The purpose of this invention is to reduce the changes in the conditions of the processing for projecting shots, and to downsize the air-type shot-treatment machine 10 and simplify its structure. An air-type shot-treatment machine 10 comprises a table 12 to hold an article to be processed, wherein the table 12 can rotate the article and lift and lower it, a nozzle 16 to project shots toward the article together with compressed air, wherein the nozzle 16 is fixed so that it is oriented toward the article, and is connected to a pressurized tank 46 by means of a connecting device 44 having a wear-resistant hose 40, an adjusting device 18 to adjust the quality of shots projected from the nozzle 16, wherein the adjusting device 18 is disposed at the connecting device 44, a rotating device 20 to rotate the table 12, a moving device 22 to lift and lower the table 12, and a control device 24 to control the adjusting device 18 and the rotating device 20 so that while the table 12 is being rotated, the shots are being projected toward the article to be processed, and, further, to control the moving device 22 so that the table 12 is lifted and lowered.

Conventionally, an air-type shot-treatment machine is used for processing products by projecting shots at them. For example, products that have a plurality of gears coaxially disposed on a shaft with predetermined intervals, or products that have a plurality of gears coaxially disposed on a shaft in contact with each other, are processed by projecting shots while a support member to hold the products and a nozzle for projecting the shots are fixed in position.
However, for such a machine, the support member (to hold the gears) must he changed when the respective gears are replaced and processed. Thus, it takes much time to change the tooling for processing the products.
To solve this problem, an air-type shot-treatment machine having a nozzle that can ascend and descend is provided so as to avoid the change of the tooling being required when the respective gears are replaced and processed. (Sec Patent Document 1.)    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H8-216024


A squeezable, insulated drink bottle includes a flexible, semi-rigid, plastic beverage container that fits inside of and in spaced relationship to a flexible, semi-rigid plastic housing. An inwardly oriented flange around a top opening of the housing locks into a groove under a cover shoulder of the beverage container. Recesses in the housing facilitate gripping of drink bottle.

The invention relates to squeezable semi-rigid plastic "drink bottles" for storing water, juice, or the like with nozzles through which the liquid can be ejected by squeezing the bottle. The invention relates more particularly to an insulative housing for such a drink bottle.
Squeezable "drink bottles" formed of semi-rigid plastic material, with nozzles through which stored liquid can be ejected by squeezing the body of the bottle, or sucking through the nozzle or straw, have become very popular in recent years. Such drink bottles are commonly sold either alone or filled with ice and a beverage such as a soft drink. Typically, the cost of the drink bottle might be $1.00 and the cost of the bottle filled with ice and beverage might be $1.49, with additional refills of ice and beverage being available for $0.49 each. Such drink bottles typically are composed of high density polyethylene plastic material, the wall thickness of which is approximately 0.015 inches. The thermal insulation properties of the plastic wall are poor, so the ice will melt much faster on a warm day than is desirable. Such drink bottles frequently are re-used many times by re-filling them with ice and water, juice, or soft drink for use at sporting events, on hikes, on bicycle rides, etc. The market for such drink bottles requires that they be inexpensive. Because of this requirement, until now no one has been able to provide a practical, effective, insulative housing for squeezable "drink bottles" other than thick opaque foam sleeves or the like.
Various kinds of art work, such as company trademarks and logos, and graphic designs are commonly silk screened onto the outer surface of drink bottles. It is not practical to provide the desirable range of artwork on the above-mentioned insulative sleeves.
There is an unmet need for an inexpensive, thermally insulative housing for a semi-rigid, flexible, plastic squeezable drink bottle, which is compatible with the artwork that is required to make an aesthetically pleasing product.


A combine harvester having a cleaning system for separating seeds from by-products, that includes a transmission having an annular member, that extends around a circular element of an eccentric device and is pivotable around said circular element, a second arm having a first end fixedly connected to the annular member, and a second end connected with a reciprocatable cleaner device of a second cleaner assembly, a first arm having a first end fixedly connected to the annular member, a first cleaner drive linkage has a first end pivotably connected to the second end of the first arm and a second end connected to a reciprocatable cleaner device of a first cleaner assembly, wherein the reciprocatable cleaner device of the second cleaner assembly and the reciprocatable cleaner device of the first cleaner assembly are reciprocatingly drivable by the cleaning system drive assembly in generally opposite directions.

Combine harvesters are widely used in the harvesting of various types of grain, corn and other crops of which the seed is harvested. Typically, a combine harvester comprises a header having a cutter bar, which cuts the plants that contain the seeds to be harvested from the field. The thus harvested crop is threshed inside the combine harvester, in which process the seeds are separated from the other parts of the plants. The stalks of the harvested plants are removed from the combine harvester via a straw walker and a mixture of harvested seeds and by-products remains in the combine harvester. These by-products (e.g. chaff or "ears") are generally smaller than the stalks that are removed from the combine harvester via the straw walker.
The mixture of harvested seeds and these by-products is transported to a cleaning system, in which the threshed seeds are separated from the by-products. The cleaning system generally comprises one or more grain pans and one or more sieves, which perform a reciprocating movement during use. The sieved seeds are then collected and transported to the grain tank of the combine harvester, which is generally emptied periodically.
The grain pan and sieve or sieves of the cleaning system are generally arranged at an angle relative to the horizontal, with the front end of the sieve (that is, the end closest to the cutter bar) lower than the rear end of the sieve. The reciprocating movement of the grain pan and sieve makes that the seeds and by-products are thrown upwards and backwards by the grain pan or sieve, respectively. A fan blows air over and through the sieve, to catch the lighter particles of the by-products and keep them airborne until they are blown out of the combine harvester.
In known arrangements, the combine harvester comprises a drive mechanism for the cleaning system. Such a drive mechanism typically comprises a rotatable drive shaft that drives the grain pan or grain pans as well as the sieve or sieves. The grain pans and sieves are connected to the rotatable drive shaft through a transmission comprising mechanical elements such as eccentric drives and linkages. Often, one linkage system is used to drive multiple sieves, grain pans or a sieve and a grain pan at the same time. For example, DE 2743733 uses such an arrangement.
In these known arrangements, the mechanical elements in the transmission are subjected to high mechanical loads.


A plurality of client-terminals are connected to utilize the facilities of a client-server and a Kerberos Server in a Kerberos domain. A client-terminal requesting Kerberos service is facilitated by cooperating programs designated as the communications management system program (COMS) and the Menu Assisted Resource Control program (MARC) which enable access to a Kerberos Server for building a response message to said requesting client-terminal without disabling continued usage of said client-terminal.

