A sense amplifier for reading a memory cell, including a read node linked to the memory cell, and an active circuit structured to maintain a voltage appearing on the read node at a value inferior to a value of a selection transistor threshold voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory cell sense amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention more particularly relates to a sense amplifier comprising a read node directly or indirectly linked to a memory cell, an active stage connected to the read node and comprising means for supplying a read current to the read node, and a data output linked to the output of a comparator which compares to a reference voltage the voltage present on a node of the active stage, this voltage being representative of the state of conductivity of the memory cell.
The present invention particularly, but not exclusively applies to non-volatile memories, like EEPROM and FLASH EEPROM memories, and more particularly to PCM memories (phase change memory). In these memories, each memory cell can take two distinct states, i.e., an erased state and a programmed state. In phase change memories, each memory cell comprises an alloy able for example to take a crystalline state and an amorphous state, passing from one to the other being made by cycles for heating/cooling the alloy, in particular according to the duration of the cycle for cooling or heating.
Classically, a sense amplifier is used to detect the programmed or erased state of a memory cell of a non-volatile memory, by comparing the value of a current flowing through the memory cell to a reference current. The fact that the memory cell is programmed or erased is rendered indeed by a determined state of conductivity of the memory cell, and corresponds by convention to a determined value of the datum stored by the memory cell, for example 1 for the programmed state and 0 for the erased state.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a standard architecture of a sense amplifier SA1 of a non-volatile memory. On this figure and in the description of the present invention, the transistors of the PMOS type are indicated by references beginning with "TP" and the NMOS transistors are indicated by references beginning with "TN". The sense amplifier SA1 comprises a control stage CST1, a read stage RST1 comprising a read node Sin, and an output stage OST comprising a data output Sout, these stages being electrically powered by a voltage Vcc.
The control stage CST1 comprises transistors TP1 and TP2 mounted in series with parallel-connected transistors TN2 and TN1. The transistor TP1 receives on its source terminal the voltage Vcc, and on its gate terminal a reference voltage Vrefp. The drain terminal of the transistor TP1 is connected to the source terminal of the transistor TP2. A control signal EN1 is applied to the control gate of the transistors TP2 and TN2. The drain terminal of the transistor TP2 is connected to the drain terminals of the transistors TN1 and TN2 which source terminals are put to the ground. The gate terminal of the transistor TN1 is connected to the read node Sin.
The read stage RST1 comprises two transistors TP3 and TN3 mounted in series. The transistor TP3 receives the voltage Vcc on its source terminal and the voltage Vrefp on its gate terminal. The drain terminal of the transistor TP3 and the drain terminal of the transistor TN3 are connected to a node N1 which is connected to the input of the output stage OST.
The source terminal of the transistor TN3 is connected to the read node Sin, on which a voltage Vs called "read voltage" appears. The gate terminal of the transistor TN3 is connected to a node CH which receives a voltage V(CH) taken from the drain terminal of the transistor TP2 of the control stage CST1. The read stage further comprises a precharge transistor TN4 mounted in parallel with the transistor TP3 and which drain terminal receives the voltage Vcc. The gate and the source terminals of the transistor TN4 are respectively connected to the data output Sout of the sense amplifier SA1, and to the node N1.
The output stage OST comprises a comparator CP comprising a positive output receiving the voltage Vrefp and a negative input receiving a voltage V(N1) present on the node N1. The output of the comparator which forms the data output Sout of the sense amplifier, is in addition connected to the gate terminal of the transistor TN4.
On FIG. 1, the read node Sin is linked to a non-volatile memory cell MC(i,j,k) of a memory array MA (only one memory cell is shown for the sake of simplicity), for example by means of a word column k selection transistor TS(k) and of a bit line BL(j,k). The transistors TS(k) are driven by a column selection signal SEL(k) from a column decoder (not shown). As an example application, the memory cell belongs to an EEPROM memory, and thus comprises a floating gate transistor which source terminal is linked to the ground and which gate terminal receives a read voltage Vr during a read phase. The threshold voltage of the floating gate transistor depends on its programmed or erased state and the read voltage Vr is chosen between the threshold voltage at the programmed state and the threshold voltage at the erased state. Thus, when the read voltage Vr is applied, the floating gate transistor is highly conducting if it is in the programmed state (low threshold voltage), or conversely little conducting, or even blocked if it is in the erased state (high threshold voltage).
The sense amplifier is inactive when the signal EN1 is 1 (=Vcc) and the voltage Vrefp is equal to Vcc. The transistor TN2 is then conducting. The transistor TP2 is blocked, and the drain terminal of the transistor TN1 is linked to the ground. Therefore, there is no current flowing through the control stage CST1. The transistors TP1 and TP3 are blocked and there is no current flowing through the read stage RST1.
The reading of a memory cell MC(i,j,k) is preceded by a phase of address decoding, performed by the column decoder, making it possible to link the bit line BL(j,k) of the memory cell to the read node Sin of the sense amplifier.
The reading of the memory cell comprises a phase of precharging the bit line BL(j,k), and a phase of reading the datum memorized in the memory cell. The read voltage Vr is applied from the precharge phase to the gate terminal of the floating gate transistor of the memory cell to be read. The sense amplifier SA1 is first activated by bringing the voltage Vrefp to the value Vcc−Vtp, where Vtp is the threshold voltage of the PMOS transistors. The transistors TP1 and TP3 then operate as current generators and respectively supply currents Ib and Ir in their respective stages.
The precharge phase is started by setting the signal EN1 to 0. The transistor TN2 blocks and the transistor TP2 becomes conducting. The voltage V(CH) on the node CH which is applied to the gate terminal of the transistor TN3 increases and the latter becomes conducting. The transistors TP3 and TN4 are also conducting (the voltage V(Sout) at the data output Sout is at the high level), and a precharge current is supplied to the read node Sin. The transistor TN4 is used to accelerate the precharge phase and consequently, to diminish the global read time, by supplying a current Ifb which adds to the current Ir supplied by the transistor TP3. The precharge current, equal to Ir+Ifb, is used to charge stray capacitances located in the bit line BL(j,k) and to rapidly bring the read voltage Vs to a determined value which is substantially equal to the threshold voltage Vtn of the NMOS transistors. In addition, the limitation of the voltage Vs, performed by the transistor TN3 allows the floating gate transistor of the memory cell to be protected against a phenomenon called "drain stress", which is rendered by an involuntary injection of charges into the floating gate causing a parasitic programming of the memory cell.
When the determined value of the read voltage Vs is reached, the transistor TN1 becomes conducting. The voltage V(CH) on the node CH decreases and stabilizes at a value such that, on the one hand, the currents in the transistors TP1 and TN1 are identical, and on the other hand, the current supplied by the transistor TN3 to the read node corresponds to the current Ic imposed by the memory cell currently being read.
At the end of the precharge phase, the voltage V(N1) on the node N1 is near the voltage Vrefp. There are two possible situations: either the memory cell is programmed and a 1 must be read by the sense amplifier, or the memory cell is erased and 0 must be read. If a 1 must be read, the cell current Ic is superior to the reference current Ir. The voltage V(N1) on the node N1 remains slightly inferior to the voltage Vrefp. The signal supplied by the comparator CP on the data output Sout of the sense amplifier remains at a level of voltage high enough to maintain the transistor TN4 in the conducting state. The transistor TN4 then supplies a current equal to the difference Ic−Ir between the current Ic imposed by the memory cell and the reference current Ir supplied by the transistor TP3.
If a 0 must be read, the current Ic in the memory cell to be read is lower than the reference current Ir. In that case, the voltage V(N1) on the node N1 increases to a level higher than the voltage Vrefp. The signal on the data output Sout then goes to the low state.
It turns out that this type of detection circuit has a limitation due to the fact that the voltage Vs on the read node Sin, which corresponds to the voltage of the bit line BL(j,k), must be forced to a value slightly superior to the threshold voltage Vtn (typically ranging from 0.8 V to 1 V), because of a slight over-voltage required by the transistor TN1 to supply the current Ib. However, in certain applications, the bit line must be biased to a level lower than this threshold voltage to reduce the constraints caused by the current Ic flowing through the memory cell, which could damage data integrity.
In particular, in PCM memories, the current Ic flowing through a memory cell during a read phase should be limited so as to reduce the heating of the memory cell, and thus avoid undesirable thermal effects that may particularly cause the recrystallization of the phase change material from its amorphous state, and thus a corruption of memorized data.
To reduce the read voltage Vs applied to the read node, the threshold voltage Vtn may be reduced. However, this voltage constitutes a technological parameter of the NMOS transistors of the sense amplifier. In fact, this parameter is linked to the manufacturing technique used to make the amplifier, and is substantially invariant for a given manufacturing technique.

