An archery bow sight mounting device having a mechanism means for adjusting the vertical launch trajectory of an arrow through an angle of ten degrees or more in closely spaced steps of 20 minutes of arc, or less, having structure to inhibit an accidental misadjustment, and having indica for calibrating range with respect to each adjustment. Structure is also provided for adjusting the transverse launch trajectory angle to compensate for variations between bows or archers. The device has a bracket which can be attached to the bow, a pair of sight mounting members adjustably affixed to the bracket and adapted for axially mounting the sight, attachment structure for pivotally mounting the first sight mounting member to the bracket, attachment structure for mounting the second sight mounting member to the bracket such that the second sight mounting member can move arcuately about the first sight mounting member, an a user operated member which drives the second sight mounting member and which employs a detent member cooperating with a catch member thus permitting the second sight mounting member to be adjusted to thirty or more different positions.

1. Field
The invention is in the field of sight mounting devices for archery bows.
2. State of the Art
Sights for archery bows are usually pin sights, tube sights, or scope sights. In each case, range adjustment is provided for and the bow is calibrated for various estimated ranges to potential targets. Indicia are often applied to the mounting device for identifying the preset ranges.
In order to accommodate the usual variations in ranges, sight mounting devices have often incorporated means for allowing the launch trajectory sight line to be tilted through an elevation angle of up to ten degrees or more, so that the arrow may be launched either approximately parallel to the terrain or upwardly at an angle to the terrain. It has been recognized that this angular range adjustment should be such that it can be made quickly, without the use of tools, and that it be capable of being set to predetermined range calibration indices. Detent or latch means have sometimes been provided, so that, once set to a selected range, the adjustment is protected from being accidentally or inadvertently changed. Additionally, provision has sometimes been made for transverse adjustment of the launch trajectory sight line angle in order to accommodate slight inaccuracies in the bow or variations between different bows and between different archers.


A microscope, in particular according to any of the preceding claims, consisting of an illuminating device, comprising an illumination light source and an illumination beam path for illuminating the specimen with a light sheet, a detection device for detecting light emitted by the specimen, and an imaging optical unit, which images the specimen via an imaging objective in an imaging beam path at least partly onto the detection device, wherein the light sheet is essentially planar at the focus of the imaging objective or in a defined plane in proximity of the geometrical focus of the imaging objective, and wherein the imaging objective has an optical axis, which intersects the plane of the light sheet at an angle that is different from zero, preferably perpendicularly, wherein an amplitude and/or phase filter is provided in the illumination beam path, said filter acting as a sine spatial filter in that it limits the illumination light in at least one spatial direction by filtering the spatial frequencies that occur with a sine function and/or in that the illumination light is limited with regard to the phase and amplitude thereof in at least one spatial direction by a sine filter function, and/or a combined amplitude and phase filter is provided in the illumination beam path, said filter shaping the light sheet by influencing the transmission profile of the illumination light distribution with a sine filter function.

A microscope, in which the illumination beam path and the detection beam path are arranged essentially perpendicular to each other, and in which the specimen is illuminated with a light sheet in the focal plane of the imaging objective, i.e., perpendicular to its optical axis, is designed for the analysis of specimens according to the method of selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM). In contrast to confocal laser scanning microscopy (LSM), with which a three-dimensional specimen is scanned point by point in different planes with different depths and the obtained image information is subsequently compiled to create a three-dimensional image of the specimen, SPIM technology is based on widefield microscopy and allows the pictorial representation of the specimen on the basis of optical sections through individual planes of the specimen.
The advantages of the SPIM technology consist among other things in the greater speed with which the image information is captured, the lower risk of fading of biological specimens as well as an extended penetration depth of the focus into the specimen.
In principle, the SPIM technology involves the stimulation of fluorophores contained in or incorporated into the specimen with a laser light, which is shaped into a so-called light sheet. In each case, the light sheet is used to illuminate a selected plane in the depth of the specimen and an image of said plane of the specimen is obtained in the form of an optical section using an imaging optical unit. The rapid reciprocating movement of a thin, rotationally symmetric laser beam in the focal plane of the imaging objective is essentially equivalent to said type of stimulus with a static light sheet. In effect, i.e. in the temporal average over the observation period, this results in the shape of a light sheet.
SPIM technology is described for example in Stelzer et al., Optics Letters 31, 1477 (2006), in Stelzer et al., Science 305, 1007 (2004), in DE 102 57 423 A1 and in WO2004/0530558 A1.
The basic design of a SPIM microscope is illustrated in FIG. 1. The light of an illuminating source 1 is shaped to become a light sheet via an illuminating optical unit 2 and guided onto a specimen 3. The specimen and light sheet are located in the focal plane of the imaging objective 4. The optical axis of the imaging objective 4 is perpendicular to the direction from which the specimen 3 is illuminated. Generally, the illuminating optical unit 2 comprises a plurality of optical elements, which collimate the coherent light of the illuminating source 1 and use it to form a light sheet. In the prior art, the illuminating optical unit 2 generally also comprises a cylinder lens, whose flat side is pointing toward the specimen and whose arched side is pointing into the direction of the illuminating source. Several examples of illuminating optical units 2 are explained below, which facilitate the generation of a light sheet with enhanced depth of field and reduced casting of shadows compared to arrangements known from the prior art.

Microscope and method for SPIM microscopy


Methods and apparatus for identifying in real time an operating condition of an in-service electrical device which draws a power load by monitoring spectral content of the power signature and associating spectral components with device operating conditions. In the preferred embodiment, motor (12) power line current signature is sampled by data conditioning sampler (18). Preprocessor (30) spectrally separates the current signature into plural frequency domain components having respective frequency and magnitude values. Spectral characteristic component selector filter (40) selects for analysis at least one specific spectral component by referencing a base of stored knowledge of operational characteristics of the motor. A neural network (50) associates without supervision the selected detected spectral component with an operating condition of the motor (12). The base of stored knowledge is updated with new operating condition associations which have been made during real-time monitoring. A post processor (60) may enunciate the association to a user via an output device and it may generate a control signal to operate electrical distribution system protection or control apparatus.