In recent years, great emphasis has been provided and applied in regard to ensuring the security of communications in networks of clients and servers. Cryptographic systems have been developed for maintaining privacy of information that is transmitted across various communication channels. One type of cryptographic system often used is designated as a "symmetric crypto-system". These symmetric crypto-systems generally utilize electronic keys and can be somewhat compared to physical security systems. An example of this would be the network where a message holding box has a single locking mechanism which has a single keyhole. Then one key holder can use his key to open the box and place a message in the box and then relock the box. Subsequently then, a second holder (who has an identical copy of the key) then unlocks the box and retrieves the message. Here the term "symmetric" indicates the situation where both users have "identical keys".
In computer systems which are designated as a "symmetric crypto-system", the system requires that there be (i) an encryption function E; (ii) a decryption function D; and (iii) a shared secret key, K. In this situation, the "K" key is a unique string of data bits which apply to the encryption and decryption functions.
One particular example of the encipherment/decipherment function is the National Bureau of Standards Data Encryption Standard designated as DES. Another example is the Fast Encipherment Algorithm (FEAL). In this situation, in order to transmit a message (M) with privacy, the sender must compute a ciphertext designated "C" on the basis where C equals E (M,K). In this situation, the recipient terminal, upon receipt of the ciphertext C, then computes the message M equal to D (C,K), enabling the recipient terminal to recover the message "M".
Again here, K is the shared secret-key which functions such that an unauthorized terminal who copies the ciphertext C, but who does not know the shared secret key K, will find himself unable to recover the message M. Here, the security is based on maintaining the secrecy of the key K.
In addition to the above-mentioned "symmetric crypto-systems" there are also systems designated as "Asymmetric Crypto-Systems" often designated as Public Key Crypto-Systems which provide other ways of encrypting information. They differ from symmetric systems, for example, in the physical sense, such that the message box has one lock, but also has two non-identical keys associated with it. Here, either key can be used to unlock the box to retrieve the message which was locked in the box by the other key. This type of system could be made to operate such that keys must be used in a "particular sequence", such that the box can be locked with one key and only then unlocked with the other key. This asymmetric type crypto-system is often designated as a "RSA" system which refers to the names of authors Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA) in a paper described in pages 120-126 of Vol. 21 of CACM (Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery), published in February 1978.
In systems designated as Public Key Electronic Crypto-Systems, each operating entity or terminal has a private key "d", which is only known to that particular entity or terminal. There is also a public key, "eN" which is publicly known. Here, once a message is encrypted with a user's public key, it can only be decrypted using that particular user's "private key", d. Conversely, if the message is encrypted with the user's "private key". It can only be decrypted using that user's "public key".
A Kerberos Security System is being used as a developing standard for authenticating network users and is often used primarily in the UNIX community where it is useful because it functions in a multi-vendor network and does not transmit passwords over the network.
Kerberos operates to authenticate users, that is to say, it determines if a user is a valid user. It does not provide other security services such as audit trails. Kerberos authentication is based on "passwords" and does not involve physical location or smart cards.
To implement Kerberos in the system, each computer in a network must run Kerberos software. Kerberos works by granting a "ticket" which is honored by all the network computers that are running Kerberos protocol. The tickets are encrypted, so passwords never go over the network in "clear text" and the users do not need to enter their password when accessing a different computer.
Since there is often a need to run Kerberos on every single computer in a network, this sometimes presents a problem for potential users. Considerable effort and time may be involved in porting Kerberos to each different hardware platform in the network. Kerberos users tended to be large networks which were furnished with extended expertise. Since such resources are not generally available to smaller networks, it is sometimes a problem to make it available to such smaller networks which cannot justify the cost and expense.
The primary benefit of Kerberos is that it prevents a password from being transmitted over the network.
Kerberos networks are involved with the type of systems designated as "symmetric crypto-systems" discussed above. One type of symmetric crypto system is called the "Kerberos Authentication System". This type of system was discussed and published on the Internet by J. T. Kohl and D. C. Neuman in an article entitled "The Kerberos Network Authentication Service" which was published Sep. 19, 1993 on the Internet RFC 1510. Kerberos uses symmetric key crypto-systems as a primitive and often uses the Data Encryption Standard (DES) as a inter-operability standard. Kerberos systems have been adopted as the basis for security service by the Open Software Foundations (OSF), Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). Kerberos was designed to provide authentication and key-exchange, but was not particularly designed to provide digital signatures.
Thus, networks require systems and methods for securing communications which provides a way for one user to authenticate itself to another user and additionally, these often require systems for securing communications which facilitate digital signatures being placed on a message to provide for non-repudiation.
Kerberized environments involve the transmittal of messages, for example, from a server to a client which leads to several major problems in these networks. One problem involves the inordinate period of time that a client or a server is required to wait after requesting a response to a Kerberos command. As a result of waiting for a response, this causes the controlling software program or process, to wait so that any other clients or servers in the network requesting a service would also have to wait.
Another type of problem involved in Kerberos networks is that there is no existing method of returning unsolicited messages, generated synchronously or asynchronously from a Kerberos Server to a client or other server.
The presently described system functions to overcome those situations where commands, requiring a Kerberos server response, are not generated in a timely fashion. Thus, the newly developed mechanism permits the requesting client's or server's programs to continue to handle requests while the Kerberos server generates a response to the first unanswered request.
Additionally, the presently described system now provides a mechanism which establishes a communication path to address the disposition of unsolicited messages generated from a Kerberos Server to various clients or other servers.

Asynchronous message system for menu-assisted resource control program


Improved methods of placing a gravel pack in a wellbore and in one or more perforations extending from the wellbore into a producing zone are provided. The methods basically comprise the steps of placing a screen in the wellbore adjacent the perforations, and then injecting a low viscosity carrier liquid having a particulate solid pack material suspended therein into the space between the screen and the walls of the wellbore containing the perforations. The pack material has a specific gravity substantially the same as the specific gravity of the carrier liquid whereby a low viscosity carrier liquid can be utilized and the carrier liquid-pack material suspension contains a high loading of pack material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to well gravel-packing methods, and more particularly, to improved methods of forming gravel packs in vertical and nonvertical wellbores.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The gravel packing of wellbores and perforations extending therefrom into subterranean producing zones has been practiced in the oil field for many years. Such gravel packing involves the placement of a tightly packed mass of particulate solid material in the wellbore and perforations extending therefrom so that loose or incompetent subterranean formation materials produced with hydrocarbons are screened out by the gravel pack and are prevented from entering the wellbore.
A gravel pack is typically formed in a wellbore by placing a tubular gravel pack screen in the wellbore adjacent the perforations therein and then injecting a carrier liquid having a particulate solid pack material suspended therein into the space between the exterior of the screen and the walls of the wellbore containing the perforations. The pack material which has heretofore typically been sand or bauxite, is screened out of the carrier liquid and a pack of the material is formed in the perforations and in the annular space between the screen and the wellbore walls. An alternate technique involves injecting a carrier liquid-pack material suspension into the wellbore and into the perforations whereby the perforations are packed and then setting the screen and packing the annulus using the same or different carrier liquid-pack material suspension.
A problem which has continuously been associated with gravel packing procedures, particularly in nonvertical wellbores, is that the pack material settles out of the carrier liquid and does not enter one or more of the perforations. This results in unpacked perforations and voids in the gravel pack which allows the production of fines and sand with produced fluids when the well is placed on production.
In horizontal wells, i.e., wells that are drilled and completed with the portion of the wellbore in the producing formation or zone positioned substantially horizontally, the perforated horizontal portion of the wellbore can be very long. In gravel packing such horizontal wellbore sections, the pack material often settles to the bottom of the horizontal wellbore as the carrier liquid-pack material suspension flows therethrough resulting in voids in the gravel pack as well as unpacked perforations positioned in the top of the wellbore.
It is known that the transport of pack material such as sand without settling over a long nonvertical distance requires either a viscosified carrier liquid or very large volumes of a low viscosity carrier liquid, e.g., brine. High viscosity carrier liquids having sand suspended therein have not provided the degree of perforation and annulus packing needed to prevent gravel pack voids. On the other hand, low viscosity carrier liquid suspensions of sand have shown good packing efficiency in horizontal wellbores, but the sand loading of the suspension must be low which results in large volumes of the carrier liquid entering the production zone by way of the perforations. This in turn often results in considerable damage to the producing zone as a result of, for example, the swelling or migration of formation clays and fine material.
Thus, there is a need for an improved gravel packing method featuring the use of a low viscosity carrier liquid, such as brine, containing a high loading of pack material. Such a carrier liquid-pack material suspension would allow the pack material to be transported long distances in wellbores without settling, would form tight and uniform gravel packs and would limit fluid lost into the formations to thereby minimize damage to producing formations.