Sense amplifier for non-volatile memories


An electrical chip includes a plurality of electrical signal processing circuits arranged side by side on a chip board, the electrical signal processing circuits that processes electrical signals transmitted to each of a plurality of lanes for each lane; and a power supply wiring network provided in an area overlapping with each of the plurality of electrical signal processing circuits and including wires formed into a mesh shape for supplying power to each of the plurality of electrical signal processing circuits, wherein the power supply wiring network includes a slit obtained by separating a part of the wires in each area corresponding to a boundary between the lanes.

The following technology is known as a technology of reducing switching noise generated by an internal element of a semiconductor integrated circuit. For example, a semiconductor integrated circuit device including a power supply wire that connects a plurality of power supply pads to each other in which a slit-shaped gap area is formed parallel to a longitudinal direction of the power supply wire between adjacent power supply pads in the power supply wiring area is known.
Furthermore, an electronic device equipped apparatus in which a plurality of electronic devices is mounted on a circuit board provided with a power supply pattern and a ground pattern is known. This electronic device equipped apparatus at least includes a groove for separating the power supply pattern and the ground pattern between each of the electronic devices on the circuit board, and is provided with a means of connecting the power supply pattern and the ground pattern in a high frequency manner around the groove. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2-2122, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-320137 and the like are disclosed as the related arts.


The present invention relates to an injection-molding nozzle system for injection-molding systems for plastic materials which is equipped with a needle sealing system and is suitable both for different cavities as well as for plastic materials of different viscosities, with the injection-molding nozzle comprising a temperable nozzle body with nozzle tip comprising an outlet opening and an inlet opening for the plastic mass, as well as a needle which is arranged in the nozzle body and is displaceable in an axially longitudinal manner and with an actuating apparatus for actuating the needle which is axially displaceable in the nozzle body in the longitudinal direction. The opening stroke of the needle which is axially displaceable in the longitudinal direction can be adjusted by way of a stroke limiter, and the needle tip comprises at least one notch for the pass-through of the injection-molding mass in its transitional region to the needle shaft. The needle shaft is thereby in continual contact with a needle guide region of the nozzle tip.

The present invention relates to an injection-molding nozzle for plastic injection-molding systems which is provided with a needle sealing system and is suitable to be used both for different cavities as well as for plastic materials with different viscosities. It further relates to a plastic injection mold with at least one such injection-molding nozzle as well as the use of such a plastic injection mold.

Injection-molding nozzle system for injection-molding systems for plastic materials, injection-molding tool and method for producing injection-molded parts

ELAST Kunststoffverarbeitungs-GmbH & Co. KEG


A plasma arc torch and methods for assembling and disassembling a plasma arc torch wherein a plurality of front end parts of the torch form a unit that is removable from the torch in a single operation to gain access to the electrode. The unit can then be reinstalled in the torch in a single operation after replacement of the electrode. An assembly fixture is employed to facilitate pre-assembly of the unit of front end parts prior to installation of the unit in a torch.

The present invention relates to plasma arc torches and to methods of assembling and disassembling such torches.
A plasma arc torch generally comprises a torch body assembly that supports an electrode for emitting an electrical arc that attaches to a workpiece to be operated upon, and a nozzle for directing a flow of a plasma gas toward the workpiece such that the plasma gas stream surrounds the arc. The electrode and nozzle generally are regarded as "consumables" that are subject to deterioration during operation of the torch and that therefore must be replaced periodically in order to restore the torch to a proper condition for satisfactory operation. Typically a plasma arc torch includes a number of front end parts that must be removed in order to gain access to the consumables for replacement. In many existing plasma arc torches, the various front end parts must be removed one at a time, and then reinstalled one at a time after replacement of the consumables. The process thus is relatively inefficient and cumbersome.

Plasma arc torch, and methods of assembling and disassembling a plasma arc torch


Carbon dioxide is sequestered in a formation using a dual completion and injection method that reduces or eliminates upward leak rates of the sequestered carbon dioxide. The dual completion and injection method involves the injection of a benign fluid such as brine (water) into a permeable layer of the formation located above the sequestration layer and which is separated form the sequestration layer by a nearly impermeable layer. The water is preferably injected at the same time the carbon dioxide is injected.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to carbon dioxide sequestration. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for reducing leakage of sequestered carbon dioxide.
2. State of the Art
Accumulating greenhouse gases have led to the advocation of separating and storing (sequestering) carbon dioxide from its sources. Carbon dioxide sequestration typically entails four distinct steps: the capture of the carbon dioxide from sources such as flue gas, transportation of the carbon dioxide to its ultimate storage site area, compression, and injection of the supercritical carbon dioxide downhole into the formation at a desired location (interval). Central to the success of the sequestration is the integrity of the downhole storage location; i.e., is the location sufficiently bounded by impermeable layers and seals. Because carbon dioxide is buoyant, particular attention is paid to the layer above the injected interval. For sequestration to be successful, any leak from the sequestration site must be inconsequential to inhabitants in the vicinity of the site. This is not exclusive to atmospheric leaks, but also to leaks into potable aquifers.
Generally, it is believed to be desirable to have more than one impermeable boundary between a selected injection (sequestration) zone and a potable aquifer. Thus, for example, assume with respect to FIG. 1 that a preferred injection zone is layer 0. Layer 0 is defined as being between z=0 and z=z0 where z is the vertical coordinate. Layer 0 is capped by a nearly impermeable layer 1 whose permeability is substantially smaller than layer 0 (preferably at least three orders of magnitude smaller) and is often in the range of ten or fewer microdarcies. Layer 1 is defined as being between z=z0 and z=z1. Above layer 1 is a permeable stratum, layer 2, which is defined as being between z=z1 and z=z2. Layer 2 in turn is assumed to be overlain by another nearly impermeable shale or shaly sand. With this arrangement, it would be generally assumed that a potable aquifer above layer 2 would be sufficiently protected.

Methods for downhole sequestration of carbon dioxide


Disclosed are a method and apparatus for determining whether one or more organic substances, namely, proteins (42) and associated cancer cells (40'), are present in a sample (4a). The method comprises a step of deploying a plurality of fluorescent materials (40) in the tissue sample, individual ones of the plurality of fluorescent materials (40) being selected for coupling to a specific type of substance (42) of interest. The fluorescent materials (40) generally emit characteristic wavelengths in response to being illuminated with excitation light (14a'-14c') having predetermined excitation wavelengths. A next step includes illuminating the sample (4a) with the excitation light (14a'-14c'). The excitation light (14a'-14c') causes any of the fluorescent materials (40) that are disposed within the illuminated portion of the sample (4a), and which are responsive to the excitation wavelengths, to emit their characteristic wavelengths. Further steps include simultaneously detecting the presence of the emitted characteristic wavelengths, and, in response to detecting the presence of the emitted characteristic wavelengths, indicating that at least one of the substances (42) is present within the sample (4a). The invention enables the sample (4a) to be analyzed for the presence of multiple types of proteins (42) and associated cancer cells (40') simultaneously, using either a narrow band or broad band of excitation wavelengths. The invention also enables the proteins (42) and cancer cells (40') to be identified using a spectral and temporal analysis. These identifications are made regardless of whether or not the fluorescent materials (40) emit similar or different wavelengths.

It is known that different types of neoplastic cells produce corresponding types of proteins. It is also known to examine a tissue sample to determine whether or not a particular type of protein is included in the sample, in order to make a further determination of whether or not the sample includes associated types of cancerous cells. By example, conventional techniques for performing this type of examination involve deploying a specific type of antibody and an associated fluorescent material (also referred to as a "marker") in the sample. Generally, assuming that there are cancerous cells and corresponding types of proteins included in the sample, the deployed antibody and marker become coupled to one or more of the proteins. Thereafter, using a conventional imaging system, the sample is illuminated using a specific wavelength that is known to "excite" the marker, causing the marker to fluoresce and emit fluorescent radiation of a particular wavelength. By detecting the wavelength of the emitted radiation using, for example, a radiation detector array component of the imaging system, a determination may then be made that the sample does in fact include proteins and associated cancerous cells. Otherwise, if there are no cancerous cells and corresponding proteins included in the sample, then the antibody and marker are generally not detectable using the "excitation" wavelength within the imaging system.
Unfortunately, conventional imaging systems for performing techniques such as the one described above suffer from a drawback of not being able to examine a sample for the presence of more than a single type of protein at a time, and only a single "excitation" wavelength is typically employed at a time rather than multiple excitation wavelengths. One reason for this is that conventional imaging systems typically do not include components for minimizing effects of undesired optical phenomena, such as optical scatter, which may occur in cases where multiple markers are excited using multiple excitation wavelengths. As a result, accurate determinations regarding whether or not marker emission wavelength detections indicate the presence of proteins in a sample generally cannot be made. Another shortcoming of conventional imaging systems is that these systems cannot distinguish between wavelengths emitted by different types of markers in cases where the emitted wavelengths are similar and are simultaneously emitted. For example, assuming that markers such as Lucifer Yellow CH and Calcium Green are employed in a sample being examined using a conventional imaging system, and that these markers are illuminated with wavelengths so as to cause the markers to simultaneously emit fluorescent radiation having similar wavelength values of 533 nm, the conventional imaging system cannot determine whether one or both of these markers actually fluoresced in response to being illuminated. As a result, accurate determinations regarding whether or not proteins are included in a sample cannot be made.
Being that conventional imaging systems cannot examine a tissue sample for the presence of more than a single type of protein at a time, in cases in which it is desired to determine whether or not more than one type of protein is included in a sample, it is necessary to add other individual types of markers to the sample for performing individual examinations for each type of protein being tested for. Alternatively, other tissue samples may need to be taken for the purpose of carrying out the above-described analysis for each type of protein. As can be appreciated, either one of these alternatives presents an undue burden to one who is analyzing the sample, especially in cases where it is necessary to examine the sample for the presence of many different types of cancer-related proteins.
In view of the foregoing description, it can be appreciated that it would be advantageous to provide an imaging system for performing cancer analysis of a tissue sample in a manner which overcomes the problems and shortcomings associated with prior art imaging systems.

