separated from industrial or municipal waste water by allowing microballoon like objects made of a film forming agent to float upwardly through the waste water. The waste solids adhere to the surface of the objects and accumulate on a top surface of the waste water to form a scum which may be readily removed.
A second general category of liquid separating processes are ones in which chemical properties are considered. One such example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,608 wherein a flocculating agent is added to waste water to improve the separation of suspended solids in the waste water.
Another example of chemical separation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,727,165 wherein an oil-water emulsion is treated with a surface tension depressant such as an oil soluble mineral oil-sulphuric acid salt to cause the water and oil to separate into distinct phases.
A third general category of separating processes relies on both physical and chemical properties to achieve its intended purpose.


The present disclosure generally teaches compositions comprising SDF-1 mimetics and methods of using them to modulate an activity of a cell having an SDF-1 receptor by binding the SDF-1 receptor to an SDF-1 mimetic. The cell can be a hematopoietic cell, for example, and can be selected from a group consisting of hematopoietic stem cells, hematopoietic progenitor cells, primitive granulocytes, primitive erythroid cells, leukocytes, and neutrophils. In some embodiments, the activity can include the rate of multiplication of the cell or, where the cell is a quiescent cell, the binding can repress the activation of the quiescent cell. Other embodiments of the present invention are taught herein.

Chemokines (chemoattractant cytokines) are a family of homologous serum proteins of between 7 and 16 kDa, which were originally characterized by their ability to induce migration of leukocytes. Most chemokines have four characteristic cysteines (Cys), and depending on the motif displayed by the first two cysteines, they have been classified into CXC or alpha, CC or beta, C or gamma, and CX3C or delta chemokine classes. Two disulfide bonds are formed between the first and third cysteines and between the second and fourth cysteines. Clark-Lewis and co-workers reported that, at least for IL-8, the disulfide bridges are critical for chemokine activity (Clark-Lewis et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:16075-16081, 1994). The only exception to the four cysteine motif is lymphotactin, which has only two cysteine residues. Thus, lymphotactin retains a functional structure with only one disulfide bond.
In addition, the CXC, or alpha, subfamily has been divided into two groups depending on the presence of the ELR motif (Glu-Leu-Arg) preceding the first cysteine: the ELR-CXC chemokines and the non-ELR-CXC chemokines (see, e.g. Clark-Lewis, supra, and Belperio et al., "CXC Chemokines in Angiogenesis," J. Leukoc. Biol. 68:1-8, 2000).
ELR-CXC chemokines, such as IL-8, are generally strong neutrophil chemoattractants while non-ELR chemokines, such as IP-10, and SDF-1, predominantly recruit lymphocytes. CC chemokines, such as RANTES, MIP-1-alpha, MCP-1, generally function as chemoattractants for monocytes, basophils, eosinophils, and T-cells but not neutrophils. In general, chemokines are chemotactic agents that recruit leukocytes to the sites of injuries.
SDF-1
Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1 or CXCL12) is a CXC chemokine that demonstrates in vitro activity with respect to lymphocytes and monocytes but not neutrophils. It is a highly potent in vivo chemoattractant for mononuclear cells. SDF-1 has been shown to induce intracellular actin polymerization in lymphocytes, and to induce a transient elevation of cytoplasmic calcium in some cells.
MIP-1α
Macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α, MIP-1-alpha or CCL3) is a factor produced by macrophages in response to their stimulation by bacterial endotoxins. It activates neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils and appears to play a role in inflammation. Additionally, it is especially potent as a basophil agonist, and appears to act through a rapid rise in intracellular calcium, and causes the release of histamine, sulfido-leukotrienes, and also plays a role in chemotaxis. MIP-1-alpha may also act to inhibit stem cell proliferation.
Chemokine Receptors
The receptors for chemokines are G-protein coupled seven-transmembrane receptors. Based on the chemokine class they bind, the receptors have been named CXCR1, CXCR2, CXCR3, CXCR4, and CXCR5 (all of which bind CXC chemokines); CCR1 through CCR9 (all of which bind CC chemokines); XCR1 (which binds the C chemokine, Lptn); and CX3CR1 (which binds the CX3C chemokine, fractalkine or neurotactin). (See Table 1.)
The chemokines and their receptors have received increasing attention in the last few years. In addition to their role in HIV pathogenesis, it is now clear that chemokines participate in many pathological conditions such as inflammation and diseases or conditions associated with autoimmune responses. They also play a very important role in normal homeostasis, including lymphoid development and migration. Further, they play a role in the growth of bones. As a result of their role in various physiological processes and pathological conditions and diseases, chemokines have many important potential therapeutic applications.
TABLE 1Chemokine receptorsHuman chemokine ligandsCXCR1IL-8, GCP-2CXCR2IL-8, GCP-2, Gro α, Gro β, Gro γ, ENA-78, PBPCXCR3MIG, EP-10, I-TACCXCR4SDF-1/PBSFCCR1MEP-1 α, MIP-1 β, RANTES, HCC-1, 2, 3, and 4CCR2MCP-1, MCP-2, MCP-3, MCP-4CCR3Eotaxin-1 eotaxin-2, MCP-3CCR4TARC, MDC, MIP-1 α, RANTESCCR5MIP-1 α, MIP-1 β, RANTESCCR6MIP-3 α/LARCCCR7MP-3 β/ELC, 6Ckine/LCCCR8I-309CCR9TECKCCR10CCL27, CCL28(hMEC)
Certain agonists of CXCR4 have been described in International Publication No. WO 01/76615 A2 entitled "CXCR4 Agonist Treatment of Hematopoietic Cells" (PCT/CA01/00540). Certain antagonists of CXCR4 have been described in International Publication No. WO 01/85196 A2 entitled "CXCR4 Antagonist Treatment of Hematopoietic Cells" (PCT/CA01/00659. Both PCT publications are hereby incorporated by reference herein, including any drawings, figures and tables.

Chemokine mimetics synthesis and their use


An impact monitoring device is provided for mounting on a vehicle for monitoring any impacts the vehicle incurs. The device includes a main housing to be mounted below the vehicle's console. An impact sensing element is mounted on the vehicle remotely from the main housing and includes an accelerometer therein which produces an impact signal representing a magnitude of acceleration. The impact signal is received by a microprocessor mounted within the main housing. An operator interface is mounted on the vehicle's console remotely from the main housing. The operator interface receives coded signals from the operator and transmits the coded signals to the microprocessor for programming and instructing the microprocessor on how to process the impact signals. If an impact signal is received by the microprocessor which exceeds a predetermined impact threshold, an alarm state is activated. The alarm state activates an audio alarm and disables the vehicle until a coded disarming signal is received by the operator interface.

Products are frequently shipped and handled by various types of product handling vehicles including trucks and forklifts. These vehicles are often subject to considerable operator abuse when used in unsupervised areas. The resulting damage from collisions to the vehicles and product being shipped can be costly and time consuming to repair.
One known prior art device includes an accelerometer and a microprocessor arranged to mount on a vehicle used for handling product for producing an audible alarm when the vehicle incurs an impact. The device however is disarmed by a simple key which may be duplicated. The device does not disable the vehicle or deter anyone from disabling the device itself thus making the device an ineffective way of determining who is responsible for an impact which has caused damage to the product being handled. The alarm of the device is dependent upon comparison of the accelerometer output to a single impact threshold value. The device thus cannot record soft impacts of relatively short magnitude and long duration in addition to hard impacts of relatively large magnitude and short duration, both of which can result in significant damage to either the vehicle or the product being shipped.