A synchronous, pulsatile angioplasty system utilizes a control apparatus which controls balloon inflation and deflation in a pulsatile fashion synchronized with the heartbeat of a patient. A heart monitor provides an input, a signal to the control apparatus which serves as a baseline for operation of the pulsatile inflation and deflation of the balloon. A triggering circuit reads the baseline signal and generates a control signal to selectively generate valves interconnecting the angioplasty catheter with sources of inflation media and low pressure. Time delay circuits may be utilized which delay either the duration of the control signal or the receipt thereof by the control valves.

The present invention relates generally to equipment and procedures employed in the performance of perfusion catherization procedures, and more particularly to a system for operating an angioplasty catheter in a pulsatile fashion in synchronization with a heartbeat.
The use of inflatable balloon catheters in the treatment of coronary conditions is widespread. Balloon catheters are commonly used to expand blockages in arteries. These blockages are a narrowing of an artery or other body vessel, and are referred to as stenoses. In angioplasty procedures, a guide catheter is introduced into the artery of the patient and guided through the artery until the distal tip of the catheter is at the desired location of the coronary artery near the stenosis. A dilation catheter having an inflatable balloon affixed to its distal end is introduced along the guide catheter and advanced into the patient until the balloon end is located at the stenosis. The balloon is subsequently inflated to expand it against the artery walls to expand, or dilate, the artery and compress the stenosis. This expansion can remove all of or a significant portion of the blockage when the balloon is inflated against the arterial walls for a preselected time or repeatedly inflated and deflated in a cycle to match that of the heartbeat of the patient.
Once the artery has been expanded, the balloon is deflated and it and the guide catheter are removed so that blood may again flow on its own through the artery. Restenosis is a condition where the arterial wall has been initially expanded by the balloon and the arterial blockage is open but the arterial wall contracts and adopts all of or part of its original, restricted state sometime after the balloon is deflated and removed. The rate of restenosis is believed to be lowered if longer inflation times are used during angioplasty balloon catheterization procedures.
The use of longer balloon inflation times may promote the occurrence of ischemia of the cardiac muscles. Ischemia is a local deficiency of oxygen in an area of the body caused by an obstruction in the blood vessels supplying blood to that area. To prevent ischemia, perfusion catheters are used in association with coronary angioplasty catheters. Perfusion catheters are catheters which permit the continuous flow of blood through the blockage during the inflation of the balloon in the artery.
An external pump is often used in perfusion angioplasty procedures in order to draw blood from the patient by way of an aspiration catheter and circulate it back through the perfusion catheter and past the distal end of the balloon. External blood pumps have been commonly used for regulating blood through coronary arteries during open-heart surgeries. These pumps may generally provide either a high or low pressure output. External perfusion pumps are well known, such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,282 issued Nov. 19, 1991. This patent is directed to a perfusion pump with a pulsation-damping mechanism that serves to smooth out pressure pulses of the pump during pumping. Other external pumps are known which use syringes as their primary components, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,479, issued Jun. 2, 1967 which discloses an arrangement of syringe pumps which perform alternating suction and pumping strokes. In the multiple syringe pump arrangement shown in this patent, four syringe pumps are powered by a motor-driven eccentric cam drive which utilizes return springs connected to the plungers of the syringe pumps in order to ensure a prompt return of the syringe pump plungers to their original, ready position within the syringes. The pumping cycle of such a mechanism is essentially "fixed" because of the curvature of the cam surfaces of the cam. It is not possible to adjust such a mechanical type system to mate its pumping action with a heartbeat.
The present invention is therefore directed to an angioplasty system with a control means for selectively controlling the inflation and deflation of an angioplasty balloon in synchronization with a patient's heartbeat in order to deflate the balloon while the heart is pumping and to inflate the balloon while the heart is at rest. The present invention therefore also dispenses with the need to utilize a perfusion catheter and its external perfusion pump.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a heart monitor and a programmable controller are linked together so that the controller, in effect, "reads" the heart rate or pulse of the patient. The controller controls a bank, or a manifold, of valves that control the inflation and deflation of the angioplasty balloon using a biocompatible inflation media, such as helium or carbon dioxide. The valves are operatively connected to a pressurized source of inflation media as well as a vacuum source to provide for immediate inflation and deflation upon demand in response to a signal generated by the controller.
In another aspect of the present invention, a series of gas pressure regulators interconnect the pressurized inflation media source to a series of solenoid valves which are operatively connected to a programmable control means in order to regulate the pressure of the inflation fluid drawn from its source and used for balloon inflation purposes.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the programmable controller has an adjustable control means with a timing delay means operatively associated therewith in order to adjust the frequency of the inflation and deflation cycles of the angioplasty balloon so that the balloon may be inflated and deflated in synchronization with the patient's heart so that angioplasty may be performed with minimal trauma and ischemia occurring. The timing delay means permits the programmable controller to synchronize the inflation of the balloon (and its deflation) not only to the heartbeat of the patient, but also in synchronization with a particular heartbeat, such as the fourth or sixth heartbeat, for example, in a chosen cycle.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a pulsatile, synchronous inflation system for use in angioplasty which reduces trauma and ischemia.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a pulsatile angioplasty system wherein the balloon inflation pressure are adjustable and may be increased as required.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an angioplasty inflation/deflation control system having a programmable controller which controls and regulates the inflation/deflation of an angioplasty balloon in synchronization with the heart rhythm of the patient, thereby permitting preselected longer or shorter periods of time of inflation during angioplasty and thereby reduces the trauma associated with angioplasty.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a synchronous, pulsatile angioplasty system having a control apparatus which synchronizes the inflation and deflation of an angioplasty balloon with the heartbeat of a patient and which controls the inflation and deflation times so that the angioplasty balloon may be inflated or deflated at every Nth heartbeat.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be clearly understood through consideration of the following detailed description.

Synchronous, pulsatile angioplasty system

Cordis Corporation & University of Miami


A hand-held food processor having a weighted cylindrical universal handle with a circular triangle shaped base which can accommodate various detachable optional base pieces. The base pieces contemplated include a piercing tenderizer assembly, a coarse plate, as well as a smooth plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hand-held kitchen tool, and more particularly to a mechanical food processor for tenderizing or processing meat, vegetables and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many tenderizers known in the art, including those which operate like a specialized hammer and those which have blades for piercing the food. An early example of this is by Andre Jaccard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,841, which discloses a hand operated meat tenderizer having multiple piercing elements held by a handle and a stripping plate to retract the elements. Another example of a hand held food processor having blades is U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,670 to Kujawski et al. which is directed toward making the disassembly and cleaning of a multi-bladed piercing tool easier.


