The invention relates to a rolling bearing which provides superior noiselessness and high corrosion resistance and longer life, and is manufactured at a low cost, a material for the rolling bearing, and an instrument including a rotating portion using the rolling bearing. A plurality of rolling elements are provided between an inner ring and an outer ring. At least one of the inner and outer rings and is formed of corrosion resistant bearing steel comprising a specific chemical component. The corrosion resistant bearing steel comprises eutectic carbides having an average value of circle equivalent diameter of 0.2 to 1.6 μm, an average area of 0.03 to 2 μm2, and an area ratio of 2 to 7%. The hardness of the corrision resistant bearing steel is HRC 58 to 62 by JIS. The amount of retained austenite in the corrosion resistant bearing steel is 6 volume % or less.

Conventionally used bearing steels are described below.
Rolling bearings such as ball bearings and roller bearings, which have a contact surface strength in a range of 1000 to 1300 MPa or in a range of 3000 to 4000 Mpa, are formed of high-carbon chromium bearing steel having a high content of carbon or case-hardened steel having a carburized surface. The high-carbon chromium bearing steel contains main components of 1.1% by weight of carbon and 1 to 1.5% by weight of chromium and varies its quenching characteristic according to the content of manganese and molybdenum. This type of steel is quenched at a temperature of 1050 to 1120K, and then tempered at a temperature of 420 to 470K to produce a texture with 7 to 8% by weight of spherical cementites dispersed in martensite. Since the hardness of the tempered steel is as high as HRC 58 to 64 by Japanese Industrial Standard (hereinafter referred to as JIS), clean steel having less flaws and less non-metal inclusions is desirable. At present, the high-carbon chromium bearing steel is typically manufactured utilizing deoxidization by carbon under vacuum degassing process. Further, special melting processes such as electroslag remelting or vacuum arc remelting are combined to reduce non-metal inclusions and to provide fine texture.
The carburized bearing is manufactured by carburizing case-hardened steel, and therefore, has high surface hardness and flexible core portion. The carburized bearing is especially suitable for use as a bearing which is subjected to an impact load.
In case of bearings used under a temperature which is above 390K, the texture of steel tempered at a low temperature is subject to variation, thereby resulting in softening or variation in dimension, and thus, the steel becomes unusable. For this reason, high-carbon high-alloy steels which are tempered at high temperatures, such as M50 (0.8 wt % C—4 wt % Cr—4.3 wt % Mo—1 wt % V) or T1 (0.7 wt % C—4 wt % Cr—18 wt % W—1 wt % V) are used.
However, the conventional bearing steels suffer from drawbacks as described below.
The case-hardened steel is difficult to reduce oxygen content in terms of melting and refining in contrast to the high-carbon chromium bearing steel and tends to generate oxide-based non-metal inclusions, which may reduce rolling contact life.
In addition, the high-carbon high-alloy steel tends to generate large-sized carbides, which may also reduce rolling contact life of the bearing.
On the other hand, the high-carbon chromium bearing steel does not have such drawbacks and can obtain high processing precision. Therefore, the high-carbon chromium bearing steel is suitable for use as the rotating portion of the precision instrument which particularly requires noiselessness during rotation. However, the high-carbon chromium bearing steel tends to rust and needs to be coated with rust-proof oil on an outer surface thereof. The rust-proof oil may be gasified and cause a malfunction of the precision instrument.
Accordingly, martensite based stainless steel corresponding to SUS440C steel by JIS with high corrosion resistance and high wear resistance is used for the bearings used in corrosive atmosphere. However, this stainless steel contains eutectic carbides resulting from an eutectic reaction when molten steel is solidified or non-metal inclusions such as alumina resulting from a chemical reaction of impurities of a material in the molten steel. When this stainless steel product is cut, high-precision cutting action cannot be achieved due to a difference in cutting state (machinability) of texture between the eutectic carbides or the non-metal inclusions and the stainless steel product. In particular, since rolling contact grooves formed on inner and outer rings cannot be processed with high precision, the rolling bearing vibrates and generates a high level of noise during rotation. Therefore, this stainless steel product cannot be used for the rotating portion of the precision instrument.
Accordingly, there has been proposed a rolling bearing which can improve noiselessness, and provides high wear resistance and high corrosion resistance (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei 6-117439 and Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 5-2734.
The Publication No. Hei 6-117439 discloses a ball bearing comprising a plurality of balls made of high-carbon chromium bearing steel interposed between inner and outer rings, at least one of the inner and outer rings being formed of martensite based stainless steel having hardness of HRC 58 or higher by JIS and comprising eutectic carbides having a diameter of 10 μm or less.
The Publication No. Hei 5-2734 discloses a rolling bearing formed of stainless steel comprising a plurality of rolling elements interposed between inner and outer rings, the stainless steel comprising carbon of 0.6 to 0.75 wt %, silicon of 0.1 to 0.8 wt %, manganese of 0.3 to 0.8 wt %, chromium of 10.5 to 13.5 wt %, iron as remaining component, and impurities inevitably incorporated thereinto, and containing eutectic carbide with a long diameter of 20 μm or less and an area ratio of 10% or less.
When large-sized eutectic carbides appear on the surface of the bearing, a proper finished surface is difficult to form, due to the difference in cutting state between these carbides and a matrix around the carbides, and a noise may be generated during rotation, as described above. In addition, since the large-sized eutectic carbides generate a difference in wear resistance between the carbides and the matrix around the carbides during use of the bearing, they drop from a cracked surface, which causes a deformation of the surface shape of the bearing and significantly degrades noiselessness. It is therefore desirable to minimize the size of the carbides, because they are less likely to appear on the surface of the bearing. So, reducing the diameter of the carbide to 20 μm or less or 10 μm or less as disclosed in the above publications is effective in lowering the level of noise. Nonetheless, a satisfactory noiselessness cannot be obtained merely by reducing the size of the carbides. In addition, additional processes in manufacturing technique are required to thus reduce the size of the carbides. This greatly increases a manufacturing cost and is therefore unpractical.
The present invention has been developed in view of the above described problems accompanied by the prior arts, and an object thereof is to provide a rolling bearing which can improve noiselessness, and provide high corrosion resistance and longer life (corresponding to high wear resistance) and can be manufactured at a low cost, a material for the rolling bearing, and an instrument including a rotating portion using the rolling bearing.

Rolling bearing, material for rolling bearing, and equipment having rotating part using the rolling bearing


The flexible storage bag includes overlaying first and second sidewalls defining an internal volume that can be accessed from an open top edge. To evacuate air from the internal volume after the open top edge has been closed, the bag includes a one-way valve element attached to the first sidewall and communicating with the internal volume. To prevent the one-way valve element from becoming clogged by the opposing second sidewall, the bag also includes a clearance member that maintains at least a partial clearance between the first and second sidewalls proximate the valve element. The clearance member can take many forms such as a textured portion on the second sidewall that includes evacuation passages which provide air in the internal volume access to the valve element, a permeable element covering the valve element, and a rigid or compressible structure that spaces the second sidewall from the valve element.

Flexible plastic bags are widely used for a variety of purposes such as storing food items, either temporarily as in the case of packaging snacks or long term as in the case of freezer storage. Plastic bags of this style typically include flexible sidewalls made from, for example, polyethylene, that define an opening and an internal volume accessible through the opening. To seal the bag, interlocking closure strips may be provided about the rim of the opening.
One common problem which occurs with such bags is that, after the opening has been sealed, latent air may remain trapped in the internal volume. In addition to undesirably increasing the overall size of the sealed bag, the trapped air can cause spoilation of food items stored in the internal volume. Therefore, to remedy this problem, it is known to provide a one-way valve element attached to a flexible sidewall and communicating with the internal volume. The one-way valve element allows for the evacuation of the trapped air from the internal volume while also preventing the ingress of air from the surrounding environment into the internal volume. The one-way valve element may be activated in various ways such as, for example, by applying compressive pressure to the flexible sidewalls to force air from the internal volume or by engaging a nozzle of a vacuum source to the one-way valve element to draw air from the internal volume. An example of a one-way valve element that operates in conjunction with a vacuum source is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,641, issued to Skeens et al. and assigned to Illinois Tool Works Inc.
A problem that may arise with such bags that include one-way valve elements is that the flexible sidewall opposing the valve element and the sidewall to which the valve element is attached can actually clog the valve element preventing further evacuation. For example, it will be appreciated that placing the opposing sidewall against a solid surface and pressing the sidewall with the attached valve element toward the surface evacuates the internal volume by collapsing the sidewalls together. This also necessarily brings the opposing sidewall into contact with the valve element which can result in clogging. Likewise, where a vacuum source is used to evacuate the flexible bag, the opposing sidewall may be drawn under vacuum pressure into the valve element. A related problem is that collapsing the opposing sidewalls themselves together may trap air in other portions of the internal volume. These and other problems are remedied by the invention described herein.


One embodiment in accordance with the invention is a system that can include a first wafer and a second wafer. The first wafer and the second wafer can be bonded together by a wafer bonding process that forms a gap between the first wafer and the second wafer. The gap can be configured for receiving a heat extracting material.