A parity inversion test system includes an interface part having an input side coupled to a N-bit data line and an output side coupled to a M-bit data line, where N<M, an output coupling part for coupling at least a part of a data output from the output side of the interface part to the data output from the output side of the interface part in a test mode so as to output a M-bit data, a parity generating part for generating a parity data with respect to the M-bit data output to the M-bit data line via the output coupling part based on the M-bit data, and a parity inversion bit specifying part for specifying arbitrary bits of the M-bit data output to the M-bit data line which are to be inverted when generating the parity data in the parity generating part.

The present invention generally relates to parity inversion test systems, and more particularly to a parity inversion test system which is used in a bus interface circuit and the like and is especially suited for a case where input/output data lines having different data widths are connected to the interface circuit.
The parity inversion test is used to test whether or not the parity check function is operating normally. In a data bus, communication channel and the like, the parity inversion test is carried out by generating a parity data by inverting arbitrary bits of an input data and making a check to determine whether or not an error is detected on the receiving end.
It is desirable to carry out the parity inversion test also when the interface circuit is connected to buses having different bus widths for the input and output. In this case, it is also desirable that the parity inversion test be carried out correctly for all data widths using an input with a minimum data width, the test time be short, and the parity inversion test be simple.
FIG. 1 shows an example of an interface circuit having different input/output data widths. This interface circuit connects a data line having a data width of 32 bits and a data line having a data width of 64 bits. The interface circuit shown in FIG. 1 includes buffers 11 and 12 respectively made up of 64-bit first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffers, a parity generating circuit 13 and a parity check circuit 14 which are connected as shown.
In FIG. 1, the data from the 32-bit data line is alternately input to the FIFO buffer 11 as the upper bits 0 to 31 and the lower bits 32 to 63. The data are read out from the FIFO buffer 11 in parallel as a 64-bit data and output via the 64-bit data line.
In addition, the data from the 64-bit data line is input in parallel to the FIFO buffer 12. The data is alternately read out from the FIFO buffer 12 as the upper bits 0 to 31 and the lower bits 32 to 63 and output via the 32-bit data line.
The parity generating circuit 13 generates a parity data with respect to the 64-bit output data of the buffer 11 at a rate of 1 bit in 8 bits. The 8-bits parity data from the parity generating circuit 13 is output via a parity line.
At the receiving end which receives the data from the 64-bit data line via a data bus or a communication line, the parity check circuit 14 generates the parity data with respect to the received 64-bit data similarly to the transmitting end, and compares the parity data with the 8-bits parity data which is received from the transmitting end via the parity line. If the two compared parity data do not match, the parity check circuit 14 generates an error detection signal which indicates an error in the data bus or the communication line.
FIG. 2 shows a bus sequence at the input side of the interface circuit shown in FIG. 1, that is, the bus sequence on the 32-bit side. FIG. 2 shows an access of an odd number of words and a 1-word access in particular, and an access of an even number of words and a 4word access in particular.
In the case of the access of an odd number of words, a data Data 1 amounting to 1 word is read in response to a clock signal when a bus start signal BS is generated. The bus start signal BS indicates the start of the access. On the other hand, in the case of the access of an even number of words, data Data 1 through Data 4 amounting to four words are read in response to each clock signal based on a block signal BK which indicates the size of the data block when the bus start signal BS is generated.
FIG. 3 shows an example of a conventional parity inversion test system. In FIG. 3, those parts which are the same as those corresponding parts in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and a description thereof will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 3, a 2-bit counter 15 and AND gates 16 and 17 are provided.
A data "0" is applied to an input terminal D of the counter 15. The counter 15 starts to count from "0" in response to a clock signal which is applied to a clock input terminal CP when the bus start signal BS is applied to a load input terminal L, and generates at an output terminal Q a signal which is inverted for every clock signal.
First, the AND gate 16 opens in response to the output signal "0" of the counter 15, and 1 word of data from the 32-bit data line is read into the buffer 11 as the upper bits 0 to 31. Next, the AND gate 17 opens in response to the output signal "1" of the counter 15, and 1 word of data from the 32-bit data line is read into the buffer 11 as the lower bits 32 to 63. Similarly thereafter, the data from the 32-bit data line is alternately written into the buffer 11 as the upper bits and the lower bits. Hence, when the upper and lower bits are read out from the buffer 11 in parallel, it is possible to output a 64-bit data via the 64-bit data line.
The parity generating circuit 13 generates 1 bit of parity data for every 8 bits of the 64-bit output data of the buffer 11, and outputs the 8-bits parity data to the 8-bits parity line. With respect to the input data, the parity generating circuit 13 generates the parity data by inverting codes of the bits which are specified by an external signal, so that the parity inversion test can be carried out.
FIG. 4 shows the parity generating circuit 13 shown in FIG. 1. The parity generating circuit 13 shown in FIG. 4 is made up of a parity generating part 13a and an AND gate 18.
In order to carry out the parity inversion test, the bits of the 8-bits input data the codes of which are to be inverted are specified by a parity inversion bit specifying signal. When carrying out the parity inversion test, a test mode specifying signal which specifies the test mode is input so as to generate a 1bit output from the AND gate 18. Hence, the parity generating part 13a generates the parity data with respect to the data which is obtained by inverting specified bits of the 8-bits output data of the buffer 11, and the parity data is output via the parity line.
FIG. 5 shows a state where 1 word is stored according to the conventional system. A 64-bit buffer 19 shown in FIG. 5 may be used as the buffer 11 or 12. In the case shown in FIG. 5, 1 word of data Data 1 having 32 bits is read into the upper bits 0 to 31 of the buffer 19. No data corresponding to the lower bits 32 to 63 is read into the buffer 19, and thus, the data corresponding to the lower bits 32 to 63 is undetermined as indicated by "*".
Therefore, when conventionally carrying out the parity inversion test using the construction shown in FIG. 3 at the 64-bit side of the interface circuit which connects the 32-bit data line to the 64-bit data line, for example, the data is stored in the buffer 19 as shown in FIG. 5 if a 1-word access (odd number of words) is made as shown in FIG. 2. In this state, when the data is transmitted to the 64-bit data line, the data appears in the upper bits 0 to 31, but the value of the data output to the lower bits 32 to 63 becomes undetermined. If the bits of the data output to the lower bits 32 to 63 are fixed to "0" or "1" the parity inversion test cannot be carried out in a satisfactory manner. For this reason, according to the conventional parity inversion test system, there is a problem in that a two-word data (even number of words) must be input to the upper bits and to the lower bits of the 64-bit buffer 19 from the 32-bit data line.
The above described problem is not limited to the interface circuit which connects the 32-bit data line with the 64-bit data line. In general, in an interface circuit which connects first and second data lines where the ratio of the data widths of the first and second data lines is N:nN, it is necessary to input a nN-bit data from the N-bit data line.


The present invention relates to soft surface coatings and absorbent articles comprising composite materials that are functionalized nanoparticles and in particular, metal-loaded nanoclays. In one embodiment, the metal is silver and the nanoparticle comprises a nanoclay. Silver ion is reduced to its neutral metal state (Ag0) and loaded onto the nanoclay.