The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus which monitor power line waveform that is affected by an electrical device, such as for example an induction machine, during actual in-service operation of the machine in its working environment. Based upon analysis of the line waveform signature, the present invention predicts potential machine failure caused by defects in machine mechanical components, such as broken rotor bars and defective rolling element bearings which support the machine shaft.
Electric induction motors are a workhorse of any industrial or commercial facility. They are used for many applications ranging from driving compressors and pumps, to blowers and machine tools. It is not uncommon to have thousands of such motors in one industrial facility.
Although motors are simple and reliable machines, their annual failure rate is conservatively estimated at 5% per annum. In some industries, such as pulp and paper processing, this failure rate can be as high as 12% annually. According to market research of the present owner of this application, 3.4 million so-called National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)-rated motors, which are defined as three phase, 600 Volt AC or less, and 400 HP or less, are sold annually in the United States of America. Over 80% of these motors are 20 HP or less, The installed base in the United States alone is assumed to be approximately 50 million motors.
Down time in a factory can be extremely expensive, and in many cases far exceeds the replacement and installation cost of the motor itself. According the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the majority of motor failures, 51% to 64%, are the result of, or result in mechanical failures, and 35% to 37% are due to thermal failures of the motor insulation.
The vast majority electric induction motors now installed in the United States of America and the other developed industrial nations are protected by thermal overload relays, based on 40-year-old technology. These relays attempt to emulate the thermal behavior of the motor; however, they fall far short because their time constant utilized for heat transfer modelling is far less than the true thermal time constant of the motor, resulting in inadequate thermal protection. A new generation of microprocessor-based relays which provide far better modeling of the motor thermal behavior have been introduced recently; however, their installed base is very small, less than 1%. Neither the thermal nor the microprocessor-based motor protection relays provide protection against motor mechanical component failures. This explains the relatively high percentage of motor failures.
Many failures in electric machines are the result of, or result in abnormally high vibrations in the machine itself. Undesirable vibrations can be caused by mechanical problems in the machine, such as worn or defective bearings, eccentricities in the rotor or stator, or any number of other structural deteriorations. In addition, machines which are subject to high vibrations from any source are prone to failure, especially due to shorted stator windings and insulation breakdown.
There has been a long-felt need in the motor industry to identify undesirable motor mechanical vibrations and to attempt to correlate identified vibrations with specific operational fault conditions which cause the specific vibration. In the past, many industrial plants would rely on skilled mechanics and technicians who would examine each running motor individually by hand. The mechanic would rely on his or her skilled tactile, auditory and visual senses, along with general intuitive experience, to correlate operational sounds and vibration with specific problems. For example, a faulty rolling element bearing race would have a different vibrational amplitude or frequency than a rotor bar developing a mechanical fault. Such direct hand sensing of potential faults by a skilled mechanic is dependent upon such factors as the mechanic's skill level, the frequency of inspections, the difficulty of carrying out inspections of many motors in hazardous or hard-to-reach environments, all combined with a healthy dose of luck that the mechanic inspects sufficiently before failure in order to correct the problem before it causes factory downtime. A modern industrial plant cannot afford to rely on such widely disseparate factors, hence in the past, many mechanized techniques have been tried to predict motor failure.
One long-known, but difficult and expensive solution has been to adopt aggressive preventive maintenance schedules, with the hope that components on average are replaced before they are likely to fail. Using industrial engineering statistical models of mean time between failure, parts such as bearings are routinely replaced well before statistical predicted failure. Unfortunately, statistics do not predict the failure of a specific individual component. A specific bearing rated for replacement every 5,000 running hours may in fact fail within a few hundred hours.
Another known failure prediction technique has been to measure actual mechanical vibration with vibration sensors mounted on the machine. The spectral component content (i.e., the magnitude and frequency of vibration) of the vibration excitation signal can then be used to determine if a problem exists in the machine, or if one of the above-mentioned failure modes is likely. Then, the underlying task is to determine how the vibrations in electric machines relate to physical defects in the machine and, more fundamentally, what types of vibrations (i.e., vibration component frequencies and magnitudes) indicate possible machine failures. Such systems have their own problems. For one, addition of a vibration sensor and related electronics adds expensive components to the system. These sensing components are relatively too delicate for industrial environments and are prone to failure. When the vibration sensing systems are operated continuously in a relatively high vibration noise environment of a factory, they can trigger false failure readings. Isolation of line and load noise by diagnostic bench testing motors in a repair shop is not a viable option in most industrial environments, because of difficulties in motor removal and reinstallation. The factory cannot be shut down frequently to remove and replace motors for diagnostic testing, except perhaps during defined plant down time, such as on holidays.
Many problems in electric machines, including all of those which cause undesirable vibrations, result in unwanted harmonic electric currents in the machine. These are due to nonuniformaties in the air gap flux, or oscillations (vibrations) in the mechanical load torque on the machine. In either case, the defective machine is no longer modeled by a constant parameter circuit in steady-state operation. As a result, harmonic currents exist in the stator. The harmonic content of the stator current can then be used to determine not only undesirable vibrations in the machine, but also electrical problems, such as damaged or broken rotor bars and end rings, and damaged stator windings. Unfortunately, as with mechanical vibration noise, industrial environments are also rich in electrical distribution system harmonic noise. Thus, known electrical current signature analyzers cannot associate power waveform characteristics with motor operating characteristics; they have been of the nature of bench analyzers rather than in-service, active diagnostic tools which are continuously observing operational motors on the factory floor.
Examining more closely the known electric induction machine direct mechanical vibration measurement and current harmonic analysis testing systems, each has strengths and weaknesses. Direct vibration measurement has the obvious advantage of measuring the harmful vibrations directly through the use of one or more piezoelectric vibration sensors. In addition, signal processing hardware is reduced since the signature to be analyzed need not be extracted from a much higher magnitude carrier signal, as in the case with current harmonic analysis. The disadvantage of the direct measurement is the fact that the machine must be outfitted with the sensor, and the sensor with its wiring is prone to failure. The current harmonic analysis has the advantage of not requiring any sensors in addition to those which already exist in currently available motor controllers. However, current harmonic analysis is computationally difficult since the harmonics in question are many times smaller in magnitude than the excitation frequency (i.e., 50 or 60 Hertz electric utility power). In addition, an understanding must be gained of the relationship between the current harmonics and machine vibrations and resultant motor electrical performance deterioration.
Commercial products are available which detect induction machine incipient fault by current signature harmonic analysis. Generally, the products include a personal computer which performs motor current signature analysis and displays the results of this analysis. The products are basically spectrum analyzers which indicate possible machine problems associated with each distinct harmonic identified in the current spectrum. All of these products are intended to be used as maintenance tools and are not specifically intended for continuous on-line use. This is essentially due to the fact that a trained user must interpret the information provided by the spectral analysis and associate the information with a machine operating condition. Present harmonic analysis systems are also relatively expensive.
Technical literature on induction machine fault detection using current spectral analysis deals with the subject of detecting faults in the rotor of the machine. The problem of broken rotor bars, most common in large machines, has been studied.
Previously known induction machine current signature harmonic analysis systems have the following disadvantages:
1. Known systems require a human expert to interpret the motor signature and associate the motor signature with a motor operating condition, in order to determine if the motor is "good" or "bad".
2. Known systems are relatively expensive, and therefore are limited for use with large, expensive motors. Typical cost for these systems is between U.S. $20,000 and $50,000.
3. Known systems are designed specifically to detect broken rotor bars, a common failure mode in very large motors but infrequent in small motors.
4. Known systems require detailed structural knowledge of the motor design, such as the number of stator slots, rotor bars and quantity of rolling elements in shaft bearing.
5. Known systems are intended for use as a maintenance tool to perform bench tests on individual motors that are not driving loads.
There has been a long-felt need in the motor industry for methods and apparatus for predicting electric induction machine failures in an "on-line", "in-service" fashion, without additional sensors; that is, while the machine is in use, so that the user/operator can be notified when a machine failure is imminent without removing the machine from service. The needed methods and apparatus must also take into account the fact that the specific physical characteristics of the machine are not known. Since it is desired that failures be predicted in any arbitrary machine connected to the present invention apparatus, the prediction scheme must work without the knowledge of the machine design parameters. The on-line failure prediction scheme can then be incorporated into a microcomputer-based motor controller, which gives the user a significantly higher degree of motor protection than is currently available.

Method and apparatus for predicting electric induction machine failure during operation


A carrier apparatus for carrying packages is formed in the configuration of a tubular body having opposite ends and a slot spiraling through the body between its opposite ends. The carrier apparatus is easily attached to and removed from cords secured to objects such as binding cords of packages or cord or plastic loop handles of shopping bags by inserting the cords or handles in the slot at one end of the body, and then rotating the body around its longitudinal axis causing the cords or slots to be directed along the length of the spiraling slot from one end of the apparatus to the other end of the apparatus. The carrier apparatus provides a rigid carrier or holder on the package or bag cords or handles that fits comfortably in the palm of a user's hand.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrier apparatus for carrying packages or any other object having a cord attached thereto or loop type handles provided thereon for engaging in the carrier apparatus of the invention. In particular, the present invention relates to a carrier apparatus that is easily attached to and removed from a cord attached to an object such as, but not limited to, a binding cord of a package, or cord or plastic loop handles of a shopping bag, and provides a rigid carrier or holder on the package or bag handles that fits comfortably in the palm of a user's hand.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Shopping bag and package carriers or holders have been known in the prior art for some time. Examples of prior art carriers and holders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 480,618 of Palmer; U.S. Pat. No. 709,936 of Stewart; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,519,186 of Herbert et al. Objectives of package carriers and holders of the type disclosed in the above referred to patents are to provide a simple device that is readily applied to the binding strings or cords of a package or shopping bag, to comfortably carry the package or shopping bag to which they are attached, and to avoid being accidentally detached from the package or shopping bag when in use.
However, each of the carriers and holders described in the above-referred to patents are disadvantaged in that they must be attached to the cords of the packages or shopping bags in a set orientation of the carriers or holders relative to the packages or bags. If the carriers or holders deviate from their required orientations relative to the packages or bags to which they are attached, they could possibly become accidentally detached from the packages or bags.
What is needed is an improved shopping bag or package carrier that may be easily attached to a cord or cords secured to an object such as the cords of a package or shopping bag, and is not required to be maintained in any particular orientation relative to the object, package or bag to avoid it being accidentally detached from the object, package or bag. Such an improved carrier would eliminate the need for maintaining the carrier in a set orientation relative to the object, package or bag when in use.


The present invention provides a separator for a non-aqueous secondary battery including a porous substrate and an adhesive layer that is formed on one side or both sides of the porous substrate and is an aggregate layer of particles that include a polyvinylidene fluoride resin, the adhesive layer further including a filler that includes at least one of an organic compound or an inorganic compound, the content of the filler being from 20% by mass to 80% by mass, with respect to the total mass of the mass of the particles and the mass of the filler, and the content of the particles per one adhesive layer being from 0.1 g/m2 to 6.0 g/m2.