A photographic light-sensitive material having a support having a thickness of from 160 to 225 μm is processed with an automatic developing apparatus, in which at least one of rollers of a developing part, a fixing part and a rinsing rack part of the automatic developing apparatus has a surface mainly containing a nonpolar polymer substance and having a center line surface roughness (Ra) of 20 μm or less. By using the automatic developing apparatus, dusts generated in the apparatus can be easily removed with a cleaning film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic developing apparatus for developing a photographic light-sensitive material, in particular, a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material for a photomask (a mask film) for industrial use, and a process for forming an image using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a printed circuit board is being miniaturized according to reduction in size of home electric appliances, such as a potable phone. According to the miniaturization of a printed circuit board, the wiring pattern formed on the surface of the circuit board is being thinned. It is the current situation that the line width of the pattern formed on the printed circuit board produced by using a mask film is as thin as from 10 to 15 μm.
The mask film herein is a pattern film used for exposing a printed circuit board. The pattern film is inspected for detecting defects with an AOI (automated optical inspection) system (such as FPT-MARVEL, produced by Yachiyo Corp.). In order to inspect the pattern having a width of from 10 to 15 μm, in general, the inspection system is necessarily set to such a configuration that can detect defects having a size of about 5 μm. However, there are cases where dusts attached upon development bring about false detection, which is thus a factor inhibiting exact evaluation.
Examples of the dusts as the inhibiting factor include those floating in a developing part, a fixing part and a rinsing rack part of an automatic developing apparatus, and those attached to rollers. These dusts are formed mainly of water stain and attached silver. The water stain is formed mainly by putrefaction of gelatin eluted from a light-sensitive material film by bacteria.
In order to prevent dusts from being attached to a mask film, a developer solution, a fixing solution and water used in an automatic developing apparatus are previously cleaned by filtering with such a filter that is capable of removing dusts having a size of 3 μm or more. However, the filter cannot remove bacteria, and bacteria remaining in a developer solution or the like putrefies gelatin eluted from a film to form foreign matters having a size of 5 μm or more. Therefore, in a conventional automatic developing apparatus, gelatin is accumulated in grooves formed on the surface of the roller. Furthermore, there is also such a problem that the entire surface of the roller is putrefied to form water stain constitutively, and as a result, the surface of the developed film is contaminated thereby.
In order to remove the stain forcedly, a cleaning system using a cleaning film (for example, Fuji Cleaning Film, produced by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.) has been developed. However, a conventional automatic developing apparatus generally requires about 10 sheets of cleaning films. Furthermore, in order to remove the stain completely, it is necessary to clean the rack periodically, which brings about increase in labor cost.
Upon developing a mask film, an automatic developing apparatus for ordinary prepress for printing has been conventionally used. In the case where an automatic developing apparatus for prepress for printing is used, in order to increase conveying power of rollers, the rollers used therein have grooves on the surfaces thereof for conveying light-sensitive materials using a PET base material having a thickness of from 60 μm, which has low stiffness, to a PET base material having a thickness of 175 μm, which has high stiffness.
However, the mask film mainly uses a support having a thickness exceeding 175 μm, and there is such a problem that dusts get into the grooves for improving the conveying power and are attached to the surface of the film.
JP-A-6-95335 discloses an automatic developing apparatus for carrying out developing, fixing and rinsing steps by conveying a light-sensitive material with porous conveying rollers, in which the apparatus has means for applying a processing solution to the light-sensitive material held and conveyed with the porous conveying rollers, and means for heating the processing solution applied to the light-sensitive material.
JP-A-6-95335 discloses that the automatic developing apparatus can be miniaturized and is substantially free of fatigue of the processing solution, and the developing apparatus can be easily operated and maintained.
JP-A-6-95335 discloses an automatic developing apparatus using rollers having a large number of pores on the surface thereof, but there is no description about specific surface roughness of the rollers. Furthermore, JP-A-6-95335 has no description relating to water stain, which is considered in the invention.
JP-A-11-104613 discloses a method for preventing formation of water stain in a water rinsing step after photographic development by automatically feeding a water stain preventing agent to rinsing water and automatically mixed by agitating therewith, in which the agitation is started before feeding the water stain preventing agent, and the agitation is continued beyond the completion of feed of the water preventing agent until the water stain preventing agent is completely dissolved and dispersed in rinsing water. JP-A-11-104613 discloses that the method for preventing formation of water stain can effectively and economically prevents formation of water stain in rinsing water used in the rising step after photographic development.
JP-A-2004-33816 discloses a controlling system having the following features. In the first feature, from 0.01 to 0.1 ppm of ozone gas is fed to water in a rinsing bath. In the second feature, from 0.01 to 0.1 ppm of an ozone gas is fed to the rinsing bath during a predetermined period, and after terminating the feed of ozone gas, the same feeding operation is carried out within a period of time that is five times or less the feeding time, followed by repeating the operation. In the third feature, the system is constituted by an ozone generator, a blower pump, a feed controlling timer and a feed pausing timer, and the feed controlling timer and the feed pausing timer are alternately operated to feed ozone gas intermittently with certain intervals to rinsing water or circulating water used in a processing step of various photographic films or luminescent materials or printing processes. In the fourth feature, the controlling system delays the operation time of the blowing pump for feeding ozone gas after completing the feed of ozone gas in such a period that corresponds to the capacity of piping from the apparatus to the rinsing bath. JP-A-2004-33816 discloses that formation of water stain in photographic films and light-sensitive materials for prepress can be prevented with ozone gas by using the controlling system without adverse affect on photographic films and light-sensitive materials for prepress in a convenient manner suitable for the target matters, e.g., the rinsing bath capacity, and the photographic films and light-sensitive materials for prepress.
However, JP-A-11-104613 and JP-A-2004-33816 relate to prevention of formation of water stain but cannot deal with water stain having been formed, and also cannot deal with invading foreign matters. Therefore, these literatures fail to provide an ultimate solution to the outstanding problem.
In particular, rollers in a conventional automatic developing apparatus have conveying grooves, and there has been no solution to the problem that water stain is liable to be attached to the grooves.

Automatic developing apparatus and process for forming image using the same


Disclosed are, for example, a process for producing a tricarboxylic acid tris(alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamide), the process comprising subjecting a tricarboxylic acid and an alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamine to an amidation reaction, either (a) in the presence of a boric acid compound and a phenol compound or (b) in the presence of a boric acid ester obtained by the dehydration condensation of a boric acid compound and a phenol compound, and optionally purifying the resulting crude reaction product.

Because of their excellent moldability, mechanical properties, electrical properties, and so forth, polyolefin resins are used in many different fields as materials for film molding, sheet molding, blow molding, injection molding, and so on.
However, while these resins generally do have excellent properties, they are less than satisfactory in terms of transparency, crystallinity, and rigidity, and in some applications the excellent performance inherent in such resins cannot be fully taken advantage of, and at present this limits the applications of these resins. A technique in which an amide compound is employed has been proposed in the past in an effort to improve the transparency, crystallinity, and rigidity of polyolefin resins (see Patent Documents 1-3).
A number of processes have been disclosed up to now for producing a 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid tris(alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamide) as the above-mentioned amide compound.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H7-242610 (Patent Document 2) gives a preparation example in which 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid tris(cyclohexylamide) and 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid tris(2-methylcyclohexylamide) are obtained by reacting 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid and cyclohexylamine or 2-methylcyclohexylamine in the presence of both triphenyl phosphite and pyridine.
However, the triphenyl phosphite used in this process as an activator of carboxyl groups is extremely expensive, and furthermore, it has to be used in a large quantity, that is, in a stoichiometric amount, and this drives up the cost. Moreover, phosphorous-containing waste liquid is produced, and this necessitates treatment for environmental safety.
In addition, a preparation is given in which 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid trimethyl ester and cyclohexylamine or 2-methylcyclohexylamine used in an amount corresponding to 3 to 30 equivalents thereof are subjected to an ester-amide interchange reaction for 6 hours at 220° C. to obtain a corresponding 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid tris(alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamide) (see Patent Document 4).
However, this process entails a complicated step of producing a methyl ester of 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid, and furthermore the reaction is conducted at a temperature not lower than the boiling point of cyclohexylamine, which means that a costly pressure-resistant equipment is required, and for this and other reasons this process has room for improvement in terms of producing and cost.
Thus, a problem has been that a 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid tris(alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamide) having the specific structure of the present invention cannot always be produced easily and with good productivity with conventional production processes.
Meanwhile, it has been disclosed concerning amidation reaction that in an amidation reaction of N-acylamino acid and a primary amine, secondary amine or ammonia, a boric acid compound effectively serves as a dehydration condensation reaction catalyst, particularly in the presence of an aliphatic alcohol that serves as an auxiliary solvent (see Patent Document 5 and Patent Document 6). Boric acid compounds are inexpensive and readily available. Nevertheless, these publications include neither reference to nor implication of an amidation reaction between a tricarboxylic acid and an alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamine.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3401868
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H7-242610
Patent Document 3: International Laid-Open Patent Application pamphlet WO/00/52089
Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H7-309821
Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application S61-000050
Patent Document 6: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2001-187769

Process for producing tricarboxylic acid tris (alkyl-substituted cyclohexylamide)


A golf ball comprising a core; a cover layer; and a barrier layer disposed between the core and the cover layer, the barrier layer being formed from a composition comprising an organically-modified ceramic material (also referred to as ormocers, ceramers, ormosils, and hybrids) which is a composite comprising organic and inorganic nano-building blocks linked most often via stable covalent bonds based on organically modified silicon oxides and/or functionalized organic oligomers/polymers.

