Methods of servicing a wellbore include generating gas in a plugging composition in situ within a permeable zone in the wellbore, thereby improving the ability of the plugging composition to seal the permeable zone. The gas may be generated via a chemical reaction by, for example, introducing first and second reactants to the plugging composition that can react at ambient temperatures in the wellbore. In an embodiment, the first and second reactants are concurrently pumped into the wellbore via separate flow paths within two concentric conduits to the permeable zone where they are allowed to contact each other in the presence of the plugging composition. In another embodiment, the first reactant, the second reactant, and a retarder for slowing the reaction between the two reactants are concurrently pumped to the permeable zone. In yet another embodiment, one of the reactants is encapsulated to delay a reaction between the two reactants.

A natural resource such as oil or gas residing in a subterranean formation can be recovered by drilling a well into the formation. In particular, a wellbore is typically drilled down to the subterranean formation while circulating a drilling fluid through the wellbore. After the drilling is terminated, a string of pipe, e.g., casing, is run in the wellbore. Primary cementing is then usually performed whereby a cement slurry is pumped down through the string of pipe and into the annulus between the string of pipe and the walls of the wellbore to allow the cement slurry to set into an impermeable cement column and thereby seal the annulus. Further drilling into the subterranean formation followed by cementing is continued until the production zone containing the natural resource such as oil or gas is reached. The purpose of cementing different subterranean zones prior to reaching the production zone is to isolate the flow of fluids from the cemented zones into the wellbore. Frequently this process is referred to as zonal isolation. Subsequent secondary cementing operations, i.e., any cementing operation after the primary cementing operation, may also be performed. One example of a secondary cementing operation is squeeze cementing whereby a cement slurry is forced under pressure to areas of lost integrity in the annulus to seal off those areas.
As a wellbore is being prepared to provide for the recovery of oil or gas residing in the subterranean formation, permeable zones through which fluid can undesirably migrate often need to be plugged. For example, fractures previously created in the formation to increase the production of the oil or gas may eventually produce water rather than oil or gas. To provide for the production of more oil or gas, a fracturing fluid may again be pumped into the formation to form additional fractures therein. However, the previously used fractures first must be plugged to prevent the loss of the fracturing fluid into the formation via those fractures. Thus, plugging compositions are also useful in stimulation of new production zones after the prevailing production zone stimulated via perforations through the casing has become depleted. In such cases the existing perforations need to be plugged so that the fracturing fluid can be diverted to new perforations in a new zone.
In addition to the fracturing fluid, other fluids used in servicing a wellbore may also be lost to the subterranean formation while circulating the fluids in the wellbore. In particular, the fluids may enter the subterranean formation via permeable zones such as depleted zones, zones of relatively low pressure, lost circulation zones having naturally occurring fractures, weak zones having fracture gradients exceeded by the hydrostatic pressure of the servicing fluid, and so forth. As a result, the service provided by such fluid is more difficult to achieve. For example, a drilling fluid could be lost to the formation, resulting in the circulation of the fluid in the wellbore being too low to allow for further drilling of the wellbore. Also, a cement/sealant composition could be lost to the formation as it is being placed in the wellbore, thereby rendering the cementing/sealing operation ineffective in maintaining isolation of the formation. The loss of such fluids increases the cost of the overall operation due to the prolonged rig time required, the fluids being relatively expensive, and possibly a need to install casing. The plugging of such permeable zones in the formation with plugging compositions is thus needed to avoid such problems.
Permeable zones in the subterranean formation may further allow water to undesirably flow from the formation into the wellbore during primary and secondary cementing operations, resulting in the influx and crossflows of water through cement slurries that have been placed in the wellbore. The influx of water may occur during a transition phase in which a cement slurry changes from a true hydraulic fluid to a highly viscous mass showing some solid characteristics. Consequently, flow channels may remain in the cement slurry after it has completely set. Those flow channels could allow the water to flow from one subterranean zone to another such that zonal isolation is no longer achieved. Further, the water can intermix with and dilute the cement slurry, causing deterioration of the cement properties such as its density, its final compressive strength, and its rheology. As such, the permeable zones in the formation need to be plugged to prevent the in flux and crossflows of water through the cement slurry before it sets.
The isolation of the subterranean formation also may be compromised by permeable zones present in the annulus and/or the wall of the casing in the wellbore. Permeable zones such as voids in the cement column placed in the annulus may result from an incomplete fill in of the annulus during primary cementing. Permeable zones may also be caused by the expansion and contraction of the casing and the cement column due to cyclical changes in underground pressures and temperatures during the life of the well. Moreover, the cement column may experience impacts and shocks generated by subsequent drilling, pressure testing, hydraulic fracturing, or other well operations. Unfortunately, conventional cement suffers from the drawback of being brittle and fragile and thus often cannot sustain such stress. Consequently, cracks or voids may form in the cement column and/or the casing wall. Further, microannuli may form between the cement column and the casing and between the cement column and the subterranean formation. The microannuli, the voids or cracks in the cement column, and/or the voids or cracks in the casing wall need to be plugged to ensure that the subterranean formation remains isolated from other subterranean formations.
A variety of compositions have been developed for plugging the permeable zones described above, and such compositions may form a sealing mass having a relatively high viscosity, for example, when contacting water in the wellbore or when two fluids are allowed to contact with each other near the zone requiring plugging. The use of such plugging compositions, however, does not necessarily ensure that fluid will be prevented from flowing through the permeable zones in which they are placed. The plugging compositions may be unable to withstand the pressures applied by the fluids in the wellbore or the formation fluids due to, for example, an insufficient amount of friction between the compositions and adjacent surfaces in the wellbore. When subjected to such pressures, the plugging compositions thus may be dislodged from their positions in the permeable zones. Further, the plugging compositions may lack the the ability to resiliently conform to the changes in the sizes and shapes of the permeable zones that often occur during the follow up operations in the wellbore in which they are used. Therefore, fluid may undesirably leak through areas of the permeable zones where the plugging compositions have debonded from the perimeters of those zones. Accordingly, a need exists to develop methods for improving the ability of plugging compositions to effectively seal permeable zones.

Methods of generating a gas in a plugging composition to improve its sealing ability in a downhole permeable zone


The invention relates to an improved homogenisation valve, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a homogenisation valve for use in homogenising emulsion explosives. The homogenisation device comprises a body having a flow passage therethrough, opposing first and second homogenisation members located in the flow passage; the homogenisation members having opposing homogenisation surfaces that form a flow restriction of the flow passage therebetween. At least one of the homogenisation surfaces has a flow resistance being suitable to cause at least part of the flow passing through the flow restriction to be diverged in a non-linear path across the homogenisation surface.

Homogenisation is the process of obtaining a uniform composition and stable structure throughout a fluid comprising more than one phase by subjecting the fluid to a fluid mechanical process that involves the subdivision of particles or droplets into small sizes so as to create a dispersion or emulsion.
Homogenising devices, including homogenisation valves suitable for homogenising emulsions, are well know in industry. In essence a homogenisation valve comprises a valve body in which a stationary seat and a spring-loaded plug is located. The plug is biased towards a closed position in which the plug abuts the seat. The plug and/or the seat typically include at least one annular protrusion that abuts the corresponding seat and/or plug, thus forming a narrow homogenisation gap between the plug and the seat.
During homogenisation, a fluid to be homogenised is pumped into an inlet of the valve body under a pressure being sufficient to displace the plug slightly from the seat The fluid subsequently flows through the homogenisation gap, and is subjected to substantial shear forces. As expected, the flow through the homogenisation gap generally exhibits the properties associated with fluid flow between two substantially parallel surfaces, and a shear stress profile develops that ranges from a maximum at the surfaces, and a minimum towards the centre of the flow path. The shear stress induced in the fluid causes bodies such as droplets of the fluid to be homogenised and to be dispersed into smaller droplets. The mass-median droplet diameter of the fluid is thus reduced, which is for instance advantageous when working with emulsions as emulsions are usually of better quality and stability if it has a small mass-median droplet diameter.
In an improved embodiment, a homogenisation valve may include a plurality of annular ridge formations, wherein adjacent ridge formations extend from the plug and seat respectively so as to form a labyrinth or undulating flow path through the homogenisation valve. Pressure recovery regions are therefore formed between adjacent homogenisation gaps, and fluid diverges into these pressure recovery regions once the fluid exits the narrow homogenisation gaps. It will be appreciated that the fluid only diverges in planes substantially normal to the flow through the homogenisation gaps.
One particular homogenisation application is the homogenisation of emulsion explosives. Emulsion explosives have unusual physical properties in that they are made from a large volume of a mobile aqueous phase dispersed in a small volume of a mobile continuous phase usually comprising oils and emulsifiers. These types of compositions tend to have high viscosity, even if the dispersed aqueous phase droplets are not of a very small size. The Reynolds number of the fluid when in motion, being an inverse function of the viscosity, is therefore relatively low, resulting in the flow remaining laminar as there is no transition to a turbulent flow regime. When the fluid is introduced into the homogenisation valve, the flow remains laminar throughout, even when it is accelerated though the homogenisation gap. As described above, the shear stresses peak at the surfaces of the homogenisation gaps, and are lower towards the centre of the fluid flow path. Consequently, large droplets towards edges of the fluid flow path are dispersed into smaller droplets, whereas droplets towards the centre of the fluid remain substantially unchanged.
As described above, the flow remains laminar throughout, and the absence of any turbulence results in droplets travelling along particular streamlines not to be redistributed normal or transverse to the plane of flow through the homogenisation gaps. As mentioned above, there may be some degree of divergence when the fluid flows from a homogenisation gap to a pressure recovery zone, but the fluid divergence still only result in the divergence of streamlines in a plane normal to the flow through the homogenisation gap, and not in redistribution of droplets across streamlines. The droplets in the central zone of the fluid therefore remains substantially unchanged, whereas the droplet-size at the edges of the fluid is reduced to smaller diameters. Homogenisation is therefore not complete, and not efficient