Method and apparatus for performing cell analysis based on simultaneous multiple marker emissions from neoplasia (CASMMEN)


A latch mechanism for gates and the like for readily latching a slide bar to a locking unit. The locking unit has a block with a front and back plate that are fixedly attached to each other about portions of peripheries of the front and back plates that define an opening with a side slot and at least one adjacent top or bottom slot. Positioned within at least one top or bottom slot is at least one pivoting release lever having a first leg and a second leg movable about a pivot. One of the legs has a portion configured to engage a portion of a slide bar when restraining movement of the slide bar relative to the block. The other leg abuts and aids in dislodging the slide from the block when a force is applied to the pivoting lever. The latch mechanism further includes a slide bar guide.

Gate latch mechanisms have been well known for years. Examples are offered under the LIFESPAN trademark that typify a traditional gate latch assembly having a steel strike with a pivoting hook that attaches about a bar or a slide bolt latch and a mounting bracket. Further slide latch mechanisms have been known to attach a device to a surface, such as that found offered by Nelson for its 1400 Dog Feeding Pan, in which a dog pan is attached to a vertical surface (e.g., a wall). These latches typically provide a lot of "play" or "chatter" and lack either lateral stability or insufficient locking. Moreover, some latches are too easily dislodged by animals or small children when such dislodgement is not intended.


A composition useful as a selective preemergence herbicide is provided, comprising an effective amount of a dipeptide selected from the group consisting of Gln-Gln, Ala-Asn, Ala-Gln, Gly-Ala, Ala-Ala and mixtures thereof, in combination with a compatible carrier vehicle.

Herbicides have been widely employed to destroy unwanted plants or "weeds", to prevent their growth on bare ground or in established crops, and to promote the growth of desirable plants, such as grains, fruits and vegetables. In fact, millions of pounds of herbicide are applied directly to the soil on an annual basis. In general, herbicides consist of two types, non-selective and selective. Non-selective herbicides kill all plant life on the plot of soil on which they are applied. Selective herbicides, on the other hand, kill or inhibit the establishment of certain types of plant life, such as weeds, while leaving the desirable, surrounding crops on which they are applied relatively undamaged. Examples of selective herbicides include phenolics, carbamates, and dinitroanilines.
One way to selectively eliminate unwanted plants without injuring surrounding plant life is to inhibit germination or establishment of the seeds of the unwanted plants. In order to accomplish this, a herbicide must be applied before the unwanted plants emerge from the soil, either to a bare plot of soil into which established plants will be transplanted, or to a plot of soil comprising an established stand of desirable plants, but relatively few weeds. Such herbicides are often referred to as preemergence herbicides.
While various types of herbicides exist, most of them are based on synthetic chemical toxins. As a result of their toxic nature, they are undesirable for many applications. This is particularly a problem when these materials come in contact with the public as is the case in turfgrass areas and in the production of food crops consumed by humans. While synthetic chemical herbicides may effectively destroy unwanted plant life, they may contaminate the soil and the crops themselves. They may also contaminate the ground water as a result of run off or erosion.
The disadvantages of synthetic chemical herbicides have become more visible as a result of heightened public awareness and concern for environmental protection and consumer safety. This in turn has led to the search for non-toxic, natural herbicides which can provide a greater margin of safety for the public and for the environment. In the area of herbicides or insecticides, however, few effective materials derived from naturally-occurring sources are known. Bacillus thurigiensis (Bt toxins), Bacillus popilliae, Serratia eritomophila, Puccinia chondrillina, and Sclerotinia sclerotiotum represent some examples of natural herbicides and insecticides that currently exist.
Corn gluten meal is capable of inhibiting root growth of germinating plants, while no damage is observed to plants that have formed a mature root system. Christians (U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,268) discloses that this material is useful as a natural preemergence herbicide for various plant production systems, including turfgrass areas, where it acts to inhibit the establishment of annual weeds, such as crabgrass (Digitaria spp.).
Corn gluten meal, however, is essentially water-insoluble. This characteristic limits its use as an herbicide for some applications. Since corn gluten meal is insoluble and cannot be dissolved and sprayed, it is difficult to apply evenly. As a result, there is a risk that the soil on which it is applied will not be completely covered, thereby significantly reducing its effectiveness. Also, sprayable herbicides are advantageous for application to certain crops.
The effectiveness of a herbicide also depends upon its ability to permeate the soil. Water-insoluble or slightly soluble materials do not permeate the soil as well as do water-soluble materials. Factors such as wind or drought can further reduce the availability of such materials.
Therefore, a continuing need exists for potent, natural preemergence herbicides which are also highly water dispersible and/or water soluble.

Preemergence weed control using dipeptides from corn gluten hydrolysate

Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.


The present invention relates to a portable reusable hazardous waste container system which preferably includes a plurality of elongate waste containers which are attachable in fluid flow communication with each other and with a drilling apparatus. The containers can be transported to a drilling site by stacking them in nesting fashion on a transport vehicle and can be emptied of drilling waste after a drilling operation is completed and retransported to another drilling site. The containers include a bracing structure at the bottom thereof which allows each container to be nested within another container without causing substantial frictional interference which would make it difficult to separate the containers for reuse. The waste container system of the present invention alleviates the need for construction of a ground pit for storage of drilling waste at a drilling site.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the handling of hazardous waste. More specifically, the present invention relates to portable, reusable containers in which liquid material for use with oil or gas drilling equipment can be circulated during use, and wastes therefrom can be temporarily stored for later disposal after use.
2. Prior Art
Oil and gas drilling operations produce drill cuttings or "tailings" that consist of material removed from a well, with mixtures of other liquids and materials that are used to facilitate drilling. These materials are generally unwanted by products once the drilling process is completed, and are a present or potential danger to the health of humans or other living organisms because they often exhibit undesirable properties such as toxicity, carcinogenicity, non-degradeability, biological magnification or the like. With present technology, a wide variety of useful products cannot be manufactured without also producing some hazardous waste. It is not presently possible to recycle all of the waste, so safe means of handling and disposal must be found.
As awareness of the dangers of air and water pollution has increased, methods of disposing of waste into the air, such as by burning, and into rivers or oceans, have been recognized as being undesirable in many situations. Legislation and regulations strictly limit such disposal methods in the United States and in many other countries.
As the disposal of hazardous wastes into the air and water has been reduced, there naturally has been an increase in the amount of disposal on land. One method has been to bury the wastes in a landfill. For example, one method is to pump the waste back into the well after the drilling operation has been completed. Another method, used especially for wastes including the tailings, spent drilling liquids, and other materials such as drilling "mud" type wastes resulting from a drilling operation is to pump the waste into open surface pits for storage. Since it is necessary to dig an open surface, or ground pit, to hold and circulate the large volume of fluids used and generated during the drilling process, it has often been most cost effective to leave the waste liquid in this same pit which was made and used during the drilling operation. This resulted in hazardous waste ground pits being located in numerous places which were often relatively unsuitable, instead of being brought to a more central, safe and suitable storage location.
In many land-based disposal sites, the prevention of waste from contaminating the ground water supply is a major concern. Therefore, ground pits which are dug for the purpose of storing the drilling fluids must be provided with a liner, such as a plastic material, which prevents leakage of the liquid into the soil. When this type of ground pit is used for long term storage of the liquids however, it entails numerous drawbacks. These drawbacks include: the impossibility of making a visual check on the wastes and on their progress; the great difficulty and the high cost of taking samples for the periodic analysis that are normally necessary; the difficult problem raised by the need for quantitative and qualitative follow-up measures; the signs of the changes undergone by the stored wastes, such as leaching of liquid into the soil; the presence of malodorous or even explosive gases; the need, when the discharge produces intolerable pollution, to remove the stored wastes and process them elsewhere, which leads to difficult and extremely costly operations; and finally, the understandable climate of suspicion that grows among the surrounding populous. It is therefore an imperative and pressing need for storage systems for fluids used in the drilling process which avoid the need to dig expensive ground pits, and which facilitate removal of the waste fluids after the drilling operation is completed to a suitable waste collection and storage facility.
Further, as public awareness of hazardous waste has increased, it has been necessary to clean up the ground pit waste storage sites which have become unsatisfactory. Although the "Superfund" program in the United States has helped in the recovery of hundreds of hazardous waste sites which have already been identified in which waste is not now safely stored, there is nevertheless a large expense involved to the drilling companies in reclaiming unsatisfactory ground pit sites. Also, the increased public and scientific concern about hazardous waste has drastically slowed the opening of new landfills and increased the regulations for proper digging of new ground pits. Proposing the digging of a new ground pit for a main landfill site raises difficult political as well as technological questions, which are often addressed in regulatory proceedings which can be very lengthy.
Therefore, at a time when the demand for environmentally sound disposal facilities is large, and the supply of such facilities has been sharply limited, any procedure that would permit the optimal use of each satisfactory collection site, and avoid the need for the use of ground pits at each individual drilling site, would be a tremendous benefit. Further, any such improved procedure which allows the saving of time and expense in the drilling procedure, and which would be reusable for numerous different drilling operations, would be an added significant benefit.
The present invention is an improvement in hazardous waste storage technology which can help solve the above enumerated problems presently existing with the storage and handling of drilling fluids.