For centuries, silver metal has been known to be an agent capable of killing many different microbial species. It was commonly used to purify drinking solutions or administered to sick individuals before the existence of modern antibiotics. Even after the discovery of penicillin and its descendents, colloidal silver solutions were often used in cases in which troublesome bacteria had become resistant to antibiotics.
Colloidal silver solutions are commercially available today. They are often unstable, however, and have a short shelf life. This is due to the tendency of the silver particles to aggregate and form clusters so large that they are no longer suspended in solution. For this reason, undesirable gelling agents are added to solutions to keep the silver particles suspended by preventing particle aggregation. Another problem of the commercially available solutions is that the majority of the silver content is usually found to be silver ions. This poses a large problem in medical applications where silver ions rapidly combine with ubiquitous chloride to form an insoluble white precipitate.
Nanoparticles have been known to be used as fillers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,453, as coatings as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 2003/0185964 and as foam components as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,324.
Nanoparticle systems are disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 2002/0150678 as being used in a composition and a method to impart surface modifying benefits to soft and hard surfaces. In particular, this application discloses a soft surface coating for articles such as fabrics and garments.
Inorganic particulates, such as, clays, silicates, and alumina have been widely used in combination with adjunct detergent and laundry compounds to impart some form of antistatic control and/or fabric softening benefit.
The present invention relates to composite materials comprising metal loaded onto exfoliated nanoparticles. Such functionalized nanoparticles may be incorporated into soft surface coatings to enhance or modify their bulk physical and performance characteristics. Such soft surface coatings may in turn be used in the preparation of absorbent articles with improved properties. Addition of the coatings to for example the absorbent core of a disposable, absorbent article may help control malodor formation and increase absorbency.
In one embodiment, the metal is silver and the nanoparticle comprises a nanoclay. Silver ion is reduced to its neutral metal state (Ag0) and loaded onto the nanoclay. Silver-coated nanoclays in particular have excellent antimicrobial properties, and represent a less expensive alternative to the use of colloidal silver solutions. Such nanoparticles made according to the invention are stable and use less silver metal to generate the same surface area as solid silver particles, making them more cost efficient.

Absorbent articles comprising nanoparticles


For the transmission of heat under vacuum conditions to a workpiece, a carrier is used with gas outlets and gas return openings distributed on its surface. A dynamic gas layer is thus formed between the carrier and the workpiece wherein the gas effects thermal conduction between the carrier and the workpiece. The gas outlets terminate in a distribution space implemented as a groove and has at least on slot shaped aperture extending substantially around most of the carrier periphery.

The present invention relates to a workpiece carrier for a disk-shaped workpiece having a workpiece support with a cooling and/or heating device. The workpiece support is penetrated by a multiplicity of exit apertures communicating with a distribution space which is connected in turn to a gas feed line to form, with a gas supplied to the distribution space and between the workpiece and the workpiece support, a cushion-like gas layer. The gas acts as heat transmission means. The invention also includes a vacuum process space for the treatment of workpieces with such a workpiece carrier.
German patent document DE-A-36 33 386 discloses a carrier for a disk-shaped workpiece, namely a substrate, of the initially described type. For the treatment of such a workpiece in a vacuum treatment process, it is known therefrom to provide a recess in a seating block, corresponding essentially to the extent of the substrate. The recess is connected to a centrally disposed gas feed line.
A multiply-perforated disk is placed in the recess, over which the substrate to be treated is laid. The disk and the recess in the block thus bounds a distribution space for the gas so that, with gas flowing over the gas feed line, the distributing space and the exit apertures, a gas cushion is formed between the substrate and the workpiece support which acts as heat transmission means.
In this known seating the gas forming the gas cushion exits at the periphery of the substrate into the environment which is often undesirable in particular when using such a seating in a vacuum treatment process for the substrate. It is true that in some vacuum treatment processes a particular gas is supplied into the process space in defined quantities, however, in many cases it is desired to supply this process gas independently of a ubiquitous gas feed on the seating for heat transmission purposes.

Workpiece carrier with suction slot for a disk-shaped workpiece


The present invention discloses a magnetic pulse inducted transfer-type DC circuit breaker. The DC circuit breaker comprises a main current circuit and a transfer current circuit, the main current circuit comprising a combination of a fast mechanical switch or a mechanical switch with a power electronic device; the transfer current circuit comprises an arrester and a mutual inductor. The voltage generated through a mutual inductor may directly transfer current to the arrestor, thereby eliminating a process of transfer of the current to the capacitor or a power electronic device; it has a high current limiting or breaking speed, with a stability far superior to traditional technologies. The isolation between the capacitance charging unit and the DC system significantly reduces the voltage level and size of the charging unit, and enhances action reliability. The power semiconductor devices or trigger gaps are used at the primary side of the mutual inductor of the transfer current circuit form a bridge circuit, thereby realizing bidirectional current transfer; the bridge circuit is voltage-withstanding and low-cost.

With constant increase of the capacity of DC power systems, DC transmission and transformation technologies are developed vigorously. This demands a higher system stability and security. Among various faults possibly occurring to a power system, short-circuit fault is most hazardous to the power grid and has a high probability to occur. Short-circuit of DC systems will cause a current peak to rise to a very high level is a short time. Therefore, short-circuit cutoff and protection is an important issue in the development of DC systems. Difficulties in DC breaking are mainly manifested in two aspects. One aspect is that a DC does not have a natural zero crossing point like an AC, such that it is very difficult for current to pass through zero point and a current zero crossing points needs to be artificially created. The second aspect is that a DC breaker has to absorb tremendous energy during separation of the short-circuit current. A currently common solution is to effectuate current breaking by establishing a reverse voltage through a transfer capacitor or an electronic device that can be turned off. The transfer capacitor scheme mainly has a large size but a long small-current separating time and needs a complex charging-discharging device, while the full-controlled power electronic device scheme mainly has a complex control and a high cost and needs a complicated water-cooling system. Therefore, the followings have become core issues that restrict development of circuit breakers: how to simplify the structure of a DC circuit breaker, reduce cost and size, improve transfer efficiency, and effect fast breaking of different levels of current.

Magnetic pulse inducted transfer-type DC circuit breaker


An adjustable linearity coil assembly for use such as with a cathode ray picture tube. The coil is adjustable for providing correction for non-linearity of the display on the picture tube.

A typical cathode ray picture tube includes a source of electron beams which scan a face plate or screen. As is known, if the scan lines traverse the screen at constant speed, the display on the picture tube will not be linear since as the electron beams scans the screen, it is working across an arc of a circle. Hence the scan will be traveling for a shorter distance across the center of the screen as compared to either edge of the tube or screen. Accordingly, if the beam is traveling at one rate of speed across the screen, there will be a non-linear display.
While the linearity of display is of some interest with respect to regular television picture tubes, it is difficult to see any or to discern any differences if the scan is not exactly as desired. However, the linearity of the display is more critical for computer terminals such as where typewritten pages are displayed on the face of the picture tube and if the type on one edge of the screen is smaller than the type on the other edge of the screen, it will be readily apparent and undesirable.
In addition, component tolerance (deflection yoke, horizontal output transformer, transistors, tubes, etc) will cause additional variations on the sides of the screen.