Generally, and in one form, the present invention is a composition of light-emitting block copolymer. In another form, the present invention is a process producing a light-emitting block copolymers that intends polymerizing a first di(halo-methyl) aromatic monomer compound in the presence of an anionic initiator and a base to form a polymer and contacting a second di(halo-methyl) aromatic monomer compound with the polymer to form a homopolymer or block copolymer wherein the block copolymer is a diblock, triblock, or star polymer. In yet another form, the present invention is an electroluminescent device comprising a light-emitting block copolymer, wherein the electroluminescent device is to be used in the manufacturing of optical and electrical devices.

Research into light producing polymers began over a decade ago with the discovery that polyphenylene-vinylenes or PPVs are electroluminescent when sandwiched between two electrodes. Further processing of these polymers has led to the early development of electronically driven organic lasers and liquid crystalline coil block copolymers.
There are efforts to construct efficient luminescent and electroluminescent devices with both high efficiency and light output. The synthetic methodology for the construction of polymers that can be used for applications such as light-emitting diodes, field effect transistors, and photovoltaic devices requires very precise placement of the conjugated units. In these highly conjugated structures the substituents on the aromatic rings can play a key role in the control of the optical and electrical properties of the polymers. It is desirable that the process and components yield end products that have narrowly defined molecular weight distributions and can be synthesized in a controlled fashion.
In order to obtain more electronically efficient structures, copolymers containing alternating PPV blocks have been produced. Unfortunately, these copolymers are either of low molecular weight (MW), or display high polydispersity values that have deleterious effects on the lifetime and usefulness of any device into which they are incorporated. Copolymers with relatively high MW have been reported. However, these copolymers have high polydispersity values (greater than 2 and 3) and are inefficiently produced, requiring several re-precipitations before isolating the final product.
The present invention addresses the above-described problems. The block copolymer compositions of the present invention and those produced by the process of the present invention have desirable properties including narrow molecular weight distributions that are produced in a controlled and reliable manner.

Light-emitting block copolymers composition, process and use

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


A center beam car has a main deck structure extending laterally from a main center sill, a laterally extending top truss structure, and a central vertically oriented web work structure for carrying vertical shear loads. The center beam so formed defines bunks upon in which to carry cargo. The upper region of the web-work structure includes a deep upper beam structure that has downwardly extending planar surfaces. The surfaces provide a bearing area against which bundled loads can be secured. The surfaces are inwardly reinforced to discourage deflection between adjacent upright members of the vertical web work.

Center beam rail road cars have a pair of end structures mounted on railroad car trucks. A center sill extends the length of the car between the end structures. A deck extends laterally outward from the center sill above, and between, the end structures. A pair of end bulkheads stand at the ends of the car and extend transversely to the rolling direction of the car. A center beam structure, typically in the nature of a truss, stands upright from the deck and runs along the longitudinal centerline of the car between the end bulkheads. The center beam is a deep girder beam whose bottom flange is the center sill, and whose top flange is the top truss (or analogous structure) of the car. Typically, a web work structure for carrying vertical shear loads, such as an open framework of posts and diagonal braces, extends between the center sill and the top truss. An upper beam assembly, that is, the upper or top flange end of the center beam, is usually manufactured as a wide flange, or flange-simulating truss, both to co-operate with the center sill to resist vertical bending, and also to resist bending due to horizontal loading of the car while travelling on a curve. Center beam cars are commonly used to transport packaged bundles of lumber, although other loads such as pipe, steel, engineered wood products, or other goods can also be carried.
The space above the deck on each side of the center beam forms a bunk upon which bundles of wood can be loaded. The base of the bunk has risers that are mounted to slant inward, and the center beam itself is tapered from bottom to top, such that when the bundles are stacked, the overall stack leans inward toward the longitudinal centerline of the car. The load is most typically secured in place using straps or cables. The straps extend from a winch device at deck level, upward outside the bundles, to a top fitting. The top fitting can be located at one of several intermediate heights for partially loaded cars. Most typically the cars are fully loaded and the strap terminates at a fitting mounted to the outboard portion of the upper beam assembly. Inasmuch as the upper beam assembly is narrower than the bundles, when the strap is drawn taut by tightening the pawl, it binds on the upper outer corner of the topmost bundle and exerts a force inwardly and downwardly, tending thereby to hold the stack in place tight against the web of the center beam.
Each bundle typically contains a number of pieces of lumber, commonly 2×4, 2×6, 2×8 or other standard size. The lengths of the bundles vary, typically ranging from 8′ to 24′, in 2′ increments. The most common bundle size is nominally 32 inches deep by 49 inches wide, although 24 inch deep bundles are also used, and 16 inch deep bundles can be used, although these latter are generally less common. A 32 inch nominal bundle may contain stacks of 21 boards, each 1½ inch thick, making 31½ inches, and may include a further 1½ inches of dunnage for a total of 33 inches. The bundles are loaded such that the longitudinal axes of the boards are parallel to the longitudinal, or rolling, axis of the car generally. The bundles are often wrapped in a plastic sheeting to provide some protection from rain and snow, and also to discourage embedment of abrasive materials such as sand, in the boards. The bundles are stacked on the car bunks with the dunnage located between the bundles such that a fork-lift can be used for loading and unloading.
It has been observed that when the straps are tightened, the innermost, uppermost boards of the topmost bundle bear the greatest portion of the lateral reaction force against the center beam due to the tension in the straps or cables. It has also been observed that when these bundles bear against the vertical posts of the center beam, the force is borne over only a small area. As the car travels it is subject to vibration and longitudinal inertia loads. Consequently the plastic sheeting may tend to be tom or damaged in the vicinity of the vertical posts, and the innermost, uppermost boards can be damaged.
The physical damage to these boards may tend to make them less readily saleable. Further, whether or not the boards are damaged, if the plastic is ripped, moisture can collect inside the sheeting. This may lead to the growth of molds, and may cause discolouration of the boards. In some markets the aesthetic appearance of the wood is critical to its saleability, and it would be advantageous to avoid this discolouration.
In part, the difficulty arises because the bearing area may be too small. Further, the join between the upstanding web portion of the center beam and the upper beam assembly can coincide with the height of the topmost boards. This join is not always smooth. Further still, when the posts are fabricated, the flanges of the posts may not stand perfectly perpendicular to the webs of the respective posts. That is, the post flanges may not be co-planar with the side webs, or legs, of the adjoining top chord, such that one edge of the flange may be twisted so that it bears harder against the bundles than another.
It is also desirable that the bundles stack squarely one upon another. Although it is possible to use wooden battens at the top end of the center beam, this will tend to cause the top bundle to sit outwardly of its neighbours. It has been observed that a thin wooden batten, of ¾″ thickness may tend to bow inwardly between adjacent posts, and may not spread the wear load as much as may be desired. A 1½ inch thick wooden batten may have a greater ability to resist this bowing effect. However, the space available for employing a batten may tend to be limited by the design envelope of the car. Inasmuch as is advantageous to load the car as fully as possible, and given that the design of the car may usually reflect a desire to maximize loading within the permissible operational envelope according to the applicable AAR standard, the use of a relatively thick wooden batten may tend to push the outside edge of the top bundle outside the permissible operational envelope. Wooden battens may also be prone to rotting if subject to excessive exposure to moisture, or may be consumable wear items that may require relatively frequent periodic replacement.
It would be desirable to have an upper beam assembly that is integrated into the structure, that is formed to spread the bearing load across a larger area, that would tend to resist the bowing phenomenon, that would tend not to require frequent replacement, and that would tend not to be prone to rotting.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Center beam car with deep upper beam structure