As conventional high performance integrated circuit chips are fabricated smaller and smaller, the reduced form factor can result in an increase of power density within these smaller devices. As such, a high-performance integrated circuit chip can generate large amounts of heat which can negatively affect the operation and performance of the device.
Many conventional solutions have been developed to aid heat extraction from a high-performance integrated circuit chip. For example, heat sinks and fans have been attached directly to the integrated circuit chips. However, the heat sinks and fans may need to be large to provide effective cooling and may be incompatible with mobile computing solutions. Another conventional solution is to couple thermoelectric coolers to the integrated circuit chip, but this solution can be expensive. Yet another conventional solution involves fluid cooling schemes, but typically such schemes are not effective enough to extract the required amount of generated heat.
Therefore, it is desirable to address one or more of the above issues.

Chip cooling channels formed in wafer bonding gap

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A back-flushable filter cartridge includes a cylindrical exterior fluid-permeable filter media cage, a cylindrical interior fluid-permeable core element coaxially disposed within the filter media cage so as to establish therebetween an interior space, and longitudinally pleated filter media surrounding the core element and disposed in the interior space such that individual pleats thereof extend substantially radially outwardly from the core element. An annular space is established between outer longitudinal folds of the pleated filter media and the filter media cage. The pleated filter media is radially expandable into the established annular space to allow individual adjacent pleats of the pleated filter media to circumferentially separate from one another in response to fluid flowing in a radial direction from the core element toward the filter media cage.

Disposable filter cartridges having longitudinally pleated filtration media are well known. In this regard, disposable filter cartridges are conventionally provided with an external cylindrical cage and a central core element coaxially positioned within the cage so as to define an interior cylindrical annulus which is completely occupied by the pleated filter media. Please see generally in this regard, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,145,827 to Ashelin et al, and 4,154,688 to Pall (the entire content of each being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference). The cage and the core element are provided with openings, apertures and the like so as to allow fluid to flow normally in a radial direction through the external cage, pleated filter media and core element in that order. The filtered fluid may then be discharged axially from the filter cartridge through a coaxially disposed discharge opening in one of the filter cartridge's end caps.
In some industrial environments, it may be desirable to reverse the normal flow of the fluid through the filter cartridge so as to dislodge and remove accumulated particulates on the surface of the pleated filter media so that the filter cartridge substantially (if not completely) regains its initial filtration capabilities and/or so that fresh particulates may be precoated onto the filter media's surface. For example, in some industries (e.g., the power generation industry), filtration cartridges having filter media precoated with ion exchange particles are sometimes used. Thus, it would be desirable if exhausted ion exchange particles could be removed from the filter media via back-flushing so that fresh ion exchange particles could then be recoated onto the filter media's surface. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is directed to a back-flushable disposable filter cartridge. More particularly, the present invention is embodied in a filter cartridge whereby a generally cylindrical, longitudinally pleated, filter media is positioned within the external filter media cage such that an annular space is defined therebetween. The annular space also serves to prevent blockage of particulates from occurring (e.g., ion-exchange particles) when coated on the filter media's surface. That is, the annular space serves as a free passageway for the particulates which is especially important when ion exchange resin particles and/or other particulate species are precoated onto the filter media. That is, the annular space allows such precoat particulates to move between the outer support cage and the pleated filter media surface such that the resin can form a uniform coating of resin over the media surface. Without the annular space, the particulates will preferentially coat the areas of the filter media exposed directly adjacent to the open void spaces of the solid outer protective cage. The areas under the solid portion of the outer protective cage will thus be coated nonuniformly. The particulates will also have the tendency in the absence of the annular space to cover the solid (non-apertured) portions of the outer support cage structure thereby resulting in nonuniform coverage. Less than optimum flow channels will result and inefficient use of the precoat particulates will occur.
In addition to the above advantages, the annular space allows the pleated media to radially expand thereby assisting in the release and removal of trapped particulates from the filter media's surface. This feature is especially important to allow the filter cartridge to be regenerated in situ with precoat particulates--that is, so that spent precoat particulates may be expelled from the filter media and again coated with fresh precoat particulates.
These and other aspects of the invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof which follow.

Back-flushable filter cartridge and method of back-flushing same

USF Filtration & Separations Group, Inc.


A method includes calculating a center-of-mass of a volume of an organ of a patient in a computerized anatomical map of the volume. A location is found on the anatomical map, on a surface of the volume, that is farthest from the center-of-mass. The location is identified as a known anatomical opening of the organ.

Some clinical procedures employ techniques for obtaining an anatomical map of an organ such as a cardiac chamber. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0085042 describes a method for imaging, which includes receiving a first three-dimensional (3D) image of a vicinity of an organ within a body of a subject and creating a geometrical model of a tubular structure in the first 3D image in the vicinity of the organ. An invasive probe is inserted into the organ, and a second 3D image containing the organ is captured using the invasive probe. One or more points are located on a surface of the tubular structure using the invasive probe, and the second 3D image is registered with the first 3D image by matching the one or more points to the geometrical model.
As another example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0172724 describes an intracardiac imaging system that is configured to display electrode visualization elements within an intracardiac echocardiography image. The system further allows cross sections of tissue structures embodied in intracardiac echocardiography images to be modeled within a visualization, navigation, or mapping system when automatically segmented to generate shell elements for modifying the modeled tissue structures.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0276225 describes methods for generating a three-dimensional visualization image of an object, such as an internal organ, using volume visualization techniques. The techniques include a multi-scan imaging method; a multi-resolution imaging method; and a method for generating a skeleton of a complex three-dimensional object. The applications include virtual cystoscopy, virtual laryngoscopy, virtual angiography, among others.

Post-mapping automatic identification of pulmonary veins


A computer-implemented method of font identification includes receiving a first document, the first document including the first text set in a proportional font. Test text, corresponding to the first text of the first document, is received. The test text is set in a test font. A first fingerprint is generated, based on relative line widths of the first text of the first document. A second fingerprint is generated based on relative line widths of the test text, as set in the test font. The test font is then accepted as being consistent with a font of the first text, based on a predetermined strength of relationship between the first and second fingerprints.

Determining a font applied to glyphs in a document has to date generally has been performed by examining properties of individual glyphs of a candidate font, and then comparing these individual glyphs to glyphs that may be discerned in the document. However, with poor reproductions of a document, the original glyphs in the document may be too distorted to provide convenient or reliable identification.
The identification of a font in which glyphs within a particular document have been set may be important when attempting to assess whether a particular document is authentic, or is a forgery. Further, where font identification is required for a large number of documents, the processing of a large volume of documents presents a number of technical challenges. For example, the above described method of examining the properties of individual glyphs of a candidate font, and then comparing them to glyphs seen in the document, can be a particularly time consuming operation and may also require an analyst to spend a number of hours studying a particular document.