Accessing data in a database includes receiving, from a first user, a first query for a dataset stored in a database. A first set of patterns is provided in the dataset. For each pattern in the first set of patterns, a significance value is provided in response to the received first query. A set of tags is provided for flagging a pattern of the first set of patterns, the set of tags indicating at least two data categories describing the pattern. Input information received from the first user indicates tags of at least a first subset of patterns of the first set of patterns, wherein each tag of the tags is selected from the set of tags. The significance values of the first subset of patterns are adjusted based on the tags.

The invention relates generally to computing systems, and more specifically to a method for mining patterns in a dataset.
Identifying relevant data patterns in datasets e.g. high-dimensional datasets is often challenging. In particular, finding patterns that others overlook is a key competitive advantage for companies that rely on big data analytics.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The invention relates to a data communication method between a plurality of aircraft from a set of aircraft, the aircraft being organized according to a plurality of telecommunications, notably radio telecommunication networks, connected to each other through relay stations, each telecommunication network being provided with an identifier specific to the network, the method comprising a step for adding pieces of information in the data to be emitted from an aircraft belonging to a first network of aircraft, the pieces of information comprising the identifier specific to the first network.

Within the field of aeronautical communications, a radio bubble is defined by the set of platforms within radio reach from each other. When a mission implies a plurality of platforms or the crossing of mountainous areas involving geographical masking operations, several radio bubbles co-exist. A helicopter in a tactical flight at the bottom of a valley generally forms a radio bubble isolated from a certain number of platforms of the patrol which is related to the presence of mountains around the helicopter.
A radio relay between these platforms is then applied in order to increase the range of the exchanges between platforms or dealing with geographical masking operations. When a radio relay is set up, this means that a designated platform aims at re-emitting received data with the goal that two platforms which are not within radio reach of each other may communicate together.
However, the presence of such a radio relay poses problems within the scope of unicast and multicast data communications in the form of IP packets or Ethernet frames. The term of unicast defines a point-to-point network connection, i.e. from an emitter to a (single) receiver while the term of multicast (which is expressed by the expression multi-broadcasting ) is a form of broadcasting from an emitter (single source) to a group of receivers. The terms of «multi-point broadcasting» or «group broadcasting» are also used.
In a unicast mode, multiple reception of data is observed when an aircraft intermittently belongs to a radio bubble for which a relay is applied (the aircraft is not assumed to be within reach of the other aircraft of this radio bubble). In a multicast mode, multiple receptions of data occur when one or several aircraft are both within radio reach of the aircraft emitting the multicast data flow and of a relay station. Multiple reception of data is all the more a problem since it involves specific processing at the application level (in order to suppress the receipt of data several times) while the world of applications is, by nature, agnostic about broadcasting mechanisms and delivery mechanisms of underlying data.
Therefore there exists a need for a method for communicating data between a plurality of aircraft involving less application resources for its application.

Data communication method between a plurality of aircraft


A transvenous lead introducer having an integral mechanical valve assembly which includes opposed comating valve members that are operated by opposed handles. The handles and the valves are joined by rotatable link assemblies and are normally biased in a closed position by integrally formed bias springs.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an instrument for facilitating the introduction of transvenous leads into a human body, and more particular relates to valves for use in such an instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of electrically conducive transvenous lead, particularly cardiac pacing leads, is well known in the medical field. Many different methods and tools have been proposed in the prior art for allowing such leads to be introduced into the patient's subclavian vein via a relatively small incision. Often, medical device manufacturers may provide an introducer set to be used by doctors in implanting pacing leads.
A common feature of any method for introducing a lead into a patient's blood vessel is that a hollow, tubular instrument is required to provide a temporary passage or conduit into the blood vessel, though which the lead may be slid to enter the blood vessel. Such a conduit also allows blood to escape from the blood vessel, and may allow air to enter the blood stream, possibly leading to embolic complications.
In addition to the potential adverse clinical effects of leakage of blood and air through an introducer sheath, the flow of blood out of an introducer sheath is likely to make the physician's task more difficult, and may encourage the physician to perform the introduction procedure more hastily. This, in turn, can increase the tension associated with the introduction procedure, and the risk that mistakes will be made.
In the prior art, it is commonly suggested that the physician can prevent (or at least restrict) the flow of blood out of an introducer sleeve while the pacing lead is being prepared for introduction into the vein by placing his or her thumb over the exposed end of the introducer sleeve. A similar "solution" to the leakage problem that is sometimes practiced in the art is to squeeze or pinch the exposed end of the introducer sleeve between the thumb and forefinger.
Neither of these methods for reducing the undesired flow of fluids and air through the introducer sleeve is deemed by the inventor to be acceptable. In both cases, at least one of the physician's hands is required, thereby making it difficult for the physician to attend to other or more important matters. Moreover, squeezing the exposed end of the introducer sheath can deform or even break the introducer at that point, making lead insertion difficult and increasing the danger of damage to the lead as it passes through the introducer.
In addition, neither placing the thumb over the end of the introducer, nor squeezing the end of the introducer, will be sufficiently effective in preventing the flow of blood and air in the introducer once a guide wire has been threaded through the introducer. Also, the configuration of the end of some types of introducer sheath is such that it is difficult or impossible to seal the end of the introducer shut with the thumb.
A tricuspid valve system for catheter (as opposed to lead) introducers is also deemed to be unacceptable for use in conjunction with lead introducers. The tricuspid valve arrangement for catheters could damage the sensitive lead tip of a placing lead. The application of pressure required to open the tricuspid valve can result in distortion or breakage of the lead tip. Moreover, some presently known tricuspid systems are lubricated with silicone-based oil. The electrical properties of pacing/sensing leads, and the chemical properties of steroid-eluting lead tips and the like, can be severely affected by coming in contact with the oil.
A valve for reducing undesired flow of fluids and air through an introducer sleeve is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,504 (Pohndorf et al., issued Aug. 15, 1995) and assigned to Medtronic, Inc. Although the valve described in that patent is a substantial advance in the art, it nonetheless can prove troublesome during the dilation procedure for certain practitioners who may require the use of two hands in order to properly manipulate the valve and hold the introducer assembly at the same time. The present invention is directed to a solution for this problem and enables an introducer assembly and valve to be operated with a single hand while a lead is being inserted into a patient.

Sheath introducer with valve that splits


A burner and an improved heat recuperator for a burner. The heat recuperator has a tubular body including a plurality of fins extending radially outward from the tubular body. The plurality of fins are disposed in a plurality of segments arranged longitudinally along the tubular body with the plurality of fins in each segment being disposed about a circumference of the tubular body. Adjacent segments of fins being circumferentially offset with one another.

Recuperator burners are known. Such burners typically incorporate a recuperator sleeve of ceramic material or the like that is disposed in spaced-apart surrounding relation to an axial gaseous fuel supply tube leading to a burner head. Combustion air travels along the annulus between the fuel supply tube and the recuperator sleeve for combustion with the gaseous fuel at the burner head. A portion of the combustion product gases travels back over the exterior of the recuperator sleeve in counter-current flow to the combustion air. Due to the high temperature of the combustion product gases, the recuperator sleeve becomes heated. Accordingly, the combustion air traveling through the interior of the recuperator sleeve also increases in temperature. The increased temperature of the combustion air promotes improved combustion at the burner head.
It is desirable to improve the heat transfer across the recuperator sleeve. To provide such improved heat transfer, past recuperator sleeves have incorporated various contoured surface arrangements having arrangements of outwardly projecting hollow protrusions. While such prior contoured surface recuperator sleeves have been somewhat successful, they have relied generally on surface protrusions that form relatively wide angles with one another. That is, the protrusions of prior devices form surfaces that are at relatively shallow angles relative to the base surface of the sleeve.