Provided a paper feeding apparatus used with a printer includes a pickup roller which draws out a paper stacked in a cassette and conveys the paper to a printer, a conveying roller which conveys the drawn-out paper onto a paper feeding route, and a feeding roller which feeds the paper conveyed by the conveying roller to a printing portion. The conveying roller is driven when the paper supplied by the pickup roller is conveyed to the feeding roller, and after the paper is conveyed to the feeding roller, the conveying roller is isolated from the paper feeding route.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper feeding apparatus used with a printer, which draws out one sheet of paper at a time from a paper stacked on a tray and supplies one sheet of paper at a time to the printer, and more particularly, to a paper feeding apparatus used with a printer, having a conveying roller to supply a sheet of paper from a pickup roller to a feeding roller, the conveying roller being detachable from a paper feeding route according to a rotation direction of the pickup roller.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a paper feeding apparatus to sequentially supply a plurality of sheets of paper is provided in a printer, a copier, and a facsimile.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating main portions of a conventional paper feeding apparatus for a printer. Referring to FIG. 1, an ink-jet printer 10 includes a paper feeding portion 20, a conveying portion 40, a printing portion 60, and a paper exhausting portion 80.
The paper feeding portion 20 supplies a sheet of paper P to a printer. The paper feeding portion 20 includes a paper feeding cassette 21 movably installed at a lower side of the ink-jet printer 10 so that the paper P to be printed is stacked in the paper feeding cassette 21, and a pickup roller 24 installed at an upper side of the paper feeding cassette 21, so that a sheet of the paper P stacked in the paper feeding cassette 21 is supplied at a time to the printer 10.
A driving unit (not shown) actuates the pickup roller 24 via a gear train 26, causing the pickup roller 24 to consecutively draw out sheets of the paper P. The pickup roller 24 is connected to a support arm 25 and contacts the paper P due to its weight. Also, the outer surface of the pickup roller 24 is surrounded by a friction part 24a having a comparatively large friction coefficient so that the pickup roller 24 easily draws out sheets of the paper P. Preferably, the friction part 24a is formed of rubber.
The conveying portion 40 guides the paper P supplied to the printer 10 by the paper feeding portion 20, to be conveyed to the printing portion 60. For this purpose, the conveying portion 40 includes a conveying roller 41 which conveys the paper P supplied by the paper feeding portion 20, a guide 43 which guides the paper P to be conveyed to the printing portion 60, and a feeding roller 45 which conveys the paper P to the printing portion 60.
The printing portion 60 performs a printing operation onto the conveyed paper P. The printing portion 60 allows a carriage 61, in which an ink cartridge 63 is installed, to perform an alternating rectilinear motion driven by a driving unit (not shown), and the printing portion 60 performs a printing operation onto the paper P via a printhead 65.
The paper exhausting portion 80 includes a paper exhausting roller 81 which withdraws the printed paper P from the printing portion 60 and stacks the paper P on a paper exhausting stand (not shown).
Since the conveying roller is additionally installed between the pickup roller and the feeding roller, the paper feeding apparatus having the above structure is useful when the size of a printing medium is small.
However, when the conveying roller continuously rotates in a paper feeding route as described above, a new problem occurs. That is, if the paper passing the conveying roller meets the feeding roller, one side of the paper contacts the feeding roller, and the other side of the paper is progressed for a predetermined amount of time such that the paper is aligned in front of the feeding roller. In this case, paper curl occurs between the driving conveying roller and the stopped feeding roller. Subsequently, the paper is fed by a rotation force of the feeding roller and the conveying roller, and thereby a printing operation is performed. In general, a feeding force of the feeding roller is greater than an exhausting force of the conveying roller. When the paper is fed to the printing portion in a state where the paper is engaged with the conveying roller, paper curl is maintained at a constant level, and a printing operation is performed in this state. However, at an instant when the paper escapes from the conveying roller which applies a predetermined force to the paper, the force applied to the paper is varied, causing a variation in a feeding rate. As a result, a white background appears on the printed side of the paper, and printing quality is lowered.


The present invention discloses a means of the generation of tunable femtosecond pulses from 380 nm to 465 nm near the degenerate point of a 405-nm pumped type-I BBO non-collinearly phase-matched optical parametric amplifier (NOPA). The tunable UV/blue radiation is obtained from sum frequency generation (SFG) between the OPA output and the residual fundamental beam at 810-nm and cascaded second harmonic generation (SHG) of OPA. With a pumping energy of 75 mJ at 405 nm, the optical conversion efficiency from the pump to the tunable SFG is more than 5% and the efficiency of SHG of the OPA is about 2%.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). In particular, the present invention relates to providing the blue light and the near-ultra-violet (380–460 nm) a continuously tunable optical parametric amplifier by using cascaded sum frequency generation of femtosecond non-collinear optical parametric amplifier.
2. Description of Relative Prior Art
In the near decade, the applications of the blue light become more important. The most important industry is high intensity storage. This wave length is very important for the application of bio-technology and environment control areas. Moreover, in the application of time-resolved and frequency-resolved studies, real time studies of molecular dynamical and optical spectrum studies, show that the development potential of the blue light and near-ultra-violet radiation. However, the source and the detector of the blue light and the near-ultra-violet light is still not enough. In the near decade, due to the development of non-linear crystal and laser technology is more come to mature, this makes possible of the tunable wave-length optical source of this wave-band. The trend is to generate a higher quality and convenient source and to increase the efficiency.
Optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is an important means to generate tunable-wavelength. But it is very difficult to generate blue light directly from the OPA. Generally, it needs to go through another non-linear optical process, such as frequency doubling or sum frequency generation, which increases the complexity and cost.
In the published documents, such as in the articles "ultra fast optical parametric amplifiers", Giolio cerallo et al., Review of scientific Instruments 74, 1–17(2003), relates to the generation of tunable wave-length optical source by OPA process; In the article "Generation and amplification of ultra-short shaped pulses in the visible by a two-stage non-collinear optical parametric process", Howe-Siang et al., Opt. Lett. 26, 1812–1814(2001); and "Broadband optical parametric amplification in the near UV-VIS", Tzankov et al., Opt. Commum., 2003, 107˜(2002); "Broadband amplification of ultraviolet laser pulse", Osvay et al., Appl. Phys. B: Lasers Opt. B74, S163-2002(2002); emphasized by summing the frequency of the generating long wave-length. This makes the system more complex, and that summing frequency process itself also has time overlap problem, the output is not stable due to mechanical problem. In the article "Extension of tuning range of a femtosecond Ti: sapphire laser amplifier through cascaded second-order nonlinear frequency conversion process", Petro et al., J. Appl. Phys, 76, 7704–7712(1994); the designed architecture is based on the last stage of photo-frequency mixing or sum frequency generation, which is different from the article "Generation of femtosecond laser pulses tunable from 380 nm to 465 nm via cascaded nonlinear optical mixing in a non-collinear optical parametric amplifier with a type-1 phase matched BBO crystal", chao-Kuei lee et al., Opt Express 11,1702–1708(2003), this article makes use of a cascaded non-linear Optical mixing to generate tunable-wavelength of femtosecond non-collinear optical parametric amplifier.
In the U.S. Pat. No.5,144,629 to basu ; U.S. Pat. No.5,751,472 to jeys et.al., and U.S. Pat. No.5,769,513 to Stamm et.al., are implemented general optical parametric amplifier architecture, and only has signal and idler output.
The prior art of optical parametric amplifier with blue light out put basically is by using the output of generated long wave-length to generate the necessary short wave-length by sum-frequency, or by using high-order harmonic to generate excited light source of shorter wave-length. The disadvantage is that the wave length of the excited light source generation is not easy because of the transformed efficiency of high-order harmonic is low, group velocity mismatched, short wave-length thin-film deposition is not easy, and high cost. The last stage of optical mixing or sum-frequency architecture makes the system more complex, which is not convenient and limited in application consideration.
What is needed is an improved tunable wave-length femtosecond non-collinear optical parametric amplifier.

Blue-light generating femtosecond wavelength-tunable non-collinear optical parametric amplifier


A device for use as a part of the securing process of roofing felt (tar paper, roll roofing, etc.) comprising a ribbon like strip (FIG. 1) on which tin caps like devices (2) are evenly spaced, a lateral center line (1) and several registration lines (4). The use of this device will insure the even spacing of tin caps on a straight line.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the placement of tin cap like devices on a ribbon like material wherein said tin caps are evenly spaced and secured on a straight line; and wherein the spacing between the tin caps are in accordance with building codes.
2. Description of Prior Art
Over the years, many roofing inspectors have condemned the installation of roofing felt; in some cases this occurs when the randomly placed tin caps were not positioned in accordance to building codes.
Object and Advantages
Accordingly, I claim the following as my object and advantages of the invention: to provide a product enabling roofers to in stall tin caps which are evenly spaced and can be positioned on a straight line; requiring on assemblage, the use of this device will solve the problem of randomly placed tin caps, while minimizing the waste of tin caps, manpower and time.


A method of cleaning polyurethane foams where the material is transported through a wash station while alternately soaking the polyurethane foam in an organic solvent and squeezing solvent from the polyurethane foam a number of times. Then the polyurethane foam is sent through a rinse or solvent transfer station for reducing the concentration of solvent in the foam. The rinsed polyurethane foam is sent to a drying station wherein the foam is repeatedly squeezed while being exposed to hot air to remove wet air from the foam.

This invention relates to a continuous process for cleaning and drying flexible porous materials such as foam and more particularly, polyurethane foam recovered from foam containing waste streams such as automobile shredder residue. Contaminants in the foam primarily are oils and other organics as well as dirt.
Specifically, the invention relates to apparatus and system for processing the foam through a series of devices which repeatedly squeeze and release the foam to allow solvent in a washing apparatus to infiltrate the pore structure of the foam and then be mechanically squeezed therefrom a plurality of times.
In addition to which the invention includes apparatus for rinsing the cleaned foam to rid the foam of the organic solvents and thereafter to dry the foam also with repeated mechanical squeezing of the foam to reduce the amount of time the foam resides in the solvent transfer station (referred to here sometimes as a rinse station) and the dryer. Complete flow processes are disclosed for recycling and treating various waste streams from the washing station, the rinsing station, and the drying station.

