A method and/or an apparatus for determining the dynamic response of a microstructure is disclosed. A piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer device formed of a piezoelectric material and a polymer material around said piezoelectric ceramic material is used to provide a pulsed bulk acoustic wave having a bandwidth of at least 20% to excite a microstructure. The microstructure is attached onto the transducer, and the pulsed bulk acoustic wave generated through the transducer in response to a pulse voltage excites the microstructure to vibrate. Meanwhile, the dynamic response of the microstructure can be monitored by a laser Doppler vibrometer, and shown by an oscilloscope.

The present invention relates to a method for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure, and more particularly to a method for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure by using a pulsed broad bandwidth ultrasonic transducer as a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) hammer to excite the microstructure. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure.
Micro-sensors and micro-actuators are the key components in a micro electrical mechanical system (MEMS). The performance of a micro-sensor or micro-actuator correlates closely with the dynamic mechanical properties thereof. For instance, the bandwidth, resolution, and response time of some micro-sensors are determined by their mechanical resonance. The output characteristics of micro-actuators such as the force amplitude and the operating frequency thereof are also determined by their dynamic behaviors. Therefore, the testing method for evaluating the dynamic behaviors of the microstructures is very important. Several excitation and detection approaches have been developed to characterize the dynamic responses, vibration characteristics such as the natural frequencies and the mode shapes of the microstructures. Moreover, the material properties, e.g. residual stress, Young""s modulus and fatigue properties, can also be determined.
The measured dynamic response of a microstructure will be affected by the excitation technique. Please refer to FIG. 1 which schematically shows a conventional excitation device which drive the microstructure through built in electrostatic electrodes. The microstructure 10 formed on a silicon substrate 11 by a semiconductor manufacturing process is an insulator cantilever, for example, made of silicon oxide. In order to allow the cantilever 10 to be excited, a conductive film 12 such as a chromium film is applied over the insulator cantilever 10. Then, a variable-frequency sinusoidal voltage could be applied between the silicon substrate 11 and the metallized line 12 leading to the cantilever 10 by way of a variable frequency oscillator 13. Accordingly, the cantilever 10 with the chromium film 12 can be electrostatically attracted toward the substrate with either voltage polarity so as to excite the mechanical motion of the cantilever 10. In this approach, an additional conductive film which does not belong to the microstructure is deposited. Therefore, this test method is a destructive one. On the other hand, the presence of the additional film 12 may influence the dynamic behavior of the original cantilever 10.
FIG. 2 schematically shows another conventional excitation device which mechanically excites a microstructure. As shown, a test chip 20 with a microstructure (not shown) is attached onto a piezotransducer 21, and a voltage 22 is applied for driving the piezotransducer 21 so as to mechanically excite the test chip 20. The piezotransducer 21 is made of PZT. The natural frequencies of a PZT disc are strongly dependent on the ratio of diameter/thickness (D/T), and a PZT disc with finite dimension has complex mode distribution in the frequency domain. Accordingly, when a PZT transducer acts as the based excitation source applied to a microstructure, it is likely to be strongly coupled with the dynamic responses of the microstructure in the frequency range of a spurious mode of the PZT transducer. In brief, a dynamic coupling effect will exist between the piezotransducer 21 and the test chip 20 so as to interfere with the dynamic responses of the microstructure.
Further refer to FIG. 3 which shows a further conventional excitation device which uses a swept-sine signal to drive a microstructure. As shown, a specimen 31 with a microstructure (not shown) is attached onto a PZT transducer 30. By providing a dynamic signal analyzer 32, a swept-sine signal is generated to drive the PZT transducer 30 and further the specimen 31. As known, a swept-sine signal generated by a dynamic signal analyzer typically has frequencies under 50 kHz so as to be suitable for a millimeter dimensional microstructure. As for a micron dimensional microstructure with higher natural frequencies, higher exciting frequencies will be required.
FIG. 4 shows a still further conventional excitation device which uses acoustic waves to excite a microstructure. As shown, a small loudspeaker 41 is mounted above a cantilever 40 to be excited. By providing a power for the loudspeaker 41, the acoustic waves 43 propagate via the air to the cantilever 40, thereby forcing the cantilever 40 to vibrate. In this approach, the acoustic waves 43 have to be transmitted to the cantilever 40 via air so that the cantilever 40 cannot be excited in a vacuum environment where micron dimensional microstructures are possibly located.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and/or apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure, in which no additional film is deposited on the microstructure to be excited.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and/or apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure, in which the dynamic coupling effect between the transducer and the microstructure is minimized.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and/or apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure, which can be used for a micron dimensional microstructure.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method and/or apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure, which can be operated in a vacuum environment.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure includes steps of attaching the microstructure to an ultrasonic transducer device; providing a pulse voltage to excite the ultrasonic transducer device so as to generate a pulsed bulk acoustic wave which has a bandwidth of at least 20%; and utilizing free vibration of the microstructure resulting from the pulsed bulk acoustic wave to determine the dynamic response of the microstructure. Preferably, the bandwidth is no less than 30%.
The microstructure is preferably attached to the ultrasonic transducer device by adhering a substrate of the microstructure to the ultrasonic transducer device in a nondestructive manner. For example, the substrate is adhered to the ultrasonic transducer device by wax or a sticky tape.
Preferably, the ultrasonic transducer device is a piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer. More preferably, the ultrasonic transducer device includes a piezoelectric portion and a polymer portion around the piezoelectric portion.
A second aspect of the present invention relates to a method for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure includes steps of attaching the microstructure to a piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer device formed of a piezoelectric material and a polymer material around said piezoelectric ceramic material; providing a pulse voltage for the piezocomposite layer to excite the ultrasonic transducer device so as to generate a pulsed bulk acoustic wave; and utilizing free vibration of the microstructure resulting from the pulsed bulk acoustic wave to determine the dynamic response of the microstructure.
Preferably, the piezoelectric material is PZT, and the polymer is epoxy resin or silicone.
Preferably, the pulsed bulk acoustic wave has a bandwidth of at least 20%, and more preferably, at least 30%, and a central frequency of hundreds of kHz to tens of MHz.
A third aspect of the present invention relates to an apparatus for determining a dynamic response of a microstructure includes a pulse generator for providing a pulse voltage; a piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer device including a plurality of piezoelectric ceramic rods filled with a polymer therebetween, and connected to said pulse generator for generating a pulsed bulk acoustic wave in response to said pulse voltage to vibrate said microstructure secured thereon; a detecting device positioned to detect the vibrating microstructure for determining the dynamic response of the microstructure.
Preferably, the piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer is divided into three layers, i.e. piezocomposite layers, matching layers, and a backing layer. The matching layer is formed of epoxy resin for acoustic impedance matching; the piezocomposite layer consists of a PZT rod matrix filled with epoxy resin for emitting the pulsed bulk acoustic wave; and the backing layer is formed of epoxy resin or silicone for damping the acoustic wave from the rear surface of piezocomposit layer. If necessary, matching layers and/or piezocomposite layers can be repetitively provided. Alternatively, matching layers and/or the backing layer can be omitted. Further, piezoelectric layers such as PZT layers can also be used along with the matching and backing layers to achieve the purpose of the present invention.
Preferably, the detecting device includes a laser Doppler vibrometer positioned above the microstructure for monitoring the dynamic response of the vibrating microstructure as a photo-signal; a photoelectric converter electrically connected to the laser Doppler vibrometer for converting the photo-signal into an electric signal; and an oscilloscope electrically connected to the photoelectric converter for displaying the dynamic response in response to the electric signal.
In an embodiment, the photoelectric converter is a charge coupled device (CCD).
The oscilloscope and the pulse generator can be separate devices interconnected to each other, or the oscilloscope can include therein the pulse generator.
For a microstructure used in a vacuum environment, a vacuum chamber is further provided for accommodating therein the ultrasonic transducer device and the microstructure to perform the determination of the dynamic response.
The method and/or apparatus according to the present invention are suitable for determining a dynamic response of a torsional micro-mirror or a micro-cantilever or any other similar microstructure.

Method and apparatus for determining dynamic response of microstructure by using pulsed broad bandwidth ultrasonic transducer as BAW hammer


To determine an association between elements associated with a unified display on a screen, a request associated with the unified display is received from a browser, and a response to the request is identified as a first element associated with the unified display. A second element is identified as being spawned from the first element, if a parameter associated with the first element, which can be an event, a source, or both, is determined to be associated with the second element also. In that case, the second element is determined to be associated with the first element via the parameter.