Non-aqueous secondary batteries having a high energy density, such as lithium ion secondary batteries, have been widely used as power supply for portable electronic devices such as lap-top computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, and camcorders. Further, in recent years, since these batteries have a high energy density, application of these batteries to automobiles and the like has also been studied.
In conjunction with reductions in size and weight of portable electronic devices, the outer casing of a non-aqueous secondary batteries has been simplified. Non-aqueous secondary batteries initially had a battery can made of stainless steel, but a battery with an aluminum can has been developed, and further, currently a battery with a soft pack made of an aluminum laminate pack has also been developed. In the case of a soft pack outer casing made of aluminum laminate, since the outer casing is soft, joining between an electrode and a separator becomes inappropriate during charging and discharging. This may cause a technical problem of reducing the cycle life. From the viewpoint of addressing this problem, a technique for bonding an electrode and a separator becomes important, and many technical proposals have been made nowadays.
As one of such techniques, a separator in which an adhesive layer formed of a polyvinylidene fluoride resin is stacked on a polyolefin microporous membrane that is a conventional separator, has been proposed. The adhesive layer formed of a polyvinylidene fluoride resin favorably bonds to the electrode, when such an adhesive layer with an electrolyte contained therein and an electrode are subjected to heat pressing, and the adhesive layer formed of a polyvinylidene fluoride resin has a function of an adhesive that joins the electrode and the separator together. Accordingly, the cycle life of a soft pack battery can be favorably improved. In view of such a background, various technical proposals for a separator have been made in the past.
For example, in Patent Document 1 to Patent Document 3, from the viewpoint of achieving both the ensuring of sufficient adhesive property and ion permeability, technical proposals focusing upon the porous structure of a polyvinylidene fluoride resin layer have been made. Further, in Patent Document 4 to Patent Document 7, from the viewpoint of ensuring sufficient adhesive property, studies on polyvinylidene fluoride resins have been made, and an appropriate coating mass and composition have been proposed.
Meanwhile, in the process of manufacturing a battery, since the handling property of a separator has a great influence on the process yield at the time of manufacture of a battery, a technique of forming a lubricating layer, that is formed of a filler, on a separator surface, to improve the slipping property, has been proposed in Patent Document 8.
Further, in Patent Document 9, a technique of producing a separator having excellent electronic characteristics and excellent safety, by using a mixture containing barium titanate as inorganic particles and a poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) copolymer (PVDF-CTFE) as a binder polymer has been proposed.
Moreover, in Patent Document 10, a separator manufactured by coating, on a polyolefin substrate, a coating liquid containing silica particles, polyethylene particles, and a PVDF/acryl water-dispersion, and then drying the coating liquid has been proposed.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2003-86162    Patent Document 2: JP-A No. 2009-70609    Patent Document 3: JP-A No. 2003-77545    Patent Document 4: JP-A No. H11-260341    Patent Document 5: JP-A No. H10-172606    Patent Document 6: JP-A No. H10-177865    Patent Document 7: JP-A No. H10-189054    Patent Document 8: JP-A No. 2010-244875    Patent Document 9: Japanese National-Phase Publication No. 2008-524824    Patent Document 10: JP-A No. 2011-171290

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Separator for non-aqueous secondary battery, method for manufacturing the same, and non-aqueous secondary battery


The present invention is related to a fungal serine protease enzyme, which said enzyme has serine protease activity and comprises an amino acid sequence of Malbranchea ALKO4122 mature protease as defined in SEQ ID NO:18 or an amino acid sequence having at least 66% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:18. Also disclosed is an isolated nucleic acid molecule, comprising a polynucleotide sequence which encodes a fungal serine protease enzyme, nucleic acid sequences encoding said protease, a host cell and a process of producing a polypeptide having serine protease activity. Said protease is useful as an enzyme preparation applicable in detergent compositions and for treating fibers, wool, hair, leather, or silk, for treating food or feed, or for any applications involving modification, degradation or removal of proteinaceous material.

Microbial proteases are among the most important hydrolytic enzymes and find applications in various industrial sectors, such as detergents, food, leather, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, waste management and silver recovery. Microbial extracellular proteases account for a major part of the total worldwide industrial enzyme sales (Cherry and Fidantsef, 2003). Approximately 90% of the commercial proteases are detergent enzymes (Gupta et al., 2002). The commercial detergent preparations currently in use comprise the naturally occurring alkaline serine proteases (EC 3.4.21) of the subtilisin family or subtilisins (EC 22.214.171.124), originating from Bacillus species, or are recombinant protease preparations thereof (Maurer, 2004).
Examples of commercial proteases are such as Subtilisin Carlsberg (Alcalase®), Subtilisin 309 (Savinase®), Subtilisin 147 (Esperase®), Kannase®, Everlase®, Ovozyme®, and the cold-wash protease Polarzyme® (Novozymes A/S, DK), Purafect®, Purafect® Ox, Purafect® Prime and Properase® (Genencor Int., Inc., USA), and the BLAP S and X series (Henkel, Del.).
Several alkaline serine proteases and genes encoding these enzymes have also been isolated from eukaryotic organisms, including yeast and filamentous fungi. U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,399 and EP 519229 (Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., JP) disclose an alkaline protease from the genus Fusarium (asexual state, teleomorph) or Gibberella, (sexual state, anamorph) particularly from Fusarium sp. S-19-5 (ATCC 20192, IFO 8884), F. oxysporum f sp. lini (IFO 5880) or G. saubinetti (ATCC 20193, IF06608), useful in the formulation of detergent and other cleanser compositions. WO1994025583 (NovoNordisk A/S, DK) discloses an active trypsin-like protease enzyme derivable from a Fusarium species, in particular a strain of F. oxysporum (DSM 2672), and the DNA sequence encoding the same. The amino acid and nucleotide sequences of the serine proteases from F. equiseti and F. acuminatum have been disclosed in WO 2010125174 and WO 2010125175, respectively (AB Enzymes Oy, FI). Also, alkaline proteases from fungal species such as Tritirachium and Conidiobolus have been reported (reviewed in Anwar and Saleemuddin 1998)
The major problem in the use of proteases in liquid detergents is their instability. In liquid detergents enzymes are in direct contact with water and chatropic agents like anionic surfactants and complexing agents, which can lead to irreversible denaturation. Proteases degrade proteins including other enzymes in detergent formulations and themselves. The auto-proteolysis is enhanced by surfactants and heat. Thus, the stability of liquid detergents containing protease represents a major challenge for product development (Maurer, 2010).
Various methods have been used for improving the stability of industrial serine proteases. WO 92/03529 (NovoNordisk A/S, DK), US 2009/096916 (Genencor Int. Inc., US) and WO 2007/145963 (Procter & Gamble Co., US) disclose the use of a reversible protease inhibitor of a peptide or protein type. Liquid detergent compositions comprising proteases often include protease inhibitors such as boric acid with or without polyols to inhibit the activity of proteases. One example of such inhibitors is 4-formyl phenyl boronic acid (4-FPBA) disclosed in US 2010/0120649 (Novozymes A/S, DK). The stability of proteases has also been improved by using a combination of halide salts with polyols (WO 02/08398, Genencor Int. Inc., US). EP 0352244A2 (NovoNordisk A/S, DK) suggests improving the stability of Bacillus derived enzymes using amphoteric compounds, such as surfactants.
Based on the information derived from the crystal structures and sequence similarity comparisons between homologous proteins, variants with improved stability and/or improved performance may be designed. Variants of the natural serine proteases with improved catalytic efficiency and/or better stability towards temperature, oxidizing agents and different washing conditions, as well as improved storage stability in liquid detergents have been developed through site-directed and/or random mutagenesis.
Thermomycolin EC 220.127.116.11, isolated as an extracellular alkaline endopeptidase, is produced by a thermophilic fungus Malbranchea pulcella var. sulfurea. Thermomycolin is described as a 325 residue, single-chain protein. It has the active-site sequence -Leu-Ser-(Gly)-Thr-Ser*-Met-, which is typical for a member of the subtilisin family. Thermomycolin possesses one disulfide bridge, which is exceptional. Thermomycolin is not as thermostable as the extracellular serine proteinases of thermophilic bacteria, but it is more stable than most fungal proteinases (Gaucher and Stevenson, 2004). According to Ong and Gaucher (1975) the thermal inactivation of thermomycolin occurs at 73° C. in the presence of 10 mM Ca2+. Thermomycolin hydrolyses casein on broad pH range. The optimum pH for hydrolysis of casein is about 8.5.
Abu-Shady et al. (2001) disclose properties of a protease from Malbranchea sulfurea that is a local isolate from soil samples collected from butcheries in Egypt and cultured to obtain a protease enzyme. This publication describes the relative activity of M. sulphurea protease in the presence of certain detergents at low concentrations (0.7%) at 30-90° C. using preincubation time of 15-60 min, i.e. at conditions resembling washing conditions. However, it does not give any indication of the stain removal performance or the storage stability of this protease in detergent itself, which are essential properties for the suitability for use of a protease in detergent formulations. The publication also describes the temperature and pH profiles of a partially purified protease. The optimum temperature of the protease is at 50° C. and optimum pH at 9.0.
Despite the fact that numerous patent publications, reviews and articles have been published, disclosing fungal serine proteases from various microorganisms, for example, the low temperature alkaline proteases from actinomycete (Nocardiopsis dassonvillei) and fungal (Paecilomyces marquandii) microorganisms, e.g. in EP 0290567 and EP 0290569 (Novo Nordisk A/S, DK), there is still a great need for new proteases, which are suitable for and effective in modifying, degrading and removing proteinaceous materials of different stains, particularly at low or moderate temperature ranges and which are stable in the presence of detergents with highly varying properties. Due to the autocatalytic property of serine proteases, the stability during storage is also very important.
It is also desirable that the serine protease can be produced in high amounts, and can be cost-effectively down-stream processed, by easy separation from fermentation broth and mycelia.