Efficient continuous dryer for flexible polyurethane foam and cleaning apparatus


A pneumatic tire includes a tread that has: land portions formed and segmented by a plurality of circumferential grooves extending in a tire circumferential direction and by a plurality of widthwise grooves extending in a tire width direction; and sipes formed in contact patches of the land portions. The pneumatic tire includes: recessed sections (groove-bottom recessed sections) that are formed in tire-width-direction lateral surfaces of the land portions provided in tire-width-direction outermost parts, so as to connect to the widthwise grooves; and indents/lugs that are formed in bottom surfaces of the recessed sections such that indents/lugs thereof are arranged alternately and continuously in a linear manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire, a tire mold, and a method of manufacturing a pneumatic tire that improve turning performance on icy roads and snowy roads.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pneumatic tires, particularly pneumatic tires preferable for icy and snowy roads, can achieve turning performance by removing water films generated between the road surface and the tread surface. Known conventional pneumatic tires include sipes of a zigzag shape as seen from above, and small grooves having a shorter depth than that of the sipes, all provided in the surface of the land including a plurality of blocks. In such conventional pneumatic tires, the small sipes remove the water films generated between the road surface and the tread surface, thus achieving excellent turning performance on icy road surfaces and snow covered road surfaces (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3702958).
In pneumatic tires for icy and snowy roads, shoulder land portions located in its tire-width-direction outermost parts are deformed due to the load applied across the tire width direction when the vehicle turns. This brings the side surfaces of the land portions into contact with the road surface. To achieve turning performance, it is demanded to remove the water films generated between the road surface and the side surfaces of the land portions.

Pneumatic tire, tire mold, and method of manufacturing pneumatic tire


An in-line, multipolar proximal connector assembly for an implantable stimulation lead is provided which incorporates at least one sensor. Advantageously, the present invention uses straight conductive rods, or wires, to electrically connect the proximal terminals to a multilumen lead body. The straight conductive rods enable the diameter of the lead assembly to remain small. Additional terminals can easily be added by simply decreasing the spacing between terminals and adding additional conductive rods. In one embodiment, insulating spacers are premolded to include protruding portions which interlock with the ring terminals. Recesses within the insulating spacers are dimensioned to self-position the ring terminals a precise distance from the pin terminal according to precise dimensions defined by the VS-1 (or other) standards. In another embodiment, the terminals are injection molded. While the present invention is directed towards a quadrapolar (four conductors) design, it may be easily adapted to a bipolar, tripolar or multipolar (five conductors or more) design.

An implantable stimulation lead is a medical device that delivers stimulation pulses from an implanted pulse generator to the heart, or other body tissue, for the purpose of causing a desired muscle contraction. For cardiac muscle stimulation, such lead is typically inserted through one of the main veins of the patient, e.g., the superior vena cava, so that a distal end of the lead may be directed inside the heart. Electrodes positioned at the distal end of the lead make contact with the cardiac tissue. Implantable stimulation leads may be classified as being unipolar (having a single tip electrode), bipolar (having a tip electrode and a ring electrode), or multipolar (having three or more electrodes).
As used herein, the distal end of the implantable stimulation lead is that end which makes electrical contact with the heart and the proximal end is that end which is connected to the pacemaker through a connector top. Hereinafter, the proximal end of the implantable stimulation lead will be referred to as the "proximal connector assembly". The proximal connector assembly typically takes the form of a male connector, with the pacemaker connector top taking the form of a female connector. When joined, good electrical contact must be maintained between the terminals of the proximal connector assembly and an appropriate feedthrough terminal of the pulse generator housing. Furthermore, such lead connection must be secure, so that it does not disconnect during use, yet detachable in the event the pulse generator or lead needs to be replaced. Moreover, such connections must at all times remain insulated and sealed from ionic body fluids, which body fluids are conductive and could cause an electrical short.
With the arrival of dual chambered pulse generators, it was necessary to have two female connectors within the connector top to accommodate two leads. Thus, it is preferable for bipolar leads to have an "in-line" lead assembly (as opposed to a "bifurcated" lead assembly) to minimize the height of the connector. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,687 (Ufford et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,605 (Hess) show in-line bipolar proximal lead assemblies with and without sealing rings, respectively, made using conventional techniques. That is, these bipolar leads included a pin terminal and a ring terminal coupled to a distal tip and ring electrode, respectively, by coaxial conductors. The electrical connection to the pin terminal is made by isolating and stretching the inner coil of the coaxial conductor over the pin terminal and either crimping or welding it thereto. The electrical connection to the ring terminal is similarly made by isolating and fixturing the outer coil of the coaxial conductor onto the ring terminal and crimping or welding it thereto. Once connected the whole assembly is then injection molded in a body compatible material. However, many of the existing methods and techniques are no longer suitable for the smaller pulse generators and leads that are currently being used.
Currently, there has been a tremendous demand to incorporate physiologic sensors onto the implantable stimulation lead. These sensors will measure a variety of physiologic parameters, such as, blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure, ejection time, pH, temperature, impedance, heart wall motion, etc. The additional sensor typically requires two additional conductors and proximal terminal contacts. However, the need for additional terminal contacts also requires additional space for isolation and for enabling the crimp or weld procedure.
In anticipation of these sophisticated leads, there have been several attempts at manufacturing "tripolar" leads, that is, leads having three distal electrodes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,104 (Peers-Trevarton) shows a lead assembly having three spaced apart metal bands with resilient conductive rings on each band adapted to make contact with a corresponding ring terminal in the connector top. U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,104 (Doan et al.) also shows, in one embodiment, a tripolar lead assembly. However, neither embodiment is easily expandable to include four or more terminals. Furthermore, each of these lead assemblies are specially designed for each manufacturer's pulse generator connector top.
Furthermore, over the approximately 30 year history of the implantable pulse generator, a wide variety of techniques and methods have been used to connect leads to pulse generators. During that time, almost no standardization existed for their dimensions. While some manufacturers strongly believed that the sealing mechanism belonged on the lead in the form of seal rings, another group preferred to have the seal rings inside the pulse generator's connector top with a smooth sealing surface located on the lead. Great variability in the actual dimensions existed even with the standard "5 mm" or "6 mm" leads available from different manufacturers. As the pulse generator electronics and batteries become smaller, the connector system represents a larger percentage of the total pulse generator volume. Thus, many manufacturers are contemplating smaller connector systems.
To avoid a proliferation of new and incompatible designs, a major effort has been underway to standardize the interface between an implantable stimulation lead and a pulse generator. The proposed voluntary standard, known as VS-1, has subsequently been adopted by almost all pulse generator manufacturers worldwide. The VS-1 standard does not specify how a particular pulse generator connector must make contact with a implantable stimulation lead, it simply defines the dimensions of the 3.2 mm implantable stimulation lead and the dimensions of the corresponding pulse generator connector cavity into which the implantable stimulation lead is inserted. The VS-1 standard further specifies certain requirements as to leakage, conductivity and connect/disconnect force. For a further explanation of the VS-1 Standard, reference is made to "A Voluntary Standard for 3.2 mm Unipolar and Bipolar Implantable Stimulation Leads and Connectors," Calfee et al., PACE. Vol. 9, 1181-85 (Nov.-Dec. 1986), which reference is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
While the VS-1 standard advantageously represents a long needed movement towards industry standardization, the VS-1 standard disadvantageously restricts the dimensions of the proximal connector assembly of the implantable lead, which can in turn limit the number of conductors and terminals.
What is needed, therefore, is a multipolar implantable stimulation lead which meets the VS-1 standard, is easy to manufacture, and can be readily expanded to include many terminals and conductors without increasing its diameter and without excessively increasing the proximal connector assembly length (which in turn would affect the pacemaker connector top dimensions). It is also an objective that all of the aforesaid advantages and objectives be achieved without incurring any substantial relative disadvantage.

Multipolar in-line proximal connector assembly for an implantable stimulation device


There are provided measures for power reduction control in a home network environment, which may be applicable in an interworking of a home network area and a macro network area. Such measures for power reduction control may for example include, upon receipt of an initial power reduction command from a network element of a macro network area, reducing a transmit power in a home network area by a predetermined power reduction amount and starting a timer with a predetermined time period, and upon receipt of a further power reduction command from a network element of a macro network area as long as the timer is not expired, discarding the further power reduction command.