Content displayed on a web page, while seemingly a cohesive collection of text, images and multimedia, is in fact a collection of often unrelated content cobbled together at the last second just prior to its display. While the primary content on a page (e.g., an article, game screen, or video) may be specific to the URL entered by the user, the rest of the page (often referred to as advertising real estate) is essentially left blank by the content provider. They then allow other entities such as advertising networks to identify and serve the "secondary" content. This secondary content usually consists of advertisements.
In the most simple form, a content publisher contracts with a single entity to provide the ads into their content, and the ads are managed by that single entity. However, this singular relationship is rarely the case. In practice, content publishers utilize numerous advertising networks, which in turn access ads from dozens of sources, including additional advertising networks. This creates a multi-tiered collection of advertisers which are far removed from the initial content publisher.
At the same time, content publishers, especially those that require or request that users provide personal information to view their content, are becoming more sensitive to their users' privacy concerns. Moreover, users are becoming increasingly aware that their personal information is being collected and used to determine the type of ads that are served into the content they are viewing. This is even more evident as the number of children that use the Internet on a daily basis increases. As a result, there exists a strong need to be able to accurately track and record the sources and functions of all the content that will presented to a user, regardless of how many "hops" it takes to find the ultimate source of that content.
Conventional approaches, such as those used in web development add-ons such as "Firebug" can reveal the elements that appear on a particular web page, but not how those elements appeared, i.e., which resource, or a chain of resources/events, caused a particular element to appear on the page. One main reason why the add-ons do not make these correlations is that it is difficult if not impossible, within all major web browsers, to ascertain these relations between the various resources loaded after their contents have been interpreted and applied by the browser. For example, after parsing a snippet that may change the contents of a web page, it can be difficult to determine in which locations the snippet caused the processor/browser to access and to load other resources, which in turn, may have loaded more resources, one of which ultimately altering an element of the web page. Therefore, systems and methods for identifying sources of the elements associated with a web page are needed.

Systems and methods for discovering sources of online content


A computer-implemented method for providing a real-time global view of airline operations situational awareness is provided. The method is implemented using a situational awareness server system in communication with client systems and data sources. The method includes gathering a plurality of situational awareness data from a plurality of data sources including real-time data, updating the situational awareness data based on one or more business rules, augmenting the updated situational awareness data based on historical data, and determining whether to generate one or more alerts based on the augmented situational awareness data.

The field of the present disclosure relates generally to viewing airline information and, more specifically, to providing a global view of airline operations.
Enterprises, such as airlines, need to know the location of their aircraft and the status of individual aircraft it a fleet, on the ground and in the air. Therefore, there is a need to have accurate real-time situational awareness of all aspects of the airline operations in any part of the world, to be able to make accurate and informed decisions. Situational awareness refers to an internalized mental model of the current state of the flight environment, and forms an integrated "picture" that is the central organizing feature from which all decision making and action occurs. Needed information may include the location of each aircraft, the flight schedule for each aircraft, and the maintenance schedule for each aircraft. Other desired information may include details about each airport location for each aircraft, such as the airport's maintenance capabilities or proximity to aircraft, for example, in the case of an emergency situation.
Currently, airlines may only be able to determine this and other needed information piecemeal from the large amounts of data available. Therefore, an operator has to access multiple systems to gain situational awareness in real-time or near real-time environments. Additionally, some information currently may only available through human interaction, such as calling an airline agent at a gate at an airport, to determine if a fuel truck is parked next to the aircraft. Improving aircraft situational awareness will allow for informed and rapid decision-making to maintain or reestablish normal airline operations.

Method and systems for integrated global view of operations


Monospecific antibodies are produced which are specific for fragments of the connective tissue protein aggrecan, generated by specific stromelysin cleavage. These monospecific antibodies are used in an assay system to detect polypeptide fragments of aggrecan, produced by the specific cleavage of aggrecan by stromelysin. The presence of aggrecan polypeptide fragments demonstrates stromelysin activity. Elevations of stromelysin occur in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerotic lesions, gout, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), certain cancers, joint injuries, and numerous inflammatory diseases. The monospecific antibodies and the assay system are used to quantitate aggrecan polypeptide fragments as a readout of stromelysin activity and to evaluate potential stromelysin inhibitors.

The present invention is directed to the development of an antiserum and assay which reflects the in vivo activity of stromelysin in certain animal models as well as in those disease states where stromelysin is thought to play a major and/or central role. In addition, this antiserum and assay allow the evaluation of specific and selective inhibitors of stromelysin in these various diseases. Over 32 million Americans have some type of musculoskeletal disease, and of these, half have osteoarthritis (OA). OA is significantly more prevalent than rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In both RA and OA, there is degradation and loss of cartilage aggrecan and collagen which ultimately results in degradation of the underlying bone. Although the end result is similar for these two diseases, the mechanisms by which these diseases begin and progress appear to be different. RA is an inflammatory disease in which various cytokines such as IL-1 and TNF.alpha. have been implicated to stimulate the synovium to proliferate and produce degradative enzymes. On the other hand, OA is a disease which seems to develop from within the cartilage, in which biochemical and biomechanical factors play a major role. For instance, patients with cruciate ligament and meniscal injuries, which destabilize the joint, tend to develop OA at an accelerated rate. In OA, there appears to be synthesis of degradative proteinases by the chondrocytes with synovial hypertrophy and inflammation occuring late in the disease. The degradative proteinase stromelysin (SLN) is common to both OA and RA and may be responsible for the cartilage connective tissue destruction observed in both of these diseases.
SLN is synthesized by chondrocytes and synoviocytes and its synthesis is upregulated by inflammatory cytokines both in vitro and in vivo. Its expression is elevated in animal models of arthritis and in patients with OA, RA and traumatic joint injury. SLN has the capacity to degrade the major cartilage connective tissue elements, including aggrecan, link protein, and type IX collagen. Aggrecan is a large anionic proteoglycan which is responsible for maintaining cartilage's resistance to compression. It is one of the first molecules to be lost from OA cartilage. The release of this molecule appears to be required prior to collagenolytic degradation of type II collagen. 72 kDa and 95 kDa gelatinases are two other members of the metalloproteinase family which have the capacity to degrade aggrecan. However, the expression of the 72 kDa enzyme is not upregulated in either OA or RA. Also, SLN may participate in the activation of both collagenase (CLN) and 95 kDa gelatinase (GEL). Therefore, by inhibiting SLN, we may be able to inhibit and slow the rate of degradation, either directly or indirectly, of all of the major cartilage macromolecules in OA. Presently, general immunological [Heinegard et al., (1985), Scand. J. Clin. Lab Invest., 45, pp. 421-427; Caterson etal., Monoclonal Antibodies Against Cartilage Proteoglycan And Link Protein; in: Articular Cartilage Biochemistry, eds. K.E. Keuttner, R. Schleyerbach and V.C. Hascall, Raven Press, N.Y., 1986, pp. 59-73] and dye based [Farndale et al., (1986), Biochem. Biophys Acta, 882, pp. 173-177] assays are used to quantify aggrecan. These assays do not differentiate degraded from intact aggrecan molecules.

Monospecific antibodies and assay system for detecting stromelysin cleavage products


A storage case has a rectangular base, side walls and front and rear walls upstanding from the base, and a top wall. The front wall has a lower half fixed to the base and side walls, and an upper half hinged by a hinge arrangement to the lower half. The upper half forms a door allowing access to the interior of the case. The top wall is integral with the upper half of the front wall. A drawer unit is in the door. The drawer unit has a compartment formed by the top wall, the front wall, a wall parallel to the top wall and compartment side walls.

There is some difficulty in storage a large amount of combination of different sized items, in particular long thin items and smaller chunkier ones, such that when the user needs to retrieve these items, that they are easy to access (within arms reach) and are at the same time easily visible. This is particularly relevant for children as they have shorter arms and need to be able to reach items.
There is also some difficulty in storing a variety of different sized items in a compact form.
Conventional storage means include pencil cases, boxes, desk organisers (a so called "desk tidy") and toolboxes. The problem with pencil cases is that they only hold a limited amount of items due to their size. There is also the problem of items getting mixed up due to the lack of a dividing system. There is also the problem of quickly retrieving the item from a pencil case, as there is some going through of the various items before finding the one needed. The same problems are experienced with a simple box.
With desk organisers that have containers that hold larger, longer items at the back and smaller items in the front (so that they are visible and accessible), there is the problem of the desk organiser not having a lid. The nature of the desk organiser is such that one permanently keeps the desk organiser on the desk. However, what happens when there is a shortage of space on the desk and/or it is more desirable, for reasons such as aesthetics and the need for space on the desk, to put the desk organiser away? And what occurs if one desires to transport the desk organiser? The answers are that it is not possible to easily store a desk organiser in a drawer or cupboard (due to its chunky size as well as the height of the desk organiser) and it is equally hard to transport a desk organiser, as items will easily fall out due to the lack of a lid.
A product on the market that serves the needs for compact storage with a variety of different shaped items and having a lid to secure the items is a toolbox. The problem with this is that once the toolbox is opened up it takes up a large amount of space, as the width of the box increases. It is then hard to reach items that are furthest away.
With smaller, simple storage boxes where the width does not increase or is not naturally wide to start with, there is the issue of this type of box not being able to store a large amount of items.
With a box that has a longer length so as to store more items, one then has the issue/problem of storing a larger box. The storage is no longer compact.
When taking a child on a long journey, it is common to bring pens, pencils, paper and other craft materials in order to keep the child occupied. However, it can be difficult to keep these craft materials organised in transit. This is especially the case where the materials have to be packed away into a bag at very short notice, for example, when disembarking from a train.
Desk organisers are unsuitable for transporting items on the move since items will only be retained within the desk organiser when it is placed on a flat surface, the correct way up. When preparing for a trip, it is therefore necessary to remove pens and pencils from a desk tidy, and place them in, for example, a pencil case. Upon return, the pens and pencils must be removed from the pencil case and reorganised in the desk tidy.
A further problem with drawing and craft activities on the move is that a good working surface is often not available. Sometimes, tables are provided on seat backs, for example on trains and aeroplanes. However, these tables are generally primarily designed for holding food and drink. They often have a rough surface, and may include an indent for holding a drink. This makes such tables unsuitable for use as a working surface for drawing and other crafts.
It is well known to use a hardback book or other stiff board to rest on when drawing. This allows for drawing when no table is available, or when the surface of the table is unsuitable due to its roughness. However, carrying such a board is a significant encumbrance. If folded, it will no longer provide a smoother working surface and, if unfolded, it is not easily transportable.
It is an object of aspects of the present invention to reduce or substantially obviate the above mentioned problems.