Portable reusable hazardous waste container system


This invention provides an optical element comprising: an optical functional section on a first surface of the optical element, the optical functional section having a fine structure; and a flange section formed on a periphery of the optical functional section, wherein the flange section has a heat shrinkage-inhibiting portion, which inhibits heat shrinkage of the optical element during molding in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical element. The invention further provides a method of molding the optical element, and a mold.

Conventionally, an optical element is known having at least on its one surface an optical functional section and a flange section on the periphery of the optical functional section. The optical functional section is molded by the optical functional section forming portion of a movable mold member. A portion corresponding to the optical functional section is ejected from a mold, to push out the optical element from the mold.
As a mold structure for such an optical element, a mold in which the mold surface (the optical functional section forming portion of a movable mold member) of a male mold corresponding to the optical functional section is formed on a movable mold is available. In that mold, when the mold is opened, the optical element is left on the movable mold as the molded product. Further, an ejecting mechanism for the optical element is formed on the movable mold. In the structure, the end face of the ejecting mechanism is the mold surface (the optical functional section forming portion of the movable mold member) corresponding to the surface of the optical functional section. When the optical element is to be released from the movable mold, the molded product is reliably pushed out through the surface of the optical functional section. Incidentally, a melted molding material flows through a pouring gate (sprue), sprue runner (runner), and then injection port (gate) into a molded product space (cavity) (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-200652 as Patent reference 1 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-200654 as Patent reference 2).
An example of an optical element will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIGS. 8A to 8C are a front view, optical-axis sectional view, and enlarged optical-axis sectional view of the flange section, respectively, of a conventional optical element. Referring to FIGS. 8A to 8C, an optical element 70 is a positive lens as a molded product. The optical element 70 includes an object-side surface 71 having an optical functional section 71a with a fine structure 711a (see FIG. 8C), an image-side surface 72 having an aspherical optical functional section, and a flange section 73 having an inclined portion 73a on its periphery. The object-side surface 71 is formed with a movable mold member, and the image-side surface 72 is formed with a fixed mold member.
The conventional optical element, however, has the following problems.
(1) To form a molded product (optical element), a melted molding material flows through a pouring gate (sprue), sprue runner (runner), and then injection port (gate) into a molded product space (cavity). The material is cut at the gate to obtain a molded product. The mold is opened apart into a movable mold member and fixed mold member. Generally, the molded product (optical element) is left in the movable mold integrally with the sprue, runner, and gate. When the mold is to be opened, if a small gap is formed between the molded product and movable mold member, the formed optical functional section 71a shrinks thermally. With the thermally shrunk optical functional section being present, if the molded product is ejected through that mold surface (the optical functional section forming portion of the movable mold member) of the movable mold member which corresponds to the optical functional section, as the mold surface and the surface shape of the thermally shrunk optical functional section 71a do not coincide, the thermally shrunk optical functional section 71a is deformed by the mold surface. In particular, if the fine structure 711a including a plurality of ring-shape zones with fine steps is to be formed on the surface of the optical functional section 71a, the fine structure cannot be reproduced with high accuracy.
Factors that may hinder the fine structure 711a from being reproduced with high accuracy will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 9 is a partial sectional view showing the optical element 70 in a molded state. A male mold 622a of the movable mold member is in contact with the optical element 70 as a molded product through the fine structure 711a of the optical functional section 71a as a boundary.
FIGS. 10A to 10C and 11A to 11C are schematic views showing a forming process for the fine structure 711a shown in FIG. 9. FIGS. 10A to 10C show a case wherein the gap between the mold surface (the forming portion of the movable mold member which corresponds to the optical functional section) corresponding to the optical functional section 71a and the fine structure 711a is large, and FIGS. 11A to 11C show a case wherein the gap between the mold surface corresponding to the optical functional section 71a and the fine structure 711a is small.
The case wherein the gap between a mold surface 6221a and the fine structure 711a of the optical functional section 71a is large will be described with reference to FIGS. 10A to 10C. Assume that the molded product is left on the movable mold member side but a gap is formed between the mold surface 6221a and the fine structure 711a of the optical functional section 71a (see FIG. 10A). The molded product shrinks thermally by cooling in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis (see FIG. 10B). It is estimated that if the optical functional section 71a is ejected with the mold surface 6221a, as the mold surface 6221a and the surface shape of the thermally shrunk optical functional section do not coincide, the mold surface 6221a may deform (flatten the edge of) the thermally shrunk optical functional section 71a (see FIG. 10C).
The case wherein the gap between the mold surface 6221a and the fine structure 711a of the optical functional section 71a is small will be described with reference to FIGS. 11A to 11C. Assume that the molded product is left on the movable mold member side but a small gap is formed between the mold surface 6221a and the fine structure 711a of the optical functional section 71a (see FIG. 11A). The molded product shrinks thermally by cooling in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis (see FIG. 11B). It is estimated that if the optical functional section 71a is ejected with the mold surface 6221a, as the mold surface 6221a and the surface shape of the thermally shrunk optical functional section do not coincide, the optical functional section 71a may deform to a shape shown in FIG. 11B and a shape shown in FIG. 11C depending on the mold surface 6221a.
Regardless of whether a gap is present between the mold surface 6221a corresponding to the optical functional section 71a and the fine structure 711a, the angle formed by the inclined portion 73a of the flange section 73 of the molded product and an optical axis X is large. Thus, when the optical element 70 thermally shrinks after molding, the inclined portion 73a shrinks without being inhibited by a mold surface K of the flange section of the male mold 622a.
(2) The molded product is opened apart into the movable mold member and fixed mold member. Generally, the molded product (optical element) is left in the movable mold member integrally with the sprue, runner, and gate. Assume that a separation force with which that portion of the optical element 70 after the gate which is formed with the movable mold member is released from the movable mold member is determined as F1 and that a separation force with which that portion of the optical element 70 after the gate which is formed with the fixed mold member is released from the fixed mold member is determined as F2. F1 and F2 tend to vary in accordance with variations in molding temperature, molding pressure, and the like. Generally, although the molded product (optical element) is left in the movable mold member integrally with the sprue, runner, and gate, it is not necessarily uniformly left in the movable mold member, and is not always in tight contact with the movable mold member.

Optical element, method of molding optical element, and mold


A television mount assembly includes an elongated railing has a first end and second end. The railing is attached to a ceiling with a plurality of brackets. A pole has a top end and a bottom end. The pole has a pair of bends therein so that the pole includes a first arm, a second arm and a middle section extending between the first and second arms. A mounting is attached to the top end and secures the pole to the railing. The pole is movable along the railing. A first motor is mounted on the pole and a drive wheel is mechanically coupled to the motor. The drive wheel is in communication with the railing. The first motor is configured to selectively rotate the drive wheel in a first direction or a second direction so that the top end of the pole is moved along the railing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to television mount devices and more particularly pertains to a new television mount device for suspending a television from a ceiling and for allowing selective movement of the television along the ceiling.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of television mount devices is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,903 describes a similar device for holding a data processing device that is configured to selective move the data processing device horizontally or vertically. Another type of television mount device is U.S. patent Appl. No. 2002/0194792 having an elongated pole which is suspended from a horizontal support and which has a mount configured to hold one or more display screens. The pole is selectively movable along the horizontal support. A television-viewing stand that may be controlled by a remote control is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,622.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device for supporting a television from a ceiling. The device should be adapted for moving the television within a room and also adapted for selectively rotating the television to a desired angle with respect to a viewer of the television.


