A process for the removal of mercury from coal prior to combustion is disclosed. The process is based on use of microorganisms to oxidize iron, sulfur and other species binding mercury within the coal, followed by volatilization of mercury by the microorganisms. The microorganisms are from a class of iron and/or sulfur oxidizing bacteria. The process involves contacting coal with the bacteria in a batch or continuous manner. The mercury is first solubilized from the coal, followed by microbial reduction to elemental mercury, which is stripped off by sparging gas and captured by a mercury recovery unit, giving mercury-free coal. The mercury can be recovered in pure form from the sorbents via additional processing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the removal of mercury from coal by way of microorganisms that oxidize iron, sulfur and other species binding mercury within the coal.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been reported that emissions of mercury from coal-fired burners can be in the range of 0.5-22 lbs./trillion Btu and that the power-generating industry may emit about 50 tons of mercury each year, about a third of the total manmade emissions. It has also been suggested that there may be a plausible link between mercury emissions and mercury bioaccumulation in the food chain.
Current coal-fired power plants may not be required to have dedicated mercury removal equipment, and emissions control in the combustion of coal has traditionally been limited to the removal of mercury from off-gases. In post combustion mercury removal processes, the mercury exists at very low concentrations in a flue gas which is at very high temperatures that adversely affect the efficiency of mercury sorption technologies.
In 2003, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested two approaches to reduce mercury emissions. In the first approach, emissions would be reduced from 48 to 34 tons/year by 2007 using existing technology. In the second approach, emissions would be reduced by 70% by 2018. Currently, there is a debate on the amount of mercury emission reduction, with stress by regulators to reduce emissions beyond what has been proposed by EPA. Needless to say, new technologies capable of reducing mercury emissions significantly will be needed in near future.
Mercury is naturally present in coal from different world sources and it has been reported that the concentration is typically in the range of 0.02-0.4 mg/kg. In the United States, coal from the Gulf Coast and Appalachian regions generally has the highest average concentration of mercury at 0.21-0.22 mg/kg. In a comprehensive review (Toole-O'Neil et al., Fuel 78:47-54, 1999), it was concluded that mercury in coal is most likely associated with the sulfur-containing iron compounds such as pyrite; however, a fraction of the mercury may be associated with the organic matter. It is expected that mercury and sulfur are closely associated in the coal as it is known that mercury sulfide is a low-solubility inorganic salt.
Various processes have been proposed for removing mercury from coal. U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,281 discloses a process for removing mercury and other trace elements from coal containing pyrite. A slurry of finely divided coal is formed in a liquid solvent capable of forming ions or radicals having a tendency to react with constituents of pyrite or to attack the bond between pyrite and coal and/or to react with mercury to form mercury vapors. The slurry is heated in a closed container to a temperature of at least 50° C. to produce vapors of the solvent. The vapors including solvent and mercury-containing vapors are withdrawn from the closed container, and then mercury is separated from the vapors withdrawn. Another example process is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,365 which describes a process for producing low mercury coal wherein heated gas is used to drive off the mercury which is then collected.
Analysis of trace metals in coal is sometimes based on leaching the coal with dilute nitric acid. In unpublished studies, as much as 75% of the mercury could be removed through nitric acid leaching, and published results summarizing data from commercial cleaning facilities suggest that 12-78% removal is possible when pyrite is removed from coal via froth floatation. Use of a two-step hydrochloric acid wash process has also been demonstrated to leach mercury from coal up to 77%.
It is known that pyrite in coal can be utilized by members of the bacteria Acidithiobacillus (formerly Thiobacillus) ferrooxidans (A. ferrooxidans), and others which use both the reduced iron and sulfur in pyrite with the overall reaction:4 FeS2(s)+15 O2(g)+2H2O(l)-->2 Fe2(SO4)3(aq)+2H2SO4(aq).This reaction is stepwise beginning with the interaction between the pyrite surface and soluble Fe(III) to liberate elemental sulfur, S(0), and Fe(II). Fe(II) and S(0) are oxidized by the bacteria, yielding the overall reaction above. The reactions are carried out by the bacterium A. ferrooxidans or by two bacteria (A. ferrooxidans and A. thiooxidans) working together. The generation of sulfuric acid in the process lowers the pH and helps with further dissolution of pyrite, and will aid in the dissolution of mercury-sulfur compounds. The optimal pH for iron removal from coal pyrite was determined to be pH 2 in experiments with A. ferrooxidans (see Torma et al., Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 18:341-354, 1988). This pH is naturally obtained through the release of sulfuric acid by the bacteria. See also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,827,701 and 4,861,723, which are incorporated herein by reference along with all other patents and publications cited herein.
Another organism with good metal bioleaching capability is Leptospirillium ferrooxidans (L. ferrooxidans). This organism was found to comprise more than a 50% population in microbial species habitating biotopes such as mines and surrounding dump sites at temperatures above 20° C. Other reports also suggest the dominance of Leptospirillum genus in acid mine drainage environments. This is a strict chemolithoautrotroph, metabolizing ferrous iron and pyrite.
Microbial leaching for copper and uranium recovery has been used commercially for low-grade ore. Other metals including nickel, copper, and lead have also been studied for bioleaching potential using the same organisms. Other example biooxidation processes can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,383,458 and 5,007,620.
However, commercial technology for the precombustion removal of mercury from coal is not believed to be available at this time. Therefore, there is a need for a coal modification technique that will aid in the removal of mercury from coal prior to thermal processing.

Removal of mercury from coal via a microbial pretreatment process


A method and apparatus are provided for suspending an appliance from a plurality of support members which depend from overhead beams and structures of a building. A lower frame has a base with side walls extending from the base and joined to form a fluid tight container. The base has sufficient strength to support the appliance thereon when the lower frame is suspended from the support members and all the weight of the appliance is carried by the base. At least three connectors are provided, each fastened to at least one of the side walls and base. Each connector removably fastens to a different one of the support members. An upper frame can be fastened to the depending support members to further stabilize the frame. Straps can encircle the appliance to stabilize the appliance on the frame.

Some indoor appliances, such as water heaters, solar storage tanks, or boilers, take up space but do not require ongoing or frequent access. Where space is at a premium, particularly in high-ceiling commercial buildings, it may be desirable to take advantage of space overhead by suspending such appliances from overhead beams or rafters.
Until now, makeshift approaches have been used to accomplish this, with significant time spent fabricating components on the scene and the resulting installation being far from uniform. Plywood sheets have been fastened to rods extending from the building ceiling, with a thin pan placed on the plywood and the appliance placed in the pan. Sometimes crossed metal beams or straps are fastened to rods with a pan placed on the beams or straps and the appliance placed in the pan so the beams or straps support the weight of the appliance. These arrangements are unstable and makeshift. The installations make it difficult to ensure consistent compliance with building regulations and the installations are time-consuming and expensive. There is thus a need for a way to support such appliances that is consistent and mechanically stable, that is adaptable to a variety of appliances and mounting situations, that provides features desirable for the end users, and that provides features for those installing these appliances.


A liquid handling system for supplying liquids to a flow cell (FC). The system may include a droplet actuator cartridge, wherein the droplet actuator and a flow cell are fluidly coupled to, or situated within, a droplet operations gap of the droplet actuator.

A droplet actuator typically includes one or more substrates configured to form a surface or gap for conducting droplet operations. The one or more substrates establish a droplet operations surface or gap for conducting droplet operations and may also include electrodes arranged to conduct the droplet operations. The droplet operations substrate or the gap between the substrates may be coated or filled with a filler liquid that is immiscible with the liquid that forms the droplets.
Sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) is a DNA sequencing strategy in which a template strand of DNA is used to synthesize its complement. Typically, SBS operates in a cyclical fashion wherein one or more nucleotide bases are added to a reaction containing the DNA templates, DNA polymerase, and other factors necessary to incorporate the next complementary bases into the synthesized strand. Depending on the specifics of the technology, a signal is then produced which enables one to infer the identity of the complementary bases incorporated into the synthesized strand. Although some approaches use a free-running enzyme to continuously synthesize a new strand, the majority of approaches currently in use require that the incorporation reactions remain synchronized at each cycle. This is typically achieved by either offering only one of the four nucleotide bases at a time or by using nucleotide bases that have reversible chemical blocks that prevent more than one base from being incorporated in any given cycle. Simple washing or reaction with de-blocking reagents is used between each cycle to prepare the DNA templates for the subsequent incorporation step. A single SBS experiment may incorporate 100s of these cycles leading to a need for very rapid and efficient liquid handling to cycle through the various liquid reagents used in each step.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) systems employing SBS typically use flow-cells (FC) in which millions of these reactions are performed in parallel on a glass or silicon surface or upon the surfaces of microscopic beads. The FC serves to confine the reactions within a defined area where the signals can be conveniently detected, typically either by optical or electrical means. The liquid reagents are typically contained in tubes, plates, cartridges, or other disposable receptacles. A liquid-handling system (LHS) consisting of tubes, pumps, and valves is typically situated between the liquid reagents and the FC. The LHS conveys the liquids through the FC in a predetermined sequence dictated by the specific chemistry and the physical properties of the FC and LHS. Typically, the LHS utilizes valves to switch between the different liquid sources. These valves may be located some distance away from the FC. Thus a dead volume exists between each liquid source and the FC. This dead volume limits the efficiency of reagent utilization as well as the time required to switch between liquids. Therefore, there is a need for more efficient methods of liquid switching that are both more efficient in terms of reagent consumption and faster in terms of their ability to completely replace one liquid in the FC with a second liquid as the various steps in an NGS SBS protocol are performed.
Additionally, liquid-handling systems currently rely on the use of mechanical pumps and valves. Mechanisms with moving parts, such as these pumps and valves, are frequently found to be unreliable and difficult to maintain and operate. Therefore, there is a need for more simple liquid-handling systems that are less expensive, more reliable, and easier to operate.