An improved method for polymerizing one or more polyolefins in the presence of a transition metal catalyst in at least one gas phase reactor having an expanded section, the improvement comprising generating a tangential flow of gas or gas-solids in the expanded section of the gas phase reactor to reduce fines entrainment into the gas cycle system and to reduce or remove solid particle build-up on one or more interior surfaces of the expanded section of the reactor.

The introduction of high activity Ziegler-Natta catalyst systems has led to the development of new polymerization processes based on gas phase reactors as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,687, issued Nov. 13, 1984. These processes offer many advantages over bulk monomer slurry processes or solvent processes. They are more economical and inherently safer in that they eliminate the need to handle and recover large quantities of solvent while advantageously providing low pressure process operation.
The versatility of the gas phase fluid bed reactor has contributed to its rapid acceptance. Alpha-olefin polymers produced in this type of reactor cover a wide range of density, molecular weight distribution and melt indexes. In fact, new and better products have been synthesized using single- and multiple-, or staged-, gas phase reactor systems because of the flexibility and adaptability of the gas phase reactor to a large spectrum of operating conditions.
Conventional gas phase fluidized bed reactors used in polymerizing alpha-olefins have a cylindrical shaped fluidized bed portion and an enlarged, tapered-conical entrainment disengaging section, sometimes referred to as the expanded section. Solid particulates are projected upward into the expanded section through the bursting of rising gas bubbles at the surface of the fluidized bed, and most of these particulates are typically returned to the fluidized bed by gravity as their velocity dissipates in the lower gas velocities of the expanded section. A small quantity of fine powder, or fines, is elutriated out of the projected particulates and does not return directly to the fluid bed by gravity. These fines are either conveyed upward by the cycle gas to the reactor gas outlet, or settle on surfaces of the expanded section through gravity or through particle attraction forces such as electrostatic attraction.
Disengaged fines that settle on the expanded section surfaces are known to accumulate as layers of fines under certain conditions. Settled fines are generally reactive and continue to polymerize in place at a rate related to the concentration of active catalyst contained in the fines. Such layers typically build to sufficient thicknesses in a short period of time that the forces holding them in place are overcome by gravity and the layers then slide harmlessly back into the fluid bed. Larger particulates from the fluid bed may also be projected onto the layers of fines, especially at lower elevations near the bed surface, causing all or part of the layer to be released and to then re-enter the bed through gravity. The cycle of fines buildup and return to the bed occurs repetitively in normal operation.
Under certain conditions, depending on factors such as electrostatic forces on the particles, the time cycle for return of the fines layers to the fluid bed becomes longer than normal. Longer cycle times are highly undesirable, since continued polymerization within the settled fines continues at temperatures higher or lower than the controlled bed temperature. Stagnant layers of fines are self-insulating, and, therefore, heat accumulation from continued polymerization within the layer can lead to temperatures above the sintering or melting point resulting in formation of molten sheets of resin, known as sheeting. Sheeting is the formation and adherence of fused catalyst and resin particles on the walls of a reactor, particularly in the expanded section. When the sheets are disturbed or become heavy, they can fall off the walls and plug the product discharge system or clog the distributor plate. Sheets and retained fines from the expanded section also contribute to product quality problems by increasing the level of non-specification contamination such as high molecular weight gels in end-use products such as plastic containers and films. Sheeting and fines accumulations are collectively referred to as solid particle build-up.
Conversely, expanded section fines layers that are relatively inactive are cooled by the reactor wall to temperatures below reactor temperature, resulting in much higher molecular weights and other product properties that are different from the average of the fluidized bed. These fines increase the level of non-specification contamination in end-use products, causing undesirable irregularities such as high molecular weight gels, and may be sufficient to cause downgrading of the resin product to lower quality grades of significantly reduced value.
The enlarged entrainment disengaging section is employed to minimize the quantity of fine powder, or fines, entrained by the cycle gas into the gas cycle system. Fines exiting the reactor with the cycle gas are generally conveyed through the gas cycle system before re-entering the fluidized bed at the bottom, but a smaller portion of fines adheres to surfaces of the gas cycle system. Such fines promote undesirable polymer growth and fouling of surfaces in the cycle piping, cycle cooler, compressor, lower reactor head, and distributor plate resulting in undesirable reactor shutdowns for system cleaning. Adhered particles in the cycle system continue to polymerize over time under process conditions different from the fluid bed, forming polymer of significantly different properties, such as molecular weight, density, and molecular weight distribution, from that of the fluid bed. Some particles are eventually released from the cycle system surfaces and are conveyed by the cycle gas back into the fluid bed. Such particles contaminate and adversely affect properties of the polymer product, such as by increasing the gel level in end-use products such as plastic containers and films.
Conventionally, to prevent solid particle build-up from affecting these and other parts of the reactor system, as well as the final polymer product, the reactors are shutdown periodically and the walls are cleaned to remove particle buildup. When a reactor is down for cleaning, it is typically hydro-blasted, sand-blasted, or shell-blasted using high pressure jets to remove sheets and fines build-up. Since water and oxygen introduced during the blasting process are strong catalyst poisons, the reactor must be purged to remove these poisons and the reactor must be dried. This process is both time consuming and costly. As a result, significant savings can be obtained with the prevention of a single shutdown.
It is also conventional practice to maintain the level of the fluidized bed a few feet below the neck of the expanded section to avoid the accumulation of fines in the expanded section. Thus, the volume of the fluidized bed, and, therefore, the amount of polymer in the reactor is conventionally controlled at a fixed level to avoid the undesirable effects of solid particle build-up in the expanded section.
Measures allowing the fluidized bed volume to be temporarily reduced without solid particle build-up are highly desirable, since the amount of lower value off-grade product generated during reactor start-up and grade changes may be reduced. Typical grade transitions require one to three bed turnovers depending on the specific product grades. By temporarily lowering the fluidized bed volume during reactor start-up and grade changes, the quantity of polymer embodied in a given number of bed turnovers may be substantially reduced in direct proportion to the reduction of bed volume.
Lowering the fluidized bed level and at the same time maintaining a constant high production rate will increase the bed volume turnover rate and directly reduce the polymer residence time. During the operation of the gas phase fluidized bed polymerization reactor system, there are times when it is highly desirable to adjust the powder inventory and/or solids residence time. Catalyst productivity and polymerization rate are affected by the residence time of the resin and catalyst in the reactor. Control of catalyst productivity and polymerization rate by adjusting residence time is a desirable method for controlling reactors that are operated in sequence (i.e., staged reactors) to produce products such as bimodal polymers or copolymers. In these types of polymerization processes, control of the proportion of polymer made in each reactor plays a key role in determining the properties and consistency of the final product. Thus, the freedom to apply such measures to temporarily reduce the reactor bed volume without risk of solid particle build-up is desirable and commercially important for the production of certain products, such as bimodal polymers or copolymers produced in staged reactors operated in sequence.
It would be most desirable to improve reactor operation and product quality by reducing sheeting and the accumulation of fines in the reactor expanded section and gas cycle system.

