A single crystal pulling apparatus comprises: a chamber; a crucible disposed within the chamber for containing a melt; a water-cooling means disposed within the chamber in such a manner as surrounding a single crystal pulled up from the melt in the crucible; water piping for feeding cooling water to and discharging the same from the water-cooling means; and supporting arms connected to the chamber for supporting the water-cooling means, wherein the supporting arms are disposed between the single crystal and the water piping. According to this configuration, the supporting arms can prevent the water piping from being damaged in the event of fall and collapse of the single crystal due to failure of the seed neck portion or in the event of rupture of the single crystal due to thermal stress, for instance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a single crystal pulling apparatus comprising a water-cooling means for cooling the single crystal while it is pulled and, more particularly, to a single crystal pulling apparatus capable of circumventing adverse effects caused by the provision of a water-cooling means, for example, failures of water piping for supplying cooling water to and discharging the same from the water-cooling means.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods are available for the production of silicon single crystals for use in semiconductor substrates and, among them, crystal pulling with simultaneous rotation based on the Czochralski method (hereinafter referred to as "CZ method") is now widely employed.
According to the CZ method, within a chamber of a single crystal pulling apparatus, a seed crystal held at the lower end of a pull shaft is immersed into silicon melt in a quartz crucible and the pull shaft is pulled up while the crucible and the pull shaft are rotated, thereby a silicon single crystal is grown below the seed crystal.
Usually, a method for increasing the diameter of the single crystal or/and a method for increasing a pull rate of the single crystal are generally employed to improve the single crystal production efficiency. Among these, a method for increasing the single crystal pull rate comprises disposing a heat-shielding member around the single crystal which is being pulled up from the silicon melt, so that the radiant heat emitted from the melt in the crucible and from a heater disposed outside the crucible is shut off by the heat-shielding member and the cooling of the single crystal may be promoted accordingly. A method of further promoting the cooling of the single crystal, proposed in Japanese Patent No. 3678129 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-121096 comprises disposing a water-cooling means, which is cooled with cooling water inside a heat-shielding member, in such a manner as surrounding the single crystal in a single crystal pulling apparatus equipped with the heat-shielding member.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-145764 proposes a cooling device in which a water-cooling means and water piping for supplying cooling water to this water-cooling means and discharging the same therefrom are made of a similar metal, for example copper or stainless steel. Copper is a nonmagnetic material and is high in thermal conductivity, while stainless steel is high in mechanical strength and, in particular, austenitic stainless steel is advantageous in that, in the case of pulling under application of a magnetic field, it is not affected by the magnetic field.


A pail assembly including a plastic pail and a plastic lid which can be snap fit sealed to the top of the pail. To reduce excessive outward doming of the lid and the pail floor caused by internal pail pressures, due for example to chemical reactions of hazardous material contents, rib structures are formed on and extend across the interior surfaces of both the floor and the lid. To prevent this doming the floor is also formed to be bowed upwardly at its center with a small curvature radius. A large radius connection of the floor to the pail sidewall better distributes impact stresses. A locating ring channel is formed on the lid surface and is dimensioned to receive therein the feet of two different size pails when the pails are loaded and stacked. Ribs on the outside and inside of the channel resist the tipping of the pails of either size when alternatively stacked thereon.

The present invention relates to plastic pails and lids therefor for carrying hazardous materials and the like.
A number of plastic pails for carrying hazardous materials and the like are known. Most have flat or nearly flat pail bottoms. Some have circular support members of protectors extending down from the floor at the center thereof, surrounding and protecting the gate, which is the small raised sharp nub where the plastic material was injected and which forms a weak area of the pail. A circular protector is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,571 ('571). (This and each of the other patents and publications mentioned anywhere in this disclosure hereby are incorporated by reference in their entireties.) The lids for the prior art pails are also generally flat on top. Some snap into place in a removable sealing engagement such as those shown in the '571 patent and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,515,306, and 3,770,156. A screw-on lid manufactured by Container Products of Southfield, Mich. and described in their four-page color brochure entitled "Samson Screw-Top Top Pails" is also known.
These pails when designed to be used for carrying hazardous materials must meet certain governmental requirements, including those of the U.S. Department of Transportation, such as DOT-35, and/or the United Nations specifications. The UN specifications are effective in the United States in 1994, and until then pails can meet either the DOT or the UN specification. While the DOT specifications are structure specific such as specifying minimum wall thicknesses and so forth, the UN specifications are performance based and include certain tests which the pail must pass including a drop test, a vibration test and a stack test. The certification tests for solid wastes are generally speaking less stringent than those for liquid wastes.
After the hazardous wastes have been packaged in the pails and the lids secured to them, the loaded pails must be transported to the desired location and the waste therein disposed of in some environmentally acceptable manner. One appealing disposal method, which has been further developed by Cadence Chemical Resources, Inc. of Michigan City, Ind., is described in the article entitled "Cadence Chemical Resources, Inc., Company Develops New Solid Waste Fuel Process," EI Digest, September 1989, and in the brochure available from Southdown, Inc. of Houston, Tex., and entitled "A Cement Kiln Doesn't Just Destroy Hazardous Waste, It Also Recovers Energy from Them." According to this process the lid, the pail and the hazardous wastes therein are all dropped into a cement kiln at a specific location in the kiln process. The hazardous waste is not only destroyed but actually advantageously creates a fuel that can replace 20-50% of the coal that is used to heat a typical cement kiln. Solid hazardous materials are first blended by a process patented by Cadence to make them a more efficient fuel; the hazardous waste is mixed enough to obtain a consistent BTU output when the pail and wastes are burned. There is also no resulting toxic solid or gaseous wastes from this cement kiln burning. The temperature in the kiln reaches approximately 3700.degree., and thus the waste breaks apart chemically. The organic compounds are destroyed and the inorganic compounds bond with the raw material in the kiln to form the cement clinker. The clinker when it leaves the kiln is cooled, mixed with gypsum, ground into a fine cement powder and then trucked to ready-mix concrete makers, as is known in the art.
Examples of waste materials which can be used with the Cadence process include paint thinners, printing inks, pain residues, industrial cleaning solvents and sludges. And an example of a sludge is the residue left at the bottom of coal ponds. Coal mines typically filter the mine gases through an adjacent pond, and the bottoms of these ponds become toxic after many years of use and need to be cleaned up. The toxic dirt or sludge after being scraped off the bottom of the ponds, then needs to be transported and then typically burned.
The pails of hazardous waste can be palletized and transported in a stacked arrangement to the location of the cement kiln where they are unloaded and transported individually on roller conveyors. There they are dropped through a feed tube to the desired location in the kiln. If the pails have wire handles the handles tend to get hung up on the feed tubes. When transported to the location of the kiln, the loaded and lid-sealed pails are typically stacked on conventional wooden pallets, typically two or three pails high and in a 3.times.3 square or a 3.times.4 rectangle. After being stacked they are shrink wrapped to hold them together. The shrink wrapping process involves simply taking a large piece of Saran wrap type of material, hooking the end onto the pallet, walking with the roll around the loaded and stacked pails, ripping it off and tucking the ends into place. Although the shrink wrap may overlap the top or bottom of the pallet stack, it typically is not wrapped around the top or bottom of the pallet or stacked pails. This wrapping can be done manually or mechanically. The loaded pallets may also be stacked two pallets high when being warehoused.
One known pail, the "ROPAC" pail available from Schoeller, has flat surfaces projecting out from the sidewalls of the pails and having friction surfaces thereon. These flat surfaces then mate with flat surfaces of adjacent pails to keep the pails fixed relative to one another when transported on the pallets. The flat-against-flat contact provides a more stable load because of small locking mechanisms or friction grips.
Problems in the past have occurred though in this transporting of the loaded pails, as from the processors to the kilns. Internal pressures often develop in the pails because of the chemical reactions of the hazardous wastes in them. These pressures according to one rough estimate can be on the order of two, three or even six psi. These pressures with the prior art snap-on lid type pails cause the tops of the lids and the bottoms of the pails to dome outwardly. At a certain point the doming becomes so severe that when one pail is stacked on top of another the two domed or spherical shaped surfaces of the lid on the bottom pail and the floor on the top pail meet. This forms an unstable stack, similar to trying to balance one ball on top of another. Additionally, when they are not stacked and are being transported on a roller conveyor, the downwardly domed floor can get caught in the roller conveyor or at least not travel well along it. The circular gate protector can also be caused to extend downwardly and get caught or impacted. Further, if the internal pressure reaches a certain high level the snap on lid can dome up to such an extent that it loses its seal around the top of the pail and pops off.
Before the pails are loaded into the kiln every so many pails must be checked to make sure its contents are proper and a lid then placed back on it. The processor may also want to reenter the pail to compact its bulky lightweight contents to maximize content weight, before transporting to the kiln. One technique is to physically cut the vertical wall around the circumference to allow removal of the lids. Another method is to use a lever device such as the plastic lever opener of Consolidated Plastics Co., Inc. (216-425-3900; reorder 33434) which has its handle and fulcrum at opposite tool ends and its pry hook between them, thereby limiting the moment arm and the leverage available.