A loose leaf page for selectively storing four compact discs (CDs) on each side of the page, or for storing two CDs and associated printed and graphic information on each side of the page. A flexible, plastic, two-sided, loose leaf page includes four CD storage pockets per side of the page, and includes a hole pattern that facilitates releasably mounting the page in a standard cover-size 1-inch, 1 1/2-inch or 3 inch three-ring binder notebook, certain embodiments also facilitating mounting of the page in a three-ring Chicago-posted binder. In order to prevent interference between two CDs that reside closest to the binder rings when a user manually leaves through binder pages, the page includes a six-hole pattern, or a three-hole/three-notch pattern, that is configured to ensure that a vertical pivot line, or binder edge, on the page being turned moves past the vertical leading edge of the three rings, and then moves backward under the three rings. The CD storage page includes two outer transparent polypropylene layers and an inner layer that is constructed of soft nonwoven polypropylene.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to means for efficiently storing compact discs in a conventional and well known three-ring binder having standard size covers. More particularly, this invention relates to means for storing a number of compact discs in individual one-disc pockets that are provided on the two opposite sides of a thin, flat, and flexible multi-ply page, so as to facilitate both physical and visual access to eight compact discs, or to four compact discs and printed and graphic information that relates to the four discs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, compact discs (CDs) are sold and stored in well-known rigid and relatively thick plastic jewel boxes. Typical jewel boxes include removable printed inserts having one, or more, narrow title bars along at least one narrow edge to thereby permit the owner to find a particular compact disc when a number of the jewel boxes are stacked, or stored, next to each other.
Additionally, jewel boxes typically contain a multi-page insert that lists the songs on the CD and shows a related graphic illustration.
Cds are thin, circular, about 4 3/4-inch in diameter, and are relatively rugged. The amount of protection that is provided by a jewel box is more than necessary in most circumstances. However, jewel boxes are unnecessarily bulky; thus, limiting the number of CDs that can be carried or stored in any given carrier or cabinet.
As is well known, the construction and arrangement of a CD provides a relative thick and transparent plastic disc. A first side of this plastic disc is exposed to a laser beam for the purpose of reading the CD. The other side of this plastic disc is embossed in order to record a data pattern in a spiral or concentric pattern. This other side of the plastic disc carries a thin disc shaped metal foil, usually aluminum. In this manner, the laser beam is enabled to read the data, for example music, that is contained on the metal foil side of the plastic disc. The exposed side of the metal foil usually carries text/graphics that is associated with the disc's recorded data. In order to adequately protect such a CD, it is necessary to protect both sides of the disc from scratches and the like. Scratches to the disc's plastic side may provide interference with reflection of the laser beam from the CD's data patterns, whereas scratches to the disc's text/graphics side may remove reflective portions of the metal foil and thereby render portions of the CD's recorded data difficult to read.
Accordingly, relatively thin sleeves for storing individual CDs have evolved to protect the disc surface from dust, scratching and the like.
The art provides a variety of conventional means for mounting and holding articles in a three-ring binder, as is exemplified by the following patents; Des. 261,155, utility U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,263,357, 4,447,973, 4,508,366 and 4,850,731. In addition, multilayer packaging of disk type articles is known as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,620,630 and 5,101,973.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,987 describes a container for a compact disc wherein three thin layers of polypropylene are heat sealed together using line type heat seals, the intermediate one of the three layer being relatively soft.
It is also known in the art to provide a three-ring binder page for the storage of CDs in binders of a nonstandard size. That is, known CD storage pages of this prior type have a planar size that are too large to mount within the covers of a standard size three-ring binder that has multiple and general purpose binding utility. In addition, such known binder pages are constructed and arranged to store, or hold, four CDs on only one side of the page, and the CD storage pockets are provided with a wide and upward facing insertion/removal slot that does not adequately protect the surface of the CD.
FIG. 16 is an end view of a well-known standard size three-ring binder 70 having two covers 71, 72 that are hinged on a binder edge 73 that carries three openable metal rings 74. In this figure, the horizontal width dimension 75 that extends from the innermost edge of rings 74 to the outermost edge of covers 71, 72 is nominally 9.0-inches, but can vary in the general range of from about 8.5 to 9.5-inches, depending upon the manufacturer of binder 70. Known three-ring binder pages for storing four CDs are too large to fit within dimension 75.
A need remains in the art for a three-ring binder punched page that holds a number of CDs, and perhaps their multi-page illustrative literature, wherein the page's hole pattern facilitates use with a number of different standard three-ring binders of different thicknesses and binder types, wherein the page's binder-edge hole/slot pattern ensures that the pages will not bind as they are turned within the binder, and wherein the page construction requires minimal storage volume while protecting both surface's of the CDs from scratches and the like, all in a manner that permits the user to quickly identify and locate a desired CD and/or its related literature.

Three ring binder page for holding compact discs


A simple structure for switching between two clock signals to produce an output without a glitch or short pulse. The invention is basically a three-input multiplexer controlled by a modified two-bit state machine. The state machine includes flip-flop memories which are driven by the two different clocks, as opposed to using a single clock as in a traditional state machine. The state machine output is used to control the three-input multiplexer, selecting between the first clock, the second clock and an intermediate high level signal during transition. The intermediate high level signal bridges the gap between pulses, eliminating any short glitches.

The present invention relates to a deglitch switch for switching between two clocks, and more particularly, for generating a clock for a hard disk drive read/write channel.
As general background, when writing to a disk drive, an external clock source, such as quartz crystal is used to generate a clock for timing information. When the data is read back from the disk drive, the clock must be synchronized with the data itself, and thus a phase-locked loop is used to recover the clock from the data which is read back from the disk. In read/write channel, different clocks are used at different portions of the coding/decoding operation, and there is a need to switch from one clock to the other.
When switching between clocks, it is desirable to avoid short pulses, or glitches. A traditional method for eliminating such a glitch is shown in FIG. 1. The two clocks which are being switched, clock A and clock B, are provided to a first multiplexer 12. The output of multiplexer 12 is provided to a dynamic latch 14, which is in turn provided to a second multiplexer 16. A controller circuit 18 controls the operation of the multiplexers and the dynamic latch in response to a select signal on a select line 20. The controller selects between the two clock inputs via a first multiplexer select line 22. The controller receives the output clock of multiplexer 12 on a line 24, and uses it to time the selecting of the dynamic latch on a control line 26 and a selection through a second multiplexer 16 on a line 28. Such a system is used, for example, in chips made by SGS Thompson. The outputs of multiplexer 12 may have a glitch. The glitch is blocked by the dynamic latch. The controller waits until a good clock arrives, then turns on the latch, and the deglitched clock goes through. The second multiplexer 16 is used for power down control. Its function is not deglitch related.
As can be seen, the clock input signals must progress through two multiplexers and a dynamic latch. This long path results in a corresponding long delay. The circuit of FIG. 1 also uses dynamic latches both in the clock path, and in the controller 18. In a power down or other situations, the dynamic latch (which includes capacitive memory) may lose this memory and thus give a wrong clock signal. Accordingly, there is a need to reset it and power up. Finally, the circuit of FIG. 1 has the drawback of being difficult to debug because of wrong states it can go into where it will never self-correct, except on a power on and reset. This design controls the clock selection only at the transistor period of the control signal. In case a wrong clock is selected, (due to, say, noise, or clock hang-up, or the dynamic latch losing memory due to leakage, etc.), the wrong clock signal would stay selected. This situation is like an edge triggered dynamic D-flip-flop. Once the triggering edge is over, the input signal loses control of the output. The circuit then needs a power on reset, or mode switching signal to correct it.