Digital microfluidics cartridge and system for operating a flow cell


An object of the invention is to provide a surface-treated copper foil capable of consistently attaining a percent loss in peel strength against hydrochloric acid degradation of 10% or less as measured on a copper pattern prepared from the copper foil and having a line width of 0.2 mm, by bringing out the maximum effect of the silane coupling agent employed in zinc-plated or zinc-alloy-plated anti-corrosive copper foil. Another object is to impart excellent moisture resistance, heat resistance, and long-term storage stability to the surface-treated copper foil. In order to attain these objects, the invention provides a surface-treated copper foil for producing printed wiring boards which has been subjected to nodular treatment and anti-corrosion treatment of a surface of a copper foil, wherein the anti-corrosion treatment includes forming a zinc or zinc alloy plating layer on a surface of the copper foil; forming an electrolytic chromate layer on the zinc or zinc alloy plating layer; forming a chromic-ion-containing silane coupling agent-adsorbed layer on the electrolytic chromate layer; and drying the copper foil for 2-6 seconds such that the copper foil reaches 105xc2x0 C.-200xc2x0 C.

The present invention relates to a surface-treated copper foil which has undergone anti-corrosion treatment; to a method of producing the surface-treated copper foil; and to a copper-clad laminate employing the surface-treated copper foil.
Conventionally, surface-treated copper foil has been employed as a material for producing printed wiring boards, which are widely used in the electric and electronics industries. In general, surface-treated copper foil is bonded, through hot-pressing, onto an electrically insulating polymer material substrate such as glass-epoxy substrate, phenolic polymer substrate, or polyimide, to thereby form a copper-clad laminate, and the thus-prepared laminate is used for producing printed wiring boards.
Printed wiring boards require such basic properties as resistance to hydrochloric acid, moisture resistance, and heat resistance. Among these properties, resistance to hydrochloric acid, which is a kind of chemical resistance and may also be called resistance to acid, is the most important. Accordingly, in the history of the manufacture of copper foil, enhancement of resistance to hydrochloric acid and improvement of quality have always been of interest.
Conventionally, it has been accepted that a proper method for improving the resistance of copper foil against hydrochloric acid must be determined in accordance with the type of anti-corrosion treatment carried out for copper foil. Thus, a variety of methods for enhancing resistance to hydrochloric acid have been developed in accordance with the type of anti-corrosion treatment carried out. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. Hei 04-41696 discloses enhancement of resistance of copper foil against hydrochloric acid, which copper foil has an anti-corrosion layer formed of copper-zinc (brass), which has excellent heat resistance, but poor resistance to hydrochloric acid. Regarding copper foil having an anti-corrosion layer formed of copper-zinc-nickel alloy, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) Nos. Hei 04-318997 and Hei 07-321458 disclose enhancement of resistance to hydrochloric acid. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. Hei 04-318997 discloses that copper foil in which a zinc-copper-tin alloy layer and a chromate layer, serving as anti-corrosion layers, are formed on a surface of the foil exhibits excellent resistance heat resistance (generally called UL heat resistance) and resistance to chemicals (particularly to hydrochloric acid) during the manufacture of printed wiring boards and, therefore, serves as an excellent copper foil for producing printed wiring boards.
In the present invention, resistance to hydrochloric acid can be evaluated through the following procedure. In practice, a printed wiring board having a pattern obtained from copper foil is immersed for a predetermined period of time in a hydrochloric acid solution of predetermined concentration. Instead of measuring the amount of the hydrochloric acid solution which has penetrated into the interface between the copper foil pattern and the substrate of the wiring board, peel strength is measured before and after immersion. The percent loss in peel strength with respect to the initial peel strength is calculated, and the value is employed as an index of resistance to hydrochloric acid.
In general, as the line width of a copper pattern in a printed wiring board decreases, the copper foil for producing a printed wiring board requires higher resistance to hydrochloric acid. When the copper foil shows a large loss in peel strength with respect to the initial peel strength, the interface between the copper foil pattern and the substrate is readily penetrated by a hydrochloric acid solution and readily undergoes corrosion. In a printed wiring board produced from such copper foil, the copper circuit pattern is likely to drop out of the substrate, since the copper foil is treated with a variety of acidic solutions during fabrication of printed wiring boards.
In recent years, the thickness, weight, and dimensions of electronic and electric apparatus have been steadily decreasing, and therefore, there is corresponding demand for further reduction in the width of the copper pattern line. In this connection, there is additional demand for copper foil having higher resistance to hydrochloric acid to be used in the production of printed wiring boards. Actually, the present inventors have produced the copper foils, on a trial basis, by means of the methods disclosed in the above-mentioned publications, and have performed a test for evaluating resistance to hydrochloric acid by use of copper pattern specimens having a line width of 1 mm and obtained from the copper foils. Results similar to those disclosed in those publications have been attained. At the time of filing the aforementioned patent applications, resistance to hydrochloric acid was generally evaluated by measurement on a copper pattern specimen having a line width of 1 mm. Although no mention is made in the specifications of these publications, the test is thought to be carried out by measurement on a copper pattern specimen having a line width of 1 mm and obtained from the copper foils. Some references; i.e., kokai patent publications specified below, disclose methods for enhancing resistance of copper foil to hydrochloric acid, including subjecting a surface to be bonded to a substrate to treatment with a silane coupling agent.
However, through formation of a copper pattern having a line width of 0.2 mm with copper foil prepared for test purposes according to the methods disclosed in the above kokai patent publications and testing for evaluation of resistance to hydrochloric acid, the inventors have found that most specimens exhibited a percent loss in resistance against hydrochloric acid degradation of 15% or more. Concerning current tests to evaluate resistance of copper foil against hydrochloric acid, it has been accepted that product quality which meets the recent trend toward reduction of the line width of copper patterns cannot be guaranteed unless evaluation tests are performed for copper pattern specimens having a line width of approximately 0.2 mm. For example, even though copper foil attains a percent loss in resistance against hydrochloric acid of approximately 3.0% as measured on a copper pattern prepared from the copper foil and having a line width of 1 mm, the same copper foil attains a percent loss in hydrochloric acid degradation of more than 10% as measured on a copper pattern prepared from the copper foil and having a line width of 0.2 mm. In some cases, the percent loss reaches 20% or more. Therefore, the quality of copper foil for producing fine-pitch copper patterns cannot be evaluated through a conventional test method including measurement on a copper pattern having a line width of 1 mm.
In a copper-clad laminate, the silane coupling agent is present between an anti-corrosion layer formed on copper foil and a substrate formed of any of a variety of organic materials. However, details of the silane coupling agent; e.g., the method of employment thereof, have not been studied thoroughly. Heretofore, there have been filed several patent applications with regard to copper foil employing a silane coupling agent. For example, Japanese Patent Publication (kokoku) Nos. Sho 60-15654 and Hei 02-19994 disclose copper foil in which a zinc layer or zinc alloy layer is formed on a surface of the foil, a chromate layer is formed on the zinc or zinc alloy layer, and a silane coupling layer is formed on the chromate layer. Judging from comprehensive consideration of the aforementioned patent publications, these patents focus on drying treatment performed after formation of a chromate layer, and treatment with a silane coupling agent performed after drying. However, the present inventors have found that copper foil of expected performance cannot be obtained unless a specific factor is controlled; i.e., performance and quality of copper foil, particularly resistance to hydrochloric acid and moisture, vary greatly between lots even when the copper foil is produced, on a trial basis, by means of the disclosed methods.
Japanese Patent Publication (kokoku) No. Hei 02-17950 discloses that treatment of copper foil with a silane coupling agent is able to improve resistance to hydrochloric acid, but does not specifically disclose the moisture resistance of copper foil. In recent years, there have arisen problems which correspond to trends toward formation of miniature wiring and multilayer printed wiring boards and in the field of packaging of semiconductor devices. Due to the employment of a copper-clad laminate having poor moisture resistance, delamination of multilayer printed wiring boards and poor pressure-cooker performance of packaged semiconductor devices have occurred.
The present inventors have also found that qualities of produced surface-treated copper foil; i.e., resistance to hydrochloric acid, moisture resistance, and heat resistance, vary as time elapses. Briefly, qualities of surface-treated copper foil immediately after production thereof are not maintained for a certain period of time, but are deteriorated as time elapses. Surface-treated copper foil is produced by a copper-foil maker, and the copper-foil maker supplies the produced surface-treated copper foil to a copper-clad-laminate maker so as to produce copper-clad laminates. In most cases, the surface-treated copper foil which has been supplied to a copper-clad-laminate maker is not immediately processed by the maker, but is stocked as raw material for a predetermined period of time. Thus, measured properties indicating performance of the copper foil which is to be employed for producing copper-clad laminates may differ from those of the copper foil which is inspected by a copper-foil maker immediately after production.
As described above, regarding formation of a silane coupling agent layer on an anti-corrosion layer comprising a zinc or zinc alloy layer on copper foil and a chromate layer formed on the zinc or zinc alloy layer, it is considered that no attained invention takes into consideration combination of the silane coupling agent and the anti-corrosion layer, surface conditions of the anti-corrosion layer during adsorption of the silane coupling agent, and drying conditions, and brings out the maximum effect in the employed silane coupling agent.