Embodiments of the present invention provide a connection system with a projection on a first connector and a cooperating cavity on a second connector to provide push-through connection of the connectors in first and second configurations in which the projection extends to first and second depths respectively within the cavity, wherein one or more of the projection or cavity is movable in two dimensions perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the projection when received in the cavity, wherein the first and second connectors have cooperating locking surfaces arranged to engage each other when the projection is received at the second depth to prevent said movement in two dimensions and wherein the cooperating locking surfaces do not engage each other so as to prevent said movement in two dimensions when the projection is received at the first depth in the receiving cavity.

Buildings can be constructed using a range of panel-based products.
These panels can be used to define the exterior walls or roof of a structure or can provide the interior surfaces of a structure's ceilings or internal walls.
These types of panels predominantly require a skilled installer to mount and secure panels in place. For example, gypsum boards or drywall sheets are commonly used in the construction of interior walls and ceiling surfaces. These types of panels need to be cut to an appropriate size, nailed or otherwise fixed in place against a supporting framework, and then have filler material applied between adjacent panel joints. The installer then needs to wait for the filler material to set before they can sand it smooth enough for a decorative finish to be applied.
As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art the installation of existing building material panels is a time-consuming and specialised task.
It would therefore be of advantage to have an improved surface panel connection system, apparatus or components of same which addressed any or all the above issues, or at least that provided an alternative choice to the prior art. In particular it would be of advantage to have a connection system which allowed a relatively unskilled installer to engage a surface panel with a support framework quickly and using a limited number of tools. It would also be of advantage to have improvements over the prior art which provided some flexibility in the positioning of a panel once initially engaged with a support frame, and which also allowed panels to be readily detached from the support frame if desired.


The assembling structure for electronic module comprise a case and a side frame, the characteristic is the case fixed on the base frame of the assembling structure by two front pivots and the case pivoted thereon. Besides, the side frame is installed adjacent to the case. In addition, the case and the side frame respectively include a plurality of locking holes, the side frame further including a locking controller with a first latch and a second latch corresponding to the locking holes, thereby locking the case at a horizontal and oblique position.

With the increasing demands for IT products, the related technologies and products are developed on large scale. For examples, computer products and multimedia equipments are developed with rapid growth and progress. However, the peripheral device, such as an optical disk drive, hard disk drive or floppy disk drive, is usually installed in immoveable shelves in a metal housing. Besides, other related device, such as a power supply, disposed on the housing, also occupies some space. Thus, the space in the housing is very crowded.
Additionally, the housing and the shelves are made of metal materials and have keen edges and corners. Users' fingers may be slashed if the users stretched hands into the housing for assembly and repair. So it is very inconvenient and dangerous. Furthermore, the peripheral devices are upgraded and eliminated through competitions rapidly. In this situation, it is more and more frequent that users disassemble and assemble those devices by themselves. Consequently the assembling structure with immoveable shelves and crowded inner space in the housing is really inconvenient to users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,164 B2 published on Jun. 29, 2004, titled "Positioning Unit for a Computer Housing-and-Peripheral Device Assembly". The positioning unit of the invention includes a positioning member disposed between the peripheral device and the computer housing, including a thin plate that is stamped to form a bent spring arm having a first section which extends toward the casing, and a second section which bends from the first section and which extends toward the computer housing. Conventionally, the peripheral device, such as an optical disk drive, a floppy disk drive or a hard disk drive, is mounted in the computer housing via screw means. As such, it is relatively inconvenient to mount or dismount the peripheral devices in the computer housing through tightening or loosening of the screw means. Although the invention is provided for mounting the peripheral devices in the computer housing without screw means, the inconvenience resulting from the space restriction and immoveable shelves is not overcame yet, and the problem is still exists.

Assembling structure for electronic module


A data processor (10) having an instruction fetch unit (12), a decode and control unit (14), and an execution unit 16 performs conditionally executed instructions in hardware. A conditional break instruction, BRKcc, is inserted within a looping instruction to conditionally terminate the looping instruction with a minimum number of instruction cycles. A conditional do-loop instruction, DO#0, prevents the data processor (10) from executing a do-loop with a loop count within a loop counter (24) of zero upon entry. A conditional repeat instruction, REP#0, prevents a repeat instruction from being executed if a loop count is zero upon entry. A conditional repeat instruction, REPcc, allows a subsequent instruction to be conditionally terminated during execution.

A specific data processing application is often implemented by a data processor with dedicated internal hardware that executes particular instructions within a minimum number of instruction cycles. One such specific data processing application is in the field of Digital Signal Processing (DSP). Commonly utilized instructions in the field of DSP include, but are not limited to, a loop instruction and a conditional branch instruction. A common loop instruction is a do-loop instruction. For example, a do-loop instruction which is implemented in hardware is taught by Linde in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,074 entitled "Do Loop Circuit." When executed, the do-loop instruction repeatedly executes predetermined instructions a predetermined number of times. Since a looping instruction is a commonly utilized instruction in a DSP application, it is advantageous for a data processor utilized for DSP applications to process a do-loop in a minimum number of instruction cycles. After a data processor begins executing a do loop, a conditional branch instruction is commonly used for the purpose of exiting the looping prior to full completion. A conditional branch instruction is a commonly utilized DSP instruction. It also is desired to minimize the necessary instruction cycles for executing a conditional branch instruction. When a conditional branch is executed within a do loop, additional instruction cycles are typically required for instruction completion. Instructions for implementing DSP functions are typically not complied, wherein "compiled" refers to calculating function-specific target addresses. Compilers are not typically used in DSP applications in order to save instruction memory space. In summary, a need exists to process commonly utilized DSP instructions, such as a do-loop and a conditional branch instruction, that are not necessarily compiled and within a minimum number of instruction cycles.

Pipelined data processor which conditionally executes a predetermined looping instruction in hardware