Plastic pail assembly for hazardous materials


The present disclosure relates to improved methods for detecting nucleic acids using DNA fingerloop stem loop structures, wherein the DNA fingerloop stem loop structures diminish base pairing of a detection probe to a mismatched target nucleic acid. The present disclosure also relates to improved methods for amplifying nucleic acids. Further disclosed are chimeric fingerloop DNAs for use in methods for modulating protein expression levels and/or RNA stability.

The use of DNA in biology applications has enormous potential. There are many different applications in molecular biology that rely on the hybridization of an antisense nucleic acid, for example, molecular beacons, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), as well as additional probes used in Northern and Southern blot analysis. However, one of the drawbacks of these hybridization technologies is the potential for hybridization to mismatched targets (or hybridization to non-target sequences). What is needed are new and improved methods for filtering these mismatched target sequences and improving the detection and amplification of target nucleic acid sequences.
In addition, while RNA tools have been successfully developed for altering gene expression, building genetic circuitry, and for sensing small molecules and other environmental cues, use of DNA tools has been limited. Small non-coding RNAs, such as miRNAs, siRNAs and piRNAs, all about 21-32 nt in length, are one of the main and crucial classes of posttranscriptional gene regulators in eukaryotes. Being expressed under tight spatial and temporal control, small non-coding RNAs influence all aspects of organism's biology, including its development, metabolism and response to environmental conditions.
The importance of another class of small non-coding RNAs, bacterial small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs), became apparent only recently due to ongoing intensive research in prokaryote genetics and genomics. Compared to conventional metabolic engineering approaches such as gene knockouts, the sRNAs of bacteria present the distinct advantage of being able to "tune" gene expression, modulating mRNA translation levels with relatively fine control. However, while RNAs have been explored for tuning gene expression, use of DNA fingerloop stem loop structures and chimeric DNAs remains unexplored.
The systems and methods disclosed herein address these and other needs.

Antisense fingerloop DNAs and uses thereof


System for controlling yawing moment in a vehicle equipped with ABS and rear wheel steering includes a controller which generates a compensation steering angle for the rear wheels based on the difference between brake pressures at the front wheels. The difference is filtered so that the angle is zero up to a minimum pressure threshold and thereafter consists of a constant portion added to a variable portion which decreases with time. The compensation steering angle so generated may be modified by a correction factor dependent on the transverse acceleration of the vehicle and a further correction factor dependent on the velocity.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,967, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a system in which the brake pressures in the separately controlled wheels of an axle are measured and their difference .DELTA.P is used to obtain a steering angle .delta.=K.multidot..DELTA.P. The steering angle is limited to a top value (FIG. 8A). A variety of possibilities of correction are provided to improve the steering angle characteristic in relation to .DELTA.P (FIGS. 8B and 8C), a correction based on the vehicle speed being performed, in accordance with FIG. 8.


A contact material, a shaped article or contact piece and a process for producing a shaped article from a contact material based on silver, include forming a powder mixture from silver and a metal oxide, and metallurgically processing the powder to form the shaped article with the metal oxide being reduced to metal. Since metal oxide powders are obtainable with a very much smaller particle size than metal powders, it is possible to obtain a contact material with a mean particle size of the metal incorporated as an active component of less than 1 .mu.m. Such a contact material has particularly favorable switching properties as a result of the fine particle size.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for producing a shaped article from a contact material based on silver. The invention furthermore relates to a contact material of that type and to a shaped article or contact piece made of such a contact material.
Contact materials based on silver, which contain particular active components, have long been found useful for a contact piece in power engineering low-voltage switching equipment, for example in a circuit-breaker or in a contactor relay. Both metals and metal oxides are known as active components which favorably affect the switching properties of the contact material. Examples of metallic contact materials based on silver are silver-nickel (AgNi) and silver-iron (AgFe). An example of oxide contact materials which may be mentioned is silver iron oxide (AgFe.sub.2 O.sub.3).
Although oxide contact materials are less inclined to welding than metallic contact materials, the latter have a greater lifetime, in particular at low currents. In order to measure particular properties of a contact material, use is conventionally made of a test switch into which a contact piece made of the contact material is respectively fitted. Such a test switch is described in an article in Z.f. Werkstofftechnik/J. of Materials Technology 7, (1976), pages 381 to 389.
In particular, silver-nickel contact materials have good switching properties. However, there is the disadvantage that nickel dust which is formed during production or during operation by abrasion, and nickel oxide which is formed as a switching product, may have a detrimental effect on the human body.
European Patent 0 586 411 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,065, discloses a contact material, based on silver, which contains the metals iron and rhenium as active components in proportions by mass of between 1% and 50% and between 0.01% and 5%, respectively. In that regard it has been found that rhenium improves the properties of a contact material of that type even in proportions by mass of less than 1%. That contact material is distinguished by a low degree of contact heating with a stable thermal behavior, a tolerable susceptibility to welding and a long lifetime in regard to predetermined switching current densities.
According to European Patent 0 586 411 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,065, the silver-iron-rhenium contact material is produced by mixing silver and iron-rhenium alloy powder or by mixing separate silver, iron and rhenium powders. The powder mixture is then processed using molding presses or extruders and sintering to form shaped articles or to form semi-finished products. The structure of the material of that type, that is to say the size and the distribution of the active components in the silver matrix, is predetermined by the particle size of the commercially available metal powders or alloy powders. Using coarse metal powders leads to a coarse-grained structure, and using fine-grained metal powders leads to a fine-grained structure. The finest iron powders produced in industrial quantities have a mean particle size of about 5 .mu.m. Iron-rhenium powders are produced by atomizing a corresponding melt and likewise have a mean particle size of about 5 .mu.m or more.
There are essentially two known different powder metallurgy processes for producing a shaped article from the contact material. In the molding technique, the powder mixture is compressed in molding presses to form a molded part which is processed by sintering and, where appropriate, further pressing to form a finished shaped article. In order to produce a shaped article in the form of a contact piece, the molded part may additionally be pressed with a layer of pure silver for reliable connection of the contact piece to the support by silver soldering.
In a shaped article produced according to the molding technique, the active components added in powder form with a uniform particle size are distributed irregularly through the silver matrix. The structure of the shaped article is substantially isotronic.
In the extrusion technique, the powder mixture is firstly pressed and/or sintered to form a porous pressed part or billet. The pressed part or billet is extruded, where appropriate with a layer of pure silver (see above) to form a rod from which the shaped articles are detached and optionally subjected to subsequent treatment.
In a shaped article produced according to the extrusion technique, the powder grains of the silver and, where appropriate, of the active components, are deformed or aligned in the extrusion direction, as a result of which an anisotropic or, rather, linear structure is formed.
The electrical switching properties of the contact material, for example erosion, contact resistance and welding force, are substantially determined by its structure.
International Publication Number WO 95/08833, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,448, describes a method for connecting a contact piece made of a silver-metal oxide material to a holder by silver soldering or welding. In that case, the metal oxide of the contact material is at least in part reduced to metal in the surface region of the contact piece. No resulting structural change which favorably affects the switching properties of the contact piece or of the contact material is achieved. The described method is suitable merely for producing thin, weldable and solderable layers to a few hundred .mu.m.

Process for producing a shaped article from contact material based on silver, contact material and shaped article


A platen device can easily change where suction is applied widthwise to a recording medium. A printer has the platen device. A platen device 50 opposite a printhead 41 applies suction to conveyed roll paper P, and has a platen 34 divided perpendicularly to the conveyance direction of the roll paper P into a plurality of individual suction zones 75 with round suction holes 83 in the surface on the side that contacts the roll paper P; and a plurality of shutters 85 disposed to the platen 34 and respectively opening or closing the round suction holes 83 in the plural individual suction zones 75 according to the width of the conveyed recording medium.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a platen device that applies suction to a conveyed recording medium, and to a printer having the platen device.
2. Related Art
One example of such a platen device is a suction platen mechanism disposed opposite the inkjet head in an inkjet roll paper printer such as described in JP-A-2010-201683.
This suction platen mechanism has a platen surface opposite the inkjet head, and a suction mechanism that holds recording paper conveyed over the platen surface against the platen surface by suction. The platen surface has a first suction zone substantially in the center of the transverse (widthwise) direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording paper, and two second suction zones on opposite sides of the first suction zone. The first suction zone and second suction zones are separated by ribs on the platen surface, and the second suction zones are further divided by a plurality of ribs into multiple subzones. A checkerboard grid of suction holes that communicate with a suction fan is formed in the first suction zone, and a suction hole formed in each of the subzones also communicates with the suction fan. Air can therefore be prevented from leaking from the sides of narrow recording paper, and the sides of wide recording paper can be prevented from lifting away from the platen surface.
To prevent air leakage when using narrow recording paper, this suction platen mechanism of the related art is designed so that suction is weaker in the second suction zones than in the first suction zone. As a result, thick paper that tends to curl at the sides of the width may be conveyed (printed) without this curling being removed due to insufficient suction in the second suction zones.
When printing on synthetic label paper having a plastic film with an adhesive backing carried on a paper liner, for example, the liner can absorb moisture (swell) and curl at the sides of the paper width under high temperature, high humidity conditions. Problems can then occur when the recording paper is conveyed over the platen surface with curled edges, including a drop in print quality because a desirable paper gap cannot be maintained, or the recording paper interfering with the inkjet head.