Gas phase fluidized bed polyolefin polymerization process using gas or gas-solids tangential flow

Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology Corporation


This invention is directed to a method and apparatus to find out an optimum solution in automatic routing or automatic placement with certainty and at a high-speed to improve a routing rate, and to realize automatic routing in a high-density. To these end, a routing approach is selected in a conversational mode while routing efficiency is consulted to compose routing processing procedure so as to generate a routing program. Besides, component placement processing procedures designated according to placement control information are combined to generate the placement program. A straight line between component pins adjacent to each other is defined as a chord, a wave for maze method routing is generated from a start point toward an end point of a routing path and propagated between the chords adjacent to each other. Positions of the chords through which the wave has passed until reaching the end point from the start point are successively stored and the positions through which the wave has passed is traced back to the start point from the end point when the wave reaches the end point to decide a routing path of the routing pattern. The method and apparatus of this invention are applicable to routing design or component placement design of LSIs, multichip modules, printed circuit boards, etc.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus composing a routing processing procedure (algorithm) on the basis of predetermined routing design data (routing problem) to generate a routing program, a method and apparatus composing a placement processing procedure (algorithm) for placing components upon the routing process to generate a placement program, and a method and apparatus for determining a routing path in order to route automatically a routing pattern on a circuit board having a number of component pins.
In fabrication of recent semiconductors (LSIs), multichip modules (MCMs), printed circuit boards or the like, there are demands for high-density packaging and placement, and routing accomplished within a short period of time on the less number of signal layers. With decrease of margin (a degree of freedom) due to a trend toward high-density and high-performance as above, it becomes difficult to solve various routing problems and placement problems with one fixed algorithm. For this, it is now necessary to establish high-performance automatic routing technique and automatic placement technique.
2) Description of the Related Art
In the automatic routing technique, a general-purpose automatic routing program 101 describing a predetermined routing processing procedure complies with routing problems (routing design data) of different sorts of printed circuit boards (or semiconductors such as LSIs or the like) 100A, 100B, . . . , 100Z, as shown in FIG. 33.
Likewise, in the automatic placement technique, a general-purpose automatic placement program 102 describing a predetermined placement processing procedure complies with problems of component placement on difference sorts of printed circuit boards (or semiconductors such as LSIs or the like) 100A, 100B, . . . , 100Z, as shown in FIG. 34.
Line search method or maze method are, for example, well known as general automatic routing means to determine routing paths to route automatically routing patterns on a circuit board having a number of component pins.
In the line search method, if two points to be interconnected with the routing pattern on the printed circuit board 110 are given as a start point (component pin) 111 and an end point (component pin) 112, as shown in FIG. 35, the routing path from the start point 111 to the end point 112 is determined in the following manner.
First, an appropriate direction to approach the end point 112 from the start point 111 is selected on the printed circuit board 110, and the first search line 113 is drawn from the starting point in that direction (rightward in an example shown in FIG. 35).
The first search line 113 cannot reach the end point 112, so the second search line 114 is drawn in an appropriate direction at right angles to the first search line 113 to approach the end point 112 (downward in the example shown in FIG. 35).
The second search line 114 cannot reach the end point 112 either because of a routing prohibited region (a part indicated by X marks in FIG. 35), so the third search line 115 at right angles to the second search line 114, the fourth search line 116 at right angles to the third search line 115, the fifth search line 117 at right angles to the fourth search line 116 are successively drawn from appropriate points on immediately above lines, in the same manner. Finally, the fifth search line 117 reaches the end point 112.
The first to fifth search lines 113-117 drawn in the above manner determine a routing path (indicated by a dot-dash line) 118 of a desired routing pattern from the start point 111 to the end point 112 on the printed circuit board 110.
On the other hand, in the maze method, if two points to be routed of a routing pattern are given as a start point (component pin) 121 and an end point (component pin) 122 on a printed circuit board 120 as shown in FIG. 36, a routing path from the start point 121 to the end point 122 is determined in the following manner.
In the maze method, meshes each having a pattern width of the routing pattern as a basic unit are imagined on the printed circuit board 120, and a wave is generated and propagated from the start point 121 toward the end point 122, as shown in FIG. 36.
As shown as an encircled number in each mesh in FIG. 36, meshes adjacent to a mesh in which the start number 121 locates are labelled (1), and the meshes adjacent to the meshes labelled (1) are labelled 2. In the same manner, the numbers are successively labelled to the meshes so that the routing path started from the start point 121 can reach the end point 122.
In an example shown in FIG. 36, a mesh in which the end point 122 locates is the eighth mesh counted from the start point 121, labelled a number (8). The meshes that the wave has passed through from the start point 121 to the end point 122 are successively stored. when the wave reaches the end point 122, the positions of the meshes that the wave has passed through are traced back to the start point 121 from the end point 122 so that the routing path 123 of the routing pattern is determined.
Incidentally, meshes labelled X marks represent a routing prohibited region in FIG. 36.
However, physical, electric design conditions become more strict due to trends to high-density packaging, low-cost and high-speed developed rapidly in recent years. For this, it becomes difficult to find out an appropriate solution as expected by the designer if automatic routing is carried out for a long time, which results in a lot of parts left unrouted.
The automatic routing technique using the general-purpose automatic routing program 101 as shown in FIG. 33 has a problem that the program 101 for solving problems describes only a certain limited routing processing procedure (algorithm) so that it is difficult to find out an optimum solution for each routing problem, although there are various routing problem (routing design data).
As above, the present situation is that it is hard to outlook the completion of the routing process within a given period of time even if manual routing is carried out on unrouted parts, so all parts are manually routed after all. As this, an application rate of the automatic routing is decreasing year after year.
Similarly, in the automatic placement technique using the general-purpose automatic placement program 102 as shown in FIG. 34, the program 102 for solving problems describes only a given limited routing processing procedure (algorithm) although recent substrates are diversified as noted above. For this, the present situation is that the component placement often results in against designer's expectations.
Therefore, the component placement resulted in against designer's expectation requires manual alteration. However, the present situation is that it is hard to outlook the completion of the routing process within a given period of time even if manual alteration is done in the component placement, so all the component placement has to be carried out manually. As this, an application rate of the automatic placement is decreasing year after year.
On the other hand, in the above-mentioned line search method shown in FIG. 35, the routing pattern is represented as succession of straight lines (see the search lines 113-117 and the routing path 118). When a judgement is made as to whether the pattern is passable or not, graphic operations are necessary to judge the positional relation of the straight lines, which graphic operations consume an enormous period of time. With this reason, sufficient search of the routing paths in the routing pattern has been difficult.
In the above-mentioned maze method shown in FIG. 36, since the pattern width is designated as a basic unit of the mesh, so a volume of the data become enormous as an area of the printed circuit plate 120 increases and the width of the pattern decreases. This causes an increase in the number of meshes used to search a passable route. This results in an enormous period of time to search a path.
Therefore, searches to determine a passable path have to be made on many paths and many combinations in order to route the routing pattern in the high-density. However, search at an unsufficient speed causes occurence of paths that have been left unsearched, which disturbs a high-density routing.

Routing program generating method and apparatus therefor, placement program generating method and apparatus therefor, and automatic routing method and apparatus therefor


A recovery device comprising a sleeve (21) arranged in the outlet (15S) of a heat exchanger (10) and containing a filter assembly (24) capable of retaining solid cleaning materials (18) circulating through the heat exchanger. The filter assembly (24) comprises a rotary member (25) with a filter panel (26) and two interconnected pipes (27S, 27E) arranged on either side of the rotary member (25) in connection with the relative rotation thereof, as well as a circulation assembly for locally generating a counter-flow through the filter panel (26) of the rotary member (25) opposite the pipes (27S, 27E). The device is particularly useful in tubular heat exchangers used in condensers.

At present the filter means are usually in the form of two flat grids, implemented in various ways and, in their in service position, closing off the sleeve transversely, together forming within the sleeve a dihedron with the line of intersection perpendicular to its axis and on the downstream side. In practise each grid pivots in the middle about an axis parallel to this line of intersection to occupy one or other of two other positions, namely a cleaning position which is the opposite of their in service position and in which they can be subjected to a washing counterflow, and a neutral position which is a position between the in service position and the cleaning position and in which they are in practise out of service, being aligned with the flow.
To enable the solid cleaning members to roll over them towards gathering means for these members along their line of intersection, the grids are necessarily at a relatively small inclination to the axis of the sleeve in its in service position.
The sleeve is therefore necessarily relatively long in order to accommodate them.
The length is in practise always greater than the diameter of the sleeve, on occasion 1.5 times the latter.
Installing a recovery device equipped with grids of this kind may be difficult, and even prohibitively uneconomic, in particular in some existing installations in which there is only a short length of pipe between the outlet from the heat exchanger and the masonry structure on which the latter rests.

Device for recovering solid cleaning materials circulating through a heat exchanger


The present fine tuning device comprises a fine tuning shaft mounted concentrically around a main channel selecting shaft supported in a chassis base. A plate spring member is disposed on the chassis for thrust biasing the fine tuning shaft. A gear member is arranged for transmitting the fine tuning movement from the fine tuning shaft to a fine tuning screw. The fine tuning shaft is provided with a radially extending flange and a peripheral gear, and the transmitting gear member is provided with a first gear engageable with the peripheral gear of the fine tuning shaft and a second gear engageable with the fine tuning screw. The plate spring member supports the rotating transmitting gear member whereby the axial direction of movement may be changed or shifted by deformation of the plate spring member. In this arrangement, when the fine tuning shaft is pushed to change the shape of the plate spring member, the first gear of the transmitting gear member is securely engaged with the peripheral gear of the fine tuning shaft. At the same time, the second gear of the transmitting gear member is engaged with a pinion gear of the fine tuning screw so as to permit a memory fine tuning for one of the tuning coil units selected by the main channel selecting shaft.