Golf balls can generally be divided into two classes: solid and wound. Solid golf balls include one-piece, two-piece (i.e., solid core and a cover), and multi-layer (i.e., solid core of one or more layers and/or a cover of one or more layers) golf balls. Wound golf balls typically include a solid, hollow, or fluid-filled center, surrounded by tensioned elastomeric material, and a cover. Solid balls have traditionally been considered longer and more durable than wound balls, but also lack the particular "feel" that is provided by the wound construction and typically preferred by accomplished golfers.
By altering ball construction and composition, however, manufacturers can vary a wide range of playing characteristics, such as resilience, durability, spin, and "feel," each of which can be optimized for various playing abilities, allowing solid golf balls to provide feel characteristics more like their wound predecessors. The golf ball components, in particular, that many manufacturers continually look to improve are the center or core, intermediate layers, if present, and covers.
The core is the "engine" of the golf ball when hit with a club head. Generally, golf ball cores and/or centers are constructed with a polybutadiene-based polymer composition. Compositions of this type are constantly being altered in an effort to provide a targeted or desired coefficient of restitution ("COR") while at the same time resulting in a lower compression which, in turn, can lower the golf ball spin rate, provide better "feel," or both. This is a difficult task, however, given the physical limitations of currently-available polymers. As such, there remains a need for novel and improved golf ball core compositions.
Manufacturers also address the properties and construction of golf ball intermediate and cover layers. These layers have conventionally been formed of ionomer materials and ionomer blends of varying hardness and flexural moduli. This hardness range is still limited and even the softest blends suffer from a "plastic" feel according to some golfers. Recently, however, polyurethane-based materials have been employed in golf ball layers and, in particular, outer cover layers, due to their softer "feel" characteristics without loss in resiliency and/or durability.
A known drawback of polybutadiene cores cross-linked with peroxide and/or zinc diacrylate is that this material is adversely affected by moisture. Water moisture vapor reduces the resiliency of the cores and degrades its properties. A polybutadiene core will absorb water and lose its resilience. Thus, these cores must be covered quickly to maintain optimum ball properties. The cover is typically made from ionomer resins, balata, and urethane, among other materials. The ionomer covers, particularly the harder ionomers, offer some protection against the penetration of water vapor. However, it is more difficult to control or impart spin to balls with hard covers. Conventional urethane covers, on the other hand, while providing better ball control, offer less resistance to water vapor than ionomer covers.
Prolonged exposure to high humidity and elevated temperature may be sufficient to allow water vapor to invade the cores of some commercially available golf balls. For example at 110° F. and 90% humidity for a sixty day period, significant amounts of moisture enter the cores and reduce the initial velocity of the balls by 1.8 ft/s to 4.0 ft/s or greater. The change in compression may vary from 5 PGA to about 10 PGA or greater. The absorbed water vapor also reduces the coefficient of restitution (COR) of the ball.
Despite attempts by manufacturers at limiting vapor transmission to the core, there remains a need for other golf balls with an improved water vapor barrier layer and improved methods for applying a water vapor barrier layer on to the core of the golf ball.
Ormocers, for example, are a relatively new class of composite materials formed of ceramic and polymer networks that combine and interpenetrate with one another. Many names have been given to these materials, such as ceramers, polycerams, ormosils, and ormocers, depending on the scientific background of the naming party (i.e., polymers scientists, glass or ceramic scientists, organometallic scientists).
Ormorcer is an acronym for ORganically MOdified CERamics. These materials represents a novel inorganic-organic copolymer in the formulation that allows for modification of its mechanical parameters. Ormocers not only have relatively high chemical and mechanical stability; they also open up opportunities to adjust the porosity and chemical functionalization of resulting products. Ormocers (also referred to as ceramers, ormosils, and hybrids) are composites with organic and inorganic nano-building blocks linked most often via stable covalent bonds based on organically modified silicon oxides and/or functionalized organic oligomers/polymers.
The inorganic-organic copolymers are typically synthesized from multi-functional urethane- and thioether(meth)acrylate alkoxysilanes as sol-gel precursors. Alkoxysilyl groups of the silane permit the formation of an inorganic Si—O—Si network by hydrolysis and poly-condensation reactions. The methacrylate groups are available for photochemical or thermal polymerization. Vinyl and epoxy groups can also be polymerized into the siliceous network. These and other novel hybrid materials described herein are investigated for use in a variety of golf ball components that include, but are not limited to, golf ball centers, cores, layers, covers, and coating materials and/or blends, continuous or non-continuous layers, thick or thin films, vapor barrier layers, fillers, fibers, flakes, windings, adhesives, coupling agents, compatibilizers, composites, reinforcements, and inks.
The present invention is directed to golf balls having components, in particular vapor barrier layers, formed of novel hybrid materials, such as glass ionomers, ormocers, and other inorganic-organic materials.

Ormocer composites for golf ball components


An ink jet ink composition for sublimation transfer includes dye A and a dye B, in which the dye A is a disperse dye which has a molecular weight of 380 or less and an anthraquinone skeleton having a water-soluble group in a molecule, the dye B is a disperse dye which has a molecular weight of 400 or greater, and in the ink jet ink composition for sublimation transfer, dye solubility of the dye A is greater than dye solubility of the dye B.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet ink composition for sublimation transfer, an ink set, and a method of manufacturing dyed products.
2. Related Art
In the ink jet recording method, a high-resolution image can be recorded with a relatively simple apparatus, and rapid development has been achieved in various fields. Among these, various studies have been made for the ink jet recording method using disperse dyes. For example, JP-A-2005-89499 discloses an ink for ink jet textile printing having dye solubility of 10−3 or less in an ink for ink jet textile printing containing at least a disperse dye, a dispersant, water, and a water-soluble organic solvent for the purpose of obtaining an ink for ink jet textile printing having high stability with less clogging and precipitation by increasing the particle diameters of disperse dye fine particles.
However, if the dye solubility is limited to 10−3 or less as disclosed in JP-A-2005-89499, the kinds of dyes satisfying such dye solubility are limited, and thus, it is difficult to obtain a desired hue. On the other hand, with regard to a disperse dye having relatively high solubility, crystallization occurs by leaving an ink composition to stand in a high-temperature environment, this acts as foreign matter, and thus clogging of ink jet nozzles is generated. Therefore, an ink composition having excellent discharging stability and clogging recoverability, by which hue can be properly adjusted relatively without limitation to the kind of a coloring material, is desired.