Method of producing a surface-treated copper foil


A cyclic stick for transmitting control commands to blades of a rotorcraft via at least one transmission member, including a grip configured for engagement with a pilot's hand, a control arm and at least one locking mechanism. The control arm has a bottom end configured for connection to the transmission member(s) and for rotational connection to a base support structure, and a top end pivotally connected to the grip. The control arm includes first and second arm portions pivotally connected to each other, the first arm portion defining the bottom end, the second arm portion defining the top end. The locking mechanism(s) selectively prevent a relative pivoting motion between the first and second arm portions and a relative pivoting motion between the second arm portion and the grip. A method of adjusting a position of a grip of a cyclic stick in a rotorcraft cabin is also discussed.

In a rotorcraft, the position of the grip of the cyclic control relative to the pilot is typically adjusted by moving the pilot seat, for example longitudinally. However, in some rotorcraft the pilot seat has limited adjustment or cannot be adjusted, for example due to the floor structure, the geometry of the cockpit panel and/or the passenger space. Accordingly, the position of the grip is determined based on "standard" or more common body types, which may result in reduced comfort and/or efficiency for pilots having different body types.


The present invention provides a device comprising: (a) a proximal end of the device comprises an inner first conduit within the lumen of an outer second conduit, (b) a distal end of the device comprises the outer second conduit in fluid communication with a third conduit and a fourth conduit through a Y-shaped, T-shaped or U-shaped junction, (c) the third conduit terminates in a triggering mechanism, and (d) the fourth conduit is in fluid communication through a one-way valve, wherein fluid can only convey in a direction from the fourth conduit towards the second outer conduit, with an aperture.

Subsurface wells are typically constructed using steel casings which terminate within or through a reservoir zone of interest, such as where oil and gas is located. Using well-known perforation techniques or by the installation of slotted liners, recoverable resources are able to be produced at the surface through the casing or a secondary string of steel tubulars known as production tubing. It has generally not been of interest to produce fluid samples from above the region of interest.
The U.S. EPA has introduced a new classification of wells, referred to as Class VI injection wells specifically for injecting CO2 into the subsurface. As part of the criteria for installation of a Class VI well, it is required to directly confirm no contamination of the lowermost overlying underground source of drinking water. This would require a fluid sample be taken at this location above the CO2 storage reservoir.
Hydraulic fracturing technology used to recover oil and gas from tight shales can damage cement seals and form leakage pathways along casings. Being able to sample fluids behind casings would enable well operators to identify problematic cement seals and enable mitigation steps to be taken before migration of contaminants into overlying water formations.
PCT International Patent Application No. 2011/035953 discloses a tube-in-tube system comprising: (a) an outer conduit having a proximal end and a distal end, and (b) an inner conduit having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the inner conduit is disposed within the outer conduit, wherein the proximal end of the inner conduit is in fluid communication with a first aperture, and the proximal end of the outer conduit is in fluid communication with a second aperture, and the distal ends of the inner and outer conduits are in fluid communication with each other and to a third aperture.
Other methods and/or devices have been disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,369,654; 5,035,149; and, 5,692,565. Such methods and/or devices have among others, a disadvantage that a new perforation is required for each sample which must then be sealed. In addition, it is required that production through the wellbore be halted while sampling to lower a tool into the well.

Device useful as a borehole fluid sampler

The Regents of the University of California


An apparatus for use in hairstyling has features that allow several strands of hair to be held away from the scalp of the user to facilitate hairstyling techniques. The apparatus includes a rigid loop that is supported around the head of a user. A number of arms are secured to the loop and extend upwardly and outwardly from the loop. Each arm has a clip for retaining a strand of hair. The arms are positionable at any point in space, within the limits of their lengths, to retain the strands of hair at any selected points.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to mechanical devices for assisting in hairstyling, and in particular to a device that assists in preparing woven hair styles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During hairstyling, it is sometimes necessary to hold several strands of hair away from the scalp simultaneously. This is particularly a problem in hair weaving. In hair weaving, a single strand may be interlaced between eight or ten other strands held outward from the scalp and spread apart. Consequently, three or four operators are required to hold the numerous strands in position.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,688, a hood frame is shown that has a band encircling the head. Loops of wire are supported by the band and extend over the head. Clips are located on the loops for retaining strands of hair.
The device shown in this patent would not aid in hair weaving. The loops are too close to the head to hold long strands away from the scalp. The loops would interfere with the operator's movements. Moreover, the loops cannot be moved to various positions to hold the strands at the desired places.


A container lid (10) is disclosed for enclosing a container (12). The lid has a top wall (14), and a peripheral rim flange (18) dimensioned to flex outward and receive the upper rim of the container therebetween. The rim flange (18) terminates at a downturned skirt (20). A lever arm skirt portion (32) is provided to extend vertically downward from the lid rim flange, and tapers inward from a top end (38) to a bottom end (40). The lever arm (32) is pivotal outward, whereby applying a force moment to the rim flange (18) which serves to break the seal between the rim flange and the outside rim surface (34) of the container (12), and allow the lid to be easily removed therefrom.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to flexible plastic lids for plastic containers and more specifically to such lids which apply a seal to the external upper rim surface of associated bowl containers.
2. The Prior Art
Plastic storage containers and lids are well accepted commercial items. Such products have widespread use, particularly in the storage of foodstuffs. Typical containers are cylindrical bowls which are offered in various volumetric sizes. The lid which is affixed to each bowl, and which seals the container, is generally comprised of a top wall which merges into a downturned rim flange which, in turn, merges into a downturned skirt. The lid inner diameter is slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the container upper rim such that, when the lid is pressed downward over the container rim, the container rim flange first flexes outwardly over the container rim and then is resiliently drawn inward, whereby clasping the container outer surface in a sealing grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,880 teaches such a configuration. The lid is applied by a center applied pressure, flexes outward at the rim flange, and is drawn inward against the container outer surface to effectuate a hermetic seal. This container and lid has met with considerable commercial success and is effective in achieving satisfactory sealing of the container contents from ambient air.
However, certain shortcomings of the patented container, and in particular the lid, prevent it from representing an ideal solution to the consumer's needs. First, because of the effectiveness of the seal, the lid is difficult to remove from the container. Secondly, a horizontal terminal tab on the downturned skirt of the lid, which is intended to provide a grip for the application of an upward force to break the seal and remove the lid, is generally too small to afford the user a convenient grasp.
The first aforementioned deficiency is because the application of a vertical force on a horizontal flange is an ineffective way to break a seal which is maintained by forces operating in a horizontal direction. That is, the application of a vertical force on a horizontal flange primarily acts to bend the flange upward, and transfers little force in the horizontal direction by which to break the seal between the inner surface of the lid skirt and the outer surface of the container. In order to remove the lid of the prior art, one must essentially slide a portion of the lid upward by the application of a vertical force to the horizontal flange. However, the horizontally directed sealing forces between the lid and the container create substantial frictional resistance countering such vertical movement. Consequently, a substantial amount of force must be applied to effectuate separation of the lid by sliding it upward.
In fact, the amount of force required can exceed the capability of children and adults, and particularly elderly adults. Other containers are available in the prior art and commercial markets which attempt to make the lid easier to remove by making the horizontal flange larger. Making the flanges or tabs larger, however, while making them easier to grasp, does not make the lid easier to remove, for the problem caused by the inappropriate directional application of force to the tabs and flanges remains.