The present invention relates to a memory fine tuning arrangement used for television tuners. More particularly, the invention relates to a television tuner of the type which provides a so-called pre-setting fine tuning arrangement for an automatic fine tuning adjustment for each individual television channel. Specifically, the present invention is directed to an improved and simplified fine tuning mechanism used for push pre-setting fine tuning devices and which is manufactured economically by a minimum number of parts.
Generally, mechanical channel selecting devices for VHF television tuners are mainly classified as rotary-switching types or turret types. The turret type tuners include an incrementally rotatable channel selector shaft for selectively connecting certain ones of a plurality of tuned circuit elements for each of a plurality of channel selector positions. For a clear reception in each of the channel positions of the selector shaft, it is customary to include in the local oscillator circuit an adjustable impedance device. This impedance device is conventionally adjusted by means of a fine tuning shaft concentrically mounted with respect to the channel selector shaft. The fine tuning shaft is connectable by the viewer to adjust the tuning impedance for each predetermined position of the selector shaft. Various memory fine tuning arrangements have been proposed to maintain individual channel tuning adjustments once they have been established by the user without requiring adjustment of the fine tuning shaft of the tuner by the user each time a particular channel is selected.
One such arrangement is the push pre-setting type fine tuning device which requires the operator to push in a control knob of the fine tuning shaft while maintaining pressure on the knob to rotate the same to adjust a fine tuning element within the tuner, the other is the rotary pre-setting type fine tuning device which requires the operator to only rotate a control knob of the fine tuning shaft for the fine tuning adjustment. These devices are particularly useful on turret type television tuners having tuned coil assemblies or units for each channel. These coil units are removably mounted in the rotatable turret structure, and are provided individually with an oscillator coil, the inductance of which may be adjusted by means of an adjustable element which extends into an opening in the end of the coil units adjacent the oscillator coil.
Since television tuners are made in large volumes, in order to be commercially competitive, it is desirable to provide a low cost pre-setting fine tuning device with a minimum number of parts which may be assembled in an easy and simple manner. The fine tuning device requires a mechanical arrangement for translation of rotary motion of the fine tuning shaft into rotary motion of the adjustment element, since the fine tuning shaft is offset laterally from the axis of the adjustment element in the individual coil units. Also, engagement with the adjustment element must terminate automatically when the user releases the fine tuning shaft so that the turret is free to rotate to another channel position. For example, such fine tuning devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,316,770 and 4,128,821 for push pre-setting type memory fine tuners. U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,390; granted on Oct. 30, 1979; discloses a fine tuning device including a pivotally mounted member on the front wall of the chassis base with a coil spring between the member and the front wall to exert a bias force on the member in the predetermined direction. It has been found that the number of parts of such fine tuners may be still further reduced thereby decreasing the manufacturing costs.

Push pre-setting fine tuning device for turret type television tuners


The present disclosure relates to compositions and methods based on a fast, efficient chemical reaction for conjugating a pore-forming protein, such as α-hemolysin, to a biomolecule, such as antibodies, receptors, and enzymes, such as DNA polymerase, and the use of such pore-forming protein conjugates in nanopore devices and methods.

"Click" chemistry refers to a class of chemical reactions that are capable of quickly and efficiently forming covalent linkages between molecules. A variety of click chemical reactions are known, and many have been employed to conjugate biomolecules. In many cases, the click chemistry used to conjugate biomolecules is also "bio-orthogonal," which means that reaction can occur in a biological system without interfering substantially with the normal biochemical function of that system. Such bio-orthogonal click reactions have been used extensively for in vivo labeling of biomolecules.
Single-molecule sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) techniques using nanopores have been developed. See e.g., US Pat. Publ. Nos. 2013/0244340 A1 and 2013/0264207 A1. Nanopore SBS involves the use of a polymerase synthesize a DNA strand complementary to a target sequence template and determine the identity of each nucleotide monomer as it is added to the growing strand, thereby determining the target sequence. Each added nucleotide monomer is detected via a nanopore located adjacent to the polymerase active site and the growing strand. Obtaining an accurate signal requires proper positioning of a polymerase active site near a nanopore. Proper positioning typically is achieved by covalently linking the polymerase to the pore-protein that makes up the nanopore.
Monomeric pore-forming proteins have molecular weights range from as little as 5 kDa to 80 kDa, and these monomers form large multimeric complexes of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or more monomers, having molecular weights of 160, kDa, 180 kDa, 200 kDa, 220 kDa, or more. Under suitable conditions these multimeric complexes spontaneously form pores through lipid bilayer membranes. The well-studied pore-forming protein, α-hemolysin (from S. aureus) has a monomer molecular weight of 33 kDa and spontaneously forms a heptameric pore complex having a molecular weight of 231 kDa. Polymerases are large proteins that range in molecular weight from about 60 kDa to 100 kDa and even much larger multimeric complexes in some cases (e.g., RNA polymerase ˜400 kDa multimer). The Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I has a molecular weight of 68 kDa.
Accordingly, the kinetics of any reaction to conjugate these pore-forming proteins, like the α-hemolysin heptamer, to large biomolecules, like DNA polymerase, in order to provide a nanopore sensor will be extremely limited by the low concentration achievable (and relative low amounts available with such large macromolecules. The maximum solubility of such large proteins in aqueous solution typically is limited to approximately 0.1 to 10 mg/mL. Thus, the concentration of the two macromolecules in solution used for a conjugation reaction is limited to ˜1 μM to 1000 μM. For example, the α-hemolysin protein pore consists of 7 identical subunits totaling about 235,000 molecular weight. Thus a solution of 10 mg/ml has a concentration of about 42 μM. This relatively low concentration range effectively limits viable conjugation chemistries to those having extremely fast, irreversible reaction rates.
The typical Cu-catalyzed "click" (azide-alkyne Huisgen cylcoaddition) chemistry is both slow and requires a copper (Cu) catalyst that can inactivate proteins and enzymes (See e.g., Wang et al. (2003) and Presolski et al. (2011)). More recently, copper-free cycloaddition involving alkynes and asides have been developed (See e.g., Jewett and Bertozzi (2010)). These Cu-free reactions, however, are too slow for practical conjugation reactions between two large protein molecules, and can require 3-4 days to provide a significant yield of conjugates. Many proteins of interest, particularly enzymes such as polymerases, cannot withstand such long reaction times.
Due to the relatively low-concentrations of pore-protein and polymerase typically used in forming a nanopore detector for SBS, it is important that a highly efficient and selective chemical "click" reaction is developed allowing strong, selective, covalent conjugation between the two. Thus, there remains a need for faster and more efficient chemical processes to manufacture the polymerase-pore structures used in nanopore sequencing.

Pore-forming protein conjugate compositions and methods

THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK


A preloading bearing unit mounted in a casing to support an antifriction bearing and the output shaft of a motor, the preloading bearing unit including a bushing mounted on the antifriction bearing, and a hydraulic cylinder assembly controlled to display the bushing, the hydraulic cylinder assembly including first and second miniature hydraulic cylinders alternatively arranged around the bushing, the first and second miniature hydraulic cylinders each having a spring stopped against the bushing, first and second hydraulic fluid delivery pipes connected to the miniature hydraulic cylinders, first and second accumulation chambers for guiding a hydraulic fluid to the first miniature hydraulic cylinders and the miniature hydraulic cylinders respectively. A difference preloading pressure is given to the bushing by turning on the first miniature hydraulic cylinders, the second miniature hydraulic cylinders, or both the first and second miniature hydraulic cylinders.

The present invention relates to a preloading bearing unit for use with spindle means or the like, and more particularly to such a preloading bearing unit that can be conveniently controlled to impart one of three different preloading pressures.
In order to eliminate the occurrence of a clearance in between a spindle (revolving shaft) and an antifriction bearing, a preloading means may be installed. However, regular preloading bearing means are not adjustable. Adjustable preloading means are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,917 and 5,803,619. However, these two designs still have drawbacks as follows:
1. The preloading pressure can only be adjusted between two levels, namely, the low preloading pressure level and the high preloading pressure level. PA0 2. The hydraulic fluid pressure has to be controlled when adjusting the preloading pressure. PA0 3. Because these design commonly use a single annular hydraulic cylinder to achieve preloading pressure control, the moving parts of the preloading device tend to be stuck.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A wireless receiver includes an antenna panel providing input to an H-combined/V-combined generation block, a hybrid tracking system receiving input from the H-combined/V-combined generation block, the hybrid tracking system comprising location, heading and motion (LOHMO) sensors for providing a general position input to a digital core, the hybrid tracking system further comprising first and second power detectors for measuring power received from the antenna panel and for providing a precise position input to the digital core, the hybrid tracking system providing phase feedback signals to the H-combined/V-combined generation block. At least one of the phase feedback signals is provided to at least one phase shifter in the H-combined/V-combined generation block to cause a phase shift in at least one linearly polarized signal received from at least one antenna in the antenna panel.

Wireless communications, such as satellite communications, utilize electromagnetic waves to transfer information between two or more points. An electromagnetic wave includes an electric field and a magnetic field that are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of propagation. The orientation of the electric field may be characterized by its polarization, as the electromagnetic wave propagates through space. Two common types of polarizations are linear (e.g. vertical and horizontal) polarization and circular (e.g., right-hand and left-hand) polarization.
Wireless connectivity has expanded its reach from mobile phones to cars, airplanes and ships. When a change in position of a wireless receiver is made, the received power of desired signals may be significantly reduced. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a wireless receiver that efficiently and effectively adjusts to changes in position so that the received power of desired signals is not significantly reduced.