Platen device and printer with the platen device


An endoscope with an eyepiece and an objective lens system used for observing an object in an environmental media. The distal most optical element in the objective lens system is a spherical lens. The spherical lens has a curved distal surface that contacts the environmental media. The objective lens system facilitates the control of the distortion in an image generated by the objective lens system to approximate a reverse distortion of the eyepiece system measured as the distortion in an image generated distally of the eyepiece system of an object positioned proximally of the eyepiece system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to optical systems and more specifically to endoscopes and the design of objective and related optical systems used in such endoscopes.
2. Description of Related Art
Endoscopes have obtained great acceptance within the medical community in connection with a number of procedures primarily because they provide a means for performing procedures with minimal patient trauma by enabling a physician to view directly the internal anatomy of a patient. Over the years a number of endoscopes have been developed and have been categorized according to specific applications. Many have specific names including arthroscopes, cystoscopes, proctoscopes, laparoscopes.
Generally, in whatever form, an endoscope comprises an objective lens system at the distal end of the endoscope that forms an image of an object within a patient in some environmental media such as air, water, a saline solution or the like. An eyepiece or ocular system at the proximal end presents the image for viewing visually, electronically or otherwise externally of a patient. An image transfer system intermediate the objective and the eyepiece systems transfers the image produced by the objective lens system to the eyepiece system.
Significant efforts have been undertaken to improve the optical designs of these endoscopes with attention at various times directed to individual ones of the constituent optical systems. However, as known, a number of diverse optical elements introduce various aberrations, distortions and other optical problems that can affect the quality of the image which the physician views. Moreover, the presence of these problems and attempts to compensate for them or cancel them complicate the design process. The design process is further complicated because the number of variables available to an optical designer for designing each of the objective, image transfer and eyepiece systems individually and collectively is generally less than required to individually compensate each source of optical problem. Consequently a final design normally is what the optical designer considers a reasonable compromise for a particular application.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,650 to Takayama et al. discloses an objective lens system designed for an endoscope having a short total length, a small outside diameter and a wide field angle. According to this design, the objective lens system includes a front negative lens unit, an aperture stop, a positive lens unit and an infrared cut filter. This system allows rays to be incident on the filter at heights lower than the outside circumference of the filter thereby to correct certain distortions inherent in such an endoscope.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,283 to Zobel discloses another optical system for an endoscope with an objective with an object-side negative lens cluster to reduce image scale defects, such as distortion and field curvature. In this objective the object-side negative lens cluster comprises two menisci each having a negative refractive power to reduce the defects of distortion and to produce a flattened image field.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,638 to Broome discloses an endoscope that includes a transfer module, or relay lens unit, an objective element and an eyepiece, or ocular element. The objective element includes a distal glass window having a plano-spherical shape or plano-aspherical shape, a prism and a plurality of lenses all of which produce an image for transfer through the transfer module to the eyepiece. This particular design is adapted to minimize adverse effects of certain sources of aberration by transferring residual aberration in the image formed by the objective element to the ocular element for correction.
As previously indicated, the distal end of an endoscope is introduced into and objects viewed through a wide variety of environmental media. Initially a physician may test the endoscope by viewing an object in air. In actual use the physician may view an object while the distal end of the endoscope is immersed in a fluid, such as water, saline solutions, air or carbon dioxide. Conventionally an optical designer may optimize the design for viewing in a fluid characterized by a particular index of refraction and thereby accept any distortion and other aberrations that might occur when imaging an object in a fluid having a different index of refraction. U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,877 to Tsuyuki et al. discloses such a design that is adapted for allowing the observation of objects located in liquids. Each disclosed embodiment includes a window with a distal most surface having either a planar or aspherical surface.
Taken collectively, the foregoing references disclose various objective lens system optical designs for meeting some particular design criterion. In each, however, the designs involve a window at the distal-most position that defines either a planar or aspherical distal most surface. Windows with aspherical surfaces generally have not been used in practical systems even though the use of one or more aspherical surfaces would introduce another set of multiple lens design variables. Those optical systems that incorporate aspherical surfaces apparently do so for reasons other than controlling distortion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,598 to Ueda discloses an optical system with lenses and a highly-viscous gel-like substance that is free from any water vapor. Ueda's primary objective was to produce an endoscope that resists clouding. Ueda, in one embodiment, discloses a distal-most objective lens element with an exterior radiused convex surface with a concave central surface on the proximal side. A series of another proximally facing spherical lens, biconcave lens and biconvex lens produce an image. In another embodiment, Ueda discloses the double spherical lens located behind a distal window. A fiberoptic or relay lens image transfer section produces an image at an eyepiece or CCD device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,457 to Tsuyuki et al. discloses eight embodiments of objective lens systems adapted to be interchangeable on the distal end of an endoscope as the need arises to view objects. A distal most lens has a convex distal surface and is a negative lens. The second lens is a positive lens to form a real image. It is stated that the introduction of the negative lens allows the final image to be flatter and allows greater correction of aberrations at long and short distances. A second of these embodiments incorporates a distal most spherical lens surface. Other embodiments include planar distal most lens surfaces. Tsuyuki et al. also disclose that the distortion at the full field of view can approach 50%.
Great Britain Patent No. 1,157,932 discloses an endoscope in which two lenses form an inverted teleplate objective lens.
None of the Ueda, Tsuyuki et al. or Great Britain patents describes or suggests any control over the distortion that the lens systems introduce into the final image. Each seems to have designed an optical system with paramount interest in the control of other parameters, all to the detriment of distortion, particularly in the case of the lens systems that the Tsuyuki et al. patent discloses.
Indeed, commercially available endoscopes historically have been manufactured and continue to be manufactured with windows that have a planar surface exposed to the environment and the designers of endoscopes continue to develop lens systems without the additional degree of freedom that a non-planar surface would introduce even summarily accepting changes in distortion and other aberrations that can result when an object is viewed through different environmental media.


A scroll fluid machine comprises a fixed scroll, an orbiting scroll and a plurality of self-rotation preventing device for preventing the orbiting scroll from rotating on its own axis. On the rear surface of the orbiting scroll, a reinforcement bearing plate is fixed with a central bolt and an outer circumferential bolt. A follower of the self-rotation preventing device is provided in the reinforcement bearing plate. An oil-supply hole is formed through the reinforcement bearing plate to supply oil to the follower.

The present invention relates to a scroll fluid machine and particularly to a scroll fluid machine in which a fixed wrap of a fixed scroll in a housing engages with an orbiting wrap of an orbiting scroll rotatably mounted around an eccentric axial portion of a driving shaft, the orbiting scroll being eccentrically revolved with the driving shaft so that a gas sucked from the circumference or center of the housing is compressed or expanded towards the center or circumference.
JP2004-308436A discloses a scroll fluid machine having an orbiting scroll comprising an orbiting end plate having an orbiting wrap on each surface, and JP7-42953B2 discloses a scroll fluid machine in which an orbiting wrap projects on only one surface of an orbiting end plate.
In the former, during operation, a tip seal on the top of the fixed wrap of the fixed scroll slidably contacts each surface of the orbiting end plate under almost the same condition, so that almost the same pressure is applied to cause almost the same heat. Thus, each surface of the orbiting end plate is unlikely to stretch locally or be curved to prevent unsmoothing in operation or decrease in efficiency, or the tip seal of the fixed scroll is unlikely to wear unequally to prevent performance from decreasing or prevent vibration or noise.
However, as described in JP7-42953B2, in the orbiting scroll having the orbiting wrap only on one surface, a bearing boss projects on the rear surface of the orbiting end plate, so that the orbiting end plate is unequally deformed or stretched or causes angles of the orbiting wrap to differ locally owing to pressure load, friction with the tip seal of the fixed scroll or unequality on generated heat.
Thus, the orbiting wrap contacts the fixed end plate with deviation to cause variation in pressure locally reducing efficiency or involving noise, heat or vibration. Furthermore, the tip seals of the fixed and orbiting scrolls locally wears to decrease duration.
To prevent the orbiting end plate from deformation during operation, it is necessary to increase thickness of the orbiting end plate significantly. However, in the orbiting scroll, the orbiting end plate is manufactured integrally with the orbiting wrap by die casting from Al metal. With large thickness of the orbiting end plate, during cooling after die casting, cooling speed of the orbiting end plate and orbiting wrap becomes nonuniform, so that the angle of the orbiting wrap becomes different locally to decrease efficiency thereby speeding up wear or causing noise.
Furthermore, in the center of the rear surface of the orbiting end plate, an eccentric axial portion of the driving shaft is mounted via a ball bearing and a known pin-crank-type self-rotation preventing device is mounted at three positions equally spaced on the rear surface of the orbiting end plate. It is necessary to provide a supply hole for grease for each of the bearings horizontally, and it is troublesome for the grease to put in the bearing via the holes.