A method and system for acquiring a quiesceing set of information associated with a virtual machine. A virtual machine is cloned. The cloned virtual machine has an associated persistent storage device. The state of the persistent storage device is transformed into a quiesced state of the cloned virtual machine by utilizing a shut-down process. The shut-down process is executed on the cloned virtual machine to quiesce the cloned virtual machine and the quiesceing set of information of the cloned virtual machine is automatically reduced to information stored on the persistent storage device.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for acquiring a quiesceing set of information associated with a virtual machine.
2. Background Art
Frequently, computers are dedicated to individuals or to specific applications. For example, an individual owns or is assigned his or her own personal computer (PC). Each time a business hires an employee whose job entails access to a computer, a new PC would be purchased and installed for that new hire. In other cases, a PC or server may be used to perform a specific task. For example, a corporation could have a server for hosting the company's web site, another server for handling emails, and yet another server for handling financial transactions. This one-to-one correlation was simple, straightforward, flexible, and readily upgradeable. However, one drawback to this set-up is that it is inefficient from a computer resource perspective.
The inefficiency stems from the fact that most software applications do not fully utilize the full processing potential of the computer upon which that software is installed. The processing power of a computer is largely defined by its interconnected hardware components. However, when creating software, programmers do not know the specific hardware capabilities of the computers upon which their software is to be ultimately installed upon. Consequently, programmers tends to be conservative when creating software in order to ensure that software can run on the vast majority of conventional, contemporary PCs or servers. As a result, software applications do not push the envelope set by hardware constraints. Furthermore, some applications may consume a great deal of processing power, while other computer applications are inherently less computing intensive. When the PC or server is running less computationally intensive applications, much of its hardware resources are underutilized. Furthermore, given hundreds or thousands of computers networked in an enterprise, the cumulative effect of the amount of wasted computing resources adds up.
In an effort to take advantage of all the underutilized computing resources, there have been efforts to design "virtual" machines. The concept of virtualization broadly describes the separation of a resource (e.g., computing resource) and/or request for a service from the underlying physical delivery of that service. In one example, with regards to virtual memory, computer software gains access to more memory than is physically installed, via the background swapping of data to disk storage. Similarly, virtualization techniques is applied to other IT infrastructure layers such as networks, storage, laptop hardware, server hardware, operating systems, and/or applications.
Through virtualization, the virtual infrastructure provides a layer of abstraction between computing, storage, networking hardware, and the applications running on it and enables a more efficient utilization of computing resources. In general, before virtualization, a single computer is associated with a single operating system image. The machine's hardware and software is tightly coupled and running multiple applications on the same machine can create conflict. Moreover, the machine is often underutilized and inflexible, which all leads to an inefficient use of computing resources. In contrast, with virtualization, operating system and applications are no longer tightly coupled to a particular set of hardware. Advantageously, the virtualized infrastructure allows IT administrators to manage pooled resources across an enterprise, creating a more responsive and dynamic environment.
Basically, a virtual machine entails loading a piece of software onto a physical "host" computer so that more than one virtual machine or more than one instance of an operating system can utilize the resources of that host computer. In other words, the virtual software package is loaded onto one or more physical host computers so that the processing resources of the host computers can be shared amongst many different virtual machines or more than one instance of an operating system. By sharing computing resources, virtual machines make more efficient use of existing computers. Moreover, in one example, each instance of an operating system accesses the host computer through its own virtual machine. From the viewpoint of the operating system, it appears as if it is operating off its own computer. Also, users can continue to operate in a manner that they had grown accustomed to in interacting with computers. Thus, rather than buying, installing, and maintaining new computers, companies can simply load virtual machine software to get more leverage off their existing computers. Furthermore, virtual machines do not entail any special training because they run transparently to the user. In addition, virtual machine technology makes it possible to run multiple instances of different operating systems concurrently on the same host or a group of hosts.
However, there is one drawback in exploiting virtual machines to their full potential. Because virtual machines are designed to maximize the most efficient use of the computing resources, there are typically not very much spare computing resources left over. Any spare computing resources are often used to host another virtual machine for another user. It is this very economic efficiency which poses serious issues with certain types of applications. Some applications are run infrequently, but when they do execute, these applications are extremely computing intensive.
For example, backup applications are often used to backup a company's data. The data is backed up periodically and stored in backup files so that if there happens to be a computer crash or failure, important data is not irretrievably lost. Frequently, in order to backup a virtual machine, a consistent subset of the entire running state of the virtual machine is needed. This subset of the state information is referred to as a quiesceing set.
Conventionally, a quiesceing set of state information associated with a virtual machine is obtained by executing a backup application program that quiesces the virtual machine. The quiesceing set of state information, or quiesced state, is then copied and saved. Frequently, the quiesced state used for backup includes primarily data stored in a persistent storage device (e.g. a disk drive). Also, additional data (e.g., caches and application-specific dump functions) may be obtained from a volatile memory. The quiesced state, in the event of a system crash, can be utilized to reconstruct the original state of the virtual machine.
Aside from being utilized to backup virtual machines, a quiesced state can be utilized for a variety of other purposes as well. In one example, a quiesceing set of information can be used for testing an application program. In another example, a quiesceing set of information can be utilized to monitor an application program or a device. Still, in another example, a quiesceing set of information can be used for simulations.
However, acquirement of the quiesced state without appreciably impacting the virtual machine can be difficult. As mentioned, because virtual machines are highly efficient at utilizing computing resources, execution of a backup application can draw on a much larger amount of resources than usual and cause a resource utilization spike that negatively affects the performance of the virtual machine. Specifically, in one example, the execution of a backup application can consume a great deal of computing resources in terms of input/output (I/O) and processing bandwidth. In addition, under conventional approaches, each application may require its own quiesceing module, which adds to the overall computing resource drain. Furthermore, having a quiescing module for each application may also cause administrative overhead for a system administrator as different application specific modules may have to be deployed in different virtual machines.
In the past, when dedicated computers had a thick cushion of unused computing resources, these periodic computer resource intensive applications (e.g., backup application, data mining application, and/or virus scanning application) could execute in the background without disrupting or affecting the user's normal operation. However, with virtual machines, there are typically no spare computing resources to fall back on. Thus, virtual machine users, such as IT administrators, are faced with a dilemma. They could run the periodic applications and have the virtual machines suffer a performance hit. However, this is problematic when dealing with mission critical applications. For example, one would not want to impact the server handling a company's sales orders, even though backing up the sales information is vital. Alternatively, IT administrators could choose to use dedicated computers, but this is wasteful of computing resources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for acquiring a quiesceing set of information associated with a virtual machine


A method and electronic device are disclosed for performing a particular function in a call mode in response to inputs received from a rotating part of a camera. The electronic device includes a wireless communication unit for a call, and a camera having a rotating part. A rotation of the rotating part is recognized while the electronic device operates in a call mode, and, in response to the rotation, a predefined particular function is executed.

Nowadays a portable electronic device such as a smart phone can perform a great variety of functions such as a call, a camera, a chat function, internet access, and the like. For example, a portable electronic device can display various shortcut icons and perform a particular function in response to a user input associated with one of the displayed icons. A user who is using a portable electronic device in a call mode may often desire to perform such a particular function without leaving a call mode.

Method for performing function in call mode and portable electronic device for implementing the method


A golf club metal wood head comprising a shell having a ball striking front face, a top wall, a bottom wall, and rear wall, and toe and heel walls, the combination comprising multiple ports in the bottom wall, the ports opening to the bottom wall exterior, and multiple inserts of different weight received into the ports from the exterior and connected to the bottom wall, the inserts having weights selected for golf club balance and swing adjustment.

This invention relates generally to the making of golf club heads; and more particularly to making heads that consist of a lightweight metal shell surrounding a relatively heavy core.
Effective die design and a well-defined process capability will combine to produce quality die castings. Proper attention to die casting process control will result in consistently high quality irons. But one-body die cast metal woods are not successfully manufactured yet, since metal woods require a large interior hollow.
It is found that a sand core cannot maintain its volume and shape under high temperature and pressure during molten metal die casting. If a sand core is made to maintain its volume and shape during die casting, it can not be removed or cleaned up from the inside of a one-body cast metal wood. The difficulty of one-body die casting of metal woods consists in how to make an effective core which is tough enough against high pressure and temperature in die casting and is yet also easily removed or cleaned up in post casting operations.


A gaming system including a plurality of gaming devices and a shared or a common secondary display associated with the gaming devices. In one embodiment, the shared display is adjacent to one or more of the gaming devices of the gaming system. The gaming system includes at least one primary game and at least one secondary or bonus game. The bonus game is associated with a plurality of average expected payouts or values. In one embodiment, the bonus game that is played on the secondary display is associated with a higher average expected payout or higher values than the average expected payouts or values of the bonus game played on the individual gaming devices. When the player places a designated wager, they qualify to play the game on the secondary display and thus qualify for a chance to win the higher awards.

Gaming devices provide enjoyment and excitement to players, in part, because they may ultimately lead to monetary awards for the players. Gaming devices also provide enjoyment and excitement to the players because they are fun to play. Bonus games, in particular, provide gaming device manufacturers with the opportunity to add enjoyment and excitement to that which is already expected from a base game of the gaming device. Bonus games provide extra awards to the player and usually enable the player to play a game that is different than the base game.
Gaming devices are typically games of luck, not skill, in most jurisdictions. Primary games are set up to pay back a certain percentage of the amount of money wagered on in the base or primary game of gaming machine. The average payout percentage in most primary games is set high enough that any player who plays a few hands or spins of the reels wins. That is, in most primary games it is not too difficult to experience some level of success.
Secondary games or bonus games are typically set up for the player to succeed. The player usually wins an award in a bonus game. In bonus game play, the goal is often to maximize the possible award. Winning, at least on some level, is therefore a standard component in gaming devices.
A continuing need exists to provide gaming devices that issue awards in an exciting and enjoyable manner. It is desirable to provide new and different gaming machines.

Gaming system having a common display, a first bonus game or a first bonus game paytable and an option to purchase a second bonus game or a second bonus game paytable with relatively expected higher values


A system and method are provided that allow multiple crops to be defined for a single digital image without altering the digital image. Rather than actually cropping the digital image where a portion of the digital image is lost, the present invention generates and stores cropping information defining a desired area of the digital image for each of the crops. The cropping information is stored in metadata associated with the digital image or in an associated application file.