Wireless receiver with tracking using location, heading, and motion sensors and adaptive power detection


A breadcrumb path for use in navigating a hierarchical data set may be supplemented with one or more supplemental breadcrumbs representing preferred locations within the hierarchical data set. The supplemental breadcrumb may represent a previously visited location within the hierarchical data set, and may be further limited to the previously visited locations that are subordinate to the currently selected location. The supplemental breadcrumb may also represent a frequently visited location within the hierarchical data set. For scoped hierarchical data sets, the preferred location may represent a previously visited location within the scope of the selected location, or a frequently visited location within the scope of the selected location. Several embodiments of user interface components featuring such supplemented breadcrumb lists and having various advantages are presented, as well as a few contexts for applying such supplemental breadcrumbs in a breadcrumb list.

Many areas of computing involve hierarchically organized data sets, as well as techniques for display and navigation through such data sets. A hierarchically organized set of such data items, also known as nodes, may be organized with one or more items at the topmost level, known as root nodes. Each node may contain any number of subordinate items, known as child nodes, which may in turn contain any number of subordinate items, etc. A node may also contain no child nodes, therefore serving as a leaf node. This organizational structure provides for a hierarchy of containment, where each node except for the root node(s) is contained within one higher-level node (known as a parent node.)
Hierarchical data organization may be used in several contexts. As one example, data stored in a format complying with an Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema is organized hierarchically, such that the XML data set contains at most one root node, and each data item except for the root node is contained within exactly one higher-level XML data item. In this example, containment represents nesting, which leads to a fully nested, strictly hierarchical data set.
Hierarchical data sets are often displayed through a treeview graphical user control, in which the individual nodes may be opened or closed to show or hide (respectively) the child nodes contained therein. An exemplary treeview is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1B, each presenting a treeview of the same hierarchical data set in two different view states. FIG. 1A depicts a hierarchical data set 10 containing a root node 12, labeled Node A, that solely comprises the topmost level of the hierarchy, and that directly or indirectly contains all of the other nodes. For instance, Node A 12 directly contains Node B 14, Node C 16, Node F 22, and Node K 32, which together comprise the second level of the hierarchy. Node C 16 further contains Node D 18 and Node E 20, while Node F 22 further contains Node G 24, Node H 26, and Node J 30, and where Node H 26 further contains Node I 28.
Treeview user controls may be used to display very large hierarchical data sets comprising millions of nodes, but displaying all of the nodes would be cumbersome for user navigation. The treeview therefore allows each node to be displayed in an open or closed state, where a node in an open state (denoted by a "−" sign) is shown with all of the child nodes, while a node in a closed state (denoted by a "+" sign) is shown with its child nodes hidden. The open or closed state of a node in the treeview may be toggled by the user (e.g., by clicking on the "+" or "−" symbol to the left of the node with a pointing device, such as a mouse.) The treeview 10 depicted in FIG. 1B illustrates the same data set as the treeview of FIG. 1A, but with Node C 16, Node H 26, Node J 30, and Node K 32 shown in a closed state (thereby hiding Nodes D and E contained within Node C 16, and Node I contained within Node H 26.) The hierarchical data set 10 illustrated by the treeview of FIG. 1B still contains Nodes D, E, and I, but these child nodes are hidden in the current state of the treeview 10, and may be shown again by opening the respective parent nodes.
The hierarchical organization of the data set enables the description of nodes according to the respective paths to be traversed to reach them. For instance, in FIG. 1A, Node H 26 may be described as the child node of Node F 22, which is in turn the child node of Node A 12. In reverse order, Node H 26 may be reached by traversing the hierarchical data set 10 illustrated in FIG. 1A by beginning at Node A 12, navigating (among the child nodes of Node A 12) to Node F 22, and navigating (among the child nodes of Node F 22) to Node H 26. This sequence forms a hierarchical path of Node A: Node F: Node H, which may be used to describe the organization of Node H 26 within the hierarchical data set 10.
When a user is navigating through a hierarchical data set, this sequence may also be presented as a breadcrumb list, e.g., as the hierarchical series of nodes through which the user has navigated to reach the current node. FIG. 1C illustrates the breadcrumb list for each node in the hierarchical data set of FIG. 1A. In the exemplary breadcrumb list 40 of FIG. 1C, when each node 42 of the hierarchical data set is selected, it is associated with a breadcrumb list 44 containing breadcrumbs 46 representing each location within the path from a root node of the hierarchical data set to the selected node. In the exemplary breadcrumb lists 44 of FIG. 1C, the breadcrumbs 46 are displayed in order from the root node to the selected node. The displayed breadcrumb lists 44 therefore display for the user the path taken through the hierarchical data set to reach the selected node. Moreover, in some implementations, the breadcrumbs 46 of the breadcrumb lists 44 may be activated (e.g., by clicking on a breadcrumb with a pointing device, such as a mouse) to travel to the node represented by the activated breadcrumb (e.g., by causing a treeview displaying the same hierarchical data set to jump to the node represented by the activated breadcrumb.)

Breadcrumb list supplementing for hierarchical data sets


Exemplary embodiments are directed to an augment and methods of implanting an augment. The methods include inserting the augment into a bone cavity of a bone of a host. The augment includes a body with an outer surface and at least one hole preformed in the body. The method includes introducing a fastener from an outer surface of the bone into a hole formed in the bone and engaging the fastener with the hole of the bone. The method includes passing the fastener through the hole of the bone. The method includes introducing into and engaging the fastener with the at least one hole in the body of the augment to fixate the augment within the bone cavity.

Revision total knee or hip replacement is becoming increasingly common with the success of the procedure, the aging population, and more frequent use in younger individuals. Management of bone loss and optimizing stability and function are important challenges faced during revision total knee and hip replacement. Porous or porous coated metal knee cones or acetabular augments, custom porous coated cups, and acetabular reconstruction cages are available in the industry to accommodate areas of bone loss. Short and intermediate-term studies demonstrate acceptable outcomes in the setting of bone loss during revision total knee or hip replacement using traditional porous cones and augments. Particularly, these cones or augments allow biologic fixation with bone healing directly to the porous augment, porous cone or sleeve, replacing areas of bone loss while enhancing fixation and allowing restoration of a more normal knee joint line or more normal hip center of rotation.
Traditional porous cones are generally inserted into the area of bone loss and centered within the cavity by the remaining bone, the cone maintaining its position via a friction fit. If bone loss in the host occurs only on one side of the cavity, removal of healthy bone is performed on the opposing side to ensure proper centering of the cone within the cavity. Upon forming the cavity and introducing the cone, stable contact between the remaining bone and the cone may not occur due to the configuration of the cavity. Such failed contact can result in extended time for bone in-growth or failure of bone in-growth at certain surfaces of the cone. Traditional cones also do not provide a means for attachment of avulsed or fractured bone with important ligament and/or tendon attachments, such as the femoral epicondyle(s) or tibial tubercle.
Thus, a need exists for improved augments that can be introduced into differently sized cavities without extensive removal of healthy bone, augments that ensure direct and/or stable contact with the remaining bone of the cavity, and augments that reliably attach important fractured metaphyseal bone segments. These and other needs are addressed by the augments and methods of the present disclosure.

Augments and methods of implanting augments


A vehicle component, in particular an arm rest, includes a structural part and a cladding element that at least partially surrounds the structural part. The structural part is at least partially covered by a protective device.

Vehicle components which comprise a structural part and a trim element are well known from the prior art. For example, the vehicle component is an armrest and the trim element is the outer skin of a cushion. Said structural part is typically embedded into the cushion, in order to withstand any loads of the vehicle component, without the vehicle component being deformed excessively or even destroyed. Such vehicle components, such as armrests, are typically produced by a filling element being introduced between the trim element and the structural part and subsequently being cured. The cured foam-like filling element then as a rule forms the cushion.
Even if it is not arranged visibly on the vehicle component, a certain risk of injury can emanate from the structural part, in particular in an accident situation. It is therefore as a rule strictly ensured that the structural part does not have any edges or pointed contours which increase the potential hazard in the accident situation. In order to lower the potential hazard, the prior art provides complicated reshaping of the structural part before the production of the vehicle component, in order to satisfy the necessary safety standards

Vehicle component and method for producing a vehicle component


A retaining device for an electronic apparatus comprising a plurality of cases respectively containing individual component mechanisms of a small electronic apparatus, a magnet disposed in a recess formed in a surface of a first case among the plurality of cases; and a magnetic member provided on a second case among the plurality of cases. In this device, the magnet attracts the magnetic member to fix the respective positions of the first case and the second case relative to each other when the first case and the second case are set contiguously with the magnet and the magnetic member disposed opposite to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a retaining device for an electronic apparatus, used for setting an electronic apparatus, such as a personal computer, a word processor or a printer for a personal computer or a word processor, in an operating position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a small electronic apparatus has individual internal mechanisms contained respectively in a plurality of cases, and the positions thereof relatively to each other can be changed for carrying or for operation. The plurality of cases must be fixed relative to each other, to thereby operate the small electronic apparatus.
When fixing the plurality of cases of such a small electronic apparatus relatively to each other, the conventional retaining device for an electronic apparatus employs a mechanical locking means or a magnetic means, including a permanent magnet attached to the surface of one of the plurality of cases and a magnetic member attached to the mating case and able to be attracted by the permanent magnet.
The mechanical locking mechanism, however, has a complex construction, increases the cost of the small electronic apparatus, and in most cases, increases the weight of the small electronic apparatus. Also, a mechanical locking mechanism having a simple construction typically is easily broken.
The utilization of the magnetic attraction of a permanent magnet, for fixing the cases relative to each other, enables a retaining device for an electronic apparatus to be given a compact, lightweight, and durable construction, at a reduced cost.
Recently, magnetic recording media, such as cash cards and floppy disks, have become widely used, but if such a magnetic recording medium is brought into direct contact with the permanent magnet of a retaining device for an electronic apparatus, the magnetic data recorded on the magnetic recording medium is destroyed.

Magnetic retaining device for electronic apparatus


A cooling fan includes a fan housing, a base, a rotor, a stator, and a fan guard. The fan housing forms an intake and an outlet at two opposite sides thereof, respectively. The base is arranged at the outlet of the fan housing. The stator is mounted on the base. The rotor is rotatably supported by the stator. A plurality of stationary blades extends from the base to the fan housing. The fan guard attaches to the outlet of the fan housing. A cylinder is arranged at a center of the fan guard and attaches to the base of the fan housing. A plurality of guard blades extend radially and outwardly from the cylinder. Each guard blade and the nearest stationary blade define a gap therebetween along a circumference of the cooling fan.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling fan, and more particularly to a cooling fan having improved stationary blades.
2. Description of Related Art
With continuing developments in electronic technology, electronic packages such as CPUs (central processing units) generate increasing amounts of heat that requires immediate dissipation. Cooling fans are commonly used in combination with heat sinks for cooling such CPUs.
Normally, a cooling fan includes a stator and a rotor. The rotor includes a hub and a magnet arranged in the hub and surrounding the stator, which includes a stator core with coils wound therearound. When electrical currents are supplied to the coils, the rotor is rotated by magnetic force of the coils and fan blades of the rotor produce forced airflow. A hollow frame supports the rotor and the stator thereon. A columnar supporting base is formed in a center of the frame, and a number of ribs interconnect the supporting base and the frame. Unfortunately, when airflow exits the frame, turbulent flow is generated after the airflow encounters the ribs, having an adverse effect on air flow and reducing operating efficiency of the fan.
For the foregoing reasons, therefore, there is a need in the art for a cooling fan which overcomes the described limitations.

Fu Zhun Precision Industry (Shen Zhen) Co., Ltd.


An apparatus is provided for continuously shaping a metal tube by means of shaping rollers, which are arranged around the tube and consist of pairs of rollers disposed on opposite sides of the axis of the tube. It is desired to permit an adaptation of the apparatus to tubes which differ in size and in final shape. This is accomplished in that each shaping roller is radially adjustable relative to the tube and is mounted to be pivotally movable about a pivotal axis which is parallel to the axis of the tube. Said pivotal axis extends through the center of curvature of an arc of a circle which is at least approximated by that portion of the rolling contour which is defined by said shaping roller or said pivotal axis is spaced from said center of curvature in a direction which is parallel to the axis of said shaping roller.

When a round tube is continuously to be shaped in a plurality of shaping steps to a rectangular tube, it is known (FR-B 1,267,303) to provide in a rolling line a plurality of shaping stands, which are arranged in series and consist each of two pairs of diametrically oppositely arranged shaping rollers, the profiles of which constitute a substantially closed rolling contour. Because the radius of curvature of the profiles of the shaping rollers and, as a result, the radius of curvature of the associated portions of the rolling contour, is larger than the radius of curvature of the corresponding portion of the periphery of the tube as it enters a given stand, the tube is flattened in steps in the consecutive stands in the peripheral portions corresponding to the flat walls which are to be formed until the final rectangular shape has been achieved. Those known shaping stands have the disadvantage that the shaping rollers closely adjoin each other in the peripheral direction to define a closed shaping contour so that a change of the size of the rolling contour and an adaptation to different tube diameters cannot be effected unless the shaping rollers are replaced by shaping rollers having a correspondingly changed profile. The resulting alteration of the shaping stands involves a relatively large amount of work and also requires the entire shaping plant to be shut down.
In an attempt to avoid said disadvantages, a shaping apparatus has been disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,078), in which the shaping rollers are arranged in pairs of diametrically opposite rollers and have eccentric profiles so that the diameter of each shaping roller gradually decreases from one end of the roller to the other and each shaping roller is adapted to be so displaced that its end which is larger in diameter approaches the adjacent shaping roller, which has an axis that is perpendicularly to the axis of the shaping roller thus displaced. In that case that end of the first-mentioned roller which is larger in diameter arrives adjacent to that end of the second roller which is smaller in diameter and, as a result, the profiles of the several shaping rollers, which profiles determine the rolling contour, overlap each other and the rolling contour is correspondingly reduced in size. This requires that each shaping roller is mounted in the stand to be adjustable in a radial direction relative to the tube to be shaped and in the direction of the axis of said roller. But the eccentric profile of each shaping roller necessitates that for an adjustment of the shaping rollers in adaptation to tubes having a different diameter the rolling contour must be rotated about the axis of the tube. Unless a twisting of the tube being shaped is permissible, it will be necessary to pivotally adjust the shaping rollers of each pair about the axis of the tube in opposite senses. This can be permitted if the shaping rollers are mounted in a rotatably mounted frame. Besides, each shaping roller can be pivotally adjusted individually so that the profile which determines the rolling contour can properly be aligned, particularly if that profile is composed of a plurality of sections corresponding each to an arc of a circle and having different radii. A disadvantage of that known apparatus resides mainly in its relatively large structural expenditure and in the fact that the tube is necessarily twisted as it is shaped unless special measures are taken.

Apparatus for continuously shaping a metal tube


An apparatus for lifting and aligning a blade to a support, such as a grader moldboard or a scraper bowl. In one aspect the invention is an apparatus with a frame, flexible hoisting means for holding the blade, a drum to which each flexible hoisting means is attached, a stabilizing means for stabilizing the apparatus, and a drive means for rotating the drums. In another aspect, the invention is a method for lifting a blade to a support, which involves inserting flexible hoisting means through different apertures of a support and the corresponding apertures in the blade, and providing means to controllably reduce the length of the flexible hoisting means while holding the blade. The apparatus and method can be used by one person to lift, line up, and securely bolt a blade to a support.

Road graders and scrapers often have replaceable cutting blades that are attached to a moldboard or bowl, and which need to be replaced when worn out from contact with the ground surface. These blades are generally elongate metal bars that are mounted onto the moldboard or bowl, by bolting them thereto using a number of bolts that pass through corresponding apertures in the moldboard or bowl, and the blade.
Graders and scrapers are quite large and the blades are therefore large and heavy, making them difficult to replace. Not only must the blade be lifted to abut the moldboard or bowl but it must also be positioned properly such that the relatively small apertures in the moldboard or bowl and the blade line up. Then, it must be held in that position until at least a few of the bolts are in place. The blade replacement process is a difficult task that often requires the coordinated efforts of two or more persons, to ensure that the blade is not accidentally dropped before it is secured.
Often, one person operates a grader or scraper in a remote area. When the blade needs to be replaced the person must either replace it themselves, if possible, or call for another person to come to the site to assist in the replacement. What is needed in the art is a means for enabling one person to remove a used blade, and then lift, line up and securely bolt, a new blade to a moldboard or bowl in a manner that is easy, quick and avoids injury.


A cleaning system used for cleaning up plastic in a nozzle of a molding apparatus, the nozzle including a nozzle opening and a through hole connected with the nozzle opening, the plastic being received in the through hole. The cleaning system includes a bottom fixing sleeve, a top guiding sleeve and a knocking stick. The bottom fixing sleeve is configured for securely fixing the nozzle. The top guiding sleeve is configured for coupling with the bottom fixing sleeve, and the top guiding sleeve includes a guiding hole defined therein. The knocking stick is movable along the guiding hole of the top guiding sleeve such that the knocking stick strikes the plastic in a direction along the central axis of the through hole of the nozzle.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to molding apparatuses, and particularly to a cleaning system for cleaning the nozzle of a molding apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Molding apparatuses are widely used for manufacturing optical components, such as light guide plates, lenses, etc.
Referring to FIG. 5, a nozzle 10, of an injection molding machine, can sometimes be blocked by the material being molded such as plastic material 12. The plastic material 12 may be lodged during the injection process and will adhere to the inner wall 14 of the nozzle 10 while cooling down, making it difficult to clean the nozzle. Usually a dowel 16 can be used for cleaning up the plastic material 12. However, the nozzle 10 may be easily damaged by the dowel 16.
Therefore, a new cleaning system is desired to overcome the problem described above.