Scroll fluid machine having oil-supply holes being formed through a reinforcement bearing plate on a rear surface of the orbiting scroll


This invention is generally accomplished by a photographic or imaging element comprising a paper base, at least one photosensitive silver halide layer, a tie layer and a biaxiaily oriented polyolefin sheet wherein said polyolefin sheet by itself or in combination with said tie layer has a water vapor transmission rate of less than 0.85.times.10.sup.-5 g/mm.sup.2 /day.

In color papers there is a need for providing color papers with improved resistance to the transmission of water vapor. Present color papers are coated with a photosensitive layer(s) containing dye couplers as well as hardeners that are required to react with the gelatin to impart physical properties to control the amount of layer swelling when rewet during processing and also a degree of physical toughness to resist scratching and allow the emulsion coated paper to be slit and cut in a reasonable time. This process can be time dependent as well as sensitive to the amount of moisture in the dried emulsion and the paper base. The current photographic base has a certain propensity to allow water vapor to pass between the paper base and the emulsion layer. The rate at which this exchange occurs has an impact on the rate and ultimate hardness of the emulsion coated layer. There remains a need to reduce the water vapor transmission between the emulsion and the paper base to provide for improved hardness and improved scratch resistances. Paper by nature will absorb or give off moisture as it is exposed to varying humidity conditions. Since photographic paper has slit edges that expose paper that is not covered by a layer of polyethylene, there is a tendency for the edges of the photographic support to either gain or lose moisture at a rate that is different than the center of the web. This process creates a differential moisture profile from the edge to the center of the web. This moisture difference can then cause a difference in the response of the photosensitive components. There remains a need to reduce the moisture exchange between the emulsion and the paper base. By reducing the rate or eliminating the loss of moisture from the emulsion through the current polyethylene layer into the paper base that there will be less variation in the photographic response. Melt extruded cast polyethylene used in photographic paper has a water vapor transmission rate of at about 1.6.times.10.sup.-5 g/mm.sup.2 /day. There remains a need for a layer between the silver halide emulsion and the paper base that has a higher resistance to the flow of water vapor from the emulsion to the paper base. There also remains a need for a layer on the backside of an emulsion coated paper base to have a high resistance to the flow of water vapor. This is important during manufacturing and photographic processing when the photographic element is in wound roll form. The photographic emulsion is between the the emulsion said and back side layers. This creates a sandwich effect on each side and allows the moisture to remain in the emulsion longer which is critical to assure hardening. There also remains a need to improve the transient core set curl of photographic paper. By reducing the water vapor transmission properties of the photographic paper an improvement can be made.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,486 a mechanism to the control the oxygen flow rate through the paper base to reduce image dye discoloration was discussed. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,267 a method to over laminate a photographic print to protect against moisture is disclosed. A method to control the rate of water vapor transmission in packaging applications using biaxially oriented multiple layer sheets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,223 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,620, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.

Composite photographic material with laminated biaxially oriented polyolefin sheets with controlled water vapor transmission rate


Embodiments disclosed herein pertain to power conservation for electronic devices. According to one embodiment, power conservation can be achieved through adaptive frame rate control for a display associated with an electronic device. The frame rate is able to be controlled so as to adapt to a frame rate that is adequate for the display task. Since the display often times displays content that is not very dynamic, the frame rate in such situations can be controlled to use a reduced frame rate, which thereby reduces power consumption. However, when the display displays content that is substantially dynamic, the frame rate in such situations can be controlled to use an enhanced (or not reduced) frame rate, which ensures reasonable display quality.

Conventionally, portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones, portable computers, portable digital assistants or portable media players, have displays that are controlled to display video or animated content at 60 frames per second. The processing performed by a portable electronic device to produce and display each frame consumes power. Since portable electronic devices are often battery powered, the display of video or animated content is very power intensive. As a result, the stored power of a battery used to power the portable electronic device can be consumed relatively quickly when used to display video or animated content. While the frame rate could be set to a predetermined lower frame rate to reduce power, lower frame rates can cause poor quality display of video or animated content. Thus, there is a need for improved techniques to reduce power consumption, and thus conserve battery power, of portable electronic devices, while avoiding poor quality display.

Adaptive frame rate control for power savings


An explicit outband signaling method for detecting sharable resources for management of public resources in a wireless network supporting Cognitive Radio (CR) technology. To this end, the invention transmits state information for the current channel to a CR system in order to enable communication of the CR users, whose communication with the CR system is impossible due to an influence of an incumbent system, thereby allowing the CR system to stop the use of the interference channel, and to provide a corresponding service with another channel.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a method to share resources using Cognitive Radio (CR) technology in a wireless network and, in particular, to an explicit outband signaling method to detect sharable resources for management of public resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various types of wireless communication technologies have been developed and wireless communication technologies are being commonly used in daily life. The development of wireless communication technologies aims at providing data communication services, rather than voice-oriented services, at higher speed and lower cost. Therefore, an increase in the required amount of wireless resources is inevitable. The wireless resources can be frequency bands. However, most available wireless resources have already been allocated for existing wireless networks or existing communication services. For this reason, it is not possible to fulfill the demand for wireless resources, which is increasing due to the advent of new wireless networks and new communication services.
Cognitive Radio (CR) technology has been proposed as a scheme to use limited wireless resources efficiently. The CR technology allows another wireless network to share unused wireless resources among the wireless resources allocated to a particular wireless network. The need for the CR technology is increasing due to the present lack of wireless resources.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a general wireless network using CR technology. A first base station (BS) 110 is part of an existing wireless network that has already been allocated required wireless resources. The first base station 110 provides communication services for first user equipment 112, 114, 116, and 118 with the allocated wireless resources. A second base station 120 is part of a new wireless network that has been allocated no wireless resource, or has not been allocated sufficient wireless resources. The second base station 120 shares the wireless resources of the first base station 110 using the CR technology and provides communication services for the second user equipment 122, 124, 126, and 128 with public wireless resources.
The first base station 110 and the second base station 120 each have their own unique service areas where they will provide communication services. The first user equipment 112, 114, 116, and 118 are located in the service area of the first base station 110 and the second user equipment 122, 124, 126, and 128 are located in the service area of the second base station 120.
In addition, there is an area (hereinafter referred to as an "interference area") where the service area of the first base station 110 and the service area of the second base station 120 overlap. If the first base station 110 and the second base station 120 do not use the same wireless resources (i.e., the same channels), the user equipment may not experience interference with other base station signals even though they are located in the interference area. However, if the first base station 110 and the second base station 120 use the same wireless resources (i.e., the same channels), the user equipment located in the interference area may experience interference with other base station signals.
For example, assume that the second base station 120 provides communication services for the second user equipment 128 located in the interference area, using a channel x. The channel x corresponds to a wireless resource allocated to the first base station 110 but is not actually used. Assume that in this situation, the first base station 110 starts a communication service for at least one of the first user equipment 112, 114, 116, and 118 using the channel x. In this case, a signal transmitted from the first base station 110 and a signal transmitted from the second base station 120 are received together at the second user equipment 128 through the channel x. Therefore, the second user equipment 128 cannot decode the signal transmitted from the second base station 120 through the channel x, making communication impossible.
However, because the second base station 120 is not in the service area of the first base station 110, it cannot recognize the fact that the channel x is used by the first base station 110. Therefore, the second base station 120 will continue to transmit signals using the channel x. The signals continuously transmitted from the second base station 120 through the channel x serve as interference signals for the first user equipments 112 and 114 located in the interference area.
In order to solve the problem occurring by applying the CR technology to the conventional wireless network, there is a need for a scheme in which a second base station can recognize the fact that the channel x is used by the first base station.

Explicit outband signaling method in a wireless network supporting cognitive radio technology


A unitary composite abrasive disc for one-pass grinding and finishing of a workpiece comprising a flexible epoxy rim bonded to a rigid core.

1. Field of Art
The invention relates to a composite disc grinding wheel for one-pass grinding and finishing of a workpiece. In particular, the invention relates to a conventional resin-bonded abrasive grinding wheel modified with flexible annular rim comprising an epoxy resin bond containing abrasive grain selected for the desired finish on the workpiece.
2. Description of Related Art
Workpieces shaped by grinding or cutting with conventional disc grinders are typically finished by hand-buffing, as buffing tools equipped with non-woven abrasive pads formulated to achieve a desired finish on the workpiece.
The desirability of providing a single composite abrasive disc to perform both grinding and finishing tasks has been recognized. U.S. pat. No. 254,011 to Hofstad; U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,016 to Ryan; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,451,295 to Metzger et al are representative. Such wheels however comprise separatable abrasive bodies concentrically mounted on a central supporting body affixed to a drive shaft. A variation of such combined abrading and polishing tools is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,726,495 to Field, comprising a series of laminated discs having an abrasive coating for cutting the workpiece and a cloth backing for buffing it; when the periphery of the laminate is applied to the workpiece, the buffing and cutting layers are simultaneously applied to the workpiece.

Composite grinding and buffing disc with flexible rim


A travelling state determination unit of a tire pressure detector determines a travelling state of a vehicle based on a gravitational component force detected by an acceleration sensor. An operation mode switching unit of the tire pressure detector switches the operation mode of the tire pressure detector from a pressure determination mode to an automatic locating mode when the vehicle speed become lower than a threshold value. An interval of period transmission of radio waves in the automatic locating mode is set to be shorter than an interval of the periodic radio wave transmission in the pressure determination mode.