Digital cameras have become prolific in today's world. Digital cameras allow a user to take tens or hundreds of pictures and then transfer the digital pictures from the camera to the user's computer, a printer, a photoediting and printing kiosk, or the like. The digital pictures can then be printed, e-mailed to family and friends, shared with family and friends using photosharing software such as QURIO® peer-to-peer photosharing software, and/or printed onto various products such as mugs, mouse pads, t-shirts, posters, and the like. QURIO® peer-to-peer photosharing software is produced by Qurio Holdings, Inc., 20 Depot Street, Suite 2A, Petersborough, N.H. 03458. In addition, the user may perform various photoediting steps such as red-eye reduction and cropping using photoediting software.
There are two basic problems associated with cropping digital images using traditional photoediting software. One of these problems is that the portion of the digital picture that is removed by cropping is discarded. In order to prevent the portion of the digital picture from being lost, a user must save both the original image and the cropped image. As a result, the user saves multiple versions of the same image, thereby wasting disk space. The second problem is that if the user desires to perform further photoediting tasks such as red-eye reduction or adjusting the contrast of the digital picture after cropping a digital image, the user must edit both the original digital image and any cropped versions of the digital image if consistency is desired.
These problems exist in any type of photoediting software environment ranging from photoediting software on a user's personal computer to photosharing software enabling multiple users to share and edit digital images. One such software environment is the QURIO® photosharing software, wherein a user may desire to order prints of various sizes of a single digital image and/or order numerous different products having the digital image or some portion thereof printed thereon. For example, the different products may each require different crop areas. More specifically, a mouse pad may have a square crop area while a mug may have a rectangular crop area. Similarly, each standard print size, such as 8 inches×10 inches, 5 inches×7 inches, and 4 inches×6 inches, has a different crop area. In order to allow the user to know exactly what portion of the digital image will appear on the product, the user must crop the digital image for each product, thereby creating multiple versions of the digital image and wasting valuable disk space. In addition, any additional photoediting tasks, such as red-eye reduction, must be performed on each of the multiple versions of the digital image.
Thus, there remains a need for a method of performing multiple crops on a digital picture without altering the digital picture such that only one image needs to be saved and any additional photoediting tasks need only to be performed on a single image.

Identifying, generating, and storing cropping information for multiple crops of a digital image


An automate card package mailer for preparing card packages (60) composed of one or more cards(50) attached to matching carrier forms (33) for mailing has a carrier folding apparatus that is programmable to fold the carriers into different configurations including Z-fold, C-fold, bi-fold and no-fold, has a controller (42) that controls the movement of carriers by different amounts relative to a first folding arm to achieve different first folds, folds the carriers by pushing the fold location on the surface of the carriers into the nib of a first pair of folding pinch rollers with a first pivotally mounted folding arm after guiding the carrier with a slanted guide and an arcuate guide to the desired position beneath the folding arm, makes a second fold with a second pivotally mounted arm that pushes another fold location on a carrier into the nib of a second pair of rotating pinch rollers while a holding member holds a folded section upright in a well. When only one fold is desired the second guide member is moved to and kept at bridging location to guide the folded edge of a carrier to the second pair of folding pinch rollers. When a no-fold configuration is desired, the first folding arm is moved to an upper guide position to help guide the carrier through the first pair of pinch rollers and the second folding arm is moved to and kept in the bridging location to pass the unfolded carrier over the well and to the second pair of folding rollers without folding. Cards are attached to the carriers before folding by dropping them onto a carrier and a support to keep an adhesive pad space from the carrier and then pushing them into the nib of a pair of rollers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to card package production and mailing systems and methods to automatically produce card packages composed of cards, such as credit cards, attached to matching carrier forms for mailing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Card package production systems that produce card packages comprised of cards, such as plastic credit or debit cards, to matching paper carriers that bear printed information including the card owner's name and address in a location for viewing through a window envelope into which the carrier packages may be ultimately inserted, or "stuffed", for mailing to the owner.
Examples of such card package production systems in which the cards are mechanically attached to the carriers are shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/081,312, filed May 19, 1998, of Bretl et al. and entitled "Card Package Production System with a Multireader Card Track and Method", and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,544 issued Feb. 27, 1996 to Hill et al. and entitled "Automatic Verified Embossed Card Package Production Methods"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,395 issued Jul. 30, 1996 to Hill et al. and entitled "Card Package Production System with Burster and Code Reader"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,815 issued Feb. 14, 1995 to Hill et al. and entitled, "Embossed Card Package Production System with Modular Inserters for Multiple Forms"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,886 issued Apr. 23, 1996 to Hill et al. for "Card Package Production System with Modular Carrier Folding Apparatus for Multiple Forms"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,364 issued Jul. 18, 1995 to Hill et al. for "Card Package Production System with Burster and Carrier Verification Apparatus", all assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and all of which together with the references cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference.
In the card package production systems, or card mailers of patent applications noted above of which this application is a continuation-in-part, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. In those related applications, a mailer is shown in which cards are attached to carrier forms that are then folded twice in what is know as a Z-fold in which the card is attached to a center section with one of two end sections folded over the side of the center section holding the card and the other of the two end sections folded over the side of the center section located opposite the card.
While this known mechanism for performing the folding of the carrier forms operates well for making Z-folds it lacked the flexibility needed in the modern card industry in which some card issuers prefer to have the carriers folded in so-called C-fold, or Bi-fold configuration or to not have the carrier form folded at all.

Card mailer system and method of preparing card packages for mailing


A process for removing parts-per-million quantities of unwanted species such as oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and water from a cryogenically produced nitrogen gas stream using an oxygen removal step prior to a nickel-based catalytic adsorption step in order to eliminate the need for hydrogen regeneration in either step. Ultrapure nitrogen heated to less than 500.degree. C. is used to purge and hold the beds used for unwanted species removal, eliminating the need for hydrogen regeneration thus reducing the regeneration cycle time and cost.

The present invention pertains to removing trace impurities from cryogenically produced nitrogen by adsorption in beds that can be regenerated without using hydrogen or other reducing gases.
Ultra-high purity (UHP) nitrogen (99.9999% by volume nitrogen) gas is used as an inerting medium during the various processing steps involved in the manufacture of semi-conductor devices, and in particular advanced semi-conductor devices with very small feature sizes, high device density and larger chip sizes. Large semi-conductor fabrication houses (FABS) can require in excess of one hundred thousand standard cubic feet per hour (SCFH) of UHP nitrogen. The UHP nitrogen is produced by separating the nitrogen from atmospheric air using well-known cryogenic technology. The cryogenically separated nitrogen is then further treated to remove trace quantities of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and oxygen. Traces of carbon dioxide and water will also be removed if they are present in the feed stream. Several of the well-known techniques for removing these unwanted species (i.e. hydrogen, carbon monoxide, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water) from cryogenically produced nitrogen gas are discussed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,883 which is incorporated herein by reference.
The '883 patent discloses a three-step purification method for bulk nitrogen. In the first step a copper-based catalyst, in reduced form, is used to remove oxygen by promoting the reaction of oxygen with carbon monoxide and hydrogen to form carbon dioxide and water vapor. The copper-catalyst is maintained in a continuously reduced state by the presence of excess reducing gas in the impurities in the inert gas. In a second step a copper oxide containing bed is used to promote the conversion of residual amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to carbon dioxide and water by reaction with the oxygen component of the copper oxide catalyst. The third step employs a conventional molecular sieve bed to remove carbon dioxide and water. The three step process, according to patentees, requires no additional hydrogen to regenerate the reduced copper catalyst in the first step. However, the second step requires periodic regeneration with an oxygen containing stream.
One of the most effective methods for removing unwanted species is effected by passing the cryogenically generated nitrogen gas through a bed of nickel-based catalytic adsorbent such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,324. The known adsorbents can remove parts-per-million by volume (ppm) levels of oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and water from the cryogenically produced nitrogen to levels that are below part-per-billion by volume (ppb). The capability of the adsorbent decreases with time-on-stream or time-in-use. In order to return the nickel-based catalytic adsorbent to its most productive state the adsorbent must be periodically regenerated. In order to do this it is conventional to use hydrogen diluted with nitrogen to reactivate the adsorbent when the capacity of the adsorbent to remove unwanted species has reached a predetermined maximum cycle time. After the hydrogen reduction step, which removes the unwanted species adsorbed onto the catalytic adsorbent, a purge step is necessary to remove the residual hydrogen from the adsorbent bed. Utilizing hydrogen reduction followed by purging creates an inefficiency in production of UHP nitrogen because of the time required to purge the bed of residual hydrogen. In addition, the cost of operating such regeneration schemes on a continuing basis are significant. This problem has been somewhat ameliorated by the method disclosed in our co-pending application referred to below. However, elimination of a hydrogen purge altogether would be most welcomed in the process of producing UHP nitrogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,302 discloses an adsorbent for removing trace quantities of oxygen from inert gases, e.g. nitrogen, by use of a porous reducing support such as activated carbon, carbon black, coal, petroleum coke and titania impregnated with an alkali metal oxide or an alkaline earth metal oxide formed in-situ.
In our co-pending application Ser. No. 08/728,118 filed Oct. 10, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,852 we have disclosed a method of regenerating a nickel-based catalytic adsorbent bed which is used to remove parts-per-million (ppm) quantities of unwanted species from cryogenically produced nitrogen wherein the number of hydrogen regeneration steps for the bed can be reduced, but not eliminated.

Bulk nitrogen purification process that requires no hydrogen in the regeneration


A method for making a molded composite article includes the steps of: providing a sleeve body on a pressing portion of a male mold body, the sleeve body being made of a heat-expansible material and having a primary engaging segment and an abutting segment; disposing a composite laminate material on a female mold body; moving the male mold body provided with the sleeve body toward the female mold body while the male mold body and the female mold body are heated; continuing to move the male mold body so that the pressing portion extends into the abutting segment and presses the composite laminate material to form the molded composite article; and separating the male mold body from the female mold body and removing the molded composite article.