A jet loom includes a main jet nozzle for launching a weft thread into a shed, and a plurality of auxiliary jet nozzles successively operated to assist the weft in being transported through the shed by the jet of air injected from the main jet nozzle. The auxiliary jet nozzles are operated to simultaneously discharge the air at least one or more times during a period of time necessary to complete one weft inserting operation.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for supplying a transport fluid to auxiliary jet nozzles in a jet loom, wherein a weft thread is inserted into a weaving shed by using the jet of supplied fluid under pressure.
Generally, in a jet loom of such type, a main jet nozzle alone can not transport the leading end of the weft to a distance at a sufficient speed, so that a suitable number of auxiliary jet nozzles are provided on a reed to each produce a flow of air in cooperation with the main jet nozzle. However, if all the auxiliary nozzles are always operated, a large total consumption of air results. In order to reduce the total consumption, U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,608 has proposed to energize the auxiliary jet nozzles successively or in successive groups in time with the advancement of the leading end of the weft through the shed by providing each auxiliary nozzle or each group of auxiliary nozzles with a control device for opening and closing the corresponding nozzle or group of nozzles.
However, the auxiliary jet nozzles or groups of auxiliary jet nozzles are adapted to be operated successively in synchronism with a weaving motion of the loom. Therefore, when the loom is operated at a low speed or in one picking motion, the injection timing of the auxiliary nozzles is delayed with respect to the advancement of the leading end of the weft because at that time the weft is directed into the shed by the main jet nozzle at the same high speed as the normal operation. This causes a poor injection function of the auxiliary jet nozzles, which in turn causes the speed of the weft leading end to be expeditiously reduced to null and the weft leading end to be caught by an auxiliary jet nozzle, resulting in the weft not being inserted.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for supplying a transport fluid to auxiliary jet nozzles in a jet loom, which assure that a weft insertion operation can be carried out without any miss even when the jet loom is being operated at a low speed or in one picking motion.

Method and apparatus for supplying transport fluid to auxiliary jet nozzles in a jet loom

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho


A security application is described for determining conditions within a computer application that would create the desire to allow or disallow access to certain system functions or features by the application. The security application analyzes the conditions and sets a lock that enables the application to perform only certain types of actions that would be considered secure by the security application.

Modern computers demonstrate their usefulness by the software applications that they run. In the days before extensive networking and the proliferation of the Internet, software applications were typically monolithic, relatively large-scaled and independent programs that were designed to do a single general task. Any data generated or obtained within the application was generally confined to that particular application. With the increased interconnectivity brought about by the Internet, larger applications may interact with transitory smaller applications which could exchange data with remote servers or other remote application, sometimes even without the computer user knowing that this communication interchange is even taking place. Such transitory applications typically are executed for a certain amount of time and eventually end either automatically or at the direction of the user. This interconnectivity, along with the existence of more nefarious applications, such as viruses, trojan horses, and the like, expose computer users to potential loss of data, damaged computers, or even losing money or credit standing through identity theft.
Because of the potential for loss and damage to computers, data, and property, processes and security software have been developed to minimize the potential losses by preventing unsafe applications from either operating or operating successfully. Firewalls attempt to prevent unauthorized access to computer systems; antivirus applications attempt to identify, destroy, and/or quarantine virus programs; and spyware programs attempt to locate and neutralize spyware that may be mining a user's computer for sensitive (or even not so sensitive, but equally personal) data. Thus, a considerable amount of research and technology has been dedicated to preventing unauthorized access to users' computers and disclosure of information located on those computers.
One area that has been addressed for increasing protection and security is in media files. When a file type represents media, such as an image, animation, sound, or the like, users of that file type generally do not expect that opening such files will expose them to any potential harm. These users view such files as containing only media. Users may, thus, develop a habit of opening media files without regard to the trustworthiness of their origin. This lack of suspicion can have great benefits for the free movement of information. However, sophisticated media file types may support embedded scripting commands, and, if a program that opens such files is not carefully written, the commands embedded in such files may perform actions that users would generally not expect or approve. Thus, a program that plays a media file type with embedded scripting commands should take precautions to protect users from unreasonable actions—i.e., such a program should avoid providing any mechanisms by which a creator of a media file can attack the computer or user information with that file. This is an important task for of what is known as a "user agent" program. User agents typically render media file types for users.
Another example system or application that benefits from more secure transactions are in the Web browser. Many modern web browsers offer to store or "remember" certain user information in order to make it easier or more convenient for a user to log into certain of his or her favorite Websites or Web applications. The user IDs and passwords that could be stored or remembered may provide access to data as insignificant as a log of jogging times that a user has amassed during various exercise sessions to critical data and control of the user's bank accounts and financial information. As various transitory applications, applets, or services (collectively "applications") are run on the user's computer, it is critical to make sure that these applications do not access any of the user's sensitive personal information and, more importantly, that they do not send that information to an unauthorized recipient.
Whenever a computer system introduces restrictions on the actions of various applications, whether indirectly, through proxy, such as a user agent program, or directly through the operating system, it is desirable to prevent only those actions that may cause harm to users, and to allow any actions that can never cause harm. This preserves the greatest possible set of capabilities for such applications while keeping the file type safe for users. Producers and users of such applications both typically desire a rich set of capabilities, but users generally demand safe applications. This tension dictates that a good security application should be constructed to permit the maximum set of capabilities without permitting harm to users.
Many computers may contain, or have access to, data that the user considers private. A user may typically wish that this private data not be shared with an anonymous party, such as the author or provider of a particular application, without the user's express consent. This private data may include presence information, names, or contents of files on the computer's local file systems; presence information, names, or contents of files on other computers in a private local network; configuration of the computer and any applications installed on it; personally identifying information about the user; passwords to various computer and non-computer systems; a history of the consumer's actions; and a considerable number of other forms of private data; or the like.
One type of action that a security system or application would likely prevent is the disclosure of any of the users' private data back to the creator or provider of the application. Such a disclosure becomes a risk whenever the set of embedded commands that the security application supports for any application type includes both the ability to obtain private data from the user or the user's computer, and the ability to send data using a network. An application with both of these capabilities could obtain private data from the user or the user's computer and then use a network to send that private data back to the creator or provider of that application. One tension that a security application or system may resolve is that, on one hand, it may be useful for some applications to be able to obtain private data from the user or the user's computer, and also useful for some applications to be able to send data using a network; but that, on the other hand, it may be dangerous to permit a single application to perform both of these actions.
One technology that has been used to secure data from unauthorized disclosure is referred to as "tainting." Tainting, in general, is the process of tagging or marking the origin of every single piece of data that comes into the computer system and preventing certain of that data from flowing out of the system. A tainting security application or system checks each of the tags or marks on each piece of data and determines which of those pieces of data may be either accessed, transmitted, or other such operation. Tainting, while allowing a flexible security system, is extremely complex and problematic. Problems arise because the tag or mark should be preserved throughout the life of that data, whether the data is modified, copied, sent through some application programming interface (API), or otherwise changed or processed in any manner. If the tag or mark is not preserved, then it would be very easy to defeat the tainting security system simply by copying or only slightly modifying the information The problem with this is that it is very difficult to implement correctly. The complexity of monitoring each piece of data throughout its life and attempting to preserve all of the tainting tags and marks makes it very easy to introduce bugs or flaws into a system that already has tainting built into it. The complexity also makes it very difficult for programmers to understand as well, because the tainting system can produce very baffling failures that are difficult to reproduce because everything is dependent on a very sensitive set of conditions.

Secure operation of transitory computer applications


Disclosed is a process for the production of an alkylene oxide in which an alkene, and an oxygen containing gas are reacted in the presence of a flame suppressor under conditions of low alkene conversion and high alkylene oxide selectivity in which unreacted alkene is recycled to the reactor and there is efficient removal of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

The production of alkylene oxides from alkenes in the presence of suitable catalysts is well known. Brian J. Ozero, Handbook of Chemicals Production Processes, edited by Robert Meyers, McGraw Hill Book Co. (1986) at Chapter 1.5, discloses cyclic processes using both oxygen and air as an oxidant for the production ethylene oxide from ethylene. In these processes, the alkene is oxidized in a multitubular catalytic reactor in vapor phase. The reactor off gases are cooled and scrubbed with water in an absorber to recover ethylene oxide which is sent to a recovery section for further purification.
In the oxygen-based process described by Ozero, the scrubber off gases are divided into three parts which are respectively: i) recycled to the reactor, ii) vented and iii) sent to a separator for carbon dioxide removal and recycle of the remaining hydrocarbons. This process suffers from several disadvantages. In particular, the process requires a separate carbon dioxide removal unit and a purge to remove argon which would otherwise accumulate in the system.
In the air-based process described by Ozero, the scrubber off gases are sent to a second reactor, which is the purge reactor, where additional unreacted ethylene is reacted using a higher air to ethylene ratio, thereby foregoing some ethylene oxide selectivity. The reactor off gases are passed through another water scrubber to recover ethylene oxide.
It is known that the volume of hydrocarbons purged, when utilizing air as a source of oxygen, requires that the purge scrubber off gases be incinerated to remove any remaining hydrocarbons in order to meet environmental regulations. In this air-based process, an additional purge oxidation reactor, a water scrubber, and an effluent incinerator are required, as well as a greater volume of catalyst. Another shortcoming of the processes described by Ozero is that they are for practical purposes limited to the use of either oxygen or air. It would be advantageous to eliminate the purge and additional carbon dioxide separator and operate the ethylene oxide reactor at a higher selectivity to improve the overall process efficiency.

Process for the production of alkylene oxide