The present invention relates to a tire position determination system for determining the position of a tire when monitoring the air pressure of the tire.
A direct tire pressure monitoring system is known in the art. In a direct tire pressure monitoring system, each tire includes a tire pressure detector that detects the tire pressure and transmits, through wireless communication, a tire pressure signal. The vehicle body includes a receiver that receives the tire pressure signal from each tire pressure detector. The tire pressure monitoring system monitors the pressure of each tire based on the tire pressure signal. This type of tire pressure monitoring system recognizes the position of each tire is located and determines where a tire having low pressure is located relative to the vehicle body. However, tires may change positions. Further, a tire may be exchanged with a new one. Thus, a direct tire pressure monitoring system may include an automatic locating function that periodically checks the tire positions. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2006-062516 and 2012-126341 describe examples of direct tire pressure monitoring systems that realize the automatic locating function by attaching an initiator (trigger device) to each wheel well. The initiators transmit radio waves that result in the tire pressure detectors selectively transmitting radio waves to allow for the determination of tire positions.
However, the automatic locating function is realized by arranging an initiator in each wheel well. Thus, the automatic locating function that uses the initiators increases the number of components and raises the component cost.

KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKAI RIKA DENKI SEISAKUSHO


A sheet discharge device includes at least one sheet discharge tray, a sheet discharge position adjustment actuator, and a controller. The sheet discharge tray receives discharged sheets. The discharge position adjustment actuator adjusts discharge positions of the discharged sheets on the at least one sheet discharge tray. The controller compares a first rotation amount of first print data printed on a first sheet with a second rotation amount of second print data printed on a second sheet. In response to a determination that the first rotation amount is different than the second rotation amount, the controller controls the sheet discharge position adjustment actuator to (a) discharge the first sheet to a first discharge position and (b) discharge the second sheet to a second discharge position different than the first discharge position.

Conventionally, when printing an image, the image is sometimes rotated in order to save power by reducing the size of a heating region in a fixing device. In such a case, sheets having a difference in rotation amount of 180° may not be easily distinguished from each other in a discharged state. For that reason, it was necessary to make a distinction by visually observing the image on a printing surface. For example, such a problem occurs when the rotation amounts are 0° and 180°, or when the rotation amounts are 90° and 270°.
Such a problem is not limited to an apparatus for the purpose of power saving in a fixing device as described above. This is a problem common to apparatuses that discharge a sheet in a state where the image on the printing surface is rotated, for some purpose.

Sheet discharge device, sheet discharge method, and image forming apparatus


A driving assist apparatus includes a driving mode setting calculator and a steering wheel holding detector. The driving mode setting calculator is configured to control a transition between driving modes including a manual driving mode, a first driving assist mode, and a second driving assist mode, in accordance with a driving condition. The steering wheel holding detector is configured to detect whether the driver holds the steering wheel or releases the steering wheel. The driving mode setting calculator causes the driving modes to make the transition from the first driving assist mode to the second driving assist mode, on a condition that the first driving assist mode is set as the driving modes and the steering wheel holding detector detects that the driver releases, from a state in which the driver holds the steering wheel, the steering wheel.

The technology relates to a driving assist apparatus that assists driving performed by a driver of a vehicle.
Various proposals have been made on techniques related to a driving assist that reduces a burden imposed on a driver and allows for comfortable and safe driving. Some of such proposals have been already put into practical use in recent vehicles.
The driving assist includes an adaptive cruise control (ACC) and a lane keeping control. Providing the ACC and the lane keeping control makes it possible to allow a vehicle to travel automatically along a traveling lane while keeping a distance between the own vehicle and a preceding vehicle.
Such a driving assist that includes the ACC and the lane keeping control has: a driving assist mode in which a driver is required to take over a driving operation when a controller of a vehicle determines that continuation of automatic driving is difficult; and a driving assist mode in which the driver is not required to take over the driving operation even when the controller of the vehicle determines that the continuation of the automatic driving is difficult. Hereinafter, the former and the latter are respectively referred to as a "first driving assist mode" and a "second driving assist mode".
The first driving assist mode is a driver-based driving assist in which the driver is required to stand by and ready to take over the driving constantly while holding a steering wheel. The second driving assist mode is a controller-based driving assist in which, for example, the controller performs an avoidance control, such as stopping the vehicle near a side strip automatically, without requiring the driver to take over the driving operation even when the controller of the vehicle determines that the continuation of the automatic driving is difficult.
The controller also causes the driving modes to make a transition from the first driving assist mode to the second driving assist mode when the controller determines that making the transition from the first driving assist mode to the second driving assist mode is possible during execution of the first driving assist mode. In this case, the controller causes the driving modes to make the transition after notifying the driver of switching of the driving modes.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2017-97519 discloses a technique that notifies a driver of a vehicle of preparations necessary for manual driving upon switching from automatic driving to the manual driving. The disclosed technique performs the switching from the automatic driving to the manual driving when all of the preparations are carried out, and stops the vehicle near a side strip automatically when any of the preparations is not carried out.


The present invention relates generally to the field of child containment devices, and specifically to a child containment device including a mechanism for holding a mattress in place on the floor of the containment device. According to an example embodiment, the invention comprises a side wall enclosure formed from one or more sidewall panels and a floor panel coupled to the sidewall enclosure to define a receptacle for receiving an infant or child. The invention further includes a mattress for placement upon the floor panel. A mattress retaining mechanism is coupled to the sidewall enclosure and is configured to hold the mattress in place against the floor panel, such that horizontal and vertical movement of mattress is considerably reduced or eliminated.

Child containment devices (which encompass play yards, play pens, play cots, bassinets, co-sleepers, and the like) typically comprise multiple sidewall panels and a floor panel which are supported by a frame structure. A mattress is often placed on top of the floor panel to provide a firm, cushioned surface for a child to stand, sit, or lie on.
Conventional child containment devices typically include means for holding the mattress against the floor panel to prevent the mattress from shifting as the child moves around. Known child containment devices utilize hook and loop fasteners to help keep the mattress in place on the floor panel. The downside of this design is that hook and loop fasteners quickly wear out, offer a weak connection, and can fail under relatively light forces. Other known child containment devices utilize elastic straps that are anchored to the floor panel and can be stretched over the corners of the mattress to hold it against the same. However, the straps can be easily released by a child within the containment device, allowing the mattress to move out of place. This method also requires multiple steps to secure the mattress, as each strap must be individually stretched over a corner of the mattress. Further, this design presents a safety hazard, as a child can get their feet and hands stuck between a strap and the mattress.
As a result, it can be seen that needs exist in the art for a mechanism that at least more reliably holds the mattress in place, requires fewer steps to secure the mattress, and which is safer for a child occupant. The present invention addresses these needs and others.

Child containment device with mattress retaining mechanism


A method and system for identifying discount opportunities relating to invoices on goods or services purchased by a buyer from a seller is described. Additionally, the invention is directed to a system for allowing third parties to bid on and utilize such discounts at a specified rate of return. The system allows the transaction between the buyer and supplier to be conducted in the normal course of business.

In today's global economy, it is common for a seller to provide goods or services without receiving prior payment for such goods or services. Under these circumstances, it is typical for the seller to invoice the buyer for the price of the goods or services. The invoices can be provided with the goods or services or may be sent at a later date. While invoices can be used for individuals, it is a more common practice for corporations to use such an invoice system.
The payment terms for the invoices can be negotiated between the parties or the seller establishes the payment terms. Typically, seller will give buyer 30 days from the invoice date to make payment. However, while 30 days may be customary, the seller would prefer to receive payment as soon as possible. Therefore, in order to encourage the buyer to make prompt payment, the seller will often offer the buyer a discount if the buyer pays prior to the established final payment date.
A typical discount used is referred to as "2, 10 net 30." This is short hand to indicate that the full amount is due to the seller in 30 days. However, if buyer pays within 10 days, the amount due is discounted by 2%. By so doing, the seller avoids cash flow problems and the buyer receives the goods or services at a discount rate.
While discounts are routinely offered by sellers, many buyers do not take advantage of these discounts. Buyers often have cash flow problems which limits their ability to take advantage of the discounts. The buyers simply do not have the cash and, therefore, no matter how attractive the discount may be, the buyers cannot participate. Alternatively, buyers may feel that they can get a better rate of return on their money and choose not to take the discount offer. By deferring payment as long as possible, the buyer believes that they can use or invest the money and receive a higher rate of return than the discount offered by the seller. In fact, many corporations are not paying the invoices within 30 days, but rather deferring payment for as much as 90 days. Another reason that buyers do not take advantage of the discounts relates to the internal bureaucracy within the buyer's organization. In large organizations, invoices must be approved by the appropriate group and sent to the accounting department. Often the accounting department will not receive the invoices until after any discounts period has expired. It is also not uncommon for the accounting department to not be aware of any discount terms which were previously negotiated.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a system or method for buyers to identify any discount opportunities available. Also, if the buyer elects to not take advantage of the discount, it would be advantageous to provide a system or method to allow third parties to take advantage of the discount terms.