With the development of various electronic communication products, the production of the housing for the electronic communication products is now the focus of much attention. Composite materials added with various fibers, such as glass fibers, carbon fibers, or the like, have been used as materials for the housings of the electronic communication products in view of their good performances in weight, mechanical strength, plasticity, moisture resistance, and corrosion resistance.
Referring to FIG. 1, Taiwanese Patent No. I327959 discloses a method for manufacturing a case 1 with woven fiber texture by thermal compression. A plurality of woven fabrics 11 impregnated with thermosetting resin are laminated to form a laminate having a predetermined thickness. The laminate is cut into predetermined shape and size. A mold used in the method includes a female mold part 21 formed with a mold cavity 211 and a male mold part 22 formed with a protruding block 221. The cut laminate is disposed between the female mold part 21 and the male mold part 22. When the female mold part 21 and the male mold part 22 are pressed toward each other, the case 1 having a plurality of lead angles 111 is obtained.
In the aforesaid method, a large amount of resistance may be produced when the protruding block 221 is pressed toward the mold cavity 211 during the thermal compression. The laminate of woven fabrics 11 may not be pressed completely against the female mold part 21, and the case 1 thus formed may have crimp defects as shown in FIG. 2.
Although the aforesaid defect may be alleviated by increasing size of the protruding block 221, the male and female mold parts 22, 21 may not be separated from each other easily when the case 1 formed by the thermal compression is intended to be removed from the mold.
Referring to FIG. 3, Taiwanese Publication No. 375568 discloses a method for making a housing for an electrical device capable of preventing electromagnetic interference. In the method, a plastic plate 4 is compression molded using a mold 3. The mold 3 has a molding space 31 and two vent lines 32 gas-communicated with the molding space 31. The plastic plate 4 is placed in the mold 3 between the vent lines 32. Different gas pressures are applied from the vent lines 32. The plastic plate 4 is thus pressed in the directions shown by arrows due to the pressure difference between the gas pressures applied by the vent lines 32 to abut against a bottom inner surface of the mold 3 to obtain the housing formed with lead angles 41.
However, the pressure difference between the gas pressures applied from the vent lines 32 is not easily controlled. The lead angles 41 of the housing thus formed are still unsatisfactory. Additionally, the thickness of the housing thus formed may be not even.

Method for making a molded composite article

ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL MULTITECH CO., LTD.


Compositions for pain relieving non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or medicaments such as ibuprofen, methotrexate, capsaicin, diphenhydramine, aspirin, methylnicotinate and other medicaments largely soluble in oil, alcohol, and/or water, are produced for transdermal delivery. The composition is manufactured by admixing an appropriate amount of oil surfactant with an appropriate amount of pharmaceutically approved co-solubilizer alcohol to establish a non aqueous phase. The oil surfactant may be a polyethoxylated oil such as castor oil. The co-solubilizer may be isopropyl alcohol or virtually any other alcohols except for methanol. Thereafter, an appropriate amount of distilled water is slowly added to the homogeneous or non-aqueous phase to further reduce viscosity. The final admixture is a clear, oil-continuous solution having a viscosity no greater than 850 centistokes as measured by the VST Hoppler method at 25 degrees Celsius. The composition produced has the capacity to affect the individual surface skin cells (corneocytes) and allow the passage of medicaments to sub-dermal afflicted areas deep within the skin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition, and method of manufacture thereof, for transdermal delivery of pain relieving substances directly to afflicted areas of the body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Debilitating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis afflict 37 million people in the United States. The Arthritis Foundation estimates that 10% of the population of the world and 25% of the population of the United States suffer from arthritis to some degree. Fourteen million work days are lost each year in the United States by arthritis victims.
Arthritis is a disease symptomized by painful joints stemming from inflammation in the joint region. Arthritis attacks young, middle-aged and old people alike. Due to the severity of this disease a number of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been developed for the treatment of generalized muscle and joint aches, and for the pain of arthritis, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), ibuprofen (2(-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid), methotrexate (N-[4-[(2,4 diamino - 6 - pteridinyl)- methyl] methylamino] benzoyl) - L- glutamic acid), capsaicin (8 methyl - vanillyl - nonenamide) and diphenhydramine (2 - (diphenyl - methoxy) - N,N - dimethylethylamine hydrochloride) are only a few of the medicaments that are available in prescription and over the counter formulations for the alleviation of pain.
Unfortunately these medicaments have major side effects caused by the systemic (typically by oral injestion) administration. For instance, an example of the side effects of ibuprofen when administered in recommended therapeutic doses (e.g. 1000-2400 mg.qd) are esophagitis, nausea, epigastric pain, heartburn, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, bloating and flatulence, dizziness, headache, nervousness, dermatologic rash, blurred or diminished vision, edema, fluid retention, elevated blood pressure, palpitations, gastric or duodenal ulcer, hepatitis, jaundice, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, melena, gastritis, abnormal liver function, kidney damage, kidney failure, acute renal failure, and congestive heart failure in patients with marginal cardial function. The Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) lists these possible side effects and many more when taking ibuprofen, for example, systemically for the relief of pain.
In addition to these side effects when ibuprofen is administered systemically, only a small amount of the ingested drug is delivered to the specific pain area. An example would be if pain and inflammation exists in the front of the knee, and 1000 mg. of ibuprofen is taken orally. Only a small fraction of the ibuprofen actually reaches the pain area. Also, there is a considerable time lapse between injection and the relief of the pain. Clinical studies have shown that following the ingestion of ibuprofen, as much as 79% of the ingested dose is filtered out by the kidneys and is recovered in the urine within 24 hours. This leaves an average of only 21% of the recommended dose of ibuprofen available for systemic distribution throughout the body. Also, the amount of time for relief of pain with systemic application of the drug is between 45 minutes and 120 minutes.

System for transdermal delivery of pain relieving substances


A connection structure for a resin pipe, in which leakage of fluid from between a metal pipe and the resin pipe fitted on the metal pipe is prevented for a long time. In the connection structure, at least two diameter-expanded sections (10, 11) are formed with a spacing on an end region of a metal pipe (1), the spacing between the two diameter-expanded sections (10, 11) functioning as a circumferential groove (12) in which a seal ring (SR) is received, and a resin tube (2) is fitted up to a position beyond a far side diameter-expanded section (11) of the two diameter-expanded sections (10, 11). A back ring (BR) is received in the circumferential groove (12) together with the seal ring (SR). The diameter-expanded sections (10, 11) of the metal tube (1) are formed by bulging or spool shape-forming process.

Traditionally, a resin tube is connected with a metallic pipe which have a bulge or spool on its end made by a bulge-forming method or spool-forming method (these are methods to form a radially enlarged portion with nearly constant thickness on the pipe) by inserting the resin tube over the metallic pipe so as to be fitted together by pressure (For example, Patent Document 1).
In the above connected state where the resin tube is fitted by pressure onto the metallic pipe having a bulge or spool, the resin tube is enlarged in the diameter at a position where the radially enlarged portion is provided on the metallic pipe, and the diameter contraction action of the resin tube (restoration action of the resin tube trying to return to its original shape) develops a tightening strength to ensure a level of fluid tightness.
However, such a conventional connection structure for the resin tube has a drawback that the resin tube becomes declined in the tightening strength due to its thermal deterioration across the ages or the like and thereby the fluid tightness between the resin tube and the metallic pipe cannot be secured, hence a leakage of fluid may occur after a relatively shorter period of time.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 9-126374 (See FIG. 5.)


A memory includes a first deck including a first set of word lines, a second deck above the first deck and including a second set of word lines, and a controller. The controller is configured to apply a program voltage to a first target word line of the first set of word lines in the first deck, and apply a first pass voltage to at least one of the first set of word lines that is below the first target word line when applying the program voltage to the first target word line. The controller is also configured to apply the program voltage to a second target word line of the second set of word lines in the second deck, and apply a second pass voltage to at least one of the second set of word lines that is below the second target word line when applying the program voltage to the second target word line. The second pass voltage is greater than the first pass voltage.

The disclosure is related to a memory and a program method, and more particularly, a memory including a plurality of portions and used for reducing program disturbance and a program method thereof.
In order to increase the capacity of a memory, a memory with a three-dimensional structure has been developed. For example, a three-dimensional stack NAND flash memory can be available presently.
A three-dimensional structure of a memory can include a plurality of layers so as to store more data on a same area. This structure has been proved to be effective for increasing capacity of memory.
However, program disturbance will become more significant when the number of layers is increased. Program disturbance will lead to a higher failure rate of programming a memory. In addition, pass voltage disturbance also occurs when using a memory with a plurality of layers.
Hence, a solution for reducing program disturbance and pass voltage disturbance when operating a three-dimensional memory is in need in the field.

Memory including a plurality of portions and used for reducing program disturbance and program method thereof


The present invention concerns a system for transmitting information data from a transmitter to a receiver over nested block channel, the transmitter (TRD) comprising an encoder (ENC) following an error correcting code structure, the receiver (RCV) comprising a decoder (DEC) defined according to the error correcting code structure, the nested block channel (NBCH) comprising a scaled BPSK binary modulator (BM), the amplitude of which may vary from one bit transmission to the other. Such system is characterized in that the coding rate (Rc) of the encoder (ENC) or the parameters (D,L) of the nested block channel (NBCH) are selected dependently one from each other to achieve a target diversity order of the system and to maximize the coding gain.