A traffic source emits packet-based traffic (ATM) carrying a plurality of variable bit rate calls. The traffic is managed by: measuring a parameter of the current traffic output from the source, using the measured parameter in a comparison with a parameter which is indicative of available capacity on the link; and providing a control signal for varying the operational state of the traffic source according to the comparison. The operational state can be varied by choosing a combination of a coding rate, selected from a range of coding rates, and selective use of silence suppression. A cell policing algorithm can be used, such as the GCRA. The system lowers transmission quality of voice traffic before lowering transmission quality of the data traffic, and uses silence suppression for voice traffic before using lower coding rates for the traffic source.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling communications traffic and in particular to controlling a source of communications traffic that is coupled to a communications link. The invention is particularly suited to, but not limited to, packet-based communications systems such as broadband Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) systems which carry variable bit rate traffic.
Communications systems typically have some form of congestion management function to allocate the resources, such as bandwidth on a communications link, to users in a way that prevents the system from becoming congested. Typically some form of connection admission control (CAC) responds to new call requests and admits or refuses calls.
Integrated communications systems are now being developed which can carry a variety of types of traffic, such as voice, data and video. Traffic can be a mix of constant bit rate and variable bit rate traffic. Variable bit rate (VBR) traffic poses particular problems for traffic management as the bit rate of the traffic varies during a call. The effect of a number of VBR sources all operating together can result in a wide range of bit rates for the offered traffic. Clearly, if the offered traffic exceeds the available capacity, it cannot all be sent at the same time. Packet-based communications systems often use a cell-shaping function to xe2x80x9csmoothxe2x80x9d the peaks in the traffic to fit the traffic to the available resource, by buffering the traffic until it can be sent. However, delay-sensitive traffic such as voice cannot tolerate buffering and therefore cannot be treated in this way.
Some communications systems transport voice traffic using silence suppression, which suppresses silent periods in a conversation, thereby allowing the bandwidth which would have been occupied by data bits carrying those silent portions to be used by other traffic. The use of silence suppression provides some additional capacity on a communications link but also has the effect of turning the voice traffic into variable bit rate traffic. This makes it difficult to predict the actual sustained cell rate (average bandwidth) for a voice trunk using a fixed coding scheme because the ratio of talk to silence is not deterministic.
One solution is to engineer the communications system such that it reserves sufficient resources to ensure that the voice traffic is properly carried but this is undesirable in that it uses resources that could have been used by other traffic, thereby reducing the efficiency of the system.
The present invention seeks to provide a method and apparatus for controlling communications traffic.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of controlling offered communications traffic from a traffic source, which source emits packet-based traffic carrying a plurality of variable bit rate calls, the offered traffic being for transmission over a communications link, the method comprising:
monitoring current traffic output from the source;
comparing the monitored current traffic with capacity on the link; and
providing a control signal for varying the operational state of the traffic source according to the comparison.
This method can be used to control congestion caused by the statistical behaviour of traffic, such as speech traffic on which silence-suppression is being employed. Employing a reactive, real time, congestion management system allows the system to be engineered much more aggressively than it would need to be if only first line congestion management, such as connection admission controls (CAC), was implemented. This allows the CAC parameters to be set higher, allowing more calls to be transported, while still maintaining quality.
An efficient traffic management system in the Integrated Access system allows quality of service to be maintained for both the voice and data traffic while also achieving efficient bandwidth usage. Such a system also allows the integrated access traffic to meet its traffic contract with the underlying network. To achieve efficiency in the network it is intended to allow engineering guidelines which assume a reasonable average saving for voice traffic by using silence suppression (say a 50% saving) and to provide an effective congestion management system which deals with periods where the offered load temporarily exceeds the capacity of the link.
The method may perform a traffic policing algorithm, such as the generic cell rate algorithm (GCRA), and use the output of that algorithm, which indicates how near the current traffic is to the limits of capacity on the link or the traffic contract, to determine how to vary the operational state of the source. Alternatively, the method can make measurements of the current traffic and use these to determine how congested the channel is and therefore what change is required to the operational state of the source. The method can make measurements to derive parameters which are good equivalents to parameters that the policing algorithm would derive, such as Peak cell rate (PCR), Sustained cell rate (SCR), Maximum burst size (MBS) and the leaky bucket counter (L) used in the GCRA. Using the GCRA directly, or deriving GCRA-equivalent parameters allows the source to more readily conform to the traffic contract for the link. The capacity on the link can be a traffic contract for the link, which specifies the boundaries for the traffic that will be accepted by the link operator, or it can be provisioned traffic parameters for the link.
The preferred embodiment describes the invention in the context of an ATM-based network, but the invention is not limited to use in such a network, and could also be applied to other types of packet or cell based networks such as Internet Protocol (IP) based networks.
This method can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of these. Accordingly, further aspects of the invention provide software stored on a machine readable medium and apparatus for performing each of the steps of the method.
Preferred features may be combined as appropriate, and may be combined with any of the aspects of the invention as would be apparent to a person skilled in the art.

Method and apparatus for managing communications traffic


A discharge bulb including: an arc tube having a light emitting portion constructed in a manner that a light emitting substance is enclosed therein by pinch-sealing the arc tube, and discharge electrodes are oppositely arranged therein; and a shroud glass tube hermetically sealing and covering the arc tube, so as to form a space between the shroud glass tube and the arc tube. And a water content or pressure of gas enclosed in the sealed space is specified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bulb for a discharge lamp used as a vehicle lighting device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bulb for a discharge lamp, with improved durability due to a specific water content or pressure of gas enclosed in a hermetically sealed space between an arc tube including a light emitting portion-of a discharge bulb and a shroud glass tube surrounding the arc tube.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, discharge bulbs have been used as vehicle lighting devices such as head lamps for automobiles. Typically, discharge lamps having the following structure have been employed. Light is emitted by a discharge phenomenon between electrodes oppositely arranged in a glass bulb, in which a xenon gas is enclosed.
The structure of the discharge bulb will be schematically described below. First, discharge electrodes made of tungsten are oppositely arranged in a sealed space (sealed chamber) obtained by pinch-sealing a long, thin, glass tube at a predetermined interval, so as to form an arc tube including a spherical light emitting portion provided therein. The light emitting portion is filled with a starting gas (xenon gas), mercury and metal halide (hereinafter, referred to as xe2x80x9clight emitting substancexe2x80x9d).
In order to cut an ultraviolet component-having a wavelength harmful to human eyes-from the light emitted from the light emitting portion, a substantially cylindrical shroud glass tube is provided so as to seal and surround the arc tube. Conventionally, in the discharge bulb, an atmospheric air has been enclosed in a sealed space between the arc tube and the shroud glass tube.
However, the conventional art has the following technical problems.
(1) In the case where an atmospheric air containing much water is enclosed in the sealed space between the arc tube and the shroud glass tube, when the discharge bulb is repeatedly turned on and off, a temperature remarkably varies in the sealed space. For this reason, the sealed space easily becomes dewy. When the sealed space is dewy, a capillary condensation of water content gradually occurs in a narrow gap between the sphere-shaped, bulged, light emitting portion of the arc tube and the shroud glass tube. As a result, disadvantageously, devitrification (whitening) and expansion of the light-emitting portion easily occur. In particular, when glass is formed, a gas containing water content more than the atmospheric air is exhausted from a burner and is enclosed within the sealed glass tube, whereby a critical problem arises.
(2) A xenon gas is usually enclosed in the light emitting portion at about 5 to 10 atmospheres pressure and, thus, an internal pressure of the light emitting portion arrives at several tens of atmospheres pressure when the discharge bulb is turned on. For this reason, when the turn-on time becomes long, the light emitting portion is gradually expanded and, then, closely approaches an inner wall surface of the shroud glass tube. As a result of the above, devitrification is generated. Moreover, the light emitting portion contacts with the inner wall surface of the shroud glass tube, resulting in leakage or breakdown.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems in the prior art. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to improve durability of discharge bulbs by specifying a predetermined range of water content or pressure for gas enclosed in a sealed space between an arc tube of the discharge bulb and a shroud glass tube surrounding the arc tube.
In order to achieve the above and other objects, the following aspects of the invention have been employed.
More specifically, according to a first aspect, the present invention provides a discharge bulb including: an arc tube having a light emitting portion constructed in a manner that a light emitting substance or the like is enclosed therein by pinch-sealing the arc tube, and discharge electrodes are oppositely arranged therein; and a shroud glass tube hermetically sealing and covering the arc tube so as to form a sealed space between the shroud glass tube and the arc tube, wherein a water content of the gas enclosed in the sealed space is set to less than 130 ppm.
In this aspect, since the water content of air existing in the sealed space is made low, the dew point becomes less than xe2x88x9240xc2x0 C. Therefore, even if the discharge bulb is repeatedly turned on and off, the sealed space does not easily become dewy, and there is no possibility of facilitating devitrification (whitening) or expansion of the light emitting portion by capillary condensation of the water content generated in a narrow space between the light emitting portion of the arc tube and the shroud glass tube.
Further, according to a second aspect, the present invention provides the discharge bulb according to the first aspect, but is further characterized in that the light emitting portion is formed so as to closely approach an inner wall surface of the shroud glass tube, and the sealed space is filled with a gas within a range from a lower atmospheric pressure limit, calculated by 3xe2x88x926 d, to an upper limit of 15 atmospheres pressure, wherein a distance from the inner wall surface of the shroud glass tube to a zenith portion of the light emitting portion is set as reference numeral d (in the unit of mm).
In this aspect, the distance d from the inner wall surface of the shroud glass tube to the zenith portion of the light emitting portion is set to a proper value, and a pressure of the sealed space is specified. By doing so, it is possible to reduce a generation of devitrification, leak, and breakdown, of the light-emitting portion. Moreover, the light emitting portion does not reach an abnormally high temperature by the thermally conductive effect of the gas. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the glass from being softened and expanded.
In this case, the calculating equation xe2x80x9c3xe2x88x926dxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94for determining the lower atmospheric pressure limitxe2x80x94is obtained from an experiment conducted in order to obtain a relation between an expansion length of the light emitting portion and a pressure of the sealed space when turning on the discharge bulb.
Further, according to a third aspect, the present invention provides a manufacturing method of a discharge bulb having (i) an arc tube having a light emitting portion constructed in a manner that a light emitting substance or the like is enclosed therein by pinch-sealing a glass tube, and discharge electrodes are oppositely arranged, and (ii) a shroud glass tube hermetically sealing and covering the arc tube so as to form a space between the shroud glass tube and the arc tube, wherein the method includes:
a gas filing process for filling a gas into the space, wherein the gas filling process includes a gas introducing process for introducing a gas having a specified water content of less than 130 ppm into the space; and
a sealing process for sealing the shroud glass tube so as to seal the space.
In this aspect, by specifying the water content of the sealed space, it is possible to manufacture a discharge bulb that does not easily become dewy, even when the discharge bulb is repeatedly turned on and off.
Further, according to a fourth aspect, the present invention provides the manufacturing method of a discharge bulb according to the third aspect, but further characterized in that the gas introducing process is carried out within a range from 0.3 to 15 atmospheres pressure. By doing so, it is possible to manufacture a discharge bulb that can securely prevent an expansion of the light emitting portion.
Further, according to a fifth aspect, the present invention provides the manufacturing method of a discharge bulb according to either the third or fourth aspects, but further characterized in that the sealing process is carried out so that the shroud glass tube is cooled, whereby the gas is liquefied. By doing so, it is possible to fill the tube with gas having 1 atmosphere pressure or more.
As described above, the present invention improves durability (long life) of a discharge bulb. That is, the present invention contributes to improvement in the quality of discharge bulbs.