Ink jet ink composition for sublimation transfer, ink set, and method of manufacturing dyed product


A sound signal processing circuit which independently calculates left and right mask levels of sub-band sound samples. A fast Fourier transform circuit performs a fast Fourier transform on input sound samples, and outputs first power spectrum samples decreased to one-half the input sound samples. A sub-sampling circuit produces a prescribed number of second power spectrum samples by sub-sampling processing of adding power spectrum samples by a prescribed number to make a single spectrum. A mask calculating circuit calculates a mask level of second power spectrum samples by determining a contour expressed in a prescribed unit mask function for every second power spectrum sample as a mask for every power spectrum sample, and adds the masks of the respective power spectrum samples.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sound signal processing circuit for calculating the mask level of a sound sample quantized in a sub-band encoding circuit which encodes a sound signal by dividing it for every frequency band.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 shows the general schematic configuration of a conventional sound signal processing circuit used for ISO/IEC11172-3 (hereinafter referred to as MPEG/Audio). Each section will be described below. For example, when 1024 input sound samples 61 are entered as sample, an FFT circuit 62 performs fast Fourier transform to effect sample output of 512 power spectrum samples.
From the entered power spectrum samples, a classifying circuit 63 for classifying into a pure sound and a noise extracts maximum power spectrum samples (those larger than power spectrum samples of adjacent frequencies) as pure sound component and others as noise component, thereby classifying the entered power spectrum samples into the pure sound component and the noise component.
A sub-sampling circuit 64 integrates a prescribed number of high power spectra into one power spectrum sample by utilizing a fact that a man's sense of hearing is poor in discriminating frequencies as they are higher. The number of power spectra to be integrated is variable depending on whether the applicable power spectra belong to the pure sound component or the noise component.
A mask calculating circuit 65 determines a mask level from the sub-sampled power spectrum samples as the pure sound component and those as the noise component. The mask level means a sound level that is a minimum level a man can hear and is variable gradually according to the distribution of frequencies of sounds which are being heard by a man at that time.
Conventional calculation of a mask level will be described with reference to FIG. 8. With the sense of hearing a man has, when there is a sound, namely a power spectrum 71, sounds having its adjacent frequencies are hard to hear. In other words, a mask 72 is formed on the frequencies adjacent to the power spectrum.
Conventionally, the mask 72 has its contour (the mask's height and the inclination of its straight line) variable according to whether the power spectrum is a pure sound component or a noise component or according to the magnitude of the power spectrum.
This mask is calculated on every sub-sampled power spectrum, and the calculated results are summed up. When there are (n) power spectra in calculating the mask, calculation in the order of the first power of (n) is required to determine a mask for one power spectrum. And, this calculation is repeated on all of the (n) power spectra, and to sum up the results, the number of calculation in the order of the second power of (n) is required as a whole.
Since a real-time MPEG/Audio encoder is required to make such processing within a limited time, such a large change in the volume of processing depending on the entered sound is very inconvenient.
Since the number (n) of power spectra is arbitrary, an arithmetic unit which is fast enough to be able to deal with substantially large (n) must be used, but it becomes very large in scale because the volume of operation increases in proportion to the second power of (n). When an entered sound has an unexpectedly large value (n), processing does not catch up and fails, resulting in producing noises.
As described above, conventionally, since the mask contour was variable depending on whether the power spectrum was a pure sound component or a noise component and also depending on the magnitude of the power spectrum, there was a disadvantage that a very large volume of calculation was required to determine a mask level. Thus, the arithmetic unit used became very large in scale.
Besides, the volume of arithmetic operation was largely affected by a sound to be entered because the input sound was classified into the pure sound component and the noise component. Thus, there was a disadvantage that the processing did not catch up to the entry of a voice and fails, resulting in producing noises.

Sound signal processing circuit which independently calculates left and right mask levels of sub-band sound samples


A method for increasing the efficiency of xylene isomerization by using a two stage isomerization process. In the first stage of the process, a C.sub.9.sup.+ aromatics feedstock is subjected to ethylbenzene conversion and xylene isomerization. Non-C.sub.8 aromatics are removed from the effluent, which is then processed in a second stage of the process to remove para-xylene and isomerize the para-xylene depleted effluent. The effluent from the second stage isomerization unit is then recycled into the inlet of the second stage of the process and a slip stream from the para-xylene separator is recycled to the feedstock and to the effluent of the ethylbenzene conversion unit. In this way, the production of para-xylene is maximized. In a preferred embodiment, toluene is co-fed into the feedstock to minimize the loss of xylenes during the ethylbenzene conversion reaction.

This invention is a method for increasing the efficiency of xylene isomerization in a process for the catalytic conversion of ethylbenzene coupled with xylene isomerization. More specifically, the invention increases the efficiency of xylene isomerization by using a two stage isomerization process.
Xylenes and ethylbenzene are C.sub.8 benzene homologues having the molecular formula C.sub.8 H.sub.10. The three xylene isomers are ortho-xylene, meta-xylene and para-xylene, which differ in the positions of two methyl groups on the benzene ring. The term mixed xylenes describes a mixture of ethylbenzene and the three xylene isomers. Mixed xylenes are largely derived from petroleum.
Para- and ortho-xylenes are valuable chemical intermediates. In the petrochemical complex, they are produced in large part by recovery of these compounds from both the crude distillation and the C.sub.8 heart cut of the reformer. Recovery is accomplished via several selective separation processes, such as C.sub.8 heart-cut distillation to yield high-purity ortho-xylene "ortho-splitter"), and selective crystallization or sorption processes. The remainder from these separation technologies involves mostly meta- and ortho-xylenes, ethylbenzene, and benzene, with relatively low concentrations of other aromatics.
Several technologies exist for upgrading the chemical value of this recycle stream. For example, there are commercial processes for converting this stream into one containing an equilibrium mixture of xylenes--that is, roughly 50 weight percent (wt %) meta-xylene, and 25 wt % each of para- and ortho-xylenes--via isomerization. These processes also reduce the ethylbenzene concentration in this recycle loop through mechanisms such as cracking, or hydrocracking (hydrogenation of the ethylene thus formed from ethylbenzene cracking by means of a functional metal).
Although these processes have been practiced commercially for many years, great improvements could be realized if it were possible to significantly reduce the capital costs of the isomerization complex. The commercial processes that are presently being used require large capacity processing vessels to produce a relatively small amount of product. Therefore, it is desirable to find a method that increases the amount of product that can be produced by existing equipment and also allow new plants using smaller capacity equipment to produce the equivalent amount of product.
The various xylenes may be derived from mixtures of C.sub.8 aromatics separated from such raw materials as petroleum naphthas, particularly reformates, usually by selective solvent extraction. The C.sub.8 aromatics in such mixtures and their properties are shown below:
______________________________________ Freezing Boiling Density Equilibrium* Point (.degree. C.) Point (.degree. C.) (Kg/m.sup.3) Proportion (wt %) ______________________________________ Ethylbenzene -95.0 136.2 869.9 8.5 Para-xylene 13.2 138.5 863.9 22.3 Meta-xylene -47.4 138.8 866.3 48.0 Ortho-xylene -25.4 144.0 883.1 21.2 Total 100.0 ______________________________________ *Calculated thermodynamic equilibria at 850.degree. F. (454.degree. C.).
Principal sources of C.sub.8 aromatics mixtures are catalytically reformed naphthas and pyrolysis distillates. The C.sub.8 aromatic fractions from these sources vary quite widely in composition but will usually be in the range of 10 wt % to 32 wt % ethylbenzene (EB) with the balance being about 50 wt % meta-xylene and about 25 wt % each of para-xylene and ortho-xylene.
Individual isomer products may be separated from the naturally occurring mixtures by appropriate physical methods. Ethylbenzene may be separated by fractional distillation, although this is a costly operation. Ortho-xylene may be separated by fractional distillation, and it is so produced commercially. Para-xylene may be separated from the mixed isomers by fractional crystallization, selective adsorption, or membrane separation.
As shown above, the boiling point of ethylbenzene is very close to those of para-xylene and meta-xylene. As a result, complete removal of ethylbenzene from the C.sub.8.sup.+ aromatics mixture by conventional methods, e.g., distillation, is usually impractical. An ethylbenzene separation column may be used in the isomerizer-separator loop or the ethylbenzene may be converted catalytically in the isomerizer-separator loop.
In many processes for xylene isomerization, the conversion of ethylbenzene is not maximized because of the need to control the competing reactions which convert xylenes to less valuable compounds. Thus, when ethylbenzene is catalytically converted, the primary consideration for selecting the operating conditions is to minimize xylene losses from transalkylation of xylenes.
The present invention enhances the efficiency of producing xylenes for ethylbenzene conversion/xylene isomerization processes that are presently being used. The present invention also provides higher production of para-xylene in an ethylbenzene conversion/xylene isomerization process by using a two stage isomerization process to more efficiently isomerize xylenes.