Method of maximizing accounts payable discounts


A communications system allows special messages to be transmitted to a wireless device subscriber if certain conditions are met. Identification information authenticating the sender may be sent using an originating device, such as a personal computer with a modem. A location information generating device, such as the ANI generator in a telephone end-office connected by physical telephone wire (local loop) to the computer, generates location information. The identification information and location information are provided to a message platform. The message platform establishes time of day and compares sender identification information, originating device location information, and time of day information to prestored values to determine whether a special prestored message should be sent. If a message should be sent, the message platform initiates message transmission. Message transmission can be initiated if appropriate sender identification and location information are not received within a specified time window. The personal identification information, location information, and time of day information are furnished by three different devices operating independently of each other.

Wireless communications devices such as cellular telephones and pagers are often used by family members to remain in touch with one another when conventional telephones cannot be used. In many households, parents use cellular telephones or pagers to monitor the after-school activities of their children. For example, it can be agreed beforehand that the child will place a call or page the parent once the child returns home after school. If desired, the child can send a paging message from his personal computer. However, if the child initiates the call or page, the parent will generally not be assured of the child's whereabouts, because the parent will not be sure of the location from which the cellular call or paging message originates.
To address this concern, the parent can call home to the child. However, the parent may not wish to be responsible for taking the initiative to place a telephone call. Even a conscientious parent may occasionally forget to call. And if the child is delayed for some reason, the parent may have to call home several times before reaching the child. Further, although the parent and child can attempt to keep such daily telephone calls brief, the calls may sometimes be perceived as intrusive, regardless of who initiates the call. What is needed is a way in which to overcome these problems.

Method and apparatus for initiating wireless messages


A door locking mechanism of the chain guard type which can be used as a dead lock and in a manner similar to currently popular regular safety chain type door locks. The mechanism comprises a bolt keeper formed with at least one elongated slot terminating into at least one enlarged opening. A bolt matched in size and shape cooperates with this keeper and is inserted into the keeper through the opening and captively slides in it after insertion. The mechanism further includes a key operated lock having a lock member that can be secured to and released from the lock. A chain interconnects the lock member and the bolt and forms therewith a chain assembly having an operative length which is selectable between at least two positions. In one of these positions, the bolt can be removed from the keeper without freeing the lock member from the lock. In another position where the chain is in a fully stretched condition, with the bolt in the keeper and the look member secured to the key operated lock, the bolt cannot be removed from the keeper unless the lock member is freed from the lock by using the key.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door locking mechanism of the chain guard type that permits holding a door partially ajar so as not to allow a person into the premises before the chain is released.
More particularly, the invention relates to a door looking mechanism which advantageously combines the features and advantages of both a standard dead lock and a safety chain type door lock.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous door locking mechanisms of the chain guard type presently available on the market, and numerous patents dealing with improvements thereto. Those believed to be most relevant to this invention are as per Canadian Patent numbers - 710 033-, -718 626-, - 801 377-, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,125,875, 3,161,035, and 3,395,556.
Other inventions, such as those described in British Patent 6448 of Mar. 15, 1912 and German Patent 333931 of Mar. 5, 1921 are relevant because they show that the dead lock advantage was a desireable feature even at these early dates.
Basically, each mechanism of this type comprises a chain secured at one end to a key operated lock which is attached to the door jamb. At its other end, the chain is provided with a bolt that is inserted and slid in a keeper provided for this purpose with an elongated slot terminating in an enlarged opening at the end of the slot away from the lock. The opening serves for the insertion of the bolt. When not in use the bolt is removed from the keeper.
This type of mechanism serves its purpose well so long as the occupant is present and on guard in the premises. It is however not completely effective when the occupant is absent, even though the bolt is in the keeper and the lock member is secured in the key operated lock. In such circumstances it is possible for an unauthorized person to cause the bolt to slide toward the enlarged opening of the keeper slot and have the bolt finally fall out of the keeper. The hand is used if the unauthorized person has managed to gain entry to the premises or a hand may be inserted via a broken window in the door. Alternatively an extension tool such as a coat hanger or rubber band with thumbtack can be used from outside. It is of course possible to overcome this drawback by shortening the chain but then the mechanism is no longer useful as a safety door lock since, in normal use, the partial door opening is decreased and may no longer be sufficient to allow a person on the inside to identify persons on the outside or to allow the passage of parcels and other articles or even inconvenience access with the key from the outside unless the chain is made free by using the key.

Combined dead lock and safety chain type door lock


Disclosed herein is a rotating radial scoop used to move fluid from a larger radius to a smaller radius, comprising a blade at least partially circumscribing a central axis from an outer radius of the scoop to an capture radius of the scoop, wherein the inner surface of the blade is curved. A scoop having a blade with a curved inner surface extending from the scoop outer radius to a capture radius is disclosed. A turbine engine comprising the scoop, along with a method of providing a fluid to a bearing utilizing the scoop is also disclosed.

The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for capturing lubrication fluid in a turbine engine and, more specifically, to apparatus and methods of capturing fluid from a fluid nozzle with a scoop rotating about a central axis.
Turbine engines and other machinery having components that rotate at several thousand revolutions per minute have bearing assemblies that support rotating shafts. Higher cycle temperatures and air temperatures within these engines may result in temperature increases in the rotor and bearings. As such equipment grows in size, larger bearings may be included within such equipment to provide increased support and performance for turbine engines and other such equipment.
To minimize the effects of increased temperatures, friction, and the like, which may occur in a turbine engine, bearing assemblies include lubrication systems that provide lubricant to the bearing assemblies supporting rotor shafts, which may in turn reduce wear to the bearing assemblies and which may provide cooling to the bearing assemblies. A typical bearing assembly may include a split inner ring mounted to a rotor shaft, an outer ring, and a rolling element supported therebetween. The lubrication system may include an oil jet to supply oil to a shaft having a plurality of axial grooves in the shaft for supplying oil to the bearing assembly.
In such lubrication systems, the oil is transferred from a stationary location to a rotating shaft. One method to do this is to use a radially rotating scoop in combination with a jet that sprays the oil at a rotating scoop. The scoop may have a plurality of blades that captures at least a portion of the oil being sprayed from the jet. The captured oil may then be directed to a plurality of axial slots disposed in the rotating shaft, which eventually terminate in a location to provide the captured fluid to the bearing.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,464 ("Fisher 464") is directed to a method of supplying oil to bearings which includes supplying oil through a plurality of scoops to a rotor shaft groove through at least one opening that extends between the rotor shaft inner and outer surfaces of the scoops. The rotor shaft includes a plurality of scoops extending between the rotor shaft inner and outer surfaces. However, the scoops disclosed are conventional flat blade scoops that merely extend between rotor shaft outer and inner surfaces. This reference does not recite particular scoop geometries which maximizes the capture and distribution of oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,222 ("Fisher 222") is directed to a bi-directional oil scoop for bearing lubrication. Fisher 222 discloses a scoop having a constriction over which the oil sprayed from a jet into the scoop must pass. The constriction acts as a potential barrier for the oil. The portion of the scoop radially past the constriction is arranged to be downstream of the constriction in a centrifugal sense. This constriction thus prevents oil from flowing back towards the jet once it has passed this constriction. However, similar to "Fisher 464" above, this reference discloses conventional flat blade oil scoops which protrude tangentially from the shaft inner surface to the shaft outer surface. This reference does not recite a particular scoop geometry that maximizes the capture and distribution of oil.
Radial oil scoops known in the art are not 100% efficient, and the efficiency can depend on shaft speeds. Low efficiency oil scoops may thus result in extra oil inside bearing sumps of the engine, which may decrease engine efficiency by wasting power due to oil churning. To produce the extra flow of fluid from the jet to compensate for the inefficiency of oil scoops, the oil system components size and weight may be increased relative to the size required for the captured amount of fluid. This may also negatively impact power to weight ratio of the engine. As can be seen, there is a need for an improved apparatus and method to capture fluid using a high efficiency scoop rotating about a central axis, preferably a scoop which at a given shaft speed and fluid jet location and velocity has an increased efficiency relative to known flat blade scoops present in the art.


A method and device for monitoring the validity of a parameter calculated by an anemometric unit of an aircraft may employ a first section for taking into account n first data, each dependent on the parameter being monitored and n being greater than or equal to 1. A second section takes into account p second data that each depends on a value obtained from a data source external to the anemometric unit, where P is greater than or equal to 2. A calculator calculates, for each of the second data, a difference between this second datum and a first datum of the same type. A comparator compares the absolute value of each of the calculated differences with a threshold value. A deducing section deduces from the comparisons that the monitored parameter is invalid if the absolute values of two of the various differences are greater than the corresponding threshold values.