Discharge lamp and manufacturing method thereof


An optical film having an inner portion exhibiting an N value defined by the following equation smaller than an N value at a surface of the optical film:N=(nx+ny)/2−nz wherein nx represents an in-plane refractive index in a slow axis direction of the optical film, ny represents an in-plane refractive index in a fast axis direction of the optical film, and nz represent a refractive index in a thickness direction of the optical film.

Recently, liquid crystal display widely used for displaying element is constituted by a liquid crystal layer and a polarizing plate. The polarizing plate is constituted by arranging a transparent protecting layer on both sided of the polarizing film. The liquid crystal cell includes a liquid crystal layer and a substrate sandwiching the liquid crystal layer. In the case of a transmission type liquid crystal display, the polarizing plates are arranged on both sides of the liquid crystal cell. Various displaying modes such as TN (twisted nematic), VA (vertically aligned), IPS (in-plane switching) and OCB (optically compensatory bend) have bee proposed for the liquid crystal cell.
Regarding the liquid crystal display, there is a problem such as that the displaying ability is lowered when the displayed image is viewed in an oblique direction even though the image is suitably viewed when the image is viewed from the front of the display because the liquid crystal material and the polarizing plate each has anisotropism. Accordingly, various optical films for expanding the viewing angle of the liquid crystal display have been proposed; cf. Patent Documents 1 through 5.
Hitherto, the double refraction of the optical film is controlled for obtaining the desired viewing angle of the liquid crystal display. However, the birefringence required to the optical film is different depending on the displaying mode of the liquid crystal cell. Consequently, the birefringence cannot be sufficiently controlled by the usual method for controlling the birefringence of the optical film and the sufficient viewing angle cannot be provided.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereafter referred to as JP-A) No. 4-127103    Patent Document 2: JP-A No. 2005-105139    Patent Document 3: JP-A No. 2005-105140    Patent Document 4: JP-A No. 2005-139304    Patent Document 5: JP-A No. 2005-139764

Optical film, manufacturing method of the same, and polarizing plate and liquid crystal display using the optical film


A thermal picture synthesis device (1) of multi-layer construction has a resistor element (3) spaced from a semi-conductor substrate layer (2). The resistor element (3) is made of titanium or Ni-chrome. A drive element layer (4) is provided either in or attached to the substrate layer (2) for the resistor element (3). By placing the drive element layer parallel to and spaced from the resistor element (3) it is possible to pack a plurality of resistor elements (3) into a side by side adjacent array with a high fill factor or packing density and this coupled with the use of titanium or Ni-chrome for the resistor elements (3) and the spacing of these elements from the semi-conductor substrate (2) allows the device to operate at a higher apparent temperature than is conventional.

Thermal picture synthesis devices are used for generating thermal images for use in developing and testing infrared radiation sensitive electro-optical equipment. Conventionally such a device may take the form of one or more resistor elements, preferably arranged in an array, which can be heated selectively by passing electric current therethrough. By selecting the resistor elements to be heated the device can be used to produce a desired thermal image made up of pixels which correspond to the heated resistor elements.
A form of thermal picture synthesis device has been proposed which employs a resistor element in the form of a thin strip extending across a cavity formed in the surface of a supporting semi-conductor substrate. The resistor element is also made of silicon, is suspended over the cavity and is connected to drive circuitry arranged along side and coplanar with the resistor element on the semi-conductor substrate. By suspending the resistor element over a cavity it is possible to reduce the rate of loss of heat from the resistor element into and through the semi-conductor body. This allows more of the heat generated in the resistor element to be used for the thermal picture synthesis. However such a known device suffers from at least two problems which reduce the usefulness of the device.
Firstly by making the drive circuitry coplanar with the resistor elements the number of elements or pixels per unit area in an array is reduced. This reduced "fill factor" leads to a large loss of apparent temperature so that the actual perceived thermal image temperature may only be of the order of 300.degree. Centigrade whilst the actual temperature at the resistor element is of the order of 1100.degree. Centigrade. Secondly this large loss of apparent temperature is exacerbated by the use of a silicon resistor element which can additionally lead to a high thermal stress failure rate for the device. Because of these problems such a known form of thermal picture synthesiser device is not suitable for imaging temperatures of more than about 300.degree. Centigrade and there is a need for a generally improved thermal picture synthesis device which is capable of operating at higher apparent temperatures, preferably up to 600.degree. or 700.degree. Centigrade.

Thermal picture synthesizer device for generating a thermal image

British Aerospace Public Limited Company


A mobile phone charger also functioning as a remote sound monitoring device is provided. The charger internally includes a high-sensitive microphone, a DTMF decoder, and a central processing unit (CPU). When a handset of a mobile phone is disposed in a handset w/battery charging socket on the charger, an in-car hand-free enabling circuit in the charger is enabled for the handset in the charger to charge while entering into a hand-freemode. At this point, the charger substitutes for the handset and the CPU in the charger automatically receives signals of in-coming call over the mobile phone and the mobile phone does not ring. On receipt of a signal of an in-coming call, the CPU prompts the caller to enter a code that is decoded and compared by the DTMF decoder with a code preset in the CPU. When the entered code is determined as correct, the high-sensitive microphone is turned on to pick up sound at the site of charging and transmits the picked sound via the handset for the caller to perform a sound monitoring from a remote position.

The present invention relates to a mobile phone charger, and more particularly to a mobile phone charger that includes internal in-car hand-free enabling circuit and high-sensitive microphone and therefore permits a mobile phone disposed in the charging socket to enter into a hand-free mode while the microphone picks up a sound source at the site of charging. The picked sound source may be transmitted via a communication network to which the mobile phone is connected. A caller of an in-coming call over the mobile phone under charging may enter a preset code to perform a sound monitoring from a remote position.
A conventional remote sound monitoring device designed for securing purpose usually has a limited data transmission distance within the range from 50M to 500M, depending on the radio frequency designed for the device. And, such remote sound monitoring device transmits data in the manner of analog transmission and is therefore subject to bugged by other detecting devices. Moreover, such remote sound monitoring device is powered by batteries and not adapted to monitor for a prolonged time period. These problems prevent the conventional remote sound monitoring device from working ideally.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a mobile phone charger that may also function as a remote sound monitoring device to transmit picked sound via a communication network to which a mobile phone disposed in the charger is connected.
In an aspect of the present invention, the charger includes a handset w/battery charging socket that is electrically connected to an in-car hand-free enabling circuit internally provided in the charger. When a mobile phone is disposed in the handset w/battery charging socket, it is automatically switched into the hand-free mode, and the ringing, receiving, and calling functions of the mobile phone are replaced by a high-sensitive microphone internally provided in the charger.
In another aspect of the present invention, the charger internally includes a high-sensitive microphone and related amplifying circuit and a central processing unit (CPU). When a handset of a mobile phone is disposed in a handset w/battery charging socket on the charger, an in-car hand-free enabling circuit in the charger is enabled for the handset in the charger to charge while entering into a hand-free mode and in a standby state. At this point, the charger substitutes for the handset and the CPU in the charger automatically receives signals of in-coming call over the mobile phone and the mobile phone does not ring. On receipt of a signal of an in-coming call, the CPU conditionally turns on the high-sensitive microphone for the latter to pick up sound at the site of charging and transmit the picked sound via a cellular communication network to which the charging handset is connected, so that a caller may perform a sound monitoring from a remote position.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the charger includes a CPU, a high-sensitive microphone and related amplifying circuit, and a DTMF decoder. When a mobile phone is disposed in the charge and the CPU receives a signal of an in-coming call, the CPU beeps to prompt the caller to enter a security code within a preset time period. The entered code is decoded and compared by the DTMF decoder with a code preset in the CPU. Only when the entered code is determined as correct will the high-sensitive microphone be turned on to pick up sound at the site of charging and transmit the picked sound via a cellular communication network to which the charging handset is connected. Therefore, the sound monitoring from a remote position is performed in a strictly confidential manner.