Clock generator using a state machine to switch between two offset clocks


An expander roller for running webs of paper, textile material or the like has a straight metallic or plastic core and an outer layer consisting of two helically convoluted strips of rubber or other elastomeric material. The two convoluted webs are mirror images of each other with reference to a plane which extends between them and is normal to the axis of the core. The external surface of the outer layer is profiled in that it is provided with grooves cut into or otherwise formed in the strips and forming helices as a result of convolution of the respective strips onto the core. Each helical groove is adjacent a deformable lip which defines a portion of the external surface of the outer layer and can yield in response to engagement with a running web. The strips are permanently or detachably bonded to the peripheral surface of the core.

The invention relates to expander rollers (also called rotary stretchers) for webs of paper, textile material, foil or the like.
Expander rollers are used to treat webs of flexible material which are being paid out by supply rolls and/or during winding of webs onto takeup rolls. As a rule, an expander roller has a core of metallic or other suitable material and an outer layer which has an external web-engaging surface designed to stretch the adjacent portion of the running web in response to rotation of the core. The purpose of the expander roller is to preferably stretch the running web in a direction from the center toward both marginal portions in order to eliminate folds, creases and/or other irregularities or to prevent the development of such irregularities. Many types of webs, such as paper webs, webs of textile material webs of metallic or plastic foil, webs of interlaced fibers (e.g., fleece) and the like cannot be processed at all if they develop longitudinally extending and/or otherwise oriented fold lines, creases and/or other unevennesses. An expander roller applies to the adjacent portion of the running web forces acting in the axial direction of the core, or having components extending in such direction, to ensure that the width of the running web increases or tends to increase in order to eliminate creases, fold lines or similar irregularities (hereinafter called creases for short) or to prevent the development of creases while the web is being advanced from a preceding station to the next-following station.
As a rule, the external surface of the outer layer of a conventional expander roller has one or more helical profiles, preferably two profiles which are mirror images of each other with reference to a plane extending between the two profiles at right angles to the axis of the core. Thus, the lead or pitch of one of the profiles is that of a right-hand thread and the lead of the other profile is that of a left-hand thread. Each profile tends to expand the material of a running web from the center toward the respective marginal portion. It is also known to provide the outer layer of a standard expander roller with a single helical profile; such configuration of the external surface of the outer layer also furnishes a desirable stretching or expanding action at right angles to the direction of advancement of the web.
In accordance with a heretofore known proposal, the helical profile or profiles are obtained by grinding or otherwise machining one or more helical grooves into the external surface of a one-piece outer layer which surrounds the core of the expander roller. The outer layer often consists of rubber. Such expander rollers exhibit the advantage that the outer layer produces a highly satisfactory expanding or stretching action and that the core can be driven in a rather simple and inexpensive way in contrast to the cores of certain other conventional expander rollers which employ arcuate cores and arcuate outer layers, i.e., wherein transverse stretching of the running web is achieved as a result of training the web over a roller having a curved axis.
A drawback of conventional straight expander rollers with outer layers of rubber or the like is that the machining of profiles into the external surfaces of the outer layers is a time-consuming and costly procedure. Moreover, the versatility of such rollers is not entirely satisfactory, i.e., a particular roller is capable of stretching only a single web or a series of webs having a certain width, a certain thickness, a certain flexibility or being in contact with a predetermined percentage of the external surface of the outer layer. Therefore, it is necessary to store a substantial supply of discrete expander rollers in order to ensure that a proper roller will be available when the treatment of webs of one type is completed and the machine or apparatus employing one or more expander rollers is to be set up for the processing of different types of webs.
It was further proposed to replace the one-piece outer layer of rubber or the like with an outer layer which consists of or contains a helically convoluted strip or band. The exposed side of the convoluted band has a longitudinally extending protuberance which constitutes a helix and engages the running web of textile or other material in the course of a stretching operation. The protuberance further serves as a reinforcing rib for the major portion of the strip or band which is convoluted onto the core of such expander roller. A drawback of this proposal is that the making of a band or strip with a protuberance involves considerable expenses. Furthermore, the outwardly projecting helical protuberance of the convoluted strip or band is likely to damage or deface a relatively thin and sensitive running web of paper, foil or the like. Therefore, such expander rollers failed to gain widespread acceptance in textile, paper making, paper processing and other industries where webs of paper or other flexible material must be convoluted onto or unwound from rolls or reels without the development of creases or for the express purpose of eliminating existing creases.

Expander roller for webs of paper and the like


An air speed probe with a cylindrical probe body having a length, and a frusto-conical tip at an end of the cylindrical probe body. A center bore with a first diameter and first depth is formed in a center of the tip and coaxially disposed along a portion of the length of the cylindrical probe body. Radial bores with second diameters and second depths are formed in a sidewall of the tip, where the first diameter is wider than the second diameter, and the first depth is shallower than the second depth.

Pressure sensors can be used to measure air speed, such as the air speed within a wind tunnel or the air speed of an aircraft. In some embodiments, several pressure sensors are fitted into recesses that are formed in the conical tip of a pressure probe. Typically, one sensor is facing axially forward at the apex of the conical tip, and several others (4-7 or so) are facing angularly outward on the conical sidewall of the tip. In this manner, directional components of the air speed can be measured.
Some pressure sensors are so-called time-variant or time-dependent sensors, which have a relatively faster response rate to fluctuations in pressure. Other pressure sensors are so-called steady-state or time-averaged sensors, which have a relatively slower response rate to fluctuations in pressure. Time-variant sensors must be located close to the measurement plane, and thus require a relatively larger volume and area near the measurement plane than steady-state sensors, which can be located some distance away from the measurement plane. Because air pressure can vary greatly from one position to the next, it is desirable for probes to be as small as possible, so that more measurements positions can exist within a given space, and so that the size of the probes themselves does not appreciable factor into the measurements.
Because two components of air speed (total pressure and flow angularity) tend to be of interest, two different probe types are typically used to take the two different measurements. For example, in the case of a wind tunnel, a first rake of probes with time-variant total pressure sensors might be set up for a set of experiments, and then a second rake of probes with steady-state flow angularity sensors might be set up for repeated runs of the experiments. On an airframe, two separate sets of probes might be set up to take measurements. The need to duplicate either experimental conditions or equipment is costly.
What is needed, therefore, is an air speed probe that tends to reduce issues such as those described above, at least in part.