In the following, a channel resource means a frequency bandwith, a time interval and possibly several spatial dimensions brought by transmit and receive antennas placed in different spatial positions.
Signals transmitted over wireless channels undergo severe degradations due to channel variations such as fading, shadowing, and interference from other transmitters, which allows considering the channel as a random variable. In the following, are considered slow channel variations with respect to the time needed for transmission of the information words, but the channel realization is supposed to have changed between two transmissions of information words. One major way to combat the so-called quasi-static fading is to provide diversity in either time, frequency, or space.
The channel diversity order is defined as the number of independent fading random variables observed in the channel resource. The transmission/reception scheme is able to collect a given amount of diversity, called diversity order of the system, upper bounded by the channel diversity order, also called full diversity order.
When an information word is not correctly estimated by the receiver, an error event occurs. The main parameter allowing to compute the probability of error associated to a given error event is the Euclidean distance between the noiseless received signal associated to the transmitted information word and the reconstructed noiseless received signal associated to the decoded information word. The diversity order of the error event is defined as the number of independent random variables involved in the Euclidean distance associated to the error event. Finally, the system diversity order is equal to the minimal diversity order of all possible error events or equivalently all possible pairs of information words.
Multiple-antenna systems that provide high orders of spatial diversity and high capacity have been extensively studied. However, due to the expensive analog Radio-Frequency components, the number of antennas in mobile terminals is often limited to one transmission Radio-Frequency path and two reception Radio-Frequency paths. Such mobile terminals do not allow transmitted signals to attain high diversity orders over narrow band channels, such as OFDM-based (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) transmission systems.
The concept of 'cooperative communications' has then been introduced where multiple terminals use the capabilities of each other. This allows the signals to attain high diversity orders, being transmitted by other terminals leading in that way to a virtual antenna array as proposed by Sendonaris et al. in the article 'User cooperation diversity. Part 1. system description', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1927-1938, November 2003'. In the following, we describe the idea of cooperative transmission protocols, which is an application of the invention described hereafter.
One potential application of such systems is in wireless ad-hoc networks, such as mesh networks for instance, which does not depend on a central control unit and does not have a fixed infrastructure. The nodes communicate by forming a network based on channel conditions and mobile locations.
Another application of such systems is the cooperation of in-cell users in a cellular system. Reliable communication can be achieved through diversity and by relaying signals from terminals that are far from the base station. The advantage of such systems compared to traditional ones is that the more users there are in a network, the more reliably one can communicate. This is the result of the non-rigidity of the infrastructure of cooperative systems. In the opposite, the rigidity of the infrastructure of non-cooperative systems involves an increase of blocking probability with the number of terminals that are sharing the network.
The drawback of cooperative systems is that the inter-user channel is noisy. In order to counterfeit this drawback, multiple cooperation protocols have been developed and define the way the cooperation between users is performed.
Cooperation protocols can be classified into two major categories: Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF). We focus in the following on the AF protocols.
Using the AF protocol, a relay, which is for example an user mobile radio equipment or an equipment used for extending the range of a cell, only amplifies the signal received from a source (a base station or another relay) before forwarding it to a destination (a base station or another relay). These protocols are easy to implement in practice, as the computational complexity they introduce at the relays is limited to a scaling operation.
Multiple AF protocols have been designed for the single-relay case such as, for example, the non-orthogonal amplify-and-forward (NAF) protocol, also known as the TDMA-based Protocol I, in which the source broadcasts a signal to both the relay and the destination in the first phase. In the second phase, the relay scales the signal and forwards it to the destination, while the source transmits another message to the destination (Nabar et al., "Fading relay channel: performance limits and space-time signal design', IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 1099-1109, August 2004).
In the following, we focus on the case where multiple relays are used by the transmission system. The selected transmission protocol transmits a signal over each time slot of a set of predetermined set of M time slots.
For example, the well-known Slotted Amplify-and-Forward (SAF) protocol may be used. However, the invention is not limited to the transmission over a half-duplex non-orthogonal Amplify-and-Forward cooperative channel.

System for transmitting information data from a transmitter to a receiver over a nested block channel


Apparatus and method for receiving, processing and interactively displaying real-time air traffic data representative of the movement of aircraft throughout an airspace. The apparatus is an interactive data visualization framework which provides an immediately visualized aviation-oriented insights, with a focus on evaluating the deviations among flights by route, type, airport, and aircraft performance. The apparatus includes utilities for such as capacity planning, flight route prediction, and fuel consumption analysis.

Understanding the behavior of flights traveling through an airspace is a highly challenging activity. This is due to the vast volume, types, and missions of aircraft flying through the system and the complexity of the air traffic network through which these aircrafts travel. For example, at any given period of time in the United States, over 5,000 aircraft are flying within the US National Airspace System (NAS), totaling more than 50,000 flights daily and 18 million flights annually.
To date, this vast amount data has been largely untapped for analysis due to the inefficiency of analysis tools. Current approaches attempt to visualize the millions of flight records as a single-shot; however, in practice, aviation analysis is not a single-shot matter, rather it is performed in query-response interactive sessions. In other words, aviation experts want to interact with flight data by implementing various filters and verifying diverse hypotheses.
Traditionally, aviation experts analyze planned flight route and actual flight track data through visualization environments, such as GOOGLE EARTH1 and TABLEAU2. Most often, the application of data is performed in a static environment, with significant effort placed on the input and processing of data in a relevant database and querying interface, for illustration and analysis in a visual format. Such processing may take minutes or hours of analysis per visualization. This creates a limitation on the ability to interactively visualize multiple views, whether it be to compare different flights, or to look at a time series of events. Lack of interactivity limits the analysis power of an aviation expert.

Apparatus and method for interactive analysis of aviation data


One object is to provide a reel leg fixing apparatus including a hood portion having an efficiently reduced thickness and weight while maintaining a sufficient strength. Another object of the present invention is to provide a reel leg fixing apparatus including a hood portion having a reduced thickness and weight while efficiently ensuring necessary strength at relevant portions, and a method of fabricating the reel leg fixing apparatus. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a reel leg fixing apparatus including a hood portion having an oblique end that allows weight reduction and maintains a sufficient strength.

As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. S57-187064 for example, there is a conventionally known reel leg fixing apparatus including a movable hood and a fixed hood separated in the axial direction, wherein one end of a reel leg is inserted in the fixed hood and the other end of the reel leg is pressed down by the movable hood which is movable in an axial direction, such that a fishing reel is fixed. The fixed hood and the movable hood are disposed on a pipe-shaped reel seat attached to the outer circumference of a base rod. An operation nut placed adjacent to the movable hood can be rotated to move the movable hood toward or away from the fixed hood, thereby to attach or detach a fishing reel. The movable hood and the fixed hood (hereinafter also referred to collectively as "the hood portion") of the reel leg fixing apparatus described above are usually formed of a metal material, and a pad portion formed of a synthetic resin is disposed on the portion contacted by the reel leg inserted (an inner surface of the hood portion). There has recently been a demand for weight reduction of a fishing rod. The hood portion formed of a metal material constitutes an obstacle to weight reduction. Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-11975 (the "'975 Publication") for example discloses that a plurality of prepreg sheets formed of reinforcement fibers impregnated with a synthetic resin are stacked together and shaped into a tubular shape to form a hood portion. Also, the '975 Publication discloses that the plurality of prepreg sheets are stacked together to form the hood portion such that the portion where the prepreg sheets overlap with one another is positioned at a region other than the leg retainer of the reel leg to prevent reduction in strength.
The weight of the above hood portion can be reduced by forming the hood portion of a fiber reinforced resin material. For weight reduction of the fishing rod, the fishing rod should preferably have as small a thickness as possible. That is, the hood portion having a small thickness contributes weight reduction of the reel leg fixing apparatus and reduces the heights of steps between the reel leg fixing apparatus and the reel leg and between the reel leg fixing apparatus and the reel seat body, thereby improving the grip feeling.
The '975 Publication merely discloses that a plurality of prepreg sheets having different specifications are stacked together such that the overlapping portion is not positioned at the leg retainer, but does not disclose that the hood portion has as small a thickness as possible for weight reduction while maintaining its strength. Therefore, the hood portion of the '975 Publication includes an unnecessary prepreg sheet for unnecessary reinforcement that increases the thickness of the hood portion and inhibits sufficient weight reduction. Although reinforcement against twisting is necessary near an opening in the hood portion into which an end of the reel leg is inserted, the '975 Publication does not disclose efficient implementation of such reinforcement combined with reduction in the thickness. Therefore, the hood portion of the '975 Publication includes an unnecessary prepreg sheet for unnecessary reinforcement that increases the thickness of the hood portion and inhibits sufficient weight reduction.
Also, the '975 Publication discloses that the prepreg sheets rolled around a mandrel have a notch at a predetermined position so as to prevent a wrinkle, but a notch in a prepreg sheet cuts reinforcement fibers and causes reduction in strength and breakage.
Further, there is a demand that the above hood portion should have good appearance design as well as a small weight. The hood portion has a tubular shape including a protrusion on the side where the reel leg is placed, so as to receive the reel leg. The portions below both sides of the protrusion are cut obliquely to reduce the weight and improve the design (hereinafter such cut portions are also referred to as oblique ends).
As disclosed in the '975 Publication above, it is known to form the hood portion of a fiber reinforced resin material for weight reduction; but such a hood portion loses strength when having oblique ends. That is, when the hood portion is formed of a fiber reinforced resin material, prepreg sheets including reinforcement fibers impregnated with a synthetic resin are rolled around a mandrel having a predetermined shape to fabricate a tube, as disclosed in the '975 Publication. In forming oblique ends in such a tube, it is necessary to cut the end surface of the tube obliquely.
However, when the tube formed of the fiber reinforced resin material (the shaped hood portion) is cut obliquely at its end, the reinforcement fibers in the cut surface are cut. Thus, in the arrangement where the rolled prepreg sheets include reinforcement fibers oriented in the circumferential direction in the protrusion for receiving a reel leg, forming of the oblique ends causes the reinforcement fibers oriented in the circumferential direction to be cut, failing to maintain a desired strength and causing flaking or cracking among the cut reinforcement fibers.