A pressurized feed shoe for delivering particulate materials to fill a die cavity is provided. The feed shoe includes a feed shoe body including a vessel for receiving a quantity of particulate material. The feed shoe body has at least one bottom egress opening for registering with the die cavity and a top ingress opening for receiving particulate material. A pressure generator for generating supra-atmospheric pressures within the vessel and the die cavity is also provided. The pressure generator communicates with the vessel via a conduit sealingly engaged thereto. A shuttle selectively moves the feed shoe body to and from a position whereby the bottom egress opening registers with the die cavity.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to feed shoes for feeding and depositing finely divided or particulate material into a die cavity for compacting. More particularly, the invention relates to a feed shoe that controls the delivery of particulate materials into the die cavity. This controlled delivery provides the particulate materials in the die cavity with a uniform density that is greater than what would otherwise be the bulk density of the particulate material or with a density gradient. The present invention also pertains to a process for precompacting particles in a die cavity to produce articles of uniform density or gradient density from particulate material.
2. Description of Related Art
In powder metallurgy and other technologies using particulate materials such as ceramics and carbides, products and parts are formed by pressing finely ground or atomized powders into a desired shape within a die cavity. Generally, the powders are compacted in the die cavity at room temperature and the then semi-dense compact is removed from the die and heated to bond the powders into a unified, dense mass. In powder metallurgy, the heat bonding procedure is generally known as sintering or in the case of ceramics and carbides, firing.
When these and similar procedures are employed, means are required for delivering measured amounts of powder or particulate to a die cavity on a powder press. Typically, feed shoes operate to deliver the powder or particulate material to the die cavity during the press cycle by using a gravity fill system. This system involves the movement of the feed shoe containing particulate material on a shuttle which slides the shoe forward along the table of the die press to a position at which the bottom feed hole of the feed shoe is exposed, overlies and registers with the die cavity furnishing enough loose powder to gravity fill the die cavity. Thereafter, the shuttle slides the shoe back along the table of the die press into a retracted position thereby cutting off the gravity flow of particulate material from the bottom hole of the feed shoe. The particulate material is then pressed into an article and the article is ejected from the die. The shuttle then slides the shoe forward along the table of the die press displacing the ejected article and again exposing the bottom hole of the feed shoe as it overlies and registers with the die cavity thereby allowing gravity to fill the die cavity once again. The feed shoe is retracted once again thereby cutting off the gravity flow of particulate.
These known simple gravity feed methods deliver particles into die cavities at a density that is roughly equivalent to the bulk density (density of a bulk volume of the particles) of the particulate material. Because of gravity, all areas of the die cavity do not fill uniformly. Thus they do not provide for a uniform density of particulate material within the cavity. Articles produced by these feed methods are many times unsatisfactory because when pressed, they produce compacted parts that are also non-uniform in density. These non-uniformly dense articles are then prone to stress related cracking, especially upon ejection from the die cavity. These cracks are often only visible after sintering. Typically, with an almost spherical powder such as for example, copper coated aluminum powder, the fill ratio of amount of powder in die to size of compacted part is 3:1 using gravity to fill the die cavity. That is, the three dimensional size of the powder in the die is three times that of the final compacted article.
Shaking or vibrating a feed shoe is frequently employed in the art for inducing a more regular flow of the particulate material into the die cavity. This, however, is time consuming and is generally not adequate to achieve uniform density of the particles in the die cavity or compacted articles of uniform density which are reproducible from article to article in a controlled manufacturing process.
Additionally, this shaking or vibrating of fine particles in known particle feed methods dislodges "fines" and dust from the particles which are then air borne to coat and contaminate the surrounding environs. Many of the particulate materials are frequently quite costly and in some cases toxic. Thus, the dust problem can represent a considerable economic loss or health hazard. Consequently, relatively elaborate and costly dust recovery systems and personnel safety precautions, such as filtered masks are presently used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,818 to Sanzone discloses a feed shoe having a hopper for receiving powder materials from a source that communicates through a feeder tube with an enclosed filling chamber. The filling chamber is equipped with a vacuum. The vacuum is applied to assist the gravity flow of the powders through the feeder tube into the filling chamber. However, like the shaking or vibration techniques described above, such evacuation of the chamber does not provide for the uniform density of particulate material within a die cavity necessary to produce homogenous articles and materials that must exhibit uniform mechanical and physical properties. Examples of such articles or materials are those used in thermal management, etc. in which strict uniformity of properties (i.e., coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, etc.) throughout the article or from article to article is required. Further, this chamber evacuation cannot be used to control the density of the particulate material in the die cavity and thereby create a density gradient of the particulate material and in the resultant compacted article.
Additionally, technologies exist for controlling and moving mechanical parts of die presses at much faster rates than those presently being employed. However, the rate at which die presses can produce articles is limited by the rate at which the die cavity can be filled with particulate materials. This rate is relatively slow using known feed shoes which use gravity to feed powders into the die cavity and does not allow the die presses to reach their maximum capacity for producing compacted parts and is even slower using vibratory methods.
Moreover, in the aforementioned and other known feed shoes, the step of retracting the feed shoe by dragging the feed shoe over the upper surface of the wear plate of the die table has been necessary to cut off the flow of particulate materials from the feed shoe. This retraction of the feed shoe after filling the die cavity, however results in the buildup of powders in the die near the trailing edge of the feed shoe. This friction induced "wedging" effect further exacerbates the problem of producing articles of non-uniform density upon compacting the particulate material in the die cavity, with all of the accompanying aforementioned disadvantages.

Pressurized feed shoe apparatus for precompacting powdered materials


A virtual human interface for conducting survey questioning comprises a system and method which may include a script file which may include survey question data, response pattern data, expression data, advertising data, entertainment data, lobbying data and/or processing instructions. The expression data may include mouth and eye expression data along with respective duration data indicative of the length of time of respective visual representations. The virtual human interface may interact With a user by representing a character object that personifies communicative behavior to make interaction more natural and enjoyable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to electronic information gathering, and more particularly to the use of a virtual human interface to conduct surveys and collect and present survey results data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Marketing and planning of all sorts is often critically dependent on customer and/or public feedback. In the context of product planning, such information can avoid the devastating effect of introducing a product the public simply does not want, is not ready for, or even a product the public finds offensive. In another context, media producers, such as those producing television series, are constantly wary of the effect on the consuming public that might be created by particular plots, changes in plots or treatment of certain issues, roles or characters. In addition, producers need to be aware of viewer preferences for use in attracting advertising. In these and other areas, accurate and timely consumer feedback is critical.
Existing techniques for obtaining satisfactory feedback and formatting it for useful and meaningful review are extremely costly. That is because they typically require employing small armies of telemarketers, data entry clerks, interviewers, statisticians and/or other data collection teams, and still others to convert, format and make sense of the information collected.
Another problem with information gathering is the attention, concentration and understanding of the participants. For example, feedback received from survey participants may be unreliable, inaccurate or unhelpful if survey participants lose interest or become distracted while taking the survey. Survey participants soon become bored with survey questions, particularly when presented in large quantities, in printed form, or unclear or tedious language, and provide abrupt, confusing, careless and/or ill-considered feedback when required to respond.
Some methods of keeping participants interested involve extrinsic motivation, such as payment. Providing extrinsic motivation is often unsatisfactory, however, because the participant is still not genuinely interested in the survey. For that, intrinsic motivation is needed. It is known that human interviewers presenting live questions can sometimes create intrinsic motivation and can maintain a participant's focus and concentration for a longer period of time. The interaction itself provides the intrinsic motivational component needed. However, not only is it extremely expensive to pay and train live interviewers, but also live human interviewers themselves can become bored when asking the same questions over and over again and repetitively logging participants' answers. When this happens, live interviewers lose their effectiveness in holding the attention of participants.
Moreover, survey sponsors can rarely rely on the relevant consumers—even by enticing them with free gifts or cash payments—to travel to the survey sponsor or any other location to take a survey. Therefore, the work is typically done in focus groups, through door-to-door canvassing, through the use of paid diaries delivered by mail or through telephone surveys. Consumers simply require utmost convenience to themselves in providing survey information. Thus, survey sponsors must also overcome the problem of survey delivery—that is, ensuring that the questions are made available at a location sufficiently convenient to participants. Extensive and expensive planning involving demographics and geographical regions is typically conducted, leading afterward to the dispatching of teams to varied locations, often nationwide.
Still another problem with traditional survey techniques relates to the long delay between the gathering of information and the conversion of the information into a form useful to the survey sponsors. Traditional data collection, data entry and tabulating processes commonly require labor intensive and error fraught keyboarding of data from survey forms. Entities conducting surveys often have to wait for results to be returned by mail before they can even begin to be processed.
What is needed is a system for gathering information from consumers which will hold the consumers' interest and avoid distraction, which will minimize the time and expense of gathering the information and making it useful and which will maximize convenience to consumers.

Virtual human interface for conducting surveys


A propeller propulsion unit for aircrafts in general including a rotation shaft driven by a motor, the unit including a single-blade propeller and a counterweight that are connected to the shaft, the counterweight being arranged in a substantially diametrical position with respect to the single blade in order to balance the moment generated by centrifugal force and being variably offset with respect to the axis of the blade in order to balance the moment generated by the traction force of the single-blade propeller.

The present invention relates to a propeller propulsion unit for aircrafts in general.
Aircrafts in general that do not use jet propulsion systems are conventionally provided with one or more propellers that convert the power supplied by the motor into traction.
The propellers normally used are of various kinds, such as for example pusher or pulling propellers, with fixed or variable pitch, and ducted; these propellers are furthermore constituted by two or more blades that are arranged so as to balance, on the propeller axis, both the action of the centrifugal force, produced by the rotation of said propeller, and the moments caused by the aerodynamic forces generated by the relative speed of the blade with respect to the air.
Propellers having a single blade are used exclusively in the field of flying model aircrafts, i.e., with powerplants having extremely small power ratings.
The use of a single-blade propeller would certainly be useful in many applications in aircrafts, since it would be possible to improve the efficiency of the propeller and have considerable constructive simplicity; however, this type of use has so far been unfeasible, since all the problems that arise from compensating the radially-directed forces, inertial forces, and aerodynamic forces, with their corresponding moments, generated by the relative speed of the blade with respect to the air, have not been solved. These factors, which also vary as the relative speed of the blade with respect to the air varies, would produce troublesome stresses and vibrations that might lead to fatigue failure, especially if considerable masses are involved.
Accordingly, the use of a propulsion unit with single-blade propeller has never had a practical follow-up.