Mobile phone charger also functioning as a remote sound monitoring device


An exhaust system (26) for a vehicle with a V-engine, aimed at increasing the output power of the V-engine, preventing heat conduction from the exhaust system to the parts around the exhaust system and enhancing the durability of the exhaust system is provided. A transmission and a transfer device (14) are connected in series to the V-engine with an output shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the transmission and the transfer device (14) being provided in a tunnel (15) in a central portion of the floor (4) of the vehicle and protruding to an upper section of the vehicle, a pair of exhaust pipes (31, 32) being connected to each bank of the V-engine, the exhaust pipes (31, 32) converging into a convergence section provided under the floor (4) and extending to the rear of the vehicle.

Vehicles in which a V-engine is installed with the output shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, a transmission and a transfer device being connected in series to the V-engine, and the transmission and the transfer device being provided in a tunnel provided at a central portion of a floor of the vehicle and protruding to an upper section of the vehicle are generally known. The exhaust system for such vehicle has a structure in which a pair of exhaust pipes are connected to banks of the V-engine, and the exhaust pipes converge into a convergence section provided under the vehicle floor and extend to the rear section of the vehicle.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H06-108841 discloses an exhaust system for a vehicle based on the conventional technology, in which an exhaust pipe extending from a bank provided at one side of a V-engine extends from the one side to the other side in the lateral direction of the vehicle through a concave portion provided at a bottom portion of an oil pan arrangement, and this exhaust pipe extending from the bank provided at one side of the V-engine and another exhaust pipe extending from another bank provided at the other side of the V-engine are converged into a convergence section adjacent to a transmission for the V-engine and provided at a side portion of the other side in the lateral direction of the vehicle, and extend to the rear of the vehicle.
Further, from Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H07-164898 there is known an exhaust system for a vehicle based on the conventional technology in which an exhaust pipe extending from a bank provided at one side of the V-engine extends from the one side to the other side of the vehicle in the lateral direction for the vehicle under a transfer device, and this exhaust pipe extending from the bank provided at one side and the exhaust pipe extending from another bank provided at the other side of the vehicle are converged into a muffler provided on a side portion of the other side in the lateral direction of the vehicle with respect to a propeller shaft extending from the transfer device rearward, to then extend to the rear of the vehicle.


Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to performing a transaction between a smartwatch and an access device. Transaction details are transmitted by an antenna of a smartwatch to a contactless transaction module. An interface is rendered to a display of the smartwatch. An input of the interface is adjusted in response to a rotation of a crown of the smartwatch. The input is transmitted, by the antenna of the smartwatch, to a contactless transaction module in response to a confirmation of the input by a user of the smartwatch.

With the development of mobile devices, wearables, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and readers, contactless data exchanges have become ubiquitous. NFC (Near-Field Communication) is an example RFID protocol that uses radio waves to send and/or receive data. Some mobile devices (e.g. smart phones, tablets) have integrated hardware to allow for contactless data exchanges consistent with NFC, for example.
In some contexts, a contactless data exchange is executed to obtain building access, sharing media, or completing a purchase, for example. In these exchanges, the data may be communicated by a mobile device or a smartwatch to a contactless module. In addition, a user may confirm her desire to exchange the data by entering a confirmation code or an authentication number.
Smartwatches generally include smaller interfaces than smartphones or other mobile devices. For example, a screen (and overlayed touchscreen) of a smartphone may be approximately 10 cm by 7 cm, while a screen (and overlayed touchscreen) of a smartwatch may be approximately 3 cm by 3 cm. With fingertips in excess of 1.5 cm, entering data into a smartwatch can be cumbersome and error-prone. In recognition of this problem, data is often entered into smartwatches via a smartphone or other hardware interface. In addition to small screens, smartwatches also generally have fewer and smaller hardware buttons and switches than other mobile devices, which further limits the data input capabilities of a smartwatch. Therefore, entering a confirmation code or an authentication number to confirm a contactless data exchange on a smartwatch can be problematic.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods, systems and devices for data communication between devices and an access device. Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.


A composite bumper structure is made up of an elongated molded bumper section, molded attachment lugs and energy absorbers. The bumper section is integrally molded with the lugs and both contain elongated reinforcement fibers. The energy of a collision is absorbed both by the deformation of the energy absorbers and the elastic deformation of the lugs. The bumper section may also support a stylistic facade.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermoplastic or thermohardened automobile bumpers or shields.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bumpers or shields for the protection of automobiles, made of thermoplastic or thermohardening materials, whether or not associated with metal reinforcements, are already known.
These protective devices are customarily attached to the body by means of fittings which are able to assure the absorption of a certain amount of the energy upon impact, but which have the drawback of showing major permanent deformations. These deformations lead to an irreversible displacement of the protective devices, which highlights the damage suffered from the impact.


A vehicle has a longitudinal centerline and comprises a plurality of ground-engaging members, a seat supported by the plurality of ground-engaging members, a fuel tank positioned adjacent the seat, a steering assembly operably coupled to at least one the ground-engaging members, and a display movable with the steering assembly and intersecting the longitudinal centerline of the vehicle. The display is positioned rearward of a front plane of the fuel tank.

Vehicles may include a display screen positioned forward of the operator to provide information about the vehicle, ambient conditions, or infotainment to the operator. However, if the display is a touch-screen display configured to receive an input from the operator, the operator may need to remove his/her hand from the steering device (e.g., steering wheel, handlebars) to contact the screen. Additionally, because the display is forward of the operator, the operator may need to lean forward to reach the display.


A method of assembling a rotor assembly is provided. The method comprises forming at least one channel in a dovetail portion of at least one rotor blade assembly, wherein the rotor blade assembly includes an airfoil extending outwardly from the dovetail portion, inserting a sealing assembly within the at least one channel of the dovetail portion, and coupling the at least one rotor blade assembly to a rotor disk using the dovetail portion such that at least a portion of the sealing assembly is between the dovetail portion and the rotor disk.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and more specifically to methods and apparatus for assembling gas turbine engine components.
Accurate fabrication of engine components may be a significant factor in engine performance and engine efficiency. Specifically, when the component is a gas turbine engine blade, the fabrication of the blade may affect the overall performance and efficiency of the gas turbine engine. At least some known gas turbine engines include high and low pressure compressors, a combustor, and at least one turbine. The compressors compress air which is mixed with fuel and channeled to the combustor. The fuel/air mixture is then ignited to generate hot combustion gases, which are channeled to the turbine. At least some known turbines include a rotor assembly that includes at least one row of circumferentially-spaced rotor blades. Each rotor blade includes an airfoil that includes a pressure side coupled to a suction side at a leading edge and a trailing edge. Each airfoil extends radially outward from a rotor blade platform. At least some known rotor blades include a dovetail that extends radially inward from a shank coupled to the platform. The dovetail is used to mount the rotor blade within the rotor assembly to a rotor disk or spool. In at least some known gas turbine engines, a small gap may be defined between a lower surface of the dovetail and a lower surface of the rotor disk.
During operation, a pressure differential created between the rotor blade pressure side and the rotor blade suction side may result in an undesirable leakage flow between the upstream and downstream portions of the rotor. One such possible leakage path may be defined through the gap defined between the dovetail and the lower surface of the rotor disk groove in which the rotor blades are carried. If such leakage paths are not efficiently sealed, the leakage flow may have an adverse effect both on engine efficiency and engine performance.

Methods and apparatus for assembling gas turbine engines


An organic light emitting display device includes a display panel provided with a pad region having a plurality of pads. A flexible circuit board having lead terminals is coupled into the pad region. The pad region includes a plurality of first pads electrically coupled to the flexible circuit board through the lead terminals and a plurality of second pads electrically isolated from the flexible circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display panels, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting display device having a reduced size flexible circuit board for driving a display panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, there have been developed various types of flat panel display devices having lighter weight and smaller volume than cathode ray tubes. Among the flat panel display devices, an organic light emitting display device has emerged as a leader because of the excellent luminance and color purity provided by an organic compound used as a light emitting material.
Generally, an organic light emitting display device includes a display panel provided with at least a pixel device, and a flexible circuit board supplying driving signals to the display panel. The flexible circuit board is electrically coupled to the display panel through a compression process using an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) in a module manufacturing process.
In such an organic light emitting display device, in order to enhance the efficiency of the module manufacturing process and to decrease manufacturing cost, the flexible circuit board needs to be structured so as not to be unnecessarily large in size.


Ultra-conductive wires having enhanced electrical conductivity are disclosed. The conductivity of an ultra-conductive wire is enhanced using cold wire drawing and annealing. Methods of making the ultra-conductive wires are further disclosed.