For modern and future communication networks including mobile/wireless communication networks (such as for example General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Long-Term Evolution Advance (LTE-A), or other 3GPP (3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project) networks, or the like), there is known a concept of a simultaneous presence of home and macro network access.
Accordingly, the following specification relates to mobile wireless communications, such as 3GPP UMTS, Long-Term Evolution (LTE & LTE-A) or the like, and is related more specifically to an interworking of a home nodeB or the like and networks comprised of macro nodeBs or the like.
For the subsequent specification and the terminology used therein, the following is to be noted. The term "HNB" is a terminology commonly used for WCDMA/HSPA (WCDMA: Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, HSPA: High Speed Packet Access) home equipment. For LTE and LTE-A the term commonly used for home equipment is "HeNB", where the e stands for evolved. The macro nodeB for UMTS is commonly called "nodeB" ("NB"), whereas for LTE and LTE-A the macro nodeB is commonly called "eNB", where the e stands for evolved. The subsequent text uses the terms home nodeB or "HNB" and macro nodeB or "MNB" as non-limiting examples only, without limiting the thus described techniques and concepts to any one of UMTS, WCDMA and/or HSPA. Rather, the thus described techniques and concepts may equally be applied in other systems as well, such as for example LTE and LTE-A.
Furthermore, it is to be noted that any home equipment may comprise several techniques to serve different end user equipment within a CSG (closed subscriber group), thus a home cell or femtocell may be formed of a combination of a HNB and a HeNB.
FIG. 1 shows, in two alternative illustrations, a schematic diagram of an architecture of a simultaneous presence of a home cell and a macro cell, in which exemplary embodiments of the present invention are applicable.
As depicted in FIG. 1A, a mobile station or user equipment UE may be connectable both to a home access network denoted as home cell and/or a macro access network denoted as macro cell. Typically, while access to the home cell is restricted for a closed subscriber group (CSG) being authorized for the respective home cell, access to the macro cell is commonly available. Stated in other words, the home cell may be a private access facility, while the macro cell may be a public access facility such as a 3G radio access network (RAN). In 3GPP, a home cell is also referred to as femtocell.
As depicted in FIG. 1B, a mobile station or user equipment UE may be connectable to a backbone or core network via a home cell or access network (AN) or via a macro cell or radio access network (AN). An exemplary home cell according to FIG. 1B comprises a home base station or home nodeB (HNB), to which the UE is connectable, for example by a wireless link, and a respective home base station or home nodeB gateway (HNB). The HNB aggregates traffic from a large number of HNBs, although this is not depicted in FIG. 1B for the sake of clarity. An exemplary macro cell according to FIG. 1B comprises one or more macro base stations or macro nodeBs (MNB), to which the UE is connectable, for example by a wireless link, and a radio network controller (RNC) or the like.
Home cells, i.e. home nodeBs, are intended to enhance the coverage of a public radio access network such as a UMTS RAN in a home environment, such as for example a home or apartment, i.e. a private location. Accordingly, home cells, i.e. home nodeBs, provide radio coverage for mobile stations or user equipments within a home environment in addition to radio coverage provided by macro cells, i.e. macro nodeBs. Traffic of/in home cells may thus bypass the mobile infrastructure of mobile network providers such as a UMTS RAN. A deployment of home cells or home nodeBs in parallel to a deployment of macro cells or macro nodeBs is not controllable. Therefore, with increase in the number of deployed home cells or home nodeBs within an overall macro network deployment, there arise problems of interference there-between.
Namely, the simultaneous presence of a home nodeB (HNB) and a macro nodeB (MNB), sharing the same part of the radio spectrum, may cause severe interference scenarios. A user equipment UE being allocated to a macro cell, which receives macro cell signals with a power close to a service-specific power set threshold, may be desensitized by the HNB transmit power. This is because of the problem that that the HNB power received is too large so as to properly receive and decode a MNB signal.
As mentioned above, a HNB is only accessible for the set of users assigned to the closed user group (CSG) of the HNB. Thus, no handover from the MNB to the HNB is possible for the user equipment for getting out of the above-outlined interference scenario. Otherwise, macro cell activities to improve the wireless link to the user equipment will cause capacity losses in the macro cell and will increase interference to the home cell.
In view of the above problem, there is a need for enhanced interference management techniques in a home network environment so as to mitigate interference between home and macro cells.
In this regard, there has been proposed a technique considering that the user equipment may report the HNB interference situation and the macro cell may utilize the backbone/core network to reduce the transmit power of the HNB so as to reduce the interference from the home cell to the macro cell.
The thus proposed technique is explained with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows, in two alternative illustrations, a schematic diagram of an operational principle of a known interference mitigation technique in a home environment.
As depicted in FIG. 2A, a user equipment UE, which is authorized for the macro cell, but is not authorized for the home cell (i.e. does not belong to the CSG of the home cell), may be camping in the macro cell in vicinity of the home cell's coverage area. Hence, the UE camping on the macro cell may identify an interference being caused in the macro cell by the transmit power of the home cell, i.e. the HNB of the home cell, and may report the presence of this interference to the macro cell, i.e. the MNB of the macro cell. The macro cell, i.e. the responsible MNB, may address, via the HNB gateway, the HNB causing the interference for sending power down commands (power reduction commands) until the user equipment UE camping on the macro cell stops the interference reporting, namely until the interference is removed due to sufficient transmit power reductions at the HNB. The power down commands are proposed to be relative values, e.g. 2 dB step down.
While the above-outlined technique is practicable in a scenario of one macro cell related to one HNB and one UE affected by interference, it is not practicable is more difficult scenarios, for example when several UEs and/or macro cells (and one home cell) are involved.
Such a more difficult scenario is depicted in FIG. 2B. As depicted in FIG. 2B, there is exemplarily assumed a scenario with three UEs, all of them being not authorized to camp on the home cell, and these UEs are allocated to three different macro cells. All of these UEs have a high interference impact by a single HNB. All MNBs will receive interference reports from the respective UE in its macro cell, and consequently they will initiate, via the HNB gateway, the sending of power down commands (power reduction commands) to the same HNB of the relevant home cell. This may lead to an execution of more power down operation at the HNB than necessary, and may lead to an extinction of the home cell, i.e. a shrinkage of the home cell's coverage (close) to zero, practically providing no coverage to the CSG users any more.
There is no possibility of avoiding such a problematic outcome. In particular, it is neither applicable nor practicable to provide countermeasures at the HNB gateway. This is because such a HNB gateway is typically controlling many thousands of HNBs, and it would lead to huge management functions to control at the HNB GW how far more than one macro cell may try to address the same HNB at the same time.
Accordingly, in view of the above, there is a need for enhanced interference management techniques in a home network environment so as to mitigate interference between home and macro cells, which may avoid excessive degradation or even extinction of a home cell causing interference in a macro cell.

Method and apparatus for power reduction control in home network environment


A reduction in tire pressure in follower wheels and driven wheels is precisely determined irrespective of slipping states of the driven wheels through the use of apparatus wherein in a driven wheel slip amount calculating means M4 calculates a driven wheel slip amount KIDD as a left and right follower wheel speed difference FID and a left and right driven wheel speed difference RID; in a driven wheel torque calculating means M5, a driven wheel torque TQDW is calculated; in a driven wheel slip amount estimating means M6, a characteristic of variation in driven wheel slip amount KIDD relative to the variation in driven wheel torque TQDW is estimated using a least squares method; in a deviation calculating means M7, a deviation CKID between the follower wheel speed difference FID and the driven wheel speed difference RID in a state in which the driven wheels are not slipping, is calculated as an intercept of the driven wheel slip amount KIDD at a driven wheel torque equal to 0 (zero) in a graph of the variation characteristic; and in a wheel pressure-reduction determining means M8, a reduction in tire pressure is determined from a difference in diameter between the follower wheels and the driven wheels by comparing the deviation CKID with a reference value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel pressure-reduction determining system for a vehicle for determining a reduction in pressure in a tire based on a difference in diameter between follower and driven wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A traction control system or an antilock brake system in a vehicle includes rotation-number sensors in the follower and driven wheels to detect follower wheel speeds and driven wheel speeds used for calculation of a slip rate of a wheel, or the like. However, if the tire is reduced in diameter due to a reduction in tire pressure, the numbers of rotations of the follower wheels and of the driven wheels detected by the rotation-number sensors do not correctly correspond to the follower wheel speeds and the driven wheel speeds.
Therefore, in a conventional system, a difference between the left and right follower wheel speeds is compared with a difference between the left and right driven wheel speeds. If the difference between the left and right follower wheel speeds is larger than the left and right driven wheel speeds, it is determined that a reduction in diameter due to a reduction in tire pressure has been produced in any of the follower wheels. If the difference between the left and right driven wheel speeds is larger than the difference between the left and right follower wheel speeds, it is determined that a reduction in diameter due to a reduction in tire pressure has been produced in any of the driven wheels.
However, the above prior art technique has the following problem: When a difference is produced between slipping states in the wheels, for example, because of unbalanced depths of the tires of the left and right driven wheels, it is impossible to discriminate a difference between the left and right driven wheel speeds due to the difference between the slipping states from a difference between the left and right driven wheel speeds due to the reduction in diameter caused by the reduction in tire pressure. Therefore, it is impossible to precisely detect the reduction in diameter caused by the reduction in tire pressure in the tire.
The present invention has been accomplished with the above circumstances in view, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel pressure-reduction determining system for a vehicle, wherein a reduction in pressure in the follower wheels and the driven wheels can be precisely determined irrespective of slipping states of the driven wheels.