Propeller propulsion unit for aircrafts in general


A twin-engined rotorcraft having an installation for feeding fuel to fuel-burning engines of a power plant of the rotorcraft, the engines including main engines suitable individually for driving at least one rotor of the rotorcraft while in flight, and an auxiliary power unit mechanically connected to the rotor while nevertheless being unsuitable on its own for driving it in flight. The auxiliary power unit is fed with fuel by auxiliary pumps drawing fuel from each of main fuel tanks from which the main engines are respectively fed with fuel.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention lies in the field of rotorcraft and it relates more particularly to ways of supplying fuel to a power plant of the rotorcraft.
The present invention relates to an architecture for supplying fuel to a multi-engined power plant of a rotorcraft that supplies mechanical power at least for driving at least one rotor of the rotorcraft.
(2) Description of Related Art
Rotorcraft are rotary wing aircraft having one or more rotors providing the rotorcraft at least with lift, and possibly also with propulsion and/or guidance in flight. Rotorcraft are also provided with various auxiliary members that consume mechanical power, such as compressors, electricity generators, and/or a ventilation, heating, and/or air conditioning installation, for example.
In this context, rotorcraft have a power plant comprising one or more fuel-burning engines, in particular turboshaft engines, comprising one or more main engines and also an auxiliary engine, commonly referred to as an auxiliary power unit (APU). Such rotorcraft are described in particular by the Applicant in Document CA 2 831 706 A1.
The main engines are typically dimensioned to deliver the mechanical power needed for driving the various members of the rotorcraft that consume mechanical power in flight, and in particular the rotor(s) and said auxiliary members. To this end, at least the main engines are engaged with a mechanical power transmission train from which the various members of the rotorcraft that consume mechanical power are driven.
The auxiliary power unit is typically dimensioned to deliver the mechanical power needed for driving the auxiliary members while the rotorcraft is on the ground. For this purpose, the auxiliary power unit is engaged with the mechanical power transmission train while usually being excluded from being engaged mechanically with the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft, given that its use is conventionally reserved for driving auxiliary members when the rotorcraft is not in flight.
In a particular category of rotorcraft, commonly referred to as "category A", the power plant has a plurality of main engines acting simultaneously to provide the mechanical power needed by the rotorcraft in flight. Rotorcraft of category A are allowed to overfly sensitive territories, providing at least one main engine has the ability on its own to supply the mechanical power needed by the rotorcraft in flight in the event of a failure of one of the main engines of the power plant.
In this context, a category A rotorcraft is authorized to overfly a sensitive territory providing that the means that enable the main engines to operate individually on their own are separate. In the event of a failure of one of the main engines because its operation is faulty, at least one other main engine must be capable of driving said at least one rotor without its own operation being hampered by the failure of the faulty main engine.
This applies in particular to the ways in which fuel are supplied to the various main engines of the power plant. For this purpose, category A rotorcraft are typically provided with an installation for supplying fuel to the power plant that combines a plurality of fuel supply assemblies that are respectively allocated to feeding fuel individually to the various main engines.
Conventionally, the various fuel feed assemblies are isolated from one another in fluid flow terms. Each fuel feed assembly typically has a fuel tank, possibly made up of one or more fuel reserves in fluid flow communication with one another, and a fluid flow circuit suitable for conveying fuel from the tank to the associated main engine.
The main engines are conventionally fed individually with fuel via main pumps that are driven by the main engines. More particularly, when considering a given fuel supply assembly, the fluid flow circuit comprises at least one or more pipes and a said main pump driven by the main engine. The main pump sucks fuel from the tank in order to convey it to the main engine via a feed duct of the fluid flow circuit.
In addition, each of the fuel supply assemblies may also have at least one booster pump immersed in the tank for delivering fuel to the main engine in order to initiate its starting.
There arises a problem of fuel tanks possibly running out of fuel, e.g. as a result of fuel leaking from a faulty tank or as a result of the main engine associated with the tank consuming all of the fuel that was initially contained in that tank.
That is why it is common practice for each of the tanks to be provided with a feeder of predefined capacity. For a given fuel assembly, the feeder provides a reserve of fuel that enables the main engine to operate for a determined duration in the event of the tank running out of fuel.
The feeder is conventionally arranged inside the fuel tank and it is fed with fuel by at least one transfer pump. The transfer pump(s) convey(s) fuel continuously from the tank to the feeder, and the feeder has an overflow for returning excess fuel to the tank.
These provisions are such that the feeder is kept full of fuel providing fuel remains within the tank. In the event of the tank running out of fuel, the main engine can continue to operate for a duration that is predetermined by the capacity of the feeder.
Where appropriate, and in order to reduce the number of fluid flow members used by the fuel supply installation, the transfer pump(s) of a given fuel supply assembly may also be used to form said booster pump.
It is also common practice to provide a cross-feed circuit between the various tanks of the fuel supply installation in order to enable fuel to be exchanged between the tanks, in particular for the purpose of balancing the distribution of the weight of the fuel on board the rotorcraft. Providing a fluid flow member incorporated in the cross-feed circuit is activated, fuel from one tank can be used for maintaining an available quantity of fuel in another tank, or at least in the feeder associated with that other tank.
For information about a technological environment close to the present invention, reference may be made for example to Document EP 2 567 896 (Eurocopter), which describes a fuel supply installation for a twin-engined rotorcraft. Nevertheless, in that document, nothing states nor suggests using an auxiliary power unit in addition to the two main engines for driving a main rotor. Such a document therefore does not describe supplying fuel to such an auxiliary power unit.
In general manner, it is always desirable to simplify the organization of equipment on board rotorcraft, in particular in order to reduce the cost associated with designing, installing, and maintaining such equipment, and also for the purpose of reducing the overall weight of rotorcraft.
Such a search for simplification applies, amongst other things, to installations for supplying fuel to a power plant of a rotorcraft, as mentioned in Document EP 2 567 896.
Nevertheless, such a search for simplification must comply with flying safety constraints on category A multi-engined rotorcraft, in particular in the event of one of the tanks running out of fuel and/or in the event of one of the main engines failing.
Concerning the auxiliary power unit, it may have an auxiliary assembly for feeding it with fuel, which assembly may be of simplified architecture, given that its function is conventionally reserved to driving auxiliary members while the rotorcraft is on the ground. Such a simplified architecture for the auxiliary fuel supply assembly makes it possible in particular to use a single auxiliary fuel supply pump for the auxiliary power unit and taking fuel from a fuel tank that is specifically reserved for feeding fuel to the auxiliary power unit, or else from one of the tanks for feeding fuel to a main engine.
It may nevertheless be most advantageous also to make use of the auxiliary power unit in flight for the purpose of contributing to driving the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft, so as to deliver extra mechanical power under special flying circumstances in which a large amount of mechanical power is required, such as hovering, during takeoff or landing, or indeed in the event of one of the main engines failing, for example.
Nevertheless, under such circumstances, the auxiliary power unit remains mechanically engaged with the main power transmission train in order to contribute to driving the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft, even if its contribution is small. In such a context and given the specific constraints on category A rotorcraft, the auxiliary power unit must be capable of operating independently in the event of one of the main engines failing, in particular concerning the way in which the auxiliary power unit is supplied with fuel.
Furthermore, as described in Document EP 2 524 871 A1, it is also known to provide an aircraft with two main engines and an auxiliary power unit. Such an aircraft also has main tanks for feeding the two main engines with fuel. The auxiliary power unit is fed with fuel from an auxiliary tank housed inside one of the main tanks.
Nevertheless, under such circumstances, the main tanks do not have feeders. Furthermore, the auxiliary pump(s) for feeding the auxiliary power unit with fuel is/are housed in only one of the main tanks.
In this context, it is desirable to seek a solution for installing an assembly for supplying fuel that is reserved for the auxiliary power unit, while also coming within the above-mentioned search for simplifying the fuel feed architecture for the power plant, and while complying with the constraints associated with supplying fuel to the engines of a category A multi-engined rotorcraft that are mechanically engaged with the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft.
The present invention thus lies in the context of searching for such a solution on the basis of the above observation from which the approach of the present invention stems.
In the context of the auxiliary power unit possibly participating in providing some of the drive for the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft, conventional prejudices in the field of aviation need to be overcome in order to provide viable and safe ways of supplying fuel to the auxiliary power unit, while avoiding as much as possible adding complexity to the architecture of the installation for supplying fuel to the power plant.
It is found in practice that such prejudices go against using the auxiliary power unit for providing any participation in the driving of the rotor(s) of a category A multi-engined rotorcraft because of the extra complexity that arises in the architecture for feeding fuel to the power plant.
The difficulty of such an approach is to be seen in particular when said multi-engined rotorcraft is a twin-engined rotorcraft, i.e. a rotorcraft having a power plant with two of said main fuel-burning engines each of dimensions suitable for individually driving the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft in flight in the event of a failure of one of the main engines.
In such a context, in the event of one of the main engines failing, only one main engine is available for providing the mechanical power needed to keep the rotorcraft in flight under safe flying conditions, since the auxiliary power unit is incapable on its own of providing the drive required by the rotor(s) of the rotorcraft.

Twin-engined rotorcraft having a fuel supply installation for a power plant auxiliary power unit (APU)


A method of pumping and related arrangement for multi-phase fluid flow wherein a centrifugal pump is used for the suction and delivery of the multi-phase fluid which has a fluid communication providing portion to provide a communication of fluid bled from the outlet at a higher pressure to be injected into the inlet conduit of the centrifugal pump in operation. The centrifugal pump is provided with an impeller which has a plurality of vanes configured to define there between larger passageways when compared to a conventional centrifugal pump which would operate in or near optimum conditions when pumping liquid only.