Ultra-conductive metals refer to alloys or composites which exhibit greater electrical conductivity than the pure metal from which the ultra-conductive metal is formed. Ultra-conductive metals are produced through the incorporation of certain, highly conductive, additives into a pure metal to form an alloy or composite with improved electrical conductivity. For example, ultra-conductive copper can be formed through the incorporation of highly conductive nano-carbon particles, such as carbon nanotubes and/or graphene, into high purity copper. Known ultra-conductive metals have required the inclusion of large quantities of such highly conductive additives to significantly boost the electrical conductivity of the pure metal.
PCT Patent App. Pub. No. WO 2018/064137 describes a method of forming a metal-graphene composite including coating metal components (10) with graphene (14) to form graphene-coated metal components, combining a plurality of the graphene-coated metal components to form a precursor workpiece (26), and working the precursor workpiece (26) into a bulk form (30) to form the metal-graphene composite. A metal-graphene composite includes graphene (14) in a metal matrix wherein the graphene (14) is single-atomic layer or multi-layer graphene (14) distributed throughout the metal matrix and primarily (but not exclusively) oriented with a plane horizontal to an axial direction of the metal-graphene composite.
U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. US 2016/0168693 A1 describes a method of tailoring an amount of graphene in an electrically conductive structure, includes arranging a substrate material in a plurality of strands and arranging at least one graphene layer coated circumferentially on one or more of the strands of the plurality of strands, the graphene layer being a single atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern, the substrate material and the at least one graphene layer having an axial direction. A first cross-section taken along the axial direction of the substrate and the at least one graphene layer includes a plurality of layers of the substrate material and at least one internal layer of the graphene alternatively disposed between the plurality of layers of the substrate material.

Ultra-conductive wires and methods of forming thereof


A filter element has a carrier plate with a mounting groove which extends around a filter chamber recess. A filter cloth blank, which covers this recess, has a mounting frame which is formed on and sits in the mounting groove. The filter cloth is thus positioned easily, quickly and in a crease-free manner on the carrier plate and a liquid barrier is thus obtained at the edge of the filter cloth blank.

In the case of known filter elements for chamber and membrane filters, the filter medium blanks, which overlap the mutually opposite end faces of the support body, are extended beyond the support body edge where they are connected together by cords, wires, clips and similar. The positioning of the filter medium blanks is a time-consuming process. It is also possible for this filter element arrangement to give rise to "cross-filtration", which means that filtrate or liquid containing suspended matter is pushed outwards in the lateral direction between the plates of the filter press. This represents a disadvantage, not only as regards keeping the filter press clean, but also with respect to filter media which are detrimental to health.
A cross-filtration of this kind is eliminated in known filter elements in which the individual support bodies comprise a groove extending directly at the edge for accommodating a toroidal sealing ring and a further groove disposed inside the first groove for accommodating the edge of the filter cloth. The edge portion of the filter cloth of a filter element of this kind is driven into the second groove by means of a tool having a wide blade. This method of positioning the filter cloth is also time-consuming and requires a great deal of attention, in particular also because projecting edges must be carefully removed after the filter cloth edge has been driven in, a procedure which can be very time-consuming when the filter cloth materials consist of glass fibres or a weldable plastic.

Filter medium with an embedded frame mounted to a support having a mating groove


A watch including a case containing a plate and an electronic module powered by a button cell battery, a conductor electrically connecting the button cell battery to the electronic module and a clamping device capable of ensuring an electrical connection between the button cell battery and the conductor, wherein the clamping device includes a magnet.

Most electronic watches include movements that are powered by so-called "button cell" batteries which have a limited life and which therefore have to be regularly replaced. The batteries are generally disposed inside a cylindrical housing arranged in the watch plate. Metal clamps are devised to exert significant pressure on the sides of the battery to achieve a permanent electrical contact and to hold the battery in position. The clamps are obtained by stamping and bending and their geometry is specifically adapted to that of the battery and to the movement with which they are intended to cooperate. However, this clamping device has several drawbacks. It is not generally possible to use batteries of different sizes with the same clamp, so that the replacement batteries must be identical in every respect to the original battery. Expensive stamping tools must be developed for each new application. The clamps are relatively fragile and their small dimension makes them difficult to handle. They may be deformed or broken accidentally by the user when the battery is replaced, which will cause loss of contact and result in a partial or total malfunction of the watch. Example embodiments of such metal clamps can be found in CH Patent 508909 or FR Patent 2460499.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforecited drawbacks of the prior art by proposing a watch provided with an electronic movement or an electronic module comprising a new type of clamping device for its energy source formed by a battery, particularly a button cell battery.

Watch comprising a magnetic clamping device


Provided herein are attenuated influenza viruses and methods of making attenuated influenza viruses.

Influenza is a serious public health issue marked by mild to serious illness and, in some cases, even death. Current live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) are not sufficiently attenuated for administration to children under the age of 2, pregnant women, persons with compromised immunity, or persons at high risk for complications from influenza. However, these groups of people are at high risk for complications from influenza.