Reel leg fixing apparatus, method of fabricating the reel leg fixing apparatus, and method of fabricating hood portion of the reel leg fixing apparatus


A dental-based identification system for identification of individuals comprises a database configured to maintain a record of each individual registered in the system, wherein each record includes at least an identification (ID) number included in a dental-based identification tag and identification information of the individual, wherein the ID number uniquely identifies the individual; and an identification server configured to receive a radiograph of at least one tooth to which the dental-based identification tag is bonded, to detect the ID number included in the dental-based identification tag, and to search a recording associated with the detected ID number, wherein the identification server is further configured to generate and send a message upon identification of the individual.

In a many situations it is required to obtain information about the identity of individual for identification purposes. For example, forensic investigations usually need to identify the individual who committed a crime or the victim of the crime. The body or remains of the victim in some cases does not allow for easy identification of the individual. Similarly, in the military, identification of dead and wounded military personnel is also needed.
Forensic science uses a number of methods for identification purposes. An example for such a method includes collection and analysis of crime scene DNA samples and comparing the DNA characteristics of the sample against a DNA sample from a known person. Another identification method includes collecting biometric data (fingerprint) at the crime scene and comparing the collected data to a biometric database that contains already collected fingerprints.
Biometric information can be somewhat effective in tracing the criminal, but it may not be effective in identifying the victim in a situation where no friction ridges remain. The DNA samples may be more robust in this sense, but complex procedures, performed by expert, are required to analyze the DNA samples to obtain details of the potential source of that sample. Thus, it may take a few days until the identification is completed. Further, in both cases, known samples of either biometric or DNA are needed to identify the individual. Thus, as currently there is not a central repository that contains DNA and/or biometric data, these methods of identification may not be practical.
Another simple identification means is an identification tag typically worn by military personnel. This type of tag is usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal or alloy, such as aluminum or stainless-steel, where the individual information is embossed thereon. However, this type of identification tag can be utilized to identify the individual only as long as the tag is attached to the body.
Dental records can also be used for human identification from skeletal remains. However, the dental records of individuals can be used only if such records have been gathered and saved by the individual's dentists. Further, as currently there is no central registry of dental records, there should first be a reasonably accurate sense who the individual is, in order to allow proper identification. That is, an identification process using dental records typically includes examining the skeletal remains to get an idea of age, sex, race, and so on. This information is then checked against a database of missing people, open murder cases, open accident cases, and so on. Once the investigators have a general idea who the body may be, dental records are used to sort among a smaller number of possibilities. Thus, such an identification process may take a long time and in some case may not be practical, as a central repository of all dental records is currently not available.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide an efficient and practical individual identification solution for at least the purpose of tracing people and forensic investigations thereof.


A stent constructed using elements containing micro-mechanical latching mechanisms is disclosed. The micro-mechanical latching elements allow sliding motion between two surfaces in one direction, and restrict sliding motion in the opposite direction. The micro-mechanical latch surface features are formed using microelectronic mechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturing methods. The male surface of the latching components contains an array of ridges or protrusions, and the receiving surface contains a matching array of recesses. The array of ridges or protrusions and the corresponding recesses have uniformly dissimilar slopes that result in a substantially greater frictional force in one direction than in the opposite direction. The separation distance between the two surfaces is such that the male latch surface is engaged with the receiving surface recesses in the low stress “locked” state, preventing motion in the undesired direction.

Stents are generally tubular devices that are used to support a segment of blood vessel or other anatomical lumen so as to maintain its patency. Stents are useful, for example, in the treatment of atherosclerotic stenoses in blood vessels, maintaining blood perfusion to downstream tissue after opening of a flow restriction.
Various types of stent designs have been developed for treating diseases of blood vessels and other tubular structures inside the body. The currently available stents can be classified into two broad categories: balloon-expandable and self-expanding.
A balloon-expandable stent is collapsed down onto a folded balloon on the end of a balloon dilatation catheter. The stent maintains this collapsed configuration until it is affirmatively expanded. When the stent has been properly positioned within the lumen, the balloon within the stent is inflated to an appropriate size, expanding the stent to the desired diameter. The balloon is then deflated, and the catheter is withdrawn, leaving the expanded stent in place within the lumen. The stent remains in its expanded state because of the plastic deformation that was imparted to its structural elements during expansion.
A balloon-expandable stent has many attractive attributes. Its diameter and outward force to the vessel wall can be adjusted by controlling the inflation pressure of the balloon. Also, after deployment the stent is a semi-rigid structure that can conform to some extent longitudinally, but maintains a rigid scaffolding that prevents vessel collapse in the radial direction.
However, balloon-expandable stents also present certain disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that there is typically some component of elastic recoil after expansion. This elastic recoil usually means that there is a reduction in diameter after the balloon is deflated. The degree of reduction in diameter is related to the material selection, structural design, and degree of inward force from the vessel wall. These factors vary from stent to stent and from situation to situation, presenting a challenge for the practitioner to achieve the desired outcome in repeatable manner.
In contrast to the balloon-expandable stent, a self-expanding stent is formed to assume a pre-determined diameter. The stent is radially compressed and placed on the end of a delivery catheter. Some means, such as a surrounding sheath, must be provided to maintain the stent in its compressed state on the end of the delivery catheter as it is delivered to the target site within a lumen in the body of a patient. When the sheath is retracted, the stent recovers to its pre-determined diameter through a shape memory effect.
This type of stent operates in an entirely elastic mode, so it is possible for this stent to be more flexible than its balloon-expandable counterpart. For this reason, it is possible to create self-expanding stents with more tightly arranged mesh patterns, without resulting in an axially rigid stent. Because of these attributes, self-expanding stents are particularly useful in larger vessels, where superior conformability and vessel wall coverage are relatively more important. It is also the stent of choice whenever there is a concern that the stent could be crushed due to body movement or external pressure, because this type of stent will elastically recover after temporary collapse, whereas a balloon-expandable stent will not.
The disadvantages of self-expanding stents are mainly that the diameter of the stent is not as adjustable as with a balloon-expandable stent. For instance, if the vessel size is too small relative to the stent rest diameter, then a self-expanding stent will exert a radially outward force on the vessel only until the stent reaches its relaxed diameter. If the vessel size is too large for the stent, the stent cannot be adjusted to fit the vessel, and it will not be affixed to the vessel wall.
Balloon-expandable and self-expanding stents are known that employ ratcheting or latching means for retaining the expanded configuration. One purported benefit of stent designs that contain latching elements is the capability for more precise lumen sizing. In the balloon-expandable, latching stent designs, a latch allows radial expansion, but limits post deployment reduction in diameter. In the self-expanding case, a latch can be employed to prevent over-expansion, and provides an upper limit to the chronic outward force on the vessel.
However, a disadvantage of stents with latching mechanisms is that the latches contribute significantly to the bulk of the stent. For this reason known stents with latching mechanisms have exhibited reduced flexibility and larger undeployed profile, i.e., diameter. These characteristics are important because they relate to the ability of the stent to be delivered to the desired target site. The flexibility of the stent relates to how well it will navigate turns in the vessel, and the diameter of the stent determines the minimum diameter in the vessel that can be traversed by the stent as it is being delivered to the target site. Additionally a larger profile stent requires that larger accessory devices be used to introduce the device. The need for larger accessory devices means that the puncture in the vessel wall for introducing the stent needs to be larger as well, leading to longer post-procedure patient recovery times.
Another drawback to known stents with latching mechanisms is that the sizing of the stent is not continuous but rather ratchets in discrete increments. The sizing increment that is available to the user is typically a function of the size and spacing between latches. So fine adjustment of the stent diameter in its expanded state is restricted when compared to non-latching, balloon-expandable stents. This effect becomes more significant as the size of the target vessel becomes smaller, and so the use of the previously proposed ratcheting stents are practical only in larger, non-coronary vessels.