Bowl lid having integral lever mechanism


The invention relates to a lighting installation, in particular as a danger light, obstruction light or day and night marker, having at least one luminaire, with at least one lighting means (13) being arranged in a housing. According to the invention, the lighting means (13) is annular or semi-annular in design and defines a ring axis (19). Furthermore, the lighting means (13) is assigned at least one reflector surface (11) which encircles an axis of rotation (21) entirely or in part. Finally, ring axis and axis of rotation run essentially parallel or even coaxial to one another.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a lighting installation, in particular as a danger light, obstruction light or daytime and nighttime marker, having at least one luminaire, with at least one lighting means being arranged in a housing. The lighting installations in this case are preferably for aviation obstructions, offshore installations or landing strips, for example wind rotors, multi-story buildings, viaducts, towers, drilling platforms or helipads.
2. Prior Art
Such lighting installations are intended to be visible from as far away as possible. At the same time, it is also possible for certain regions to remain blanked out. It is thus the case, for example, that luminaires on aviation obstructions only have to be visible to aircraft, but not for individuals beneath the aircraft obstructions. These individuals would be dazzled by the light emitted. But apart from this, it is intended for the light to be emitted, as far as possible, in all the cardinal-point directions.
The object of the present invention is to provide a lighting installation which emits powerful light on all sides. For this purpose, the lighting installation according to the invention is defined by the following features:
a) the lighting means is in the form of a ring or part of a ring and defines a ring axis,
b) the lighting means is assigned at least a first, wholly or partially encircling reflector surface, which defines an axis of rotation,
c) the ring axis and axis of rotation run essentially parallel to one another or even coaxially with one another.
The abovementioned axes are preferably arranged vertically (perpendicular to the earth""s surface). Correspondingly, the light is emitted mainly at an angle to the abovementioned axes, in particular above a radial plane. As little light as possible should be emitted in the directions below the radial plane.
The lighting installation is preferably designed as a flashing-light installation, with the luminaire in the form of a flashing luminaire and the lighting means in the form of a flashing lighting means. It is also then usually the case that an external or internal electronic circuit is provided for activating the flashing lighting means.
The reflector surface may be of concave form in relation to the lighting means. Particularly advantageous is a parabolic cross sectionxe2x80x94even partly parabolicxe2x80x94when looking at a section parallel to the axis of rotation and tangent thereto. This makes it possible to achieve a particularly good concentration of light.
The lighting means is preferably arranged at a focal point of the at least partially parabolic first reflector surface. Since an annular circumferential lighting means is provided and since the reflector surface also assumes a corresponding circumferential configuration, any number of successive focal points are generated in the circumferential direction, thus forming a circumferential focal line. The focal point can also be defined by a portion of the first reflector surface, such as when the first reflector surface is only partially parabolic.
The first reflector surface and the lighting means are configured and arranged such that light is emitted only into a space preferably above a line running through the lighting means and perpendicular to the axis of rotation. By rotation of the perpendicular line about the axis of rotation, a plane of rotation, preferably a plane of lighting, is set up. The light is meant to enter the space only above the plane of rotation. By arranging the lighting installation at a distance from the earth""s surface, such as on a tower or the like, the light is then only visible to air traffic but not to people on the ground.
Preferably the first reflector surface is arranged essentially below the lighting means, with an outer circumferential border of the first reflector surface lying in a rotation plane known as the border plane, which intersects the lighting means or runs slightly outside of the lighting means. Preferred in this respect is an arrangement of the first reflector surface relative to the lighting means such that the border plane runs along an top side of the lighting means. The xe2x80x9ctop sidexe2x80x9d of the lighting means results from an upright (vertical) arrangement of the axis of rotation. The said circulating border of the first reflector surface represents a transition to non-reflecting regions or a circumferential edge.
The first reflector surface has an inner circumferential border which runs near to a second border plane defined as a rotation plane at an underside of the lighting means. This second border plane can also run along the underside of the lighting means or through the lighting means.
A second reflector surface is also preferably provided which lies opposite the first reflector surface relative to the lighting means. The annular circumferential lighting means defines a (centered) lighting-means plane. The first reflector surface lies essentially on one side of the lighting-means plane and the second reflection plane lies essentially on the other side of the lighting-means plane. Slight overlaps of the lighting-means plane should not be excluded.
The second reflector surface can also have a configuration which is at least partially parabolic as the first reflector surface. This is preferably an embodiment whereby the form is represented at least by parts of the two reflector surfaces as mutually opposite branches. The parabola axis runs preferably through the lighting means and is angled with respect to the center plane of the lighting means in such a way that imaginary and infinite extensions of the two parabola branches run above center plane of illumination.
According to a further idea of the invention, the second reflector surface has an essentially poorer reflecting surface compared to the first reflector surface. Preferably the first reflector surface is metal-coated and the second reflector surface is blackened. The objective is to achieve the best possible reflection on the first reflector surface. The second reflector surface should reflect as little as possible. Inasmuch as a fraction of the light is nevertheless reflected, this fraction should be reflected in a targeted direction.
In an advantageous development the lighting means can be adjusted relative to the first reflector surface and parallel to the ring axis or axis of rotation. This makes it possible to quickly compensate for tolerances in production. In this way it is also possible to set an angle of radiation lying close to a horizontal plane.
The preferred lighting means is an annular xenon flash lamp. Other types of annular lighting means are also applicable. As an alternative, a plurality of LED lamps can be arranged in an annular row, thus forming an annular (or partially annular) lighting means.
In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, a circumferential, cylindrical and transparent covering is provided which is arranged as closely as possible to an outer circumferential border of the first reflector surface. Inasmuch as a second reflector surface is provided, the covering should also be arranged as close to it as possible without any intervening distance. The covering has a circumferential wall which extends parallel to the axis of rotation. A distance of a few mm between the wall and the reflector surface is not detrimental. The narrower the distance between the wall of the covering and the reflector surfaces, the lower the amount of light scatter that is emitted from the luminaire.
The covering advantageously has refracting elements at least in a circumferential section. These may be configured as prismatic and/or catadioptic rings, for example. The objective is to deflect light beams coming directly from the lighting means to a direction as perpendicular as possible to the axis of rotation, or ring axis, or somewhat above the plane perpendicular to it, i.e. above a horizontal direction.
A further idea of the invention provides for a circumferential conical transparent covering with a circumferential main wall, whose diameter increases in the direction of the lighting means, and having a shoulder, connected to the inside of the main wall at the point of its largest diameter, which extends in the direction of the first reflector surface. The shoulder is preferably configured as a continuation of the most outer tangent to the first reflector surface.
According to another idea of the invention, a second reflector surface is provided with diaphragms which prevent the reflected light from being radiated in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation. The second reflector surface, either by itself or in conjunction with the screens, has the function of a light trap. This further reduces any light scatter.
Advantageously the light emitted by the lighting means falls on the first reflector surface, is sent directly from the luminaire or strikes other parts of the luminaire""s housing, with said other parts having means for averting a reflection of the light. For example, such means may be screens, control rings or especially poorly-reflecting surface coatings, such as blackened surfaces. The objective here is also to avoid light scatter beyond the luminaire.
A further idea of the invention provides for a support on which the first reflector, a board for accommodating electric components, and a board housing are mounted. The support can be an integral part, centered and running along the axis or rotation or the ring axis, into which the specified components are inserted and secured. Preferably the second reflector surface is also held on the support immediately following the first reflector surface.
The preferred field of application of the lighting installation is a wind-rotor installation. The latter is well-known, comprising a high mast on whose peak a hub with a wind-rotor is mounted. A lighting installation is usually arranged at the very top of the mast. For very high masts the lighting installation takes the form of a flashing light, for shorter masts a blinking light is used. The invention also relates to both of these lighting means.

Lighting installation, in particular as a danger light, and wind rotor installation with lighting installation

aqua signal Aktiengesellschaft Spezialleuchtenfabrik


A statistical waveform drawing routine includes forming an image, determining discrete points of the image, forming count totals of the number of discrete points of the image in a sweep of the discrete points in a first direction, and determining a statistical value according to the count totals of the discrete points.

Digital waveform drawing is a technique that is utilized to display data, for example measurements related to the performance of a system, over a period of time. The technique involves digitally plotting pixels, which correspond to the data, in a waveform on a screen of a display.
It is often desirable to continuously display data received over several periods of time. However, the screen of the display is limited in size and after a waveform has been displayed for a certain period of time, the waveform has to be replaced to reflect the data received from a subsequent period of time.
Software programs are utilized to determine which pixels should be digitally plotted, such that the data appears on the screen of a display as part of a continuous waveform. A wide variety of software can be used to determine the pixels.
A waveform drawing system and method is shown by Harry M. Gilbert for a Waveform Drawing System and Method, U.S. Pat. No. 7,079,143, and is incorporated herein by reference. The technique for image drawing avoided redundant plotting of pixels when replacing an existing image, for example, a waveform, with a new waveform.
The analysis of a waveform has been difficult in the past, in that a large amount of data has to be checked in order to analyze the information of the waveform. Such analysis is labor intensive and requires a large amount of time and processing power. For example, analyzing vehicle waveforms that are captured digitally often requires complex passes of the array of digital values to determine the location of certain values of the waveforms. For example, determining the location of the average value of the waveform or portions of the waveform, as well as the location of the peak and lowest point of the waveform, and significant regions of the waveform requires the complex passes of the array of digital values. Such extensive techniques are not efficient and therefore time is wasted and labor costs are increased with the time delay. A faster processor can be used, but then there is an increased demand of power and potential increase in required cache memory. Additionally, the increased load upon the device, may also increase the size and cost of the device itself, that performs the analysis.
Further, the current analysis of waveforms is limited to only certain specific types of waveforms. Such a limitation is very restrictive and can give incorrect results if applied on certain type of data.
Further, efficient waveform analysis is important when time is critical. For example, in the automotive industry there can be a restriction on the time available to analyze a waveform. The current methods are difficult to implement for rapid and real-time or almost real-time analysis of the data provided, given the amount of work in a garage.
There is a need to have an efficient technique for analyzing waveforms that is both accurate and easy to implement. Furthermore, there is a need that such analysis can be used for a wide variety of implementations.


Improvements for an awning in which the slope of the extension arms (5) is regulated by a connecting piece (16) of the binding of each extension arm (5) to the awning casing (4), and in which the operating handle (9) is made up of telescopic elements, and is also provided with a freely moving suspended sleeve (30) for hitching on the ingoing shaft.

The present invention relates to improvements for a roll-up awning.
In Belgian Patent Application 08801124 a solution has already been sought both in the field of the connection between the awning casing and the extension arms and in the field of the coupling between the drive mechanism and the operating handle.
The subject of the present invention lies in both fields. In Belgian Patent Application 08801124 the two rear bars of the extension arms are hingedly connected by means of a coupling piece to the awning casing which is provided with an axis of rotation (23) which is situated low down in the awning casing and by means for which during unrolling of the awning said coupling piece can tilt with the extension arms, as a result of which the awning acquires its suitable slope, while with rolling up of the awning the tilting of the extension arms goes in an opposite direction without a part being able to be closer to the rear side of the awning casing. Thanks to this invention it is possible to place the coupling piece close up against said rear side and to take the fully folded extension arms into the fully closed awning casing with a minimum of space.
Yet the problem of the regulation of the slope of the awning canvas has remained.


A frame (10) has an integral outer margin (24) and a back plate (26). A display item (28) such as a picture, photograph, certificate, document, or the like is front-loaded into the frame (10) by insertion of the corners of the display item (28) into slots (50). The display item (28) is thus held against the back plate (26) and bounded by the outer margin (24). A flexible transparent sheet (30) fits over the top of the display item (28) and is inserted into the slots (50) in like manner. The frame (10) has a bracket (44) such that the frame (10) may be mounted upon a horizontal surface such as a table, desk, counter or the like. The bracket may be inserted into different sockets (36), (38), (40), and (42) to change the orientation of the display item (28). The frame (10) may also be mounted upon a vertical surface such as a wall by use of either of holes (35), (37), (39), (41), depending upon the desired orientation of the display item (28) a magnet (64) or suction cup (68) may also be used for mounting upon other types of vertical surfaces.

Picture frames are commonly used to mount, display, and protect pictures or documents. Most picture frames are comprised of an outside margin that borders the photograph or document, a transparent pane or sheet that fits within the outside margin and which serves to protect the photograph or document, and one or more back plates. The photograph or document is mounted by the removal of the one or more back plates, the insertion of the picture or document behind the transparent pane or sheet, the placement of the back plate over the backside of the picture or document, and the securing of the back plate in place. The transparent pane or sheet, the photograph or document, and the one or more back plates typically will fit into a recess in the outside margin. This assembly of the transparent pane or sheet, the picture or document, and the back plate are typically secured by wedging the assembly against the recess in the outside margin with some sort of fastener. The picture frame may then be displayed on a wall by attaching a length of wire to the side of the back plate not facing the picture or document and stringing the wire over a nail or other protrusion in a wall. Other means of hanging and displaying picture frames are well-known such as the use of hooks and/or holes.
The assembly of such frames and the subsequent mounting can be time-consuming. This is especially true where it is desired to replace one photograph or other display item with another, requiring removal and re-assembly. Most of the frames of the prior art are typically expensive both to purchase and manufacture. These frames also require appropriate packaging to ship and to prevent from breaking.
The price and availability of photography has resulted in many people having many more photographs than they have means to display them. Often the cost of photograph frames is a factor in people choosing to display pictures or hide them in albums or collections. Therefore the availability of very economical photo frames would be of significant value to many people.


The present disclosure provides a method for analyzing glyeart-derived monosaccharides in a sample. The present disclosure also provides a method for detecting or monitoring a disease or disorder in a patient. In addition, the present disclosure provides a method of determining aberrant glycotransferase activity. The present disclosure further provides a system for analyzing or comparing glycates in a sample.

Glycans are complex, heterogenous biological sugar polymers generally found attached to protein or lipids and are displayed on cell and macromolecular surfaces. Glycans are created in the endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus organelles by enzymes known as glycotransferases. The molecular structure of glycans strongly affects the biological activity of the protein or lipid to which it is attached. Aberrant glycotransferase activity (which, in turn, produces aberrant glycan structures) is a well-known hallmark of essentially every known type of cancer.
The altered expression of a single glycotransferase can result in the production of a complex, heterogeneous mixture of n unique, abnormal whole-glycan structures rather than in an uniformly increase expression of a single whole-glycan structure (FIG. 1). These heterogeneous mixtures of whole-glycan structures are often very difficult to fully characterize. Thus, existing cancer biomarkers that are based on intact glycan structure are generally based on one or a few particular aberrant glycan structures (out of n) or perhaps as set of very closely related aberrant glycan structures that result in a unique antibody or lectin epitope.
One known method for characterizing glycans on the basis of molecular weight consists of permethylation, release from the protein substrate, and analysis intact by mass spectrometry. In this approach, a pre-isolated glycan or pre-isolated O-linked glycoprotein is permethylated, purified and analyzed intact by MALDI-mass spectrometry (MS) or liquid chromatography (LC)-electrospray ionization (ESI)-MS. Goetz et al. ("Enzymatic/Chemical Release of O-Glycans Allowing MS Analysis at High Sensitivity." Anal. Chem., 2009, 81 (23), pp 9546-9552) describe this method. Importantly, Goetz et al. state that their method does not release N-linked glycans from proteins and they did not discuss glycolipids in this paper. The analysis of N-linked glycans by this approach would require preliminary cleavage from their protein substrates (usually by enzyme), followed by isolation then permethylation. Most notably, Goetz et al. describe their method as a means to analyze pre-isolated glycoproteins or glycans. They do not consider complex mixtures of glycoproteins, whole biofluids or tissues.
A second known method for characterizing pre-isolated glycans known as glycan methylation analysis was developed by the University of Georgia's Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC) [Heiss et al. ("The structure of Cryptococcus neoformans galactoxylomannan contains beta-D-glucuronic acid," Carbohydrate Research 2009, 344(7), pp 915-20)]. This method is a trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)-based methylation analysis and consists of permethylation, hydrolysis, reduction and acetylation

Methods for analyzing glycan-derived monosaccharides

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS, FOR AND ON BEHALF OF, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY


An integrated design environment (IDE) is disclosed for forming virtual embedded systems. The IDE includes a design language for forming finite state machine models of hardware components that are coupled to simulators of processor cores, preferably instruction set accurate simulators. A software debugger interface permits a software application to be loaded and executed on the virtual embedded system. A virtual test bench may be coupled to the simulation to serve as a human-machine interface. In one embodiment, the IDE is provided as a web-based service for the evaluation, development and procurement phases of an embedded system project. IP components, such as processor cores, may be evaluated using a virtual embedded system. In one embodiment, a virtual embedded system is used as an executable specification for the procurement of a good or service related to an embedded system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer implemented electronic design automation techniques to evaluate, design, and simulate embedded systems. More particularly, the present invention is directed towards the use of computer implemented techniques for the evaluation of Intellectual Property components used in embedded systems, the design of embedded systems, and the procurement of goods and services related to an embedded system.
2. Description of Background Art
There is increasing interest in embedded systems. An embedded system is a specialized computer system that is typically part of a larger system or machine. An embedded system requiring custom software is also sometimes described as a "platform." Embedded systems are used in industrial control systems, consumer products (e.g., mobile phones and computer game consoles), and telecommunication systems.
An embedded system may include its own operating system or, in some cases, a single computer program. An embedded system commonly includes one or more microprocessors, peripheral hardware to perform input/output functions, and several software layers (e.g., device drivers, middleware, or applications). An embedded system having all of the hardware and software residing on a single chip is sometimes called a system on a chip (SOC). However, an embedded system can also be implemented as one or more printed circuit boards with the hardware components implemented as discrete integrated circuit chips.
Embedded system design includes the design of both hardware and software that must work together in the final product. Typically, the task of designing an embedded system is divided into the separate but complementary tasks of designing the hardware and the software, what is called the "hardware partition" and the "software partition." The design of the hardware partition is facilitated by using as many commercially available hardware components as practical. In particular, the design of an embedded system is increasingly characterized by the use of pre-designed intellectual property (IP) components. An IP component (sometimes also known as an "IP block") is commonly used to describe a component of an embedded system that is licensed to others as intellectual property. However, the term IP component is also sometimes used by engineers to describe a portion of an embedded system that is available from others. For example, a variety of companies license designs for a processor core. Thus, an embedded system designer may select a processor core suitable for an intended application and then design the remaining hardware (e.g., peripherals and buses) to implement the hardware portion. It is common for at least one portion of the hardware to be customized for a particular project. The software partition of an embedded systems project may use portions of software applications from other projects. However, typically a significant amount of code must be written for the software partition of a particular project.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embedded system design project 100 that may be divided into sequence of project phases. Exemplary times common for each phase are included on the left-hand side of the illustration. In a requirement definition phase 102, a set of requirements 104 is developed for a product idea 101. Key IP components must then be evaluated for possible use in the embedded system. Because of the nature of embedded system design, documentation alone is typically insufficient to understand how an IP component, such as a processor core, will function with a software application running user code. Consequently, the initial evaluation phase 106 may last up to several months in order to have sufficient time to identify useful IP components and to physically test the operation of software in a working test platform.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing in more detail some of the elements of a conventional evaluation phase 106. For the case of processor cores, this has conventionally involved identifying potential suppliers 202, contacting suppliers to request information 204, ordering and reviewing product information 206, ordering and purchasing an evaluation board 208, receiving the evaluation board, 210, installing the evaluation board 212, installing software development tools 214, customizing the evaluation board 216, running evaluation software on the test board 218, and selecting suppliers 220. Note that the supplier must also commit significant resources to provides services to prepare and send product information 222, receiving orders 224, processing orders 226, and shipping evaluation boards 228. Additionally, support must be provided to users to use the evaluation boards (not shown in FIG. 2). The resources that a vendor must devote also include the resources to design, manufacture, and keep in stock a supply of evaluation boards. In some cases, a significant time delay may be involved for a vendor to arrange for evaluation boards having custom silicon and printed circuit boards to be designed and manufactured. Moreover, each evaluation board may have a significant cost (e.g., thousands of dollars) such that a vendor will only maintain in stock a limited number of evaluation boards at any one moment of time. Consequently, in some cases embedded system designers may have to wait substantial periods of time to obtain an evaluation board.
From the standpoint of the embedded system designer, the evaluation phase 106 is a time consuming and costly process, particularly if a significant number of IP blocks from different vendors are to be evaluated. Conventionally, evaluating IP blocks from different vendors requires evaluating the operation of separate evaluation boards for each IP block. In addition to being a time consuming process, each IP block can be evaluated only in isolation, which can make it difficult to determine how several IP blocks would interact together in a single embedded system. From the perspective of the IP vendor this is a costly marketing tool that requires IP vendors to invest in creating standard test board platforms (e.g., boards including reference peripheral devices and driver applications). The cost to the IP vendor includes the cost of the evaluation boards and the support services that must be provided for potential customers to successfully evaluate each board.
After key IP components are selected, a development phase 110 begins, which commonly lasts 3-9 months. The development phase 110 commonly begins by defining the architecture 108 of the embedded system, with the system architecture including, for example, the processor(s) to be used, hardware peripherals, and user interfaces. The hardware architecture may be used to form an initial partition of the hardware and software. Conventionally, hardware development 112 proceeds faster than software development 114 because software developers need a hardware implementation to develop some types of software.
FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing in more detail some of the aspects of the development phase 110. After the system architecture is defined 108, specification documents 302 for both the hardware and the software partition are created. The hardware development begins by developing hardware components 304. The software development begins by installing an eval/reference board 350. Software engineers may use an evaluation board to develop some of the software application layers 352 but cannot start developing certain types of software (e.g., middleware and device drivers) until a hardware emulation prototype 308 is available. Other steps common in the subsequent hardware and software development are indicated on FIG. 3. Typically, the hardware must reach a high level of implementation detail before a hardware emulator having sufficient speed may be developed 306 for continued software development 354 (e.g., middleware, device drivers) to proceed. The hardware partition is commonly emulated using hardware emulation boards and hardware acceleration boxes, which feature a combination of re-programmable hardware, typically in the form of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), and plugable modules/boards containing the processor(s) that will emulate the hardware partition.
Hardware emulators are commonly a factor of 100 or more slower than the final physical system but provide sufficient speed to debug software. Unfortunately it may take up to two-thirds of the development cycle before the hardware implementation reaches a high level of implementation detail and a physical hardware emulator 308 is configured. This means that feedback 356 to refine hardware components 310 comes later than desired. Moreover, early software integration 358 must wait until hardware components have been fabricated 312 and a PCB prototype designed 314 and fabricated 316. After the results of the early PCB prototype 360, hardware development proceeds 318, 320, 322, and 324 towards a final PCB prototype upon which final software integration and testing 360 may be performed. Note that FIG. 3 assumes that hardware emulator is used. However, a conventional hardware emulator is comparatively expensive. In some embedded system projects a hardware emulator (e.g., a FPGA hardware emulator) may not be cost effective such that much of the software development and integration must wait until a physical prototype is available.
Referring again to FIG. 1, note that the procurement of many goods or services required for the manufacture of an embedded system often must wait until a tested prototype 120 is available after a quality assurance and testing phase 118, which uses a prototype 116. Procurement significantly earlier than the tested prototype stage 120 is typically impractical because there is an insufficient quantity and quality of documentation prior to the tested prototype stage that would permit procurement needs to be adequately communicated with vendors. The procurement phase 122 may include purchasing components, PCB boards, IP licenses, and arranging for semiconductor fabrication of custom silicon chips required for a manufacturing and assembly phase 126 to produce a final product 128 on a pre-product definition 124.
Embedded systems designers are under increasing pressure to reduce the time to market and to increase the software functionality of embedded systems, which in turn tends to increase the complexity of embedded system software. Embedded system design projects would be facilitated if there were a computer aided design tool that permitted the efficient selection of a processor core or other IP components, facilitated the co-design of both the hardware and software partition, and facilitated the procurement of IP components and other necessary services. However, conventional automated design tools have serious shortcomings that limit their usefulness in the design cycle, particularly for embedded systems executing complex software applications. Moreover, conventional automated design tools also have shortcomings in speed, user-friendliness, and security that have hindered the development of web-based design tools.
One drawback of conventional electronic design approaches for embedded systems is that they are hardware-centric and typically have an execution speed that is too slow for the simulation to serve as a hardware emulator for the purposes of debugging software. For example, one conventional electronic design method is to use a hardware definition language (HDL) to model the hardware partition at the hardware implementation level. However, modeling the hardware implementation in HDL requires that the hardware be extensively developed (e.g., fully detailed) before the software, which can require a significant length of time in the development cycle.
In addition to its other problems, a HDL simulation (e.g., one using a cycle-accurate processor model and a detailed implementation model of hardware) has such a high level of implementation detail that a software application executed on HDL simulation of the hardware partition would be too slow for meaningful software debugging during a typical development phase. As one example, a software application running on virtual hardware needs a comparatively high execution speed to detect deadlocked situations between multiple on-chip processors. As another example, a software application running on virtual hardware needs a comparatively high execution speed to perform a booting test of a full-fledge operating system (OS) on the hardware being designed. However, HDL models typically execute at too slow a speed to permit a software designer to evaluate the system aspects in which a software designer is interested.
A further drawback of HDL models is that it is often impractical to share them with third parties that are not legally bound to maintain the confidentiality of the model. An HDL description of an embedded system includes implementation details required to fabricate an end product. HDL models have such a high level of implementation detail that companies are reluctant to share HDL models with other companies for fear of losing valuable proprietary trade secrets. As one consequence, IP vendors typically do not provide HDL models of their products for evaluation. Another consequence is that embedded system designers and IP vendors typically do not make HDL models of IP components and sub-systems available on the Internet.
The problems associated with conventional embedded system design projects can be anticipated to become worse as improvements in the processing power of embedded systems permits embedded systems having more complex software applications. This can be expected to increase the need to rapidly and effectively evaluate IP blocks during the evaluation phase, to accelerate the pace of software development during the development cycle, and to improve the procurement of goods and services related to the embedded system project, including the licensing of IP blocks. However, conventional automated design tools do not provide the right level of abstraction, quick model creation, ease of use, execution speed, and understandability to permit substantial improvements in the evaluation, development, and procurement phases of an embedded system design project.
What is desired is a computer-aided system and method for improving the evaluation, development, and procurement phases of an embedded system development project.

Method and system for virtual prototyping


The present invention relates to a veterinary medicine containing multhiomycin as an effective ingredient and provides a medicine for promoting growth of animals including birds, fishes and shellfishes and preventing various kinds of diseases of animals or fishes and shellfishes which contains multhiomycin as an essential component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a veterinary medicine containing multhiomycin as an effective ingredient. More particularly, this invention provides a medicine for promoting growth of animals and preventing various kinds of diseases of animals which contain multhiomycin as an essential component.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present inventors have pursued extensive studies on various kinds of antibiotics produced by microorganisms and continued further study on multhiomycin, an antibiotic disclosed in the Journal of Antibiotics Vol. XXIII, No. 5, pp. 231-237 (1970) by H. Yonehara (one of the present inventors) et al.
H. Yonehara et al. reported in the said publication that multhiomycin is a new antibiotic obtained from the micelium of Streptomyces SP 8446-CCI, which is extracted with methanol and purified by silica gel chromatography and forms yellow needle-shaped crystals, melts at above 300.degree. C. and has no or negligible optical activity. C.sub.44 H.sub.45 O.sub.11 N.sub.11 S.sub.5 was suggested for its molecular formula by elemental analysis and molecular weight determination and it was further found to exhibit inhibitory activity against gram-positive bacteria but no activity against gram-negative bacteria, mycobacteria and fungi. However, the above authors did not find that multhiomycin is useful as veterinary medicine.


Apparatuses, methods and systems apparatus for automatically updating hard iron and soft iron coefficients of a magnetic sensor of a device are disclosed. One method includes making measurements of a magnetic field by the magnetic sensor during rotations of the device, determining by at least a criterion whether to input the measurements of the magnetic field into a coefficient estimator, calculating, by the coefficient estimator, new hard iron and soft iron coefficients upon receiving the measurements of the magnetic field, determining a quality of the newly calculated hard iron and soft iron calculated coefficients, and updating existing hard iron and soft iron coefficients to the newly calculated hard iron and soft iron coefficients only if the quality of the newly calculated hard iron and soft iron coefficients.