Attenuated influenza vaccines and uses thereof


A tapered carbon microelectrode is produced by extruding an organic material or a composition composed of crystalline carbon fine powder and an organic binder into a thin rod form, carbonizing said rod by calcining to produce a pure carbon thin rod, soaking the resulting thin rod as an anode in an electrolytic solution, gradually pulling up the thin rod while electrochemically oxidizing the tip portion of the thin rod. Then a lead wire is connected with the thick portion of the thin rod followed by coating all the surface except the conically sharp tip portion.. The tapered carbon electrode can be used for various electrochemical measurements and scanning tunneling microscope.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tapered carbon mecroelectrode and a process for producing said tapered carbon microelectrode.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a tapered carbon microelectrode for voltammetry, electrochemical detectors, probes and electrode for STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) and related method, sensors for environmental analysis, sensors for pathological test, probe electrodes for detection used for living body system, food and the like where harmlessness and innoxiousness are strictly required, and the like, and a process for the production thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrochemical detection methods such as voltammetry, high performance liquid chromatography, sensors and the like are widely used for highly selective and highly sensitive measurements.
Therefore, the methods are often used for analysis and evaluation of clinical living body samples and environmental samples containing components to be measured only in extremely small amounts and many compounds coexisting therewith.
An important member determining the performance of the electrochemical detector is a working electrode, and the kind of the selected working electrode material largely influences on the kinds of substances which can be measured, sensitivity, selectivity, and possibility of quantitative analysis.
Heretofore, as the electrodes for electrochemical measurement, there have been investigated various mercury electrodes, platinum, gold, copper, silver, carbon (glasslike carbon) (GC), carbon fiber (CF), carbon paste (CP), highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and the like.
Among them, mercury electrode and GC are mainly used as an electrode for polarography and an electrode for an electrochemical detector, respectively.
However, mercury is not desirable from the standpoint of environmental protection due to its poisonous property, and thereby nonpoisonous and good electrodes in place of mercury electrode are in demand. Though a GC electrode is composed of nonpoisonous carbon, it is difficult to treat the surface of the electrode, reproducibility of measurement result is not good and further, its use has problems. Other metal electrodes are liable to poison a living body system and are expensive, and the electrochemical characteristics have both merits and demerits.
Some of the present inventors found that a composite carbon material GRC (graphite reinforcement carbon) which had been used as a mechanical pencil lead exhibited excellent characteristics as an electrode for electrochemical measurements and succeeded in using the lead as the electrode and proposed a graphite composite carbon electrode (GRC) which can be easily used (Japanese Patent Application No. Sho 63-78698) as the electrode.
Further, they succeeded in making the GRC thin (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 1- 250772).
Recently it is very important to obtain physiological information at a local portion of a living body, for example, nerve cell system in vivo and in situ by means of an electrode for electrochemical measurement.
The above mentioned thin GRC has been also produced for such purpose. That is, it is demanded to measure the change with time of responses from nerve cells and secreted amounts of chemical transmitters from nerve cells by placing an electrode in the vicinity of the nerve cells in the living body to be measured or directly pricking an electrode into a living body to stimulate directly the nerve so as to give a physical, chemical or electrical stimulus.
Therefore, a very thin electrode nonpoisonous to cells (on the order of .mu.m) is necessary.
The thin GRC in one of the above-mentioned prior Japanese Patent Applications can be sufficiently used for this purpose and it has been already shown that a separate quantitative analysis of dopamine and vitamin C.
However, the GRC is anyhow so thin that the electric resistance is somewhat high and the mechanical strength is not sufficient though depending on the place to be pricked with the GRC and thereby a tougher thin electrode is demanded.
A research on fabricating an electrode by using a thin carbon fiber in a manner similar to above has been conducted, but it is difficult to find electrodes of good reproducibility, and further, the carbon fiber electrodes are not tough and the strength is almost similar to that of the thin GRC.
Probes having a thin tip portion have been recently used in STM which is a new field of application of electrode for electrochemical measurements and the related technical fields since electric current measurements and cyclic voltammetric measurements are conducted therein.
However, any materials now available are poor in reproducibility so that inexpensive electrodes for STM of good reproducibility are in demand.
STM measurements have been recently explosively developed and therefore, a microprobe and a microelectrode are very important since it influences the performance of a STM apparatus.
The advantage of using carbon microelectrodes as probes for STM is not only the property that carbon rod can be thinned, but also no electrochemical problem caused between different materials since a clean graphite plate (for example, HOPG) is often used as a substrate for bearing a sample to be measured and simultaneously functioning as a counter electrode and a tapered carbon microelectrode in which the atom of the probe portion, that is, the end portion of graphite crystal and amorphous carbon tip portion, is the same kind as that of the counter electrode-substrate. This advantage is also available in the present invention.
The present inventors have intended to solve the above-mentioned problems of electrode materials. A carbon microelectrode of Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 1- 250772 has the following features i) - vii).
i) A carbon microelectrode capable of applying any of electric current, voltage, and mechanical stimuli to a living body and the size of the functioning portion being of an order of cell. PA0 ii) A carbon microelectrode which does not contaminate the system to be measured and even if it remains in a living body, it is not harmful, and it can be used for examining food. PA0 iii) A carbon microelectrode having a mechanical strength sufficient to prick a living body and food for an electrochemical detection as to a microportion or microamount. PA0 iv) Little fluctuation of electrode characteristics, good reproducibility of data, and reliable measurement. PA0 v) Any special pretreatment is not necessary, and at most an electrochemical pretreatment is enough to measure stably an electrode reaction. PA0 vi) Low cost and disposable. PA0 vii) A carbon microelectrode having low electric resistance (good electric conductivity), high prick strength (toughness) and a very strong stem (hardly broken) as compared with carbon fiber electrodes (CF) and thin GRC electrodes. PA0 i) Wide polarized potential domain and small blank current. PA0 ii) Good reproducibility, and repeated use is possible. PA0 iii) Having an electrode reaction activity. PA0 iv) Individual electrodes do not have different characteristics from one another. PA0 v) Impurities are so little that electrode reaction is not disturbed. PA0 vi) Theoretical interpretation is possible. PA0 vii) Handling and pretreatment are easy. PA0 viii) Electric resistance is lowered. PA0 ix) Mechanical strength required for prick is elevated. PA0 x) The stem portion is strengthened. PA0 xi) The length and diameter of the microcylinder portion at the tip and the length of the taper portion can be optionally controlled. PA0 xii) A desired portion of the above-mentioned electrode having such irregular shape can be sufficiently insulated. PA0 (i) extruding an organic material itself or a composition prepared by highly dispersing and compounding crystalline carbon fine powder with an organic material as a binder into a desired thin rod form, PA0 (ii) calcining the product thus extruded in an inert atmosphere or in a non-oxidizing atmosphere up to an elevated temperature, PA0 (iii) thereby carbonizing the organic material itself or the organic binder contained in the composition to produce a pure carbon thin rod, PA0 (iv) soaking the resulting carbon thin rod as an anode in an electrolytic solution, at near the oxygen evolution potential, PA0 (v) gradually pulling up the carbon thin rod while subjecting the tip portion of the carbon thin rod to electrochemical oxidation to form a conically sharp tip portion having an extremely small diameter, PA0 (vi) then connecting a lead wire with the thick end portion of the carbon thin rod, and PA0 (vii) coating with an insulating material all the surface of the carbon thin rod except a desired portion at the conically sharp tip portion having an extremely small diameter. PA0 (i) extruding an organic material itself or a composition prepared by highly dispersing and compounding crystalline carbon fine powder with an organic material as a binder into a desired thin rod form, PA0 (ii) calcining the product thus extruded in an inert atmosphere or in a non-oxidizing atmosphere up to an elevated temperature, PA0 (iii) thereby carbonizing the organic material itself or the organic binder contained in the composition to produce a pure carbon thin rod, PA0 (iv) soaking the resulting carbon thin rod as an anode in an electrolytic solution, at near the oxygen evolution potential. PA0 (v) gradually pulling up the carbon thin rod while subjecting the tip portion of the carbon thin rod to electrochemical oxidation to form a conically sharp tip portion having an extremely small diameter, PA0 (vi) then connecting a lead wire with the end portion of the carbon thin rod, and PA0 (vii) coating with an insulating material all the surface of the carbon thin rod except a desired portion at the conically sharp tip portion having an extremely small diameter.
The present inventors have intended to produce a carbon microelectrode having the above-mentioned features i) - vii) in addition to solving the above-mentioned problems of electrode materials.
In general, essential conditions for a voltammetric electrode are as shown below.
According to prior filed Japanese patent applications, that is, Japanese Patent Application Nos. Sho 63-78698, Hei 1-250772 and Hei 2-1051, carbon microelectrodes are disclosed which can be sufficiently used directly. However, in the case of using for measuring potential only, they have undesirably high electric resistance and furthermore, the mechanical strength is not enough to prick a somewhat hard matter so as to measure and apply an electric stimulus. The shape of those electrodes are not appropriate when they are used as an STM probe electrode which desirably has a shape such that the tip portion only is to be very thin. In addition, there has been demanded an electrode having a thick and strong upper portion while only the tip portion has a thinness enough for the purpose of electrochemical measurement.
If the above-mentioned problems can be solved, the following conditions also can be satisfied.
The present inventors have intensively researched so as to attain the characteristics viii) to xii) as well as i) to vii), in addition to solving the above-mentioned problems and producing a carbon microelectrode having the previously mentioned features i) - vii). As a result, the present invention has been completed.

Tapered carbon microelectrode and process for production thereof

Agency of Industrial Science and Technology


‘ESAL 1801’ is a distinctive cultivar of Alocasia plant which is characterized by the combination of large dark green foliage with green venation, slightly to moderately bullate foliage with raised veins, a lamina which is held upright to horizontal relative to the petiole, and the stability of all characteristics from generation to generation.

Parentage: 'ESAL1801' originated as a naturally occurring, whole-plant mutation of an unnamed Alocasia zebrina plant (not patented). In the summer of 2017, the inventor discovered the mutation at his commercial greenhouse in Gavenzande, The Netherlands, growing amongst a cultivated population of unnamed Alocasia zebrina plants. The mutation was noted for its large foliage and near-black leaf petiole and was subsequently isolated for further evaluation in order to confirm the distinctness and stability of the characteristics first observed. Upon confirmation of distinctness and stability, 'ESFIBE1801' was selected for commercialization.
Asexual Reproduction: Asexual reproduction of 'ESFIBE1801', by way of vegetative cuttings, was first initiated in the summer of 2017 at a commercial greenhouse in Gavenzande, The Netherlands. Through five subsequent generations, the unique features of this cultivar have proven to be stable and true to type.


A continuously variable ratio transmission unit having a housing (116) and input (102, 106) and output (100) discs paired to define first and second toroidal cavities. The discs (100, 102, 106) are mounted to the housing for rotation about a common axis. First (110) and second (112) rollers—or more typically first and second sets of rollers—are respectively arranged in the first and second cavities and serve to transmit drive between the input and output discs. First (130) and second (148, 150, 152) actuators act on the respective rollers. The first actuator is coupled to a first carrier part (126) which can be mated with the housing introducing it to the housing along a direction generally parallel to the variator axis. The second actuator is coupled to a second carrier part (146) which can be mated with the housing by introducing the second carrier part to the housing along a direction non-parallel to the variator axis.

This is a National Phase of International Application No. PCT/GB2003/003948, filed on Sep. 11, 2003, which claims priority from Great Britain Patent Application No. 0224646.0, filed on Oct. 23, 2002.
The present invention relates to a continuously variable ratio transmission unit ("variator") and to a method of assembly thereof.
The general construction of variators of toroidal-race, rolling-traction type will be familiar to the skilled person. Typically two toroidal cavities are defined between facing surfaces of a set of variator discs all of which are mounted for rotation about a common axis. Drive is transmitted between the discs by a set of rollers in both of the cavities and the inclination of the rollers with respect to the discs is able to change in accordance with changes in variator drive ratio. A biasing force, along a direction transverse to the disc axis, is applied to each roller by an actuator which in existing designs is of hydraulic type.
Fabrication and in particular assembly of existing variators is somewhat complex. The discs, actuators and rollers are typically all mounted in a housing and assembling the various parts inside the housing is in current prototypes a somewhat time consuming process not easy to automate or adapt to production line techniques.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a variator which is capable of straightforward assembly.
The need to provide for hydraulic fluid supply to the several actuators has meant some complication in the machining of the variator's components, particularly the housing. The applicant has previously proposed, in order to simplify construction, to form passages for the fluid supply between confronting faces of a multi-part casing—see its published International Patent Application PCT/GB99/02968. Nonetheless an additional or alternative object of certain embodiments of the present invention is to provide, in a variator, a means of fluid supply to the hydraulic actuators which is straightforward in fabrication and assembly.
The shape of the variator housing is in many cases a crucial design issue. The current need is for variators which can be installed in existing motor vehicle designs. Hence in rear wheel drive cars the variator is to be installed in the transmission tunnel. Both excessive length and width of the variator could be problematic, and in particular laterally projecting "lobes" needed in existing designs to accommodate the roller control actuators, create installation difficulties. An additional or alternative object of the present invention is to provide a variator whose external shape is suited to installation in a motor vehicle.

Continuously variable ratio transmission unit and method of assembly thereof