Wheel pressure-reduction determining system for vehicle


The method seeks a high-performance detection of a signal burst transmitted on the initiative of a sender on a radio channel listened to by a receiver system. The transmitted burst represents a predetermined digital sequence, serving for example to request access to a radio system or to ensure the synchronization of a radio interface. Channel parameters representing a statistical behavior of the radio channel are estimated and a detection magnitude is evaluated on the basis of the estimated channel parameters and of a correlation between a signal received at the receiver system and the predetermined digital sequence. The estimated channel parameters comprise moments of order greater than 2 of the gain on the radio channel.

The present invention relates to the detection, by a receiver, of signal bursts transmitted on a radio channel in a communication system.
It finds an application in particular in the detection of short bursts sent in a radiocommunication network. These bursts may be of various types, such as initial-synchronization bursts or bursts of random access to the mobile network. The latter case will be more particularly developed hereinbelow, without this being limiting.
When a mobile terminal of a communication network wishes to avail itself of communication resources, for example to make a call, it executes a request to the network that manages and distributes the resources. This random access request generally consists in the transmission of a message whose preamble is a signal burst representing a predetermined digital sequence. This message is sent on an uplink radio channel listened to by a reception system of the network. In radiocommunication systems such as GSM ("Global System for Mobile communications") and UMTS ("Universal Mobile Telecommunication System"), this channel is called RACH or PRACH ("Packet Random Access CHannel"). The format of such a message is in particular described in section 184.108.40.206 of the TS 25.211 technical specification version 5.2.0 Release 5, "Physical channels and mapping of transport channels onto physical channels (FDD)", published in September 2002 by the 3GPP organization.
Reliable detection of random access bursts on the RACH is important since the communications setup failure rate seen by a mobile radio user depends directly thereon.
An improvement in the reliability of detection is particularly beneficial in respect of reception systems that comprise sectorial or omnidirectional smart antennas.
In the UMTS system, the predetermined digital sequence sent on the RACH channel by a mobile terminal has a size of 4096 "chips", a chip being an element of code in accordance with the coding used in the system. The data exchanged consist of 10 ms frames, themselves subdivided into 15 time intervals (or "slots") of 666 μs, corresponding to 2560 chips. Thus, the signal burst associated with the digital sequence sent on the RACH is received within an interval corresponding to two consecutive slots.
When the radio network wishes to determine whether a random access burst has been transmitted on an RACH channel, it calculates for the 1024 (=2×2560−4096) possible positions of the digital sequence of the burst within two consecutive slots, a correlation between the sequence as detected and the predetermined digital sequence which is known to the network.
A criterion must be defined to decide, on the basis of such a correlation, whether the predetermined digital sequence is present. This criterion is customarily based on the correlation's energy level which is compared with a predefined threshold level.
However, depending on the propagation conditions of the radio channel used, the signal received by the radio network is attenuated to a greater or lesser extent. It follows that the fixing of the threshold is tricky: too low a threshold gives rise to numerous false detections that disturb the system, whereas too high a threshold causes access requests originating from terminals relatively far from the base station to be missed.
A power ramp can be used by the mobile terminal to regularly retransmit the burst for access to the network on the RACH channel, with increased transmission power for each new transmission, for as long as the network has not responded to its request for resources. This method makes it possible to improve the detection of the burst by the radio network, in particular in the case where the low transmission power of the first transmissions is the reason for the absence of detection of the burst on the RACH.
However, through the repetition of the random access burst on the RACH, this method occupies the channel to the detriment of any requests from the other users. Furthermore, the high power of the signals thus repeated may create nuisance interference in the system.
An object of the present invention is to propose a method for detecting predefined signals which makes it possible to attenuate the drawbacks of the known methods.
Another object of the invention is to enhance the consideration of the propagation conditions on the radio channel so as to improve the detection of the transmitted bursts.

Method for detecting a signal and receiver system for the implementation of the method


A multi-layered wellbore junction. In a described embodiment, a method of forming an expanded chamber in a subterranean well includes the steps of: positioning multiple chamber sidewall layers in the well; and expanding the layers in the well to form the expanded chamber.

The present invention relates generally to equipment utilized and operations performed in conjunction with a subterranean well and, in an embodiment described herein, more particularly provides a multi-layered wellbore junction.
Significant difficulties have been experienced in the art of forming expanded chambers within a well. For example, a wellbore junction constructed out of welded-together single layer metal sheets at the surface may be collapsed (laterally compressed) at the surface prior to running it into a well. The junction may then be reformed (expanded) to its approximate uncompressed configuration in the well.
Unfortunately, the expanded junction may not have sufficient burst and collapse pressure ratings due to several factors. One of these factors may be work hardening of the metal material when it is collapsed at the surface and then expanded downhole. Another factor may be imperfect reforming of the junction to its original shape.
Therefore, it may be seen that improved methods of expanding wellbore junctions and improved wellbore junction configurations are needed. Such methods and configurations may be used in other applications as well. For example, an expanded chamber in a well may be useful for other purposes, such as oil/water separation, downhole manufacturing, etc.


A sampling optical pulse generation unit emits a sampling optical pulse. The sampling optical pulse has a period different from a predetermined offset time to integral multiplication of a clock period of a data signal, and the data signal modulates an optical signal of a monitoring target. An optical sampling unit performs sampling of the optical signal of the monitoring target using an electroabsorption optical modulator. The electroabsorption optical modulator has a characteristic in which an absorption index is changed with respect to light propagating through an optical path according to a level of an electric field. The optical signal of the monitoring target is input into one of two optical terminals of the electroabsorption optical modulator. The sampling optical pulse is input into another of the two optical terminals through a photocoupler. The absorption index with respect to the optical signal of the monitoring target is lowered by generating a mutual absorption saturation characteristic of the electroabsorption optical modulator when the sampling optical pulse is supplied, and the sampling of the optical signal of the monitoring target is performed to output an optical pulse signal from the other of the two optical terminals through the photocoupler.

In forming a network using the optical signal modulated by the data signal, it is necessary to monitor the quality of the optical signal propagating through the network with the optical signal quality monitoring apparatus.
Generally, the optical signal quality monitoring apparatus obtains information on a waveform of a signal on a transmission path, and computes a value indicating the signal quality from the waveform information and supplies the computation result. Therefore, in the optical signal quality monitoring apparatus, it is extremely difficult to obtain the waveform information by a photodetector directly receiving the optical signal which is modulated by a data signal having a bit rate very high as tens of Gb/s.
In a conventional optical signal quality monitoring apparatus, an equivalent time sampling method is adopted to obtain the information on the waveform of the high-speed optical signal.
In the equivalent time sampling method, sampling is performed to an optical signal P in which the same waveform is repeated at a period Ta as shown in (a) of FIG. 6 using a sampling pulse S having a period of Ts=N·Ta+ΔT which is slightly longer than N multiplications (N is an integer) of the period Ta by a time ΔT as shown in (b) of FIG. 6, thereby obtaining instantaneous amplitude values (instantaneous intensity) at positions shifted from each other by ΔT in the repetitive waveform of the optical signal P as shown in (c) of FIG. 6.
A waveform P′ drawn by an envelope curve connecting the obtained instantaneous amplitude values is one in which the waveform of the optical signal P is enlarged by a factor of Ts/ΔT on a temporal axis. The waveform P′ retains the waveform characteristics of the original optical signal P.
Accordingly, a probability distribution of an amplitude indicating one of binary levels and an amplitude indicating another of the binary levels is obtained for the waveform information obtained by the equivalent time sampling, and a Q value indicating the signal quality can be obtained by computation of a standard deviation of the probability distribution.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of performing the equivalent time sampling to the optical signal to compute the Q value indicating the signal quality from the obtained waveform information.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3796357
In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, usually a non-linear optical material is used as an element for performing the equivalent time sampling to the optical signal.
Because the non-linear optical material usually has low sampling efficiency (sampling efficiency measured by a waveform conversion phenomenon, that is, waveform conversion efficiency is not more than −20 dB), high S/N can be obtained for the information on the waveform of the strong optical signal while poor S/N is obtained for the information on the waveform of the weak optical signal.
Therefore, it is thought that an electroabsorption optical modulator having a transmission loss which is significantly lower than that of the non-linear optical material, in other words, the substantially high sampling efficiency is used as the element for performing the equivalent time sampling to the optical signal.
The electroabsorption optical modulator has a characteristic in which an absorption index is changed with respect to a light beam passed through an optical path according to a level of an electric field imparted to the optical path connecting two optical terminals. In the electroabsorption optical modulator, the optical signal is fed into one of the optical terminals, an electric sampling pulse signal is imparted to a power supply terminal, and the absorption index is lowered with respect to the optical signal to supply the sampling pulse signal from another of the optical terminals only when the sampling pulse signal is fed, thereby performing the sampling to the optical signal.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique of imparting the electric sampling pulse signal to the power supply terminal of the electroabsorption optical modulator to perform the sampling to the optical signal.
Patent Document 2: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-222252
However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, high-frequency impedance matching is required in the electric sampling pulse signal, and it is extremely difficult that a pulse width of the electric sampling pulse signal is stably narrowed without ringing. Therefore, there is generated a new problem in that the information on the waveform of the optical signal modulated at tens of Gb/s cannot accurately be obtained with sufficient resolution.