The parameters which are suitable for being monitored in the scope of the present invention, and which are calculated by an anemometric unit, are in particular the total pressure Pt, the static pressure Ps and the total temperature TAT, which are important parameters for piloting the aircraft. In order to be valid, these parameters Ps, Pt, TAT must have at least a predetermined level of reliability.
It is known that most modern airplanes include at least one anemometric unit for determining the values of information such as the altitude of the aircraft or its velocity, which are used when piloting. For reasons of operational safety, airplanes generally include two or three anemometric units. In order to calculate the aforementioned parameters, each anemometric unit acquires data coming from one or more pressure sensors. Usually, each of said pressure sensors is located inside the fuselage of the airplane and is connected by a tube to a probe arranged passing through the surface of said fuselage. This tube is generally connected to the associated pressure sensor by means of a pneumatic connector, allowing it to be disconnected and reconnected easily.
It is known that human errors, in particular during maintenance operations of the airplane, may cause malfunction of one or more of the pressure sensors of such an anemometric unit.
For example, the personnel tasked with performing an operation of washing the airplane often stick a piece of adhesive tape on each of the probes of the anemometric unit, in order to prevent water from entering the tube during said wash. If they forget to remove one of said pieces of adhesive tape after the wash, the corresponding pressure sensor will be inoperative during the next flight of the airplane, since it will not be able to measure the pressure of the air outside the fuselage. It will in fact measure the pressure of the air in the tube, which is closed by the piece of adhesive tape at its end next to the probe.
Another example of malfunction relates to the case when maintenance personnel disconnect the tube and the pressure sensor at an appropriate connector, for example in order to clean the inside of this tube. If they forget to reconnect the tube to the pressure sensor after having carried out the maintenance operation, said pressure sensor will also be inoperative since it will measure the pressure of the air inside the fuselage, instead of measuring the pressure of the air outside the fuselage.
Another case of malfunction of a pressure sensor which may arise during the flight of the aircraft, relates to the case of said probes (for example the "Pitot" tube) icing up, which can prevent correct operation of said pressure sensor. No known solution makes it possible to detect the validity defect of an aforementioned parameter of the aircraft due to this last malfunction.

Method and device for monitoring the validity of at least one parameter which is calculated by an anemometeric unit of an aircraft


Protocols for ogranogenic regeneration of cotton and kenaf are provided, which makes the in vitro regeneration of mature fertile plants in a reduced amount of time possible. Seedlings are the basis for monocotyl or hypocotyl explants which are transferred from the germination medium to a shoot initiation medium which comprises AgNO.sub.3. These explants, prior to shoot initiation, may be transformed with exogenous DNA either through inoculation with a Agrobacterium agent such as A. tumefaciens, or through biolistic bombardment of the explants with microprojectiles having the exogenous DNA adsorbed onto their surface.

This invention pertains to the transformation, on the one hand, and organogenic regeneration, on the other hand, of cotton plants and kenaf plants, both commercially important crops. While the overall system is applicable to both crops, which are members of the same family, cotton transformation and regeneration is discussed first, followed by kenaf regeneration. Both nuclear and plastid transformation are embraced.
Cotton
Cotton has been traditionally recalcitrant to regeneration in vitro. Most regeneration successes entailed the sole use of Coker lines which respond in tissue culture but are not agronomically important (Chlan et al., 1995; Firoozabady et al., 1987; Peeters et al., 1994; Shoemaker et al., 1986; Umbeck et al. 1987). Most (if not all) developed regeneration protocols entail the production of embryogenic callus from seedling explants such as cotyledon and hypocotyl sections, followed by the formation of somatic embryos with subsequent germination and conversion into mature cotton plants (Firoozabady and DeBoer, 1993; Firoozabady et al., 1987; Peeters et al., 1994; Rajasekaran et al., 1996; Shoemaker et al., 1986; Umbeck et al. 1987; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,159,135, 5,244,802). This type of regeneration procedure could take up to 40 weeks and could produce unwanted mutations due to the presence of a prolonged callus phase prior to regeneration.
Cotton tissues have been successfully transformed with A. tumefaciens prior to generation of embryogenic callus used in regeneration (Firoozabady et al., 1987; Rajasekaran et al., 1996; Umbeck et al. 1987). Cotton has also been transformed via biolistics with tissues also undergoing regeneration via somatic embryogenesis (Rajasekaran et al., 1996). A few protocols have recently utilized intact meristem-tips as targets in biolistics-based transformations with regeneration occurring via a more direct organogenic route (Chlan et al., 1995; Finer and McMullen, 1990; McCabe and Martinelli, 1993). Although this has overcome some regeneration obstacles, it is technically demanding. Due to their extremely small size (<1.0 mm), the meristem-tips have to be excised with the aid of a dissecting microscope and once isolated, need to be utilized shortly thereafter.
Kenaf Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.), is a herbaceous annual fiber crop in the Malvaceae family. Since kenaf can be cultivated in a wide range of soils and climatic conditions, and requires only modest labor input, it is generally less expensive to produce when compared to most other fiber crops (Dempsey, 1975). Kenaf has been cultivated for use in various products, which include woven and non-woven textiles, newsprint, animal bedding, and potting soil mixes (Goforth and Fuller, 1994). Considerable interest has been shown for use of kenaf as a source of pulp for papermaking as newsprint made from kenaf is of high quality displaying high degree of smoothness and printability (Sij, 1987). The paper also has excellent ink-retention characteristics and its strength is well-suited to high speed newspaper presses.
Various pathogens adversely affect kenaf growth in the United States. Root-knot nematodes [Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood] can contribute to yield losses up to 50% (Lawrence and McLean, 1991). In addition, Cristulariella moricola Hino (same as Cristulariella pyramidalis Waterman and Marshall) attacks kenaf leaves contributing to premature leaf abscission (Neely and Evers, 1976). In fact, this fungal pathogen has become a serious problem in the southern United States in recent years. The fungus causes a bull's-eye or zonate leafspot on both woody and annual plants, including 73 species in 36 families throughout the south central and south eastern United States. When kenaf was infected by the fungus, symptoms first appeared as necrotic lesions on leaves on the lower one-third of the plants (Neely and Evers, 1976). In 14 days, 50-75% of the leaves were found to be affected, at which time they usually abscised. By the time kenaf was ready for harvest, approximately 75% of the plant was defoliated (Neely and Evers, 1976). Cultivars from the following breeding series: Cubano, Everglades, Guatamela, and Tainung were all found to be susceptible to this fungal disease (B. S. Baldwin, personal communication).
Since all known kenaf cultivars are susceptible to C. moricola, there appeared to be little resistance available in the kenaf genome. Therefor, in vitro selection for resistant transformants would be an alternate way of establishing C. moricola resistant kenaf.
Accordingly, it remains an object of those of skill in the art to develop a method for regeneration of cotton and kenaf, in vitro, with an eye to obtaining genetic variation providing desirable qualities. In particular, it is a further object of those of skill in the art to obtain a method for transforming plant tissues with exogenous DNA, or obtaining mutation of endogenous DNA, and regenerating the tissues containing these DNA alterations and additions into mature, fertile plants.

Method for transformation of cotton and kenaf and organogenic regeneration


Methods for generating realistic waveform vectors with controllable amplitude noise and timing jitter, simulatable in a computer-based simulation environment are disclosed. In one implementation, a transition vector is created from a sequence of bits having a rise time and a fall time, in which the transition vector comprises voltage values at timings corresponding to midpoints of transitions in the bit sequence. A jittered transition vector is created from the transition vector, in which the timing of the transitions in the jittered transition vector include timing jitter. An upscaled jittered transition vector is then formed having additional points, in which at least some of the additional points comprise corners of the sequence of bits. The voltages of the additional points are set by the sequence of bits, and the timing of the corners are set in accordance with the rise time and the fall time. Although this resulting vector can be simulated, this vector can also be re-sampled to produce a new simulatable vector in which the voltages are separated by a constant time step.