Time-dependent pressure and directional sensing probe

Government of the United States as Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A system for purifying exhaust gases from a diesel or like engine (1) comprises a filter (3) and a plasma generator (5). The plasma generator converts NO and/or N2 to NO2 and/or generates ozone, which is found to be particularly effective at causing low temperature combustion of soot trapped on the filter.

This invention concerns the purification of exhaust gases, especially the purification of such gases from diesel and other xe2x80x9clean-burnxe2x80x9d engines.
Diesel engines are in widespread use in all types of vehicles, stationary power sources and naval and commercial shipping. They are very fuel-efficient, but because of their combustion characteristics generate particulate matter (soot, often called xe2x80x9cPMxe2x80x9d) on which a variety of organic substances may be absorbed, including unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) and sulphuric acid produced by oxidation of sulphur dioxide derived from sulphur species present in the fuel or in lubricants. Other engines, such as gasoline direct injection (xe2x80x9cGDIxe2x80x9d), can also produce significant quantities of PM, and we consider that the need for removing such PM will soon be expressed in legislation. Nonetheless, the invention may be applied to combustion processes generally, as well as potentially to chemical process stacks/exhausts, and to combustion engines operating at xcex=1 or greater, or lean-bum engines operating at stoichiometric or rich in order to regenerate some exhaust gas aftertreatment device. For simplicity, however, we concentrate on diesel engines hereinafter.
In order to meet various regulations concerning the level of pollutants, it has become commonplace to fit vehicles with an oxidation or three-way catalyst, which only achieves partial removal of PM. The removal of particulates is generally achieved by using some form of filter or trap, which may be cleaned or regenerated intermittently. It has been suggested to include a catalyst in the fuel to the engine, and as well as platinum group metals (xe2x80x9cPGMsxe2x80x9d), iron, copper or cerium compounds have been suggested. A particulate trap may be catalysed to lower the soot combustion temperature, and some form of external heating, for example electric heating of the trap or of air fed thereto, may be used to initiate soot combustion.
A particularly successful soot trap is marketed by Johnson Matthey PLC as the xe2x80x9cCRTxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cContinuously Regenerating Technologyxe2x80x9d) and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,487. This system uses a conversion of NO in the exhaust gas to NO2, which was discovered to be much more effective at typical low diesel exhaust gas temperatures in the combustion of soot than air or any other exhaust gas component. Thus, NO2 is typically effective to combust PM at about 250xc2x0 C., whereas oxygen is effective at about 650xc2x0 C.
It has been suggested to use a plasma generator for exhaust gas purification (see for example GB 2,274,412 and 2 270 013, UK Atomic Energy Authority). Although it was probably not previously recognised in connection with exhaust gas treatment, such a system produces considerable quantities of NO2. Systems such as previously described do not include any filter or trap in combination with a plasma generator, but we believe that this may be a particularly effective system for treating diesel and similar lean-bum exhaust gases.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a system for the treatment of such exhaust gases, comprising a plasma generator effective to convert at least a portion of NO and/or nitrogen in the exhaust gases to NO2 and/or to generate ozone and a filter effective to trap a desired proportion of soot from the exhaust gases, whereby said trapped soot is combusted by reaction with NO2 and/or ozone, at a markedly lower temperature than required by O2.
We believe, although we do not wish to be bound by any theory, that in the present invention NO2 may be generated not only by oxidation of NO in the exhaust gases, but also by oxidation of nitrogen to yield NO, which is itself converted to NO2. In the latter case, there is no reliance upon the quantities of NOx leaving the engine. It is also believed that the present invention is especially valuable in that it is not adversely affected by the presence of sulphur in the fuel or in lubricants, which can poison conventional catalysts.
The invention further provides a method of reducing emissions from exhaust gases from diesel and like engines, comprising trapping soot on a filter and continuously or intermittently combusting the soot by reaction with NO2 and/or ozone produced by a plasma generator, preferably using a plasma treatment of at least a portion of the exhaust gases.
The plasma generator may be any suitable type producing a non-thermal plasma, and may be enhanced by electromagnetic radiation. Suitable plasma generators include high voltage (e.g. 20 kV or more) alternating current, preferably pulsed, generators, suitably using two dielectric plates positioned in the gas flow, and piezoelectric devices such as piezoceramic transformers. It may be positioned to treat all or a portion of the exhaust gases upstream of the filter, or may be fitted downstream of the filter to treat all or a portion of the filtered exhaust gas, with recirculation of plasma-treated gases to the filter. In one embodiment of the present invention, a pre-determined proportion of the exhaust gases is treated by the plasma to cause substantially all of the NO present to be converted into NO2, and the resulting gases blended with untreated exhaust gases, thus resulting in a blend of NO and NO2, which according to some studies, may be more effective for the purposes of the present invention than a gas containing substantially only NO2 in admixture with other exhaust gas components.
The filter used may be a woven or knitted wire filter, a gas-permeable metal or ceramic foamed mass or a wall flow filter of generally known type (honeycomb monolith). For certain vehicles, especially light cars or vans, it may be necessary or desirable, to use a filter design which collects only 80% or so by weight of the total soot particulates and preferably incorporates a by-pass and/or pressure relief valve. The filter may be partially or completely catalysed if desired. A catalysed trap may improve the aggregate removal of pollutants.
A modification of the present invention incorporates a means for removing NOx downstream of the filter and plasma generator. Such means may be a NOx trap, which technology is available to the skilled person, and generally includes one or more alkali earth metal compounds, especially calcium oxide or barium oxide, or alkali metal, carried on a metal or ceramic honeycomb-type support. The NOx trap is desirably used in combination with a lean-NOx catalyst. Another means for removing NOx is Selective Catalytic Reduction (xe2x80x9cSCRxe2x80x9d), which is well established for stationary power sources and is receiving increasing attention for vehicular applications. Such a modified system can be effective to meet all current and known future emission control regulations for diesel and like engines.
The plasma generator may be controlled and actuated by an engine management unit, or other microprocessor control unit, to operate intermittently according to certain engine operating conditions (speed, load etc) which have been pre-determined to generate more soot. The identification of such operating conditions can be readily accomplished by one skilled in the art, and such conditions include times when the emission of particulate matter would be undesirably high in the absence of any treatment therefor. Alternatively, the plasma generator may operate during all operational conditions of the engine, which system has the benefit of simplicity, but this may be undesirable if the engine is in an operating condition in which significant quantities of NOx are generated, or during regeneration of a NOx trap.
The present invention, at least in its most preferred embodiments, in addition to being particularly effective at controlling emissions, permits the engine designers to design and tune the engine for power and/or fuel efficiency, rather than being forced to make compromises in engine design to minimise the generation of NOx and particulates. This can be a significant advantage for commercial vehicles, but allows flexibility in design for all engines and types of vehicles.
A further variant of the present invention is to feed a reductant, which term includes hydrocarbon fuel, e.g. diesel fuel, ammonia, ammonia precursors, hydrogen etc. into the exhaust gases either upstream or downstream of the plasma generator.
The present invention is illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a schematic diagram of a system according to the invention.
A diesel engine is shown at 1, and has an exhaust system, 2. Conventional silencer boxes and ancilliary equipment are not shown. A wall flow filter, 3, retained within a metal box, 4, is mounted in the exhaust system. Mounted close upstream to the filter, is a plasma generator, 5, which is operated according to signals from the engine management unit, 6.
Testing of the described system is continuing, but early indications are that substantially all soot particles trapped on the filter are removed continuously, although there are variations in soot build up and removal rates. NO2 and ozone have been detected in the exhaust gases after the plasma generator, with substantially lower levels after the filter.
The following Examples illustrate features of the present invention.