Optical signal quality monitoring apparatus and method


A rubber composition for a tire having improved in low fuel efficiency, wet skid performance, abrasion resistance, and steering stability with favorable balance, and tire which has tread, using the same. A rubber composition for a tire, comprising 30 to 150 parts by weight of silica having a nitrogen adsorbing-specific surface area of 20 to 200 m2/g, and a pH of 7.0 to 12.0 when the silica is dispersed in water to be 5% aqueous solution, based on 100 parts by weight of a rubber component, and a tire which has a tread, using the same.

The present invention relates to a rubber composition for a tire and a tire having a tread using the same.
In recent years, properties required for tires on automobiles have become diverse including wet skid performance, abrasion resistance, and steering stability other than low fuel efficiency and in order to improve these properties, various devices have been made.
For example, a rubber composition compounded with silica in a styrene-butadiene rubber having a large amount of a styrene content (high styrene SBR) to improve various properties such as wet skid performance and steering stability at high-speed running is known. However, the rubber composition has a problem that grip performance is significantly lowered since rigidity of a rubber is lowered after repeating running. Also, since silica contains silanol groups on its surface, silica particles tend to coagulate each other, and as a result, the compound also has a problem that its processability such as extrusion becomes insufficient due to insufficient dispersion of silica particles into the rubber. In addition, a rubber composition compounded with powders of an inorganic compound together with carbon black or silica in diene rubber is also known. However, the inorganic compound powder is also difficult to disperse into a rubber as is the same as silica, and when particularly used together with silica, the rubber composition may have a problem that wet skid performance is not sufficiently improved
Also, as a method to improve low fuel efficiency of a rubber composition, an example is a process of decreasing an amount of a filler, which is a reinforcing agent, however, rubber hardness is lowered, which causes a problem that steering stability and wet skid performance are deteriorated.
JP-A-2005-213353 discloses a rubber composition having improved processability, low fuel efficiency, and wet skid performance through preparing the rubber composition by a specific process, and a pneumatic tire having a tread using the same. However, effects of improving these properties are not sufficient, and a rubber composition excellent in steering stability is not disclosed.

Rubber composition for a tire and tire having a tread using the same


A method and apparatus for reducing the acoustic coupling between a sound receiving transducer and a sound transmitting transducer is disclosed. A housing, wherein the receiving transducer and the transmitting transducer are mounted, is provided to increase the acoustic separation between the receiving transducer and the transmitting transducer. The housing has a surface, which may have an acoustic impedance condition, which is preferably resistive. The housing may further act as a barrier structure between the receiving transducer and the transmitting transducer.

In many applications it is necessary to have simultaneous transmission and reception of acoustic signals in the same frequency bands. This occurs frequently in applications involving hands-free communications where speech from a near-end talker must be acquired through a sound receiving transducer (such as a microphone) at the same time that speech from a far-end talker must be played back through a sound transmitting transducer (such as a loudspeaker).
A significant problem in the design of such systems is that the microphone intended only for near-end speech also picks up the far-end speech signal, played back using a loudspeaker. This acoustic and vibratory coupling problem manifests itself in two ways. First, if the far-end of the communications link also has some amount of coupling (acoustic or electrical), then the potential for instability or howling exists. Second, when the unintentionally acquired far-end signal is transmitted back to the far-end party, it is received as an audible echo. This echo, when delayed by propagation through the communications network, can be extremely annoying and in severe circumstances, can render the communications channel useless. The acoustic coupling problem is particularly acute when the loudspeaker and microphone are located in close proximity as in the case of a desktop handsfree telephone.
For ideal full-duplex operation in a loudspeaking telephone (i.e., simultaneous conversation in two directions), both parties in a telephone conversation must be permitted to speak and be heard simultaneously. This requires significant acoustic separation of the loudspeaker and microphone.
There are some general approaches that can reduce the coupling. The physical separation between loudspeaker and microphones should be as great as possible. Transducers can be mounted with an acoustically opaque structure inserted in the space between them. The loudspeaker should be oriented so that its maximal radiation (at high frequencies) is directed away from the microphones. If directional microphones are used, the nulls of the microphones can be directed toward the loudspeaker. Echo-cancellation techniques can be implemented in the electronics. A practical design usually employs more than one of these techniques to achieve full duplex operation.
Commonly, acoustic separation is increased in a simple way by increasing the distance between the loudspeaker and microphone. One such example of this is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,468 issued Mar. 29, 1983 in the name of Daryl P. Braun (the Braun patent). The Braun patent describes an audio conference system that alleviates sound-coupled feedback by mounting the loudspeakers below the conference table ("preferably at floor level" according to the patent) while mounting the microphones above the table. While this approach does reduce acoustic coupling, its operation relies on the presence of a suitable table and it is not applicable to systems where the loudspeaker and microphone must, of necessity, be located in the same housing.
For a fixed and compact system size and when the loudspeaker and microphone are in the same housing, the effective distance between transducers can be increased by exploiting acoustic diffraction. Sound tends not to propagate around obstacles, corners or edges (hence, the utility of roadside noise barriers). The obstacles create "acoustical shadows". The residual sound that does get around an obstacle does so through the mechanism of diffraction. The effects of diffraction can be predicted numerically using finite element or boundary element techniques.
For instance, if the transducers are mounted on opposite sides of an acoustically opaque object, sounds propagating from the loudspeaker to the microphone must propagate around the obstacle (assuming that no flanking transmission paths exist).
An example of this approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,155 issued Mar. 7, 1978 in the names of R. Botros et al. (the Botros patent). The Botros patent describes an audio conference terminal housing consisting of a cylindrical section on top of an inverted conical section. The loudspeaker is mounted at the top of the cylinder while the microphone is mounted at the bottom of the inverted conical section to provide physical separation between the speaker and microphone.
Another approach involves the use of transducers with direction-dependent characteristics: loudspeakers, microphones or both. For example, acoustic coupling is reduced by mounting a directional microphone such that the direction of minimum sensitivity coincides with the direction of the loudspeaker.
Many examples of this design approach can be found. U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,586 issued Nov. 16, 1976 in the name of Christopher Jaffe generates a directional loudspeaker pattern by driving two omni-directional loudspeakers out of phase. By positioning the microphone in the acoustic null zone of the resulting dipole, acoustic coupling is reduced. U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,339 issued Dec. 2, 1980 in the names of Bunting et al. describes a boom on which directional microphones and a loudspeaker are rigidly mounted such the microphone nulls are directed towards the loudspeaker.
A similar approach has also been used to design compact speakerphone housings as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,426 issued Jun. 9, 1992 in the names of John Baumhauer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,461 issued Apr. 20, 1999 in the names of Philip Faraci et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,346 issued Jan. 18, 2000 in the names of Stephen Rittmueller et al.
The current approaches described above have limitations. The acoustic separation achieved simply by increasing distance is not applicable to small devices. Similarly, acoustic diffraction losses are significant only when the diffracting object is an appreciable fraction of a wavelength in dimension. For the acoustic wavelengths at speech signal frequencies, this implies rather large devices. Finally, approaches involving directional transducers place restrictions on the placement of these transducers which is unacceptable in some instances.
Therefore, a method and apparatus for decreasing the acoustic coupling between a sound receiving transducer (such as a microphone) and a sound transmitting transducer (such as a loudspeaker), particularly when such transducers are mounted in close proximity or in the same physical housing as occurs in the design of hands-free telephones, is needed.

Method and apparatus to increase acoustic separation


A method for carrying out a multimodal dialog in a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, via which method the interaction between the vehicle and a vehicle user is improved with regard to the provision of a dialog that is as natural as possible. For this purpose, the following acts are performed: sensing an input of a vehicle user for activating a voice dialog and activating gesture recognition.