Systems and methods are provided for identifying a fault condition in stator windings in an electric motor. A method comprises applying a first signal at a first electrical angle to the stator windings and measuring a second signal from the stator windings in response to the first signal. The method further comprises determining a measured response for the electric motor at the first electrical angle based on the second signal and obtaining a nominal response for the electric motor at the first electrical angle. A fault condition is identified when a magnitude of the difference between the measured response and the nominal response is greater than a threshold value.

In recent years, advances in technology, as well as ever evolving tastes in style, have led to substantial changes in the design of automobiles. Electric motors (or electric machines) are finding an increasing number of applications in the automotive industry due to the electrification of the automotive drive system. Electric and/or hybrid vehicles utilize electric motors as either primary or supplemental torque sources in the automotive drive system. These electric motors are expected to function over extreme operating conditions for an extended period of time with high reliability. However, over time, the operating stresses applied to the electric motor may degrade the condition of the stator windings. For example, thermal stress and/or voltage stress may lead to insulation breakdown, which in turn, may result in partial short-circuiting and/or open-circuiting of individual turns of the stator windings.
In order to diagnose the stator windings, some prior art techniques utilize high frequency voltage injection by injecting a high-frequency voltage on top of the fundamental excitation voltage and measuring the resulting stator currents in the negative sequence carrier-signal reference frame. However, difficulties arise for certain machine types. For synchronous machines with inherent saliency (such as interior permanent magnet or synchronous reluctance type), as the rotor speed approaches zero, all frequencies in the electric motor converge to zero, in which case, the frequency components corresponding to stator winding faults become indistinguishable from the normal motor current frequency components. Even for synchronous machines without an inherent saliency, such as a surface mount permanent magnet machine, secondary effects such as saturation often result in significant saliency which can cause the same effect described above. For these reasons, for synchronous machines the rotor must be rotating at some non-zero speed in order to force spectral separation between the negative sequence components attributable to stator winding faults and the components due to the saliency of the machine. For asynchronous machines, such as an induction machine, a similar situation can arise due to saturation induced saliency or slot harmonics, unless the induction machine has a particular combination of rotor slots, stator slots, and pole pairs, which does not produce any conflicting negative-sequence components in the carrier-signals at zero speed or stall condition.
Some prior art techniques employ pulse-width modulation to extract the zero sequence voltage which may contain information related to stator winding faults. Similarly, this technique is not suitable for zero speed or low speed operation, as the motor harmonics converge to zero. Other methods for Volts per Hertz controlled drives examine the stationary frame stator currents to identify current distortion. However, this technique relies on a rotating electric field to detect the current imbalance, and is not suitable for zero speed or low speed operation. Thus, the prior art techniques are generally ineffective for stationary motors during start-up conditions, i.e., at zero or low rotor speed. In these situations, to detect the presence of a fault condition, the potentially faulty electric motor must be started and/or operated to detect the fault condition, which is counterintuitive and undesirable.

Methods and systems for diagnosing stator windings in an electric motor


A new and distinct cultivar of Penstemon plant named ‘Red Riding Hood’, characterized by its upright and relatively compact plant habit; freely flowering habit; bright red-colored flowers arranged on strong flowering stems; and good garden performance.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Penstemon, botanically known as Penstemon schmidel and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Red Riding Hood'.
The new Penstemon is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new strong Penstemon cultivars with numerous attractive flowers and good garden performance.
The new Penstemon originated from a cross-pollination during the spring of 2001 of two unnamed selections of Penstemon schmidel, not patented. The new Penstemon was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands during the summer of 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by vegetative cuttings in Voorhout, The Netherlands, since the spring of 2004, has shown that the unique features of this new Penstemon are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A fan apparatus includes a fan section having a hollow housing with an inlet and an outlet, and a hollow duct section disposed on the outlet side of the fan section. The housing and the duct section are coupled by a coupling member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A server computer has a function of transmitting information to client computers. Such server computers may include a rack-mount server and a blade server, for example.
Generally, a blade server is provided with a plurality of plate-like blades, an enclosure, and a rack. Each blade includes an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), memories, and the like mounted thereon. The blades are accommodated in the enclosure using a high density arrangement, and are attached to the rack for storage together with the enclosure. In general, a power supply for supplying a current to the blade server and a cooling device for cooling the blade server are shared by a plurality of blades disposed in one enclosure.
As described above, the cooling device is disposed in the inside of the enclosure. In the enclosure, a plurality of blades are disposed in a high density arrangement. For this reason, heat generated by the electronic components (e.g., MPU, memories, and the like) disposed in the respective blades is undesirably likely to stay inside the enclosure. Therefore, it is necessary for the cooling device disposed in the enclosure to efficiently cool the electronic components and the ventilate the inside of the enclosure.
In general, a fan is used as the cooling device. In addition, a duct is attached to the fan. The duct is used for guiding the airflow generated by the fan to an arbitrary position in the enclosure. However, due to the coupling structure of the duct and the fan, the shape of the air channel portion, the flow path area, and the like, between the fan and the duct are varied. Such variations affect certain characteristics such as the air quantity and the static pressure of the airflow generated by the fan. Accordingly, it is necessary to ensure that the coupling structure of the fan and the duct do not interfere with fan characteristics such as the air quantity and the static pressure of the airflow.


The invention is a method of making a controlled release device that is free of defects. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method has the steps of first combining an active chemical with a dried carrier into a bound friable mixture followed by combining the bound friable mixture with a polymer preform prior to forming a device. According to another aspect of the present invention, a method has the steps of heating and mixing a casting urethane with an active chemical into a first solution, heating and mixing a trialkanolamine with a soft segment cross-linker into a second solution, and mixing the two solutions. A further aspect of the present invention is a composition of a casting urethane.

Controlled release devices are used to control plants, and pests. Most controlled release devices are a combination of an active chemical, for example a pesticide, with a polymer, for example polyethylene. Other controlled release devices include a carrier, for example carbon black.
South African patent 86133 lodged 14 FEB. 1986, entitled DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEMS describes a "master batch" used for making drip emitters that prevent root intrusion. The master batch is described as a blend of 58 parts by mass of polyethylene powder with 18 parts by mass carbon black and heated to 70.degree. C. Separately, 24 parts by mass of trifluralin are heated to melt the trifluralin and the melted trifluralin is slowly added to the polymer/carbon black mixture to make a friable mixture having from about 20-33 wt % trifluralin. The friable master batch is further combined with 90% by mass synthetic resin making a master batch combination achieving about 1-5 wt % trifluralin. The master batch combination is then injection molded. This master batch process is particularly aimed at high tolerance devices wherein a dilution of the trifluralin within the master batch is required (i.e., 30 wt % to 5 wt % trifluralin).
However, it has been found that this master batch combination has problems during injection molding. Specifically, as the master batch combination passes through the injection molder, the temperature of the master batch increases thereby increasing the vapor pressure of the trifluralin so that vaporized trifluralin issues forth from the master batch creating bubbles and voids greater than about 10% by volume in a size range from 0.05 mm to 0.5 mm in the injection molded product. The problem of increased vapor pressure of the trifluralin was partially overcome by increasing mixing time of the master batch combination prior to injection molding. However, the increased mixing time did not fully eliminate the bubbles and voids. In addition to production problems, the bubbles and voids caused a reduction in longevity of the product. When voids and bubbles were present, the active chemical was-released faster than desired, and the release rate was less predictable.
Thus, there is a need for a method of making a controlled release device that is moldable without flaws, bubbles and voids, and specifically there is a need for a method of making a controlled release device that is injection moldable.