Circuit designers of multi-Gigabit systems face a number of challenges as advances in technology mandate increased performance in high-speed components. For example, chip-to-chip data rates have traditionally been constrained by the bandwidth of input/output (I/O) circuitry in each component. However, process enhancements (e.g., transistor bandwidth) and innovations in I/O circuitry have forced designers to also consider the effects of the transmission channels between the chips on which data is sent.
At a basic level, data transmission between components within a single semiconductor device or between two devices on a printed circuit board may be represented by the system 10 shown in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1A, a transmitter 12 (e.g., a microprocessor) sends data over channel 16 (e.g., a copper trace on a printed circuit board or "on-chip" in a semiconductor device) to a receiver 14 (e.g., another processor or memory). When data is sent from an ideal transmitter 12 to a receiver 14 across an ideal (lossless) channel 16, all of the energy in a transmitted pulse will be contained within a single time cell, which is referred to hereinafter as a unit interval (UI).
However, real transmitters and real transmission channels do not exhibit ideal characteristics. Due to a number of factors, including, for example, the limited conductivity of copper traces, the dielectric medium of the printed circuit board (PCB), and the discontinuities introduced by vias, the initially well-defined digital pulse will tend to spread or disperse as it passes through the channel 16. This is shown in FIG. 1B. As shown, a single pulse of data 105a is sent by the transmitter 12 during a given UI (e.g., UI3). However, because of the effect of the channel 16, this data pulse becomes spread 105b over multiple UIs at the receiver 14, i.e., some portion of the energy of the pulse is observed outside of the UI in which the pulse was sent (e.g., in UI2 and UI4). This residual energy outside of the UI of interest may perturb a pulse otherwise occupying the neighboring UIs, in a phenomenon referred to as intersymbol interference (ISI).
Because of the potentially negative impact of ISI on the reliability of data transfer and detection at the receiver 14, such data transfer is often simulated in a computer system using simulation software. The design of a high-speed system 10 typically involves iterations of circuit-level simulation to ascertain whether or not the system 10 has performed within suitable tolerances, and this of course requires a waveform vector suitable for simulation using simulation software. Simulation is a valuable tool in the semiconductor industry, where it is generally very expensive to design and produce a given integrated circuit. The use of simulation software allows the circuit designer to verify the operation and margins of a circuit design before incurring the expense of actually building and testing the circuit. Through the use of simulations, design errors or risks are hopefully identified early in the design process, and resolved prior to fabrication. Unfortunately, modeling and simulation of realistic waveforms that accurately reflect subtle characteristics of a signal is difficult. It is generally necessary to define a waveform in a layout simulator such as SPICE™. This requires transistors, resistors, and other discrete components to be electronically considered, even if they are not actually yet constructed or laid out. Such component-level consideration takes considerable time and effort.
Further, modeling and simulation may not provide a suitably accurate picture of how the system 10 will process real signals. Realistic data signals will not be ideal, but instead will suffer from various sources of amplitude noise and timing jitter, which may vary randomly between the unit intervals of the data. Regardless of the source or type of amplitude noise or timing jitter, it is difficult to quickly and efficiently simulate the effects of amplitude noise and timing jitter in the context of a system 10.
The challenge associated with simulating noise- or jitter-affected signals is highly correlated to the characteristics of the degradation. Signals in any transmission medium experience both random and deterministic degradation. Random degradation, in the form of random Gaussian distributed amplitude noise and timing jitter, which stem from thermal and shot noise, requires statistical quantification. Similarly, deterministic amplitude noise and timing jitter are linked to several sources including power supply noise, inter-channel crosstalk, impedance discontinuities, component variance, and at high frequencies the response of the channel. These factors result in a variety of observable characteristics, from periodicity to uncorrelated-bounded randomness. To model these noise components correctly requires the ability to designate their probability during the noise generation stage and consequently inject or superimpose these effects onto the underlying signal in a way reflecting what occurs in the actual system. The final success or robustness of a particular design is dependent, to a large measure, on the achieved realism of the simulation environment.
To date, industry standard simulators do not provide the level of amplitude noise and timing jitter generation control necessary to model a realistic communication channel, though some jitter adding features have recently become available. Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) tool, Synopsys's Hspice, and Synapticad's WaveformerPRO all offer stock waveforms with additive jitter, but the features are limited in several ways. First of all, in the cases of ADS and Hspice, the jitter exhibited by the waveform may take on one of a few standard forms: it may either exhibit a Gaussian probability distribution or a periodic jitter distribution (e.g. sinusoidal distribution, etc.), but combinations of random and periodic jitter distributions are limited both in terms of the number of permitted jitter sources per signal and the peak magnitude of the jitter. In addition there is no clear mechanism for adding amplitude noise in the time-domain. WaveformerPRO claims even less, allowing the user to define a peak-to-peak jitter value, but offering no control over the statistical characteristics of the jitter. While all three tools provide jittery clock sources, only Agilent's tool allows for jitter added to random data sequences. And while the random data may be manually altered by the user, the length of a user defined sequence is limited to 232−1 bits. So while one can find clock and random data sources exhibiting a limited selection of jitter characteristics, a tool has yet to emerge providing the user the ability to produce simulatable waveforms of arbitrary data patterns, of arbitrary length, exhibiting arbitrary jitter and amplitude noise characteristics.
It is possible to formulate piecewise linear functions (PWLs) with tools like Matlab, as well as within Spice-based simulators, through the careful architecting of time and voltage vectors, where the voltage amplitude is designated for each step in time. But to approximate Gaussian distributed noise and jitter, as well as other specific noise distributions, over hundreds or thousands of cycles using known methods is daunting.
Another challenge in simulating realistic signaling environments is tied to the underlying statistical assumption that sufficient samples of the behavior to be characterized are readily available. As such, it is becoming necessary to include more and more cycles with each simulation. As the relative size of each individual noise component is very small with respect to the overall cycle period, fine voltage and timing resolution are necessary. While the timing resolution of a simulation may be enhanced by decreasing the time span between each calculation (i.e., the simulated time step), this leads to a simultaneous increase in both the simulation run time and the memory requirement. When fine simulation resolution is coupled with a greater number of simulated cycles, the result is an enormous amount of data and prohibitively lengthy simulation times. It is not uncommon for transistor-level transient (time-based) simulations to run for hours or even days. It is likewise not uncommon for such a simulation to fail due to a lack of memory resources.
Perhaps the strongest argument for developing full signals with noise and jitter is the impact of ISI, mentioned briefly above. While unbounded Gaussian noise and jitter lead to long term bit errors, depending upon the bandwidth of the channel, ISI and the corresponding data-dependent jitter (DDJ) may dominate the short term signal degradation. Recent papers have proposed methods for predicting the DDJ distribution from the relationship of the data-rate and the channel bandwidth, see J. Buckwalter et al., "Predicting Data-Dependent Jitter," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, vol. 51, no. 9, pp. 453-457 (September 2004).
With the following background in hand, it should be apparent that an improved signal simulation technique would at least allow for the generation of various kinds of and lengths of signals, with good computational efficiency, and allow for the formation a signal for simulation in which amplitude noise and timing jitter of any resolution are easily and realistically modeled. The disclosed techniques achieve such results in a manner easily implemented in a typical computerized system or other computerized circuit simulation software package.

Techniques for generating and simulating a simulatable vector having amplitude noise and/or timing jitter added thereto


A method for producing a protein polymer fiber, the method comprising providing a liquid protein solution in a container for liquid, and repeatedly moving the liquid surface in the container back and forth between a first and a second position. Said movement of the liquid surface is such that the protein polymer solution is allowed to form a film in the interface between the liquid surface of the liquid protein solution and a surrounding fluid. The movement of the liquid surface being performed by respectively raising and lowering the liquid surface relative to the container or by moving an object extending through the liquid surface of the liquid protein solution. Also, a device for performing said method.

Naturally produced spider silk is a material with interesting physical properties. For example, spider silk fibers provide an excellent combination of elasticity, toughness and tensile strength.
Different types of silk are suited for different uses; Some types of fibres are used for structural support, others for constructing protective structures.
Some can absorb energy effectively, whereas others transmit vibration efficiently. In a spider, these silk types are produced in different glands; so the silk from a particular gland can be linked to its use by the spider.
A material like spider silk fiber is highly interesting for engineering or bio-engineering purposes such as production of fiber structures containing cells.
Hence, some applications of these fibers may include medical applications in which sterility and control of cleanliness is of high importance.
Thus, it would be desirable to be able to produce artificial silk fiber structures in a controlled environment.
Producing a spider silk fiber firstly requires access to adequate quantities of the silk protein. Secondly, a method of producing a fiber structure from said protein needs to be implemented.
The proteins may be produced by spiders and collected but this is a slow and cumbersome process. Another approach that does not involve farming spiders is to extract the spider silk gene and use other organisms to produce the spider silk. For example, genetically modified silkworkms, goats, and E-coli bacterias have been used for this purpose.
A few methods of artificially producing fibers from the spider protein exist, for example 'syringe-and-needle', 'microfluidics' and 'electrospinning'.
The 'syringe and needle'-method, is based on filling of a syringe with a liquid feedstock comprising silk proteins. The feedstock is forced through a hollow needle of the syringe wherein a fiber is formed and expelled from the syringe needle. Although very cheap and easy to assemble, fibres created using this method may need removal of water from the fibre with environmentally undesirable chemicals such as the methanol or acetone, and also may require post-stretching of the fibre.
In the 'microfluidics'-method, fiber is produced by hydrodynamic focusing of a protein solution. The focusing liquid is of low pH and will force a structural change in the protein. By adjusting the focusing parameters different physical properties of the resulting fiber can be achieved.
A drawback of this method is that the use of chemicals to induce the structural change prevents the fiber to simultaneously be formed together with sensitive molecules and cells.
In the 'electrospinning'-method, fiber is produced by injecting a stream of the solution into an electric field. The electric field between the injection needle and the collector will cause the injected solution to be divided into multiple jets, which will dry before gathering in a non-woven format at the collector.
A drawback of this method is that by using a strong electric field, producing a fibre containing sensitive molecules or cells during the fiber formation is not possible.
A specific prior art method is the one first used by Stark et al. (Macroscopic fibers self-assembled from recombinant spider silk protein, Biomacrocolecules 8(5) 2007). They use repeated wagging/rocking of a container from left to right as schematically illustrated in FIGS. 4a-c. The fiber structure produced is thicker to the left and right of the container shown and gradually thinner in the middle of the container. The non-uniform structure of the fiber is disadvantageous both since it gives lower strength and difficulties in performing reproducible studies. Moreover, the large volumes needed requires a lot of protein (of which some is wasted) and gives low yields of incorporation of other molecules or cells during fiber formation.
Thus, an object of the invention is to provide an improved method and a device for producing protein fiber structures not suffering from the above mentioned drawbacks.

Method and device for protein fiber production