System and method for purifying exhaust gases


A telephone apparatus for a vehicle comprising a main antenna and a sub-antenna. The sub-antenna is operated to receive incoming electric waves including an incoming call signal. When the sub-antenna receives the incoming call signal or when an outgoing call signal is outputted, the main antenna is extended and an transmitter-receiver of the telephone apparatus is turned on. When the conversation by the telephone apparatus is finished, the main antenna in an extended condition is contracted and received in the vehicle, and the transmitter-receiver is turned off.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in a telephone apparatus for a vehicle, and more particularly to a telephone apparatus which has a main antenna and a sub-antenna.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that a telephone apparatus for a vehicle is provided with an antenna which is installed to the outside portion of a vehicle body. Such an antenna is received in the vehicle by being manually detaching from the vehicle body or by being retracted by the drive of a motor in accordance with a passenger's intent.
However, the antenna must be kept in an extended condition for almost time since it is necessary that the antenna is set in an extended condition in order to detect an incoming call signal. Accordingly, this extended antenna causes a problem to generate a clashing noise between air, to be broken by some obstacles, and to degrade the outside view of the vehicle.

Telephone being signal responsive for extending and retracting an antenna


Methods of identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, are provided. An example of such a method includes connecting a downhole sensor subassembly between a drill bit and a drill string, operably coupling acoustic sensors to a downhole data interface, and operably coupling a surface computer to the downhole data interface. The method can also include receiving raw acoustic sensor data generated real-time as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, transforming the raw data into the frequency domain, filtering the transformed data, and deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the filtered data. This can be performed by a petrophysical properties analyzing program stored in memory of the computer. The method can also include deriving petrophysical properties from the filtered data utilizing a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm employable to predict one or more petrophysical properties of rock undergoing drilling.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to hydrocarbon production, and more particularly, to identifying rock types and rock properties in order to improve or enhance drilling operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Measuring rock properties during drilling in real time can provide the operator the ability to steer a drill bit in the direction of desired hydrocarbon concentrations. In current industrial practice and prior inventions, either resistivity or sonic logging while drilling (LWD) tools are employed to guide the drill bit during horizontal or lateral drilling. The center of these techniques is to calculate the locations of the boundary between the pay zone and the overlying rock (upper boundary), and the boundary between the pay zone and underlying rock at the sensors location. The drill bit is steered or maintained within the pay zone by keeping the drill string, at the sensors position, in the middle, or certain position between the upper and lower boundaries of the pay zone. The conventional borehole acoustic telemetry system, which transmits data at low rate (at about tens bit per second), is employed to transmit the measured data to surface.
Since the sensors are located 30-50 feet behind the drill bit, theses conventional LWD steering tools only provide data used in steering the drill bit 30-50 feet behind the drill bit. As the result, it is only after the 30-50 feet that the operator finds out if the selected drilling path is or is not the desired one. Therefore, these tools are not true real-time tools.
Some newer types of systems attempt to provide data at the drill bit, at-real-time, while still utilizing conventional borehole telemetry systems (having a relatively slow bit rate). Such systems, for example, are described as including a downhole processor configured to provide downhole on-site processing of acoustic data to interpret the lithologic properties of the rock encountered by the drill bit through comparison of the acoustic energy generated by the drill bit during drilling with predetermined bit characteristics generated by rotating the drill bit in contact with a known rock type. The lithologic properties interpreted via the comparison are then transmitted to the surface via the conventional borehole telemetry system. Although providing data in a reduced form requiring only a bit rate speed, as such systems do not provide raw data real-time which can be used for further analysis, it is nearly impossible to construct additional interpretation models or modify any interpretation models generated by the downhole processor.
Some newer types of borehole data transmitting systems utilize a dedicated electronics unit and a segmented broadband cable protected by a reinforced steel cable positioned within the drill pipe to provide a much faster communication capability. Such systems have been employed into conventional LWD tools to enhance the resolution of the logged information. However the modified tools still measures rock properties at the similar location which is 30-50 feet behind the drill bit.
Accordingly, recognized by the inventor is the need for apparatus, computer readable medium, program code, and methods of identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, and more particularly, methods which include positioning acoustic sensors adjacent the drill bit to detect drill sounds during drilling operations, pushing raw acoustic sensor data to a surface computer over a broadband transmitting system, receiving the raw acoustic sensor data, and deriving the rock type and/or evaluating the properties of the rocks in real-time utilizing the raw acoustic sensor data.

Methods of evaluating rock properties while drilling using downhole acoustic sensors and a downhole broadband transmitting system


There is provided an electric lens including a first lens and a second lens adjacent to each other, and a variable-refractive-index body that is held between a lens face of the first lens and a lens face of the second lens mutually having the same curved surface, and changes refractive index according to an externally applied electrical signal. A thickness of the variable-refractive-index body is uniform in at least a portion that transmits a light ray contributing to image formation.

The present disclosure relates to an electric lens, an optical unit, and an imaging device.
Imaging devices that focus an image of an object onto an image sensor using an optical system, and thereby generate a captured image of the object, are being used widely in a variety of fields. The optical system of such an imaging device is made up of a focus optical system for suitably focusing an image of an object onto the image sensor, and a zoom optical system for enlarging the image of the object. In these focus optical systems and zoom optical systems, a movable lens having a variable lens position is used, and by varying the position of the movable lens, the image of the object is focused, and the image of the object is enlarged as appropriate. In such focus optical systems and zoom optical systems, the focusing range and the zoom magnification factor greatly depend on the movable distance of the movable lens, and when attempting to achieve a wider focusing range or a high-magnification zoom, a large movable distance of the movable lens is set.
An example of an imaging device like the above is an endoscopic device as disclosed in JP 2013-61618A, for example. When attempting to achieve a zoom function as described in JP 2013-61618A in a device with fundamental size limitations in the imaging portion where the optical system is provided, such as an endoscopic device, making the allowable movable range of the movable lens are small as possible becomes important for miniaturization. However, if the allowable movable range of the movable lens is small, it may be impossible to achieve high-magnification zoom, and thus various innovations are demanded for further miniaturization.
To achieve miniaturization of the optical system, it is conceivable to use what is called a liquid crystal lens, in which liquid crystal is disposed between two planar lens substrates. This is because by applying an electrical signal to the liquid crystal to vary the refractive index of the liquid crystal, it becomes possible to vary the focal length of the lens without moving the lens itself. However, while the refractive index takes a larger value as the thickness of the liquid crystal increases, the resolution of the transmitted image unfortunately drops as the thickness of the liquid crystal increases. In addition, when attempting to apply such a liquid crystal lens to an imaging device with size limitations as disclosed in JP 2013-61618A, since the liquid crystal lens is additionally added to the optical system of the imaging device, the number of components increases, and further miniaturization may be impossible.
Meanwhile, JP 2005-129158A discloses technology that adjusts the degree of light scattering and convergence by using, in an optical system provided in an optical disc pickup device, a liquid crystal lens in which liquid crystal is provided in a convex lens shape between two spherical concave lenses.

Electric lens, optical unit, and imaging device