The present invention relates to a method for carrying out a multimodal dialog in a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, to a multimodal dialog machine for a vehicle, in particular for a motor vehicle, and to a motor vehicle.
A vehicle in the sense of the invention may be, in particular, an automobile or a truck. However, the invention can also be used in other land vehicles, watercraft, rail vehicles and aircraft.
Modern motor vehicles provide a multiplicity of different and partially complementary possible ways of operating functions of the vehicle. In addition to conventional operating elements, modern vehicles often have a voice input which makes it possible for a vehicle user, in particular a driver of the vehicle, to make particular inputs by voice. In this manner, telephone calls can be made, navigation destinations can be set or radio stations can be selected, for example.
Some vehicles are not only able to receive simple voice commands but rather are capable of a multipartite voice dialog. In response to the first voice input, the vehicle can therefore output responses or inquiries, to which the user can then in turn respond with a voice input. Alternatively, the user can also continue the dialog using conventional operating elements of the vehicle, that is to say can press a confirmation key, for example in order to confirm a result suggested by the vehicle by voice output (for example a telephone book entry or an address).
Gesture control, in which particular functions can be operated using particular hand gestures, is also known in motor vehicles. In order to avoid incorrect recognition, the gesture recognition in motor vehicles is generally not permanently fully available. Rather, particular gestures, in particular simple gestures, are enabled only after particular events have occurred. For example, a gesture for accepting a telephone call can be enabled only for a particular period after a telephone call has been received.
Natural human interaction is multimodal, that is to say comprises a plurality of different and possibly complementary communication channels, including, in particular, voice, gestures, facial expressions and others. Although, as described above, modern motor vehicles provide a plurality of natural communication channels for communicating with the vehicle, a multimodal dialog is known only in a very restricted form.
In this respect, DE 10 2012 013 503 A1 describes a method for operating a motor vehicle. In this case, combined gesture and voice control is provided. The vehicle occupant can point to objects such as points of interest (POI) with which he/she would like to interact, for example, and can give a voice command substantially at the same time, from which the form in which the vehicle occupant would like to interact with the object is clear.
There is a need to improve the interaction between the vehicle and the vehicle user with regard to the provision of a dialog which is as natural as possible.
In the method according to the invention for carrying out a multimodal dialog in a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, the following steps are provided;                capturing an input of a vehicle user for activating a voice dialog, and        activating gesture recognition.
The invention is based on the knowledge that, in known vehicles, gesture recognition is not possible precisely when a user started a dialog which is as natural as possible (namely a voice dialog) even though the multimodal continuation of the dialog with the means of voice and gestures corresponds to the natural interactive behavior of the person.
Therefore, the invention provides for the gesture recognition in the vehicle to be activated in response to the start of the dialog.
This makes it possible for a user to conduct a multimodal dialog with the vehicle, which dialog can comprise both voice inputs and gestures. At the same time, however, the known disadvantages of permanently activated gesture recognition are avoided.
The interaction possibility provided according to the invention also makes it possible to dispense with the need to continue a dialog with the vehicle with the aid of conventional operating elements (that is to say, for example, to confirm a suggested result by pressing on a pushbutton actuator of the vehicle). This also improves the interaction between the vehicle and the user with regard to its naturalness.
The input of the vehicle user for activating the voice dialog may be, for example, actuation of the so-called "push-to-talk" (PTT) button which is known in the prior art and may be arranged, for example, on a steering wheel of the motor vehicle.
Furthermore, provision may also be made for certain gestures, in particular certain complex gestures, to be permanently activated and therefore to be able to be permanently recognized. This can be useful because the risk of incorrect recognition is low in the case of complex gestures. In this case, the gesture recognition activated according to the invention is the recognition of such (preferably simple) gestures, the recognition of which is not permanently activated. In such an embodiment, the input of the vehicle user for activating the voice dialog may be a (complex) gesture.
Furthermore, provision may be made for the input of the vehicle user for activating the voice dialog to be or comprise a first voice input of the vehicle user. In other words, the voice dialog can therefore be initiated by means of a voice input from the vehicle user. An additional method step of processing the first voice input is provided in this embodiment.
One development of the invention provides for checking whether the dialog has been concluded. The step of activating the gesture recognition is carried out under the condition that the dialog has not been concluded. In this manner, voice inputs which can be immediately processed and do not initiate a further dialog do not initiate any activation of the gesture recognition.
In a further configuration, a further input is captured and processed. In other words, the vehicle is therefore enabled to receive further inputs of the user and therefore to continue the dialog. The further input may again be a voice input. However, it may be a gesture of the vehicle user, in particular. The vehicle user therefore begins the dialog with a first utterance which is a voice input. After his/her second utterance, the user can then use voice or gestures or another form of communication and can therefore conduct a multimodal dialog.
With further advantage, a check is carried out after each input in order to determine whether the dialog has been concluded. If this is true, the gesture recognition is deactivated. The dialog can be concluded, for example, by the user effecting a relevant input, that is to say aborting the dialog by actuating a particular operating element (sometimes referred to as the "push-to-talk" button in the prior art), by means of a corresponding voice command or by means of a corresponding gesture. Furthermore, the dialog can be concluded for content-related reasons, in particular if the command or the request from the user, which forms the content of his/her first voice input, has been conclusively carried out or answered.
The method may provide for an input request to be respectively output in response to the first voice input of the vehicle user and/or in response to the further input of the vehicle user. In other words, the vehicle therefore responds to inputs of the user and makes inquiries, in particular, or requests a further input from the user. The input request may be output, in particular, by voice output and/or by display on a screen of the vehicle (in particular on a head-up display, on a combination instrument and/or on a central screen arranged in the center console of the vehicle).
With particular advantage, provision may be made for the further input, in particular the gesture, of the vehicle user to be captured and/or processed on the basis of the input request. The gesture recognition accuracy, in particular, can be increased by taking into account certain properties of the input request (for example its type and/or content) when capturing and/or processing the further input. For this purpose, provision may be made, in particular, for only those gestures which are possible as a response to the previously output certain input request to be recognized as further inputs. This reduces the probability of incorrect recognition of a gesture.
One advantageous embodiment of the invention provides for the further input to be or comprise a gesture, wherein the input request is a request to select a suggested option, and wherein the gesture is a pointing gesture, preferably a pointing gesture carried out with a finger. Particularly preferably, the pointing gesture is a pointing gesture carried out in the direction of a screen, wherein the suggested option is displayed on the screen.
In other words, in this embodiment, it is intended to be possible to confirm a suggested option (for example a telephone book entry, an address for the navigation system, a music title, etc.) by means of a pointing gesture. This means, in particular, a gesture in which the vehicle user extends at least one finger, in particular an index finger. If the suggested option is displayed on a screen (for example a head-up display), provision may be made for the vehicle user to have to point the extended finger in the (at least approximate) direction of the screen. With further advantage, it may be additionally or alternatively required for the user to move his/her finger forward and/or forward and backward in the pointing direction. In other words, the user then carries out in the air a gesture imitating the actuation of a conventional pushbutton.
Another advantageous embodiment of the invention provides for the further input to be or comprise a gesture, wherein the input request is a request to select an option from a plurality of suggested options, wherein the input request is, in particular, a closed question or a request to select an entry in a results list, and wherein the gesture is a pointing gesture comprising a movement carried out in a substantially vertical manner, preferably a pointing gesture carried out with a finger, particularly preferably a pointing gesture carried out in the direction of a screen, wherein at least one of the suggested options is displayed on the screen.
In other words, in this embodiment, it is intended to be possible to "scroll" through a results list by means of a gesture in which the user moves an individual finger, in particular his/her index finger, up or down, in particular. Provision may be made for the previous or subsequent list entry (or vice versa) to be displayed with each upward or downward movement. However, provision may also be made for the display of the results list to be moved in the corresponding direction during an upward or downward movement depending on the speed and the amplitude of the gesture, with the result that it is advantageously possible to quickly navigate through results lists having a multiplicity of entries.
Another advantageous embodiment of the invention provides for the further input to be or comprise a gesture, wherein the gesture is a gesture comprising a movement carried out in a substantially horizontal manner with a hand or a finger. If this gesture, which can be referred to as a "swiping gesture", is recognized, the gesture recognition is deactivated. In other words, provision is therefore made for a further input formed by such a swiping gesture to be a command to abort the dialog. As a result, the abort function of the "push-to-talk" button can be replaced with a corresponding gesture with particular advantage.
However, it is expressly pointed out that the invention in no way excludes the function of such a button. It is even advantageous to provide the user with as many parallel interaction possibilities as possible. Provision can therefore be definitely made for the user to be able to both carry out a swiping gesture and effect a voice input ("conclude dialog") and actuate a conventional operating element ("push-to-talk" button) for the purpose of concluding a dialog.
The invention is also formed by a multimodal dialog machine for a vehicle, in particular for a motor vehicle, which is configured to carry out the method steps described above. The invention also comprises a motor vehicle having such a multimodal dialog machine.
A multimodal dialog machine according to the invention can be formed, in particular, by a control device of the vehicle which is set up to capture and process sensor signals and to control output devices. The sensors may be part of the multimodal dialog machine or may be connectable to the latter, wherein such a connection can be provided, for example, by means of a data bus system of the vehicle. The sensors may comprise a microphone for capturing voice inputs and a camera for capturing gestures of the vehicle user. The output devices may comprise a loudspeaker and/or a screen for outputting input requests.
Further embodiments of the invention are explained below on the basis of an exemplary illustration.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


Multi-domain scheduling for subordinate networking is contemplated. The scheduling may include controlling a terminal to facilitate interfacing an Internet Protocol (IP) network with a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) network where the P2MP network includes one or more aggregating devices to facilitate interfacing signaling with devices/units associated with one or more subordinate P2MP networks.

A point-to-multipoint (P2MP) network may be defined as one that relies upon multiple paths communications to facilitate interfacing a single terminal with a plurality of secondary units. A P2MP network may require scheduling and/or dynamic bandwidth allocation capabilities in order to properly regulate the multi-path signaling. When multiple subordinate or cascaded P2MP networks are associated with another, primary P2MP network, the scheduling and/or dynamic bandwidth allocation can become more complex with the additional subordinate P2MP networks increasing the number of secondary units potentially desiring to communicate over the common, primary P2MP network. One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates facilitating scheduling and/or dynamic bandwidth allocation in such an arrangement so as to ameliorate latency and jitter associated with facilitating signaling across the primary and subordinate P2MP networks.