Magnetic sensors are used to provide absolute azimuth reference in electronic compassing and motion sensor fusion systems. Specifically, in motion sensor fusion systems, the magnetic sensors can be used for the dual purposes of providing the azimuth reference as well as to provide gyroscope bias and scale error corrections. The inherent advantages of a magnetic sensor are that it is non-inertial and can therefore respond instantaneously to motions without overshoot, or errors caused by linear or angular accelerations. However, their disadvantage is that they are easily perturbed by magnetic distortions from both within a device's frame as well as external to it.
Magnetic distortions within a device's frame consist of hard-iron and soft-iron distortions. Hard-iron distortions are offsets to the magnetic measurements while soft-iron distortions change the gains and phases of the magnetic measurements as a function of rotation of the device within the measurement environment. It is necessary to compute both hard-iron and soft-iron distortions and correct for them in order to measure the magnetic field external to the device accurately so that the measured magnetic field vector can be suitably used in either electronic compassing or motion sensor fusion systems. However, hard-iron and soft-iron distortions change frequently over time and with device configuration changes. Such changes contribute to large errors in electronic compassing and motion sensor fusion systems, and need to be rapidly and automatically corrected as they occur. This necessitates a method to automatically calibrate for changing distortions, and more ideally, done so as a background process of the device during normal usage so that no pre-determined calibration procedure is necessary, thus not causing any discontinuity of accuracy or reliability during use. Such an automated calibration method is challenging to implement properly in most typical magnetic environments due to additional external distortions such as magnetic gradients and anomalies. Automatic calibration methods that currently exist will change their hard-iron and soft-iron coefficient calculations when externally generated distortions are presented to the device, thus often causing significant and unpredictable inaccuracies. The present invention teaches a method to accurately compute a device's hard-iron and soft-iron correction coefficients while properly rejecting magnetic distortions external to the device that would normally cause the inaccurate computations of these coefficients while running continuously as an automated background process.
It is desirable to have apparatuses, methods, and systems for automatically updating hard-iron and soft-iron coefficients of a magnetic sensor.

Automatically updating hard iron and soft iron coefficients of a magnetic sensor


A path creation support apparatus acquires beforehand, from a storage system or a host, either a portion of the parameters required for path creation or parameter decision information which is information for deciding this portion of the parameters. The path creation support apparatus decides the portion of the parameters based on the parameter decision information. Upon receipt of an access path creation start request, the path creation support apparatus sends to the host and the storage system an access path creation indication which specifies the parameters specified together with the access path creation start request, and either the parameters acquired beforehand or the parameters decided based on the parameter decision information acquired beforehand.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for creating an access path from a host to a logical volume inside a storage system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-233901 discloses technology by which a management server, which is connected to a host computer (hereinafter, "host"), and a storage system create a path (hereinafter, an "access path") from the host to a logical volume provided by the storage system.
Normally, a user must input various parameters into the host to create an access path (to include changing to the newly-created access path). As parameters that have to be inputted to the host, for example, there are the parameters (for example, a LUN (Logical Unit Number), port ID, logical volume ID, and so forth) for specifying the access path (either the newly created access path or the change-targeted access path). Further, when the storage system is accessed by a plurality of hosts, a parameter that must be inputted is information showing the host storage domain to which the newly created access path belongs. Deciding appropriate values for each of these various parameters, and inputting these values into the host is an arduous task for the user.
Further, changing an access path must be carried out in a state in which the access path targeted for this change is not being utilized. Therefore, it is preferable that the user check the utilization status of the access path targeted for change when changing the access path so that the access path change can be carried out normally. However, the job of checking the utilization status of an access path is a troublesome task for the user.

Apparatus for supporting creation of access path from host to logical volume


The computational cost for a mapping process performed in analyzing genome/exome/transcriptome is reduced by sorting all cyclic permutations or suffixes of all read sequences to allow a search to be performed on the basis of any base sequence as a key. Also performed is computing and storing, for each base position in a genome sequence, the minimum length for uniqueness (MLU) at which a partial sequence starting from the base position becomes unique in the genome. In analysis of variations, a target region is scanned to inspect the number of matching read sequences that contain a partial sequence with a length of MLU and thus estimate the position of a variation, and then, the read sequences are collected at a position where the possibility of a variation having occurred is high to perform comparison analysis of the sequences.

For treatment of cancers, lifestyle-related diseases, genetic diseases, and the like, it is necessary to inspect the genetic backgrounds of individual patients to select suitable treatment or predict prognoses for them, as so-called individualized medicine. Therefore, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequences, such as the genome or transcriptome, are analyzed. A DNA sequencing device used therefor is able to obtain only a short, fragmented DNA sequence. Therefore, it is necessary to perform data processing for inspecting from which part of the genome the obtained fragmented sequence derives by comparing it with a very long reference genome sequence, and further inspecting the presence or absence of variations, such as SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms), insertion, or deletion, contained in the sequence. Such data processing is typically called a mapping process.
When a massively parallel DNA sequencer called next-generation DNA sequencer is used, hundreds of millions of fragmented sequences (read sequences) each having a length of about 100 bases, which is relatively short, are obtained in a single measurement. When a human is a test subject, a reference genome sequence used therefor is as long as about 3 giga bases (3 billion bases). In a mapping process, such read sequences are compared with the reference genome sequence one by one to identify the corresponding positions and identify variations contained therein. As such a process requires a huge computational cost, dedicated, efficient algorithms have been developed and used. A representative method includes creating a database of a reference genome sequence through BWT (Burrows-Wheeler Transformation) (see Non Patent Literature 1), and performing a search using as a search key a short base sequence in a read sequence, and performing alignment in a region around (i.e., preceding and following) the matched region, taking into consideration possible sequencing errors and variations (see Non Patent Literature 2).
Typically, a next-generation DNA sequencer involves read errors of about 1%. Further, a very long genome region contains a number of similar sequences dispersed therein. Therefore, there is a possibility that a result of a mapping process performed on a per-read-sequence basis may contain errors. For example, there are cases where, although a given read sequence has no completely matching region in the reference genome sequence, it has a plurality of matching genome regions if it is supposed that there is a small number of sequencing errors. In such a case, which region is selected is at one's discretion, and the determination depends on the heuristic of the mapping process. Thus, in order to accurately analyze variations, a re-mapping process, which includes comparing mapping results of a number of read sequences and determining the majority, is performed in the following process, that is, in the downstream process (Non Patent Literature 3). Therefore, when the whole genome is analyzed, an amount of sequences that can cover several tens of times of the whole genome (which is greater than or equal to tens of giga bases) is determined. In addition, when a mapping destination is selected at one's discretion, it is concerned that a bias that depends on the mapping process may occur. Thus, results obtained by a plurality of mapping tools are compared with one another to check for the presence of such a bias. Patent Literature 1 is given as an example of patent literature related to such techniques.

Data analysis device and method therefor


Disclosed is a sensor to measure a pressure in a fluid, of which a body 1 includes a membrane 2 and a wall 3 forming a peripheral support for and around the membrane. The membrane and the peripheral wall are formed from one single component, and the membrane and the peripheral wall together form a flat and smooth front surface 4 intended to be in contact with the fluid.

It is known that such sensors comprising a membrane are realised by welding or bonding on a general ring-shaped case. When such a sensor is used to measure the pressure in a liquid, gas bubbles come to be fixed on the junction between the case and the membrane. This can be all the more detrimental to the quality of the measurements as the sensor is small and as the pressure levels to be measured are low.
In addition, when the membrane is welded or bonded according to the prior art, there is a phenomenon which appears when the membrane is deformed and which is called an "oil can effect". Indeed, the deformation of the membrane is non-linear when we pass from a positive pressure to a negative pressure, or vice versa.
In addition, the different materials used to produce the sensor, in particular welds or adhesives, are not always chemically and/or biologically compatible with the fluid of which the pressure is to be measured. Thus, in particular, corrosion can appear at the junction between the membrane and the case, which is detrimental to the lifespan of the sensor and/or to the preservation of the fluid.

Device for measuring a pressure in a fluid and pump provided with such a device


An apparatus and method for accessing a first local mass storage device or a second local mass storage device in a fault-tolerant server. In one embodiment, the fault-tolerant server establishes communication between a first computing element and a first local mass storage device. The fault-tolerant server also establishes communications between a second computing element and a second local mass storage device. In one embodiment, the first computing element and the second computing element issue substantially similar instruction streams to one of the local mass storage devices.

Over the past decade, the use of computers and related technology has increased tremendously. In particular, computers often support air traffic control systems, banking systems, and mission critical defense systems, such as computer systems controlling the launch and flight of defense missiles. Deployed in such a ubiquitous manner, the computers can cause severe problems in the functioning of society if any were to fail. Because of the potential for far-reaching adverse effects in the event of failure, computers are being required to ensure ever-higher reliability. Fault-tolerant computers are computers that generally provide this reliability aspect in such systems.
Further, the strains on servers today and the applications they support have never been greater. Fault-tolerant servers are currently being used to minimize the effects of these strains, such as the failed execution of a client request. Typically, a fault-tolerant server includes one or more redundant central processor units (CPUs) and one or more redundant input-output (I/O) boards, or subsystems. The I/O subsystems interface with one or more I/O devices, such as mass storage devices. These mass storage devices are frequently mirrored (i.e., the same data is stored on all of the redundant mass storage devices) to enable a first mass storage device to replace a second mass storage device upon a failure of the second mass storage device.
However, if a mass storage device fails, a CPU cannot access the mirrored mass storage device using the I/O subsystem associated with the failed mass storage device. In other words, the CPU can only access the mirrored mass storage device through an independent I/O subsystem. Thus, upon a failure of a mass storage device, the I/O subsystem associated with the failed mass storage device is replaced by a redundant I/O subsystem to prevent loss of data. The replacement of an I/O subsystem upon the failure of a mass storage device is often burdensome and wasteful of resources of the fault-tolerant server.
Thus, there remains a need to access a mass storage device that is associated with an independent I/O subsystem.