Method of making controlled released devices


An apparatus for disinfestation of beehives may include housing and a controller. The housing may include a receiving area for receiving a carrier comprising a fumigant and an automatic supply system adapted to extract a predetermined amount of fumigant from the receiving area. The automatic supply system may include a delivery mechanism that is configured to extract a first predetermined portion of the carrier comprising the predetermined amount of fumigant from the receiving area. The controller may be configured to control the automatic supply system to extract the first portion of the carrier according to a treatment protocol.

Fumigation is a widely known method for pest control. Fumigation acts by filling an enclosed area of interest (e.g., a beehive) with gaseous of an active compound such as pesticides or any other fumigant that affects the pests within this enclosed area.
Fumigation has several advantages; it is usually quick-acting and can result in total eradication of the pest, it allows diffusing through all parts of the treated area and thus can reach hidden and narrow places that are usually difficult to be reached with other pest-control techniques. On the disadvantages side, fumigants could have significant inhalation hazardous to the applicator and the fumigation activity may be greatly affected by environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. Fumigants could be in any initial state of matter and for non-gaseous materials the transition to the gas phase could range from immediate and spontaneous of highly volatile fumigants to completely non-spontaneous for non-volatile fumigants. The latter must be assisted by an external energy source in order to be evaporated or sublimated in room temperature. A common fumigation technique for using non-volatile fumigants is by impregnating it within a combustible fumigation strip. The combustible fumigation strip can be ignited and the fumigant transformed to a gas phase during the combustion procedure. Although usually used with non-volatile fumigants, combustible fumigation strips could be also very useful when immediate and intensive amount of a volatile fumigant is required.
In beekeeping, fumigation is commonly used against mites such as the tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi and the varroa mites (V. jacobsoni/V destructor). The long capping period that characterizes the life cycle of the varroa mites limit the activity of almost all fumigants only to the phoretic stage of the mite, thus enforcing continuous release of volatile fumigants inside the hive for long period of time. Even fumigants like formic acid, which are capable of partly acting on the varroa mites during its reproduction stage, namely within the caped cells, still need to be applied for long period of time in order to keep and maintain the hive clean from varroa. The uncontrolled environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity within and outside the hive for such a long periods of time, limits considerably the effectiveness use of spontaneous fumigants. When the temperature is too low the fumigants do not evaporate enough and when the temperature is too high, excess evaporation can results in high toxicity to the bees.
Controlled evaporation in known fumigation devices is commonly achieved by using a heat source which increases the temperature of a liquid fumigant on demand. However, beehives are scattered in un-urban areas without accessible electricity and the energy consumption of such a heat source depended devices, especially for long period of time, is expected to be extremely high and thus uneconomically for battery use.
Combustible fumigation strips are quick and short time acting and thus much less susceptible to changes in environmental conditions. Yet since the activity of the active compounds commonly impregnated within the combustible fumigation strips is also mostly limited only to the phoertic stage of the varroa. Usually, between 5-7 separate treatments at 3-5 days intervals are required in order to achieve an effective treatment. Moreover, for optimal efficiency, the combustible fumigation strips must be applied before sunset when all the bees are back in the hive. The necessity for such a repeated treatment limited by a specific time window along the day combined with optional inhalation hazardous to the applicator makes the use of combustible fumigation strips almost impractical for most beekeepers.
Therefore it would be highly desirable to have an apparatus which is capable of automatically control either the evaporation of liquid fumigants independent of a heat source and/or the repeated ignition and turn off of combustible fumigation strips.

Apparatus for disinfestation of beehives and method for controlling same


Eyewear having a curved frame includes a protruding cover lens unit. The cover lens unit can be removably attached to the curved frame to position a less curved non-prescription lens in a protruding position with respect to the curved frame, thereby creating a space within the protruding lens unit. A prescription lens is removably attached to the curved frame and disposed behind the non-prescription lens. The prescription lens extends into the space without interference with the non-prescription lens.

Eyewear having wrap-type frames which are much curved, are designed to fit closely to a user's face. The lenses used in such eyewear must also be wrap-type and thus have a relatively deep curvature. As a result, base 6 lenses which are relatively less curved, cannot be attached to a base 8 or 9 frame which is more curved (in a wrap-type). It should be noted that most prescription glasses are flat or have a relatively shallow curvature, in contrast to wrap-type eyewear. This is because the more a prescription lens curves, the core complicated the optics of the lens become due to the bending of light. It is also desirable to position prescription lenses in front of the user's eyes substantially perpendicular to the forward direction. Therefore, base 6 frames are commonly used with prescription glasses while base 8 or 9 frames which are usually referred to as "wrap-type" frames, are less common for use with prescription lenses. The prescription glasses having relatively curved frames are very expensive to manufacture because it is more difficult to achieve a good quality of the desired optics thereof. However, curved frames are desirable in many eyewear applications.
therefore, there is a need for attachment of prescription lenses to eyewear having wrap-type frames.

Attachment of prescription lenses to eyewear having wrap-type frames


A waste receptacle includes a housing with an opening at least on one side and a holding frame for refuse bags which is placed removably at least indirectly on an edge of the opening of the housing. The receptacle may further include a cover frame.

Waste receptacles are generally known. In one conventional waste receptacle, a cover frame is placed on the edge of the opening. This cover frame has four openings. Into each of these openings there can be introduced a refuse bag whose edge is for this purpose folded over an edge of the opening of the cover frame. The holding frame is then introduced into the refuse bag and placed on a flange on the cover frame that projects inwardly into the opening of the cover frame. Finally, the initially outwardly folded edge of the refuse bag is folded inwardly over the holding frame. A lid which is placed on the holding frame can be used to close an insertion opening for waste that is bounded by the holding frame.
After introducing the refuse bag, the latter, starting from the edge of its opening, is guided upwardly on the inner side of the holding frame. The refuse bag is then guided outwardly over the holding frame in order then to be guided on the outer side of the holding frame between the holding frame and the cover frame. The cover frame covers the outer side of the holding frame and the refuse bag pulled over the outer side of the holding frame. Neither the refuse bag nor the holding frame is visible from the side since they are covered by the cover frame. Finally, the refuse bag is guided on the underside of the holding frame between the holding frame and the already mentioned flange of the cover frame in the inward direction and from the inner end of the flange in the downward direction into the housing of the waste receptacle.
When the lid is closed, the latter rests on the upper side of the holding frame or the refuse bag guided over the upper side of the holding frame and on the upper side of the cover frame. The upper side of the holding frame and the refuse bag guided over it are then not visible. However, when the lid is opened, the refuse bag is visible. Likewise, a gap between the holding frame and the cover frame through which the refuse bag is guided is visible.
This conventional waster receptacle suffers from several disadvantages. The visibility of the refuse bag when the lid is opened, caused by guiding the refuse bag over the holding frame, is not desired by some users of waste receptacles, in particular in public areas also serving to make the right impression. This argument is all the more powerful since use is frequently made in public areas of waste receptacles in which the insertion opening is not closed by a lid so that it is also possible to dispose of waste in the waste receptacle when walking past. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a waste receptacle that avoids such drawbacks.