Two-phase fluid pumping covers a large spectrum of pump operation and applications. In certain situations the entrained gas within a liquid medium will cause unwanted problems in the pumping process. For the off-shore oil industry there is now considerable interest in pumping liquids with a high gas content, similar as there has been for some time in the pumping systems supplying aircraft gas turbines. This interest is also found within the geothermal industry. In many oil fields, the wells contain mixtures of gas and oil in varying proportions. The handling of such fluids can create problems. The problems are strictly multi-phase, which essentially means that as the gas or steam content increases the pressure head degrades multi-phase pumps which have relatively good performance characteristics are normally of screw type. While centrifugal pumps are known to be used in the pumping of multi-phase fluids they have had limited success. It is however desirable for centrifugal pumps to be utilised in the pumping of fluids as centrifugal pumps provide the benefit of both a reduced cost when compared to many other types of pumps, simplicity of operation and construction and hence reduced maintenance, and also are normally of a smaller size.
Two-phase pumping applications utilising a centrifugal pump are known in for example the pumping of sewage. Flow separation of the different fluids prior to pumping of the pump is a common way of dealing with delivery of multi-phase flow. This is for example illustrated in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,214. The present conventional designs of centrifugal pumps are not adequate due to their inability to pump high gas volume fraction media. Work by A Furukawa: "Fundamental studies on tandem blades impeller of gas liquid two phase centrifugal pump" Memoirs of the Faculty of Engineering Kyushu University, 48, 4, 231–40 or "On an improvement in air/water two phase flow performance of a centrifugal pump in the partial flow rate of water." 69th JSME Fall Annual Meeting, vol. B, paper number 1118, pp. 165–7[1] suggests using tandem or slotted blades to reduce the degradation in a limited range, of liquid to gas content.
Two-phase flow includes both a compressible and substantially incompressible fluid and the coexistence of liquid and vapour phases. The composition of the fluid flow and variety of flow configurations where each phase has a different velocity in such cases makes the flow difficult to define. Particularly as the flow composition and configurations vary over time, and may reach gas volume percentages as high as 90 to 100 percent.
It is known that where free gas is present in a liquid being pumped the head, power and efficiency of rotodynamic pumps are known to decrease. (See FIG. 1). Although multi-phase products have been pumped for many years with double screw type pumps, centrifugal impeller pumps have shown serious departures from published performance curves. The head when surging begins, oscillates from high to low values once the percentage by volume of gas exceeds some point between 7% and 11% by volume of intake.
The mechanism that seems to control surge and chocking in a centrifugal pump which is pumping a multi-phase fluid is the separation of the gas phase from the liquid phase and a tendency to coalescence in a large gas pocket at the blade entry throat and the sonic chocking to the reduction of the speed of sound. The various pressure fluids which operate inside the impeller passages play a critical role in the two mechanisms mentioned above.
The decrease in efficiency of pumping multi-phase flow suggests that some additional loss mechanisms arise when gassy liquids are pumped. The decrease in head is greater than that which can be associated with the decrease in average density of the liquid-gas mixture. The pump performance decreases continuously as the gas volume increases until at a certain critical gas content the pump loses prime. The above trend is common to radial, mixed, and axial-flow type pumps either in single or in multistage configurations.
Basically the operating range appears to be limited by two phenomena:
1) gas locking or "choking", and
2) instability in the head-capacity curve which causes surge.
Also the property of two-phase flow media is the large influence of gas content on the speed of sound. Normal values of peak relative velocities around the blade leading edge are in this range. Therefore, pumps operate at transonic or supersonic local flow. It is not surprising that a blade design for incompressible single-phase flow is not very effective in multi-phase flow and produces choking for relatively high gas volume fraction. Theory shows that the dramatic variation of the speed of sound at low percentages is very much related to the large difference in density between the two phases. The sonic velocity in two-phase mixtures is also pressure dependent.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to reduce the abovementioned disadvantages and problems or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.

Multi-phase flow pumping means and related methods


A method of receiving a downlink control channel at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving information on a resource element group (REG) bundle size and information on a size of a matrix for interleaving a plurality of REGs configuring at least one control channel element (CCE) through a higher layer, determining the matrix for interleaving the plurality of REGs based on the information on the size of the matrix and the information on the REG bundle size, interleaving the plurality of REGs bundled into one or more REG bundles according to the REG bundle size using the matrix, and receiving the downlink control channel based on the plurality of interleaved REGs.

As more and more communication apparatuses require more communication traffic, a next-generation 5G system, which is further improved as compared to an existing LTE system, is required. In the next-generation 5G system called NewRAT, communication scenarios are classified into Enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra-reliability and low-latency communication (URLLC), and Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC).
The eMBB is a next-generation mobile communication scenario having high spectrum efficiency, high user experienced data rate, high peak data rate, etc., the URLLC is a next-generation mobile communication scenario having ultra-high reliability, ultra-low latency, ultra-high availability, etc. (e.g., V2X, Emergency Service, Remote Control), and the mMTC is a next-generation mobile communication scenario having low cost, low energy, short packets, massive connectivity, etc. (e.g., IoT).
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for receiving a downlink control channel.
Technical tasks obtainable from the present invention are non-limited by the above-mentioned technical task. And, other unmentioned technical tasks can be clearly understood from the following description by those having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention pertains.
The object of the present invention can be achieved by providing a method of receiving a downlink control channel at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system including receiving information on a resource element group (REG) bundle size and information on a size of a matrix for interleaving a plurality of REGs configuring at least one control channel element (CCE) through a higher layer, determining the matrix for interleaving the plurality of REGs based on the information on the size of the matrix and the information on the REG bundle size, interleaving the plurality of REGs bundled into one or more REG bundles according to the REG bundle size using the matrix, and receiving the downlink control channel based on the plurality of interleaved REGs.
The plurality of REGs may be interleaved in units of one or more REG bundles.
The information on the size of the matrix may be information on a size of rows or columns of the matrix.
The size of the columns or rows of the matrix may be determined based on the size of the rows or columns of the matrix and the number of REG bundles included in a control resource set (CORESET) configured in the UE.
If the determined size of the columns or rows of the matrix is not an integer, an integer having a minimum value among integers greater than the determined size of the columns or rows of the matrix may be determined as the size of the columns or rows of the matrix.
If the number of the plurality of REGs included in each of the at least one CCE corresponds to a product of a value of the information on the size of the matrix and a value of the information on the REG bundle size, the one or more REG bundles may be mapped to physical resources at a regular interval.
If a value of the information on the size of the matrix is equal to the number of REG bundles included in each of the at least one CCE, the one or more REG bundles may be mapped to physical resources at a regular interval.
The received information on the REG bundle size may be determined based on the number of symbols of a control resource set (CORESET) configured in the UE.
In another aspect of the present invention, provided herein is a user equipment (UE) for receiving a downlink control channel in a wireless communication system including a radio frequency (RF) module for transmitting and receiving a radio signal to and from a base station, and a processor connected to the RF module and configured to receive information on a resource element group (REG) bundle size and information on a size of a matrix for interleaving a plurality of REGs configuring at least one control channel element (CCE) through a higher layer, to determine the matrix for interleaving the plurality of REGs based on the information on the size of the matrix and the information on the REG bundle size, to interleave the plurality of REGs bundled into one or more REG bundles according to the REG bundle size using the matrix, and to receive the downlink control channel based on the plurality of interleaved REGs.
The information on the size of the matrix may be information on a size of rows or columns of the matrix.
The size of the columns or rows of the matrix may be determined based on the size of the rows or columns of the matrix and the number of REG bundles included in a control resource set (CORESET) configured in the UE.
If the determined size of the columns or rows of the matrix is not an integer, an integer having a minimum value among integers greater than the determined size of the columns or rows of the matrix may be determined as the size of the columns or rows of the matrix.
If the number of the plurality of REGs included in each of the at least one CCE corresponds to a product of a value of the information on the size of the matrix and a value of the information on the REG bundle size, the one or more REG bundles may be mapped to physical resources at a regular interval.
If a value of the information on the size of the matrix is equal to the number of REG bundles included in each of the at least one CCE, the one or more REG bundles may be mapped to physical resources at a regular interval.
The received information on the REG bundle size may be determined based on the number of symbols of a control resource set (CORESET) configured in the UE.
According to the present invention, it is possible to increase diversity effect by dispersing CCEs configuring a downlink control channel on one or more physical resources.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that that the effects that could be achieved with the present invention are not limited to what has been particularly described hereinabove and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving downlink control channel