Apparatus and method for accessing a mass storage device in a fault-tolerant server


A ratcheting device for use in tightening the cuff of a blood pressure monitor has a lever, a lever mounting which is attached to one end of the cuff and which holds the lever so that it can be moved in a given direction or an opposite direction. An elastic body is disposed between the lever and the lever mounting to transmit a force applied to the lever into the lever mounting by elastic deformation of the elastic body. Interdental spaces are formed between saw teeth on the inner surface of a cam and extend in the given and opposite directions in which the lever moves. A ratchet having pawls thereon which can engage with the interdental spaces is provided; this rachet is immobilized by the engagement of the pawls in the interdental spaces when the pressure applied to the lever exceeds a given value.

To facilitate the wrapping of the cuff onto the finger, prior blood pressure monitors used on a finger employ the cuff wrapping mechanism shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. In FIG. 12, 122 is the case, and 123 is the cuff within the case. Rubber chamber 123b is attached to cuff 123.
The protruding end 123a of cuff 123 is fixed to lever 124. This lever is installed on case 122 in such a way that it can slide both in direction A, which tightens the cuff, and in direction B, which loosens the cuff. An elastic pawl 125 is provided on lever 124. As shown in FIG. 13, pawl 125 engages interdental spaces 126, which are located in two parallel rows along the path of movement of lever 124. Thus, the pawl prevents the lever from moving in direction B and loosening the cuff.
To measure a person's blood pressure, the person inserts a finger, usually the index finger, into opening 122a in case 122. Lever 124 is then moved in direction A to tighten the cuff. During tightening, pawl 125 is elastically deformed and passes over interdental spaces 126. When the appropriate cuff pressure has been attained, the operator releases lever 124, and pawl 125 engages in interdental spaces 126. This fixes the position of lever 124 and keeps cuff 123 wrapped around the patient's finger. Air is then pumped into rubber chamber 123b until the flow of blood in the finger artery is obstructed, and the blood pressure is measured.
When the blood pressure measurement has been completed, button 127 is pressed, causing pawl 125 to move down so that it is released from interdental spaces 126. Lever 124 slides in direction B, allowing cuff 123 to loosen.
With the existing cuff wrapping mechanism described above, the operator has a tendency to apply great force to lever 124 at the moment pawl 125 is slipping past teeth 126. This causes the pressure with which the cuff is wrapped to vary. For this reason, the tightness of the cuff is variable, and there is a pronounced tendency to overtighten it.
If cuff 123 is not wrapped sufficiently tightly, the volume of rubber chamber 123b will be increased, which will cause it to take longer for the cuff to be pressurized. Further, the area of the surface of rubber chamber 123b which contacts the finger will be decreased, which increases the chance that the rubber will wrinkle. If this happens, the blood pressure will not be measured correctly. Problems such as these are well known in blood pressure monitors employing the oscillation technique, in which the change in air pressure inside rubber chamber 123b is used to detect the pulse wave.
In contrast, if cuff 123 is wrapped too tightly, the blood in the finger can be completely obstructed, which will cause pain to the patient. To prevent cuff 123 from being wrapped too tightly, one could conceivably use deeper teeth for the toothed portions of 126, but this would cause the tightness to vary even more, and the operating noise would become much louder.

Ratcheting mechanism for tightening cuff or blood pressure monitor


The preferred embodiments of the present invention provide two advantageous features, which are especially beneficial in combination, but which can be advantageously and beneficially employed independently of one another: (1) firstly, a self-cooling motor bearing system; and (2) secondly, a self-lubricating motor bearing system. In the preferred embodiments, one or both of these two advantageous features are integrated inside an electric motor (e.g., within the electric motor's enclosure housing) in such a manner as to greatly enhance bearing operating conditions (e.g., maintaining adequate bearing lubrication and/or bearing operating temperature) without the use of external lubrication units and/or external cooling units.

The present application relates generally to the cooling and/or lubricating of motor bearings and the preferred embodiments provide novel self-cooling and/or self-lubricating features in the context of heavy duty electric motor bearing systems.
In existing electric motors that are subjected to high speeds and/or that support high thrust loads, the motor bearings can be subjected to extreme conditions. For example, in certain large industrial vertical electric motors, the motors contain an upper bearing that is subjected to wear and heat. In order to address this difficulty, manufactures have developed external lubrication and external cooling systems that seek to reduce friction and heat generated within the bearing (i.e., due to movement of the rolling elements of the bearing that travel around internal bearing raceways). However, these external lubrication and external cooling systems have been complicated and costly to manufacture and have other drawbacks.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome the above and/or other problems in the background art.

Self-cooled and-or self lubricated electric motor bearing systems


Methods are provided for substituting aromatic carboxylic acids and derivatives thereof and amino substituted aromatic carboxylic acids and derivatives thereof, by forming imides and imide-amides, respectively, by acylation with aliphatic carboxylic acids, substituting at least one nitrogen atom under mild basic conditions with an aliphatic compound having as alkylating agent a displaceable functionality and removing undesired acyl groups, as appropriate.

1. Field of the Invention
There is a great need for radiographic contrast media which are both non-toxic and economically produced, employing inexpensive and readily available intermediates and reagents. With increasing use of the larger doses demanded by new imaging methods, the incidence of untoward effects caused by ionic contrast media has become a serious concern. Newer, non-ionic radiographic contrast media are less toxic, but their high cost is a substantial deterrent to their generalized use and makes them a major factor in the expense of the diagnostic process. Development of low cost, non-ionic radiographic media has, therefore, become a particularly challenging area of synthetic organic chemistry.
Radiographic contrast media should be water soluble, non-toxic, and have a high iodine content. Most of these non-ionic radiographic contrast media are aromatic amides with one or more amino groups, having polyhydroxy, lower aliphatic alkyl and acyl subgroups bonded to nitrogen, with annular carboxamide and amino groups.
The final synthetic product contains a large number of functionalities in close spatial relationships. An expensive moiety, the triiodinated benzene ring, provides for a major portion of the weight of the product; once the aromatic ring has been iodinated, even small deviations from the theoretical yield can greatly affect the economics of the process. Also contributing to the cost are the water solubilizing functionalities, typically several hydroxyalkylamines, attached as amides. These amines include serinol, 1-amino-2,3-propanediol, N-methyl 1-amino-2,3-propanediol, and aminotetritols; and are all expensive.
In developing improved products it is essential that processes allow for substantial flexibility in the way solubilizing moieties are attached and/or generated on the aromatic ring. In addition, synthesis should provide for high yield, in all steps of the synthetic process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
German OS 2,658,300 describes the preparation of contrast media. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,771 as illustrative of the preparation of contrast media. Also of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,001,323; 4,021,481 and 4,278,654, as well as UK Pat. Nos. 1,321,591 and 2,031,405; and Dutch application No. 79/05166.

Process for producing non-ionic radiographic contrast media utilizing N-allylation


Methodologies and a device for assessing integrated circuit and pattern for yield risk based on 3D simulation of semiconductor patterns are provided. Embodiments include generating, with a processor, a 3D simulation of semiconductor patterns; obtaining critical dimensions of distances between layers or within a layer of the 3D simulation of semiconductor patterns; comparing the set of critical dimensions with predefined minimum dimensions; and yield scoring each of the semiconductor patterns of the 3D simulation based on the comparing step.

Semiconductor process simulation is the modeling of the fabrication of semiconductor devices such as transistors. It is used as an alternative to physically taking cross sections of the semiconductor devices for quality analysis. A goal of process simulation is an accurate prediction of device geometry, active dopant distribution, stress distribution, etc. Process simulation is conventionally used as an input for device simulation, the modeling of device electrical characteristics.
The fabrication of integrated circuit devices requires a series of processing steps called a process flow. Process simulation involves modeling all essential steps in the process flow in order to obtain dopant and stress profiles and, to a lesser extent, device geometry. The input for process simulation is the process flow and a layout. The layout is selected as a linear cut in a full layout for a two-dimensional (2D) simulation or a rectangular cut from the layout for a 3D simulation.
2D simulation has limitation relating to parameter inputs and is used for the design of the semiconductor devices, but not used for the manufacture of the semiconductor devices. Moreover, 2D simulation approaches fail to capture risks associated with inter- or intra-layer spacing in semiconductor patterns due to limitations of process window space.
A need therefore exists for methodology and an apparatus for generating a yield score that factors in both design and manufacturing to arrive at a risk factor based on realistic 3D simulation of semiconductor patterns.