A refrigerated merchandiser including a case that defines a product display area adapted to support product. The case includes a frame that has at least one mullion assembly defining an opening into the product display area, and a door that is positioned over the opening. The mullion assembly includes a mullion, a light assembly that is coupled to the mullion and that has a light source for illuminating at least a portion of the product display area, and a reflective surface that is coupled to at least one side of the mullion assembly and that extends along a length of the mullion. The reflective surface is visible from outside the case to increase visibility of product within the product display area.

The present invention relates to a refrigerated merchandiser that includes a mullion assembly, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a refrigerated merchandiser that includes a mullion assembly to increase visibility of a product display area.
In conventional practice, commercial businesses such as supermarkets and convenience stores are equipped with refrigerated merchandisers. Some of these merchandisers are provided with doors that are attached to vertically oriented mullion assemblies, and are used for presenting perishable food or beverages to customers within a product display area while maintaining the fresh food or beverages in a refrigerated environment. The mullion assemblies support the doors and provide an area upon which door gaskets can be sealed to seal the refrigerated product display area from the surrounding ambient environment. Often, the mullion assemblies include a light source that illuminates the product display area for better marketing of the food product and for higher visibility to the customers.
FIGS. 1-4 show one example of an existing refrigerated merchandiser 10 that includes mullion assemblies 15. The mullion assemblies 15 are relatively large and obstruct the view of food product that is positioned in a product display area 20. Generally, the viewability of food product in the product display area 20 by a consumer or store personnel from outside the merchandiser 10 along an angled viewing perspective or line 25 is substantially obstructed by the mullion assemblies 15. The amount of obstruction that is caused by the existing mullion assemblies 15 increases relative to the distance at which the consumer views the food product. In other words, the farther away a consumer is positioned relative to the food product that is desired to be viewed, the more the mullion assemblies 15 obstruct the view of the desired food product. As such, consumers must be relatively close to a desired food product to view the food product.
Some conventional refrigerated merchandisers are open to the surrounding atmosphere. Often moist air penetrates the product display area, which can generate frost within the refrigerated product display area and increase energy that is required to maintain the refrigerated environment within the product display area.

Mullion assembly for a refrigerated merchandiser


When starting an internal combustion engine from cold, after-burning of unburned HC in the exhaust gas within an exhaust passage is promoted by supplying secondary air into the exhaust passage upstream of a catalyst. At this time, the pressure within the exhaust passage is controlled by controlling the opening timing of an exhaust valve. Desirably, when the exhaust temperature has been elevated to a temperature at which it is possible to promote after-burning of the unburned HC in the exhaust gas within the exhaust passage, the opening timing of the exhaust valve is retarded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for an internal combustion engine, and more particularly relates to a control device and a control method for an internal combustion engine, which cause after-burning of unburned HC in the exhaust gases within the exhaust passage by supplying secondary air upstream of a catalyst in the exhaust passage.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-263050, there is a per se known technique of, when starting an internal combustion engine, supplying external air taken in by an air pump as secondary air into the exhaust passage upstream of a catalyst, and thereby causing unburned HC (rich components) in the exhaust gas to be after-burned within the exhaust passage. With the technique described in this Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-263050, the combustion in the internal combustion engine is positively controlled according to the ignition timing or the like, so that the exhaust temperature reaches at a level at which after-burning can take place: and secondary air is supplied into the exhaust passage.
The amount of secondary air which is supplied is determined by the rotational speed of the air pump and the pressure within the exhaust passage, and, if the rotational speed of the air pump is constant, the amount of secondary air which is supplied becomes less, the higher is the pressure within the exhaust passage. However, with the above described technique, no consideration is given to the pressure within the exhaust passage when supplying the secondary air. Due to this, with the above described technique, sometimes a situation arises in which, because the pressure within the exhaust passage is high, it is not possible to supply a sufficient amount of secondary air. In this type of situation, it is not possible to cause sufficient after-burning of the unburned HC within the exhaust passage, and there is a possibility that this unburned HC will be discharged into the atmosphere just as it is, which is undesirable. Furthermore, since sufficient after-burning to raise the exhaust temperature is not done, sometimes it takes an unduly long time for the catalyst to become warmed up. In other words, with the above described technique, the possibility of reliably obtaining the beneficial effects of after-burning by supply of secondary air has not been fully realized, and there is as yet room for improvement in enhancement of the exhaust emissions when starting the internal combustion engine, in particular during starting of the engine from cold.

Control device and control method for internal combustion engine


A method for controlling nematode includes treating a plant or soil with a composition comprising a grammicin compound of Formula 1 or an agriculturally acceptable salt thereof. The grammicin compound may be isolated from a Xylaria grammica strain so that it is harmless to a human body, does not cause any environmental contamination, and exhibits an excellent control activity against root knot nematodes. Thus, it can be advantageously used for developing an environment-friendly natural nematicide and production of a high value-added organic agricultural product.

Plant parasitic nematodes are pest which mainly occurs in large amount in successive cropping areas and causes a huge damage on crops, and they bring a yearly loss of 78 trillion dollars all over the world. There are thousand kinds of plant parasitic nematodes belonging to Platyhelminthes, and, depending on eating method, shape, and parasitic mode, they are classified into root knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.), root-lesion nematode (Paratylenchus spp.), stunt nematode (Tylenchorhynchus spp.), pin nematode (Paratylenchus spp.), ring nematode (Criconemoides spp.), spiral nematode (Hellicotylenchus spp.), cyst nematode (Heterodera spp.), stem nematode (Ditylenchus spp.), and leaf nematode (Ahelenchoides spp.).
In a culture field of greenhouse horticulture in South Korea, crop yield reduction of about 30 to 40% is caused every year by infection with root knot nematodes (e.g., about 85% of Seongju farms are infected by root knot nematode), and the root knot nematodes cause a damage on almost every greenhouse horticultural crop in South Korea (e.g., cucumber, watermelon, Korean melon, tomato, and the like).
The root knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) was first found in 1850s from root knot of cucumber grown in British greenhouse, and it is established as Meloidogyne sp. by Chitwood in 1949. Over the world, 78 types of root knot nematode are present. In South Korea, 6 types of root knot nematode are present, and, among them, the root knot nematodes considered to be the biggest problem in culture field of South Korea are 3 types, i.e., Meloidogyne arenaria (peanut root knot nematode), Meloidogyne hapla (carrot root knot nematode), and Meloidogyne incognita (sweet potato root knot nematode). Those nematodes have various crops as a host, i.e., eggplant, potato, hot pepper, tobacco, carrot, strawberry, peanut, radish, pear, lettuce, watermelon, spinach, onion, cucumber, burdock, ginseng, peony, sesame, Korean melon, bean, tomato, grape, and pumpkin.
The damage caused by root knot nematodes is shown all over the world, and the damage is particularly strong in the tropical or sub-tropical region with high mating number of nematodes due to higher temperature compared to the cold region. In South Korea, because vegetables are cultivated all year long including winter season by using facilities, sweet potato root knot nematode (M. incognita) and peanut root knot nematode (M. arenaria) adapted to sub-tropical region occur more intensely.
The plant parasitic nematodes exhibit a very significant damage such that is referred to as a source of all diseases in agricultural crops. Once any area is infected by a plant parasitic nematode, it is almost impossible to have complete control. Meanwhile, as a method for reducing this damage caused by nematodes, there are crop rotation, soil dressing, sunlight sterilization, treatment with fresh water, soil fuming, treatment with nematicide, or the like. However, since the soil-infecting nematodes like root knot nematode spend most of their lives in soil and form a resistant body that can endure harmful environments in soil, it is difficult to have effective control only by cultivation control like crop rotation and field rotation. For the nematode control, a pesticide easily obtainable by organic synthesis has been mainly used until now. However, as harmful influences exhibited by a pesticide obtained by organic synthesis on human body and natural environment are known in recent years, registration of highly effective nematicides like aldicarb, fenamiphos, methyl bromide, dibromochloropropane, and EDB (ethyl-enedibromide) is cancelled, and thus a method for replacing those pesticides is strongly demanded.
As a method for environment-friendly control of plant parasitic nematodes, there is a method of using microbes or a method of using metabolites produced by microbes. By having various metabolic pathways, fungi are able to synthesize various metabolites, and it is known that many antibiotics and various commercially useful products are produced by fungi. As such, it is believed that the secondary metabolites produced by fungi may have a nematicidal activity.
Meanwhile, in Korean Patent Registration No. 0574348, "Xylaria sp. AH001 strain producing griseofulvin, formulation for controlling plant diseases containing same, and method for controlling plant diseases by using same" is disclosed, and in Korean Patent Registration No. 1144987, "Culture product of Chryseobacterium sp. FBF-7 and composition for controlling root know nematode comprising the same" is disclosed. However, nothing has been described with regard to "composition for controlling nematode comprising grammicin compound isolated from Xylaria grammica strain as an effective ingredient, and uses thereof", as they are disclosed in the present invention.

Composition for controlling nematode comprising grammicin compound as effective ingredient and uses thereof

INDUSTRY FOUNDATION OF CHONNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES